Okay, I want you to open your
Bibles now to the book of Titus, chapter 1. I know that I told you Sunday, and perhaps you were
expecting to hear a message from Revelation in the last letter
to the churches, but in light of increased opposition
to the truth, and since your minds are on that, I postpone that message in the
next letter, and instead intend to deal with a very appropriate
and timely portion of God's word. It was very timely for me in
reading it and considering it, in light of all that's been going
on. In Titus chapter 1, we find the gospel clearly set forth. The gospel is clearly set forth
in the first few verses. And then the true character of
a true servant of God is revealed for your benefit, for your sake,
for mine, for others. And then a very revealing testimony
against the gainsayers of our day. So follow along carefully
with me. how very appropriate this is,
and how this was as if the Lord had written this just for us.
All right, Titus chapter 1, beginning with verse 1. Paul, once again
he doesn't say, Doctor or Reverend, Holy Father, Paul, just Paul.
Paul, a servant of God. He does not hesitate to call
himself a servant of God. Confident, he said in another
place, and willing to, in all good conscience, to submit or
to expose his own life and preaching and everything to the close scrutiny
of those that hear him. He said, a servant of God. Now,
how do you know a true servant of God? Well, turn over to 2
Corinthians chapter 2 with me. 2 Corinthians chapter 2. This
is how you can tell a true servant of God. A true servant of God. Those words are very significant. Servant of God. While that man
truly serves men, yet he is first and foremost a servant of God. How do you tell? How can you
tell? Look at verse 17 of 2 Corinthians 2. We are not as many which corrupt
the Word of God. That is, a true servant of God
deals very plainly and truthfully with God's Word. He does not
attempt to make it palatable or to take off the rough edges,
but he deals very plainly. very truthfully, very faithfully
with the Word of God. If God calls us a worm, so does
that man. Whatever God's Word says, he
says it like it says it. He doesn't try to make it pleasing
or palatable, which many do corrupt the Word of God. Then he says,
as of sincerity, or this man has a true or sincere desire
to, first of all, glorify God. That's his primary motive in
what he's doing. Not to help men, although they
are helped, although they do benefit. Yet his primary motive
is to glorify God. Right? That's why Christ came. Because man had, all men had
fallen and come short of the glory of God. Christ's primary
mission was to come down here as a man and to glorify God. We reaped rewards from that,
though, didn't we? He helped us, but yet he brought glory
and honor to God's name by man. So he says, as of sincerity,
as of God. See that? As being sent by God,
as the very oracles of God, as the very authority of God Almighty.
as of God, as though God did beseech you by us, the true preacher
said, as of God. And he says, in the sight of
God. In other words, he is very conscious of the fact that God
is listening to what he says, not just man. Right? Not the bank president, but God. I wrote a letter to a man And
we were discussing something, and the man was somewhat fearful. He had come out very strongly
on a particular thing, issue, and he told me he feared reprisals
or the possibility of someone rising up in arms against him
for telling the truth. I said, if you ever let the fear
of man determine whether or not you're going to say the truth
from God's Word, get out of the pulpit. Right? If that ever enters into your
mind for a minute, the fear of man, if that ever determines
what you're going to say from the pulpit, whether or not you
say God's Word like it says it, You better get out of the pulpit
and let somebody up there who's not afraid to tell it." I haven't
heard from him yet. He hasn't replied back to me.
But he says, and this is the crowning thing of a true messenger
of God, he says, that in the sight of God speak we in or of
Christ. We speak of Christ, I must preach
Christ, that's what God has got his ear tuned to, right? Remember David? Remember the
two runners, Cushi and Aimeas, running to tell the king the
news, and one of them didn't know anything about his son?
Didn't know what was going on, he just saw some commotion, you
know? And he was a good runner, he was a good speaker, and all
the king said, step out of the way. get down from that pulpit,
you're not declaring something about my son. And he said to
the next one, what about my son? That's what God's want. God wants
to hear. And that's what the people need
to hear about. And this is what Paul says back
in our text, he said, a servant of God. That's how you know. That's how you know that's that's.
A fourfold, fivefold way deals plainly and truthfully for God's
Word, mentions no words. He has a sincere desire to glorify
God. It's as though God sent him,
as though God were listening and watching him, and he must
preach Christ and be crucified, determined to know nothing else.
So Paul says, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
a messenger A messenger of the gospel of God's Son. A messenger. That is the gospel. It's the
gospel concerning God's Son. He is the gospel. And that is
the issue and that is the message God's messenger is taken up with.
What think ye of Christ? What think ye of Christ? That
is his message and that is what the messenger of God comes and
brings to people. And he says this is the faith
of God's elect. He said, I'm an apostle or a
messenger of Jesus Christ, or that is, I bring the message
of the gospel concerning God's Son according to the faith of
God's elect, according to what God's elect want to hear. That's
what God's elect want to hear. That's their faith. He is their
faith. Paul said, I endure all things
for the elect's sake, didn't he? Isaiah said, except the Lord
had left us a seed, or that is, a remnant, according to the election
of grace, we would have been of Sodom and Gomorrah a long
time ago. But God has a seed. He has an elect. He has a people,
and they have common faith, or the same faith. And the servant
of God, the messenger of the gospel, the servant of God is
on the trail of God's sheep. He's looking for God's sheep.
