We continue in our study in Titus
chapter one. Let's start reading together
then in verse seven down to verse sixteen, and by God's help we'll
make a few comments on this. For a bishop, pastor, elder must
be blameless as the Spirit of God not self-willed, not soon
angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy
lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just,
holy, temperate, holding fast the faithful word as he hath
been taught." One thing, you've got to be taught the word before
you can hold it fast. Who's going to teach you the
word? The Holy Spirit's the only one who can teach you the Word,
give you the understanding of it, give you the light of it,
give you the revelation of it. And you know, you've got to be
taught, got to be taught, holding fast the faithful words he hath
been taught, that he may be able by sound
doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers For there
are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they
of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert
whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy
lucre's sake. One of themselves, even a prophet
of their own, said, The Grecians are always liars, evil beasts,
slow bellies. This is true. Therefore rebuke
them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving
heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth.
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. They profess that they know God,
but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and
unto every good work I want to talk tonight from these verses
about two tasks of a pastor. Two tasks of a pastor. To be
called of God to preach the gospel of Christ. To be taught of God. To be called of God to preach
the gospel of Christ. Not another gospel. There's only
one gospel. To preach the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. To preach His glorious person.
that that One who came into time was God eternal. He had had it
eternal before He ever took Himself in the womb of a virgin. And
He united Himself the eternal God with flesh, with humanity. He didn't cease to be God, but
once He became man, He never ever will cease to be man. God
and man in one person. And the people who beheld Him
while they were on this earth saw God Himself in the flesh. God, who the heavens of heavens
can't contain Him, came down here in the person of His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And Du Bois, to be able to talk
about His glorious person, and all of His attributes, and all
of His passion, and all of His glorious truths that He preached
and taught, and then to be able to preach His blessed work. That
our Lord Jesus Christ came into this work, the Father gave him
a work to do. He said, Father, I finished the
work that you gave me to do. He gave him a job to do, a work
to do, a task to do. And our Lord Jesus Christ came
and he accomplished that work. Accomplished that work, fulfilled
that work. Now, to be called a priest of
the gospel is the highest calling a man can have on the face of
this earth. It's the highest calling a man can have. But he
has in this business of calling, calling a priest to preach Christ,
he has two parts to it. One is preaching it and teaching
it. Staying with the Word, teaching it, holding fast the faithful
Word, preaching it and teaching it. But another part of the work,
not only preaching it and teaching it, but another task that he
has in the work is to rebuke, reprove, and to correct. If there's
truth, there's got to be error. And the devil's always tried
to counterfeit whatever Christ has done. And so we preach and
teach. That's a wonderful thing to do,
to teach and preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
another part of it is to rebuke and reprove and correct. And
that's the two tasks. One of them is to call men to
Christ, gathering the sheep together. And the other is dealing with
thieves and robbers and wolves that come in to destroy the flock. And that's what his means is
holding forth the faithful word. And he's able by that to call
men to Christ and gather sheep in. Look in Acts chapter 28,
verse 20 with me just a moment. Let me show you what I'm talking
about. Holding fast the faithful word, he's able to call men to
Christ. And at the same time, he's able
to correct Paul's teachers. Ain't that what he said? By sound
doctrine to exhort the saints and convince the gainsayers,
the deniers. But here in Acts 20 and verse
28, Paul's talking to the Ephesian elders, and he's fixing the lead. And it's said here, Take heed
therefore unto yourselves, and to over all the flock, to all
the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers.
Here's your thing, feed the church of God which he hath purchased
with his own blood." Feed them, feed them, feed them. He saw
the Lord said, feed my sheep, what he told Simon Peter, feed
my sheep. For this I know, I know this, that after I leave, grievous
wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. And our Lord
Jesus Christ says there are wolves coming in sheep's clothing. If
they come looking like a wolf, you spot them that quick. But
they come in sheep's clothing. They put on a sheep's garb and
put it over themselves and come sneaking in. Come gathering in. They look like a sheep and all
of a sudden you find out they're grievous wolves. And they start
devouring the sheep. They start scattering the sheep.
