1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,360 Well, I thought I would start this morning by using a couple of the most impactful thinkers 2 00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:12,160 in Christian history to set and frame the discussion for our text today. 3 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:19,960 In the year 426, Augustine, who was a North African bishop in the town of Hippo, which 4 00:00:19,960 --> 00:00:26,440 today is a city in Algeria, Augustine described in his famous work, The City of God, what 5 00:00:26,440 --> 00:00:30,360 he describes as the foundational sin of mankind. 6 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:32,200 Here's how he referred to it. 7 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:41,260 The willful redirection of our attention and love from God to self. 8 00:00:41,260 --> 00:00:48,520 The willful redirecting of our attention and love from God to the human self. 9 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:52,680 Our souls, he said, were created with this unique shape, made in God's image, made to 10 00:00:52,680 --> 00:00:58,040 reflect his glory, but of course in the fall, mankind lost that likeness. 11 00:00:58,040 --> 00:01:02,160 We became twisted and bent out of shape because that's what sin does. 12 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:05,520 It distorts everything about us. 13 00:01:05,520 --> 00:01:09,700 And famously, Augustine pointed out that there are two ultimate loves in this life, love 14 00:01:09,700 --> 00:01:15,360 of God and love of self, but clearly love of God is primary because we only love ourselves 15 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:21,840 rightly when we first acknowledge our creator, when we see ourselves as his image bearers, 16 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:26,560 as we live in his likeness and bring glory to him. 17 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:30,840 But when we turn away from that truth and our sin, we fall short of his glory and we 18 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:36,660 distort our shape and that causes us to move away from God and move towards self. 19 00:01:36,660 --> 00:01:39,640 This is how Augustine explained this concept. 20 00:01:39,640 --> 00:01:45,760 So whether consciously or not, our new object of worship as a fallen man becomes what? 21 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:50,160 Our own needs, our own wants, our own desires. 22 00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:52,000 Not God, no longer God. 23 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:59,120 We make ourselves the center of the universe and by doing so, our soul turns inward, separates 24 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:05,560 itself from the true source of life and nourishment and being deprived of spiritual oxygen, it 25 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:08,560 shrivels up and dies. 26 00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:09,560 That's from the city of God. 27 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:12,760 Now fast forward about 1,100 years actually. 28 00:02:12,760 --> 00:02:18,480 We hear Martin Luther in his lectures on the book of Romans address this very same subject 29 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:25,520 and he uses a term in, there it is, in Corvitus to describe what Augustine had been talking 30 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:32,560 about earlier, the picture of mankind's soul being turned inward on itself. 31 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:37,640 Luther says that our fallen nature is so deeply curved in on itself that we not all bend all 32 00:02:37,640 --> 00:02:44,840 of God's gifts to our benefit, but we wickedly seek all things in this world, even God himself, 33 00:02:44,840 --> 00:02:47,520 for our own selfish benefit. 34 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:50,280 And here's the important point of this this morning, I'm going to put this statement on 35 00:02:50,280 --> 00:02:52,600 the screen so that you see it clearly. 36 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:57,440 Because natural man is so entirely turned inward, he's convinced himself that he can 37 00:02:57,440 --> 00:03:01,200 be morally good all on his own. 38 00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:06,880 And that by striving in religious things, he can achieve a level of righteousness that 39 00:03:06,880 --> 00:03:11,640 gives him a right standing before a holy God. 40 00:03:11,640 --> 00:03:16,200 Now think about it, how many religious systems, how many religious systems are built on that 41 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:19,800 very idea? 42 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:22,640 Do this good work. 43 00:03:22,640 --> 00:03:25,000 Abstain from that thing. 44 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:26,680 Participate in this ritual. 45 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:28,280 Be a part of this ceremony. 46 00:03:28,280 --> 00:03:29,480 Pray this prayer. 47 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:31,100 Follow these rules. 48 00:03:31,100 --> 00:03:32,440 Keep striving. 49 00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:33,440 Keep working. 50 00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:35,280 Look to your own resources. 51 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:37,840 You are in control of your eternal destiny. 52 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:45,920 You have the strength to climb out of the myri pit of sin and reach all the way to heaven. 53 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:48,980 But that's not what scripture says about salvation. 54 00:03:48,980 --> 00:03:52,840 That is the basis for almost every religion on the planet. 55 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:54,160 But that is not what scripture says. 56 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:59,720 The scriptures describe salvation is actually dying to self and looking to God alone and 57 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:02,520 to his merciful grace in order to be saved. 58 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:05,640 That actually saving faith is a gift that comes from him. 59 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:09,120 And that's the only way that we can be declared righteous in his sight. 60 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:11,800 And we know Luther is such a great test case for this. 61 00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:17,240 He came into the monastery as a monk believing that, believing that, and then he came to 62 00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:24,040 understand this picture of grace, commenting later that Incurvitus makes it very difficult 63 00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:29,560 for natural man to accept that salvation has to come from outside of himself, that he cannot 64 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:30,860 earn it. 65 00:04:30,860 --> 00:04:31,860 He cannot do it. 66 00:04:31,860 --> 00:04:34,100 It has to come from outside. 67 00:04:34,100 --> 00:04:35,100 Grace is what's needed. 68 00:04:35,100 --> 00:04:36,160 And it can't be earned. 69 00:04:36,160 --> 00:04:37,360 It's a gift. 70 00:04:37,360 --> 00:04:40,540 And that is so hard for fallen man to receive. 71 00:04:40,540 --> 00:04:44,440 And man just sees that, and you've probably heard this before, that's too simple. 72 00:04:44,440 --> 00:04:45,440 It can't be. 73 00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:48,440 I've got to do some things. 74 00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:54,840 And again, that's because self-centeredness and self-empowerment are so deeply rooted in 75 00:04:54,840 --> 00:04:57,080 the heart of man. 76 00:04:57,080 --> 00:04:58,080 So that's the introduction. 77 00:04:58,080 --> 00:04:59,080 Grab your Bibles. 78 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:01,440 We're going to go to Titus chapter one. 79 00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:04,600 If you're visiting with us this morning, welcome. 80 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:08,520 We are finishing chapter one today, which means we're already a third of the way through 81 00:05:08,520 --> 00:05:11,000 the book, which is crazy. 82 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:15,760 It's a shorter book than you might think. 83 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:16,760 Titus chapter one. 84 00:05:16,760 --> 00:05:19,000 Now let me quickly go back to the outline as we finish the chapter. 85 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:23,320 We started, we laid this out in the outset of the series. 86 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:26,120 Each of the chapters has a particular theme. 87 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:29,180 Chapter one's about godly leadership in the church. 88 00:05:29,180 --> 00:05:31,840 Chapter two's about godly saints in the home. 89 00:05:31,840 --> 00:05:35,300 And chapter three's about godly citizens in society. 90 00:05:35,300 --> 00:05:36,680 So it breaks down very nicely. 91 00:05:36,680 --> 00:05:40,700 Now if we then zoom into chapter one, it gets broken down like this. 92 00:05:40,700 --> 00:05:44,420 After Paul's greeting in the first four verses, and you probably see that there as you're 93 00:05:44,420 --> 00:05:51,160 turning there, we then see him present a distinct contrast between two groups of people, qualified 94 00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:57,880 leaders in verses five through nine and disqualified teachers in verses 10 through 16. 95 00:05:57,880 --> 00:06:02,840 And so this morning we're going to look at those last two verses, verses 15 and 16, about 96 00:06:02,840 --> 00:06:04,460 these disqualified teachers. 97 00:06:04,460 --> 00:06:07,640 But let's back up to verse 10 and we'll read it in context. 