The Identification of Godly Elders - Titus 1:5-9

1:26Well, as we turn over to Titus 1. He's saying, that's why I left you there. And so Titus is not quite Paul. Paul is an apostle, but Titus seems to be some kind of representative of an apostle. And the question for us today is: we don't have the apostles, and we don't have Titus. You know, who gets to choose who is going to lead the church? So in Titus chapter 1, he said, we read last week, verse 5, 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. So he's saying, I left you there to man the post, to appoint elders in each of these towns, to appoint elders in each of these churches. Listen to one more.

2:23This one doesn't mention, this is in Timothy, but he doesn't mention Timothy specifically. He just says this: the saying is trustworthy: if anyone aspires to the office of an overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife. And then he continues on with the qualifications. And so, though we don't have this clear statement of it was the apostles, now that has shifted over to the church, I think you get that trajectory by the end of these letters. I think you see that, yes, during the time in Acts. Yes, it was the apostles that are helping to choose these leaders, but they set that early precedent, even in Acts chapter 6, of choose those godly men, men who are full of the Spirit, men who are full of wisdom, choose from among you, they tell the church. And so it's the church that's there that's to choose those men to be what we talked about as kind of the prototypical deacons, not quite lining up, but pretty close to what a deacon would be expected to do. And so in Titus, he's saying, I left you there, but in Timothy, written around the same time as Titus, he doesn't give Timothy the charge. He just says, this is what an elder needs to be. And even in Titus, when he gives Titus the charge, it's clear that this is with the, I would think, implied, with the church's approval, right? Because the qualifications that he's going to list, how would Titus know this? If Titus is just left there by Paul and he's commanded to choose people that are above reproach, that are full of wisdom and things like that, well, I think there needed to be some church involvement. So I just wanted to bring that up just to say that, you know, where does that line get drawn? When does it stop being the apostles that pick the elders of the church? And when did it start being the church itself? Well, I think that they leave us with that trajectory of by the time Paul is off the scene.

4:30Once he is gone, he has left the church instructions for how do we find godly men? How do we find people to lead the church? So last time we talked about all about what an elder is, what's an elder's job description. Does anybody remember anything from last time? Right? Yeah, to lead by serving. They're to be servant leaders. What else? Right. That seems to be, at least in Acts 20, that seems to be job number one. They need to stay alert. They need to be people who are trained in doctrine so that they can stay alert and watch over the flock and make sure there's not something coming in from outside, wolves coming in from outside, or men rising from among the church that are liking the attention that's being drawn to themselves.

5:36What else? We talked a little bit about how these are men that are leading the church, not women. We talked about how it seems to be that the pattern in the mature churches is that they have multiple elders, not just one pastor, but multiple elders. We talked about how there are different names. We saw that the most common name is elders, but there's also overseers. Some people talking about how they have oversight over the flock. They're also called the shepherds, told to shepherd the flock. That's where we get the word pastor. And so, really, those are all synonymous: elder, overseer, pastor. You know, in our church, and probably in most Baptist churches, kind of colloquially, even though we have a team of five elders, usually in our speech, we usually call the person who preaches the most the pastor, you know, pastor Tom. But really, theologically, it's the same office, right? It is elder, overseer, the shepherd, the pastor. It's all the same. And today he'll use another word, God's steward. And so you would be just as accurate to say that Russell and Pat are two of the pastors of this church, even though kind of colloquially, that rubs us the wrong way sometimes, because that's not what we normally think of pastor as being the one who's paid to be the pastor or something like that. But it's really all one office: elder, pastor, overseer.

7:20All one office. Anything else from last time? We can pray and then we'll jump in. Father, as we continue to study the leadership of the church, we pray that you would give us wisdom. Pray that you would help us interpret your word accurately. Help us be men and women and children who love to learn from your word. Help us be men and women and children that love to submit to the leadership that you set in place. Give us a heart that doesn't long to grieve those elders that have been put above us, but instead help us joyfully live under their teaching and guidance.

8:26We thank you, Father, for another chance to gather. We thank you for your word. We pray that you would help us as we try and study it tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so if you haven't been with us, we're doing a little series. We just started last week. We just started our yearly process of nominating elders and deacons. And so many of you have gotten that bulletin insert where you can nominate men in the church that you think would be qualified to be an elder or a deacon. And so we thought we'd take the time.

