Titus chapter 3, and I want to begin reading in
verse 10. We've got one more lesson in this epistle of Paul
to Titus, and we'll finish this little epistle. But tonight we'll
look at verses 10 and verse 11. But I want to read the remainder
of that chapter. Titus chapter 3 and beginning
in verse 10. A man that is an heretic, after
the first and second admonition, reject. Knowing that he that
is such is subverted, he is warped, and he sinneth, being condemned
of himself. When I shall send Artemis unto
thee, and Tychicus, be diligent to come unto me, to Nicopolis,
for I have determined there to win her. Bring Zenith, the lawyer,
and Apollos on their journey diligently, that nothing be wanted
unto them. And let ours also learn to maintain
good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful.
All that are with me salute thee, greet them that love us in the
faith. Grace be unto you all. Amen. A man that isn't an heretic,
heresy, and that's what we want to look at tonight. This word,
heresy, In our day, almost always, we take it to mean something
bad. If someone is accused of heresy,
it means they've left the established truth that the church teach,
the essential doctrines of God's Word, and are holding to damnable
error. Error that if you believe, then
you'll be damned because it's contrary to the essential truths
of God's Word. We see that often. We've seen
it in our day. We've seen some real, real bad
examples of that. Some of you probably even remember
this. And I vaguely remember, you remember
Jim Jones? I know most of us probably remember
him. He was born and raised right
over here in Lynn. No relation to Steve. He moved
to Indianapolis. You know, he had a Bible, but
he started preaching from a Bible. He had a King James Bible and
was preaching from a King James Bible. Moved to Indianapolis,
went to California from Indianapolis, got hundreds of people together,
moved down to Ghana and took poison in their Kool-Aid and
killed all of them. And he was a heretic. He left the established Word
of God, the truth, what little he knew of it, professed of it,
and he went off into this heresy and a bunch of people with him. That was the example of a damnable
heresy. The Mormons, Mormonism, we talk
a lot about Mormonism and that's heresy. They believed that Jesus
Christ was a creature, that he was not the eternal Son of God,
that he was not equal and one with the Father. And that's heresy. That's what we call heresy. And
this is the scriptural definition of the word heresy. What we would
use it today, how we'd use it today, it means introducing or
holding or propagating the teaching which is false and damnable. So when we say a person is a
heretic, that's bad. That's really bad. Look how Peter
uses it just over to your right in 2 Peter chapter 2. He calls it heresy. 2 Peter chapter 2 and look here
in verse 1. 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 1.
But there were false prophets among the people. in the Old
Testament among the Jewish nation, even as there shall be false
teachers among you who privately shall bring in damnable heresies. And he tells us one of the heresies
at least, even denying the Lord that brought them and bring upon
themselves swift destruction. So their heresy was denying the
Lord. denying the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who this is here. And
John said they denied that He came in the flesh. And those
that said He came in the flesh said He was a mere creature that
came in the flesh. And John said, He that denieth
the Son hath not the Father. So when we deny the Lord Jesus
in His deity, that He was the eternal Son of God, that He came
down from heaven, that He took our real humanity to Himself,
lived in that humanity without sin, redeemed His people, was
buried and rose again, is seated in heaven, and someday is returning
again in the resurrection. If we deny Him in that, then
it's damnable heresy. And they bring upon themselves,
Peter said here, destruction, even swift destruction. So that's
the way Peter uses it, and we'll get back to that in just a minute.
But the word heresy is not always a bad word. It depends on what
aspect of the word you're talking about and how you use it. It
implies, first of all, it has three, if we want to reduce the
word heresy down, in the one word, there's three different
meanings to it, three different categories. And I'll show you
those categories as we read. The first one, the first definition,
the first category, it simply means a party, a religious party. I want you to turn with me to
some scriptures and let me show you that over in the book of
Acts. on the book of Acts. When you read the book of Acts,
you find this word often in the book of Acts. But it's not heretic. The book of Acts translates it
two different ways. Set, S-E-C-T, and heresy. It's the same word that Peter
used, but it's just a different aspect of the meaning of the
word. First of all, it simply means religious parties. We all
read about the Sadducees. The Sadducees were called a set.
They have a religious party. The Pharisees are called a set
or the party of the Pharisees. And even the Christians are called
a set. It simply means their party.