He has something for them. He's not a goat herder. He's
a shepherd, sheep herder, not a goat herder. He's not sent
to tend goats or deal with goats, but to feed sheep, feed sheep. And he's looking for God's elect.
He's looking for God's elect. So why preach? Why do we preach? If only the elect will be saved.
Why? He says, the faith of God's elect
is that I endure all things for the elect's sake. Why preach
then? If only the elect will be saved, then the elect will
be saved no matter what. No, no, no, no, no. Not at all. We preach because God said to.
Number one. Because God said to. And secondly,
because God said, I have much people in this city. You don't
know who they are. He does. And he said, go preach,
like to Ezekiel's valley of dry bones. Right? Ezekiel didn't
see much hope. God did. And Ezekiel finally
came to the conclusion, he said, Lord, these folks are dead. And
he said, but the Lord said, well, can they live? The Lord now knows. I don't. I don't know. It doesn't
appear to me that any of them are going to hear this message. Boy, they did, didn't they? They
all heard it. And because Christ said, why
do we preach? Because Christ said, My sheep
will hear my voice. So you go preach. I've got some
sheep, and they'll hear my voice. And Christ was a preacher. He
was first and foremost, when he came to this planet, he was
a preacher. He said in Mark 1.38, he said, Let us go into the next
town, that I may preach there also, for therefore I came forth
to preach. And he preached. Now, if anybody
despises this thing of preaching, they despise the Lord himself,
don't they? He took that office. That sure does lend dignity and
honor to this position, doesn't it? The Lord God had one son,
and he was a preacher's son. He was a preacher. God had one
son. He was a preacher. And the elect,
the sheep, will hear his voice. They will hear his voice. And
Paul said, The faith of God's elect. Christ is God's servant,
God's elect, like spoken of in Isaiah 42. Mine elect, mine servant,
whom I uphold. And he endured all things for
the elect's sake, didn't he? He endured all things for the
elect's sake. He said, Other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring. I must. And he went all over the world
that God sent him to, looking for his sheep, and he found one
here and there, one up a tree, and he said, Come on down here,
Zacchaeus. You're a sheep have been looking for you there you
are come on now there's another one over at the whale and he
said I must need to go Lord. This is an easier route now I
must need to go through some area. I've got a sheep over there
and she's going to hear my voice. I must bring her. That's why
I came. I came for the elect's sake.
I'll do her all things. I'll endure a long journey way
around for the elect's sake. Because she must hear this gospel.
And the sheep will come. So he says, preach the word,
preach it, the sheep will come. They'll hear and they'll believe.
Preach it. Preach it. That gives me encouragement.
Preach it. It's the faith of God's elect.
It's the faith of God's elect. Which is? What is the faith of
God's elect? Well, I summarized it all Sunday
morning by saying, everything that God says is the faith of
God's elect, isn't it? This is one of the signs of God's
people. God said, they shall all be taught of God. John 6,
45. They shall all be taught of God. Everything God says,
he teaches to every one of his children eventually. The same
thing. The same thing. And everything God says, he is
elect. Believe it. It's the faith of God's elect.
The faith of God's elect is faith in God's elect. Right? God's son. That's what I quoted
in Isaiah 42. The faith of God's chosen, God's
elect, my servant whom I behold, my Christ, my son, my righteousness,
your substitute, my chosen head, my redeemer, my one mediator,
my one covenant. He is my intercessor, my one
God's elect. There is none of it is only one,
and that is the faith, or he is the faith of God's elect. And he says this. Go on verse
one of the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the
truth, which is after godliness, the acknowledging of the truth,
which is after godliness. You see what the truth of God
leads a man into. Look over Titus two. Verse 11
and 12 says, The grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared
to all men, teaching us to deny ungodliness, worldly lusts, live
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Acknowledging
of the truth after godliness. The true child of God sees the
beauty of Christ and endeavors and desires to be just like him.
They see their own ugliness and desire to be like Christ. I was
talking to one of our ladies, last week or sometime, I said,
you know, in light of this fellow down here in Waco, Texas, who's
a leading this cult, and there's been many, you know, he's just
one of many, and he's not the last. There's going to be many.
