Titus: Building a Healthy Church
Confronting False Teachers
1:10-16
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
02-28-2021
He is Risen?
The sun was shining. Little girls had on Easter dresses. Two churches gathered together to celebrate the Risen Lord Jesus Christ as one.
The pastor from the other church welcomed everyone and began his Easter sermon with these words:
“Everyone here understands that Jesus didn’t actually rise from the dead. That’s not what we celebrate this morning. We celebrate the idea of resurrection. The Bible story of the resurrection is a metaphor for new life, of spring, of beginning again.”
Half the auditorium nodded in agreement. The other half was stunned and horrified. One person told me that they didn’t know if they should stand up and say something or simply walk out in the middle of the service.
What would you have done if you were there that morning and encountered this false teaching?
We are going to see that Crete was full of false teachers and Titus needed to appoint elders in all the churches so that they could combat the heresy that these individuals were peddling for profit.
In verses 5-9, we learn that Paul left Titus in Crete so he could “put what remains in order” and “appoint elders in every town.”
Titus was to “put in order what was left unfinished.” “Put in order” is a Greek word that means to set a broken bone or to straighten crooked teeth.
The Cretan churches were a mess and Titus was charged with straighten them out.
What did Paul consider unfinished? We learn that from the second directive he gives Titus. He is concerned with the lack of leadership in the local churches on Crete.
Paul writes to Titus that his main goal to create healthy churches is to “appoint elders in every town.” There were up to 100 towns on Crete so this would be a daunting task.
Everything rises and falls on leadership and Paul wants to make sure that the Cretan churches have a firm foundation of leadership as they grow and multiply.
Paul lays out the qualifications for these elder leaders in verses 6-9 and then Paul adds one more qualification that these men need to have that will lead us into our discussion today:
“He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.” (Titus 1:9)
Elders must be convinced that the Scriptures are the priority of our preaching, the ultimate authority for the church, and that orthodoxy (right teaching) will lead to orthopraxy (right living).
These men are able to teach and encourage the church with sound doctrine, and refute those who oppose it.
With so much immorality and a herd of false teachers infiltrating the church, finding and training these type of men would be absolutely crucial to Titus’ mission.
That brings us to our verses for this morning.
Turn to Titus 1:10-16.
Prayer
[Slide] A Description of the False Teachers
[Slide] “For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group.” (Titus 1:10)
Why is so important that Titus identify, train, and equip these elders in the churches?
Because of the plethora of false teaching that was becoming common on Crete.
First notice there were “many.” Do you know what the Greek word for many is? It’s “many!”
Paul doesn’t mince words when he describes these false teachers.
[Slide] He says that they are “rebellious.” Your translation may have the word “insubordinate” , “unruly” , “out of control.”
I love the Pontiac Holiday basketball tournament. That tournament has seen the likes of Derrick Rose, Eddie Curry, and Jabari Parker.
[Slide] I remember standing in the lobby when his team came out for their game. Jerome Richmond was in the house. He was a 6 ‘ 8’” 205 pound who could hit the three, defend smaller faster guards, and tear the rim down with ferocious dunks that sent the crowd into a frenzy.
He had committed to the Fighting Illini, was a McDonald All-American and Mr. Illinois basketball player of the year.
As I watched him lope up and down the court, it was apparent that he was a man playing against boys. He was the real deal. First round one and done NBA lottery pick. Illinois fans were gearing up for a ride to the top of the ranks.
Except that never happened. He fought with the coaches and other players. He didn’t go to class. Bruce Weber could never reign him in. As the Illini went to play their first round tournament game, it was announced that Richmond had been indefinitely suspended from the team.
It turns out that he had already hired an agent to get ready for the NBA, which is a big time college no no.
Long story short, he went undrafted. Not one NBA team would take a chance on him. His basketball playing skills were obvious but what was also obvious was his attitude against authority.
Since that time, he’s played semi-pro ball, spent three years in prison, and now seems to be on a better road.
Jerome was the poster boy for insubordinate.
These teachers are like people who join the army and then refuse to obey orders.
They refuse to submit to Paul and Titus’ authority and ultimately reject the Gospel.
There are people who simply refuse to come underneath the authority of a pastor or church leadership. Those teachers usually start their own church or their own ministry so that they don’t have to submit to anyone concerning their doctrine.
[Slide] They are “full of meaningless talk” or in your version it may read “empty talkers.”
These are people who use big words and lots of them but ,in the end, it’s all sound and fury, symbolizing nothing.
There is a character in the Pilgrim’s Progress named “Talkative.” He literally has nothing to say but says it endlessly. He loves to talk about things of faith but he doesn’t actually want to do them.
