Published: August 30, 2026 | Speaker: Tim Freitag | Series: The Law of Liberty 2 - Part 18 | Scripture: Titus 1:9-15
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Continuing under our premise here as we're looking at the book of Titus. Um I'm going to move us on to the next section of Titus here this morning. And um again I never quite know how far we're going to get in any particular
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percipy that I may have picked out. I'm going to read from verse um by the way this is not a condemnation of of conversation or questions. I want to
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hear from you and I think we get a lot out of the the comments and questions and conversation together. So, but I'm going to read from um verse 9, which
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obviously is mid-sentence for Paul, but I'm going to pick up at verse 9 and read down through verse 15 as we open this morning trying to focus from about verse 10 on.
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10 on. I'm reading from the New American Standard this morning. holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching so that he will be able to both exhort in sound
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doctrine and refute those who contradict. For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those
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of the circumcision who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sorted gain. one of themselves, a prophet of their own,
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said, "Cretton are always liars, evil beasts, lazy glutton, and this testimony is true. For this reason, reprove them severely so that they may be sound in
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the faith, not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving,
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nothing is pure. But both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good
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So, we've looked in depth at the what is often called the qualifications, perhaps better thought of as the character of an elder. Um he tells us in verse five as Paul is
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writing this letter to Titus. It was for this reason that he left Titus and Cree to set in order what remains by appointing elders in every city. Now he seems to come to the specific
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target of this what is foremost on Paul's mind as he gives this information to Titus um that there is a purpose there is a reason. the four here that is
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joining our our words um or our clauses. It's a new paragraph in my Bible. I think it's a new paragraph in most people's Bible. Is very much a linking word for this purpose, for this reason.
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Because even you could translate it as the elder, if we pick up with verse 9, is one who is holding fast to the faithful word, but to a purpose. Okay,
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that's what he's linking here. that the elder is one who will do this but not just because it's he's supposed to. He's doing it to a purpose to an end in order to be able to exhort and to be able to
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reprove. Okay. So this is the utility if you like of these things that Paul has already described. Um and it is the particular role and focus of the elder. It is not that an individual believer cannot
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exhort fellow believers. It is not that individual believers cannot refute or reprove those who are saying things incorrectly, but it is the particular role of the elder to do this.
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Okay? It is his particular focus um that Paul is honing in on with Titus here that the elder should be prepared for this work here specifically. Okay? So,
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he brings these targets into question, these rebellious men, empty talkers, deceivers. These are not three categories of paretic by the way.
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Uh yeah, I'm just going to put it up the way it is in mine.
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These aren't three categories of incorrect. This is one description of these people. Okay? They are rebellious. They are rebellious in the sense of not submitting to the word of God. Okay?
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First and foremost, the idea of being rebellious there is that they are not submissive to the word. not submissive to its authority over them to steer them
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in the correct direction. Okay, again linking together what Paul says at the end of verse 9 with what he's saying here in verse 10 and 11. The elder, the protagonist if you like
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in this scenario that he's laying out here is one who holds fast to the sound word. You could think of that pattern of sound words as he says elsewhere. That is what the elder is to be distinguished
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by those whom he is opposing. The rebellion is specifically in that context that they will not submit to what the word says. Okay. So rebellious men,
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empty talkers. Empty talkers in this sense is not um the sense of saying nothing or chitchat. Um this isn't small talk. It's more in the sense of
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sophistry. having the appearance of wisdom without any of the substance. Okay? So they are saying things that are leading people astray because what they
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are saying is contrary to the scripture. But it's not that they are saying things that have no um effect uh no content to them. What they have is an effect
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contrary to the scriptures. Okay? So it is leading people astray. Empty talkers is a reasonable translation of this. But I really think if you if you dig in here and you look
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at the context in which Paul is talking um I don't know if everybody's familiar with the term sophistry. Those um we get the word philosophy from it. Literally those who can talk on any subject. Um
