Titus chapter 1, we'll look at
the last part of Titus chapter 1. Titus 1.9, holding fast the faithful word
as he hath been taught. Paul's telling Titus, this is
who you want to establish. He's telling him to establish
elders at these various churches. Tell him to be these things,
look for these things in a man. And then, someone that holds
fast the faithful word of God, having been taught the truth
of God by his Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel,
that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to
convince the gainsayers, both to exhort those who love the
Lord and his word and to convince those that don't. For there are many unruly and
vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision. He
needs to be able by the word. It's the scriptures that are
profitable for reproof and instruction. So by the preaching to convince
the gainsayers, because there's a bunch of them out there, he
said. And here's how he describes them. Unruly, vain talkers, deceivers. And especially the Jews. This
is very instructive. Now, let's see first in this
past passage, the rest of this chapter, a definition of someone
who does not believe, a definition of a gainsayer, of someone who
knows not the Lord and opposes Him openly. That's in the definition. As we preach, we encounter many
who don't believe what we preach. And they're not hard to spot.
Inherent in the very exhortation here is the fact that you can
identify them. and be able to convince them. If indeed it be
the will of the Lord that they be convinced. They just don't believe the gospel
you preach. If you have any amount of time
to spend around them, it's going to be evident. And if not, if
you don't have any time to spend around them, then you'll know
another way. If they disappear, you kind of know that way too,
don't you? John said in 1st John 2.19, they went out from us,
but they weren't of us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that
they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. And
that's what happens often. They hear the word of God, they
reject it, despise what God said. They're convinced to insist upon
their own will and way and walk. And they just go away. They go
about that walk. And if somebody comes and hears
and then just goes away, that's typically what happens. And that's
at least an honest thing. That's at least honest. You know,
the Lord said he'd prefer you be cold instead of lukewarm. If you don't like the gospel,
if you refuse to hear from God, Then like Joshua said, we saw
I believe last week in Joshua 24, you know what Joshua said?
He said, if it seemed not good unto you to worship the Lord,
then go pick a God. Go find another God and worship
Him. But some stay a while, even though
they don't believe. And some stay
just to cause trouble. I've witnessed that a little
bit and I've heard reports of that a lot. They like gainsaying. And they stay just to do that.
There are a lot of people that love a good argument. I used
to love it. Some gainsayers stay because of a relationship with
someone in the church. Maybe you come just because your
mom and dad are making you come. While they can do that. Or maybe because you like somebody
you know that comes for whatever reason. We don't need to know the reason
except we need to know that God has caused him to stay for some
reason. There's a reason for it. And
of course our hope is that it's because he intends to show mercy
to them. Because you see, the God we worship,
if he intends to show you mercy, he's gonna show you mercy. And
that's what we'd love to see. And there are two courses of
action. And we see this in the word of God. If they're a disruption
or a distraction to the worship of God, they've got to go. Now
that's all in the scripture now. They got to go. It may be a test
from the Lord for us. And that may well be the case.
They may end up having to go. The Lord said some good things
about the church at Pergamos in Revelation chapter two. He
said some good things about them. But in verse 14, he said, but
I have a few things against you. Because you have there them that
hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling
block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed
unto idols, and to commit fornication. So thou also hast them there
that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
And God said to them, Repent, or else I'll come unto thee quickly,
and I'll fight against them with the sword of my mouth. The Lord also praised the church
at Thyatira some but then he said to them in chapter 20 verse
20 of that same chapter notwithstanding I have a few things against you
because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel which calleth herself
a prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants to commit
fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto Adam. In other
words you've allowed error to creep in and you've tolerated
it. There are those there that teach false doctrine that teach
contrary to my word that would seduce the people of God with
error. And clearly, that's not to be
tolerated. And God rebukes his churches
for it. But if somebody's just lost, if they're just lost, if
they're not openly disrupting the worship, they're not teaching
false doctrine or stirring up discord, what are we to do then? Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy
2 24 the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle
unto all, apt to teach, patient in meekness instructing those
that oppose themselves. If God per adventure will give
them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. You see how tender
that is? We don't run people off because they don't believe
the gospel. Now if somebody's here to disrupt and to gainsay
and to argue and debate and stir up problems, they got to go.
