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00:00:01
Correct in Love
18 Plays20 days ago
Series: Exemplifying the Excellent
Titus 1:1-16
Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Correcting a small error was crucial for the Apollo 13 astronauts, and it's crucial for you and I today in the church when we see error that pops up in the church. When we hear false teachers or we hear somebody give false doctrine, our obligation as members of the body of Christ is to say something.
00:00:27
Speaker
But often we're uncomfortable saying something, aren't we? Or we just don't know how to go about it. This is what we're gonna look at today in Titus. As we open up a brand new book, Titus, we're gonna answer this question, how do we go about correcting false teaching? And we're gonna do it in love. And you'll see if you have your outlines with you, we're gonna look at the content of false teachers and truth teachers. We're gonna look at the character of false teachers and truth teachers.
00:00:55
Speaker
and then ultimately how you and I go about correcting those false teachers. Titus, if you have your Bibles and you open them, is right after 2 Timothy. So if you if you've bookmarked your Bible, you're in the right spot. Titus, if you have your Bibles, go ahead. We're going to read Chapter 1 in its entirety. If you don't have your Bibles, it'll be up here on the screen.
00:01:20
Speaker
Chapter one, verse one starts this way. It says, this is a letter from Paul, a slave of God and apostle of Jesus Christ. I have been set to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives. This truth gives them confidence that they will have eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised them before the world began.
00:01:48
Speaker
And now, at just the right time, he has revealed this message, which we announce to everyone. It is by the command of God our Savior that I have been entrusted with this work for him. I'm writing to Titus, my true son in the faith that we share. May God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior give you grace and peace. He says here in verse five, he says, I've left you on the island of Crete,
00:02:18
Speaker
so that you can complete the work there and appoint elders in each town as I have instructed you. An elder must live a blameless life. He must be faithful to his wife and have children. They must be believers and who do not have a reputation for being wild or rebellious. A church leader is a manager of God's household, so he must live a blameless life too. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered.
00:02:45
Speaker
He must not be a heavy drinker or violent or dishonest with money. Rather, he must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must love what is good. He must live wisely and be just. He must live a devout and disciplined life. He must have a strong belief in the trustworthy message he was taught.
00:03:07
Speaker
so that then he was able to encourage others with the wholesome teaching and to show those who oppose it where they are wrong. For there are many rebellious people who engage in useless talk and deceive others. This is especially true of those who insist on circumcision for salvation. They must be silenced because they are turning old families away from the truth by their false teaching.
00:03:37
Speaker
and they do it only for money. Even one of their own men, the prophet from Crete, has said about them, the people of Crete are all liars. They're cruel animals and lazy gluttons. This is true. So reprimand them sternly to make them strong in the faith. They must stop listening to Jewish myths and in the commands of people who have turned away from the truth.
00:04:07
Speaker
Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure, but nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciousness or consciences are corrupted. Such people claim they know God, but they deny Him by the very way they live. They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good." This is the word of the Lord. What I love about This very tough message from Titus is what's happening in Crete, right? So if you'll remember as we opened up Timothy, I said, Paul wrote to Timothy, first Timothy. And then he took Titus and Paul and Titus went to Crete. There they set up the church. Paul leaves Titus there in Crete and he writes the letter of Titus at that point.
00:05:05
Speaker
After that letter, he goes back and writes a second letter to Timothy. So that's kind of chronologically what's happening. He writes this letter at about 64 AD. This is Paul writing two Titus to this church in Crete. And if you know anything about where Crete is, it's an island in the Mediterranean and it's known for two things really.
00:05:30
Speaker
It would be like saying Cameron is the home of the yo. Everybody just knows it. That's how they're known. Crete is known for Greek mythology. This is where Greek mythology ruled and reigned. They were also known as liars and rebels and dissenters. So much so, if you wanted to call somebody a liar, you would simply call them a cretin.
00:06:02
Speaker
this This is the moniker these people had received from being so corrupt and so rebellious and such dividers, if you will. He tells us here here in the very first chapter, look with me, he says there's these people that are rebellious, verse 14. And the content in which they teach, we can tell, he says they must stop listening to Jewish myths.
