God's elect, in the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness, in hope of eternal
life which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began, but hath in due times
manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment
of God our Savior, to Titus, my own Son after the common faith, grace, mercy, and peace
from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.
For 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.
If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot
or unruly.
For a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, but not soon angry,
not given a wine, no striker, not given a filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality,
lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word as he has been
taught that he may be able by sound auction both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision,
whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought
not for filthy lucre's sake.
One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, "The Cretians are always liars,
evil beasts, low bellies."
This witness is true, wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.
Not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth unto the pure
all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but
even their mind and conscience is defiled.
They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient,
and that every good work reprobate.
Let's pray, dear Lord God, just thank you for this time we have, Lord, this evening
to hear the preaching of your word, Lord, and just bless this service, Lord, bless the
preaching, Lord, that it be edifying to us, Lord, and that we could apply these truths
that the pastor will preach to us tonight to our lives, Lord.
We pray this all in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Okay, we're in Titus chapter one this evening and I want to preach on the subject of the
churches in Crete and look at the book of Titus here.
Of course, the book of Titus is collectively with 1st and 2nd Timothy referred to as the
pastoral epistles.
It's because of the fact that these books in general contain a lot of instructions towards
bishops, deacons, pastors, the behavior of church members within churches and has a lot
of good instructions regarding church planning, evangelism, and how a local New Testament
church should function and how it should run.
And probably the book of Titus is one of my favorite books in the New Testament because
it just gives a lot of practical advice.
It has a lot of good teaching in it and it really hones in on what evangelism actually
looks like.
Now when we think of evangelism or being an evangelist, we often think, oh, this is,
you know, if you're to be in an old IFB church, they often think, well, this is a person who
goes from church to church to church preaching the same exact sermon.
And you may think to yourself, is that really a thing?
And it is.
When you think about it, an evangelist is basically like a circuit preacher.
It's someone who basically goes through different churches and they preach the same exact sermon,
trying to revive the congregation or whatever it may be.
However, an evangelist, according to the Bible, aside from the fact that they're obviously
soul winners, when we look at the example in the Bible, it's actually referring to
a church planter.
This is kind of used synonymously with evangelist and missionary, right?
It's someone who goes into an area, they evangelize, and then they kind of take an assessment
of the area and then plant a church there based upon the need, right?
That's essentially what an evangelist, a church planter, a missionary is.
So that's exactly what the apostle Paul was, okay?
And he obviously is ordaining people, he's sending people out, such as Timothy and Titus
to accomplish the work here with Titus, specifically in the island of Crete.
Now Titus is a great son in the faith.
He's mentioned various times throughout the New Testament, predominantly in the book of
Second Corinthians.
And what we know about Second Corinthians is that Titus is sent there also to set things
in order.
And it's possible that he was also used to deliver Second Corinthians, the letter, that
epistle to the Corinthian church.
So he actually has three phases in his ministry, starting off with the church at Corinth, working
there.
Then we see him working here in Crete.
And then at the end of his life, we actually see him working in Dalmatia, which is basically
further out.
And it's in modern day, oh man, I forgot the country, somewhere in the north, I forgot.
What is it?
Croatia?
I don't know if it's Croatia.
We're going to have to fact check that.
I don't know.
Google that real quick.
It might be Croatia.
I don't want to discredit you, Brother Adam, but anyways, I think it's Yugoslavia, actually.
Someone look that up real quick.
Google it.
Oh, is it?
Oh, my bad.
You're right.
He's right.
We're both right.
And so he's obviously sent there to do exactly what he's doing here in Crete, which is to
plant churches.
Now, the Bible is not really explicit as far as what he did in Dalmatia, but obviously
based upon his previous record, we know that he sent to send things in order.
He's church planning.
He's doing that work there.
But what we see here in the island of Crete is exactly what he sent to accomplish, which
is to ordain elders and to essentially teach the people of God how to behave themselves.
And you know, it's the book of tennis is great because it shows us the importance of not
only teaching doctrine, but also teaching God's people how to behave.
And it kind of shows us the importance of not just believing the right things, but having
the right conduct.
In fact, chapter two is all about conduct.
It's all about the conversation as far as how they're living is concerned.
And we're going to see why that is in this first chapter.
Look at verse one, it says, Paul, 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 and
hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began.
He says that verse three, but at then due times manifested his word through preaching.
So what we see here is that the apostle Paul is explaining to Titus that God manifest his
word in modern times through the preaching of God's word.
Now, why is that important to note?
Well, because obviously in times past, God spoke in sun dry times, right?
He spoke to the prophets.
He spoke through dreams.
He spoke through visions.
But as we near the completion of the canonization of the Bible, now he speaks to the preaching
of God's word, right?
We have a more sure word of prophecy, meaning that it's actually biblical to come into a
church service, hear the preaching of God's word and say, "You know what?
God spoke to me."
That's actually accurate.
Why?
Because if the pastor is preaching from the word of God, yes, he has manifested the word
of God through preaching.
So it's actually accurate to say, "You know, I feel like God spoke to me today during the
preaching of God's word in the sermon.
I feel like God was talking directly to me," right?
And I think we've all had an experience like that where maybe a pastor was preaching a
sermon and we took something we said, "Man, I feel like that's directed at me.
I feel like God is helping me in this area.
It's kind of encouraging me in this area."
Why is that?
Well, because God now manifests his word through the preaching of his word, through the preacher,
the pastor, whatever it may be.
The point being here is that the apostle Paul is obviously putting the authority on the
preaching now.
We obviously know that someone who had a dream, someone who had a vision in the Old Testament
definitely was authoritative because of the fact that it's now written in the Bible.
But now we have a more sure word.
Now we know for a fact that it's authoritative.
It is from God and should be taken as thus.
We're not saying that when I preach, what I'm saying right now is the word of God.
But when I'm expounding upon what the Bible actually says, according to the Bible, that
is essentially the manifestation of God's word to you.
Okay?
So he says here that in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed
unto me according to the commandment of God, our savior.
To Titus, mine own son, after the common faith.
Now what does he mean by that?
Well, it could mean one of two things.
It could mean that the apostle Paul got Titus saved, right?
This is something that's very common with the apostle Paul, that he talks about someone
being his son in the faith, meaning that he's the one who led him to the Lord.
Okay?
And we actually see this in, I think it's first Corinthians chapter four or second
Corinthians chapter four, where he talks about the fact that people were begotten through
the gospel.
And so it's actually accurate to say that if you've led someone to the Lord in our church,
they're essentially like your spiritual son, spiritual daughter in the faith.
