Hold Firm to the Trustworthy Word as Taught
First B Jackson
2018-07-08

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Alright. Good morning church family. It's good to see you all this morning. Gorgeous day. Would you agree?

Alright. Hey, what do you say we stand up? Praise God together. I wanna share a verse from Colossians. Just kinda get us warmed up here and in the spirit.

For by him all things were created both in heavens and on earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through him and for him. Amen to that. Let's sing glory to God forever.

Alright. Before the world was made,

before the world was made, before you spoken to me, you were the king of kings. Yeah. You were like you were, and

now you're reigning still, you're thrown above all things. Angels and saints cry out. We join them as we sing. Glory to God. Glory to God.

Glory to God forever. Glory to Glory to God. Glory to God forever. Forever. Alright.

Creator God, you gave me

breath. Creator

laugh that shouts and sings the greatness of our king. Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God forever.

Alright, good morning everybody. Y'all can have a seat. We've got a few announcements to get us rolling this morning. First of all, there is a lagoon trip. Lagoon is an amusement park by the way.

It's not just for taking kids to a lagoon and dropping them off. There is an amusement park called Lagoon down in Salt Lake City. August the tenth and eleventh, if you would like to go or send someone, please let Mike Demetrius know. Mike, are you in the room? He's here somewhere.

Mike Demetrius is the youth leader. If you get in touch with the office or with Mike, you can get him signed up to go. Permission slips and all that sort of stuff but August the tenth and eleventh. That's odd. Oh, men's horseshoe tournament.

Kyle, do you want to stand up and tell us about that?

Down on Kelly.

Oh, hi. There you go. I got my coffee here. It goes everywhere. There you go.

05:30 this Tuesday night, Mike Yoko parked down here. Of course, you turn it. Show up. Bring your friends. I don't care if they come to church.

It's just a great time for us as men to fellowship together since we don't have a men's Bible study going through the summer. I'll provide burgers and dogs

and drinks.

So, hope to see everyone there.

Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. So, it's men's horseshoe tournament 05:30, Mike Yoko, Tuesday. Turning Points Annual Gala is July 19 at 05:30. That's at the Gill Ranch.

If you if you already are signed up to go to that, that's great. If you're not, call the church and we'll put you in touch with the right people or we will talk to you about a seat at one of First B's table. So, annual gala for Turning Point Pregnancy Resource Center is July 19 at 05:30. There's more information on that in your bulletin. Monday nights at First B?

Yes, sir. We're on tomorrow. We're in Luke 20 and Jesus as the authority, fulfillment, and wisdom, and barbecue beef is on the menu for tomorrow. So, know that the door is open at six for you tomorrow evening. If you'd like to join.

Fantastic. Thank you very much, Carl. Teton County Fair Service. So, we are going to do on the July 29 which is three weeks from today, we're gonna do our, service. Instead of having two services here, we're gonna have one service at the fairgrounds under the Big Top.

They're actually moving the Big Top from where it normally is, but it's gonna be right after the Lions Club breakfast. So one service at eleven immediately following Lions Club breakfast. Plan on doing breakfast there. It's an all day kind of event. They have lots of things and they called and asked if we would do the church service.

So July 29, 11AM, it'll follow the Lions Club breakfast in the same tent. It's not a different tent this year. Is everybody hearing me? So we're going to leave a shuttle here. People are going be running back and forth.

And if folks should happen to come to the church service that morning at nine, we'll take them to breakfast. And if they come at eleven, we'll take them to church. But we're we're going to do church just somewhere else. Church will be leaving the building, okay? It'll be over there at the tent.

And if there are any other announcements that I forgotten, they should be written down in the paper bulletins that you're handed on your way in. If you didn't grab one on the way in, you can grab one on the way out. There are also prayer request in there too. Anything else I'm forgetting? Anybody?

Alright. Amanda. Amanda is interning with us this summer. She has been working on the history of First Baptist Church. I didn't get a slide made for you.

Okay. So, I finished putting most of the history online. So, everyone can access it and we also have all the pictures on there so everyone can see it but the only thing is I just don't have the last seven years of our history.

Roughly the time that I've been here.