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when you do speech and debate type things you know you'll be given a for or against and you don't get to pick whether you were actually hold an opinion that is for or against. Whichever side you're given you argue that side. Like a lawyer for example. a
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lawyer who is able to argue the case whether or not he believes in that outcome. He's paid to argue for one particular side or the other. That is the idea that's in view here. Um the
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idea that you are saying things in order and as he says here for sorted gain. Okay. So they have an end result in mind. They don't really care about the people in between. They have an end in
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mind. Um mind. Um we don't use the word sophistry for it anymore but it is certainly around. curiously enough um a number of years ago I had a professor of um
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in seminary anyways who who claimed that this had gone out of the world that that this was dead which fascinated me because it's never died out um for a while we moved it to television these days there podcasts in abundance you can
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find empty talkers anywhere okay that's what's in view here though is not just it's it is in some sense empty in
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the in the way of filling up the time, but it is also empty in that they probably don't even really believe in what they're saying. What they're doing is steering you to an end for their own purposes. Okay? They're leading you down
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a path. They are empty in that way. Uh hollow, without substance, okay, so the the sort of sophistry of it. And finally, deceivers. They're leading people away from the truth and into a
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lie. Um and he has a particular concern here as he's bringing into view these targets. Um he says especially or particularly those of the circumcision.
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Well, why those of the circumcision? They are effectively Paul's arch nemesis as we've seen in other places. We find them opposing him in uh Thessalonica. We
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find them going ahead of him to Ephesus to try to oppose him there. He deals with the circumcision party over and over again. But the other particular point and what I think ties it together
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with these words is that the I heard somebody say recently, it's much easier to turn someone aside down a road
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you want them to believe than it is to completely turn them around. So if you oppose someone to their face and say you need to do a 180, that's a much harder thing to achieve than saying, "Well, actually, you're almost
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there. you just need to turn left a little bit and turn left a little bit more and a little bit more and suddenly we've taken you at at least 90 degrees from where you're supposed to be. That's the particular danger I think here of
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the circumcision party is that they are coming to you saying, "No, no, no. We're also Christians. You just don't quite have it right. Here's where you need to go. Here's where I need you to move to. Here's what you need to believe." And
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suddenly we're very offtarget. That's what he has in view here with the empty talking and the deceiving. Okay, Paul has no time for these people. In
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fact, he doesn't have no time for them. He has absolute opposition to them. And it may or may not appear, does anybody have in your um copy of the scripture
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something other than upsetting whole Interesting. Um uh in verse 11 he says they must be
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silenced because they are upsetting whole families teaching things they should not teach. Upsetting is not a bad translation but I think in the English it doesn't always have the meaning that it would
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have in the Greek. It's literally overthrowing. It's like tipping over which in English you could say well I upset the wheelbarrow. That's tipping over. But if you say oh I'm upset. doesn't actually usually in the English
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mean overthrow. Uh
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Monique. Subvert would not would not be a terrible and that that ties in with that second Timothy reference. But quite literally, again, upsetting is not a not a bad English word, but it's
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really overthrowing. It is it is the complete ruin or destruction of Eliev. That's what the ASV has. Okay. I thought I had seen at least one English translation had that. Um, so upsetting.
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Again, I it's not that you can't read that in the English. It's just I think sometimes we would read that and and it would feel somewhat mild. This is very serious. In Paul's view, they are ruining entire households in the church
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by teaching these things, by deceiving, by doing this. Um, and so again, this is his particular um concern uh as he's he's telling Titus to
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appoint the elders that this is the thing that they have to war against here specifically. Um specifically. Um he says of this that they must be silenced. they are overthrowing or
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upsetting whole families. Um he's not talking about murdered. Okay, so we're not going out there and you know asking the mob to take him out even if we are in cit. Um
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in fact it has more find my reference here. It's um I think frankly what we have in view and I'm going to read a couple of passages. You can turn to them if you want but I'm going to read
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a couple of places where we see the Lord doing exactly that. And I think this is the pattern that he's got in mind.
