Titus Lesson 4
Titus · Mike Doyle · Aug 13, 2023
Titus, No. 13
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261932177110

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So we're in Titus chapter 1, and we are in verses 10, 11, and 12. And so we got through probably one and a half questions last week, but I'm of a mind lately that Reading the scriptures in a class is really important. So somebody read 10, 11, and 12, and read them slow.

For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain. One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. Okay, I was listening to Chester McAuley maybe three, four weeks ago.

And not only is he a good teacher, but you can learn methods from him that he implements. He said that whenever he starts into some verses, that the first thing he does is he reads them. And then he reads them a second time, and then he reads them a third time. And by the third time, he has a greater understanding than he did the first time. And so from there, he begins to put together a lesson.

So I've adopted that, and it's kind of cool how that works. If you go through verses, read them more than once, maybe two times or three times. So the first question we talked about was, what was Paul's main emphasis in terms of elder responsibility? And we discovered that the number one responsibility for an elder is what? to accurately handle scripture. He knows how to handle scripture. He knows it. He reads it. He can refer to it and he can exegete it accurately. And he can correct those who misinterpret scripture. That's the number one thing.

Then the second thing we talked about, did Paul have few or many detractors, empty talkers around? And we discovered that he has a lot of detractors. I'm reading the news this morning and I have no idea who this person is, but he's a Christian singer and he's been going around the country and he has all these experiences about people book him and then they They unbook him like the day before he's supposed to speak and he has demonstrations against him and all this stuff is going on, you know, like the Apostle Paul, because he thinks that, you know, the world is anti-Christian, which it is, and that they're aggressive towards him. And his whole attitude is that he probably wouldn't be doing a good job if they didn't resist him, you know. So, we ended up last week talking about what is an empty talker? It's a great phrase. It refers to the talk is devoid of truth and thus vain and useless.

Now we sometimes, in contemporary Christianity, there'll be the latest book or the latest, you guys all remember the Prayer of Jabez? And the latest thing that comes through the Christian environment and everybody seems to jump all over it and think it's really great. The prayer of Jabez had nothing to do with Christianity, nothing. And yet Christians would defend it to the death, thinking that it was really spiritually solid.

And it wasn't. And then I think the next thing that came through was what we called spiritual formation. which was really transcendental meditation with holy water on it. That's really what it was. And the techniques of spiritual formation were the same techniques as TM is in terms of emptying your mind and waiting for somebody to show up to possess your thoughts. I wonder who that guy is, you know. And their attitude was that the Holy Spirit was the one who always shows up. I don't think so.

And so my niece went to Westmont College, which is the center of spiritual formation. A guy named Dallas Willard was the guru. They have a life-size statue of that guy right in the middle of the campus. Supposed to be a Christian school, right? Of course, I don't know if you go to college in in Santa Barbara, California on a beautiful campus. It's a little tough to get serious. So an empty talker, he's devoid of the truth. He's vain and he's useless. One who's not subject to God and can have nothing worthwhile to say about God.

Anything contemporary going around today that would fit that description? about what's the latest dance? Oh, I know what it is. It's the Chosen. If you sit down and look at the Chosen, you find that just because they use the name of Jesus Christ, that somehow it's valid. But if you know the Scriptures, And you study the scriptures, you find, wait a minute, they're adding things to this that aren't in the scriptures.

So let's talk about that issue. As believers, do we in any way have the leeway to interject and interpret scriptures from our viewpoint? That's kind of not, that's not a clear question. Do I have the leeway to portray what I think about scripture as scripture? With the Holy Spirit's help, and the enlightened About the Word of God?

Yeah. Think back, when we went through the requirements to be an elder, what was the deal about scripture and elders? Just a couple of verses ago. Man must be, and even here, a man must be able to handle the scriptures, read them, understand them, and teach them. Dependent on the Holy Spirit? Absolutely. No question about him. But how do you know you're right? You know, what's interesting is, is that the Word of God is really interesting. God's Word says what it says.

And there isn't a lot of room for opinion. There's very little room for, well, I think he meant A, B, and C. No, it says what it says. Take this verse. There are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially the circumcision. The next verse says, and they must be silenced. That's a little Nazi, isn't it? What about that silence? How do you silence them?

We'll get to that, but the point is Scripture says things that sometimes we don't like because our emotions are involved or because we have quote-unquote an experience, you know, and we do rely a lot Contemporary human beings rely a lot on their emotions and experience. I mean, if you get famous and they're going to interview you on TV, what's the very first question they ask you? How do you feel about whatever the subject is? Donna?

