We're looking in the book of
Titus. Last week we looked at these verses quite quickly concerning
the qualifications or those things that Paul is telling Titus to
be looking for in those who would be set apart as elders or bishops. And there is, of course, the
list of qualifications there. And I did not mean to in any
wise slight those things or to not speak of them. We had, of
course, covered those things in the book of Timothy. But to make this, point this
out, that though these things are indeed the attributes most certainly should
be found in those who would be the leaders of God's people,
they are no less to be desired among all of God's people. They're
not just given out as things, well, you know, we want these
guys to be like this and everybody else can just be any way they
want to be. So, no, we don't mean to set that forth in that
way. Certainly, I find nothing that
is set forth as these qualifications for the bishop or the elder. that should not actually be found
in all of God's people. I mean, you know, there are,
the Lord works in his people both to will and to do of his
good pleasure. He gives to every man a measure
of faith as it pleases him. And he does give some men a greater
spiritual capacity than he does others. I believe that that is
observable and it is also found in the scripture. As he does
speak, he said, let those that are spiritual among you consider
certain things. And surely that does not mean
that there are some of God's people who are not spiritual.
It simply means that there are some who are given greater spiritual
understanding and greater gifts, perhaps, if you want to look
at it in that way, to pursue these things. But it does not
mean in any wise that these things are any less the desire of God's
people in general. Surely, we can read this list
and be convicted of our own weaknesses when we look at them and we find,
well, maybe we are given to some of these things that we should
not be. And so may the Lord give us a
mind and heart to be a people that would be found as examples
to the men of this world. Those as we walk through this
world, we ought to be set apart in our conduct. Those our conduct
should not match the world's. That doesn't mean that we've
got to do weird stuff or anything like that, but it does mean that
it should not be odd for God's people to be considered odd by
the world. Because we are odd. Scripture
says so. It says we are a peculiar people. And that means odd, it means
set apart. It means a particular people.
And so it is that the Lord has called us with a particular calling. And we are to be as the lights
in a dark world. The Lord said, a city which is
set on a hill cannot be hid. And most surely we are called
unto that end to be examples before men. Now Paul goes on
to speak, of course, to Titus, and speaking about the particular
qualifications of these men ordained as elders, holding fast the faithful
word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound
doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayers. Now, sound doctrine
is a necessary part of understanding who Christ is and understanding
what it is that Christ has done. Now there is a general consideration
that men have often of the gospel in just kind of some generic
sense. In this way, if you looked at
the United States, And as it would be characterized by the
world, we wouldn't characterize it like this, but as it would
be characterized by the world in general as a Christian nation. In other words, there is a basic
undercurrent of Christianity that has permeated our society. Now, unfortunately, that has
grown less and less over the years to the point that it is
almost unrecognizable in our present day situation. But there
is a sense, in that sense, in which there is a general consideration
of what Christianity is. And if you ask most people, Not
all, and probably a greatly less number of people in the present
time than say 50 years ago. Are you a Christian? They would
say, well of course. Because they have a general idea
of what it is to be called a Christian. Now that term, of course, was
first used to the Christians at Antioch. They were called
Christians. They were called Christians by
others. They didn't put up a sign and say, hey, we're Christians. But rather, the people who viewed
them and looked on them said, boy, those people are Christians.
What that means is they followed Christ. They followed the teachings
of Christ. They walked in the way that the
Lord would have them to walk. And so it was recognizable. So there is a sense in which
Men often have a generic consideration of what Christianity is. But
the reality is that as you look in what the Word of God teaches,
it's quite different from what that generic view of what Christianity
is. And that is what Titus is getting
at here, holding fast the faithful word that he may be able by sound
doctrine to convince the gainsayers. Now there are many false religions
in the world going by the name of Christian, calling themselves
followers of Christ. And it's not our place to go
out here in the world and try to convince all of them differently,
but we are to convince them in our daily declaration of the
Word of God, preaching sound doctrine. And it will not be
necessarily palatable to the rank and file of those that generically
consider themselves to be Christians. but it is nonetheless the truth
of the word of God. And we are to convince them. That is, when we think of that
word convince, it's like we think of it as winning an argument. That's not what he's saying here.
