I remember many years ago when we were working
through the process of writing down what would
eventually become our church covenant. The document
that guides our lives together is how we are
living out a healthy church life as a local body.
And we knew as we started that process, we knew
that it had to start with the subject of unity.
That was number one. That was on the forefront
of our minds. And we sought to find out, well,
what are the motivations of the heart and what
are the practical actions that would be required
of members here at Oak Hill if we were going
to attain to that kind of healthy church? And
for those of you who are here this morning and
you are already covenant members, you know exactly
how that wording played out because we read it
together every single month, right, at our member
meetings. It is the first of 10 principles that
guide how we live life together. And as we always
say, it's number one on the list of 10 because
if we don't get that one right, we'll never get
to the other nine. And that's an important thing.
So let me put it on the screen just so that we
can be reminded of what it says. This is number
one in our covenant. We will work and pray for
unity of the spirit within the body. Always,
always practicing forgiveness. pursuing reconciliation,
and rejecting harmful gossip. That is number
one. If we don't have that one right, we're not
going to be able to live out the other nine.
And it's interesting, when you look at church
history, a couple things become very, very clear.
Number one, the church that Jesus established
has always struggled with false ideas and false
teachers infiltrating the church. But number
two, the church has always struggled to maintain
unity. Throughout 2 ,000 years, it doesn't matter
what era of church history you're looking at,
from the apostolic era in the pages of Scripture
through every single succeeding age of the church,
disunity. And sometimes in very nasty ways, even
among bishops at the highest echelons of church
leadership, we've struggled with unity. Now,
some of those battles, some of that disunity
was actually required in church history because
essential Christian doctrines were at stake and
they needed to be fought for and clarified and
established. But today, the far more common kind
of disunity that you find among Christians is
fueled by an endless list of conflicts that divide
the body, that tear relationships apart, and
sometimes even bring down entire local churches.
Because we know God's sovereignty, it might raise
a question in your mind. Why does this happen?
Why is there so much disunity all the time? And
you know what the answer is? People. People,
our nature. Even though we've been redeemed by
the blood of Christ, even though we've been born
again to a new nature, during the years on the
earth, we still wrestle with the flesh down here.
And when we wrestle with the flesh and we're
not getting spiritual victory over those things,
sometimes we see pride rise up in us, me included.
Pride, greed, envy, bitterness, unforgiveness,
these things on occasion will raise their ugly
heads in our lives. And when they do, we find
ourselves failing to do what the scripture calls
us to do as brothers and sisters, to humbly,
gently, and patiently bear with one another in
love. That's one of the hardest things that we're
called to do, and to be eager to maintain the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And
as a church leader, I'm sometimes frustrated
with myself, and this whole thing frustrates
me because I want to see this church become this
healthy community that grows and matures together,
bearing the fruits of the Spirit. But as I was
preparing for this message this week, I was reminded
that, again, if you look at the history and you
see that the churches always struggle with this,
perhaps we're approaching it wrongly. Perhaps
we have some wrong presuppositions about unity.
Now, we know God wants us to be united. That's
very clear in Scripture. But consider this. Nowhere
in Scripture are we told that finding unity is
going to be easy. I wish that promise were there.
Oh, because the Spirit will be among you. Everybody's
going to get along. And we're going to have no
conflict. Would that not be nice? In fact, even
among the New Testament churches that Paul wrote
letters to. Think about this. Within a generation
of the resurrection of Christ. With apostolic
oversight, what do we find in these churches?
Quarreling, division, rivalries, dissensions,
divisions, bitterness, anger, malice, and more.
So 2 ,000 years later, why would we assume that
it's suddenly going to become anything but difficult?
And maybe, just maybe, God is using that difficulty
to grow us. for our good, right? To transform
us into the likeness of Christ. Because the truth
is, and I can't find the source of this quote,
but it's a great quote. Sanctifying gifts tend
to arrive in painful packages. I'll say it again.
Sanctifying gifts tend to arrive in painful packages.
And having to die to ourselves, having to put
people other than ourselves first, bearing with
one another can sometimes be painful. That's
why unity of the Spirit, in the bond of peace
is difficult. But hear me now, it's a worthy
battle. And it's something we have to keep fighting,
all of us, to have this goal that we will work
and pray for unity of the spirit within the body.
That is our subject for this morning. So grab
your Bibles. We're going to Titus chapter three.