98 00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:12,080 So because I know we took a week off last Sunday, let's read it in context and let's 99 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:15,680 make sure that we understand where Paul is going in these last two verses. 100 00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:16,680 Verse 10. 101 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:26,240 For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 102 00:06:26,240 --> 00:06:33,680 that is Jewish men professing to know Christ, who must be silenced because they're upsetting 103 00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:39,640 whole families or they're upsetting entire households, teaching things they should not 104 00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:41,680 teach for what purpose? 105 00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:45,680 For the sake of sordid gain, for their own benefit. 106 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:46,680 Verse 12. 107 00:06:46,680 --> 00:06:51,440 One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, 108 00:06:51,440 --> 00:06:52,480 lazy gluttons. 109 00:06:52,480 --> 00:06:54,760 This testimony is true. 110 00:06:54,760 --> 00:06:57,320 We talked about that two weeks ago. 111 00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:00,240 For this reason, reprove them severely. 112 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:05,400 Now that command to reprove or correct them is not referring to the false teachers. 113 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:06,920 The false teachers need to be silenced. 114 00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:11,320 They need to be cut off from spreading their poison in the Cretan churches. 115 00:07:11,320 --> 00:07:15,400 Here Paul is referring to the believers in the Cretan churches. 116 00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:17,080 They need to be sternly corrected. 117 00:07:17,080 --> 00:07:18,080 Why? 118 00:07:18,080 --> 00:07:22,320 Because first of all, because of their cultural tendencies that are present in Crete that 119 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:28,000 are sort of simmering in their lives and second, because of the false ideas that had already 120 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:31,120 infected the churches on the island. 121 00:07:31,120 --> 00:07:35,240 And ultimately they need to be corrected for this reason, back to verse 13, so that they 122 00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:37,240 may be sound in the faith. 123 00:07:37,240 --> 00:07:40,320 They may be whole or healthy in the faith. 124 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:45,040 And not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the 125 00:07:45,040 --> 00:07:46,400 truth. 126 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:50,280 Which is exactly what these false teachers had been pushing. 127 00:07:50,280 --> 00:07:55,120 Myths and stories and traditions that had nothing to do with the purity of the Christian 128 00:07:55,120 --> 00:07:58,000 faith and huge distractions. 129 00:07:58,000 --> 00:07:59,000 And we know this, right? 130 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:05,840 We can so get off onto rabbit trails about non-essential things that become massive distractions. 131 00:08:05,840 --> 00:08:10,880 These guys were pushing distractions that had the potential to draw people's focus away 132 00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:16,120 from the truth and actually confuse them about the path to salvation. 133 00:08:16,120 --> 00:08:19,920 Now as we talked about two Sundays ago, we're not given a lot of detail here in Titus about 134 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:23,400 what exactly these false teachers were promoting. 135 00:08:23,400 --> 00:08:27,320 But based on what we see in other places in the New Testament, based on what we know about 136 00:08:27,320 --> 00:08:31,720 first century Judaism, it's likely some of the following things. 137 00:08:31,720 --> 00:08:39,600 First of all, ceremonial laws, dietary restrictions, ascetic practices. 138 00:08:39,600 --> 00:08:42,700 Now I'm going to use that word multiple times today, asceticism. 139 00:08:42,700 --> 00:08:48,680 This idea that abstaining from things, separating myself from all physical things for the sake 140 00:08:48,680 --> 00:08:49,940 of holiness. 141 00:08:49,940 --> 00:08:55,200 So they would have been pushing ascetic practices, circumcision, all kinds of rituals and traditions 142 00:08:55,200 --> 00:09:00,480 that come out of rabbinic Judaism and then are passed down through various stories and 143 00:09:00,480 --> 00:09:02,200 teachings. 144 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:06,080 And the best understanding that we have, the purpose of these Jewish men teaching these 145 00:09:06,080 --> 00:09:10,020 things, remember they were teaching newly converted Greeks and they wanted to bring 146 00:09:10,020 --> 00:09:14,280 them in line with the traditions of what we call oral Torah, these stories and myths and 147 00:09:14,280 --> 00:09:18,880 traditions that have been passed down to essentially make them more Jewish. 148 00:09:18,880 --> 00:09:20,920 Why? 149 00:09:20,920 --> 00:09:24,400 Well in their twisted way of thinking that would cleanse them from their dirty past as 150 00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:25,680 pagans. 151 00:09:25,680 --> 00:09:31,600 It would make them more pure as they were pure, at least in their own minds. 152 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:36,940 But what that tells us is they were trying to work holiness from the outside in. 153 00:09:36,940 --> 00:09:39,440 Think about that, holiness from the outside in. 154 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:42,320 Do all these things and you'll be cleansed within. 155 00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:45,820 Do these things, participate in these rituals and ceremonies. 156 00:09:45,820 --> 00:09:47,000 Don't handle those things. 157 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:48,240 Don't touch this. 158 00:09:48,240 --> 00:09:53,200 Seek this mysterious knowledge and you will become pleasing in God's sight and holy in 159 00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:54,380 his sight. 160 00:09:54,380 --> 00:09:55,720 That's what they were teaching. 161 00:09:55,720 --> 00:09:58,120 Now red flags should go up in your brain. 162 00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:02,040 That is exactly in contradiction to what Jesus taught. 163 00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:03,040 Outside in, right? 164 00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:05,740 Do you remember this woe that Jesus laid on the Pharisees? 165 00:10:05,740 --> 00:10:07,720 He called them hypocrites. 166 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:13,720 You clean the outside of the cup and the dish but inside you're full of robbery and self-indulgence. 167 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:21,080 You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the dish so that the outside 168 00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:23,700 may become clean also. 169 00:10:23,700 --> 00:10:29,580 So Paul says anyone teaching this blasphemy of external religiosity as a way to purify 170 00:10:29,580 --> 00:10:34,360 you within, that teacher needs to be silenced. 171 00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:38,980 And the Greek believers in the Cretan churches need to stop paying attention to that nonsense. 172 00:10:38,980 --> 00:10:44,360 So he says Titus, first of all correct them and then silence these guys so that the churches 173 00:10:44,360 --> 00:10:45,680 might be sound. 174 00:10:45,680 --> 00:10:47,600 That make sense? 175 00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:48,600 Good. 176 00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:52,120 That sets up our text for this morning which by the way at first glance this might look 177 00:10:52,120 --> 00:10:56,400 a little bit disconnected from what we just read but it's actually a continuation of the 178 00:10:56,400 --> 00:10:57,520 same theme. 179 00:10:57,520 --> 00:10:59,400 Look at verse 15. 180 00:10:59,400 --> 00:11:06,520 To the purer all things are pure but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is 181 00:11:06,520 --> 00:11:11,760 pure but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. 182 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:18,160 They profess to know God but by their deeds, by their works, they deny him being detestable 183 00:11:18,160 --> 00:11:24,960 and disobedient and worthless or unfit for any good deed. 184 00:11:24,960 --> 00:11:28,020 Okay let's start in verse 15 there and try to, this is a little proverbial statement 185 00:11:28,020 --> 00:11:30,200 that Paul gives us. 186 00:11:30,200 --> 00:11:35,440 You might call it a syllogism but it's basically a wisdom saying and he starts with this. 187 00:11:35,440 --> 00:11:36,440 It's a contrast. 188 00:11:36,440 --> 00:11:39,080 He says to the purer all things are pure. 189 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:42,240 Now who is he talking about with that? 190 00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:45,000 Well this is in contrast to what comes next. 191 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:48,720 People he describes as those who are defiled and unbelieving which means that this first 192 00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:52,400 statement must be referring to true believers. 193 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:57,440 True believers who have been purified by the grace of God through faith alone in Christ. 194 00:11:57,440 --> 00:12:01,820 Because God purifies us within when we come to know him in salvation. 195 00:12:01,820 --> 00:12:08,240 So for the pure, true believers who are justified in Christ, all things are pure. 196 00:12:08,240 --> 00:12:12,440 Now that might raise a question in your mind and it probably should. 197 00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:16,960 Does that mean that everything in this world magically becomes pure for us? 198 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:17,960 Everything. 