Titus 1:10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:
11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.
12 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
13 This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;
14 Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.
15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
God knows us better than we know ourselves. In verse 10 He tells us there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers. The main ones He directed Paul to speak of here are among the Jews. Paul was a Jew. He had been an unruly and vain talker. He had been a deceiver. He had willingly chosen to be deceived by Gamaliel and others like him. However, God stopped him and showed him he was deceived and fighting a losing battle. He was saved on the road to Damascus. He knew there were many Judaizers out there who were trying to stop the truth from being told.
There are still many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers today. We live in the Gentile world. We have lost Jews in our part of the world as well. The unruly and vain false Gentile talkers and deceivers are a major threat to our world. Many people are gullible just like Saul had been. He was willing to give of his time and energy to sit at the feet of Gamaliel and learn how to be a vain talker. He willingly gave himself to that.
Many men and women have gone to “Bible” schools that teach heresy. They clamour for degrees so that they can impress the gullible.
I have mentioned before, but I remember when I was in Bible school, we had a chapel service every day. I was one of the older students in school. I remember the change in atmosphere among the student body when a chapel speaker with some degree would be introduced, as compared to a chapel speaker who did not have a degree. It made a difference in how the students would listen to the man.
I remember one particular speaker who was a well known evangelist. He tried to impress us as students. He got up to the pulpit and he opened his Bible and read his passage of Scripture and then he closed his Bible and tossed it to an empty chair in the front row. Then he proceeded to give his talk. He lost me when he tossed that Bible. He did not preach to me. He talked but he did not impress me. Why would a man of God take the Word of God and toss it aside and then try to impress the hearers with his memory. Who was he trying to exalt? It was not God.
Yes, I went to a school I would not recommend to a dead dog today. At the time it was the best school I knew of and it was recommended by my pastor. That school was on the wrong footing when I was there and it has crashed off the cliff since then. It is only by God’s grace that I did not fall for the New Evangelical philosophy that school promoted. God showed me the authority and power of His Word and He has been showing me that ever since. Through the study of God’s Word I have come to see that the local, true, Bible-believing church that you should be a member of, should be your Bible school. That is the Biblical design. Your pastor should be the one that is teaching you the Word of God. If there are enough godly men in your church, they can assist him in that task.
In verse 11 we see that these unruly and vain talkers’ mouths must be stopped. They subvert houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. They are money and power hungry. You see here that they do not impress God. However, they are able to impress whole houses. That is what we still see today. We see thousands of people flocking to religious places that are designed to deceive. The truth is not spoken there. The Jesus they talk of is not the Jesus of the Bible. He is a fun loving, compromiser. He does not care about the pure Word of God. He does not even believe such a thing exists. He knows how to keep the people feeding out of his hand.
The Jesus of the Bible spoke the truth because He is Truth. He honoured His Word. He proved that there are no errors in His Word. He corrected the false teaching of Moses regarding marriage. He exposed the lies of the Pharisees. He was willing to go to the cross and shed His blood there and die there to make it possible for lost people to be saved. He was hated by most, but He was loved by His Father. His eleven disciples saw Him to be genuine. They trusted in Him and they willingly identified with Him in Acts 2. They were empowered for a great work there. God later chose Saul/Paul to be the twelfth true apostle. Those men stopped the mouths of the unruly and vain talkers. They were accused of turning their world upside down. They did not do that with swords and spears. They did not ask for help from the Roman government. They took God’s Word and they boldly proclaimed that Word everywhere they went. They were not ashamed of the truth. They were beaten and imprisoned and most of them were killed for their faith. However, they remained true to the Word of God.
Titus needed to join that rank. He needed to choose men who would also join that rank. There is still a great need for men to join that rank today; men who will count the cost and be willing to stand for the truth even if in a minority.
In verse 12 Paul knew that even among this bunch of corrupters, there was one who called the Cretians liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. In verse 13 Paul stated that he agreed with that assessment. Titus was called to minister in a very ungodly place. There were some real challenges there. His duty was not to run and hide. His duty was to rebuke these people sharply. He needed to speak plainly and boldly to them. They needed to repent and be sound in the faith. We do not demonstrate Biblical love when we fail to expose false teachers. We have named names in our devotionals. That is not so that we can look better in the eyes of the readers. It is to warn the deceived to get away from these evil people.
In the Old Testament God told Moses to warn the people to get away from Korah and his family. God was going to judge them and He did not want the other deceived people to be judged with that same judgment. He wanted to give them opportunity to see the need to repent and get right with God. However, Korah and his family were swallowed up by the earth. The deceived people took pity on this group of heretics rather than turn back to God. Many of them died due to their rebellious hearts.
In verse 14 Paul further told Titus to warn the deceived not to give heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men. The Pharisees had many commandments. They turned from the truth. The answer is not to think there is some good in false teachers. The answer is to expose false teachers and warn them and others to repent and turn to God. We have the truth. We can know the truth. We can be sure of the truth. We can help others when we stand upon the truth.
In verse 15 we see the separation between the pure and the defiled. To the pure all things are pure. Paul is not saying they see good in the unruly spoken of in verse 10. That is clear. Pure people accept the truth as pure. They embrace the truth in their hearts and lives. However, the defiled and unbelieving cannot see the pure. They do not appreciate the fact that God has preserved His Word as He declared:
Psalm 12:6 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
7 Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
God has declared His Word to be pure. That cannot be said of the perversions. That cannot be said of those who follow the perversions. The defiled have their minds and conscience defiled. God’s Word will purify the true child of God. He will see more clearly what he needs to be doing and what he needs to confess as sin. Those who are defiled try to justify their sin. There is a vast difference between the pure and the defiled.
In verse 16 we see that the defiled profess to know God. They know the right words to say. However, their works expose them for who they truly are. They deny the very words they speak by their actions. God sees them as abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. God does not see anything good in what they do. Those who are saved need to understand this. We cannot try to find the good in false teachers. We need to hear God and reject false teachers. We need to run from New Evangelicalism and the Emergent church movement. We need to run from false teachers wherever they are found. We are easily broken down. If we do not obey God, we will become like those who are wrong. If a person does not take God’s Word seriously, they will not see the danger of compromise. They will scoff at those who try to warn them.
That is what God’s Word warns us of. God knows what He is talking about. The blessing is in knowing Him and following Him. Titus needed to be reminded of the facts and he needed to get busy exposing and correcting the false teachers and their false teaching.
Today is the Lord’s Day. It is the day that Jesus changed with His resurrection. It is the day the apostles taught the people to come together in a special way to learn the Word of God. It is the day that lost people were challenged in a greater way to know the true God. It is still the day that saints need to stop their regular duties and spend time in God’s house with God’s people. As we do that we can show our neighbours, friends, and family that we hold God’s Word to be true and important. It is a blessing to fellowship with fellow true saints in the presence of the God of the Bible. Be sure to be in attendance today.
Pastor Bartel