8:58I just preached on Titus 1. One at Southern Oaks in the afternoons. And so we thought we'd take the time and just repeat some of that material here as we go through that nomination process. And so last week we looked at verse five of Titus chapter one. 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. So Paul's goal for them is to be ordered churches, well-established, ordered, like the churches in Ephesus and Antioch, these churches that are bearing good fruit and sending out missionaries and have good quality teaching, not like the church in Corinth that was chaotic and had bad teaching and had bad conduct. Instead, Paul wants there to be ordered churches. And so he tells Titus, appoint elders in every town as I directed you. Well, now Paul is going to give instructions on what do you look for. If you're going to appoint elders, what do you look for in these men? How do you know if someone is a godly man?

10:04It's a good question, right? You know, early again in Acts chapter 6, when they're appointing those first kind of prototypical deacons, he says that they need to be men who are full, who are of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit and full of wisdom. Well, how do you look at a man and tell if he's full of wisdom? Is it just the beard? Is it just the gray hair? You know, how can you look on the outside? You can't look on the outside, just at appearance, and tell if somebody is full of wisdom. They might have a full head of gray hair and be a fool, right?

10:43So how do you know if someone is godly? How do you know if they're full of wisdom? I think that that is the point of these qualifications. And so I don't think that as we're looking at these, I don't think these are mystical qualities of how do we crack the code of who God has decided to be our elders. I think instead it's gracious instruction of, okay, this is what it looks like on the outside as you look at this person's life. This is what it looks like on the outside if they are a wise person, if they are a person that's full of the Holy Spirit. These are the outward signs. And so some of these things, they seem, they can almost seem unrelated.

11:30You know, we'll go through some of these qualifications and you'll think, well, what's that got to do with being a pastor? That just sounds like a normal thing. But I think that he's giving this picture of a well-rounded, godly man who's qualified in all these aspects because that's what tells you he is a wise man and a man that's full of the Holy Spirit. Does that make sense? And so as it's shifting from the apostle choosing the elders to the apostles' representatives choosing the elders to eventually the church who are.

12:00Having the responsibility of choosing these elders, these are some tangible outside things that you can look at that manifest this man's character. Before we start, a couple of ground rules. First, knowing these qualifications does not give people in the church the opportunity to be nasty and rude, right? I don't know if you've ever been a part of a church like that, but there are some churches you go to that the pastors and their families can just be under the microscope all the time. It's like the church is just looking for anything. You know, oh, he parked in the wrong parking spot, right? Or, you know, something like that, they're just looking, they're constantly scrutinizing everything in the pastor's family, everything in the pastor's life, almost like they're waiting for a gotcha moment. Ah, we get to kick you out of here. I don't think that these qualifications should lead us in any way to that kind of negative attitude. I think instead they should be viewed as a gracious thing that God has provided, that we can look on the outside and understand who these godly wise men are. Another thing is that I don't know what your translations have in verse 6. Mine says, If anyone is above reproach, I think more commonly it's translated blameless, and maybe that's a better word, but I. I think that the point is you can't bring a charge against this person.

13:37It uses the word for bring a charge against and then just puts the prefix for not. There's no charge you can bring against this person. And so that's what it means when it says, if your translation says above reproach, that's what it means. Sometimes when we read above reproach, it can almost sound a little hoity-toity, you know, like he's above it all. He's above reproach. I don't think that's what it's meaning. I think it's saying that this person is blameless. You can't level a charge against this man in these areas. But when we translate it blameless, that's not the same as saying he's totally perfect, right? There's another word for blameless, and this is coming from a verse that might be familiar to you.

14:22Make it familiar to you if it's not, because it's a good verse. This is Jude verse 24. He says, Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy. To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen. That word for blameless means perfect, right? That's this eschatological perfection that we're going to stand before the Lord's throne with that kind of perfection. That's not the word he uses in this passage here for the elders. If it was, then we wouldn't have any elders, right, ever. Elders are going to send sometimes. Elders are not perfect men. That's just the point I wanted to make as another ground rule. It's not saying that an elder has already reached this state of perfection in this life. Instead, you're just looking for somebody whose character is above reproach, is blameless. You would point to that man as a godly man. All right, any questions about that?

15:36Well, let's jump in. Titus is going to give us three areas of blamelessness. He orders them a little bit differently, which, by the way, if you haven't listened to Pastor Tom's message on Timothy, you know, on the little sheet, if you're going to nominate an elder, it says you need to listen to that because he goes step by step through all the qualifications. And I'm telling you, you should listen to it anyways, even if you're not going to nominate. It's good. I listened to it again today. It's a great sermon. It's really helpful on these qualifications. He does the one in Timothy. We're going to step through the one in Titus. They're almost identical, but there are some differences. And so I think these will complement each other. Of course, nothing will contradict. But in Titus, I think you can break it down that these men that you're looking for, they're blameless in their family. They're blameless in their character, and they're blameless in their doctrine.

