Titus chapter one, verse 10 through 16. So let's turn there together as we give our attention to God's word. Here, God's word. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party, they must be silenced since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, 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 devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth and 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. They profess to know God. But they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work." Well, I don't profess to be particularly adept in the area of the natural sciences. It's not an area that I ever pursued in school, but there are several observations that you can make fairly simply, even with a rudimentary knowledge as is mine. And one of them is the function of magnets, how opposite poles attract and the same poles repel each other. It is something that we observe, the opposites pulling on each other and and the same poles pushing each other away. And you see the same thing in relationships sometimes, don't you? Often times you hear that saying, opposites attract, and people bring that up to you when they learn how different you are from each other, as husband and wife, perhaps. Sometimes opposites also highlight differences. For example, in colors you see opposites highlighting differences. The contrast bringing out one from the other, black against white, is a very clear contrast and it makes it very obvious. Or sometimes you also see it as a literary tool in perhaps theater. where you would have a character who acts as a foil, the bad guy who makes the good guy look even better. That's how opposites are used sometimes to accentuate a difference. And I think this is the tool that Paul is using, probably not intentionally. He's probably not gone to the school of theatre in Jerusalem and figured out that this is how you accentuate differences. But nevertheless, this is what he does. He takes something that is quite different from what he has just discussed. He is talking about opposites. We just finished looking at the office of elder and the office of the mature or the life of the mature believer as it leads into eldership. And Paul draws a very clear picture of what the overseer or the elder was to demonstrate in his life before he could be an elder. And tonight he's contrasting that with the alternative. If we have mature Christians who look like this, why do we why must we have them? It's because what we are reading about tonight is the alternative. This is what is in the church. If Christian maturity is not set forward as the right qualifications for ruling in the church. And so I want us to look at three things as we consider the opposite of those who would be in the church, those opposite of mature believers. And we want to look first at their character in verse 10. Then we want to look at the response to their character. And then we're going to look at the motivation behind the response. So the character in verse 10, the response in verse 11 through the first part of verse 13, and then the motivation for that response in the second part of verse 13 and through to verse 16. So first, let's look at the character of these foils of the mature believer, so to speak. Now, just by way of reminder, the the overseer or which is the task of the elder, which is the office. These people are to demonstrate certain things in their lives before they can even be considered for the office of elder. They are to be above reproach, it says, a one-woman man. They are to have an orderly home. They're not to be arrogant or quick-tempered. They're not to be drunkards or violent or greedy, but they're supposed to be hospitable, loving, good, being self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. This is the picture that Paul has painted of the mature believer in the verses that have preceded. Now here, Paul is introducing the reason, the reason for our caution when it comes to assigning the role of elder to people in the church. Because there are many, it says in our verse, who are opposite to this. There are many who find themselves insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers. That is the three part description of the character of the foil of the mature believer in insubordinate, it says in verse 10, which is really, really in opposition to what is described in verse seven, that the elder is not to be arrogant. The one who is insubordinate refuses to yield to authority, refuses to yield to those installed by God as leaders in the church. It's interesting, isn't it, that the ones who are supposed to be leading are most supposed to be willing to subject themselves to leadership. This is the description that is given to us in the word of God. And the reason we as elders are supposed to be willing to submit ourselves to authority is because we don't come to the church as leaders of ourselves. Now, we come to the church as stewards. That is one of the words that we saw represented in our passages as we looked at the various characteristics of the elders. They come as stewards, those taking care of something that belongs to another. This is what the elder is supposed to be doing. The empty talkers, the second part of of the foil of the elder. This is contrary to chapter one in verse nine. Those who hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught the talker who has has no eternal perspective, the one who speaks only perhaps for the the joy of hearing his own voice. the sound of his own ideas. This is the empty talker, not one who holds firmly to the word, but one who speaks into the air. And then finally, it says that these people, by their character, are shown to be deceivers. This is in contrast to the elder described in verse eight as one who is a lover of good, or a little bit later on in that same verse, one who is upright and holy. The deceiver looks for his own advantage. That's what we saw in the life of Jacob, didn't we? When he went and deceived his father, it was so that he could receive the blessing. When he went and deceived his brother, Esau. It was so that he would have a higher standing in this life. And so Jacob, as a as a deceiver, is is looking out for his own advantage. Now, these people, it says in our verse, look