Amen. Our sermon text this evening comes from the book of Titus, Titus chapter 1, looking at verses 10 through 14 this evening. Hear this, the word of the living God. For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not for the sake of dishonest gain. One of them, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith. not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth. This is the word of the living God, and we say thanks be to God. Amen, please be seated. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word and your instruction to us. And thank you that you're gracious towards us for how often we rebel, how often we do not give our whole hearts to you. And yet you're merciful towards us, your people, and you're patient with us, walking alongside us, prodding us along, sanctifying us, promising that one day we will attain to the likeness of Christ. We look forward to that day and we pray this evening that you will edge us just a bit closer towards that ideal image of Christ you've promised us. It's in his name we pray, amen. Some of you know, I've spent some time overseas, and one place I've spent just a little bit of time in is India, and in India, the context, in at least certain parts of India, is not unlike the Cretan church. The Cretan church from Crete is an island in the middle of the sea, and this is early on in church history, of course, because it's in the New Testament, but this church in Crete, It's a primitive church, and I don't mean primitive in a derogatory sort of way, but it's a primitive church, and it's an early, early church. And these particular churches, they don't have elders, they don't have good organization, good structure. And so that's the purpose of this letter is that Paul writes to Titus telling him to establish elders and to establish basic structure. It's a primitive church in that sense. Well, in India, It's the part I've been to. Many of the pastors do not have formal education. In fact, very few do. And so, India being a very big country, there are villages all over the place, there is a great need for the training of pastors and seminaries are popping up in various parts and we can be thankful for that. And in my time over there, I was able to experience It's a seminary of sorts, but these are men who are saved at a certain point, some of them older, they have families, and they cannot leave their family, they cannot leave their church and go to some town hours away and live there for two, three, four years, get training, and then go back. They just don't have that opportunity. So these men go to a school, And oftentimes they'll spend three or four days just listening to lectures from various Christian professors, and many will go from America, volunteer their time, teach these men who are elders in their local churches, and then these men will go back to their villages several days later and then be a little bit more prepared to lead their people. And these men will sleep on the floor. I remember going into this building. The building wasn't even completely finished. It was two or three stories that were finished and then you keep going up and it was just nothing. It was just blank and then it really didn't have a roof. But the men found a place to sleep. right there in the school. So my former pastor would go over from time to time, teach at this school, and one of the men afterwards remarked to my pastor that it was the first time, and this is a pastor, by the way, that he understood what the good is in Romans 8, 28. Let me read this verse to you. We know that all things work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Now the good in this sense is God will bless you, He will conform you to the likeness of Christ. No matter your circumstances, God will never leave you nor forsake you. Even if you're put in prison, He is going to bless you, He's going to make you like Christ. I think that's the essence of that verse. But this man, a pastor, an elder, for the first time in his life, after ministering for years, I'm assuming, understood what the good was. And he marveled that he finally knew this good. Now think about that for a second and now apply it to the context we have on Crete. Imagine the challenges that a primitive church will face. They will not understand Romans 8.28, most likely. They will not understand the finer things of eschatology. In fact, these particular churches did not understand their need for elders. In certain countries, in Turkey where we spent some time, there was not even fully developed theological language. There's certain words in certain languages, Christian theological words like sanctification, edification, eschatology, they do not have words for these sorts of things. And so you and I in the English world are really privileged. We have books upon books upon books, where in other countries, they don't have that. Their pastor goes away for a weekend, gets a little bit of training, and then goes back. And maybe six months from now, he'll go back for another three or four days. And 10 years later, this man's gonna have more knowledge than he did to begin with, but still, think of the limited education he has. So Paul writes this letter to Titus, and now, after telling Titus, Establish elders in every city as I have commanded you now He's going to tell him one of the primary reasons elders are needed. That's verse 10. There are many insubordinate Idle talkers deceivers, especially those of the circumcision And then later on, verse 14, they give heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men. So