16:30Those are the three areas: their family, their character, and their doctrine. They're above reproach. They're blameless in these three areas. And so, the first one is family. Look at verse 6. 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. So, we've got two cans of worms in this verse, right? Two, honestly, on a serious note, two phrases that have split churches in an angry way. Churches will get in big fights over these things. The first one is the first thing he lists: the husband of one wife. What does that mean?

17:18Does anybody remember what that is in the original language? If you were to just take it straight, one woman man, right? It's a phrase we toss around a lot because I think that that's a good way to translate this: the husband of one wife, a one-woman man. And again, I think this is speaking of his character. And so, who would that disqualify? I think that churches would get in fights over that, saying, you know, what that verse is telling you, a one-woman man, a husband of one wife, is that he's not a polygamist, which I would say is certainly true, right? It would. Definitely include that, but I'd say that's probably not all it includes, right? I think it's speaking of this man's character that he is loyal and faithful to his wife, that he's not with other women. He's a one-woman man. Does that make sense? And so there's different questions that would go along with that. Does that mean a single person could never be an elder?

18:26Does that mean a person who got a divorce 40 years ago could never be an elder? Those are the kind of questions that churches really get in fights about. But I think that if you're just looking at this, I think that you would say, let's take this as kind of the most broad meaning. A one-woman man, somebody who's faithful to one woman, speaking about his character, that this isn't going to be someone who's got multiple women in his life. This isn't going to certainly be somebody who has a recent divorce at least.

19:04I think it's somebody that you would look at this man and understand he's the kind of guy that is faithful to one woman. Now, let's say someone's nominated and it's in one of those more gray areas. I think you'd have to take it case by case. You know, I think that on the one hand, you would say, well, he says a one-woman man, so that means the man has. To have a woman, he's got to be married. If he hasn't been trained in the field of marriage, then how can he be a good elder? And then you'd have people argue on the other side: well, that would disqualify Paul. That would disqualify Jesus, right, for being an elder in your church. And so, is that really what he's saying there, or is he speaking about his character? And so, I think a lot of those things you'd have to take as a case-by-case basis, you'd have to look and look at the character of a man and say, Is he qualified? Do I think of that man as a one-woman man, as somebody who's faithful, or is he still struggling with lust? Is he struggling with pornography? Does he have a secret life?

20:11If so, that man is going to be disqualified to be an elder. Okay, that's our first can of worms in this verse. The second one is this next one. It says, His children are believers. That's what it says in my translation: his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. This is another hard one because that word for believers is the word pistos, and you guys have heard that before, but the word in the New Testament for someone being a believer, someone having faith, is the same word, just like it is for us, as someone who is faithful, someone dependable, someone you can trust.

20:54Usually, almost without fail, in the New Testament, if it's used. As a noun, someone has pistos, then it's saying they have faith, they are a believer. But if it's used as an adjective, someone is pistos, then it means that they are faithful, they are dependable, they're trustworthy, they're obedient, that kind of thing. Here it's the adjective. And so, when it says his children are believers, I think that it's better translated, and this used to be how most of the translations translated it, that his children are faithful. This was a really common expression in their day. You would say a faithful servant or a faithful child in their home, talking about their conduct, talking about his household. And so, again, how would this reflect on the leader? I think that just like in the parallel passage in Timothy, this is speaking of when you look at this man, is his house a disorderly household?

22:06When he leaves his house, and let me just read that from 1 Timothy. When he leaves his house, here it says, he must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? So we get a little more detail in the Timothy version, but I think that that's the most natural reason. Reading when we come to the Titus version as well, that it's saying that his children are faithful, defined as what follows, not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. So I think that this qualification is mainly talking about when you look at this man's children, are his children the ones that are the talk of the town? You know, it's a stereotype in America, unfortunately. You know, the preacher's boy or the preacher's daughter. Sometimes they're the worst kid in the church or the teenager that's running around.

23:00Instead, the elder should be somebody whose household is well-ordered. Their children are obedient and faithful, not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. Some other interpretive options, and I don't think it's blasphemy to believe these, are that it is talking about believing children, that as soon as they're old enough to believe, an elder should be somebody who has guided their children into belief. They should be at least professing Christians or something like that. Or other people take this, this will be in your MacArthur study notes.

