Sermon Tone Analysis

“I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order…

“For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”

This testimony is true.

Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.

They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

“But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.”[1]

In the message to be delivered this day, I am invoking pastoral prerogative to alter the preaching schedule I set out many weeks ago.

I need to preach to myself in order to seek the face of the Lord so that I may know His will and do those things first importance.

As was true for the Ephesian congregation which the Risen Christ addressed through His servant John, we need to be confronted with our busyness, which has caused us to forget our business.

Almost one year ago, we initiated services as a congregation of Christ the Lord.

As we began our service before the Lord, we chose the name New Beginnings Baptist Church.

Throughout the past year, we have invested considerable effort in organisational activities.

Though there have been changes in the composition of the congregation, the transformation has been less traumatic than I might have anticipated.

Some who encouraged us in earlier days have chosen to invest their energies elsewhere, the demands of a new congregation proving too difficult for them.

Others have fallen away from active participation for other reasons of their own.

I have no doubt that we will witness further departures by individuals in coming days.

Nevertheless, we can testify that God has been gracious to us thus far.

We began under inauspicious circumstances.

Disappointed with a demonstration of ungodly behaviour from prominent members of a former congregation, several of us chose to leave them to the mercies of God rather than be divisive.

Not only did those prominent individuals dishonour God through their conduct, but the majority of their fellow members acquiesced to their attitudes and actions.

When we saw that they were determined to walk in a disorderly manner, we bid them well and ceased fellowship with them.

We did start well, and we have done some things right, but a great work remains before us.

It is a common failing of the people of God that they are sprinters when marathoners are required.

This phenomenon seems to have been a malady afflicting the churches from earliest days of the Faith.

As one example, consider that a major and pressing necessity of Paul's letter to Titus was to encourage him to complete the work he had initiated.

I cannot help but believe that we, also, need similar encouragement.

Therefore, we shall turn our minds to the words Paul inked to Titus, his “true son in the common faith” [*Titus** 1:4a*], there finding instruction and strength to recapture our dedication to complete the work.

Paul speaks first of *A JOB TO BE COMPLETED*.

The Apostle reminded Titus that he had been left in Crete in order to “put what remained into order.”

We cannot know what specifically remained for Titus to do, but we are certain that he would need to organise churches that had been established and teach those whom God was bringing into the Faith.

He would provide structure and healthy instruction for those nascent churches.

He would correct the unruly and encourage those who would seek the Lord.

Similarly, we have a job to be completed.

The population of the communities about us have grown as oil and gas exploration expands; and the influx of peoples represent in the main men and women of other faiths or of no faith.

Perhaps many once attended a church, but their faith has been left behind.

The influence of evil in our society has become greater while righteousness has been tarnished through the antics of media superstars and through misrepresentation of truth and distortion of the Gospel by supposed saints.

This does not even begin to address the cowardice endemic to modern society.

And we ourselves have grown complacent.

We need to be stirred up, just as the people of Israel needed to be confronted through Joshua’s challenge [see *Joshua 13:1, 2a*], and just as young believers in the early Church were in need of being confronted and challenged to excel.

Timothy needed to be stirred up, and was so stirred in either of the letters Paul sent him.

“As I urged you when I was going into Macedonia, */remain at Ephesus/*” [*1 Timothy 1:3*].

The young preacher evidently grew tired in the demands of the ministry and required encouragement.

“I remind you to */fan into flame the gift of God/*, which is in you” [*2 Timothy 1:6*].

Ardour cooled, zeal chilled, and faith needed to be rekindled.

If one so obviously blessed of God to assume major responsibilities for direction of a congregation, and if one so closely allied with the great delineator of the gospel of grace, required encouragement to stay and needed to be urged to rekindle the flame, should it be any surprise that you and I also need to be encouraged?

Titus, also, appears subject to discouragement and needed to be reminded of the assignments to be completed.

The conquest of evil did not come as quickly as he might have hoped; the advance of the Faith was slower than first anticipated.

Perhaps there was more opposition than he had prepared to encounter; perhaps there were more defections among the saints than he had thought would occur.

Whatever the reason, he appears to have been discouraged, and Paul found it necessary to remind him of the reason he was left in Crete.

There is a reason for our existence as a Community of Faith.

