INTRO.- ILL.- After it was disclosed that President George H. Walker Bush banned broccoli aboard Air Force One, the nation was embroiled in "broccoli discussion." Remember when?
As broccoli growers dispatched 10 tons of the vegetable free to Washington, the President reiterated his distaste with gusto: "I do not like broccoli and I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m president of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli. Now look, this is the last statement I’m going to have on broccoli. There are truckloads of broccoli at this very minute descending on Washington. My family is divided. For the broccoli vote out there: Barbara loves broccoli. She has tried to make me eat it. She eats it all the time herself. So she can go out and meet the caravan of broccoli that’s coming in."
That’s rebellion against broccoli and broccoli is good for a person. Broccoli is from God. It’s healthy. It’s heaven-sent. It can save your health.
Gracious sakes alive! President Bush, what’s wrong with you? Obviously, there are worse rebellions taking place in America. It doesn’t make any difference whether you like broccoli or not, whether you eat it or not, but it makes a whole lot of difference whether you believe in the gospel of Christ or not!
There is a great rebellion going on in our world and in America. And it seems like especially in America. There is a rebellion against all authority. Rebellion against parents. Rebellion against the law. And worst of all, rebellion against God, Christ and the Bible!
ILL.- The editor of a small weekly newspaper in a town in the West was hard pressed one week for copy to fill his columns. So he had his compositor set up the Ten Commandments, and ran them without making any editorial comment. Three days after the paper was published he received a letter saying: “Please cancel my subscription. You’re getting too personal.”
We live in a society of rebellion against God, His commandments, His Word. And even though the whole world rebels against God, we must not!
James 4:4-10 “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”
This passage says it all. Instead of being rebellious toward God, we must humble ourselves before Him. We must surrender to His will in order to be given grace.
PROP.- Paul describes these rebellious people of his day.
1- Rebellious people are deceptive talkers
2- Rebellious people are false teachers
3- Rebellious people are lazy gluttons
4- Rebellious people are corrupt opponents
I. REBELLIOUS PEOPLE ARE DECEPTIVE TALKERS
10 For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group.
Mere talkers and deceivers. Sounds like deceptive talkers, to me. And they are many. In our text, however, Paul is taking about Jewish converts.
ILL.- Astronaut Michael Collins, speaking at a banquet, quoted the estimate that the average man speaks 25,000 words a day and the average woman 30,000. Then he added: “Unfortunately, when I come home each day I’ve spoken my 25,000—and my wife hasn’t started her 30,000.”
Talking isn’t so bad. It’s what being said that counts. And people who deceive others about God with their speaking are in serious trouble.
James 3:1 “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”
When I was a student in Bible College we were warned about not being too quick to preach or become preachers. I’ve always thought that I needed to be as careful as possible in preaching the scripture. I want to be as accurate as possible. I don’t want to say something that the scripture doesn’t say. I don’t want to “add to” or “take away” from the scriptures.
Consequently, there are some passages of scriptures that I don’t preach because I don’t think I have a good understanding of them. And I don’t want to appear like I know when I don’t know! And I don’t want to lie in my preaching or teaching. GOD FORBID THAN ANY GOSPEL PREACHER WOULD DO THAT!
I think most preachers have probably said something that the scripture didn’t say or perhaps misinterpreted the scriptures. The reason I say this is because no preacher has a perfect understanding of all scripture.
But there is a worse form of deceptive talking and that is totally misrepresenting the scripture and lying to people.
ILL.- The devil started it all in the garden when he said to Eve, “Did God really say, ’You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?" Genesis 3:1
The devil is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44) And some have followed the devil in telling lies and some of those people are in pulpits across the land!
II. REBELLIOUS PEOPLE ARE FALSE TEACHERS
11 They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. Some people will say anything in order to make money.
ILL.- June 25, 2010. DAVIS, Calif. — A weeping young woman approaches strangers, tells them a wrenching story about an abusive boyfriend and pleads for $37 for a train ticket. The routine has played out many times on the streets of this college town over the last six months, so many times that some residents have concluded that the woman is a con artist. She is known as the Crying Girl.
Yes, some people will say anything, do anything, or tell any lie in order to get money out of people as in this case. They also do it in the name of God and Christ too.
ILL.- Familyfraud.com had this interesting article, April 3, 2010. It seems a lot of the millionaire preachers on TV sure do love the money more than the Lord. The article told about several TV preachers (televangelists) who lived in mansions and had incomes of hundreds of thousands of dollars and in some cases, millions. They drive expensive luxury cars and some even have their own private jet planes. One lives that lives in a mansion in a gated Atlanta community, owns TWO JETS, 3 ROLLS ROYCES, and gets on his website, threatening job cuts, and cutbacks, unless he can raise millions from his supporters!
