Voddie Baucham - The Sufficiency of Scripture in the Disciple Making Ministry of the Church
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/voddie-baucham-sermons--5599251/support.
Speaker 1: The National Center for Family Integrated Churches welcomes Votie Bauckham
with the message, The Sufficiency of Scripture in the Disciple-Making
Ministry of the Church and the Home.
Speaker 2: Listen, in this last session, we have an opportunity to
again turn our focus to the sufficiency of scripture. And
in this session, we're looking at the scriptures and the
sufficiency of scripture, um, as it pertains to the discipling
ministry of the church and the discipling ministry of the
home and how that discipling ministry works together in a
sort of synergistic way. And if you're like me, the
term synergy is just something that you probably usually don't
like to use. And as a staunch, fire-breathing Calvinist, I
can't stand the word synergy most of the time. But
when it comes to the relationship between the home and
the church and this process of discipleship, there is a synergy.
And it's important for us to grasp that and to
understand that. And as we talk about this ministry of discipleship,
if you were in the session that I did earlier,
we talked about youth ministry. But one of the points,
one of my problems is With youth ministry is that
first and foremost, it has no basis whatsoever in the
word of God. It is biblically indefensible. You cannot go
to the scriptures and make any coherent argument for systematically
age graded ministries. You can't do it. You can't do it.
And that's my biggest problem with it. And when you
start to talk about that and people try to defend
age segregation in the church and these ministries that sort
of look like the school system in many ways, that
come from the philosophy of individuals like G. Stanley Hall,
philosophies of individuals who are committed, committed Darwinian evolutionists, who
believe in the recapitulation theory, and because of all of that,
they believe that you have to divide people up by ages,
not because of anything other than Darwinian evolutionary philosophy. That's
where age-graded school systems come from, and that's where age-graded
Sunday schools come from, and that's where age-graded youth ministries,
children's ministries, so on and so forth come from. And
people will often ask this question. Well, come on. It's
just an hour a week. What harm can it do?
It's just an hour a week.
Speaker 3: Really?
Speaker 2: What if you have a problem with pornography on the Internet?
Just an hour a week. Well, are you saying that
Sunday school is the equivalent? Not my point. Here's my point.
You can't argue that something is harmless solely on the
basis that it happens only an hour a week. That
argument is as weak as well water. You cannot argue
that just because it only happens for a limited period
of time, that that means it's okay. Because if it
is philosophically and theologically diametrically opposed to the biblical worldview,
I don't care if it's half an hour a week,
it's a problem. And let me clear up a myth.
There's a myth that family integrated churches hate Sunday school.
Family integrated churches think Sunday school is of the devil. Folks,
there are family integrated churches that have Sunday school. They're
not age graded. But nobody says that because you have
a class that meets for an hour before church, that
you're of the devil. If you want to have a
class that meets for an hour before church, or for
an hour after church, or on Thursday, or on Wednesday,
or Tuesday, or whatever day you want to have a
class for people to get together and sit down and
study something, that's wonderful. But where, where, pray tell, do
you find any justification for breaking it up according to
ages and grades? I'll tell you where. Darwinian Evolutionary Marxist ideology.
That's where. And nowhere else. Nowhere else. So as we
talk about this process, let's just get the straw man,
let's just bury the straw man, okay? This is not
about arguing as to whether or not someone can have
a class that meets before church or that meets after church.
That's not the point. Let's bury another straw man, shall we?
A straw man that says, you know those family integrated
church folks, they believe that the church doesn't have any
authority as it relates to discipleship. That the authority rests
only in the home and that the church doesn't have
any authority and that a pastor doesn't have any authority
to do any teaching or any ministry or any discipleship
or any counseling with anyone If they're part of a
father's household, that's a straw man, people. Because in case
you realize it or not, right now and throughout this
entire weekend, your family has been taught. Amen. We didn't
just say fathers come in here and listen and then
go and dispense the information to your wife and children.
I'm teaching everybody. Everybody. And that's what we do. We
teach everybody. Amen? That's a straw man. It's a complete
straw man. But what does it look like when we're
doing discipleship and respecting those God-given institutions? What does the
synergy between those institutions look like? Well, I'm glad you asked.
Open your Bibles with me to the book of Titus.
The book of Titus. We're going to look at Titus
chapter 1 and Titus chapter 2. And we're going to
start at the end and then go back to the beginning.
Don't ask me why. Just trust me. We'll start at
the end. We'll go back to the beginning. And you'll
understand why. You'll understand why in just a moment. So
we'll start actually in Titus chapter 2. We'll look here
in Titus chapter 2. Let's look at the first part
of this. In Titus chapter 2. Before I do this,
let me give you these three things. I'll give you
these three things and then I'll pull them out of
the text for you and show you where these things
come from. Three things that God has given us. It's
sort of like a three-legged stool. I like to talk
about it like a three-legged stool. It's a three-legged discipleship stool.
God has given us these three gifts today. And through
these three gifts, he has provided for us a wonderful
mechanism and opportunity to be disciples. Those three are these.
