SERMON: “Stopping False Teaching in the Church, Part 2” (Titus 1:12–16)
“Stopping
False Teaching in the Church,
Part 2” (Titus 1:12–16)
Series: “Titus: Godly People, Godly Church,”
#7 Text: Titus
1:12–16
By: Shaun Marksbury Date: June 9, 2024
Venue: Living Water Baptist Church Occasion:
PM Service
I.
Introduction
That is only half
the battle, however. The Southern Baptists
are learning this in its current battle.
Last year, they ousted Rick Warren’s church for hiring a female lead
pastor and encouraging others to follow him in bringing women to the forefront
of the church. However, that is only
part of the battle, for there are perhaps over a thousand women who hold the
title “pastor” currently in the convention, such as children’s pastor or
worship pastor. So, some are trying to clarify
that this also is not in keeping with the Baptist Faith and Message. There are many churches that also promoted
Beth Moore, having her and others preach.
So, we’ll see if the effort to unify around the SBC confessional
statement is successful.
It's one matter to get
rid of a false teacher. It’s another to
address the false teaching that’s been left behind. Deceivers deceive people, and it’s not enough
to simply silence the false teaching. It’s
like pulling a weed — you must be sure to get it by the roots. Otherwise, false teaching will once again
sprout within the church.
This evening, we’re
going to consider two ways to stop false teaching in church. First, we stop false teaching by reproving
believers. Second, we stop false
teaching by recognizing unbelievers. Let’s
consider the first of those:
II.
Stop False Teaching by Reproving Believers (vv.
12–14)
One of themselves, a prophet of their
own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. For this reason reprove them severely so that
they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish myths and
commandments of men who turn away from the truth.
Paul begins by
referencing a particular author. Remember
that Paul had a wide education and would have read various sources. Paul didn’t need to reference his name, but it
was Epimenides of Knossos, a man somewhat mythologized in the six hundred years
since he lived. Paul notes his reputation
for having prophetic insight, though he is not implying that Epimenides had true
divine knowledge or insight (there can be false prophets).
As Epimenides put it, “Cretans are always
liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” Not
sometimes; he said they always are. They
are perpetually or incessantly this way.
First, they are always liars.
Epimenides said that because Cretans claimed, for instance, to have the
body of Zeus buried on the island.[1] In Epimenides’s mind, though, Zeus was a deity
and could not die. The Cretans made
stuff up to gain tourism — come to Crete and see the resting place of the
Olympian most-high! So bad was Cretan
lying that the Greek verb κρητιζω means “to speak like a Cretan, to lie,” and
a noun κρητισμος, “Cretan behavior, lying.”[2] Of course, lying should not be a part of a
Christian congregation, but we cannot put false teachers above lying.
Second, they are always “evil beasts.” The NIV
renders this “brutes.” Rude and brutal
would be a range here. Someone suggested
that perhaps Epimenides had the image of the Minotaur here, the half-bull, half
man beast that dwelt at the center of the labyrinth in Crete. Just as one of the qualifications for an elder
is that he cannot be “quick-tempered” or “pugnacious” (v. 7), Titus must recognize
that false teachers can become brutish by forcing others to comply with their
false teaching.
Third, he says they are always lazy
gluttons. That is a more dynamic way of translating
this phrase, which is literally idle
bellies or, as the KJV has, “slow
bellies.” In Philippians 3:19, Paul
warns about those whose god is their appetite.
Here, we have the picture of gluttony, personal-pleasure seeking, mixed
with laziness.
Paul was recently in Crete, so he can confirm this behavior for
himself. Some might complain that he’s
guilty of stereotyping; there are talking heads today who would decry such cross-cultural
judgments. Of course, he’s quoting a
Cretan, and not all stereotyping is bad; it can be helpful for missions like the
one Titus is undertaking. Certain traits
can mark a particular people, even though there are always outliers. The main issue is to keep any stereotype in
balance so as to not become impartial and unjust.
He's not saying that every single Cretan will
be this way; he expects that Titus will find some to be elders who are not this
way! Even so, especially when he sees
false teachers in Crete, Paul can say he sees liars, evil beasts, lazy
gluttons. It is the general truth, and
there may be some looking for lies so they can have an easier Christianity.
This is something that the modern church
cannot countenance. There’s the eleventh
commandment present-day believers hold to, and it’s “Thou shalt be nice.” It isn’t “nice” to tell people that they are
wrong. To refute or reprove someone’s
beliefs, exposing their error and doing so with any kind of edge is the height
of apostasy. There will even be people
today who say they agree, but will wring their hands and say they are “concerned”
and we need to “do better.” Church
members may leave because of how “judgmental” the church has become, though
they will be nice and say something like “God is leading us in a different direction.”
