Titus 1:15

Titus chapter 1, verses 15 and 16, our focus is still on verse 15 tonight. Under the pure, all things are pure, but under them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure. But even their mind and conscience is defile. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient, and under every good work reprobate. God blessed to us the reading of His Sacred and Holy Word this evening. Mary Mallon worked as a cook for various prestigious, wealthy families in New York City. Wherever she worked, the family became extremely sick. It wasn’t until 1907, six years after her first job, that disease sluice from the New York City Department of Health tracked down the source of the sickness. They traced Mary Mallion’s movements from one typhoid-stricken home to another. The newspaper headline the discovery that typhoid Mary, as she was called, was a walking container of deadly typhoid. This woman was… confined and actually treated for three years. And she signed a pledge not to work as a cook again. And she was supposed to report back to the health department every three months. But then she disappeared. She disappeared for five years. In 1915, typhoid struck several members of a kitchen staff of a New York hospital. A check of the employees turned up who? Typhoid Mary was working. working at the hospital kitchen staff. She contaminated everything and everyone she was around. Man, through the fall of Adam, is spiritually corrupted and pure, and because of this, he is a source of defaulment, sort of like typhoid Mary, only in the spiritual realm. Whatever an impure person does is kind of a source of defaulment, sort of like typhoid Mary, only in the spiritual realm. contaminated by his or her nature. So it’s impossible to escape the deadly effects of spiritual contamination. While the believer can use all things in a pure manner, as we talked about last week from the first part of verse 15, the unbeliever can use nothing without contaminating it. Now, Paul is certainly demonstrating from this passage of scripture that purity and impurity are not associated with merely outward things, but indeed, the state of your heart is what’s important. So I want to speak tonight on the topic of all things are defiled to the unbeliever. An unregenerate person, as an unregenerate person, you are inwardly defiled. You’re an unbeliever and therefore unpurified by Jesus Christ. when we speak of those who are defiled and those who are unbelievers in this text of scripture, we have to realize we’re talking about one class of people. You are defiled because you are an unbeliever. By the word pure, Paul is speaking about those who have been purified by Christ, by faith in Christ. Look at chapter 2 in verse 14. We read about who gave himself for us, speaking of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. So who are those who are purified, but those who have trusted in Christ and are redeemed by his blood? Those who have rejected Christ, those who have not believed in the gospel of Christ, are defiled. So if you refuse to believe in Christ, you? you remain polluted by your sins. You’re sort of like a leper in God’s sight, covered from head to toe with impurity. Now think about a leper for a moment. The whole appearance, if you look at a leper’s face, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen pictures of leprosy or not, but the face gets changed until the leper loses his human, appearance, really. The leprous nodules grow larger and larger on his body. They ulcerate, and they have this foul-smelling discharge. The eyebrows fall out. The eyes become staring. The voice becomes hoarse. The victim wheezes because the ulceration of his vocal cords. The hands and the feet always ulcerate. slowly the sufferer becomes this mass of ulcerated growth all over his body. In the average course of the disease lasts about nine years. It ends in a mental decay, coma, and ultimately death. The sufferer becomes utterly repulsive, both to himself and to others. Now, we recall that God’s law required such people to stay outside the camp. and when someone from the camp came near, they were to cover their faces and say, unclean, unclean. This is the state of the unbeliever. Only he is a spiritual leper. He’s overspread with spiritual corruption from the top of his head to the bottom of the feet. Sadly, most unbelievers don’t recognize how repulsive they are in God’s sight because they really don’t understand God’s character and his holiness. And therefore they don’t understand this point. But you are polluted, he says. Polluted such that you are polluted in mind and conscience, as the text tells. You’re defiled, he says. There is much said about Psychology Day, and it would be wise to pay attention, however, to what the Bible says about humans. psychology. Man’s theory mean nothing. God’s word is the truth. Therefore, we have to listen to what he says. God made man. He certainly knows what’s in man and what man is all about. It should be obvious that man isn’t merely flesh and bone and tissues and blood. God made man a soul as well as a body. And using the term mind and conscience here, these terms, Paul describes the different functions here of the soul. The mind is not merely a little gray cells that like spaghetti noodles in your skull, but it speaks of the whole understanding of your soul. Technically, the conscience is not really that much different from the mind, but it refers to a specific action of the mind’s function. The mind is the function of the soul which involves reason, judgment, choice. The pollution of the mind consists of blindness to spiritual things. The Bible speaks about your mind being darkened in an unsaved state. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned, the scripture tells us. Of the mind being filled with vain thinking is also included here. Different, certainly, and destitute of God’s ways. Walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their minds, Ephesians 417. Also of the mind being filled with fleshliness, carnality, and pride, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mine, Colossians 2.18. When you think about all natural wisdom that man has, you have to understand that Satan is the one who controls the mind and the thinking of the unbeliever, so that the wisdom that descendeth not from above is earthly, sensual, and devilish, according to James 315. As an unbeliever, you don’t think God’s thoughts actually. after him. Your mind is filled with what you can see, what you can hear, earthly things, is what you focus upon. Your mind and your goal ultimately is focused upon satisfying sensual desires. Whether it’s eating and drinking, whether it’s sex, with its music, whether it’s entertainment, with its pleasures, whatever it may be. Your conscience is your moral barometer. It’s that action. perspective of your mind that deals with the rightness or the wrongness of your actions. Now, we’ve talked about this from the book of Romans chapter 2, that the law of God is written upon men, stamped upon them, because God made man in his own image. And there’s some sense in which all men have a reference with regard to the law of God. Now, your conscience can be defiled by being idle, by being sleepy or senseless, or seared, doing nothing at all, neither accusing or excusing. Your conscience also can be defiled by being poorly used where you accuse what you ought to excuse and you excuse what you ought to accuse. As an unbeliever, your thinking is corrupted. Even the mechanism which God can created to convict you a sin can be distorted in various ways. Many years ago, there was a pirate named Gibbs, who his very name struck people with terror in the West Indies in South America. His eventually was captured and condemned and executed in New York City. He acknowledged before his death that when he committed his first murder, when he had plundered his first ship, he was severely troubled. His conscience, as he put it, was on the rack, made a hell within his bosom. But after he had sailed for several years under the black flag of the skull and the crossbones, as a pirate, his conscience became hardened and blunted. He confessed that he could rob a vessel, kill all the people on the vessel. sleep like a baby. No problem whatsoever. His remorse diminished over time as his crimes increased. We see what happens is there’s a suppression of your conscience. How often do you find justification for your sinful actions? You quiet your conscience. People do this on a regular basis. So what God says here is you are defined. out in your mind and conscience. Now, you need an inward spiritual cleansing. If you are in pure, as an unregenerative person, you’re an unbeliever, nothing to you is pure. Everything about you and everything connected with you is defined. So, here’s your state. Now, the first step to a cure is always to look at what your condition actually is. and naturally, perhaps you hate to acknowledge your true condition. Maybe you hate the fact that I bring it up and emphasize it. But isn’t this what God honestly says in his word? Isn’t this what he’s telling us? The Bible says in Psalm 143, they are all gone astray. They are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Everybody is filthy, he says. They’re defaughed. filed, they’re polluted. Jesus said that he came in the world and he came to help those who did not need a physician, those who were sick, those who are not self-righteous, but those who recognized that they were sinners. Because unless you see your spiritual leprosy, you’re never going to cry out. I’m unclean, uncline, unclean, and therefore you’re never going to seek the right help. if you want to be helped, you have to come to Christ like the man who had the leprosy in Luke Chapter 5, who seeing Jesus, fell in his face and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And perhaps you may hear those gracious words, I will be thou clean. But rest assured that Jesus Christ is the only one who can purify you of your sins, as we saw on 214. earlier. It is the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sins, as 1.1.8 tells us. You have to ask him to make you pure, to remove the sins that defile you. So as an unregenerate person, you are inwardly defiled that there’s no question about this. Now, as an unregenerate person, everything you do, therefore, is defile. But under them that are defiled is nothing pure. nothing pure nothing pure what this tells us is an unbeliever you taint everything you touch in order for something to be acceptable in God’s sight it has to meet three criteria one it has to be done in faith for whatsoever is not a faith is sin according to Romans 1423 secondly it must conform to the law of God. We cannot violate the law of God. 1. John 3.4 tells us that transgression of the law is sin. That’s what sin is. Thirdly, it must seek God’s glory as its end. Do all to the glory of God. 1st Corinthians 10, verse 31. So here’s the three criteria. For something to be acceptable in God’s sight. I’ll try to develop this more later. however, let me just simply say that unless you meet these three requirements, it’s not enough. If you only meet one of these requirements, it’s not enough. If you say, well, I didn’t do anything contrary to God’s law, I fulfilled what God said in his law, that’s not enough. If it’s not done in faith, if it’s not done under the glory of God. Most people don’t understand this because they don’t realize the defaulment of their minds and conscience pollute everything about them. You remember the book of Genesis before God send the flood upon mankind. What did he say about man? Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart. Not just some, every one of them is the indication. Even when you think you’re doing something good in the eyes of human beings, suppose you build a hospital. It’s still displeasing to the people. It’s still displeasing to God. It’s tainted by your corrupt heart. Now suppose I brought a five-gallon container of purified water into this room, and we sat it over here on the table, and let’s say it’s been carefully examined by water experts and it’s 100% pure. no contaminants whatsoever in it. And suppose I hand out to you sanitize glasses that are all wrapped in paper, it’s germ-free, there’s no contamination. And before I begin pouring the water out for everyone into their glass, I take an eyedropper and place one drop of another substance in that purified container, a five-gallon container. What if I told you it was a deadly virus? or a germ of some kind that could make you sick, it could kill you. Just one drop, five gallons, would you drink the water? I don’t think you and I would drink the water, would we? You say, Jack, you polluted the whole five gallons, just by putting that one drop in there. What’s true in the physical realm is true in the spiritual realm. One thing contaminates everything. One drop. Contamines everything in the moral realm as well. So as an unbeliever, you taint everything you touch. Now, as an unbeliever, you taint all your spiritual activities. Now, I want you to look with me at Proverbs 158. This is an interesting passage of scripture. It has to do with worship. And notice what it says here in 15.8 of Proverbs. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight. Let me just focus on the first part of this. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. Now let me expand this out. Let’s expand it to all the rest of your worship. All you’re praying, all your reading of scripture, all your hearing of sermons, all you’re receiving of the sacraments, all you’re giving to the church, if you’re an unbeliever, is tainted. It’s polluted. it. Yes, you should read your Bible. You should attend church. You should honor the Lord with your substance. You should engage in prayer. And not to do so would be a grievous sin. God deserves nothing less than this. At the same time, the Word of God declares, though, that the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. Even when it’s brought according to God’s law, Now think about this. Think about the Old Testament. Two people are bringing sacrifices to the temple or the tabernacle. One’s a righteous man. He brings his lamb with him. And one, let’s say, is a hypocrite. He’s polluted still. He’s guilty in his sin. He’s unconverted. He brings the lamb. Suppose both lambs are without blemage. There’s nothing wrong with the lambs. Suppose they’re properly sacrificed. Suppose they’re properly sacrificed. you know, they bring them to the priest, and he handles them both the same way. Suppose they both lay their hands on the head of that sacrifice, indicating that that’s going to be a substitute for them. So the one does exactly the same as the other. And from the outward perspective, is there any difference? You might say, no, there’s no difference between the two. One is an abomination to the Lord. And one is pleasing in God’s sight. Why? Because God has a respect under the person first, and then to the sacrifice. Just like you read about Cain and Abel. God had respect unto Abel, and he had respect, therefore, under his sacrifice. God did not have respect for Cain, therefore he did not have respect for a sacrifice. If the heart isn’t right, if we’re polluted within, then therefore we cannot properly come to the Lord and exceive. he cannot accept our religious activity properly. You pollute even the religious activity you engage in. Even if you conform to God’s law, if it’s done without faith, if it’s done without a purpose of glorifying God, it’s sin. Remember when we studied in Colossians that we were to sing with grace in our hearts? That’s how we were saying. Now, there are two people that could sit in a church service, They could sing the very same song. Same song. They may both sing it well. Every note perfect, unlike me. Every note perfect. And yet, what does God indicate to us? Is it done with grace and the heart? Then it’s acceptable to God. If not, remember what we saw in Isaiah, it’s noise. Take away this noise. It’s just noise. I can’t accept that. It’s not proper. We could go on and on in this manner. You see how meticulous the Pharisees were about all their religious duties to God. They publicly prayed often each day. Fasted several times in a week. We’re clothing with scripture attached to it. Carefully tied down to the tiniest little seed. giving God his portion. Regularly gave to the poor. Carefully studied the scriptures. They were scrupulous about observing the Lord’s day. They were always attending worship services in the temple. And yet, what did our Lord have to say about them? Were they pleasing to God? We saw this in Matthew 23, 27. Woe unto you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like unto the whited sepulchres, appear beautiful outward but are full of dead man’s bones and all uncleanness. You’re defiled on the inside. Should the Pharisees simply, you know, stop doing these religious duties? Didn’t Jesus say these you ought to have done? But not left the others undone? Jesus counsels cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter that the outside may be clean also. God is able to give you a new heart, God is able to give you a right spirit so that your religious duties are acceptable in his sight. But otherwise, nothing is pure. Doesn’t matter if you’re doing everything, you know, you fall the