Text Titus 1:12b-16 Time 30/06/10 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church
We've begun to look at Paul's Letter to Titus, who he's left in Crete to complete the work already begun on the island. After opening greetings (1-5) Paul first calls on Titus to see that elders or overseers are appointed in all the places where churches have been founded. He sets out what sort of things should characterise elders or indeed anyone who engages in Christian ministry (6-9).
At the end of that section Paul says the final requirement for an elder is that He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught. This is for two reasons – first, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and second so that he can refute those who oppose it. Paul then takes up this latter point – the need to refute those who oppose the trustworthy message as it has been taught. He says that the reason that such negative work is needed is that there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach, etc.
Even in those early days for the gospel in Crete there were false teachers who wormed their way into the churches and led people astray with their false doctrines, teachings not in accord with the trustworthy message as it has been taught. And it is the same today.
Although false teachers differ from age to age and in many other ways they all have certain characteristics that are typical. It is useful to consider these characteristics and remind ourselves of how wolves in sheep's clothing operate. Here in verses 10-16 there are about 15 or 16 characteristics that come out altogether. Paul also says something about opposing them. We looked at some seven characteristics last week and I want us to consider some nine more this week. I also want to say something briefly about acting against such people.
Last time we considered the need to watch against people who are rebellious, mere talkers and deceivers. Such people are usually religious but teach ruinous false doctrine, are eager for dishonest gain and are liars. This time I want to say
1. (8) Watch against evil brutes
We noted that Paul quotes Epimenides a Cretan poet saying that Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons and declaring the testimony to be true in the case of the false teaches on the island. We considered their lying last time. Not only are false teachers deceivers but what they say is lies too. Then they were saying that circumcision was an important thing and faith alone was not enough. Still today people downplay faith and want to add to it all sorts of other things. They tell lies about what God wants and how he deals with people. They lie and say there is no after life or that everyone goes to heaven or that there is a purgatory where even very bad people can eventually be fitted for heaven. We must not listen to such lies.
These people are also evil brutes. This is similar to what Peter and Jude say
2 Peter 2:12 But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
Jude 10 says such people are like unreasoning animals. All they are concerned with is their bodies – what they will eat, what they will wear. They have no thought for their souls or anyone else's.
This is all directly from Jesus's saying that they are wolves in sheep's clothing. They simply want to feed themselves.
Positive lesson: We must remember that we are not animals but in fact human beings- beings created in the image of God. To become a Christian is to have that shattered image restored not to become an animal.
2. (9) Watch against lazy gluttons
If evil brutes emphasises how dangerous false teachers are lazy gluttons emphasises their self-indulgence. They are “idle bellies”. As he says elsewhere their god is their stomach. Laziness and greed are typical of false teachers.
For greed take the example of the prosperity teacher Creflo Dollar. He apparently has two Rolls-Royces which he says his congregation has given to him. He flies in a $5 million private jet to his speaking engagements in the US and Europe (the church also owns a Gates Learjet. Estimated value: $985,000). He, his wife and five children live in a $1 million home behind iron gates in a smart Atlanta neighbourhood. He also owns another mansion worth $1.27 million. The church has amassed a fortune in real estate. Like other "word faith" teachers Dollar is often accompanied by bodyguards in public.
Laziness can come out in different ways. Often with the false teacher it is an intellectual laziness shown in an unwillingness to do the hard work of studying God's Word to see what it really says.
Positive lesson: This is a reminder of the need to work hard and to be temperate not greedy.
3. (10) Watch against followers of myths
In verse 14 Paul goes on to say that Titus needs to get the people to pay no attention to Jewish myths. Paul has in mind the Jewish myths – probably the endless stories that the Jews told that had no basis in fact and yet which so fascinated them. Sometimes the false teachers believe the myths themselves, sometimes they just make them up. Peter talks about how (2 Peter 2:3) In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up.
Such things are found in the Talmud for example. There exists there (Chullin 59b) a discussion about a giant deer and a giant lion, both from a mythical forest called “Dvei Ilai”. The deer is called "keresh", the lion, "tigris". It is said to be so big that there is a space of 9 feet between the lobes of its lungs. The Roman Caesar Hadrian once asked a Rabbi to show him this lion, since every lion can be killed, but the Rabbi refused and pointed out that it is not a normal lion. The Roman Caesar insisted, so the Rabbi called for the lion of "Dvei Ilai". It roared once from a distance of 400 cubits and all the city walls of Rome tumbled down. Then at 300 cubits it roared again and the front teeth and molars of Roman men fall out.
