Let's begin, shall we, with a word of prayer. Father, we're just here as a group of people who love your word and love each other and desire to grow in you. Lord, let that be who we really are in our hearts, our minds, that we take your word very seriously and desire to have it change our lives. And as we continue looking here at qualifications for elders and some of the duties that they have, let me just pray for wisdom and understanding as we go through this now. Pray this in Jesus' name, amen. So that's what we've been looking at. We're in Titus chapter one. We worked through, I think, verses five through eight and a half or so last week. And so we're gonna pick it up in verse eight still. We looked at hospitable. being fond of guests, a lover of good. Talked a little bit about how the upstanding citizens sat at the gate, you know, and that really helped. If you had good men at the gate, it really helped what was going on in the city or in the town. Self-controlled was the last thing that we looked at there. And now we come to this word upright. You may have righteous, actually, in your Bible, or just, justice, morally, morality, that's the word I want. And I wanted to play a little video on righteousness. It's about three minutes long. And you're gonna see, he's gonna talk about holding onto God, trusting in God, then he's gonna kind of get into positional, positional righteousness, okay? And you'll see that kind of switch up a little bit here, but I thought it was pretty good. Has anybody got questions? And so let's listen to that here. Is righteousness, we're gonna answer that question. as behavior that is morally justifiable or right. Such behavior is characterized by accepted standards of morality, justice, virtue, or uprightness. The Bible's standard of human righteousness is God's own perfection in every attribute, every attitude, every behavior, and every word. Thus, God's laws, as given in the Bible, both describe his own character and constitute the plumb line by which he measures human righteousness. The Greek New Testament word for righteousness primarily describes conduct in relation to others, especially with regards to the rights of others in business, legal matters, and beginning with relationship to God. It is contrasted with wickedness. The conduct of the one who, out of gross self-centeredness, neither reveres God nor respects man. The Bible describes the righteous person as just or right, holding to God and trusting in Him. The bad news is that true and perfect righteousness is not possible for man to attain on his own. The standard is simply too high. The good news is that true righteousness is possible for mankind, but only through the cleansing of sin by Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We have no ability to achieve righteousness in and of ourselves, but Christians us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. That is an amazing truth. On the cross Jesus exchanged our sin for his perfect righteousness so that we can one day stand before God and he will not see our sin but the holy righteousness of the Lord Jesus. This means that we are made righteous in the sight of God. That is, we are accepted as righteous and treated as righteous by God on account of what the Lord Jesus has done. He was made sin. We are made righteousness on the cross. though he was perfectly holy and pure, and we are treated as if we were righteous, though we are defiled and depraved. On account of what the Lord Jesus has endured on our behalf, we are treated as if we had entirely fulfilled the law of God and had never become exposed to its penalty. We have received this precious gift of righteousness from the God of all mercy and grace. That answers the question, what is righteousness? Research this question further on our website, gotquestions.org. Be sure to click subscribe. So I thought that was helpful, I hope, a little bit on righteousness upright. So that's part of who an elder is, is to be righteous, okay, before God. And of course, as you saw there, he kind of transitioned into positional righteousness, what God has done for us and how we actually stand before him. But what we're talking about here is more of the righteousness, you know, who is this person and how do they act? What's their role? What are they characterized by? Are they characterized by being a righteous person? And that's really what we're looking at in all these different attributes when we're looking for an elder is, are they characterized by these qualities? You generally would think of them, yeah, he meets that quality, okay? Characterized as a righteous person. Holds on to God, trusts in God. and is progressing in his growth in righteousness, okay? Because none of us are perfect, right? But we want to head that way. The next word is holy, or you may have devout, okay? It relates to purity from defilement. Webster says this, we call a man holy when his heart is conformed in some degree to the image of God and his life is regulated by the divine precepts. This is not imputed holiness, but it's progressive holiness. Moving forward, same kind of idea. Is he progressing in holiness? Okay, let's turn over to Ephesians 2. We got Paul, he's talking to the church here, Ephesians 2.19. Ephesians 2.19, Paul talking to the church, those then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord." Okay? And so, here we see this holiness, and the idea, really, we've said this before, that we're looking at elders, right, characteristics of good elders, but this is stuff for all of us to attain to, and the whole church, you know, all of us should be heading towards more and more holiness, and that is what the church is, it's the body of Christ, it's not the building, it's the people, okay? And they should be growing in holiness. And certainly we're looking at that as a characteristic of an elder, okay? And we grow into the holy temple of the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. And the last, I think, word here in verse eight is disciplined. It's the only place that's used in the Bible, in the Greek anyway. It's strong in a thing, masterful, self-controlled over the vices, okay? Disciplined, okay? So we need a character of discipline there. Then we move on to verse nine. