The Lord has certainly blessed
us with His mercy and kindness that brought us here. He has visited us with His salvation. We're looking in the book of
Titus. I begin reading there in verse
8. It says, This is a faithful saying in these things, I will,
that thou affirm constantly. that they which have believed
in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are
good and profitable unto men. But avoid foolish questions and
genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law, for
they are unprofitable and vain. A man that is an heretic after
the first and second admonition reject, knowing that he that
is such is subverted and sinneth, being condemned of himself. When
I shall send Artemis unto thee, or Tychicus, be diligent to come
to me to Nicopolis, for I have determined there to winter. Bring
Zenos, the lawyer, and Apollos on their journey, diligently,
that nothing be wanting unto them. And let ours also learn
to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful. All that are with me salute thee.
Greet them that love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.
Amen. Now Paul's exhortation, as we
have spoken of to Titus and to Timothy, of course, is for them to constantly declare
the truth of Christ unto the people to whom they are sent
for this purpose, that those which have believed might be
careful to maintain good works. As we read what the scripture
says, we have been ordained unto good works, predestinated unto
it. The Lord has purposed that that
be the case. We're not sent into the world
to do our own thing. Now, that's a very common and
a very I guess you would say popular
mindset that we have in our society is that everybody's just free
to do whatever they want to do. And if you feel like doing something,
then do it. And that has been somehow even
co-opted by many who claim to be the followers of Christ. And
they would say, well, we're free in Christ to just do whatever
we want. Well, there's a measure of truth
in that. but there's also a measure of
great error. And it is the flesh, our flesh,
which rebels against the law of God, the truth of God, the
way of God, that gives us such a notion as that, that we are
free to do whatever we want. Now, you see, that freedom is
actually what our bondage is. I mean, we've always been that
way, have we not? I mean, going about doing what
we wanted to do. That's what we desire to be delivered
from. And that's why we preach Christ
unto the people of God. Now this is a message that rolls
off the back of unbelievers like water off of a duck's back. It
doesn't have any bearing to them. But those who are believers,
that's what he says, that they which have believed, See, they
might pay attention and heed to these things. And be reminded,
because we do need to be reminded, to maintain good works. Why?
Because we're bent. towards not maintaining good
works. I mean, our whole being is headed
in the other direction and we need constantly to be brought
back and we need to exhort one another and admonish one another
and build one another up in the faith that we might be careful,
he says, to maintain good works. That's what the Lord said to
his disciples was that not watch and pray. Be careful. Because you see, we have an adversary
that goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
Now, the truth is that he cannot devour the people of God. He
has no power to destroy God's people. But the Lord didn't say,
well, he can't do anything to you, so just go blindly on. No, what'd he say to do? He said,
watch and pray. for your adversary, the devil,
goes about. And he will destroy us if he
could. And so we are to be ever mindful
that we are to watch against his devices, to maintain good
works, to be mindful to do those things that are good and profitable
unto men, and to be kind and considerate, to desire that the
fruit of the Spirit be found in us. We sang some songs this
morning when we first started, and they were songs of questioning. Now, on one hand, we never question the way of
God, but it's a good thing to look at ourselves, examine ourselves,
as scripture says, to see if we be in the faith. And it's
a good thing that we look at ourselves. Now, we must never
fall into the trap of looking at ourselves and thinking that
we are going to discover something there, that is going to make
us happy. Because the truth of the matter
is that every time we examine ourselves, we get to realizing
what we really are by nature. And so there's no comfort to
be had. When the scripture says examine
yourselves to see if you be in the faith, that's not, the examination
is not the thing that brings us encouragement. We don't examine
ourselves and we see all these things that cause us to be in
the faith, but we examine ourselves to see if we be in the faith
so that we might realize that apart from the grace of God,
we would perish. You see, our encouragement is
in knowing that the Lord is the one that keeps us from falling,
not that we're gonna keep ourselves from falling. Not that we're
somehow or other going to become so strong that we can just fight
with the devil and we can triumph. No. He said, take unto yourselves
the whole armor of God. Not your own armor, not the ability
you have to fight, but Christ. He is our helper. And so we need
to be careful to maintain good work. I ask the Lord to help
you to know what it is, what good works are. I think most
of us kinda know what those things are. I mean, if you read the
scripture, if you want to know a simple test to know what good
works are, look at the life of Christ. He went about doing good. He was a man of good works. And
so it is that if you would be a man of good works, You need
to emulate Christ. He left us his, that we should
follow his steps. Look at him. Don't look at me,
don't look at, The many faithful men that have
gone on in times past, not wrong to look at them and be encouraged,
but faithful men would have you always to look to Christ. Any
man that would point you in some other direction, if he even tells
you to look at yourself and help yourself to do better, he's not
being faithful to you. Because our only help and hope
is in Christ. But we admonish one another to
be looking. What are we looking? Looking
for Christ. And looking that He might make
in us, that He might form in us Himself. That we might be
conformed to His image. That we might be like Him. These
things are good and profitable unto men. These things will help.
