Sermon Tone Analysis

“The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.”

[1]

Few things give me greater pleasure than seeing God raise up heralds of holiness.

I taught preacher boys in Texas for a brief period.

Throughout the years of my service before the Master, it has been one of my great joys to witness men whom I tutored assume positions of leadership among the saints, building great works.

Some students whom I taught are now seminary professors and presidents of major seminaries.

Most are building believers through pastoral ministries.

I have served on multiple occasions as field supervisor for seminary students and as a doctoral mentor on other occasions.

God has graciously permitted me to invest my life in some godly men who excelled anything I have ever accomplished in the Kingdom.

God still raises up men with souls aflame who cannot rest until they are declaring the Word.

They are capable men, trained to work at myriad tasks, but they voluntarily choose to labour at preaching and teaching to the glory of God.

Admittedly, there are charlatans who don the livery of the pastor.

Such mountebanks see the position as a job, or abuse their appointment by lording it over the people of God; nevertheless, I believe most pastors long to preach the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, being unable to rest until they are occupying the sacred desk.

If pretenders wreak havoc among the churches while parading as pastors, who is at fault?

Obviously, the fraud himself or herself is ultimately responsible for his or her own actions; however, the churches must bear a terrible responsibility for failure to apply what is written in Scripture.

God has clearly stated His standards for pastoral oversight.

If the churches accept those who are obviously unqualified, they must know that they shall give an accounting to Holy God—and there can be no excuse for failure to know His will.

In some instances, denominational serpents slithering across the Lord’s Zion share responsibility, for they recommended and actively promoted individuals whom they knew to be unqualified for eldership, doing so because those whom they promoted were denominational supporters.

In other instances, a church board—inevitably composed of compliant individuals under the domination of a few individuals—selected an individual whom they imagine they could control or who was able to sell himself or herself as a scintillating speaker.

In every case, especially when the congregation has a say in such selection, the ultimate responsibility lies with an untaught and spiritually ignorant membership moved more by emotion than by the Word.

I cannot remain at this post forever; one day, the inevitability of sin’s merciless grind that takes the toll of all mankind must extract the last measure of physical strength from me; I will go the way of all flesh.

At that time, he congregation will be responsible to seek out God’s man to occupy this sacred desk.

Whether the congregation honours God, or whether the congregation will become like thousands of other ruined assemblies bearing the frightful signature “Ichabod” over the door depends upon whether the congregation chooses to obey the Word, or do what is convenient.

I think it right, so long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, what is the will of the Master.

Thus, we now initiate a multi-week study of elders and deacons, as the Lord has provided for His people.

*TRUSTWORTHY?

SAYS WHO?* — “The saying is trustworthy…” This is a recurring phrase in the Pastoral Letters.

[2] The Apostle quotes hymns that glorified God and what were obviously commonly stated truths among the faithful.

In each instance, Paul uses the phrase to mark a transition from what has just been discussed to a new consideration.

In this instance, he has been speaking of men and women at worship; now, he will speak of leadership among the saints.

Obviously, without sound leaders, the previous discussions will become meaningless.

Therefore, what is about to follow is of utmost importance to the churches.

However, the saying (literally, “Faithful the word”) requires that we think about what is said, asking who determines whether a saying is trustworthy or whether it is errant?

Today, too frequently, conventional wisdom may be conventional, but fail to be either wise or accurate.

Just because a statement is commonly bruited about does not make it true.

For instance, it is commonly stated that the changing morality doesn’t hurt anybody.

People will often grow heated, saying, “What I do with my own life is my business; it doesn’t hurt anybody else!”

When a civic leader is unfaithful to his wife, can we really trust that he will keep his word to the people he serves?

If he is unwilling to maintain sacred vows spoken before the Lord, why should we imagine that he will keep lesser vows taken before mere mortals?

Conventional wisdom says we cannot help loving whomever we love; but we know that such statements can’t be universally true.

We are still repulsed by the thought that an adult, claiming that she couldn’t help loving whom she loved, would take advantage of a vulnerable child.

We know that it is wrong to destroy a marriage just because one individual claims to love someone married to another person.

Though people claim they no longer love the person they married, we know intuitively that love is a choice.

Though morals may be changing, we know that our choices in love are not like genetics dictating skin colour.

Therefore, when the Apostle commends a saying as trustworthy, what is the basis for his claim?

What determines whether a saying is faithful, or whether it is flawed?

Let’s consider the instances when the Apostle states that a saying is trustworthy.

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” [1 TIMOTHY 1:15].

The saying is trustworthy because the Master Himself stated this was the reason He came into the world.

Here are a few instances demonstrating this truth.

The first was spoken by the Master Himself.

“Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’

For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” [MATTHEW 9:13].

Jesus also said, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” [LUKE 19:10].

This accords with John’s statement, penned under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” [JOHN 3:17].

In this instance, the saying is trustworthy because of the testimony of Jesus and the testimony of the Word.

Another instance of a trustworthy statement is found in 1 TIMOTHY 4:7-9: “Train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.”

The passages affirming this truth are too numerous to list, though some will suffice to demonstrate that this truth is iterated throughout the Word.

The Psalmist contends, “Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart” [PSALM 37:4].

In the ninth verse of the same Psalm, we read, “Those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land”; and the eleventh verse states “the … meek shall delight themselves in abundant peace.”

Numerous other Psalms and statements provided in the New Testament testify to the same truth.

[3] However, one further statement delivered by Jesus Himself will suffice to demonstrate the accuracy of the statement that godliness is profitable.

“Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things [the necessities of life] will be added to you” [MATTHEW 6:33].

Consider another instance when the Apostle cited a trustworthy saying.

“The saying is trustworthy, for:

‘If we have died with him, we will also live with him;

if we endure, we will also reign with him;

if we deny him, he also will deny us;

if we are faithless, he remains faithful—‘

for he cannot deny himself” [2 TIMOTHY 2:11-13].

Recall the promise delivered to the Thessalonian Christians, “God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him” [1 THESSALONIANS 5:9, 10].

The promise that we shall live with Him is stated for our encouragement in the Apocalypse.

“I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed.

Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands.

They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years” [REVELATION 20:4].

I will cite but one other instance of many that could be cited to demonstrate this truth.

“All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba!

Father!”

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” [ROMANS 8:14-17].

The final instance I will cite of a trustworthy saying quoted in the Pastoral Letters is found in Paul’s Letter to Titus.

There, he writes this promise, “When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

These things are excellent and profitable for people” [TITUS 3:4-8].

By the mercies of Christ the Lord, we are made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

We do not have a “hope so” salvation; in Christ we have a “know so” salvation.

Challenged by religious leaders, Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

I and the Father are one” [JOHN 10:27-30].

Later, the Apostle of Love would testify, “This is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” [1 JOHN 5:11, 12].

So, whatever Paul is going to teach in this passage, it is trustworthy because it is founded on the Word of God.

God gave the Word, and because He is the author of this Word, we may be assured that it is trustworthy.

Whenever we substitute our best thoughts, we are basing our ideas on that which is mortal, fallible, frangible.

At best the ideas originating from the mind of a man are subject to every imaginable distortion.

The saying is trustworthy because it is true.

We know the saying is true because it has its genesis in God, who cannot lie [see TITUS 1:2].

However, when we build our Faith on the Word, we are building on that which is eternal, as the Psalmist has testified:

“Forever, O LORD, your word