And he said, and look what else he said, also of your own self
shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples
after themselves. They want to be somebody. They
want to be known as a soul winner. And so back over in our text
here, and Paul said, holding fast in verse nine, holding fast
the faithful word. And as he's been taught this,
he may be able to, by sound doctrine, both to exhort the children of
God and to convince those that deny the truth, deny the gospel. And look what he goes on to say
here. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers,
especially they of the circumcision. When he says there are many unruly,
You ever seen unruly children that you couldn't control them,
nobody could control them, wouldn't mind anybody? That's what Paul
says about these men. They're unruly. They'll not be
subject to the apostles. They will not be subject to the
rule of God, the rule of the scriptures. They won't be brought
into church unity, the teaching. They're unruly. They say, oh,
nobody's going to, you know, I know my own way. I know the
way to do it. I know the way to act. I know
the way to believe. And this time they won't be under subjection
to anybody. And Paul says they're unruly.
You can't tell them nothing. You can't teach them nothing.
And then he goes on to say here, they are vain talkers and deceivers. They're vain talkers. And what
it means here, their words are empty. That's what vain means,
empty. empty, frivolous, unscriptural things. Vain talkers. They speak things that have no
substance to it. They disturb, and they distort,
and they divide. And then he went on to say they're
deceivers. They deceive themselves, and
they lead others themselves astray, and they lead others astray.
How do they lead people astray? Vain talkers. Unruly. You follow me and I'll show you
how to worship God. You follow me. You don't have
to follow the church. You don't have to follow that
church. You know, we can go on our own way. If I had a nickel
for everybody I'd run to in this condition, I'd run into two or
three like that out in California a couple weeks ago. They don't
want to be any part of any church. They don't want to be under any
kind of a preacher. They want to ask you questions, but then
they don't want to ask you the questions, so they can tell you
what they believe before they ever get to ask the questions.
And he says they're deceiving themselves, and they'll deceive
others, and they'll do it by so-called good works. And they're
words, clever words, and they deceive the simple. And Paul
said, especially they of the circumcision, the Jews that are
there. The Jews that are there, the
people who believe that by their circumcision, these Jews who
profess Christianity, they profess Christianity. But what they did,
they mixed Moses and Christ. They took the law and Christ
and mixed them together. They took the law and gospel.
They made works and grace to be the same. There was a fellow
told me one time, he's a preacher. Pretty good, you know, pretty
famous preacher running around all over the country. And we
were talking one time and he says, you know, I found out I
was learning sovereign grace and preaching sovereign grace.
And he said, how did you come to that? And I said, well, God
taught it to me. He said, what do you? I said, what do you believe?
He said, I believe that God's sovereign and man's got a free
will at the same time. I said, that can't be. It can't
be both at the same time. Either God's will is going to
be done or man's will is going to be done. One or the other
can't be both. And that's what he meant by unruly.
They talk as deceivers. And they profess Christianity
and they profess Christ. But how in the world can you
believe that a man can be saved by his free will and God being
sovereign over that man? If God's got control over everything
in this world, if God rules and reigns over everybody, And He
chose His people in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And He says it's the only reason anybody's saved in these last
days is because they're driven according to the election of
grace. And if you ever see God high and lifted up on His throne,
you know what your mouth will do? It'll stop like that. You'll
quit being unruly. You'll quit being unruly to the
Word of God. Unruly to the preacher. Unruly
to the Scriptures. And you'll say, God Almighty,
salvation's of Him. And here I thought that I had
the power. I thought I had the right. I thought my will was
paralyzed. God couldn't do nothing for me
unless I let Him. He couldn't do anything in my
heart unless I opened it. That's unruly. They call us deceitful,
especially there in the circumcision, mission works and grace. They
said that was the genesis of the Puritans, that they know
how to make the law and the gospel go together. You can't make one
gospel go together. Christ fulfills the law. And that's the gospel. We're
not telling people what to do. We're telling folks it's done.
It's done. Oh, then what he says in verse
11. Here's what he said about people
like that, whose mouths must be stopped. Who subvert whole houses, teaching
things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. Whose
mouth must be stopped. Now, pastors who love the Lord
Jesus Christ, who love His sheep, men who feel responsibility to
the Church, responsibility to the truth, we always have to
be on our guard against errors in doctrine. in doctrine, but
also in spirit. People can get in a spirit that's
just awful. And if we keep silent, when we
share doctrine, being errors in doctrine coming or an error
in spirit coming, if we keep silent to that, what we do is
we give tacit approval and permission to that error to let it continue.