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I need you to stop doing that. Come on, phone. There we go. All right. There's a problem with putting my reference on my phone. Matthew chapter 22, we read of Jesus answering the Pharisees as they give him this
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hypothetical scenario of the lever marriage of one man after another after another until we get through seven brothers. And then in the end, whose wife will she be? And Jesus answers in
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verse 29, verse 29, you are mistaken because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God in the resurrection. They will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead,
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they will be like the angels in heaven. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what God said to you? I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. He is not the
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God of the dead, but of the living. And when the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching. And when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they themselves gathered
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together. And one of them, an expert in the law, tested him with a question which he was also soon to regret. Okay. So, we have the um Jesus silences them
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here. A little bit further down in Matthew 22. It says again um verse 41, while the Pharisees were assembled, Jesus questioned them. What
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do you think about the Christ? Well, whose son is he? David's, they answered. Jesus said to them, how then does David in the spirit call him Lord? For he
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says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put my enemies under your feet. So if David calls him Lord, how can he be David's son?
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No one was able to answer a word. And from that day forward, no one dared to question him any further. Again, in Luke 20, we see a similar uh a couple of
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exchanges here. One day, uh Luke 20 beginning in verse one. One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and scribes with the elders came up and said to him, "Tell us
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by what authority you do these things, or who gave you this authority?" Jesus answered them, "I will also ask you a question. Now tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?" And I
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love the way Luke writes this because you can just hear the scurry of feet as they huddle together to figure out what they're going to say. And they discussed it with one another, saying, "If we say
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from heaven, he will say, why did you not believe him? But if we say from man, all the people will stone us to death. For they're convinced that John was a prophet." So they answered Jesus that they did not know where it came from.
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And Jesus said,"Neither then will I tell you by what authority I do these things." And again further on in Luke 20 at the end of the chapter, he responds to them um after some of the scribes
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tell him, "Teacher, you have spoken well." They no longer dared to ask him any question. And it says in verse 39, he said to them, um, how can you say that the that the Christ is David's son?
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We have a very similar exchange of this, um, here that we just read in Matthew. How can you say that the Christ is David's son? For David himself says in
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the book of Psalms, "The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your foottool." David then calls him Lord. How is he his son? And in the hearing of all the people, he
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said to his disciples, "Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogue and places of honor at feasts,
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who also devour widows houses, and for a pretense make long prayers, they will receive greater condemnation." So I think Paul would offer up this example of our Lord's silencing those with the
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wisdom of his ability to cut through the specific question they're asking to the heart of what they meant or even sometimes what they should have been asking. Okay.
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asking. Okay. Um he says again at the beginning of this section uh I pick up in verse 9 so that he is able to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict. We have this pattern of the
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Lord and we could read other examples. His exchanges with the Pharisees and the scribes are full of these things um in which he refutes them and they do they are not able to answer him well. Um I
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think Paul would hold this up before the elders of Cree as uh an example to follow in the way that you silence those
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who are upsetting whole households. Now it seems to be um silencing those who are breeding heresy here and the the circumcision in particular seems to be
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the essential command for those on cree. The question would be does it extend beyond just cree okay well he's writing
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to Titus here Titus specifically in cret and setting up those and he even makes reference here to the cretins
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from your reading is within the boundaries of those profess
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Um, as far as my reading goes, um, well, let me restate the question here for those on the other end. Does does this mean only those who are
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already inside the churches, the conversations happening inside the churches? Or is it in the context perhaps of the sort of boundaries or borders of the churches, those who are
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talking to members of the churches and perhaps trying to draw them away? Or is it even that he's going out or asking the elders to go into the marketplace, finding those teaching these things openly and confront them, as you say,
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perhaps in combat, spiritual or verbal combat to stop them saying these things in the marketplace. I don't see it confined.