Number one, and I'm just giving it to you in
this order because it's the order that we'll look at
these things in. I'm not saying that this one is
superior or first. I'm giving you these three because they're
the order that we'll encounter them in the text. Number one,
he gives us godly, mature men and women in the church. Godly,
mature men and women in the church. And by the way,
all of those words are important. Godly, mature men and
women in the church. All those words are important. And
I'll explain why all those words are important. That's number one.
He gives us godly, mature men and women in the church. Secondly,
he gives us godly, manly elders. All those words are
important too. He gives us godly, manly Thirdly, he gives
us godly, biblically functioning homes. Those are the three. And
we'll look at all three of these in Titus chapter
1 and Titus chapter 2 and how the three of
them work together as this three-legged stool. And you need
all three, by the way. You need all three. They
are important. It's imperative that we have all three. Why?
Because God says so. We need godly, mature men and
women in the church. We need godly, manly elders. And
we need godly, biblically functioning homes. We desperately need these.
If any of these is taken away, then there is
great difficulty. Is it possible to do discipleship if one
of these is missing? Yes, it's possible. But it's greatly
hindered if any one of these three is missing. Look
with me, if you will, in Titus chapter 2. But
as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older
men are to be by the way stop there and
go down to verse 3 older women likewise are to
be why is that important here's what you need to
understand we're not just talking about people who by virtue
of their age qualify for what's being lined out here
in Titus chapter 2 Just being older is not enough.
Just being gray-headed is not enough. He is speaking here
about the character of godly men and godly women who
have walked with God over time. So what we're talking
about is the sanctification process as it matures, the sanctification
process as it bears fruit over time in the life
of a man or a woman. We are not talking
about a person who merely is old, and by virtue
of being old, they qualify as a Titus 2 man
or a Titus 2 woman. Nothing could be further from
the truth. There are two types of older people who
aren't sinning like they used to, okay? There's one older
person who doesn't sin like they used to because they've
been born again. God has absolutely transformed their lives. He
is working in them to will and to do his
good pleasure. They are not who they used to be
by the glory of almighty God. That's one type of
older person. Here's the other type of older person. They
don't do it anymore because they got too old. Can't
say amen. You ought to say ouch. All right. They
don't do it anymore because they got too old. Are
they more godly? No, they're not more godly. They're just tired.
They just can't get out there like they used to.
So what we're talking about here is not people who
qualify as Titus II men or Titus II women merely
by virtue of gray hair or merely by virtue of age.
We're talking about a character that is formed as the
gospel transforms a life, takes an individual from darkness to light,
and then in a process of sanctification makes them more
and more like Jesus every day because they've been walking
with God. So we're talking about godly, mature men and women.
And all of those are important. We're talking about godly
men and women. We're talking about mature men and women.
We're talking about men and women because God's very clear
about men and women here and about the relationship of
discipleship being very gender specific. And we're talking about in
the church. We've heard about this already. We all listen
to the charge on a number of instances on yesterday
and on last night. about how desperately we need the church.
We've heard that charge. You hear that charge, hear again.
This is an epistle that was given to the church.
This is about the church. This is about the structure
of the church. This is about the ministry of the church.
This is about discipleship in the church. These are about godly, older,
mature men and women in the church. If we are
divorcing ourselves from the church, we are divorcing ourselves from
the mechanism and the blessing that God has given us
for our own discipleship and sanctification. We need the church.
And we need godly, mature men and women in the church.
One of the problems that I have with many of
the movements that are there, and we've heard several times
over the course of this weekend about the emerging church
movement and other types of church movements. One of the
problems that I have with many of these movements, these
burgeoning movements, is this. Is that they are monolithic as
it relates to age. And basically it's just glorified youth group.
It's young people. We're a church targeting 20-somethings. No, you're
not a church if you're just targeting 20-somethings. I don't
know what you are. You can call yourself something else.
But if you're just targeting 20-somethings, don't call yourself a church.
The church is multi-generational in nature. Amen? We desperately need godly,
mature men and women. What does that look like? You
guys ask all the right questions. Older men are to be,
here's the first one, sober-minded. Older men are to be sober-minded.
Older men are to be dignified. I like that. There's
nothing like an undignified older man. I mean, an undignified
younger man is not too pretty. But an undignified older man,
that just doesn't work. Older men are to be dignified.
They're to be sober-minded, they're to have their head about them,
they're to have their wits about them, and they are
to be dignified. Why? Because they work really hard to
be dignified? what's happening here is not Paul saying, here's
what I want you to work real hard to get
the older men to do. No, he is giving us
the identifying marks of older men who belong to Jesus
Christ and who are sanctified by the power of his
spirit over time. One of the marks of a man
who has walked with God over time is that he
will be sober-minded and he will be dignified. It's one
of the evidences that he actually belongs God self-controlled older
men ought to be self-controlled in fact is this not
one of the great differences between the older man and
the younger man self-control the difference between the older man
and the younger man can be summed up by a
conversation that happened between two men as they sat at
a red light they sit here at the red light
and the older man is actually driving The older man
is a car collector. The older man has a sports car.
