The Local Christendom Podcast with Aaron Ventura

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

What A Bishop Must Be – Pt. 4Sunday, August 24th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WATitus 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 16th 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 16th 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 16th 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 16th qualification according to three different questions:
Outline
What is this moral quality of holding fast to the faithful word?
What actions/duties result from this moral quality?
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.

Sermon: What A Bishop Must Be - Part 3 (Titus 1:5-9)

What A Bishop Must Be – Pt. 3Sunday, August17th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WATitus 1:5-9
Prayer
Father, we thank you for the power of Your word, which is as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Please cleanse us, please renew our purity and chastity as saints, so that we may become as holy temples wherein you walk and dwell forever. Grant us Your Holy Spirit now, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
For the last two weeks we have been studying this long list of qualifications to be a bishop. Recall that the title of elder/presbyter refers to a man’s spiritual age and maturity, and the title of bishop/overseer refers to his work of keeping watch over God’s flock.
The Apostle Paul had left his co-worker Titus on the beautiful island of Crete to, “set in order the things that are wanting.” And we discover that what was wanting/lacking in Crete was a distinctly presbyterian form of church government.
What is presbyterian church government? It the government of the church by a plurality of qualified presbyters of equal rank. This is the universal apostolic pattern in the New Testament, and it was Titus’s job to examine and appoint such men for this work in the many cities of Crete.
Now thus far we have looked at 9 of these 16 qualifications that Paul sets down for us. And this morning we are going to almost complete that list by looking at the six remaining moral qualifications. And then Lord Willing next week we’ll look at the 16th and final qualification which is a matter of skill and competency to teach sound doctrine and refute error.
Now before we study these 6 moral qualities, I want to remind you of two important truths:
1. The standard for elders in the church is also a universal moral standard for all Christians. And so while this list of 16 things is most applicable, relevant, and binding for those called to the ministry, it is still a high moral example that all of us should be aspiring towards. To put it another way, no Christian can say to himself, “well I am not a pastor, so I don’t have to live as holy as the pastor does.”
No, the charge that Paul gives to all the saints in the church is, Follow me as I follow Christ (1 Cor 11:1), And Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow/imitate, considering the outcome of their conduct (Heb 13:7).
So while most of us are not called to become elders or deacons, and James 3:1 says not many should become teachers my brethren, for we shall be judged with a stricter judgment, still these moral qualities that Paul sets down here should be what we all aspire to. So your work in hearing these sermons on “What A Bishop Must Be,” should be to examine your own life with an eye to how you may grow in godliness.
2. Remember that God never calls us to be or become something, without also giving us the grace to obey Him. So while this high moral standard applies to everyone according to their unique age, sex, and station in life, this list is not the basis for our right standing with God, but it is rather the fruit, the effect, and the necessary consequence, of God making us righteous in His Son.
This is because when God justifies you (He declares you righteous for Christ’s sake), He not only forgives and forgets all of your past sins, not counting them against you, but He also gives more grace.
The God who justifies you graciously, is the same God who sanctifies you graciously. And so all of our hard work and labor to become more holy, to repent of our vices and embrace virtue is still all a work of God’s grace. Furthermore, it is only by grace that you can become this.
Paul describes this divine-human cooperation in Philippians 2:12-13 saying, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
So we must resist the temptation to make our progress in grace the ultimate cause and basis for which God loves us, instead of it being the joyful effect and fruit of God’s unchangeable love working within us.
God says in Jeremiah 31:3, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. And in Malachi 3:6, I am the LORD, I change not.
So nothing you do can change the character and essence of God. He is Himself love essentially. God is love invincible. Your sins cannot harm him or change the love that He has for you. What your sins do is harm you, and make you feel distant from God’s love when in reality His love has not gone anywhere. And yet even that distance from Him that He sometimes allows you to feel, is how God woos you back to Himself.
Like the father of the prodigal son, God knows that we sometimes need to taste the pig slop before we return home in repentance. But did the father’s love ever change for his son? No. His heart was always ready to welcome him back.
It says in Romans 5:8, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And in Romans 8:39, that for those who are predestined, nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This means that however great your sins may be, however disordered or dysfunctional your present life is, God has a plan that is only good for you, and Christ is the fountain of grace that never dries up.
So as you examine your own faults and shortcomings, do not forget the gospel of free grace, the good news of God’s unchangeable love, for this is the source and power from which we renew our strength to live and die for Jesus.
So with that in mind, let us consider now these 6 remaining moral qualities that a bishop must be. In verse 7 Paul gave us 5 things a bishop must not be, not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; and then he sets this in contrast to verse 8 where he says,But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate.
#1 – A bishop must be a lover of hospitality (ἀλλὰ φιλόξενον)
In Greek this is just one word, φιλόξενον, which refers to a love (philo) for strangers (xenon), or a love for people that are foreign to or different from one another. It is also interesting that in the history of this word, xenos can refer either to the host or to the guest. That is to say, being hospitable (loving the foreigner) is not just the role of the host but also includes being a good guest.
So hospitality is not merely the action of feeding someone or welcoming them into your home (though that is often a big part of it), but it is more importantly a steadydisposition, or a ready eagerness to open your heart and life to others.
I should also note that while we tend to think of hospitality as a more feminine virtue, since our wives are often the ones cooking and cleaning and making things homely, notice that it is the man’s job as head of his household to take the lead by acquiring this hospitable disposition, even if his wife carries out some of the actions. See Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 18 for a good example of this.
Paul describes what this hospitable state of mind looks like in 2 Corinthians 6:11-13, O Corinthians! We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. Now in return for the same (I speak as to children), you also be open.
Paul yearns for the Corinthians to be open-hearted even as he has been open-hearted towards them.
He says likewise in 1 Thessalonians 2:8, So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us.
So Paul has modeled for the Corinthians and the Thessalonians, what hospitality ought to look like, even as an unmarried man, without a home, and without a bunch of extra material resources to share. What Paul had was an abundance of love and truth and a ready eagerness to share that love and truth with everyone. Moreover, since Paul was a traveling missionary, he was often the guest living and staying in other people’s homes.
So the essential mark of a hospitable person, is that it brings them joy to share with others the things that are most valuable. The things that are most life-giving. Food and drink are just the material means to that spiritual end. And the Lord Jesus illustrates this for us by his teaching the five thousand and then feeding the five thousand. One exists for the sake of the other.
It says in Proverbs 11:25, The generous soul will be made rich, And he who waters will also be watered himself.
And in Isaiah 32:8 it says, But a generous man devises generous things, And by generosity he shall stand.
So the hospitable soul knows by experience that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Now God knows that when we try love people who are different from us, it can get awkward, it can be uncomfortable, and that can go both directions (for both hosts and guests).
If you have ever traveled abroad, and been served food that you did not recognize, you know how nerve-racking it can be to eat the fish-eye ball soup, or the cow’s tongue. What might be an expensive delicacy and an honor to serve in one culture may be anathema in the next. And so part of being hospitable is learning to just roll with things as they come, and to not take yourself too seriously.
When we remember what the whole point of hospitality is: to simply love someone for God’s sake, then we can relax a bit. We can adjust our expectations so that we aren’t offended by someone’s difference in manners, while also doing our best to give offense.
It says in 1 Peter 4:9, Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.
And in Romans 12:8, show mercy with cheerfulness.
God loves a cheerful giver, and that includes the cheerful giving and sharing of our own food, table, and lives.
Remember that the goal in all of this is to bring people to God’s table. To establish fellowship in the light between God and our guests. This is what it means to be lover of hospitality.
#2 – A bishop must be a lover of good men (φιλάγαθον)
Again, in Greek this is just one word, φιλάγαθον, and most translations put it more broadly as simply a lover of what is good.
The idea is that a bishop must love what God loves and hate what God hates. He has tasted and seen that the Lord is good, and he wants that good for himself and his people.
To be a lover of good men is to say with David in Psalm 16:3, As for the saints who are on the earth, They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. And in Psalm 68:36, God is wondrous in His saints, the God of Israel shall give power and strength unto His people.
When a bishop obeys Romans 12:9, which says, Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Then he can say with the Apostle about his own church what Paul says to the Thessalonians, For ye are our glory and joy (1 Thess 2:20).
To be a lover of what is good is to delight in the fruit of the spirit that grows from a regenerated heart. And this love for what is good is most necessary in a bishop, because a bishop like a good gardener must know when to prune and when to nourish, when to call someone to humble themselves and when to encourage another that is downcast.
Only a man who loves what God loves can be entrusted with the pruning knife. And so this quality a bishop must possess and ever seek to grow in.
#3 – A bishop must be sober (σώφρονα)
Or of sound mind. Other translations of this Greek word σώφρονα, are discreet, or of sound judgment, prudent, and thoughtful. The idea is that the sober person has mastery (self-control) over what he thinks about and gives his attention to.
This quality is repeated in Titus 2:2 and Titus 2:5 in the lists of what an older man must be, and also what a younger woman must be. So this is a quality for everyone and of utmost importance to Paul, perhaps because the Cretan culture especially lacked it. Remember Titus 1:12 says, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
So Christian men, Christian women, and a Bishop especially must be of sober judgment, controlled in their thought life.
This means you are guarding the entrances of your mind. It says in Psalm 101:3-4, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. A perverse heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person. And it says in Proverbs 2:10-12, When wisdom enters your heart, And knowledge is pleasant to your soul, Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you, To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things.
It is not easy to keep yourself unstained from this world, this evil and adulterous generation. The world is corrupt in its desires and revels in its corruption, and the tentacles of sin are always trying to drag us down to hell.
Therefore, the Christian must always be on guard, constant in his watchfulness, and diligent to acquire what Philippians 4:7 describes, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. [and then how does that guarding of our peace in Christ take place? verse 8] Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
Are you doing this? If not, you are drinking the cup of worldliness, you are imbibing the spirit of the age which is insobriety and perversion.
The discreet and sober Christian wants to live in the light and stay in the light. For as it says in Ephesians 5:10-12, find out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.
The sober man, and the sober bishop exposes the darkness to the light. And therefore, as Jesus says in Matthew 6:23, But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
The light of the eye is the mind. And therefore, a bishop’s eye must be ever illumined by the light that is Christ. This is how we can become sober and discreet.
#4 – A bishop must be just (δίκαιον)
While sobriety refers to the mind’s ability to know and discern what is right in particular circumstances (we call this the virtue of prudence), justice refers to our ability and desire to carry it out.
So how do you know if you are just person?
The person who has the virtue of justice, finds joy in giving to others what is due to them.
For example, a husband who delights to love, provide for, and cherish his wife, is fulfilling the justice of the marriage relationship. A wife who delights to honor, respect, and reverence her husband, is fulfilling the justice of God’s law for marriage.