And when you see this in the book of Acts, It doesn't mean
they're bad. It just means a party. So I want
you to see that. Look here in Acts and let's go
quickly because we'll have to hurry. I want you to see this
so you'll know really what this word means. In Acts chapter 5
and look in verse 17. Acts chapter 5 and verse 17. Then the high priest rose up
And all they that were with him, which is the set of the Sadducees,
that word is heresy, are party and were filled with indignation
at these apostles. So there is a set and it's related
to the Sadducees. They were just a party, a religious
party. Look over in chapter 15 in verse
5. Acts chapter 15 in verse 5. This is
where the Apostle Paul and Barnabas were having trouble with the
Sadducees. And look what was said about
the Sadducees in verse 5. But there arose up certain of
the set of the Pharisees which believed Sam that it was needful
to circumcise them and command them to keep the law of Moses.
The set, that's heresy. It's the same word as heresy.
The same word that Peter used, damnable heresy. part of the
definition here simply means it's a party. And that's where
you start with. When we talk about heresy, there's
a party involved. So this was the party. But look
here what's said about Christians. Look in chapter 28. Look in chapter
28 and look in verse 22. This is where Paul was taken
to Rome as a prisoner and he had his own hard house. And when
he got there to Rome, all the Jews came to him and said, we
want to talk to you about this gospel we've heard about it and
look what they call it in verse 22 the jews said to paul so we
desire to hear of thee what thou thinketh for as concerning this
set this party we know that everywhere it is spoken against And when
they had appointed him a day, there came many to him to his
lodging, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of
God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of
Moses, out of the prophet, until the evening." So it's just a
political, it's just a party. You may say it's the Sadducees,
the Pharisees, or the Christians. It's just a party. And he said
here that everywhere is spoken against. This party, this particular
party, everybody speaks against it. These Christians, these believers,
everybody hates them. Nobody likes them. We get word
from Jerusalem and everybody's against this party. And we've
noticed you're at Rome. We have Christians here and everybody's
against them. We want to know what you're talking
about. Tell us why everybody's against this party. So that's
the first thing. That's the first thing. And you
know it probably hasn't changed all that much today, has it?
We're a party. We're a party. In that sense,
we're a party. We're set. And people should
still be talking about us. Not because of our character,
not because of our... Just because we're believers
in Christ. Marvel not if the world hates
you. We know that everywhere is supposed to... So that's the
first thing, party. The second thing about this word, it means
a choice, a choice to belong to a certain party. The first
definition of it is a party and then a choice to belong to that
party. And here's one of the things
that really angered the Pharisees against Saul of Tarsus, that
he left their party. He was a Pharisee. He left their
party and he went over to the party that they call the Nazarenes. Now look at this, look in chapter
26 and look in verses 4 and verse 5 of Acts. Look at this. Chapter 26, he
was a Pharisee. Look what he says here about
himself, about being in this party. 26 verse 4, My manner
of life, here he was standing before Agrippa, given account
of his life and some of the Jews have been there to testify against
him. My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first
among my own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews, which knew
me from the beginning if they would testify that after the
most strictest set of our religion I lived a Pharisee. He was a
Pharisee in the party of the Pharisees. And look what he says
in verse 24. This is where he was standing
before the governor, Felix, and this one orator got up to testify
against him to bring charges against him. And look how mad
he was at him. Look how mad he was at Paul for
changing parties. Look in verse 5. We have found
this man, this Paul, a pestilent fellow, a mover of sedition among
all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the set,
the party of the Nazarenes. He says he was in our party,
but he left our party and went to another party. You can't even
hardly do that in the political realm unless people get mad at
you, can you? That's what happened here if we look at it from the
sense just being a party. Just being a party. And Paul
says here in verse 14 of chapter 24, look at this. And boy, he
said, I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed that I switched
parties. Look what he says in chapter 24 and verse 14. Look what he says. But this I
confess unto you, after the way which they called heresy. Now
that's the same word. set a party after the same way
in which they call this party of the Nazarenes, so worship
I, the God of my fathers, believe in all things which are written
in the Law and in the Prophets. He said, I am, I am in the party
of the Nazarenes. And that's the way I worship
God. This party believes God. And
that's the way I worship as this party worships. One way. Paul said this one way. This
is the way that I worship. The way all the Nazarenes worships.
God in Jesus Christ. God in Christ. He wasn't ashamed
of switching parties. in which they called heresy. That way is the way I worship.
And that's one way, isn't it? Just one way. You know the only
way back then to worship God was being in this party of the
Nazarenes? I am the way. I'm the way back
to the Father. I'm the truth and I am the life.
So he changed parties and boy, they got mad at him. And that
leads us to the third thing, the third aspect of this word
heresy or set. It also means disunion. Disunion. So you've got a party. You've got a choice of that party.