Oddly enough. So if you have any information, just contact me. I'll be in the office occasionally, But my phone number is also in the directory as well. I'm just trying to get that information so we can put it in our history as well.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. And the pictures are great. It's a lot of fun actually to go in.

I went in and looked throughout the history of this place. I mean from 1911 to the present, all except for the last seven years, is on there. But if you have stories, and most of y'all would have stories from this era, so if you would, contact Amanda and let her know about them. She is having a great time assimilating a ton of information and putting it in a concise, easy to find spot on firstbjackson.org. And I think that's it.

So if y'all would, stand up and greet one another. We'll bring you back together with a song. Are you there?

Hey, I need to see you

again. Okay. Okay. Sounds good.

Like radio diamonds bursting inside us. We cannot contain, and your love will, your love will surely come find us. I'm freezing around fire will surely come find us. I'm pleasing while I'm fire

Let's pray together. God, I thank you for your great love for us so much that you would lay down your life for ours. I thank you God for meeting us right where we're at. I pray that as you draw near to us, we would draw near to you. I thank you for your design.

Your design just works. It works so well. I thank you for your kingdom. Lord, would you help us to be building and thinking in the direction of your kingdom, that we would be focusing on what you told us to focus on and that's to love you and to love others well. We love because you first loved us.

Amen. Amen. You can be seated. I'll invite the the frontline team to come forward here as we participate in the worship through giving. And as they're coming forward, I'd love to pray on what we just sang and for these gifts.

Lord, it is good. It is good to be in your presence. It's good to to praise you. You are so deserving, so worthy of all. I thank you, God, for your authority.

All authority on heaven and earth has been given to you. That's incredible. That means you're sovereign over everything, all things, this place, this time, right now. God, thank you for just how you've blessed us. I think of the verse that you've you've blessed us with every spiritual blessing.

That's more than we know. Thank you, God, for just taking care of us from the day to day stuff. Lord, you've loved us. Help us to love one another. Use these gifts to do that to that this gospel, this good gospel that we're hanging on to believing in our hope, our faith, our salvation, that it would continue to increase here, but also over the world.

And God, we care about what happens all over the world. We want the world to know who you are. Use these gifts to make it so, but use us to make it so. In Jesus' name, amen. Words are on the screen.

Would you sing this? Let's sing this together. Let's make this our prayer, our song, be thou our vision.

Amen. Thank you, Carl. It's a set right there. It's great worship. Thank you.

We're up to Titus one five through 16. That's what we're going to do. 11 verses today. Titus one five through 16. I actually hit five last week in our chronological study moving forward with all the other stuff, three quarters of the New Testament I tried to throw in there.

Today, I'm going start though with a classic riddle. Some of y'all have heard this. Some of y'all are logic people or mathematician types and you may have heard this riddle. I'm gonna read it to you and give you just a minute to think about it, alright? You're in a dungeon with two doors.

One leads to escape, the other to execution. So door of life, door of death. There are only two other folks, people in the room, one of whom always tells the truth always, while the other one always lies, always. He doesn't say anything that's not a lie. The other guy doesn't say anything that's not the truth.

You don't know which is which, but they know that the other one lies or tells the truth. They know who they are. The truth teller knows who he is. The liar knows who he is, and he knows about the other guy. Okay, you got that.

You can ask one of them one question, but of course you don't know whether you'll be speaking to the truth teller or to the liar. So what single question can you ask one of them that will enable you to figure out which door is which and to make your escape? Think on that for just a minute. Have you got it? Did you know it before this?

Yes. It could take you a while. I I thought of this real. I've thought of it several times in the last couple of weeks primarily partially because of this little phrase right here that's in the middle. This is leading up to our section today.

Five through 16 is preceded obviously by one, one through four. Paul, that's the guy writing the letter to Titus, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect. That's why he's writing. He's writing for the sake of the faith, the belief, the trust, the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness. So, he's saying, not only is it truth but it's truth that works itself out in goodness, godliness, righteousness.

Good works is what a lot of Titus is going to be about. That's what he's heading towards right there which accords with godliness and hope of eternal life which God who never lasts. He always tells the truth. God never lasts. God who never lies, he promised before the ages began and at the proper time, he manifested it in his word.

