Nevada was overrun by trillions of grasshoppers. Did you see this? If you didn't, take a look at the screen. It actually happened at the same time as my family and I were coming back from Montana. So we spent the night in a town called Mesquite, Nevada, and they were absolutely everywhere. They were all over the parking lot, in the trees, on the grounds, and then night fell, and it seemed like they just multiplied. And you can see in that picture, if you want to see more pictures, you can search for that, watch videos, as billions and billions of them descend on Las Vegas and the surrounding communities. Like moths and flies and other bugs, grasshoppers are also attracted to light. They're drawn to the light. They congregate around the light. They bask in the light. Scientists speculate about why they do this. For years, many thought that it was because they traveled in relation to the light that comes from the moon. So a porch light or a campfire will throw that off their internal GPS, and that's why you'll see them fly right into those things. Many scientists now disagree, they've done more studies, but anyone who's been camping or has an outdoor light knows that bugs, like grasshoppers, they can't help themselves, right? They fly right into a light and it might not do them any harm. They just kind of get dazed and fly away or something. Or they fly right into fire or a bug zapper and they die. And in that moment when you're watching that you think, stupid bug, right? Until we realize that humans are very similar. Right? But it's not light. It's ideas. It's doctrines. It's teachings. We are drawn to ideas. We are drawn to teachings. Some of them will do us no harm at all. Right? They produce salvation and growth and health. Others will make us think that we're safe, right, and okay. But in the end, we will fly right into our own death and the death of others. Grasshoppers, it seems, they can't help themselves. But listen, We can help ourselves. And our text this morning will show us how. So open your Bibles to Titus chapter 1. Titus chapter 1. If you got a Bible from an usher, that's page 1100. Titus chapter 1. So to set the context, Titus is the name of a ministry associate of the Apostle Paul. Paul wrote most of the New Testament. He was a converted Jew. He was like Osama Bin Laden who becomes Tim Tebow. And he's writing all these letters to the churches. And here's one of his most significant ministry associates. Leaves him on the island of Crete sometime around 62, 63 AD. And his mission was to set these churches straight when it comes to what they believe and how they live. These churches were, like Las Vegas overrun by grasshoppers, these churches were overrun by false teachers, and that produced churches that were filled with people living ungodly lives and destroying their witness for Christ. So to fix that problem, chapter 1 verse 5, Paul starts by saying, hey Titus, you need to get the right leaders in each of those churches. And what we see there is that church leadership, pastoral ministry, being an elder is not for everyone. Being willing, being persuasive, having leadership experience somewhere else, having a lot of knowledge qualifies no one for church leadership. But what does? Is there a standard? Are there qualifications? And what are they? Well, since the church belongs to Jesus, since it is His church, since He is the head, the leader over all things, like we saw in John 3, He's the Lord of the church. He, through the Apostle Paul, establishes the criteria for church leadership in Titus 1, 6 through 9. And we've spent five Sundays looking at this, slowing way down. because few things are more important than who it is that's actually leading a church. And more specifically, few things are more important for you than who it is that you're giving leadership in your life and in the lives of those you know and love. Leadership concerns who you're listening to, who you're allowing to influence the way you think about God and how you think about the world and other people and even yourself. They're the ones that help you answer the question, why am I here? And what is the real problems with the world? And what happens when we die? Whoever those teachers have been, whoever they are now, and whoever they will be in the future, you better be sure that they meet these criteria that Jesus demands from church leaders. Anything else And like a moth to the flame, you may be flying into pain, confusion, and even death. And so that's why we've gone slowly through this passage, so all of us get it. So all of us have the discernment to know that when we're looking at our newsfeed, or on television, or reading a book, or in a place like this, that you're able to know this is the kind of teacher I should run from, and this is the kind of teacher I should run to. on the island of Crete where Christians seem to be doing whatever seemed right to them, and in a church today that seems to be doing whatever seems right to it. Qualified men of good character are the only ones who are legitimately leading in the church today. These are men, as we've seen, who have been and continue to be loyal to their wives, who are influencing their children towards good behavior, who are responsible, who are repentant and changing, who are redeemed, whose lives give evidence that God lives inside of them and that they're becoming more like Jesus. And as always, what church leaders are, all Christians should aspire to be. So a