23:38MacArthur, for example, would take this to be about adult children, that after they leave the house, if a man's adult children decide to not be believers and not raise their homes as a Christian home, well, then that tells you that something was wrong when that man was raising those kids. And so that man's not qualified to be. An elder. So I think those are options, but I would say that it's speaking in a similar way as Timothy saying that you're looking for somebody. As you look on the outside, you're looking for godly men. You're looking for somebody who has a well-ordered home with faithful children. Does that make sense? So a couple of cans of worms in that verse, I know, but be gracious about it.

24:27Any questions on that first one? An elder is to be blameless in his family. As you look at this man, he's to be above reproach in his family. Yeah. I was thinking of John Piper as an example of his son, oldest son, I think it answered that. Agree with MacArthur about that also applies to adult children that are long left. I think it's talking about faithful children in the home. Now, let's think about it for just a minute. What is the heart of his command? I think that, and if you listen to, again, Tom's message on Timothy, he makes a really good point that the controlling idea in all of this is that above reproach. You're looking for men, and he's going to repeat that in Titus. He says it twice in Titus. And so I would totally agree that the controlling Command is above reproach. And so, again, I think that would be a kind of a case-by-case thing.

25:40If a man is repeatedly having children leave his home, and those children are unbelievers, or even they're unbelievers because they've seen that their dad is a Christian, but he lives like a dog, you know. Well, then I think you'd have to say that man is not above reproach, that he's disqualified because he's not above reproach. There is something off there, there is something, you know, he never talked to his children about God. You know, how did he not know that they had no idea about salvation? You know, something like that. That would show you, that would be a red flag to say they're not above reproach. But I think that as far as what this verse is talking about, it's talking about his well-ordered home, that his children are not the talk of the town because they're the crazy kids, the disobedient kids, open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. Good question.

26:37I would tell you that John Piper would not be allowed to be an elder in John MacArthur's church for that reason. So I don't know if they've ever talked about that, but they do disagree on that. Any other thoughts or questions? All right, let's go to the next one. So, an elder is to be blameless in the area of his family. Elders to be blameless in his character. Verse 7, for an overseer as God's steward must be above reproach. So there he repeats it again: must be blameless. 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. We'll go through each of these, but first let's talk about that word steward. So he says, for an overseer as God's steward must be above reproach. Do you remember anything about stewards at this time?

27:42Is there another word that comes to mind when you hear the word steward? Maybe like a house manager or something like that. I think that we don't have something that lines up, at least I don't think we do, in modern day times, but I think that if you were a landlord or something and you had a property management company that was taking care of the property, so you never have to take the calls. Instead, you've given the authority and you pay them a property management company to take care of your rental property. That's kind of the idea of a steward. Maybe if you combine that property manager with the modern day idea of power of attorney, this person is able to make decisions on my behalf. They're able to spend my money. They're able to make decisions for me. Me, and you combine that with the idea of a nanny. You know, they're making decisions about my kids. So, you know, this steward was like second in command. So, if there was a wealthy man and he had a lot of servants or he had a large family, he could leave town for a month and put this steward in charge. He can make all the decisions.

28:51It's that kind of role. And so, as that kind of role, what I think he's emphasizing here is that he's this representative. He's called to make these representative decisions. He's called to serve as God's steward. So, if that's the case, just like for something earthly, if I'm going to put someone, if I'm going to leave someone in charge of my property and my family, I'm going to work really hard to make sure that that person is trustworthy, that he's not going to take my money and run, that he's not going to make foolish decisions, that he's not going to abuse my kids or something like that. You know, I'm going to make sure this man is trustworthy. And so, I think that's why he inserts it here: it's carrying that same kind of trustworthiness, saying an overseer as God's steward must be blameless. He must not be. And then he gives these negative qualifications and positive qualifications. So, let's look at the negative ones. He must not be arrogant. So, if this man is.

30:00Characterized by being boastful or being somebody who's always bragging, you know, arrogant, puffed up. That's not character that befits an elder. An elder should be somebody that you think of as being humble. An elder should not be quick-tempered. It should not be the person in the church that flies off the handle or, you know, it just immediately jumps to getting red in the face and is going to challenge you in something. You know, that quick-tempered person, though they're part of the church and we love them, we're not going to nominate that person to be the elder, a quick-tempered person. Or a drunkard, somebody who's given to alcohol, somebody who drinks to the point of excess.