They got to go quick. But those that don't know the
Lord, be tender, be patient. They oppose themselves. They
oppose the truth, but really in the end, they're opposing
themselves. And that they may recover themselves
if God gives them repentance and they acknowledge the truth
that you preach, They'll recover themselves out of the snare of
the devil who are taken captive by him at his will. Free will,
my eye. You're a captive of the devil
if you don't know the Lord. So let's identify them who believe
not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, particularly here in
this text, though it's the troublemakers. And we'll see that as we go through
it in this passage here. First of all, they're gainsayers.
That defines them right there. They're not just confused about
what they're hearing. And that can happen, though the
gospel's pretty clear, isn't it? The gospel's pretty clear,
but unless the Lord gives you clarity of thought and understanding,
you might be confused about what you're hearing. These, though,
they're not interested in learning. They're gainsayers. The word
means to speak against, to oppose, and to declare oneself to be
against. In other words, you're taking
up sides against the gospel of God. You don't want to be at
odds with God now. It's one thing to argue with
the preacher, but if the preacher is speaking the word of God,
you're not arguing with the preacher anymore now. You've entered another
realm. You're arguing with God. You
don't want to be there. And this is open rebellion, you
see, that gainsayer to declare oneself to be opposed. And I'm
so glad that as far as I know we don't have any of that right
now here. Aren't you glad of that? That's such a disruptive
and discouraging thing. But I've experienced it before
and I've heard of this being a huge problem in the church
and other places. You know, the first gainsayer
was Satan. The Lord said to the Pharisees,
you're a bunch of liars. You're of your father, the devil,
and he's the father of liars like you. That's kind of offensive, isn't
it? That's the Lord talking now to the religious Jews who despised
him. The first game-sayer was Satan.
God said, in that day that you eat thereof, thou shalt surely
die. What did Satan say? Thou shalt not surely die. That's
called game-saying. Saying just the opposite. Opposing
yourself to the simple truth of God. Simple now. The truth
is still simple. The gospel is still simple. Christ
said, in this word, very simply, I give my life for my sheep. And then in that same context,
he turns to the religious Jews, these same ones, who they said,
you know, God is our father, and that's what religion is still
saying. Oh, God's the father of us all. No, your daddy is
Satan, he said to them. And you know what he said to
them here? He said, I give my life for the sheep, and then he said,
you're not my sheep. That's why you don't believe on me, because
you're not my sheep. And then religion turns around and says,
Jesus died for everybody. That's called gainsaying. That's
what that is. That's called opposing the simple,
clear truth of scripture. And you're defined right here.
If Christ said, and he did in John 17, I do not intercede,
I do not pray, I do not act as high priest for this world, but
for those whom you have given me out of the world. And you
say, well, Jesus wants to save everybody. Then you're a gainsayer. Instead of just opposing the
Word of God, let's find out what God said. And see if there's hope for a
sinner like me in what God said. I believe there is. Because you
know, He has mercy on sinners. He delights to show mercy to
sinners. Our message is not complicated or hard to understand mentally.
It takes a miracle of God to understand it in your heart,
to understand the spiritual truth of the scripture. But it's not
hard to understand in your mind. It's not hard to see. And it's
not hard to see when it's being contradicted. Isn't that just
clear? That's just clear, isn't it? The world's religion says
God loves everybody, and you can find all kinds of examples
in the scripture where God says, I hate somebody. That's not complicated,
that's just gainsaying. They gainsaying the Word of God.
Let's find out what God said, because I tell you this, if we
have any hope, it's going to have to be in what
God said, not in what He didn't say. We're going to have to trust
God in His Word, not in what we think His Word ought to say.