church leader, a pastor, an elder is to be an example that other Christians can follow and that when their lives are followed, those Christians actually grow. They actually change and become more like Jesus by following their example. So today we come to the last of the criteria Jesus gives. And in summary, verses six to eight all showed us about what kind of person is he supposed to be? What is his character? What kind of man is he? Verse nine is about what he does. His ministry. Notice the word must at the beginning of verse 9. Look at that. That goes back to the two must in verse 7, meaning that verse 9, like all the other criteria, are non-negotiable. They are not to be explained away. They're not to be ignored. They're non-negotiable commands from the Lord of the church to say, these and only these men are the ones who should be leading. So no man should ever think about being a pastor or an elder, let alone actually be one, who does not see Titus 1.9 at the very center of his heart and ministry. This is the core of pastoral ministry. This is what it is supposed to be. Look at it with me, Titus 1.9. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine, and also to rebuke those who contradict it. So in general, personally, he must be a man who holds firmly to the trustworthy word. And publicly, he must both give instruction and sound doctrine, as well as rebuke all who contradict it. Listen, this is the primary task of pastoral ministry. This is the work that this role is meant to accomplish. In the words of Philippians 1-7, his job is the defense and confirmation of the gospel. Interesting. All the criteria in verses 6 to 8 are easily identified as moral criteria, ethical integrity criteria, but some say in verse 9 that it switches now to a theological criteria, but I disagree. That's because holding firm to the Bible is moral. Meaning it is unethical, it is dangerous, it is sin for a pastor to doubt, despise, or seek to look the other way when it comes to the things that he should teach and defend from the Bible. Why is that? Because the source of the Bible is who? That's God. So to distrust the Bible is to distrust God. To question the Bible is to question God, because the Bible is God's word. This means the words down to the very letters came to the minds of human authors from God as the ultimate source. What is said in the Bible is what God wanted said, all that he wanted said, and nothing but what he wanted said. And that is why verse nine, it is called the trustworthy word. In the face of all of our oops and sorries and my bads and mistakes and blind spots and miscalculations and just plain errors, the Bible is sure, reliable, and true. It can be trusted again because its source is God. And notice too, the Bible is trustworthy because verse 9, it is the word as taught. Meaning, as taught by the apostles, who learned what they taught from who? Who did the apostles learn from? Who did they follow for three years around Galilee and other parts of Israel? Jesus. All true, faithful, trustworthy teaching matches what the apostles taught, and oh, where do we have what the apostles taught? Right here, in the Bible. Any teaching that seeks to be a substitute for the Bible, or seeks to supplement the Bible, you know, kind of fill in the Bible's cracks, is automatically not worthy of your trust. It's automatically not reliable and not true, because religious spiritual truth only comes from God, through Jesus, to his apostles, and to us in the Bible. And if that's true, then all church leaders, all pastors, all elders must, point number one, have an uncompromising allegiance. They must have an uncompromising allegiance to the Bible. This is what it means in verse nine, to hold firm. That word means to cling to, to hold on tightly to, to be devoted to, to give oneself entirely to. This must be the pattern of the lives of all church leaders, an immersion in, full acceptance of, certainty about, loyalty to, life of obedience to the Bible. They should be unwavering, unfickle, unshakable, because they have an intense, fierce, uncompromising allegiance to the Bible. And I want you to see this in your Bible, so turn to 2 Timothy 1. It's probably one, it's one book to the left, maybe one page to the left in your Bible, 2 Timothy 1. So to another ministry associate named Timothy, another man who he sends to another church in order to right the ship and get things going in the right direction, 2 Timothy chapter one, he says in verse 13, 2 Timothy 1.13, follow the pattern of sound words. This is our word here. Follow it, be devoted to it, live in light of it, be entirely given over to this. that you've heard from me. This is Paul teaching, Timothy teaching others. And then notice, and how is he to do that? How is he supposed to be devoted to the scriptures? Notice verse 14. You do that by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. And then notice this word, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. You've been entrusted with these truths, Timothy. Guard them, be devoted to them. Now flip over to 2 Timothy chapter three. 