WWUTT 732 Above Reproach?

The first qualification for a pastor is that he must be above reproach. No legitimate charge of blame can be brought against him, and we all should aspire to that. Very simply it means we need to walk the talk when we understand the text.

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Introduction to the Qualifications for Elders in Titus

Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you Becky. We come back again to our study in the book of Titus and looking this week at the qualifications for overseers that are given in chapter 1 verses 5 -9. The Apostle Paul wrote to Titus, This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.

If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach.

He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered, or a drunkard or violent, or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine, and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

So yesterday we considered this first instruction in verse 5 that Paul said, Put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town. There was one church per community, and Paul instructs Titus to appoint elders, plural, and every place that we see the word eldership mentioned, or we see an eldership mentioned in the New Testament, it's always a plurality eldership.

The only time it's ever singular is when you have the qualifications for an elder, or pastor, or overseer, given in places like 1 Timothy 3, verses 1 -7, and here in Titus 1, verses 5 -9. But everywhere else, eldership is mentioned.

It's always in a plurality sense. And so, if at all possible, it is a good biblical model for a church to follow that there would be a plurality eldership. There would be more than one elder, or one pastor.

You may have the elder that is considered worthy of double honor, as Paul said to Timothy, and that would be the guy who has committed his life to preaching and teaching. It is his livelihood. So he is paid by the church, committing himself to the preaching and teaching of the flock.

But then you may have other lay elders who have just as much authority among the eldership as the guy who is being paid, but they have other jobs, other occupations. They're not necessarily on staff, but they are qualified to oversee the preaching and teaching as co-overseers.

They have been tested by the people of God, according to the word of God, and found to be worthy to respond to this calling. So that's Paul's first instruction. Put what remains into order, and there's other instructions in this letter that's going to follow from that, putting the church into order, and appoint elders in every town.

Above Reproach as the First Qualification for Overseers

So then what we have next are the qualifications for elders, for overseers, for pastors in the church, and that's in verses 6 through 9. The first qualification is that he must be above reproach. It's such an important qualification that it's given twice, in verse 6 and again in verse 7.

For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. As God's steward simply means that he has care of the word of God, and he is teaching people what the gospel is and what the effects of the gospel are, that they may grow in godliness.

Therefore, he must demonstrate in his own life that he has been affected by this gospel, and he is a person who is worthy of imitation. He has impeccable character as a mature Christian, setting an example for the rest of the flock.

To be above reproach simply means that there cannot be any credible charge or blame that can be brought against this man that would otherwise bring disrepute on the gospel or the church. When outsiders are looking at this man, do they see a man of good character?

Do they see a man who practices what he preaches? When he's telling people to repent of their sins, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, is this a man who's done that very thing with his life? If he says repent, but he himself is walking in debauchery or sexual immorality or any of these other sins that are listed, he's walking contrary to these qualifications that are given, that he has brought disrepute upon the gospel and upon the church that he pastors.

Over and over, we see pastors fall. This happens. And very reputable names, too. Men that we otherwise thought were impeccable in their character, and yet it turns out that on the inside they were harboring sinful practices that they simply did not have control over.

When Cain was being tempted by the anger that he held toward his brother Abel, the Lord said to him, sin is crouching at your door and you must master it. And there are some men even who stand in the pulpit who have not mastered sin, and it controls them instead of them having control over their sin.

One of the most recent names that has come up among those pastors who have fallen, and in this particular case, he's fallen into sexual immorality, and that is Art Azerdia. I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago because it's only been a couple of weeks now that this story broke.

Art, who was pastor of Trinity Church of Portland and even spoke at his first Shepherd's Conference this year back in March, and I was there at that Shepherd's Conference at John MacArthur's Church in Sun Valley, California.

I listened to him preach and he did a fantastic job. I shook his hand afterward and asked him a couple of questions. He gave me some advice, told me about a couple of friends of his that live nearby to me and told me to look them up.

And I'm looking back on that exchange now and realizing this man was in an adulterous affair that disqualified him as a pastor, even as we were standing there having a conversation and I was shaking his hand as he was standing in the pulpit there at John MacArthur's Church.

But nobody knew it was a secret sin that he had hid from everybody until it came to the forefront and his elders at Trinity Church approached him with it. This is the statement that they released on July 2nd.

On Sunday, June 24th, the elders of Trinity Church of Portland received an accusation that Art Azzerdia has been in a sexually immoral relationship with a woman from outside of Trinity Church. The elders of Trinity, after an initial investigation, confronted Art with the accusation.

Art admitted to the immorality. He also admitted to a previous sexually immoral relationship. Based on these facts and the biblical qualifications required of an elder, and they cite 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, the elders have removed Art Azzerdia as Senior Minister of Word and Worship at Trinity Church as an elder and from all pastoral ministry at Trinity.

We grieve the shame this brings to the gospel and the sorrow it brings to God's people. And indeed, it certainly does both things. It brings a shame upon the gospel because this was a man who was delivering the gospel even as he was preaching there at the Shepherd's Conference.