30:55I think we would all understand in scripture that alcohol isn't inherently evil, but I think that if you've got somebody who just really loves alcohol and is always crossing that line or even getting close to that line a lot, that's not the kind of person that you're going to put forward as an elder. I think most of our elders don't even like to drink alcohol because we just don't even want to mess with getting close to that line. And so the drunkard should not be put forward as an elder. Somebody who's violent.

31:32I think especially there with his actions. When you confront him on something, when you're having even a theological debate, the answer is never. What did you say? That never goes there. This person is not violent. That's not how he solves problems with his words or his actions. He's not violent. And then the last one, he's not greedy for gain. So an elder is not the one who loves money, who's always looking for a quick buck. He's not somebody who's looking to become an elder because he wants to make a lot of money or he wants to feather his nest. He's not that kind of person, greedy for gain. Any questions about the negative ones or thoughts? Yeah, Brussels?

32:30Right. Right. I totally agree. That's a good point. I should have made that at the beginning. That as you're sitting there, you might be thinking, oh, this is kind of boring. I'm not going to be an elder, and I'm not going to nominate an elder. What's this got to do with me? I think that truly, what are we looking at? He's telling us, how do you look on the outside of somebody and see the fruit of their life as being Because they were godly and full of wisdom. Well, it's these things. And so, if in our lives we see any of these things, quick-tempered, arrogant, greedy for gain, I think that we need to say, well, that's a mark of immaturity in my life. That's something that I need to work on.

33:23Look at verse 8. Let's look at some of the positive qualifications. The first one on the list is that he's hospitable. This one is always the biggest surprise to me. You know, it just feels at first glance, it feels out of the blue. You know, why does it say he needs to be hospitable? What if he's got a tiny house? Or, you know, something, why does it say, why is that on this list? But I think it certainly makes sense. A godly man, a mature man, is going to be somebody who does the service of having people into his home. Or if he doesn't have a home or he has a small home, he finds a way to be hospitable at church by greeting people or, you know, helping wash dishes at our meals or something like that. Part of his nature is that he is hospitable. He likes to serve in this way.

34:16Next, he's a lover of good. That's one kind of messed-up compound word that's not used anywhere else. It just is love and good. You know, he loves good. You can tell what it would be that he's not. Interested in hearing the latest evil gossip. He's not somebody that loves to hear these stories of people doing wrong things. Instead, he's somebody who loves good and goodness and good things. He is self-controlled. I think this one has, this word for self-controlled has more of the nuance of being sensible and prudent. He's self-controlled because he's wise. He makes good decisions. He's not hasty. Instead, this is somebody who thinks through things.

35:10He's upright and holy. I think those kind of go together. When you look at this person's life, again, not that he's perfect, but he's somebody that is characterized by uprightness. He walks in the fear of the Lord. He's holy. He has good conduct. He follows the Lord's commands with joy, like we spoke about this morning. And then the last one on the list is another word for self-controlled, speaking more about his discipline. He's hardworking. So he's sensible on the one hand. He's making good decisions, but he's also hardworking.

35:44He's worked hard in his life to set up a good, disciplined structure for his life. Those are the positive ones. Again, marks of maturity for any believer. We should all be seeking to be sensible and prudent and disciplined and hardworking and all. Of these things, but he's saying, as you look for men in the church who are going to fill the role of elder, these are the outward signs of what it will look like. Now, that's not to say on those negative things that those things don't pop into the heart of an elder every now and then. You know, sometimes we are tempted to anger. Elders are tempted to anger, and you have to repent and say, you know, I was angry again. Sometimes greed can creep into the heart before we have a chance to, you know, tamp it down and repent again. Something like that. But I think that he's saying, when you're looking at these people, this is what marks them as godly men, not perfect men, but godly men. So, any questions about the character section, verses seven and eight? Questions or comments? Thoughts?

37:00All right, let's do one more section. He's also to be blameless in his doctrine. We talked about this a little bit last week. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. So he must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. So, this is somebody who needs to understand. The scriptures. They need to understand doctrine.

37:34He must hold firm to it, have a firm grasp on these truths. Hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught. I believe he's talking about the apostles teaching, the apostles and prophets teaching this trustworthy word that was handed down to us. And I think that he's probably implying also that idea elsewhere in Scripture of entrust these things to faithful men, of passing these on to the next generation. And so he's saying, you're looking for the men in the church that understand the doctrine of the church, that understand the scriptures. Why? Two reasons. So that, on the positive side, he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine. So again, all elders, I had a question about this last week that we're going to return to in a little bit. But again, all elders are men who should be able to teach sound doctrine. Now, maybe that's not always preaching. Maybe that's in a Sunday school class. Maybe that's one-on-one. Maybe that's in a counseling setting. But elders should be people who can give instruction and sound doctrine.