verse 10 has many types of sinners in mind. Certain sinful tendencies, a mix of sort of falsehoods, all kind of sort of meshing together. There's legalism, there's some Gentile beliefs, we see that in verse 12. The Jewish fables, that is commandments not made from men. Well, there's one broad category, and that is these people in the churches of Crete are insubordinate. So whatever sin that they may be committing, They are insubordinate. That is, they're forsaking the authority of God's word. And the trouble here is that they're now influencing others in the church. So Paul writes to Titus, stop those who are insubordinate. Interesting thing here, if you look down, just, we'll get to this, but I wanna give you a little preview. Verse 13, it says, rebuke them sharply. that they may be sound in the faith. The hope here is not only that Titus is going to salvage those who are in their churches, the hope is actually that Titus will speak to these people who are influencing the church in a negative way, that they also may be restored. So consider, for instance, just another modern example of this, the prosperity gospel in places like Africa and India and elsewhere. It's all over the place. How many Christians hear something of the gospel, believe it, and then early on in their faith, they're introduced to something that's false. And then in their talking, maybe after church, or maybe just after the service, or maybe they meet in someone's house, they begin to sort of say, well, look at this verse. And then they begin to perpetuate the prosperity gospel. And then others in the church kind of pick up on it. And these are genuine believers, by the way, and this happens all over the world. And I think that an example like that would be an example like this. And Paul is not saying in this case, throw these people out. He doesn't say that yet. When we look at chapter three, he will get to a point where you do need to kick them out, have nothing to do with them. But here, The encouragement, the exhortation, the command is, rebuke them sharply, verse 13, that they may be sound in the faith. That is, the whole church may be sound in the faith. Those who are teaching these negative things and those who are listening to those negative things. So this evening I have two applications, two sermon headings. The first one is this, do not be insubordinate. I wanna apply this immediately. That's Paul's command to Titus, but I wanna make it towards us as well. Do not be insubordinate. Simple truth here. Now, to be insubordinate, again, is to be unruly. It's to forsake the authority of God. And we know those who are insubordinate. We've got insubordination all around us in our culture. People love to rebel against, I mean, it's just, people think it's cool to be a rebel. In our cities, but consider, even within the Christian community, is there insubordination even in here? Well, the first type of insubordination I think is relevant for all churches, notice, That word, idle talkers. Idle talkers. This is a type of insubordination. Now, idle talk, we know idle talk often when we see it. Sometimes it goes under the radar, but idle talk is foolish talk. It's irrelevant conversation. It's the sort of talk that goes nowhere. Idle talkers just kind of talk and talk. And then they talk and talk some more. John Gill, the Reformed theologian, says their discourses are empty. That's a good way of thinking about it. There's nothing substantial there. When you speak with them, perhaps after church, perhaps over dinner, lunch, you may have a great time with them, but there's something empty there. There's nothing really really meaty, nothing substantial, trifling, superficial, frivolous. And then John Gill says this, they're jangling and babbling about things to no profit. Calvin says, they contribute nothing to piety. Now that's convicting. Now when we hear, Let there be no idle talking in the church. We might say, oh good, I don't do that. But listen to Calvin one more time. They contribute nothing to piety. Their talk is not contributing towards your Christian faith. I don't think we can quickly dismiss that, can we? Are you contributing to the faith of others, even in your small talk. I'm not saying that every little conversation needs to be about God. But at the end of the day, are your friendships within the church, Christian in nature, are you building one another up? Are you singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to one another? It's a command. Or as the scriptures say, comfort each other, edify one another. Sometimes idle talk is not so easily spotted. Sometimes it's loud and clanging like crashing cymbals. But there's a type of idle talk that can corrupt the church and sound nice at the same time. It tickles the ears. It has proper grammar. It's polished. Some idle talk It disrupts the church because it goes undetected. Now think about our church for a second. We have solid foundations here. We have this wonderful, robust confession that serves as a guardrail. It is unlikely that Satan would seek to disrupt our church by getting us to forsake one of the core doctrines. It's unlikely that any of us in this church are gonna forsake the belief that Christ is God or something along those lines. If Satan were to disrupt this church, how would he do it? I think it could very well come through idle talk. Idle talk is often a first step. Satan's not gonna just go for the jugular. Not always. Idle talk kind of shakes someone up, if you will. It's like getting dizzy. Idle talk, it's just talking and talking