Children who cheerfully obey their parents, are fulfilling the justice of the Parent-Child relationship.
Civil magistrates who punish evildoers with the sword and praise the righteous, who are impartial in their verdicts and do not take a bribe, are fulfilling the justice of the law.
Paul says in Romans 13:7-8, Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour. Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
So a bishop must be a just man in his marriage, in his parenting, in his business and civil relations. And when he has acquired this virtue of justice, together with the virtue of prudence, he is equipped to govern the church for the good and health of the whole body.
One of the essential aspects of doing justice in the church, is knowing how best to apportion limited time, energy, and resources, such that the whole church is benefitted.
We see this principle of justice at work in the book of Acts when office of Deacon is established. The Apostles say in Acts 6:2-4, It is not reason/fitting that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.
So the Apostles recognized that it was unjust for the Greek widows to be neglected in the daily distribution. And yet they knew that it would be more unjust to stop praying and preaching to serve tables. Therefore, from justice, they appoint wise deacons to see that justice is done for the widows, while they attend to seeing that justice is done for the broader church.
So a bishop has to factor in and weigh all these diverse and competing needs with the goal of being equitable.Equity requires that we prioritize, distinguish, and discern what God says is due to each member in the church, while ordering all those individual and private needs to the good and public wellbeing of the whole.
For example, with 4 elders, and 40 member households, we are trying to schedule elder visits to everyone twice a year. Is that possible? Is that sustainable? We don’t know yet, but it brings us joy to visit you, and we want to visit everyone insofar as it serves the good of the whole body. If our elder visits started to prevent us or get in the way of prayer and preaching and worship and other duties, we have to re-evaluate. This is the hard work of justice, and a bishop especially must have this virtue.
#5 – A bishop must be holy (ὅσιον)
Now there are a few different Hebrew and Greek words that we translate into English as holy. The most common Greek word for holy is ἅγιος, which refers to being dedicated/set apart by God for His use. We sometimes call this sanctification, or as it says in 1 Peter 1:16, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
However, while a bishop must and should be ἅγιος, the word that Paul uses here is ὅσιον which could be better translated as devout, or pious. We might say that to be ὅσιον/holy in this sense refers to a man’s wholehearted dedication to God, or his piety in giving to God what is God’s due.
Taken in this sense, a bishop must have a singular devotion to Christ. Paul says in 1 Timothy 4, Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine…Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all (1 Tim 4:13, 15).
A man should be devout long before he becomes a bishop or an elder. This is because someone can appear devoted to God and seem zealous for a season, but the mark of true devotion is that the flame of charity increases in intensity as the years go by.
The devout person considers it a great joy and privilege to pray. It is a delight and not merely a duty. Moreover, the devout person yearns for the solitude and quiet of communion with God, and yet joyfully attends to the business of life by bringing with him that spirit of prayer.
It says in Proverbs 28:14, Happy is the man who is always reverent. And it is this happiness of revering God that the pious soul knows well. A bishop therefore must be devout.
#6 – A bishop must be temperate (ἐγκρατῆ)
Temperance is the virtue that governs and moderates our desire for what makes us feel good. The temperate person finds and keeps the balance between excess and deficiency, especially in matters of the physical appetites (food, drink, sex, and the like).
Paul describes this virtue in athletic terms in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
So temperance can look like John the Baptist, who wore camel’s hair and ate locusts and wild honey. But temperance can also look like Jesus Christ, who came eating and drinking, and turned water into wine.
Jesus says in Matthew 11:18-19, For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.
So the virtue of temperance is judged by what it produces. John’s temperance produced boldness and humility to call the whole nation of Jews to repentance, to be a voice in the wilderness preparing the way for the Lord and making his paths straight.
What about Jesus’ temperance? What did that produce? Jesus feasted and drank with sinners and tax collectors, with men like Zachaeus, and with women who were prostitutes, or demon possessed. But then those men became former sinners and former tax collectors. Matthew the tax-collector became an apostle and author of the first gospel. Some of the women like Mary Magdalene became disciples of Jesus who ministered to him of their substance (Luke 8:2) and became witnesses of the resurrection.
Both the temperance of John and the temperance of Jesus’ were for the sake of our salvation. And therefore, a bishop just like every other Christian, should strive for mastery. He should run the race set before him, seeking to obtain the prize.
Christ was temperate for us, and so we should be temperate for Christ.And by God’s grace we all shall obtain the prize. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: What A Bishop Must Be - Part 2 (Titus 1:5-9)

What A Bishop Must Be – Pt. 2Sunday, August 10th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WATitus 1:5-9
Prayer
Father, we thank you for your Son Christ Jesus, our Chief Shepherd and the Supreme Bishop of our souls. Thank you for the example of Christ, through which we are taught how to pattern our own lives, so that we may arrive safely into the harbor of your heavenly kingdom. Help us now by your Holy Spirit, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
Last week we began our study of what a man must be if he desires the work of a bishop. Recall that the word bishop (ἐπίσκοπος) means literally to oversee, or to look out from above, andit is the duty of the presbyters/elders of the church to keep watch over God’s house, not as owners or lords of God’s heritage, but as stewards who set a good example for the flock (1 Pet 5:3).
Paul describes what this spiritual authority ought to look like in 2 Corinthians 1:24, Not that we have dominion over your faith, but we are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand.
He says likewise in Hebrews 13:7, 17, Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end [outcome] of their conversation…for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
Notice that the relationship between the elders and the congregation, between shepherds and sheep, ought to be marked by joy. Our ministry to you should be a kind of cooperative effort to help you find your joy in God.
Now ask yourself, what gets in the way of you finding your supreme joy in God? There are many temptations in this world, many counterfeit joys and attractions. There are also many trials and difficulties that assault us. And what all these diverse attacks upon your joy reduce to are two basic obstacles. There are: 1) your sins that kill your joy, and there are 2) your sufferings that obscure it. Shame and Pain. Guilt and Infirmity, these are the most common hindrances to us finding our joy in God.
Therefore, our words to you should be most frequently calling you to repent of your individual particular sins, and then also comforting you with the blessed hope of God’s promises, the hope of eternal life.
If your soul is never afflicted with conviction for your sins, either you, or us, or both of us, are doing something wrong. Our job is to speak the truth of God’s word to you from love, and your job is to receive that word of truth with faith and obey it. It is not much more complicated than that.
Paul says, we are workers (co-laborers) with you for your joy, and it is only by faith in Christ that you stand.
So what is our ambition and aspiration as elders, as bishops? It is to be able to say to you with a clean conscience, what Paul says to the Corinthians, Follow me, as I follow Christ. Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ (1 Cor 11:1). And furthermore, woe to us, if we become as the scribes and Pharisees, of whom Jesus says in Matthew 23:3, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.
So unlike the scribes and Pharisees who were hypocrites, we want our living to be in harmony with our speaking. Preaching is hard, but preaching is actually really easy compared to living up to what we preach. And therefore, we want to have high standards for ourselves, high standards for you, but that high standard must God’s standard, and we find that standard here in our sermon text.
Context
Now this morning as we focus our attention on verse 7, remember the context of this letter.
Paul has left Titus in Crete to, “set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city.” And he has set down 16 distinct qualifications by which every Christian ought to judge and examine himself or herself, and which Titus is to use a rubric/ questionnaire as he searches for qualified presbyters.
The basic principle of church government is that if a man cannot govern his own passions and desires, and if a man cannot rule his own household well, then he is not qualified to rule and govern in Christ’s church.
And so we find in this list of 16 qualifications, what is really the whole theme of this letter, and that is, the marriage of sound doctrine with good living. Or as Paul will summarize a few verses later in Titus 1:15, To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.
And so what Paul wants for these Cretan Christians, is that they have both purity of doctrine and purity of life. And therefore, the only men who are qualified to lead the church, are those who have been examined and tested for their purity of doctrine and purity of life.
Last week we considered the first four of these qualifications for a what bishop must be, and this morning we are going to look at five things that a bishop must not be.
So let me read again verses 6 and 7 for us.
6If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. 7For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; [and then we get the five things a bishop must not be] not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre…
#1 – A bishop must not be selfwilled (μὴ αὐθάδη)
To be self-willed means to be stubborn, headstrong, brash, or arrogant. The self-willed man values his own opinion more than anyone else’s, including God, and therefore like the sluggard of Proverbs 26:16, he is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can answer sensibly.
The self-willed man always insists on doing things his way. He is unreasonable, he is not teachable, he is a law unto himself.
When these kinds of men get into positions of authority (and it is sad how frequently they do), they become bullies and petty tyrants. The self-willed man has a distorted sense of proportion, and because of this, everything little thing becomes a hill to die on. He treats everyone else as if its “either my way or the highway.”
The Bible likens the self-willed man to someone that is drunk on his own ego. Paul says in Romans 12:3-5, For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
So a bishop cannot be a self-willed man, because it is essential to the pastoral office, and to basic Christian living, that we consider others as more important than ourselves. And this is hard to do!
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:23, Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.
A self-willed person is blind to the needs of others, because all he ever cares and thinks about is what he needs and what he wants. He does not regard himself as one member and a part of the whole, but as wholly sufficient in himself. And this is exactly contrary to the spirit of Christ, which is the spirit of charity and unity.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:4-5, charity does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not have behave rudely, does not seek its own.
So in contrast to the self-willed man, a bishop must be good-willed. That is to say, a bishop wills the good that is God for himself and his people. He is most concerned with what God’s will is for the church, and he is zealous to study and search out that will in the Scriptures and in prayer, so that he mighy say with the Lord Jesus, not my will, but Yours be done.
Further, the good-willed bishop is not intimidated or threatened by people who are smarter than he is, or more talented than he is, or even more godly than he is. Indeed, the good-willed bishop wishes he was the least saintly in all the church, and he rejoices to be surrounded by holy creatures. A good-willed bishop says with the Apostle John in 3 John 4, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
So just as godly parents desire and delight in their children far surpassing them in virtue, so also the goodwilled bishop desires that his spiritual offspring (his disciples) far surpass him in virtue and praise before God.
Another important aspect of being goodwilled rather than selfwilled, is that a man of goodwill seeks out and pursues other wise counselors.
It says in Proverbs 1:5, A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; And a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels.
Likewise in Proverbs 20:18 it says, Every purpose is established by counsel: And with good advice make war.
It is a foolish king who wages war without counsel, and how much more foolish for those who wage holy war against the spiritual forces of darkness and sin?
It says in Proverbs 24:6, For by wise counsel you will wage your own war, And in a multitude of counselors there is safety.
This safety in a multitude of wise counselors is another reason why God has ordained that the church by governed not by any one man, but by a plurality of qualified men of equal rank. This is the beauty of good presbyterian government, when we have a multitude of wise counselors with which we may consult. Meanwhile, the self-willed man thinks he can do it all on his own. And this a bishop must not be!