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it." Now, we're kind of switching up here. We're moving away from his characteristics, not totally, but we're kind of looking at some of the things that this elder may run into that he may have to do in the church, okay? And one of them, he needs to hold firm. And we see this in a number of places, holding firm to the trustworthy word as taught. Let me read a couple here to you. 2 Thessalonians 2.15 says this, Southern brothers, stand firm, same idea, and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by a spoken word or by our letter. That was Paul. And then here, let's turn over to Jude 1, 3. We're going to get the same idea. In Jude, pick any chapter you want there, but verse 3. It says, Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, he had a plan of what he wanted to write, but he ended up having to change it up. I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith. That was once for all delivered to the saints. So here he's saying contend, and that has the idea of earnestly and struggle, okay? And so we put these together, we have hold firm, stand firm, contend. These are all things that a deacon, elder, I'm sorry, may have to do. Let me read this from the Believer's Bible Commentary. God's people must stand uncompromisingly for the inspiration, inerrancy, authority, and sufficiency of God's holy word. If you're looking for a church to go to and you look at their doctrinal statement, you want to see that they stand on these four things, okay? I mean, that's just a good idea, okay? Yet in contending for the faith, the believer must speak and act as a Christian. As Paul wrote, a servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all and able to teach and patient. Now he's quoting from 2 Timothy 2, okay? He must contend without being contentious and testify without ruining his testimony, okay? And again, he's got to be firm, stand firm, contend without destroying his reputation, okay? Someone who can do that well. I didn't watch enough of Charlie Kirk to know if he was that type of a person or if he got real snarky or this or that. I don't know. I've only heard that he's very positive towards people. And I think that maybe he took some of this into, who he was. I'm not trying to make him something more than he was. I just don't know. What I have seen, I appreciated. Let's put it that way. And you can see how you could get that way very easily. You could get, you know, a bad attitude because you deal with so much of it. Okay. All right. So contending and holding firm. And then it goes on in verse nine there, able to give instruction or exhort in sound doctrine, okay? If you need to be able to contend for the faith, you ought to be able to give instruction in sound doctrine, okay? And our parallel verses that Paul gave to Timothy, 1 Timothy 3, 2, let's turn over there. It puts it this way, able to teach, okay? And so Paul worded it just a little bit differently when he spoke to Timothy than when he spoke to Titus. 1 Timothy 3.2 says, therefore, an overseer must be above reproach. Remember, that was our overarching principle here for an overseer, a characteristic. The husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, and then here we got it, able to teach, okay? And then it goes on. Not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, we're just kind of talking about that, not a lover of money. Notice that the characteristics that surround this elder who is able to teach, okay, they're very positive characteristics and they're not, hopefully something that's going to lead to a snarky attitude when teaching or defending the faith or holding firm or contending, however you want to put it, okay. So we see a real solid man there. This guy can contend for the faith without getting his feathers ruffled or the feathers of the one who contradicts him. He does not pick verbal fights, yet will contend for sound doctrine. Goetz says this. Some feel this word should actually be translated teachable, okay, because of its root meaning and use in classical Greek. Someone who is humble, sensitive, and desires to know the will of God, and that comes out of the measure of man. Certainly it's a noble quality, and maybe there's something to that, a teachable spirit, okay? So something just to consider as well. And then he goes on, he says, also to rebuke those who contradict, and it'd be contradicting sound doctrine, okay? So this man needs to be able to rebuke those who contradict, and we'll see more of why that is needed on down, but let me read 1 Peter 3.15 to you, but in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in you Yet do it with gentleness and respect Okay, and so here and this is to all of us, you know Being able to give a reason for our faith, okay McDonald he says it should be