Titus 1:16

The book of Titus, chapter 1, reading verses 15 to 16, our focus on verse 16. 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 defiled. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient, and under every good work reprobate. May God bless to us His sacred and holy word this evening. In many great forests, there are huge trees, the tower above the others, and they appear to be the very picture of health and maturity and strength. However, loggers, often will not cut down these large trees. Won’t even bother to do so, even though you would think there’d be two or three times more lumber in them than the other trees. They’re left standing. Why leave them standing? Well, the reason is simple. Huge trees are often rotten on the inside. They are hollow trees. Well, appearing strong, their hollowness may. makes them weak. Like you see in children’s books, the owls and the raccoons and things live in them. This is the essence, really, of hypocrisy. They appear strong on the outside, but inwardly, they were hollow and rotten. Now, Paul has been dealing with the problem of false teachers that were troubling the believers on the of Crete. These false teachers promote Jewish fables and human commandments, and they end up turning people away from the truth, as we saw in verse 14. The apostles states that they are defowed in mind and conscience, therefore they pollute everything in which they engage. Verse 15. There’s nothing pure to unbelievers. Everything gets contaminated, even religious duties. Some may object at this point, and they might say, but those you are condemning are religious people. They profess that they know God. Paul’s response is here that even though they may speak well of God and of Christ, and they may speak well of the Scriptures, and they may talk about purity of life, and they may be concerned about religious ceremonies and rituals and things of this nature, They are hypocrites. They have pretended piety. They are practitioners of man-made laws and traditions. So tonight we want to talk about the way of hypocrites from this particular passage of scripture. Now you will discover hypocrites among the professing people of God. This is a sad but a realistic fact. Paul no doubt has in mind those of the circumcision verse 10 Jews who claim to be faithful servants of God, indeed, teachers of the truth. These men appeared to be obeying the ways of God’s law. They are very devout in their profession and perhaps in their practice. Yet the apostle declares that it’s all pretended piety. All really hypocritical religious service. He warns Titus here to make the people God aware of this particular fact. For among the gathered professing Christians, there are often some pretenders. The apostles who planted the purest churches could not found that they did not continue long pure, but were contaminated. Even the apostles, themselves foresaw this and warned us of it, like Paul tells us in Acts chapter 20, I know that after my departing shall grievous wolves in or in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own cells shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them. Peter tells us in 2. But there were false prophets also among the people, meaning the Old Testament, Israelites, even even as there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies. Yes, among you, of your own selves, these hypocrites, will be found, says the apostles. So we have to be clear about this. Not everyone who professes the name of Christ is a true Christian. Satan has double agents who infiltrate the church. For every able, there may be a cane who comes to worship God. And it must be acknowledged that those who are genuinely ignorant, there are those who are genuinely ignorant of the fact that their faith is bogus. The term Christian has been weakened to such a degree that even those who are really not even serious followers of Jesus Christ will still claim that they are Christians in our day and age. Many years ago, there were many customers waiting in line at a London cheese shop to make purchases. C.H. Spurgeon, the famous Baptist minister, came into the store because he wanted to buy some cheese as well. As he’s waiting in line and looking around him, he noticed a fine large block of cheese in the store window. Not being a guy that could stand around patiently, being a little fidgety, he thought he would test out that cheese, couldn’t resist touching the display. So he gently tapped the cheese block with his walking stick. To his surprise, he said the cheese had an empty metallic sound. It sounded just like the ring of a big bread pan. Spurgeon later recounted. He said, I came to the conclusion I found a well-got-up hypocrite in that window. People can be like that fake cheese. They look like something they’re not. And you can put on a rather pretty display on Sunday during the church service. And yet have the hollow sound of a hypocrite when it comes to the way you live the rest of the week. Yes, a person may look like a Christian, but lack true faith. And when tapped, with a sudden temptation, or confronted with a difficult spiritual duty, we find that the sham eventually becomes evident. Hypocrits among the people of God is a sad but realistic fact. Let me make two observations here. The first is this. You need to examine the soundness of your faith. Since there are hypocrites who do profess to know the Lord, the question is, what about you? Where do you stand? Test yourself in reference