199 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:20,440 I hope not. 200 00:12:20,440 --> 00:12:22,760 Are there some things that we should say no to? 201 00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:26,880 Obviously Paul's not making the point that now everything magically becomes okay for 202 00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:27,880 you. 203 00:12:27,880 --> 00:12:31,340 Clearly there are things that you should say no to in your daily walk with Jesus. 204 00:12:31,340 --> 00:12:36,360 Some of those things are clear cut commands in scripture and many others exist in the 205 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:40,640 gray areas of life where you have to make important choices and you might say no to 206 00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:45,520 those things out of your wisdom and discernment. 207 00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:50,480 And those daily choices that we make if we want to please the Lord, they do require wisdom 208 00:12:50,480 --> 00:12:55,920 and discernment and maturity in the faith and a purified conscience which we will talk 209 00:12:55,920 --> 00:12:58,040 more about later. 210 00:12:58,040 --> 00:13:02,240 So if Paul isn't giving us permission to gauge in all things, and you can probably think 211 00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:06,680 about some of those things that are clear, what is he saying? 212 00:13:06,680 --> 00:13:07,880 Well remember the context. 213 00:13:07,880 --> 00:13:13,640 The topic at hand is this list of man-made traditions being pushed by the false teachers 214 00:13:13,640 --> 00:13:14,840 in Crete. 215 00:13:14,840 --> 00:13:19,280 All these laws, restrictions, and practices, listen, that are not prescribed under the 216 00:13:19,280 --> 00:13:23,080 new covenant and not taught by the apostles. 217 00:13:23,080 --> 00:13:26,800 That makes them what we call extra biblical, outside of the Bible. 218 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:32,160 So Paul has in mind things which are permitted by God's word, but things which these legalistic 219 00:13:32,160 --> 00:13:35,840 teachers are saying, nope, that's forbidden. 220 00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:40,920 Permitted in scripture, but they're saying no, it's forbidden. 221 00:13:40,920 --> 00:13:45,920 And this means everything from certain kinds of food and drink that you consume to celebration 222 00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:51,040 of certain holidays, to engaging in certain types of recreation, to doing certain types 223 00:13:51,040 --> 00:13:53,360 of business and more. 224 00:13:53,360 --> 00:13:58,440 But to the believer who's been purified by Christ on the inside, pure in his mind and 225 00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:00,000 his conscious, guess what? 226 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:06,160 He has great freedom, great freedom to enjoy all the good gifts that God has given to his 227 00:14:06,160 --> 00:14:09,040 children without feeling guilt or shame over it. 228 00:14:09,040 --> 00:14:10,040 He has that freedom. 229 00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:15,340 Again, not things prohibited in scripture, but things permitted in scripture. 230 00:14:15,340 --> 00:14:19,920 So for the believer who's purified within, all things are pure. 231 00:14:19,920 --> 00:14:20,920 And this is what Jesus taught. 232 00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:24,520 Remember, he said it's not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out 233 00:14:24,520 --> 00:14:26,680 of his heart that defiles him. 234 00:14:26,680 --> 00:14:29,280 So it's not about what we eat or drink. 235 00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:31,880 It's not about the holidays that we observe. 236 00:14:31,880 --> 00:14:34,760 It's not about the hobbies we pick up or the business we do. 237 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:38,840 It's about what's inside a man that God is most concerned about. 238 00:14:38,840 --> 00:14:40,360 Amen? 239 00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:41,640 So that's what that means. 240 00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:43,900 Now let's look at the other side of the coin. 241 00:14:43,900 --> 00:14:46,880 To those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. 242 00:14:46,880 --> 00:14:49,080 Look at the extreme contrast. 243 00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:52,000 All is pure, nothing is pure. 244 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:53,000 So picture this. 245 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:57,960 These false teachers are going around Crete professing to know God, and they're practicing 246 00:14:57,960 --> 00:15:02,560 all these extra biblical regulations, things not prescribed for the believers, and they're 247 00:15:02,560 --> 00:15:06,040 putting on the appearance of godliness. 248 00:15:06,040 --> 00:15:11,200 And then in their pride saying, well, I'm qualified to teach others on these things. 249 00:15:11,200 --> 00:15:17,120 And then they go out and lay these same legalistic regulations on entire households, even entire 250 00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:18,120 churches. 251 00:15:18,120 --> 00:15:21,760 And what's interesting is one of the threads that you see running through multiple letters 252 00:15:21,760 --> 00:15:27,280 in the New Testament is Paul not only having to rebuke these false teachers, but also to 253 00:15:27,280 --> 00:15:31,760 defend his apostolic authority in the face of their attacks. 254 00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:36,920 Because these guys believe they had a higher spiritual knowledge than Paul. 255 00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:38,880 It's almost a proto-gnosticism. 256 00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:42,800 I've got a higher spiritual knowledge that I can pass along to you. 257 00:15:42,800 --> 00:15:44,440 Paul doesn't have those things. 258 00:15:44,440 --> 00:15:46,720 Timothy and Titus don't have them. 259 00:15:46,720 --> 00:15:50,040 What the problem, Paul says, is that makes them defiled. 260 00:15:50,040 --> 00:15:51,720 See what he says there about them? 261 00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:52,720 They're defiled. 262 00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:54,440 And then he calls them out. 263 00:15:54,440 --> 00:15:55,640 Paul calls balls and strikes here. 264 00:15:55,640 --> 00:15:59,840 He says with confidence, they're unbelievers. 265 00:15:59,840 --> 00:16:02,320 Forget what they look like on the outside. 266 00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:04,680 How holy they present themselves. 267 00:16:04,680 --> 00:16:06,720 Forget what they claim with their mouths. 268 00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:10,360 Inside where it really matters, Paul says they're defiled. 269 00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:12,080 And that word in the Greek is very strong. 270 00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:15,720 It means polluted or contaminated. 271 00:16:15,720 --> 00:16:20,360 Jesus talked about such men in Matthew 15, quoting Isaiah and pointing to the Pharisees. 272 00:16:20,360 --> 00:16:25,400 He said, this people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 273 00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:30,640 They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrine human commands. 274 00:16:30,640 --> 00:16:35,200 So Jesus warned Paul in advance, warned Titus in advance, that these men would come. 275 00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:36,200 And here they are. 276 00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:38,320 And Paul says, Titus, here they are. 277 00:16:38,320 --> 00:16:41,340 They're doing this exact same thing. 278 00:16:41,340 --> 00:16:42,340 So here's the lesson. 279 00:16:42,340 --> 00:16:45,680 For this type of person, nothing is pure. 280 00:16:45,680 --> 00:16:46,880 You may know people like this. 281 00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:52,400 There are no gray areas in life where the believer is called to practice discernment 282 00:16:52,400 --> 00:16:54,960 and to choose a path according to conscience. 283 00:16:54,960 --> 00:16:57,680 There's no freedom in the minds of a legalist. 284 00:16:57,680 --> 00:17:01,200 There's gotta be a rule or a law or a regulation to govern it. 285 00:17:01,200 --> 00:17:03,700 It's always black or white. 286 00:17:03,700 --> 00:17:07,720 And the reason they come to that conclusion, Paul says in the end of verse 15, is because 287 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:09,480 inside they're bent out of shape. 288 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:14,080 It says both their mind and their conscience are defiled. 289 00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:17,560 So their thoughts and desires and purposes are polluted. 290 00:17:17,560 --> 00:17:21,640 Their wisdom, their discernment, their judgment is contaminated. 291 00:17:21,640 --> 00:17:22,640 And here's the thing. 292 00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:27,000 If your insides are rotten, you're prone to look at everything on the outside and say, 293 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:29,100 that's rotten. 294 00:17:29,100 --> 00:17:31,840 That's what Paul's saying here. 295 00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:35,840 Coming back to Paul's original instruction to Titus, he says these men need to be silenced 296 00:17:35,840 --> 00:17:37,680 because they're defiled. 297 00:17:37,680 --> 00:17:40,680 And because they're defiled, you cannot trust what they say. 298 00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:43,140 You cannot trust what they teach. 299 00:17:43,140 --> 00:17:47,280 You cannot trust that they're just gonna go out there and operate within the church without 300 00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:48,280 spreading their poison. 