The Elder Must Hold Fast the Faithful Word (Titus 1:9)

Chapter 23
I don’t believe there is a more meaningful requirement to me than this one. For thirty-seven plus years I have had to hold fast the faithful word against seminary graduate after seminary graduate who were pastor/teachers of local churches. I believe it is appropriate here to provide specific examples as a way to strengthen any of you who may be reading this who have had to do likewise. It began, for me with my first ministry with Campus Crusade for Christ. Dr. Bill Bright was highly regarded as one of the stalwarts of evangelism in the seventies. He forbade anyone to promote speaking in tongues or even any moment of doing so for anyone involved in Campus Crusade for Christ. That is a direct violation of I Corinthians 14:39, so my wife and I left that organization. I went from there to Claremont Covenant Church in San Diego, California to serve as the youth pastor. After a year of ministering there, I came into a face to face confrontation with the senior pastor about women speaking in the church. He told me he agreed that the bible indeed teaches that doctrine, but he was not about to teach it for fear half of the church would leave.

From there my wife and I moved to Buena Park and I enrolled in BIOLA, one of the foremost conservative colleges in America. After two years of attending bible classes where I got training in reading books about the bible rather than reading the bible, I realized I was studying the opinions of hundreds of men and women in church history, most of whom, it appeared hadn’t spent much time reading the bible themselves, so I left that school and went to work for the largest security firm in Southern California as the personnel manager. A year later I was asked to leave that job because I placed Proverbs 26:27 on our bulletin board after someone in the company tried to suggest I had done something unseemly. That verse tells us, “He who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him.” I then decided to become a police officer. After twelve years as a street cop, my last chief told me I had two choices: 1. Leave Jesus home when I came to work; or 2. Retire gracefully. I told him I could never leave Jesus at home when I came to work because He is indelibly inscribed on my soul and His Spirit was residing within me. I retired medically with the state paying for my retraining in another field. That chief got fired shortly thereafter. I was a public school teacher for approximately nineteen years. Recently, the principal of our school began an all out assault on my character. He did so, because I opposed him every time he demonstrated he was going to allow our children violate one of the most sacred of biblical admonitions that children should honor their elders (Lev. 19:32). He was non-renewed and then rehired. Holding fast the faithful word is not an easy task. It was never intended to be. I believe it is exemplified in Revelation 3:8-10,

I know your works. Behold, I have set before you and open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down at your feet and they will learn that I have loved you. Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell on the earth.

The critical truth for us to recognize here is that this church which displayed little power, kept the word. There is nothing more important for an Elder than to keep the word. At all costs he must keep the word. He must categorically refuse to compromise one iota of the truth. He must not yield, for a moment of time, to the temptation to think anything in this lifetime is more important than keeping the word, without spot or wrinkle. He must insist with every fiber of his being that God’s word is the final authority on all matters pertaining to this life, death, the resurrection, and the coming kingdom for the true disciple of Christ. He is responsible to declare the doctrines of God to the local church without wavering. That requires that he knows the word of God, the main reason new believers can never qualify for the position. He must be one who has spent years in an intense study of the sacred scriptures. That wasn’t necessarily always the case in the Apostle Paul’s time because they didn’t have the entire scriptures printed as we have them today.

I believe I have the Spirit of Christ when I say anyone who does not spend an intense number of hours each and every day in the study of God’s word does not qualify for the position of Elder in His church today. We have the indisputable word of God at our fingertips in a multitude of translations. I personally own eight different translations and have owned the infamous living bible paraphrase. I have worn out at least six different bibles whose pages were falling out from use. I don’t say that to draw attention to my own intense study of God’s word; but I do say it to point out that anyone who seriously studies God’s word will have to replace his main study bible often. I wore out my John McArthur NAS study bible in less than a year. Either they don’t make them like they used to, or I studied harder that year than ever in the past. It is not a matter of pride; it is a matter of being committed to knowing God’s word adequately that one can “exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict.” (Titus 1:9) The elder in God’s church must hold fast the faithful word, and he cannot do that if he doesn’t know it. Therefore, by implication, he must be one who studies the word diligently. He must be one who rises early to study it before he begins his day’s tasks, prays about what he learned in his studies as he begins his day’s work, considers throughout the day the things he learned about God during that mornings study, looks for opportunities to share what he learned with others in need, and when retiring for the evening, considers whether or not his day bore fruit for the kingdom of God as a result of his walk with Jesus.

When the elder holds fast the faithful word, the kingdom of God is increased, false doctrine is exposed, false prophets are sent running, false manifestations of the Spirit are quelled in the church, orphans and widows are attended to, and the finances of the local church are distributed in a manner that brings glory and honor to God. God’s Elder must hold fast the faithful word.