at the end of verse 10. These people are especially found among those who are of the circumcision group. I want to take a little bit of time to think through and look at what the Bible shows us about who the circumcision group is, because it will inform us as to what we are to look out for in our church setting today as well. And the circumcision group was primarily a group of of Jewish Christians who were seeking to add to the promises of the gospel that Christ gave the understanding that we are saved not by anything that we do, but we are saved only by the work of Christ applied to us by the Holy Spirit that has certain results in our life. But thinking of the actual act of salvation, it comes as a gift free from all works that we have done. It comes to us without any merits of our own. And this is what the circumcision group tried to attack, perhaps not even intentionally, but what they ended up saying was, yes, you need the gospel of grace given to us by God alone, but you also need to be circumcised according to the Jewish customs. If you are not circumcised, you cannot truly be counted as one who is saved. And we know this from the book of Galatians. In the book of Galatians, Paul speaks at some length about this circumcision group, beginning in chapter 2 and in verse 12. He describes people coming from James, people coming from Jerusalem. And he shows how these people, by their changing the gospel message into including adherence to Jewish rights, Jewish ceremonial customs. In adding these to the gospel of salvation, they caused people to go astray. They caused people to cease to trust in the work of Christ alone and began to add their own merits to that which was important and, in fact, necessary for their salvation. And we see in Galatians chapter 2, that these people actually were quite influential. They exerted quite a lot of influence in their own time, because it says that when these certain men from James came, Peter himself withdrew himself from eating with the Gentiles, because he feared the circumcision party. In fact, they are so influential, that Barnabas also is led astray by their hypocrisy. They they exerted pressure on the on the people seeking to apply what was a new idea to the people of that time, perhaps perhaps they had wandered away from the truth of the gospel as it is recorded for us in the Old Testament also. But but they they pressured people. And what we know from Galatians 2, in verse 14, is that their message is one of error. Paul says there, But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews? Paul, in the letter to Galatians, clearly says the circumcision party is setting forward something that is contrary to the word of God. It is not something that is in accord with the teaching of the scriptures, because we understand that God's salvation comes to us by grace alone. It is it is God's gift. It's not something that we earn. We say that in several places in the word of God, but specifically we can think of Ephesians chapter two and verse eight and nine. It's an oft quoted passage for that purpose where it says, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. So when we come to our salvation, speaking now of our justification. It is a gift of God. It is something that is given to us, not something that we earn. And so, the moment of salvation is brought about by God alone. We understand that as God's people, as we study the Word of God. What happens afterwards may be a different story. It deals with our sanctification. And in our sanctification, God certainly equips us, as the rest of Ephesians Chapter 2 points out for us, but when we're dealing with our justification, which is what Paul is addressing not only in Galatians, but also in Titus here in our passage, it is certainly proper for us to understand without qualification that we come to our salvation in God by grace alone. It is a gift given to us by Him alone. Now, this is not a heresy that is unique to the apostles' time. I may be dating myself a little bit, but I remember some time ago, this little book came out in the prayer of Jabez, right? And the prayer of Jabez basically said, you pray this prayer five times a day and God will give you blessing. It's the same principle. It is as if our works obligates God to action. That is what Paul is warning us about. That is what the prayer of Jabez violates in what it lays out before us. Bruce Wilkinson, in his work, does a great disservice to the church. I don't know how many people spent several months or years in their life praying this certain prayer, hoping that God would expand their borders and give them great blessing. And that is not what God sets before us as a foundation for His action. It is from His own good pleasure. God blesses us because of the work of His Son. So we can't replace faith or love for God with external compliance. But we don't just reserve this criticism for the health and wealth gospel types. It perhaps is obvious in their life. But I would submit to each of us that we all struggle with this idea. maybe in our prayer life or maybe when we're at home. We usually don't show it when we're at church and we have our Sunday face on, but it's part of all of our lives. It happens in different ways. For example, it happens when you look at your neighbor and you realize that he is not going to church, but you are going to church. And you think, well, aren't I just an accomplished individual? Look at him. He is not even going to church. That is doing the same thing. It is taking your action and assigning your value based on your action, instead of taking your value as something that is given to us by God. And so you can take this and apply it in all sorts of different areas where we would fail in this way, thinking ourselves superior based on something that we do. It could be based on our theological knowledge. could be based on how well we know the shorter catechism. Something as simple as that could be something that causes us to stumble, to think ourselves superior to the people who are around us. Or maybe it could be something that would deal with how big your family is. I would know nothing about that kind of problem, of course. But that's something that could cause you to be prideful, assigning value to yourself