301 00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:53,380 In fact, if you look at verse 16, they're detestable, Paul says. 302 00:17:53,380 --> 00:17:54,520 They're disobedient. 303 00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:56,400 They're unfit for any good work. 304 00:17:56,400 --> 00:18:01,000 And that word unfit, adakamas in the Greek, means they're not approved. 305 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:02,000 They're counterfeit. 306 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:05,480 Again, a very strong word, condemning word. 307 00:18:05,480 --> 00:18:07,880 They're counterfeits. 308 00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:09,360 And you gotta understand why. 309 00:18:09,360 --> 00:18:10,960 God knows the truth about these men. 310 00:18:10,960 --> 00:18:11,960 They're frauds. 311 00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:12,960 They're fakes. 312 00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:17,480 They're bulbs seeking to introduce destructive heresies into the church. 313 00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:19,400 They are a threat to the flock. 314 00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:24,720 Titus, you must correct the people and silence them. 315 00:18:24,720 --> 00:18:28,620 So that's what's going on here in chapter one. 316 00:18:28,620 --> 00:18:30,560 So for us, let's take a step back. 317 00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:34,440 I wanna talk about this thing we call legalism today. 318 00:18:34,440 --> 00:18:39,560 And I wanna think about how legalism tends to affect believers in the church today. 319 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:42,000 We'll get really practical about this. 320 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:45,640 First, how do we define legalism? 321 00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:47,040 People get this wrong a lot. 322 00:18:47,040 --> 00:18:48,400 It gets messed up quite a bit. 323 00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:49,400 How do we do this? 324 00:18:49,400 --> 00:18:51,440 Well, I'll give you a couple forms of this. 325 00:18:51,440 --> 00:18:57,320 First of all, we do see a form of this in the false teachers in Crete, men who emphasize 326 00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:04,320 a system of rules and regulations that are not found as commands or imperatives in scripture. 327 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:10,620 And then they lay those things on all believers as requirements for achieving a greater level 328 00:19:10,620 --> 00:19:12,480 of sanctification or holiness. 329 00:19:12,480 --> 00:19:14,040 Does that make sense? 330 00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:16,320 Read that carefully. 331 00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:17,320 That's important. 332 00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:22,380 Now, as insidious as that is, that's actually the mildest form of legalism. 333 00:19:22,380 --> 00:19:24,640 There are much worse ones. 334 00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:28,680 And you may know some people in churches who do this, right? 335 00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:32,000 Extrabiblical things that they're gonna lay on you and say, look, if you do these things, 336 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:33,560 you'll be really holy. 337 00:19:33,560 --> 00:19:36,160 You'll really please God. 338 00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:37,960 Okay. 339 00:19:37,960 --> 00:19:41,920 The much worse form is this one. 340 00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:46,760 Teaching that keeping God's law and his commandments is what makes sinners acceptable before God 341 00:19:46,760 --> 00:19:47,760 in the first place. 342 00:19:47,760 --> 00:19:51,040 The idea that law keeping is what saves us. 343 00:19:51,040 --> 00:19:55,280 That is the ultimate most wicked form of legalism. 344 00:19:55,280 --> 00:19:57,840 That you can earn your salvation by good works. 345 00:19:57,840 --> 00:20:03,280 That you could do enough things to please a perfectly holy God in spite of your daily 346 00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:04,280 sins. 347 00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:05,280 You could just do enough. 348 00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:06,280 You can outweigh it or whatever. 349 00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:08,920 How do you want to try to justify that? 350 00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:10,880 It's ridiculous on its face. 351 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:13,040 But that legalism is out there. 352 00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:17,240 And then there's something of, I would call a middle ground type of legalism that says 353 00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:20,600 this, grace is still required to be saved. 354 00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:22,240 Faith is still required to be saved. 355 00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:25,960 But those things are not enough to actually save you. 356 00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:32,340 You have to add to God's grace your observance of certain rules and regulations and ceremonies 357 00:20:32,340 --> 00:20:34,920 and practices in order to close the deal. 358 00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:40,800 In other words, God will get you so far but then your hard work and your striving is required 359 00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:45,880 to close that deal and essentially you can boast because you have, at least in part, 360 00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:48,880 saved yourself. 361 00:20:48,880 --> 00:20:53,400 And of course this is an utter contradiction to the biblical doctrine of justification 362 00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:58,040 by faith alone apart from our works, which you find all over the New Testament, right? 363 00:20:58,040 --> 00:21:00,800 Romans 3, Ephesians 2, we'll get to it in Titus 3. 364 00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:04,800 It's all over the place. 365 00:21:04,800 --> 00:21:08,200 So you might ask the question then, well if Scripture says that over and over again, well 366 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:10,040 then how did we get to this place? 367 00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:15,240 How did we, how did mankind get to this place where we injected our works into the formula 368 00:21:15,240 --> 00:21:18,480 given to us in Scripture as to how we can be saved? 369 00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:20,440 And you can find the answer right here in Titus 1. 370 00:21:20,440 --> 00:21:23,480 There's many places we could look but look at verse 14. 371 00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:30,440 Go back to this phrase, the commandments of men who turn away from the truth. 372 00:21:30,440 --> 00:21:35,680 God's teachers who have turned away from the truth and are preaching their own message, 373 00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:38,240 their own tradition. 374 00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:43,480 Such men sponsored by the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms have injected 375 00:21:43,480 --> 00:21:45,360 extra requirements into God's word. 376 00:21:45,360 --> 00:21:48,640 We call it Jesus plus. 377 00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:50,480 Turning away from the truth about salvation. 378 00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:57,080 And friends, this has real world consequences for our neighbors, our friends, our coworkers, 379 00:21:57,080 --> 00:22:03,240 people all around us because there are so many well-meaning people who every week walk 380 00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:08,500 into a house of worship and they trust what their leaders tell them without doing the 381 00:22:08,500 --> 00:22:09,500 study on their own. 382 00:22:09,500 --> 00:22:15,120 They just, they blindly trust and they're being led astray by men who in God's sight 383 00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:21,500 are detestable and disobedient and unfit to be in that position of authority. 384 00:22:21,500 --> 00:22:24,760 And we know people like this that are being misled. 385 00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:27,600 So we've got to speak up about it. 386 00:22:27,600 --> 00:22:31,240 Now let me set the record straight on something else about legalism because I mentioned earlier, 387 00:22:31,240 --> 00:22:36,600 I've heard the term misused so many times and especially in this regard. 388 00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:40,320 Sometimes it's said that if I seek to obey the commands of God in scripture, that makes 389 00:22:40,320 --> 00:22:42,820 me a legalist. 390 00:22:42,820 --> 00:22:45,760 If I set out to obey God's commands, I'm a legalist. 391 00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:48,220 Is that legalism? 392 00:22:48,220 --> 00:22:49,380 God forbid. 393 00:22:49,380 --> 00:22:52,240 We should always seek to obey the commands in scripture. 394 00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:53,820 May it never be. 395 00:22:53,820 --> 00:22:57,640 And here's what that misuse of the term might look like. 396 00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:01,960 Somebody casually says to you on a Sunday morning, man, I went out last night, I got 397 00:23:01,960 --> 00:23:08,080 drunk with some friends and he says it kind of casually and you say to him, brother, that's 398 00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:09,820 not okay. 399 00:23:09,820 --> 00:23:12,300 You should repent of that sin, right? 400 00:23:12,300 --> 00:23:13,940 Don't treat that casually. 401 00:23:13,940 --> 00:23:14,940 And he says what? 402 00:23:14,940 --> 00:23:18,020 Oh, you legalist. 