The false teachers believe stories today too – stories of tongue speaking and healing and people being raised from the dead.
In 2002 Reinhard Bonnke had a story headed “Nigerian certified dead, but revived days later at evangelist's meeting”. It goes like this
The dramatic documentary of a modern-day Lazarus has been released by international evangelist Reinhard Bonnke. The German preacher who has led crusades in Africa for 30 years says that the remarkable resurrection of Daniel Ekechukwu is so well-documented that no one can be unaffected by the report.
Bonnke's Christ for All Nations (CfAN) ministry has released a 45-minute video of Ekechukwu's testimony, and also reported at its Website how the Nigerian pastor had been certified dead and injected with embalming fluids before reviving three days later at a Bonnke meeting.
Ekechukwu's wife was so sure that God would bring her husband back to life after he was fatally injured in an auto accident that she persuaded the local mortuary to allow her to take his body to the church where Bonnke was preaching.
There pastors lifted Ekechukwu from the coffin in which he had been laid, and were amazed when the man started to breathe again as they prayed for him. The CfAN video includes footage of Ekechukwu beginning to stir, and later returning to the mortuary where his body had been laid out.
The "Raised from the Dead" report, subtitled "A 21st Century Resurrection Story," features interviews with one of the doctors who certified Ekechukwu dead, and the mortician. "It's shocking," one of them tells the video team. "Seeing a dead man, someone that was once dead and is now alive ... it is very shocking. To God all glory should go."
Nneka Ekechukwu says that when her husband was pronounced dead after last November's accident, she remembered promises God had given her that she would not suffer any more misfortune. "I said: 'This can't happen. I must do something, to prove God again.'"
On the third day after the accident, Ekechukwu's body was taken in its coffin to a church in Ontisha, where Bonnke was preaching at a service. The body was taken out of its coffin and put on a table in the church's conference centre, where several pastors began to pray.
Senior pastor Pat Nwachkuw Sr. tells the CfAN documentary makers that when members of the church learned about Ekechwuku's resurrection, a woman who had been on crutches threw them away and started running, and her husband ran to the church altar to ask God to forgive him his sins.
Interviewed by CfAN, Ekechukwu says when he was being taken to the hospital in the ambulance, he was visited by two angels and taken to heaven. There he saw a "multitude" of people dressed in white who were singing and praising God. Then he was taken to hell, he says.
The angel told him that he had "another chance" to go back, and that the rich man's request to Lazarus - to warn those still alive about hell - had been "granted to this generation." Ekechukwu said that he had been told he could return to the living to give "a last warning to this generation."
In commentary on the video, Bonnke says that the testimony - which has been reported in Nigerian newspapers - spoke of "stubborn faith and the miracle power of Jesus." Ekechukwu's story is a "sign from heaven," he says.
The man is in fact a pastor and knew Bonnke and his work. There is no reason to believe it is true. If it is, how come people apparently die at Bonnke rallies and how come this sort of thing is so rare?
Positive lesson: Believe the Bible not stories made up by men.
4. (11) Watch against the commands of those who reject the truth
Paul goes on to say that Titus must warn people against paying attention to the commands of those who reject the truth.
Both among Romanist and Charismatics as well as others one can find many example where people are certainly very submissive to their supposed religious superiors. One hears stories of people giving up money and homes and great fortunes to be monks or to be more committed in their local churches at the insistence of others.
Heavy shepherding is a phenomenon in many settings. This is a false understanding of submission to spiritual leaders. Numerous groups have used "shepherding" as a method of discipleship, holding that the shepherd should be consulted for all life decisions and failure to do so, or to follow the counsel of the shepherd is the sin of rebellion and a sign of spiritual immaturity.
Another way submission is required is through the teaching of a "chain of command" in one's church and family relationships. It is also called "delegated authority." These terms have been associated with abusive, controlling authority in the Discipleship, Shepherding groups.