So, if God has written a word and God never lies, his word does not lie. And at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching, proclamation of which that I've been entrusted with by the command of God, our savior, to Titus, my true child in a common faith, grace, and peace always start with grace and peace. That was one of the big takeaways from last week. Grace and peace from God the father and from Christ Jesus, our savior. So, that's leading up to it.

So, do you give up on the riddle? One question. One question. I might, somebody that knows it hit me. Peter, I saw your hand.

Exactly. What would the other guy say? What would the other guy say? Because if you talk to the truth teller and you say, what would the other guy say? He's going to tell you the truth that the liar is going to say, that door, which is the door to death, not the door to life.

By which door may I make my escape? Here we go. We'll write it out. If I ask the other person which door is the one to escape, what would he point to? Are you with me?

Okay. And then you have to do the other because it's always going to point you towards the door of destruction or death or execution I think the lead in said. I just want to start with that little riddle this morning. I don't know why. Get your get your brain going.

So, Paul says, this is why. After that, his purpose and to whom he's writing, it's for the sake of the faith of God's elect. The hope of eternal life. God who never lies has promised eternal life, salvation and this is why I left you in Crete, Titus. Paul says, this is why I left you in Crete.

Now, Crete, if you don't know where it is, it's it's this is a map. That's Europe over here, right? Italy, you see the boot kicking Sicily. And then Crete is right there. It is a part of Greece.

It was a part of Venice for a long time in the Middle Ages. That's Crete right there in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. So there's a different map, same thing. It's not far south of Athens, Greece. It's not far from Corinth, but it is an island unto itself.

And the text today will tell us a little bit about Crete. This guy was from there. That is a very dark picture. That guy also painted and Blake's trying to fix it right now. Does anybody know who that is?

Just wonder? He's a painter for the Spanish Renaissance. Like I'll just go forward. I don't know. There you go.

That's the guy. That's a painting of his son who was also a painter. That most of his themes were religious themes. I do believe that he was a Christian. Most of his themes were religious and most of them were elongated figures, very elongated figures.

Anybody know who it is now? Maybe not. There's a crucifix. This is the Holy Spirit hovering above and father God cradling Jesus after. So, this is the trinity is the name of this painting.

This is Saint Andrew and Saint Francis. Little anachronistic. They're a long ways apart in time but this is his signature down there. That's it right there. And I always thought that was cool.

You remember the little home sweet home that we have for Monday nights. It's a little piece of paper that's been folded up and it has something written on it. Alyssa Massey paints those paintings, and this reminded me of it. It says, Dominicas Theotokopoulos made it. So that is El Greco.

El Greco is the guy who painted all these paintings. Spanish Renaissance painter. He moved to Spain when he's about 36. He moved out of Crete. He's from Crete.

That's the whole reason that I bring him up. His perception though, he always drew these really, really elongated figures, and at the time nobody else was doing that. And so his perception for many years, they thought, well, that's a little odd but it's pretty and you know, it's it's great. He became a famous painter from the Venetian school but El Greco, the Greek is what he was called and he was from the island of Crete. His perception over time though, people started to wonder, why did he do that?

Nobody else was doing that. Nobody caught on to his style and started doing that. He just did that. Pablo Picasso said, he was the inventor of cubism, not me or mannerism. This is my art major stuff coming out.

Excuse excuse this moment. But his perception, how he saw things, people started thinking after a while, oh, he has an astigmatism, and that's the way he saw the world was through this astigmatism and that's why all his paintings are elongated because he had a problem with his perception. And I see some of you nodding and saying yes, maybe. But if his perception was off when he's looking at his subject, when he looked at his canvas, would not his perception be off in exactly the same way? Yeah.

And so it's led to this discussion of whether that is true or not true, and people are wondering because the way that you perceive reality is the way that you replicate it. Does that make sense? That's a little philosophical, but today I think that that might bear. If it doesn't, it will in two weeks. Okay?

So you're ahead of the game. Visitors, sorry about that. You just got a little art history lesson. Titus one:five says, this is why I left you in Crete, Titus, you, so that you may put what remained into order. Now Paul had been apparently on Crete with him starting to plant churches.