Christ said, many false Christs will come. Many, he said that
they will even say, I am Christ, didn't he? Huh? Did he say that? Matthew 24, he said, many will
say, I am Christ. He said, don't you believe And
we know why, because when Christ comes, every eye is going to
see him. He's not going to be stuck in a little apartment down
in Waco, Texas. At any rate, I told one of our
ladies, I said, concerning, I said, you know, you want to know how
you know the true and how you can judge between a true servant
of God and one who's truly servant of Christ, a messenger of God,
who really will lead you according to God's Word, is not just doing
this for his own namesake and all that. Besides that fact,
he's doing it for God's name. But I said, whatever that man
preaches and teaches is designed to make you obedient to God's
Word, to lead you and guide you into that which is good and holy
and just and right and true. it makes you Christ-like, it
makes you godly, it makes you the best citizen in town, it
makes you the best father, the best mother, it makes you good,
holy, not a fanatic, not a violent person, not an unruly person, not at all. You see that? It's the truth
after godliness. Correct? That's how you know,
you hear any nut or fanatic teaching, he's telling people to rise up
and arm. No, no, no, no. Christ said, no, no. He said, if my kingdom were of
this world, my servants would, what? Fight. But it's not. He said, if they smite you on
one side, you turn the other. Isn't it? So it's good, it's
gentle, it's peaceable, it's holy, it's right, it makes a
person likable as a person. Correct? All right, it's the truth after
godliness, or that which makes us like Christ. And all we say
and do and preach is to this end, verse 2. It's in hope of
eternal life. In hope of eternal life. The
reason we're here tonight, we're looking into God's Because we
look for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
We're not here to play church, but we're looking into this map
book to tell us how to get to the fair city in hope of eternal
life. We look for a city. We're studying
and preaching Christ in hope of eternal life. That is, we're
hoping that we might know him, that we might win Christ and
be found in him in hope of eternal life. And this is what God has
promised, verse 2, which God that cannot lie promised before
the world began. Or that is, he covenanted this,
he purposed this, all things, to be sure, he covenanted and
purposed to save to the uttermost them that come to God by Christ.
And he cannot lie and will not lie, that all who come to God
by Christ will be saved. They will be saved. And known
unto God are all his works from the beginning, and all his works
and his elect people, they will come to Christ. And God determined
all this before the world began. And so I'm coming here in hopes
that I'm one of the elect and hope of eternal life. And I have
good reason to believe that I am. I have good reason to believe
I am. Why? Do I have a big E on my forehead? No. I have the word
of God written in my heart. And I believe it. I believe it.
I do have a big C implanted in my chest. All right, verse 3. Now he says, but hath in due
time. In other words, God purposed this whole thing in times past
before the world began. He purposed our salvation. But
in due time, here's another reason why we preach. In due time, this
had to be manifested. He manifested his word through
preaching. through preaching. Now, this
does away with the hard-shell belief that only the elect will
be saved no matter what, doesn't it? It totally does away with
that belief that, well, if you're elected, you're going to be saved
whether you hear or believe the gospel or not. That's heresy. That's
absolute heresy. Titus chapter 1, verse 3 denounces
that, doesn't it? It plainly tells us that in due
time, he manifested his word through preaching. The elect
must hear the gospel, and to be sure, they will. They will. They will hear it. He said, My
sheep hear my voice. They hear my voice. And preaching
is his voice. It is his voice, because God,
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching. Now, not the preaching
of foolishness. There's too much of that going
on, isn't there? But the preaching of that which the world calls
foolishness, which is what? The cross. To the Greek, it's
foolishness. To the Jew, it's a stumbling
block. But unto us which are saved, it's the power of God,
the wisdom of God, and the power of God. The cross of Christ.
God forbid that I should glory saving the cross. I'm determined
not to know anything among you save Christ and him crucified. It is the message. And my sheep
will hear my voice, Christ said. And Paul said this, in due time
his word was manifested through preaching, and this was committed
unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior. This was committed
unto me. And I looked at that and I thought,
was this committed unto me? This blessed and glorious calling,
this high and heavenly calling, this this seemingly impossible
task committed unto me?" Paul said the same thing. He said,
I'm less than the least. Unto me? Oh, he said, we have
this treasure in earthen vessels, don't we? I take great comfort in the fact
of what they said about the Apostle Paul. They said he writes a good
letter, but his bodily presence is weak. and his speech is contemptible."
I'm so thankful that's in the Scripture. But Paul said, this was committed
unto me, so I'm going to be faithful to it and do what I can, do how
I can, according to the grace of God given to me, according
to the commandment, committed unto me according to God's commandment,
the commandment of God our Savior. God calls his preachers, God
calls his apostles, his preachers, his pastors, and so forth, because
it's his church. It's his sheep, it's his people,
and God is the Good and the Great and the Chief Shepherd, and he
will not allow his tender little lambs to be prey of wolves and
sheep's clothing. Take heart, believers. If I fall,
if I fail, if you're God's people, he'll remove me very quickly
and put someone faithful in my place. He will not let his lambs
or his little sheep be the prey of wolves. That's comforting,
isn't it? He won't allow it. It is his
church, he's the head over it, he's the son over his own house,
and he appoints his rulers over it. Verse 4, now he says to Titus. my own son, after the common
faith." Now, Paul loved Titus just like he did Timothy. His
letter to Titus is very similar to his letter to Timothy. He
expressed his love there for young Titus. He says, "'Titus,
I am writing to you, you are my own dear son, after the common
faith.'" There is nothing common about faith. In our day, it's
very uncommon, isn't it? But what he's saying here is
true faith is common among believers. It is like precious faith, like
Peter called it. Turn over to Ephesians 4. Ephesians
chapter 4. It is the like precious faith
or the common faith. It is what all believers believe. And don't tell me now that These
people over here are God's people, and these people over here are
God's people, and they believe two different things. They believe
differently about their character and attributes of God. They believe
differently about how God saves sinners. No, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not at all. It's common faith. You know what
he said? Like precious faith. Paul said in Ephesians 4, he
said, This is it. This is the unity which the Holy
Spirit brings Among his people, verse 4, there's one body, one
spirit, even as you're called in one hope of your calling.