And if we keep silent about it, and don't say anything about
it, it'll make gradual progress, and then it'll come into the
congregation, it'll spread its poison from here, yonder, and
about, and it'll make the whole congregation infected. But he
says their mouths must be stopped. What's the first thing you use
to stop a man's mouth? Yeah. Use the Scriptures. Use
the Scriptures. Use Psalms with the Word. Take
the Scriptures and show them to error. Take the Scriptures
and show them that they're wrong. If a man's in a bad spirit, and
a mean spirit, and a hateful spirit, and an overbearing spirit,
and a critical spirit, and a judgmental spirit, well, then what you have
to do with that fellow is you take by the Scriptures and show
him what the Spirit of the grace of Christ is like. What the Spirit
of God makes a person be like. What the Spirit of Christ in
a man's like. What the grace of God in a man's
life? What the mercy of God in a man's
life? What the gentleness of Christ in a man's life? And you
use the Scriptures, and if somebody comes in with error, you take
the Scriptures and find that error, and you show from the
Scriptures their error. And if they continue in that grace,
you know what you've got to do? You've got to show them the door.
You've got to show them the door. Don't come back. You know, I'm
sorry, but we're not going to let you destroy the work. And then look what he says. He
says, They teach things, there in verse 11, whose mouths must
be stopped, we've got to stop them, whose subvert houses, teaching
things, teaching things which they ought not, teaching things
contrary to Scripture, things that are foreign to the gospel.
And then it says here, they're not only able to corrupt individuals,
but look what it says, subvert whole houses. They subvert whole
families. Take whole families away from
the gospel, away from Christ, away from the truth. Huh? And look what it says. You know
what the reason for doing it is? Their motive? Filthy Lucrets. For shame what they should be
ashamed of, they glory in. Money. For money. For money. Oh, my. That's why Paul says,
when I come to you, I did not covet any silver, I didn't covet
gold, I didn't covet anything that you had. And you remember
when Abraham came back from the slaughter of the kings, and he
got everything that was backed. And the old king of Sodom said
to Abraham, said, here, you take all this, Abraham. You take a
tenth of this. And Abraham lifted his hand and
said, I will not take so much as a shoelace. God has met my
needs. I'm not taking a shoelace off
in this world. Somebody can buy you. Somebody
else can buy you for a higher price. And that was Balaam's
problem. You know, he was hired. He was
a hirer. You know, that fellow wanted him to go curse Israel.
He said, here, take all this money, go down there and curse
Israel. He went down there and God wouldn't let him curse him.
He come back and said, God won't let me curse him. He's left him.
He said, here's some more money. He took some more money. And
went starting again. Gave him all kinds of clothes
and everything. He kept going down there. God wouldn't let
him curse him. But he kept taking the money. Kept taking the money. And then look what he says here
in verse 12. One of themselves, even a prophet
of their own, said, the Grecians are always liars, evil beasts,
slow bellies. One of themselves. See, Titus
is left here at Greece, and he's there, and he says, one of themselves,
a prophet of their own. And I was reading the other day
that they called this, they know the fellow, this fellow who said
this, His name is Epimetes, Epimetes, Epimetes. It is the prophet of
their own. And look what he says. He says,
this is the way Grecians are. They're always liars. The Grecians
are always liars. I mean, it seemed to be a national
sin. It seemed to be something that all of them did. It seemed
to be something that they delighted in. It seemed something they
enjoyed doing. It seemed something that they just gloried in was
telling lies. It's a national thing. They're
always lying. If they're talking, they're going to tell you a lie.
They're going to tell you a tale. So he said, if they tell you something,
they're lying to you. That's what Paul's saying. And
then look what else he says, thus they are. He says, they
are evil beasts. Now, you remember, this is figurative
language. Evil beast. That means there's a beast, you
know. They're savage, cruel, causing trouble, mean. And I
read the other day that one of the sayings, one of the things
that they thought was one of the greatest things that you
could be as a Grecian was be a highway robber. To be a highway
robber was to hire A nation where highway robberies
and high honor, that's about like America now. The more you
can steal, the more popular they are, you know. The higher up
you can go and the more you can steal, the more you can lie, the more
you can convince people. Most politicians, if their mouth's
moving, they're lying. You know that as well as I do.
It's sad to say, but that's the way it is. And then he said,
evil beast. And then he said, slow bellies.
