Let's go ahead and grab our Bibles and turn to the book of Titus. Titus. Here we go. Titus is before Philemon, which is before Hebrews. That's right, that's right. It's an easy one to pass on. While you're turning there, I'm going to do something a little bit different tonight. I'm going to actually be going through the entire book. We'll see how well that goes. You'll just have to trust me on that one, but we'll be doing that. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. You know, if I were to go to the top seminaries in our country, Baptist or otherwise, and I were to ask them, what is a good church? you should know that the answers are going to vary widely, and it's not going to necessarily be what you would expect from a seminary level. Sharing with Pastor Jorge, I've met a pastor not too long ago of a small Southern Baptist church in a small town He applied for funding through the North American Mission Board to be considered a church plant. Well, they conducted a lengthy investigation, as you might imagine. They were listening to his sermons. They were asking questions about the operations of the church and so forth. Their conclusion, however, was to deny his requests. Though he explained the Word of God well enough, in their estimation, They still advise that he stepped down from ministry for a little while, or at least from the head pastoring position that he was in, at least for a few months, if not for a couple of years, so that he could learn more about the culture. Maybe he should get with a pastor who's in a big church somewhere nearby, and he can learn more about the people and about the area. He could be assisting that successful ministry, and then he can apply those methods to his ministry. When, I guess, he asked for clarification, they told him, well, one thing you can do is lose the suits. For them, a good church has an attractional ministry. It is attractive to people. It brings people in. It gains more foot traffic. And many ideas abound in that area. It's not just the North American Mission Board, it's a lot of different folks to that degree. They want to see churches with Live music, and that is a must. You can't pipe in like we just did. Canned music or recorded music. You should have live music, perhaps with a band that can play crossover music in addition to music of the cross. Briefer sermons obviously are a must with less theology, something that's a little bit more palatable. That ranks high on most lists with shorter services overall, of course. And of course, good parking, refreshments, streamlined operations. Pastors should see themselves as CEOs. which means that they delegate as much ministry as possible so that they are then free to be mission minded and vision focused and not bothered with too much of the actual ministry of the church. Other people can do that. The vision of the ministry, of course, should be modern. It should be geared toward sensibilities about social action and change. Social justice. And the entire worship experience should be calculated as a shopping experience at a big-box store might be. Many Christians see the numbers in these big churches as equaling success, so obviously God must be blessing it. Some of this we've talked about before, I know. And it's not that there isn't something to be said about doing things well, doing things with some forethought. Making sure, for instance, that the church is comfortable and safe from a physical standpoint. Making sure that the restrooms are updated, for instance, that's a good thing. Running air conditioning during the summer, heat during the winter, of course. Having a well-maintained facility. These are all common sense measures, of course. But there is a problem. When a ministry becomes pragmatic and seeker-sensitive, Methods of worship get changed because it supposedly works better for people. Pragmatism might bring people into the door, and I'm not going to say it's not, it might bring more people in the door. Sometimes it doesn't though, but that's not what marks a good church according to God's word. Instead of asking what works, we should be asking what does the Word say? What does the Word say? And hopefully what we've done with this series is begin to lay the groundwork together for what we should consider to be important in the local church, and I understand much of it, if not most of it, has been reviewed for you. We've seen It's more than music styles. It's more than just the kind of preaching, although it's also that it's at its core, a fundamental question. Does the church exist for our glory or for the glory of God? Does the church exist for our glory or for the glory of God? And that's a question we must ask ourselves, and it must be at the core of all the decisions that we make. Now, as we are finishing this series, the what's of the local church, the unpacking boxes, as it were, together, I wanted to give a message that would begin wrapping up some of the themes that we've already talked about, as well as some others that perhaps we didn't get to. As I was thinking about that, I thought about the book of Titus. I thought about it because I would like to preach through the book of Titus. But since we just went through Timothy as a church, we'll wait on that. And I think with this series, too, it's very similar. We'll wait about a year or so and we'll come back to Titus. But still, I would like to at least tonight give it a bird's eye view. And as we do so, we'll be seeing, again, many of the themes we've covered together as we read this text together. And we'll be highlighting a few of those, as well as, again, some others that I didn't dig into quite as much as we might have hoped. But we're going to look at this letter because it is a call to being a good church. It is a call to be to being a sound church, a call for us to be a