In other words, you know that you didn't call yourself. You
didn't choose God. He chose you. You know there's
only one hope of you being saved or you being called is when he
called you, right? That's the common faith of all
of God's people, isn't it? Isn't that the like, precious
faith of God's people? that he called them, and knowing
that what he calls the gifts and callings of God are without
repentance, that whoever he calls he will not send away, that all
that come unto him he will in no wise cast out. Once in grace, always in grace.
Yes, that's the common faith of all of God's people. It is
their hope. It is their salvation. that once
in Christ, always in Christ. And one God, one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God, Father of all who is above all, through
all, in you all. See what he means by common faith. You see that? Common faith. Now
look at what he says back in the text. And he says this in
every single epistle about Hebrews. It must be important. Every single
epistle, he talks about this grace and peace. He says, Grace,
mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
our Savior. Grace, mercy, and peace all from
God. All from God. Not of him that
willeth or him that runneth is of God that showeth mercy. Not
by works of righteousness which we have done according to his
mercy he has saved us. It's not of works but of grace,
isn't it? It's of grace. It's not that
we make peace with God, it's that he has made peace by the
blood of his cross. All from God, isn't it? It's
all earthward from heaven. It all comes down. It all must
come down. were needy creatures that are
hands out. God must give it all. Grace unmerited. This is common
faith of all of God's people, Joe. Common faith. Unmerited, undeserved, free gift. That's what salvation is. All
of God's people believe from the heart, absolutely beyond
a shadow of a doubt, that if God saves them, he's going to
have to be the one It's all his free gift that they didn't do
anything to earn it. As a matter of fact, they did
everything to not earn it. The wages that they have earned
are death. The common faith of all believers
is that if God saves him, he'll do it by his grace, not according
to work. Mercy. The common faith of all
of God's elect is that they believe, if I get what I deserve, I go
straight to hell. But thank God, in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ, God showed mercy to me. God was merciful
to me. God was unmerciful to his Son,
poured out his wrath upon him, that he might be merciful to
me. That's the common faith of all of God's people. The common
faith of all of God's elect, they all believe that there's
no way, nothing I can do, to make peace with God Almighty.
Nothing I can do. There's no way that I can decide
to accept Him, that I can do anything to make myself inoffensive
to God, make myself acceptable in His eyes, to reconcile myself
to Him, because I've offended and angered God. And there's
only one way I'm going to get peace with this holy God. This
is what everyone of God's elect believes, beyond a shadow of
a doubt, that the only way we're going to get peace with God is
if Jesus Christ comes down here and pays the peace offering,
becomes the peace offering. The blood, that's payment, that
obtains peace for me. It reconciles me to God. It enables
God to be just, and yet justified is so hell-bound guilty sinner.
Right? Now, therefore, I have peace.
with God, through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's common faith of
all great faith, hidden, even though every common Jew, the
common people heard him gladly. The Scripture said, they have
common faith. They have one hope, one belief,
one Lord, one hope of their God, one, one, one. Can this be emphasized
any more, any clearer? God's people believe the same
way. Why? Because they believe there
is only one way, one way, one truth, one way to live, Christ. And it all comes from God. Grace,
mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
our Savior. God the Father brought it, God
the Son brought it, God the Spirit brought it. God our Savior. And they believe that God came
down in the person of his son. Verse 3 says, God our Savior.
Verse 4 says, God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.
They're one and the same person. Every one of God's people believed
this, common faith. That if Christ wasn't God, he
can't save the fleas. He couldn't even save himself.
Right? Common faith. He show me one
person on the planet earth that calls himself a believer and
they don't believe in the absolute deity of the Lord Jesus Christ,
I'll show you an unbeliever. Because the common faith of God's
people is they believe that he's God, our Savior. Isaiah 25 and
9, I love that. Now he gives some orders here
concerning his church. Look at it. For this cause, I
left you in Crete, talking to young Titus. He left him faithfully,
Paul, in the establishment of the early church throughout the
Middle Eastern world. Paul, through the leadership of the
Holy Spirit, sent different men like Timothy and Titus and so
forth to various places, preaching missions, if you will. And this
Crete was one of them. And he says, For this cause,
that is, for the preaching of the gospel, the faith of God's
elect, I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things
that are wanting, are needful, are left undone, and ordain elders
in every city as I had appointed thee. And here he gives the qualification
of an elder and a bishop or pastor. He says, If any be blameless.
