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Preachers Collective- North England Conference of SDA

Nicholas Allen

A Peculiar People

Eternal Father in heaven, I pray, O God, that your Holy Spirit may be poured out in this place, that demons may tremble in God, and that your power may be manifested.

May your Lord come alive in this place, and may your light shine upon us.

Speak through me now, I ask, O Lord, and let your power be shown in our lives dear Lord that we may be a light to those around us.

Grab your Bibles I'll be looking at the book of Titus.

We'll be spending our time looking at what Paul has to say in relation to the people of God through the ages.

Paul in Titus chapter 1 starts off by saying, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God, elect and acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness.

Paul did not commend himself with letters after his name but simply says, I am a servant of the living God.

Here we must take time to take note that a servant takes orders, he does not give it.

And if Paul, with all his degrees behind his name, some theologian says that Paul by estimate could have had 3 degrees.

Paul made it known that he was taught at the feet of Gamaliel.

He says of a Pharisee, I am a Pharisee, the stricter of all the sect.

But yet his conversion brought about a humility that has never been seen before in men.

1 that was so pious now became a servant, shift right.

A man that was moved by the Spirit of God manifested the Spirit of God in his life and his daily walk.

We should seek to learn of him these things because the Spirit of God is able to move in him and is able to move in me and in you and you.

God is no respecter of person whether you're a man, a woman, a boy or a girl.

God is able to move if you are able and willing to let him move in you.

Paul was ever conscious of the imminent presence of God.

That's why he says to us, and that knowledge is not the truth which is after godliness.

And to this he further adds, clinging on to the hope of eternal life which God cannot lie from it before the world begun this shows us clearly that God did not intend for man to die or to be lost but that man was to live eternally with his maker.

Had man not sinned, he would have been out of the reach of the arms of death, and the prison house of the grave.

Had man not fallen, he would have been eternally secure.

And if men fell, well, God would not leave him that way, for God would have made a way and he has made a way that man can still be eternally secure from the grips of the devil and of death.

The mind of God is under preservation of life, your life and my life.

We should take time to analyse this because many a man say that there is no God and at the same time there are those that say God does not care about us.

Why should I care about a God of suffering?

We need to bring a message to let them understand that sin is the result of suffering and not God.

But unfortunately, even among us as believers or supposed believers, the Apostle Paul has warned that grievous wolves shall enter in that sparing the flock.

Some under the very sound of my voice, as I am talking with you, have made a covenant with death and hell are in agreement with them.

God wants to disannul this covenant and he wants to create a new 1 with the individual who is hearing this.

There are councils within the Word of God.

If heeded and followed more closely some of the problems that are existent in this church and society at large would not be there and can be rooted out.

And we as a people would not have to be dealing with specific issues that are happening right under the noses within this church.

You see in chapter 1 verses 5-9 Paul laid clearly the criteria for 1 to be an elder.

The Bible is clear and I am clear from the reading of it.

Not only is the gender pointed out but the character and benefit that befits a man, not just any man but a godly 1, is set before us.

The standard of 1 to be the overseer of the flock of the household of faith.

You see, you do not put someone in a position for the sake of filling the position.

There is a standard that they must be adhered to.

And he goes on to say, if any be blameless, the husband of 1 wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly, but a bishop, must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine nor striker, not given to filthy luck alone, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word, as he had been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.

If we take time to analyse this passage, especially in verse 7, he says that for the bishop must be blameless as the steward of God.

In other words, he's a distributor, an overseer, 1 who is able to manage the work of God and the property of God with a good account of what needs to be done and to take place.

Such individuals ought to fill the position of an elder.

A self-willed person does not seek their own gain.

They're not self-pleasing, not arrogant, but are humble, approachable.

1 that is able to rule their own household with the love and fear of God.

He uses this strange word to say that they're not a striker and if you look at that word it simply means 1 who is not contentious or quarrelsome and he uses another term not given to filthy lukew.

In other words they are not eager for base gain, they are not greedy for money, they don't dip their hands in the Lord's money, they don't misuse that which God has given to them.

You see, these qualifications are necessary for the simple fact you are able, when you have these characteristics guided by the influence of the Holy Spirit, to spot and deal with characters that's mentioned in verse 10, vain talkers and deceivers, specifically they of the circumspirit.