And maybe, I want to clarify something maybe, it may not need
it, but I want to clarify something that I've recently said, because
I wanted to say this anyway, but concerning the truth of the
scripture and the true doctrines of the scripture, and speaking
of holding fast the faithful word, I believe it was last week
or a week or two ago, I said that what we hold and what we
declare, what we treasure is not the five points of Calvinism,
and I meant that. That's the truth. We hold fast
and preach the faithful word. This book is our doctrine. But
that being said, John Calvin never intended for the truth
known as his five points now to be what they are to some people
nowadays. They trust in the five points.
They defend in the five points. No, when Calvin set forth those
truths, he was not deliberately establishing a system of doctrine
that was to be used to argue and debate like people do, or
used as some kind of entity in and of itself to be held and
revered as the embodiment of all truth. When he set forth
those truths, you know what he was doing? He was holding fast
the faithful word. That's all he was doing. He was
just saying what God said. He was declaring those particular
truths of scriptures, which the gainsayers of his day were openly
opposing. What they were gainsaying, he
declared plainly. And they still do, and we still
do. That's why I bring this up. They
still openly oppose. This world does. That's what
Paul's talking about here. And we still declare plainly
the simple truth that he did the end if God said in his word
that in this flesh dwelleth no good thing and he did if the
word of God teaches that we are totally depraved that we're spiritually
dead by nature now you can't get any more depraved than that
you can't get any more unable to please God or to do anything
than being dead dead in trespasses and sins no good thing and then
people speak of religion speaks about how there's a spark of
goodness in us all that's gainsaying no there's not if God said in his word and he
did in the person of his son he said no man can come to me except my father calls him to
you talk about all of grace now All of grace. No man can come
to me. And our Lord said, come to me.
That's the exhortation. Come to me. All you that labor
in your heavy laden, I'll give you rest. And then he said, but
you can't do it unless my Father causes you to. It's all of grace.
Salvation is all of grace. You can't do it unless He causes
you to. And then religion turns around and says, well, all you
need to do is make a decision for Jesus. You're a gainsayer.
You've openly Oppose the simple clear declaration of scripture
now there wasn't anything ambiguous about that at all He said you
can't come to me. You can't do the only thing That'll
save you. You cannot do it. My father's
gonna have to make you do it He's gonna have to cause you
to do it If God said said in his word
and he did that salvation is not of him that willeth or Then
shut up about your free will. It is not of him that willeth
or of him that runneth, but it is of God that showeth mercy.
And you say all you need to do is exercise your free will. You
gainsay in God. And if we gainsay God concerning
how a sinner is saved, then what hope is there for anybody? Because
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching His gospel to save
sinners that believe on Him. It's not of him that willeth,
it's not of him that striveth. God said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. If that doesn't sit well with
your doctrine, then throw out your doctrine. And let's hold
fast the faithful word of God. God's getting all the glory,
whether you like it or not. I kind of like it by his grace. There's no boasting for the sinner
in the gospel of God's grace. It's free, sovereign grace in
Christ. And sinners without grace are
determined to boast. That's why Paul worded it the
way he did when he said, by grace are you saved through faith,
and that's not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works. Why? Lest any man should boast, because
that's what you're fixing to do unless God turns the light
on. You're going to boast in your works, in your will, in
your way. Not in God's gospel you're not.
Not if God saves you, you're not anymore. And so when we preach the free,
sovereign grace of God in Christ, sinners without grace rebel. They gainsake. They oppose it.
And Paul said, you know who they're really against? Themselves. You
know what he meant by that? Of course they're opposing God.
And they're opposing God's preachers, but since free grace is the only
way a sinner like them can be saved, then they are opposing
themselves. A successful, victorious redeemer
is the only one who can redeem a sinner, and so they are in
effect opposing themselves, because if what they insist upon being
true is true, then there's no hope for them. Christ died to save everybody.
There were sinners already in hell the day that He died. Absurdity! Let's find out the truth. God's
love is in Christ. Hope for sinners is in Christ.