He delivered the gospel time and time again at his own church there in Portland and everywhere he was a guest speaker. And he did this extremely well. I listened to several sermons of Art's and I would bring them up on YouTube and I would watch them and his hand motions were always pretty distracting.

But he was very thunderous and very profound in the way that he would deliver the gospel to the point that he would word things a certain way that would make me go, wow, I wish I could think about things like that and be able to word things the way that Art does.

So he did this so well. But he brought shame to the gospel in the sense that he's telling other people to repent and yet he himself is following in sin that the Bible says would exclude a person from the kingdom of God if they continue in these things and remain unrepentant.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, the Apostle Paul says about sexual immorality in particular that every other sin a person commits, they do outside the body. But the sexually immoral person sins with his own body, which is a temple of the Holy Spirit whom we have been given from God.

So if the Holy Spirit resides in us and we indulge in sexual immorality with our body, which is any kind of sex outside the context and the covenant of marriage, then we defile the very dwelling place of the Holy Spirit of God.

So there is a uniqueness to sexual sins that are different from every other kind of sin. And praise God that Art was caught, that he might repent of this sin and be restored to the fellowship, that he might be reconciled to God and to God's people.

Even though Art has disqualified himself from ever stepping into the pulpit again and resuming the ministry that he had, I hope that he remains there at Trinity Church so they would go through the process of church discipline with him, work on repairing the damage that he has done to his family and also to the church.

And that church might be able to celebrate that here was a man who was walking in sexual immorality, who was under the judgment of God, and he was caught and he's repented of.

It.

And now he has been restored to the fellowship and we rejoice and praise God for that. So the grace of God would be displayed. Now even though he can be restored to the fellowship again, and they can say of this man, he once was this, but now he's this in the Holy Spirit, and Art would be able to say of himself, I once was that, but I have been washed.

Though he would certainly be able to say that, he would not be able to step into the pulpit again because he is no longer a man above reproach. Every time he would attempt to step into the pulpit and preach the gospel again, which he had done before and was in an adulterous affair.

Anytime he does that again, the reputation of that sin would follow him. And how would we even know for sure that this guy is actually walking what he's talking when before he did it with such gusto and yet was hiding this sin secretly in his life.

And a sin that takes quite a bit of meditation. You know, it's not just something that in the heat of a moment, something happened. It is something that a person willingly gives themselves over to and their mind is occupied by it as much as they give their body to it also.

And so this has brought a stain upon Art's ministry that he will never be able to resume.

Again.

It's unfortunate. I mourn over that. I mourned when I first read the story. I can be even about this while I'm giving you instruction on the podcast, but it really ripped my heart up to see that this had happened about Art.

And I prayed for him and his church and also his family. We shouldn't ever rejoice whenever we read these things, even when it's coming from a false teaching pastor. If it's a person who teaches falsely from the pulpit and then it's revealed some scandal that the guy was involved in, we shouldn't be pumping our fists and go, yeah, that guy finally got what was coming to him.

Rather, we should mourn because unbelievers don't know the difference. They don't see the difference between this guy and some of these other pastors. All they see is a pastor in a church who is talking about Jesus Christ.

And this guy couldn't do what it was that he was teaching. So how can we believe or trust any Christian? And that's that's what unbelievers are going to see. And so we should mourn over that. We shouldn't rejoice when these guys fall.

Even a false teacher. We should desire that this person would repent and do so before their false teaching turns into something even worse than it already is, because before their heart becomes so hard and impenetrable that the Lord hardens their heart further and turns them over to their own debauchery.

May they repent before they get to that stage of judgment. So praise God that art was caught and that he was honest with with the charges that were brought against him so that he could be disciplined and he could be forgiven of these sins that he has been in.

But he is a man who is no longer above reproach. And again, this is the the first qualification that we have for an overseer. He must be above reproach. And in verse seven, an overseer as God's steward, as one who has been entrusted with the gospel to preach it, he must be above reproach.

There must not be any kind of legitimate blame that could be brought against this man that would bring disrepute on the gospel. That would bring a poor representation or reputation even upon him and the church that he pastors.

He must be above reproach. And when it comes down to it, the list of qualifications for a pastor that we have, this list of qualifications is not spectacular. It's something when you read it, you're going, well, any Christian can do this.

And yes, that's that's exactly right. And that's what makes sins like this that are committed by men who are pastors. That's what makes them all the more serious. I mean, it's bad enough when a person of the laity commits these sins.

But when a pastor does it, who's supposed to be a model of mature Christianity for the congregation, who is supposed to display in his life the effects of the gospel that he's preaching. This is why it is all the more serious when he's the one that does this, when he falls into any of any one of these sins.

And we remember also the words of James in James chapter three, verse one. Not many of you should aspire to become teachers, my brothers, for you know that teachers will be judged with greater strictness.

Any Christian should have such self-control over themselves that they do not fall into sexual immorality. They must have the mind of Christ to such a degree that they're not arrogant or quick tempered.

The other qualifications we see here that they're not given over to drunkenness, that that indulgences like this control our bodies, that we have these cravings for these things that have dulled our minds and our senses, whether it's wine or drugs, you know, anything that would consume us like that, that we would have this craving for it and feel like we have to have it.