to this. Remember, he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly. He is not a true follower of God who is one just outwardly. But it has to have an inward reality to it. So you need to make sure of the genuineness of your faith. Now, your profession of faith may enable you to join a church. It may enable you to come every Sunday and be perceived as someone who knows the Lord. But there’s going to be a time of testing, and that time of testing will say, separate those who have just a bare profession from those who are true believers. So don’t vainly deceive yourselves with an outward show of religion. Don’t carnally presume that you are in God’s favor and possess salvation, but do as the scriptures command you to do to make your calling an election sure. Consider the sincerity of your faith. and following Christ. Consider whether you are indeed pondering and accepting and embracing the truths of God’s Word. It’s one thing to know something about God’s truth. It’s another thing to actually seek to live according to God’s truth by the power of the Spirit. Do you see you have any evidences of the graces of the Spirit in your life? The fruit of the Spirit? Does the Spirit of God witness with your Spirit that you are indeed a child of God? Do you honestly love God? Do you see your discipleship of Christ of primary importance for your life? These are kinds of things you had asked. Because eventually, when God sends a time of testing, it’s like a fan, it separates the chaff from the wheat. And that’s what we find happening. The second observation I’d make is this. Do not be disturbed or offended if many are discovered to be hypocrites. There are going to be those who, perhaps for a long time, make a show of godliness with regard to their life, but eventually they fall away from the faith. Paul tells us that in God’s house, in the great house, there are vessels of honor as well as vessels of disown. Don’t think poorly of any doctrine of the church that is taught in the Word of God because some people turn from it as a hard saying which they no longer can bear. Faithful proclamation of the Word of God may indeed drive people away from a true church. But this is not a reason to reject the doctrine. as if there is something wrong with it. We need to look at the person, see that there may indeed be something wrong with them. If you look at 2 Timothy chapter 4 verses 3 and 4, he says here, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust they will heap to themselves, teachers having itching ears. They shall turn away their ears from the truth and be turned unto fables. Now notice for a time they’re willing to listen to the truth. For a time, they will be sort of acceptive of the truth, but there comes a point which they turn away from it. And this is what we find, I think, with regard to the hypocrites. So don’t be alarmed by apostates. The foundation of God stands sure he, the Lord knows them that are his, he will preserve them. I once knew a man who sat in this church for years. But eventually, he could not abide the Calvinistic doctrine of the church. It just could handle him. And he left this church. He left it for an apostate church. After all the efforts, I put in to try to turn him and persuade him and show him scripture after scripture, it didn’t matter. His mind was made up. He did not want to believe the truth. So you’ll find hypocrites among the professing people of God. The second thing tonight is this. You should ponder the characteristics of hypocrites. The first thing Paul says here is they claim that they know God. They claim to know God. It’s not that they don’t have God’s God’s name on their lips. He or she may feign a true knowledge of the scriptures. Hypocrits are never shy about proclaiming how much they serve God or how often or how long they pray or perhaps how faithfully they read their Bibles. How diligently they attend to the externals of religion. You can put on such a display of religion that no one would doubt its genuineness. I tell you this because we know in the account of the disciples there was a Judas. Well, that was among the disciples of Christ. Now, he must have been a trusted individual. After all, he was the treasurer of the group. And you never find the disciples accusing Judas of being a hypocrite, even though Jesus repeatedly said, one of you is a devil. At the last supper when our Lord revealed that one of them would betray him every one of them said, is it I? Nobody said, is it Judas? I got a suspicion about that guy. Is it him? None of them said that. And even when Jesus gave him the sop, identifying him as the traitor, what do the other disciples think? Oh, he’s just being sent out to buy some extra goods for the feast. The purchase something for the feast. In the Old Testament, the Prophet Hosea records God’s judgment on the House of Israel, and you find them complaining. In Hosea chapter 8 in verse 2, Israel shall cry unto me, my God, we know thee. We know thee. God is saying, no, you don’t. No, you don’t know me. They profess the knowledge of God, but the Lord denies knowing them. How many, on the day of judgment are going to cry out to him, Lord, Lord. Have we not done this, or have we not done this other thing in your name? Cast out devils, whatever the case may be, prophesied in your name. And what is he going to say? I never knew you. But I know God. I never knew you. They claim the no God. In works, they deny God, he says. All the religion of a