And outside of Him there is none. Now the next word He uses to
describe them, and that's all we're looking at right now. Gains
say, what else are they? They're unruly. You know what
that means? It doesn't mean that, you know,
like we might think of unruly as just making some noise, you
know, in class or something. He's an unruly child because
he makes noise in class. Well, that may be part of it,
but the word means disobedient, unsubmissive. You know what God requires when
he teaches you the truth concerning himself? You're going to have
to submit to his truth. You're going to have to bow.
You're going to have to get down in the dust with Saul of Tarsus
and say, Lord, what do you want me to do? Submit. Obey the gospel, Paul said. They
won't submit to the truth of God. You know what submission
to his truth looks like? You do, don't you? Because you've
seen it. The Lord said to that woman whose daughter was grievously
vexed with the devil, a woman of Canaan, she came and said,
Lord, have mercy on me. And he said, it wouldn't be right
for me to have mercy on a dog like you. You know what submission
looks like? Boy, Lord, that's the truth.
That's the truth. If you don't show me a crumb
of mercy, you'll be doing the right thing. But I still got
to have it. I still got to have it. That's
The opposite of unruly right there. That's submitting to the
truth of God. You know what it looks like?
Lord, Lord, that leper ran up to the Son of God. He ran up
to the Son of God as he came down out of a mountain. And he
said, Lord, it says he worshipped him. You know what that means?
That word means like a dog licking his master's hand. He bowed in
the dust before the Son of God. He said, Lord, if you want to,
you can save me. If you will, you can make me
clean. You see, he didn't come talking
about his will. He came talking about his will. Is it your will,
Lord, to save me? That's what I need to know. I
need to know. And then he said, they're vain talkers. The definition
here is one who utters useless things. And this reminds us now
that he's talking primarily about preachers. You remember in the
context that he's saying ordain elders that are this, this, this,
and this. Not this. And these are the nots right
here. Gainsayers. Unruly. Vain talkers. Uttering useless things. I've
known a few of those. Haven't you? May God give us
grace to get to the point. And you can't get to the point
unless you know the point. And you know what the point is?
Paul said, we preach Christ crucified. That's what the gainsayers are
gainsaying. They talking about you and what
you're supposed to do and this and that, your will and your
decision and your works and what you need to do. God's preachers
are talking about somebody, but not you. Christ. what he did and why he did it. Remember now this is the flip
side of a preacher whom God sends. An elder who God ordained. And that's primarily true but
these apply to everyone just as the qualifications of a preacher
also apply to everyone. Preacher now is specifically
it says he must be sober and vigilant, but that's true of
all of God's people now Your adversary the devil Walketh about
as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour so what then be
sober be vigilant. That's all of it now They're
also deceivers deceivers False doctrine has consequences people
are deceived by it people believe it and People are gullible that
don't know God. And they're deceived about that
which is most important not to be deceived about. Sin and how
sin can be put away. That's what God said we got to
talk about now. Come and let's reason about your
sin and how scarlet it is, how wretched and vile. and horrible
it is and how destructive it is. But let's talk about how
it can be washed away and made white. Don't be deceived about
that. Don't be deceived in thinking
you can just decide something and your sins are gone. No, that's
the work of God. And again, this is a satanic
attribute, isn't it? He's the great deceiver. And
so if somebody's standing up and deceiving people with false
doctrine, they're of the devil. All right, now he said, especially
the Jews. Why would he say that? Boy, that's
offensive, isn't it? Especially the Jews. Because they tended
more than anybody to mix works and grace. The Jews were preachers
of the law. They said, here's what you've
got to do to be one of God's children. And if you don't measure
up, you're out. They despised the message of
free grace. They were of the letter. They
were religious and they tended to be legalistic. That is pointing
people to the law as a means of pleasing God. That's why Paul
said to them, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified
in the sight of God. It's by grace through faith. And you know, people say, well,
you can't group people together like that. That's prejudice,
especially the Jews. You can't say that about the Jew. Sure
you can. If it's the truth, you can. If it's the simple truth,
you can sure enough say it. That's what Paul did. Verse 11,
they subvert whole houses, teaching things they ought not. To subvert
means to destroy. Again, consequences. consequences of preaching false
doctrine. This is too serious and too important
not to call it like it is. That's why Paul pointed out individual.
