Titus 1:10-16

Introduction:

As we continue with our worship of the Lord Jesus Christ this morning, I want to invite you to open up your Bibles to Titus 1:10-16 with me as we study the Word of the Lord together.

10 For there are many rebellious people, full of empty talk and deception, especially those from the circumcision party. 11 It is necessary to silence them; they are ruining entire households by teaching what they shouldn’t in order to get money dishonestly. 12 One of their very own prophets said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true. For this reason, rebuke them sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith 14 and may not pay attention to Jewish myths and the commands of people who reject the truth.

15 To the pure, everything is pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; in fact, both their mind and conscience are defiled. 16 They claim to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work. ( Titus 1:10-16)

As we consider this text this morning, let us go to the Lord in prayer, asking Him to speak to our hearts and minds so that we can be better equppied to do the work He has called us to.

Let’s pray together.

Last week, when we looked at Titus 1:5-9 we talked about how the church needs Godly leaders to be healthy. If a church is going to function the way that God wants the church to function, then one of the things that we need to be thinking and praying about is that God would equip the Church with Godly men to help lead and guide the church. Without these men in place, the church is left in a place of undoneness. It is not functioning on all cylinders, if you know what I am saying.

Can the church survive this way? We would have to say yes, to a certain extent. Jesus has promised to build his church and we know that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Jesus takes care of HIs church. We know that nothing is ever going to destroy the universal church.

However, all throughout the New Testament we see Jesus issue warnings to the local church about real threats and dangers that could spring up in them. We often think about dangers coming from outside of our church as we face persecution and what not, but that really is not the most dangerous thing we see spoken of. The most dangerous thing that we see in the New testament is the threat of what can come from inside of the church.

Body:

This is what Paul is talking about here with Titus. He is talking about The threat of False Teachers.

We see this warning issued over and over again throughout the New Testament. When the church started to reach lost people and people where coming to place their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, there was this opposition that the early church faced with all kinds of false teachings.

Let me just name of some of the most common of what we see in the New Testament:

Following Old Testament Laws

Not Eating Certain Foods

Having “Insider” knowledge

All Material Things Are bad.

We could go on, but I think that you get the idea. The early church was filled with all kinds of false teachings. There was a threat to the core message of the Gospel. All of these things were attacking what Jesus Christ had done through his death, burial, and resurrection. All of these things were basically teaching that there was another.....a better....way to get to heaven and be made right with God.

It is to this kind of threat that Paul is riting Titus telling him how to handle this situation. This was also part of what was left undone. The churches at Crete needed Godly leaders so that they could combat false teaching in their area.

Let’s look at the text together.

10 For there are many rebellious people, full of empty talk and deception, especially those from the circumcision party. (Titus 1:10)

Remember what Paul said right before this as he was talking about the qualifications of a Godly leader.....9 holding to the faithful message as taught, so that he will be able both to encourage with sound teaching and to refute those who contradict it.

A Godly leader had to be able to hold onto the faithful message as taught....meaning he had to be one who knew the Gospel and was willing to teach and preach the Gospel so that…that is the purpose cluase here....he could encourage with sound teaching and to refute those who contradict it…why? Why is this so important? verse 10 tells us why.... FOR THERE ARE MANY REBELLIOUS PEOPLE. We could replace the word “For” with Because and it might help us see what Paul is trying to say here.

Godly leaders were necessary because the local churches they were facing some false teachers. They were empty talkers and decievers. Paul even tells us what group they belonged to…there were from the circumcision party....meaning that this false teaching had as its origin with some Jews. This was not uncommon. The Jews were a source of many of the false teachings in the early church. They were the ones who were telling the Gentiles that they needed to start following the Old Testament Laws if they really wanted to be God’s people.

Now, we are not told exactly what they were teaching here at Crete. It really doesn't not seem to be anything like following Laws to be made right with God....because we do not see Paul’s normal response given to Titus here…but seems to deal more with material gain, as we will see as we walk through this text.

What is the response that to this false teaching?

Look down at verse 11 with me.

11 It is necessary to silence them; they are ruining entire households by teaching what they shouldn’t in order to get money dishonestly. (Titus 1:11)

There are three things that we need to see from this single verse:

False Teachers Must Be Silenced.

They cannot be allowed to continue to have a stronghold in those churches

2. False Teachers Ruin Local Churches.

This is what is meant be the phrase, “they are ruining entire households...” When we hear households we think of families. We think of those who live under my roof. In some extenent that was also true in the New Testment. However, I think what Paul is referring to here is not family but the churches who were meeting in the homes of people. It was not until much later that the church actually started meeting in buildings. These false teachers seem to be going from house church to house church and were just wrecking them because of their teaching.

3. False Teacher were doing it for the Money.

This tells the reason why there were doing what they were doing. It was not that they were trying to teach false doctrine for the sake of teaching false doctrine to mislead people. They did not care about that. They were only thinking about one thing…they were thinking about their own pocketbooks. They wanted to gain money.

