Barriers to Walking in the Truth

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We’re going to be in Titus chapter 1 tonight, and we’re going to finish up Titus chapter 1 and be ready to move on to Titus chapter 2. We’ve been working through the book of Titus the last few weeks, and it’s not really a series in the sense that I’m going on the same topic with it, but we’re just working through this letter that Paul wrote to a young pastor he had trained named Titus, and what it teaches us for how we’re supposed to behave as Christians, how we’re supposed to behave in the church, what the church is supposed to look like. And even though it was written to a young man some 2,000 years ago, it’s still got fitting advice for us today on how to live our lives for Jesus Christ in the world we live in.

And we’re going to start back from verse 1, not going to necessarily go over everything that we’ve already discussed. because we’re going to really start looking at verse 12 tonight. But just to get some context from the rest of the chapter, we’re going to start back at verse 1 and look at the parts that we’ve already discussed.

And it says, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior, to Titus, mine own son, after the common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. And those first four verses sort of outline the reason for writing the letter.

The book of Titus is really just a letter. And he outlines who he’s writing, who he’s writing to, and why he’s writing it, and reminds Titus this is why we’re engaged in the ministry we’re in. And he talks about proclaiming the hope of eternal life in Jesus Christ to other people.

And that at times in verse 3 is manifested through preaching. That the world will know about the hope that we have in Jesus Christ when the word is shared. And that really is the reason why we do everything we do.

Or it should be the reason why we do everything we do. Everything we do as individuals should be geared around that. Is it always?

No. But it should be. We should, and I say this realizing that I fall short of this as well, we should wake up in the morning as Christians, and one of the first thoughts in our mind, because honestly I’m going to wake up in the morning and think, why don’t I have another hour of sleep?

But one of the first thoughts in our mind should be, who does God want me to share with today? That should be something we consider as we start every day. As a church, that should be at the center of everything we do.

If it’s not geared somehow toward drawing people to the cross, maybe it’s not something we want to spend a lot of time on. And he goes on from that, from discussing the reasons for their mutual ministry together, in verse 5, and talks about the need for Titus to be a faithful elder and put other faithful elders in the churches in Crete, where he was left, in order to take care of the churches there. He says, holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, as he hath been taught, that he may be able to, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.

And he says here, for a church to be healthy, you need these kind of men in leadership. You need men who are faithful. You need men who have self-control.

You need men who show love toward the brethren and the desire to invest in them. And you need men who are faithful to what the word of God teaches. He goes on to what we talked about last week in verse 10.

It says, for there are many. He draws a contrast here. It says, For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre’s sake.

And we talked last week about some of the wrong motives that people have in ministry and how we can spot some of the wolves in sheep’s clothing. Because just because somebody, whether it’s me or anybody else, just because somebody stands in front of you and claims to speak on God’s behalf or to be a teacher of God’s word or to be a man of God, as people say from time to time, doesn’t make it so. A person can claim all of those things and still be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Whether it’s me, whether it’s anybody else who ever fills this pulpit, whether it’s anybody you listen to on TV, on the radio, I don’t care. Compare what they say and compare the way they live to what God’s word says and that will tell you everything you need to know about the man. And if it doesn’t square up with what God’s word says, don’t listen.

to it, whether it’s from me or anybody else. And I say this frequently, but I’ll say it again. And if I or anybody else start preaching things that are contrary to God’s word, get rid of me or get rid of them.

Now we move on to verse 12. It says, one of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. Now this was a quote from the poet Epimenides, and I don’t know much about him at all, except he lived about 600 years before this on the island of Crete, and I know him for having said this, that the people of Crete, Titus, I’ve told you before, was not in a place that we would look at and say, oh, that’s where I’d want to go and do mission work.

I’ve told you before, Brother Pickard, who used to be at Blanchard, his son is now on the mission field in Hawaii, and I remember when he got that assignment, people saying, huh, I want to go there, that sounds like a cushy job. Probably not. And Charla’s brother is a missionary in Hawaii.