Now, we've been here for a while, right? So let
me say publicly, I'm sorry for the on again,
off again here in Titus 3. The last month or
so has been pretty chaotic in our lives. And
so I was here, then I was gone, and I was here
and gone. And so it feels like we've been in
Titus 3 forever. So I apologize that. I thank
you for your grace as well. We're going to finish
Titus next week. And then the following Sunday,
we hope, Lord willing, to dive into the book
of Esther. I want to back up to verse 1 because
I feel like we need to read through this again
because the context here is so important. Remember,
Paul is writing to this young protege of his,
Titus, and he's giving him instructions on how
he should exhort the church in the land of Crete,
right? That island in the Mediterranean, Crete.
So he says, Titus, remind them, verse 1, to be
subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient,
to be ready for every good deed, to malign no
one. To be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration
for all men. Now the point of that, and we saw
this in the previous chapter, was this idea of
having a good testimony among unbelievers to
adorn the gospel with their lives so that people
might be drawn to the gospel. Now catch this
now, verse three, he says, here's what you were
saved out of, believers, and this applies to
us today. Here's what you were saved out, verse
three, for we also once were foolish ourselves.
disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts
and pleasures, spending our life in malice and
envy, hateful and hating one another. And then
we have this beautiful section, verses four through
seven. We spent two Sundays here and it really
requires even more because the language here
is so beautiful. Verse four, but when the kindness
of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared,
he saved us. So this is what we once were, all
of those awful things, but when the kindness
of God and his love for us appeared, he saved
us. How did he save us? Not on the basis of deeds,
which we have done in righteousness, but according
to what? His mercy. Everybody see it? By the
washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy
Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly. Through
Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that being justified
by his grace, not by works, but by his grace,
we would be made heirs according to the hope
of eternal life. Wow. And now today's passage,
verses 8 through 11. This is a trustworthy statement,
Paul says. And concerning these things, I want
you to speak confidently so that those who have
believed God will be careful to engage in good
deeds. Now, that's the second time he's mentioned
good deeds. Take note of that. These things are
good and profitable for men, but avoid foolish
controversies and genealogies and strife and
disputes about the law for they're unprofitable
and worthless. Reject a factious man after a
first and second warning, knowing that such a
man is perverted and is sinning, being self -condemned.
Okay, lots to work through there. Let's go back
up to verse eight where Paul begins this way.
This is a trustworthy statement, he says. Now,
why? Why would he start here and say that? Well,
this is a phrase that Paul uses five times in
the pastoral letters. Four times he uses this
phrase in writing to Timothy and this one written
to Titus. Pistos halagos in the Greek. What he's
doing here is drawing special attention to something
he wants these two younger proteges of his to
remember. It's like he's shining a flashlight
on it and saying, hey guys, look carefully at
this. This is something you have to remember.
This is a core truth. And to Titus, Paul's referring
back to what he just wrote in verses four through
seven. So when he says this is trustworthy, he's
going back to verses four through seven. So these
are three things here that Titus should remember
carefully as he ministers on the island of Crete.
First of all, remember how utterly sinful we
all once were. We were so foolish. We were so
disobedient. We were enemies of God. until his
kindness appeared to us. That's number one. Second,
remember how he saved us, not on the basis of
our works, but because of his mercy. And third,
how the Holy Spirit came to us at conversion
and cleansed us, washed away our sins, brought
us to life through the regeneration of our hearts
so that now being justified by grace, we get
to be adopted as sons and daughters of God for
all of eternity. Now, I don't know about you,
but when I review those three things, I'd say
that's pretty important to remember. In fact,
my friends, that is the gospel in a nutshell.
If you ever wanted, like, I'm not exactly sure
what the gospel is, turn to Titus 3, look at
verses 4 through 7, and you'll have your answer.
That is the gospel in a nutshell. So Paul says,
Titus, pay attention. What I've just told you
is a trustworthy statement. You've got to know
this. And then he goes on, and concerning these
things, I want you to speak confidently about
them. So again, this is this grizzled old apostle
talking to this young pastor and saying, you
gotta focus on this. Now the single Greek word
that Paul uses here for speak confidently comes
from a root, a word that basically means to affirm
something strongly. It's a very unusual word.
