Why Truth Matters
Notes
Transcript
INTRO
INTRO
Have you ever been annoyed by the question, “Why?”
If you have ever been around a child who has reached that stage, you know exactly what I mean.
“Put your shoes on.”
“Why?”
“Because we have to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because we have somewhere to go.”
“Why?”
And eventually every parent reaches that great philosophical argument:
“Because I said so.”
And it isn’t only children
Maybe you have somebody at work who questions everything
“Why do we do it this way?”
“Well, because this is how we’ve always done it.”
“Okay...but why?”
And after a while, “why?” can get annoying.
TENSION
TENSION
But as irritating as the question can be
“Why?” is actually a really good question
Because it forces us to think intentionally
Sometimes a child asks why and you realize
“This is actually really important, and I need to teach them.”
Other times they ask why and you realize
“I have absolutely no idea why we do this.”
Sometimes somebody asks “why?” at work and it exposes something that needs to change
And as Christians the question “why?” is also good for us to ask
We should know why we do what we do
We should know why we believe what we believe
And this morning Paul essentially answers the question why for Titus
TRUTH
TRUTH
If you remember, Titus’s mission on Crete was laid out in verse 5
This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—
Last week Jacob walked us through what those elders were supposed to look like in verses 6–9
Above reproach
Self-controlled
Upright
Holy
Disciplined
But the final qualification in verse 9 is a little different
The elder must:
hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
But why must a pastor know the Word?
Why must he teach sound doctrine?
Why must he be capable of recognizing and confronting error?
Paul says, here’s why.
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.
Then verse 10 begins with:
“For…”
Or we could say:
“Because…”
Because what?
“There are many.”
Who are living and teaching the complete opposite of those whom Paul has just said should lead the church
Not just one or two
But many…
the problem is widespread and it’s still spreading
But what are these teachers that are such a problem like?
Paul describes them three ways.
They are insubordinate
They refuse to submit themselves to God and his Word
They are empty talkers
Lots of spiritual-sounding words, but no substance.
They are deceivers
which means they try their best to look just enough like the truth to fool you
These teachers are giving the appearance of leading people toward Christ while actually leading them away
Sp Paul says:
“They must be silenced.”
Why such strong language?
Because:
“They are upsetting whole families.”
False doctrine hurts real people
This isn’t pastors arguing over meaningless theological trivia
People are being spiritually harmed
Families are being disrupted
The sheep are being led away from the truth
All for what?
“for shameful gain.”
All for the sake of
More Money
More Influence
More Power
Now look at verses 12–14
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.
Paul quotes one of Crete’s own writers to make the point that this shouldn’t be surprising because these teachers are simply displaying the worst characteristics their culture was known for
They lie
They live according to their appetites
They are self-serving
So what must we do about these lying, evil beast, and lazy gluttons:
“Rebuke them sharply.”
why?
“so that they may be sound in the faith.”
The goal isn’t humiliation
It’s restoration
It is redemption
redemption form what:
“Jewish myths and the commands of people.”
They were becoming fascinated with speculation while also elevating man-made rules to the level of God’s commands
And those are really two different dangers
First, Paul says Jewish myths
We cannot know every detail of what these myths were but they were likely speculative stories and interpretations built around the Old Testament
Speculation God never revealed
In other words, they were taking something that
sounded spiritual
sounded biblical
maybe even used biblical language
and giving it an authority it did not deserve
And that is still a danger for us
Because something can sound deep without being true
Something can sound spiritual without being biblical
Something can have a Bible verse attached to it and still be speculation
Paul is warning Titus about people who become more interested in
hidden things
secret things
mysterious things
than they are in what God has plainly said
Then Paul mentions the commands of people
And this is a different problem
This is when human rules, traditions, or preferences begin to function like divine law
Rules God never commanded
And there is a huge difference between saying:
“This is wise.”
“This is our tradition.”
“This is my preference.”
“This is a conviction I personally hold.”
And saying:
“God requires this of every Christian.”
The moment someone takes something God has not commanded and bind your conscience with it as though he has, they have crossed a line.
And that matters because once human rules become the measure of spirituality, eventually Christ is no longer enough
Now your standing before God gets measured by your ability to keep the extra rules
And that is exactly why verse 15 matters so much.
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.
Now this can sound confusing if we pull it out of context
Paul is not saying:
“If you are a Christian, everything is morally acceptable.”
He is not saying sin is suddenly pure.
The context is ceremonial purity:
food rules,
rituals,
created things that these false teachers were labeling unclean.
They were essentially saying:
“If you avoid the wrong foods…”
“If you follow the right rituals…”
“If you keep the right rules…”
“…then you will be pure.”
And Paul turns the whole thing around on them.