and talking. And then after a while, you're like, well, you're just kind of confused. Or if someone just sort of gossips, just a little bit, say, hey, you know, I don't really understand this. Why do they do this? Or why did someone do this? Can you believe she's a stay-at-home mom? And there's all sorts of comments that can be made. And it just can confuse, make someone unstable, and then it's more easy for Satan to slide in and begin to disrupt us further with deception. Sometimes this idle talk can even come in the form of question asking. It can appear other-centered. That's dangerous. Again, think of someone just for the wrong reasons trying to get to know you, or trying to get to know your problem, and prying, and prying, and then talking. Well, have you considered this? Have you considered that? And again, this happens with men. This happens with women. This happens with young. It happens with old people as well, elderly people. Remember the disciples and they were arguing about who would sit on the left hand of Jesus, who would sit on the right hand of Jesus. Is that not idle talk? It's irrelevant. It's foolish talk. The disciples are arguing with one another and then Jesus comes over and silences them. He says, you men have no idea what you're talking about. Idle talk is something we have to be on the lookout for. Beware. Do you find yourself talking too much? Or do you find yourself around people who are talking too much? One thought is we don't always have to contribute to conversations in which we don't know what to say. Or if someone's looking for advice and you don't know the advice, you don't have to give it. Notice the next description of the insubordinate. It's those who deceive. Idle talk and deception often go hand-in-hand. Idle talk can lead to deception. And the deceivers in the church, they'll talk and talk and talk. They might even make you feel good about yourself. It's what deceivers do. It's what con artists do. Now some deceive knowingly, some deceive unknowingly. Like that man in India who did not know something quite basic about Romans chapter eight? Or that people who are perpetuating the prosperity gospel, perhaps because they actually don't know any better? That's still no excuse. Calvin says that the deceivers are teachers who entice and fascinate the minds of men. Deceivers are typically very good at it, right? They fascinate. That's interesting. Let me consider that more. And then the deceiver goes a little further. They disrupt you, they confuse, contradict the scriptures. And if you're dizzy, It's difficult to see straight. It's difficult to see the scriptures for what they are. They're plain. This is one reason the elders, one of their qualifications is they must be sober-minded. They must be able to see through this sort of thing. Notice also another description is that there are legalists, it says party of the circumcision, I'm gonna hold off on that, because in a few weeks I hope to preach just on that, because the verse says, especially those of the circumcision. So most of these idol talkers and deceivers are teaching Jewish fables, adding circumcision to the requirements of good Christian living, and that's nonsense. We'll get to that more, Lord willing, in a few weeks. For now, you can see the next term. It says dishonest gain. Some of these insubordinate suppose that godliness is a means of gain. That's what we read about in 1 Timothy. And here, the idle talkers are perhaps striving after some sort of financial gain. They certainly might be looking for that, but that is not always the case. With those looking for dishonest gain, it's not always financial. Many will teach or seek to teach or even just give advice, flatter, just so that it makes themselves feel better. Many will do something or be nice or kind to someone just to get the applause of it. It makes you feel good. It does. There are plenty of athletes who only compete for the money, right? I get that. But there are some athletes, many of which who are amateurs, but they still compete, don't they? They're not in it for financial gain. They're in it for a different sort of gain. Some of them have pure motives, I'm sure. But many, even amateur athletes, will compete just to hear the applause of men, to see their name in the lights, on the scoreboard. And that same allure can be present, I think, within each of us, perhaps, though, on a much smaller scale. You may have heard the term, I heard this term, in college, when Christians would get together. You've heard of testimonies, have you heard of bragimonies? Bragimonies. Someone has a wonderful testimony about how they were saved out of drugs or alcohol or whatever it is that the Lord brought them through. And they would testify to the grace of God, but perhaps more than testify to the grace of God, they would brag about where they had been, and we called them Bragimonies. The spotlight wasn't on Christ's finished work, it was on Look at where I was. Look at where I am. Even that is for the applause of men. And I'll be honest with you, to my shame, I once participated in that sort of talk. Praise be to the Lord. He's restored me as I think he did with many in Crete. We know from Matthew 6 that when you do a charitable deed, you're not supposed to sound a trumpet before you and announce to the world, I'm about to do something good. No, Jesus says, when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be done in secret. And your father who sees in secret, he will reward you. But in Jesus' day, in our day, how often are false teachers, the type