You pick the sports car, but it's an older sports car,
but it will still flat out run. He sits there
and the younger man is sitting next to him in
this sports car that the older man is driving far
too slowly for the younger man's taste. The younger man's
sitting there going, why have all this under the hood
if you won't punch it? And all of a sudden,
another car comes up besides their car. Another sports car.
Revs its engine. Looks over. Gives them the look. The
universal symbol for less race. It goes something like this.
Light turns green. Other car peels out. The older man
just Gradually rolls off the light. The younger man sits
there going, we could have taken him. The older man says,
I know. So why do I need to? Self-control. Difference
between the older man and the younger man is. You
say to the younger man, I double dog dare you.
And he'll try it. You say to the older, mature,
self-controlled man, I double dog dare you. And he says,
even if I could, I wouldn't want to. Self-control. Which,
by the way, is not really self-control at all. Because remember,
we are talking about the gospel taking root and taking
hold in a man's life. We're talking about a man
being genuinely converted. We're talking about a man over time changing.
being conformed to the very image of Jesus Christ. So
what happens here really only looks like self-control, when ultimately
what it is is a yielding to the control of
the Spirit of the living God. Sound in faith. Sound
in faith. One of the marks of a man who's
been walking with God over time is that he ought
to be sound in faith. If there is anything that
burdens me, it is this idea. In our culture, in
modern American Christianity, we will not tolerate biblical, theological, and
spiritual maturity in men. Let me say that again. In
modern American Christianity, We will not tolerate biblical, spiritual, theological
maturity in men. We just can't have it. Nothing above mediocrity. Oh,
what do you mean? I mean, we're at this conference
and we, I mean, of course we're all about this.
We want men to be mature. We want men to
grow up. Listen, I can prove it to you. In
most of our churches, if you have a young man
who's 16, 17, 18 years old, and this young man
is reading church history and he's reading theology, He knows
his Bible. He's studying his Bible. He has a passion
for the word of God, has a passion for the
things of God and a passion for the people of God.
You know what happens in the average American church? They
look at that 16, 17, 18 year old young man
and they say, God must be calling you to preach.
Speaker 3: Really?
Speaker 2: Why because you love the Bible you love theology you
love church history you're passionate about the things of God
now what we ought to say is well that just
means you're a Christian right no not in the modern
American church and you know this is true In the
modern American church, if a young man gets that serious
about the things of God, immediately the mediocrity of manhood
in the modern American church says, you need to get
away from the rest of us because we will not
tolerate your passion. You've got to go get a seminary degree.
You've got to go become a pastor. You've got to
put reverend in front of your name so that I
no longer feel guilty about my own mediocre pursuits. And
because of that, Modern American Christianity is the only place
in our culture where we will tolerate this cognitive dissonance
between a man who will say, I've been walking with
God 30, 40, 50 years and I know nothing. Because
anywhere else, I don't care what you name the field.
Name the field where in our culture, and I'm talking
about just anybody, just lost pagans. Name the field. I
don't care if it's bricklaying. I don't care if it's
truck driving, whatever it is. If there's a man on
the job who says, I've been doing this for 20 years,
30 years, 40 years. And another young man comes to
the job and says, hey, I've heard you've been doing
this 30 years, 40 years. I know if there's anybody
who can show me the ropes, you can show me
the ropes. And we'd all say, yeah, of course, if
he's been doing it that long, you ought to be
able to come to him. He ought to be able
to show you the ropes. But what if the young
man comes to the older man who's been doing this
for 30, 40, 50 years and says, brother, you've been
laying bricks for 40 years and I've just started. Can
I just come alongside you and watch you so that
I can learn how to be a bricklayer? Because I'm
sure you're a master at it now. Oh, I ain't
no master bricklayer. I don't know nothing about no bricks.
I see we laugh, but how about this? You've been
walking with God 20, 30, 40 years. Sir, can I
come alongside you as a younger man and you mentor
me in doctrine, theology, Bible, and church history? What's the response?
I ain't no preacher. That's the only place in America
where we accept something so ludicrous. Where a man can say,
I've been walking with God 30, 40 years, and I
proudly declare I know nothing. I'm ignorant. I'm a babe
in Christ. A 40-year-old baby, and I'm not ashamed of it.
Nowhere else is that acceptable. Only in the church. Only
in the church. But the text says, one of the
evidences of a man that belongs to God, who has
been walking with God over time, is that he is
sound in faith. He's sound. We're called to contend earnestly
for the faith that was once for all handed down
to the saints. And yet we proudly proclaim that because
we don't have ordination papers, we're unwilling and unable to
do it. If nothing else, just having read through the
Bible for 40 years ought to make you somewhat of
an expert. Amen? Something. But understand, This is a gift
that God is giving. It's a disciple-making gift that God
is giving. Look at the next part. Sound in faith,
in love. You look at that, and here's what's ironic.