00:06:32
Speaker
and the commands of people who have turned away from the truth. So what these false teachers are doing is they're mixing in myth, mythology. They're mixing in Greek mythology. They're mixing in old Jewish mythology. They're bringing in all this other stuff other than what Paul and Titus were teaching. And I thought to myself today, yeah how do we make this relatable today? How do we? Because I'm sure none of you are huge Greek mythology practices today, right? You're not going home praying to Zeus on Sunday. Nor are you doing a lot of probably Jewish things. I think it's very easy for us in the West to sometimes think Christianity just started as Christianity.
00:07:24
Speaker
right The very first Christians were Jews who were raised in Judaism. So it's natural that some of those Jewish traditions and those Jewish thoughts are kind of carried along with them. If you were raised Catholic, this would be a good example. And there's a few of you, I know, and I was one of them. So I can speak to you lovingly. You heard growing up in the Catholic Church about this place between us and heaven.
00:07:54
Speaker
There's a place there, right? When you die, it's called... Oh, wait. Are those Baptists saying that Don't say that. The problem is we were taught that growing up, many. And then at some point you realize or you got pulled away from that denomination or you got pulled away from a different place, a different spiritual teaching, and some of that you're kind of dragging along with you so that when we hear good, well-intentioned Christians make a comment like, well, you know, I'm really trying hard to keep my salvation. You know, i'm I'm really trying to be obedient this week, but it's really tough because I don't want to lose my salvation. Friends, I heard this here.
00:08:47
Speaker
from another pastor, not at this church. And I thought to myself, what? What did you say? Did I mishear you? You're trying to keep your salvation. And so i ah I'll tell you here at the end of the sermon how I address that gentleman, because I think it'll be very helpful for the rest of us. But understand this is the environment that Titus is being dropped into. It's a ah an environment of Rebels.
00:09:19
Speaker
of false teachers who were teaching something else other than what Paul and Titus have been teaching. He said, not only are they teaching these Jewish myths, probably something to do with genealogies, although it doesn't say. Verse 10, 11 says, you know they're these are the people they're talking about, circumcision, as that's a requirement somehow to be saved.
00:09:48
Speaker
So it's not just believing that Jesus came and died for your sins, it's Jesus plus something else. It's Jesus and follow these man-made rules. And that's what these false teachers are doing. This is the content of what they're doing. And as I read and reread this this week, I thought to myself ah just a couple of thoughts. um First is there's nothing new for the enemy.
00:10:17
Speaker
He knows it all. He knows what works and what doesn't work, and and he has the exact same tricks that he was doing here in Crete in this church that he's still doing today. He's finding people who want to be dissenters or being dividers or somebody who wants to teach something other than the truth of the gospel message.
00:10:40
Speaker
And he just knows that it's easy for these people to get away with it unless somebody corrects them. And so I wanna be real clear as we walk through the text here this morning, I i identified two types of false teachers here today. And I want you to listen closely, because the first one is very obviously. This one is, he's telling us today, they're openly rebellious,
00:11:07
Speaker
there pretty much doing this on purpose. They're leading people astray, entire families, verse 11. They're all being turned away by these false teachers. And I think, friends, the other false teacher here are just people that are simply misinformed. and i'll And I'll say that, I think there are many times we may experience Christians that are not actively trying to lead you astray.
00:11:35
Speaker
But they've been mistaught or misinformed, and they may bring along some other type of theology with them that says they have to earn and keep their salvation, or that if they don't do something right, they're not going to go to purgatory.
00:11:54
Speaker
but There's all these other little added things that we have to be really careful so that when we hear them, um like I did a week or so ago, I heard somebody say, well, you just need to speak that health, speak a positive word over that health and you you can heal yourself.
00:12:13
Speaker
And I just heard somebody just recently talk about the creative nature of God. God is very creative and we too, because we're in the image of God, have that ability to create. And I want to let you know very carefully, you have to navigate that conversation because while we can be creative, we cannot create. God has not given us that faculty. You cannot speak something into existence because if that's the case, friends, I would have been a millionaire a long time ago.