Paul only uses it one other time. to 1 Timothy,
to Timothy, right? And there it's translated
to make confident assertions. So what Paul is
saying here to Titus is this. Titus, I want you
to take that condensed gospel message that I
just wrote to you, and I want you to insist on
affirming these things over and over and over
again, and I want you to teach them with absolute
confidence. Make it strong. And I say over and
over and over again because the verb is written
in the present tense, which means this should
be an ongoing thing, a daily habit to preach
these truths. Keep on speaking. Keep on affirming
this core message. Listen, friends, you and I,
we should never get tired of hearing it. I know
sometimes I hear this complaint. People are like,
really, the gospel again? Listen, we should never.
get tired of remembering and recalling the effects
of the gospel in our lives. We should never stop
remembering who we once were. Because you've
got to know the bad, right? How many times have
I said this? If you don't remember the bad news,
then it's hard to understand what Christ has
done for you. So we start there, what we once
were, then what Christ has done for us on our
behalf, bringing us to life, cleansing us from
sin, saving us, justifying us, and then... That's
part one and part two, remembering who you now
are in Christ. Your identity as a son or daughter
of God and saying, that's what I now need to
become. God says I'm that positionally, now practically,
that's what I need to live out. So all three
of those things are so important. So when we
come together here on Sundays, you guys, and
we read scripture together, and when we come
to the throne of grace as we just did, Grant
led us to the throne of grace for corporate prayer.
When we lift our voices together and sing praises,
when we listen to God's word being taught from
this pulpit, in all of those moments, what we're
doing is rehearsing the gospel and remembering,
preaching to ourselves, reminding ourselves of
these core truths, and this is exactly what Paul
wants Titus to keep doing. Does that make sense?
Yeah? Now, here's the interesting part to this.
Not only that, because... It's possible for us
to remember the gospel and it all stays up here.
And it doesn't get down to our hands. Because
look, he has a purpose in this. Yes, the believer
should constantly meditate on the goodness of
the gospel, but those truths are designed to
bring about a particular result in us. Notice
the conjunction in the middle of verse eight.
It says, so that. When you see a so that in scripture,
what does it mean? Here's a purpose statement.
Here's a reason for what I just said coming your
way. Look at the reason. Titus, keep affirming
the basics of the gospel. Speak confidently about
them so that those who believe in God will be
careful to do what? Engage in good deeds. So
the gospel truth that we remember up here gets
down to the hands level, right? Where it's being
lived out through good deeds. And man, how often
it's sad. I see Christians, especially online
these days, who are so zealous for the intellectual
side of the faith. They will scrap and claw for
every nuance of right doctrine. And you guys
know I love doctrine. It's a good thing as long
as it translates into a life that's well -lived
for the glory of God and for the good of others.
Right? It can't just stay up here. It can't just
be something I fight over online. It's got to
get down to the practical street level. If it
doesn't, if all of our doctrinal understanding
stays up in our head and doesn't get down there,
what does 1 Corinthians 13 say we are? Just noisy
gongs and clashing, clanging cymbals. See, when
you hear the gospel proclaimed over and over
again and you take it to heart and you apply
it to yourself and you let it fill you with awe
for what Christ has done for you, here's what
you're going to find. You don't have to even
have people tell you to serve others. You want
to serve others. Nobody has to guilt you into
good deeds. You want to do good deeds. It'll
flow right out of your grateful heart. In fact,
that's what Paul says here, that they'll be careful.
To engage in good deeds. That's the Greek verb
frontizo, and it means to be aware of or to be
thoughtful about something. Good deeds should
always be on the forefront of our thinking because
the gospel has saturated our hearts. And so we're
constantly aware of it. You're constantly aware
of other people around you thinking, well, who
can I bless? And how can I serve? In what ways
can I jump in there and be an encouragement to
somebody else? Guys, that should flow out of
us. because of what we read in verses four through
seven. And if that's not true of you, if good
deeds are not at the forefront of your thinking,
then it's a good thing to do a heart check, to
ask yourself, is there something I'm not understanding
about the gospel? If it's not just flowing out
of you, is there a disconnect? Have I underestimated,
for example, my own sin? Have I not fully grasped?
The extent of the sacrifice that Christ has made
for me. Do I not understand my new identity in
Christ? These are good questions to ask, to check
your heart. If you profess to be saved, if you
know Jesus, you have an abiding relationship
with him, but you're not zealous for good deeds,
you're not actively serving others, you're not
giving of yourself sacrificially, you're not
engaged in body life, you're not prioritizing
the life of the church, guess what? There is
a disconnect somewhere. And you're missing out
on the purpose for which God has saved you. So
it's a good thing. Okay. So that's what we should
be doing. Now, as Paul comes to verse 9, he gives
us something that we need to avoid. Oh, there
it is. Let's talk about avoid. Something to avoid.
