Silence the Critics (Back Talkers) for their own good and for the good of the congregation of the elect. (Titus 1:9-11)

Sermon Scripture

Titus 1:9–11 NASB 95

9 holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. 10 For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11 who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.

Sound Doctrine

1 Timothy 4:16 KJV 1900

16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.

There is a intrinsic relationship between one’s being and one’s doctrine. The lining up of them in the walk of ones life is like the lining up of a timing belt - if they are off or misaligned or break, then it can cause severe internal damage and be very costly. So, pay close attention that you might notice if something is off.

Well then you’ve got to know what the timing belt is. That is to say, you’ve got to understand what doctrine is and it’s relation to you. Doctrine is teaching or specifically that speaking of instruction or precept.

Doctrine is not simply belief, but it is the instruction which comes forth from the teaching founded within the source of your belief. If your belief is in the Roman Catholic Church, baptist, Methodist Church or what have you, then you’re doctrine is going to be sourced in the teaching of the counsels of that denomination. If your belief is in Christ, then your doctrine is going to be source in the Word of Christ, the Holy Scriptures.

This also leads us unto the understanding that the basis of belief is not emotion, but it is intellect. It is the understanding of truth and the receiving of a teaching. It is the understanding of what God has done for us, that we have appropriated through the Spirit, given to us by God Almighty so that we believe the truth of His Word…or receive sound doctrine.

To look at doctrine is to say that your identity found in your belief is more than a belief. You believe in something or someone and that belief has instruction, it has teaching that is attached, that if one is detached from it then the belief itself becomes in a rather peculiar position.

This is why it is a illogical statement or thought to say… “well we all believe in God…or we all believe in Jesus”. What does that mean? Who do you believe that Jesus is? Do you believe that He is the Christ? What did Jesus teach? How do we know His teachings? What is our responsibility found within His teachings? This is not only where belief becomes a walk, but where it actually unifies the mind and the being of one. It brings forth your true identity and purpose within who you are in God and the belief, the faith that He has given you to walk in light of the instruction that He has given.

As such, the elder overseer of the church, must he himself be one that holds fast to the Word of faith or the faithful word. It is “pistos logos”, Faith word or Word of Promise. That persuasion of teaching. The Word being identified is the instruction or the teaching that had been taught - specifically here the teaching of Christ, of the true gospel and the formation then of the church built upon that gospel of Christ Jesus.

The first part of Titus 1:9 seems to me to be identifying that the elder overseer - it’s not that he must know a list of confessions, but that he must hold down, hold firmly or even cleave to the Word of God. He cannot be formed or swayed by opinion, tradition or clever argument, but must have a white fingered firm grip upon the Word of God as his source of being.

This is why we here try to steer clear from labels of debate and arguments of confession and rather dig deep into the teaching of the Word, trusting that will develop within us sound doctrine. I find that with the best of intentions, we often use labels to describe doctrine rather than teaching doctrine. Those labels are then packaged into seperate forms of confessions and then fellowship which is to be centered in the teaching of doctrine is often broken.

So I see Titus 1:9 here as telling that elder overseer - teach the Word of God, in season and out of season, teach the Word of God. The Word of God is sound doctrine. The straying from, the adding to, the taking away of is the corruption of sound doctrine. To be “sound” is to be in the fullness of health or free from any containments. Thats the job of the elder overseers of the church in each and every generation - it is the pure teaching of the Word. It is not Jesus taught when he walked the earth such and such, Paul then by the Spirit taught in the epistles this, and in the 1600’s the church founded the doctrine of you name it through the debate and council of this and that and now we hold to the confession of 1600.

The word in the text is to hold fast to the Word of Faith “as he has been taught”. That “as he has been taught”, I believe is the directive to look back to the epistles, to the Word of God. This is not the looking back to what Peter, Apollos or what somebody else said, but to what has been taught by the Holy Spirit, which is this book: The Word of God - the Scriptures. Nobody adds to it, and nobody takes away from it - that is what he has been taught and that is the teaching before us.

The fulness of the message has been delivered and every generation has the responsibility and the need to hold fast to the pure Word of Faith - the Word of God, that the living Word might do what the living God has destined it to do within the lives of the local church in each generation. The elder overseers calling and responsibility never changes - keep the Word and the teaching of the Word undefiled by human argument, and debate of division falsely called wisdom.

Rather, the wielding of sound doctrine is a tool of exhortation and convincing for those who contradict doctrine. Those two things, the exhorting and convincing of those who contradict, ought to lead us to at least heavily consider that we are speaking here of those who are God’s children. That is why they are not called to be cast out or divided from, but exhorted and convinced. Why is the exhortation and convincing necessary?

Because within the congregation there appears to be many, a large number of those who do three things that are not aligned with sound doctrine. Now remember when we go through this list of three things, that it appears that we are dealing with Christian brethren. WIthin the congregation there are those who are unruly, vain talkers and deceivers, and the elder overseers have a responsibility to hold fast to sound doctrine for the benefit of those unruly, vain talking, deceivers and for the whole of the congregation.

