How does what we learn affect how we live? And how can we prevent God's enemies from blaspheming His Word? Find out on Changed by Grace. Welcome to Changed by Grace. I'm Pastor Steve Hereford. We're looking at Titus 2 today, where Paul commands Titus to speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. Sound doctrine is healthy teaching. And it's what the church is to be preaching. But exactly what is it? What teachings oppose it? Well, let's find out today as we study together from God's Word. The Bible says to us to be holy as he is holy. And what does that exactly mean? And what kind of impact does that have on the church of the Lord Jesus Christ? For the next several weeks, we will be looking at Titus 2 and seeing how we live reflects on the testimony of the church. I would like to invite you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to the book of Titus. It falls in there right after Timothy, 1 and 2 Timothy, and then Titus. And as you move your way over to chapter two, this morning we're gonna focus in just on verse one, but for the next few weeks, we're gonna look at the first 10 verses. Titus chapter two. And one of the things that's contained in Titus chapter two in these first 10 verses are five groups that exist in every church. You look at verse two, you'll notice that it lists older men. Verse three lists older women. And then, of course, down verses four and five, it lists young women, and verses six through eight list young men, and then verses nine and 10 list servants. All of these groups make up the church. All represent the church. And how each group lives makes or breaks the testimony of the church. If you live an ungodly life, then that will have a negative impact on the church. and on our ability to evangelize because people will not see any difference that Christ makes in our lives. So as we look at this this morning, I wanna begin reading at verse one. And just so that you have this entire picture in mind, I'm gonna read the first 10 verses. It says, but as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience. The older women, likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works, in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you. Exhort bond servants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well-pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of our God and our Savior in all things. As we look at this this morning, of course, this takes us into chapter 2, and there has been a lot of information already presented to Titus in chapter 1. Paul is writing to one of his children in the faith, Titus, and he gives him a task. And in chapter 1, his task is the ordination and the qualifications of elders in the church. He is told in chapter 1 and verse 5 to appoint them in every church in every city in Crete. Churches had been started and they needed qualified spiritual leadership. But now when you come over to chapter two, he moves from pastors to the congregation and he focuses on the character of a healthy congregation. One commentator said this, the entire chapter deals with the evangelistic impact of a spiritually healthy congregation and gives direct practical instruction about how believers are to live for the purpose of showing sinners the power and joy of salvation. That's a fancy way of saying live what you preach. If Jesus is real and your life has been changed, than you to show it. If Jesus has transformed your life, then people should see that. That should be manifested in how we sound, that is with our words, how we talk, what's our conversation like. It should be seen in our lifestyle, in our walk. The Bible talks about walking, and it's not just the physical walking of one step in front of the other, but it's talking about lifestyle. It's talking about conduct. And our conduct is to be godly. And if it's not godly, it's gonna have a negative impact on the church as a whole, and even the local church. There was one time an attorney that was inviting another attorney to come to church. And he said, oh yeah, where do you go? And he says, I go to such and such church. And he said, well, I'm not going there. The most crooked lawyer in town goes to that church. Why do I want to go there? And if you just hear from that little example right there, that one person's life can undermine the entire testimony of a church. And that's what we have to be careful about. This church has been riddled with a lot of things in its years, hasn't it? And the only way to overcome that is time. Time and consistency in obedience, in living out the faith in Jesus Christ. It has to be lived out every single day, when you're away from here, and not only when you're here, but of course when you're in your homes with your family, or your friends, or if you're in the workplace, it has to be lived out. People have to see it, they have to hear it. Because if you're like that attorney that's a crooked person, then no one will want to have anything to do with East Port Baptist Church. Because your testimony alone can undermine the testimony of this church. And again, that's something that we want to overcome, right? Now, when you look at this verse, because we're gonna look just at verse one, Paul gives us two ways that this is to happen. He first gives a contrast, and then he gives a command. The contrast in verse one is Titus's ministry, what is Titus to do, versus what the false teachers had already done. Notice what he says in verse one. He says, but as for you, In Greek, that literally reads, but you. The emphasis is on you. Because it's indicating a contrast with something that has already previously been mentioned. And what was previously mentioned? Well, it was the false teachers at Crete. And you'll have to go into chapter 1, and beginning at verse 10, it tells us about these false teachers. In fact, we find out in verse 10 that this is a Jewish group of people referred to as the circumcision. Maybe you've heard that term not just in modern times, but you've heard people identified as a group known as the circumcision. And what it's referring to there is a group