2 Timothy chapter three, Paul repeats himself. Drop down to verse 14. But as for you, Timothy, there are these false teachers, there's these imposters out there, but not you, Timothy, verse 14. As for you, Timothy, continue in what you have learned and have, what does your Bible say? firmly believed, firmly believed, not kinda believed, not mostly believed. A church leader who kinda believes the Bible is a Judas in the midst of the disciples. He is a subverter, he is a traitor. Whether he's trying to or not, he will undermine the work of God in the church because by his life and teaching, he will encourage everybody that they can't trust God or the Bible if he doesn't. Uncompromising allegiance to the Bible means he's not a Bible plus guy. He's not, I'm loyal to the Bible plus psychology. I'm loyal to the Bible plus the organized church. I'm loyal to the Bible plus my experiences. I'm loyal to the Bible plus a living prophet, or plus entertainment, church growth techniques, and business principles. Or plus, and then insert the name of your favorite teacher or author. Or I'm loyal to the Bible plus personal revelations. No. His loyalty, his allegiance to the Bible is singular. The Bible is his source for what to say, how to do church, how to understand his ministry. It is his highest authority, no rivals, no partners, no competitors in his heart. He must love the Bible, be loyal to the Bible, and put no standard above the Bible. If this does not describe the pastor, the elders, they should all resign immediately. They are disqualified and need to find new work, He must, all of them must read and reread. They must meditate on, study, study the Bible. They must be devoted to this. And it is only through that that they're going to lead effectively. Because once they've done that, once they've been saturated and inundated with God's word, now they're able, now they know God correctly. Now they know the world accurately. Now they know themselves truthfully. They know about people and their lost condition. They're fully informed about what's right and wrong, what's sin and salvation. They're able to lead effectively because they know this is what God says a church and a pastor are supposed to do. They know where history's going, right? And they don't need to guess about it because the Bible is clear about it. The Bible and His life cannot be like oil and water. The Bible and His life has to be like chocolate and milk. It has to be like fruit in a smoothie. It has to be like blended fabric, no idea where one starts and the other stops. He's ingested so much of the Bible that it marks the very core of his soul. His allegiance to biblical truth must be woven into the fabric of all that he thinks and feels and decides and says and does, which is exactly like who? It's exactly like Christ. exactly like Jesus, who talked the Bible, who thought the Bible, who even on the cross in his moment of despair and death is quoting the Bible. Cut him and he bleeds the Bible. And this should not only be true for pastors and elders, not only the ones that you let influence you, What is mandatory for church leaders must be the mission of all Christians. What is true for them must be the target that you're aiming for. In other words, you should have an uncompromising allegiance to the Bible. How do you know you're on the path to spiritual maturity? How do you know that you're becoming more like Christ when your view of the Bible matches Jesus' view of the Bible, and he more than anybody had a fierce, loyal, relentless, uncompromising allegiance to the Bible? And how do you get that? Where does that come from? It comes from God, yes, but I want you to see that it comes from something that a little known person in the Old Testament did. Take a look up at the screen, Ezra 7.10. It says that Ezra the scribe, quote, set his heart to study the law of the Lord. We think we should read the Bible like when everything, like Goldilocks porridge is just right, right? There's not too many problems, not too many birds, there's not, like it's just, there's a little bit of wind from the fan, you know, everything's peaceful and pleasant and comfortable. Okay, now I can open the Bible. No, no, this is, you make up your mind to do this. You must settle this in your heart that this is what you want, that this is, that you want this uncompromising allegiance to the Bible. You must be determined. Give yourself entirely to the scriptures, why? Because Jesus has opened your eyes and helped you to see that all good from, for your life, God has put in this book and said, live according to this and blessing will be there. Once it's settled in your heart, you'll do whatever it takes to read and reread and meditate and study the Bible. And so for us here, we've given you a Bible reading plan to help you read through the Bible in a year. We put it on the back of every program. So if you don't have one of the ones of the whole year, you've got one every week and you can just follow along there. We give you good books on the back of your notes sometimes, and definitely over at our Welcome Center, where you can study books about the Bible to help you understand the Bible more. And take a look at Ezra 7.10 again up there, it says, Ezra, He set his heart to study the law of the Lord. And notice, and to do it. That's character. That's what we've been talking about the previous weeks. And to teach its statutes and rules. To teach God's word to God's people. And this is exactly where Paul goes with church leaders in Titus 1.9. Notice, turn back to Titus 1.9. I'm not there, so I should turn there. Titus 1.9. Notice his uncompromising allegiance to the Bible. He's to have that, notice verse 9, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine. His allegiance to the Bible gives him the ability to explain the Bible. Before he can effectively