Titus 1:9b

The book of Titus, chapter one, reading from verse 9 through verse 11, we’ll be looking at the second part of verse 9. Holding fast the faithful word, as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be able, be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre’s sake. May God bless to us the reading of His holy and sacred word this evening. It was only a head cold when Mrs. Mosby went to Dr. Bradley many years ago for treatment. He examined her and poured out some medicine. medication from his cabinet and told her how often she was to take it. A few days later, he was called to her home, for in those days doctors used to do house visits, and the cold had settled in her chest, and she had trouble breathing. Well, more medicine was prescribed, but the woman still died. Humanly speaking, She shouldn’t have died. She should have survived. It pained the doctor to know that he had prescribed, but the patient had not survived. After the funeral, the doctor happened to run into her sister, and they had a lengthy conversation. And he learned that the sick woman had not taken a drop of the medicine that he had prescribed. She had poured it all down the sink. Dr. Bradley. then realized that he wasn’t responsible for the patient and not followed orders. Elders are spiritual physicians. Titus has been sent to the island of Crete to ordain elders in every city to oversee the various congregations of the people of God. We have been looking at the various qualifications for elders in this city to oversee the various congregations of the people of God. passage and now we look in verse 9 at the issue of their teaching. Elders have medicine to prescribe and that is God’s word. They are responsible to prescribe their right medication. Sometimes they have to use the word of God to encourage the people in the faith. Sometimes they have to use the word of God to deal with error and false doctrine. that has arisen. Paul, having spoken of how an elder must firmly hold to the biblical master, not waver, but be careful to follow what he has been taught. We talked about the importance of the scriptures and adhering to a Soliscript Torah in the preaching of the Word of God and the life of the church. Here Paul relates how an elder must use the Word of God. There is encouraging. and there is refutation. There’s the building up of the church and there’s knocking down of error. So we want to talk about the elder’s use of the Word of God. Now an elder must be able to exhort by means of sound doctrine. You find the necessity of sound doctrine here to the health of your soul. That he may be able by sound doctrine. both to exhort and convince the gainsayers. Doctrine is simply the teaching or instruction of the word of God. The word sound here is Eugias. We get the English word hygiene from this particular word in the Greek. It’s often used in the Gospels to make whole. If someone was sick. and they’re made whole. So it has to do with being made healthy. And we have that kind of idea here. The word sound is a word that doctors sometimes use, and the old physicians used to speak of being sound of wind and limb. When they use that expression, they meant somebody was healthy. It’s the teaching of the true gospel that keeps the Christian healthy. It makes for spiritually healthy, As it is properly received, the truth produces godliness of life as we studied in verse 1 of this chapter. Whereas error leads to people being sick, being unhealthy spiritually. In many religious circles, the teaching of sound doctrine is scorned. It is considered divisive. people are too, said to be too dogmatic. If you’re precise in your doctrine, you’re telling people that anything else is error. For example, when we teach the doctrine of the Trinity, we’re saying that anybody else that has any other doctrine, they are in error. A lot of people say, well, that’s pretty divisive. That’s not very inclusive. Churches today are so eager to be inclusive. They don’t want to offend anyone by their teaching. and they avoid doctrine like the plague. All non-denominational churches, you find they don’t want to really get into a confession of faith because it may keep people from joining the church. I got a postcard in the mail this this last week. It was from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. They have a guest speaker coming in. Brian. McLaren is a passionate advocate for a new kind of Christianity. Just, generous, working with people of all face for the common good. There you go. New kind of Christianity. Not the old stuff. Not the stuff Paul taught. No, no, we’ve got to have a new kind of Christianity. It’s more inclusive. It brings everybody in. My friends, that’s not the teaching of scripture. Sound doctrine is one of the greatest needs for the church today. Not only is it church, in many cases, those who profess to be part of the Church of Christ, not only is it shying away from doctrine, but they’re certainly shying away from any doctrine that might be abrasive, that may be cutting, that may be difficult for people to receive. My friends, Christians, to be holy and happy, need to hear the whole council of God. All that God has to say in his word. You know, many years ago, musicians noted that the Aaron Boys in a certain part of London all whistled out of tune as they went about their work. And no one could quite figure this out. It was quite baffling. Someone finally suggested that the problem might be