We're to convince them in the sense that we set forth the truth
before them. Now whether or not they receive
that, we have no way of causing that to occur. I mean, I can't
convince you of something that the Lord doesn't convince you
of. And, you know, I can argue with you till I'm blue in the
face, and you are too. And, you know, you're never gonna
be any closer to the truth than you were when we started. But
when the Lord is pleased to take his word, as we know that he
sends his word often with great power, then those people will
be converted, convinced, made to see the truth by the power
of God through those things that we might set forth as being sound
and true doctrine. Now, it's not within our power
to teach anybody sound doctrine. we can set it forth, and we must.
And that's what he's setting forth here for these who are
called to this office, to be those that set forth sound doctrine
that they may be able to exhort and convince the gainsayers.
For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially
they of the circumcision." Now the Jews, they tried in many
ways to overturn the early Christian faith. And not only did they
do it from external ways, but they did it internally. Because
what they did was many of those who supposedly were converted
Jews were not in reality so. But they wanted to hold on to
their Judaism and say that they were followers of Christ at the
same time. But those two things are not
compatible. You know, it's not the same thing.
That's not to say that a Jew cannot be a Christian, but it
means you cannot follow Judaism and follow Christ, because Christ
came to fulfill all of the tenets of Judaism. If you want to know
what Judaism, true Judaism is, it's Christ. I mean, he came
to satisfy every law that was set forth for those given to
the Jews. All of those things were fulfilled
in Christ. And so you cannot go over here
and say, well, we're going to follow the tenets of Judaism,
but we're going to follow Christ because Christ satisfied those
things. They're no longer in that sense
those things to which we look. We're not looking to that as
our example, we're looking to Christ. Now we would never, as
Paul says, do we seek to overturn the law? God forbid, it's God's
law. Why would we overturn it? We couldn't overturn it if we
tried. But we do understand that Christ is the fulfillment of
the law, and we're no longer trying to fulfill the law in
order to make ourselves pleasing unto God. And so you cannot have
the concept of Judaism as it is taught in the Old Testament
and hold to that which Christ did. Now that's what he, Paul,
the book of Galatians is written primarily to correct that error. And he very plainly says those
things, the book of the Hebrews. I mean Paul speaks quite plainly
about what Christ did and how Christ is the one to whom we
look. God who at sundry times and in
divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets hath in these last days there's a change taking place
hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. And so That is sound doctrine. That we set forth that it is
none but Christ. It's nothing but Christ. It's
not Christ plus something men do, but it's Christ and Christ
alone. Especially they of the circumcision,
he said, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses. Because those that go forth teaching
false doctrine often confuse the minds of those who are weak
in the faith. And he says they gotta be stopped.
We got to speak forth the truth of God in such a way that we
convince and exhort men to flee from these false errors. And
that's what happens when we teach sound doctrine. Now, if somebody
was going to give us a synopsis or we were going to condense
what sound doctrine is, I've often told you that sound doctrine
has two parts. One is that we are great sinners,
and the other is that Christ is the Savior. Now that's as
simple as you can get the doctrine of Christ down to what the truth
is. Now, where the error comes in
is how men flesh that out. And they give men too much power
and take power away from the Lord. And Judaism always seeks
to empower men. Whereas Christianity exalts Christ. Now see, that's a big difference.
And if you listen to, and I don't mean this in a critical way,
but most of the preaching that you hear is geared toward getting
people to do stuff. what they ought to be doing,
and all of these things. And I'm not saying that's not
an important thing or those things are not to be considered, but
whenever the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached, as what Paul's
telling Titus about here, Christ is gonna be magnified. And when
somebody hears them, they're not going to go away thinking
about all the things they need to be doing. They're going to
be thinking about what Christ did. I mean, that's sound doctrine. What Christ did. See, we want
to lift up Christ. And if he be lifted up, he'll
draw men unto himself, he said. And so he says, we must do this. And he's speaking here, of course,
he left Titus in Crete, which is, I think, a little island
off the coast of Italy, isn't it? I think. Anyways, somewhere
over in that area. And he left him in Crete. Evidently, there was a group
of believers there. And he says that, speaking specifically
to the Cretans, he says, one of themselves, even a prophet
of their own said, the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts,
slow bellies. Now one of them says, and of
course John Gill says that this is a quote from one of their
prophets was Epimenides or something like that. I can't remember what
his name was. But anyway, supposedly he wrote
this poem and in this poem he says this, but that's immaterial.