THESE ARE JUST A FEW EXAMPLES OF FRAUD. If they are not fraud, they sure smell like it. God save us. God give us wisdom not to be taken in nor to be a part of any deception in the name of Christ. Peter and John (Acts 3) said to the beggar at the gate, “Silver and gold have I none.”
III. REBELLIOUS PEOPLE ARE LAZY GLUTTONS
12 Even one of their own prophets has said, "Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons."
Liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons. I don’t like the sound of these words or these people. Cretans from Crete. They did not have a good reputation.
ILL.- An old mountaineer and his wife were sitting in front of the fireplace one evening just passing away the time. After a long silence, the wife said: "Jed, I think it’s raining. Get up and to outside and see."
The old mountaineer continued to gaze into the fire for a second, sighed, then said, "Aw, Ma, why don’t we just call in the dog and see if he’s wet."
We know what that is: pure laziness. Cretans were both lazy and lazy gluttons. A double slam!
ILL.- Someone wrote these insightful words about some people who can’t seem to make it to church: “You see, God, it’s like this: We could attend church more faithfully if your day came at some other time. You have chosen a day that comes at the end of a hard week, and we’re all tired out. Not only that, but it’s the day following Saturday night, and Saturday night is one time when we feel that we should go out and enjoy ourselves. Often it is after midnight when we reach home, and it is almost impossible to get up on Sunday morning.”
It may be laziness that keeps some people from coming to church and honoring the Lord, but it may also be idol worship as well.
People do what they want to do. They are not lazy when it comes to some sport or activity they want to do, but when it comes to remembering and honoring the Lord it may be an entirely different matter.
Lazy and lazy gluttons. What can we say about such? What can we envision? What must we avoid?
Paul said that these rebellious Cretans were liars, evil, and lazy gluttons. Not what I would want to be characterized as. Let us never be guilty of such. Instead, let us be faithful, honest, quick to worship and serve any we can!
IV. REBELLIOUS PEOPLE ARE CORRUPT OPPONENTS
13 This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith 14and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. 16 They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
What a list of bad traits! Corrupted. They do not believe. Claim to know God but don’t. Detestable. Disobedient. Unfit for anything good.
I don’t believe that I would want any of these people as friends!
ILL.- Lady Gaga. Have you heard of her? Have you heard of some of her crazy antics? She is a pop singer and songwriter but nothing that most of us would want to listen to or watch. Even comedian Jerry Seinfeld sounded off on Lady Gaga’s antics at Mets game: ’She’s a jerk! I hate her!’
Here is what she did one day at the ball park. June 10, 2010. Lady Gaga showed up at the New York Mets game wearing just a leather jacket over a bikini. After getting into a pointing match with a pair of imposing looking gents, Gaga, wearing sunglasses and a headband, retreated to a luxury box. Then she grabbed some beers and proceeded to give booing fans the bird. This is why Jerry Seinfeld called her a jerk.
When we are talking about the world and worldly people you can expect anything and everything! Anything corrupt and everything corrupt! However, in the church you would expect better things and better people. But not always so, according to Paul’s words to Titus. There may well be many people who claim to know God but don’t. They may claim Christ as their Savior but their actions may betray them as disobedient and corrupt.
ILL.- Remember Jim Jones, prophet Jim Jones, founder and leader of the Peoples’ Temple? He is best known for the November 18, 1978 death of more than 900 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana. Temple member Hue Fortson, Jr. quoted Jones as saying, "What you need to believe in is what you can see...If you see me as your friend, I’ll be your friend. As you see me as your father, I’ll be your father, for those of you that don’t have a father...If you see me as your savior, I’ll be your savior. If you see me as your God, I’ll be your God."
Jim Jones was corrupt. There are others in our world today who may not as corrupt, but they are still corrupt and in opposition to God and Christ. WE MUST BE ON GUARD, ESPECIALLY, FOR THE SAKE OF OUR CHILDREN.
CONCLUSION--------------------
10 For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers. This is a tough text about those who oppose and rebel against God and Christ in this world. We must be alert and pray. We must live the life and fight the good fight of the faith.
We oppose the enemy but presenting the truth. Onward Christian soldiers!
Steve Shepherd, Jonesboro Christian Church, AR
jonesborochristianchurch@suddenlink.net