teach the Bible, he must be tenaciously committed to the Bible. His function as a teacher of the Bible comes from his allegiance to the Bible. He's equipped to explain the Bible because he loves the Bible that he gets to explain. His knowledge of the Bible isn't strictly for personal use. Notice verse nine. He knows the words that he can be useful in teaching the word to people, to the people that God has entrusted to his care. Those words, notice verse nine, give instruction, come from a word that means to come alongside, to walk next to. It ranges in definition from like tender consolation when someone is hurting to intense urging when somebody is in sin. And when you put all of the various uses of this word together, I think at the very core of this word is the idea of persuasion. The word is more than just informing a person, giving instruction, passing data from one brain to the next brain. No, the goal is to persuade a person, to help them see the truth and change their behavior in light of the truth. So verse nine, what is it that changes behavior that they persuade with? It is with sound doctrine. That word sound is the word we get our word hygiene from. That word means healthy. When it refers to bodies, it means healthy. When it refers to ideas, it means free from error. doctrine, teaching ideas are sound, are healthy in context, verse 9, when they match the trustworthy word as taught by the apostles, which we have in the New Testament. This sound doctrine, these healthy ideas that are ingested by people and in turn make them spiritually healthy. Ideas that don't match the Bible are not pure. They're not healthy. They're unhealthy. They make people spiritually sick and will lead to spiritual death unless the medicine of truth is injected right into their hearts. In light of this, that is what an elder pastor is supposed to do. So, point number two, they must be persuasive explainers. must be a persuasive explainer of God's Word. His job, his mandate, what God will hold him accountable for is effective, persuasive, convincing, powerful explanations of the Bible. His preaching must be expository, meaning he is an explainer. His job is to explain the Bible, but it cannot stop there. He must also press the truth of the Bible on the hearts of his hearers so that they respond. That's what that word means. Gives instruction, does not capture the idea. The idea of this word is to persuade, to see life change based on truth. It is conviction about the Bible that makes his preaching convincing. He's to encourage people to accept the truth and live their lives in light of the truth. He pleads with people. This isn't just, this isn't a study. This is a pleading, because the truth is true, because Jesus is alive and people really go to hell. So he pleads with people, turn from your sins, trust in Christ and be saved. Live your lives in obedience to Jesus, to everything he wants us to do. And then those teachings, because they're biblical, they give spiritual life, they sustain spiritual life, it grows spiritual life, because what he's teaching is healthy, because it's coming from God's Word. And in fact, this word, give instruction, is the verb. The noun of this word is used to describe the Holy Spirit, that he's called the comforter, the encourager, the one who uses his word to persuade us, to lead us into obedience and away from temptation, error, and sin. So when a pastor is preaching the word, the Holy Spirit is coming alongside him, who's then coming alongside the whole congregation, and everybody's being persuaded to live in light of that word as the pastor and the spirit work together to exhort and sound doctrine. This is the job of all pastors and elders, and it could not be any more clear. They are to be, like Apollos, Acts 17, 24, mighty in the scriptures. And I want you to see this, so turn to Titus chapter 2. Might be on the same page that you're on right now. Titus chapter 2. So we've talked about what a pastor is supposed to do, but how is he supposed to do this? What is his manner? How is he to exhort and persuade? Is he supposed to do this wimply, hesitatingly, with a bunch of apologies and qualifications? No, verse 15, declare these things. Exhort, same word as verse nine, exhort and rebuke with all, what? authority. Let no one disregard you. Turn to 1st Timothy chapter 4, two books to the left. 1st Timothy chapter 4. This word exhort is used to describe the ministry of the apostles in the book of Acts. It's used over and over to describe Paul's ministry to the churches in his letters. And now I want you to drop down to 1st Timothy chapter 4. We're going to see this verse again in verse 13. And as you're going there, we heard an incredible message on this passage in Kyle's installation service. I highly recommend, if you have not watched that, to go on our website, our YouTube page, download our app and watch it. It was a masterful presentation of this passage. Anyway, what are pastors supposed to be obsessed with, devoted to, consumed with? Verse 13, until I come. Devote yourself. That is all in. This is the mandate of your ministry. Devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation. There's our word. To teaching. There it is. That is your ministry right there. Turn to 2 Timothy now. One book to the right. 2 Timothy. Go to chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4. Let's start in verse one. 2 Timothy 4.1, I charge you. I charge you, Timothy. Here's the apostle speaking to his ministry associate. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, whatever he says next is a pretty big deal. Can we all agree with that? I mean, he's piling on all of these reasons. I charge you, presence of God and Jesus is gonna judge you. Like, let me just put as much persuasion, let me put as much on top of you to let you know whatever I say next is a big deal and you better do it. What is it? Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. When people love to hear your teaching or when people hate to hear the teaching of the Bible, do it anyway. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort, there's our word, with complete patience and teaching. Now, Timothy, why do I want you to do that? Why should this happen? Verse three, because the time is coming when people will not endorse sound teaching. They're not gonna put up with it. It's gonna be too much for them. But having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. And as a result of that, they will turn away from listening to the truth. And as a result of that, they will wander off into myths, false teaching, error. Now, as I'm reading that, I'm seeing many of you nodding your head and going, that sounds a lot like today. Could it be that verses three and four describe our day to a T because pastors stopped doing verse two and stopped caring about verse one? A pastor who does not do this, an elder who does not persuade people through his explanation of the Bible to live according to the Bible is in serious trouble. When I was, 20 years ago, as I'm getting ready to do what I'm doing now and preparing and going to school, there was one verse that just kept coming to mind over and over and over again. Just dominated my thoughts as I was preparing for this. It's why I tried hard to get straight A's. It's why I deprived myself of sleep. It's why I stopped going out with my friends on the weekends, stayed home and studied Greek flashcards. Is this one verse, James 3, 1. Listen to what it says. Not many of you should become teachers. I was surrounded by classrooms full of people wanting to become teachers, and this says only few of you should become teachers. Why? James, Jesus' brother, says, for you know, you're convinced, you know this, that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. A church leader who's teaching anything other than the Bible, who bases much of his ministry on the fallible conclusions of man rather than the infallible truths of God's word, he will answer to God for that. Our teaching, our preaching, our talks, messages, sermons, whatever you want to call them, they must be persuasive explanations of the Bible that move non-Christians to repentance and faith and move Christians to deeper obedience and intimacy with their Lord. to tell stories, to be full of jokes, to edit the Bible with psychology or sociology, to substitute it for current events or supposed personal revelations is sin against what this passage mandates pastors to do. God gave his word to people, he expects pastors to give it to people. Like a good parrot, they're just simply to say what has already been said. They're not to be novel, they're not to be creative, they are to be faithful to the word passed down from generations in this book. And really inside their hearts, that's what they love to do. Nothing makes them happier, nothing gets them more excited than simply saying what God has already said. Now, why is this important for you? Because you live in a time when men call themselves pastors and elders and refuse to do this. Sound doctrine is boring. Persuasively explaining the Bible, that's just not effective for reaching people. You need to understand what pastors are supposed to do so that when you come across one in person or in print or on your newsfeed, that you have the discernment to know, like I said before, whether you should run to them or run from them. You need to know this so you can help people that you know and love who are being seduced by charlatans with the title of pastor, but who aren't even near meeting the criteria found in this passage. I got a call from a guy on the big island of Hawaii about a month ago. Just random phone call. He's watching our YouTube page and he's like, I need help. I'm like, oh, all right. He starts describing his church. He's an elder at the church. He's describing the things going on there. I'm like, yeah, you do need a new church. Absolutely. Why? Because it's not hard. You take what's going on, you compare it to the Bible and go, okay, you're good, or yeah, you should be patient, or no, you should go. And that was clear for him. So he was able to just take him and say, hey, I found you, I found you a church, go check it out. And he called me this week and he's like, hey, doing fine pastor, that was great, thank you very much. Well, listen, you can do that now too, with just one verse, Titus 1.9. And if someone's like, I'm caught in this, I put myself under this, I don't know what to do, you can just say, hey, does the ministry in your church look like Titus 1-9? Is this what you see happening from the men who are leading your church? If yes, then great, stay there. If not, this is what the Lord of the church demands from the leaders in the church. Now Hebrews 4-12 says the Bible is what, do you know? It's living, it's alive, it's active. And then it's compared to a sword, right? With both edges are sharp on this sword because it can be used in two ways. First, we