Slow bellies. Oh, slow bellies. What does that
mean? That means that they're intemperate, gluttonous, drunkards. They're lazy, slow bellies. They just like to lay around
intemperate, gluttonous, drunkards. They're around do nothing, slow
bellies, I ain't going to get up and do nothing. This is what
one of their own said about it. And this is what Paul's telling
Titus. This is what you're up against when you go over there.
When you stay here, this is what you're up against. You're up
against these vain talkers, these unruly people. You've got to
stop their matters. You're up against these Grecians,
who are these evil, beastly, slow bellies, these liars. And
look at what he says in verse 13. He says, this is truth. This
is what he said about Titus, the truth. Paul said, this is
true. Thomas Palmore, he'd been there.
He'd been there. He'd experienced this. This is
where Barnabas was from. This is where Barnabas, they
went down there. And this is true. Paul had been there. He
knew it from experience. And this is what he said to do
for them. He said, it's true what he says
about them. Therefore, rebuke them sharply. Rebuke them sharply
for their lying. Rebuke them sharply for their
principles. Rebuke them sharply for teaching
things they ought not. Rebuke them sharply for their
immorality. Rebuke them sharply for their
laziness and their drunkenness and their intemperance. Rebuke
them sharply for that. And that they may be sound in
the faith. Don't let it get by them. You
know, because this is national. When you become a believer, nations
don't have anything to do with it. Then he goes on to say here,
that they may be sound in the faith, and that they won't give
heed, these Christians won't give heed to Jewish fables. Jewish
fables. Oh my. And I'll tell you this,
you're rebuking them and rebuking people sharply. That's not an
easy task to do, and it's certainly not enjoyable. But it has to
be done, that men may be sound in the faith. And then he says
there in verse 14, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments
of men. Jewish fables. One of the fables
was that Jesus wasn't to Christ. That was one of their fables.
And they would say that the prophets said things that they did. And
then look what he said in commandments of men. Look with me over here,
if you don't mind, in Matthew 15, just a moment, talking about
commandments of men. Matthew 15. You know, there's been so many
things attributed to the Scriptures, it's not Scripture. I've got, I'll just name a few
off the top of my head, I remember. When Zion should veil, she should
bring four sons and daughters. That's not in the Scripture.
Charity begins at home. That's not in the Scripture. Pleasantness is next to godliness.
That's not in the Scripture. Those are just fables. And that's why those Jewish fables
is worse than that. But look what he said here in
Matthew chapter 15 and verse 1, talking about don't listen
to Jewish fables and commandments of men. Then came to Jesus scribes
and Pharisees which were of Jerusalem, saying, Whom? Why do thy disciples
transgress the traditions of the elders? Now here's a fable.
For they wash not their hands when they eat bread." Oh my,
that'd be a horrible thing. How many times have y'all been
on the job preaching, get something to eat, you know? How many times you've been out
doing something, you know, and you just grab something to eat?
But I want you to know, if you'd have been a Jew, and a Jew saw
you doing that, they'd say, boy, you're transgressing, not the
Scriptures, not God, but the elders, what the elders are teaching.
I want you to go on to say now. But he answers to that, why do
you transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? Huh? You see, I said, you take
your tradition and you bypass the commandment of God. Now look
back over in our text again. So he says, that's the commandment
of men. They make their fables to be commandments and make them
to be binding on men. And look what it says, and these
Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. Oh my, to turn from the truth,
to turn from substance back to shadow? to turn from light to
darkness, to go from grace to works, to go from gospel to law,
to go from Christ to Moses, to turn from the truth. It's truth
that God uses to save us. It's the truth, it's the belief
of the truth that God uses to save us. It's the truth that
calls us to Christ. It's the truth that God uses
to keep us. It's the truth that God keeps
to preserve us and to keep us from the false, to keep us from
errors. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He prayed
in John 17, 17. He said, Father, sanctify them
through Thy Word. Thy Word is truth. It's the truth
that keeps us. It's the truth that strengthens
us and preserves us. And oh my, to turn from the truth. What a dangerous thing it is
to turn from the truth. Oh, wherever God puts in our
hearts the truth of His creation, that He made this world into
existence, that there was nothing and God said, let there be. Let
there be, and he commanded, and he commanded, and in six days
he made this world and everything in it. And at the end of that
six days he rested because he said it's good, and he rested.
