Well, that remains to turn back to that passage of scripture which we read together in the book of Titus. After spending many weeks going through the opening chapter of the book of Titus, we complete page chapter 1 last time. Titus, we saw, had been given the task of going around to the various churches on the island of Crete to put right those things which are wanting to ordain elders in every church and to seek that everything that took place would be pleasing and honouring to God. Titus had to make sure that the right people were appointed with the correct and appropriate qualifications. God wanted people in place who loved him, who loved his word, who loved his cause, and those people who were interested in living a godly and a holy life. Many false teachers had trekked into the churches in Crete, and they were teaching things which they ought not, in order to bind their own pockets, and to gain things for themselves. They were teaching things the filthy Dukes take. They weren't interested in the people, they weren't interested in the glory of God, all they were interested in was severing their own net, and making money and merchandise for their own ends. They were robbing the poor and the vulnerable people of the little they had. But you know, many of these poor and vulnerable people may have been in ignorance largely. They just accepted these teachers which had come in amongst them, and they accepted their teaching as being wholesome and biblical, because many people didn't have access to all the scriptures which were available. Well, Titus was told by Paul to go round to these assemblies to rebuke them sharply, that they may be stammed in the faith. Have no tolerance whatsoever of the false speech of their mouths. Must be stopped, for they are subverting a whole household. These people were not genuine converts at all. They professed that they knew God, but in work they denied Him. They said one thing with their mouths, but their lies spoke a completely different message. Well, even the people of the world say that actions speak louder than words, and people are much more inclined to go by how a person lives than just by what they say. People have little respect today for a profession of faith which is not backed up by a life which is similar. If a person's dishonest and greedy and covetous, if a person is a thief, then their profession is of little worth. People say, well I won't take any notice of this person who says that they're a Christian. I've seen their life and there doesn't seem to be much Christianity in the way that they're living. Well, I said, have to go round to these churches and put right those things which are wanting. It was a hard, unenviable task. The forced teachers were hardly likely to go quietly without a struggle. After all, they'd made a tiny sum of money for themselves, and they didn't want this to come to an end. They were taking things from their victims and they didn't want it to come to an abrupt end. But in seeking to do what is right and pleasing to the Lord, we cannot always expect to be popular. You know, tough decisions need to be made at times, and feathers will need to be rustled at times. But it's far better to get the praise of men, praise of God, rather than the approval of men. You know, many people today just want to be men-pleasers, but the most important thing for us is to please and to praise and to glorify our Lord and Master, no matter how much it puts our severance with the people round about us. Jesus said, Beware when all men speak well of you, for so they spake of the false prophets. People in the Old Testament, some of them, told people exactly what they wanted to hear, rather than that which was true. They said, peace, peace, but there was no peace. They wanted to hear smooth words, words which wouldn't bring so much recruit and conviction to their heart. And Paul wrote elsewhere about people heaping to themselves teachers having itching ears. And in the last days people will not endure sound doctrine. They don't want the faithful exposition of God's Word anymore. They want something which will entertain them, something which is light, something which will uplift them and encourage them. They don't want any good, sound, searching, teaching and ministry from God's Word. There's so much gone out of fashion in our own generation today. A nice palatable popular message is what people want today. And isn't it true that the devil's lies are certainly able to fit the bill? How often forced teachers teach that God wants everybody to be rich and successful, to have lots of money. All of that appeals to people's covetousness. And people have no trouble trying to attract a large congregation by teaching such a message. Other people will be in pulpits and on stages today, telling people that all the roads will lead to God in the end, or saying that we are all the children of God, and as long as a person lives a decent, respectable type of life, then we can all expect to go to a much better place when our life in this world comes to an end. Or else there'll be many people in churches this morning teaching about the importance of looking after the environment and recycling your rubbish. They will teach that the salvation of the planet is more important than the salvation of a person's soul. But at the beginning of Chapter 2, Paul said, But speak thou the things which