I was thinking of Galatians 1.8, that though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than what we have preached unto you, let it be a curse.

Yeah, it's interesting how, one, Paul is adamant about who he is and what he's been sent to do. And oh, by the way, we're not talking about a bunch of people who had Scofield Bibles. What did they have? They had letters, and they had the Old Testament. I was just thinking about the fact that, first of all, we see that they're rebellious, so we know that they're defiant. This is not just like your morning coffee gossip around, you know, What happened in church group tonight before or something?

I mean obviously the word when we get into empty talkers We're talking about worthlessness like a worthless conversation, but that conversation was also defiant and it had a had an authority behind it or it appeared it was presented as Authority and so I was like kind of thinking about what these cretins would be lying about and then with the circumcision would also be presenting by way of empty talk.

And I was just kind of thinking about what's the one thing that dilutes God's word? It sounds like it, but it starts to dilute it, and that's that counterfeit. And so there's some type of capitulation that's giving in to another system of authority. It's a mix of it, and as they mix, it's still authoritative and defiant, but it's empty, it's worthless because it does not communicate exactly what the Lord is saying.

It's been modified ever so slightly, and it could be modified by feelings. That's the easy one, right? I don't feel like that's really the thing for us to be doing. But when you start to put authority behind it, you have to mix it with another system.

And in Titus's case, he was being mixed with both legalism and licentiousness. You've got the licentious on the Cretan side and you've got the legalistic those of the circumcision and those are two different systems that when mixed with the scripture become empty and worthless yeah and that's I think what what what they were Paul's warning Titus about here in part. You know one thing I think is interesting is you've got guys like R.C. Sproul Alistair Begg and Spurgeon, who are all reformers and reform theology. And in some ways they're considered the giants of Christianity, but they've missed the boat.

Satan is really, has really like diluting You know what I'm saying? It's amazing. How could Spurgeon, who practically died trying to do all this stuff, be wrong? But he is, you know? It's dangerous. A modern day example of what you're facing, Mike, in the role of an elder is delivering truth in view of this rebellious, empty talk that ultimately is designed to fit a system, in that case Calvinism, or at least capitulate to a large degree into full-on reformed.

How do I say this? How do I know I'm right? Yeah. That's the question, right? And so, when we look at being right, we are only right so far as we are communicating God's thoughts after Him. And what are the mechanisms that we need in place in order to get to that?

Well, Courtney talks about read it. Just read it. Not reading the reformers or all of those that are... The commentaries. Yeah. And that can include Miles Stanford, it can include everyone. Sure, sure does. Read the Word of God and we know that we have a helper in that. And as you start to understand that The Holy Spirit himself is illuminating you to the truth of that word. You gain confidence as you become more acquainted with him. And you'll always know that scripture interprets scripture. It's consistent within itself. It cannot take a rogue contrast to itself. So you can keep yourself in check just by reading the parallel passages of scripture.

You know Gospels, it's Matthew Mark Luke and John for you know for those of us in Looking at the the New Testament truths. It's the the Pauline epistles largely and so We do have we do have a language barrier and and things of that nature And so we have to work to get to the to the nitty-gritty But you won't miss the truth of God's Word just by reading it and staying consistent letting it stay consistent with itself Is that fair to say? Yeah, that's good.

I think there's one other element that goes in here, and it has to do with as you grow spiritually, what's really happening? Are you just getting more scriptural knowledge in your brain, and then you can feed it back? I think that The great work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal the person of Christ to the believer via his word. And so there becomes this intimacy with Christ that wasn't there before.

And so on Tuesday, we're studying Hebrews. We just went through those verses in, I think, what chapter are we on? Four, I think. that they are talking about the Jews and coming out of Egypt and how they saw God's works for 40 years, but they didn't know his ways.

And that's what he held them accountable for. So if I say to you, do you know anybody's ways? What do you mean by ways? Well, I know them personally. It's like I know Donna's ways and she knows mine. And she can predict how I'm going to act in a certain circumstance. She knows my viewpoints and she knows how my temperament, she knows all those kinds of things that just my works wouldn't necessarily reveal about me.

Well, God is the same way. He reveals his ways through his word, and we know, number one, he's a loving God. He wants to bless, but he's righteous, too. He's holy. And you learn that about him, and you learn that you always want to be in a position where he is able to bless you even if the blessing is a trial, because the blesser is in the trial.

How do you find that out? Well, I'm spending time in the Word. I'm back and forth with different people that I trust, and we go back and forth, and the Spirit of God not only teaches me, He teaches you. We go through things that we don't think are right, or you go along for a while and you don't even think about something that isn't really right, and then the Spirit of God opens up your understanding about it, and bingo, you know, oh, that doesn't fit who I know, through God's word, the Lord Jesus to be.