based on your action rather than on God's work in your life, or it could be based on your political opinions, or how well your marriage is working, or how successful you have been in business. You realize all these things are the same. All these things are our action. All these things are assigning value to us based on what we have accomplished in our own minds anyways, by the strength of our own hand. But they are not the foundation of why we are loved by God. And so we have to ask ourselves, how do we guard ourselves against this weakness? How do we guard ourselves against this prayer? I guess I gave it away against this sin. We guard ourselves against this sin by understanding who God is and by understanding who we are. The Bible tells us over and over and over again. that all people have sinned in Adam. It doesn't use those words necessarily. But because of the sin of Adam, we are corrupted. We are at fault, all of us. Not any of us is exempted from this. And so, there are several passages that are well known for it. I think of Romans chapter 3 and verses 10 through to 18. Some of the hardest verses to read in the Bible because it speaks of what our heart looks like. And it says that we all have gone astray, that we have pursued our own desires, that there is not a thought in us that is pure on our own, that we have fallen short of the glory of God. All of us have done that. And Paul, it seems like he takes that passage and it builds and it builds and it builds as he considers the fallenness of himself and of the people around him, until in Romans chapter 7 and verse 24, he cries out, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? That is the question that all of us should be pressed to when we consider what we have done. We all ought to recognize how we have fallen short of God's standard. All of us should use the mirror of God's word to point us to Christ, that we would know that there is only deliverance that is found in Christ. And so our inclination and the inclination of the circumcision group is to turn to what what we must do. And certainly there is a place for that in the Christian life. The law is given to all of us. We must do as Christians, but only after. we are justified. And Paul here is dealing with people who are attacking what happens to a person previous to their justification. And so we must learn to correct ourselves in our thoughts and in our practice, specifically, though, in our thoughts in this case. that we must arrest ourselves when we recognize those thoughts creeping into our own hearts. We must seek forgiveness from the Lord and we must turn away from it, seeking our identity only in Christ. The mature Christian must learn to rest. He must learn to correct himself in that area because we are not redeemed because of what we have done. We are redeemed by God, by His work, by His gift of faith, and by the new heart of flesh that He gives to us. So, we have understood the character of the people that Paul is writing against, those who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, these of the circumcision party. But then Paul doesn't leave it there. He talks to us about how we are supposed to respond to these people. What do we do when we come across these people? And it might surprise us that Paul uses a fairly strong language in this passage to describe how we are to deal with these particular folks. He says that these people who bring error into the church, these people who lead others astray by their teaching, which they do for shameful gain, says right at the beginning of verse 11 that these people must be silenced. They must be silenced. False false teaching, Paul says. is not to be tolerated in the church of God. This is something that maybe strikes us in our own day and age as something that is a little harsh because we have come to think because we've been influenced by our culture that in some sense or another, all opinions are equally valid. But that's not what Paul says. Paul doesn't say that all opinions are equally valid. There is no freedom of misleading speech in the church. As one of the men that I was reading this past week said, there is no freedom of misleading speech in the church. The church's obligation, the church's duty is to take the speech that dishonors God, that leads people astray and silence it. to say to those people who seek to speak such nonsense into the church that their voice is not tolerated. They are not allowed to propagate their ideas. The circumcision group in Paul's day is not allowed to share an equal voice with the work of the apostles and then have the people figure out which one they think is the best opinion. Paul says their voice must be silenced. It is God's method of redemption that is at stake here. And Paul says that people who undermine the grace alone, faith alone, understanding of the gospel of grace must be silenced in the church. That's what he says in our verse right at the beginning. of the 11th verse. It is the bedrock of the Reformation, isn't it? It is one of the two of the five solas, sola gratia by grace alone and sola fide by faith alone. That is what the Reformation understood when it came to salvation. And the church is not to tolerate anything other than that, as specifically in our passage, the circumcision party was trying to do. And then in verse 12, he brings a description of the Cretans. It's kind of an interesting verse in the Scriptures, isn't it? This verse that describes the Cretans as to be liars and lazy and gluttons. I don't think you would use this as your starting point when you were trying to do a church plant in Crete, perhaps, but it's there in the Scriptures. It's there for the people in this church that they would understand who they are. It's not talking about people outside the church. Paul's talking about people inside the church. He's talking to Titus about reproving the people that are inside the church. And this is how he describes them. They were fellow church members with Titus. And so Paul must know something of the of the situation, of the nature of the people who are in the congregation. And he agrees with the prophet, whoever this prophet may be. There's lots of talk about who the prophet is and he seems to have been identified, but In my