become sounds, doctrine, that the aged men may be grave and temperate and sober, standing faith in charity and patience. Well, the first thing we learn from this verse is that what we believe most certainly affects our behaviour. What a person believes in their heart will affect the way that they live their lives. You see, being sober, grave, temperate It's not the sound doctrine, but it's what the sound doctrine leads to. When people are getting good, nourishing foods from the Word of God, that will lead to changed lives. People will want to obey what they hear from God's Word. And the type of life that people will be living will reflect the type of ministry that they're sitting under. Speak thou these things, he says, that the aged men are going to be like this, and the aged women will be like that, the young men will be like this, and the young women will be like that. As a result of good, sound, biblical teaching from God's Word, these various character traits will be on display in the lives of people under that ministry. Now we often come across people today who say, well you don't need to read the Bible, you don't need to believe in the Bible, in order to live a good life today. But if a person won't get their values and standards from God's holy and precious words, then where will they get their values and standards from? Maybe some will try to get them from their parents, or maybe their peers, or maybe their friends. But more probably in this same generation, people will get their standards and values from the media, which is most certainly in the hands of the evil one, the devil. The average person today spends about 30 hours a week watching the television, so of course it's going to have an enormous effect upon what they believe and how they live. What a person believes will most certainly affect their behaviour. If a person today believes that we all came from monkeys, that life is a meaningless existence, that God doesn't exist, that they're not accountable or responsible to a higher power for the way that they live their life, then why should they be bothered about what their thought life is like? Why should they be bothered about what they're like in secret or what they do in their homes? Why should they be bothered about what type of language comes from their mouths? Why not be the same as everybody else, just living for sin and self, living for the flesh, living for the world? If there's no God and life is a meaningless existence, why deny yourself? Why make sacrifices? Why seek to do that which is right and pleasing to God if you don't believe that God exists? Now the media today, which has such a hold upon people in this age of gadgets and technology, the media is all the time telling people that there is no God. That's what it says. If there was a person wanting to make a wildlife program, or wanting to speak about God's creation, the wonderful way that he designed and painted, the colors, the feathers of the birds and so forth, they wouldn't be permitted any airtime on the television at all. Yet if a person was to believe in an unproven theory, to say that evolution took place over many, many millions of years, they would most certainly be welcomed to fly their trays on the television. The media all the time tells people that there is no God, there is no judgement, there is no hell, and there's no consequences to the way that a person lives their life. Now we read together in the Old Testament in Psalm 14, and that opening verse of Psalm 14 is very famous. The fool hath said in his heart that there is no God. But many people today say that there is no God. Increasingly larger numbers of people in our own nation now profess to be atheists. including many politicians. And even if a politician does believe in God, you can be sure that they will never ever speak about it, because it will put people off. People feel that speaking about a personal faith in God is not regarded as being politically correct anymore. So a person, even if they do have some type of belief, they most certainly won't speak about it publicly. But after that verse in Psalm 14, where it says that there is no God, we're given a description of the type of life such people invariably live. The type of life that atheism produces. When a person says there is no God, it goes on to say that they are corrupt, they've done a vulnerable work. They are workers of iniquity. They have become filthy. There is none that doeth good. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh God. God looks down from heaven to see if there be any that seek him. But they've all gone aside and turned to the world, and their lives are ungodly and evil. Now the same is true in Romans chapter 1. We're told about people who do not like to retain God in their knowledge, people who are anti-God, people who want to live a secular life where God has been pushed to one side. And then we're given a list of all the sins which they are guilty of, and how society sinks down into the mire, where people will not have God, and people will not have God's word and God's commandment. It will invariably lead to society going down into the gutter. You know, people might just say today, we need to say, our religion, doesn't it cause so many divisions, so many wars, so much terrorism in the world? Surely we'd be better off with no religion at all. If we were to take the