Now we know that that's not talking about. Totally sinless. He's talking about having a living
a life before me, and that's above reproach. And then a husband
of one wife. And now it's talking about polygamy.
It's not talking about. Oh, it's not talking about divorce. It's talking about polygamy,
and that rules out. Oh, watch his face down here,
but you know that. This qualifies him, doesn't it?
Has he never read Titus 1.6? Having faithful children, not
accused of riot or unruly, or Paul said in one place, if he
can't take care of his son or his daughter at home, how in
the world is he going to rule a bunch of . . . how is he going to look
over and take care of the church, which is filled full of a bunch
of big babies? All right, verse 7, he said,
Now a bishop must be blameless. A bishop must be blameless. He
says that again. That's necessary, isn't it, because
a man who falls in sin, like David, will give the enemies
of God great cause to blaspheme God and bring great reproach
upon the gospel and the Church, not only himself. He said, must
be blameless, a steward of God, or that is, a representative
of God, not self-willed, or that is, a hard man to get along with,
but not soon angry, that is, doesn't have a quick temper,
not given to wine, he's not a drinking man, no striker, that is, ready
to fight at the drop of a hat, not given to filthy lucre, he's
not in his thing for money. A lover of hospitality, he enjoys
being around God's people and entertaining God's people. A
lover of good men, enjoys being around God's people and in the
margin also says good things, things that are holy and just
and good things. He has his mind, his heart, his
life set upon good things and enjoys nothing more than pursuing
them and talking about them with others. And sober, he's very
serious. He's no clown, he's no entertainer, he's serious-minded
about this thing. Just, or that is, he deals fairly. He deals very fairly in every
situation, as much as possible. Holy, he's very Christ-like. Temperate, or that is, he does
not have any moderate appetite concerning anything, but he lets
his moderation be known for all men. And number nine, have we
been looking at this? It's amazing, isn't it? How many
times does Scripture say this? Holding fast the faithful word
as he hath been taught. Holding fast. Above all, he holds
fast the faithful word, holds fast to it. He is a true preacher who preaches
the truth. He is a faithful man who is faithful
to God. He is a messenger of God who
gets his message from God. Right? I automatically get very
skeptical of a man who steps up and says, I was out in the
woods the other day and somebody told me a story or whatever and
I got a message. He is a true messenger of God
who gets his message from God, from God's Word. Thus saith the
Lord. That's where every message ought
to start. He is an ambassador for Christ
who preaches Christ, right? An ambassador of Christ, an ambassador
of the United States, an ambassador of the United States to, say,
the country of Bolivia. An ambassador of the United States,
what is his job? His job is to represent and to
speak of and to do those things which are in the best interest
of the United States of America. He is to uphold and to proclaim
and deal with those things concerning his country. He is an ambassador
of the United States. What is an ambassador of Christ?
His job is to uphold and proclaim and do everything which is in
the best interest or for the glory of his Lord Jesus Christ
to tell the message, to speak of Christ, to speak of Christ.
And to hold fast this faithful word. Don't let go of your only
hope. Faithful word, hold it fast. Even the form of it. We
saw that Sunday morning, didn't we? Hold fast the form of sound
words. The very form of it. If it says,
elect, you say elect. Say it just as loud as you get
on the housetop, that I'll say unto all the cities, It is according
to the foreknowledge of God. And say the P word, whether they
want to hear it or not. God's people like to hear it.
The P word predestinates. God hath predestinated the people.
Say it. God's people like it. They love
it. They love it. Oh, they say, Predestinate me.
Don't everything concerning me. That's the way I'd have it, wouldn't
you, Brother Terry? That God would predestinate every single
event in my life to the very end, all things working together
according to his purpose, his predestinating purpose. Right? I like the P word, and the E
word, and all other I hold fast to it. These aren't just doctrines. This is my hope. This is my hope. It's God's word. I have based
all my confidence, all my joy and rejoicing upon God's word.
Who cannot lie? Right? All of it. He said, if you're my elect,
then you're saved. I like it. I like it. I'm going
to endeavor to find out to make my calling and election sure."
He says, verse 9, that he may be able by sound doctrine both
to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. Gainsayer means backtalkers,
arguers. The Word of God, we saw that
in Revelation, didn't we, how the Word of God says that his
Word will blow them to smithers. Remember when the Scripture says,
blow them to smithers, cut them to pieces? The Word of God does
that. Although they think, you know, that they're being quite
crafty and quite wise in their reasoning and all, they don't
realize it, that God has made foolish the wisdom of his Paul
said it in 1 Corinthians 1 that he said, Where is the wise? Where
is the disputer? Has not God made foolish? And
anybody with any common sense will listen to some of the gainsaying
and arguments and reasoning. Just anybody with common sense,
not only a believer, but will listen to some of the foolish
reasoning and backtalking and arguing and gainsaying that some
of these people present and say, Well, that's utter foolishness.