But He says, but avoid foolish questions. and genealogies, contentions,
strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and vain.
Now, he didn't say avoid questions. He said avoid foolish questions.
And foolish questions always come back to those things that
have to do with men. See, there's no foolish question
if a man's wanting to know more about Christ. now if you want
to know more about what you can do uh... to make yourself pleasing
in his sight that's a foolish question because there's nothing
you can do of yourself now he is pleased to work in us according
to the good pleasure of his will and he does continually do that
but we are to avoid foolish questions uh... those things that are not
unto the prophet of men? You know, there are many questions.
One that pops into my mind is where did Cain get his wife?
Now I've heard people really just get involved in that and
they think, you know, well something's gotta be missing from the scripture.
Look, that's a foolish question. We'll never be able to answer
that. I mean, it's pretty obvious from the scriptures what it was
if God created a man and a woman, and he populated the earth with
a man and a woman, then Cain, you know, we would understand
where Cain got his wife. But those such things as that
don't make any difference. What difference does that make?
You know, or you look at the questions. I mean, even people
get sidetracked on many things. I've known some people that really
got concerned about the race of the giants and, you know,
those type things, and they really just kind of went off the deep
end. Another thing that has arisen over time, foolish questions,
contentions, strivings about things, is whether the earth's flat or
not. Now this is an unfortunate thing,
and I'm gonna talk about this because it says here in verse
10, a man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition
reject. Now the word heretic, as we know
it and understand it, as it's normally used, that means somebody
that is stating something that's doctrinally wrong. That's actually
not how the scripture uses the word heretic. There's the word,
the Greek word that is the basis of the word heretic is choose. That's the base word. And then
there's three other words that are used through the scripture,
either says heresies, heresy, or heretic. And they all stem
from that same word. And what it literally means is
to be a schismatic. One of the words is used as the
sect of the Pharisees. And there are other sects, S-E-C-T,
of various men. Those are heresies. Because a sect, a cult, is that
which draws men away. And that's what heresy is. Now
there's never a doctrine that cannot be discussed among the
sons of God. Now having said that, there's
many doctrines that men like to bring up and go astray from
what I believe the scripture says that ultimately result in
heresy, which is schisms. In fact, if you look at the church
today, it's split off in a hundred different ways, and it all stems
from heresy. Not necessarily doctrinal error,
but the manner in which men approach the doctrine. In other words,
if we come with some doctrine, such as, say, the flat earth.
I actually knew some brethren that split off from other brethren,
whom they had real close fellowship with, But some of them got so
convinced about this matter of the Bible teaching that the earth
is flat that it became a heresy to them. Now there was nothing
wrong with talking about whether the earth's flat. I have no idea
if the earth's flat or round. Now you can say you know beyond
a shadow of a doubt, and I know I've been taught all the scientific
stuff and I believe the earth's round. But I can't unequivocally
say that the earth is not flat, okay? Who cares? What difference does that make?
But these gentlemen, because they became so convinced that
the Bible taught that this was a thing, that they split off
from other brethren over that very thing. Now they didn't stop
believing in Christ or anything like that, but that is a heresy. when men become so convinced
of something that they're willing to cast off true fellowship with
brethren over doctrinal matters. Now down through the ages, the
doctrine of the Trinity has caused great schism among God's people.
Now I believe what the Scripture says about those things. But
I believe what the scripture says about them, not what men
have reasoned out what these things are. And when men come
and they become convinced that you have to believe this particular
thing about that as they describe it, or else you are, in their
mind, a heretic. Now that word gets thrown around
a lot, especially around that particular subject. Well, he's
a heretic on that. I mean, you look back at some
really great men. Wilson Thompson, for one, great
preacher. Preached Christ, loved Christ.