Bibles out of the homes, out of the schools, out of the hospitals, and have a secular society instead, surely that would be better all around. If we have to teach and preach the Bible in school, then in order to be politically correct we have to teach the Koran and all the holy books from the other religion, but why not teach no religion at all and just have a secular society and remove the Bible from our lives completely? For a false religion is most certainly responsible for a tremendous amount of evil, but not true religion. False religion puts many people off God. You know, many people will say to us, well, I don't believe in God because of all the pedophiles in the clergy, and all those scandals which have taken place, particularly in Ireland and America, where people have been interfering with children, and the National Church has covered it all up. And people say, well I don't believe in God because of all the evils of Islam. Because of all the terrorism today. Of all people being blown up and kidnapped and having their heads removed and so forth. I'm thoroughly disgusted with all types of religion. But true biblical Christianity is all about loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and loving your neighbour as yourself. Wouldn't it be marvellous if everybody today had some regard for the Bible, had some regard for God's word and for God's law? If you just take one commandment for instance, the eighth commandment, thou shalt not steal. Wouldn't it be marvellous if everybody in our society kept that one commandment? How our lives would be wonderfully transformed. None of us would have to go round carrying a bunch of keys anymore. We wouldn't have to pay large amounts of money for insurance and contents insurance and car insurance. There wouldn't be 27,000 bicycles stolen in London every year. We wouldn't have to worry about being mugged in the streets or burgled or pickpocketed. We'd be able to walk the streets at any time of the day or night without any fear at all. We wouldn't have to be looking over our shoulders every five minutes. We wouldn't have to be worried about people stealing all our documents and taking our identity. Prices in the shops would be ever so cheap because the shops wouldn't have to increase their prices to compensate for all the shoplifting that takes place. And fares on the parties and tubes would also be very cheap because there'd be no such thing anymore as sterilization. Bankers wouldn't be lining their pockets anymore, and MPs wouldn't be fiddling their expenses anymore. And we could go on and on about how wonderful society would be if everybody just had regard for that one commandment, Thou shalt not steal. You see, it's false religion today which is responsible for so much evil. So much of the murder, and the terrorism, and the honour killings, and the kidnappings, and the child abuse, and so forth, has been caused by false religion. But false religion has always been like that. The people described in chapter one of this book were telling people about God. They professed that they knew God, but these people were thieves. They were mining their pockets, they were covetous, they were extortioners. Back in 1971, I think it was, John Lennon wrote his famous song called Imagine, which became some type of anthem for peace around the world. And it became very famous and people, many people quoted the song as being their favourite song. And did you know that that song is one of the favourites at various funeral services today? People say, oh I'd like to have John Lennon's song Imagine played at my funeral. The man himself had no time for Christianity at all. He had no time for the Bible, he was very much anti-God. He said, imagine that there's no heaven, imagine that there's no religion, imagine that there's no hell, imagine that there's no God. And then he goes on to say, imagine all the people living their lives in peace and harmony with one another. Well, what nonsense is that? The idea that you can trample underfoot God's Word, you can despise all the commandments of God, you can teach and preach atheism, that nobody's accountable or responsible for all the evils that they do, and the result of that is going to be everybody loving one another and living in peace and harmony together, is nonsense. You see, human nature is fallen, it's corrupt, it's evil, and it's sinful. Atheism never ever changes people's lives for the better. It never makes a person a more of a godly person, more of a loving person. Now I've met many people who've become believers over the years, and I've heard many people giving their testimony about what type of life they lived before, and how their lives were wonderfully transformed by the grace and the power of God. I've known people who before they were saved, they were thieves, or they were drunkards, or they were adulterers, or drug addicts, or they were blasphemers. And their lives were wonderfully changed by God's grace. The Lord was able to take such a person and make them into one of his children. And I've seen most people now living useful and fruitful lives for the glory of God, always wanting to do God's will, always wanting to do the right thing and to please God. But I've never ever met a person who has said that their life has been changed by atheism. I've never met a person, and probably never will, who will say to me that before