Why?
Because you begat them through the gospel.
So this could mean that he led Titus to the Lord.
That's obviously possible because of the fact that we know that the apostle Paul did a
lot of ministry in Asia Minor, which is exactly where Titus might be from.
He's obviously a Greek, he's a Greek speaker, but it also might mean that he adopted him
as a spiritual son.
And we see this with Timothy, for example, Timothy, the apostle Paul called him his son
of the faith.
Even though in second Timothy chapter one, we see that Timothy was essentially probably
saved through his mother or his grandmother, right?
They're the ones who gave him the word of God and made him wise unto salvation.
The Bible says in chapter three of second Timothy.
And so it could be that, you know, Titus came already saved, he got saved somewhere else.
And then the apostle Paul kind of took him under his wing and discipled him thereafter
in the things of God.
The point being is that he obviously has a very close relationship with Titus.
He calls him his son after the common faith.
He says grace, mercy, and peace from God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now we don't explicitly know when this took place as far as when he was in Crete because
the book of Acts doesn't mention it.
But it says in verse five, for this cause left I thee in Crete, meaning that there's
some point in Paul's ministry where he took Titus, they went to the island of Crete,
this Mediterranean island, they evangelize, they got a bunch of people saved.
And then Paul basically left him there, not abandon them there, but just left them there
to continue the work that was started.
He says for this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou should have set in order the things
that are wanting and ordained elders in every city as I had appointed thee.
Now this is a huge responsibility.
And when you study Titus in second Corinthians, you actually see that Titus was a very responsible
individual.
He's setting things in order.
He's a person of reputation.
He's a person of great responsibilities carrying out these duties, which is why the apostle
Paul can rely upon him to leave him in Crete to not only set things in order but also ordain
elders.
Okay.
Now this is very important because what we see here is that the apostle Paul obviously
sees or notices that the island of Crete is worthy of churches.
Now, why is that important?
Because sometimes people think, well, if you get a bunch of people saved in an area, automatically
that means you should put a church there, but that's not necessarily the case.
And I think of a lot of churches that will look at churches that evangelize like ours
and they'll criticize our form of soul winning because we'll go into a different nation,
we'll go into a city, we'll get a bunch of people saved and then we'll come home.
And then people who criticize that soul winning will say, "Oh, you're just going to leave
them there?
You know, you're just going to leave them there?
Why don't you just start a church there?"
Well, because not every city actually merits a church.
Let me just be real honest with you.
What merits a church?
An area where people actually want to go to church.
Just because you get a bunch of people saved in an area doesn't necessarily mean a church
should be started there.
A church should be started if people are asking for a church, right?
If you have a group of people wanting to congregate, they want some sort of local congregation
that they can be a part of, you know, that merits an actual church plant.
So not every place that we go and get people saved actually merits a church.
And obviously there's a need here.
There's people who want to go to church.
And so Titus is being sent to set those things in order, not only to help the character of
the Christians, but also to ordain elders.
Elder is used interchangeably in the New Testament to describe a bishop and or a pastor.
It's basically kind of, you know, category, it's defining or is describing a different
category of this church leader known as a pastor.
An elder would imply that he's older spiritually speaking, we obviously know that he's probably
older in age as well.
But more specifically is referring to the fact that he's probably been saved a lot longer.
Elder means someone who's older.
So he's sent to ordain these elders in every city as I pointed these.
So a lot of evangelism taking place here, a lot of churches are going to be started.
And then he gets into the qualifications.
Look at verse six.
He says, "If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not
accused of riot or unruly, for a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed,
not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre, but a lover of
hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, and so forth.
We'll get into verse nine in just a bit.
Now, there's a couple of things I want to mention in this regard.
And I say this often, but it's very important to note that this is not a checklist.
Oh, I'm sorry.
This is not a checklist for someone to say, well, if someone's already meets these qualifications,
automatically they can become a pastor, right?
These are like foundational things that a pastor who's going to get ordained should
already have.
And if you look at the list, this is basically something that everyone should have.
It's not like, "Oh, only the pastor should be blameless," right?
We should all be blameless.
It's like, "Only the pastor should be the husband of one wife.
Everyone else could get divorced," or something, you know?
It's obviously referring to the fact that the pastor who's going to be ordained should
meet just the bare basics of virtuous Christian living, okay?
And why is that?
Well, because of the fact, to a certain degree, the pastor is the example to the congregation
of what a Christian should be in virtue, conversation, conduct.
He says that they should have faithful children, not accused of right unruly.
This is what first Timothy chapter three reiterates when he says that he should have his children
in subjection with all gravity.
He also says that the bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, meaning that the pastor
is the representative of God.
He should be the one who stewards the mysteries of God appropriately.
And then it says not self-willed.
What is the implication here?
He should be spear filled.
What is a self-willed person?
It's a person who's out to kind of do his own thing.
Now let me just take a break right here just to explain something when it comes to church
planning.
I think this is a very important attribute for a person to have when a pastor is looking
for someone to oversee a congregation, making sure they're not self-willed.
And I think putting someone behind the pulpit who is self-willed, has their own self-interest,
it kind of likes to lord over the flock of God is dangerous.
And let me just explain to you what my philosophy is when it comes to church planning.
I don't think that just because there's a need in a city for a church, even if there's
a lot of people there, that we should just start with just anybody.
I'm talking about anybody behind the pulpit.
I think that's the most horrible idea ever.
Okay?
You say, "Why is that?"
Well, here's the thing.
Let's say we have 40 people in a particular city that they congregate together, they're
already sowning, they are believing the right doctrines, it's just like we need to start
church there.
Let's just get some warm body behind the pulpit.
Let's just put someone there because we just need someone there.
You know, at FaceValley, that may seem like, "Oh yeah, just get someone to just preach
and oversee the congregation and later on we'll get someone to oversee it."
Bad idea.
Why?
Because sometimes there's a reason why these qualifications are here in the first place.
Because when you put someone behind the pulpit who doesn't meet them, you might run into
the risk of getting someone who is self-willed.
And look, this person can do more damage than benefiting the congregation.
They can actually destroy the congregation.
And so I'm all about church planning.
I love church planning.
I think church planning is a great thing to do.
I've planted two churches.
But you know what?
I'm just not chomping at the bits to just start a church anywhere with any warm body
behind the pulpit.
Because in my experience, sometimes bad people are put behind the pulpit because they're
not meeting necessarily the qualifications.
And look, you know, obviously he is ordaining these elders in every city.
But again, these are like the basics that they should already have.
You know, the basic virtues that they should already possess.