403 00:23:18,020 --> 00:23:20,320 I've heard it. 404 00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:21,320 Is that legalism? 405 00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:23,500 No, that's not legalism. 406 00:23:23,500 --> 00:23:27,680 That's simply pointing out an explicit command in scripture, right? 407 00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:32,440 In the New Testament, Ephesians 525, do not get drunk on wine, which leads to dissipation 408 00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:35,180 or reckless living. 409 00:23:35,180 --> 00:23:38,860 When you say to a person, you should repent of that, that's actually loving your brother 410 00:23:38,860 --> 00:23:40,900 enough to hold him. 411 00:23:40,900 --> 00:23:43,240 Don't we all talk about accountability? 412 00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:44,600 But nobody really wants it. 413 00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:46,260 Well, we should want that. 414 00:23:46,260 --> 00:23:49,920 So we speak into his life because we love him to say, no, brother, you should repent 415 00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:52,980 of that and how can I help you not do that again? 416 00:23:52,980 --> 00:23:56,180 We should love that brother enough to tell him that he sinned against God. 417 00:23:56,180 --> 00:24:00,660 He's disobeyed a command because that lifestyle is reckless. 418 00:24:00,660 --> 00:24:01,660 It's self-destructive. 419 00:24:01,660 --> 00:24:06,200 It's not loving to say, that's fine. 420 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:07,500 But that's not legalism. 421 00:24:07,500 --> 00:24:10,700 I've just pointed out a command in scripture. 422 00:24:10,700 --> 00:24:15,780 Now if he casually said this, hey, Jeff, I was at such and such a bar last night and 423 00:24:15,780 --> 00:24:20,640 I had a glass of wine with a friend and you say you should repent of that. 424 00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:23,300 Now I'm a legalist. 425 00:24:23,300 --> 00:24:24,300 Right why? 426 00:24:24,300 --> 00:24:29,820 Because I've gone beyond what scripture commands and I've now laid my conviction, extra biblical 427 00:24:29,820 --> 00:24:33,060 standard on the shoulders of my friend. 428 00:24:33,060 --> 00:24:38,460 And more disastrously, I've misled him into believing that my conviction about drinking 429 00:24:38,460 --> 00:24:41,740 is really a divine command. 430 00:24:41,740 --> 00:24:42,740 I've confused him. 431 00:24:42,740 --> 00:24:44,700 I've misled him. 432 00:24:44,700 --> 00:24:46,780 So here's the truth. 433 00:24:46,780 --> 00:24:52,580 True believers, even those who mean well, can end up being legalists. 434 00:24:52,580 --> 00:24:53,780 So we should be aware of this. 435 00:24:53,780 --> 00:24:57,380 I'm sure many of you experienced this from, I don't know, a fellow church goer at one 436 00:24:57,380 --> 00:24:58,380 time or another. 437 00:24:58,380 --> 00:25:00,340 I have. 438 00:25:00,340 --> 00:25:05,180 These are folks who feel so strongly about non-essential issues that they will literally 439 00:25:05,180 --> 00:25:11,480 run people out of the fellowship if they don't agree with them. 440 00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:17,580 Folks who demand unqualified adherence to a certain external set of standards. 441 00:25:17,580 --> 00:25:20,660 And you can probably think, I made a list that you can think of some more. 442 00:25:20,660 --> 00:25:23,620 The use of alcohol is a huge one. 443 00:25:23,620 --> 00:25:26,140 Or dancing. 444 00:25:26,140 --> 00:25:28,620 You just shoot your hand up if you're like, yep, heard that one. 445 00:25:28,620 --> 00:25:29,620 Dancing? 446 00:25:29,620 --> 00:25:30,620 You heard that? 447 00:25:30,620 --> 00:25:31,620 Okay. 448 00:25:31,620 --> 00:25:35,100 Watching movies and TV shows. 449 00:25:35,100 --> 00:25:36,100 Just going to the movies. 450 00:25:36,100 --> 00:25:41,020 It doesn't, even if you're going to see Bambi at the theater, you're still at the theater. 451 00:25:41,020 --> 00:25:49,260 Which means people might think you're going to see something R rated. 452 00:25:49,260 --> 00:25:54,700 What type of clothing you must wear to church to honor God? 453 00:25:54,700 --> 00:25:57,940 The use of makeup for women. 454 00:25:57,940 --> 00:26:01,220 The length of her skirt. 455 00:26:01,220 --> 00:26:06,340 Whether or not Christian children can go trick or treating on Halloween. 456 00:26:06,340 --> 00:26:07,340 Getting a tattoo. 457 00:26:07,340 --> 00:26:09,540 I mean, the list is almost endless, right? 458 00:26:09,540 --> 00:26:12,660 So there were definitely issues in the first century. 459 00:26:12,660 --> 00:26:17,980 Ours are different today, but they're still the list of things that we struggle with. 460 00:26:17,980 --> 00:26:24,580 And these are little ascetic taboos that we create on our own and sadly sometimes add 461 00:26:24,580 --> 00:26:26,880 to the gospel. 462 00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:30,820 As if God has spoken clearly and explicitly about them. 463 00:26:30,820 --> 00:26:36,260 And when we insist that this is what God has said about an issue when he hasn't, we confuse 464 00:26:36,260 --> 00:26:37,460 people. 465 00:26:37,460 --> 00:26:39,060 And we muddle the purity of the gospel. 466 00:26:39,060 --> 00:26:44,780 We give the impression that somehow salvation is more about those things than the core principles 467 00:26:44,780 --> 00:26:47,340 of what it means to be saved. 468 00:26:47,340 --> 00:26:49,380 Not about regeneration of the heart. 469 00:26:49,380 --> 00:26:54,740 At the end of the day, we do this in spite of the biblical truth that we read in Colossians 470 00:26:54,740 --> 00:26:58,580 2, which is so important for us to see. 471 00:26:58,580 --> 00:27:03,500 Although such things have a reputation for wisdom, right? 472 00:27:03,500 --> 00:27:11,100 Such things, by promoting self-made religion, they are not any value in curbing self-indulgence. 473 00:27:11,100 --> 00:27:14,620 They don't work. 474 00:27:14,620 --> 00:27:18,900 Setting rules doesn't work to change the heart. 475 00:27:18,900 --> 00:27:20,500 They don't produce true godliness. 476 00:27:20,500 --> 00:27:24,820 They do produce an appearance of it sometimes on the outside, but they don't change the 477 00:27:24,820 --> 00:27:25,820 heart. 478 00:27:25,820 --> 00:27:29,740 So Paul asks then, well, why then, if that's true, why then do you submit to the world's 479 00:27:29,740 --> 00:27:30,740 regulations? 480 00:27:30,740 --> 00:27:33,200 Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. 481 00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:37,980 In accordance with the commandments and teachings of men, why do you do that? 482 00:27:37,980 --> 00:27:39,900 Why do you do that? 483 00:27:39,900 --> 00:27:44,180 And this is the great deception of man-made religion, the idea that sin is primarily an 484 00:27:44,180 --> 00:27:45,300 external problem. 485 00:27:45,300 --> 00:27:49,540 So if I just clean up the outside, then I'll be purified inside. 486 00:27:49,540 --> 00:27:50,980 Right? 487 00:27:50,980 --> 00:27:56,060 That's why the medieval Roman Catholic Church, who are the holiest people in culture? 488 00:27:56,060 --> 00:27:59,980 Well, clearly the monks and the nuns. 489 00:27:59,980 --> 00:28:01,380 They were the most holy, right? 490 00:28:01,380 --> 00:28:02,660 Everybody knew that. 491 00:28:02,660 --> 00:28:04,260 But is that true? 492 00:28:04,260 --> 00:28:10,660 Well, yeah, they took vows of celibacy and they followed mandatory fasts and they conformed 493 00:28:10,660 --> 00:28:14,180 to all these rules and they cloistered themselves apart from the world. 494 00:28:14,180 --> 00:28:15,180 But guess what? 495 00:28:15,180 --> 00:28:17,420 God didn't command those things. 496 00:28:17,420 --> 00:28:18,700 He didn't command those things. 497 00:28:18,700 --> 00:28:24,020 And then since the Reformation, sadly, we've fallen into some of the same legalistic traps. 498 00:28:24,020 --> 00:28:28,260 Different but still various sets of external standards. 499 00:28:28,260 --> 00:28:32,860 And we'll do that sometimes even while affirming that the actual fruit of the Spirit is what? 500 00:28:32,860 --> 00:28:37,700 Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 501 00:28:37,700 --> 00:28:39,060 Not asceticism. 502 00:28:39,060 --> 00:28:40,240 Not penance. 503 00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:41,660 Not avoiding wine. 504 00:28:41,660 --> 00:28:47,260 Not wearing a skirt down to your ankles. 505 00:28:47,260 --> 00:28:49,860 So we sort of become hypocrites. 506 00:28:49,860 --> 00:28:53,100 If we're going to stand up here and go, oh, all these other religions who do these things, 507 00:28:53,100 --> 00:28:56,060 but then we do them, we become hypocrites. 508 00:28:56,060 --> 00:28:58,700 So we've got to be careful about this. 509 00:28:58,700 --> 00:29:04,240 Now there's another temptation and as human beings are wont to do, we will swing the pendulum 510 00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:10,140 all the way to the other side and we'll end up in a place called antinomianism. 511 00:29:10,140 --> 00:29:13,780 Raise your hand if you've heard of antinomianism. 512 00:29:13,780 --> 00:29:18,180 Just a big theological word, compound word that comes from the prefix anti, which means 513 00:29:18,180 --> 00:29:23,060 against, and the Greek word for law, which means, which is namas. 514 00:29:23,060 --> 00:29:29,260 So basically it means a lawless person, someone who is against God's law. 515 00:29:29,260 --> 00:29:34,100 So the antinomian heresy tells us that our receiving of God's grace means we can now 516 00:29:34,100 --> 00:29:36,580 sin freely. 517 00:29:36,580 --> 00:29:42,940 This is the extreme and wicked pendulum swing over to this well since we don't have to do 518 00:29:42,940 --> 00:29:46,420 good works anymore, we can just have at it. 519 00:29:46,420 --> 00:29:51,640 We can just party all night because God's moral statutes are no longer binding on us, 520 00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:53,300 it goes. 521 00:29:53,300 --> 00:29:55,500 God's grace is greater than all of our sin, right? 