In other words, such person that is moved by the Spirit of God is able to deal with opposition that arises within the household of faith.

They are able to deal with error and heresy as they are creeping in.

You see, the spirit of prophecy says that we have more to fear from within than without.

This is talking of those that have their own agenda in view and balance in scripture and I'm converted in heart, they are at the further end of either side of the spectrum when it comes to dealing with the word of God.

They are either a legalist or they are a pharisaical, they are either a liberal in their views in the plain statements of scripture or they are just plain unbelievers.

And the strange things about an unbeliever, which I'll be touching on later, they do not have to come outright to show that they're an unbeliever.

But the Spirit of God will give you understanding to point out an unbeliever.

The Bible does not say that you won't be able to point out a tear, it just says don't root them up because in doing so you will root up those 2 that are grounded as wheat.

You see the Pharisees can be unjust, merciless and the liberals don't have a right view of what justice is.

So when you have these unbalanced elements, there is problem within the household of faith because things that need to be dealt with are not being dealt with.

And when things are to be dealt with, are dealt with by the Pharisees, they are done harsh.

And the love of God is not shed abroad in the heart of men to win souls.

We are to be careful and mindful that we are not on either side of these extremes.

You see, men want to judge God's work by their own estimate, but not by God's own estimate.

That is why you end up with Pharisees and Sadducees, Legalists and Liberals.

We need to find that straight path, which is narrow and keep on it.

That we turn not to the left, nor to the right, lest we go out of the way.

Now we are to understand why we need men who are sober, just, holy, and temperate to meet the errors and practices that are creeping in with God's church, amongst God's people.

There are those who claim to be of us who really are not of us.

There were strange doctrines that have been coming into the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The rejection and attacks on the spirit of prophecy by some, the twisting and maligning of her writings, the extreme views and some of our health messages, or the total outright rejection of the health message.

The desecration of the seventh day Sabbath by some, and even of the sanctuary, and the attacks on our sanctuary message, and the rejection by those who have come from within and have left and taken many with them.

We have gone a long way of course beloved, we have come a long way And there are only faithful few that are holding up the light and carrying on with this work.

It brings to mind and it brings to view when Elijah had to contend with Jezebel and the apostasy that was in Israel at that time and the showdown on Carmel.

And even after Elijah had defeated the false prophet he ran when Jezebel sent her threats.

Here is the powerful man of God that has slain all these evil prophets and yet he is running at the voice of a woman.

But God has said, there are those that have not bowed the knee.

And such people will meet opposition, Whether it is from within or without.

For truth never come lest it be rejected or being attacked.

For the Satan is always underground to contend whatever God has put forward as truth.

We are told in Patriarchs and Prophets that when God was in the mountain, giving the law, Satan was underground, working amongst the people, stirring them up, and he started with the mixed multitude.

There is always a mixed multitude amongst God's people.

Selected messages, book 1 says, page 122, we have far more to fear from within than without.

The hindrances to success, to strength and success, are far greater from the church itself than from the world.

And believers have a right to expect that those who profess to be keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus will do more than any other class to promote honor by their consistent lives, by their godly example and their active influence, the cause which they represent.

In other words, those who claim to be Christians, especially Seventh-day Adventists, those outside and hate us, and those that don't know of us, but look on, should expect what we preach, we practice, what we stand for we actually do stand for.

She goes on to say, but how often have the professed advocates of the truth proved the greatest obstacles to its advancement the unbelief indulge the doubt express the darkness cherish encourage and the presence of evil angels.

The unbelief indulged, the doubt expressed, the darkness cherished, encouraged the presence of evil angels and opened the way for the accomplishment of Satan's devices.

She says God's people should be minute men.

If you remember the story of when God was leading his children of Israel through the desert, it came to a point where God had said the water that is flowing out of the rock is going to stop And God continues to instruct Moses, says, when you go through the land of Moab, buy of the people such things as you need, trade with them.

But the children of Israel started to murmur.

By the time they had gone to go and ask permission to go through the land, evil angels, spiritual prophecies says, had gone ahead and had turned the mind of the king.

They could not go through the land, they had to turn and go north, lengthening their journey.

We are not following wise fables, we are following a spiritual warfare.

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A Peculiar People

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