Right? Utter foolishness. But he says
you need to know the word, though, that you might be able to exhort
and convince the gainsayer. He says there are many, verse
10. And apparently there are a whole lot more than I thought
there were, even right here in good old Bible Belt, God-fearing Franklin
County. Whew! Dan, my apologies to California. San Francisco exists right here
in our midst, doesn't it? But I have a feeling that their
7,000 haven't bowed the knee to the modern bail, thought of
bail. But there sure are a whole lot,
apparently, that are unruly. It says they're unruly. You know
what unruly means? They won't listen to any commands
or any words, any dogmas, any any absolute truth. Unruly people,
they will not be ruled. They will not listen to the plainest
of words. They're like an unruly child.
You can tell them what you will, and they won't listen to you.
Right? An unruly person is somebody that, no matter what you say,
no matter how you say it from God's Word, he will say, I don't
believe that. Right? I don't have to listen
to that. Unruly. Know that all who are filled
with words," which Proverbs said, with a multitude of words, there
wanteth not sin. The more you open your mouth,
the more you are inclined to put your foot in it. So he says, and they are deceivers. See this, verse 10? Especially
of the circumcision, or that is, especially in religion. Where
do you think people got all this nonsense? One woman called me and said,
I believe all this came up through, this is all taught in secular
schools, you know, this secular humanistic teaching and all this.
No, no, I said, the problem is in the pulpit. That's where they
get this stuff, from the pulpit. They got this from some Bible
scholar. Everything they get, they get from some so-called
Bible scholar, especially the circumcision deceivers. There
are more deceivers in religion than there are outside of it.
The pulpit is a major problem today. Paul said, "...evil men
and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being
deceived." Verse 11, he says, "...their mouths must be stopped."
This is the reason I call names. At least their mouths will be
stopped in your ears. You'll say, Oh, he won, I'm not
going to listen to him. Right? At least the birdhole
house is teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's
sake. You know why? For the money. That's very clear
to God's people. Verse 12 and 13. Now, one of
themselves, even a prophet of their own, said the Christians
are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is
true. Wherefore, rebuke them sharply,
that it may be sound in effect." You remember me quoting that
modern-day philosopher just recently, who said that the problem with
modern man is that he wants to be God. That's exactly what one
of the philosophers back then said. There are always liars,
and what you can say about ninety-nine percent of modern man is, let
God be true and every man a liar. I verse thirteen or verse fourteen,
he said, Don't give heed to Jewish fables. That's appropriate, isn't
it? Man, where do they get some of
these things? Well, the Jews had a lot of them. You wouldn't
believe some of the Jewish fables that came out. Not from God's
Word, now. Didn't even resemble God's Word.
I looked up some of these Jewish fables. You wouldn't believe
some of them. They were just as far out as some of this stuff
you've been hearing. Don't even worry. It's a shame
to speak of those things. And there are many. There were
many back then as there are now, many in ridiculous religious
fables handed down over the years. That's all there are, is fables.
They speak not according to this word. It's a fable, right? The word of God is not misleading. But men are, and Jewish fables
and commandments of men are perverse translations of scripture that
men have You know what Christ said in Mark 7? He said, Oh,
they'll put away the word of God and they'll teach for the
commandments of men as being the word of God. That's true.
Rather than just preach the word of God as it is, they'll pervert
it and they'll have people believe in their interpretation of it.
Smack dab in the face of the scriptures that say there's no
scriptures of any private interpretation. They don't care. They're unruly. Aren't they, Joe? Unruly. Commandments
of men, and they turn from it and appeal. They turn from the
word of God and appeal to these men, and so forth, instead of
the word of God. Verse 15. Now, look at this in
light of all that and all of this. I've never really quoted this
verse in context, but this is the context of it. Unto the pure,
all things are pure. Under the pure, all things are
pure. In other words, this book is purely the word of God. It's not the word of man. It's
purely the word of God. Every bit of it is the word of
God. It's pure God's word. It's not the words of man, it's
pure. It's free from the thoughts and
opinions and preconceived notions and prejudices and biases of
men, and it's purely God's word, and it's not open to interpretation,
is it? It's pure. Turn over to 1 Peter
with me, and I'll hurry. A couple more minutes. 1 Peter chapter 1, he says this,
and under the pure, all things are pure. Well, who is pure?
And we're right back to where we started. 1 Peter 1.22 says,
"...see, and you have purified your souls in obeying the truth."
Who is pure? Those that believe God's word
is pure. Those that believe it is pure through and through.