#2 – A bishop must not be soon angry (μὴ ὀργίλον)
Other translations say he must not be quick-tempered, or irascible, given to wrath.
The reasons for this are quite obvious. It says in James 1:20, For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. And in 1 Corinthians 13, the first quality of love/charity is that it is patient and long suffering.
Paul says that the preachers of the gospel are ambassadors and representatives of Christ. And when we look at Christ, when we study God’s character, we discover that He is exceedingly patient with us, gentle in his correction, and that when his wrath and punishment is poured out in this life, it is always for our healing and correction. Even God’s anger is as coming from His love.
It says in Psalm 86:15, But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, Longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
Likewise in Psalm 103:8 it says, The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
So a bishop and pastor as God’s ambassador must be patient like God is patient. A man who is easily angered is a man who lacks love. And to be a Christian that is easily angered by the sins of others, is really to be blind and ignorant of just how far you daily fall short of the glory of God.
Jesus says in Matthew 7:3-4, And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?
And Paul says in Galatians 6:1, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
So if you struggle with bitterness, resentment, and anger issues, the place you must go is to the cross of Christ. Look in the mirror and then look at the cross. Look in the mirror and behold your wretchedness. Acknowledge to God the grossness of your sins, your ingratitude, your whining, your blame shifting, your bad attitude, your lack of love, your lack of patience, your lack of all that God commands that you be.
As it says in James 4:9, Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
The place that anger issues go to die is the cross of Jesus Christ. You must see that your sins are so great, so great that the Son of God had to die for them, and that God has been exceedingly patient and kind to lead you to repentance.
By constantly looking not merely at your sins, but at your sins nailed to the cross and forgiven, a person learns meekness. A person learns gentleness in how he corrects others. Because he knows the infinite debt that God has forgiven, and how apart from grace, he would be the worst of all sinners.
It says of the priest in Hebrews 5:2-3, He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness. Because of this he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins.
So God requires that the pastors and elders in the church be constant in their confession of their own sins to God, so that they will be gentle, wise, and patient when they help others confess their sins to God. This confession Christ does perfectly as our High Priest, and because of His mediation, we can have assurance of God’s pardon, a good conscience that, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
So because God is very patient, His bishops must not be easily angered. For anger clouds the judgment, and bishops must be wise men of justice.
#3 – A bishop must not be given to wine (μὴ πάροινον)
The idea here is that a bishop must not be a drunkard or given to excess with alcoholic beverages. He should not need a beer every day to unwind, but should rather be moderate in his use of God’s gifts.
It says in Psalm 104:15 that God gave us wine to make glad the heart of man. And Paul explicitly tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:23, Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.
And so there is a time and a place and due proportion for using wine (the Lord’s Supper for example). And a bishop needs to know what those times, places, and proportions are, for that belongs to the work of justice, of giving to others (especially the sheep) what is their due.
It says in Proverbs 31:4-5, It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; Nor for princes strong drink: Lest they drink, and forget the law, And pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.
And so the danger of going to excess in wine, is that a bishop loses or diminishes his powers of discernment. And it is this power of discernment that an overseer especially needs.
Paul says in Ephesians 5:16-18, See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.
So a bishop must not be given to wine, instead he should be pursuing the excess of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
#4 – A bishop must not be a striker (μὴ πλήκτην)
Other translations say, he must not be violent, or pugnacious.
A violent man or striker is like a doctor who uses a hammer when a band aid and a good night of sleep would do the trick. That is to say, a striker misdiagnoses the problems in the church, and thinks that force of arms, intimidation and threats, are how you get the job done.
The man who resorts to violence, whether physical or emotional, does not understand how the gospel triumphs.
It is true we are soldiers, it is true we are waging warfare, but as Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Christians need a martial spirit. Christians need a backbone and courage. But when it comes to spiritual problems, a bishop needs spiritual solutions. And therefore the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 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; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
The violent man must learn the meekness of Jesus and the self-denial of the cross. Our crusade and holy war as Christians is to rescue our enemies from the devil’s army. And so while there is a place for just wars, and the civil sword to execute God’s wrath, the church is not an earthly kingdom, but rather a spiritual kingdom with many earthly consequences. The striker confuses these two kingdoms and conflates them as one, and for this reason, amongst many others, the violent men cannot be a bishop.
#5 – A bishop must not be given to filthy lucre (μὴ αἰσχροκερδῆ)
What is filthy lucre? It is unjust or ill-gotten gain. The man given to filthy lucre commits the sins of greed and avarice. He inverts the created order by using spiritual goods (like the truth of the gospel) to gain earthly goods (money, status, fame, fortune).
Paul warns of this temptation in 1 Timothy 6:6-10 saying, But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
A man who pursues ministry for self-serving motives is called a hireling.
Jesus speaks of such men in John 10:11-13 saying, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.
And so because bad motives are invisible, and often hard to discern, it is usually not until a wolf comes into the church, that a pastor is revealed for who he is. If the pastor is a hireling, only there for the paycheck and not the honor of Christ, he runs or is negligent when trouble comes. However, the faithful under shepherd imitates the Good Shepherd, and he stays and he fights so that God’s sheep are not scattered, and it is by this act of love that hirelings are distinguished from the true bishops.
Paul tells us in Philippians 1:15-18 how we should feel and think about hirelings in the church. And it might surprise you what he says. He says, Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.
Conclusion
St. Augustine once said that “The shepherd is to be loved, the hireling is to be tolerated, and of the robber we must beware.” This captures Paul’s sentiment that while men will preach Christ from all different kinds of motives (good, bad, and mixed), our focus should be that our own heart and our own motives are right in the sight of God.
For this is the only safe path to take, and it is God who will ultimately judge and separate the sheep from the goats, the shepherds from the hirelings, the bishops who are true bishops from those who are bishops in name only.
Your concern must ever be that you are a true sheep, that you hear and recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd, and you follow him to the green pastures and still waters of heavenly glory.
Jesus says in John 10:15-16, As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
May God call and gather and keep your soul under his watchful eye, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: What A Bishop Must Be - Part 1 (Titus 1:5-9)

What A Bishop Must Be – Pt. 1Sunday, August 3rd, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WATitus 1:5-9
Prayer
Father, we thank you for our fathers and mothers in the faith. Those who begat spiritual life into us by telling us the truth, that we are sinners, that we need Jesus, and that Jesus loves to forgive and transform sinners into saints. And so holy Savior, make us to aspire now to imitate the lives of the faithful, especially those bishops, those overseers, who have kept watch and keep watch over our very souls. Teach us now by thy Holy Spirit, in Jesus name, Amen.
Introduction
The title of my sermon this morning is What A Bishop Must Be – Part 1. And I have broken this sermon into multiple parts because here the Apostle Paul gives to us 16 distinct qualifications by which a man must be judged if he would become a Presbyter/Bishop. And so this morning we are going to consider the first 4 of these qualifications, and then the rest in future sermons.
Now recall the occasion of this letter from Paul to Titus. Paul had visited the Island of Crete and preached the gospel there. That gospel had taken root, baby churches had been planted, but they lacked leadership, they lacked church government, and so Paul leaves Titus on Crete to “set in order the things that are wanting/lacking, and ordain elders/presbyters in every city.”
So Titus’s job is establish what we call a presbytery on the Island of Crete. What is a presbytery? A presbytery is a gathering of 3 or more qualified men of equal rank, who together govern the church in obedience to God’s Word.
The apostolic pattern was to establish a local presbytery over each congregation, which today we call an elder session, and then above that congregation’s local presbytery was a larger regional presbytery, and then above that various synods or church councils where all the church would come together and be represented. Acts 15 is the first example of such a synod, where multiple churches send delegates to Jerusalem to deliberate, and then that decision is written down and circulated amongst the broader church.
This is what we call Presbyterian church government, and it was Titus’s task to establish this form of government on the Island of Crete.
Now to give you a little portrait of what the Island of Crete is like, just imagine white sandy beaches everywhere, crystal blue water that you can snorkel in, palm trees, mountains, beautiful landscapes everywhere you look, and all that on an Island that is just a little bigger than King County and Thurston County combined (about 3,200 square miles).
And so if you are Titus, this is a beautiful environment in which to work. But with that beautiful vacation-like atmosphere comes also the challenge of arousing these Cretan Christians to live not for the pleasures of this world, but for the surpassing pleasures of the world to come.
We learn in verse 12 that it was a distinct vice of these islanders to be lazy, liars, and given to sensuality. Paul says in verses 12-13, One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.
And so Titus has his work cut out for him. On top of the sounds of waves lapping at the shore, and birds chirping cheerfully in the palm trees, there is Titus rebuking the Cretans. “Stop lying! Get up and do some work! Put down that third mojito and become sober minded!” This is what Titus was left in paradise to do.
Now amongst those Christians in Crete who do not need such a sharp rebuke, Titus must examine and assess the men in each congregation so that he can identify and ordain elders/bishops in each city. And Paul has set down these 16 qualifications for an elder/bishop, which are to be read in every church. And this is the bar for morality that every Christian man of every age and stage of life should aspire to, even if he is not called to be an elder.
In other words, these 16 qualifications are a universal standard for godliness and the whole church should desire this for themselves and their leadership.
And so while the focus is on what a bishop must be, these character traits are what every Christian ought to desire to become in his or her unique way. And so as we go through the first 4 of these traits, I want you to examine yourself. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13:5, Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. As to whether Christ is really living in you.
If Titus were to visit our church, and sit each of us down for a 1 on 1 personal interview, and this was the rubric, how would you do?
So with that in mind, let us consider now the first 4 of these qualifications for a bishop.
#1 – A Bishop must be blameless (ἀνέγκλητος)
This quality is repeated in verse 6 and 7. And in the parallel passage of 1 Timothy 3, this quality of being blameless is also put first in the order of qualifications. So this is a big deal and of utmost important to Paul.
What does it mean to be blameless? Other translations say, “above reproach.” And the idea is that you must not be chargeable with any notorious crime, or heinous sin. Or to put it positively, you are a law-abiding citizen, and you keep the ten commandments. You do not have a reputation for being a thief, or a liar, or a cheat, and therefore your blameless character will not bring any reproach upon Christ and the ministry of the Word.
We are told in Luke 1:6 that John the Baptist’s parents were of blameless character. Zacharias and Elizabeth, were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
So we are not talking about imputed righteousness here, we are talking about actual and inherent righteousness. Zacharias and Elizabeth were such people, and so also a bishop must be.
In Philippians 2:13-15 Paul gives us some practical advice for how to become blameless. He says, For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. [that is, grace is always available to you, so use it!] Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.
So if you would like to make progress in becoming blameless, start by doing all things without murmuring and arguing. Not complaining is always a good place to start if we would grow in godliness.