Unruly - They are not subject to rule. They will not subject themselves to the teaching as student disciples but rather position themselves as the constant challengers of it and authority. They are not seeking to be taught, but seek more teachings that agree with their desires. The one who is unwilling to be persuaded in sound/pure doctrine is often seeking to pursuade others in their own inpurities of doctrine. The reality is that none of us know all truth, and thus our lives are under the constant instruction of the Lord, the daily revelation of the gospel of grace and our standing and walking in it. You don’t graduate from that school as in memorizing a list “to do’s” but you are actually a daily disciple, everyday evaluating wether or not you are submitting to the doctrine of truth or walking as a neigh sayer, a self proclaimed expert.

If we are speaking of this description being of those who are in the congregation of God, and of the congregation of God there can even be a great number who fit this description, then that means, I believe that there ought to be a daily examination of ourselves that we might not be found as ones talking back to the pure word of faith, the teachings and instruction given in the Word of God and in the preaching of His Word.

Vain Talkers - That is what often leads to senseless or mischievous talk. That is the talk of a wrangler…also known as a college professor. It is one disputes. It is one who is characterize as being of idle words or words that serve no good or purpose and can harm relationships and reputations. It is a talk of insincerety. Arguing for the sake of arguing.

Deceivers - In all of their arguing, they are highly convincing. They can not only frame the argument well, but they can convince the hearers that the argument is appropriate, necessary and even good.

When a discussion comes up, the ultimate end of the discussion and the back talker is to be based on the truth of the Word of God. Not upon the opinions of men, but upon the truth of the Word of God.

It seems that this text is pointing out the obvious, that in the congregation of God, you are going to have those who come from various walks, traditions and beliefs from the past. Indeed we all come with some traditions and previously held thoughts to the Word of God, and sometimes those things are found not to be according to sound doctrine. The obvious part of the church is that, that will happen more often than not. In our present day, it is not only previously held thoughts that we can get held up it, but it is also new waves of doctrine brought into our living rooms by various forms of media and so forth. Those idle arguments are then brought to the church as hey we need to do this or that - it’s the newest and latest and so forth.

Now if we stick to our text then we observe that this objectionable talk is coming in primarily from the Jews, but more than that it is one ofthe talk of legalism. “specially they of the circumcision”.

It is not hard to understand that within the church legalism leads to growth. The identity of what we must do, creates a identity and a cause within the church forming a cultish type following of necessary attributes and duties. Man is lifted up and the cause is supported in numbers and financially. It can even be a legalistic hold to liberalism…the point is that it is a man made man packaged list of identity points and duties that are placed over the heads of the congregants.

In circumsision here, I see the text as identifying the root cause of most of this empty talk and resistance to sound truth is based on biblical law. The argument of the neighsayers is that the congregation understand and attempt to fufill the law. Such arguments and talk within the church we are told in verse 11 must be stopped. In fact the “must be stopped” is a present active infinitive. That means that the stopping of such isn’t a once and for all work, but it is a constant battle.

In other words, the activity of the flesh, espessially I believe amougnst those who go to church is legalism. The struggle of submission is unto the pure gospel of grace - the Word of faith. So, for you and I, there is a huge battle here, that is identified by the present active infinitive as a life long battle. We must daily be on guard and stop such talk, because this type of talk actually subverts whole houses and families. Subvert is to turn over, to overthrow or destroy. This talk destroys houses, “teaching things which they ought not teach.”

One of the primary motives of such teaching we see in verse 11 is greed, money and success… “for the cause of filthy gain”. Those who see godliness as a means of earthly gain. Gain here is the key word. In the doctrine of truth there is always in the Spirit a sense of healing, nourishment and contentment. In false doctrine there is a constant need, a necessary striving of performance to gain the next thing, to be better identified, or better established. You have been established in Christ and no work or identifying marks of man can increase your establishment, no ordinace or custom of man - it is all by the work of Christ and nothing of the flesh.

This filthy lucre…or filthy gain. It is not necessarily only speaking of money, but I will say, that the other things it may be describing, money goes hand in hand with, wether it is greed, power, pride or position. It is Christ who is assembling His church, and when we add to the teaching of His Word, when we place ordinaces and requirments upon His people, even for the purpose of better assembling, then it is a pride and a robbing of what belongs to Christ. Such is very destructive. You want to overturn your home, then claim the gospel of grace and preach legalism in your home. They cannot go together, and when they are forced together it destroys the hearers. We have no need to use tactics to assemble the church - there is no need for bait, guile and deciete. There is no need to use bait in our homes - the Word of God is fully sufficient for the equipping of every good work. There is absolutley no need, and in fact it is actually damaging to conduct the word of God in a teaching in such a way that it promotes growth in money and success or any drives that are common to the buisness world or to the acceptance of the flesh.

As a church, and in our context, the elders of the church must be constantly aware and active in the battle against the talking back and the resistance of truth of those who promote legalism or the fables or commandments of men.

The revelation of Jesus Christ our Messiah is the doctrine of grace, and that doctrine that teaching is the transformative work, the gift of God that identifies us and the all of us being in Him and in Him alone. The elders of the congregation, the overseers must cling to the Word of the faithfulness of Christ alone, the pure doctrine of grace, because failure to do so can cause awful disruption in the household of God, but the faithful teaching of sound doctrine will exhort and convince even the neighsayers.

Therefore, I encourage this congregation to be on your guard, and hold fast to the faithful Word, that is taught in the Word of God alone - nothing more, nothing less. To God be all the glory forever and ever - AMEN.