And so, you know, I get that sometimes people are like, well, there's a group of people
that are already me.
We should just put someone there who could just preach the word of God.
But let me just remind you that like preaching the word of God, though extremely important,
in fact, one of the most important things that a church can have, you know, it's not
the only thing.
And, you know, a church can actually be just destroyed.
You can have all types of conflict, division.
You can, you know, have all types of strife and contentions if you put a bad leader behind
the pulpit.
Okay.
That's just a fact.
People who are just self-willed, they have their own agenda.
They can cause a lot of chaos.
And look, I'm not here to toot my own horn or anything like that.
But when this church was started, I met a lot of these qualifications.
The only qualification that I did not meet was the fact that according to the standard
of the pastor who was sending me out, I didn't have enough kids as of yet.
So I had to wait two years or something like that because I was supposed to be the husband
of one wife with children, meaning plural.
And so that was the only thing.
But even then, I remember Pastor Anderson saying to me, "Hey, if all goes well, you
get ordained, but I have every right to just replace you if I feel like you don't meet
the qualifications."
And so he said, "Are you still good with that?"
I'm like, "I'm good with that, because I just want to be a part of a work.
I want to get a church started.
I want to be a part of a church."
And so I was all for it.
But I think it's really dangerous to put someone behind a pulpit just because they preach well
or just because they know how to expound the Word of God or whatever, because if they don't
meet these other qualifications, it can just be a complete disaster.
And I just don't think that's a risk worth taking.
OK, you're like, oh, but they'll have a church. Yeah, but it can just be run down into the
ground. You can destroy people's lives. You know, it can cause chaos in other churches.
Other churches could get sued and stuff like, you know, just things like that. You know
what I mean? And so, you know, I think we should take these qualifications serious when
selecting a person. And I don't think we just need to be hasty in ordaining just anybody.
You know, what's the rush, right? You know, train people, let people be faithful in the
church for long periods of time. And again, you know, pastor Anderson wasn't hasty in
ordaining me. Obviously he had known me from times past. I had a reputation in my other
church. You know, I was already serving God. He had asked around about people who were
in my previous church and had seen the previous church and the work that was accomplished.
You know, there was already a resume available. Okay. And I think that's important. Okay.
You know, if you, if you are going to ordain someone for a particular work, you know, what's
their past, do they have any skeletons in the closet? Is there, are there any red flags?
Okay. And I think that a person who's going to get ordained needs to be watched for a
couple of years. Why not? And I mean, if, or if Adrian wanted to become a pastor, you
know, then he would have to be here for a really long time. Why? Well, for first he's
got to get married. Right. So even before then, even before even like considering him
for the pastor, he has to first get married. Cause if he can't get married, then he can't
be a pastor. He can't get a woman to follow him. He can't trick a woman to marry him.
Then it's just, it's not going to happen. But after he gets married, then he has to
have kids. Right. But then even after he has kids, he has to be proven like, Oh man, all
these Lou, you know, all these loops he has to jump through. Yeah. Because he's, he's
in charge of other people's spiritual lives. You understand what I'm saying? And so I'm
for satellite church plants and all that. But again, even in that particular case, you
got to be careful who you place behind the pulpit because they can bring a lot of chaos
and destruction to those certain, they can ruin people's lives. I'm just being real
honest with real frank with you. And you know, I remember years ago, even before I was part
of the new IFB, my father-in-law was really into church planting. I felt like he was just
too excessive in this, in the standard that he had of ordaining pastors. I'm like, man,
he's just, he, you know, and he would talk about like, you know, this person can take
this church down a dark road. And, and it's just like, come on, is it really that, but
now I know why he was so hesitant to just ordain anybody because you are kind of gambling
with people's lives. You understand? So I don't think it's, it's a good idea to just
lay hands suddenly on any man. I mean, the Bible literally speaks out against that, right?
Don't, when it talks about laying hands, it's referring to like ordaining someone. That's,
that's what it's referring to because there's a danger. Why? Because they're self-willed,
they can fall into the snare of Satan. They can become prideful, arrogant. If they're
a novice, they don't know what they're doing. They can cause division. They can turn people
against the pastor. They can sue pastors. They can sue pastors. They can, you know,
just do a lot of chaos. You know, they can sue pastors. They're just, I'm just throwing
things out there. You know what I mean? Like different variety of things that, you know,
people can get involved in. And sometimes we were like, yeah, but that place really
needs a church. Well, actually what that place needs is a leader. They were like, oh, that
place needs a church. They need a leader is what they need. Okay. And, you know, we're
not trying to start congregations just so we can pow wow. Right? Like when we say that
this place needs a church, what that should be translated as is that, that, that place
needs a pastor to like lead them. Right? Cause we want the church to succeed. We don't want
just, oh, let's just get a bunch of people together. They can just go soul winning and
preach to each other and everything will be honky door. If we want that church to last,
if you want it to have some form of longevity, then they need someone to lead them down that
road. Right? We need someone to kind of be more mature spiritually and can, and can help
them through the hard times, help them to endure, have biblical knowledge, but also
be able to assist people and disciple people, help their marriages, help them through their
problems and grow the church. Let me also say this, you know, obviously this isn't
found in the text, but this is just a given. And that is that whatever pastor gets ordained
has to be previously successful in something, right? Like you don't want to just put some
warm body behind the pulpit who just doesn't know anything, like has never built anything.
That's important. Okay. And obviously you're, you might have a situation where a person
meets these qualifications. And so, you know, you put them behind the pulpit as an evangelist,
as the leader of a church plan, but that's that person's opportunity though, to build
something there. Right. And so, you know, that person has to be proven. That's literally
what it says about the deacons in first Timothy chapter three, let these first be proved.
Well, that's the deacon. That's not the pastor. Well, if that's the, if that's the standard
for the deacon, don't you think it's implied for the pastor as well, that they have to
be proven. They have to have built something, not destroy things. You say, what are you
talking about? Well, how about pastor Pozarnski, who literally just destroyed his church hold
fast, and then he takes over a bigger church. It's exactly what he did. And look folks,
the man has never built anything. He's only known for destroying things. That's a fact.
And look, the church at hold fast was very small and that's with members that we sent
over there. There's a bunch of people that left our church to go there. Some on good
terms, some on bad. But there's people there who left on good terms, people that we love
and we care for. And maybe we might not have agreed on everything, but they went there.
