Sermon Tone Analysis

 Titus 1:10-16.

"Those who Must be Silenced"

Safe Haven Community Church.

Sunday October 17th, 2021.

Titus 1:10-16.

10 For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

11 They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

12 One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons."

13 This testimony is true.

Therefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

15 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.

16 They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.

They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

(ESV)

As parliament is set to resume after the latest federal election, people are wondering which pieces of legislation will be retabled.

A prominent issue of concern has been the criminalizing and censorship of free speech.

In one example, Bill C-10 - which would have empowered an unelected commissioner to take down any social media post deemed "harmful" - was gutted by the Senate just before the start of Election 44.

Now, after the election Bill C-10 is poised to be one of the first moves in parliament.

One of Titus's major responsibilities in overseeing the churches on Crete was to prepare them to counteract the false teaching and immoral living of certain leaders.

Paul charged Titus, and through him the churches, not simply to correct their false doctrine and denounce their immoral behavior but to silence them and remove such spiritual cancers from the fellowships.

It is the task of the church, and especially of its godly leaders, to silence those who associate with the Body of Christ in an effort to pervert God's truth and confuse and corrupt His people.

Paul warned Timothy that: "Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived," (2 Tim.

3:13).

Like Timothy, faithful pastors and elders have standing orders to "guard what has been entrusted to [them], avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called 'knowledge' " (1 Tim.

6:20).

It has been said that we live in an age of tolerance.

Some argue that people should be free to say what they want, how they want, where they want and when they want.

The danger in the absolute freedom to do so should be obvious.

We have standards in education to ensure what is taught corresponds to facts.

Libel and slander laws prevent the sharing of false information as to not damage a company or person.

Public safety laws prevent someone shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre so as to not cause undue panic.

Through the courts, publications and common discourse, safeguards exist in order to examine, challenge and prevent the inaccurate or even dangerous spread of misinformation.

In Titus 1:10-16, the Apostle Paul outlines thee aspects of the requirement that false teachers must be silenced.

First, he outlines a general 1) Description of false teachers in the church who are to be silenced (Titus 1:10-13a).

He then specifies 2) What the reaction to those should be (Titus 1:13b-14) and 3) Evaluates their lives (Titus 1:15-16).

In order to deal with false teachers, we must first understand the:

1) Description of Those Who Must be Silenced (Titus 1:10-13a)

Titus 1:10-13a 10 For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

11 They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

12 One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons."

13 This testimony is true.

(Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,) (ESV)

In describing the false teachers who were to be restrained and removed from the churches, the apostle points out their proliferation (v.

10a), their behavior, which included rebelliousness, empty talk, and deceit (v.

10b), their effect on believers in the churches (v.

11a), their motive (v.

11b), and their character, which was lying, savage, and gluttonous (vv.

12-13a).

The fact that there [were] many false teachers in the churches of Crete made Titus's responsibility to oppose them all the more urgent.

It was also for that reason, among others, that he needed to carefully "appoint elders in every city," as Paul already had directed (v.

5).

No matter how diligent and persuasive Titus might have been, no one man would have had time to deal with the growing number of heretics and apostates.

Most believers in those churches were new in the faith and had little defense against erroneous doctrine.

The reason Titus is to appoint elders in every town and to ensure that they meet the standards Paul lays down is that there are many false teachers who are leading people astray.

That is to say, when false teachers increase, the most appropriate long-term strategy is to multiply the number of true teachers, who are equipped to rebut and refute error (Stott, J. R. W. (1996).

Guard the truth: the message of 1 Timothy & Titus (p.

179).

Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.).

Please turn to 2 Peter 2

Some look at the command from Paul to Titus and think this is just the concern of those in leadership.

Although the chief concern is charged to those in leadership, the mandate is for all to consider and act upon.

Perhaps a year after Paul wrote to Titus, Peter warned churches throughout the empire that:

2 Peter 2:1-3 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.

3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words.

Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

(ESV) (cf.

Acts 20:29-30; Rom.

16:17-18; 1 Tim.

4:1-2)

* False teaching, even from among the congregation in general, can decimate a local church.

Some of these heresies may even be spread from otherwise well-meaning individuals.

The teaching may appear to be sensible on the surface but it is destructive nonetheless.

It appeals to our base emotions, overemphasizing liberty, feelings and common practice.

The basis of action is what pleases the individual regardless of the consequence to others.

They may even exploit others to justify their own consciences to play down warnings and casts off restraint.

Unchecked, it encourages others to think and act likewise.

Thus, the truth of God is distorted and the God of the word Himself is blasphemed.

Back in Titus 1:10 we see first of all, the false teachers on Crete were insubordinate/rebellious, as such people always are.

They are spiritual and moral insurgents-the enemies of God, His truth, and His people.

Being a law unto themselves and representing, even unwittingly, the rebel Satan, they do not recognize, or adhere to the authority of God's Word or of His Spirit, much less that of His divinely called preachers and teachers.

Even when their erroneous doctrine and immoral living are exposed, they are inclined to defy correction and discipline by the true church.

A mark of false teachers in every age is their unwillingness to be under discipline.

They are fiercely unaccountable.

A leader or teacher that is not open to biblical correction, that claims, even implicitly to be above scrutiny, is one who actually denies the truth that he or she may even claim to be representing (Demarest, G. W., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1984).

1, 2 Thessalonians / 1, 2 Timothy / Titus (Vol.

32, p. 316).

Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.)

Second, their rebellion, or insubordination, is in the first instance a matter of rejecting the truth of the gospel (v.

14, and by implication the lordship of Christ and the authority of Paul).

It expresses itself in their being empty/mere talkers and deceivers (Fee, G. D. (2011). 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus (pp.

177-178).

Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. ) In the words of Shakespeare, they are "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Their talk is often captivating and persuasive.

Their words are smooth and they cleverly disguise their falsehoods in terms that make them seem truthful, frequently using biblical words and phrases that are distorted and taken out of context.

But what they teach is (absent) of truth.

Their preaching and teaching is based on the musings of their own warped imaginations, speculations, and knowledge set up against the Word of God.

They want to convince their listeners that they possess a higher and more profound understanding of Christianity and the Scriptures.

Actually, they are destroying it.

(Schuetze, A. W. (1991). 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus (p.

186).

Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Pub.

House.)

* Examine the words and writings of what you see, hear, and read.

What is the basis of their argument?

Falsehood may be packed in a slick, outwardly pleasant and an easy to digest message, but if it has no positive correspondence to the Word of God, then it is as deadly as poison itself.

Third, those false teachers were deceivers.