mind, it's unimportant. What is important is the assessment and how you deal with the assessment. And Paul gives us that cure. And not only does he say that they must be silenced, but when he speaks of the cretins, he agrees with the testimony of their prophet. And he says, therefore, rebuke them sharply. Therefore, rebuke them sharply. That sounds so countercultural, doesn't it? I mean, can you imagine rebuking somebody? It's it's almost not allowed in our world anymore, is it? The fact that people are in error and that we are to tell them that they are wrong, it is is frowned upon to tell people that they are wrong. What is what is one of the Best known passages of the Bible now. I mean, it used to be John 3, 16, right? For God so loved the world. But what is it now? Judge not, lest you be judged. That's what everybody throws out at you. As soon as you talk about what is right and wrong, what is good and evil, don't judge me. But Paul is saying to Titus, rebuke them. He's saying to Titus, judge their actions, decide what is right and what is wrong based on the word of God and tell people that these people who are in the congregation. That's that's what Paul did to Peter in that passage that we were reading about in Galatians. That passage begins by talking about how Paul rebuked Peter in public because Peter was clearly in the wrong. Paul went to Peter and he said to him, brother, what you are doing is sin. What you are doing is wrong. What you are doing undermines the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so Paul rebukes him and he doesn't he doesn't rebuke him in a in a gentle way, necessarily. Even it's not like Paul goes to Peter and he's trying to spare himself the awkwardness of the moment. And he says, well, Peter, you know, I've heard that it might be possible that you possibly may not be doing what is the best. That's not what he does. He goes to Peter and he's very direct with him. He tells him straight away that what he is doing is not right. What he is doing is wrong and he identifies the sin precisely. There is certainly a time for gentleness. We know this from different passages in the Scripture. It's not like what this passage is saying is that now as Christians we are to go around rooting out all the sins that we can find out about somebody and get in their face and rebuke them sharply over everything. It talks in Proverbs chapter 15 verse 1 of a time for gentleness, that a gentle word is in some cases very appropriate. It says there a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. That is certainly true. There are times when we are to approach our brothers and sisters in gentleness when we speak to them. But there are other times where rebuke is necessary. We also have first Peter, chapter four. And verse eight, where Peter cautions us about our speaking to, well, not necessarily speaking of how we treat each other as a result of living together as sinners. And it says, above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. It is true that we as Christians are to love one another in a sympathetic, in a in a sympathetic and gracious way that we do not set expectations that are unreachable, that we are patient and gracious with one another. But then there are times, as we know from Titus, that we are to be direct, that we are to be sharp, that we are to be strong in our rebuke of the sin of another of another. And it comes in those in those moments. when the integrity of the biblical message of salvation is at stake. There are other times where it's also appropriate, but certainly in what Paul is talking about in Titus, it is the integrity of the gospel that is at stake. And he says to Titus, rebuke those people sharply. Do not allow them to speak, but silence them in the church. And the Bible tells the church to rebuke those people harshly. But it doesn't leave us with just the identification of the problem and how to go about rebuking. It also talks to us about our motivation. It talks to us about how we are to guard ourselves against the pride or against self-righteousness or against a undue harshness towards our brother. And it comes in our motivation. Look in verse 13. It tells us to rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. The goal of Christian rebuke is always one of building up. The Christian rebuke is always that one would be restored in his faithful service of God, in understanding where the error of their way is, and that's the assumption. That's the assumption that we ought to make within the church as we speak to each other about these things. The assumption ought to be that the person to whom we are speaking wants to learn where his weaknesses are, that this person wants to understand his blind spots. We all have them. We all have them. And if you don't think you have them, call up your sibling, call up your child, call up your husband and ask them. They'll tell you you have blind spots. We all have them. And what we have in the rebuke of our brother and sister. is an attempt to point out to us what our error is, what our blind spot is, how we are gone, how we have gone wrong. We all need redirection to the trustworthy word as Paul identifies it in verse nine of Timothy. It is actually a gracious gift. that God gives us brothers and sisters, that we would stand side by side and direct each other again to the word. It is God's grace that he gives us those who see our failings more clearly than we do ourselves. It is God's gift to us that he allows others to rebuke us. He gives us his word for that very purpose in Second Timothy, chapter four and in verse two, he charges Timothy, he says, preach the word, be ready in and out of season, reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching. That is what the word of God is for as we pray together this morning, the teaching, the rebuking, the correcting, the training in righteousness. This is what we have in the word of God. And in fact, when we speak of those who are insubordinate, those who are are arrogant and they're thinking they're basically saying, I don't need the word of God. What I am on my own is sufficient. But that means that in giving and receiving rebuke, there are things that we have to understand. There are things that we must know when giving a rebuke. We