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What I do see is this, that the elders have a particular responsibility to their flocks and to their churches. But here in the context of cree he doesn't
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seem to limit the extent by which they must be silenced. Okay? He states quite flatly that they must be silenced. They must stop saying these things.
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If we apply that to our own context, then does that mean we have to go track down all of these podcasters and tell them off? them off? I'm not going to go there. Um I do think though that it is also in the context of
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Titus. you are in a time and a place where you are shortly after the evangelistic mission there. Okay, so this is a particularly
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nent time for the church there in which some of this may or may not apply in the same way to our context. Abigail
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about second Peter has a long discussion of false prophets who come
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So not to say that all believers cannot do not have the ability to false teachers. But it does very
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different. Well, the the responsibility is actually quite different. I I think you're right there and I appreciate your references in that because it is particular again as he points out here. He's this section
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he is talking to Titus about the elders that it is the elders who must be able to refute these things. The elders also have a responsibility to teach the pattern of sound words to the people that they recognize it. Put your hand
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up. I think the whole thing has to be interpreted in the light of the fact you cannot silence
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there is another way to silence someone and that is to stop listening right so I I think the elers responsibility to hold fast
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so that they might understand sound doctrine recognize doctrine recognize and stop listening. That we can do, right? No, I appreciate that. Um and and and
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that perhaps cuts past the question then because in preparing the flock in preparing the individual believers to recognize the pattern of sound words now
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the boundary is somewhat less relevant because whether they are hearing the you have people coming inside the church obviously that falls very directly under the power of the elder but also if
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they're hearing things or co-workers who have other ideas whatever those things are recognizing the pattern of sound words is a form of armoring if you like the congregation for those things. Yes.
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No, I I I think I understand your question. And the reason why I call this prescriptive is this. Um, if I can sort of highlight the milestones in the sentences here, verse five, for this
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reason, literally for this purpose, I left you in cre to set order by appointing elders. Okay, so there is disorder that needs to be ordered or perhaps the order is not as full as it
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ought to be. Set the elders come down. Then he says as he goes through their characters, he ends with you might argue that he's ending with the most important part holding fast the faithful word so
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that in order that able to exhort in sound doctrine and refute. So to Chuck's point, re reinforcing those who the doctrine of your believers and refuting
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those who are attempting to take them astray. Then for there are many follow that down who must be silenced. Okay, that's to me that doesn't read as um
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like if you get around to it, if you encounter them, that's this is almost hunting in the sense of they must be silenced like be uh be under no
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illusions that you must silence them. We would be very naive as elders if we thought that we were the only
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source of source of I felt this way. seminary was taugh
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Yeah. These people were listening. I mean they were reading the left behind.
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feeds coming into every one of our minds. I don't think you have to go hunting, right? I think there are so many open doors
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to deception, plausible deception, that it's that it's not only presented, it's constant.
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Well, I appreciate that and I guess hunting then is the wrong thought there, but it's it is very much that it isn't passive. This is not a this is not a
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he Paul's not wishy-washy about this. Um Ariel first and then Jerry
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the people of God. Yeah. people. So, and then they literally came to him. So, he didn't have to go find them. But it was very accurate. Well, I I think that's a good point. Jerry, you had your hand up.
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That's a good point. Um, that is a good point and I and I think we're arriving at the point of understanding I I hope what Paul is trying to indicate to Titus here which is it is of particular
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uh first priority if you like for the elders as he's setting this up or telling Titus how to appoint in every city that they be aware that they are be on alert that they be top of mind
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guarding against in particular here the circumcision party but all such empty talking or deceits that come. Did you have your hand up? I was just going to
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say that
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listen in order
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outside without really knowing what
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mentality where you get here nowhere else and those are two very dangerous Yeah. No, I I take the point there and I
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and I think um again I appreciate Abigail's reference to some of the things there in Peter again. Don't be don't be drawn away in your attempt to combat these things. Don't uh lose your
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focus or your efforts by spending all of your time running here and there. It also has um I mean we have contextualization to our own day certainly but it it happened from the earliest days of the church that you had
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men who ended up spending their time writing letters debating amongst one another. You get these sort of almost academic fights that happened time and time again. I don't think that's
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profitable for shephering of people. There were certainly heresies that needed to be put down. But the particular role of the elder is the safety of the flock. And it is this idea of of being able to ward off um like has
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been pointed out both within and without being able to confront specifically within the bounds of the body but again to reinforce the body and their understanding. Tim you had your hand up.
