Sermon: What A Bishop Must Be - Part 4 (Titus 1:5-14)

What A Bishop Must Be – Pt. 4
Sunday, August 24^th, 2025
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Titus 1:5-14

Prayer

Father, we thank You for Your Son, who is true man and true God, the way, the truth, and the life eternal. Grant us now to value Truth more than all the fleeting and deceitful riches of this world, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

For the last three weeks we have been answering the question, “What are the qualifications to be a bishop?”

• Recall that the word bishop means to oversee, or to supervise, and it is the work of elders/presbyters to oversee the lives and teaching of God’s people.
• Thus far we have studied 15 moral qualities thata bishop must possess, and this morning we come to the 16^th and final quality, which is unique in that while being a character trait, it is also a matter of skill, competency, and action.
• We find this 16^th qualification in verse 9 of our text which says, Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
  • Now I need to flag for you that this 16^th qualification is what distinguishes within the eldership, what we call Teaching Elders/Pastors from Ruling Elders/Governors.
  • In classic Presbyterianism, Teaching Elders/Ministers of the Word must meet a much higher standard for understanding and teaching doctrine, and they must be examined and ordained by the regional Presbytery. Ruling Elders/Governors on the other hand are elected and installed by the local congregation, and because they are not called to regular preaching duties, it is not expected that they need to know Greek, Hebrew, Systematics, Church History and the like. It is certainly a bonus if they have these things, but they are not essential to their official duties of ruling.
  • I’ll spare you the details of this important distinction, but I want to flag it here because this is the one qualification that does not strictly speaking apply to everyone in the church. The moral aspect of holding fast to the faithful word applies universally, but the skill and action to exhort and convince gainsayers (to argue with and refute heretics) applies only to a Pastor/Teaching Elder.
• And so with that caveat in mind, let us consider this 16^th qualification according to three different questions:

Outline

1. What is this moral quality of holding fast to the faithful word?
2. What actions/duties result from this moral quality?
3. Why is this quality essential for a Pastor to possess?

Q#1 – What is this moral quality of holding fast to the faithful word?