I mean, we have no way of knowing that. I certainly am not able
to go back in the ancient literature and figure that out. Paul says
this is something that the rank and file of the people that taught
among them said, told them in their prophets, their teachers,
that they are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. And then
listen to what he says. He said, this witness is true. It's kind of about the same thing
that Paul said. He said, you know, I went by
and when he was on Mars Hill, he said, you know, I see you
got this monument here to the unknown God. He said, well, I'm
gonna tell you about him. Because you're thinking one thing
about what the unknown God is, but I'm gonna tell you what he
is. And he is indeed unknown. He's unknowable. He's inapproachable. You can't know him except that
he in mercy shows himself to you. Except the Lord reveals
himself. But he said this witness is true.
They are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. Now, nobody wants
to hear that, do they? Because what the prophet, their
prophet, meant when he said that, he was saying, you're a bunch
of sorry no counts, basically, what he was saying. And nobody
wants to be told that, do they? I mean, if somebody comes up
and say, you are a sorry no good joker, you'd take offense at
that. You know you would. Well, who
do you think you are? Because what we would go to our
mind is we'd think, well, they're comparing us to somebody else,
you know, in comparison. Well, that's not what Paul's
saying. He's saying that's what this prophet, this man, this
prophet that spoke these things, he was comparing the Cretans
to say the Galatians or whoever, I don't know what he was, and
saying this is the way they are. But Paul was saying, this witness
is true because that is the way men are. See, all men are like
this. He said, this is not something
odd. He said, it is a true thing. And he said, those that I've
sent you to minister to, that's what they are. Now that kind
of puts us in our place, doesn't it? Because we are, brethren. I mean, apart from the grace
of God, there's no limit to how far removed from the way of God
that we would go. I mean, the only thing that keeps
us from committing the most heinous of acts is because of the grace
of God, the mercy of God that restrains us and keeps us. I
mean, He keeps us from falling. See, I mean, like Peter. I mean,
we would think from time to time, well, we'll never depart from
the Lord, we'll be faithful. See, look, Lord, see how faithful
we are? We're walking along in faith.
No, we'll depart from Him tomorrow if He does not keep us. Now,
the promise is that He will keep His people from falling. That's
a glorious thing. That's what some have called
the perseverance of the saints or the preservation of the saints.
The Lord will keep those that are His. And so it is. that we must never, never deny
the fact. I remember one time that a fellow
that I knew, a lady had taken offense at something he had said,
and she made the statement that, oh, he just thinks he knows everything.
You know, he just thinks he's filled with pride and all that
kind of stuff. And she said this was on an email
forum, on a forum. And this fella happened to be
on that forum. I don't think she knew that he
was. But he wrote back and says, you know everything you said
is absolutely true. And I can just think about that
the wind probably went out of her sails pretty quick. Because
brother, when we really confess what we are, we don't have any
room to boast, do we? And what can somebody say about
you that wouldn't be true? I mean, you know, it's just,
so that's what Paul's saying, this witness is true. And he
said, wherefore rebuke them sharply, teach them the truth, set it
forth that they may not give heed, that they may be sound
in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments
of men that turn men from the truth. Don't listen, he said, to anything
that's not the truth. And if you set forth sound doctrine,
that it is Christ and Christ alone that is the savior of men. Their only hope, their only help.