And lest this seems like an unreasonably high standard, consider the promise of 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.
#2 – A Bishop must be the husband of one wife (μιᾶς γυναικὸς ἀνήρ)
This could also be translated more literally as a bishop must be a one-woman man. Here monogamy is set forth as essential to a married man’s character, and by this qualification, polygamists, fornicators, and adulterers are excluded from the pastoral office.
An elder must be content in his marriage, faithful to the wife of his youth, and he must shun in himself every temptation to let his mind and thoughts wander.
Blameless Job says in Job 31:1, I made a covenant with mine eyes; Why then should I think upon a maid?
And it says in Psalm 119:9, How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.
And so this quality of being a one-woman man, is about fidelity, chastity, purity, and contentment.
If a man is not faithful to the wife of his youth, how can he be faithful to God’s bride, the church?
If a man is willing to violate the covenant of marriage, how can he be trusted to keep his ordination vows?
For the pastor who is married, his marriage is a constant proving ground to first love his wife the way Christ loves the church, so that he can love the church the way Christ loves the church.
Husbandry is the art of caring for and cultivating something, so that it becomes fruitful. In marriage, a husband must show tender care to study and cultivate, to nourish and to cherish his wife, so that she bears the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
And it is this school of marital husbandry that teaches a man to nourish and cherish also the bride of Christ, so that she can become fruitful for God.
And so a bishop must be a one-woman man, just like he ought to be a one-church pastor. He must be content to love and serve in the first instance the unique and particular congregation God has called him to, and to not covet his neighbor’s church. A man who is content in his marriage, and being faithful and attentive there, has the qualities of someone who can also be a husbandman in God’s vineyard.
Like Adam in the Garden, a Bishop must guard and keep the bride of Christ. He must be jealous for the purity and chastity of God’s people, even as he is jealous for the purity and chastity of his own wife.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:2-3, For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
The serpent’s lies still resound in our world. He still tempts us with forbidden fruit and provokes us to ask, “Did God really say?” and “Ye shall not surely die.”
And therefore, a pastor must study to refute these lies with truth and be jealous for the chastity of the church to remain intact.This is all part of being a one-woman man, and a faithful husband.
#3 – A Bishop (if he has children) must have faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.
I should note that both this qualification and the previous one do not require that every pastor must be married and must have children, but rather if he is married, or if he has children, these principles apply to him. And we know this because the Apostle Paul was himself unmarried (likely a widower) and without children under his roof. Moreover, the apostles considered it a matter of liberty as to whether they could bring a wife along with them in their work.
For example, Peter had a wife (Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law), and she accompanied him for at least some parts of his apostolic work. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:5-6, Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? Or I only and Barnabas.
So these are not absolute qualifications, they are relative to a man’s station in life, otherwise a pastor would be disqualified if his wife suddenly died, or when his children graduate and leave the house.
I should also note that the language here applies to children still living under their parent’s authority, not to grown children who have been emancipated and are off living as adults.
It is true that the lives and character of grown children still matters, and can reflect poorly on an elder (for wisdom is justified by her children), but the focus of this qualification is on those under the immediate authority of their father.
So for those who do have children living under their roof, those children must not be little demons. They must not be bullies on the playground, giving kids wedgies and robbing them of their lunch money. They aren’t being called to the principal’s office every week for stuffing the redhead into the locker.
In the parallel of 1 Timothy 3:4-5, Paul expands on this saying, a bishop must be One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?).
So the idea here is that his children are professing believers. They love Jesus. They go to church. They are baptized. They are little disciples, not worldlings, not Taylor Swift fans, they do not follow every new fad.
This language of not being accused of riot or unruly implies the sins of drunkenness,sensuality, and irreverent partying. What is most likely in view here are teenaged children who shun their father’s authority. But this can also apply to grown children like Eli’s sons who were sleeping with the women at the tabernacle, and Eli allowed them to remain as priests.
For Eli’s lack of discipline as both father and priest, he was supernaturally judged and deposed from office by death.
It says in 1 Samuel 2:29-30, Why do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling place, and honor your sons more than Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel My people?’ Therefore the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.’ But now the Lord says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.
The logic of this qualification is that a pastor’s children are his first ministry of discipleship. And if they are without discipline, then something’s off in that home. And when something is off in an elder’s home, it hinders his effectiveness and his confidence to minister to others. We don’t want to be hypocrites, and so we must take heed that our children are faithful children, not rioters and unruly.
I should also add that Paul is not requiring here anything above and beyond what he requires of ALL Christian parents and children.
Ephesians 6:4 applies to all Christian fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
A father who has failed his own children is not qualified to be the pastor of other people’s children.
#4 – A Bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God (ἀνέγκλητον εἶναι, ὡς Θεοῦ οἰκονόμον)
This word for steward is οἰκονόμος, which literally means a household manager. And the idea is that a steward has real authority, but it is a authority over what belongs to God, and his authority is regulated by the bounds God has set.
To be a pastor and a bishop is to steward the most precious possessions in the world: 1) immortal souls and 2) God’s truth.
This means a pastor must genuinely love people, because they are the people Christ died to purchase for Himself. And if Jesus thought you were valuable enough to die for, then a pastor must value them in that same way. He is stewarding God’s possessions.
Jesus says in Luke 16:10-12, He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?
So a bishop must be faithful in stewarding first his own soul, his own gifts, his own person. And if he has kept well his own soul, entrusting it to our faithful Creator, then to him may be trusted the true riches, other souls, other people, the mysteries of the faith which are as life to the soul.
To be called as a pastor is to be called to steward the most important things in the world. And because this is such a grave and daunting task, the Apostle Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:16, Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.
And so an elder must keep a close watch on himself and his doctrine. And he must continue in this with vigilance, because his own salvation, and the salvation of others depends on it.
The mindset of a steward is to say, “Jesus died for these precious souls, and what is precious to Jesus is precious to me.”
A steward knows and trembles at Hebrews 13:17 which says, Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account.
And our only response is to say with the Apostle, And who is sufficient for these things? (2 Cor 2:16), And But he gives more grace. (James 4:6).
Much grace and much fearand trembling attend the pastoral office.
Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:1,This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good work.
It is work that a man should aspire to, not to honors or status or position.
Many people aspire to be pastors and elders out of misguided zeal, or out of frustration from their own bad experiences under bad leadership. But the one who God truly calls to this office, knows that he desires a good work. Work that will demand his entire life and being, and that comes with it the warning of James 3:1, not many of you should become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.
And so if you would desire a stricter judgment, and a good work, then you must be blameless as a steward of God’s household. You must have the mind of Christ, who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. (Phil 2:7).
A bishop, like Christ, seeks to be all things to all men, not to please men for their own sake, but for God’s sake and to win them to salvation.
Conclusion
It is a high standard to meet these qualifications. And yet they are not so unreasonably high that no man can attain to them. What is certain is that God so love the church, and He so cares for your soul as the Chief Shepherd and Supreme Bishop of the church, that he tells us exactly what an under shepherd and bishop must be.
So if you are challenged by these four qualifications or feel that you may never make progress in your sanctification, remember who the original twelve apostles used to be. Some of them were fishermen, tax collectors, unlearned and ignorant men (Acts 4:13). And yet they made the Jews marvel at their boldness because they had spent time with Jesus.
Remember who the Apostle Paul used to be. He was a persecutor of Christians, breathing out threatening’s and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord (Acts 9:1). And yet God visited Saul in such an evil state, and converted him, and changed him into the kind of man who says things like, But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our very own souls, because ye were dear unto us. (1 Thess 2:7-8).
If God can turn a proud, self-righteous and haughty Saul, into a sweet and gentle nursing mother Paul, He can change you from who you are right now, to who God created you to be.
The wonderful thing about knowing Jesus, and following Jesus, and doing what Jesus says, is that when you trust Him, He gives you beauty in exchange for your ashes.
If you give Him your sins, your shortcomings, your shame, your story, your brokenness, the ugliness, all the imperfections, then He will say back to you, “I know, and I love you. I know who you are, I know your past, I know your pain, and I died to forgive you and heal you from all of it. I have abundant life waiting for you, if you will trust me and follow me until the end.”
This is the glory of the gospel. That God hath made Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Cor 5:21). And that means if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Cor 5:17).
The promise of Jesus is that eternal life can begin here and now through repentance and faith. So cast aside your half-hearted commitments, renew your covenant with Jesus to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
If the gospel could go to the Island of Crete, and change Cretans into Christians, the gospel can do the same for Centralians, for Washingtonians, for Americans, for anyone. And so may God bring this transformation about, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: Everything Beautiful (Ron Vernon Memorial)

Everything BeautifulSaturday, July 19th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WAEcclesiastes 3:1–11
Prayer
Father, we thank you for the life of your servant Ron Vernon. We thank you for giving him a long life, a life within the church, a life amongst friends, a life of seeking to follow Jesus, even unto death. We thank you for the promise of Revelation 14:13, which says, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” We thank you for giving Ron rest in Your peace. And now we ask that we who still labor in this world, may take heed to our own death, to the state of our own soul, and so we ask in the words of Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Grant us such wisdom now, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
For the 2.5 years that I was privileged to be Ron’s pastor, I had many opportunities to ask him, “Ron, are you ready to meet the Lord?” Sometimes I would ask him what books he was reading, or how his prayer life was going, but as his health started to wane, I increased the frequency of this question whenever I saw him, “Ron, are you ready to meet the Lord?”
Most of the time, he would answer with something like, “I’m not sure,” or I’m not quite ready yet,” or “I’m trying but I’m struggling to pray,” or “I’m not where I ought to be.” On one occasion, he expressed that he was reading some books by the puritans, and he observed that their relationship with God seemed a lot more intimate and familiar than what he was presently experiencing. And so Ron, like most authentic Christians, desired greater assurance that he was forgiven, that he belonged to Jesus, so that he could be ready to meet the Lord.
And so this morning as we remember Ron’s life and celebrate that he now has rest from his labors, and full assurance of God’s love for him, I want to pose this same question to you: Are you ready to meet the Lord?
However ready or not you feel, the truth is that God wants you to be ready at all times to enter His glorious presence. And He has given you in His word many truths to help prepare you for judgment day, whenever the day may be. And so this morning I want to consider briefly just three of those truths, so that you might have greater assurance that you belong to Jesus. Or if you do not yet know Jesus, may receive Him from all that He wants to give you.
Truth #1 – You are going to die, and you don’t know when.
We see here in Ecclesiastes 3:2, that there is a time to be born, and a time to die. And then in verse 11, we see that those times of birth and death and everything in between belongs to God.
It says later in Ecclesiastes 8:8, No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit, And no one has power in the day of death.