of people who do something just so that they can be applauded by men. It's what the Pharisees did. It's what many in our day do as well. So questions you could ask yourself this evening. Are you in any way insubordinate? As I went through that list, does the Holy Spirit convict you on any one of those points? Are you insubordinate in any way? If you do not know the answer to that, you can pray for illumination. As the psalmist does, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me, know my anxieties, see if there's any wicked way, any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. It's a good prayer when we come across a text like this. Because we're dealing, not with people outside the church, but with people within the church. The insubordination is within the Christian community. And it would be too bad if we just read this and said, well, it's a primitive church, we're not dealing with that problem. Those same sorts of problems can begin to creep into even a church like ours. Let's turn our attention now to the task of the elders Elders are instructed, you'll notice, to stop the mouths of the insubordinate. That's our second heading. Stop the mouths of the insubordinate. So do not be insubordinate, first heading, second heading. Stop the mouths of the insubordinate. Part of their problem in Crete is that they were really influenced by their culture. This is why, it almost seems out of place if you read it, but verse 12 is inserted there, and it says, one of them, that is a Cretan, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. So this is what they were like. And some time before this, famous philosopher, said this about the people on Crete, and there's a number of historical examples where the people of Crete, they were just a nasty people, a particularly nasty people, full of lies, evil, lazy, gluttonous. Paul just says this testimony is true. Why does he insert this, though? I think he inserts it because he's telling Titus they are influenced greatly by the culture in which they exist. Not only do they not know the scriptures well, not only do they not know some of the basics of church life, they are still influenced by the people they are around. Even though they are within the Christian community, remember where they are. They're on Crete of all places. Can we not say the same for where we live? We're in the USA, of all places. And then what would we say about the ridiculousness of our current cultural moment? So what must elders do? If you look back in verse nine, it says, exhort and convict those who contradict the faith. And then we see here, verse 13, elders, and Titus in particular, are to rebuke Rebuke them sharply. So rebuke means like, you know, convict, refute. Tell them that's not true. Show them their fault. And if you consider for a moment all of the things that Paul could have said to Titus immediately, because remember, the church is just now getting established. Paul goes right for this issue. This is first-order importance. Establish elders for... There's a lot of nonsense going on. You gotta stop it. For the sake of the people, for the sake of Christ's glory, rebuke sharply. Again, John Gill on this says, rebuke them cuttingly. Cut them to the quick. Spare them not. It's not time to worry about their feelings. The purity of the gospel is at stake. Eternity is at stake. You may step on their toes, but you gotta cut them to the quick. In our day, I think if we were to apply this, often we would be saying, they're believing the prosperity gospel, That's a lie from hell. Cut it out. I think that's the tone that Paul is employing here. Rebukes are good. Proverbs tells us that, Proverbs 17, 10. Rebuke is more effective for a wise man than a hundred blows on a fool. Wise men love to be reproved for their good. It's gonna make them more like Christ. The psalmist says, let the righteous strike me. It shall be a kindness. Let him rebuke me. It shall be as excellent oil. Let my head not refuse it. Remember when Samuel approached David after David sinned so egregiously, murdering Uriah, taking Bathsheba, Nathan's rebuke was cutting He didn't he didn't he didn't just just kind of just push it to the side as hey, man I know you're the king, but you really shouldn't be doing that This is not gonna go well No, there's there's actually exclamation points She don't often see in the Old Testament, but there's exclamation points and Nathan said to David, you are the man. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel. I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more. Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight? That's a rebuke. He gives him details and he lays it out. You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword. You have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. Now therefore, and then there's this punishment coming, the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me. Speaking about the Lord. And that's necessary. And perhaps that's the same sort of thing that Titus will have to go into these Cretan churches with. I know you guys are new believers, but there's a lot of idle talk going on. There's falsehood spreading. Cut it out. And if they keep going, you can look at Titus three, have nothing to do with them, the scripture says. They're gonna continue on. Do away with them. Paul says rebuke them that they, everyone, can walk in the true faith. Because if they keep down the path they're going, they're going to forsake the one true apostolic faith. They will forsake Christianity. The idea is don't let