00:12:46
Speaker
And I wouldn't have back pain still to this day because I simply would have spoke that out out of existence. It just doesn't work that way. We have to be real careful not only of the content of these guys, the false teachers. Paul's real helpful in this that he says, watch out for the false guys, but the way you'll know they're false is because here's here's the truth here's how the truth people handle it. He says verses one through four, he says,
00:13:17
Speaker
They stick to the one truth, and that one truth leads to godly living. It's not about money, like he says. These people are false teachers and they only do it for money. Friends, I want you to know as I stand up here, I don't do this for the money. I don't. I do it because I love God's word and I love you. But somebody who's doing it for the money is not a truth teacher. The truth teacher does it and provides and sticks to God's truth, providing a way to live godly lives, and it says the truth gives these people who adhere to the truth confidence that they have eternal life, which God who does not lie has promised them before the world began. Unlike a false gospel which cannot save, only God's true gospel saves. It's the only word that
00:14:13
Speaker
changes lives, permanently changes lives. And I feel for poor Titus here, I really do, because he's dropped into this mix of people who are uninformed or misinformed and some who are actively in open rebellion and dissension and trying to throw a wrench in his program. And he says, don't follow the false teachers.
00:14:43
Speaker
because they're teaching a false gospel and it's not gonna save. Stick to the truth, teachers. But he not only says, watch out for their content of their message, he says, what really jumps out early on is their character. You can tell a false teacher by their character. Their character is this next section here. He says, verse 10 with, look with me here, he says, for there are many rebellious people.
00:15:07
Speaker
This word rebellious is one who breaks chains. This is somebody who's unwildly, who's running around not wanting to follow the rules. This is the picture here. He says they're rebellious in their very nature because they will not submit. You know this about some people who are rebellious. They simply will not submit to authority, and and it shows up in their character in various ways in their lives.
00:15:34
Speaker
They won't submit to the authority of God. They won't submit to the authority of God's servant. This is why Titus has a problem with these characters because even though he says, hey, the word of God says this, they'll say, eh, that's nice. I think we're gonna follow Zeus on this matter. I don't like what God has to say about that. Friends, if you don't live under God's authority, if you don't believe this is actually God's word and therefore it carries authority,
00:16:05
Speaker
I have no basis of a conversation with you because I can stand up here and preach all day long that you must change and that you must adhere to God's word. But if you are not under its authority, you won't change. You'll just come in Sunday and say, that's a great message. I probably don't agree with some of that and go right back home Sunday afternoon and continue living life. He says the false teachers are rebellious. They are vain talkers or empty talkers.
00:16:32
Speaker
meaning they love to talk a lot, but they don't do anything.
00:16:39
Speaker
And the great tragedy is, it says, in that type of false teaching, they deceive people. They deceive them away from the truth, and they peddle error. And I just ah just put here,
00:16:54
Speaker
If it wasn't so serious, if this issue wasn't so serious, I don't think he would use words like liar, brute, and glutton. Have you ever read a list like that and you come across that in the Bible and you go, oh, that's kind of harsh. It's not just beasts. Friends, he says they're evil beasts. They're not just gluttons, they're lazy gluttons.
00:17:20
Speaker
These are people that by their very character want to be a celebrity and not a servant. They want to tell you what to do, but they don't want to do it themselves.
00:17:33
Speaker
He sums up their character here in verse 16. Look at me. Verse 16 says this, such people claim that they know God, but they deny Him by the way they live. So you can't say you practice or live one way. I believe this, but I don't practice it.
00:17:50
Speaker
They just don't go hand in hand. If you say you believe something and you want to live that out and you're under the authority of God, you will live that certain way. He's saying these people are saying, do this, but not me. I'm not going to do that. You guys do that, I'm not going to do that. It's a false character. And it says they are abominable, which means detestable or disgusting.
00:18:17
Speaker
And friends, we should see that type of character in people. and And it's these people that are, unfortunately, the ones that attract all the masses at the megachurches. And they preach a message of health and wealth and everything is good, and then they go get on their private jet and fly back to their mansion in and a different state. We should see that and be disgusted.