522 00:29:55,500 --> 00:29:57,420 Do we not sing that song? 523 00:29:57,420 --> 00:30:05,060 It's true, God's grace is greater than our sin, well then we can sin away, says the antinomian. 524 00:30:05,060 --> 00:30:08,820 We can sin away because it's not going to affect our standing before God. 525 00:30:08,820 --> 00:30:12,760 Because if good works don't play a role in our justification, then guess what? 526 00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:16,020 Good works aren't in any way necessary in the Christian life. 527 00:30:16,020 --> 00:30:18,940 This is how the argument goes. 528 00:30:18,940 --> 00:30:22,580 Now there's at least three things, probably more, that are obviously wrong about this, 529 00:30:22,580 --> 00:30:23,580 I'll give you all three. 530 00:30:23,580 --> 00:30:27,980 First of all, it functionally denies the whole purpose and goal of sanctification, this side 531 00:30:27,980 --> 00:30:29,700 of heaven. 532 00:30:29,700 --> 00:30:32,800 You know God has a plan and a purpose in your sanctification. 533 00:30:32,800 --> 00:30:36,820 He's preparing you for eternal life in heaven with Jesus. 534 00:30:36,820 --> 00:30:41,620 And it's a beautiful, being sanctified, growing in holiness is not a burden, it's a beautiful 535 00:30:41,620 --> 00:30:45,620 thing, it's a beautiful process that God takes you through over a lifetime. 536 00:30:45,620 --> 00:30:49,220 And when we say, yeah, we don't have to do any of this stuff, we're functionally denying 537 00:30:49,220 --> 00:30:50,900 God's purpose in that. 538 00:30:50,900 --> 00:30:54,300 We're actually rejecting the beauty of growing in holiness. 539 00:30:54,300 --> 00:30:55,300 That's number one. 540 00:30:55,300 --> 00:31:00,900 Secondly, we're told very clearly if we're found in Christ, willfully sinning without 541 00:31:00,900 --> 00:31:06,860 repenting is going to put a block, a stumbling block in our relationship with him. 542 00:31:06,860 --> 00:31:12,820 And it's going to bring discipline into our lives, spiritual discipline, right? 543 00:31:12,820 --> 00:31:14,300 I mean, is that what we're all signing up for? 544 00:31:14,300 --> 00:31:19,020 I want to go sin freely and party it up and whatever discipline God brings in my life, 545 00:31:19,020 --> 00:31:20,020 that's fine. 546 00:31:20,020 --> 00:31:22,660 Does anybody ever actually say that? 547 00:31:22,660 --> 00:31:27,100 So if you're trying to live in two worlds as a Christian, you know it's guaranteed. 548 00:31:27,100 --> 00:31:31,280 If you got one foot in the church and one foot in the world and you don't feel any sense 549 00:31:31,280 --> 00:31:36,340 of conviction or shame for the fact that you are engaging in sins that would make a Gentile 550 00:31:36,340 --> 00:31:42,100 blush, here's what's guaranteed. 551 00:31:42,100 --> 00:31:47,220 Not endless pleasure, but spiritual frustration and spiritual pain. 552 00:31:47,220 --> 00:31:51,340 It's the worst place to be to try to live in both sets of worlds. 553 00:31:51,340 --> 00:31:53,920 But that's only if you're a believer and not self-deceived. 554 00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:55,380 And that's the third problem. 555 00:31:55,380 --> 00:31:59,520 If you're foolish enough to read the scriptures and come to the conclusion that you can sin 556 00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:04,340 all you want and ignore all the good works that God has prepared for you to walk in, 557 00:32:04,340 --> 00:32:05,340 guess what? 558 00:32:05,340 --> 00:32:08,740 According to James, your faith is really dead anyway. 559 00:32:08,740 --> 00:32:10,820 You're not a believer. 560 00:32:10,820 --> 00:32:15,700 You can't be antinomian and say, works don't matter at all. 561 00:32:15,700 --> 00:32:20,060 James says, no, no, no, that means that your faith is dead. 562 00:32:20,060 --> 00:32:22,580 So those are the two extremes, right? 563 00:32:22,580 --> 00:32:26,100 Legalism, antinomianism, we cannot live in those extremes. 564 00:32:26,100 --> 00:32:30,660 So what I want to do here is give you three practical takeaways that will help us live 565 00:32:30,660 --> 00:32:31,660 in that balanced place. 566 00:32:31,660 --> 00:32:33,860 Have you ever noticed about the Christian life? 567 00:32:33,860 --> 00:32:35,700 It's never the extremes. 568 00:32:35,700 --> 00:32:37,140 It's always a balance of things, right? 569 00:32:37,140 --> 00:32:40,760 We always want to try to come into the middle and say, all right, so let's use our wisdom 570 00:32:40,760 --> 00:32:44,740 here and let's find that healthy place that pleases the Lord. 571 00:32:44,740 --> 00:32:49,580 Okay, three practical takeaways from Paul's warning about the false teachers in Crete. 572 00:32:49,580 --> 00:32:51,820 By the way, this is probably not going to be a surprise. 573 00:32:51,820 --> 00:32:56,100 They all center on coming back to God's word. 574 00:32:56,100 --> 00:32:57,100 Anybody surprised? 575 00:32:57,100 --> 00:32:58,100 Make your surprise face. 576 00:32:58,100 --> 00:32:59,100 Yeah, right? 577 00:32:59,100 --> 00:33:01,540 And it depends on us. 578 00:33:01,540 --> 00:33:02,980 Let me just say this. 579 00:33:02,980 --> 00:33:04,660 All of us. 580 00:33:04,660 --> 00:33:09,300 Don't just depend on me and your elders and your small group teachers and your ministry 581 00:33:09,300 --> 00:33:10,300 leaders. 582 00:33:10,300 --> 00:33:11,380 It's all about you. 583 00:33:11,380 --> 00:33:17,220 Spend the time and the energy, right, to delve into this, to be a Berean, to really check 584 00:33:17,220 --> 00:33:18,340 the scriptures for yourself. 585 00:33:18,340 --> 00:33:19,460 And that's the first one. 586 00:33:19,460 --> 00:33:20,860 The first takeaway is this. 587 00:33:20,860 --> 00:33:27,100 You have to be a Berean if you don't want to fall into the trap of legalism. 588 00:33:27,100 --> 00:33:32,340 You've got to study the scriptures and know them for yourself. 589 00:33:32,340 --> 00:33:36,740 Know what the Bible commands and what it doesn't command. 590 00:33:36,740 --> 00:33:38,220 But you've got to know it for yourself. 591 00:33:38,220 --> 00:33:41,300 You can't just trust your leaders. 592 00:33:41,300 --> 00:33:43,140 You've got to know this for yourself, right? 593 00:33:43,140 --> 00:33:46,980 Because this is the problem with people in churches even this morning that are just trusting 594 00:33:46,980 --> 00:33:48,660 their leaders, but they're being misled. 595 00:33:48,660 --> 00:33:52,340 Now, I'm not trying to mislead you, but you should check me. 596 00:33:52,340 --> 00:33:54,780 Amen? 597 00:33:54,780 --> 00:33:56,620 You should check me. 598 00:33:56,620 --> 00:34:01,360 And any pastor that won't say that, you should run from that pastor. 599 00:34:01,360 --> 00:34:06,060 Know what the Bible commands and what it doesn't command so that when you hear something false, 600 00:34:06,060 --> 00:34:10,780 that red flag jumps up in your mind and you say with confidence the Bible does say that 601 00:34:10,780 --> 00:34:13,420 or the Bible doesn't say that. 602 00:34:13,420 --> 00:34:14,740 But that's on each one of us. 603 00:34:14,740 --> 00:34:18,140 We're going to try to help you as much as we can as an elder team, but it's on each 604 00:34:18,140 --> 00:34:19,180 one of us. 605 00:34:19,180 --> 00:34:20,340 That's number one. 606 00:34:20,340 --> 00:34:24,660 Number two is you've got to cultivate a pure conscience. 607 00:34:24,660 --> 00:34:27,820 Let's talk about this for a second because the Bible uses the word conscience. 608 00:34:27,820 --> 00:34:30,900 I think it's like 32 times in the New Testament. 609 00:34:30,900 --> 00:34:33,420 What is a conscience? 610 00:34:33,420 --> 00:34:37,100 It's that moral compass inside of you that does two things. 611 00:34:37,100 --> 00:34:42,880 It either accuses you when you do something wrong, which ought to produce in us a sense 612 00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:49,300 of trouble, or it defends you when you do something right, and that produces in us a 613 00:34:49,300 --> 00:34:51,980 sense of pleasure and wholeness. 614 00:34:51,980 --> 00:34:54,580 So it accuses and it defends. 615 00:34:54,580 --> 00:34:57,820 And every human being has a conscience, both believer and unbeliever. 616 00:34:57,820 --> 00:35:01,160 Now there's differences between them, but we all have a conscience. 617 00:35:01,160 --> 00:35:05,540 The scripture tells us that God has written his law on the hearts of all men. 618 00:35:05,540 --> 00:35:10,220 They know enough to be able to choose between the right and the wrong. 619 00:35:10,220 --> 00:35:16,540 In fact, the great philosopher Immanuel Kant said that we all have a universal sense of 620 00:35:16,540 --> 00:35:24,500 oughtness within us, not hotness, oughtness, just being clear there. 621 00:35:24,500 --> 00:35:27,800 Meaning we all know what we ought to do and what we ought not to do. 622 00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:31,420 We all have that, but here's the problem with human conscience. 623 00:35:31,420 --> 00:35:35,300 Over a lifetime, it fluctuates and it change. 624 00:35:35,300 --> 00:35:39,960 It's not like God's word, which is endures forever and is eternal and unchanging. 625 00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:45,860 The human conscience fluctuates and changes, sometimes in small ways, sometimes in drastic 626 00:35:45,860 --> 00:35:51,320 ways, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the much, much worse. 627 00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:52,540 So it varies. 628 00:35:52,540 --> 00:35:57,340 A man's conscience can grow numb and accustomed to wickedness. 629 00:35:57,340 --> 00:36:01,680 It can become hardened and calloused, even getting to the point where, and we see this 630 00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:06,440 all the time in culture, people call what is evil good and what is good evil. 631 00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:11,460 Their conscience has allowed them to do that because it's changed so drastically. 632 00:36:11,460 --> 00:36:15,620 It's really nothing more than them shutting out what God has planted in their heart and 633 00:36:15,620 --> 00:36:20,740 then adjusting their conscience in order to justify the things that they want. 634 00:36:20,740 --> 00:36:21,860 That's what they do, right? 