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Right. Right. Speak the things fitting of sound sound doctrine or sound words. He he begins in chapter two. Abe
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I agree with you in in that the whole congregation has a role to play and that the elder does not stand apart from the congregation. The elder is a member of the body. So yes, I appreciate that point very much that and and I I perhaps
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that's what I mean in the sense of you get people who sort of make it their mission to go around confronting various heresies or straightening out the whole church somehow. That's not shephering.
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So yes, I I take your point there. Again though, I want to make this clear from both the context and the word that we're specifically looking at, which is yes,
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the congregation has its role and the congregation needs to be very clear on the pattern of sound words. As Tim has pointed out, it's
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surrounded on each side with the context of understanding what is right and good. What do we hold fast to? I meant to make the point earlier the wording here hold
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fast is a very good translation. You can think of this if you like as the exact opposite of what we read in second Thessalonians of being unmed who were shaken and unmed and now drifting around. This is the complete
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inverse being anchored if you like. On the one hand they're being unmed this is like being holding on to the lifeline as one of the scholars of the Greek pointed out. This is not a holding like
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a I don't care if I drop it or not. This is holding on for dear life type wording here. Okay. So holding on to sound doctrine that is the responsibility of all it is though as I'm coming back to
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and this in this context in Titus specifically is to Titus to prepare the elders. It is the role of the elder to see that that pattern is upheld and
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enforced in their congregation. You had your hand up. I think that what I was saying It's often thought that the elder or the
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priest or the pastor is the interface between the church and the world he is not right only as much as he's a believer it makes me think of again chemistry in
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order to increase a reaction you increase surface area
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absolutely focus you say okay the elder is It was in the early church. He was the one who wrote the letters. He was also the one who executed.
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Yeah. Well, I just I think that is an error that is not only
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Yeah. And and I I can only agree and frankly so does the letter of of Paul to Titus here. Um I this is one of those times I wish we could hold the whole forest at one go. So, I'm just going to start reading in chapter 2 because immediately
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after this, and we're not going to leave off our our ending here, but immediately the next chapter, as for you, speak the things fitting for sound doctrine. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in
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perseverance. Older women likewise to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips or enslaved to much wine. Teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their
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children, to be sensible, pure workers at home. kind, subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. Likewise, urge the young men to be sensible. In all things,
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show yourself an example of good deeds with purity and doctrine, dignified, sound in speech, which is beyond reproach, that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say
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about us. urge bond slaves to be subject to their masters in everything to be well pleasing not argumentative not pilfering not showing but sorry but showing all good faith so that they will
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adorn the doctrine of God our savior in every respect for the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly
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righteously and godly in the present age looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless
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deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession zealous for good deeds. These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you. So he's covered then
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every category of the body in speech and in behavior is as you've pointed out that surface area interfacing with the world. Okay. So Paul is not disagreeing
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with what we're saying I think at all here. He's saying absolutely go on to the next bit there. Every believer to to reinforce what Abe has said has a role to play a responsibility there in that
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interface. Uh the question was asked a couple of weeks ago when I was distinguishing in the in the elders that the role of the elder is primarily to the ministry of the word and to the safeguarding of those things amongst the
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body. Again, not denying that every believer will hear and recognize and learn the pattern of sound words, but it is the role of the elder to be after those things. Whereas
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term as a whole is the role of the whole body. Okay. So again oftentimes and it happens very early in the church we end up with that sort of sacraidal aspect of the well the minister as the term gets thrown about
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is the one who does all that church and religious stuff. No the body is the people of God living out the religion.