00:18:43
Speaker
because that's not what the man of God who teaches his word should do. It says rather they should be, he continues in verse five through nine here, he says they should be lovers of hospitality.
00:18:56
Speaker
They should be blameless. This list should sound very familiar. It's the same list that was mentioned in 1 Timothy. right Blameless, a husband of one wife. He's not giving over to wine. He's not violent. He's not a lover of money. He should love, rather, hospitality. He should be somebody who calls people to their house and welcomes them in. He should love something and everything that's good. He should not be self-willed or overbearing.
00:19:23
Speaker
He should be holy and temperate and self-controlled. Verse 9 says, "...holding fast to the faithful word." But you can tell a godly man because he's in God's Word.
00:19:41
Speaker
here's Here's why this is important. and and i know here's And I've heard this, trust me, I've heard this from many people in the congregation, and I'm not taking this in a negative way. Why do we spend so much time and so much emphasis on the Bible? I've heard this before. Because we want to be known as a Bible-believing people so that you know it when you hear false teaching and you go, yeah, there's something not right about that. There's something a little bit off. I think I should say something.
00:20:12
Speaker
when this gentleman told me I'm really striving hard this week to keep my salvation, that should throw up some red flags where you go, wow, that's not where Scripture's at. Or if somebody says, you know, at least I'm working really hard in this life to be good so that when I die, I'm gonna go to purgatory and I'm gonna have this family reunion with all the other people that are in purgatory. And you go,
00:20:40
Speaker
I just need to see where that's at in the Bible. Would you mind showing me where that's at in the Bible? Because I'll guarantee you they can't. So when we know it, and we hear the false teaching, we have an obligation to speak up and correct. That's our next section. And I'm just gonna tell you right now, it's not easy to do. I'm not gonna stand up here and pretend like it's easy just to, when you hear false teaching, that you you call it out. And and i and I'll tell you,
00:21:12
Speaker
My take on this at the end when we look at application. But look what Paul says to Titus, how he should handle these people. Exhort them and convince them by the means of sound doctrine. Meaning, if you hear false teaching, take them to God's word. The only way you can combat the enemy's lies is is right here with God's word. If they say something, say, can you show me in the Bible where that's at?
00:21:39
Speaker
I love, or can you know can I show you where where I know? Let's go to first titus i want to show or Titus. I want to show you something here in chapter one. We have to be able to rebuke them, Paul's words to Titus, and I think it's because some of these guys were really unruly. He says, muzzle them, your translation may say.
00:22:04
Speaker
The politically correct term is probably muzzle them. Shut them up. Stop them in their tracks. Because what they're doing is they're sowing these seeds of dissension, division, and if it's left unchecked, it's like a yeast that keeps rising and growing and seeping into everywhere to where there eventually comes a point where you don't know who's telling the truth anymore. So when you hear it, friends, you should speak up in love and say, you know what, my brother or sister, I'm not sure that's 100% accurate what you're telling me.
00:22:36
Speaker
Let's go to God's word together and let's find it. But he does say the purpose of the correction here is to bring them back into alignment, right? That's the point of why we correct somebody. It's not to shame them. It's not to judge them. It's not to condemn them. It's to say, if you fire that thruster for too long, you're going to bounce off the earth's atmosphere. I really want you to get back home safely. Let me help you by making a little course correction.
00:23:11
Speaker
He says we must correct it quickly. Everybody say quickly. And we must correct it lovingly. Everybody say lovingly. How do we do that? That's that's the take take-home today. How do we go about listening to somebody who is maybe actively trying to be divisive?
00:23:31
Speaker
actively trying to be a false teacher or probably more likely when you run into somebody who is simply misinformed and they say something. How do we go about doing that in a loving manner? All right, three quick points here at the very end and we'll wrap this up.
00:23:46
Speaker
first is ah And I love this because any time we go to address a fellow brother or sister in Christ, this should always be step number one, always, always, always, always. So if you're taking notes, the first thing is examine yourself. Examine yourself. Meaning, if I'm going to call out somebody for gossiping, I better not be known as the gossiper in the church.