38:48That's on the positive side, on the negative side, and also rebuke those who contradict it. So if you don't have that sound doctrine, that healthy doctrine, well, you need to rebuke those. Who don't have that. And so, an elder needs to be somebody who knows the scripture so well that they can teach it in a positive context and rebuke false teaching when they encounter it. I think that you can see for all of these why there's so much wisdom behind this list.

39:24I think that sometimes our first reaction can be a negative one: you know, what did he say? Women can't lead the church, or what did he say? You know, this that would disqualify so many men who are not meeting these qualifications on the list. Isn't that rude? Isn't that awful? You know, I think that's a total wrong mindset, right? I think that anybody in the church can serve in so many ways. I think we can all joyfully serve in the stations that God has put us.

40:00But I think that God is graciously protecting and providing for the church by saying, This is what you look for in men who are going to lead the church. You can tell by the way their family looks, you can tell by their character, and you can tell by knowing that they're strong in doctrine. And for any one of these, you could see how it would not go well for the church if they disobeyed this list. For the first one, if you're choosing somebody who can't manage his own household, well, just like he says in Timothy. If he can't manage his own household, how is he going to manage the family of God?

40:36You know, how is he going to be a leader? Tom says in his sermon on Timothy, how is he going to be a leader in the church, a leader of people, if he can't lead the people in his own family? And so when you disobey that first category of disregarding his family life, and you put someone like that in charge of the church, well, he's not going to be a good leader of people. At least you're running that chance.

41:04It could lead to chaos in the church. If it's somebody who's not upright in their character, you know, maybe you've brushed, there's a couple of these he doesn't quite meet, but you think he's a good guy mostly all around. And so you kind of push a couple of these aside. Well, those are going to come out in the way he leads the church. If he meets everything on the list, but he's greedy for gain, well, there's going to come a time where he's not going to be willing to rebuke somebody because those are the ones who give the most money to the church. You know, these things are going to pop up again. You can see the wisdom on why he needs to be above reproach in his character. You can see the wisdom, obviously, in why he needs to be above reproach in his doctrine. If you're going to have a church that is putting leaders in charge of the church who don't know the doctrine, and all of a sudden you have different people coming into that church and they're ready to pray on the sheep, they're ready to teach false. Doctrine and the leaders don't really know doctrine, and so to them it just seems rude to contradict these other people who have come in. Well, all of a sudden, now you've got doctrinal chaos in the church, you've got a multitude of teachers who are half of whom are wolves, and nobody is watching over the flock.

42:20So, you can see the wisdom of this list. And back to Russell's point: I think that if you were to ask the question, okay, if these are the signs of maturity for any believer, which one of these should I work on first in my life? You know, should I be working on my family first? Should I be working on my character first? Should I be working on my knowledge and my doctrine first? Which one of those do I address first? I think the only honest answer is you have to say all of them, right? Not necessarily because you're trying to sprint towards being an elder as fast as you can.

43:02I think it's a noble thing to desire to be an elder, as he says in Timothy. But I think that you can be a little overzealous and demand that for yourself, and chase after it, and demand that the church put you as an elder or complain when you're not nominated as an elder. But I think that for any of us, as we're marching towards maturity and we're trying to work on these things, I think we have to work on all of them. Let me give you an example of each. Of them. You've probably met people in the church, if you've been in the church for a while, that maybe only focused on the first one, their family.

43:41They neglected their own character and they neglected the scriptures because they only want to work on their family. And so, you know, maybe they start making decisions that they think are because they want their family to get perfect. They think that's most important. You know, maybe they start homeschooling, or maybe they start being really strict with their children, or they're trying to get this well-ordered household. Again, an ordered household is good, but if it doesn't correspond with their good character that's growing, their godly character, if it doesn't correspond with their knowledge of scripture, you can see how that person would be out of balance.

44:22The same with character. If somebody's only working on their character, they're only meditating and thinking, okay, I need to be better. I need to not be as angry. I need to be less sinful. All those are good thoughts to be working on in our life. But if a man is doing that to the neglect of his family, he's so focused about his character that he doesn't spend any time with his family. And he's so focused on his character that he's not paying attention to the scriptures, again, you'd have somebody that's unbalanced. Whereas the elder, as you're looking for somebody who's grown in this maturity, is somebody who's. Blameless in all three of these areas. And the last one, this is probably the most common, at least from what I see. I see a lot of young men that start to love the doctrine, start to love the knowledge. And they'll spend a lot of time on Facebook. They'll spend a lot of time even studying the scriptures. They'll spend a lot of time reading books, but they've neglected to foster maturity in their family life.