hypocrite is really an outward show. It separates, it’s separated from really a sincerity of heart. There’s an interesting passage. I always find it fascinating when I read this passage. Ezekiel, if you would, chapter 33. Because I think of how true this is, even in our own day and age. Ezekiel 33 chapter 33 versus chapter 33 versus is 30 to 32. Here’s what God says to the prophet. Also thou son of man, the children of thy people, still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh from the Lord? And they came unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them. For with their mouth they show much love, but with their heart goeth after their covetousness. And lo thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument, for they hear thy words, but they do them not. And when this cometh to pass, well, it will come. then shall they know that a prophet has been among them. Now you’ll notice he says, they’re talking against you privately. Oh, they come. They hear what you have to say. But they’re not taking it to heart. They’re not serious about the matter. While you’re entertainment to them. Let’s hear what he has to say now. And then, of course, they go out and mock him. They’re not taking it serious. And this is what we see with regard to the hypocrite. is insincerity of heart. And some of the resort towns in Arizona, it is the practice of the various hotels and motels to spray paint their grass green. So when they send the brochures out to you here in the east during the wintertime, you look at their brochure, nice green grass. Boy, I’d like to be out there. It’s nice and lush. And look how beautiful it is out there. The problem is when the spring rain comes, it washes it all out and all the green goes into the street drains and so forth. And you see this green, the river, running along the side of the road because it’s all the spray paint gets washed away. Such is the essence of the hypocrite. Everything is for show. There’s no reality to it. The hypocrite has a lifeless form of godliness. They have a form of godliness. Godliness, but they deny the power they’re off, according to 2 Timothy 3, 5. If you don’t have the Holy Spirit within you, you don’t have the power that produces godliness in your life. Now, you can deny something in three ways. You can deny it with your tongue. You can deny it with your works, and you can deny it with your mind, and you can deny it with your mind, and you can deny it with your life. Paul says here, in works, they deny him. With their lips, their tongue, they can give the right answers and appear to be spiritually healthy. But their lives tell another story. They have no spiritual life that drives them, so all their works are dead works. They may appear righteous, but they’re sort of like the morning due. It’s there for a time and it advantages as soon as the sun comes up. If a hypocrite joins the church for a while, it’s for the purpose, thought we’re just. not out of love for God or for his people. Judas didn’t mind carrying the money bag for the disciples. It was a prestigious job. It was a trusted position. It was a respected position. People would see him as such. There’s no real devotion to the Lord in his service. He’s really, the truth of the matter, a thief. as the text reveals nobody else do it, except for Christ, but he was a thief. So in works, they deny God. They are detestable to God. He says they are abominable here in our text. No matter how greatly esteemed a person may be in the eyes of men, it’s how God views you that counts, and he says, you are abominable to me. They are hated, a horde of the Lord. We sang it tonight. Thou hateest the workers of iniquity. Psalm 5.5. For others, you may put on a mask of religion, but the omniscient God knows the real truth about you. Abominable is a word that signifies to send forth an offensive smell. We have the idea that hypocrites are a stench in God’s nostrils. That kind of idea is what we have from this text. We read about a man. was living in a forested area, and he had mice that overran his house. So many that he decided the traps were not going to work. So he went out and bought boxes and boxes of decon at the store and brought them home. And he put them all over the house, and he put him even under his bed. And he figured he would kill them all off. And that night he said he couldn’t believe his ears. Below his bed, there was a feeding frenzy going on. In the morning, he checked. that box of Deacon under his bed and it was licked clean. Every bit of it was gone. He checked around the house and other boxes of Deacon were completely eaten up. So he got some more boxes out and put them out the next night. And again, the mice went for the flavored poison like piranha. That tasty midnight snack, however, did its deadly work. The mice died everywhere all over the house. Sadly, however, behind the walls and often in secreted places. The stench was so bad, the man said he could hardly stay in the house. He had to wait until that odor died away. Here’s the idea of the deadliness, the deceitfulness of these people smells up God’s house. They are defiled. They are unpure. We read about this in Isaiah chapter 1. When you come to appear, before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations. Incenses and abomination unto me. The new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feast, my soul, hate it. They are at trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them. and