In fact, most of the Baptist churches, or not most, but many
of the Baptist churches in this country have their roots and
foundations in much of the preaching of Wilson Thompson. And yet many
have arisen in time and said, well, he was a heretic. What
do they mean by that? Well, he didn't believe the doctrine
of the Trinity. He wrote a book on it, and he
didn't say exactly what they thought he ought to have said.
And so they look at him as a heretic. Well, that's not what these heresies
are. Because what he's saying here
is a man that's a heretic after the first saying. He says if
a man comes and he's wanting to argue about these genealogies
and these strivings about the law, which are unprofitable and
vain, to the point that he's willing to split God's people
apart, then he's a heretic and he needs to be warned about it
and he needs to be rejected after a couple of warnings about it.
Now, that's not to say that there's not false doctrine and that we
don't need to be careful. to look at what, but let's look
at what the Bible says. And if you have a different idea
about what the scripture says, you don't need to be worried
about being a heretic because you bring up some doctrine, you
know, and say, well, what about this? Let's look at it and see
what scripture says about it. And I can, we can respectfully
disagree with one another about what something says. But we're
not going to split up with one another because we have different
viewpoints about a particular truth or what we believe to be
the truth. And so that's what Paul's warning
about here. is that we be mindful. You know, in the early church,
there were, especially in the Corinthian church, I mean, Paul
writes to them, there was a pretty robust discussion about things,
I believe, in that church, because he said, you know, if something
be revealed to another man, let the first one sit down and let
the other one say. So there were disputes. Scripps
says if women were not to be involved in these disputes, now
you can get mad about that if you want to, but that's what
he said. He said let them ask their husbands when they get
home. Why was that? To avoid schism. We don't need to be so intent
on proving our point. that we're willing to just cast
somebody off. Now that doesn't mean that we're
all gonna always agree, and that there are not other people out
there that disagree with us vehemently, and that's their business. But
let's stick with the scriptures, look at the scriptures, and love
one another with pure hearts fervently. And if we come to
a place where we have some doctrinal difference that we just cannot
abide one another's company, then we will amicably go our
ways, like Paul and Silas, or Paul and Barnabas, I believe
it was. They went separate ways. Now, they didn't cease to love
one another. And they were not schismatic
in that respect. They were not heretics one with
the other. They just had a disagreement.
And we can have disagreements, but we're not to be those that
go about trying to promote our position. See, a heretic is somebody
that tries to lead other people astray. He's not happy just to
tell what he believes. He's happy when he gets other
people to believe that and move off from everybody else. Well,
you know, that bunch of people down there, they don't know nothing.
And we need to get our own little group over here and we'll do
this. Well, we need to be careful about that. May the Lord give
us a mind and heart to be agreeable. If we can't be in agreement,
at least be agreeable. See, you can differ with somebody
in points of doctrine without hating them. That's not possible
with some people, and a heretic is like that. He's gonna hate
somebody if they don't believe like he believes it is. So we need to be mindful of that,
knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth, even
if he might be right. See, the people that believe
that the earth's flat, they might be right. But they're subverted
if they would take that, such a thing as that, which we cannot
really know the answer to 100%, and would be willing to split
off with brethren, then they're subverted. They sin it, and being
condemned of their self. They condemn their own self by
their attitude, by their action. And so, you know, taking those
admonitions to heart, does that mean that we don't have doctrinal
truths that we believe to be true and that we would hold to
to our dying day? And then if it came down to it,
we would stand alone upon those truths if nobody stood with us. That's not to be schismatic. To be schismatic would be to
demand that everybody see it the way you do. You can't make somebody see what
you can see. But may the Lord give us a mind
and heart to study the scriptures. And if the scripture says something,
brethren, you just got to accept it. You can't explain it. in a way that the Scripture doesn't
explain it. And I believe there's a lot of
truths, the Trinity being one of them, that the Scripture says
many things about it, but it doesn't explain it. And the reason
it doesn't explain it is because it's unexplainable. It's not
something that man, God dwells in the light to which no man
can approach and yet men think they can just go right on up
in there and dissect it and get everything out just like they
want it. And they think that by doing these things they help
men understand it. Now I've read Many books on that
particular subject, I don't know why that particular subject came
up, but it's just on my mind. I read a lot of books, and most