Again, it’s true that elders should not be pugnacious
or quick-tempered (v. 7), and their speech should always “be with grace, as
though seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:6). Still, rebuking is an unpleasant but necessary
aspect of a pastor’s duties, as we noted in v. 9. In 2:15, Paul tells Titus, “These things
speak and exhort and reprove [same word] with all authority. Let no one disregard you.” After all, the Father disciplines us in love,
so we should not faint when He reproves us though our elders (cf. Heb. 12:5;
Rev. 3:19). The Word itself can reprove
us of sin (James 2:9), and that is what the elder of a church should be using. Just as the apostle sometimes used severity
in writing and in person (2 Cor 13:10), an elder must be open to being used by
God to make pointed application of God’s Word in the lives of God’s people.
We do so
recognizing a couple of limiting realities.
First, while we should expose a person to their sin in such a way that
the Holy Spirit may convict them unto repentance, we can’t force people to
confess; that’s between them and God.
Moreover, we cannot generate repentance in their hearts — only God can
do that. Even so, we also recognize that
the Holy Spirit may use pastors/elders to turn a lost sheep back toward the
flock.
Second, we must
tell them to stop in certain, clear, and concise terms. The Greek term here means to chop it off, to
rebuke with severing. Sometimes we
struggle with correcting others because we want to show love to those around
us. Indeed, it is because we love those around us that we confront error and put a
stop to it. That’s why it’s necessary to
sometimes do what the Bible does — name names of false teachers and condemn
specific teachings. This is what God commands
of Titus.
The purpose is “so
that they may be sound in the faith.” Of
course, this is true of false teachers — we want them to repent. But, in the context of church membership, it
seems the pronoun here points to those who are tempted toward deception, rather
than the deceivers themselves. The
members of the church must understand why elders are silencing a potentially
favored teacher and condemning his teaching.
That’s love; we
want people to be sound. True believers
believe wrong things all the time, and praise God for His grace! Even so, God’s grace challenges us to change
and grow, and He uses elders to help accomplish this task. So, when we see our brothers or sisters
slipping into error, we go to them for their own good, hoping that someone will
do the same for us someday. This is how
we get unsound Christians onto solid ground again. Let’s be clear: if the people in our church
are unsound, then the church will never be sound.
We see that the
believers in Crete were interested in Jewish myths or, as the KJV
has it, “giving heed to Jewish fables.” This is an example of unsound or
ungodly faith. Jesus confronted Jewish traditions
added to the Word of God, such as the ceremonial washing of hands before meals
(Mark 7:2–8). Jesus quotes from Isaiah
29:13 there — “But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the
precepts [or “commandments”] of men” (v. 7).
He then goes on to say, “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to
the tradition of men” (v. 8). The
Pharisees were adding their own commandments to God’s Word, and then they were
even neglecting what was already there, all in the name of tradition.
There may have been
another aspect to this. Perhaps this was
like the asceticism in Colossae. In Colossians
2:20–23, Paul says,
If
you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if
you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do
not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined
to perish with use) — in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?
These are matters which have, to be
sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and
severe treatment of the body, but are
of no value against fleshly indulgence.
There are people
who present human wisdom in creating commandments. I’ve seen Christians note that improperly prepared
pork and shellfish can be dangerous, but then say that God therefore doesn’t
want Christians to eat it. The Seventh
Day Adventists made much of that, saying that we can be healthier if we make
godlier choices; this can be true, but it is adding the commandments of men to
Scripture. We see the same thing in the
Hebrew Roots movement. I’ll note one
that’s closer to home, those who say that drinking alcohol is a sin; there’s
obviously human wisdom in abstinence to avoid drunkenness, but that’s another
example of adding the commandment of men to Scripture. There was even a Christian prohibition poster
with the words, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch,” ripping these
words from their context and thus proving the apostle’s point.
We must avoid
teaching that adds to Scripture. Those
who do become arrogant. That is why Paul
told the Corinthians that he wanted them to “not to exceed what is written, so
that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other” (1
Cor. 4:6). There’s a certain pietism
that causes people to look down their noses at others because of a particular
list of scruples; Ecclesiastes 7:16 warns, “Do not be excessively righteous and
do not be overly wise.” Those who add to
Scripture and shame other believers for not holding to their personal traditions
create problems in the church, and they will gravitate toward false teachers
who will take advantage of them if they don’t repent. Mythology, no matter how biblically-aligned
it seems, must be rejected.
Sometimes, though,
they won’t repent. One reason may be
because we’re not dealing with true believers.
Sometimes, we are dealing with false converts, those who wrongly think
they are believers. That brings us to
the next point:
III.
Stop False Teaching by Recognizing Unbelievers
(vv. 15–16)
To the pure, all things are pure; but to
those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and
their conscience are defiled. They
profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and
disobedient and worthless for any good deed.
Before we consider
this point, let’s consider what the apostle is saying. He begins this verse by saying, “To the pure,
all things are pure,” or, “to the clean all things are clean.” In other words, the mature Christian, the one
who knows his righteousness is in Christ alone, is not worried about whether a
slice of bacon will make God angry. He
isn’t swayed by people who say having a circumcision or keeping a Saturday
Sabbath will make God happier. Why is he
so secure? It’s because he knows that he
has already been purified before the throne of God in the blood of
Christ.