And I remember people leaving our church and telling me like, Hey, thank you for everything
you've done for me. And I love you and I appreciate you. We're going to be moving to Fresno. And
you know, I was just like, you know, praise God, you know, it'll be in a good church or
whatever. But even with those people there, the church still died. Okay. And so, you know,
Verity might be mad at this, but I don't care because this is a fact. Like you don't select
someone who hasn't built anything, but especially someone who has destroyed a work and just
abandoned the work. And if, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, brother Adam, you can correct
me since you know all about geography here. You know, correct me if I'm wrong. You know,
when Pastor Shelley started Pure Words, right, and he was selected for Steadfast, he pastored
both, right? Is that right, brother? You know, are they both in Texas? No, I'm just kidding.
You know, he pastored both and he drove to both. Like he went there and he preached there.
He sacrificed. Why? Because obviously the man is a builder. Man, it cares about the
people at the other church plant and it's hours away, but he's still making time to
go there and priest the word. The only reason pure words died is because, you know, uh,
a guy who didn't meet these qualifications was ordained, you know? And so that's why,
but pastor Shelley was doing a great job pastoring that church though. I mean,
the guy was just killing, doing both. Okay. And make no mistake about it preaching, although,
you know, somewhat of a small percentage of the service, it takes a lot of work to do so. So he's
like preaching four sermons a week. I mean, it's a lot, but you know what he, because he's a builder,
he did it and the church was growing. It was doing fine. And even after he placed another evangelist
there who ended up going, I believe to the Philippines that evangelist did great. He built
that work. People were coming to church. People were getting saved. You know, it was thriving.
It wasn't until the other guy took over that, you know, it completely died. The point that I'm making
here is that you do, you shouldn't ordain builders. That's, that's plain and simple.
That's just common sense. Okay. You ordain builders, someone who actually has done something.
And look, prior to this church starting, I started another church and I built that ministry.
Prior to that, when we started the church plant, I built that ministry as well. When they threw me
into the Spanish ministry, I didn't like it, but I built it. You know, you know, I had to speak
Espanol for a little bit and learn how to preach in Spanish. But you know what? I took that
congregation from five to 30. Okay. From 30 to 50, even if it wasn't Spanish. Why? Cause I'm a
builder. That's what you have to do. You have to build. And folks, if, if I had no reputation
prior to that pastor Anderson should have done, have nothing to do with them because like what
you got with your resume, what's your experience, right? Point that I'm making here is that if you
want to be sent out of this church, you better be a builder. You better learn how to not just win
souls to Christ. You better learn how to build people up, get people in the church, get people
baptized. And thankfully, there's people in our church who don't want to be pastors who already
qualify for all that. There's people in our church who just know how to get people saved.
They know how to disciple people and they can get them baptized and they can help them to get
grounded in church, assimilated in the things of God without wanting to be a pastor. They're
builders. That's exactly what we should be, but especially for the pastor or the person who's
going to get ordained. And I get it, sometimes maybe a church has started in an area where the
population is not that big, right? Church is not necessarily going to grow as much, but it shouldn't
diminish either though. You should be able to see a lot of people saved. And there's always a red
flag when a pastor is like, "Yeah, we stopped counting salvations." Why? Is it because you
guys don't see any salvations? Is that what it is? Because that's the easy cop out right there.
Oh, these people are so worried about numbers and they just want to see numbers. We stopped
counting salvations a long time ago. Just let me translate that for you. We stopped seeing people
saved a long time ago. That's what that means. And you know why they stopped counting? Because
they don't want people to see their numbers, which is this number right here. That's why.
And so I don't care what you think about Pzarnski. He's a failure of a pastor. That's a fact.
And the fact that he destroyed his church and took over a bigger church. I think for example,
John Wilkerson, who's a pastor at First Baptist Church of Hammond. And if you know the history
of First Baptist Church of Hammond, that thing was a mess. You know, after Jack Scoff took over
and all that stuff that happened with it, it was a mess financially. It was a mess morally. It was
just a mess on all fronts. But Pastor Wilkerson was extremely successful at First Baptist Church
of Long Beach. Like he built that thing. And he took over that church initially. That church has
been around for over a hundred years and it was in bad condition. He went there. He fixed the finances.
He got the church going. He built it. He got it functioning and everything. And so he was actually
qualified. And so they called him to pastor out at First Baptist Church of Hammond. He qualified
for that because he has a history of building. He has a history of fixing churches, helping them
financially, helping them to get back on board and causing the church to go forward for God.
Now you can look at a church like that. It's like, yeah, but the church is just pales in comparison
to when Jack House was there. Yeah, but you got to understand how many phases this church has gone
through though. You know, the fact that it's still standing is a testament. Okay. And here's the
thing. If a church declines and you get someone to take it over and it was previously here,
but they keep it about here, this is better than here, right? Like if you can keep it just here,
even though it's not here, as long as it's not all the way down here and it's just kind of hanging
out right here, that's good. Cause you don't want a church to die. You don't want a church
to just close down its doors, right? You want a church to hold fast. You want a church to just,
you know, hold fast, right? Why are you guys laughing? That's a biblical term.
You want it to hold fast. You want it to, you know, stick around and not close down its doors.
It should hold fast. It should be, it should be steadfast, unmovable. You understand? But you
know, if it doesn't, then that shows that this person, it doesn't have what it takes to actually
pastor a church. Okay. And here's the thing is that, you know, let's say a person meets all these
qualifications. Well, guess what? You still also have to meet the qualification of being productive.
Okay. And look, I'm not minimizing the importance of preaching either. Person should be able to
preach, be apt to teach. They should have biblical knowledge. They should be able to exhort and
rebuke. They should be able to preach interesting sermons too, right? Like you should be able to
keep the attention of the congregation and not preach stupid sermons, right? So anyways,
the point that I'm making here is the importance of ordaining the right kind of elder,
not just putting a warm body behind the pulpit and just, Oh man, we have a group of new IP
listeners here. Let's just stick some single guy there and we'll see what happens in the long run.
That's not necessarily the best idea. Now, unless it's a satellite church plant and you're overseeing
it and your hands on it, pretty in a strict manner, you're overseeing it. You're listening
to whatever he's preaching. That's different. You know, when we started Faith Award Baptist Church,
El Monte, Pastor Anderson listened to all the sermons, you know, cause he told me he's like,
if you preach something stupid, I'm going to tell you, you know, if you, if you fail, I'm going to,
you know, I have every right to just remove you, you know? And you said, what did you say? How dare
you? No, I was just like, sounds good. You know, cause I wasn't self-willed. It's just like, if he
removes me, then that's basically like God removing me. Cause God doesn't want me to be a pastor of
this church. And I would just be happy just to be a part of any church at this point, because you
know, we were removed from our previous congregation. I just want someone to congregate with, with other
believers. And I told him, I said, whatever you want, I just want my family and I to be a part
of a church where we can go soul winning, hear preaching. And if I can help you get this thing
off the ground, I'm more than willing to do so. Obviously I do want to be a pastor, but if that's
not the case, I'm all for it. I just want to be a part of the work. Okay. It's not like, well,
I'm the man here. I'm the man for the job. You can ordain me. I'm good. You know, and obviously
ambition is important. Don't get me wrong. Ambition is important, but you got to be able to
discern between the two because sometimes you could put someone behind the pulpit like that.