• This Greek verb that we translate as holding fast is ἀντέχω, and it can signify loyalty, devotion, or clinging to someone in love.
  • Jesus uses this same verb in Matthew 6:24 when he says, No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold (ἀντέχω) to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
  • It says likewise in the Greek version of Proverbs 3:18, speaking of wisdom, She is a tree of life to them that lay hold (ἀντέχω) upon her: And happy is every one that retaineth her.
• So to hold fast to the faithful word, is to cling to Christ’s teaching from love. It is to join your soul in marriage to God’s infinite wisdom and goodness, and to hate/shun/despise anyone or anything that tries to separate you from it. This is what it means to hold fast to the faithful word.
  • This firmness of mind/resolve stands in contrast to the person who wavers in their faith. James 1:5-8 speaks of this person saying, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. And then later in James 4:7-10 he calls that wavering person to repentance saying, Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
• So this quality of holding fast is to have firmness of faith. It is to be constant and reliable in a world that is in flux. Moreover, the object of your faith is not your own opinion or any opinion of man, but rather God’s unchangeable goodness, love, and generosity, and because God is always good and always liberal, you constantly ask him for heavenly wisdom. And he is happy to give it to the one has a single-minded faith.
  • Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:15, that the church of the living God [is] the pillar and ground of the truth.
  • In Galatians 2:9 he identifies James, Peter, and John as pillars in the church.
  • And Jesus says to the pastor of Philadelphia in Revelation 3:11-12, Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God.
• So in the spiritual architecture of the church, bishops are to be as pillars firmly proclaiming and upholding the everlasting gospel of grace. And so if a man is unstable/wobbly, if he is easily blown about by every new opinion and wind of doctrine, he cannot be a bishop. He cannot even be a good Christian if he is constantly changing and altering his beliefs.
  • This means that a candidate for eldership should have a long track record of faithfulness, not a history of rapid and erratic shifts. It is a temptation for young people especially to get really excited about something (even good things) but then lose interest when the next trend hits. For like the Athenians in Acts 17 they, spend their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
    • Our 10 second attention span, and the ubiquity of social media is not helping us acquire the virtue of constancy. Instead, we are being habituated to have wandering and easily distracted minds. It is a great hindrance to bearing the fruit of the holy spirit, to constantly uproot yourself in search of better soil.
    • There is certainly a time and place to replant, our lay a new foundation, to repent, if your previous station in life was diseased, but at some point you need to put roots down into God, alongside His people, and stay there. This is a virtue that we do not prize or pursue enough, and our economy and cultural winds continue to war against this.
  • So what God wants for you, is that you forsake whatever is getting in the way of you holding fast to His faithful word.
    • You need to ask yourself, What has my attention? Because wherever your attention is fixed, that is what you are actually holding fast to. So are you holding fast to God? Or like a wandering bird are you flitting from one pretty thing to the next?
    • It says in Jeremiah 6:16, Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.
    • And so the exhortation to anyone who is tempted to forsake the old paths (the faith once received and handed down from the apostles), is to slow down, get advice from the people who you know to be stable pillars, who have lived out that “long obedience in the same direction.” For it is the mark of a fool to be constantly changing one’s mind, and it is a deadly vice when it comes to matters of the Christian faith.
    • A bishop on the other hand must be firm. Now how this firmness come about?
• Notice that Paul says in verse 9, that a bishop must hold fast to the faithful word, as he hath been taught. That is to say, firmness comes from having good and firm teachers.
  • This means a bishop is not a self-taught or self-ordained man. He knows what it is to be a student, a learner, a man under authority. The great danger of being a self-taught person, is that you don’t know what you don’t know. You have blind spots that you don’t even know about, and that is disastrous when it comes to caring for other people’s souls.
  • It says in Ecclesiastes 12:11, The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.
  • Meaning, a bishop needs to have felt the loving blows of a teacher’s hammer. His head should have received the oil of rebuke and not refused it, and because of those corrections that a good teacher gives, he has stories, he has scars, but scars that have well healed. He remembers the wise nails, the hard lessons, that were driven into him, and they keep him from wandering into folly later in life.
• The Bible is a difficult and dangerous book to interpret. It says 2 Peter 3:16, of Paul’s letters that there are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
  • Many people have shipwrecked their own lives and the lives of others by handling this book imprudently. And therefore, a bishop needs to have undergone rigorous training. That training then needs to be tested and proven, and even then he must as Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:15, Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
  • If Timothy was taught the Scriptures from infancy by his mother and grandmother, and then was personally mentored and trained by the Apostle Paul, and yet still he needed ongoing study in the Word to rightly teach it, how much more do we today?
  • This is the biblical reason, necessity, and justification for good Bible colleges, rigorous seminaries, and academic institutions that are connected to and in service of the church. Because as the seminaries go, so goes the church. When the seminaries go left, the pulpits go left, and we have watched this play out in America for the last 300 years.
    • Jesus says in Luke 6:40, A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.
• So what kind of teachers and training should a pastor have?
  • Well consider by comparison the time and the training we expect of our medical students, our nurses, doctors, and surgeons. And then ask yourself, what is more important, the soul or the body?
  • If a doctor must dedicate at least 10 years of his life to reading, classes, residency, exams and practice, is it too much if we ask just a few years of our men to become learned in the Scriptures?
  • If Jesus trained the 12 apostles by a constant and intensive 3-year apprenticeship, how many hours of training should we expect a pastor to have? At least that, unless we think ourselves better teachers than Christ.
• It is no small thing to rightly divide the word, and yet the American church with its itching ears has hired for itself many flatterers, many peddlers of God’s Word who will affirm them in their sins, and they love to have it so.
• This was the case on the Island of Crete, and Paul’s answer to that doctrinal disease was not the lowering of standards for elders, but the calling of Christian men to a high moral standard. We need that same kind of return to God’s Word if we want reformation and revival in our day!

Q#2 – What actions/duties result from this moral quality of holding fast?