And it's that day, that rest day was made for us to show us
that God's work is done, and Christ did the work, and we rest! That's all it meant. And oh,
beloved, when God puts in our hearts the truth of His blessed
providence that His will is being done in this world, that His
will and His government is what's running this world. He sets up
nations and raises up nations. He raises up kings and sets down
kings. His providence is what governs
everything in this world. All things are working together
to His good and His glory. And we want that to be. How would
you like to be subject to the laws of nature? How would you like to be subject
to mother nature? How would you like to be subject
to faith? Well, I tell you what, I want
to be subject to an all-wise, infinitely wise, all-powerful
glorious God, who doeth me in from the beginning, saying all things that are not
yet done shall be done, and that he governs things, and he governs
affairs of my life, and I'm not left to take free will Mother
nature, the laws of nature, I'm in the hands of a Christ holy
God who knows all things, and who's all wise, infinitely wise,
too wise to do wrong and too good to be unkind. He knows exactly
what to do with me. When I get up tomorrow, he's
going to govern my life. Ain't you grateful for that?
Oh, my. Wouldn't it be awful if you were
subject to love? If you had to go to a fortune
teller and say, let me read my palms and tell you what's going
to happen. Go to somebody with some cards
and let them land down there. Well, this is going to happen
in your life. That's going to happen. Open up a fortune cookie. Oh, this
is going to happen to me. Oh, what am I going to do? Read
your fortune in the newspaper, you know. Read your astrology
chart. Horoscopes. Boy, go buy your
horoscope for that day. be all? Oh, my, bless His holy name. Bless His holy name. Oh, Father, into my... We're
going to do like our Lord Jesus Christ said, Father, into thy
hands we commit our spirit. Into thy hands we commit our
lives. Into thy hands we commit our home, our lives, our children,
our will, everything that we are due in this world. Lord,
it's yours to do with it what you will. Oh, when God works that in our
heart, And we see the truth of redemption by the Lord Jesus
Christ, the resurrection of our Savior. When these things are
convinced, and we're convinced by the Holy Spirit of our ruin
by the fall, that when Adam fell into sin, we fell into sin with
him, and we were absolutely utterly ruined. When the Holy Spirit
convinces us that it's Christ who paid our sin debt at the
cross with His blood, He put away our sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. When we have been taught by the
Holy Spirit that we have to be regenerated and have been born
again by the Spirit of God, Then when people come with tables,
and they come with their traditions, and they come with their ritualism,
and they come with their legalism, and they come with their commandments
of men, you know what they'll be to us? Tasteless! Tasteless! Empty! They won't attract us. Go on it! Ain't gonna have it. Oh, my. When God convinces you,
You ain't going to go away from the truth. You ain't going to
do that. Nobody's going to turn you from that. Oh, they're brash.
Oh, no. Oh, and then look what he said
here in verse 15. 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. What do
you think this is talking about? Well, the Jewish teachers here,
these Jewish teachers, these main talkers, these deceivers,
these unrulers, these mouths and these men who taught things
that they ought not, they insisted that believers were still under
the laws. They still had to eat certain
foods and washings and purifications. You keep this, it turns out about
four books, this one book, see it now, to Colossians chapter
two. Let me show you what I'm talking about. They insisted
to believers. that you all got to steal, you're
still under the law. You're only allowed to eat certain
foods. You've got to have different
washings and different purifications. And here in Colossians chapter
2, in verse 20, look what it says here. Wherefore, if you be dead with
Christ from the rudiments of the world, if you died with If
you were crucified with Christ, and Christ is dead to this world,
and you were dead with Christ from the rudiments of this world,
rudiments of this world means the elements that's in this world,
and he explains what it means is here. Then why then, as though
living in the world, are you subject to the ordinances of
this world? And this is what the Jews teach. This is the elements
he's talking about. Don't you touch nothing, don't
you taste nothing, and don't you handle nothing. And you know
what Paul said about things that you don't taste, touch, and handle?
They're all going to perish with the using. Anything you can touch, it's going to perish. Anything
you can eat and taste, it's going to perish. Anything you can handle,
it's going to perish. And he said, and you do this
after the commandments and doctrines of men? If you're dead with Christ,
why are you subject to these things? And that's what Paul's
saying here. And then come back over to it again now. Under the
pure, all things are pure. Those that have been made pure
by the blood of Christ, only the pure in heart shall see God.