And then what happens is they disqualify themselves or the pastor wants to remove them and they don't
move. Adam Fannin being one of them, right? Oh, really ambitious. Yeah. To the point where he
didn't want, when the pastor told him to get out, he's just like, no, I'm, I'm, I'm actually the
pastor here now, you know, I'm taking over or whatever. Self-willed, not soon angry, not given
to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men,
sober. And I want you to notice this just, and what is implied with being just, it means you're
not a respecter of persons. You are an individual who esteems justice and righteousness and not
just associate with wicked people, right? Meaning that like, you know, if you're associated with a
pastor who stepped down because of moral sin, you should not be associating with that person,
especially calling him your friend. What the heck? What do you mean he's your friend? Oh, so you,
you're not just then because the person is unrepentant. The person has not declared
what his sin is. He hasn't publicly apologized for his behavior. He doesn't want to talk about
what his behavior is. I'm talking about Roger Jimenez. Okay. And you know, he didn't get right.
He put a stupid post, a majorly vague post that left everyone to the vices of their imagination
to come up with a conclusion. It could be anything from, you know, porn to aliens or something like,
you just don't know. Like any interpretation is just fine. Like aliens, really? I mean,
it pretty much could be anything. Okay. And look, folks, you know, I love my pastor friends,
but if something like that ever happens and they step down and they're unrepentant,
we're cutting ties. I'm not really that person's friend. Why? Because I'm not to be a respecter of
people. That's why. If a person steps down, first of all, if they say it's moral sin,
I'm going to tell that person, you tell me what the sin is. And I'm going to go tell everyone
what that is. Cause I don't want people like to wonder what that is. Okay. Don't, don't come at
that. Don't, what is this moral sin? What is that? But if they're unrepentant, then we cut ties.
We're not friends anymore. You're a dishonest individual. You've stepped down. You're, you're,
you're unrepentant. I want nothing to do with you. That should be the attitude that we have
towards anybody who is kicked out of church or steps down for those reasons. And look,
I'm not discounting if, if Roger Jimenez was a blessing to you in times past, he probably was,
and he'll probably get rewarded for that in heaven one day. But from here on out, he's done. He's
done. Okay. And whatever, you know, it is what it is, but let me just say this. We shouldn't
associate with him though, because according to the Bible, he's still unrepentant of whatever the
heck that we don't know about. And you know, as a pastor, it would be wrong for me to associate
with a person like that. Okay. It's wicked. And let me just say this. Let me just throw in this
for good measure. It's wicked to associate with anybody who's been thrown out of church.
And let me also clarify, not just from our church, if anybody has been thrown out of someone else's
church, it would be wrong for you to associate with that person, to have fellowship with that
person. Why? Because we're not the only church that exists. The rules apply all across the board.
Okay. If someone's been thrown out of someone else's church for some particular sin that they're
unrepentant of, we should not associate with that individual because they're under God's judgment.
And if you choose to associate with that person, then you are undermining the authority of that
church. You are unbinding what's been bound in heaven. You're ignoring and subverting that
and therefore causing the wrath of God to go upon your life because of your fellowship with those
who have been excommunicated from the church. Okay. So it obviously applies to our church,
but it applies to other churches as well. Now I'm not saying that we should go on a
crusade looking to see who's thrown out of which church, but we do live in the day and age of the
internet where that stuff is put online. We can see who's been thrown out or whatever.
And if you have knowledge, this person has been thrown out, if they've been excommunicated,
even if you don't agree with the pastor, you don't like the pastor,
if they were thrown out for a biblical reason, we should have no dealings with them. Right.
And so that's important to note there. And that's obviously a general statement. Obviously,
are there exceptions to that rule? There might be some exceptions to that rule,
but those are case by case basis. In general though, we should not associate with people
who've been thrown out of church, meaning that you shouldn't be taking pictures or hanging out
with people who have been excommunicated from their congregation. Okay. Plain and simple,
you know, and I would even say like, stop following these people online. You say why,
you know, I just follow them and see what's going on with them. Well, how about you just abstain
from all appearance of evil. Isn't that like the case there? Like shouldn't you say like, okay,
I'm not going to follow this person because then this person has been kicked out. I don't want to
make it seem as though I'm friends with this person. This person is under the judgment of God
and I don't want to make it seem as though I'm enabling this person by doing so. And make no
mistake about it. People who've been thrown out of church, they love it when other members of other
churches still keep in contact with them. They love that. They actually look for that. People
who've been thrown out of this church have contacted you and try to follow you and get you to read
their stupid articles or whatever because they want to make it seem, they want to believe that
people in the church are still on board with them. But they're under God's judgment. And so they
should not be fellowshiped with. Very important. What is that? It's separation is what it is.
It's ecclesiastical separation, separating from those. And keep in mind, the Bible says,
"Let him be unto thee as a heathen and as a publican." Well, I'm just trying to give this
person the benefit of the doubt. You're literally undermining and disregarding the heavenly judgment
on that person. And if you really care for that person, you love that person, you would allow
the local church that excommunicated them to deal with them appropriately, allow God's hand to be
against them so that in turn, they would possibly repent, get right with God, and then be reinstated
into a church. Plain and simple. All right, let's move on here. So those are the qualifications
of the pastor. Basically saying, look for these people and the people who qualify or have these
virtues. These are the people that should be behind the pulpit because they have these boxes
checked to a certain degree. You know, at least they're just virtuous Christians. But even on
top of this, you have chapter two that emphasizes the conduct, right? That's not even found in this
particular list. Look at verse number nine. He says, holding fast the faithful word as he
has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to convince the
gainsters. One more thing, by the way, running Pizarnski and Verity. Okay. You know, I know
Verity is going to get all mad about this, but you know, at the end of the day, though,
they chose him. And you know what? Pizarnski, in my opinion, is God's judgment on that church.