of the time I'm more confused when I finish reading the book
than I am when I started. You know, just go what the scripture
says, and what the scripture, where the scripture says this
is the thing, then we believe it. You know, I mean, the scripture
speaks of God in plurality. But the scripture also plainly
says he is one God. Now, if you can reconcile that
in your mind by your reasoning, go ahead. I'll listen to you. But don't get mad at me if I
don't comprehend it the same way you do. Because that's to
be schismatic. That's to be heretic when we
go into such fashion as that. And then he goes on and talks
about these men that he's going to sin and sin for, and wants
to visit with them, wants to have fellowship. And all of these
men, most of them, we don't even know who they are, except Paul
knew them. They were precious to him. Now
think about it. How many Christians there are in the world? Now I'm
sure there's far less Christians in the world than the census
would tell us that there is. Or that men would count that
there is. But there are many multitudes
that we can't even number that do belong to Christ, that do
worship him, that do delight in his presence. And you don't
know very many of them. But the Lord has put you in the
presence of many that you do know. And so we don't know these
men. Paul did. And he loved them. And the Lord gave them to him
to minister to him and he to them. And that's why the Lord
puts us together. in local assemblies, is that
we might build one another up in the faith, that we might minister
to one another. Now does that mean you couldn't
be somewhere else? If the Lord puts you there, well
sure you could, but why are you here? You're here because God
put you here. Now he may move you, I don't
know what he's going to do. But know this, that the Lord
puts men together that they might help one another. that they might
bear one another's burdens, that they might build one another
up in the faith, that they might try to minister in all things. Not just spiritual things, but
material things. You know, if somebody's in a
place of need, and we can meet that need, then we ought to do
that. In fact, that's what he says down here. Verse 14, he
said, let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary
uses, that they be not unfruitful. Now, you know, we think about
making a living. And we think that we're making
a living for ourself. And well, we should. Every man
must bear his own burden. Every man needs to be mindful
to take care of himself and of his family. The Lord said that
if a man doesn't take care of his own house, then he's worse
than an infidel. So that is a responsibility that
we have, but we ought also to look on the things of others.
And we're not just simply called to work to provide for ourselves,
but also to provide for others, as the Lord enables us to do
so. I mean, there's no greater blessing than being a giver. You know, the Lord loveth a cheerful
giver. How did they become cheerful?
Because God makes them so. But it's a blessing. See, to
be able to help others. And that's what Paul says here.
Let ours learn to maintain good works. Do good things. Go about
doing what you need to do so that you can provide for yourself
and those with you, but also to the brethren at large. All
that are with me, great salute thee. Greet them that love us
in the faith. Grace be with you all. Do we
love the brethren? You know, there's no other test
that the scripture specifically says by this we will know that
we are the sons of God because we love the brethren. And if
somebody, you know, if you have no regard to your brethren in
Christ, then you need to seriously question whether or not you have
the spirit of God working in you. Because the Spirit of God
causes God's people to love one another. Now, we don't all love
one another the same, and the Lord gives to some greater measures
of love, of gifts, of abilities, and all of those things, but
he knits us all together in Christ, that we might build one another
up in faith, that we might be nurtured and strong, and that
every joint might supply that which the body's in need of.
See, the body is not a head. It's not a foot. It's not a toe. It's not an arm. The body's all
of those things put together. And the Lord made them. And each
one supplies the part that God would have us to have. And let
us pray one for the other. Maintain good works for the necessary
uses. Somebody have a question or a
comment on those things. Yeah, well those were the ones
that didn't go along with the plan. You know, when you look
back, and this has been true, and this shows the nature of
men. The Puritans left persecution
in England to come and start a new country, a new land where
God would be in control of all things. They
would worship God and everything would go along. Well, after a
few years, what happened? They turned out to be just like
where they left because that's the nature of men. It's the nature
of men, and they didn't like the fact that maybe somebody
had a different idea about something than they did. And the powers
that be said, well, we can't have that because pretty soon
everybody will be out of control, and so we need to string up some
of these people. Men are foolish. And we cannot
rely upon ourselves, we must rely upon the Lord. He's the
only one that can prevent heresies of either kind, whether it's
of doctrinal misunderstanding and misstatement, or whether
it is that schism that arises as a result, perhaps, of some
of those things, to lead ministry.