just saw, Titus chapter one, verse nine, it cuts the truth to make it digestible and persuasive for God's people. And second, it's called a sword because it cuts air by attacking it and removing it far from God's people. So look at Titus one, nine again. With a man's uncompromising allegiance to the Bible, he is able, verse nine, to give instruction, to exhort, to encourage, to persuade people in sound doctrine, and also, to rebuke those who contradict that sound doctrine. Crete was infested with false teachers, as we'll see in the coming weeks, and Paul leaves Titus there to identify them, confront them, and get them out of the churches on that island. Titus wasn't gonna be everywhere, though, and he wasn't gonna stay there very long. So what he had to do is find men in those churches who could expose those false teachers and would have the guts to call them out. Notice how, what is the manner that church leaders are supposed to respond to those who make it a habit, a lifestyle of opposing God's word? Are we supposed to ignore them? Are we supposed to be nice to them? Are we supposed to try and live side by side with them? We are to what, verse nine? Let's say it all together, rebuke them. Oh, my American 21st century heart doesn't like that word though. Right? Expose them? Who am I? Speak out against them? call out their error, do it strongly, persuasively, and in no uncertain turns, that's what that word means. And that's where the uncompromising allegiance to the Bible comes in. Sure, everybody wants to be liked, everybody wants to, but these leaders, these elders, these pastors want something else more. They fear God and they want to protect his people from the wolves who are constantly stalking his sheep. So for the good of God's people, for the good of the people that God has graciously placed under the care of these pastors and elders, they must be, point number three, a courageous exposer. He must be a courageous exposer. His allegiance to the Bible means he can identify and expose what opposes it. Pastors must be able to fight. They must be able to see a problem, contradict it with the Bible, expose the error and help others see the error in light of the truth. His love for and allegiance to the Bible gives him the knowledge he needs to distinguish right from wrong, truth from error, good from evil. And on top of that, He doesn't just see the error, he has the courage to expose the error. I want you to see this, look at Titus 1.13. We're gonna see more of this next week. Again, look, how, in what way, in what manner is a pastor, an elder supposed to expose error? Verse 13, rebuke false teachers, how? Sharply, severely. That word means expose them, contradict them, bring conviction down on them rigorously and relentlessly until they are pushed off the intellectual and biblical cliff. Confrontation, Paul is saying, is the goal. If they change, that's icing on the cake. Because the elder, the pastor has no say, has no control over whether they change, but what they can control is what they say. And again, Should pastors do this like wimps, full of apology and a bunch of qualifications? Should they do this vaguely, weakly, unwillingly? Look at Titus 2.15 again. Declare these things. Pronounce them. Shout them from the rooftops. Exhort and rebuke. That's our word. Same word as verse 9. Rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. Pastors, church leaders need a healthy dose of courage in our day. To act on their discernment and expose false teaching doesn't always get applause outside of the church and really inside the church too. It is often attacked as unloving, unchristlike, and intolerant. So let's think about those three words for a minute. Listen, rebuking error is intolerant, but it is intolerant of ideas. It is very tolerant and kind to people to expose the truth. And in fact, people have no problem rebuking what they think is error. Just go on Twitter. You'll see it all over the place. So why should we have a problem with that? Yes, do it in love. Yes, do it with gentleness and respect. Yes, do it humbly, knowing that if it wasn't for God's grace, that would be you spewing out all of that heresy. But by all means, pastors have to do it. Do it so that 2 Timothy 2.25, quote, God may perhaps grant false teachers repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil who has captured them to do his will. Look, exposing and rebuking false teaching actually loves false teachers. It opens their eyes to the truth. At least it allows them to see the truth and maybe God will use that to grant them repentance and cause them to escape Satan's grip. And it actually loves all people who are following the siren song of false teaching right into hell. And it's un-Christ-like to expose and rebuke error? Really? I'm not sure what Bible people are reading when they say that, right? I mean, Jesus called his opponents, and I quote, hypocrites, blind fools, whitewashed tombs, children of hell, serpents, broods of vipers, and of your father, the devil. Right? Like, why did he do that? Because that's what they are. That's what they are. And the crowds listening to him needed to know that. His followers were following him for three years. They needed to know that. He loved the people in the crowds and his followers by exposing those false teachers. So when I take my son to school every day, I make him do some of his reading, and I make him go through some of his memory verses. And after he's