635 00:36:21,860 --> 00:36:25,580 It's the result of incurbitus, this soul turned in on itself. 636 00:36:25,580 --> 00:36:29,280 I don't want God's law, so I push that out. 637 00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:34,460 What I want is this, so I'm going to, over time, align my conscience, adjust my conscience 638 00:36:34,460 --> 00:36:38,300 in order to justify what I want. 639 00:36:38,300 --> 00:36:43,760 Now for the believer, what we see in scripture is that our conscience can grow faint if we 640 00:36:43,760 --> 00:36:47,260 engage in habitual sin without repenting. 641 00:36:47,260 --> 00:36:52,900 That voice, right, gets a little bit quieter each time if we don't respond to it. 642 00:36:52,900 --> 00:36:57,180 And then we see the word seared being used in the New Testament, meaning the conscience 643 00:36:57,180 --> 00:37:05,660 grows dull and insensitive and eventually hardened against the voice of God in the scriptures. 644 00:37:05,660 --> 00:37:09,660 May it never be, right, that our conscience would be seared so hard that we no longer 645 00:37:09,660 --> 00:37:12,080 hear the voice of God in the scriptures. 646 00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:16,780 So this is why we have to watch over this part of our soul, why we have to guard our 647 00:37:16,780 --> 00:37:17,780 hearts. 648 00:37:17,780 --> 00:37:24,060 We have to guard it, actively cultivate purity of conscience. 649 00:37:24,060 --> 00:37:26,780 Actively cultivate it. 650 00:37:26,780 --> 00:37:31,980 Tell God I want to build my conscience to make it more and more pure. 651 00:37:31,980 --> 00:37:36,480 And we have to remember that for the believer, our conscience is not the highest court of 652 00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:39,540 appeals for what is true. 653 00:37:39,540 --> 00:37:42,600 Because we get it wrong sometimes in our conscience. 654 00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:45,640 That authority belongs to God's word alone. 655 00:37:45,640 --> 00:37:48,060 So we're constantly testing our conscience. 656 00:37:48,060 --> 00:37:53,140 Is my conscience, what I know is right and wrong, is it in line with God's word? 657 00:37:53,140 --> 00:37:54,980 And if it's not, I make that adjustment. 658 00:37:54,980 --> 00:38:00,460 I don't try to justify my desires in contradiction to God's word. 659 00:38:00,460 --> 00:38:02,140 And in that sense, I'll give you an example of this. 660 00:38:02,140 --> 00:38:06,900 We echo what Luther said at the Deed of Worms in 1521. 661 00:38:06,900 --> 00:38:09,360 More church history. 662 00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:13,580 At the Deed of Worms in 1521, he was under great pressure from the Holy Roman Emperor. 663 00:38:13,580 --> 00:38:17,420 And he was asked if he would recant his writings. 664 00:38:17,420 --> 00:38:18,860 Some of you guys know his famous quote. 665 00:38:18,860 --> 00:38:20,420 In part, here's what he said. 666 00:38:20,420 --> 00:38:25,820 My conscience is held captive by the word of God. 667 00:38:25,820 --> 00:38:30,020 To act against my conscience is neither right nor safe. 668 00:38:30,020 --> 00:38:34,520 And that phrase held captive is so powerful. 669 00:38:34,520 --> 00:38:35,860 That is what we want to develop. 670 00:38:35,860 --> 00:38:39,940 A conscience that is held captive to God's word. 671 00:38:39,940 --> 00:38:41,220 Because it can do no other. 672 00:38:41,220 --> 00:38:45,700 That is a powerful tool of sanctification in your life. 673 00:38:45,700 --> 00:38:48,020 So number one, you've got to know the scriptures for yourself. 674 00:38:48,020 --> 00:38:54,380 Number two, you've got to cultivate purity of conscience aligned with God's word. 675 00:38:54,380 --> 00:38:59,140 And then third thing, and this is just the most practical of all, you've got to develop 676 00:38:59,140 --> 00:39:04,060 biblical convictions based on biblical principles. 677 00:39:04,060 --> 00:39:06,620 Because you're not going to get a command for everything. 678 00:39:06,620 --> 00:39:10,980 You get like, I just, I got this little thing in my life. 679 00:39:10,980 --> 00:39:12,660 Where's that verse? 680 00:39:12,660 --> 00:39:13,740 It may not be in there. 681 00:39:13,740 --> 00:39:14,740 So what do you have to do? 682 00:39:14,740 --> 00:39:17,460 Well, you have to develop convictions about that thing. 683 00:39:17,460 --> 00:39:18,460 Based on what? 684 00:39:18,460 --> 00:39:19,460 My conscience? 685 00:39:19,460 --> 00:39:20,460 Maybe not. 686 00:39:20,460 --> 00:39:21,460 It might not be purified. 687 00:39:21,460 --> 00:39:22,460 Right? 688 00:39:22,460 --> 00:39:28,200 I've got to go and pull biblical principles out of the text and apply it in that situation. 689 00:39:28,200 --> 00:39:33,020 This is how we make right decisions in the gray areas of life. 690 00:39:33,020 --> 00:39:34,340 Was when we do this. 691 00:39:34,340 --> 00:39:35,340 Right? 692 00:39:35,340 --> 00:39:36,340 These are places in the Bible. 693 00:39:36,340 --> 00:39:37,500 You're not going to find a command. 694 00:39:37,500 --> 00:39:39,840 Do this or don't do that. 695 00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:42,140 So convictions come about gradually. 696 00:39:42,140 --> 00:39:43,460 Right? 697 00:39:43,460 --> 00:39:48,300 Over years, over lifetime, once again, studying the scriptures and sort of culling together 698 00:39:48,300 --> 00:39:52,540 all of the biblical principles that we see in the Bible. 699 00:39:52,540 --> 00:39:56,020 Principles that you can apply when you are confronted with having to make a moral choice 700 00:39:56,020 --> 00:39:57,020 or decision. 701 00:39:57,020 --> 00:40:00,580 I like to think of it as a, I'd use the term Rolodex, but most of you guys are too young 702 00:40:00,580 --> 00:40:02,580 to remember what a Rolodex is. 703 00:40:02,580 --> 00:40:04,580 So it's a database. 704 00:40:04,580 --> 00:40:07,940 Do we still use databases? 705 00:40:07,940 --> 00:40:08,940 Okay. 706 00:40:08,940 --> 00:40:13,220 So you're at that crossroads of a decision and you have a database or a Rolodex in your 707 00:40:13,220 --> 00:40:16,900 head and you're spinning through it and you're like, okay, how does the Bible speak to this? 708 00:40:16,900 --> 00:40:21,060 I know there's not a command for it, but how does the Bible speak to this and how then 709 00:40:21,060 --> 00:40:25,500 should I respond based on how the Bible speaks into it? 710 00:40:25,500 --> 00:40:26,500 That requires study. 711 00:40:26,500 --> 00:40:27,500 That requires knowledge. 712 00:40:27,500 --> 00:40:29,340 That requires growing in wisdom. 713 00:40:29,340 --> 00:40:34,540 But you've got to be able to access that database to look carefully at what's going on. 714 00:40:34,540 --> 00:40:38,860 Paul tells us in Romans 14, by the way, that this is a very important part of the Christian 715 00:40:38,860 --> 00:40:41,540 life, developing convictions. 716 00:40:41,540 --> 00:40:45,300 When it comes to non-essential disputable matters, he says this, and you heard it in 717 00:40:45,300 --> 00:40:46,580 our call to worship. 718 00:40:46,580 --> 00:40:53,480 Each person, each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. 719 00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:54,780 You've got to come to convictions. 720 00:40:54,780 --> 00:41:00,740 Paul encourages you to do that in the gray areas of life. 721 00:41:00,740 --> 00:41:04,220 And when a person is convinced based on his conscience has been informed by the word of 722 00:41:04,220 --> 00:41:09,860 God, he settles on things that are true, and then that conviction, he says, look, my conscience 723 00:41:09,860 --> 00:41:10,940 tells me this. 724 00:41:10,940 --> 00:41:14,480 My conscience is aligned with, is held captive by God's word. 725 00:41:14,480 --> 00:41:18,120 So now this is my conviction about what is true, and it's my conviction. 726 00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:19,120 What does that mean? 727 00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:22,340 It's not everybody else's conviction. 728 00:41:22,340 --> 00:41:24,220 This is where we often go wrong. 729 00:41:24,220 --> 00:41:25,820 It's my conviction to have. 730 00:41:25,820 --> 00:41:32,000 It's not my job to force it upon everybody else because it's a gray matter. 731 00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:33,000 It's a gray matter. 732 00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:34,660 It's a matter of discernment and wisdom. 733 00:41:34,660 --> 00:41:38,940 See the problem is we often feel so strongly about something that we get convicted about 734 00:41:38,940 --> 00:41:42,460 that then we run around making sure everybody else sees it my way. 735 00:41:42,460 --> 00:41:43,900 Right? 736 00:41:43,900 --> 00:41:46,100 And then they do what we do, do what I do. 737 00:41:46,100 --> 00:41:50,020 And if they don't do it, then we get puffed up in our self-righteousness and we judge 738 00:41:50,020 --> 00:41:51,020 others. 739 00:41:51,020 --> 00:41:52,020 Oh, he's not as pious as me. 740 00:41:52,020 --> 00:41:53,620 He's not as committed as me. 741 00:41:53,620 --> 00:41:57,940 And this is where we get division and conflict in the church. 742 00:41:57,940 --> 00:42:00,420 So we can have discussions about convictions. 743 00:42:00,420 --> 00:42:04,300 I can share with you why I'm convicted about that, and you can share with me why you have 744 00:42:04,300 --> 00:42:05,860 a different position. 745 00:42:05,860 --> 00:42:09,420 But we can come together and say, I'm not going to judge you and you don't judge me. 746 00:42:09,420 --> 00:42:12,740 In fact, if I, and if I do, that's legalism. 747 00:42:12,740 --> 00:42:13,740 Right? 748 00:42:13,740 --> 00:42:17,540 If I judge you based on my conviction on a gray area that scripture doesn't explicitly 749 00:42:17,540 --> 00:42:20,700 speak to, I've now fallen into legalism. 750 00:42:20,700 --> 00:42:24,120 I told you what you should do based on my conviction. 751 00:42:24,120 --> 00:42:26,900 So Paul literally addresses this in Romans 14. 752 00:42:26,900 --> 00:42:32,060 He says, the one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat. 753 00:42:32,060 --> 00:42:36,860 And the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. 