Their words are worthless and dangerous.
Paul had similar words for Timothy in Ephesus:
“Some have departed from these [pure faith] and have turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.” (I Tim 1:6)
[Slide] They are also full of deception. This word means mind deception. They intentionally attempt to entrap people’s minds with their false nonsense.
[Slide] Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses come to your door and want to come in and talk with you about Jesus but the Gospel they preach is completely foreign to the Bible.
[Slide] After Prince and his wife lost a child, he became a Jehovah’s Witness, even knocking on doors. That’s one of the reasons he died. Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t believe in blood transfusions and Prince badly needed a hip replacement surgery. He was in terrible pain and became addicted to the opioids prescribed for him. But he refused the surgery and eventually overdosed on the pills.
This was all based on a false teaching of the Witnesses that Scripture prohibits blood transfusions, which it clearly doesn’t.
The sad thing is that the modern American who calls themselves a Christian knows so little of the Bible they can’t refute these false teachings.
Paul gives a warning to the church at Rome about these deceivers:
“I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.” (Rom 16:17-18)
[Slide] especially the circumcision group. We have encountered this kind group before when we studied Galatians.
There was a large Jewish population on the island of Crete. And there were Jewish converts to Christianity that were saying that putting their faith in Jesus was great but it wasn’t enough. They also needed to be circumcised and follow the Mosaic law, particularly the dietary rules.
But this had been settled in the council we read about in Acts 15. The council rejected the idea that Gentiles had to follow the Mosaic law to be be saved.
And who was Paul’s test case? Do you remember? It was a young man who was half Greek and was not circumcised. His name was Titus!
No wonder this group was not a big fan of Titus or Paul!
Some may think that Paul was being to hard on these false teachers. But he’s actually just getting warmed up!
The Reaction
[Slide] “They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain.” (Titus 1:11)
How should the elders of these churches react to these false teachers?
Paul says that they must be silenced. Literally, it reads they must be muzzled! They need to be told publicly and boldly to shut up and stop teaching heresy.
How do you do this? Through sound biblical teaching. We’ll come back to that.
Why was it urgent to squash their teaching?
[Slide] because they are disrupting whole households.
The word disrupting can also be translated “upset,” like when Jesus upset the tables of the money changers.
They were infiltrating families with their false teaching and causing chaos in the house churches.
Paul told Titus to have zero tolerance for these teachers.
What was their motivation?
[Slide] for the sake of dishonest gain.
These are swindlers, charlatans, and they are still alive today.
We’ve talked about the prosperity gospel before. These are pastors that teach that God wants you to be rich, healthy, and happy all the time.
Creflo Dollar, pastor of a mega church in Atlanta, recently said, “You’re a fool for Christ so you might as well be a rich fool.”
In fact, watch this clip and tell me what’s wrong with it.
[You tube - Creflo Dollar on CNN]
The false teachers on Crete were getting rich off of naive baby Christians who who falling victim to their heretical teaching.
What’s done in Vegas…
Paul then does a very interesting thing. He quotes a Cretan poet to highlight the character of the people on the island.
[Slide] “One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” This saying is true.” (Titus 1:12-13)
[Slide] Paul quotes 6th century B.C. poet, writer, philosopher Epimenides. He was considered one of the seven wise men of Greece, along with Plato and Aristotle.
In one of his oracles, he described the people of Crete as
“[Slide] always liars”. So much were Cretan’s considered liars that a Greek word developed “kretismos” that meant to lie or cheat.
Have you ever known someone who simply couldn’t tell the truth? We had a student in ministry that I would take aside and remind him that he didn’t have to lie for us to like him.
One of the reasons that they were considers liars was that it was taught that Zeus’ tomb was located in the mountains of Crete. Zeus was immortal so everyone knew that it was a lie.
Remember that Paul told Titus that God doesn’t lie in the v 2.
“[Slide] evil brutes” These are people controlled by instinct and sensuality. Interestingly, there were very few animals on the island of Crete but Epimedies said that the people made up for the lack of wildlife.
[Slide] lazy gluttons.” “Literally, “slow bellies.” They are idle, lethargic, apathetic. They would rather feast and nap than engage in meaningful work.
You may think, “Wow. That’s kind of harsh, isn’t?” But remember, Paul quoted “one of their own.”
It’s okay for me to make fun of southern people, or left handed people, or vertical challenged people because I am one.
The word “all” is meant as hyperbole. Obviously not all Cretans are liars because he’s Cretan so that would mean he is lying.
This was a stereotype of the average person living on Crete. The island was dotted by ports and was full of sea weary sailors, pirates, and criminals.