Sound in faith and sound in love. Our older men, again,
the modern American church, our older men, the ones to
whom we would look as examples of what it means
to be a loving Christian, That's almost laughable. No, no.
Older Christian men are not seen as examples of loving.
They ought to be. When we look at Ephesians chapter five,
wives be subject to your own husbands as unto the Lord.
But what does it say to husbands? Husbands love your
wives as Christ loved the church. Folks, If there's a
man who is in Christ, who is born again, who
has been walking with God for 20, 30, 40, 50
years and walking with his wife 20, 30, 40, 50
years and his number one job description is to love
her the way Christ loved the church, he ought to
be the example of love for everyone in the church.
But is he?
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: Older men in our churches ought to out-love everybody. Sound
in love. But that's not what we expect. That's not
what we anticipate. And in steadfastness. There's the picture. There's
the picture of the older man. The godly, mature man
Man in the church that God has given as a
gift to his bride, the church, that over time begins
to mature, begins to take root by walking with God
and being sanctified. That's what he looks like. Older women
likewise are to be.
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 2: Reverent in behavior. Just like an undignified older man is
a travesty, an irreverent older woman is a travesty. Amen, somebody.
There's just nothing like an irreverent older woman. An older
woman ought to be, if she's nothing else, she ought
to be reverent. Well, I don't know, what do you mean?
What is an older woman who's not reverent? What does
an older woman who's irreverent look like? Well, we don't
have time to go into all that, but can I
just tell you one thing? Here's one tip off. of
an irreverent older woman. You hear her long before you
see her. I'm going to leave that one right there.
Reverent in behavior, not slanderers. Not slanderers. Isn't it amazing?
Women are known more for their words than men. Women,
I believe, have a greater ability than men to both
heal and to harm with the tongue. And one of
the evidences that a woman has been walking with God
over time and being sanctified is that she is not
a slanderer. Her tongue is not venomous. She does not
speak words that tear others down. Or a slave to
much wine. Older women are not slaves to much wine.
Controlled by outward influences like that. They are to teach
what is good. This is the equivalent of the sound
in faith for the older man. In other words, instead
of slander, an older woman who's been walking with God,
instead of having a quick tongue and a sharp tongue
that is slanderous towards others, what she's characterized by as
a result of her sanctification in Christ is that when
she opens her mouth, pearls of biblical wisdom fall out.
When a godly, mature woman speaks, it is the word
of God. That flows forth. When a woman has been
walking with God over time. Being sanctified by him over time.
Her words are a source not only of blessing and healing.
But they are a source of truth. As she has
hidden the word of God in her heart. That she
might not sin against him. And out of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaks. Because this woman is
sound in the faith. When she speaks forth. She is
not speaking forth the words of Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Phil
or Dr.
Speaker 3: Spock.
Speaker 2: But the words of Dr. Jesus. Why is this important?
She teaches what is good and so. He's going to
answer the question.
Speaker 3: Why?
Speaker 2: Is this so important and so train the young women
just stop there I know we know this we're familiar
with this but just stop there for a moment just
for a moment I want us to go through a
little exercise here instead of going forward with this stop
right there There's a statement that comes after this. But
we're going to put a parenthesis here and go to
the end of the statement. And so train the younger
women and then go down to the end. And it
says at the end of verse 5 that the word
of God may not be reviled. Now, stop there. If
you and I had never read this before and we
were to say, older women are to be sound in
the faith or older women are to... Teach what is
good so that they may train the younger women. And
you stop and there's a parenthetical statement there. Whatever training
these older women are going to give younger women, the
purpose of it is that the word of God would
not be blasphemed. The word of God would not be defiled.
What sorts of things would we put in that parenthesis?
older women i'll teach younger women you know um theology
bible um apologetics um whatever there's so many things that
we would put in that parentheses if we're saying our
goal is that the word of god would not be
defiled but that's not what god puts in that parentheses
what does he put there And so train the young
women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure,
working at home, kind, submissive to their own husbands, that
the word of God may not be reviled. There you
have it. So what's the undercurrent flowing here with the
relationship of the older woman and the younger woman? Here's
the undercurrent. It's the home. You notice that this goes
straight to the home. So God says, I've given you
this in the church. And one of the reasons that
I've given you this in the church, godly, mature men
and women is so that in the case of older women.
They open their mouths and pearls of biblical wisdom come out.
And as a result of the pearls of biblical wisdom
coming out of the mouths of older women, younger women
are better equipped to do in their homes what God
has called younger women to do. Here's what's sad. We
take Titus chapter 2. And by the way, notice this.
Titus chapter 2 does not say, An older woman should
teach the younger women in the church. No, it says
older women. Titus 2 is not a model for women's
Bible study. Let me say that again. Titus 2 is
not a model for women's Bible study. Even if the
women's Bible study is studying issues like Loving your husband
and your children and being sensible, pure and a worker
at home. Not a model for that. Why? Because women's
Bible study is an older woman singular standing before a
group of younger women, plural and instructing them in a
pastoral manner. As we'd say down south, that ain't in
the book. That's not what this text teaches. This text
teaches what older women, plural, are to teach younger women, plural,
and the context of it is relational, not formal instruction.