754 00:42:36,860 --> 00:42:39,700 Why do you judge your brother? 755 00:42:39,700 --> 00:42:42,340 Now again, there are things that are clear cut in scripture. 756 00:42:42,340 --> 00:42:45,580 We can call each other out, hold each other accountable to those things. 757 00:42:45,580 --> 00:42:50,740 But in disputable matters, we've got to show grace to each other. 758 00:42:50,740 --> 00:42:55,220 Now, as we develop convictions, let me point out one last thing. 759 00:42:55,220 --> 00:42:57,500 It's important to recognize two things. 760 00:42:57,500 --> 00:43:03,420 First of all, that yes, you have freedom in Christ in the gray areas to enjoy what God 761 00:43:03,420 --> 00:43:04,420 has provided. 762 00:43:04,420 --> 00:43:07,420 But there's also this principle in 1 Corinthians 6. 763 00:43:07,420 --> 00:43:12,060 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable for me. 764 00:43:12,060 --> 00:43:14,260 That is a very wise saying. 765 00:43:14,260 --> 00:43:16,220 Meaning, you know what? 766 00:43:16,220 --> 00:43:17,940 I'm looking at this choice. 767 00:43:17,940 --> 00:43:19,140 I could engage in that. 768 00:43:19,140 --> 00:43:23,580 I have the freedom to do that because scripture doesn't prohibit it. 769 00:43:23,580 --> 00:43:29,660 But I'm going to choose not to because I discern that that is not going to be spiritually edifying 770 00:43:29,660 --> 00:43:30,860 in my life. 771 00:43:30,860 --> 00:43:33,140 That is not going to be good for me. 772 00:43:33,140 --> 00:43:35,580 Now is that weakness or is it maturity? 773 00:43:35,580 --> 00:43:37,860 It's maturity. 774 00:43:37,860 --> 00:43:42,540 I know both what God says about it, God's word says about it, but I also know my own 775 00:43:42,540 --> 00:43:43,540 heart. 776 00:43:43,540 --> 00:43:48,500 And in this case, so I have the freedom to say yes, I'm going to say no, because that's 777 00:43:48,500 --> 00:43:51,060 the right decision based on my conviction. 778 00:43:51,060 --> 00:43:52,560 Okay. 779 00:43:52,560 --> 00:43:55,060 There's obviously a lot more that could be said about this. 780 00:43:55,060 --> 00:43:59,220 This should make, Jeff, this should make some great discussion in your small group. 781 00:43:59,220 --> 00:44:00,780 You know, you should argue about these things. 782 00:44:00,780 --> 00:44:01,780 It's good. 783 00:44:01,780 --> 00:44:04,060 Have discussions about, argue is a little hard. 784 00:44:04,060 --> 00:44:06,220 Have discussions about these things, right? 785 00:44:06,220 --> 00:44:10,020 Deal with some of these examples because if you haven't faced them yet, you will face 786 00:44:10,020 --> 00:44:12,980 them at some point in your life in the church. 787 00:44:12,980 --> 00:44:14,460 And they're important to flesh out. 788 00:44:14,460 --> 00:44:15,460 Okay. 789 00:44:15,460 --> 00:44:17,400 Let me wrap up. 790 00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:18,860 Here we are finishing chapter one. 791 00:44:18,860 --> 00:44:19,860 Let's come back. 792 00:44:19,860 --> 00:44:22,060 What was the theme in chapter one? 793 00:44:22,060 --> 00:44:24,660 Godly leadership in the church. 794 00:44:24,660 --> 00:44:30,100 So all these subject matters are being addressed by Paul so that Titus would set in order the 795 00:44:30,100 --> 00:44:33,660 things that were missing in the churches in Crete. 796 00:44:33,660 --> 00:44:34,740 Two things in particular. 797 00:44:34,740 --> 00:44:37,660 First of all, this urgent need, we talked about it, how many weeks due to four weeks 798 00:44:37,660 --> 00:44:38,820 on elders? 799 00:44:38,820 --> 00:44:44,500 The urgent need to appoint qualified men to serve as elders in the church. 800 00:44:44,500 --> 00:44:45,500 That is primary. 801 00:44:45,500 --> 00:44:51,680 But second, to make sure these elders are on watch for false teaching, watching for legalists 802 00:44:51,680 --> 00:44:57,340 who want to come in and add all kinds of things to the gospel, who want to put manmade traditions 803 00:44:57,340 --> 00:44:59,860 on the shoulders of the saints. 804 00:44:59,860 --> 00:45:02,980 And the elders have to be able to recognize that falsehood. 805 00:45:02,980 --> 00:45:06,180 They have to know how to silence that falsehood. 806 00:45:06,180 --> 00:45:12,240 And then they need to know how to turn around and help the believers be sound in the faith. 807 00:45:12,240 --> 00:45:13,780 So elders, did you catch all that? 808 00:45:13,780 --> 00:45:16,180 All the elders that are here this morning? 809 00:45:16,180 --> 00:45:22,380 You see false things, you silence false things, and you help the saints develop sound doctrine. 810 00:45:22,380 --> 00:45:26,940 It's a huge part of our job to lead, to feed, to protect. 811 00:45:26,940 --> 00:45:32,680 Now the elders also have to be able to recognize how the Holy Spirit works in sanctification. 812 00:45:32,680 --> 00:45:34,860 This is a big part of this. 813 00:45:34,860 --> 00:45:40,780 Do the elders in the church you go to understand how the Holy Spirit changes the heart? 814 00:45:40,780 --> 00:45:43,800 He doesn't do it by external regulations and rules. 815 00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:46,360 He doesn't do it by ascetic practices. 816 00:45:46,360 --> 00:45:48,780 That is not how people grow in grace. 817 00:45:48,780 --> 00:45:52,580 If the congregations and creed are going to be sound and growing in holiness, the elders 818 00:45:52,580 --> 00:45:57,700 have to be able to say, guys, guys, push that stuff aside because this is how the Holy Spirit 819 00:45:57,700 --> 00:45:59,860 works to change you. 820 00:45:59,860 --> 00:46:05,060 He works through your conscience, both accusing and defending, so purify it. 821 00:46:05,060 --> 00:46:09,680 He works through conviction, guiding believers into what is true and what is profitable for 822 00:46:09,680 --> 00:46:10,680 their life. 823 00:46:10,680 --> 00:46:13,780 He works through study the Word and come to those convictions. 824 00:46:13,780 --> 00:46:18,100 In all of his work, the Spirit constantly points us back to God's Word in the text of 825 00:46:18,100 --> 00:46:20,860 Scripture, also in preaching and teaching. 826 00:46:20,860 --> 00:46:26,820 And over time, as we saturate ourselves in truth, and I love that word, saturate. 827 00:46:26,820 --> 00:46:31,420 As we saturate ourselves in divine truth, what happens? 828 00:46:31,420 --> 00:46:35,100 Anybody that's been a Christian for a long period of time, they can tell you it's happened. 829 00:46:35,100 --> 00:46:36,780 They can't tell you exactly how. 830 00:46:36,780 --> 00:46:40,600 I can tell you this after decades and decades and decades of being a believer. 831 00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:46,840 By saturating myself in God's Word, my thoughts are nothing like they were before. 832 00:46:46,840 --> 00:46:51,540 My affections are completely different than they were before. 833 00:46:51,540 --> 00:46:52,540 That's what he does. 834 00:46:52,540 --> 00:46:53,540 He changes our thinking. 835 00:46:53,540 --> 00:46:59,300 He changes our affections, our entire heart, what we love, what we worship, all of it's 836 00:46:59,300 --> 00:47:00,300 changed. 837 00:47:00,300 --> 00:47:04,060 Now, can I look back at the last 35 years and go, here are the 10 steps God used? 838 00:47:04,060 --> 00:47:09,220 No, but he has changed me through the power of his Word. 839 00:47:09,220 --> 00:47:11,980 So guys, it's not outside in. 840 00:47:11,980 --> 00:47:14,820 It's inside out. 841 00:47:14,820 --> 00:47:17,760 Please understand that principle today. 842 00:47:17,760 --> 00:47:23,260 May our souls never turn inward on the self, but always looking up to the one who gives 843 00:47:23,260 --> 00:47:27,660 us every single thing we need for faith and practice and godliness. 844 00:47:27,660 --> 00:47:28,660 Amen? 845 00:47:28,660 --> 00:47:29,660 Amen. 846 00:47:29,660 --> 00:47:30,660 Can we bow our heads? 847 00:47:30,660 --> 00:47:35,660 Father, we thank you so much for the practical nature of your Word every week. 848 00:47:35,660 --> 00:47:40,060 I know I pray that, Lord, but I'm so grateful that you have not left us to figure things 849 00:47:40,060 --> 00:47:45,340 out on our own, but you have told us, in this case, Lord, exactly what we should do to set 850 00:47:45,340 --> 00:47:51,740 our churches in order, to have qualified leadership, to watch for false teaching. 851 00:47:51,740 --> 00:47:58,060 And Lord, you've spoken to us about what it means to be sanctified, to be changed by your 852 00:47:58,060 --> 00:48:04,400 spirit from the inside out and not the other way, Lord, that we might push away that nonsense 853 00:48:04,400 --> 00:48:07,380 that Paul is telling Titus to avoid. 854 00:48:07,380 --> 00:48:14,500 God, we are a grateful people this morning because we know that if we're found in you, 855 00:48:14,500 --> 00:48:20,040 that you are right now, even this morning, transforming us. 856 00:48:20,040 --> 00:48:22,220 You are correcting our thoughts. 857 00:48:22,220 --> 00:48:27,180 You are changing the things that we have affection for, the things that we worship. 858 00:48:27,180 --> 00:48:33,780 You are changing our whole inside, our heart, to incline ourselves more and more to you. 859 00:48:33,780 --> 00:48:36,780 You promise that you'll finish that work in us. 860 00:48:36,780 --> 00:48:42,940 I pray for myself and for my brothers and sisters that we will lean into that process, 861 00:48:42,940 --> 00:48:47,300 that we will cooperate with the work that you want to do in us, that we might see our 862 00:48:47,300 --> 00:48:52,540 lives change, that we might see the fruit of the Spirit produced in us. 863 00:48:52,540 --> 00:48:54,640 So Lord, seal these truths to our hearts this morning. 864 00:48:54,640 --> 00:49:00,640 May they be things that we come back to often and pray over and pray for ourselves. 865 00:49:00,640 --> 00:49:04,500 And then all of that, Lord, that you would continue to do a good work in us and be glorified 866 00:49:04,500 --> 00:49:05,500 in us. 867 00:49:05,500 --> 00:49:06,500 Thank you for this morning. 868 00:49:06,500 --> 00:49:07,500 We love you. 869 00:49:07,500 --> 00:49:09,500 We praise you in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. 870 00:49:09,500 --> 00:49:31,500 Amen.