Those that have been made pure by the blood of Christ, by the
work of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says nothing is unclean
of itself. Ain't that what he said? He said,
nothing. I said, I know that nothing is
unclean in itself if you offer it with prayer and thanksgiving
to God. I'll tell you what, whatever
you eat, whatever you drink, if you can say, Lord, I thank
you for this, you can have it and you can enjoy it. And that's
why, you know, our Lord Jesus Christ, they saw His disciples
eating. He said, He's not that that goes
in the mouth that defiles a man. What goes into a man in a thousand
minutes? What comes out? What comes out
of his heart? What comes out of his mouth?
What's in his heart? What's coming out of his mouth? A man don't
become a liar because he tells a lie. He has lies in his heart,
and that's why he starts lying. A man don't become a thief when
he steals something. He stole something because he
was a thief. That's why Paul said in 1 Timothy
4 and verse 4, chapter 4 and verse 4, look what he says. Chapter 3, excuse me. No, chapter
4 and verse 3. 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse
3. He says, Now here's a man who cometh, forbidding to marry,
commanding to abstain from meats, Well, I might see somebody try
to keep me some fried chicken. I like chicken anyway. A fellow said one time he went
and preached a meeting one time. I don't think this is true, but
I'll tell it anyway. He said it got to the end of
the week and they had fried chicken. He says, oh boy, I'll eat chicken
hot. I've eaten chicken tender and
I've eaten chicken tough. I've eaten chicken young and
I've eaten chicken old. Bless God I've had chicken enough. You know, just get a little laugh
in here. But anyway, back over here where
he says, commanding to abstain from meats. And look what it
says, Paul says, which God hath created to be received for thanksgiving. of them which believe and know
the truth. Huh? For every creature of God
is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving,
for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer." Now, you
can't make it any plainer than that, can you? And now back over
in our text, let me wind this up here. And oh, beloved, and
he says here, under the pure, all things are pure. When God
saves a man, purifies his heart, purifies his mind, everything's
lawful to him then. The kingdom of God's not in meat
and drink, but righteousness and peace and the Holy Ghost.
And then he says, and then he says, but unto them that are
defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and
conscience is defiled. Unbelieving, them that are defiled
and unbelieving. And what this means is that sin
is in everything they do. They're the people that say,
you can't do this, that's sin. You can't go there, that's sin.
You can't eat this, that's sin. You can't wear that, that's sin.
You can't go this place, that's sin. You can't drink that, that's
sin. And so they make sin to be everything, and yet they continue
doing them. And that's why Paul says their
mind and conscience is defiled. And listen to this right here.
If you get nothing else I've said tonight, listen to this.
It is not impure things which make man impure, but it's impure
man who makes everything pure, impure. Man absolutely destroys every
blessing God gives him and abuses him, instead of receiving them
with thanksgiving. And then look what it goes and says in verse
16. These law keepers, these people of works, these people
that are going to be saved by their doing, by their works.
Paul says they're foul and unbelieving and there ain't nothing pure.
All they can see is sin and everybody else and what they're doing.
And then here it says they profess that they know God. Oh, they
say we believe in one God and three persons. But how in their
work do they profess to know God? They profess to know Him,
but how do you know they don't know Him? In their works. What
works is he talking about here? He's talking about religious
works. He's not talking about evil works. He's not talking
about people going out here getting drunk and living in a dumpster
and lying and stealing. No, he's talking about religious
people here keeping the commandments of men. Subverting whole houses, teaching
things that they ought not. But in works, those Pharisees,
in their works, they deny God, they deny Christ. And they deny
Him, they deny God, they deny Christ, and being abominable
before God. To go about to establish their
own righteousness, to go about to talk about their work is what
makes them whole before God. He says they're abominable before
God, and they're disobedient. And He says, you know what? Every
good work that there is, they're reprobate. They're reprobate. Now, these folks are people that's
in the church, and they're trying to cause trouble in the church.
And Paul says that, oh, they say, oh, we know God just like
anybody else does. But he says they deny Him. How
do they deny Him? By their works. What works? Religious
works. Making sin to be something you
do is good as something you are. Make sin to be something that
you eat. Why, something you drink. Someplace
you go, something you wear. And Paul says they're abominable.
Anything that takes away, now you listen to me, anything that
takes away from the glory and work of Christ alone for salvation,
for our rest, for our righteousness, for our perfection, for all of
our sin, anything that does not make Christ to be all in all
is abominable and reprobate. Ain't that right? Amen and Amen. All bless His
name.