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The elder is the one responsible again as he points out here in Titus for making clear the pattern of sound words for teaching, exhorting, reproving,
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doing those things. Okay. So yes, I agree completely that the rest of the body also has its role to play. But what is the context? Why has Paul set this letter down? Paul wrote this letter to
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Titus to say we need elders in every city in cree and they need to be this way in order to silence those who are leading astray the people of God ruining
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whole households if you allow me to paraphrase the paragraph that we've just read. So this is not me denying any of those things that have been said accurately about the responsibility of
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the body in these things. And yet Paul is setting this letter down at least here at the beginning specifically concerning what is the elder inte
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needing to do. Abigail
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That's a good point. Um and it and it will go to the point that has been made I think u both by Jerry and by Chuck that the the amount of things that need to be sort of kept tabs on. God has not intended that any elder
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walks alone in those things. That you have a multitude of elders to help bear the various levels of of
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reading and hearing and interfacing with the body and understanding what is what is there in our context. Uh it's not one person has to walk that road. That's not
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how God has designed that. We talked about that when we talked about the fact that the term there and frankly everywhere that you find it when it speaks of churches says elders in the plural. Um a
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particular case. Oh yes.
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So again I will say he he he highlights here particularly or especially those of the circumcision the circumcision meaning though meaning though there are beyond the circumcision also people who these terms apply to. Now he
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seems to be highlighting here in particular that he's worried that and we did talk about this in the contextualization of Cree. Cree apparently had by by even extra biblical writers have accounted for the fact that
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Cree had a large Jewish population. There were a lot of them there. And so there was a particular background that would lead the
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circumcision party to have more of a foothold there by saying think of your heritage. you know, there's more their their target rich environment, if you want to say it that way. Um,
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Paul obviously and and we've looked at some of the other references is concerned about the circumcision, but I don't think it's only the circumcision again, even just from the grammar that is that is categorized by this. Chuck,
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you had your hand up and I'll come back to the others. He doesn't make any
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And and and I know you had another thought and I want to get to that, but I I also take your point there where you said to be careful of of those who are trying to undo the work of Christ. That is what he's got in view. There are
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cases where we can disagree with somebody's doctrine and it does not impinge on the gospel in that way. There are also many doctrines that get
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floated as Christian that are incredibly destructive to understanding the gospel and the work of Christ in those things. Number of the commentators because of
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course pointed out Catholicism. I agree. Okay. Catholicism in its continuous sacrifice of Christ is completely
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misunderstanding the once-forall nature of it. Okay, that is frankly heresy. We would war against that. I don't have a
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ton of contact with Catholics. I've had a couple of co-workers before who were. Okay. Um I would also float that there are other
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are other doctrines prevalent in the in the church today or that crop up that impinge on that exact thing that offer to you other
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They're actually held up as doctrines. You must hold this doctrine or you're not properly a Christian.
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There is sound doctrine. There are sound words. I would highly encourage you to go back and look at some of the Thursday night classes in which we've talked about that phrase specifically. The
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biblical studies have highlighted that idea of discerning as you read the scriptures. the pattern of sound words to do a systematic theology packaging of
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a doctrine and say this is how you have to say these words and understand this thing or you're not properly a Christian is destructive is destructive you had your hand up Chuck oh I'm sorry did I miss somebody had go
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he's using that as an example as an example. Yes. Now I want to say in connection with that
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there are people who come in. Rarely does the enemy walk into your camp with a big banner on their forehead that says, "Behold, I oppose you." People come into the body, apparently with no agenda.
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The pattern, as we've looked at both from I mean, we saw it a lot in second, first and second Thessalonians, and we'll see it again here in Titus. There is a pattern of behavior that is good and upright.