He says:
The problem is not primarily the food
The problem is not primarily the object
The problem is not primarily outside of you
The real problem is inside of you
A person whose heart has been cleansed by Christ is free to receive God’s good creation as good
But a person whose mind and conscience are defiled can avoid a thousand things and still remain impure
You can change your diet and still have a sinful heart
You can change your clothes and still have a sinful heart
You can follow every religious rule somebody gives you and still have a sinful heart
Because purity does not come from managing externals
Purity comes from being cleansed by Christ
That is why Paul says their minds and consciences are defiled
They were obsessed with identifying what was unclean around them while missing the uncleanness within them
And church, that is what legalism always eventually does
It gives you a thousand external things to measure while distracting you from the fact that only Jesus can cleanse the heart
You cannot scrub your soul clean with religious performance
You cannot make yourself acceptable to God by following enough man-made rules
You need Christ
Then verse 16 gives Titus one final test of these false teachers:
“They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.”
Their mouths say one thing
Their lives say another
And I think there is something really important in the way Paul has structured these two sections
When Paul describes the elder in verses 6–9, he spends almost all of his time talking about who that man is
What is he like at home?
Is he self-controlled?
Is he upright?
Is he holy?
Does he love what is good?
Is his life above reproach?
And then, after all of that, Paul gives one concise statement about what he teaches:
He holds firmly to the trustworthy Word
He teaches sound doctrine
He rebukes those who contradict it.
But when Paul describes the false teacher, he almost reverses it
He spends most of verses 10–15 talking about what they teach:
They deceive
They teach what they ought not teach
They devote themselves to myths
They elevate human commands
They turn people away from the truth.
And then when Paul gets to verse 16, he essentially says:
“And if you want to know what kind of people they really are, look at their lives.”
So Paul will not let us separate doctrine from character
A faithful elder’s life gives credibility to the gospel he teaches
A false teacher’s life eventually exposes the corruption underneath what he teaches.
Paul is saying:
Listen to what a man teaches, and look at how a man lives
You need both.
And now put those two pictures beside one another
The elder is self-controlled
The false teacher is controlled by his appetites
The elder loves what is good
The false teacher is unfit for good work
The elder holds firmly to the trustworthy Word
The false teacher devotes himself to myths and human commands
The elder teaches sound doctrine
The false teacher deceives
The elder protects God’s household
The false teacher upsets households.
A healthy elder is not simply a man who knows enough theology to pass an exam
He is a man who has been so gripped by Jesus and the gospel that it has shaped
his character
his home
his desires
and his doctrine
And because he loves Christ, he preaches Christ
Because he loves the sheep, when somebody begins distorting Christ and leading them away, he says something.
A faithful pastor loves the gospel too much to distort it and loves the sheep too much to remain silent when someone else does
But church, your responsibility is not simply to find pastors like that and then turn your brain off
Your ultimate confidence is not in your pastor
It is in the God’s Word
So what do Christians need to do in light of this text>
Three things
APPLICATION
APPLICATION
So what do Christians do in a world filled with spiritual voices?
Three things
1. Be Aware
1. Be Aware
Paul says:
“There are many.”
Church…false teaching is everywhere
Sometimes it presents a completely different Jesus while still using his name
Islam honors Jesus as a prophet
but denies that he is the divine Son who died as our substitute and rose again
Jehovah’s Witnesses speak about Jesus
but deny his full eternal deity
Mormonism uses the language of Jesus, Scripture, salvation, and church
but redefines God, Christ, revelation, and salvation
So merely hearing somebody say “Jesus” is not enough
The question is:
Which Jesus?
And yet false teaching also appears much closer to orthodox Christianity
There are churches that effectively say:
“Yes, Jesus saves you but real Christians
use this Bible translation
listen to this music
dress this way
and keep these particular traditions
And those human preferences become measures of spirituality
On the other side, there are churches that effectively say:
“Yes, Jesus saves you but if you aren’t really saved until
you will have this experience
display this gift
speak in tongues
or worship this particular way
Different cultures
Same danger
Jesus plus something
Then there is prosperity teaching
“Have enough faith and God will make you healthy.”
“Give money and God will make you wealthy.”
“If you are still sick, maybe you didn’t believe enough.”
We absolutely believe God can heal, and we pray that he will
But promising people that God guarantees healing if their faith is sufficient
or using desperate and suffering people to make yourself wealthy
looks an awful lot like verse 11: teaching for shameful gain
And then there are plenty of myths to get caught up in:
Numerology
Bible codes
Hidden meanings in repeating numbers
Blood moons
Date-setting
Mayan-calendar predictions
Every few years somebody supposedly discovers the secret that the rest of Christianity missed for two thousand years
Church:
Speculation is not revelation
Something doesn’t become biblical just because somebody attaches a Bible verse to it.
And here is why this matters so much today
Most of this is not merely sitting in a church down the road
It is sitting in your pocket.
Millions of hours of spiritual teaching are available on your phone
Every false gospel I just mentioned can be in front of you before breakfast
You don’t even have to look for a false teacher anymore.