I became an atheist, I was very rude, very nasty, very unpleasant. I had a terrible temper. I used to beat my wife, or had lots of affairs. Or I went out getting drunk every night, making a mess of my life. But when I read Richard Dawkins' book, The God Delusion, my life was wonderfully transformed. I decided, well, I don't believe in God anymore. And now I spend all my time loving and serving others and seeking to be a blessing for them. Well, I've never met anybody like that at all. Atheism does not change people's lives for the better, but true biblical Christianity does. The Lord is able to make a person a new creature in Christ. The Lord is able to humble people, that they turn away from their sins in repentance, and those things which they formerly loved and cherished and lived for, are left behind, and they want to spend their lives and their time doing God's will, doing God's work, and being useful and fruitful witnesses and ambassadors for the Lord Jesus. Now, some people in our church today may be a little long in the tooth, they may have been around for many, many years, and they don't have to go by what the statistics say, they can go by their own experience. And let me ask you, what type of effects has atheism had upon our nation? As our country's gone further and further away from God, has society got better, or has society got worse? If you were to go back to the 1950s, for instance, when a much greater proportion of people went to church and children went to Sunday school and the standards and values taught in society were much more based upon the Bible than they are today, what was society like then? Back in the 1950s, were there 71 schoolchildren marked every day in London by other schoolchildren? What about the amounts of rapes and murders and shots in a ferry station? Or anti-social behaviour? What about all the abortions and pornography? And all the adultery today and all the affairs? And all the teenage pregnancies? And all the sodomy which is so commonly practised today? Compare what was happening 50 or 60 years ago to what is happening today. And we see that as our nation's gone further and further away from God, as our society has taken the Bible out of the homes and schools, and as the churches have become empty, it's had a dramatic effect upon our society today. What has atheism done for our communities today? What has atheism done for family life in the UK today? Well, few people would dispute that two of the greatest evils in the 20th century were communism and Nazism, and both of those philosophies were atheistic. The Communists persecuted Christians and closed down churches. They murdered millions and millions of people and had terrible death camps. And they imprisoned people. Nobody was allowed to move out of the country. They were virtual slaves in their own nation. A bit like people, I suppose, in North Korea today who are not allowed to go elsewhere in case they might not return. The Communists murdered millions of people in terrible death camps. Stalin, it is estimated, murdered 30 million of his own people, including 32,000 pastors, churches were burned and Bibles were burned, and Christians were transported in enormous numbers to Siberian death camps where they were worked to death in the freezing cold. Anybody who taught about God, who taught about the Bible, was often arrested, tortured and murdered. Oh, many of the people in those days were living in terrible poverty as the economy struggled and many people were starved to death. One famous Russian leader who came after Stalin said that communism would be a good thing in theory if it wasn't for human nature which is selfish, greedy and corrupt. That's the reason why it cannot work because we are fallen creatures. Man is naturally selfish and greedy and self-centered. So the idea of having a caring and sharing society doesn't work when you bring into the equation the fallen, corrupt nature of man. Communism did not create a better society and it took people in those lands many, many years before change could be introduced. Well, Hitler and his Nazi party very much believed in evolution. They believed in the survival of the fittest. That is right and proper for stronger nations to overcome and subdue smaller nations. They were evil and racist and had no value placed upon human life at all. They didn't believe in God. They didn't believe in the Bible. If they wanted to oppress other nations and persecute and invade some of their neighbours, They thought it was right and proper that they should do so, that they could bring whole nations into slavery and produce death camps like Auschwitz, where they could gas the death 6,000 people a day, just because they belong to a different race to what they did. They didn't believe in God, they didn't believe in God's Word, and they didn't believe that they were accountable to a higher power for the dreadful crimes which they committed. They embraced Darwinism. They taught, like so much false religion today, that we are just not accountable to anybody. And like so many atheists today, who teach that we're just like animals, and that once a person dies, that's the end of it. Well, the Nazis murdered 6 million people in their concentration camps and started a war which led to the deaths of 55 million people around the globe. So the idea today that imagining that there is no God, imagining