00:24:14
Speaker
I should not be openly and actively gossiping, and then say, you know, I'm really gonna go have a talk with so-and-so about gossiping. A, that's hypocritical, and B, it will fall on deaf ears. So examine yourself. Matthew 7, 3, he says, you know, this is a very popular ah passage here, he says, why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
00:24:41
Speaker
How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when all the time there's this plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye and then you will see more clearly, right? he Jesus uses this hyperbole here to say we're often blinded by our own sin. So we want to go in with a pure motive. We want to hear the false teaching, identify it, go, yeah, this is definitely false teaching. And I want to make sure before I go speak to Brother Billy, which he will never be a false teacher, I just want to say right now. I'm using him as an example. Or if I go see Miss Loretta, we want to make sure we examine ourselves first, that we have the right motivation, the pure motivation. And I like what ah Piper says here. He says, this particular passage in Matthew explains
00:25:34
Speaker
about overcoming the blindness of pride in our own selves so that we might be helpful to somebody else. This is the whole reason why we go about correcting somebody, is to get them back on track. But if we ourselves aren't on the straight and narrow, if we ourselves are not willing to inspect ourselves and inspect our lives, we have really no reason or ability to speak helpful into somebody else's life and to restore them in a loving manner.
00:26:07
Speaker
Because that's our goal, friends, in correcting somebody theologically speaking, if they're off track somewhere. We should want to do it in love. Hey, my brother or sister, I love you so much that I don't want you to be off track here. I want to take you back to what God's word says so that we can both be moving in the right direction.
00:26:28
Speaker
Second, examine your relationship. This is super important. The reason I say this
00:26:39
Speaker
I have a certain authority as your pastor to speak to you as my flock. I do not have that same authority to speak to somebody else's flock. I do have a certain authority as a Christian believer under the authority of God that when you hear air somewhere, we should feel confident to speak up. I'm also saying that's a very Careful area that we have to be we don't want to just jump into somebody else's business at some other place And you may not know them and you say that's wrong what you're saying to me right there, right? There's a there's a way we approach it
00:27:19
Speaker
You have to not only examine ourselves, we have to examine that relationship. Do I have the right to speak into that person's life? Do I have the right at that time, if I know them, it really makes it easy? If you're friends with somebody here in the congregation, hey, let me take you aside privately and let's have a conversation. What kind of irks me as a pastor, and I've seen it, is a public outing of somebody, you know, where you're just out and if somebody's a ah street preacher and these random people are coming up and just yelling, you know, how dare you, you hypocrite and all this, you know, there's a way to go ah to go about that. I'm not gonna go speak into the lies of an unbeliever because they're not gonna be willing to accept that. You will have people probably in your own families that are unbelievers.
00:28:11
Speaker
And they may say, I don't believe that what you're saying about Jesus. You may say something, you may have in a conversation, a spiritual conversation. I don't believe that particular thing. Friends, let me tell you, you very well very may well think that you have the ability to speak into that person's life. If they're a non-believer, they're not under God's authority. they're not gonna You can talk all day long about how you should change and and come into alignment with God's will, they're gonna look at you like you're crazy.
00:28:41
Speaker
because they don't see this as God's word. They don't see it having any authority. They don't see it binding. However, if it is a fellow brother or a fellow sister in Christ, you have an obligation to say something to them. Hey, I love you so much. Let me correct you in this. let's Let's talk about it together because you may very well be incorrect yourself. But when you both come to the word and you both inspect it, and particularly if you know it pretty well,
00:29:08
Speaker
that person will be more receptive if you have that right kind of relationship with them. Does that make sense? Here's a prime example. This gentleman that I ran into was telling me he's really, he looked beat up from the first moment I talked to him. That's why I talked to him. Hey, you look worn down. Things going okay at that church of yours? And the response was, I am ah really working hard this week trying to be obedient, keeping my salvation.
00:29:40
Speaker
And I kind of sat there for a second, and it and it's – frankly, it's kind of one of those theological questions that they tee up for you in seminary, and you never think you're going to get in the real world. And I'm going, oh, my goodness, this guy really thinks he could lose his salvation. So I just said so-and-so. His name wasn't so-and-so, by the way.