regular principle worship when you come to church. It doesn’t matter if you’re defile within. As an unbeliever, you taint all your social activities. I want you to look a couple pages over. Proverbs 21 and verse 4. Everything that you do with regard to your connection with other people and what we call, you know, basic work circumstances, look what it says here. 214 of Proverbs, a high look and a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked is sin. Let’s talk about your business. Let’s talk about your job. Back in these days, you know, the main task was agricultural in focus. But let’s say you buy or you sell or you, you know, you do computer work or gardening or stocking shells or household chores, whatever labor you engage in. It doesn’t really matter. I could speak even further. I could speak about your marriage. I could speak about you coaching a little league team. I could speak about attending family picnics. I could talk about voting at an election time. Again, I’m not saying these things are wrong to do. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do these things. What I am saying, according to this passage of scripture, is this, that common, ordinary, necessary work is sinful is sinful in the eyes of God if done by an unbeliever. you say, boy, pastor, that’s a hard saying. Who can receive it? Who can hear it? How can the normal activity plowing furrows in the earth to provide for your family to make a few bucks maybe selling your vegetables or whatever you’re growing, your grain, how can this be sinful? didn’t God command man to make his likelihood in the toil or the soil in Genesis 319? Why is it sinful for man to engage in honest work? The motivation determines whether it’s sinful or not. Every act is a moral action. It’s either good or bad based upon the motivation by the motivation by. which you do it. The man who plows the field for planting crops, and he’s praying to God for rain, and is acknowledging God in his work, and he’s asking for God’s strength and blessing on his efforts, he’s doing it to the glory of God. It will be acceptable in God’s sight. If done in faith. It’s an act, almost like worship in this sense. It’s not just a mundane task. It is an act done in faith to God. Now, but if you are an unbeliever, you can do the same type of plowing, and it will be sinful. Why? Because it’s not done with any regard to God. It’s not done in faith. Now, idleness would be sin. For you not to work would be wicked. It’d be a greater evil not to work. yet your daily job without faith and seeking God’s glory is sinful in the eyes of God. This is why marriage and coaching Little League and voting are all sinful if not done with the proper motive. Would it not be a great transgression to live with a person outside of marriage? Wouldn’t that be a violation of God’s law? Would it not be sexual impurity? And yet I tell you, marriage, marriage? your sweetheart is still a sin, if not done in faith, into the glory of God. Even though you follow God’s law and you marry, it’s still sinful if you don’t meet the other two criteria. That’s not as terrible as living in sin together outside of wedlock. But what I’m saying is still defiled in God’s sight. As an unbeliever, you taint all your natural activities. Again, there’s nothing pure. Look with me at 1 Corinthians 10. 1. 1st. Chapter 10 in verse 31. The Bible says, whether you, therefore, you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. now here is the teaching. I’m not going to dwell on this final point. I think by this point, you understand the principle by which we are judging the actions of men and by which God is going to judge the actions of men. Obviously, you have to eat, you have to drink, you have to sleep, you have to bat, you have to exercise. But whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, you have to do it all to the glory of God, right? Gluttony would be sinful in the eyes of God. But the same time, a normal, proportion, well-balanced diet, eaten by an unsaved person, can still be sinful. in the eyes of God. Why? Have you thanked God for your daily bread? Have you acknowledge it was his good hand which provided this for you to enjoy? When you’re eating your eggs and your bacon and your toast and your coffee, can you be thankful to God for this good blessing that sits on the table? The Christian goes to sleep after praying. And he sleeps and he sleeps and he does so with the right spirit, so what he does is pleasing to God. The unbeliever goes to sleep also, but if he doesn’t do it in faith, if he’s not doing it under the Lord, he’s sinning against God even while he’s sleeping. This might sound strange to you, and maybe you find this to be absurd. This is why when you look at man, he’s so evil and corrupt. There’s nothing pure about him. You, if you’re an unbeliever, you sin no matter whatever you do in this life. It doesn’t matter what you do. You’re always sinning. There’s nothing pure. Everything is defiled by your corruption. Typhoid Mary spread disease in every home, every kitchen in which she worked, she created a typhoid epidemic. Because of your fallen atom, you are spiritually polluted. And without a spirit, will change within everything you think or do is defiled. So you must realize this is important truth. So that you will seek the only cure, which is salvation through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is our only hope. And hopefully, if you understand this passage of scripture properly, you’ll see why men need the salvation that is in Christ. Even religious men. Even men who outwardly perhaps are not able, you can’t condemn them with regard to the law of God. But if it’s not done in faith, if it’s not done to the glory of God, it’s still evil in the eyes of God. So let us close with the word.