45:28They even neglect to foster maturity in their own personal life. They have secret vices and secret sins. And so while they are continuing to have this outsized knowledge of scripture, they forget and leave behind, growing in godly maturity in their family life, growing in godly maturity and their character. And so, again, you kind of got a one-legged stool there that falls over. And so I think that this is just, I just spent so long there. Sorry to belabor that for so long. But I just think you get this really well-rounded picture of godly maturity, of we're not going to have those theological eggheads that don't have any good character or don't have a good family. We're not going to appoint them over the church because we need people who are also good leaders. We need people who are also of upright character and to be knowledgeable about the scriptures and the doctrines. Any questions about that or thoughts about that? Yeah.

46:30Yeah. Well, as each one comes up throughout the day or a week, yeah, it's for the weakness. Right. Right, I think so. Yeah. Yeah, with joy. Again, of course, always with the caveat, never to earn our own salvation, never to keep our own salvation, but with joy, serving because we love the Lord, as we talked about this morning. Well, there's one more little passage I wanted to turn to. That's in 1 Timothy chapter 5. Continuing on with this idea of elders leading the church.

47:11This is based on a question I received last week about, you know, the qualification list. Both of them mentioned that the elders are supposed to teach. Well, how come sometimes we have some that teach more than others? I think that that distinction is one that we find in Scripture in 1 Timothy 5, verse 17. Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the scripture says, you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and a laborer deserves its wages. All right. So what he's saying there is that that's from the Old Testament. Law, and we need to follow the Old Testament law.

48:04Just testing you guys. That was our message from this morning. No, I think he's extrapolating on a principle from the Old Testament. I think the Old Testament principle was about an ox. You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. Well, what is the principle there? Well, while that ox is working, it's cruel to that ox to not be able to eat the grain that he's walking on. You know, he should be able to feed. There's a principle there. And then elsewhere, the laborer deserves his wages. I think he's saying the Old Testament teaches us this principle. If you're having somebody that's devoting 50 hours a week to be the teacher of a church, well, come on, you need to take care of them. I think he's giving a very practical command there. I think when he says, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, that word for double honor, I think, primarily is discussing wages. I think he's saying it's okay to pay a pastor. If somebody is working hard for the church, especially those who are working hard and using their time to study so that they can teach the church, well, as a church, you need to take care of them. You know, I don't know if you've ever been a part of a church like that where it's dishonorable because they expect this pastor to give them a sermon every week. They expect this pastor to work 40 hours on the week. Teaching, you know, studying and teaching, but then they also still want him to have a full-time job. They're not going to pay him a penny because they don't think pastors should be paid. But I think that this passage addresses that very concern. He's saying, Look, if you, as a church, if you want somebody to do the bulk, and if you're wanting somebody to study and teach for your own blessing, well, come on, you need to take care of them. You need to be reasonable about this. That's a principle that I think he's teaching from the Old Testament. And so he says also about elders: do not admit a charge against an elder except on evidence of two or three witnesses.

50:11So I think he's saying, you know, there's going to be slander. Again, I think this is something else that's very practical in the church. There's going to be slander in the church against an elder. If an elder is preaching and teaching, he's going to say something in a sermon that you don't like. You know, it exposed some sin and it made the hair raise on the back of your neck. And, you know, you're mad. And so you're going to level a charge against that elder. Or you wanted some position of teaching or authority and you didn't get it because the elders didn't decide that. And so you're going to start to level a charge against an elder. So I think this is another practical protection for elders. Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three children. Three witnesses, I think he's saying, you know, be careful, understand that people are going to be bringing false charges against the elders, and make sure you substantiate those charges.

51:14Verse 20: As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing for impartiality. Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. So I think that's a word to congregations. Well, it's a word to Timothy, but I think it's something that we should all strive for as we're trying to think through things, that we don't want to participate in the sins of others as they bring false charges or they are unqualified leaders in the church. But don't be hasty in the laying on of hands. I think that's directly applicable to what we're going through right now, another nomination process this year.

52:12Don't be hasty. If you don't really know a guy, maybe you met him twice and he impressed you with the way he quoted a verse of scripture, that's great. And you should get to know that person some more. But if you've never seen his family life, if you've never seen his character, well, don't be hasty to. To nominate. Here it's laying on hands. It's specifically about the appointing, I think, of elders, of setting aside a person for this ministry. But I think the principle for most of us in the congregation is: let's also not be hasty to prejudge and show partiality just because we think we've been impressed with somebody.