sound church, a sound church with sound people. And that's what Paul is trying to get Titus to do. Paul, of course, the apostle to the Gentiles, desired to continue moving and continue planning churches. And he had been at this small island nation of Crete. In fact, it's one of the larger islands there in the middle of the sometimes tumultuous Mediterranean Sea. It's obviously in a strategic location. It's the first step of, well, I'll just say this, this church right here was the first step to having a good ministry in that region. And Paul wants that church to take its steps in becoming a good and sound church. And one of the first steps that it should take is appointing good sound leaders. And so he appoints Titus to do this. Usually in the past, the apostles would have appointed the elders and the churches. But at this point in history, there's been a transition that's been taking place. And we've noted that before where The apostles appointed people who would appoint others. Because eventually the apostles are going to pass off the scene. And so it's going to be others who appoint. Others, it's going to be others who appoint elders and churches. So this is a this is an important book for a lot of reasons. It's very practical for us. But the thing I want to focus on tonight is that it gives Christians a description on what good church order looks like. It gives us a description on what good church order looks like. So I have seven points tonight. And the first is this, a good church is established according to God's will. A good church is established according to God's will. Verses one through five, Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago. But at the proper time manifested, even His Word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior. To Titus, my true child in a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. For this reason I left you in Crete that you would set in order what remains. We'll just pause there. Paul starts his letter like he starts a lot of letters. He's the doulos. He's the servant or slave of God. And he does so from the perspective of the gospel. Of course, he sees himself as bought for and paid for by the Lord. He is the Lord's. And that's how we should view ourselves and our ministries, that this is something that God is doing, not us, not us. And as Paul serves the Gentile peoples, such as those in Crete, he does so according to the will of God. That's an example for us. In the first week of this series, we discussed some of the important issues that we need to consider. Like, for instance, is the church being governed by the Word? By the Word. Our church should be one that proclaims the Word of God, like Paul highlights here. We should be operating as a fellowship according to the command of God as well. This means that we're likewise command or committed to other elements like church worship, making sure that we're doing all things according to what God has commanded. We are ordered. As Paul calls Titus to set the church in order, we should indeed have things orderly. It's interesting how people say they don't want organized religion. You want this organized religion? No, no, it should be orderly. And that's what God wants of his churches. They should be ordered. Then they should be ordered according to his word. And we see that there was something specific that was lacking in the organization of the Christian churches. And that brings us to the next point. Second, a good church is overseen by qualified elders. It's overseen by qualified elders. And so verses five through nine here, he continues on to set in order what remains and appoint elders in every church as I directed you. Namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, and I think a better translation there would be that the children are faithful, not that they believe, but children who are faithful. Not accused of dissipation or rebellion, for the overseer must be above reproach as God's steward. Not self-willed, not quick-tempered, Not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, holding fast to the faithful word, which is in accordance with the teaching. so that he will be able to he will be able both to exhort and sound doctrine and refute those who contradict. Like I said earlier, Paul and the other apostles, they had this habit of appointing elders, but now he's appointing Titus to begin that process. And Titus is going to need to know what to look for in men. man men and women no just men just men there to be a husband of one wife that's it's obviously a description of a man and of course all the pronouns here are masculine and he says namely if any man is above yes it's supposed to be a man and what are the qualifications here Well, he lists them. And of course, we can compile this with his list that he gives over to Timothy, and we can see exactly what is required of an elder. You know, just to throw this out there, it is common to see in a lot of churches, particularly Baptist churches, single pastor congregations. Sometimes that is a reality of necessity. They can only have one pastor, and if that's what they can have, that's all they can have, that's fine. But sometimes it's by choice, it is by design. But historically, Baptists have understood that multiple elders should lead a church, not a single pastor, not the Moses model, but rather there should be other men who are keeping each other accountable. For instance, the first president of the Southern Baptist Convention, W.B. Johnson, taught that individual churches should be led by a plurality of elders. One of the founding members of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, William Williams, likewise taught this. The abstract of principles also says something similar. It says this, Regular officers of a church, singular, are bishops or elders, plural, and