of Jews who taught that salvation required the physical cutting of circumcision and the adherence to Mosaic ceremonies. But notice in chapter 1 in verse 10 where he begins to talk about these false teachers. And he says, for there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not for the sake of dishonest gain. One of them, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure. But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. But as for you, Titus, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. You see how chapter verses, numbers, all that kind of breaks up your thought, but this is all one thought here. He's talking about a group of false teachers who had infiltrated the church. And notice some of the things he refers to them as. In verse 10, he calls them idle talkers. He also refers to them as deceivers. Verse 11, he says they subvert or undermine whole households. Also in verse 11, he says that they teach for money. That's very interesting, and that's the phrase, that they teach things which they ought not for the sake of dishonest gain. That's what it's referring to there. They teach for money. They're focused just on money. Peter says of false teachers that they have a heart set on covetous practices. That's where their attention is. It's all on physical, financial gain. Everyone I know to false teacher, listen for these things. I know on TBN, there's a lot of them. And that's all they focus in on, is just send me your money, send me your gift. Sow your seed is the term that they will use. But you gotta listen to what they're saying. You've gotta examine what they're teaching, what they believe. And you should be able to take what you're watching on TV, what you're watching from other churches or other ministries, and evaluate that against what we believe. And if you have internet access, just go to the website, click on the tab that says Beliefs, and there is a summary of beliefs. If you want something more detailed, go to the Contact tab and go all the way down to the bottom and click on the Baptist Faith. I forget what it's called now. It just went out of my head. But the Baptist faith message, the doctrinal statement of the Baptist churches, and you can see that as well. But again, we live our lives based upon what we believe the scripture teaches. And we have a set of adherence, a set of faith that we go by that We adhere ourselves to, and here these false teachers, they weren't doing that. They were undermining whole households. They were teaching for money. Verse 12 says basically that they were liars. Verse 12 also refers to them as evil beast. That is, they behave like a wild animal. They live solely on the level of sensual appetites and passions. Verse 12, he refers to them as lazy gluttons. He says Cretans hated. They certainly hated to work, but they loved to eat, and that's the idea of them being lazy gluttons. They didn't want to do anything. Just feed me. And then, of course, they believe Jewish fables and the commandments of men in verse 14. And Paul doesn't identify what that particular Jewish myth or man-made commandment was, but they were certainly doing this over and over and over. In fact, it was something that Timothy had to deal with, and Paul addressed that in 1 Timothy 1, 4 and chapter 4 and verse 7. Verse 16 tells us that they were defiled. They were also unbelieving. They were abominable. NAS says detestable. They were disobedient. It also says they were disqualified for every good work. That basically means they couldn't do anything that pleased God. This is what Titus came into. If you look back at chapter 1 and verse 5, Paul says, this reason, I left you in Crete that you should set in order the things that are lacking and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you. And elders is not talking about putting older people in place. It's not referring to an age, a physical age. It's referring to spiritual maturity. It's referring to pastors. This is another term that's used to pastors. They're called, some translations give bishops or overseers or pastors. Again, these are all terms that are used synonymously for spiritual leadership in the church, and he's saying that I need you to go to these Cretan churches that have been started and stay there long enough to establish pastoral leadership there. And here's what these pastoral leaders are to look like, and he picks that up in verses 6 through 9 and identifies for us these qualifications of those who pastor the church. Why? Why is all this important? Well, because you have these false teachers that have come in and infiltrated the church. They were not preaching sound doctrine, they were preaching diseased doctrine. They were not preaching anything that was helpful, they were preaching things that were harmful. Just because a person says he's a preacher and he starts preaching, you have to examine what the content of his preaching is. because what he may be saying might not be true in scripture. He might be a heretic. He might not know Jesus at all. He might be in it for the money. He might have looked at it as this is the best and only means to which he could have some kind of financial gain, and therefore that was the whole motive for him going in it. Just like the one pastor one time said to a young man, he said, sir, he said, were you sent or did you just went? because he was questioning the calling of the guy. Even Spurgeon said that there was a man who came into the pulpit and when he preached, he preached as if someone who should never come out of the pulpit, but when he came out of the pulpit and the kind of lifestyle that he had, then he was like one who should have never been in the pulpit. And there are people like that. Why do you think these qualifications are here? These qualifications are also listed in 1 Timothy chapter three. And anytime you look at someone for these kinds of things in the church, that you have to look at this But you know what Paul describes here in Titus about false teachers is also found elsewhere. Let me have you go to 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter 2. Peter devotes an entire chapter to this subject and he's not alone. Jude, we'll look at that in just a moment, Jude devotes an entire book to this subject of false teachers. But if you'll notice in verse 1, he says that there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you. Notice both times he says that they were among you. False prophets among the people, false teachers among you. In Acts chapter 20 at the church at Ephesus, they would rise up from within. False teachers don't walk up to you and bang their hand on the door and say, hello, I'm a false teacher, I'm going to hell, would you like to go to hell with me? Jehovah's Witnesses don't do that when they come to your door. They say that they have the edge on the truth, and you don't. And you need what they're selling. And now what they'll do is they'll bring a little kid with them, with his little satchel and suitcase, because they've been having the door slammed in their face for years, and they know that you wouldn't slam the door in a little child's face, so that's who accompanies them now. But they'll come with their damnable heresies. And unless you're equipped to talk to them, you need to close the door. And you need to remember that that little child that's standing there, he doesn't know what's going on, but that adult that brought him does. And what that adult is teaching that little child is something that's gonna take them both to hell. Like I said, if you don't know how to talk to them, you're not equipped to talk to them, then the best thing to do is just shut the door. And I'll tell you right now, Jehovah's Witnesses prey on Southern Baptists. That's sad. That is really sad. What's to say about Southern Baptists? Don't we know our Bible? We talk about the Bible all the time. If we know it, then we should be able to defend it. We should be able to talk about it. We should be able to defend and clearly explain the gospel. We should be able to defend the truth of Scripture. We should be able to talk about the deity of Jesus Christ, which Jehovah's Witnesses and all cults attack. We should be able to talk about that clearly. Know what the Bible teaches about that. And like I said, if you don't feel comfortable with that, then the best thing to do is close the door and don't let them come in your home and confuse you. Because that's how they get you. They confuse you, and then after a while, you're listening to them and you're going, you know what, that sounds pretty good. But you know how false teachers work? They'll bring a little bit of truth packed with a lot of lies. Do you know Mormons use the King James Bible? in addition to the Book of Mormon. And they'll say of the Book of Mormon that this is another testament of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I remember as a young man, I think I was 20 years old, only been in the faith maybe a year, and I remember I was over at a friend's house, and this Mormon elder came over to visit. I didn't know Mormon from anybody, but we sat down and talked about the Bible, and he's saying stuff, and I'm going, well, what little bit I know, that didn't sound right. And then he told me he was a Mormon. And then he told me he was an elder in the church of the Mormons. And I said, you know what? This isn't my house, but you need to leave. And you need to leave now. And no one stopped me. I was a little fireball then. And they left. And I tell you what, if you sit there and listen to them, again, what sold him to me was the Book of Mormon starting out with that phrase that this is another testament of our Lord Jesus Christ. What does the Bible tell us about adding to the word of God? Revelation 22, 18 and 19. Proverbs 30 verse 6 also says not to add unto his words lest he reprove you and you be found a liar. And that's what they were doing. And hey, that's all I needed to know. That's all that sold me. You need to leave and you need to take your literature with you. I had a guy in one church I used to be at that his sister wanted me to meet with him because he had a guy working with him that was Jehovah's Witness and was just messing his head up with all the stuff he was sharing with him. I said, sure, I would meet with him. And you know when I started meeting with him, it was like I was trying to unscramble an egg. Can't unscramble an egg, can you? And he would bring me his books and he'd let me throw them away until I found out, well, this wasn't costing him anything, because they gave them to him. And every time he threw them away, he got more. I just stopped taking them after a while. See, again, if you're not equipped to work with these and to talk to them, then maybe all you need to say is that Jesus is my Lord, Jesus is God, and if you want to talk about anything other than that, we can't talk. And I don't mean to be rude to you, but my supper's burning on the stove. Click. I used to pull the Archie Bunker when I lived in Tallahassee. You remember Archie Bunker? You remember when he came to the door and someone said something and he just did this with the door? I used to do that too. I took those verses literally. It said you didn't bid them a kind word, lest you would become a partaker of their evil. That's 3 John. Well, in 2 Peter 2, listen to some of the similar characteristics of these false teachers. It says in verse 1 that they teach heresies. They teach heresies. It says they will secretly bring in destructive heresies. Basically, they parade themselves as Christian pastors, they parade themselves as teachers and evangelists, and they teach heresy. And the idea of heresy is a self-designed religious lie. And that religious lie will lead to division and faction. That's what they do. Verse 2 says they blaspheme the way of the Lord. It says in verse 3 they exploit the people of God. Verse 10, if you drop down to verse 10, it says that they walk according to the flesh. And not only do they do that, but they despise authority, and they're even presumptuous. And the idea of presumptuous is audacious and defiant. Verse 10 even tells us that they're self-willed. This means that