52:53Verse 23: no longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. And verse 24: the sins of some men are conspicuous, going before them to the judgment, but the sins of others appear later. So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are cannot remain hidden. So I think he's again giving a little bit further explanation of why not be hasty. Well, it's because sometimes when people come into a church, you know, they're putting their best foot forward. You don't really know a man if you just met him a month ago. And even though he might have quoted a lot of scripture to you, there are some sins that are conspicuous that are going to show up right away, but there are others that are going to appear later. So get to know somebody. Don't be hasty as you nominate. Okay?

53:44All right. So we covered a lot last week and this week. Let's do a quick review. Remember that it seems to be the New Testament pattern that in a church you have plural, male leadership. And that's going to be, in a mature church, a team of elders who have the main job descriptions of keeping close watch over the doctrine and the teaching, watching out for false teachers as God's steward, keeping oversight over the flock, shepherding the flock. That's their duties. Then you have deacons, those servants, maybe even official servants in the office of deacon that are administratively helping the elders in their tasks. That those are men who have very similar qualifications. Again, you can read those in Timothy. We didn't see them in Titus. He doesn't have any about deacons in Titus. But in Timothy, he does. So you can read those qualifications as well. They're very similar. But those are the ones that are going to serve in that office of fulfilling those service roles. Remember, last time I couldn't make it through the statement, but I'm going to try again tonight: that the deacons lead by serving, and the elders serve by leading. That was from H.B. Charles. The deacons lead by serving, and the elders serve by leading. I've always thought that was such a good, short, sweet way to define what these roles are. And so, as we're nominating those in this church, we're looking for these men who are well-rounded, godly, who meet these qualifications, so that we can make sure that our church, and really you can make sure that our church is led. By faithful, godly men. I think that this is a responsibility of the church to put godly leaders at the forefront to oversee. Any other closing thoughts or questions? James?

55:56Yeah. Well, I wouldn't want to force anybody to anything, but I think, you know, in a sense, you know, I heard one teacher say one time that he's often asked, how many elders is too many elders? And I really liked his answer. He said, the only reason why you would ever ask that is because you think of being an elder as a weekly meeting instead of thinking of being an elder as the work of the ministry. He says, if you think of it only as a meeting, well, after you get a few, you're going to say, well, meetings are going to get a little harder. We don't want any more elders. We're going to cut it off. But if you're thinking of these are the men who are going to keep watch over the flock, who are going to shepherd the flock, get to know all the different families in the church, well, then, of course, the more, the merrier, right?

56:52And so I think the same would apply in this case. If we have godly men and they want to serve, I would say go ahead and nominate them. I don't think there's some maximum that we have in this church. There's nothing in our Constitution about having some kind of maximum. Again, we've expressed the need before that we do need more deacons. We'd love to have more men in serving roles leading different areas of service in this church.

57:19So, any other thoughts or questions? Yeah, Russell? Yeah. Yeah, that's a really good point. If you didn't hear, if you're streaming or something, Russell made the point of it's our habit that the elders don't really put forward our own nominations for people in the body. So we really depend on the body to put forward nominations. So really consider it and think about it. Any other thoughts or questions? Zach? Oh, I didn't directly address it. Good point. That somebody asked, okay, they're all supposed to be able to teach. Why do some Some teach more than others. I think it's mainly a practical concern. I think it's related that I forgot to mention it specifically, but I think it's related to that 1 Timothy 5 passage: okay, practically, even though we're going to have these five men over the church that are keeping watch over the flock, practically, if we can afford to pay one or two of them, well, then those are the ones who are going to do the majority of the teaching in the church out of practical concerns, time concerns, things like that. Even though all elders are qualified to teach, lead Bible studies, lead Sunday schools, do biblical counseling, and one-on-one discipleship, all of that. Anything else?

59:15Good thoughts, good questions. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you so much that you haven't left us without guidance, that you've showed us these biblical offices, and you've showed us that this is what godly leadership can look like in the church. And I pray for all of us, whether we're at this church forever or we go to other churches someday, I pray that you would always make us people who are quick to recognize healthy, godly leadership by looking at these qualifications. I pray that you would continue to protect this church with good leadership.

1:00:00We pray that you would continue to watch over this church, protect us from wolves, protect us from those that wish to pray on the flock. We thank you so much for the wisdom in your word. We pray that we would be a church that eagerly, joyfully submits to what your word says. We thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.