So do not run to Titus chapter 2 for an
excuse for your women's Bible study group where you have
a teacher who Teaching a bunch of other women. That's
not what this text teaches. It's not here. It's not here.
Did I say that a woman can't teach another woman
something that comes out of the scriptures? Folks, nothing could
be further from the truth. When an older, godly, mature
woman opens her mouth, scripture is what comes out. How
is a godly woman supposed to train a younger woman
in the area of loving her husband and her children
without the word of God being the source? If the
word of God is not the source, then the woman
is the source, and that's a problem. But this is relational.
This is not formal instruction. So note here, the first
leg of the stool. Godly, mature men and women in
the church. And God using godly, mature men and women
in the church for the benefit of the younger. By
the way, this is one of my biggest problems with
the whole age segregated ministry model. How does Titus 2
relational ministry happen if the senior adults are over there
in that building and the youth are over there in
that building? In fact, while we're meddling, how does this
ministry happen if we have our traditional service at 8
o'clock and our contemporary service at 11 o'clock? And the
older women and older men go to the traditional service
at eight. And the younger women and younger men who
desperately need ministry from them go to the contemporary service
at 11. While we pretend that we're one church instead
of two lying to everybody who will take five seconds
to acknowledge what we're doing. Got that one out of
my system. All right. So here's the picture. This is
what God has given us. Godly, mature men and women.
This is the first leg. It is a relational discipling entity. Godly,
mature men and women are a gift that God has
given to his church. They are these jewels that God
has been shaping over time and they are of great
benefit to us. Let me ask you a question. if
you're a young couple and you're a young family, have
you spent as much time trying to find a godly
older couple as you have trying to find Vision Forum
or Votibachum Resources? Here's what I see. What I see
everywhere I go is people who are just So grateful
for everything Vision Forum is doing. So grateful for what,
you know, all of the speakers who are here today
are doing. So grateful. You've been a lifeline for our family.
You know, that's wonderful. But here's what I want to know.
Number one, do you have a church? And number two,
are you seeking out godly, mature men and women, not
just to write books that you can read, but who
will be in your life? Or have you so isolated
yourself that our materials are all you have? If you have,
that's a problem. If you have, that's a problem. Well,
you just don't know. There's just no churches like that
in my area. Let me just again, I'm going to
tell you this because I love you. I really do.
I love you. I love you. So just hear me
on this. Here's what I can't wrap my mind around.
People who on the one hand read the Puritans and say, oh,
thank God for men and women who would get in
a ship and cross the Atlantic for months at a
time so that they could come here and worship God
in freedom. But you won't move to the next county.
God help us. We idolize people who face death to
cross the sea. But we stick our thumb in our
mouth and cry rather than move across town or to
the next county because spiritual fellowship is just that important
to us. Instead, I'm just going home church for a while.
We need God's people. We need God's people desperately. And
we sit here as fruit of the heritage of individuals
who gave up everything and were willing to go anywhere.
Enough already with sulking because of what we can't find
or because of what we're unwilling to start. While we're
on the subject. It amazes me that on the one hand,
we will say we do not need the school system.
We're free from the school system. That bondage is gone.
We educate our children in our home and we can
do it and we can do a good enough job.
Who needs all that certification and this and that and
the other? Great. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. You got
a church? No, no churches in our area. Why don't
you go start one? I don't have any certification from
a seminary. I get whiplash, people. I get whiplash. On
the one hand, This staunch rejection of the whole idea
of the certification. But when it's time to stand up
and lead. I'm sorry, sir, but I don't have any papers.
He gives us godly mature men and women. I got
two more to go. We're going to make it though.
You just got to listen faster than you've been. Here's
the second one that he gives us. He gives us
godly manly elders. Godly manly elders. Here's what's interesting. You
look there and then the next verse says likewise urge
the younger men to be self-controlled. And that's it. There's
no list. There's no list, people. There's no list. The
women got their list. The men, there's no list. And
the men are sitting there going, I was robbed. I
got no list. And the women are saying, yeah, I
was robbed. I got no list. Men are walking around going, yeah,
I'm looking for it. Proverbs 31 woman and Titus 2 woman.
And women are walking around going, I'm looking for it. Ladies,
can I give you a list? Can I give you,
let me give you a list. Here's a list. You're
looking for Titus 1 man. Wait a minute, time out. Whoa,
wait a minute. Because I know my Bible. Titus 1,
those are requirements for elders. Uh-huh. And they're the requirements
Speaker 2>for every man.
Speaker 2>
Speaker 2: for elders. Listen.
Speaker 3: Listen.
Speaker 2: There's no list for young men in Titus chapter 2
because the list was already given in Titus chapter 1. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I understand, but that's a list for elders. Okay? Let
me explain this to you. Why the list in Titus
chapter 1 is the list for young men. Three reasons.