That is to say, no man is a self-sufficient being who gives life to himself. All of us are on divine life-support, and God is the one supplying oxygen to our soul, breath by breath, and we have not power over our soul to retain it or remove it. Even those who have attempted to end their life, sometimes find that God’s mercy does not permit them.
For God says in Deuteronomy 32:39, I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: Neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
And in 1 Samuel 2:6, Hannah prays, The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.
So just as you did not choose the moment or day of your birth, God chose it. So also, with the day of your death. No man knows with any absolute certainty, the day or the hour.
Jesus says of the rich fool in Luke 12:20-21, But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have stored up?’ “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
The Apostle James warns likewise of such presumption, as if life will go on as usual saying, Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. (James 4:13-17).
What is the good that God has told you to do?
In the words of Jesus, it is to repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15)
Or in the words of Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.
And so God’s Word to you today is, Have you confessed all your sins to Him? Have you repented of all the evil you have ever done? Have you forsaken the old and unhappy way of living in sin, and committed yourself to following Jesus come what may. That is what it means to repent and to believe the gospel, to fear God and keep His commands.
David models for us what such repentance looks like in Psalm 51, For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me…Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Jesus says likewise in Luke 15:7, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
And so if you would become ready to meet the Lord today, you must first bring joy to heaven by your repentance. You must name your sins and forsake your sins and follow Jesus instead.
Jesus says in Luke 9:62, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
This means that repentance is not just a one-time decision at the beginning of your Christian life, but is also an ongoing commitment (we call faith) to forsake what will drag you to hell, and by the grace of God get back up whenever you stumble.
Paul describes this resolve in Philippians 3:13-14, 12 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended [perfection]; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus… I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
Jesus wants you. He has laid hold of you even now by putting this word into your ears. And if you would become ready to die, ready to meet him face to face, then you must take hold of him with both hands. That means releasing, letting go of all the other things you treasure more than Him. You must let go of your grudges, your bitterness, your anger, your envy, your pride, your hatred. You must no be obstinate to the grace God wants to give you. Only then, with empty hands, can you with Paul lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
That is truth number 1. You are going to die, and you do not know when, and therefore you must make ready by repenting and embracing Jesus.
Truth #2 – Jesus died so that when you die, you may rise again.
The Apostle Paul says in Romans 14:7-9, For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
None of us knows how sinful we really are. Jeremiah 17:9 says, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
And so what the death of Jesus crucified on the cross reveals is that we are so sinful, and so deceived about our true state, that the Creator God himself had to come down, He assumed our humanity, and then He suffered and died in our humanity, to satisfy what we owe to Divine justice.
If you want to know what your sins deserve, look at the cross. We all deserve crucifixion. If you want to know how disordered and screwed up your soul is, look at the cross. Jesus died so that you could receive a new nature, a soul renewed by grace.
And lest you be too discouraged by how great your sins are and how desperately wicked your heart is, look at the cross. For this is how much God loves you. That with arms outstretched, Jesus invites you with his dying breath to be forgiven and to enter his kingdom. For where sin has abounded (and it has abounded a lot!), the grace of Christ has abounded all the more.
It says in Romans 5:6-11,For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Jesus is the resurrection and the life. And what gives us assurance that we shall rise again with Him, is that He died for us before we did anything good. He died for us when we were still potheads, fornicators, hypocrites, and liars. He died for us when were still hating God and hating one another. And if He died for us then, to reconcile us to God, how can anything now or in the future separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus?
This is the hope we have as Christians. It is a living hope and the source of our assurance. We believe the word of promise, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil 1:6).
Or as Jesus says in John 10:27-29, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
When Jesus Christ lays hold on you, he places you in His Father’s hand. And His sheep hear this, they believe this, and they are comforted by the Good Shepherd.
Truth #3 – God makes everything, even death, beautiful in His time.
It is easy to see the beauty in the time to be born, it is not as easy to see it in the time to die.
When a baby is safely delivered, we rejoice because a new life has entered this world. An immortal soul, joined to a little 8lb body is a marvel to behold.
Jesus himself says in John 16:21, A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
It is not hard to see the beauty of a woman’s sorrow that suddenly turns into joy with the birth of her child. Few things compare to that moment of relief, of deliverance, when a mother survives the birth and then holds her baby for the first time. This is beautiful. This is what poetry is for.
However, when someone dies, the death itself is a great evil. There is nothing good or beautiful about the separation of soul from body. The Bible calls death a great enemy, an evil for which Jesus Christ came into this world to conquer. And so we may wonder, How is it that God can make death beautiful in His time?
The answer is that death can become beautiful, not for the evil that it is, but for the good that God brings about through it.
As Joseph says to his brothers who attempted to murder him, But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
So also does God work the greatest good through the greatest evil, for nothing is more evil than the unjust crucifixion of the perfect man Jesus, and yet this became God’s instrument to raise the whole world from the dead.
It says in Hebrews 2:14-15, Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself [Christ Jesus] likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
The death of Jesus is the most beautiful thing the world has ever known. That God would so love us who are so unlovely, and then make us lovely by His grace. That is the beauty of Christ’s death which conquers death, and which makes Ron’s death (and our death), not the end of the story, but the beginning of a new chapter which is life eternal, resurrection life, life without death, life without pain, life without sorrow.
This is why God says in Psalm 116:15, Precious (beautiful) in the sight of the Lord Is the death of his saints. Because our God makes death blossom into resurrection, and this is how He makes everything beautiful in His time. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: What is a Presbyterian? (Titus 1:5)

What is a Presbyterian?Sunday, July 13th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WATitus 1:5
Prayer
Father, we thank you for this letter of the Apostle Paul to Titus, through which we are taught the truths necessary for our salvation, and the kind of life we must live if we would see the kingdom of heaven. We ask for your blessing now as we hear this word preached, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
After the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, it says in Acts 1:3, he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
Now just as every kingdom has a king, so also every kingdom has some form of government. We call a government a monarchy when there is one supreme ruler at the top. And in God’s kingdom, Jesus is that monarch who is called King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev 19:16). That is to say, Jesus is that monarch from which all other lesser monarchs and lords, receive some delegated power to govern.
Paul puts it this way in Romans 13:1-2, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
Now just as Christ rules as King in the civil realmthrough various lesser magistrates, so also does he rule in the church.
And we said in our first sermon on Titus that the primary purpose of this letter is to teach us how Jesus wants the church (which is his garden and vineyard) to be governed and cared for, and by whom.
Moreover, we read in Ephesians 4:11, that after those 40 days of speaking about the kingdom with his disciples, He ascended to heaven and gave gifts to man.
What were those gifts? It says, And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. Paul says likewise in 1 Corinthians 12:28, And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, varieties of tongues.
Notice that of all the gifts Jesus could have given at his heavenly coronation ceremony, he thought that what we most needed was church officers. And if that surprises you, just imagine a church without the apostles, the prophets, and the four evangelists. Imagine you have no New Testament scriptures and no pastors or teachers to explain those writings you do not have. It turns out that without church officers, there is no church.
Paul puts it this way in Romans 10:13-14, How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
So the gifts that King Jesus gives at his ascension are people. And these people, full of the Holy Spirit, preach and write and evangelize and start churches, and then they appoint successors to care for those churches after they die. And this is what the book of Titus is all about.It is about giving us the particulars, the details, of how Jesus governs his church.
We call this government of Christ over the church his ecclesiastical hierarchy. It is a form of government with Jesus at the top, then the twelve apostles, then prophets, then pastors and teachers, and down the line.
And why does this ecclesiastical hierarchy exist?
Paul goes on in Ephesians 4:12-16 to explain. He says they are, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
That is why church government exists: For the unity of the faith, for the health of the body, for the building up in love. This is why Jesus has given you elders, pastors, teachers, and deacons.
Now I begin with this overview of Jesus’ monarchical rule over the world and the church because this morning in our text, we have a specific form of church government under that monarchy, described by the Apostle Paul. And it is a form of government that today we call Presbyterian Church Government.
Now if we were to look around at these United States, and surveyed all the different churches, and denominations, and the many networks and tribes and governmental structures that exist, we would discover that there is a lot of confusion in our day about how the church is to be governed, and by whom.
And so this morning I want to explain from the Scriptures, why our form of government is called Presbyterian, and why God commands the church to be ruled this way, and not the way that many other churches today are governed.
There are three questions I want to answer this morning.
Outline
1. Where does this name Presbyterian come from?
2. What is essential to Presbyterian church government?
3. Why does this form of Presbyterian government matter for the health of the church?
Q#1 – Where does this name Presbyterian come from?
Surprise surprise, it comes from the Bible, and we have an example of it right here in Titus 1:5.
Verse 5For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:
That word elders in Greek is πρεσβυτέρους, from which we get the English word presbyters.
What is a πρεσβύτερος/presbyter?
There are two main senses in which this word is used in Scripture.
1. In the first sense, a presbyter/elder can refer to any man who is of older/elder age.
And because Proverbs 16:31 says, The silver-haired head is a crown of glory, If it is found in the way of righteousness, it became customary for those who were older and wiser men to also govern and rule the community.
2. Therefore, this word presbyter/elder also came to be used in a second sense to refer the office of government in Israel.
So a presbyter can be any elderly or older man. Or it can refer to the office of presbyter/elder which is for those who are more mature and older in knowledge and wisdom.
To give you just one example of this from the Old Testament, when Moses feels that leading the nation is a burden too heavy for him to carry alone, God says to him in Number 11:16-17, Gather (Συνάγαγέ) unto me seventy men of the elders (presbyters) of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone.
First observe that an elder is an officer who carries a heavy burden. In Scripture, leadership and government is akin to carrying something heavy. What is that heavy thing? It is the responsibility to act justly towards those under your care. And therefore, the qualifications to be a presbyter in Israel, are that you must be wise, understanding, knowledgeable and without partiality in your judgment (Deut 1:13-17).
Second, observe that these presbyters function as representatives of the people. In Deuteronomy 33:5 Moses says, And he [referring to himself] was king in Jeshurun, When the heads of the people And the tribes of Israel were gathered together. So in Israel, the hierarchy of God’s government was that God speaks to Moses, Moses speaks to the presbyters, and then the presbyters speak to their respective tribal heads, and so forth.
We see that Moses father-in-law, Jethro the Midianite advised this presbyterian form of government in Exodus 18. There we read, So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said. And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves (Ex 18:24-27).
This is the original Israelite form of presbyterian government, and it becomes the pattern for the nation of Israel, the pattern for the Jewish synagogue, from which the apostolic church sprang forth.
Summary: We call our form of church government Presbyterian, because it is presbyters who rule the church. Presbyters represent the people before God, and they represent God towards the people.
So returning to Titus 1:5 we see that Paul has left Titus in Crete, because the church lacked presbyters, and it was Titus’ job to oversee the appointment/ordination of presbyters in every city.
