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Pastor, Let No One Disregard You Titus 2:11–15, Part 6 · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This is our sixth and final session on Titus two
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: eleven to fifteen, and I simply want to take this
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: last part right here, verse fifteen, and ponder this concluding
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: instruction to Titus. So for a chapter now he's been
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: giving practical exhortations and guidance to the things that Titus
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: should be concerned about. And he comes to the end
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: of the chapter and he says, speak these things, exhort
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. So, Father,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: as we try to understand the significance of speaking, exhorting,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: rebuking authority, no disregard for the leaders of our church,
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  Speaker 1: or even perhaps ourselves, as it may apply to us
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  Speaker 1: in some measure if we're not leaders, Grant, I pray
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: that we would understand the implications of these things according
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  Speaker 1: to Paul's intention and your wisdom through him for us.
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  Speaker 1: I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen, Speak. He did
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: not say here. He did elsewhere. But he did not
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: say here, teach or preach. He said speak. This word
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: la lay literally means make a sound, and it comes
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: to mean speak with your mouth, not with your pen
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  Speaker 1: and ink or computer. So in the New Testament. This
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: word is used what two hundred and thirty seven times
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  Speaker 1: or something like that, and it always refers to what
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  Speaker 1: the mouth does, not what the writing does. Even when
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  Speaker 1: there's a reference to a speaking through writing, here's the
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  Speaker 1: way it talks. For example, in uh luke Ie, God
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  Speaker 1: has raised up a horn of salvation for us in
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  Speaker 1: the house of his servant David, as he spoke by
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  Speaker 1: the mouth of the Holy prophets from of old. So
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: there's a reference here to prophecy, which you can read
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: in the Bible. But when he uses the word speak,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: which is the same word as the one we're thinking about,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: he speaks of the mouth of the Holy prophets, because
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: that's the way this word works. So I don't want
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: to make too much of this, but I do want
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: to draw attention to the fact that at the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of this chapter and at the end, the only two
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  Speaker 1: places in the book. In fact, I think it's the
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  Speaker 1: only two places in all of the Pastoral letters, first
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: and second Timothy and Titus where it refers to Timothy's speaking.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: He says, as for you, here's the beginning of the chapter.
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  Speaker 1: Speak what accords with healthy doctrine, So speak and I'm
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  Speaker 1: suggesting here that he doesn't want Titus to think. Well,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Paul wrote to me, I can communicate in writing as
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: well as he can, so I'll put these things in writing. Well,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: maybe so, but no, that's not your main calling, Titus.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: You turn written things into verbal things. And I'm underlining
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: because I think that's really significant in the life of
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: the church, that the church not just get its instruction
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: through things on a page. Now, why might that matter? Well,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: if you go back to the beginning of the chapter,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: it says, as for you speak what accords with healthy doctrine.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: Older men are to be sober minded, dignified, self controlled,
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  Speaker 1: healthy in the faith. So healthy doctrine spoken leads to
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: healthy faith in the soul. So not to overdo it.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: But does not experience teach us that the words coming
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: out of a mouth in person are more effective in
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  Speaker 1: communicating the health of a speaker's soul than words on
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  Speaker 1: a page. Words on a page can be very powerful.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: They change lives. God can use them to transform dead
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: people into live people. But over the long haul. One
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: of the reasons preaching and teaching and speaking with the
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  Speaker 1: mouth is exhorted in the New Testament is because there's
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: a health not only in doctrine, but a health in
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  Speaker 1: the soul's faith. And what did Jesus say, Out of
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  Speaker 1: the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. We want
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  Speaker 1: to know our pastor's heart, right, We don't want to
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: just know our pastor's thoughts. Thoughts are easily communicated through writing.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Heart is less easily communicated through writing. And therefore, Titus,
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  Speaker 1: open your mouth and speak everything I've been saying to you,
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  Speaker 1: turn it into heart felt. What to things? Exhortation and rebuke.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: So speak, open your mouth, speak these things, and then
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  Speaker 1: two kinds of speaking. And it is so pastorally important
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  Speaker 1: because there's no easy rule to tell when to do
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  Speaker 1: one and when to do the other. They are very different,
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  Speaker 1: aren't they. I want to illustrate that. So exhort and rebuke.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: What's the difference between exhorting and rebuking. Here's Titus one nine,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter one. He must hold firm the elder, the overseer,
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  Speaker 1: must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so
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  Speaker 1: that he may be able to exhort in healthy doctrine
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  Speaker 1: and rebuke those who contradict it. Now that gives us
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  Speaker 1: a clue, doesn't it. It's when you run into people
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  Speaker 1: who are opposing they're saying things that are contrary to
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  Speaker 1: healthy doctors. And what you do to people like that
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  Speaker 1: is not merely exhort them. You rebuke them. So the
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  Speaker 1: difference is exhort is a more gentle, less forceful. It
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  Speaker 1: assumes more agreement on the part of the one you're
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  Speaker 1: speaking to, and you're encouraging them. You're coming alongside them
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  Speaker 1: in their relatively good posture towards the truth and helping
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  Speaker 1: them on. Here, you're running into a person who's opposing
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  Speaker 1: the truth, and you stop them. You get in their face,
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  Speaker 1: and you may do it with all tears in their house,
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  Speaker 1: not in front of everybody, necessarily, and say you can't
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  Speaker 1: do that here. You can't talk like that in this church.