And he goes on to say, and appoint elders in every town, overseers in every town just as I directed you. I mentioned last week that he took two chapters building up to the list of elder qualifications for Timothy but in Titus, he gets right to it. He immediately starts right here and says, I left you in Crete so that you might put what remain in order. You have the apostolic seal of approval. You do have authority to start making some of these decisions and appoint elders in every town just as I directed you.

If anyone is above reproach, we covered this fairly recently. I won't go over this list as heavily as I did last time in first Timothy. If anyone is above reproach, you might have blameless in your Bible which makes those of us who are elders pretty uncomfortable but if anyone is above reproach and then he defines that, the husband of one wife. Literally, it's a man of one woman, a one woman man. There are folks who take it to mean to someone who's been married twice cannot serve, but others take it to mean a polygamous cannot serve.

And so it is a one woman man, a faithful husband. His children are believers. Now the word for believers right there is pista. Pista means believing. It also means trustworthy or faithful.

The reason I bring this up is because Crete, this was a very early time in Crete's history of Christianity. Paul had been there with Titus and they had started to spread the gospel and the Holy Spirit was was moving with power and people were coming to know the Lord but there's some question as of whether it had been long enough that a guy might be all of these things and have children who had also accepted Christ. So, Pista, I think it is believing but it could be trustworthy or faithful kids. His children are believers and are not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. Do you know what debauchery is?

I started to say, just wander around downtown after about 11:00 on Saturday night, alright? Debauchery is excessive indulgence and sensual pleasures. The the that was picked up by the English standard version. That's a good word for it but I like the New Living Translation too. An elder must live a blameless life.

He must be faithful to his wife and his children must be believers who don't have a reputation for being wild or rebellious. That's NLT. For an overseer, he goes back and says again, as God's steward, managing the things of God. An overseer as God's steward must be above reproach. Above reproach, he defines this way.

He must not be. First of all, there's a list of five nots and then there's seven yeses. He must not be arrogant. That's just like the list in Timothy. He must not be arrogant or haughty, puffed up.

He must not be quick tempered, not have a short fuse. Someone who's slow to anger, slow to speak. Must not be a drunkard. Actually, literally, it's one who lingers long over the wine. He must not be violent.

That's just what it means, violent. In Timothy, it says, pugnacious, one who likes to fight, right? Must not be violent or greedy for gain. One who has the love of money. Not greedy for gain.

So, are five must not be's. Arrogant, quick tempered, a drunkard, violent, or greedy for gain. Is that to say that that person can't be a Christian if they have any of those? No. He's just saying it's not your best choice for elder.

Not your best choice for elder. But strong adversative conjunction right there, contrasting those five things, but he needs to be these things, hospitable. Literally, xeno philos, a lover of the other, a lover of the strange, a lover of the stranger or the foreigner, hospitable, a lover of good. He actually cares about what is right and wrong and he loves that which is right or good. Self controlled.

Self controlled. I I was thinking in Spanish for a second. Excuse me. Auto control. It's like they they have themselves under control.

That's not the say that we don't get tempted to go otherwise but self controlled, upright, that's the same root of righteousness. It's someone who is a lover of good. A lot of these are actually synonymous, lover of good and upright would be. Holy, someone who is set apart, who stands apart from a crowd, consecrated for God's use, holy, set apart. And disciplined.

You know, in first Timothy, he said, train yourself. Bodily exercises of some value but train yourself, discipline yourself in the things of God and this is what this is pointing to. So, that's five and then seven, hospitable, a lover of good, self controlled, upright, holy, disciplined, and then there's one more. That was six of em. This last one is right here.

He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught. So, Paul had been there on Crete with Titus and he had been going around and had been spreading the same gospel that he always spread. The message of the cross that Jesus Christ came, lived a perfect life. He was the fulfillment of all of the Old Testament messianic prophecies and he lived a perfect life and had a perfect record to offer on behalf of anyone who would believe and trust in him. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught.