It's making a deliberate choice to be in that party, to get out
of the other party. And the disunion, the separation. The word disunion means to separate,
disjunction, a state of not being united, something that denotes
a breach of concord and its effect, contingent. When Paul left the
party of the Nazarenes and was united, the party of the Pharisees,
and was united to the party of the Nazarenes, you know what
it did? It brought disunion. It brought
disunion between him and the Pharisees. That's what this fellow
Tertullius was standing up and saying. He is a pestilent fellow.
He is a mover of sedition. He's stirring up the Jewish nation,
misrepresenting them, saying all sorts of evil against them.
He hated Paul. He hated him because he switched
parties. He switched parties. You know,
they did the Lord Jesus the same way. They called Him a blasphemer.
Remember that? They called Him a seducer of
the nation. They said He has a devil. Don't
listen to it. They said the same thing about
Stephen. They said, He's speaking blasphemy
against the law of God. And the Apostle Paul, they were
so mad at him because he was in this party, it brought such
disunion that they said of him, he is saying let us do evil that
good may come. They misrepresented this man
and spoke all kinds of evil against him. They said he's teaching things.
He is profaning the Temple and teaching things the Jews are
not even allowed to receive. It brought disunion. But on what
grounds did Paul leave the party of the Pharisees and was united
to the party of the Nazarite? Well, look in verse 14 again. of Acts 24. This is so important
here. Look at the last portion of Acts
chapter 24 and verse 14. But this I confess unto thee,
that after the way they called heresy belonging to the Nazarene
party, so worship I the God of my fathers. And here is why he
left the Pharisees party and was united to this party. Believe in all things which are
written in the Law and in the Prophets." Do you know why he
left that? Humanly speaking, as we are studying
it now, here is the difference, he said. I now believe the Law. I now believe the Prophets. I
now believe the Word of God. And you fellows didn't. You didn't. I left your party because you
don't believe the truth. And the party that I'm in now
believes the truth. They believe the Word of God.
That's the grounds on which he switched parties. It wasn't Paul
that he was hanging on to both parties. He can't hang on to both parties.
He let go of that party. And it wasn't that he switched
parties because he got bored with the first party. He switched
because of this. That party he was in didn't believe
the truth. And the party he was united to did. It was the truth. That was the grounds for switching
parties. When the Lord saves us, if we're
in some religious party, and I guess most of us are, aren't
we? when the Lord saves us. You know what we do? We leave
it. We leave it. And we're joined
to that party that believes the truth. And that's the third definition
of this Word, the third aspect of it. It brings a disunion. It brings a separation. Peter said, They think it strange
that you run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking
evil of you. Come out from among them and
be ye separate, saith the Lord. So there is the disunion that
it brings. So there is a party and there is a choice and there is that disunion. Today
we use this word heresy or heretic to describe someone who has chosen
to deny the Christian faith, just like Jim Duck Jones did.
He chose to deny the Christian faith. And you know, to deny
the Bible, to deny God, to deny Christ, that's a choice you have
to make. I didn't make a choice to believe
the Lord. He began a work of grace in me.
I didn't go out there and say, I think I'll choose to... No,
it don't happen that way. You choose to believe a lie.
The truth is worked in you. You didn't get up this morning
and say, I'm going to choose God. I'm going to choose to believe. It
just don't happen with faith. But it happens with heresy that
way. You choose that party. And that's the way mostly we
use it today to describe someone who has denied the faith, denied
Christianity, the essential truths of the Gospel for eras. And when
they do that, When they do that, it causes contention between
the one that has did that and the church. When Jim Jones did
that, I bet you every church that was a true church denied
that man. They denied him. It brings contention,
disunion, separation. During the Reformation, when
members of the Catholic Church were leaving Catholicism and
joined with the Protestants, Catholicism adapted this word,
heretic and heresy. And they used it to their advantage
to persecute those who were leaving the Catholic Church. And this
is what they said and this is what they did. If you choose
to leave the Catholic Church and join with a Protestant, If
you leave our party and join their party, then you're causing
division. You're causing disunion. And
you're subject to excommunication from the Catholic Church. And
what did that mean? Persecution. Even death. Even burned at the stake or drowned
or hanged. And therefore, Catholicism used
this word and called it damnable heresy. If you depart from the
Catholic Church, then you are causing this division and you
are guilty of heresy. And they could put you to death
if they could get the authorities behind them. And the Catholic
Church during that time manifested the same spirit towards those
who were leaving the Catholic Church as these Pharisees manifested
towards Paul and the Jews of their day. They said, You're
causing divisions. You're causing disunion. And
you're going to pay for it. And they stoned Stephen. They
stoned Stephen. And they stoned Paul. And they
hated them for doing that. But here were some things that
happened. I've read extensively on this and these are almost
quotes that you can get from Foxe's Book of Martyrs and other
writings of that time during the Reformation when Luther and
Calvin and all the fellows were coming out from the Catholic
Church. Catholicism was saying this,
our priest can absolve you of your sins. Go to confession. But those who were leaving said
this. That's not what the Bible says.