And just from the stories I’ve heard, I can tell you it’s probably not as cushy an assignment as we think it is. But there are places we think, oh, I wouldn’t mind doing mission work in Hawaii or Florida or Tahiti. How’d you like to do mission work in inner city Detroit?

Is anybody in here signing up for that? The Bronx or Ferguson, Missouri. Anybody want to sign up to go to Ferguson?

No, there are places. You know what, there are places maybe even in our own state that we think, I don’t want to go there. We were just talking on the way down here.

And I was excited to go and loved the work I was doing. A few years ago, you may remember I was one of our state missionaries to Norman. I loved the work that we did, and it sounds like a good work is still going on there.

But we were talking about it on the way down here. I said, you know, that is a really tough mission field. There was nothing easy about trying to plant a Baptist church in Norman.

there are places, there are places maybe even in Lindsay, and I don’t mean bad parts of town, but there may be people you think, I don’t want to go minister to them. There are places that we would look at and say, that would not be my first choice for God to send me to do mission work. And what he’s getting at here is that Crete was going to be a difficult place to do mission work.

Crete is one of the big islands off the coast of Greece and has a long kind of turbulent history. But it was said of these people they were not easy to deal with, and one of their own people had written this 600 years before that the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. I wanted to remember the quote.

That’s not a nice thing to be known as. I mean, we wouldn’t appreciate that if somebody wrote, come to Oklahoma, liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. we’d probably run them out of the state.

This was one of their own people. He said these people are liars, they’re deceivers, they’re rough, they’re tough to deal with. And this was, and I’ve told you before, this is called the Epimenides Paradox.

I wonder if they come up with these fancy names. But if somebody from Crete says all Cretans are liars, is he lying then? Because if he’s lying, then they tell the truth.

but wait, if he’s telling the truth, then it doesn’t make sense. But I go back to just because they’re liars doesn’t mean they lie about everything. Even a liar can be correct in saying good morning.

So he pointed out this was a rough place for Titus to go and do ministry. And Paul says in verse 13, this witness is true. What Epimenides said about the Cretans or Cretans is true.

Wherefore, because of this, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. Titus you may have to go in and step on some toes on purpose. Sometimes we need to step on people’s toes on purpose.

Now I say that realizing I’ve got big toes too and don’t want them stepped on but you know what sometimes we need our toes stepped on on purpose. Sometimes I need my toes stepped on. I listen to preachers on the radio.

I pick good ones. I listen to preachers on the radio precisely because it’s easy for me to get up here and preach and work around the things that I’m dealing with in my own life so I don’t get too convicted. But when I hear somebody else preaching the word of God, I need to be under somebody’s preaching too and get my toes stomped on on occasion.

Or I read what brothers and sisters will post on Facebook, things like that. And sometimes I read these things or listen to these things and go, oh, that’s talking about me. We need our toes stepped on sometimes.

And being in a rough place like this, Paul said that witness is true what he says is true about them so you’re going to need to get in there and rebuke them sharply we don’t like to be rebuked sharply we don’t like to be rebuked period, gently or sharply but sometimes it’s needed you all are probably thinking oh no, what’s coming next? I don’t have a sharp rebuke planned for tonight I’m just telling you what it says sometimes we need our toes stepped on and sometimes, you know what there’s no need for us as Christians to go out and be deliberately offensive. Okay?

You hear me on that? We should not, as Christians, go out with the intent of sharing our faith and saying, how many people can I offend today? Let’s make a game out of it.

That is the wrong approach. We should be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves, Jesus said. And yet, so we should not try deliberately to offend people.

We should be as gentle as we possibly can. But at the same time, at the same time, hear me on this, if our society or if individuals in that society are offended by the truth of God’s word, that’s really not our problem, is it? They can take it up with God.