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and upright. What is not fitting that pattern is rebellion, refusing to submit to the word. Okay, that is the fundamental aspect of it. And you will find people
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who came into the body, lovely people, sweet people, you shake their hand, go over to their house, wonderful. And yet you will discern if you are looking for the pattern of sound words that there is
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rebellion. Okay. Um I think I saw your hand first and then I'll come back to Justin. say that not only we're not Rambo, we're not Right. Right. And so, yes, and and I agree with you, Abe, that we're not
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trying to persecute one another. We're not trying to to hound each other out. We're not we're not putting down purity tests. We're going to talk about this to uh the pure all things are pure. Boy,
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has that phrase been misapplied. Um we got to talk about what he means by that in context here. But we do also walk in step together as
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a body and with the spirit. And when you see those who are out of step, there is a question to be asked or a line of discernment between, are you out
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of step because you have taken a stumble or somebody is leading you astray and I can get you back in step or are you out of step the way he describes in second Thessalonians because you're a loafer
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because you're lazy bones because you won't do the work that you're supposed to do or are you out of step because you're trying to change the cadence of the body. the body. Okay. So again, it's not a it's not that
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we're going around persecuting each other. Frankly, I think the pattern we read and we'll read again as we get to the second chapter. He gives a pattern of what it looks like for the body to be humming along in harmony, teaching one
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another, receiving instruction, being submissive to the word, walking in accordance with godliness. And when you find things that are putting bumps into
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that smooth pattern that he lays out, that's when the whole body has a responsibility to examine that against the pattern of sound words. I'm going to do Justin.
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They do not understand either what they are saying about
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Yeah. But again, the beginning is love from
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one uses it lawfully and he's he's going to hold up here um both the uh to the pure all things are pure and then as you heard me read at the end of chapter 2 there that still opposes lawlessness the
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law of liberty is not lawlessness and we'll get into that in a little bit um Abe and then we're going to close sorry I'll just know
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off. I I understand I think what you're getting at which is Paul is not enjoining on the people of God a suspicious heart. He is not. What
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he is enjoining on the people of God is unshakable pattern of sound doctrine and sound
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words that when somebody comes in and starts trying to nibble at the edges of that, you go, "What are you doing?" This is the border of sound words. Okay?
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Frankly, I think, and I've been in this church my whole life, so I can attest from people who are still here and people who aren't here anymore. Wisdom is where we're going. This is the heart
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the law of liberty is the wisdom that God both models and gives through the work of his spirit. It is possible, not infallibly because I am a fallible man, but it is possible to
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discern over time in conversation with people. If people are in fact honestly engaging with the word, okay, again, submissive, not rebellious. If they are
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honestly engaging with the word and willing to engage in those conversations, those uh comparisons with the pattern of sound words versus those
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who, as Justin points out, make confident assertions with nothing to back it up. Make confident statements, as he says here, commandments of men that have nothing to do with scripture.
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Those who want to have arguments over the myths or genealogies, those are different things. Wisdom is what we need and wisdom is
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what we are given through the word. We're going to close in a word of prayer now as we go upstairs. Our Father, we do thank you for the wisdom indeed that you have buried here in your
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scriptures that is available to us. That it has been laid down for us to read and to understand that time and again we can go over the same passages and be
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renewed, finding things that we did not see before, bringing out of your storehouse treasures both new and old. We thank you that you have not abandoned us to do these things on our own. that
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you have laid down such a store for us and furthermore have given us your spirit as a means to understand to grow in these things. I ask that you would in
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fact build us up in our understanding of these things that we might be equipped for the things that you would have us to do that we read here and elsewhere in scripture. We desire to be
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pure and useful instruments in your hand to the excising of what is incorrect and to the nourishment and building up of what is right and true and pure. I ask that you would be among us this morning as we go before you to praise your name,
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to call upon you in song and in prayer and in the participation in the word preached that you would truly be with your people this morning. Make known to us your presence and equip us for every
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good work. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.