Verse 9. But avoid foolish controversies and
genealogies and strife and disputes about the
law. Why? For they are unprofitable and worthless.
Now, there's an important distinction we need
to make as we interpret this verse. Look at the
word controversies. That's the NAS. It may say
debates in your translation. Listen, at certain
times and in certain circumstances, there is
a need for Christians, especially leaders like
Titus, to wade into controversies and debates.
in order to defend the faith or to refute false
ideas. So don't misunderstand here. There is
an appropriate time and place to engage in arguments.
In fact, do we not see Jesus doing this at times?
Yeah, he's confronting the religious leaders
of Israel. He's engaging and actually rebuking
them. We see Paul doing this, right? He engages
Romans. He engages his fellow Jews, even Greek
philosophers. So the Bible does devote a great
deal of space to both, on one hand, apologetics.
defending the faith and polemics, refuting false
ideas. Because believers need to know, first
of all, what's true and correct, but also what's
wrong and damnable. We need to know those things.
So there is value in doing this, right? So controversies
and debates aren't inherently bad, but, right,
here's the but, but it's incredibly important
that we are able to discern what's worth fighting
for and what's not. This is one of the most important
things in your walk with Christ. If you can hone
this in, this is so valuable. What should I fight
for and what should I let go of? What are the
essentials of the faith that we must battle over?
What are the non -essentials that we can, yes,
hold strong convictions. I'm a big fan of having
strong convictions. But when somebody disagrees,
a brother or sister disagrees, we can sort of
let that go. We can agree to disagree with a
fellow Christian who thinks otherwise. without
creating conflict and division. And then secondarily,
it's incredibly important that when we choose
to debate or enter into a controversy, that we
engage in those arguments in a way that is, one,
charitable to our opponent. And this is where,
man, do we struggle with this online. Charitable
to our opponent, that means we don't argue in
bad faith with them. We don't use logical fallacies.
We don't attack them personally. We don't straw
man their positions just to win the argument
because that dishonors God when we do that. And
number two, that we make sure that any debate
that we get into is productive. That we're not
just arguing in circles trying to win the debate.
wasting our time and energy on things that we
should just walk away from. So that's important.
And that's, by the way, that's what Paul's highlighting
here in verse 9. He's not denying that debates
need to happen at times. He's talking about foolish
debates, right? He's talking about foolish arguments.
And the Greek word there for foolish is moros.
And guess what word in the English comes out
of that? Moron. Quit being a moron. Don't get
involved in moronic controversies. Arguments
over essential doctrines that are non -essential
doctrines that are speculative, that are unprofitable,
Paul says that are ultimately worthless. Don't
get involved in those things. And then he adds
two other important words here in verse nine
that point to the danger in this. He calls them
strife and disputes. Your translation may say
dissensions and quarrels. So not only are these
debates a waste of time, listen now, they can
be a threat to the body. This is where sometimes
we have a disconnect. We're like, well, you know,
I enjoy arguing about these things. But if it
becomes a threat to the body, it threatens to
divide, warning sign, danger sign. Issues have
become so divisive that they tear at the fabric
of relationships. They destroy unity. And Paul
already talked back in chapter one of this letter
about men who did exactly that. Remember back
in chapter one, he talked about certain men in
Crete who were engaging in all these speculative
arguments. Here's what he said about them. He
called them rebellious men, empty talkers, deceivers.
Men who turn away from the truth, who profess
to know God, but by their deeds they deny him.
And they upset entire families with their falsehoods.
They are detestable, disobedient, and worthless,
Paul says. And because of that, he says, Titus,
you need to go out there and silence them. Because,
listen, the topic they're talking about may be
worth discussing, but the way they're doing it,
the way they're coming at it, is divisive. And
they must be silenced. He also described these
men as being of the circumcision, which means
they were his fellow countrymen. They were probably
Hellenistic Jews that were living in Greek lands,
and that would explain the description. In chapter
1, it says that they were pushing Jewish myths.
Here in chapter 3, genealogies and disputes about
the law. And by the way, Paul talks to Timothy
about this as well in detail. So both Timothy
and Titus, he gives them these warnings. This
must have been happening all over the ancient
world. To Timothy, he describes them as myths,
endless genealogies, speculation, fruitless discussion,
wrangling over words, and worldly and empty chatter.
Now look at the last phrase. That will lead to
further ungodliness and spread. Like gangrene.