Then when somebody comes along saying, well, you need to add
this to it. No, don't give heed to Jewish
fables. and commandments of men to those
things. Because there's always somebody
that'll come along and say, well, listen, you need to add this
to this. And what that does is when you
add something to the simplicity of the gospel, you turn from
the truth. You can't have two things, they
can't see. The gospel does not mix with
anything. It's not an addendum. It's not
part, it is the truth. And all of the truth is found
in Christ and of Christ. And anything else is all superfluous. It's of no use. Unto the pure all things are
pure. But unto them that are defiled
and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience
is defiled. Unto the pure. Now we know that
we are not pure. in the strictest sense of the
word. But by the grace of God, we have been given a mind to
look on him who is pure. And by such means, the Lord has
made us pure in Christ. And to those who are in Christ,
all things are pure. Because we don't look on the
things that we are as being that which makes us have purity before
the Lord. In other words, our purity is
Christ. I mean, if I look at myself and
I say, Lord, I've got pure hands. No, I know I don't have pure
hands. But I know Christ does. And He's my purity. He's my holiness. See, He's that one to whom I
look, and unto the pure all things are pure. Because our mind and
heart is desirous of exalting Him who is pure. But to them
that are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, even their purity. I mean, you know, there's denominations
that they place great emphasis on being pure. Nothing wrong with emphasis on
being pure, is there? Except when men think they might
have achieved something. I mean, there's the error. It's
not in a desire to be pure of mind and heart, to have clean
hands before the Lord, nothing wrong with that. But what's wrong
is when we get to thinking that they are. See, that's the place. And we get to looking at somebody
else and say, well, your hand's not near as pure as mine. No,
it's Christ. But to the unbelieving, nothing
is pure because if you don't see what true purity is, you'll
never be pure. But even their mind and conscience
is defiled. They profess that they know God. Men get mad if you tell them
they don't know God. Oh, why? Who do you think you
are? Cause see, every man thinks he knows, he has his own idea
of who God is, does he not? I mean, and what Paul said, he
said that they worship and serve the creature more than the creator.
They made a God like unto themselves. I mean, that's just the way that
men are by nature, and all men. have their own idea about God,
and if you get to telling them, if they're not made aware of
the fact they don't know God except that he shows them himself,
they'll get mad with you. It's like, I believe it was Ralph
Marner said, the one thing that you can't do in preaching, if
you want peace and harmony, he says, don't ever kill somebody's
God. That's what the Lord said when
he said, I didn't come to send peace, but a sword. Why? Because
he killed the God of the Jews, did he not? Not the true and
living God, but the God they had in their mind of how God
was. That's the one he came killing.
He said, you know, you say an eye for an eye and a tooth for
a tooth, he says, I tell you that If your neighbor sues you
at the law to take away your coat, give him your cloak also.
He killed their God. They didn't like that. Men don't
like it when you take away their righteousness. Because by nature,
men think they have some righteousness before God. And when you come
taking that away, you've slain their God, and they're angry.
Because they say, well, that's what I am. See, people have religion. They say, well, this is my religion. And they adhere to it. And if
you speak the truth, they may get angry with you. They profess that they know God,
but in works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient, and
to every good work, reprobate. You know, there's a lot of people
that do a lot of good works in the world. You can't deny
if somebody feeds the homeless and does all these things, isn't
that a good work? I mean, isn't that a good thing
to go about doing good? All those things are good except
for this problem. That if those things are not
done for the glory of Christ, and the glory of Christ alone,
they're abominable. They're not things that are pleasing
before God. Now, men don't like that. What
do you mean? I mean, this is good. I mean,
God's pleased when men do these things. The Lord, the Father is pleased
with His Son. And He's pleased with the glory
that belongs to His Son. And He said, I will not share
my glory with any. And so it is to Christ that,
you know, it always comes back to Christ. And that's sound doctrine,
dear Brent. May the Lord give us a mind and
heart to see that all that we have that makes us acceptable
before Almighty God is the blood and the righteousness of Jesus
Christ. And oh, may his spirit move in us to stir our hearts,
to walk according to those things he's taught us by his spirit.
that he's burned the truth in our heart to give us a heart
and mind that desires to walk in such fashion that we might
be examples in the world, we might be examples to our family,
that we might be examples to whoever comes in contact with
us. I think it's a terrible thing,
you know, when we set forth an example to somebody that is totally
contrary to the way of Christ. And they look at us and they
say, well, wait a minute, I thought you were supposed to be a follower
of Christ. And here you are acting like
somebody that's not. Oh, may the Lord help us.