00:30:02
Speaker
I just said, boy, that's, I'm assured that's exhausting. You look exhausted. And yet just kind of, he goes, it's just so hard to constantly be obedient, is what he told me, for fear that I would lose my salvation. And so I said, oh my, I said, I could completely agree with that. And I'm going to give you a few words that you yourself can use. I want to tell you how I approached it with this gentleman. I said,
00:30:28
Speaker
Let me share with you something somebody shared with me. And what that does, friends, is it's a little disarming for them because it's not you telling them. Do you see what I'm saying? I'm not correcting you. Let me show you something that somebody else has already showed me. Right, then I bring them to Mark and I bring them down chapter 17 or 19. And I just said, hey, let let's just look at this real quick about what God says Jesus is talking in this context, you know, those that God has entrusted me in my hands will never leave. They will never fall out of my grasp. I said, what does that, I mean, what does that mean to you? And he just kind of sat there and he's like, I mean, I don't know, what does it mean to you? I said, friends, he's he's talking about salvation right there. Once saved, always saved. And then I said, joked. I said, you know, you ought to Google that. There's nothing wrong with saying that, I think, by the way.
00:31:27
Speaker
because I've already planted a seed for him and I said, you know, you just look like this, you know, um there's not something that you can do after you've been saved and then God's gonna go, nope, I'm taking that back. Oh, you said that cuss word? I'm pulling it back. What a horrible way to live your life thinking at any moment, God could pull back that salvation.
00:31:54
Speaker
But friends, it's that type of error when you show it to them and you just kind of plant the seed. And I just said, I said i don't know about you, but boy, this is freeing for me. And I said, I kind of went, hey, I was raised Catholic. There's a huge amount of guilt when you were raised Catholic. That's how the Catholic theology functions. It's the natural outworking of Catholic theology. It is a huge guilt.
00:32:20
Speaker
based system, which makes you feel like at any moment I'm doing the wrong thing and it's going to be displeasing to God. And so I told this guy, I said, man, I lived under that for a long time and how freeing it is to understand what God's grace is.
00:32:35
Speaker
And I said, and when you've really come to that decision and you've placed your trust in Christ, I said, friends, that's forever. There's not something else that you could possibly do that he's going to yank that away from you. And he just kind of sat back in the chair. He said, I guess I need to read Mark a little bit more. I said, you bet you do. And I just left it at that. The tragedy is this gentleman is responsible for teaching other people. How many people has he led astray?
00:33:06
Speaker
Examine yourself, examine that particular relationship, whether or not I have the ability to speak in to that person's life. and then just and I will just say this quickly, examine that person that you're talking to. If they're a believer, by all means jump in and have that difficult conversation.
00:33:23
Speaker
because if worst case scenario they're just going to keep disbelieving and there are no worse shape than they were before you made that effort but I guarantee if you do it in love and you go on with the right motivation and you say I don't want you to keep being misinformed, or if they are actively trying to be divisive, you have to say, I won't allow that to go on here. I don't want a church of divisiveness. I don't want to come to church and feel like so-and-so is feeling this way, and so-and-so is teaching this way.
00:33:58
Speaker
That's kind of one of the reasons why when I came here, I was like, we're all going to get teaching the same thing from the same book all the time so that I know what everybody's teaching and I can sit in everybody's class every once in a while and kind of listen. Examine the person.
00:34:18
Speaker
Don't waste your time trying to correct an unbeliever. I'll just tell you that right now. Don't waste your time. you'll You'll be wasting your time doing that because they're not under the authority and they have no direction or desire to change. Rather, you can pray for them to receive God.
00:34:36
Speaker
I'm gonna end with this. At the end of the day, the spirit behind correction is one of unity and love, period. The whole reason we go about correcting somebody is in love and unity. It's not about condemnation or judgment. If you truly love your brother and sister in Christ, you will want them to be restored. You will want them to know the truth. It will become that important that you will be willing to step out in faith and correct them. May we be that type of people here at First Baptist Church whose words correct
00:35:16
Speaker
They edify, they equip, they exhort, and they encourage. Amen.