So, holding firm to the word is rounds out that list of seven. I love a so that. A henna clause right here because you don't have to guess. If you're a preacher, you don't have to guess why he wrote what he wrote. So that all of these things, not those five and yes, those seven and the last one, he must hold firm to the trustworthy word is taught so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

Isn't that what it's all about, really? Christianity is up against a lot of different philosophies in our world. There are a lot of ways to be wrong. There's only one way to be right. As exclusive as that sounds and as jarring as that sounds in our society, it's still the truth.

Aggravatingly true but true. To be able to give instruction and sound doctrine that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life, that no one comes to the father except by him and rebuke those who contradict it. All roads lead to heaven. If you really sincerely believe what it is that you believe, you'll get there. That's not true.

So, here we go. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers, and deceivers. Many is the word. Many voices that are insubordinate, empty talkers, and deceivers. Have you all watched television lately?

Doesn't that just describe it? Insubordinate like anything that sets itself up as an authority whether it be father figure or a teacher. They're always the bozo And everyone else in the show is insubordinate to that. They pay no attention to it. In fact, make a joke of it.

So insubordinate. Empty talkers is

where it's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

There's no way there's twenty four hours worth of news. No way. Yet there are six or seven channels that do nothing but that. And deceivers, some people are actually intentionally trying to deceive advertisers mostly, but that's the way that that goes. No, I'm saying really they're insubordinate empty talkers and deceivers.

He goes into, it's for gain. So many are this, insubordinate. Just not going by any sort of authority structure, completely rebelling against it. Empty talkers have nothing to say. Continually talking but not with any content and intentionally deceptive and then he says, specifically, especially those that are of the circumcision part.

Now, this is our hint as to what Titus is up against because Paul has been in in the creek with Titus going about the land and they've planted churches and things have gotten going and then usually, this is the way it went. Somebody would come in behind Paul and say, Paul almost had it right. Paul almost had it right. Yet, it is good to be in Jesus and in Christ, the Messiah. That's wonderful but you also have to be Jewish.

You need to be circumcised and you have to go by the law. You have to not eat this. You have to do this on these days. And so the circumcision party had a whole lot of empty talk and a whole lot of deception going on according to Paul. And they were insubordinate.

They were not going by the actual authority structure that God had made. So, the Judaizers is what we call that. People who would have everyone who comes to Christ to be Christian first have to go through the rights of being a proselyte in Judaism including circumcision. Now, I mentioned last week that Paul had circumcised Timothy. Timothy's father was Greek and so he was not circumcised when he was a baby on the eighth day like Paul says but Paul thought that Timothy to do his ministry would be better off if he were circumcised.

Now, Titus, he did not do that and so Titus stands in opposition already to the Judaizers physically of the flesh. He already stands in opposition but Paul says, those empty talkers, deceivers, and insubordinate are especially the circum party and then he says, they must be silenced. Oh my goodness In our society, freedom of the press, you're messing with my ability to be able to say what I think They must be silenced. He says, the gospel is at stake. If you add anything to the gospel, it's no longer the gospel.

If you take anything away from the gospel, it's no longer the gospel. If anyone comes to you, preaching a different gospel than that which we preached, he says to Galatians one, eight, nine, Let him be anathema, completely set apart, cut off from God. Even if it's me, he says, even if I'm the one who does it, if I add anything to the gospel. So, he has the humility of saying, the gospel is the gospel is the gospel. Don't ever change it.

They must be silenced. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word is taught so that he may be able to rebuke those who contradict it. Silencing it through open discussion and debate with these people. Showing them sound doctrine and rebuking them when they contradict. The trustworthy word as taught.

Hold to it. Hold fast to it. The it right there is that. The trustworthy word is taught. Hold on to it.

Tim, Titus. They must be silent since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. So, not only were they teaching something they ought not to teach but they were doing it for their own shameful gain. They were greedy for money and yeah, I'll be glad to circumcise all 11 of your children for a price, maybe. There's a, they were for their own power, prestige, money, whatever it was, seeking shamefully to teach something that should not ought to be taught, he says.

So what they ought not teach, the circumcision party right there. It's primarily, he's speaking against the Judaizers. I've got a pop quiz for you. Y'all didn't know this. Pull out a sheet of paper.

There's a blank sheet of paper. Alright. We went through Galatians three. There was a little portion in Galatians three that starts off. Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?