Don’t kill the messenger. And so just because somebody is going to be offended doesn’t mean that we stop speaking the truth. There is a time in our families, in our communities, sometimes even in our church, there is a time where it’s necessary to speak up and speak the truth, even if it comes across as a sharp rebuke.

I’m not saying that’s the first thing we always go to. Did you see what he wore to church this morning? And we’d pounce on him.

No, that’s not the first thing we go to. But there are times when a sharp rebuke is in order. But, he says, this witness is true, wherefore, rebuke them sharply.

He says, but that they may be sound in the faith. There’s no need to rebuke people. There’s no need to chastise people just so you can get on to them or so you can belittle them or make them feel bad because, you know, we all are deserving of a rebuke now and then.

The purpose of a sharp rebuke is so that they will be sound in the faith. I won’t go into great detail, but there were a couple times when I was pastoring in Fayetteville that we had to exercise church discipline. It broke my heart both times.

It broke my heart both times.

and there were among both times it was for adultery that will destroy, that will tear up a church if you don’t deal with it when we came together to discuss what needed to be done there were some who had the attitude well we just need to put them out, we just need to deal with this and they were right, we need to deal with this but it was an attitude of we can’t let them get away with this we’ve got to show that it was an attitude of let’s get them and you know what I mean by that let’s get them for what they’ve done and I’m not saying I’m perfect because there were times in my own thoughts as I thought about the spouse who’d been hurt people that I loved and I loved the guilty party too but looking at the member of my flock who had been injured in this and the pain they were going through there were times in my own heart and my own mind I thought let’s get them but you can’t do that in front of everybody and so before the church having to remind people there’s a reason for exercising church discipline reason for voting them out.

There’s a reason for condemning this. There’s a reason for this. And it’s not just to get them.

It’s not for vengeance. It’s not for judgment. That belongs to God.

He says, vengeance is mine. I shall repay, saith the Lord. The object is to win your brother back, to let them realize the gravity of the situation, that they’re no longer in fellowship with the church, that they’re not really in fellowship with God at that point, that the fellowship is hindered.

I’m not saying the relationship is gone, raises some questions about it, but the fellowship is broken. And you want them to see the gravity. It’s not just with adultery.

Any number of sins, they go on long enough. The church sometimes needs to step in and say, we’ve got to withdraw fellowship, or we’ve got to do something here, not for the purpose of getting you, realizing that we all could be on the end of a sharp rebuke now and then, but in recognition this is going to hurt you. And we need to have our brother restored here.

And in some cases it has worked. Or somebody’s put out from the church for a little while for some kind of habitual sin like that and they later come back and say, I don’t know what I was thinking, but I’m sorry, they’re repentant. Well, the intent here, he says, wherefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith.

Not just to get them, not just to show how smart we are and how dumb they are, but that they may be sound in the faith. To remind them this is what the truth is. He says, not giving heed to Jewish fables and the commandments of men, that turned from the truth.

He says we don’t need to listen to the Jewish fables. And I tried to look up and see what is he talking about. Try to understand what he meant in their context.

And there were different things about angels. And it became very apparent very quickly, even though I don’t remember all of these stories, it became apparent very quickly that they were just talking about fairy tales that sort of spin off of the Bible but aren’t based on the Bible. And we have some of those things in our society as well We’ll talk about it in a little bit.

But he says, not giving heed to Jewish fables and the commandments of men that turn from the truth. The commandments of men being things that men have taken and added to the Bible and said, you’ve got to follow this rule if you want to be doing it right. When the Bible doesn’t say that.

He says in verse 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. So there are some people, talks about who think ill of everything. Everything they see going on around them is impure or improper.

Well, that really a lot of times can be a reflection more on them and what’s in their heart than what they’re actually seeing. Because he says to the pure, all things are pure. You know, if you’re not a, let me put it this way, if you’re a gossip, you’re going to think everybody in the church is gossiping about you.