noticed that nothing is said about their physical proudness and talking about elders now, educational attainments, social status, or business acuum. A hunchbacked street sweeper, homespun and unlettered, might be a qualified elder because of his spiritual stature. It is not true, as is sometimes suggested, that the same qualities that make a man successful in business also fit him for leadership in the church. and neither does being above room temperature, okay? I've been there where it was like, oh, he's still alive, let's get him, okay? It was really pretty close to that, okay? Wiersbe has this to say. So the elders have a two-fold ministry of God's word. building up the church with healthy doctrine, and refuting the false teachers who spread unhealthy doctrine. The naive church member who says, we don't want doctrine, just give us helpful devotional thoughts, does not know what he's saying. Apart from the truth, and this means Bible doctrine, there can be no spiritual help or health. I got involved with promise keepers in Pendleton. And had a guy say exactly that to me, we don't want doctrine. And his life ended up showing that later on, which is a sad thing. All right, verse 10. Paul's going to describe those who counterdict sound doctrine or teach false doctrine. So we get to that next. Titus, back to Titus 1.10. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. These are Judaizers, as they're called in some places. And they just added rabbinical law is what they did to everything. It's still done today. You run into this if you watch So Be It, okay? I played just a little of them here one night. It's a YouTube channel done by Jews for Jesus. And he does man on the street kind of stuff in Israel. And, you know, he's got a microphone and they video it. And he just asks questions and gets conversations going. And sometimes, once in a while, he'll get one of these Orthodox Jews, you know get the black hat and maybe the curly sideburns they got all kinds of different outfits because there's all these different Groups, they're not all the same. They all got different ideas and the reason they all got different ideas about things is because they don't read the Bible or they don't even read the Torah hardly the What we'd call the Pentateuch the first five books of the Bible they read the the Talmud and And I get a little definition here of the Talmud. It says, centuries of rabbinic debates about law, philosophy, theology, et cetera. And they got tons of this stuff. And it's just man's ideas about what the law says. But they don't go and study the law. They study all of man's ideas about the law. And that's what they hold to. And so then they end up adding things. They don't know the word. That's really sad. What's that? When they meet, is it Mishra? That's a whole deal, because these guys, they've been exempt from military duty, and they just study all the time. And it's been a big kind of fight in Israel, because a lot of people think, well, they ought to be helping out fighting. And I think they're starting to change their laws on that. Yeah, they just study the Talmud all the time, and it's just all this stuff from centuries of debate, you know. And then they have their favorite rabbis that they hold to, this rabbi from here or this rabbi here that they hold to and held in very high esteem. And so you have all these different groups that hold to different rabbis. It's pretty sad, really. And that's why, you know, what's his name, Guyon, so be it, he will read to them or get them to read, what is it, 53, Isaiah 53, you know. And it's like, ah, that's, they didn't even know it's in their own Bible, you know. Some of them, which is pretty sad, you know. Okay, so, for there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers, deceivers, especially those among the circumcision party, and we're kinda, highlighting that circumcision party, Judaizers, Jews, because of circumcision, okay? It goes on, since they're insubordinate, rebellious, unsidued are some of the words that we're using. going their own way in the church. MacArthur says this, because those men were so numerous, Titus' job was especially difficult, which made the appointment of additional godly elders all the more crucial. Some of the false teachers may have opposed even Paul's apostolic authority during his brief ministry on Crete. Okay, so it could have been there's some pushback there. Empty talkers and deceivers, they lack sound doctrine to back up their words. They cannot go to scripture and point to scripture to prove what they're saying. We often hear Bible words, platitudes that sound correct on the surface, but cannot be supported by scriptures. We've got to watch about that. Even direct quotes from scripture can be misquoted or taken out of context. And so we have to watch that. There was a man who was really struggling, so he decided to open his Bible at a random page and drop his finger on the verse and do whatever it says. And so his finger lands on the verse, and it says, then Judas hanged himself. And he thought, well, that doesn't seem right. So he, I'll do it again. And he does it again, and it says, Jesus told him, go and do thou likewise. Thought, well, that can't be right. So he did a third time, and whatever you're about to do, do it quickly, okay? And so we can cherry pick our verses if we want. And that's obviously a gross example. It makes a good joke. But it happens. And we just need to be aware of that. Mishandling of scripture can lead to bad conclusions. And we're just going