I'll give you my weakest one first. Number one, because
there's no list in chapter 2. And if that was
my only reason, I wouldn't even bother to bring it
because it'd be a weak reason. However, that's not my
only reason.
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 2: There's no list in chapter 2. Here's my second reason.
Elders are commanded in 1 Peter chapter 5 to be
examples to the flock. Right? Be examples to the flock. Now,
try to follow me on this. If there's one set
of requirements over here for elders that look nothing like
the requirements over here for regular men, How's that guy
an example for this guy if they have different lists?
The answer? He can't be. The only way the elder
can be an example to the flock is if his
list is the exact same list that every man ought
to be striving for. So that's my second argument. Here's
my third argument. There is not one thing in the
list of qualifications for elders that any one of us
is willing to give up on for our own sons.
Not one thing. Don't believe me? Let's go through it.
Titus chapter 1. This is why I left you, verse
5 in Crete, so that you might put what remained
into order and appoint elders in every town as I
declared to you. Men who've been to seminary. I'm sorry,
there were no seminaries. Men who've been Christians for 30,
40 years. I'm sorry, there hadn't been Christians for that long.
Verse six, if anyone is above reproach, the husband of
one wife, his children are believers and not open to
the charge of debauchery or insubordination. Many translations say has
faithful children. It's a better translation of the word here,
the word that we have. For faith and believe, same
word translated here. The argument is not that all of
the man's children have to be converted. If that was
the case, every time a new child was born into
an elder's home, he'd be disqualified. It's that he has
faithful children. Why? Why are we looking here? By the way,
I want you to notice where we start. We start
with the elder's home, with his marriage and with his household. Now,
which one of us is willing to say, a husband
and one wife? No, not my son. Faithful children who
are not open to the charge of debauchery and insubordination. No,
I want some wild, out-of-control grandkids. Thank you very much.
Next part of the list goes to his character. We
move from his household to his character. Verse 7. For
an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He
must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or drunkard or violent
or greedy for gain. Anybody willing to give up on
any one of those for your sons? Okay, now we
get the opposite. Here are the affirmative ones. But hospitable,
a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. Is
there anything on that list that any one of us
would be willing to say is not of the utmost
importance for the young men that we are raising in
our homes? Not one. Oh, yeah, but I know you're
about to get to the one now because this one here,
that's about the teaching type stuff. And he's not going to. Really?
You think this one doesn't apply? Go to verse nine.
Look at verse nine. He must hold firm to the
trustworthy word as taught. Anybody want to raise a heretic? No,
you want your sons to hold firm to the trustworthy
word as taught. Do you not? so that he may
be able to give instruction in sound doctrine. Anybody willing
to say, no, my son doesn't need to be able
to give instruction in sound doctrine. Are you serious? Fathers,
do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them
up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. How
do you do that if you're not capable of instructing
in sound doctrine? Every one of us wants our son
to grow up and instruct his household in sound doctrine.
And lastly, to refute those who contradict. Jude makes it
clear that that's the responsibility of every believer to contend
earnestly for the faith. Peter makes it clear that all
of us are to set apart Christ as Lord in
our hearts, always being ready to give an answer for
anyone who asks us the reason for the hope that
is in us. In other words, even on the teaching
aspect of the elder's responsibility, he is to be a
model because everything he's called to do from the pulpit,
he is first called to do from his home. Young ladies,
hear me. Start begging God for a Titus 1 man. Fathers, mothers,
hear me. Start speaking to your daughters about the beauty
of the Titus 1 man. Start challenging your sons. By
the way, there are a lot of people who thought
that my latest book, What He Must Be If He
Wants to Marry My Daughter, was all about courtship. Newsflash.
It's all about biblical manhood. Applied biblical manhood. This is
what we're looking for. For the longest time, we had
no idea. When it came to a young woman for
our sons, you know, go to Proverbs 31, son. Go
to Titus 2, son. When it came to a young
man for our daughters, we had nothing. Just find you
a godly man. We had nothing. But the Bible couldn't
be clearer. Right here in Titus chapter 1, we have
a picture of godly manhood. By the way, here's the
next half of my argument I talked about earlier in
my message on feminism. My position on male headship in
the church and in the home. Male leadership in the home. Folks,
this passage right here is one of the reasons I
argue vehemently against female pastors. This is a man in
Titus chapter 1. Not only a man, but he's a
man's man. Manly pastors. Here's what we've done. We have
so transformed our understanding of the pastor. That now the
pastor is this sort of intellectual nerd who spends all
of his time in his office, who has all of
these academic credentials, who is in touch with his feminine side,
who is this loving, soft, tender speaker of the word.
We don't even like the word preaching anymore. He gives
talks and messages. No wonder we're willing to have women
step up and be pastors. We feminize the position. The
office of pastor is the office of a shepherd. And
if you think shepherds weren't manly, you've never met one.