related to the bells of Westminster Abbey. This huge gothic church had bells which played various religious songs. during the day, but the bells were out of tune. And sometimes something had gone wrong, evidently, and the chimes just weren’t working right. And so they were discordant. And the Aaron Boys didn’t realize anything was wrong with the notes, and evidently were following along with the notes from Westminster Abbey, and therefore they were quite unconsciously copied the pitch of these out of tune bells and therefore their whistling was off. God is giving you the word of God. It is the sound doctrine. It’s the necessary pitch for life and living in this world. If you learn the faithful word, the healthy doctrine, then you can live a godly life. If, however, a false doctrine is taught, you’ll find your life is out of tune. Something is going to be out of kilter. False doctrine is like poison. Take enough of it. It kills you. It is harmful to your soul. You need to keep this in mind regarding the many religious teachers you find in the world. On the radio, in the books that are being published today, whatever you hear, whatever you read. just because a teacher or his book is popular doesn’t mean that the message is sound doctrine. When it’s good for your soul. You know, you live in a day of much soul, damning, heresy. It amazes me what some Christians are feasting on when it’s most putrefying rubbish imaginable. I’ve heard many people say, well, the man is a wonderful preacher. Now, he may be indeed a very captivating speaker, but if he doesn’t believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, what good is it? If he believes in baptism or regeneration, how does that going to help you. If he believes the extraordinary gifts are still for today like healings and tongues and tongues and so forth, how’s that going to benefit you? If he believes that salvation is based upon man’s free will, how is that going to benefit your soul? Pay attention to what you read, what you listen to. Who is this person? What is his background? What is his doctrinal position? Just because he’s, maybe he has written in a book, a popular book on child rearing or Christian living, doesn’t mean that it’s sound doctrine. I personally refuse to read many books or even listen to certain preachers because I know where they stay indoctrary and I’m not going to even get involved with them. I don’t care how practical the book is. If he’s doctrinally unsound isn’t going to be healthy for your soul. Let me also say that sound doctrine is essential to your health of your soul, then you ought to go to a church where the Word of God is faithfully preached. Sadly, so many professing Christians attempt to survive on poor crumbs when it comes to the teaching of the Word of God because they won’t travel any distance to hear the Word of God being taught. They want a convenient Christianity. But it’s bad for the soul. People will attempt to pick through the most loessome garbage when it comes to what they’ve heard in order to sustain their souls and they never consider finding a faithful teacher of the word. Isn’t this why so many professing Christians are anemic today? Souls are sick because they are not being fed sound doctrine. It’s as simple as that. And I got news for you. If you only eat baby food all your life, you’re going to stay a baby. There’s a strong meat to be eaten from the Word of God as well. And so you find the necessity of sound doctrine to the health of your soul. Now you find the necessity of exhortation with sound doctrine because this is what he says about this sound doctrine. We’re to exhort with this sound doctrine. Exortation is a bit different from teaching, although they are closely related. Teaching involves the enlightening of your understanding as to what, the word of God says, exhortation is the practical outworking of that doctrine in your life. The how-to do it. Teaching tells you what to believe exhortation motivates you to put this principle in your life. Years ago there was a Charles Schultz Peanuts cartoon. I don’t usually mention this, but there was a great line in this. It was raining cats and dogs outside. The window, and Lucy asked a rather profound question, boy, she says, look at it raining out there. What if the whole earth becomes flooded? Obviously, she was worried. Linus, who evidently is the resident theologian of the group, answers that a worldwide flood is impossible. How can be sure. Well, Genesis 9 promises that the earth will never be flooded again. And we’ve got the rainbow as a sign of that. Lucy sighs and said, you’ve taken a great load off my mind. Sound theology has a way of doing that, Linus says. Linus is exhorting her. Not to worry because the Bible says this. There’s the promise of the Word of God. That’s an exhortation. Now that’s pretty simple here. But a faithful elder must not simply teach sound doctrine. There’s a sense of which we put an edge on it. We drive it home, so this speak. For instance, suppose I teach from Ephesians 5 that you as a husband are obligated to love your wife. As Christ love the church. Now, I could explain the passage carefully. I could look at the Greek words for husband and wife and love and church and so forth and that’s fine. But I also have to apply that. And what that means is telling you what does it mean for you to love your wife as Christ love the church? How do you go about doing that? Now I can speak of you providing