must remember the motivation that Paul sets before us in this letter, that it is for building up. When we give a rebuke, we must remember our own sins and shortcomings. We must remember that this person could turn around and talk to us about our own weaknesses also. We come to each other in these moments in great humility, simply seeking to help, simply seeking to direct people toward the word of God and in receiving a rebuke from another. It means that we must ignore the sting of the words and focus on how you are straying from God's word. I think I've given this illustration before, but when I was an intern at a church, I preached And senior pastor of the church where I was a member, he reviewed my sermon with me. And after he got over the preliminary, yes, you have potential, he gave me three pages of criticism. It's a three page rebuke. It was hard. I didn't like it. There was a great sting there. I think it took me a couple of weeks to just get out of bed again in the morning. But you have to ignore the sting, and you have to focus on how you're straying from God's Word. We have to remember, why is the rebuke being given? Why is the rebuke being given? It's because somebody has identified something in our life that is not in accord with the Word of God. And where is our loyalty? Is our loyalty with who we are? or as our loyalty to the one who bought us with a price. And so when giving and receiving rebukes, we must certainly be sensitive, but we also must receive them with grace. And Paul continues on in verse 14 to talk to us about what he is to guard against. He is, Titus is to Rebuke them sharply so that they can be sound in the faith and and turn away from the opposite Which is man-made ideas these Jewish myths that he is describing. These are the words of men we have We are we have we have many ideas. Don't we we have many ideas that we think people should hear from us We have fairly high opinion of ourselves You understand and so there are many different ways that we think people ought to hear what we have to say That's not our cry as Christian people That's not what we're all about as Christian people. When we come to others as Christian people, it's not Jeff says this. It's not it's not whoever is speaking. This is not your ideas of of little significance. But we, like the prophets of old, are charged only with one task. This is what the Lord says. This is what God says. This is what he would have you do. And so where God does not lay a burden that we must not either. We can deduce principles from the word of God. We can read commandments from the word of God. And that's where we gain our understanding. But we must not lay burdens where God's word does not. And then Paul in verse 15 and 16, he wraps up his thought talking about to the pure all things being pure. Many people think that this is a description of a discussion of the ceremonial foods, that there are some who are being criticized by the circumcision group for eating ceremonial foods. And he is saying here that the pure that to the pure all things are pure. It doesn't mean that the pure can do whatever they want, and so it's okay. It seems to be dealing specifically with the issue of ceremonial foods. But he says, to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. And what he's talking about there is the nature of true good works. What he's saying is that if an impure person, an unsaved person, does something that on the outside appears identical to one who is regenerate, their action is considered impure. Because they're not doing it to worship God. They're not doing it for the glory of God. They're not doing it as a result of faith in God. So the good works of the impure remains impure. It is not, in essence, defined, biblically anyways, as something that is a good work based on that description. It may do good for his fellow man in terms of a corporal understanding, a temporal understanding of what is right. He may serve his neighbor that way, but in the final analysis, not considered a good work by God. And so, whatever they do, Whatever their action may be, it's considered idolatry. It's considered idolatry because they're not serving God. They're not serving the Lord in what they do. And their minds are thinking thoughts for their for thoughts that draw them away from God. Their motives are not correct and that their conscience is not motivated by a love for God. This this is what the Pharisees did, isn't it? This is what the Pharisees did. They behaved properly on the outside, but on the inside, they were really worshipping man. Then he finally gives us in verse 16, he gives us the evidence. He gives us the evidence of their denial as seen in their works. It's that passage that speaks to us of a recognition of people's final resting place by their fruit, the fruit of their work. And Paul here says that their work is detestable, disobedient and unfit to be called good work. It is in their disobedience that their allegiance is made manifest. And so when we have studied the foil of the Christian mature elder, the positive ideal that is set up before us in the verses prior, we we see this maturity and the quality and the qualifications of the elders. But there is a a corresponding or a countering negative. It is what we are to avoid. It is what we are to forbid in the church. That is what Paul sets before us. And so when we set these side by side, we see more clearly God's design in the church, because we remember Paul here is seeking to order the church. And what he has done in the first chapter is order the church through the structure within the church itself. We're going to move into chapter two where it speaks how he can order the church and teaching people how to structure their private lives. But in this particular case, he's spoken to us about ordering the church and what he has said to us about the church is that in the Christian church, one thing must be true. One thing must be true. Our actions in the Christian church are all from God and all for God. None of it flows from man. That is what Paul says before us in this letter as an organizing principle in the church, that his work must be for God and it must not be for man. May he give us strength to implement it in the days ahead. Let's pray.