Now I think about the world we live in today,
this online world where everybody feels like
they should have an opinion and voice it and
fight over every little thing. How prophetic
is that? Because when it spreads and we get into
these things and we divide and it spreads like
gangrene, it leads to further ungodliness. That
is the key to understanding why Paul is so concerned
about this. Because it leads to further ungodliness.
So what is Paul now advising us to do about this?
First word in verse nine is what? Avoid these
things. He says avoid them. Everybody get that?
Circle it, underline it, highlight it. Avoid
these types of things. He uses a very rare Greek
word here that describes turning around. Turn
around. Push away from the table and walk away
from these things. They are not worth your time.
In fact, they're worse. They're a danger and
a threat to the body of Christ. So push away
from the table and don't get involved in moronic
debates. And listen, I can speak for myself.
That sometimes takes discipline. I mean, I see
some things online and I just, I go, oh, I so
badly want to jump in on that. Like that is such
a dumb thing to type, but people do it, right?
And you just, your fingers start doing this.
Like I'm, no, and it's like, I'm not going there.
I'm gonna let the, I'll pray for that person
and let the Lord deal with it. I'm not gonna
get sucked into a moronic debate that isn't gonna
go anywhere. Raise your hand if you've won a
debate on Facebook. Yeah, and you think it really
made a difference. Or anywhere else. Again, it
requires that we grow in our discernment over
what we should fight over and what we should
just let go of. By the way, what are some of
the foolish arguments that we see? I started
making a list last night of all the things that
sometimes well -meaning Christians, sometimes
not so well -meaning Christians will put out
there into the ether and want to fight over.
So many of them right now are political. Political
issues, you see it on X, you see it on YouTube,
you see it on Instagram. Political, worldly political
arguments that Christians just put out there
like bait. Christians speculating on events of
the world and then claiming, well, this is the
end times and this is how it's gonna play out.
And you look at it and shake your head, right?
Nasty fights over... Biblical theology, oh, I'm
a covenant theologian. I'm a dispensationalist.
That stuff has gone bonkers on social media these
days. We're pre -mill, we're post -mill, we're
a -mill, we're pre -trib, we're post -trib, and
the fights go on and on, right? Arguments over
liturgical elements, arguments over musical styles
in church, the list is endless of things that
we will fight over. By the way, let me say this
clearly. Those things aren't necessarily bad
things to discuss. In fact, we should be able
to discuss those things. We should be forming
opinions about them. The question is, if you
engage in those arguments, is it profitable or
worthless? That's what Paul's talking about here.
Those kinds of arguments, by the way, can be
profitable, but be aware of Paul's standard.
The standard is that if it's profitable, it's
gonna end up in what? Godly living. and good
deeds, right? Because again, it goes from here
down to the hands. If I engage with somebody
in a theological debate over something and it
leads to greater godliness for both of us and
living out good deeds, amen and amen. But if
it leads to more ungodliness, if it creates division,
walk away from it. That's Paul's standard. Make
sense? And here's the thing. It's far easier
to sit around and debate theology than it is
to love Christ by obeying his commands. Do you
know that? It's way easier to just type something
than it is to obey Christ. It's far easier to
speculate about the end times than it is to go
volunteer to serve your brothers and sisters
in the local church. And it's easier to make
political arguments online than it is to love
your wife as Christ loved the church. Get my
point? Sometimes we use theological wrangling
as a cover for disobedience or apathy towards
godly things. And properly understood, if we
pursue sound doctrine and we grow in our understanding
of the word, it's gonna lead to humility and
holiness and greater love for others, not division.
True? So we wanna be aware of philosophizing
God's word, philosophizing God's truth. rather
than obeying it and seeking to grow in spiritual
fruit. Amen? Yeah? Okay. You'd be worried there.