done, if there's any time left, we watch Steve Irwin videos. Do you remember him, the croc hunter? Yeah, I loved that show back in the day. Here he was walking around the African plain or some jungle, and he's picking up deadly snakes, and he's wrestling 18-foot crocodiles. My son loves it, just loves that stuff. So he's walking around, right, with a cameraman. He doesn't have his own camera filming himself. There are cameramen following him around. And it's rare, but every once in a while, he says, hey, stop. You know, they're in danger. There's a snake right by their foot, and they didn't know it. He needs to let them know that so that he can protect them, right? Now, nobody watches the croc hunter in that moment and go, what a bigot. What a jerk, telling him he's in danger. Who does he think he is? Right? No, we go, isn't that so loving and so kind that he wouldn't let that guy get bitten by a deadly snake, but he warns him and tries to help him. But it's not loving and kind for pastors to do that when false teaching is putting God's people in danger. No one should ever be a pastor who cannot or will not tell people they're in danger by clearly and courageously exposing false teachers. Now, again, why do you need to know this? Because listen, you need this discernment. You need to be able to identify false teachers. Your commitment to the scriptures needs to give you the glasses, the grid, the discernment that you need, because truthfully, a false teacher's not gonna stand up right now and go, you're a heretic. That's not gonna happen. But you know where it's gonna happen? In your small group. It's gonna happen in your newsfeed. It's gonna happen at your dinner table. It's gonna happen when somebody gives you a book to read. You need the discernment to know whether or not I should read this, I should let this person influence me, or I should put this in the trash and warn other people about it. And you need to know this because we live in a day when pastors pride themselves on being positive, never being negative, or seldom is heard a discouraging word out of their mouths, and they consider all of that a badge of honor. Interesting, the only people they have no problem rebuking are faithful pastors who call false teachers out for being unbiblical. If that's the kind of preacher, teacher, author that's influencing you, listen, they're not fulfilling their duty. They're not meeting the criteria that Jesus gave them to measure themselves and their ministry by. That criteria, Titus 1.9, rebuke those who make it a habit of contradicting God's word. Rebuke them clearly, rebuke them forcibly, rebuke them courageously. That is what God wants pastoral ministry to look like. This is the right here, Titus 1-9. When you evaluate a ministry, when I evaluate this ministry, Titus 1-9 is one of the major verses that lets me know we're going in the right direction or we're not going in the right direction. And listen, you should expect to see Titus 1-9 from every pastor you put yourself under. In the end, pastors, elders must be explainers and exposers. If we're going to summarize pastoral ministry, that is it. Explain the truth, expose error. And they won't do either. They won't do either one well unless they love and are loyal to the Bible. For those of you who want to be pastors, this is taking the imagery of Nehemiah 4.17 and applying it to this passage to our lives and saying, we must have a shovel in one hand to work and we must have a sword in the other hand to fight. A passage like this is convicting. It's convicting for pastors to teach through, especially, I mean, I could have done this all in one, you know, I could have done it all in one message, you know, and buzzed through this, and it wouldn't have had the exposing, the convicting work that God's Word is supposed to do on all of our lives, including the pastors. It's forced me to ask myself hard questions each week as the text is examining my life and ministry. So to conclude, I want you to know my commitment to you now, and it has been for the past four plus years, is this, only men who meet the criteria of Titus 1, 6-9, the parallel passage in 1 Timothy 3, will ever lead here at Redeemer. Their exemplary lives and their trusted teachings are non-negotiable. They are not to be overlooked. They are not to be explained away. They are commands from the King. How do you see that? How many times is the word must repeated in this passage? Four times. I can assure you to the best of my knowledge that the men who are elders now meet these criteria. I can assure you that the elder candidates are being examined according to these criteria. All of us are happy to be judged by these criteria and we know that if we are any of these things in verses six to nine, it is only by God's grace and by his power that we are these things. But listen, if I ever stop being able to match my life to this passage, listen to me, I will step down because nobody is above this passage. Nobody is allowed to push it aside. Nobody is allowed to explain it away. because these criteria are not man-made. They are part of God's pure, true, reliable, worthy-to-be-trusted word, and it must be seen in our lives. It must be submitted to no matter what. Now, may the church in America get back to demanding these criteria from their leaders. And may this church always be led by men who meet these criteria, who are examples in their lives and in their uncompromising allegiance to God's word. Let's pray.