A shepherd is a bad dude. Don't think so? How
about you go fight a wolf with a stick? The
office of the elder is an office for a man's man,
a real man. who is an example of what manhood is.
You know why many men don't want to go to church?
Because we've so feminized the position of pastor that a
man's man looks in the church and says, I'm not
following him. I wouldn't follow him out of a burning building.
I'll let my wife and kids go follow him because
he seems like the type of guy who'd be real
good with women and children. But I'm not going to
follow him. Notice here also. But we're not talking about
he's got to be a man who, you know, spits
and chews and scratches in public and all that. That's
not what we're talking about here. But godly, biblical manliness.
Like Christ. It's the picture of Jesus. Who walked around
with bare feet and calloused hands. This is the picture
of Jesus who turned over tables in the temple, picked
up a whip and chased people out. Listen, if Jesus
looked like the pictures that we paint of him with
the perfect hair and the perfect skin, who could be
a hand model and a hair model all wrapped up
in one. Trust me, people would not have been running
out of the temple, but laughing at that man. You
want to know my Jesus? You go to the other
end of the book where he shows up with fire
in his eyes and with a sword on his thigh.
That's my Jesus. He's all man. He's a protector. He's
a warrior. He conquered sin. He conquered death. He conquered
the grave. That's Jesus. Here's the last part of the pictures.
My time has gone. Look at verse 10. Notice in
Titus chapter 2, we have godly mature men and women.
What's the focus there? The focus there is on truth
of the word and impact in everyday life in the home.
Now we have godly manly elders. Where do we start
with their qualifications? What they're doing in their homes because
they're modeling what all of us ought to be doing
in our homes. Now, in case we didn't get the
theme of the home, look with me beginning in verse 10.
For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers,
especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silent
since they are upsetting whole Sunday school departments by teaching.
I'm sorry. They must be silenced. since they are upsetting
whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought
not to teach. One of the reasons the text says
that elders are to hold firmly to the faithful word
and give instruction in sound doctrine and refute those who
contradict is because of this fierce protection of the smallest
teaching unit in the church. The home. Third leg of
the stool. Now let me paint the whole picture for you.
Child is born. Some of you have seen me walking
around here with little Micah, our little almost four-month-old, and
our other, you know, little baby Judah, 15 months, and
little Asher, who's almost three, little Elijah, Elijah's five, and
then big old Trey, he's 16, and Lady Jasmine. I
won't say how old she is because you don't say
how old ladies are. Even when they're 19, you just
don't say how old they are. But here's the picture.
You know, in our hotel room, we sit there and
we're rocking a little baby mic. We're not at home.
We don't have all our stuff and we're trying to
do family worship and make it here on time and
all the rest of this stuff and it's just hectic
and Everything else. And so we're trying to do all this.
And I'm sitting there and I'm thinking. As I'm sitting
here and we've got baby Micah going back and forth
and all this sort of stuff's happening. I said, here's
this child. Three and a half months old. Has no
idea what's going on. None whatsoever. But in a few
months he'll be like his older brother who's now 15
months old. Can't say a whole lot. But he knows
that when it's prayer time, he does this. And then
when we finish up and sing the doxology, just jump
on in, okay? And his older brothers and his older
brothers and his sisters who get it now, here's what's happening.
He's being engulfed in a culture. He won't even know
anything else. He's being saturated and bathed in the Word
of God. And he has no idea. It's all he knows.
All of a sudden, as he's being saturated and bathed
in the Word of God, he comes to this place
called the church. And as he comes to this place
called the church, there are other men and women there, older,
more mature than their father and mother, who speak the
same words and who did the same thing with their kids.
And who will speak truth into my kids lives. Even
when that means. Boy I'm going to spank you. And
then take you to your daddy. So he can spank
you again. Bless God for people like that in the church. Amen.
And then there are elders. It's godly. Manly men. Who
thunder the gospel from the pulpit. With passion. And no fear.
And all of a sudden. I hear it from leg
one of the stool at home and I'm saturated in it.
I hear it from leg two of the stool. These
godly mature men and women who've been walking it out
for a long time and it looks good on them.
And I hear it from leg three of the stool
as it's thundered from the pulpit and all three legs
of the stool are communicating the same thing into the
life of that child. Is that not glorious? It may
not mean as much to those of you who grew
up with it as it does to those like me
who did not. First time I ever heard the gospel
was my freshman year in college. Those of you who
know me know I was raised by a single teenage
Buddhist mother in drug-infested, gang-infested South Central Los Angeles, California.
I had no legs to the stool.
Speaker 3: None.
Speaker 2: No legs of the stool. And I look at my
children and sometimes there's this holy envy. Oh God, would
that I had had an opportunity to grow up in
a household like that. That's the three-legged stool. You know
what some of us do? Some of us start taking
away legs. Some of us don't align ourselves to the church.
So there is no godly, manly elder. Or we align
ourselves to a church where there's an elder. The godly,
manly part, not so much. Some of us align ourselves
to a church. But we don't pursue relationships with the elders.
