Titus 1:12-13a

Book of Titus, chapter 1, beginning with verse 9, reading through the first part of verse 13. Our focus is on verse 12 and the first part of verse 13 tonight. Holding fast a faithful word as he hath been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayers, for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, who, mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Cretians are always liars, evil beast, slow bellies. This witness is true. God blessed to us, His sacred and holy word this evening. Sir Robert Watson Watt, this was the Scotchman who invented radar, which became such an important item in World War II. Indeed, it made an immense difference in the Battle of Britain when the British were able to detect the large masses of German bombers gathering for the raids that were coming. So Robert was rewarded a hundred hundred hundred hundred years. $140,000 at the time, one of the highest rewards ever for a wartime invention. Years later, however, he had reason to regret his invention while he was driving in Canada. He got pulled over or speeding. It seems he got caught in a police radar trap. He wrote a poem about the whole ordeal. He said, pity Sir Robert Watson Watt, Strange Target. of his radar plot, and thus with others, I could mention a victim of his own invention. It’s pretty bad when you have a hand in your own condemnation, or when your own lips end up condemning yourself. Paul’s focus has been to encourage Titus in his duty to encourage Titus in his duty to appoint elders in the various cities here on the island of Crete. They had loose congregations and they needed elders to pastor them. One of the problems the people of God faced at this time was a multitude of false teachers who would try to overthrow the faith of whole households as we read here in this text of scripture. But there was another reason for the necessity of elders. We see that the character of the people of Crete was quite bad. We see here that they were well known for their bad character. And of course, elders are to oversee the flock, and that was one of the areas in which certainly they would have to work with the people so that they would not have a bad reputation. Now this can’t be denied by the people of the island for one of their own and already confessed as much as we see in verse 12. Like Sir Robert Watson Watt, the Cretians were condemned by their own hand. Sadly, sometimes the people of God have to confess devices that shouldn’t be in their life. and yet somehow they are. I want to speak about the condemnation of vices from this passage of scripture tonight. Let me begin by saying this. You will find condemnation is sometimes necessary. He says in verse 13, this witness is true. The godly at times have to speak very plainly to people. Paul charges the people of Crete and evidently here the Christians were included in this group because verse 13 talks about rebuking them sharply and so forth with sins which were quite serious in nature. They’re listed in verse 12, but we’ll look at Lord willing in a moment. Now you might be tempted to think, well, Paul here is certainly making himself a bitter enemy of these people by pointing out their sin and telling them so bluntly, about them. However, he performs his duty out of love. Because even when he’s speaking bluntly here, he’s doing it for the purpose of helping these individuals. You may justly be condemned for something because there is a desire for people to see you deal with the sin that’s in your life. And that’s the case with Paul. You read his letter to the First Corinthians and you’d think that all he does is seem to list their sins. He talks about their contentions, talked about their pride with regard to their spiritual gifts. They’re tolerating a member living in incest. They’re defiling of the Lord’s supper. They’re filing. lawsuits against one another, their marriage irregularities, harming weaker Christians by using their liberty in a wrong manner, and of course some were even denying the resurrection of the debt. So when you read First Corinthians, you might think, boy, he really has it out for these Corinthians. But Paul’s motivation for condemning the Corinthians, is stated in his second epistle as he writes to them in chapter two and verse four. He says, for out of much affliction and anguish of heart I rode unto you with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love, which I have more abundantly unto you. It’s because I love you, I told you these things, and I’m trying to correct you. Unless an elder often has to be very plain and blunt at times. in speaking to people and telling them this is sinful, this is wicked, this is wrong, this is evil in the eyes of God. Not because they hate you, because they want the best for you, and they want you to follow the Lord as commanded. The Bible says, faithful are the wounds of a friend, and the elders should be your best friend in this regard if he’s pointing out sin that needs to be corrected. Sometimes in preaching, there has to be some things rather bluntly said, but all of it’s for the improvement of the soul. So the godly at times must speak plainly. Notice something else here. The godly should seek to cut off all prejudice against the truth. You’ll notice how Paul wisely prepares the people here to receive the rebuke that he’s going to give them. This blunt condemnation. By quoting, as he puts it, one of themselves. And then he states, this witness is true. This takes away any opportunity for them to look on Paul as some kind of outsider who’s mean-spirited and a Cretian hater or something of this nature. You have to temper your zeal with wisdom. And so in his zeal to correct these people, we also is using wisdom. People need to realize that you’re not out. to get them. You’re not putting them down because you have a prejudice against them. When Paul wrote of the rejection of the Jews by God and the calling of the Gentiles, he said some rather