This brings us to question 2.
Q#2 – What is essential to Presbyterian church government?
I should flag here that within and amongst Presbyterians, there are a bunch of variations in our polities are organized. And that is because God has given us a measure of liberty to organize, for better or worse, according to the light of nature and general Chrisian wisdom. But what I am asking here is, What is essential to Presbyterianism that distinguishes it from Independent Churches and Episcopal Churches?
Of the three major forms of church government, Independents have no authoritative rulers outside of their individual and local congregation. There is no higher court of appeal beyond the pastor or elder session that hold them accountable. That is called Congregationalism or Independent Church Government. You can hear it in the name Independent, they depend on no outside pastors or churches to govern their church.
On the other side of the spectrum is Episcopal church government, which also has many variations within itself, and some are very close to Presbyterianism, while some variations are quite different.But for example, the Roman Catholic church has an episcopal form of government where there is a pyramid of authority with a single bishop, the Pope at the top who claims to have universal jurisdiction over the whole church.
So against the Roman Catholics, Presbyterians deny that any one man can possess such jurisdiction over other elders and churches. And then against the Independents, Presbyterians deny that any one church can be disconnected from the broader church and without accountability.
And so what is essential to Presbyterian government, is that the church is only a complete church, when it is governed by a plurality of qualified presbyters of equal rank.
Let me now prove this to you from the Scriptures.
First observe in verse 5 of our text, what Paul commands Titus to do. He says, ordain elders in every city. In that sentence is virtually contained the essence of Presbyterian government. Let me draw this out for us.
Notice that Paul says presbyters in the plural. Nowhere will you find in the New Testament any church that has only one person who governs it. Even when a region is newly evangelized, like the church in Crete, not even the Apostle Paul is a sole ruler of the churches he plants.
Instead, what we find universally, in every instance in the New Testament, is that a church is only a complete church, when it is governed by a plurality of qualified men called presbyters, who when they convene together constitute a presbytery. Every single church in the New Testament was under the authority of a presbytery, and it is the presbytery that ordains and sends men to preach and minister.
Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:14, Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
Notice, Timothy was not ordained by Paul alone, but by the laying on of hands of the presbytery.
In Acts 14:23 we are told how Paul and Barnabas organized the churches they had planted, And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
Observe again that the while the church is in the singular, elders is plural.
It says in Hebrews 13:17, Obey them (plural) that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
See that God commands members in the church to submit to church government, but it is not to a solo senior pastor but rather to a plurality of male rulers.
He says a few verses earlier in Hebrews 13:7, Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
The Apostle James says likewise in James 5:14, Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders (presbyters plural) of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
Many other examples could be given. But I want you to see that the essence of Presbyterian government is that the church must be ruled by a plurality of qualified presbyters.
No one man, except the God-man Jesus Christ, has absolute power in the church. And therefore, any church that lacks this plurality of qualified presbyters who are held accountable for their life and doctrine, is a deficient church, or in Paul’s words a church that is wanting/lacking/incomplete.
Sadly, there are many many deficient, diseased, and disordered churches in our land today, and what is worse, they don’t even know it.
We wonder why our nation is such a mess. Why abortion and adultery and divorce are so rampant. Why drugs and homelessness and crime are on the rise. We have to look in the mirror. We have not obeyed God in how we govern the church and who we ordain to office. And so God is giving us a taste of our folly so that we will repent!
God says in Jeremiah 5:30-31, An astonishing and horrible thing Has been committed in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule by their own power; And My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?
God’s warning to the American church, is that unless you repent and kick out all the wolves, these self-ordained teachers who are accountable to no one, these gay and lesbian bishops, unless you return to the biblical standards for elders/presbyters, your churches and nation shall continue to degrade.
Once upon a time in America we had sabbath laws. Murderers were executed for their crimes. School children were taught the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Magistrates had to be Christian men. But now today we have pedophiles and transexuals openly promoting vice.
God says in Hosea 4:6-9, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. As they were increased, so they sinned against me: Therefore will I change their glory into shame. They eat up the sin of my people, And they set their heart on their iniquity. And there shall be, like people, like priest: And I will punish them for their ways, And reward them their doings.
As the shepherds go, so go the sheep. And our Chief Shepherd, the Lord Jesus, has not told us plainly in His Word what his under-shepherds (pastors) must be. In a future sermon we will look at those qualifications for elders, but for now let us consider our third and final question.
Q#3 – Why does this form of Presbyterian government matter for the health of the church?
I have three reasons, but before I give them, let me just warn you by saying that no mere form of government can in itself prevent apostasy, corruption, and abuse in the church. Presbyterian government could not save the nation of Israel from crucifying the Messiah. In fact, it was their highest court, their Sanhedrin, the passed the death sentence, and later persecuted the apostles. So unless you have good and godly men in that government, the form hardly matters.
To take just one modern example, consider the so-called Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUSA). Once upon time they were actually presbyterian. But then they abandoned (amongst other things) the biblical standards for who may be a presbyter, and so today something like half of the pastors under age 50 are women. They are flying rainbow flags outside of their church, and not as a sign of God’s promise to never flood the earth.
And so as “Bible Believing Presbyterians,” we must not pretend that just because our form of government is apostolic, therefore presbyters and presbyteries always get it right. Any honest and experienced presbyter will tell you, we don’t always see clearly and do justly. Which is why we like the checks and balances that good presbyterian government provides.
So in closing let me give you three reasons why Presbyterian government matters for the health of the church:
1. Because presbyters are sinful and fallible men. And therefore, we need to be held accountable to our ordination vows, and to the biblical qualifications to continue in our office. And so we need a higher power than us, presbytery, to keep watch over us.
2. Because the members of every church deserve a higher court of appeal in the event that their pastor or local presbytery (elder session) sins against them.
For example, if a church discipline case comes up, and we excommunicate someone, but that person thinks we judged unjustly. They have a right to appeal to Anselm Presbytery, to our Presiding Minister Michael Kloss, and then a committee would be formed to investigate how we handled that discipline. And if there was a miscarriage of justice, they have the power to correct that.
So Presbytery is an added layer of protection for the sheep, if a shepherd goes astray, the Presbytery can call him back. And then above Presbytery there is a Council, so if an entire presbytery goes astray, Council can correct them. And if Council goes astray, then there are other Presbyterian denominations who you may join.
3. Third and finally, Presbyterian church government acknowledges in practice, that Christ’s body is far bigger than any one congregation. What’s more, we believe that we are better and stronger when we work together, when we acknowledge the validity of other church’s discipline. When we pray for one another. When we stand united against evil in the public square together with one voice.
It says in Psalm 122:3-6, Jerusalem is built As a city that is compact together, Where the tribes go up, The tribes of the Lord, To the Testimony of Israel, To give thanks to the name of the Lord. For thrones are set there for judgment, The thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you.
What is this psalm about but the church of Christ. The many tribes of Christendom who go up and are allied together for the testimony of Jesus.
This is what our form of government is aimed at. To make Jesus known through our unity of love, our unity of judgment, even upon a plurality of thrones. For it is in this unity that the church has peace and prosperity, and for this we do pray. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: How To Govern The Church (Titus 1:1-5)

How To Govern The ChurchSunday, June 22nd, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WATitus 1:1–5
Prayer
Father, we thank you for manifesting your Word through preaching, and as we now hear Your Word proclaimed, we ask that you would subdue us by Your sweet mercy, rule us by your awesome power, and teach us by Your Holy Spirit of Truth, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
If you have ever tried to plant a garden, you know that it is not enough to just toss some seed in the soil and then come back three months later to a beautiful and abundant harvest. Ever since Adam’s sin in God’s garden, our lot has been that of Genesis 3:17-18 where God says to man, “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.”
Because of our sin, fruit no longer comes easily. This is true in the natural world, and it is also true in the supernatural world.
In proof of this consider Galatians 5:22-23, where Paul says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
Now ask yourself, does that supernatural fruit come easily and without effort? Do you find it easy to be gentle with obstinate and dishonest people? Do you find it easy to be joyful when your car breaks down, or when a steady stream of medical bills continue to arrive in the mail? Do you find it easy to be patient when you have a migraine, and a fussy baby, and you still have to cook dinner for your ungrateful husband?
We all know the answer is No, fruit of the spirit does not come easy. And Paul himself acknowledges this by saying in the very next verse (vs. 24), “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
That is to say, if you are the hard ground where you want a fruitful garden to grow, you have to constantly tend the soil of your heart by crucifying selfish and sinful desires. You have to pull up bad habits at the root. You have to mow down and burn the thorns and the thistles, and only after that soil has been prepared are you ready in the words of James 1:21 to, “receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.”
Jesus himself speak of the Word preached as seed that falls into many different kinds of soil. But it is only in the soil that has been made ready and fertile by grace, that any true and lasting fruit comes forth.
Now this morning we are beginning Paul’s letter to Titus. And the whole purpose of this letter is to instruct the church in how she can become a fruitful and pleasant garden for God.
The Apostle Paul had worked hard to plant the church on the Island of Crete, but he did not have time to ordain and test elders, organize the leadership, and give the church the protection and teaching she would need to become a healthy garden for years to come.
And therefore, he leaves behind his coworker Titus, “to set in order the things that are wanting (lacking) and ordain elders in every city.”
So just as after you prepare the soil and plant the seed, you still need to water and tend, guard and keep your garden from birds and pests, weeds and disease, so also it is in the church. And in God’s Garden elders are His appointed gardeners.
Yes, every individual Christian is responsible to tend and keep his own soul, but because we are often irresponsible and inexperienced, God commands that certain qualified men, keep watch, oversee, and protect His garden.
And so this letter from Paul to Titus, which is ultimately a letter from Christ to His church, are detailed instructions in how the church is to be governed.
And because many people do not like to be governed, Paul has written to Titus in the form of an open letter. So that as Titus is making changes, rebuking heretics, installing qualified pastors, and telling everyone else in the church how they must live in accord with Christ, they all can see and hear that Titus is not just making things up on the fly. Titus is not being legalistic or arbitrary in what he commands, he is simply commanding what God has commanded.
And so as we study this letter in the months to come, we are all going to receive some very pointed and at times uncomfortably specific instructions. And it will be good for us!
This letter to Titus is one of the most practical letters in the New Testament. Luther calls it “an epitome and summary of Paul’s wordier epistles.” And William Tyndale says that “in this letter is contained all that is needful for a Christian to know.”
For in it, Paul teaches us both good doctrine, true theology, and how to live a holy life.
We might say that a major theme of this book is the marriage of truth with practice, right doctrine with good living.
He is going to tell us how pastors must conduct themselves, and then how older men, older women, younger women, and younger men must behave, at the same connecting good behavior with the grace of the gospel.