for the church for yourself, for your wife, excuse me, all the necessities of life. You take good care of her. Just as Christ provided everything for the church, every spiritual blessing comes from him. I could encourage you to tell your wife you love her, just as Christ, and Song of Solomon says, Behold, thou art fair, my love. I could talk about nourishing and cherishing your wife, giving sacrificially to provide for your wife and to help her. I could talk about being her spiritual leader so that she grows in grace and in knowledge of Lord to provide for spiritual help for it. I could talk about how you should treat her the weaker vessel and be protective of her and keep her safe. All these things would relate to loving your wife as Christ God. Those are exhortations. The friends, it’s not sufficient to know what is good in pleasing in the eyes of God. You also have to put it into practice. An exhortation grounded on sound doctrine is what the pastor is a tempting to do when he’s trying to make it profitable, beneficial to your soul, and your daily life. Now, you live in a fallen world. We struggle with all kinds of corruption and sinfulness and weakness. Satan tries to take advantage of us in every way possible. So we need encouragement in the Christian life. The gospel is a message that comes to you with hope. It puts your heart. in a firmer position to continue on in the ways of the Lord as we hear the gospel and the message of God’s word taught. Sometimes exhortation will convict you where you’re falling short. And its purpose, though, is to motivate you to follow in the ways of the Lord. So an elder must be able to exhort by means of sound doctrine. Secondly, tonight, an elder must be able to convince those who oppose sound doctrine. He says, not only to we to exhort, but we were to convince the gainsayers. You are told all those who oppose sound doctrine must be refuted. Now, when the faithful word is resisted, when it is opposed, we say it is gainsaid, there can’t be. be any forbearance. These individuals, these gainsayers, must be refuted, convinced, convicted of their error. The word convince, interestingly enough, carries the idea of put to shame. You need to put them to shame regarding what they’re holding, that it’s opposed to the word of God. Those who oppose the word of God must be exposed as holding error. Remember Jesus, when he taught on the sermon of Mount, he said many times, about five times there, ye have heard it said. This is what the scribes and the Pharisees are teaching, but I say unto you, and then he expounds the actual meaning of the law of God. This is error. This is wrong. Murder is not just you bludgeoning someone to death or stabbing, them or something of this nature, but it comes from a hard anger. Therefore, anger without a just cause is murder. It’s a violation of the commandment. We could go on through all the commandments, and we could deal with the same kind of thing. But that’s what Jesus was doing. He was dealing with the gainsayers who would not accept the true teaching of God’s word. It’s hard for a teacher to deal with this issue of convincing the gains here is because you’re getting into a grim battle. This is a battle that you’re entering into. You have to say this is soul-damming heresy. And you have to keep your distance. Remember how Jesus said, beware of the leaven of the scribes and the Pharisees. And he later, they didn’t, the disciples thinking, thinking he was talking about bread, says, now I’m talking about doctrine. Beware of it. And that’s what the pastor and elder has to do. Combating dangerous air is often looked upon as being judgmental, as being too negative, too harsh, too narrow-minded, being uncharitable. Obviously, an elder shouldn’t have an overly critical spirit. But the job of defending the truth is a true. truth, or as the scripture says, contending for the faith, is of utmost importance. It cannot be compromised. You know, a church leader, as he becomes aware of modern-day philosophies, the teaching of the various cults, the eras that crop up from time to time, must be able to refute them. You know, when the Jehovah Witnesses come to your door, they’ll talk about Jesus Christ. and they might fool you for time unless you ask them who is Jesus Christ, unless you pin them down, and you’ll find that they believe he’s a God, but he’s not the God. He’s a mighty God, but he’s not the Almighty God. In fact, he is a created being. And on and on, you could go, but these are the kinds of things we have to be aware of, and we need to make people aware of who sit, under our teaching as elders. One day, the wicked king of Israel, Ahab, invited King Jehoshaphat, the good king, for a council of war. And Ahad had designed plans for attacking Ramath and Gilead and recovering it from the hands of the of the Syrians. Jehazaphat agreed to join in the military response. He said, you’re soldiers are my soldiers, my horses, are your horses, and so forth. I am as thou art. And then he had a precaution, however. Inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the Lord. Let’s find out what God thinks about this matter. Well, the King of Israel had 400 false prophets, his purpose was to please the king, and so he brings them, praids them all out, and they all give him the answer he wants to hear. Yes, you go up to, Ramath, Giligliad, you will be successful. It’s a sure victory. God is with Zedekiah, one of the false prophets, made