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What Does It Mean to Exhort and Rebuke Titus 1:5–9, Part 5 · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This is part five, the last part I believe on
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Titus one five to nine. On account of this, Timothy
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: I Paul left you in crete so that you might
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  Speaker 1: fully set right what is lacking and appoint elders in
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  Speaker 1: every town as I directed you. And then come all
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: these descriptions of what an elder is to be. And
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  Speaker 1: we focus in this session on the final and I
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  Speaker 1: think the main positive role that the elders are to
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  Speaker 1: have and the gifting they need in order to do it.
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  Speaker 1: He must hold firm to the trustworthy word according to
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  Speaker 1: the teaching, So that here are the two goals that
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  Speaker 1: this holding firm should lead to, so that one he
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: may be able to exhort in healthy teaching, two that
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: he be able to rebuke those who contradict it. So, Father,
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  Speaker 1: show us the role of an elder, pastor teacher overseer. Here,
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  Speaker 1: grant that your church would be led by such word holding,
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  Speaker 1: healthy teaching, driven men, so that the people can be
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  Speaker 1: made healthy in their faith, in their relationships, in their
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  Speaker 1: witness and mission of pray. In Jesus' name, Amen, He
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  Speaker 1: must hold firm to the trustworthy word. What is that?
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  Speaker 1: That word? That very phrase is used one other time
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  Speaker 1: maybe two other times in Titus. Here's the key one,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: so it's going to turn up right here. So it's
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  Speaker 1: referring back here, which is why I put all of
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  Speaker 1: this on the screen. When the goodness and loving kindness
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  Speaker 1: of God our Savior appeared, namely in the incarnation with
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, he saved us not because of works done
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  Speaker 1: by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy
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  Speaker 1: by the washing of regeneration, renewal in the Holy Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: and he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ,
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  Speaker 1: our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we
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  Speaker 1: might become heirs in the hope of eternal life. So
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  Speaker 1: that's a summary of the glorious gospel of Christianity. And
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  Speaker 1: he says, the Word is trustworthy, and I want you
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  Speaker 1: to insist on these things, so that those who have
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  Speaker 1: believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to
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  Speaker 1: good work. So this trustworthy word is that summary of
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  Speaker 1: the gospel. So I take this to mean hold firm
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  Speaker 1: to the essential Apostolic teaching. And the reason I put
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  Speaker 1: the word apostolic on it, that is from the Apostles,
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  Speaker 1: is because of two Timothy one thirteen follow the pattern
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  Speaker 1: of healthy words that you may that you have heard
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  Speaker 1: from me in the faith and love that are in
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  Speaker 1: Christ Jesus. So there is a pattern of This is
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  Speaker 1: usually translated sound words or sound doctrine, and sound means healthy.
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  Speaker 1: There's a pattern of healthy words. It comes from me,
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  Speaker 1: the Apostle. It's a deposit that I'm passing on to you, Timothy,
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  Speaker 1: and now to Titus. And that's what you are to
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  Speaker 1: hold on to. It accords with the teaching. That's what
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  Speaker 1: I already showed you here. Follow the pattern of the
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  Speaker 1: healthy words that you've heard from me in faith and love.
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  Speaker 1: This healthy words are this healthy teaching here, which is
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  Speaker 1: the same as according to the teaching here. So you
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  Speaker 1: exhort according to the healthy teaching that you are holding
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  Speaker 1: fast to hold fast to the word according to the teaching.
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  Speaker 1: So this word is the summary of the Gospel as
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  Speaker 1: accords with the full Apostolic teaching of the Word. And
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  Speaker 1: I'll just linger here on this term hold firm. So
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  Speaker 1: when an elder is brought into the council and made
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  Speaker 1: an official leader of the church, oh how he should
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  Speaker 1: be charged. Listen, brother, before you can do any exhorting,
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  Speaker 1: before you can do any rebuking, you must do some holding.
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  Speaker 1: If you let go of this and replace it with
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  Speaker 1: your ideas or contemporary psychology or sociology, or politics or philosophy,
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  Speaker 1: if you let go of this and open your hand
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  Speaker 1: to something else, you will not be a faithful exhorter
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  Speaker 1: rebuker with the healthy teaching. So hold on. That's number one.