Okay. And what are you, what are you going to do about it? You're going to send your
women to criticize me online? What's, what, what would he do something about it? And then,
you know, the leadership that they have there, and I'm greatly disappointed in Oliver,
because at one point we were friends. And you know what? I did go to bat for him. And in fact,
on that Saturday, when all this happened, I specifically called him because we were such
good friends in times past. But when all the conflict between Jimenez and the new IP happened,
I did distance myself from Oliver and I never criticized him, but I never reached out to him
either because it will be inappropriate for me to do that. But once all this came out, I called him
and I said, Hey, I just want to let you know that if you need anything, let me know. And I said,
Hey, you know, if you need someone to preach at the church, you can call on me. Even if you don't
want someone to preach at the church, I said, I'll fly out there just to be with you and encourage
you. Even if you don't have me preach, I'm just there to be with you so that you can discern what
needs to be done. That's literally what I told them. I say, if you need anything, I'm your friend,
I said. And if you need some wisdom on who to choose for the next pastor, just let me know.
I don't have to preach. I said, I don't have to be the pastor. I can literally just fly there
on my own dime, just to kind of hang out with you and encourage you, you let me know, I said.
That's all I said. And he's like, oh, I appreciate that. He gets up and preaches,
saying that people were calling him on Saturday night, pressuring him to choose someone from the
new IFB. He doesn't name me, but he, you know, obviously, I mean, I'm the one who called though,
but just, just to clarify things, I did not pressure him and say, you need to choose,
now it would have been a good idea for them to choose a new IFB pastor, a builder. Okay.
That would have been a good idea. And let's say he wasn't talking about me in that particular point
in that sermon. He meant for me to listen to that and anybody else to listen to that and think that
it was someone from the new IFB, because look folks, he's as vague as his former pastor.
He didn't say who it was. And you know what wisdom in on his end would have said, you know what,
let me, let me actually say who this was. Let's pastor me here who was for me, think that I'm
talking about him since he tried to help me out. Right? I mean, a good friend would have said,
by the way, I did have another pastor reach out to me and he is from the new IFB,
but he was actually kind to me. He reached out to me. He wanted to help me. And so I really
appreciate him for that. That wasn't the person I'm talking about, but he didn't clarify anything.
So what am I supposed to believe? Oh, you're talking about me. When I reached out my hands
to help you, you know, and I don't want to be a pastor of your church. I don't want that church.
Do you think I want to be a pastor of Verity? Like when all this happened, people were like,
what if they call you to be a pastor? I was like, I will never be the pastor of that church.
And I say, let's just say I was the last choice and I, and I go there. Okay. I'll take over.
I'm not going to be the pastor. I'm still going to pastor here. This is my church,
but I'm just going to freaking rain chaos in that congregation. But there's no desire within me.
He's like, Oh man, I'm going to take that church over and you know, just, just completely just run
everybody out and like no desire. There was no desire. Literally call them. And that's what I
told. I said, you know, I said, do you need help? What's going on? And then he told me, he said,
we're, we're, we're considering someone. He didn't want to tell me who was. I said, you don't have
to tell me. I said, but just, I don't want you to be discouraged. I said tomorrow morning, when you
go and preach, just make sure you're positive, you know, strengthen the brethren. Do I have anything
to gain from that conversation? No, I didn't gain from that. I did it literally out of my love for
him and my desire to want Verity to just continue to exist just as a church so that it can recover
itself, right? But then he gets up and preaches that. What nonsense is that? You know, why are
you going to get up and say all these things and then, you know, not think that I'm going to listen
to them and potentially surmise that you might be referring to me since I'm the one who called you
on Saturday? And if someone else called you on Saturday, okay, clarify to the, to the listener
that it wasn't me who said that to you. The point that I'm making here is that, you know,
I think God's judgment is just on Verity. That's just it. And if Verity doesn't agree with me,
what are you going to do? I mean, what are you going to do? You can't do anything about it.
And let me just make myself very clear. I'm not for Verity. I'm not a supporter of Verity.
I'm not a supporter of Jimenez. I'm definitely not a supporter of Pszarnski. We're not friends.
We're not cool. You know, people think, oh man, Pastor Jimenez and Pastor Mejia were like great
friends. We were not great friends. You know, we were associates. We've chatted once in a while,
but we were definitely not close. That doesn't mean I hate him or anything like that. But,
you know, a lot of the friendship was one-sided. Let's just be honest. Okay. And so, you know,
I would want Verity to recover. But, and I specifically told the men during that particular
time, I said, I don't know who they're going to choose, but I will say this. I said, if they
they choose Pzarnsky, that is confirmation that that church is under the judgment of
God. And that's before we even knew anything about. I guess we were like, "Oh, it'll probably
be Pastor Thompson," you know, because they know him or, you know, Pastor Matthew Stuckey,
because he still kind of works for them or whatever, and he's built a lot of stuff. These
would be the people. And someone said, "What about Pzarnsky?" I was like, "I don't know.
That would be a bad idea." I said, "If that ever happens," you know, I'm like, "Hey, if
that ever happens though, that's confirmation that that church is being judged." And then
it happened. I'm like, "Oh, it's being judged. Dang." You know, Yugoslavia and the whole
conversation is like, "Oh, okay, yeah. That's what it was then. I guess I was wrong." I'm
over here thinking the best of the situation and thinking, "Oh, it's going to recover.
Maybe it might get a new IFB guy in there. It's going to thrive." How can you say that
about Buzarnsky? You know, because of the fact that he's a pastor, he should be held
to a higher standard, and he ran off people in his previous church that didn't hold fast,
the people who came from our church. There's some people who left our church that I felt
needed to leave our church and needed to no longer be here, but there's people who were
here who just left on good terms. I feel bad for them, and I'm thinking to myself, "Man,
what are they going to do?" Well, that family left a long time ago, a couple months ago,
because of weird stuff that was happening there already. And I'm just like, "Oh man,
who knows all the problems?" Five people, I don't know how many people were there. But
for a pastor to just up and leave his congregation, there's no love there. That's just it. So
anyways, I can say more about this, but we're talking about Titus and stuff, so we got to
get back on here. So he says, "The pastor should hold fast the faithful word, as he
hath been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to convince
the gainsayer." What is a gainsayer? Well, think about this, saying against, right? It
basically means someone who contradicts you. It's a contrarian, okay? It's someone who
likes to strive, it's someone who likes to contradict you. So he's saying here that the
pastor should know what the Bible says in order to convince, and it says, to exhort
the gainsayer, which is kind of interesting. Because the gainsayer, we would think, is
a person who's really wicked and evil for contradicting authority or something like
that, which is true. There's individuals out there like that, but then there's certain
people that's just kind of in their nature, right, to be a little contrarian. So the Bible
says here that we need to exhort them and convince the gainsayer, show them, "Hey, this
is what the Bible says. You're wrong about this," and so forth. So obviously there needs
to be a level of understanding of the Word of God to be able to help people to kind
of normalize them in their doctrine. He says in verse 10, "For there are many unruly and
vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be
stopped, whose subvert whole houses, teaching things which they are not for filthy lucre
sake." So I would assume that Crete is just like a hotbed of converts right now, because
everyone's chomping at the bits to take this island over. You have converts already from
Paul, but you also have the Jews who are compassing sea and land, meaning they're crossing over
to Crete to make plastilites. And it specifically says here that it is the Jews. That's why
it calls them the circumcision. That's a term typically used to describe Jews according
to the flesh. And it says that their mouths must be stopped. Why? Because they're subverting
houses and they are teaching false doctrine to make money. That's what it means to make
filthy lucre, dishonest game. And Matthew 23, Jesus said that they're devouring widows
houses, right? So they're taking offerings in these houses of people. They're teaching
them false doctrine. They are espousing heresy. They're deceiving people. And Paul's saying,
hey, you need to be able to convince the gainsayers. You need to be able to exhort the gainsayers.