when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yea, when you make my many prayers, I will not hear. It’s a stench before me your worship. That’s how God views the worship of the hypocrite. What good does your hypocrisy actually accomplish? What is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God takeeth away his soul, the book of Job tells us, God in the end is going to cast you into hell, and he may indeed bring severe judgment in this life. They are detestable to God. They are disobedient to God. The Bible speaks about the obedience of faith. How can those who are unbelievers without faith, therefore be obedient to God? Well, they can’t be. You have to have unfeiting. faith in order to be truly obedient to God, and this is lacking in hypocrites. They may call themselves Christians. They may make a great show of holiness and external duties, but they are classified as disobedient in the eyes of God. You recall our Lord declares on the day of judgment that Samu will have claimed that have done many wonderful works in his name. But he calls them workers of iniquity. You’re disobedient, he says. Why condemn those that are so devout in their religious duties? so meticulous about their pursuit of the requirements of God’s law. Is it a sin to avoid eating pork? Is it a sin to carefully observe the Sabbath? Is it a sin to carefully pay your ties? Yes, it’s a major sin. It’s disobedience to God if you put your trust in these religious activities and not in the Lord Jesus Christ. For the way of the hypocrite is to try to establish his own righteousness and not submit himself, himself under the righteousness of God. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness unto everyone that believeth. But the hypocrite refuses to acknowledge this truth. God commands all men to repent of their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for righteousness and acceptance with him. Those who do not do so are disobedient to the command of God. And you can pretend church and religion all you wish. But God will classify you as disobedient before him. They are disobedient to God. Notice he says here also, they’re disqualified regarding every good work. Under every good work reprobate. Now remember we said what a good work is. First, it has to be performed out of faith. It’s the fruit of faith. But these people are unbelievers. They don’t have faith. Two, it’s performed according to the law. But these people are disobedient to God. And therefore, they certainly aren’t following the spirit of the law. Three, it’s performed to the glory of God. But these hypocrites are abominable in the eyes of God. So they’re not matching up in any of these categories. They’re unable to do any good at all. The word repriments. You hear me? Something that’s cast off. Something that’s worthless. Reprobate is a word that’s used in contrast to the word election or choice. We talk about the reprobate or we talk about the elect. One is chosen, one is rejected. Jeremiah describes the hypocritical unbelieving Jews in this way. Jeremiah 630, reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them. Now, reprobate silver is silver that’s cast off because they can’t get the impurities out of it. These people still are impure. They may claim to be true silver, but they’re not of any value. Being totally depraved in mind and conscience, hypocrites are unable to do anything pleasing to God. They’re defiled, as we said last week. They have no capacity to do good. It’s impossible. You know what Jesus said in the New Testament? The tree must be made good before it can produce good fruit. If the tree is bad, it can’t produce good fruit. It’s as simple as that. And so what good is the hypocrite who is without Christ, without the Holy Spirit, without grace, how can you do anything good? Sort of like a cracked glass. If you ever had a glass, that’s cracked on the bottom, you put water and it just leaks all the way out and it won’t hold any water. What do you do with a glass? You throw it out. You discard it. It’s not of any value. That is the reprobate. Well, the huge trees of the forest are often rotten on the inside, and this is the essence of those who are hypocrites in God’s sight. Let everyone here carefully weigh the state of your heart before the Lord God. Be concerned to evaluate the sincerity of your faith before God. A mere professor means nothing. Just to profess. There has to be some genuine change in your life, some indeed graces of the spirit produced in your life. Take heed, as the scripture says, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Now, let me say finally here, it’s very hard to know who is a hypocrite because it’s often a hidden type of sin. We can’t read the hearts of people. Consequently, it’s very dangerous to judge someone rationally condemn his or her him or her as a hypocrite. So we have to take great care. Remember the ten virgins, five had oil in their lamp and five did not, but from the outside, would you know? You wouldn’t know right off the bat. You could look at them and not really tell. But when the moment came, when they needed to display, they had to have the oil to light the lamps, five were not without oil. But do this. Judge yourself. And this is the key fact. Now, I don’t want you to do any morbid introspection, but evaluate yourself in an honest manner. That’s all I’m saying. Be honest about really, am I a follower of Christ? Am I showing signs of being a true believer in the Lord? Well, let us close.