horns of iron, and displayed them as symbols of victory. Wish these, you will push the Syrians until thou hast consumed him, he said. Then Jehosephat wisely asked, well, isn’t there a prophet of the Lord here? Isn’t there any? These guys aren’t the prophets of the Lord? I mean, who is the problem? Don’t you have a prophet of the Lord? Lord around here somewhere? King Ahab said he had a man, Makaya. He had him in prison at the moment, but he had him. He loathed the prophet, as he put it, I hate him, for he never prophesies anything good concerning me. So he ends up in jail. While Micahas, you know, rushed out from the prison cell, maybe they had to, you know, shave him, clean him up a little bit, make him more presentable before he gets in front of the kings. He gets secretly warned. You make sure you agree. with what the other prophets said when you get up there. Of course, he has to say, whatever the Lord tells me, that’s what I’m going to have to say. Well, when he gets up there, when he’s pressed about the matter, because he first of all, him hauls around a little bit, but when he’s pressed about the matter, he actually straightforwardly says, Israel is going to lose the battle. This army is going to be scattered. God’s not going to be with you. you’re not going to have any victory. Ahab’s going to fall in battle, and Israel will be without a king. In other words, this military expedition is going to be a disaster. And, of course, Ahab is fierce. Didn’t I tell you he never prophesize anything good? So he says, I’m going to put him on bread and water rations until I come back from the battle. And Machias says this. He says, if I’ll return it all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. Harken, O people, every one of you. Now that was an exhortation. Now pay attention to what I’m saying. If this king even comes back at all, then the Lord didn’t speak by me. But if he dies, as I said, you know that I have spoken the truth to you. Well, you remember how King Ahab decided he would take precautions and he would disguise himself when he went into battle just in case. Maybe, you know, Kaya might have been right, so I’ll make sure no one knows who I am. But God directs one of those enemy arrows so it hits in between the armor plates, and lo and behold, he dies in the battle, just as God’s prophet had said. But Caius stood alone against 400 prophets, and he spoke the truth that he warned the people of God of the lying spirit that was in Ahab’s prophets. He alone proclaimed the message of God, and eventually, everybody knew it. If you read 1st Corinthians chapter 15 or the book of Galatians, you see Paul refuting false teaching. 1 Corinthians 15. There were those who denied the resurrection of the dead. And he spends that whole chapter proving that there is a resurrection of death. How dare you say there’s no resurrection of death? If Christ isn’t risen from the dead, we have no gospel and there’s no hope for your soul. In Galatians, you recall how he talks there about dealing with those who would teach that you need to be circumcised to be saved and keep the law so that it was a faith plus work situation and how he refutes that error in that particular part. The justification is by faith alone. Peter and 2 Peter Chapter 3 has to deal with the scoffers who denied that there was going to be a second coming of Christ. We could go on and on. But these are examples of those who gainsay the truth, and they have to be corrected. Someone has to stand up and oppose them. This is the job of the elder. People of God should not be taken in by these teachers. So instead of condemning faithful teachers as being too harsh or too judgmental, remember, they have a duty to expose false teaching. Now, I know sometimes. you may get tired of me speaking against the heirs of the Roman Catholic Church. There’s just so many of them, and it comes up so often, and it’s so prevalent in our particular area of Pennsylvania that it’s necessary. Or you may get tired of me speaking against Armenianism, or the new covenant theology, which is antonomian, against Ten Commandments, or the new perspective on Paul, which teaches justification by faith plus works. I have no, I have no other option, but to address error so that people in the congregation are aware of these false teachings, lest they be led astray. So you’re told all those who oppose sound doctrine must be refuted. Now you are told that every elder must be able to reprove those. who oppose sound doctor. He’s dealing with elders here. The indication is every elder should be able to do this. We have to have a double voice. One to govern the sheep and one to scare off the wolves. We must be able to establish and persuade people in the truth and of the truth, and we must be able to prevent error and heresy from taking root in the church. Now, in a way, elders sort of have to be like Nehemiah’s builders. In one hand, you have a sword, and the other hand you have a trial. And one, you’re trying to build up the church, and the other you have to fend off air. So that’s just the way it is. It’s harder that way, but that’s just the way it is. Nobody is really sufficient for these things. But a true Christian leader must be a watchman over the people of God. If you, I was reading the, I’m a bit studying, as I said, in the Book of Solomon. There are the watchmen who are going around the city, making sure everything is okay. And then there are the keepers of the walls