Okay. Let's turn our attention then to the man
that Paul describes here in verse 10. He calls
him a factious man. Now, we'll define that in
just a second biblically, but my guess is you
already know what a factious person is because
almost everybody in this room has a factious
person in their life. We're sort of familiar
with this idea. Think about, and maybe that's
not true of everybody, if you have a particular
family member, right, who's constantly at the
center of family conflict, right, and that's,
it's the, He or she's the most divisive person
in your family, constantly creating drama. Or
you have a coworker who's a constant source of
controversy because he or she runs around the
office gossiping and dividing people. Or maybe
it's a neighbor who lives on your block, the
one that's always posting on the 411 page on
Facebook and complaining about everybody else
but themselves and dividing the neighbors. That
is a factious person. That's a divisive person,
always at the center of drama, always at the
center of conflict. Listen, always driving wedges
between people. That's what Paul's talking about
here. The root of the Greek word that he uses
is literally, it's an interesting word, it literally
means to choose or prefer in its most general
sense. So what the factious person does, he prefers
himself over everybody else. It's all about his
thoughts. His thoughts are the most important
thoughts. And his perspective is what matters
most. His opinions are what everyone else should
adopt. He thinks very highly of himself in his
opinions. And from that prideful place, he seeks
to win converts. What he wants to do is bring
together disciples that will... honor him and
admire him and think he's so smart. Folks that
he can first persuade and build his ego and then
control them to his advantage. So this is how
you build factions within any organization, including
the church. You find disciples who will follow
after you and then you can use them and you can
foster division in that organization. And the
strife that results distracts from the energies
of the church. The church is to be focused on
gospel issues, but what happens when somebody
becomes factious? Now all the energy gets sucked
out of doing the things we're supposed to be
doing, and everybody has to go over here and
try to fix this problem. It distracts from our
core mission and from our purpose, and it eats
away at unity. The factious man... is what one
scholar calls a disturber of the peace of the
church. And this is a very serious thing. In
fact, in the vice list of Galatians 5 .20, Paul
lists strife, disputes, dissensions, and factions
among the deeds of the flesh, which if they mark
a man's life, he will not see the kingdom of
God. Make sure you hear that. If that is the
mark of his life, if that is his mission and
his purpose in life to create, factions and conflict,
he will not see the kingdom of God, Paul says.
And in my decades of mystery, I've met way too
many of these people. We've had that problem
at Oak Hill in the 18 years we've been a church.
And it's painful. And it's hard. And it does.
It sucks the life out of the church. It takes
us off of our path, what we're supposed to be
doing. And we now got to deal with all this conflict
and division. It's a disturber of the peace of
the church. And church history is filled with
it. Again, if you study, if you just go out and
study the ecumenical councils of the church,
you will see drama after drama after drama between
people that should know better. Fighting and
manipulating and using state power to get their
way. One of the great church fathers, Jerome,
fourth century translator of the Vulgate Bible,
was an awful human being. Brilliant. Has made
a huge mark on church history, but he was known
as an absolute jerk. Nobody wanted to be around
him. In fact, what he would do is whenever somebody
even opposed him, he would defend himself by
trying to blacken the reputation of all the other
scholars in his life. So we gotta be careful
here. They love theological combat more than
fellowship. That's what I found. Few things that
mark these folks. They love theological combat
more than they love the fellowship of the body.
They have stubborn, unteachable hearts. Won't
even listen to another position. They seek to
undermine others' confidence in leadership. This
is one of the most subversive parts of a factious
man. Not only does he draw disciples to himself,
but in that process, he seeks to undermine leadership.
to draw people to himself rather than to leaders.
They seek to impress, recruit, and control less
knowledgeable people. In other words, like puppet
masters, if I can find some less knowledgeable
people that I can draw into my orbit, then I've
won. And then over time, they become mean -spirited
and condescending, ridicule anybody who disagrees
with them. Anybody that holds to another position
is a fool. And lastly, their concern is only
for themselves, not the health of the church.
It's just not what they're about. So what do
we do about such men? Let's ask and answer that
final question. The answer to the question's
in verse 10, but before we go there, first drop
down to verse 11, because there's a couple other
things you need to see about the factious man.
In verse 11, Paul says, knowing that such a man
is perverted, and is sinning, being self -condemned.
Now, that word knowing is important. Paul uses
this word eido, which carries the idea of knowing
something through perception. Knowing something
through perception. In other words, the sin of
this factious man is observable. In fact, it's
obvious to everybody. It's clear to everybody
exactly what he's been doing. And in my experience,
I found this to be true. In the factious people
that have come through our body, Ultimately,
when the church finds out that it had to be dealt
with and the elders or whoever went and confronted
this person, usually what we hear is, yep, I
knew that was going to happen. Because they got
a sense that this person was creating this drama
within the body. And so it becomes observable.
By the way, especially in a church our size,
you really can't hide well. You can do it in
bigger churches. Oftentimes you can hide a factious
heart. But here in a smaller church, you really
can't hide. Now, the word perverted, I don't
love the translation of that in the NAS because
when you hear perverted in our culture today,
it usually speaks of sexual sin. That's not what's
going on here. You might see the word warped.
I think that's the ESV, and that's a better term.