So it can't be of him. One of the commenters on this verse said, one who is not subject to God can have nothing worthwhile to say about him. You know, so am I subject to God? Yeah, I hope so. You know, I'm teachable. You're teachable. So you learn not only the scriptures, you don't become a scholar, but you do become a close intimate, come into a closer, more intimate relationship or fellowship with the God of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So that when something comes down the pike, You don't need to have chapter and verse. You may go look it up, but you instantly understand that's not the Lord Jesus that I know. Hence, JD, you're talking about reformed theology. God does not work in the church based on law. He operates based on grace. And if you don't know that, or you've rejected that, You can effectively say, well, you don't know the Lord very well. He's not a vindictive, strict.

And even when you study Exodus and the law is given, it wasn't given to hammer the Jews. It was given to show them, if you're my people, this is how you ought to live. And I'll bless you in this if you are yielded to me. And they didn't even take it that way. Well, we've got to obey all these things in order to become righteous.

Well, how about Abraham? He didn't obey anything. He just believed God and he became righteous. And my favorite guy, Lot. God calls him a righteous man. Why? I mean, really, he's not a real sterling character, but he believed God. How about David? You know, David was a king, he wasn't, you know, and he was guilty of adultery and murder and all these things, but he was righteous. Why?

Because he believed God. You and I are righteous only because we believed Him. So would you say that the New Testament always evaluates a message by the truthfulness of its content? Understand the question Would you say that the New Testament always Evaluates the message by the truthfulness of its content Yeah, I think it does I think it does So, what do you think the main flaws question three, what do you think the main flaw and false teachers was I Legalism and law.

Well, there's something before that. Would you say that they rebelled against God? Yes. They use God for their own gain. They were really against God's truth. And I often think about the Apostle Paul going from town to town and his message, the message of the Lord Jesus says, if you're a Jew, he's the Messiah. He died to pay the penalty for your sins.

And there's a whole new environment that we now live in. It's called grace. And, you know, having grown up and most of us grew up in some sort of denomination, a guy comes in the room talking about grace, we think he's crazy. You know, because our whole attitude is just tell us what to do and we'll do it. You know, so here's Paul going into different cities like Thessalonica, and he's teaching grace to them. And they're idol worshippers. Amazing. And in one month's time, he had converted enough people that when they kicked him out of town, he actually had a church to write to. He did it in a month.

So, um, what would you say then is like an empty talker? What, what, um, what characterizes one of these people? I think the character of a person like this is that he promotes human opinion over God's Word. Right? He promotes human opinion over God's Word.

There aren't many guys around to do that today, right? He also calls them deceivers. Russ, you mentioned some reformed teachers. When you go listen to one of those guys, you expect that what he's going to say is the truth, but you find out that it's not. It's not the truth.

They're all pious and speak well. Some of the greatest detractors from the truth are tremendous teachers. Really, really good. Have tremendous skill. But it wasn't the truth. And legalism, I think, is the number one thing in our society today. Well, I wouldn't... Legalism and emotion.

It feels good. to be given a law by God and you somehow fulfilled it. You feel good about that, right? I went to church today. God is happy with me. I feel good. He must feel good. Capisce? I think pantheism, where there's many gods, is rampant in America. Worshipping the earth, God's in the animals, God's in your, in your mouth. He's everywhere. He's in you. And God isn't above us all. He's part of us, but he's not above us. I mean, and that's rampant. It is. I agree. It is. It's Romans one, right? Yeah. Um, should have been ready for them. That they began to worship the creature rather than the creator. Genesis and Exodus is full of that kind of thing.

So, dashing on to question four, Paul says, when Paul says, especially those of the circumcision, what does he mean? Those were the Jewish teachers that professed to be Christians, but they weren't. Yeah, or they didn't profess to be Christians and they were rebutting what Paul said because it isn't Jewish doctrine. So, Jewish Christians without any particular emphasis on the fact that they're being Circumcised is Romans 15, 8. It just means Jewish people.

Somebody read Galatians 2, 7, 8, and 9. But on the contrary, saying that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised, for he who affectionately worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised effectively worked for me also to the Gentiles in recognizing the grace that has been given to me. Okay, now drop down to verse 12. Okay.

For prior to coming, for prior to the coming of certain men from James. He used to eat with the Gentiles. But when he came, when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. We've been through this story a lot.