And you've got to recognize that there is an enemy in Crete who is also working twice
as hard as well known as the Jews. Okay. He says, verse 12, one of themselves and themselves
is referring to the circumcision. 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. Now let me explain to you what this passage is referring
to because there's various interpretations of this, but I'm going to give you my interpretation
and why I think it's the correct one. And that is that the themselves obviously the
prophet of their own is referring to the circumcision. Okay. I don't believe it's referring to the
cretins. I don't think the cretins is saying the cretins are always evil beasts, you know,
slow bellies and he's criticizing these people. I believe it's the Pharisees, these Jews who
are saying this about the cretins. Okay. Now why would they say that? Well, because of
the fact that a broken clock is right at least twice a day. Okay. And there's, they might
be exaggerating a little bit, but there's probably some truth in this criticism. Okay.
So aside from the fact that they're subverting whole houses, they're teaching things which
they are not. They're also saying some right things about the cretins. So the cretins,
the passage seems to indicate that the cretins have a bad reputation, meaning they're dishonest
because it says they're always liars. They don't know how to tell the truth. Okay. This
is like some third world country behavior here or something. He says that they're always
liars. They're evil beasts, slow bellies. Now the evil beast, I don't really know what
that means. You know, that might be the exaggerated part of what the Pharisees are saying. They're
just like, Oh, these people are just wicked or whatever. But you know, if he's saying
slow bellies is referring to the fact that the Christians are probably overweight, slothful,
lazy people. Okay. And you're like, Oh no, if the Pharisees are saying this, they're
just lying because they're just always telling lies. Well, verse 13, this witness is true.
Paul's like, it's actually true about the Christians that they are like this. Okay.
They are dishonest. They're evil beasts in their slow bellies. So what is, what is the,
the answer, the solution? Verse 13, this witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply that
they may be sound in the faith. And I believe that the person he's telling Titus to rebuke
are the Christians, not the Pharisees. Okay. So how do you know that? Well, because Pharisees
are reprobates who can't be made sound in the faith. He's saying, rebuke them sharply.
And what is the result of them being rebuked sharply? They become sound in the faith.
Apostate Jews can't be sound in the faith. In fact, later on in the chapter they're unto
every good work, reprobate. Okay. So what he's telling you, what the apostle Paul is
telling Titus is to rebuke the Christians, right? To be sound in the faith. Now, what
does it mean to be sound in the faith? Well, it's using conjunction with their behavior.
If they're dishonest, they're evil beasts, they're slow bellies, their character has
to change. Now, how do we know this is the proper interpretation? Well, because the result
of rebuking them is they become sound in the faith. Chapter two says what? Speak the things
that would become sound doctrine. And then he starts going into the right way to behave.
He talks about the aged men, the aged women, that they're not nags. They're not, you know,
they're living righteously. They're loving their husbands. These are all like, you know,
things of conduct. You understand? And so when he talks about them being sound in the
faith, he's talking about the fact that he wants them to behave correctly so that the
those who are of the contrary part have nothing evil to say of them. You understand? They're
being a bad testimony is what they're doing. Okay. So he says, this witness is true. He
says in verse 14, not giving hate to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from
the truth. So aside from the fact that they're lazy, they're dishonest and they're evil
beasts, whatever that may be. Okay. Uh, they, they're also gullible. So they're, they're
being turned over to Zionism, right? Cause they're giving heat to Jewish fables. So these,
these Jews are coming in, they're infiltrating, they're teaching false doctrine. Oh yeah,
it's true. You know, we do have to be circumcised, you know, and all this other nonsense that
does not exist in the new Testament and should not be done for salvation. You know, the Pharisees
were teaching in act chapter 15 that they had to be circumcised in order to be saved,
which is not even a teaching of the Old Testament. Okay. That's a Jewish fable. He says in verse
15, unto the pure, all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving
is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled. Now, why is he saying that? Well,
this is a criticism of the Jews who are proselytizing because when the Jews come to Crete, they
just see everyone is defiled. They're just like, nothing's pure here. Right. You understand
what I'm saying? They're just like, these people are just all wicked and evil, but yet
at the same time, they're proselytizing them. Right. They're just like, you know, be like
us, worship us, but you're just a goy. No, look at all these goys and just, you know,
they want to, they want to convert them all the while still seeing them as defiled. Right.
To them, nothing is pure. When we go into a nation to evangelize, we may observe the
impurities of the land, but we see potential, right? Don't we see potential? You know, we
went to Guatemala this past week and you know, we were in Antigua and I'm thinking to myself
like, I would never want to live here. In fact, you know, we're driving, we took an
Uber and like the Uber driver was asking me, she's like, "So you're Mexican, huh?" I'm
like, "No." She's like, "Why? You speak like a Mexican." I was like, "Oh, why?" You know?
I didn't take it as a diss, I promise. You know, I was honored actually to be referred
to as a Mexican. But over there, it's like an insult because like to call a Guatemalan
a Mexican is just like, whoa, that's a major diss, okay? That's a major insult because
they do not want to be referred to as Mexican. But I grew up with Mexicans and I love Mexicans.