• There are two actions Paul commends in verse 9, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
• The teaching ministry of the church revolves around two harmonious actions:
  • 1. Exhortation in what is true and right.
  • 2. Refutation of what is false and evil.
    • By exhortation is meant instruction, encouragement, and urging people to live holy for Jesus.
    • By convincing the gainsayers is meant exposing errors, arguing against false doctrine, rebuking evil living, and as Paul says in verse 13, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.
    • He adds later in Titus 3:9-11 some guidelines for doing this when he says, But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless. Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.
    • And so a bishop is to put on the whole armor of God, he is to fight the good fight of faith, and as it says in 2 Corinthians 10:5, Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
• It is only by sound doctrine that the body of Christ can become sound in the faith. And the primary means of God making the church healthy is by this twofold action of the preacher’s voice: Exhortation and Refutation. Or as Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:2, Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and doctrine.
  • So that’s the pastor’s primary job and vocation. It is to fight against wolves and to feed the sheep. Exhort in what is true. Refute what is false.
• What should this diet of Exhortation and Refutation produce in those who hear?
• It should produce what Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
  • How is your inward man renewed day by day even as your body is dying? Your inward man is your spirit, your mind, which can either look at and focus temporal/earthly things (which then drag it down), or it can be raised up to gaze upon eternal/spiritual things (which give us joy and hope).
  • What good preaching does is present to your mind the true nature of God, the true salvation found in Jesus, heaven, hell, judgment, glory. And then as you abandon your false opinions, your errors, your worldly affections, and as Paul says in Colossians 3:2, Set your affection on things above, then your inward man is renewed day by day. You become ever young as you participate in God’s eternal life.
    • Proverbs 4:18 describes this transformation saying, The path of the just is as the shining light, That shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
    • And in Proverbs 24:15 it says, The way of life is above to the wise, That he may depart from hell beneath.
• The more falsehoods and lies you forsake, and the more truth you love and embrace, the more you will experience the joy indestructible that Jesus wants to give you.
  • So the preacher has his job, and you have yours. So are you attending closely to the Word that is preached?

Q#3 – Why is this quality essential for a bishop to possess?

• Already we have seen that the health of the church is at stake. And in verses 10-11 Paul elaborates on why this need for good pastors is so urgent.
  •  ¹⁰For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: ¹¹Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.
• Next week we will have a whole sermon dedicated to false teachers, but for now just observe that what hangs in the balance are entire households, families, church members, who have been seduced away from the simplicity that is in Christ (2 Cor 11:3).
  • Paul warns of such deceivers in 2 Timothy 3:6-7 saying, For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
  • And he says to the Galatians, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth…Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
• It is the ancient scheme of the devil, and the persistent ploy of false teachers today, to divert your attention and devotion away from God, by stirring up and appealing to your earthly desires.
  • In fact, this is one of the best ways to discern between a true teacher and a false teacher, by considering what their teaching makes you desire. This is how advertising works.
    • A person who is filled with the Holy Spirit loves spiritual things, truth, heaven, God, Christ, the glorified saints. Things you can only see and love by faith.
    • Whereas, the person filled with the spirit of the age, loves only what it can see, touch, and feel. They promise freedom but they enslave. They promise forgiveness, but offer no relief or assurance of pardon. They entice and seduce only to oppress and corrupt. This is the false salvation that false gods deliver.
    • And this is why a bishop must have certainty in sound doctrine, fullness of understanding of what God has revealed, so that he can rescue these households from the lies and seduction of the world.

Conclusion

• In Psalm 16 we have a wonderful illustration of how David the Pastor/Shepherd, exhorts in the truth, while clearing away error.
• He says in Psalm 16:4, Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god; Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, Nor take up their names on my lips. By this David identifies and warns us of false gods and false worship. As Paul says in Romans 16:17, he marks them and avoids them. But he does not stop there in rejecting such errors, he goes on in verses 5-6 to publish and exhort us in the truth saying, O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Yes, I have a good inheritance.
• David tells us the truth of where human happiness is actually found. He says it is in God (earlier in vs. 2 he says, I have no good apart from You.) But because David is a good teacher, and he knows that we struggle to love things that we cannot see, he uses this image and metaphor of a great inheritance, a large estate, a grand house, with property lines that have fallen in pleasant places. We would say today, he shows us the best house and in the best neighborhood with the best view.
• And then having placed that earthly desire before our mind, he then draws our attention upward and says, God is that place. Heaven is where every saint has a waterfront view of God’s glory, and his neighbors are the excellent ones, holy saints in whom God delights.
• This is the truth, and the promise, and the hope Jesus died on the cross to purchase for us. And so make God (in whom the life of your soul consists) your singular desire and pursuit. Or as Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God, and everything else shall be added unto you. May God grant you this desire, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.