So with that by way of introduction, let us consider these opening verses together.
Outline of the Text
In verses 1-3 Paul establishes his authority as descending from God through Christ to himself (that is the hierarchy).
In verses 4-5 Paul communicates that authority to Titus and explains the reason/cause for leaving him in Crete.
Verse 1
1Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;
Paul identifies himself first as a servant of God.
What is a servant? A servant is someone who lives not for their own sake but for someone else’s sake. A servant does not do his own will and desire, he does the will and desire of his superior.
And therefore, a servant of God is a person who lives entirely for God. He has relinquished his will and says with the Lord Jesus, “Not my will, but yours be done (Luke 22:42).” Can you say that?
Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” Can you say that? If not, then you are not yet a servant of God.
A good servant from love does the will of his master. And this is who Paul is.
Next, he identifies himself as “an apostle of Jesus Christ.”
What is an apostle? An apostle is the highest human authority in the church,and he is appointed directly and personally by Jesus Christ, and therefore has authority with Christ to lay the foundation of the church.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
So Apostles are founders of the church who preach Christ as the cornerstone. And then on top of that foundation they charge lesser men, like Timothy and Titus, pastors and teachers, to build on that foundation taking heed how they build.
How should Titus build?
Paul models for Titus how to wield divine authority. He says it is, “according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;”
That is to say, his ministry is in harmony with and for the sake of teaching and protecting God’s people. Titus must water, weed, and guard the faith of God’s elect.
This includes both the act of faith, and the content/articles of faith.
The act of faith is simply believing whatever God has spoken and acknowledging it as true. This faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God (Rom. 10:17), and therefore the word of God must be proclaimed.
The articles of faith are the guiding first principles which every true Christian holds in his heart (some more explicitly and some more implicitly). This is the contents of our faith, sometimes called “the faith of Jesus Christ,” (Gal. 3:22-25) and Paul’s apostleship and Titus’ ministry in Crete was to be in accord with this faith, keeping in step with the gospel.
Moreover, the sign that the true gospel has been preached and believed, is that godliness follows from it. This is what he means by, “the acknowledging of the truth which is after (kata/according to) godliness.”
He says essentially the same thing in 1 Timothy 1:5, “Now the end/telos of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.”
In other words, pure doctrine should lead to pure living. Your acknowledgment of Christ’s lordship should lead to Christ-like treatment of others, which is charity.
And as Jesus says in Matthew 7:20, “by their fruits ye shall know them.”
This leads us to verse 2 where Paul states the objective/purpose for Christ calling him as an apostle.
Verse 2
2In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
Paul was given divine authority, not for his own ego or puffing up, but in order to lead the Gentiles from darkness to light.
It says in Acts 13:46-48, “Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said [to the envious Jews], “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us [quoting Isaiah 49:6]: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.”
So the fact that Christ ascended and gave to the church a government: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (Eph. 4:11), was all in hope of eternal life.
Paul says in Romans 8:24, “For we are saved by hope.”
And in Romans 5:5, “Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
And so when the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is proclaimed, we believe in hope that his resurrection is our resurrection. “Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming” (1 Cor. 15:23).
Further we do hope that our sins which are many shall not be counted against us. But having been justified by faith we have peace with God in this life, and the next. Therefore,we hope for eternal life because God, who cannot lie, promised this before the world began.
What does this mean?
It means that before Genesis 1:1, before God created the heavens and the earth, He had you in mind and He wanted you. The Father set his love upon you in His Son, and the Spirit together with Father and Son chose to write your name in The Book of Life never to be blotted out. And then having predestined you for salvation, the world was spoken into existence.
This is how Paul can say in Ephesians 1:4-6, “He hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
What makes you acceptable to God? It is that you are found in His beloved Son. And this brings us to verse 3 which explains how the elect are united to the Son. How does this promise of God in eternity past become known to the saints such that we can believe?
Verse 3
But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;
This word preached (logos) can refer either to the Divine Word, the person of Christ, the eternal Word made flesh. Or it can refer to the word about Christ Jesus which is the good news of forgiveness in Him.
Whatever the case, this Word is made known through preaching, and that preaching of the Word was given to Paul by “the commandment of God our Saviour.”
Meaning, this religion we call Christianity, is not of human invention. It is the result of the Creator God commanding apostles and preachers to declare forgiveness in Christ with divine authority. Jesus Christ is Lord, and salvation is found by faith in Him.
Peter says in Acts 4:12, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
And as the Philippian Jailer asked in Acts 16:30-31, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved? They said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
This is the preaching of the Word that God commanded. And if God commanded it, no man can stop it.
Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2:9, that while the world may lockup and chain the him in prison, “the word of God is not bound.”
Even the Pharisee Gamaliel knew this was true. For he tells the Jews in Acts 5:38-39, “Refrain from these men [referring to the apostles], and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest ye even be found to fight against God.”
Here we are 2,000 years later, and Paul was right, and Gamaliel was right. Many enemies have tried to overthrow Christ, to fight against God, but they have not succeeded. Yes, there have been setbacks, yes, the church stumbles at times and needs to be reformed, but Jesus has promised that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church.
And so if we are His people, the sheep of his pasture, the garden in which he walks and resides, then we can be assured of His love and protection, His discipline and care. And the way Christ manifests that care is by calling and equipping elders to be his shepherds, his servants, his tenants, his gardeners who carry the water can (or a hose) and a pruning knife.
And so we find in verses 4-5 that this job is assigned to Titus. To exercise apostolic authority in finding those men who can do that work faithfully.
Verse 4
4To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.
By this salutation Paul hands to Titus a three-fold shield in the Trinity.
Grace, mercy and peace are all effects of the Holy Spirit.
God the Father is the author and source of these graces.
And of course, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one we call Savior.
Paul also adds that Titus is his own son after the common faith, because unlike Timothy who was circumcised, he says in Galatians 2:3, “But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.”
And so if there was any doubt about the unity of faith between Jews and Gentiles, Paul goes out of his way to emphasize this is a common/catholic faith. There is only “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Eph. 4:5-6).
Therefore, the faith that Paul preaches is the same faith Titus preaches, and this is the same faith of all God’s elect.
Finally in verse 5, he explains the cause for Titus being in Crete.
Verse 5
5For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:
Next week we will dedicate a full sermon to this one verse because it describes what we call Presbyterian church government. But for now I want you to observe just one thing, and that is: see how important church government is to Paul, and therefore to Christ.
According to this verse, a church without a qualified pastor that is answerable to a plurality of fellow pastors, is a church that is wanting/lacking/deficient. And this was such a big deal to Paul, that he left Titus, his own son in the faith, there in Crete until that work was accomplished.
It was not enough to simply evangelize and start a church. It was essential to ordain qualified elders/presbyters to guard and keep it.
Because what is the church? It is God’s most precious possession. It is His temple, His sanctuary, His bride, His glory, His new garden of Eden.
Conclusion
God so loves the church, and every member within it, that He has prescribed in His Word how he wants it to be governed and who he wants to govern it. We’ll see in future weeks that he commands a plurality of qualified men, a pastor together with what we call ruling elders, who tend and keep, water and weed God’s garden, so that it will be fruitful.
Jesus speaks of this government in the parable of tenants where the Jewish elders who kill him, are kicked out and replaced by faithful tenants.
Jesus says in Matthew 21:40-41, “When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants [who killed the owner’s son]?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
Those new tenants are the apostles and their successors. And as elders and ministers of Christ we want you to be fruitful for your sake and God’s sake. Because the one who owns you, wants that spiritual fruit in every season.
And so I close with words of the Lord Jesus who tells us you exactly how to become fruitful. He says in John 15:4, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”
May God grant you to abide by faith in Jesus, with hope for eternal life, and with genuine love for all the saints. IN the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon: The Holy Trinity Pt. 3 - Faith Seeking Understanding

The Holy Trinity Pt. 3 – Faith Seeking UnderstandingSunday, June 15th, 2025Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WADeuteronomy 29:29
Prayer
Father, we thank you for the mystery of our salvation, the mystery of who You are as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As we seek now to understand just a small fragment of that mystery by studying the Scriptures, we ask for light to dispel the darkness of ignorance and sin. For we believe what the Lord Jesus taught saying, ‘blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ Grant us such purity and reverence for Your Word now, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Introduction
For the last two Sundays, we have been attempting to climb the most difficult mountain in all of Christian doctrine. That is, the mystery of the Holy Trinity. How is God One, and yet Three in One? How are the three divine persons really distinct, and yet each the One Divine Essence. This has been our study and meditation for the last two weeks, and this morning since it is Trinity Sunday we shall have one more attempt at grasping this truth.
Now whenever you are attempting something difficult and strenuous, it is helpful to remind yourself why you are doing this hard thing in the first place.
I remember long ago sitting in my high school calculus class and wondering why am I here? How is calculus going to help me get a job? What do derivatives have to do with my life?
And because I did not have Professor O’Dell as my teacher, I dropped out of calculus, only to have to retake it later in college (even then I think I got a C).
I imagine most of us in this room have a similar story, perhaps not with math but in some other area of life.
If we don’t see or understand the reason why, the purpose of doing a hard thing, we are tempted to give up, or we never even try. And sadly, that is how a lot of people approach their relationship with God.
They think that God is so high up there, and I am so low down here, the Bible is such a long and big book, and my attention span and memory is so short, therefore it would be either pride or presumption, folly or fruitless to attempt to try to really get to know Him.
And indeed, there are many dangers to avoid if you want to know God. God himself warns of approaching Him without fear and reverence and humility.
And yet, that high and glorious God has come down to us in Jesus Christ so that we might know him and have a real living personal relationship with him. Moreover, he has come down and sent the Holy Spirit into our very hearts. He has bequeathed to the church the Scriptures through which He invites us, nay commands us, to search him out and know Him.
It says in Psalm 105:4, “Seek the Lord, and his strength: Seek his face evermore.”
And in Jeremiah 29:13, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
Paul prays for the church in Colossians 1:10, “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
Why do people climb mountains? Why do people attempt hard, dangerous, and difficult things? They do it for the glory. For the views from the top. If they are virtuous, for the formation of character.
Even those who only do it for the thrill or the excitement or the vanity of social media have made a value judgment, that the risk is worth the reward, the pain is worth the payoff, the sacrifice is worth the investment.
And so for good and biblical reasons it is most appropriate to liken the hard work of increasing in our knowledge of God (as Paul prays that we do) to the climbing up a mountain.
When God created Adam and Eve, he placed them in a garden on a mountain from which four rivers flowed down. And we call the fall into sin a Fall, in part because we fell down that mountain of the knowledge of God and lost our intimate friendship with Him.