them. They're new Christians, don't let them fall away. And David has that wonderful response in Psalm 51. And if there's any grievous way in any of us, if there's any wickedness in us, any idle talk, any insubordination, may we now be like David who responded, have mercy upon me, oh God. According to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. If you look at the Psalms as you just go through, the Psalm is written in the context of after being rebuked by the prophet. You can recognize also in the New Testament, Jesus, like the prophets before him, there were times where he had to rebuke his followers. He rebuked the Pharisees, of course, but he also rebuked Peter when Peter got out of line. If Peter got out of line, should we expect any of us to get out of line? But notice also, once again, the goal of this passage. The goal is that everyone would walk sound in the faith, that the whole church would be built up in the soundness of the faith. So I've addressed here mainly as we close, the role of elders in stopping rebellion in the flock. That's the immediate context. But this isn't, I think, a passage that only elders should benefit from. I think you also should consider your role of how you might, in your own station, silence the foolish talker, deceiver, insubordinate in your midst. Maybe it's at work. Maybe it's elsewhere. Consider just a few thoughts as we close. Consider 1 Peter 2. It's the will of God that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. So by good works, you put people to silence. There are gonna be foolish people who talk. who try to deceive, and your job is just to keep on keeping on. Keep doing good, and that will put them to silence. It may not do so immediately, but on the last day, it will honor God. Another takeaway is, as parents, we should expect our children, at one point or another, to encounter some level of false teaching. Maybe they're teenagers, maybe they get a little bit older, might come when they're relatively young. But parents, you need to be ready to counter any false sort of teachings your children may pick up on. Maybe it's a homeschool co-op, or maybe it's a school, or a sports team, that they hear something. So parents, you yourself have to be in the business of putting to silence falsehood. And young people, you also should expect the enemy to attempt to pull you away from the faith that you hear proclaimed here. You should expect that. And you should be ready to resist the enemy. You should be ready to engage on these points. One thing you need to do is to get to know this book really well. so that you too can put to silence the talk of foolish people. If you're new in the faith, the same goes for you. Commit yourself to getting to know this book. When Jesus spoke back to the devil, he was quoting this. This is what we answer with. We know how to answer people because we get to know it well. We're attending church regularly, praying, Another takeaway is do not be surprised if we see deceivers in our midst, even in healthy churches. Even in Jesus' own company, there was a deceiver. And consider, lastly, that one day, Jesus himself will put every mouth to silence. He will silence every mouth. That's better grammar. On the last day, every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth. Jesus Christ died that we may live, and this fact is undeniable. And whether someone's heard the gospel, whether they have not heard the gospel, one day everyone will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. It is not enough here to build people up in the faith. Think about all the roles that elders must take on. Elders must feed the flock, They must care for the flock, they must comfort the flock. But in this case, it's interesting. You see this in other letters too. The first thing they have to do is correct error. As soon as they get established, they must correct error. It's an order of first importance. And lastly, error and false teaching will creep into the church. It is not if, it is when. Paul told the Philippians, look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. And we'll talk about that more, Lord willing, in a few weeks. We should expect people to come into the church, and when they come into the church, we have to be ready. And we can pray for our elders, that they will do a good job correcting error. And we can pray, of course, not only that these particular people who may even be in our midst now, we can pray not only that they'll be silenced in terms of their false teaching, but they will actually be restored as is the goal here in the book of Titus. It is possible for idle talkers in our midst to turn around, to begin believing the true gospel. How many people, perhaps even in this room, once believed something of the prosperity gospel? And how many of us once taught something that you no longer believe? So with humility, may we approach the Lord and ask the Lord to restore those who are teaching falsehoods. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your word to us. I pray that you will build us up in the true faith making us more like Christ, give us boldness, wisdom, clarity. Lord, I pray that this church will be sober-minded. I pray for the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And I pray, Lord, that you will keep the enemy away from us, that we will not believe falsehood, And I pray also that we will not heap false guilt upon ourselves, that we will not be overly introspective. But help us to recognize truth, to believe it, and to live in light of it. So help us in Jesus' name.