And our bodies aren't even whole until we get it. We should have enough self-control that we're able to resist those kinds of physical temptations, that we're not violent people and we're not greedy for gain using the name of Christ to benefit ourselves, but that we would instead as Christians, whether you are a brother or a sister in the Lord, that you would be hospitable to others, that you would be a lover of good, that you would be self-controlled and that you would be upright and holy and disciplined.

Any Christian should be able to meet these qualifications as we grow in maturity and how much more so the pastor should be able to do this as well. So he must be above reproach. And then the other qualifications that we have there in verse six pertain specifically to family.

He must be the husband of one wife. So remember back in First Timothy three, the context is specifically that the pastor must be a man. And we have in chapter two that that a woman cannot have authority over the men in the church.

Rather, she is to be quiet. But the role of pastor is left for men to be able to fill. And they need to step up and be men and fill those kinds of roles and set those kinds of examples before the church.

So why do we have the qualification that he needs to be a man given in First Timothy chapter three, but not in Titus? Well, it's in Titus as well. It's here in verse six. He must be the husband of one wife.

Doesn't say he must be the spouse of one spouse. It is very specifically he must be the husband of one wife, or as it is more literally translated, he must be a one woman man. And and again, a guy like Art, who has given himself over to this sexual immorality, has disqualified himself or he doesn't even meet that qualification of being a one woman man.

So this this man must be the husband of one wife. And even qualifications are given in the ways that he raises his children. His children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

Now, when we say that his children are believers, we don't mean that they must be genuine converts. So like somewhere down the road, the pastor's son grows up. He turns 20 years old. He decides at that age, yeah, I don't I don't really think I'm going to be a Christian anymore.

Christianity, not my thing. And so he leaves the faith and he goes the way of this world and never repents. This doesn't mean we can look at that situation then and say, well, if he is no longer a Christian, then he was never really a believer to begin with.

And that pastor is disqualified because his children are not believers and we need to remove him. That's not what this means, but rather that his children would be raised to behave in a faithful way. And in fact, that word that's rendered believers could also be translated as faithful.

It's the Greek word pistos, which could also be faithful or trustworthy. It's translated believers and most commonly translated believers, because whenever that Greek word appears in First and Second Timothy or Titus, that's the context.

It's talking about genuine believers. But in this particular case, it's an understanding that the children are behaving in a faithful way. And the way that this is worded in First Timothy chapter three is that the pastor, the overseer must manage his own household well, for if he does not know how to manage his own household, how will he be able to manage the household of God?

You could understand it this way. If a pastor is not disciplining his kids, why would we believe that he would discipline the people in the church that he has been instructed to oversee that would sometimes require encouraging and admonishing or correcting with goodwill the way Paul puts it in Colossians chapter three or the instructions of Jesus in Matthew chapter 18 about handling church discipline?

And we even have church discipline instructions in this letter in Titus chapter three. So if the pastor is not disciplining his own kids, he's not going to be disciplining the children of God either. So he must display this kind of orderliness in his own home of faithfulness to his wife, as he must also be faithful to the church.

And he must ensure that his children behave in a faithful way, because this is one of the responsibilities he's going to have as a pastor, is that the people of the church are walking in faithfulness.

His kids must not be open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination, meaning they are not indulging in sensuality and in intoxication. If you've got a pastor who's a dad of teenagers and his teens are going out with their friends and getting drunk and sleeping around, he's disqualified as a pastor and he needs to step down until he can get his house in order for his children must display faithfulness in their own lives.

And they cannot have reputations. They cannot behave in the way that we typically think of a PK, a preacher's kid, and using that term as a euphemism, that these children can live like the devil all week long as long as they're in church on Sunday.

That's a man who's disqualified from the pastorship and he needs to step down until he can get his house in order. So he must be faithful to his wife and his kids must be faithful to the training and the instruction of the Lord.

And this is one of the qualifications for an overseer. And when we return to this tomorrow, we'll talk once again about being above reproach as Paul comes back to that again in verse seven. And then we have the other qualifications that an overseer must meet.

And once again, these being qualifications for any mature man or woman of God, but certainly the pastor, as he is an example to the rest of the flock, let us pray our great God, I pray that you would convict our hearts, that we would master the sin that desires to overtake us and that we would instead submit our minds wholly unto you, that we would have the mind of Christ, that we would be trained to be upright and living godly lives in this present age, that we would shine as lights in the world in the midst of a twisted and crooked generation.

And when people look at us and hate us, it's not because we say one thing and we do something different, but it's because they can't stand the gospel and they can't stand anyone who would live in a holy and upright way compared to the debauchery that the rest of the world is living in.

So convict our hearts of these things, that we might pursue holiness and be more like Christ as we grow in sanctification every day, committing ourselves to the word of Christ, that our hearts might be transformed by it.

Forgive us our sins and help us to have hearts of conviction whenever we face temptation, that we might flee from the temptation and cling all the more to Christ as we draw near.

To God.

We know and we are promised in your word that you will draw near to us. Convict the hearts of those who are walking in sinfulness, that they may repent and desire holiness. In Jesus' name, Amen.