And so later, when by grace God reveals his name to Moses (see Exodus 3, and Exodus 33), he reveals His name on a mountain. When God reveals His law and will to Israel, He does so from the mountain. When God commands a temple to be built for worship, he commands it to be built on a mountain. Where does Christ go to reveal his glory to Peter, James, and John? The mount of transfiguration. And most importantly, where was Jesus Christ crucified? From where did Jesus commission the apostles to baptize in the Triune Name? On a mountain.
So this idea of ascending the mountain of God is a motif that runs from Genesis to Revelation. It acknowledges that we as sinners have fallen from grace, we are way down here in the valley of the shadow of death, and yet God by His grace calls us back to Himself. And therefore, this ascent to God is a most fitting theme to make your own, to explain the journey of your life.
What is your autobiography? It is carrying a cross in Jesus’ footsteps, following him from one place to another. From the place that Jesus first loved you and converted you, to the place where you shall behold him on the mountaintop face to face.
Summary: So returning to that initial question of why do a hard thing? Why climb the mountain of trying to know and understand God? Well, it should be for no other reason than that you love and value the God that came down and rescued you. You believe what Jesus says in John 17:3, that eternal life consists in knowing the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, and have no greater desire than that.
And so this morning I want you to think of this sermon as a kind of group hike to the basecamp of Mount Rainier. I am going to give you two important rules (as your guide) so that you don’t die along the way, and then we’ll apply these two rules to a most important text on the Trinity, John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Rule #1 – Deuteronomy 29:29
The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
First observe that God makes us to distinguish two kinds of things.
There are secret things, and there are revealed things.
Secret things are for God, revealed things are for us and our children.
And so when it comes to knowing God, we need to remember where God Himself has set the boundaries, and then we need to to respect and honor those boundaries and not trespass beyond them.
Amongst the many secret things are the particulars of the final judgment, who God predestined for salvation and who God leaves to their just punishment. It is not for you or I to know and judge the unseen thoughts and deeds of men. We refer that decision to the Creator, and with fear and trembling seek mercy for ourselves.
Jesus says to Peter when he inquires about John’s destiny, “What is that to you? You follow me.”
And then Peter having learned his lesson says in 2 Peter 1:10, “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.”
In other words, instead of tying yourself in knots and doubts about whether you are predestined or not, attend to what God has revealed, which is for you to make your calling and election sure by adding virtue to your faith (2 Peter 1:5).
Remember the whole purpose for which God has made things known. It is for us to do, to obey, to observe, to follow. And part of following Jesus is trusting that if He wanted you to know something, He would have told you in His Word. Moreover, if you are not presently obeying the things He has already revealed, why do you think knowing hidden things is going to help you?
Too often we deceive ourselves into thinking that more and new knowledge will help us, when what we actually need is to just do and practice what we already have been told. Confess your sins, forgive one another, love your neighbor as yourself, etc.
So that’s Rule #1. If God has not revealed it, you ought not to pry, you ought not ask (who are you O man to question God?). But if God has revealed it, then we must make it our own possession, pass it on to our children, and observe it with all our heart.
Now amongst those things that God has revealed, He has told us that in this life we cannot know what the Divine Essence is (what God is essentially in Himself), we can only know what He is not by some creaturely analogies about Him. And this brings us to Rule #2.
Rule #2 – God is always greater than what your mind can grasp.
It says in Job 36:26, “Behold, God is great, and we know him not, Neither can the number of his years be searched out.”
And in Psalm 145:3, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And his greatness is unsearchable.”
You and I cannot grasp eternity, the finite cannot comprehend the infinite.
God says in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways, And my thoughts than your thoughts.”
So whatever likeness or similitude there is between us and God, there is always an ever-greater dissimilitude.
Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:16, “He alone hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see.”
And in Romans 11:33, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!”
God is far greater than you presently think He is. And even when the Bible tells us something like God is love or God is good, even that falls short of the love and goodness that God actually is, because you and I have never met anyone or anything whose very being and essence is love and goodness.
What in us is a quality added to our being, that we are good sometimes and loving sometimes, is in God essentially and supereminently.
This is why Jesus says in Luke 18:19, “No one is good but One, that is, God.” That is, God has goodness in an infinitely higher mode. What we call good down here is only an analogy to God’s all surpassing goodness up there.
Paul says likewise about love in Ephesians 3:19-20, I pray that you may “know the love of Christ, which surpasseth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
Notice, the love of Christ, the love that is God and His power to do, far surpasses our knowledge. And therefore, whenever we say any creaturely perfection of God (like God is love or goodness or unity or power), remember that God’s mode of having those things far exceeds what we can comprehend.
Just as a worm in the mud cannot understand human love or romance, or the joys of marriage, or even what a human being is, because a worm has no eyes or ability to reason, just so, the distance between God and us is even greater than that.
Compared to God, we are as blind worms in the mud. And yet God speaks to worms in Isaiah 41:14, “Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, And thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.”
How has God helped us? He became a man in Christ. And so if you can imagine becoming a worm to help worms, that is less than the distance God crossed to become man. And it is that distance between Creator and creature that makes the incarnation of the Son of God, the Word made flesh, into the most unfathomable act of grace and self-giving. Can you believe God did that!?
Would you become a worm for worm’s sake? God became a man for man’s salvation.
One of the signs that you are starting to make progress in your knowledge of God is that you start to empty yourself out for others.
You think, If God has poured out his life to love and forgive me, when I was still a sinner, then I must certainly give my life for others; even if they don’t appreciate it or ever say thank you. In fact, it is an honor to be poured out like a drink offering upon the altar, to be identified with Christ and his sufferings.
And so the truth abouts God’s greatness and the distance He crossed to come and get us, should move us to great acts of devotion towards Him, which then spill over into the lives of others. How can we every repay such abundant grace?
The Apostle John says in 1 John 4:20-21, “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”
And so loving each other is part of climbing the mountain with Jesus. Some people are hard to love. But look in the mirror, you are hard to love, and yet Jesus loves you. This is the gospel. That God so loved us, that He sent His only begotten Son. Not because we were lovely, on the contrary we were anything but. And yet He came down to change us and make us worthy of being united to Him.
“He who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”
And this brings us to our third and final part of the sermon which is, How can you know and love what you cannot see?
Part #3 – Faith Seeking Understanding
The answer to this question is by faith seeking understanding.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
And in Hebrews 11:3, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”
Now let’s now apply this principle of faith seeking to understand who God is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
According to our first rule, is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit a secret thing, or is it a truth He has revealed?
Obviously, we must answer that God has revealed this truth to us in Christ, and the Apostles recorded this truth for us in the New Testament. Therefore, we must believe this truth to be saved, and we ought to seek some understanding insofar as God’s Word has made this mystery known.
At the same time, we must remember Rule #2, that God is always greater than our minds can comprehend. And therefore, if we want to understand how there are three distinct persons in God and yet all the One God, we are going to need some creaturely analogy to help us see what is similar to God, while also acknowledging that ever-greater dissimilitude. That is the move that keeps us out of heresy while also giving us some imperfect analogical understanding of who it is we love.
This brings us to John 1:1, a verse that all of us believe and most are familiar with but is hard to understand. So let’s try by faith.
John 1:1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
First observe that there is both a distinction and an identity between the Word and God. Two distinct subjects, and yet both identified with each other. How can this be?
John has given us a clue by using this word Word (in Greek logos). He wants us to think about what a Word is because that is the analogy He is going to develop in his Gospel to describe three distinct persons who are all the One God.
So what is a word?
There is the external word that is spoken by our mouth and heard with the ears. But what do our external words reflect within us?
Our external words reflect some idea or concept or definition in our mind which we then communicate to others. And so before any external word comes out of our mouth, there is first some interior word that proceeds from our mind, and which we say is conceived/begotten by our intellect.
For example, if you are walking down the street and see a dog, and you look closely and identify that this dog is a Golden Retriever, what you have just done is conceived a definition in your mind by an act of understanding. And we call that definition that proceeds from an act of understanding an interior word, or the word of the heart.
Put another way, this is you talking to yourself in your head.
And it is that internal word conceived in your mind that is the beginning for John’s analogy about the Trinity.
So let’s develop this analogy further and see how it is both similar and dissimilar to the Word in God.
1. Both our word and God’s Word are invisible and immaterial. You cannot see God, and I cannot see your thoughts. You cannot touch God, I cannot touch your thoughts.
2. Both our word and God’s Word proceed from some principle. For us it is our intellect from which an interior word is generated, and in God the principle is the Father from whom this Word proceeds.
BTW: The name of that internal procession from the Father is called Generation, or as John 3:16 calls Jesus, “the only begotten Son.” That begetting of the Son internal to God is like your intellect begetting an interior word.
3. Both our word and God’s Word are really distinct from their principle.
The definition you conceive in your mind is a concept really distinct from yourself, and yet it is also inside of yourself.
And likewise, the Word conceived in the mind of God is really distinct and yet also internal to God.
So thus far we have an analogy for a Word that is internal, invisible, immaterial, proceeds from a principle, and is really distinct from that principle. What is left then is to find an analogy for how that Word is also of the same nature as that Principle, because John says, “the Word was God.”
Here is where we start to notice some major dissimilarities between the word in us, and the Word in God.
So to understand this, start by thinking in your mind about yourself. Who are you? What are you? Do you fully understand yourself? Can you comprehend your own essence and being, your body and soul, your unique personality such that in one word you can define and explain who you are? Can you generate an exhaustive concept of yourself (a definition) that fully expresses to others your entire being? No. But God can.
Whereas we need many words to express who we are because our knowledge of ourselves is so imperfect and fragmented, God on the other hand understands Himself perfectlyand all in one single and eternal act of understanding.
And from that perfect comprehension of His own essence, proceeds a Word that perfectly expresses that essence, so much so that it is the Divine Essence.
This is what John means when he says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” There is a real distinction of persons, and a real identify of essence.
One of the most fundamental rules of theology is the maxim whatever is in God is God. So perfections that are distinct powers and accidental qualities in us, like knowing, willing, wisdom and beauty, are in God all the one divine essence. There are no real distinction in God, only a real distinction between the three persons.
So if there is anything internal to God, like a Word in the Beginning with the Father, that Word must necessarily be the Divine Essence itself. This is how we speak of both a real distinction between persons while also affirming a real identify of essence. The relations we call Father, Son, and Spirit just are the Divine Essence, and distinct only from one another (by mutual opposition).
Conclusion
What makes the truth about this Word in God that is God even more amazing, is what John tells us about this Word in the verses that follow.
He goes on to say in verses 9-14, that this Word is also a Light, “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
The more you know and understand the greatness of God, the more you will be amazed and humbled and moved to worship by the Incarnation of that God.
So will you receive this grace and truth from the Eternal Word made flesh? For he invites you to follow him all the way up the mountain, and He promises that the views are worth it. You shall see the glory of God, and live.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.