And there are some of you in this room who
are older and you set it on cruise control. And
your attitude is, I paid my dues. I've raised my kids.
I'm going to worry about my family, my grandkids. Shame
on you. Give your life to the bride of Christ
till you die. Give your life to God's church. You
know one of the things I pray for? I pray
that when I die, That there will be boys. If
God should give me another 40 years.
Speaker 3: And if I die at a ripe old age of 80,
that there would be boys who say to their father,
would you take me to Pastor Rody's funeral?
Speaker 2: Because he was my friend. He was 80 years old.
But he took an interest in me even though I
was just a boy. He was my pastor. He did
not send me off to children's church. It was my
pastor and he was my friend although he was 80
years old. And he's dead and I just want to
say goodbye to my friend. But there are so many
of us get to a certain point in our lives
when we're done with God's people unless they're part of
our age group or part of our immediate family there
are young families all around you who are desperate for
godly older men and women to pour into their lives
oh yeah brother but you don't understand I didn't have
all that I didn't do it all right newsflash we'll
take that I love it when an older man will
sit down with me and all he's got to say is,
don't do that. I did that. I know what that
ends up in. Don't do that. I got the scars.
I'll show you. Don't do that. Thank God for that. Amen.
That's a lie from the pit when you think because
you didn't have a pristine upbringing or because you weren't
the perfect parent that you've got nothing to give to
another family. No, you know what you got to give?
Here's what you've got, older man. Look into the life
of that younger man and say, listen, I know your
career is incredibly important to you now. But that two-year-old
is going to be 20 next week. And you get
one shot and one shot only. And when you're laying
on your deathbed, You will not sit there and regret
the days that you didn't get up earlier to go
to work. What you'll regret is the days that you
sacrificed your family on the altar of your career. I
did that. Don't do that. If you're an older man
and that's all you've got to give, that is priceless.
Give it away. If you're an older woman, And all
you've got to give is, listen, sweetheart, I know that
this submission thing is difficult for you, but let me
help you with something. Right now, you're waiting for your
husband to be worthy of your submission. He never will be,
nor is he the object of your submission. Your submission
is to Christ. You have a gospel-based submission. You submit
to your husband as unto Christ because of the picture
of the gospel that your relationship is living out before
a lost, hurting and dying world. If you spend your
life waiting for your husband to be worthy of your submission,
you'll never submit to him. Your heart will be hardened
toward him. You will be a poor witness to the
gospel and your marriage will be a shambles when your
children are gone. I know. Because I did it the
wrong way. If you're an older woman and that's all
you've got to give away, give it away. If you're
a family, under the sound of my voice, I do
not mean to make light of your circumstance if you're
in a place where it's hard to find Christian fellowship.
But I do mean to open your eyes and call
you to at least explore the possibility of getting on
your own ship and traveling across your own Atlantic to
a place where you can plant your life and your
family's life in the midst of this three-legged stool because
it's that important. Yeah, but I got a lot of
land and there's no crime. You know what? You'll get
that in heaven. More than enough land And absolutely no crime.
But newsflash. People need the gospel. I don't know what
God's calling you to do with this. But we've heard
so many things over the course of this weekend. My
prayer for you is that you get from this two things.
Number one, all we did was walk through this book.
That's it. That's all we did. Titus chapter 1, Titus
chapter 2. Not the latest studies and surveys about discipleship
and all this sort of stuff. Titus chapter 1, Titus
chapter 2. It's sufficient, people. It's sufficient. It really is.
But here's the second thing. If we really believe that
it's sufficient, let us give our lives to what it says.
And if it says you need all three legs to
those stools, You get all three legs. But what do
we do if, listen, I can answer your question. You
do whatever it takes. Yeah, but what if, whatever it takes. Yeah,
but what if, whatever it takes. To be in the
midst of godly, mature men and women. Godly, manly elders,
both of whom will spur you on as you strive
to be a godly, biblically functioning home, raising children who
are now benefiting from that full-orbed picture and being blessed
by God at every turn because of it. Let's pray. Father,
you have been more than good to us. You have
given us your son, the God-man, Jesus Christ. You have
saved us, redeemed us, rescued us, and poured out upon
us and in us your Holy Spirit. And as if
that weren't enough, you have given us your church. You
have given us godly Christian homes, godly manly elders, godly
mature men and women who bear the marks of salvation
and sanctification over time as they walk with you, all
to spur us on toward love and good deeds. May
we seek to live in the midst of this truth
and to do so above all else at whatever the cost.
Thank you for a room filled with people who desire
to be these kinds of homes for their children. For
a room filled with pastors who who desire to preach
and bring forth these kinds of communities. And for the
privilege of standing before young men and young women who
in many instances are right now being completely enveloped and
are resting on this three-legged stool and don't even know
enough to be grateful yet. Would you use this for
your glory, for your honor, and for your namesake? This
we pray because we believe it's in accordance with the
will and the nature and the authority of Jesus who
is the Christ and all God's people said. Amen. Amen.
Speaker 3: Thank you.