There is a reason for our service both to God, to one another, and to others.

There were reasons we initiated our labours, and the reasons have not changed in the ensuing days.

Do you remember the reason we chose our name—*New Beginnings Baptist Church*?

I think it good for each of us to be reminded.

We identified ourselves as *New Beginnings *Baptist Church because in our heart we saw that God was calling us to a new beginning as His people, and we saw this congregation as providing an opportunity for a new beginning for the Faith in this community.

We determined that we would not exalt human opinion over the Word of God, nor would we turn from obedience to the Son of God for personal convenience.

We adopted this stance knowing the probable cost to us as individuals and as a congregation.

We determined that we would not permit ourselves to grow content with ministry to one community nor to become complacent with a small ministry which touched a few but ignored the most.

Though we do not despise small works, for we ourselves began small and we have laboured in diminished circumstances, we surveyed the area wherein we were located and we saw communities in need of the Gospel of God's grace.

We said, “By the grace of God we will be a church which penetrates every corner of this great northern region with the light of life.”

We accordingly adopted the name, *New Beginnings *Baptist Church.

We determined that we would offer salvation as the free gift of God to all who are willing to receive Christ as Lord of life.

Likewise, we would hold those who named His Name to accept responsibility to live as twice-born individuals.

We would invite all whom God appoints to life to a new beginning as followers of the Lord Christ when they are born again.

We would accept one another as members of the household of faith, holding each other accountable to the Word of God and encouraging one another to walk according to the Spirit.

We said we would pray for one another and make every effort to build one another.

And as God gave us increase, we would endeavour to include each member in the full fellowship of the assembly.

Reviewing the earlier months, I am convinced that we did indeed make a new beginning, but I am equally convinced that we have seen only a beginning; we have not arrived.

There stretches before us a great need to complete the work God has assigned.

There is a great need to witness to the grace of God, winning the lost and building the saints; we have only begun.

We chose to call ourselves New Beginnings *Baptist* Church.

It is a trend that an increasing number of churches claim to be “baptistic” in doctrine, but they are loath to declare themselves Baptist.

They believe that people will be turned away if they confess to be Baptists.

That has not been my experience.

I have found that when biblical doctrine is carefully and fully presented, there will always be people attracted by conviction and truth.

It is true that some will turn away; but again it is my experience that those who turn away do not wish to be confronted by any demand for righteousness or nor do they wish to be called to hold biblical truth with conviction.

They have a fuzzy ethical view that is sufficiently fluid to fit any mould without causing discomfort.

Moralistic and self-satisfied, such individuals do not wish anyone to expose their hypocrisy through speaking with conviction and certainty.

We are a Baptist Church, not because we seek to exclude anyone, but because we hold convictions that are submitted to God’s Word.

We stand in a historic and scriptural lineage which we are convinced most closely approximates the teachings of the Bible.

I enjoy sweet fellowship with fellow Christians who worship as Presbyterians.

I rejoice whenever I am able to worship with those fellow saints who hold Mennonite convictions.

I thank God for Pentecostal and charismatic Christians.

I give thanks to God for the godliness exhibited within these communions and for the souls won to faith and for the lives moulded through the instruction these churches provide.

But I could not be a Presbyterian, or a Mennonite, or a Pentecostal.

I have read the Bible and I am convinced by that Word that we who are called by that noble name of Baptist share an oft-neglected heritage of faith and stamina and tenacious adherence to the Word of God as our sole reference for Faith and practise.

As Baptists, we are guided by the Word of God.

Where God speaks, we obey; where God is silent, we have freedom.

We dare not surrender this freedom for mere convenience.

We will fight with all our energies to assure the freedom of others to disagree with us; but we will not surrender our adherence to the Word of God.

We are New Beginnings Baptist *Church*.

In the New Testament tradition, we confess that we do not seek an association so much as we seek a shared experience.

A church in the New Testament tradition is not so much an organization as it is an organism.

Each member of the church has an equal voice in the conduct of the Body; each member is vital to the health of the entire Body.

We do not say that each member has one vote, for we are not a democracy, determined to impose the majority will on all.

Rather we set as our aspiration to be a fellowship of believers, demonstrating sympathy and consideration for one another and labouring diligently to achieve and to maintain harmony in the Body.