to say a little bit here about the Chosen, which I've never watched. I'll admit to that. But any video production has to fill in a lot of blanks. It just does, okay? And there's this artistic license, okay? 2 Timothy 3.16 says, all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training, instruction, righteousness, that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work. And that's where we go to get the completeness that we need. 2 Peter 1.3 says, his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. And then Romans 1.16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. We talked about an elder defending the sufficiency of God's word, okay? We don't need the addition of questionable doctrine. I'll just remind you of the little song that you maybe used to sing, but be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little ears what you hear, for the Father up above is looking down below, sees everything that we do, okay? Be careful what you watch, be careful what you read, Some of these things seem innocent enough, but you can get things in your mind that just aren't true. And so we need to guard ourselves. Continuing with verse 10, especially those of the circumcision party, Paul was particularly concerned with the effect of some Christians from Jewish background who thought the key to acceptance before God was keeping the Mosaic law. And let's turn over, if we could, to Acts 15 and kind of work through this just a little bit. He dealt with this in the past, and he knew what it could be like. And we're going to see a picture of Paul doing some of the things we just talked about, standing firm, contending for the faith, okay? Acts 15.1. Now, Paul is in Antioch, which is in modern-day Syria, North there, the end of the Mediterranean Sea, the top right corner of the Mediterranean Sea, if you will. He's there, he's just come back from a mission trip, I believe. 15, one, but some men came down from Judea, down, it's downslope, Judea's high country, and they're down by the beach, basically. But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. Okay. I guess we'd have to say this is salvation by circumcision. Okay. We have a day, I think I've talked about this before, a thing called baptismal regeneration. You've heard of that. Okay. You cannot be saved unless you've been baptized. And we talked about that a little while back. I asked Scott the question how many times he'd been baptized. He said twice. I said, how many times did you get wet? He said once. He was baptized by the Spirit, but he was saved at that point when he was baptized by the Spirit. He did not need to get wet to be saved, okay? And you don't need to get circumcised to get saved either, which is what these guys were teaching. Okay. Verse two, after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, okay, he is contending for the faith. He said, this is wrong, what you guys are teaching. Paul and Barnas were contending for the faith. Well, that's what I just said, okay. So they and some others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So drop down to verse five, they get up to Jerusalem. But some believers who belong to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, it is necessary to circumcise them, meaning Gentiles, okay, in order to keep the law of Moses. and order them to keep the Law of Moses. Verse 6, the apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been much debate, okay, they're going to Scripture, they're working through this and talking about it. Well, they don't have a lot of Scripture to go to, but they have what the Lord told them, okay. They're in Jerusalem, and again, this is going to be a stronghold of the Judaizers, right? Peter stood up and said to them, brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. Now he's referencing back to Acts chapter 10 and to Cornelius in the house of Cornelius who was a Roman soldier, a centurion, I believe. and a whole bunch of Gentiles who had gathered with him. And the Holy Spirit came on them just like they had come on, just like he had come on the Jewish believers in Acts chapter two. Okay. And that's what Peter is referring to. Verse 8, And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us. And He made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Verse 10, now therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers, this is works, okay, nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus just as they will. And we teach that today, we are saved by grace through faith, okay? We just saw those two words here. God's grace, His unmerited favor reaches out to us and causes us to turn to Him by faith, okay? And we teach that today. We get it here, we get it other places, okay? Verse 12, and all the assembly fell silent. And they listened to Barnabas and Paul as related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. And I take this silence as a recognition even by the Judaizers that what has been decided there was correct. okay, that by grace through faith you don't need circumcision or baptism or some other thing to be saved, okay? And so here we see this. Paul's used to these Judaizers, and that's why he brings it up with Titus. Watch out for these people. And it's happening apparently on Crete. There's a lot of Jews on Crete, okay? All right, and then at the end of chapter, we're back to Titus 1, verse 10. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. insubordinate, empty talkers, and deceivers. All three characteristics were also present in Timothy's opponents in Ephesus, which is addressed in the book of Timothy when he's bringing up the elders and that type of thing as well. If those churches had these problems, our elders today need to be on guard as well, okay? Need to pay attention to these kinds of things. It creeps into the church. Okay, verse 11. They must be silenced since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. They must be silenced he's talking about the insubordinate empty talkers and deceivers Dad we we were with North American Baptist Church denomination and we were in Stafford, Oregon and There's I think nine churches in Washington and Oregon I guess And they decided they wanted to do a church extension project. And so they bought some property in Hillsborough, about four acres. And they built a house on it. And it was a split-level house where the garage would go down underneath on the right side. They built a garage on the side of the house. And that big two-car space down there, we started a church in that. And after they did all this stuff, then they said, Dad, you're going. They kind of asked him if he wanted to go, or they kind of maybe said, you really think you ought to go? I'm not sure how it worked. So we left Stafford and went to Hellsborough and we just had four acres in a house with a big garage on the side but a big room downstairs and we started a church in there and we weren't going too long. When a couple started coming and they were charismatic and they started teaching, not teaching, They were having people over and talking about this, what do they call it, second blessing, that you need to have the second blessing, which is to speak in tongues. And Dad had to go to them and say, listen, that's not what we believe, we don't hold to that. And they ended up leaving, which was fine, it was probably best. They're probably saved, it's a secondary issue. But dad had to stand firm for the faith. This is what we hold to here. We don't believe that. And we think you're in error. And there's other churches out there that believe that. Go to one of those. And they had to be silenced. And then it goes on teaching for shameful gain, okay? It's filthy lucre, okay? Turn over to 1 Corinthians 9. Let's kind of look at this. It's kind of a little bit of a hard section of Paul, but he's dealing with, he's getting some pushback from the Corinthians. These people called, they got nicknamed super apostles, but they're Jews, and that's pretty clear if you read enough of this, and they're coming in and they are teaching false doctrine and they're teaching for money, okay? And it's kind of an issue. So 1 Corinthians 9, verse 13, we'll pick it up. Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple services get their food from the temple? and those who serve at the altar share in sacrificial offerings. In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. Pastors should be paid. But I've made no use of any of these rites, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. for I'd rather die than have anyone deprive me of my crown for boasting." Okay? And he's just saying, I don't want any money from you. And Paul's ministry was a ministry of a church planter. And he didn't want that to be an obstacle in any way. Oh, you just do this for the money kind of thing. I'm here because I love you and I'm trying to share the gospel with you. And that was who Paul was. Okay. So, um, now let's go over to second Corinthians 11, eight, because I think this just helps explain more of what's going on. Okay. 2 Corinthians 11, 8, he says, and he has funny words here, he says, I robbed other churches, and he didn't rob them literally, he accepted support from them, okay? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. You know those guys who were coming down here now and then? they'd help me out with some finances. And he was a tent maker. He helped himself out too. He worked hard, okay, so that he was not a burden to them. Okay, uh, let me get back here. I did not burden anyone for the brothers who came from macedonia supplied my need a more stable church It was planted and it was doing fine. They helped him out. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way As the truth of christ is in me this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of achia And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do. And what I am doing I will continue to do in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boast admission they work on the same terms as we do." So he's talking about now these people that are coming down and taking money from him, but also teaching false doctrine to him. And he says, I don't want to be in that same camp, okay? Verse 13, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. Paul ends up calling them super apostles, I think down 12, 11, chapter 12, verse 11 of 2 Corinthians, basically teaching for a shameful gain what they ought not to teach. Okay, I'm kind of mixing two verses together there. And 2 Corinthians 11, 22, it's very clear they're Hebrews. So Peter also speaks of false prophets and teachers who taught for gain. Let me read this to you, 2 Peter 2.15. Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing. So Peter had to address this as well, that there's false people doing it for money. I mean, look around on TV and look at some of these people. They make huge amounts of money. I mean, it's unbelievable what kind of money people will give them. Whatever, there is those that will do that. Jude also addresses false prophets and teachers. He says, this is Jude 1, 11, woe to them for they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's heir and perished in Korah's rebellion. All the three guys, they all bring it up that there's a problem. Be careful. People will give you false doctrine and also take your money. Verse 12. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. Well, you call someone a Cretan, there you go. Epamedias, I'm probably pronouncing it wrong, a highly esteemed 6th century BC, okay, so 600 years before Christ, he's a Greek poet and a native of Crete, had characterized his own people as the dregs of Greek culture. And so Paul's quoting him here. He goes on in verse 13, this testimony is true, therefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, okay? This is the true testimony. Paul agrees with Epidemius. Titus was working amid liars in a place where falsehood was woven into the very fabric of this society, okay? And we today are living more and more in a lawless, It's pretty obvious law of this world. And he says to rebuke them sharply. True and pure doctrine was to be required of all who spoke to the church, okay? Any leadership, anyone who's speaking to the church, if they're out of line, they need to be rebuked, okay? It needs to be called into account, okay? Any who fell short of that were to be rebuked. Because of the generally hardened character of the people of the island of Crete, they must be dealt with directly. Okay, and Paul's making an exception with that. You know, that they're kind of hard-headed people and you need to tell them directly what's going on if they're out of line. Makes the point of staying that to Titus. That they may be sound in the faith. The ultimate goal of discipline should be to recover the one who is in error. The idea is restoration. I'm trying to chase them away. We're trying to get their doctrine straight, okay? That's what needs to be done. Dad tried that with his charismatic couple, but it wouldn't have any of it, so it was time to go, okay? 2 Thessalonians 3.14, let's go over there. Look at a couple verses here, 2 Thessalonians 3.14. This has to do with restoration, okay? People that are out of line for whatever reason, that they may be sound in the faith is what our goal is. 2 Thessalonians 3.14. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person and have nothing to do with him that he may be ashamed Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother." Okay? Still a brother in Christ, but he's out of line, and he needs to get back in line. Okay? And he needs to listen to what's proper. Galatians 6, I'll read this to you. It says the same thing, essentially. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual, should be the elders, should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. So again, the goal is restoration. We're not trying to kick people out of church. We're trying to get them restored and right with the church. Okay, now we move on to verse 14 Titus 1 14 He says not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and commands of people who turn away from the truth Paul here uses the word myth Because so many of the Jewish laws were just made up by the rabbis and we kind of spoke to that a Little bit ago when you realize that they're just reading a bunch of chitchat back and forth between the rabbis for centuries. There's a man with a withered hand in Luke 6. And Jesus said to them, I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or destroy it? And they just set up a trap for him. Because they had this law that you couldn't do anything on the Sabbath. It comes through to today. I've talked about the Shabbat elevator. I take a little more look into that. It's not pushing the button that's work. It's actually allowing electricity to either make contact or to disconnect. Either one. If the light is on, you can't turn it off. If it's off, you can't turn it on. And this is from Friday night at 6 until Saturday night at 6, essentially. And so when we were in Israel, yeah, I got on the Shabbat elevator. It stops at every level. And we were on the eighth floor. And all these people are looking at me. And I'm like, you know, they knew I was a Gentile tourist. But it stops and no one gets on and no one gets off. And then when it did it the second time, it's like, oh, I remember Kenny talking about the Shabbat elevator. So I get off, but they're all on, and I'm sure they're all snickering when the door closed. Anyway, they also wouldn't let us use the coffee pot downstairs because you can't push the button. And they also, I found out yesterday, they have a Shabbat refrigerator. When you open the door, the light won't turn on because it's in Shabbat mode, okay? And I kind of wonder, I don't know if it turns it off, so does it quit refrigerating too? It keeps refrigerating? The door light, does it turn on and off when it's in Shabbat mode? Do you have that on your stove? Okay, there you go. Do you use it? Oh, I've not seen one of those yet. OK. All right. Anyway, so it's just a law that's made by man, okay? It's just taken it to an extreme. And it's sad, but it's been done. And so Paul here says, you know, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths, it's that kind of thing, commands of the people who turn away from the truth, okay? It's kind of funny to laugh about, but you know, really it's sad. It's really sad. that one guy that, Laurie's favorite guy on I Met Messiah is, he says, he's a Jewish guy, and he says, you think that the God of the universe can only listen to me if I face towards Jerusalem