It literally means, the word means to be turned
inside out, twisted or distorted. This person
is distorted in his thinking. He twists things.
for his own advantage. He's willfully engaged
in behavior that is rebellious in every way.
He twists everything for his own gain. And it's
that self -will, that preferring of himself that
makes himself condemned, Paul says. He actually
passes judgment on his own warped thinking by
the way he functions within the body. Yikes,
huh? And I know some of you are thinking, I've
never met a person like that. You'd be surprised.
Man, when I first got, sidebar, when I first
got into ministry, I was so naive. I left the
corporate world. I went into ministry and I thought,
everybody in the church thinks we're all together
as one. Everybody's rowing in the same direction.
It's going to be amazing. I was stunned in just
the first year in full -time ministry. How many
people came into churches with this mindset?
I underestimated the whole spiritual warfare
of this thing, of the work that Satan was doing
to try to disrupt the unity of the church. And
I was shocked and naive, and I learned a great
lesson. You've got to think the best of people,
but you've also got to have your eyes on to know
that there are people like this in the body of
Christ. Now, what do we do with such a man? Paul
writes very simply in verse 10, we reject him
after a first warning and a second warning. Now,
there's debates on this in scholarly circles
whether or not Paul here is describing a formal
church discipline process like we see in Matthew
18 or something less than that. And I'm not sure
I have an exact opinion on this, but there are
two things that are common to both the Matthew
18 process and what we read here in Titus 3.
First, it has to be dealt with. It has to be
dealt with. You cannot allow this type of factious
behavior to just exist in the church body where
this person can spread his poison. It has to
be confronted. And second, there has to be a
process of warning before you take any drastic
measures. So like the Matthew 18 process, the
first step would be to go to this person and
privately and discreetly warn him, to admonish
him, to acknowledge his sin, to repent of his
factious words and behavior, to change course
and come back to unity in the body. And then
it's also likely if he's repentant that he might
have to go to people that he's influenced and
correct that, apologize and correct it. So it's
quite a process. And listen, for some folks,
that's too much to ask. The pride, their pride
is too deeply rooted. The ego is too deeply involved.
And oftentimes a factious man will resist that
first confrontation. But then it's incumbent
upon all of us as church members and leaders
in particular, we still have to show patience.
and charity and love. We can't overreact. We've
got to go to that person a second time, maybe
with more people, maybe with an elder, and we've
got to warn him a second time. And the ultimate
goal, whether it's formal church discipline or
if it's just rejecting somebody like this, the
ultimate goal is not to punish the man. It's
not to embarrass the man. It's to get him to
turn and repent and come back in a healthy way
back into the body. That's always the goal. As
an elder, I've been a part of quite a few church
discipline cases. I can tell you, nobody ever
wants to put somebody out of the church. It is
not fun for anyone. It is heart -wrenching. It
is tearful. It is awful. You want to see people
repent and return to the things of fellowship
and to the things of church life that really
matter and to unity. But if the factious man
refuses to repent after that second warning,
Paul tells us he's to be rejected by all, not
just the leadership, but by all members of the
church. He is to be removed from the body for
the sake of everybody, for the sake of the health
of the local church. He's gotta be dealt with.
He's gotta be put out. Here's the thing we have
to remember. This is really hard. When the church
has to do this, this is really hard. And from
the outside, guess what? The world is gonna judge
us as unloving when we do this, right? But the
opposite is true. It's actually a very loving
thing to do this. Both loving for the sinner,
right? Because if you don't confront him, he
doesn't learn the lesson that God has for him.
So it's loving to confront him, but more importantly,
it's loving for the rest of the body because
we're protecting the body from that type of divisive
poison. So it's actually quite loving. And if
we don't do it, especially leaders, then we are
disobedient to God's word. If we don't deal with
the problem and follow God's instructions, whether
it's Matthew 18 or Titus 3, if we don't follow
those instructions, then we're not faithful leaders.