This false teaching is found in Watchman Nee's book Spiritual Authority. Nee says (p 71) "If God dares to entrust His authority to man, then we can dare to obey. Whether the one in authority is right or wrong does not concern us. The obedient one needs only to obey. The Lord will not hold us responsible for any mistaken obedience, rather He will hold the delegated authority responsible for his erroneous act." In addition, he states, "We should not be occupied with right or wrong, good or evil; rather should we know who is the authority above us" (page 23). This is Confucianism not Christianity.
Positive lesson: Again it is the commands of God that we must listen to not the commands of men.
5. (12) Watch against the corrupt and unbelieving in mind and conscience
Verse 15 says To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. It is perhaps no surprise that false teachers are corrupt (deeply stained) and lacking in faith. Yet at the same time they often go on about how incorruptible and full of faith they are. In order to do this they have to twist the truth. But no, they are, on the one hand, like a badly stained cloth, where the dye cannot be removed and, on the other, like a wrung out rag with not a drop of moisture left, so devoid are they of real faith.
Sometimes with false teachers you wonder how they can be so stupid, some of the things they teach. For example, those who teach that the word Easter in the AV is inspired and that Holy Spirit means something different to Holy Ghost or Mrs Baker Eddy and her idea that Adam means A DAM, which means an obstruction, in which case, Adam signifies "the obstacle which the serpent, sin, would impose between man and his Creator." Do they not have a mind?
At other times you wonder if they have a conscience when they know that they are clearly taking advantage of people's gullibility.
Positive lesson: It is important that we are free from corruption and full of faith in our minds and consciences.
6. (13) Watch against those who claim to know God but deny him by their actions
Verse 16 sums up false teachers well They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him.
In the case of false teachers there will again and again be seen a discrepancy at some point or other between what they say and what they do. They do not practice what they preach.
Positive lesson: Do our actions match what we say we believe?
7 (14). Watch against the detestable
Paul adds that these people are detestable. This word is only found here. It means abominable. There is something entirely obnoxious about these people.
Let me give you an example again. This is from The Vancouver Sun, May 4, 2000
4 Kenyans die waiting for miracle-cure man: The victims, including two young children, were hoping to be cured by a visiting American evangelist.
NAIROBI - Four Kenyans, including two young children, died at a religious meeting while they waited for miracle cures from a visiting American evangelist, a paper said Wednesday. Police told the Kenya Times the four had been released from hospital to be cured at Benny Hinn's ''Miracle Crusade'' in the Kenyan capital on Sunday, but they died before Hinn could pray for them. The dead included a four-month old baby girl and a three-year old girl who was reported to have been suffering from a heart complaint. Ten other people suffered serious injuries including broken jaws after falling from trees they had climbed to get a view of the American preacher, who was reported to have attracted up to a million people to his two-day weekend meeting. Hinn regularly preaches to vast audiences across the United States and his shows are broadcast on Kenya's terrestrial religious channel every night. Preachers promising miracle cures from ailments ranging from AIDS to blindness have become increasingly popular in recent years in Kenya, a country where health care is out of the reach of many ordinary people and living standards have been gradually falling for years.
Abominable!
Positive lesson: We need to do all we can to distance ourselves from such abominably horrible evil. We must seek to be the very opposite of such people.
8. (15) Watch against the disobedient
These people are disobedient. Again it is a general description. These people do not do what the Word says, they do what they want to do. This is something else that gives them away again and again.
Positive lesson: We on the other hand must be obedient to the Word.
9. (16) Watch against those unfit for doing anything good
Finally, Paul says they are unfit for doing anything good. People sometimes excuse the false teachers by saying "but they do some good". But these people are so far gone in sin that they are not capable of doing good. Another example from a report found on the Internet.
KINGSPORT — Evangelist Ted Haggard asked the parishioners of a Kingsport church Sunday to forgive him for his 2006 sex and drug scandal, which made national headlines.
As president of the National Association of Evangelicals, Haggard said he represented each person in attendance at Grace Church Sunday morning — and “misrepresented and shamed” them whether they knew it or not.
“I just want to apologize to you this morning if that scandal caused you shame, or pain, or made your witness more difficult, or embarrassed you in any way, or caused grief in your heart, or even caused you to be judgmental or angry,” Haggard said.
