Silencing False Teachers! - part 2

Returning to Titus 1, we come back to such an important part of Scripture for the Church.

Titus is part of the Pastoral Epistles, which are instructions by Paul to Timothy and Titus for regulating the church

The Apostle Paul left Titus on the island of Crete in order to put in order what remained to be done

The primary task for Titus was to establish Elders in every town

Elders are the leaders in the church who are to serve as models to be emulated by believers

They are to live lives that are above reproach and are exemplary in every area.

Even more than being examples to be followed, they are to be leaders that equip the flock and teach them to grow in the faith.

Ephesians 4:11–13 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

The teaching ability of the Elder may be the most important part of who he is. The teaching ministry of the Word is the most important ministry of the church.

Some people might want to object or throw ideas out there to contend for the #1 spot. “What about...”:

Praise and worship?

Local outreach?

Missions?

Kids ministry?

Hospitality?

Yes, those are important. But without sound biblical teaching, those do not come to God-honoring fruition in the church.

Who is the God you are praising and worshiping?

Why are local outreach and missions important?

What is the purpose of our kids ministry?

These are well-intentioned initiatives, but they are merely endeavors pursued by sinful fallen man unless they are first informed by sound biblical teaching.

Continuing on now in Titus, let’s read Titus 1:9, the final verse from last week’s text.

This verse introduces us to an often overlooked and an increasingly underappreciated aspect of the ministry of Elder: the defender of the sheep.

This is a ministry that Jesus alludes to in John 10, when He reveals Himself as the good shepherd.

John 10:11–13 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

An Elder, as has been meticulously dissected for the past several weeks, is anything but a hired hand.

He is a true shepherd of God’s sheep

He is an overseer (1:7)… set apart for the purpose of watching over, nurturing, and caring for the needs of those in the church.

And a true shepherd, not a hired hand, is a defender of the sheep.

Read Titus 1:10-16.

One means by which the Elders in Crete were to be defenders of the sheep was by Silencing False Teachers!

This expectation parallels what Paul instructed Timothy to do in Ephesus:

1 Timothy 1:3–4 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.

It is important to note that this is not simply correcting their false doctrine or denouncing their immoral behavior. Rather, as Titus 1:11 says, they were to silence them and remove such spiritual cancers from the fellowship.

What do we know about these false teachers?

There are many

The Apostle Paul does not say that “they will pop-up from time to time” or “you will get a few.”

There are many!

The for, at the beginning of verse 10, connects it to verse 9. The reason you have to be able to rebuke those who contradict and do it ably and capably is because there are so many of them

The churches in Crete are not yet completely set-up and they are dealing with these false teachers coming in to distort the true doctrines of the faith.

If that was true almost 2,000 years ago at the beginning of the Church, how much more is it the case today?

These people flood the churches today and go unchecked in the name of “being gentle” or believing that they are “well intentioned.”

This is a spiritual warfare!

There is no place for well-intentioned wrong teaching!

If someone needs to be corrected in their doctrine, then let them be corrected by sound doctrine.

If they refuse to be corrected, and persist in their faulty doctrine, then they must be silenced.

Take away their platform

Remove them from teaching ministries or as influencers in the church

Remove them from leadership positions where they will be revered and listened to

There are many, many books and movies and TV/online preachers out there that are impacting smaller local congregations with their false doctrine.

They are distorting the clear teaching of Scripture for their own financial gain.

Ultimately, they are pawns of Satan to discourage and destroy the Church of God from within.

And they do all this with what we would call “well intentioned efforts.”

Motivational speaking masquerading as sermons

Quippy one-liners to put on t-shirts and travel mugs

Health and wealth teachings and promises

Heavily psychologized self-help and growth books

In general, the tongue is a devastating force for evil, and in the mouths of false teachers who need to be silenced, it has always been a severe danger.

James 3:5–6 the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.

Left unchecked, the tongue spews forth the filth and evil of a depraved heart and mind and can cause immeasurable damage.

Romans 3:13–14 Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

The Church as a whole, and godly leaders specifically, must silence these hired hands who are leading the sheep astray and bringing division between them and the nourishing word of God. Paul speaks of enduring impact and reality of these people:

2 Timothy 3:13 evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

They are insubordinate

They are headstrong and ambitious. They do not submit themselves to authority in the church (maybe they are the authority) or to church discipline.

They are empty talkers and deceivers

They are from a common background: Jewish

Warning against false teachers: Jeremiah 23

False teachers named in the New Testament.

Google search: false teachers named in the new testament