they're obstinate. They're determined in their own way to teach what they have to bring to you. And they're even fearless by flippantly speaking against Satan and demons. Look down at verses 10 and 11 again, and you'll notice what he says there. that they are not afraid to speak of dignitaries, whereas angels who are greater in power and might do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord. They're not afraid to do this. And dignitaries refers to angels. And in this context, it may even refer to evil, wicked angels. Then if you go down to verse 12, again, it refers to them as a wild beast. Here it's called a brute beast. Verse 13 says, there are spots and blemishes or scabs, you could say. They're really the opposite of the character of Christ. Look at verse 14. They're adulterers. It says, having eyes full of adultery. Very interesting. These false teachers have so totally lost moral control that they could not look at any woman without seeing her as a potential adulteress. That's really bad. And then, of course, it tells us that they're driven by uncontrollable lust. They don't ever rest in their sins. Verse 14, they cannot cease from sinning. And then it says that they entice. And this metaphor is from fishing and it appears also in verse 18. And the idea of enticing or beguiling is to catch with bait. False teachers do not capture those that are strong in the word, but they prey on the weak. They prey on the unstable and the young in the faith. And that's why I say when Jehovah's Witnesses come to the door, and if it's a member of a Baptist church, and this has been the statistics that are pretty accurate there, that they'll pray on those who are weak, and those who usually have been weak that they prayed on have been Baptist. That's why I said it's a shame to us. We preach our Bible. We say we believe our Bible, and we should be able to defend our Bible. I'm not saying that of you in here. It might not be true of you, but just as a collective whole in the Baptist church, we should be strong in the Bible if we're preaching the Bible. What does that tell us? Maybe we're not paying attention to what's being preached. Maybe we're sleeping through too many sermons, right? I mean, my goodness, we only meet an hour. Can't we stay awake for an hour? Didn't Jesus have to say that to his disciples? Can't you just bear with me for one hour? Can't you just keep watch with me? I mean, I try to yell in different places, you know, yell with different tonalities and things like that, so maybe it'll wake you up. Sometimes we pound the pulpit, that's a good waker-upper. Go with me to the book of Jude. This is a third place that we find a pretty extensive list. The book of Jude. And it really picks up in verse four and carries us all the way to verse 19, where he says in verse four, certain men have crept in unnoticed. See, that's the scary thing right there. For a false teacher to be unnoticed, he has to first act like one of you. Do you realize that? He's got to get your trust. He's got to come in, be like you, sound like you, fellowship with you, get your friendship, get your good side, get your favor. carry the same Bible, same Bible translation, talk about the same things, and then you start calling him brother so-and-so or sister so-and-so, he's got your trust. It says they crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation. He refers to them as ungodly men, ungodly men. This is literally impious or without worship. Their lack of reverence for God was demonstrated by the fact that they infiltrated the church of God to corrupt it and to gain riches from its people. Again, that's their whole motive. They corrupt the grace of God. They have this unrestrained vice or this gross immorality which describes the shameless lifestyle that they live. They have no morals. If they do, it's only for a moment so you'll trust them. But it's not lifelong. It's not really where their heart is. Their heart is in immorality and covetousness. That's how they live. If you'll notice also in verse four, it tells us that they deny the Lord. There are two words used for Lord here. And the apostates disdain Christ as sovereign Lord, despotes. And they disdained any recognition of Christ as honorable Lord. That's the word kurios. And they do this by their wicked behavior. They deny God. In the previous passage we read, it said that they were unbelieving. They don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are only attached to Him for what they can get from Him. Go down to verse 8, it says that they defile the flesh, that means that As he uses the illustration of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah in verse 7, these apostates have few, if any, moral restraints, and they're frequently characterized by these immoral lifestyles. He calls them dreamers, but he says they defile the flesh. Then he says that they reject authority, just like the sending angels in verse 6. They are pretenders. They reject all authority, civil and spiritual. They reject the Scriptures. They deny Christ. What an amazing picture of false teachers. You've been listening today to a message called, Right Doctrine Produces Right Living. And it's from Titus 2 and verse 1. This message is available today on one full-length audio CD. And you can get your copy by calling us at 904-651-3351. Or if you prefer, you can download the free MP3 from our website at changedbygrace.org. I'm Pastor Steve Hereford. I want to thank you for listening today and hope you'll join us again next time as we study God's Word. Hi, I'm Pastor Steve Hereford. We have started a new church and we would like to invite you to come grow with us. The name of the church is Changed by Grace Church and we meet at 1322 Eastport Road in Ocean Way. At Changed by Grace we offer the same quality teaching that you hear on this station every week. So why not join us this morning at 11 o'clock? At Changed by Grace we're experiencing the love of God through the grace of God. You need more information? Well give us a call at 904-651-3351 or visit our website at changedbygracechurch.org