The Bible says there's only one who can forgive sins, and that's
God. Who can forgive sins but God
only? The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. So
they left. They left. Catholicism was saying
there are co-mediators between God and man. The Mother Mary
is a co-mediator with Jesus Christ. Holy Mary, the Mother of God,
pray for us sinners. And those who were leaving says,
no, the Bible says there's one between God and man, and that's
the man, Christ Jesus. Catholicism was saying the Pope
is the head of the church on earth. And those who were leaving
said this, there is but one church in heaven and in earth, and there
is one head to that church, and that is Jesus Christ. And they
left. Catholicism was saying this,
Our priest can bless the bread and wine and turn it into the
literal body of Jesus Christ. And every time they do that,
He suffers just as much and really as He did when He hanged upon
the cross. And those who were leaving said,
That's not Bible. The Bible says He once suffered
for sins. And now he's in heaven reigning
never to die again. And Catholicism was saying this.
You can pay us money and bind an indulgence to sin. We'll give
you permission to sin, to commit certain sins. And those who were
leaving says, No, the Bible doesn't teach that. Shall we continue
in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. The Catholic Church
was saying this, when you die, we can make you a saint. If you've
done certain things, certain miraculous works have been done
in your name by people praying to you and so on, we can make
you a saint. And they said that's not true.
You must be called of God to be a saint. The saints which
are at Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints. And they left. And Catholicism
said this, when you die and go to purgatory, we can get you
out for a price. And those who were leaving said,
no, that's not Bible. That's not Bible. The Bible says
to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
When we die, we either go immediately to be with Christ Or we go immediately
to torment. And they said, we're leaving.
And the Catholic Church said, then you're heretics. You're
choosing to leave us. You're going to the Protestants. And you're causing all of this
division. There's all three of those words.
All three aspects. A party, the choice, and the
disunity. And they said, you fellows are
guilty. And we're going to see that you're punished. And that's
what happened. That's what happened during the
Inquisition and all through the Reformation until the authorities
under God and by His will stepped in and stopped it. If
you choose to leave us and join with them, then we will punish
you. But let's be honest. There was
a time when John Calvin, the one fellow that we liked pretty
well, and the Protestants set up their own little government
there in Switzerland. And they physically punished
people who didn't agree with them. They fined you if you called
the Pope a good man. If you didn't agree with or if
you complained against Calvin's messages, you were punished in
some way or another. And they actually put some people
to death and called them heretics. So it's not just been Catholicism.
It was Calvin during that time too. And thank God it didn't
last very long. God stopped it and corrected
it. That's the way they used this
word heretic, heresy. It was just a party, a choice
to be in that party. And if you chose to be in that
party, to be identified with them, then you caused disunion. He was a heretic. What does Artax
say about a heretic? Look back over in Artax again
in Titus chapter 1 and verse 3. chapter 3 and verse 10, a
man that is a heretic. This is the only time in the
New Testament this aspect of this word is used. All the times that I read to
you heresy and set, it is the noun aspect of this word. But this heretic here in verse
10 is the only time it is used and it means schematic. a divisive
person. Paul doesn't give the reason
why the person is divisive. He seems to deal more with the
person's attitude. He doesn't say he's divisive
because of some aspect of his life that he's immoral or he's
believing some false doctrine. He's wanting to fuss about that.
But he just says it's his attitude. He's a divisive person and If
he goes unchecked, he'll do harm to the communion and peace of
the saints in that local church. He's very deeply divisive. Now you and I have seen men and
women that they're a little bit difficult to get along with,
but they don't fit in this category. All of us are hard to get along
with sometimes. I remember a fellow, and I can name him, and some
of you remember him years ago, and he had the sweetest wife
and two nice kids, and that was the most difficult fellow to
get along with. And, you know, you'd be at fellowship and talking
about good things, and he'd come, and the first thing he'd say
is something so negative and just like pouring a cold bucket
of water, you know, on you. It just put a chill on everything.
He's like that all the time. But he wasn't a heretic. He wasn't
a heretic. Here's somebody that's just so
divisive. They have such an attitude that
it breaks the peace. It disturbs the union of the
congregation because of his awful, bad attitude. And that's what
he's talking about here. for whatever reason. He doesn't
give the reason for it. He just seems to say it's his
attitude. And what's the remedy? Well, you begin this way, admonition. Admonition. He that is a heretic,
after the first and second, admonition. And this word admonition ranges
from everything to a gentle reproof, to an open rebuke. You take somebody
this way and you get him off yourself and say, Brother, listen.