deacons. Of course, we should have deacons as well. But bishops, of course, being the older English word, elders, a bishop just means overseer. So we're talking about the same the same position. The SBC statement of faith was no different. In 1925, it stated this. A church of Christ, singular, is a congregation of baptized believers. It's singular. Its scriptural officers are bishops or elders, which again is a synonymous term, and deacons. And so that statement of faith just carries on that idea. A singular church should have Elders the 1963 Baptist faith and message opted for the term pastor, but it maintained the principle. It's singular. It's scriptural officers are pastors plural. And deacons. and the 2000 Statement of Faith retained the wording, it's singular, scriptural offices are pastors, plural, and deacons. And so we see that history there just being teased out there. It's the same idea as we go through time, whether we're talking pastors or elders or overseers slash bishops, we are talking about a plurality of leaders. And that's the way it should be. These men are to be qualified. Why are they to be qualified? Because they're going to be leading the church. And so obviously they should be leading the church in every way. They should be leading by example. Our leaders should be men of example, men of character. Men who would encourage the congregation to do the same. Listen, everything we just read here, that should be descriptive of all of you. And so, of course, the elders should be able to model that as well. And because they oversee and watch over the flock that God has given to them, they should be doing so with the right attitude, with the right spirit. By the way, if they're watching over the flock that God's given to them, that implies church membership. There should be church membership. There are those who are not of that flock, there are those who are. And if someone is contradicting sound teaching, they must refute it. Which brings us to the next point. Third, a good church is ordered also by church discipline, church discipline. Verse 10, for there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision. who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain. One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. For this reason, reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith. Not paying attention to Jewish myths, commandments of men who turn away from the truth. To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure. But both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable, and disobedient, and worthless for any good deed." Wow. There's a lot we can get into with these verses. Suffice it to say, there were false teachers who were upsetting the people of God, and they were leading folks astray or troubling whole households. And that's something that Titus would also have to address. Not only Titus, of course, but the elders would have to address that as well. And of course, if they are unrepentant, as we talked about, the whole church would have to get involved and the church would have to engage in church discipline. Is it not better to purge the evil from among you so that the little leaven doesn't live in the law and have a church that is undisturbed by false teaching rather than say, well, we're just gracious and we let everybody just say their piece? that would just lead to confusion and disorder. See, this is why elders must be knowledgeable and able with the word because they have to be able to refute so that they could speak against what is false. Now, some would say, well, now that sounds judgmental. Well, we talked about that. But those who are troubling others and who refuse to repent must be dismissed from the fellowship for the love of the saints in general, because it's going to cause a disruption for all the families in the church. We want the church to be pure, as we'll see in a few minutes, and so that we're properly caring for the saints that we engage in church discipline. And that brings me to the next point. For the good church is also to be committed to one another. To one another. We should care for one another. And we see that here starting in chapter two. But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine. but teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, to be workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God would not be dishonored. Likewise, urge the young men to be sensible and all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds. See again, the elder should be an example of good deeds with purity and doctrine, dignified, sound in speech, which is beyond reproach so that the opponent would be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us. urge bond slaves to be subject to their own masters and everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior with every or in every respect. These verses demonstrate something that should be happening in our church. That's discipleship. Discipleship. There is something that the pastor must be able to delegate out, and that is discipleship. That he should be training people, and those people should be training people, and those people should be training people. That definitely should be happening. That definitely should be happening. And if you want to model for that, we don't need to look any further. But Titus chapter two, we see the older training the younger men with men, women with women. Showing them what should be happening in the Christian life, there's a cross generational instruction that can happen in a church and should be happening in the church. That's why having only age segregated instruction in churches that we see sometimes, that's unwise and it's not good. The older should be teaching the younger. I'm not saying that age segregated instruction is bad. Some