The false teachers
were telling people to avoid things.
This was happening in Ephesus, so Paul addressed in 1 Timothy 4:1–5. He says
that there are some who pay attention to the “doctrines of demons” (v. 1), and
these are “men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which
God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the
truth” (v. 3). We’ve already considered
that a bit, and Paul says here, “For everything created by God is good, and
nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is
sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer” (vv. 4–5). Things which one person might morally object
to, a mature Christian can partake of them because of a right focus.
Paul also addressed
this in an abused passages about the weaker brother. RC Sproul considered this in his teaching, “The
Tyranny of the Weaker Brother.” In passages
like Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8, the apostle Paul says that we should give
deference to a new believer who may be struggling with issues of conscience; for
instance, if someone saved from idolatry is going to be bothered by my eating
of meat that has been sacrificed to an idol, then I won’t eat that in front of
him. However, if that weaker brother begins
demanding that everyone rids their personal homes of meat, then there is a
problem, and we will need to correct his misunderstanding. Christians are not obligated to change what they
enjoy because someone is offended, though we also don’t go out of our way to offend.
Those who have been
purified through the gospel know all things are pure. However, the one who is constantly bothered
may evidence that he has thinking like the unbeliever. It was the Pharisees who thought you could
bring demons into your body without knowing it because they were themselves
defiled of heart. They only saw
defilement around them because it was in them.
And the professing Christian who does the same, even after receiving
repeated corrections evidence that their minds and consciences are defiled and
unbelieving.
The reality is that
no object has sanctifying or cleansing power.
The Bible defines the gospel as the power of God. Until they come to Christ and the gospel,
they will continue in this state. And it
gets worse.
Paul says here in
the next verse, “They profess to know God.”
That is, they confess God, just as one confesses God unto salvation (cf.
the same term in Rom. 10:9–10). Some
think confession or profession of God is enough. Others are satisfied if a person can sign off
on a creed. However, none of that means
the person is a genuine convert.
Jesus says we will
know them by their fruit. As such, Paul
says here that “by their deeds they
deny Him.” Anyone who has encountered
the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit should be changed by the experience, even
if there are a few lingering struggles.
Paul will explain
in 2:12 using this same terminology that the grace of God “instructing us to
deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and
godly in the present age.” The
difference isn’t by what you profess with your mouth — the people draw near to
God with their lips. The difference
isn’t by working harder and doing radical things for Christ — Jesus said those
touting radical stories of works will fail to enter into heaven (Matt. 7:22–23). The difference between the believer and the
unbeliever is the grace of God that is active in their lives. The unbeliever is known by his works, not simply
by what he says.
Paul says here that
they are “detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.” A mark of a hell-bound sinner is detestability
or abominable behavior (Rev 21:8).
Disobedience is also a mark of unbelief, for in 1 John 2:4, the Spirit
says, “The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His
commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” Finally, whereas the man of God is trained by
the Word of God for good deeds and fit for good works (2 Tim 3:16–17), false
professors are unfit for any good deed.
Once you recognize
unbelievers, you can begin sharing the gospel with them. They may say they believe the gospel, but
those who believe the gospel are transformed by it. The grace of God includes the regeneration of
the Holy Spirit, and that means that a person will live differently as a
Christian.
However, if the
person does not repent and begins spreading false teaching, they then enter the
category of being false teachers. And they’re
not worth keeping around just for another point of view. We don’t go along to get along.
So what does Paul
tell Titus in response? V. 1 of the next
chapter: “But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound
doctrine.” We must exalt the Word of God
in the midst of the detestable and disobedient.
The leaders of the church must draw a line in the sand, like Moses, and
call the faithful and repentant to the Lord’s side.
IV.
Conclusion
The church can never claim to love and honor God’s Word
unless it is also willing to rebuke teachings and philosophies that are
contrary to God’s Word. God said that He
is against false prophets and teachers, so a church will never be sound if it
allows a mix of sound and unsound teachers.
With that in mind,
Don’t take everyone at face value everyone who tells you, “I
believe in God and I have something neat to share.” The demons believe in God and tremble, James
says, and Paul notes that they want you to believe damnable heresies. I hope you see that this is not just the
responsibility of the elders in our church.
We must acknowledge that there are true and false believers among those
who call themselves Christians, and we are called to discern false messages:
and false works. Having done so, do not
submit unto these subtle words of the evil one by watching or listening to his
minsters of darkness on TV, on the radio, or online.
I hope that you will consider yourself in light of verse
16. Do your works line up with your
profession? If not, why not? Have you simply grown distracted? Or is it indicative of a deeper issue, that
you have never been regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit unto new life?
[1] A. Duane Litfin, The
Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, 1985, 2, 763.
[2] Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s word studies from the Greek New Testament: for the English
reader (Tt 1:12). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.