What comes to my mind are those get rich quick commercials… you know what I am talking about? Those guys who are on late night TV and are saying.... “Are you tired of being in debt and living paycheck to paycheck? Are you tired of going to work everyday in a deadend Job wishing that you could do something that you love? Guess what?!! Now you can!!! And I Will teach you how in my 9 week program. You can go from making 500 dollars and week to making 10,000 a week. All you need to do is order my book “How to make money quick” and you will be on your way to being a success.” And if you call within the next 10 mins you will save 10% off of your first order.”

You know what I am talking about? To our ears that sounds sooo good. That guy seems so nice. He seems to have my best interest at heart. He is only wanting what is best for me....but deep down we ALL know that is not true. That guy does not care about me or you at all....he only wants ONE thing.... HE WANTS TO GET RICH....and HE will..... You wont....BUT HE WILL…and YOu will help him.

That is what goes through my mind as I think about these verses. That is what these false teachers were doing to the local church. They were preaching a message not to help the church…but to fill their own pockets.

This is what Paul has to say about these people....look at verse 12...

12 One of their very own prophets said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”(Titus 1:12)

That is the testimony against them. This is how these false teachers are classified....liars....evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” They are everything that a preacher of the Gospel is not to be. They do not have a reputation of being Godly or walking with the Lord. They are not in the ministry for the benefit of others. They are only after making a quick buck because they think that the work is easy.

Here is Paul’s response. Look at verses 13-14 with me.

13 This testimony is true. For this reason, rebuke them sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith 14 and may not pay attention to Jewish myths and the commands of people who reject the truth. (Titus 1:13-14)

There is some debate over these verses. Many commentator indicate that Paul’s response is that because these false teachers are preaching for material gain that he is telling Titus to rebuke them sharply so that the may learn to be sound in the faith....thus it would have an reconciling effect for them. This is the main concern, or should be at least, for all church discipline. Paul is saying that they should be corrected and thus lead to believe in the truth.

However, there is another thought here, and this is where my mind seems to land, is that Paul is telling Titus to rebuke the churches so that they would be sound in the faith and would not pay attention to the Jewish myths and commands of the false teachers who are rejecting the truth. This makes more sense to me in context of what is being said. Are both possible, yes. Absouluty. Both also could be true, but I think that Paul is telling Titus....and telling us

Pay Attention To What You Are Hearing.

The messages that we hear on a regular basis either draw us near to God or dragging us further away from God. Our desire should be that we are sound in the faith....meaning that we are holding onto the truths of the Gospel and we are not adding to the Bibles teaching. We do not need to add any rules to follow when we cannot even follow the commands that God has already given us. There is no amount of effort that is going to make us more right with God. God does not bless us based on performance. We have been blessed with ALL spiritual blessing though CHRIST and HIS FINISHED WORK. That is it. IF you have placed your faith and trust in Christ, then God has Blessed you and accepted you. You do not need to earn His favor....you have it in Christ. That is the message here.

Conclusion:

How then can we tell a false teachers from real ones?

I want this question to drive our thinking as we get close out this morning.

15 To the pure, everything is pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; in fact, both their mind and conscience are defiled. 16 They claim to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work. (Titus 1:15-16)

We can tell false teachers by their fruit.

WE must learn to evulate the messages that we are hearing. WE have to be willing to look around and see if we are following any kind of false teaching....and listen to me…that does not just have to be here inside of the church....even though that is the context of this passage.

In our culture we hear a billion different messages a day. We have to be willing to take a step back and ask ourselves these types of questions. We have to see what type of ‘gospel’ they are preaching to us. We have to learn to evaluate what we are hearing and examine it next to scripture to see if it makes sense or not. We have to start wondering about the motives of others. Why are they saying this or that? What benefit is there for them. This is what has ruined the New networks. They do not care about truth…they care about money. That is it. I know that is far cry from what we are talking about this morning, but it is a close example.

How do we evaluate these teachers?

Are they living by the Bibles teaching?

Are they living out the faith?

Are they growing or showing marks of godliness?

Are they seeking to do good work in the community?

Do they show that Jesus has taken ahold of their lives?

As important as it it for us to evlaute the messages that we hear, I think that this passage also calls us to go one step further and evaluate our own lives and walk with Christ as well.

What is Your Motive For Following Christ?

Are You Living Out the Faith?

Does Your Faith Produce Good Works In Your Life?

Do You Believe The Gospel?

Are You Producing Fruit?

Christ does not want any of us to be mislead into thinking that we are following Him when in fact we are not. It is easy to fool those around you. It is easy to go to church once a week, do your “duities” and live life like the rest of the world. When you are living life this way, as one person had said… ‘you have no one who matters fooled’ If that is you, if you have just been playing the church game, trying to get some benefit out of it, but really do not know Jesus Christ, I want to encourage you this morning to stop it! To lay down your life. I want to tell you that you are not going to be made right with God by your own efforts! Christ came and died for sinners like you and me. He came because we could not do it. He was killed for our transgressions and raised three days later for our justification; now He commands all of us to repent and come to Him. Do that this morning. Stop trying on your own and surrender your life.

For those of you who have trusted in Christ, I want to encourage you this morning to rest in Christ and what He offers you. You have everything you need in Him. Give your life to Him and follow after Him and His Word. Let Him Lead you. He is for you and not against you. His desire is for you to grow…and He will accomplish His work. Rest In Him.

Main Point: Run From False Teaching; Cling to Christ.