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  Speaker 1: You can't act like that in this church. You have
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  Speaker 1: to stop doing that here you speak firmly in that way,
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  Speaker 1: or it might even be publicly. Let me illustrate this
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: from Philemen. This was so illuminating to me when I
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: first saw it. So Paul's writing to his friend Philemann,
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  Speaker 1: and he says, though I am bold enough in Christ
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  Speaker 1: to command now, the reason I put to Greek here
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  Speaker 1: is that word command is the same as this word
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  Speaker 1: here that we're going to see in just a minute.
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  Speaker 1: It says exhort, rebuke with all authority, or literally with
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  Speaker 1: all command. Here he says, though I am bold enough
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  Speaker 1: in Christ to command you to do what is required.
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  Speaker 1: Yet for love's sake, I prefer to exhort. Same word
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  Speaker 1: exhort you. I Paul, an old man and now a prisoner.
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  Speaker 1: Also for Christ Jesus, I exhort you for my child Onesimus,
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  Speaker 1: whose father I became in my imprisonment. So there's the
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: clear difference between exhortation and command. Exhortation is for the
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  Speaker 1: sake of love. That is, it doesn't mean that this
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  Speaker 1: doesn't want to bring about love. It means that Paul's
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  Speaker 1: love for phi Lehman and their relationship caused him to
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  Speaker 1: be less forceful. I mean, we all know we speak
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  Speaker 1: to our friends differently, right than to our adversaries, And
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  Speaker 1: he didn't see Philaman as an adversary. Philemun was not
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  Speaker 1: here opposing anything, and Paul was simply saying, I could
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  Speaker 1: command you to do what I want, but I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to exhort you. So I think here what Paul is
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  Speaker 1: saying to tite us is open your mouth, say everything
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  Speaker 1: I've been teaching you in this chapter, and do it
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  Speaker 1: in two ways, as the Holy Spirit gives you wisdom
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  Speaker 1: to dessern. Come into your people's lives with encouragement exhortation,
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  Speaker 1: coming along side them, hoping all things, believing all things,
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  Speaker 1: and others. Where you see them settling into error and
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  Speaker 1: causing division and leading people astray, be very firm and
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  Speaker 1: rebuke them. And then he underlines the difference between the two.
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  Speaker 1: With all authority or with all command. I don't think
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  Speaker 1: this phrase right here, with all authority defines this. I
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  Speaker 1: don't think he's saying, speak these things and exhort with
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  Speaker 1: all command and rebuke with all command. I think phi
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  Speaker 1: Lehman makes it plain that this command word here belongs
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  Speaker 1: in the same realm with rebuke. That's what you do
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  Speaker 1: with a rebuke. With rebuke is a lot more like
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  Speaker 1: a command then an exhortation is, and both are appropriate.
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  Speaker 1: Pastors need to desern when to be this and when
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  Speaker 1: to be this. Now one more phrase to observe. Let
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  Speaker 1: no one disregard you. He said something like this once before,
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  Speaker 1: right here in one Timothy four to twelve. Let no
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  Speaker 1: one despise you. And I thought of this because this
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  Speaker 1: word here, that word right there, that half of the
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  Speaker 1: word is exactly the same as this half of the
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  Speaker 1: word right here. Have an attitude toward so here. It's
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  Speaker 1: have an attitude against God. That means against despise, means
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  Speaker 1: have an attitude against Let no one have an attitude
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  Speaker 1: against you. What's the rema for that? The remedy for that,
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  Speaker 1: in spite of your youth is to set them an
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  Speaker 1: example in speech, conduct, love, faith. In other words, outlive
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  Speaker 1: your people in holiness, and they won't despise you. I
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  Speaker 1: don't care how old you are. Many mature saints in
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  Speaker 1: their fifties, sixty seventies, and eighties. We'll see a twenty
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  Speaker 1: something pastor, and if he is setting a deep godly
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  Speaker 1: example in speech conduct love, and faith and purity, they
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  Speaker 1: will not despise his youth. But this says, have an
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  Speaker 1: attitude that goes around you, ignores you, circumvents you, neglects you.
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  Speaker 1: What does that mean? Why would he say that? And
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  Speaker 1: I think basically there is a kind of pastor. Maybe
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  Speaker 1: Titus was prone to this, I don't know. There's a
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  Speaker 1: kind of pastor who is so negligent of intruding the
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  Speaker 1: word of God from his mouth into the lives of
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  Speaker 1: his people, that they can basically ignore him. He's just negligible.
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  Speaker 1: He's not to be regarded. When they're deciding what to do,
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  Speaker 1: how to live, how to think, they don't take their
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  Speaker 1: pastor into account. He's just negligible. They disregard him. And
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  Speaker 1: I think he's saying, look, Titus, you be the kind
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  Speaker 1: of pastor who is so faithful and loving in his
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  Speaker 1: exhortation to his people, and so firm and solid and
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  Speaker 1: unshakable in your rebuke to your people from the pulpit
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  Speaker 1: and in person that when they're thinking through how they
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  Speaker 1: should live, they take your word into account because it
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  Speaker 1: has been found faithful. You're not a coward to speak rebuke,
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  Speaker 1: and you're not abusive to fail to love your people.
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  Speaker 1: You are the kind of mature, solid, whole, healthy pastor
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  Speaker 1: that they like to take into account when they think
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  Speaker 1: about how to live their lives.