We have the same thing in our culture.
- [Slide] What’s done in Vegas…
[slide] Everything’s bigger in…
[Slide] I’m walking here!
But Paul who had spent time on the island tells Titus that he agrees with Epimenides.
So the Cretan elders are directed to silence them. How?
Rebuke them Sharply!
[Slide] “Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth.” (Titus 1:13-14)
The elders of the these churches are to rebuke the false teachers “sharply” or “severely.”
This is a word picture of chopping off a branch with one blow of an axe.
But this was to be done with one goal in mind - their salvation and sanctification. The rebuke is designed to call them back to the truth of the Gospel and so they will be sound in their faith.
Although the elders should rebuke them strongly, Paul reminds the Galatians:
“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.” (Gal 6:1)
Pastor Gene Getz writes:
“Spiritual leaders should confront false teaching with patience and gentleness, but when there is no positive response they need to take decisive action.”
When Dayna Muldoon came to town and began a tent revival near his church, Pastor Scott Rodriguez had a decision to make.
[YouTube video Clip of Scott Rodriguez confronting a tent preacher ].
We need to have the boldness to call a false teacher out publicly but with the kind of gentleness and humility that Scott exhibited.
What will be proof that they have embraced sound doctrine?
[Slide] They will stop paying attention to Jewish myths
See , you really don’t understand Scripture. There are secret details hidden in there that only we know.
If you take the vowels out of Abraham you end up with RBM. If you know the numerical values of those letters, you know that it adds up to 318. So when you see the name Abraham, it really means 318 servants of the Lord.
There’s an old saying, “When the plain sense of Scripture makes good sense, seek no other sense!”
We still see this today, with secret Bible codes that will unlock the inner truth of Scriptures.
Paul told Timothy to confront the same issues in Ephesus:
“…stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith.” (I Tim 1:4)
[Slide] They will stop concentrating on human commands of those who reject the truth.
Jesus quotes from Isaiah when answering the Pharisees:
“ So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”
He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’
You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” (Mark 7:5-8)
These are people who teach “Jesus + Theology.” There were 613 rules that Jewish people were supposed to follow. And the rabbis and scribes had come up with hundreds of other rules to keep them from breaking the first set of rules.
It Jesus + circumcision. Jesus + following dietary laws. Jesus + this secret knowledge that we know from the Scripture.
[Slide] We still see this in our culture today. Jesus +baptism. Jesus + speaking in tongues. I don’t drink and I don’t chew and I don’t go with girls who do.
We have churches that teach all kinds of man-made rules and the people that buy into that think that buy following the rules outwardly they are in good standing with God.
But Paul is going to finish this section by making it clear that it is not the obedience to outward religious ritual that makes you acceptable before God but it is a mind, heart, and life changed by the Gospel of Jesus.
Inside Out
[Slide] “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.” (Titus 1:15)
To those who understand that cleansing comes from the inside out, their minds and consciences are pure.
One commentator wrote:
“Pure people are those who have been cleansed from their guilt by the blood of Christ and have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and are being constantly being cleansed by the Spirit from the pollution of their sins. “
Their minds are focused on “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Phil 4:8)
All things are ritually clean to the morally clean.
But those who think that they are accepted by God because of their outward behavior, Paul says that their minds and consciences are defiled and nothing is pure to them.
“…having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” (2 Tim 3:5)
Have you ever known someone who can make a sexual joke out of anything? Their minds are corrupted.
In verse 15, Paul concentrates on the inside but in verse 16, he zeroes in on a person’s behavior.
[Slide] “They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.” (Titus 1:16)
These false teachers claim to know God, but their lives, their hearts, prove that they are frauds.
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” (Matt 23:25)
False teachers always add something to salvation. They want to you to focus on them and not Christ. They promote legalism rather than grace. And often times their words and lifestyle are at odds.
C.S. Lewis wrote: “Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst.”
Paul ends with three more grenades that He lobs at the false teachers:
[Slide] detestable - this is a word that is used for idolatry. They thought by trying to obey all their rules that God would love them more. Instead, they end up detestable to him.
[Slide] disobedient - the false teachers were telling everyone that they had to be obedient to the rules of men yet they were disobedient to God for teaching Jesus + theology.
[Slide] Unfit for any good work. - this is a very interesting word in the Greek. It can refer to as counterfeit coin, a cowardly soldier in battle, or a stone that was rejected and a large A was put on it.
So let’s review what Paul has said about the false teachers:
They are insubordinate, empty talkers, deceivers, they upset whole hold holds, teaching what they ought not to teach, for personal profit, liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons, who focus on Jewish myths and rules made by man, their minds and consciences are corrupt and defiled. They deny God by their deeds. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit.
