People to Look Out For

Last week Paul told Titus the kind of people he needed to be looking for to lead churches, in this passage he tells Titus the kind of people he needs to look out for leading churches! Not look out for like help them out, but like they are dangerous!

He finishes verse 9 by saying the those who contradict sound doctrine, or true and right belief, need to be corrected. He’s right! We are called to put God first in our lives and to order our lives around his Word. If I’m going to order my life around this Word, if it is that important, then I want to make sure I understand it correctly. I’m going to do my best! And if it is that important then I also want to stand against any misunderstandings of it.

There were false teachers on the island of Crete who were leading people, whole families, astray. Whether it was on purpose or accident, it would have terrible results if not corrected. The same thing is still happening in our world today, so we need this word from Paul!

read and pray

Christians must be on guard against and ready to correct false gospels.

False teachers are dangerous

Ezekiel 13:8–16 ESV

Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Because you have uttered falsehood and seen lying visions, therefore behold, I am against you, declares the Lord God. My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who give lying divinations. They shall not be in the council of my people, nor be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord God. Precisely because they have misled my people, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash, say to those who smear it with whitewash that it shall fall! There will be a deluge of rain, and you, O great hailstones, will fall, and a stormy wind break out. And when the wall falls, will it not be said to you, ‘Where is the coating with which you smeared it?’ Therefore thus says the Lord God: I will make a stormy wind break out in my wrath, and there shall be a deluge of rain in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to make a full end. And I will break down the wall that you have smeared with whitewash, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you shall perish in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the Lord. Thus will I spend my wrath upon the wall and upon those who have smeared it with whitewash, and I will say to you, The wall is no more, nor those who smeared it, the prophets of Israel who prophesied concerning Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her, when there was no peace, declares the Lord God.

False teachers need to be corrected

We don’t want people to act on things that aren’t true! Well, sometimes we might. If it’s funny…

But it can be very dangerous. My boys love to watch Dude Perfect videos. In one of their videos they were blowing stuff up. They were going to blow up a bunch of flour and they just thought it was make a flour cloud. They were set up really close to where the explosion was going to be. But one of their editors informed them that flour is flammable, so they moved back. And then they had an explosion way bigger than they were expecting.

We need to correct those who have believed a lie and those who taught it to them.

Two false Gospels leading people astray today:

Prosperity gospel

Gospel of self

2 Timothy 4:3 ESV

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,

Be active in your pursuit of the knowledge of God! In your understanding of the Bible!

Fighting false doctrine is so important. Here’s why: There is only one Gospel that saves.

Galatians 1:6–8 ESV

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.