I speak from experience. I’m a recovering gossip. And somebody can lean over and whisper.

You’re thinking, what are they talking about me? Are they bad-mouthing my sermon while I’m up here? If you’re not a gossip, that doesn’t enter into your mind.

Say, did you see Brother Dacus over there talking to Brother Shank? And somebody else says, what are you? I didn’t even notice that.

What are you talking about? That’s because to the pure, all things are pure. To those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure.

We ascribe a lot of times motives that come from us more than from what we’re seeing. He says even their mind and conscience is defiled. Sometimes we need a rebuke because our conscience and our motives are so defiled that we can’t even perceive things purely anymore, can’t even perceive things clearly anymore.

They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him. Boy, if there’s anything in this passage that applies more than this to the state of Christianity in America tonight, I don’t know what it would be. They profess to know God, but in works they deny him.

How many people, how many people in this country profess to know God, but in works deny him? In every poll, somewhere in the 70s or 80s, percent-wise, of Americans claimed to be Christians, and yet I can’t escape from the fact that if 70 to 80 percent of Americans were Christians, this would be a much different country. And I’m not talking politics, I’m talking about the culture.

There wouldn’t be the filth on television that there is because the market wouldn’t support it. Nobody would be watching, and the advertisers would pull money from it. There wouldn’t be the filthy music.

There wouldn’t be, you know, we can protest and we can complain all we want, but it’s the fault of so-called Christians in this country that so many things we see going on around. We can’t blame the lost world around us for acting like lost people. We get mad at lost people because we expect them to act like saved people.

I think we should get mad at saved people who don’t act like saved people and put ourselves right in that category. By the way, when I say these things tonight, please don’t feel like I’m picking on you. I’m picking on me because I see myself in this passage.

but they profess to know God, but in their works they deny Him. Do our works deny God, or do they proclaim that we know God? Do our works profess what our mouths profess?

Being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. Okay, tonight’s message is not an attack, and to say, you’re doing all these things wrong, you need to get it straightened out. But we talked this morning, out of Hebrews chapter 11 and 12, about running a race, and a Christian life being like a race, and we talked about some of the weight that holds us back.

We talked about some of the obstacles that we trip over. This, and I didn’t do this on purpose, didn’t even realize it until this morning that these kind of went together. If we’re talking already about the Christian life being a race, this passage points out some obstacles, some obstacles that we can trip over in that race that we need to be aware of.

Not for the purpose of standing here tonight telling you, you’re awful, I can’t believe you tripped over that. Shame on you. But say, we need to know these things are out there.

And if you’re already running well, hey, good on you. Keep going. But we may come up against these obstacles.

We will come up against these obstacles at some point or another. We need to be aware that they’re out there. And we need to walk circumspectly, the Bible says, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time for the days are evil.

We need to be aware of what’s around us and take heed. The Bible says, let he who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. We are never more vulnerable than when we think spiritually, I’ve got this.

I’ve got this under control. No, you don’t. That’s when you’re going to follow the Bible says.

So there are four things pointed out in this passage that I see as obstacles that we need to be aware of as we’re running this race that Hebrews 11 and 12 talk about. And the first of them is fairy tales. Fairy tales.

Well, we don’t have a problem with fairy tales. You may not. We may not.

But Christianity in this country in general has a problem with fairy tales. And what I mean by that is all this mystical stuff that is not taught in God’s Word kind of springs off of it, but then goes further with it. There are people who believe all sorts of hokey things about angels.

And I can’t put my finger on exactly why they’re wrong in some instances. But there are some people who never give a second thought to the cross. Never give a second thought to the blood of Christ or to repentance.

But they’re Christians because they believe in God, they believe in angels. And I’m not saying that angels are fairy tales. The Bible teaches that angels exist, that there are angels among us and around us.