that there is no heaven, is going to produce a nice, peaceful, idyllic society where everybody loves each other and everybody lives in harmony with each other, is most certainly nonsense. What we believe affects what we do. So how do we combat things like dishonesty, or thefts, or muggings, or burglaries in our society? Well, some people say, well, the answer is to have more policemen, more warriors on the beat, or more community support officers. Others say, well, we need more CCTV cameras everywhere. Others say, well, we need stricter sentences so that when people are caught they go to prison for a longer period of time. Other people say, well, what we need is more youth clubs. The reason why people do these things is because they're bored and they've got nothing to do. Or people say, well, we need less violence on the television and the computer games. Well, these things may bring a little improvement, but by far the greatest thing which we need today is to teach and preach to people today that stealing is wrong. Children need to be taught the commandments of God. They need to be taught the difference between right and between wrong. The Bibles need to be brought back to the schools and taught as being factual. Tell people that God is real. Tell people that they're accountable for what they do. That God knows all about us. When a person believes in their heart that stealing is wrong, then their conscience will not permit them to do something, even if they can get away with it. So the idea that we can get rid of God's word and get rid of God's law, and that things will be so much better in our society, is not true. At primary school sometimes we used to get into trouble with the teachers for doing wrong, but I remember the teacher bringing us into her office once and saying to us, always remember the golden rule of life, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And I remember even as an eight year old thinking to myself, well wouldn't it be marvellous if everybody took on board the golden rule of life, if everybody treated one another as they would like to be treated, if everybody spoke to one another as they would like to be spoken to. So although I learned many things in primary school about math and geography and history and science, that one statement from that teacher was probably more important and more valuable to take with me through life than all the other lessons combined. When I was working in the job centre, a lady came in once and she was making a statement about her savings and other income. And she said that she didn't have any savings or any income at all. But I noticed from her body language that she was a little uncomfortable when she was making this statement. And she left the office shortly afterwards, but ten minutes later she came back and she wanted to see me again. And she said, well the statement I made 10 minutes ago wasn't actually correct, I was being dishonest. And when I was walking away my conscience convicted me and I knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight unless I put the matter right. Here was a person, she believed in God, she believed what God said concerning stealing and therefore her conscience would not permit her to be dishonest and to gain money falsely. So what God wants in churches today is sound doctrine. And sound doctrine will lead to sound lives. He speaks in verse 9 of chapter 1 about holding fast to faithful words and using sound doctrine to exhort and to convince the gamesayers. And he speaks in verse 13 of that chapter about people being sound in the faith. So the word sound means something which is healthy, something which is whole, and something without any defects. If a building is sound, we say that it doesn't have any structural faults. If a car is sound, we say it doesn't have any mechanical faults. And if a church is sound, then it's teaching and preaching the biblical way of salvation and the doctrines which are sound in the Word of God. Now teaching that God wants all people to be rich is not sound doctrine. Teaching that God wants all people to be living in big mansions with a lavish lifestyle and to have heaving bank balances and to get to the top of the tree in their employment is not sound doctrine. Living for money and merchandise and surrounding yourself with as many pleasures and possessions as possible is not sound doctrine. There are many people in the churches of Crete teaching things for filthy lucre's sake. And Titus is told, rebuke these people sharply. Preach and teach those things which are sound doctrine. Don't be teaching error and lies anymore. Don't be teaching things in order to acquire money and merchandise to line the pockets of the false teachers. 