Isn't that amazing how it all works together? Under the pure,
all things are pure. Under the pure, salvation is
pure grace. Pure grace, not a mixture of
works and grace. They are not confused about that
understanding. Under the pure now, those who have been purified
by the truth, they see this word is pure grace, through and through. Yet Adam, if Adam was saved,
he got grace, and if the last man on earth is saved, he'll
have to be by grace, pure grace. It's pure. Under the pure, all
things are pure. All of God's Word, all of God's
works are also pure. Everything God's Word is pure,
it's holy, it's just, it's right, it's true. There's nothing forward
in it. Isn't that what Christ said?
Isn't that what the Word says? That all my words are in truth
and holiness. There's nothing forward in them.
They're all plain to him that understands it. There's nothing
forward in them. It's all holy, spotless and righteous,
just and good. It's pure as God's word. But,
look at the text, "...unto them that are defiled and unbelieving
is nothing pure." There's nothing pure about it. There's nothing
in here that's absolutely God's word beyond a shadow of a doubt,
is it? Under the impure, impure, and unbelieving, there's nothing
in here that they believe is absolutely God's will. No pure
truth, no absolutes, no dogmas. Right, Roberta? No. Nothing purely
right or wrong. It's up to you, you know. You
like this, you like that. You choose this, you choose that.
There's nothing pure about it. You see that? That's the context,
what that says. Under the impure and undefiled,
or impure and unbelieving, nothing pure. Even their mind and conscience
is defiled. They call evil good. This is
how mixed up they become. Is this absolutely turning on
a big light about what we're seeing here? To the unbelieving,
nothing is pure in it. Nothing is purely God's word,
pure grace, pure dogma, pure law, pure commandment. Even their
mind and conscience is defiled. They call evil good and good
evil. Just like the Pharisees of old said that Christ was casting
out Baal by Beelzebub, or casting out devils by Beelzebub. Right? But they called themselves, or
the worst of sinners, holy, and they called the holy man, the
holy son of God, a sinner. Their mind, their conscience
is gone, seared with a hot iron. In verse 16, they profess they
know God. they know God, but in works they
deny him. They call themselves God's children, but they are
not, because all God's children should be taught of God. They
are all taught the same thing. We saw that clearly. They profess
to be believers and Christians and followers of Christ, when
in reality they are his enemies. In works they deny him, in religion
they deny the sovereignty of God by their evil gimmicks and
tricks and works and things that they do to help God out, you
know, they deny the sovereign God. Having a form of godliness,
they deny the power thereof. Right? They say, yeah, God's
on the throne, but we have to help him. That denies him in
work. And the people, they deny the
holy, spotless, righteous and pure Son of God who loveth righteousness
and hateth iniquity. They say they believe and follow
Christ, but they live in sin. so that in I'm in the work. And
he says they're abominable and what that means is there on charitable.
Did you know that that's what. You know that's what that means.
that God killed men, women, and children of Sodom because they
wanted to crash a lost party. Do you know
that? That's the way Jewish faith has
it. Isn't that utter foolishness? Abominable! Do you know what
abominable means? Do you know what God's word says abominable
means? Detestable! Absolutely abhorrent! bow, wretched, ungodly, hateful,
worthy of hell. That's what abomination means.
Let God be true, and every man a liar. Disobedient unto every good work,
reprobate. There comes a time when you have
to say, But you say with a tear, and
I've got a message for Sunday morning that will be very helpful
to you. It's helpful to me along this
line of dealing with people. It's our Bible study from 2 Timothy
2, and it was very helpful to me. It shed some light on this
thing, how we're to treat men and women, even those who seem
to be enemies of the truth. I was very helped. I was convicted
about it. And I urge you to come hear it.
But the fact remains, who is on the Lord's side? The line
is still being drawn today, and over the simplest of things,
it's still being drawn. Especially the gospel, that's
what separates and divides more than anything else. You pray that that's the issue
that will come to the forefront and that that will be the dividing
line. The publicity and all we've been getting is not the kind
I want. For some reason, I was telling
others, and I'll just let you in on something, for some reason
I felt led to submit that letter to the paper. And do you remember
us talking about this? Some of us were talking about
this. I submitted that in hopes of it being in one of these full-page
Friday articles, but it wasn't. They thought it was meant for
letters to the editor. And it was sent there, and one of you
were upset about it. And I said, don't worry. I said,
it may get a bigger reading that way than it would have otherwise.