Spurgeon once said, “Remember how our fathers in times gone by, defended God’s truth, and blush ye cowards, who are afraid to maintain it.”
Points to Ponder
1.[Slide] This whole section should give us hope. Crete was a sinful place filled with sinful people, and false teachers leading people stray. And yet, churches were planted, leaders were established and trained, and sound doctrine was used to refute false teaching.
Chenoa and Crete are very much alike, aren’t they? Yet God is doing something amazing and building his church here in this community. If He can do it in Crete, He can do it Chenoa!
2. This should drive us to know the Word more and more. When people are trained to spot counterfeit money, they don’t touch or see counterfeits for the first part of their training.
They handle the real thing. They know how it feels, looks, and even smells. They know the real thing so well that when counterfeits are introduced to them they pick them out immediately.
My fear is that in American churches, most people know so little of their Bible that they couldn’t share the Gospel let alone defend the faith from false teachers.
If a couple of Mormon’s came to your door, could you help them understand the difference between the Gospel and what they are sharing?
If a Jehovah’s Witness came to door, could you show her in Scripture that Jesus is God and the second Person of the Trinity?
Could you help your coworker or neighbor who listened to a prosperity preacher understand that God doesn’t promise us to be always healthy, wealthy, and happy?
Pastor and Blogger Tim Challies lists several types of false prophets we need to keep our eyes open for.
* The Heretic - This is the most dangerous. They deny foundational doctrines of the faith and what God forbids they celebrate.
“But false prophets also appeared among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.” (2 Peter 2:1)
* The Charlatan - This is someone who is only it for themselves, for personal gain. Christians are targets to get money from to grown wealthy and live a life a luxurious lifestyle.
“…who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.” (I Timothy 6:5)
*. The False Prophet - These false teachers claim to bring a new revelation, a new word that supersedes the Bible.
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (I John 4:1)
* The Abuser - These false teachers are evil and simply are in ministry to feed their lusts. We’ve seen way too many of these false teachers over the years.
“For certain people have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into indecent behavior and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4)
* The Tickler - these false teachers listen to what the people want and gives it to them. No talk of hell or sin. He tells them what they want to hear.
"For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and they will turn their ears away from the truth.” (I Timothy 4:3-4)
Let’s actually do an exercise together and see if we can’t learn how to spot false teaching.
Broke the Law?
I want you to watch this short clip and then we will talk about it afterwards.
[Steven Furtick - God broke the Law for love clip]
Tim Challies is helpful here:
“Where the child has had an innocent accident, we have willfully committed cosmic treason against our divine king; where the child is physically injured, we are spiritually dead.
Of even greater importance, God’s law is not a speed limit, a list of rules drawn up to govern human behavior. Rather, the law is God’s revelation or manifestation of his own character.
For God to break the law he would have to act opposite not only to a rule but to his own character.
He would have to insist that he is one way but that he acts in another way. God cannot break the law without entering into an impossible and absurd self-contradiction.
The illustration actually contradicts the truth.”
God displays the magnitude of his love not by breaking the law but by satisfying the law.
He satisfies it in the most painful way possible, by loading upon his very own Son the complete weight of our sin and then pouring out his wrath on him.
“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
This is what he does for our sake. Why? Because this is what his law demands. His law, his righteous and holy character, demands that justice be satisfied.
“By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us” (Romans 8:3–4).
The greatest possible expression of God’s love is not breaking the law but keeping it.
The cross is definitive proof that God is not a law-breaker but a law-keeper.
If God breaks the law, the law is still in effect because there has been no justice, and that is the worst possible news.
If the law is still in effect, I am condemned by it and God is downright evil for promising a false hope.
If I have committed murder and a judge tells me I can go free anyway, I remain guilty.
His decision to break or circumvent the law has no bearing on my guilt or innocence. The same must be true of God.
So, when God justifies the wicked, he does not overthrow the law or find a way around it.
To the contrary, through the perfect life, substitutionary death, and victorious resurrection of Christ, God upholds the law. Every sin is paid. Justice is served. The law is upheld. The Judge is satisfied.
Those who were guilty are rightly, truly, fairly, eternally declared innocent when they put their faith in Christ.
Challies concludes::
“Could God break the law?
No, he could not and would not contradict himself.
Does God need to break the law in order to save us?
No, thank God, he does not need to show mercy only at the expense of justice.
Does God break the law?
No, he does something far, far better. He upholds it while Christ fulfills it. In all of earth and heaven there is no greater demonstration of love than God keeping his law.”