The algorithm will bring one to you
A Reel
A TikTok
A YouTube Short
A podcast clip
And it gets placed right between your
sports highlights
memes
recipes
and pictures of your family
So we need to be aware but it is not enough merely to be aware
2. Be Attentive
2. Be Attentive
Pay attention to what you are allowing to disciple you
Because whether you realize it or not, your feed is teaching you
And if you aren’t attentive repetition begins to feel like truth
Familiarity begins to feel like authority
Confidence begins to feel like credibility
Going viral begins to feel like faithfulness
But this also includes what you hear from this pulpit
Don’t believe something simply because I say it
Don’t believe something because your favorite preacher says it
Test it all against the God’s Word
There is a helpful principle in recognizing counterfeit money
You have to become deeply familiar with genuine currency
what belongs there
what it looks like
its features
so that something false becomes easier to recognize
Christian discernment works similarly
I want you to know false teaching exists.
But I don’t want you spending your life becoming an expert in every counterfeit
Become an expert in the real thing
Know your Bible
Know who God is
Know who Jesus is
Know the gospel
Know what grace is
Know what Christ accomplished on the cross.
Become so familiar with the truth that something inside you says:
“That doesn’t sound like the Jesus I know.”
“That doesn’t sound like the gospel I know.”
So be attentive…
when you hear teaching that claims to be christians be sure to ask questions like:
Who is Jesus according to this teacher?
What is the gospel?
What is their final authority?
Is this actually in Scripture or does it merely sound spiritual?
And what kind of life does their teaching produce?
Paul looked at both their doctrine and their lives.
Which leads to the final thing
3. Be Awestruck
3. Be Awestruck
If all I do this morning is make you suspicious of everybody, I have failed you.
The greatest protection against a counterfeit gospel is knowing how unbelievably good the real gospel is
So church, remember it
Remember that:
There is one holy God who made you for himself
And you and I have sinned against him
Not merely made mistakes
We have rebelled against our Creator
We have broken his commands and loved other things more than him
And because God is holy and just, our sin deserves judgment
And then comes news so good that we should never get over it
The God we sinned against came for us
The eternal Son of God took on flesh
Jesus lived the life you have failed to live
Perfect obedience
Perfect righteousness
And then the righteous One went to the cross for the unrighteous
He stood in the place of sinners
He bore the judgment our sin deserved
And three days later:
Jesus walked out of the grave
Sin defeated
Death defeated
The payment made
The work finished
And now God offers salvation not on the basis of how well you perform but on the basis of what Christ has done
You don’t need secret knowledge
You don’t need another prophet
You don’t need a particular spiritual gift
You don’t need the right music or clothes or Bible translation to make Jesus sufficient
You don’t need to send a preacher money so God will love you
You need Jesus
And if you are here this morning and you do not know him, your answer is not to become more religious
Your answer is not to clean yourself up and then come to God
Jesus calls you to repent and believe
Turn from your sin
Stop trusting your goodness
Stop trusting your religion
Put your trust in Jesus Christ.
And everyone who comes to him in faith is forgiven
Cleansed
Declared righteous
Reconciled to God
Given eternal life
And Christian
How do we ever get bored with that?
How do we hear that and think:
“Yeah, yeah, I know the gospel. What else do you have?”
What else do you need?
You do not need a hidden meaning
You do not need a secret code
You do not need a new command that God never gave
You do not need a list of external rules to make yourself pure
You do not need a certain spiritual experience to prove that Christ has really saved you
You do not need a preacher to promise you health, wealth, or some deeper level of Christianity
You need Christ.
And if you are in Christ, you already have the greatest thing you could ever be given
The holy God has forgiven you
Your guilt has been answered
Your condemnation is gone
Christ’s righteousness is yours
You have been reconciled to God
You have been adopted into his family
Death does not get the final word over you
And one day you will see Jesus face to face
So why would we trade that for myths?
Why would we trade that for man-made commands?
Why would we trade that for external religion?
Why would we trade that for some teacher promising us “more”?
False teaching becomes dangerous when Christ begins to feel insufficient
Because somebody will always be willing to offer you more
More rules
More secrets
More revelation
More experiences
More signs
More status.
But church:
You become vulnerable to “more” when you lose your awe of Christ
And this passage warns us to take that seriously
CLOSE
CLOSE
So as we close, let me ask the same question we started with:
Why?
Why should we pray for pastors who never get over the gospel?
Because the church needs men who hold firmly to the trustworthy Word.
Men whose lives have been shaped by it
Men who love the sheep enough to protect them from what is false
Why should you be aware?
Because false teaching is everywhere
Why should you be attentive?
Because not every voice that says “Jesus” is preaching the true Jesus, and not every message that sounds spiritual is biblical
Why should you be awestruck?
Why should you never get over Christ?
Never get over grace?
Never get over the cross?
Never get over the empty tomb?
Why?
Because when you remember how good the real gospel is
when you remember that Christ has done everything necessary to save you
when you remember that there is nothing left to add
you don’t need another gospel.
And church,
when you know how good the real gospel is you don’t want another one either