harsh things about the Israelites in the Book of Romans, you’ll recall. They had a zeal for God, he says, but not according to knowledge. They were too busy seeking their own righteousness to be pursuing the righteousness. it comes from God. Quoting Isaiah, he calls them a disobedient and gainsaying people. He states that God has given them a spirit of slumber so they cannot see or hear spiritual things as they ought. And then he says, only a remnant according to the election of grace is going to be saying. Now, you might say, was Paul out against the Jews here? Is he showing hatred toward them? how does he preface these remarks that he makes? What else does he say in this epistle? Well, chapter 9, he begins here saying this, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not my conscience, also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were a curse from Christ for my brother and my kinsman according to the flesh. His greatest desire is to see Israelites saved. And yet he has to tell them the truth about their state and condition before the Lord. So after a tender statement of his love and compassion, no one’s going to say, well, he’s just anti-Jew. Let us consider Paul’s example. Let us ponder here how we in dealing with others may do so with wisdom. The scripture says, if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of the Lord. We certainly need to pray that we might present the case in a wise manner, give careful thought to what we have to necessarily say to those individuals who are walking unruly. So you find condemnation, as some, sometimes necessary. Now secondly tonight, condemnation from one of your own is difficult to evade. As he tells us here in verse 12, one of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said the Cretians, are always liars, evil beast in slow bellies. Here we have self-condemnation. Now generally, you would think that a prophet would be more likely to brag about his people than to condemn them, and yet condemn them is exactly what their own prophet has done. By Clement of Alexandria and Jerome, we are told that the prophet, making this devastating characterization is epamenides, that he lives somewhere between 630 to 500 Biontis. in the northern coastline of Preet. By the ancients, Epimenides was considered a prophet. Plato calls him a divinely inspired man. Paul does not mean to say that this man was an actual prophet in the sense of someone called by God to present the truth of the Lord, but he is considered a prophet or a spokesman by the heathen. and we might say that in some way he becomes a prophet for God because he speaks the truth, at least on this matter. Epimedites was a graceless man, as far as we know, he knew nothing about the way of salvation. He knew nothing about the truth of God. But he did see the character of the creations and told the truth about it. So Paul contends that what he said is still true hundreds of years later. Nothing has changed the people of Crete. still are acting in the same manner. Self-condemnation is very hard to evade. A man that they looked up to, a man that they considered a prophet of their own condemns them in his books and his writings. I read about a businessman who fell in love with a young hostess in one of the swanky restaurants in Manila in the Philippines. And he was determined to marry her, but before he married her, the businessman decided he owed it to himself to make sure the girl would not be a liability to his business. So he hired two private detectives to look into her life to make sure that there were no blemishes or any black marks that were going to cause him any trouble. Well, in about a month, they submitted the report. She was given a clean bill by the two private eyes. They concluded her past and present activities or above reproach. There was one, however, hint of a scandal, they said. In recent months, she had been an association with a businessman of an unsavory reputation. It’s hard to escape that kind of condemnation when it comes in an honest manner like this. One is reminded of how skillful the prophet Nathan was. Remember when he went into King David and he had to deal with him on this. issue of Bashiba. And he tells the story about the little you lamb and the neighbor who’s rich and sort of nasty, just, you know, takes his little you lamb and kills it because he had some one he wanted to feed. And the poor guy next door loses his little U lamb. And you see how he got David to condemn the man and then he turns to the table and say, thou art the man. You’re the one I’m talking about, Dave. What are you going to do? You’re guilty. It’s hard to evade that. When an outsider says something negative about, you may dismiss it. But when a family member or a relative or a maybe a close Christian friend or even a church member says something about you who knows you well, that becomes more difficult to evade. Conviction of sin is the goal. and preventing a person from easily evading the truth helps in this regard. Sometimes we can even point out what a person has actually said, like in the case of David, because it ends up by their own mouth, they condemn themselves. The point is that when we shoot our arrow, we want it to hit the mark. We want it to be effective. Self-condemnation often is something that we see. Many times it’s found in scripture. Now, God provides sufficient witnesses against man’s wickedness. We see that also here. It’s interesting that Paul here does not have any hesitation in borrowing, if you would, a statement from a heathen prophet when he spoke to truth. We have to be reminded sometimes that God used a donkey to rebuke the madness of the false prophet, Balaam. So he can use a graceless man to condemn sin if he so desires. In the ancient world, God sometimes used he even philosophers, poets, and their prophets. Even such as we might be able to. classify as barbarian type of people to point out the various sins that they saw in society. There