But I understand this is really hard. We have
to deal decisively with factious people. And
yeah, we have to employ biblical wisdom. Here's
what I found in these situations. They're not
always as clear cut as you wish they were. And
sometimes elders, we have to get together, collect
feedback, collect data, and we've got to talk
about it, we've got to pray, and we've got to
settle on a course of action. And it's interesting,
sometimes when you read through the letters of
the New Testament, you see Paul putting up with
a lot of nonsense from church members. Have you
noticed that? And he doesn't always jump straight
to discipline. Sometimes it's persuasion, sometimes
it's preaching, sometimes it's writing, you're
getting a letter, right? And he sort of has patience
with people trying to turn them until he throws
down the gauntlet. And he brings all of his apostolic
power to bear. Why? When it undermines unity
in the body and it affects godly living. That's
when the gauntlet has to be thrown down. Does
that make sense? Okay. So, unity. Let me close
with a couple thoughts on this. Here's the reality
of church life. Imagine this now. Maybe you may
have never thought of this before, but as a pastor,
I think about it a lot. How do you get hundreds
of people in the same organization on the same
page and everything? How do you do that? It's
gotta be supernatural, right? Getting everybody
to have one mind, even in a church of our size.
Imagine, honestly, guys who pastor churches of
thousands. I don't think I could sleep at night.
How do you get that many people on the same page?
With one mind, it's an extremely difficult thing
to do. And it's even more difficult, I think,
in our world today, in our world of social media.
Listen, submission to one another, I would say,
is probably at an all -time low within the Christian
community. Everyone seems to think that they
should voice their opinion about everything.
That's just the culture we're in today. So I
want to appeal to you guys as members of my church
family. This is all of our job. All of our calling
to battle for unity in a way that pleases the
Lord, we all have a role to play in this. Sometimes
church members will go, you know what, let the
elders deal with that. Let leaders deal with
that. This is all of our job. If we want our
church to remain healthy and free from conflict
and dissension, we all have to take seriously
the words that we read here in this passage.
And we have to take seriously... Jesus' commands
that are so frequent, by this all people will
know that you're my disciples, he said, if you
what? If you love one another. We've got to strive
for that. Not division, but love. Just as I've
loved you, he said, you also are to love one
another. We know love by this, that he laid down
his life for us, and we ought to lay down our
lives for our brothers and sisters. And then
in my opinion, the most important guide, if you
want to memorize a passage from Philippians 2,
be of the same mind, Paul says. Church, church
at Philippi, church at Oak Hill, be of the same
mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit,
intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness.
or empty conceit, but with humility of mind,
regard one another as more important than yourselves.
If everybody does that simultaneously, wow, that's
a healthy church. But we all have a part to play
in this. So even though unity is difficult, we
never give up striving for it. We never give
up teaching it. We never give up defending it.
And not only, when we have unity, guys, listen,
when we have unity, not only does it ensure a
healthy church within these walls, we live together
in a healthy way, but it also sends a message
to people outside these walls, in this neighborhood,
in Santa Clarita, unbelievers. When they see
how we love each other, when they see that, man,
that church at Oak Hill, they don't fight. They're
on the same page. Unity in the church reveals
to them that this is a place that is different
than the world out there. That they can come
in here and find the peace and the joy that they've
been searching for out in the world that's not
there. They can find it here in the person of
Christ because they see how we love each other
and how we will not allow division to seep into
this body. So it strengthens us within and it's
a witness without. To that end, may we all strive
for what's required, required, commanded of us
as brothers and sisters. I'll say it again, to
humbly, gently, and patiently bear with one another
in love and to be eager to maintain the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Amen? Will
you commit with me to this? Let's pray together.
Lord, So grateful for the practical nature of
your word in this, Lord. So grateful, God, that
you have protected this church family from division
in so many ways. And even in the times when it's
affected us, Lord, you've been so good to us
to help us root it out. And you've made us faithful
servants, faithful saints to step into hard things
and practice church discipline when necessary,
to practice this idea of rejecting a factious
man. Lord, It's not something we would ever ask
for, but you have helped us to do it well, and
I'm so grateful for your supernatural guidance
by your Spirit. Thankful for an elder team that
has always leaned into the hard things like this.
You have protected us in so many ways, Lord,
and I pray for all of us here today that if there's
anybody here who recognizes themselves in a factious
spirit, Lord, that you would quash that right
now by your Spirit. That anybody who here who
is seeking to be this type of person, Lord, would
repent today and seek unity in the body. That
you would go before us, Lord, and keep protecting
our body so that we might be united as one moving
forward with the same purpose and the same mission.
That we would know that this is a healthy body
and we could be a testimony to the world out
there. Lord, do a great work in us in these things.
We trust you for it, Lord. We know we can't do
it in our own strength, in our own flesh. We
will fail. And so we submit ourselves to you
and ask God that you would do a great work. Thank
you, Lord Jesus, again, for your word and how
it convicts us and how it moves us to change.
We praise you and we pray these things in the
name of Jesus. Amen.