Redemption and forgiveness were recurring themes of Haggard’s guest sermon at Grace Church, 1189 N. Eastman Road.
Haggard and his wife, Gayle, spoke to parishioners about how the “crisis” affected their lives, both personally and spiritually.
He said the process of receiving forgiveness from the Lord has been much easier than receiving forgiveness from people.
In 2005, Haggard was listed by Time magazine as one of the top 25 most influential evangelicals in America. He is the founder of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., which at the time of his crisis had 14,000 members.
In 2006, Haggard resigned from all of his church leadership positions after admitting to soliciting a male prostitute for sex and methamphetamine.
“I need to know, are you willing to forgive me?” Haggard asked the congregation. His question was met with applause.
The Haggards would not answer media questions Sunday, but the Times-News was permitted to listen in as they testified to the Grace Church congregation.
He described the crisis as a “moral failure involving sex and drugs.”
“There’s incredible shame and pain, and in this Internet age, nothing ever goes away,” he said. “There’s not time, nor is there distance because of the Internet.”
Haggard noted that the Lord will always forgive our sins, but people here on Earth aren’t always so forgiving. He added that the forgiveness he has received, especially from people close to him, created an atmosphere in which he could be healed.
It’s a lesson that everyone can learn from, he added.
Among those who gave Haggard forgiveness were his wife and their five children. He said the crisis allowed one daughter to see him as less than perfect.
Haggard said, “When the crisis happened she (his daughter) said ‘I am so relieved. I have always seen you as so perfect. Now I can relate to you.’ Before, people thought so highly of me that when they met me they’d be disappointed. Now they think so poorly of me when they meet me they’re relieved.”
One of the main points of Haggard’s hour-long sermon was not to turn your back on a person who sins.
Gayle Haggard said that when she was told about her husband’s involvement in a drug and sex scandal, she felt as if her life — which she described as perfect to that point — was over. She’d lost her husband, the dignity of her children, and the church she loved.
“That first night was my point of decision, and that was when I decided I am not willing to negate the 22 years we spent building this church, to negate 28 years of marriage, or our family because of this crisis,” Gayle Haggard told the Kingsport congregation. “I felt, these are the things I value, these are the things worth fighting for, and this is my test to do what I’ve taught all these women all these years — what I really do believe.”
Gayle Haggard recently wrote a book titled “Why I Stayed.”
She added, “We’re really missing it when we think that Christianity is about our own righteousness. I love the way Martin Luther says we’re at the same time saints and sinners. When Ted and I were pastoring we tried to be as compassionate and merciful as we knew how to be — as much as we understood. But what we did not know was what it felt like to be the person who needed mercy and compassion, until we walked through this.”
Ted Haggard used as an example a situation from a TV show he watched recently in which the daughter of a religious family who is part of a teenage abstinence pact becomes pregnant. The father then throws the daughter out. Haggard said that unfortunately the program depicted the way many fathers would react.
When the father was confronted with his daughter’s sin he reverted to “arrogance, highmindedness and judgmentalism,” Haggard said. The father’s hurt was more important than communication of the Gospel and the application of the Gospel.
“I think we can always evaluate where we are by how we respond to somebody else’s sin,” he said.
He added, “Are we the gathering together of the redeemed and the perfect with our righteousness? Or are we the gathering together of people who are so grateful to be redeemed and so grateful for what Jesus has done for us, and so grateful for the word of God, and because of that we welcome others who have been under the weight of sin, and we can provide a hopeful redemption for every one of them.”
Haggard noted that Jesus died on the cross for a reason, and the reason is all around us every day. “We all equally need the Lord,” he said. “That’s not to minimize my sin. My sin is great and severe. I need all of the blood of Jesus that’s available to me, and there’s an adequate amount available. But so do all of us.”
Again, it would be hard to make it up. Unbelievable. Instead of hiding away in shame, the sin is paraded before everyone.
Positive lesson: Don't unfit yourself for doing good.
10. Be prepared to act against such people
Paul says two things about dealing with them. We have no time to go into this tonight but
1. They must be silenced (11) They must not be given a platform. We must do what we can to silence them.
2. Rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith. (13) Brave action is called for. Faithful ministers must stand up and denounce the false teachers, showing them their error and hoping for a restoration.