is, according to Scripture, what we call a natural knowledge of God’s laws. For instance, in Romans 214, for when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are law unto themselves, which show the work of the law, written in their hearts, their conscience, also bearing witness, and the thoughts to mean while accusing or else excusing one another. Now, this natural knowledge that man has with regard to the law of God is not saving knowledge. We know that it is not enough to bring a person to salvation. It’s not the full truth of Scripture. It’s not even the full gospel. And yet the most of the most of the truth. enlightened tribesmen we could find in the jungles of Africa know something about the law of God. They know it’s wrong to steal. They know it’s wrong to lie. They know it’s wrong to commit adultery. They know it’s wrong to disobey parents. How do they know that? Because when God made man in his own image, he stamped upon man a knowledge of his life. A knowledge of his law. And so we find that man has a conscience. And God uses that conscience to convict them about these things. According to God’s wisdom, he will use even heathen poets and philosophers to condemn men. No one’s going to be able to say, well, I didn’t know lying was wrong. I didn’t have a Bible. I didn’t realize it was wrong and committed adultery. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. God gave men a conscience which troubles them when they violate the commandments of God’s law. And God provided other witnesses, even heathed witnesses against men about their wickedness, as we see here from our text. This being the case, if people who are without Scripture are condemned, think how much judgment is heaped upon those who have the scriptures and don’t repent of the wickedness. And when they hear the Word of God and they reject it, they are in greater judge, under greater judgment than the heathen. You are privileged not only to hear the condemnation of your sins, but you also know the way of salvation through Jesus Christ, which is revealed in Scripture. So you have the privilege of knowing the remedy that Jesus. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. That’s what the gospel declares. And believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved is the message that is proclaimed. So condemnation from one of your own is difficult to evay. Now, my third main point tonight is this, that condemnation is deserved for your vices. Let’s look at these vices that he mentions here. And I’ll begin by saying, this, you should not be a liar. He says here that the Cretians are always liars. Evidently, the people on the island had a reputation for deception. One especially notorious lie of those that was known in the world at the time was that they claimed that Zeus, the chief god of the Greeks, was dead, and that his tomb was on the island, and everybody condemned them for that. But the reputation of the creations for telling lies for selfish purposes was so widespread that actually gave rise to the name cretism. This meant cretan behavior, which was lying. Plutarch uses this phraseology. The verb to cretize means to speak a lie, like a crete. Now the habit of doing this is what’s so important here. It’s not like something. someone had a slip of the tongue once in a while and told a lie. They’re always liars. They’re habitual liars, is what he says here. Generally speaking, they’re we constantly telling lies. You know, if you tell enough lies, you have to keep lying to cover, and you don’t even know what lies you’ve told in the past. You people just keep lying. One lie after another. Somebody said, how do you know if this person’s lying? If he opens his mouth, he’s lying. Well, that’s the way it was with the country. Cretians, they were always lying. If lying is justly considered disgraceful to unsave people, like this poet or this prophet, I should say, how much more disgraceful it must be if it’s found in the people of God, in the Christian people. And yet Christians who are commanded to speak the truth, every man to his neighbor in Ephesians 425 may be very guilty. of tolling lies. Sadly, if we go through the scripture, if there are a list of lies you’re going to find from Abraham, who lied about his wife, Sarah, saying she’s my sister, to protect himself. Evidently, he must have passed down that idea to his son because Isaac does the same thing with regard to Rebecca. Later on in Genesis, Rehab lied to protect the spies of Israel. David lied to the priest about being on a secret mission for King Saul when he wasn’t. Peter lied, but knowing Christ, all these things we find in the scripture. And this is why Paul will go on to say in verse 13, you have to rebuke them sharply. This cannot be Christian behavior. This cannot be tolerated as Christian behavior. I read a story about a minister who wound up the church service one mornings by saying, next Sunday, I’m going to preach on the subject of liars. And then he said, in connection with this, as preparation for my discourse, I want you to read the 17th chapter of Mark. So on the next Sunday, the preacher rose to begin, and he said, now, all of you have done as I requested and read the 17th, chapter of Mark, raise your hands, and a number of hands went up into congregation. Then the preacher said, you’re the very people I want to speak to. There is no 17th chapter of the Book of Mark. Some people tell white lies, thinking, well, no one’s really going to get harmed. However, every lie is harmful because it’s an enemy of the truth. Because it violates God’s law, because it’s I put you on the side of the devil, was a liar and the father of it. The psalmist says thou shalt destroy them and speak leasing or lies, Psalm 5, 6. And when you get to the book of Revelation, chapter 21, 8, who are those that are cast in the lake of fire? Are these are the people with all the worst imaginable sins? Well, all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire. It