That's something else you don't do. Oh, you can talk about false
religion, but don't say, you know, for example, Benny Hinn
is a heretic. Well, I'm going to say he's a
heretic. Okay. Paul did that. He said these
fellows right here and he named them. And he said, you stay away
from them. They preaching against the gospel. They oppose us. They
hate the truth of God. They preach and lie. Stay away
from them. They destroy and whole houses
now. This is too serious not to be. Specific and clear. We don't mince words about it.
We call it like it is. Too much is at stake. Not to.
And we see in verse 11. What they do, but we see why
they do it. Also here, it's for their own personal gain. They
do it for filthy lucre's sake. You see that? In Ezekiel 34,
the Lord pronounces woe upon those pretend shepherds who feed
themselves and not the flock of God. That won't be hard to
spot either. People are just blind. It's not
difficult to spot, is it, if you have eyes to see? Our Lord
said, if they speak not according to the words of this book, It's
because there's no light in them. The Bereans went, you know, to
their houses and they looked in the Word of God to see if
what the apostles were preaching was so. This is the standard. This is the truth. Am I saying
what God said this morning? Then you better hear me. If I'm
not, then you better not hear me. That's what he's saying here. They're doing it for filthy lucre's sake the last
part of verse 11 there for filthy lucre's sake and that's just
obvious isn't it if somebody's living in a mansion and has a
plush palatial vacation home and gold rings and diamonds on
their fingers they're sitting there preaching to you you might
just think about the possibility that they're doing it for the
money You reckon if that's all they talk about from the pulpit
is how much money are you going to give today because we got
all this stuff We got to spend money on you might consider the
possibility That they're doing it for filthy lucre's sake Verses
12 and 13 now we have here a rare and interesting insight That
teaches us a couple of things and this is again, this is just
something you don't do in our day of So-called political correctness,
you know, you don't dare group a whole people, you know, together
and say something bad about them. Oh my, no, you can't do that.
That's, that's, that's racist. But that's what he's doing here.
He's characterizing an entire people a certain way. Because
what's true is true. And these are very harsh words
here. Look at it, 12 and 13. One of themselves, even a prophet
of their own, said the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts,
slow bellies. And you know what? They're right
about that. This witness is true, wherefore
rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. All
right, now again, right now we're just defining these people. So
let's stick with that for now, but there's some important things
I want to see after that. But you see, these are harsh
words. Liars, they're liars. This whole group of people is
liar. Does that mean there wasn't exceptions to that? Of course
not. But you can characterize a group of people if it's true
a certain way. Dare I do that? Dare I say the
Methodists are heretics? You better believe I dare say
that. You know why? Because the Methodists are heretics. That's
why. Does that mean that there's no
such thing as a Methodist that knows God? Of course it doesn't
mean that. But let me tell you something. If you preach that
which defines Methodism, You're a heretic if you believe that,
which defines the Methodist Church. You don't know God. You trust
in your works, not Christ. Is that too hard? This is exactly what Paul is
doing right here. Exactly what he's doing. That's
just the truth. If you're not a heretic, then
quit calling yourself a Methodist. Because if you look that up and
see what they believe, they're heretics. And that's just one. He's characterizing entire people
here as liars. They're liars. Catholics are
liars. Did you know that? Does that
mean every one of them is a liar? Well, I don't know about that.
I don't know about that. But I know this. That which defines
Roman Catholicism is heresy. It's not difficult. It's not
complicated, y'all. It's just wrong. It's an opposition
to God. It's gainsaying. It's false. It's trusting in your religion,
in your works, in what you do, and not the free grace of God,
which is in Christ alone, in His precious blood alone. They're
evil beasts. That's kind of what it sounds
like. They're like animals, he said. Have you ever thought that? entire people they're like animals and you know the scripture says
that even the animals are smarter than us by nature so it shouldn't
be a surprise and we're not looking down on other people when we
see the obvious we're not looking down on them by nature that's
what we are we're beasts before God Psalm 73 the psalmist who
pretty clearly knew God said I was as a beast before thee
So we're not looking down on people. We're just calling it
like it is. Because that's our only hope. The truth is our only
hope. The truth will set you free.