go kind of the opposite direction and want to avoid all instruction that might be targeted toward an age group. I'm not saying that's bad, but we also want to be careful not to disregard the blessing it is when we have kids among us and we're teaching our children, and not just our children, but younger people as well. You know, we have the older teaching the younger. That is a good thing. Toward the end of this letter, we also see that Christians are to treat each other with grace. When we look at all the one another commands of Scripture, they reveal just how we are to value others above ourselves, to count others as more important than ourselves. I'll give you an example that we here have sometimes, and that is a baby crying in the service. How do we react to that? Do we look at that person, that mother with scorn, ah, take that child out of here. And we would be much like the disciples saying, get the kids away from Jesus, right? No, we're happy that they're here. That's the sound of a young one being discipled, even before that child knows what's happening. He's being discipled or she's being discipled. We're happy the mother is there, trying her best to get something out of the message while there's a wriggling baby on her lap. And she's trying her best to hear what's being said. And we're happy she's here as well. And sometimes it doesn't make the service a little uncomfortable sometimes, perhaps, but you know what? We see the other person is more important than ourselves. And that's the way we should view it. That's the way we should view it. with compassion, with grace. When a new Christian comes in, maybe that person doesn't know how to do the right things. I don't mean just how we do things here. Maybe that person's never been in church. Well, where do I go? Main service. What's that? They're really starting at square one. What are we going to do? Oh, this person isn't prepared. They didn't even bring a Bible. Can you believe that? They didn't bring a Bible to church. Of course we're not gonna react that way. We're gonna say, oh, here you go, brother. We got plenty over here. Do you need any help? Let me get you a bulletin. Do you need anything else? Did you know we have refreshments back there if you need something? Just let me know. We're helping that person out. We wanna make sure that that person is having his needs met. We're patient with folks. believer who might not have all the same scruples that we have on certain things. Maybe the person watches television shows that we don't think they should watch or they do something else that we don't think that they should do. And yet we're patient with them. We talk to them. We might even say, OK, well, you know, this isn't something that is a law for all Christians. Or if it is a law for all Christians, you begin to talk to that person about it. So that that person will be grounded in the truth. But why do we show grace to people? Because everything we do as a church should be grounded, not just in truth in general, but in the truth of the gospel. And that brings me to the next point. Fifth, a good church is grounded in the gospel. Verses 11 through 15, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you. You know, even as Paul opened this letter to Titus, what did he say there in those first verses? He was proclaiming the gospel. And then he gave Titus that blessing, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus, our Savior. It starts right there. It starts right there. That's not just a way of saying hello. That's something that we all need. We need grace and peace, don't we? And where do we get grace and peace from God the Father in Christ Jesus, our Savior? As believers, we should understand most intimately how undeserving we are of the grace of God. That's why it's called grace. It's unmerited, right? We should be mindful of how merciful our Savior has been to us. And so, we want the opportunity to proclaim that in our services, everything about our liturgy, our music, our prayers, our preaching, it all should uphold the work of Christ and remind us about the gospel. Not just for unbelievers, because believers need the gospel reminders too. We need the gospel reminders too. We still sin. But when we have this state of humility before God, we recognize our need for the gospel. We are more willing to be gracious to others who also need the gospel. We're not like that ungrateful servant. who was forgiven so much but then he couldn't forgive a small debt that was owed to him. We'll know more about this in just a few minutes. Because of the gospel, we who were formerly children of disobedience have been transformed into children of obedience. As such, we want our lives to be conformed to the image of God in Christ. And that brings us to the next point. Six, a good church is practiced in holiness. A good church is practiced in holiness. starting in chapter 3 verse 1, we read there, remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceful, gentle, showing every consideration for all men, where we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our lives in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of our God of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy statement and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently so that those who have believed in God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men. But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned. So we see here an example that we are to be following. Obviously, these last couple of verses deal with deal with church discipline that should continue to happen within the church. But the whole passage is an application personal holiness. Let's think about that for just a moment. As Christians we serve a holy God. We serve a holy God and we as Christians then should desire to be