says also. There may be some bad sins listed there, but liars are listed also. So, remember, lying is one of the six things God says he hates, those who bear false witness in Proverbs chapter 12. So if you’re always a liar, then you have reason to question your faith, because Christians should not be habitually sinning. We shouldn’t always be liars. We may fail. We may lie on occasion. We need to repent of that and change our ways. But let us be careful that we speak to truth and avoid the art of of deception. and telling a lie. How often we need to pray, you know, keep my tongue from evil, my lips from speaking guile. I think that’s important for all of us. You should not be a liar. Then he says here, you should not behave like a wild beast. He calls them evil beasts here. Here we have the idea of acting in a ferocious, wild, fierce manner. If you think about a wild beast or an evil beast, you’re thinking about maybe a lion, a tiger, a bear, or something of this nature. Those several concepts emerge from this picture as human beings as wild beast. Remember Peter talked about those who were false teachers being like natural wild beast made to be taken and destroyed. He called them beast. One, they’re destitute of understanding. Like wild beasts or brute beast, they can’t reason. And therefore, these people do not have spiritual understanding. They’re governed by their sensual natures or appetites. You know, beasts are driven by their desires. And we find that many people are living according to their desire rather than according to the commandments of God. They’re dominated by lust. They’re uncontrollable. All. You know, wild beasts are not like an ox or a horse. You can’t tame them. You can’t ride them. And when a man is enslaved to sin, there’s nothing you can do. He’s uncontrollable. He’s dangerous. You know, wild beast devire human beings. We’ll look at chapter three of Titus. We’ll talk about what we were before we’ve converted hateful and hating one another. That doesn’t sound like. a kind and gentle, an animal there. This is the kind of reputation which the people of Crete had, and those who profess to know the Lord have to put off this kind of behavior. If the eyes of your understanding have it opened to God’s truth, you comprehend then the implications of your actions. A lion may devire a human being and not give a second thought to it. it’s just his nature to eat flesh. But you know God requires you to love your neighbor as yourself. And you can think this through and ask yourself what I want to be treated in such a fashion myself? Do unto others as you have them do unto you. It’s the commandment of our Lord. If you have been born again by the power of God’s spirit, you are no longer governed by the lust of the flesh. but by the spirit of God. While a lion is driven by his appetite to devire more and more flesh, you have control over your bodily desires. Sin shall not have dominion over you, is what the scripture indicates to us. You should obey it in its lust thereof. You can keep these things under check. If you have the mind of Christ, you have a submissive spirit, not a rebellion. one. Now a lion roams wildly in the jungle. You’re not going to see him hook to a plow. You’re not going to be able to ride him like a horse. But you are to do good to those who despitefully use you and pray for your enemies. And you mow better than to bite and devire others, as the scripture tells us. And we should not be satisfied. A selfish in this manner. You shouldn’t behave like a wild beast. And finally, he says here, you should not be lazy and intemperate, slow bellies, or some like to translate this, lazy gluttons. The idea that people creep being idle or lazy and concerned only about satisfying their own pleasures and desires is what comes to mind here, their own appetites. Lazy pleasure-driven people. Glutony and drunkenness and slothiness and sloth. would characterize such a person. It should be noted that even in the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam in paradise work to do, to dress and keep or to guard the garden. Even in paradise, the Lord instituted more and more Sabbaths than one. And so we find God expects us to live productive and useful lives. as we go through this world. The true proverb is that idle hands are the devil’s workshop. when kings go forth the war and David stays at home is when he gets into trouble and ends up committing adultery with Bathsheba. the Bible says if any man worked, neither should he eat. if any man would not work, neither should he eat. God gave man an appetite to drive him on, that he would not be lazy, that he would work, that he would provide food for himself. Hand in hand with idleness comes a pleasure-seeking lifestyle, where food and drink and entertainment and amusement is really all you live for. That’s the predominant aspect about your life, your top priority. Now, before you were converted, you may have lived like that. Now that you were converted, you’re to live under Christ. As we studied in the very first verse of this chapter, you’re supposed to be a servant of Christ under his authority, further in his kingdom, seeking to please him, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness is your primary task. And if we don’t do that, then something is seriously wrong and needs to be corrected, which is Paul’s point here. Let me conclude tonight. Sir Robert Watson Watt was a victim of his own invention, his radar. It’s pretty bad when you have a hand in your own condemnation. Sometimes condemnation is necessary, and sometimes the minister or an elder has to be very plain and blunt, especially you dealing with vices like lying, beast-like activity, being lazy and intemperate. It deserves condemnation. So let these things not once be named among you and I. as the people have gone. Let us avoid these things. Let us not get the title of being Cretians in our behavior. Let us close with prayer tonight.