who are looking out and see about the air coming in. So you have the keepers of the walls, and you have the watcher. Both of them are guarding both the inside and the outside of the church. Take care of both aspects. How’s it going within? What’s coming in from the outside? To protect the church. church. And that’s what we find here is the duty of the people of God. And the elders in particular of the people of God. There have been several times when the elders, and I met Randy and I in the past, have had to evaluate some modern teaching that has cropped up and believe me. I have had, I’ve been exposed to errors. I never thought I would ever come across in my entire lifetime of being a pastor. the church. This requires really a knowledge of the word of God and a diligent study of scripture because we have to be able to refute the error. It’s what sound doctrine and an elder is to convince the gainsayer. This is where the authority of the elder lies. Thus say it the Lord. That’s, there’s no higher authority. And we say this is what God’s word says. That ends the whole debate. There was a experience, in my experience, let’s put it this way. The best way to be trained to spot error is to have a deep and thorough grasp of what the Bible actually teaches. You can spend a lifetime studying all the false teaching, and you’d probably never get to it all. The most important thing is to know what the Bible actually does say, so that when you hear something different, it doesn’t jive, that’s got to be wrong. There was a Chinese boy who wanted to learn about J. And so he wanted it to study from a talented old teacher. So he was invited over to the teacher’s house to be taught about Jade. The teacher took out a piece of Jade, placed it in the boy’s hand, and told him to hold it tight. And then he began to talk about philosophy, about men and women, the sun, and everything under the sun. After about an hour, he took the stone back and sent the boy home. This procedure took place for several weeks in a row. The boy was getting frustrated. When am I ever going to be told about Job? But he was too polite to say anything to the old master, so he thought I’ll just wait and see what happens. One day, when the old man put a stone in his hand, the boy cried out instinctively, that’s not J. He had become so familiar with the genuine, he could immediately detect a counterfeit. And that was the lesson he needed to learn. That was the key to it all. elders as well as really all Christians should be so well acquainted with God’s truth that they readily recognize something that departs from it. I understand there might be a need for careful investigation, but often you will say to yourself, that doesn’t sound right. Have you ever had that happen to you? You read something or you heard somebody say something and said something and say, you know, that doesn’t, something doesn’t sound right here. Randy and I have had numerous occasions, we might say to one another, you know, I can’t put my finger on at the moment, but something doesn’t sound right about this teaching. We had someone coming to the church one time, and they said, well, you should only be baptizing in Jesus’ name, not in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Ghost. Of course, I reminded this person. I said, you know, Jesus himself said, we’re to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son of the Holy Ghost. So how can I be wrong if I’m not? I do that. All he insisted, you had to baptize in Jesus’ name. So then I did a study, I went through the New Testament. I went through every time they were baptized, and what was the name in which they were baptized? You know what? It never says actually to baptize in Jesus’ name. You may say baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, or the baptized the name of Christ, or the Lord Jesus Christ, or something. But it never says baptized in Jesus’ name. And that’s the only formula that this gentleman would receive. As we began to study this, Randy found out that this was oneness, Pentecostalism, which denies the doctrine of the Trinity. That’s why they didn’t want to baptize in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Ghost. So when we talk to this gentleman, and I began to study on Sunday night on the doctrine of the Trinity, and the next thing you know, he wasn’t there very much longer after that. But the truth in the matter is, this is what happens. You hear something, and it’s the thing. Something doesn’t sit right. You say, what does the scripture say about this? Further investigation revealed this was a serious error. This whole idea of baptizing just in the name of Jesus, or Jesus only, grew out of a denial of the Trinity. Well, Doc Bradley’s patient died because she wouldn’t take the medicine that was prescribed to her. Elders of spiritual physicians, they are required. to dispense the spiritual medicine of the Word of God, sound doctrine. There are those who will refuse to embrace it. There are those who will be gainsayers, and they will perish because of it. But for the people of God, the truth is like medicine. It provides health for their soul. An elder must be able to use the Word of God to build up the church to knock down error. It’s an essential qualification of someone who has oversight of, the people of God. And so when we look at this qualification, it’s not a secondary one. It’s an important one for a man to have to hold this office. Let’s close.