You know what I mean? So I don't mind being mistaken for one because Mexicans have been
good to me. Okay? And so, you know, I have no issue with that. I was like, oh yeah, you
know, it's because I grew up with Mexicans. So I talk like one or whatever. So yeah. But
a lot of the cultural things that I saw in Guatemala, I was just like, man, I just never
live here. Like really isn't that your homeland? No, this is my homeland. This is the motherland
here. Okay? I'm not like them. I'm just kidding. You know, I, you know, it was a beautiful
country, but I just could never picture myself living there. It's just, I would never want
to live there. Okay. And I definitely have some criticisms about Guatemala, a lot criticisms,
but not necessarily, you know, I have the criticisms, but I also see the potential,
which is why when we went there, it was just like, man, these people are so receptive.
The indigenous people were really receptive. Those are the ones we preached the gospel
to the most. We preached the gospel to 14 people, 13 got saved. There's only one person
who didn't get saved and he was a Pentecostal. You know, but the other ones, they were just
super humble. And I thought to myself like, man, these people need the gospel. You say,
how did you view them as pure? You know what I mean? Like it was very touching to the heart.
In fact, you know, we talked to some ladies and even afterwards they just started telling
about their problems and the trials they're experiencing, the things that they're going
through. And my heart was broken for them, you know? And I thought to myself like these
people have such pure hearts that all they want is the truth. They want a better quality
of life. You know, they're obviously, the situation that they're in caused them to have
a tender heart towards the gospel, right? Whereas the false prophets is like, oh, these
are all, see, this is where all the illegal immigrants need to go. They need to go back
to their countries. People are all defiled. They're all stupid, low IQ. They're just because
there's people out there like that. They just view Africa as just being an inferior place
with inferior people, stupid people. They're just defiled. They're heathen. But keep in
mind that that's actually the attitude of the Jew who views the Goy in that manner.
That's actually the attitude that they have. Now, obviously, there's countries out there
that are just completely disgusting. And yeah, the nation is defiled in many ways, India
being one of them. The curry and all that and just the garbage in the streets. And it's
majorly defiled. And it's because of spiritual reasons, though, because they're worship of
false gods. The point that I'm making here is that a child of God goes into a place like
that and it visibly sees it. What does he see? He sees it's defiled, but he also sees
the purity in it. He sees the potential in the people that can be one to Christ because
of it. Right? We see the child and you know, we're, Brother Ulysses, when we were done,
we're watching these children, these indigenous children. And it was like, it was like five
children, right? They're like all brothers and sisters and they're playing. But you
know what they're playing with? A plastic bottle. They're just kind of kicking it around.
And it was really sad. It was really sad to see. They're just kind of kicking it around.
And then once they were done, they would just go and just hug each other and just kind of
hold each other. And I'm just like, man, this is like breaking my heart here. Because when
you go into a nation, you've got to look beyond the cultural stigmas or whatever and see that
these are people who are just lost. Whereas the Jews, they're just like, let's just get
these goys to support us. And they're all defiled. They're all disgusting. They're not
as good as us. They're not as good as Jews or whatever. That's what we see. Why? Because
unto the pure, all things are pure. But unto them that are defiled is nothing pure, and
unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and their conscience is defiled. They
profess that they know God, but in works they deny him. This is basically reiterating
what 2 Timothy 4 says, or 2 Timothy 3 says, that they have a form of godliness, but they
deny the power they're of. And it talks about their works here, and it says being abominable
and disobedient. And I want you to notice this, and unto every good work reprobate.
This is what I was talking about at the soulening training, if you remember. The soulening training
was saying that even the good works that people do if they're not saved is just rejected of
god. It's reprobate, right? Like you can be Mother Teresa, which I've heard some stuff
about her, but you know, you can dig wells, and you can give to charity, and you can help
the leper, and god's eyes, every good work is reprobate if you're not saved. It doesn't
mean anything, right? Especially if you're trying to do it to earn god's favor, earn
salvation. Why is it reprobate? Because it's a mockery of salvation because Jesus Christ
has already paid for it. So then someone says, "Well, no, I'm going to do it my way. I'm
going to be more righteous than Jesus Christ. I'm going to earn my way into heaven by doing
these good works." Whereas the Bible says, "They're unto every good work reprobate."
So they can give millions and billions of dollars to charity, which someone like Bill
Gates has done, and yet that dude is super freaking wicked. He's a freaking pedophile.
He should be hung with a millstone about his neck. The guy is extremely wicked. Every good
work that he does is reprobate because he's reprobate. He can't produce anything good.
And so what the apostle Paul is saying here is just when you have these Pharisees and
these Jews going into Crete and you see them doing good works, just know this, it's not
a good word, it's all reprobate. God doesn't, you know, the plowing of the wicked is sin
according to the Bible. Doesn't mean anything in the eyes of God. You try to tell me that
all these people that feed the poor, you know, God's not going to like bless them for that.
No, he's not. Any blessings that they receive from God is not because of their works, it's
because he's good to the just as well as the unjust. He sends rain upon believers and non-believers
because they're simply experiencing the overflow of God's blessing on humanity in general.
That's what it is. If there's someone out there who's an unbeliever and they're being
blessed in a certain area, don't think it's because they're a righteous person. It's because
God is righteous. And the blessing that he pours upon believers ends up extending and
overflowing to unbelievers happens all the time. It doesn't put God's stamp of approval
on that person. You understand what I'm saying? And so what we see here is that the apostle
Paul is basically telling Titus, "Hey, you need to put in some work. We need to ordain
elders because we need to fight the onslaught of Jews and Pharisees that are making proselytes.
They're subverting whole houses. They're making filthy lucre. And we need to get these
Cretians on board with their conduct," which is why he gets into Titus chapter two about
the conduct in our conversation. And if I were to surmise, I would think that the evil
beast's slow bellies and the liars is probably talking about the women in Crete. So how do
you know that? Because the vast majority of chapter two, he spends more time on the women
than he does with the men. There's more instructions in Titus chapter two for women than for the
aged men. He gives a couple of instructions for the aged men, and then he just gets into
the women. He starts digging into them. And so I don't think that's on accident. I think
that is on purpose. I know Verity doesn't believe that, but I don't care. What are you
going to do? True. Anyways, that's book of Titus chapter one there. Let's pray. Father,
we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the book of Titus. Pray that you'd help
us Lord as your people to recognize the importance of church planning, but also to not plant
churches just on a whim. Lord help us as your people to make sure that we prove those who
want to be pastors. And obviously no system is perfect. People are going to fall short
Lord, but help us just to make sure we do our best on our part to be able to vet people,
train people, and send out people who meet the qualifications, but also people who are
producers not destroyers. And I pray that you bless us as we go on our way. We love
you. We thank you. We pray this thing is in Jesus' name. Amen.