But some people get their ideas about theology more from shows like Touched by an Angel, which has been off the air for years, but it’s the only one I can think of offhand. Or what they see in supermarket tabloids, or heaven forbid what Oprah says, as opposed to what the Bible teaches.

And if we are immersed in a Christianity that is light on Christ and heavy on things like angels, or these little sayings that we hear in movies, we hear in TV, we hear in music all the time, that God helps those who help themselves, folks I don’t see that in the Bible I mean yes it’s good to help yourself and take care of your family and take care of yourself but folks the Bible teaches God helps those who can’t help themselves and we are all in that boat we are all folks we are all in danger of hellfire apart from the grace of God our very eternal life is dependent on God and there’s nothing we can do to help ourselves every heartbeat I have every breath I take is dependent on God giving it to me And there’s no amount of worrying. There’s no amount of exercise. There’s no amount of attempting to run those five Ks that can extend my life if God says it’s your time.

And so we buy into these things. God helps those who help themselves. My least favorite, and don’t feel too bad if you’ve said this because I’ve said it myself until I realized a couple years ago that it wasn’t true, that God never gives us more than we can handle.

Oh, no, child. Sometimes the world and God may throw more at you than you can handle, but God never gives us more than he can handle. Now the Bible does say something similar, but it’s talking about temptation.

God never allows us, and God doesn’t tempt us either. God never allows us to be tempted beyond what we can stand. But as far as our circumstances, sometimes we’re going to have more than we can handle.

But there again, we are totally dependent on God. Or a lot of people are into signs these days. And there’s nothing wrong with looking for signs from God, I think, as long as what we’re talking about is corroborated by God’s word and his spirit bears witness.

She’d be mad at me if she knows telling this story as a negative example. But a couple years ago, I called my mother and was just complaining because my washing machine had broken. I put a big stuffed toy of Benjamin’s in the washing machine and somehow the stuffed toy got hung up on a little rusted piece toward the top, and it ripped that thing to shreds.

And there was polyfill. There was not that much polyfill in the toy to start with. But it gets wet, and it mushrooms up to 60 times its normal mass.

And there was polyfill all in my laundry room, and water everywhere, and pieces of shredded giraffe, and it was gross. And I took my washing machine apart and could not find why it was not working. It was just dead.

And I called and I was griping to my mother as I was driving into Fayetteville late that night trying to see where I could find a washing machine that wouldn’t cost me Benjamin at that point. And she said, well, maybe God’s trying to tell, maybe it’s a sign. Maybe God’s trying to tell you something.

And I’ve said to her before, so maybe she wouldn’t be too mad because I’ve said this to her before. And I’ve said this to other people. Not everything that happens is a sign from God.

Yes, it may be a sign from God, but it could also just be a sign that my washing machine broke. I’m not saying my mother is this way. That story just came to mind.

But there are people who look for signs in every little thing. Oh, the light turned red. It must be a sign from God that I’m supposed to.

. . No, you know what?

Sometimes the world just works the way it works. And I believe God is constantly at work around us. But let’s stop looking around us at the universe for signs and let’s start looking at God’s word for direction instead of going for fairy tales.

And if I could give you a very basic definition of what I’m talking about with fairy tales being barriers that are going to keep us from running the race and walking in the truth, I would say fairy tales are anything that are spiritual, any stories or ideas that are spiritual, that are vague and open to whatever interpretation you want to give them, and not based on God’s Word. They’re based on our subjective interpretation. Where I could look at it and see, oh, that’s what I’m supposed to do.

And you could look at it, something completely different. An example is the horoscope. Now don’t waste your time reading it, but if you’ve ever seen it in the paper, if you’ve ever seen it in the paper, they are vague and apply to almost any situation, anybody.

And they’re written that way on purpose, so people don’t realize that they’re full of baloney. But anything like that, and I don’t care if it sounds right, if it sounds good, if it sounds spiritual, it can be a fairy tale, and it can distract us from the truth of God’s Word. It can be a fable.