They're animals, he said. Evil beasts. Not just animals
because the animals are better than us. They're evil animals. That's what he's saying here.
Slow bellies mean slothful. Lazy parasites. And these are
great insults. And that's how the preachers
of Ezekiel's day, of Paul's day, the false preachers, and of our
day, you can characterize them that way. They're lazy parasites. They're feeding themselves off
of the people instead of what God sends shepherds to do to
feed the sheep. They're feeding themselves. They're
lazy and worthless and worse than worthless. They're murdering
the souls of men and women. This book's not kind to false
preachers. And so neither can we be. Slow bellies. These are
great insults, but Paul had witnessed this. He knew it to be true.
He said even some of their own spokesmen say this is true. And it is true. And wouldn't that be tough to
have to go preach to them? That's some of the things that
Paul and these apostles, they had to go preach to people like
that. That'd be tough, wouldn't it? He said, rebuke them. Rebuke
them sharply. I don't have to do a whole lot
of rebuking. And let me tell you something.
I thank God for that. I don't want to have to do that.
I'm very glad that I don't. Now, right now, again, we're
just describing these people. So look at verse 16. We'll skip
those verses because they don't deal with the description of
these people. But look at verse 16. It does. They profess that
they know God, but in works they deny him. They don't run around
saying Satan is our father. They say it like the Jews did,
God is our father, and we preach the gospel. They use words like
heaven and hell and Jesus and cross and religious worship. But in works they deny him, being
abominable and disobedient, and in every good work, reprobate. Now you think about this. Our
Lord said to the Pharisees, you honor me with your lips, but
your heart is far from me. That's who he's describing here.
They say they believe God, that they know God, that God's their
father, that they preach in the word of God. But none of it's
true. In actuality, They not preach
in works, they deny him. They preach in for doctrines,
the commandments of men. They deny the authority of Christ
in the gospel, he said in another place. Notice it says in work, in the
practice, in what they do, in what they actually say, they
deny him. By their fruits, our Lord said,
that's how you'll know. Not by what they say. Not by
what they say they say. Even about what they actually
preach what they actually do You'll know You know what abominable
means? Foul and detestable hateful hateable
despicable Can you think of anybody in religion that makes you sick
at your stomach? That's what he's saying here.
They make me sick. They are detestable and vile
That's pretty strong, isn't it? What a horrible description.
And he says, these are the ones that are preaching, but shouldn't
be preaching. They're saying things that ought
not to be said. They're gainsaying the truth of God. And they're
absolutely despicable. So what do we do about it? Let's
look at that real quick. Well, If you can, you know, the
Lord said to his disciples about the Pharisees, he said, you know,
they're blind leaders of the blind, and they're both going
to fall in the ditch, just leave them alone. You remember that?
He said leave them alone. He didn't say go over there and
argue with them. He didn't say go over there and witness to
them. He said leave them alone. Let them fall. That's tough, isn't it? That may not be so tough unless
the blind one Is somebody you love? We can't always leave them alone,
can we? If you can, leave them alone. But if you can't, look
at our text. Verse 11, first of all, they
got to shut up. You got to shut them up. You
see that? Somebody that speaks contrary
to the clear, plain truth of God's Word Has got to be shut
up. You do whatever you have to do
to shut them up. That's pretty clear, isn't it?