What was the deal with Peter here? So what Paul says in 7, 8, and 9 is that Peter understood. But now the test comes and here comes what Paul describes as Jewish, Judizers from Jerusalem. And what does Peter do? Oh, by the way, Peter's a righteous man.

What does he do? He withdraws. Yeah, he doesn't. Yeah, have you ever seen the movie The Waterboy with Sandler? And who's the guy that plays the coach? The coach in that movie was always intimidated by the coach of the other team. So when the other team's coach started talking, he would start to slither back in the crowd so nobody would see him. That was Peter. He's going into hiding. Because he's a leader. Everybody knows he's a leader. And he's got to stand up to these guys.

So have you ever been in a situation where you probably should have said something, but because of peer pressure, you didn't? Yeah. I have. Sure, I have. And I always, you know, accused myself of being a Christian loser because I didn't stand up, you know.

You know, Mike, another I think key thing is that when they went to the council in Jerusalem to discuss being saved by grace through faith alone, Peter stood up and he's going, I witnessed with my own eyes those Gentiles receive the Holy Spirit just like we did. And so it's just something that powerful to kind of fold up. It's just interesting. You think Peter's just having a bad day?

No. It shows what a powerful influence peer pressure is on all of us. you know, on all of us. Not that we're supposed to go down a curse field with a megaphone, you know. I mean, I look at that guy and I think, I could never do that. One, I couldn't justify doing it.

The thing was, though, historically, there were a lot of Jews that lived on the island of Crete, a lot of them. And when Paul visited there and Titus, And they began to set up churches. This Jewish population rose up aggressively to silence the Christians if they could do it. And you know, it's like today.

If you happen to be involved in a grace-based Christian environment and you have a bunch of friends who are law-based, you're going to have conflict. You're just going to have it. Because grace and law don't mix, like oil and water, they don't. I don't think she'd mind me telling the story. Karen Jenkins, her father is a post-millennial legalist. And he can't understand what this grace thing that Karen's all about.

And so what they did was, she said, well, I'm going to give you a book. And he said, well, I'll give you a book. And we'll read them. And then we'll talk about it. So the book that she gave him, I think, was the Green Letters. And I don't know what the book was that she gave. But I've talked to her several times. It seems like when you read this reform stuff, that the logic is pretty good.

The problem is, is that it just reeks of no grace and just the impingement of tyranny, you know, and Karen is really uncomfortable about that. So she's they both read the books and they're going to get together this week or next week and they're going to have their meeting. You know, and so in that kind of an environment, the person with the strongest personality usually wins. It's like getting in an argument with Courtney. He's going to win most of the time.

But you can see she loves her dad and her dad loves her, but they have a different viewpoint of how Christianity functions is either function under a principle of grace, which he's never been taught, he doesn't know anything about it, or under a principle of law, where what his pastor says is more important than what God's word says.

There we go. There we go. You know, I think everybody here, Roger and myself and anybody else who's a teacher will tell you When I say something, it's your obligation, your responsibility to go look up and see if I'm telling the truth. And if I'm not, you come talk to me. How much time we got? Oh, goodness, we're done. Sorry, I was hoping to get farther today.

But next, yeah. I was going to say one thing that's odd. as R.C. Sproul and Alistair Begg and Spurgeon will all tell you that we are saved by grace. Yes, they will. By faith alone in Jesus. Yeah. But you also may not be one of the persons that God called. You know, they really do believe that there's a certain group of people who are going to be saved and But their problem is that you have to endure to the end. If you do not endure to the end, then you never really were called and you were faking it your whole life.

I think I'd take a pass on Christianity if that's what the premise was. That's what Catholicism is. That's what all reform theology is. That's what all religions in the world are. The only one that guarantees Salvation by you believing in the person and work of Christ is Christianity. It's the only one. He guarantees it. Your salvation is his responsibility. I've said a thousand times, if I don't make it to heaven, it's his fault, not mine. Because he promised.

Yeah. See? So, while we've been talking, I've been trying to think of this guy's name. He just died in the last year or two, but he was Probably the most famous reformed theologian of the day. The heck was his name? But he was like that, you know? And so my question with him would be five minutes before he dies as well.

You're right at the end. How'd you do? You're not going to say, you know, you didn't do enough. Or if you're a Catholic, they say, well, you didn't make it to heaven, but you made it to purgatory, which means someday you're going to get to heaven. if your relatives come up with enough money. Anyway. All right, we got to close.

Father, how we thank you for your word. We thank you how careful you are to teach us, not only your works, but your ways. And through the spirit of your spirit that we can have a growing intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our very life. And we thank you. We pray in his precious name. Amen.