So he tells them, as he says, talking about walking in the truth, and being sound in the faith. He tells them not to give heed to Jewish fables. Second of all, he tells them to stay away from the commandments of men that turn from the truth.

Now here we see that legalism, legalism, ladies and gentlemen, and this probably in a Baptist church, probably one we’ll have more trouble with than the fairy tales. And I’ve been Baptist since I’ve known what a Baptist was. Please don’t think I’m going off on some other direction.

I love Baptists. My mother said to me, Wednesday night, New Year’s Eve, I was going to dinner, and she said, don’t drink. Happened to be the night I couldn’t get in and out of the truck.

I turned around at her, I said, Mother, I’m the most Baptist person you know, why would you tell me that? Okay, so please don’t think, please don’t think that I’m going off in left field here saying that. But we as Baptists probably more likely have a problem with this than other things, because we have our traditions as well.

And as I said in the last couple of weeks, there’s nothing wrong with tradition if it’s rooted in God’s word. But when we hold fast to tradition for tradition’s sake, and we start making man-made rules and adding them to God’s word and say, you’ve got to live according to my rules if you want to live God’s way, then it becomes legalism. And it’s destructive.

I know of churches who have said, I know of churches in our area, well, in my area up there, who have said, Baptist churches. Well, ladies, if you love God, you will be wearing pants to church. I think I missed that verse somewhere.

And I hope I don’t make anybody mad because I was looking around. I see most of the ladies here are wearing pants tonight. And to that I’d say, I’m glad you put on pants and came to church.

I’m glad you’re here. I understand the whole teaching about men not dressing like women and women not dressing like men. I don’t see that one as being a problem.

But when you start saying, well, because you’re not dressed the way I think you should be dressed, you don’t love God as much as I do. How much closer to the Pharisees could we get? If you don’t love exactly the same kind of music I love, you’re not spiritual. And I have thought that about people because I’m also super traditional. We make our rules.

And we say, you’ve got to live exactly like I do. I’m not talking about compromising on sin and say, well, that’s okay, even though the Bible says. I’m talking about adding my rules to what God’s word says.

Now, we can’t afford to compromise on what God’s word says. If he says it’s sin, it’s sin, and we need to stand by that. But when it comes to adding my rules and saying, well, if you don’t do X, Y, and Z, then you don’t love God as much as I do, and you’re not welcome here.

That’s exactly what the Pharisees did. The Pharisees’ problem was not that they held too closely to the Scriptures. Some people look at us today and say, well, if you want to stick with what the Bible says, you’re just like the Pharisees.

That wasn’t their problem. The problem with the Pharisees was that they went beyond the Scriptures. And if God’s Word says, and I’ve given this example before, but if God’s Word says, don’t you come off the stage, the Pharisees would say, well, don’t you come down to here.

You want to stay back up here so you’re not. And then it would come to a point, well, don’t you come down off of this step. Because we wouldn’t want to risk getting off the stage, wouldn’t want to risk getting down here.

Oh, a few hundred years, then the rule becomes, let’s not get off this step. And slowly we begin adding layers and layers of rules to what God’s word has said until we’re holding people not to God’s standard, but we’re holding people to our standard. And the commandments of men distract from what God’s word says.

The commandments of men will lead us to try to live up to other standards, or our standards, rather than living up to God’s standards, and realizing clearly the way we’re supposed to, that we can’t live up to God’s standards and are in need of a Savior. Because sometimes we can make a standard we can live by. And I’ll make the rules I can live by and hold everybody else to it and think I’m doing just fine spiritually, all the while not realizing how far I fall short of God’s standard of absolute holiness.

So we need to avoid the barrier of fairy tales. We need to avoid legalism, the commandments of men that turn from the truth. We need to avoid the barrier of impurity.

It says in verse 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. The Bible talks about people’s conscience being seared with an iron. And I know something about this from experi