Listen. Don't be like this. You're hurting
people. You're hurting the church. Don't do this. And the second
thing is you stop it. You teach him from the Word how
wrong it is, how wrong his attitude is that he's to be tender-hearted
and kind and forgiven. And then if that don't, you stop
it. You stop it. You get firm with
Him, you rebuke Him. And then if that doesn't stop
His divisiveness separating the congregation, then you reject
Him. You reject Him. That's what He
said here. After the first and second admonition, you reject. Just reject Him. Don't beat Him.
You ain't allowed to burn Him at the stake. You can't dunk
Him in water. You're not mean to Him. You just
reject Him from the fellowship. That's all you can do. I was
reading a book a few days ago. He's a pastor. I think he may
have just died. Brother Henry knew him. He's
a friend of Henry's. They grew up together in Ashland,
Kentucky. But he was talking about a man like this, was very,
very divisive in the congregation, large congregation. And they
dismissed him from the congregation. He said every service, he'd come
and sit in the back and he had his notepad out. And he said
he's taking notes, you know. But there was nothing else they
could do, you know. They rejected Him from the fellowship. That's
what He said here, reject Him from the fellowship. Now this
is different from Matthew chapter 18 where there's a brother that
has sinned against another brother. This is different. This is something
here is done openly in the congregation. A man is being divisive, causing
division in the congregation. In Matthew chapter 18 He said
if your brother commit offense against you, then you go to him
privately and talk to him about it. And say, you know, you've
done this to me and I want to talk to you about it. You need
to make this right. And he says, no, I ain't doing
it. I'm not doing it. Then you go get a couple of brothers
and bring them back and talk with him. And they all said,
now you've done this man wrong. This has to be cleared up. And
he said, no, I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. Then you take
him to the church. You go to the church, and the
church brings him and talks to him. If he says, No, I'm not
doing that, then you put him from among you. Let him be like
a heathen and a publican. But this is different. This is
a man that's been divisive in the church, and you reject him. You know, this probably happened.
No doubt it happened in these churches. Some of these Jews
were so legalistic and self-righteous and mean Don't you think they
infiltrate? I know this man, I think. I know
of him. I read a lot about him. He was
a hateful, mean man. I won't mention his name, but
I'm not sure this is what he was. This is the one that did
it. But they said he hated those who preached and believed the
doctrines of grace so bad that he trained people how to infiltrate
the Calvinistic churches. and got there and won the favor
of the people for a few months, and then he started raising up
people against the pastor to get the pastor's turnabout. That's
divisive, ain't it? That's divisive. I imagine that
happened during the early church. They would sneak in under pretense.
Paul said they were false brethren brought in under words to spy
out our liberty. But boy, then they'd raise up
with all these devices. So Paul said, you just have to
reject them. You just have to reject them. Reject them. Local church feel bad about doing
that. Man, they should feel bad about doing it. But the fault
is not theirs. It's His. It's His attitude. It's His actions. His own actions
condemn Him. He's causing this deep and unjust
and unwarranted division in the church. And Paul says here in
verse 11, knowing that He that is such is subverted, He's warped,
He's perverted, and He sins being condemned of Himself. His own
attitude condemns Him, and His own actions condemn Him. And
you know, I just about bet this. Back then, of course, the churches
weren't so widespread then. I don't know how many people
were on this island of Crete, how many different churches.
But you just about know, don't you just about imagine, if that
gospel church rejected him, that no other gospel church would
receive him into their fellowship. I just about bet it was that
way. And you know there was a time, especially in England, and even
here in our own country, if you was excommunicated for causing
divisions in a gospel church, other gospel churches wouldn't
receive you into their fellowship. They just wouldn't do it. They
were much more united then than we are now. We're sort of weak
now, aren't we? We're scattered out. But back
then, they were more concerned than anything about keeping the
unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace in all the churches.
In all the churches. It's not so much maybe that way
now, but I'll tell you one thing. Let the church come under attack
now. And I don't care how it's scattered out. You let the church
come under attack. And boy, she'll rally around
the cross. She'll rally around the cross because that's what
she loves, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. One more study
in this, the Lord's willing, and we'll finish up. But I just
wanted to look at that, the word heresy and heretic, and maybe
you can study on that yourself. Look at it yourself, get your
concordance out and your dictionary or whatever, and look at it yourself.