So, here it is. First B Jackson, 07/08/2018. Come on people. Who is attempting to bewitch you? Seriously, who nowadays is attempting to bewitch you?

The popular philosophies of the day. All roads lead to heaven. Everything's good. As long as you tolerate everybody else, everything's fine. Don't make any waves.

Cultural and societal forces, I'd say that's close to the same but it may be completely regardless of philosophy. It may be feel good. Cultural and societal forces. Heretical pseudo Christian cults. There are all around us, people who say that they believe the Bible but they add to it or they say that they believe the Bible as they translate it.

Beware of that. Beware of that. There are lots of good modern translations and King James Bible is great but if you're trying to twist something to just fit your own philosophy or your own heresy, then, that's not good. That ain't cool. So, who's attempting to bewitch you?

New age practitioners. Oh my goodness. Let's thank the floor. Let's thank the rocks. Let's thank the hills.

Good old fashioned legalists way over here. Good old fashioned Christian legalist. You gotta do this. You gotta do this. Oh, Christians don't wear blue jeans.

That was the one that we faced. Had a guy on the phone one time when we were leaving as missionaries. We were doing support. You call every lead you get. You know, it's hey, oh wait,

here you you and your wife are going

to Mexico. Yes, sir. To help deaf children. Yes, sir. Oh, wow.

What are you doing? Building. Okay, that sounds great. We're also, know, you teaching a language so we can share the gospel. Wonderful.

What do you think about the virgin birth? Oh, all for it. What do you think about this? What do you think about that? All these central tenants of the faith.

Wonderful. Does your wife ever wear pants? Yes, she does actually wear pants. You know, on a scaffold, pants seem like a pretty good idea. He goes, well, we can't support you.

He couldn't support us because women and men, nope, can't wear pants. Men can. Women can't. Sorry. Good old fashioned legalist.

Second question, straight from the text. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or did you receive the spirit by hearing with faith? So, which is it? It's multiple choice. Paul gives us two.

It's by hearing with faith. It is about belief. It really is the gospel is about what? Believing in Jesus. The provision that has been made for sin.

Hearing with faith. Absolutely. It's not by works of the law. Then, why are you backing up? Why are you backing up and going back to works of the law?

Why would you do that? Now we get into a little difficult territory. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, and this is what he said. This is the guy who said it. Ephesians said this about six hundred BC.

Oh, sorry. Cretes I Sudeus Caca. Here we go. There it is. Cretans are always liars.

Evil beasts. Bellies idle. So the translation we have is good one. Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. Carl said, how am I supposed to build a song service around that?

He's putting that in. I think I might have to write a song for this Sunday. Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. It it it's pretty bad, but then Paul adds, this testimony is true. The total depravity kind of spreads there.

And Crete was a resort location with a lot of money. Sex was all over all the time. Every possible sort of perversion was present, and they seemed to be pretty shifty. Lying comes up a lot to to cretinize or to to to be called a cretin was synonymous with being a liar. So, that's why the truth teller and the liar riddle at the beginning.

Therefore, he says to Titus, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. They're starting from a place where the society around them is not remotely Christian. It's not remotely like this at all. So rebuke them sharply when they just fall back into their old societal habits. Remember the book Radical?

David Platt wrote a book called Radical and the subtitle of it was Radical. Taking back your faith from the American dream. Rebuke him sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the command of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure. It's really easy to be deceived.

You can be naive to this, Titus, because you are pure and you are purified by Jesus. To the pure, all things are pure but to the defiled and the unbelieving, nothing is pure. Is nothing sacred? Can you hear that right now? Is nothing sacred in our discourse here in this valley?

Man, on television, I could bring that up too. Is there anything that's sacred? Oh, if there's anything that's sacred, it will be shot down. It will be cartooned. It will be lampooned.

It will be absolutely obliterated because to the defiled and unbelieving, there's nothing that's pure. But both their minds and their consciences are defiled. We can go to Romans one where it says, they've been turned over to a reprobate man to believe absolutely in a lie. They professed to know God but they deny him by their works. Oh yeah, I have a good relationship with man upstairs but the way that they live doesn't match that.