Shut them down. That's simple. And then secondly, Verse 13, rebuke them sharply. It's the word of God now that's
profitable for reproof. And so make sure when you rebuke
them, you're not rebuking them with, well, this is how I see
things, or this is the way I think you ought to be. It's got to
be God rebuking them. You're doing it, but it's the
word that's profitable for rebuke. You see that? It's not just talking
about necessarily just with the preaching from the pulpit rebuking
them. Sometimes it's toe-to-toe, face-to-face rebuke. But either
way, it's got to be the word of God. Make sure. that it's God and not you. You
don't have anything worth saying, but God does. If you say what
God said, then it's worth saying. Now, and again, that's a very difficult
thing, and thank God a rare thing now, at least here. Now why? Why do we do that? If you can leave them alone,
leave them alone. But what if you can't? What's the point of rebuking
them? Well, it's the clear and obvious thing about shutting
them up is there won't be anybody, at least that person won't be
blaspheming God anymore. But you know what, what the purpose
is over here? Do we shut them down and rebuke
them so that they'll just go away? Well, it may have to come
to that. We've seen that in the Word of
God. It may have to come to that. If you can't worship with them
here, then they got to go, because we're going to worship. As long
as the Lord, as long as He's with us and His blessing is upon
us, we're going to worship Him. But I hope it doesn't ever come
to that for anybody. You know what we want to happen?
Verse 13, that they may be sound in the faith. You see that? This is what Paul was talking
about to Timothy. Teach them gently, patiently. Well, I've been preaching to
them for 10 years and they still don't get it. Be patient. Be
gentle. Be kind. Be long-suffering. The Lord was that way with you.
If God, peradventure, will give them repentance, and they'll
acknowledge the truth one day, And they'll be saved from the
snare of the devil. You see that? That's the end that we want.
That's the result that we want. Not to drive them away. And not
to be some kind of proud know-it-alls. We know more than you and so
you're not welcome here. That's what defending the five
points will do for you instead of holding fast to the faithful
word. I've seen it over and over. If you're just defending your
doctrine, and by doctrine you don't mean the Word of God, which
most people don't when they say doctrine. Then it's just all
about who's right and who's wrong and let's go our separate way.
But if you're preaching the word of God, you can't do it that
way. God doesn't send somebody like that to preach his word.
You know who he sends to preach his word? Paul said, I would
to God. I would to God. My heart's desire
and prayer to God for these gainsayers, for the Jews which hate him.
and oppose him and despise the free grace of God in Christ.
Oh, that God might save him. All my heart desire is that God
would save him. You imagine you'd ever meet anybody
any more vile than the man whom Paul met, King Agrippa. And Paul said of that reprobate,
vile, evil king, I would to God that you were like me, except
these bonds. Oh, if God would just show mercy to you. I know
you know what God said. Bow to what God said. Do you
hear Him pleading? That they might be sound. That God might shut them up,
sure enough. To His grace in Christ. Boy, you read this description
of them? Abominable now Abominable vile heretics and
you read that description up and then you might think well,
yeah, this is not ever gonna happen They're not ever gonna be sounding
the faith Why because they're sinners? And I'm asking myself that because
I think like that too they never sound in the faith Paul, where
are you getting that from? You just said they're abominable
vile Wretched, opposers of the truth of God. Why can't they be sound in the
faith? Because they're sinners? Because that's all that's described
in there. A sinner. He nailed us on every one of
those, didn't he? Abominable in the sight of God. I hate the gospel. The only thing
we hate more than God's law by nature is his gospel. That's
all of us by nature now. If a sinner can't be sound in
the faith because he's a sinner, then how do you find out anything
about God? You see the spirit of this, that
they may be sound in the faith, that they might be found sitting
and clothed and in their right mind like that poor man that
was possessed with many devils, a legion of devils. What about
you? What about me? All of us are
disqualified by nature now. May God shut all of us up. He
said shut him up. May God do that for all of us.