and I have a beard and all these, he starts listing all these rules. He says, the God of the universe has to have all that in order to listen to me? He finally put it together, and of course, believer now, but great video. Okay. They were devoting themselves, they were not devoting themselves to God's word, but to Jewish myths. Okay. Verse 15, Titus 1, 15, to the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. Okay. To the pure, all things are pure. This statement by Paul has been taken out of context to excuse all kinds of behavior. MacDonald gets into this a little bit, and I'll quote him. If we take the words, to the pure, all things are pure, out of context as a statement of absolute truth in all areas of life, we are in trouble. All things are not pure. even to those whose minds are pure. Yet people have actually used this verse to justify vile magazines, suggestive movies, and even immorality itself. This is what Peter speaks of as twisting the Scriptures to their own destruction. Wiersbu says, Paul was refuting the false teachers of these legalists with reference to food. That's what he's talking about. They were teaching that Jewish dietary laws still applied to Christian believers. Okay, again, they're putting these things down onto the believers that you have to use these dietary laws. Jesus said in Matthew 7, 15, there's nothing outside a person that is going into him can defile him. But the things that come out of the person, out of his heart, are what defile him. And thus he declared all foods clean. And then we probably remember, We talked about Cornelius just before Peter got to Cornelius, the sheep came down and with all these kind of unclean animals in there, and says, Peter, take and eat. Oh, Lord, no. Well, the Lord's telling them, no, Peter, that's not about that stuff anymore. Okay. And he's kind of prepping them up to meet the Gentiles there. The Judaizers needed a change of heart. Their minds and their consciences were defiled. A man's inner life is impure. If he does not have faith in the Lord Jesus, then nothing is pure to him. In our last verse, 16, they profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work. So they profess to know God, They may be found in our own churches. People that profess Christ but don't actually have a relationship with them. After the council in Jerusalem regarding the circumcision, the members sent a letter to those in Antioch, Acts 15, 24. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us, Okay, and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions. Okay? So there's an admission right there that, yeah, people left the Jerusalem church, and that's what caused this whole thing, which we read earlier, went down to Antioch and said, hey, you got to be circumcised in order to be saved, all these Gentile people. Okay? And so they went out from the Church of Jerusalem. Jude 4, 1-4, for certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and do not deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. So people creeping into the church, as he puts it, okay. And then Isaiah 29, 13, and the Lord said, because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, which is really what the Judaizers are doing, the people that would follow all those rabbinic laws, their fear is in keeping those laws, not a fear of the Lord, but a fear of keeping all these little Shabbat elevator loss, okay? Don't open the fridge door with a light on, okay? It's a sad thing. Harold Rush Limbaugh, he used to say, symbolism over substance. That's really kind of what's going on here. It's a symbolism thing, but there's no substance to it, you know? Let's, last verse here, let's turn over to Luke 11, 11 39. Luke 1139, and the Lord said to him, now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools, did not he who made the outside make the inside also? He says, but give as alms those things which are within, Behold everything is clean to you. He's saying pay attention to your relationship with the Lord You know the inside that's what matters not what looks not what shows on the outside. It's what's on the inside that matters That's what we need to pay attention to And so and then continuing with our verse they profess to know God They deny them by their works in denying them by their works, Paul ends with a statement that those who merely profess faith, but there is no change in their lifestyle, and again, we can say by their works or by their fruit, you'll know them, okay? Of these people, he says, they are detestable, they are disobedient, they are unfit or worthless or disqualified for any good work, okay? So Paul connects the theological error with moral deficiency. That's what happens there. We'll just end with this verse out of Hebrews 6, 9. Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation. Kind of want to end on a little bit of a positive note there. All right? Let's pray. Father we're grateful for the instructions that you gave Titus through Paul for elders and we see that it's a task it's a it's a a man of strong character and There are certain tasks and difficult things that have to be done and we just pray for our leadership in our church Lord just bless them and help them through these things give them wisdom and understanding and that just lead in a proper and right way that glorifies you, honors you, and helps build up the body. Lord, we want to do that. Thank you for loving us and all that you've done for us, your mighty and awesome God. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.