Well, it did. It did. My, my, Franklin News Post ought
to give me a free subscription. I've increased their readership
by a thousandfold, I bet you. People are taking this paper
out in Washington, D.C. now. But for some reason, I felt led
to submit that article. That's not my ministry. That's
not the issue. But as a concerned parent, Jeanette,
you and I have been talking about this. As a concerned parent,
all I did was write a letter to the editor and state My beliefs,
not my beliefs, forsake what God's word says about this, and
as a concerned parent, urge other parents to be aware of what's
being taught and so forth. As it turned out, like one lady
told one of our ladies, open up a can of worms. Well, this
is providential, I believe. We've got an article coming out
this Friday in the paper. I really believe the issue is
dealt with very clearly, very plainly, the issue of the gospel. And I guarantee you now that
as a result of all this, more people will read that than would
normally have read it. They'll see my name And they'll read it. They'll read it. So that's good,
isn't it? That's good. And I can really
say with George Whitefield, And truthfully, and God has given
me so, I never, I told John before I walked in here this morning,
or this evening, I said, all week long I've just been filled,
just filled to the over brimming with messages, with God's word. He'd just been scripture, just
been confirming, just, I don't know when I've enjoyed a better
time. When I ought to be in a cave somewhere, or at the courthouse
changing my name. But I don't know when. No. She asked if I requested
to take my picture out of the paper Friday. No, I didn't. But at any rate, this is God's
goodness. He bears witness with our spirit. We read that in 1 Peter, didn't
we? I went over to that and read that, and I've just been, verse
after verse after verse, the whole Word of God has been bearing
witness with my spirit, communion with me. It caused me to rethink
myself, rethink my position, rethink how I said things. I
read my article over and over and over and over again, and
it wouldn't change a thing. And I can really say, I hope
I can really say, that with George Whitefield, let the name of Paul
Mahan perish from the face of the earth. But let the word of
God be declared an absolute truth. without reservation. That's the
truth of the gospel, to be sounded for very clearly. And this, I
told one of our men, I said, I hope I'm willing, I hope I
can really say this, that I'm willing for 1,000 people to hate
me, if one person hears the truth. Would that be worth it? And I like roses, red roses. You all want to see my roses?
I put flowers on my grave. But if one person, and like I
was telling John, this is nothing. You know, taking pot shots in
the newspaper, that's not a whim. I'm not in danger of the stake,
and nobody in danger of being shot or fired at or whatever.
No. The thought has crossed my mind.
I keep my garage doors closed during the day while I'm out
there working. But no, really, this is nothing. Stanis is nothing.
Taking pot shots in the newspaper, that's nothing. But the time
may come, though. And it's providential, isn't
it, that we've been looking at these things all along? Before all
this happened, we've been looking throughout the Scriptures at
the persecution God's people will face because of the gospel.
Why were we led to look into those letters into the churches
in Revelation? Why? Who knows what's in store
for us? And I ask you men this. I need
you. I need you. I'm so thankful for
the calls and encouragement and all these ladies. And everyone
called me, encouraged me, whatever, and so did the men. But I wonder,
what are we willing to do when things come to that? Are we willing
to stand up? It may come to the point, Brother
Henry, where I'm going to stand up preaching some Sunday morning,
and we get some people to walk in here and start heckling or
whatever. Will you be our bouncer? Will you and Joe get up? And
their mouths must be stopped. And what we just read, are you
willing, Charles? Will you help them? Seriously,
we don't know what it's going to come to. Not this particular
episode. I really believe this is going
to die down unless the article coming out Friday really stirs
up a hornet's nest. I'm talking about preachers. Incidentally, I ought to quit, but I'm not.
It's providential too, wasn't it, in the paper, how the local
Churches and all that supposedly took a stand. It was some stand,
wasn't it? Wasn't that bold of them, brave
of them? Did you see one name on the dotted
line? Did you see one name? Hide behind
our little association, you know, and make general statements?
That's the way they preach the gospel today, though, isn't it?
Make generalized statements, you know. That's exactly the
way that they preach the gospel. And why do I denounce? Why do
we denounce? What's going on today in modern
religion? Because that's what they're doing. That's how they're
not being true to men's souls. They say they are, but they're
not. They're hedging the words. They're mincing words. They're
using generalities and preaching it all. When pressed with certain
issues and so forth, they will come out and say, Yeah, we believe
that, but won't define it. You know where the power of God's
word lies? in God's Word, in God's Word. You preach it as it is. That's
where the power of God's Word lays, right? The boldness of
it, the clarity of it, define it. Who is on the Lord's side? Put your name on the dotted line.
What is the gospel? Preach sound words, sound words,
so everybody can really hear what the gospel is, right? So, by God's grace, let's pray
to this end, from this pulpit, from your mouths, out in this
community, that we will hold fast words, keep his word, be
faithful. The Lord commended those churches
in Revelation and he said, you haven't tolerated, you haven't
compromised, you've held. He said, I'll give you a white
robe White stone. I make you a pillar. I'll give you all these things
promises. So let's lean on the Word of
God. He'll be I'm experiencing personally
how he said, I won't leave you. I won't leave you. It's so it
is. So this will give us courage
to face the world out there in your job and so forth. He will
not leave you. He will bear witness with your
spirit. All right, stand with me. Our Lord, we thank you for your
truth. We thank you for your word. We believe and are sure
that you have given us the truth by your Spirit of truth, and
it is through this truth that we are set free. free from ignorance,
free from superstition, free from darkness, wherein we were
once alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that was in us, free from religious superstition and tradition and
Jewish fables and so forth. But God Almighty, how we thank
you for this truth. Let us not take it for granted.
Let us not be ashamed of it. Let us hold to it. for your glory
and your honor and for our everlasting good. Amen.