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  Speaker 1: Don't loosen your grip as if something more precious could
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  Speaker 1: be taken hold of, as if something could replace the
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  Speaker 1: word as more important for the church. Here's another implication.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: I think since they didn't have any printing press in
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  Speaker 1: those days, and it would have been very difficult to
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  Speaker 1: have all the scriptures available for each person and each elder. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: memorizing the word was so important. What are you going
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  Speaker 1: to hold on to If you don't have anything in
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  Speaker 1: your head, there's nothing to hold on to. Right, If
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  Speaker 1: you're going to hold firm to the word, there has
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  Speaker 1: to be some word to hold on to. You have
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  Speaker 1: to know some word. And one last implication, surely this
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  Speaker 1: doesn't mean hold on to empty phrases. Empty phrases like
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  Speaker 1: Christ died for you. Well, that's a glorious truth, but
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  Speaker 1: does it have any meaning to you? Do you know
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  Speaker 1: what the word for means? He died for you? Do
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  Speaker 1: you have some sense of the biblical teaching of substitution,
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  Speaker 1: that he died in our place? And there are many
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  Speaker 1: such things. So all of that to say, hold firm
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  Speaker 1: here is a massive and glorious, beautiful prerequisite to all
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  Speaker 1: exhorting and all rebuking. So hold it fast, so that
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  Speaker 1: this is not any end in itself. We don't have
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  Speaker 1: isolated elder leaders who are off by themselves, sitting under
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  Speaker 1: their trees, holding firm and talking to nobody. No, they
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  Speaker 1: are talkers. They are exhorters and rebukers. The word exhort
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  Speaker 1: here is positive. The word rebuke is negative. Right, you
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  Speaker 1: rebuke the people who are in error, who are contradicting
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  Speaker 1: the truth. You exhort everybody else to encourage and to
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  Speaker 1: entreat and to strengthen. So that's the carrot and the stick.
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  Speaker 1: You might say, the positive exhortation, the negative rebuke or reproof.
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  Speaker 1: The meaning of this word rebuke. You used not to
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  Speaker 1: put the Greek here, so you can see the pattern elsewhere.
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  Speaker 1: I'll show you in just a minute. So these two
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  Speaker 1: words exhort and rebuke. This word means confront error and
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  Speaker 1: expose it and set it right. For example, you can
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  Speaker 1: see that in the word in Ephesians here, take no
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  Speaker 1: part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but exposed instead,
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  Speaker 1: expose them. That's the same word, expose them. If you
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  Speaker 1: see somebody committing us in or teaching an error, the
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  Speaker 1: job of an elder is to take them aside and
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  Speaker 1: expose to them. They may not even know it's an error,
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  Speaker 1: and expose the error and set it right. It is
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  Speaker 1: shameful even to speak to the things that they do
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  Speaker 1: in secret. But when anything is exposed, that is brought
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  Speaker 1: to the light, it becomes visible. So the word rebuke
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  Speaker 1: doesn't just need sock somebody for their error. It means
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  Speaker 1: expose the are that is explained to them how it
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  Speaker 1: is an error. So we do both exhorting, positive, encouraging,
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  Speaker 1: hope giving and rebuking to set people right expose the error,
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  Speaker 1: and those two go together repeatedly. For example, here's Titus
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  Speaker 1: two fifteen declare these things exhort same word and rebuke
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  Speaker 1: same word. That's the pattern with all authority, that no
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  Speaker 1: one disregard you. Here it is again in two Timothy
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  Speaker 1: four to two preach the word be ready in in
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  Speaker 1: and out of season. Repute, reprove same word for rebuke,
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  Speaker 1: that can Titus one and exhort same word. So reprove
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  Speaker 1: and exhort. There's the pattern that he begins right here.
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  Speaker 1: So what's the goal of this elder effort of holding
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  Speaker 1: firm the truth, exhorting with the truth, rebuking with the truth,
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  Speaker 1: not with our own ideas, but with the trustworthy word
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  Speaker 1: according to the teaching, what's the goal? Here's one way
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  Speaker 1: of saying it Titus one thirteen. Therefore, rebuke them sharply
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  Speaker 1: that they may be healthy in the faith. There's the goal, healthy, sound, solid, unshakable, whole, complete,
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  Speaker 1: balanced in the Christian faith. Remember, all of this appointing
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  Speaker 1: of elders with all of these qualifications was on account
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  Speaker 1: of this Titus. And this, remember, was the faith of
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  Speaker 1: God's elect knowledge of the truth, godliness, eternal life. One
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  Speaker 1: last comment back in First Timothy three to two, when
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  Speaker 1: it was giving the qualification for the elders. In First Timothy,
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  Speaker 1: it says, therefore, an overseer or an elder must be
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  Speaker 1: above reproach the husband of one wife, sober, minded, self controlled, respectable, hospitable,
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  Speaker 1: able to teach. That's what we just have seen unfolded here.
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  Speaker 1: Able to teach means he has such a firm hold
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  Speaker 1: and understanding of the trustworthy word of the Gospel, which
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  Speaker 1: accords with the full Apostolic teaching. He has such a
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  Speaker 1: firm hold on it that he is able to exhort
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  Speaker 1: and bring along people in every sort of spiritual condition
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  Speaker 1: and help them with the healthy teaching. And he's able
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  Speaker 1: to confront error. He's not a coward who's afraid to
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  Speaker 1: talk about the problems people have in their thinking, but
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  Speaker 1: he needs to be able to set them straight. And
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  Speaker 1: all of that is what it means to be apt
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  Speaker 1: to teach. May the Lord raise up pastors and elders
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  Speaker 1: for our churches like that, and