Now, at this particular time, they were professing to know God. Judaism, the God of the Jews is the God of the Christians. They profess to know him but they deny him by their works because God's grace must be grace. It must be. You're justified by grace.

Through faith, it's not by works so that no one would boast. They profess no god but they deny him by their works. Their works are evil. They're detestable. They're disobedient.

They're unfit for any good work and that's the end of the passage right there. Detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work but why is Titus there? He's there because he's offering the hope of the gospel to people who are detestable, disobedient, and unfit. He is choosing from among these people, people who will be good examples. If you want to write a ship or if you want to write a business, leadership makes a difference and this is about who he is choosing to be leaders.

People who know Jesus, who have been transformed away from their Cretan ways and into Christian ways. Now, I did go one more verse. This is the, that was the last of last chapter. I like to always bring it back but as for you, Titus or as for you, first B, attendees this morning but as for you, teach what a or Ray, I could just say that but for as for me, Ray, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Sound literally healthy.

Teach what accords with healthy doctrine. Read it, process, pray on it, let the spirit illuminate it, work it into your life, understand it all the way thoroughly inside with humility and then, be ready to teach that which accords with healthy doctrine. Hold firm to the trustworthy word just as taught, he says. I've told you before, it kind of gets, Carl has said this too. When you're when you're preaching straight through scripture, you feel like a broken record sometimes we're saying the same thing over and over again.

As long as what we're saying over and over again is the gospel, hold me to doing that, okay? Hold me to stay in with what it says and not getting off on tangents and leading in different directions because there is a way that seems right to a man but in the end, it's the way of death and everyone is surrounded by a society. Everyone is in a milieu, right? We're all surrounded by it and there's a way that seems right. Man, that sounds really attractive.

It's really easy to get off track. So, stay and hold firm to the word is taught. We went tubing the other day. Actually I was just in the boat, but we had kids on the tube behind and they're holding on to the handles. They were holding firm because we were flying.

Hold firm to the trustworthy word is taught because there's a way that seems right to a man but in the end, it's a way of death. That's Proverbs fourteen twelve. It's also Proverbs sixteen twenty five. There's a way that seems right to a man but it in the end, it's the way of death. So, you're on a path with two gates.

You're walking this path, right? This life and there are two gates. One of them leads to life eternal. And the other leads to destruction. And there are many people, many voices that are given life.

And I say many because it comes up a lot. Many are insubordinate. Many are empty talkers. Many are deceivers. There are many people giving advice.

Some of them are telling the truth and I'll say right now that the ones who are telling the truth are doing it in accord with what God has said. His word is true. He is true. He cannot and does not lie. So, to the extent that I remain true to God and his word, I will be telling the truth.

There are many people given advice. Some are telling truth while many others are telling and I'll give em the benefit of the doubt, well intentioned lies. Some of them are outright deceivers. They're not trying to be well intentioned. But there are a lot of them that really believe that they're doing good and want to do even better.

So, who will you believe? And what will you do? Jesus says in Matthew seven thirteen and fourteen, enter through the narrow gate For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few will find it. Not the legalists, not the those who are just complete slaves to license but the good old gospel way, the message of the cross. First Corinthians one hundred eighteen and nineteen says, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to those who are being saved, it's the power of God.

Paul says to Timothy, that this saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. This is the voice of truth that ring power. Carl, would you come on up and get the band and then we're going to have a baptism right after the last song, alright? Would you pray with me while they're coming forward? God, would you help us to be sensitive to your spirit?

Would you help us, lord, to understand the trustworthy word just as it was taught. The gospel primarily. Would you help us understand it in a way that is loving and winsome to others? May we be like a beggar who has found bread, helping other beggars to find bread. We do not deserve your grace.

We do not deserve your mercy but lord, accepting it, we feel the freedom to live and begin that life eternal. In Jesus name, amen. Would you stand?

And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on. I'll sing on. And when from death I'm free, I'll sing

I I guess I'd just like to say thank you to accepting me into your church family and and for all the support from my family and especially

my wife. I talked to Steven last week between services and Okay. Remember a more encouraging conversation. His brother has known about Jesus for a long time. In the last few years, he's gone from a place of incredulous hopeful to a place of absolutely certain believing.