holy even as Heavenly Father is holy. We are applying the truths of the gospel to accomplish this. That's why Paul takes a moment in this passage to remind us once again of the gospel. Because personal holiness is not possible apart from the gospel. We don't have the power to live holy lives in the flesh, but we can live holy lives by the grace of God. We can. And because he who called us is holy, he has regenerated us by his Holy Spirit. Because of these things, we can now walk in the holiness of the Lord. We can walk holy by the Holy Spirit when we don't follow after the flesh. And because God is good and we have been transformed by a good God, Yes, well, we can engage in good works. And so we can be careful to engage in those good works as well. We can be walking by the faith and the word. We can be avoiding the nonsense of false teachers, but also the nonsense of our own flesh, as we are simply resting in the strength of God to live out a practical and applied holiness in our own lives. Living in a way that won't cause the watching world a stumbling block as they consider the claims of God that we make. We're working out our salvation by the grace of God with fear and trembling. And if we do that, we will be a good church. If everyone is committed to do that, if everyone is living as though they have been transformed by a good God, we will be a good church of God. And if we are walking by his grace, And we will be graceful as well, and that's the seventh point. A good church is graceful. A good church is graceful. Verses 12 through 15. When I send Artemis or Tychicus to you, Make every effort to come to me at Nicopolis, for I've decided to spend the winter there. Diligently help Zenas, the lawyer, and Apollos on their way, so that nothing is lacking for them. Our people must also learn to engage in good deeds, to meet pressing needs, so that they will not be unfruitful. All who are with me greet you, greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Now I know some of you doubted that we would get through all of Titus, but we did go through all of Titus. And we see at the end of Titus, obviously a call to good deeds. Once again, we should be engaged in good deeds. And we will if we are grounded in the grace of God and see that right there is something that we have to see. We will show grace to other people. It starts with us receiving that grace, by the way. If you do not know the grace of God, you cannot be gracious to others. This is one thing that we can bring out in our counseling, for instance, when we're talking to others. You have two people who are fighting with each other. They're not necessarily Christians. You're saying, why aren't you just being more gracious to one another? Well, they don't know how to be gracious to one another. They have to learn that by knowing the grace of God individually. And so in 2.11, we see that when the grace of God appeared, it brought salvation to all men. And it's by that grace that we can then show one another grace, whether that one another be in our homes or that one another be in the church of God. Without God's grace, we'll never know how to treat each other. We have to first receive that good news, and then we can apply it. We can apply it to individuals. And of course, Paul applies it to individuals here. He even applies it to a lawyer. Of course, a lawyer probably means something a little different there. Of course, a man of law there, a man of the law, Moses. But even then, it should be a grace to everyone. Grace to everyone. This is what church life that's led by the Holy Spirit should look like. This is what a good church should look like. There will be people who are saved, who are baptized, who are gathered together. How do they treat one another? How do they operate? Are they there for themselves? Are they there for the glory of God? Well, if they're truly transformed by God, hopefully they're there for His glory. But sadly, Satan can move us and distract us and get us to be mindful of things that really shouldn't be in our minds. He'll get us to imagine a form of success that's measured by numbers rather than by the word of God. Remember the Lord had something to say to David when he numbered the people of Israel. We need to trust in the Lord. We need to trust in the Lord. But when a church does this, they will devote themselves to scripture and to one another. And just as we saw in Acts 2, A church that is engaged in God-glorifying behavior. They're going to be what? They're going to be devoted to sound teaching. They're going to be praying. They're going to be fellowshipping with one another. They're going to be breaking bread. They're going to be doing all these things. And they will seek to apply all the truths of God's word, the whole counsel of God within their context, within their lives and within the church. Now, as we wrap this up, I'm glad that I've been able to do this series with you guys, because I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store. As I've considered these things, as I've prepared to present them to you, I've been thinking about what's actually been happening here at this church. And I've been encouraged. I've been very encouraged as I've seen what's been happening and what the commitments or what I perceive to be the commitments of everybody to be here, what they are. I am very thankful that I'm here at this church, that I'm here with you guys. And as we begin to wrap this series up, in a couple of weeks, or no, I guess it would be next week, I should say. Next week, we'll do this. We'll talk about what issues threaten a local church, what issues threaten a local church. Until then, Let's strive by the grace of the Lord to continue in all the things that we've learned and to be a church that is grounded in the gospel and that exists to the glory of God.