When we would say something against his truth. When we would say
something dishonoring to his dear son, our Savior. May God
shut us up. May God rebuke us sharply. if
and when necessary with this same gospel. Is that alright
with you? To be rebuked sharply? Not just
them now, it's us too. May he do so, may he shut us
up and may he rebuke us sharply until we are sound in the faith. Rejoicing in Christ alone and
having no confidence in our flesh. And when we are sound in the
faith, we won't hear anything but Christ
and Him crucified, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments
of men that turn from the truth. When they're sound in the faith,
when we're sound in the faith, when you're sound in the faith,
when I'm sound in the faith, you're not going to hear anything
else but the clear, plain gospel of Christ and his perfect, complete,
successful salvation by the shedding of his precious
blood for sinners like us. Now other than all of this, you
know, barring you being just an open spokesman for Satan,
which is what all that describes, Barring all of that now, if you're
justified in Christ, if you're holy in Him, a member of His
true Church, which He describes as being without blemish and
without spot, then there's not a bunch of rules and regulations.
You see, in verse 15 there, under the pure, all things are pure.
You see that's what He's saying there? There's not a bunch of
rules and regulations. If you know God in the Church,
all things are pure. That is, just do what comes naturally
to your new nature. What do God's people do naturally
according to the new nature, the new heart that God gives?
They worship Him. They rejoice in Christ. They worship God in
the Spirit. They have no confidence in the
flesh. They trust Him alone. In the Jewish religion, there
were all kinds of washings and things that couldn't be eaten
on certain days. There's still that in religion,
isn't there? And Paul is saying here, that's not what makes a
sinner pure. Christ makes you pure, and if he does, then everything's
pure to you. There's nothing unclean of itself,
Paul said in another place. You eating without washing your
hands first is not going to defile you before God. To the pure in
heart, to those who are justified by grace through faith in Christ
alone, you eat with dirty hands, it's not going to make you impure.
Everything's pure to you. You see what the general principle
here that's important? There are still people that want
to impose certain rules that make you acceptable in the worship
of God. You know, you gotta dress a certain
way, or you gotta sit still and not make a sound, or you got
to give 10%, and that's on the gross now, not net. You know. To those who are in Christ, all
things are pure. Paul is saying to them, if you
eat a pig, it's not gonna make you a sinner. Eating pigs is not what made
you sinful, and quitting eating pigs is not going to make you
not sinful anymore. Unto the pure, and how does that
happen? Oh, John said unto him that loved
us and washed us from our sins in his precious blood. That's
how a sinner becomes clean. And if you're clean, eat what
you want to eat. You see that? To those who are in Christ, all
things are pure. And I'm saying to you this morning,
if you come to church on Wednesday night straight from work and
you don't have what you'd like to have on maybe typically to
come to worship, you don't have to apologize to me for that.
It's not about that. Now if you are unclean, he said,
to those, to the defiled, the unclean, Nothing is pure. Nothing is pure. If you eat a pig or a cow, you're
still unclean either way. You see that? Because it's you
that's sinful. Not the animal, not the clothes,
not the manner, the man. You defile the thing because
it's you that are defiled. If you are Christ's child, If
you are washed in his precious blood and you wear jeans and
a t-shirt to worship, that's not going to disqualify you for
worship. But if you are not in Christ, if you have not been
washed in his precious blood and you wear a three-piece suit
with monogrammed cuffs and gold cufflinks and a gold tie clasp,
you're still unclean before God. You're still disqualified to
worship him. You see what he's saying and how it goes with what
we've been seeing through all this. The difference is Christ. The difference between clean.
And defiled. Is Christ not what you do, not
what you wear, not what you eat, not what you say. It's Christ. Your finest Sunday go to meet
and suit is not going to cut it. If you're not watching his precious
blood. But if you have on the best robe that God, your Father,
give, if you have on the wedding garment that God provides in
Christ, then it doesn't much matter what else you have on. And I hope that's clear. May
God give us grace to be bold, to be everything it says we're
to be, and not everything we're not to be. But most of all, to
hold fast the faithful word of God, the only hope for sinners,
the means whereby God saves sinners, is by this gospel of his free
grace in Christ alone. So may we be clear, as Paul said,
seeing we have such a precious and vital hope, we use great
plainness of speech. May God make it so. Let's pray
together.