1 Timothy says, If every man teach otherwise, and consents not to wholesome words, even to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the doctrine that is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing. Now the Lord wants us to teach and to preach the things which we read about in his precious words. God wants people to know that he is all-powerful, all-mighty, all-wise, that he is eternal, he is the immortal, invisible, the only wise God, that he is righteous, he is pure, that he is perfect, he is holy, that he is clothed in glory and majesty and splendour. We should teach people about the glorious and wonderful attributes of Almighty God. that we might exalt Him and magnify Him and see what a great and glorious God reigns supreme over the affairs of this whole universe. In every church they should want to teach and preach to give God and the Lord Jesus Christ His Son the glory, the praise and the preeminence. We must tell people how God created this universe out of nothing in six days and keeps it all going. We don't tell people about evolution, which is an unproven theory. We believe what God says in his word, and that's what we preach. That's sound doctrine. Those churches which are preaching and teaching evolution are not preaching sound doctrine at all. Then we must tell people about the nature of man, how man is a fallen creature with a nature which is their enmity with God. We must tell people about Adam and Eve and how they sinned in the Garden of Eden and the consequences of what they have done. We must paint man by nature as the Word of God is writing. He is vile, he is sinful, he is lonesome, he is corrupt, he is on his way to a lost eternity in hell. He is clothed in his own righteousnesses which are as filthy as. And then we must preach and tell people about the way of salvation and the remedy for people's sin. We tell people how God has sent his own beloved son into this world as a saviour for sinners. We preach and teach about the virgin birth, the perfect life of the Lord Jesus Christ, how he went around doing good. We tell people about the wonderful works which proceeded from his lips. Then we speak about His atoning death upon Calvary's cross and how He shed His precious blood to atone for the sins that we have done. Then we preach about His glorious resurrection from the dead and His ascension to the Father's right hand. And then we preach about the promise of His second coming when He will judge the world and a decision will be made between those who are saved and those who are not. And then we preach and tell people about heaven and hell, which we read about so much in the scriptures. And then we tell people the way of salvation, and how they must become a child of God to be saved. We tell people they need to humble themselves and repent of their sin, and cast themselves upon the mercy of God, taking Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Saviour, pleading to the old rugged cross, and pleading nothing for their cleansing, save the precious shed blood of the Lamb of God, for He died in their place upon the tree. We tell people and preach to people the message of the Gospel today. And we urge people to accept that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Saviour. We preach those things which become fans' doctrine. And when a person embraces such a wonderful and a glorious message, they become new creatures in Christ Jesus. Old things are passed away, all things have become new, and they want to live their lives for the glory of God. So in the past they may have been thieves, thieves and adulterers and extortioners. They may have been proud, they may have been greedy and covetous, but they leave those things behind and now they want to live a godly life. They want to love and serve God and love and serve others. Once a person's been saved by the matchless grace of God, we tell them the importance of our living a godly life and being obedient to the Lord, and how we must be bright and shining witnesses to Him, and how we must have a real appetite for God's Word and want to be doers of the Word and not hearers only. Yes, we encourage people today to read God's Word, to seek the Lord in prayer, and to be engaged in His royal service. Yes, good, sound, biblical doctrine is of tremendous importance today. There are many churches where they preach. Well, we don't want to be preaching sound doctrine anymore. It seems to cause division within churches. Let us all come together, forget our differences concerning theology. We can all come together and be good friends. Solely church unity is what is important. Well, we believe in church unity, a unity amongst those who have been soundly saved and born again by the power and the Spirit of God. All those who are new creatures in Christ, we are one with them, their brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. But we don't accept anybody who makes the profession of being a believer today at all. If there's no evidence in their life that they've had a change of heart and a change of direction, They're like the people described in Chapter 1. They profess that they know God, but in work they deny Him. There's no evidence that they're alive and hearts have been changed. The next time, God willing, we'll look at some of the changes which God makes in people's lives concerning the various categories of people within the Church. But today, let us realise the importance of teaching from God's Word and how we need to be guided and led by what we read in the Scriptures in order to live those lives that God has called us to do. May we love and cherish the doctrines found in this book. May we love to share God's holy and precious infallible word with others. And may the precious word of God and the message of salvation bring many souls to a saving knowledge of the blessed Redeemer. And may we earnestly pray that God would be pleased to draw people out of darkness and into his marvellous light. May the Lord be pleased to richly bless his word to our heart this morning.