WWUTT 738 Self Controlled or Lazy Glutton?

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It's very easy to fall into laziness, it's easy for anybody, anybody can do it.

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But we must be more self -controlled than that. Self -control doesn't just mean that we abstain from sin, it means that we pursue good when we understand the text.

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You're listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to the sound teaching of the Word of God. Find videos and more at our website, www .utt

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.com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We come back to Titus 1 verses 10 -16, the

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Apostle Paul writing to Titus on the island of Crete. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

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They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

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One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.

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This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

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To the pure all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

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They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

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So what we had last week that we were looking at in Titus 1 verses 5 -9 were qualifications for an overseer of the church, a person who would be called as pastor or elder.

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These are the qualifications that he's expected to meet. This is a mature man of God leading or shepherding the people of God.

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And then immediately after that, Paul goes into this section where he is warning Titus about the false teachers who are leading

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Christians astray, and some of them are Judaizers. They are those of the circumcision party that he mentions in verse 10.

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They devote themselves to Jewish myths and to things that are defiled and unpure.

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So this is very much describing Jewish teaching and tradition and warning Titus about those things.

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But he's also warning Titus about the pagans that are there as well. Those who specifically are natives of the island of Crete, the

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Greco -Romans that live there, who are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons.

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We have the godly qualifications of the overseers set against the godless behaviors of the unbelievers there on Crete.

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And I bring that up because of this statement that Paul made about the Cretans, that they are lazy gluttons, and likely even the

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Jewish false teachers probably fall into that category a little bit as well. The qualifications of the overseer against the characteristics of the unbelievers.

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A mature Christian is supposed to be a lover of good, self -controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined, but those who are on Crete are liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons.

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Now this call to be self -controlled, this comes up in the book of Titus more than it comes up in any other book in the

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New Testament. This command, this instruction to be self -controlled. Now commonly when we think about being self -controlled, we think about abstaining from something, right?

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So instead of giving in to a particular temptation or doing this sinful thing, instead we resist that temptation and we don't do it, okay?

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That's typically what we think of in terms of self -controlled. But self -controlled is not just about abstaining from something, it's even about disciplining yourself to do the right thing, the good thing, okay?

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Being holy is not just sitting there doing nothing. Like you might think of yourself, well if I just sit here and I don't give in to any temptations and I just sit here and do nothing, well then

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I'm being holy. No, that's not the case. For to attain holiness and to grow in sanctification, there must be a pursuit of something, namely

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Christ and this is the instruction we have in Hebrews chapter 12 that we would fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, putting off sin and everything that entangles and weighs us down and we run the race that is set before us.

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So there is a pursuit that's going on. There is an advancement, a progress that's being made.

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So you can't just simply sit there and do nothing and as long as I lock myself in a box or put myself in my deprivation tank, then

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I'm not being tempted by anything and now I'm a holy person. Well, no, that's not holiness at all because we are inherently sinful in our flesh.

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So sitting there and doing nothing, that's actually laziness. And that's one of the things that Paul describes the

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Cretans as being. They are always liars, evil beasts and lazy gluttons. So you set lazy glutton in contrast against being self -controlled.

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There is a tendency in our flesh to want to be lazy. If you were just left to your own devices, you would probably not do anything at all.

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Now, of course, there are some people who are addicted to their work and they think that they can gain some kind of meaning or purpose in their life by devoting themselves completely to work.

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So they're addicted to work. That kind of mentality does exist. And it's that kind of mentality that Solomon was speaking to in Ecclesiastes when he says all is vanity.

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So a person can pursue work and they can devote themselves fully to try to accomplish something thinking that they will attain for themselves purpose or significance.

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But it's just vanity. They're just doing it for themselves. But there's also a tendency in some people to just be lazy, to not do anything at all, to not work.

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Paul was speaking to that kind of personality in second Thessalonians chapter three, when he said, if a person is not willing to work, let him not eat.

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For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies.

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Now, such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

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If anyone does not obey what we say, take note of that person, have nothing to do with him that he may be ashamed.

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Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother. That's the instruction that we have there in second

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Thessalonians chapter three. Don't forget that when God created Adam and Eve and he placed

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Adam in the garden, his instruction to Adam before the fall, before Adam and Eve had sinned against God, he instructed them to work the garden and to keep it.

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So work is not a product of the fall. Work is something that we are supposed to do to the glory of God.

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The instruction that we have in Colossians chapter three is that we work. We do all things first for the

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Lord Christ before we do it for any man. So the work that we do, we do this to the glory of God.

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And if any person is not willing to work, they are sinning. They are lazy, they are slothful, and the

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Bible condemns the lazy man. There are few things in the world that are as dangerous as a lazy man.

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We even see that in the garden of Eden when Eve is talking to the serpent who convinced her to eat the fruit that God told them not to eat.

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And then she turns around and gives it to Adam who was with her. He was right there and did not stop this exchange that was going on between the serpent and between Eve.

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He was supposed to be caring for his household as the head of his household and he wasn't doing it and his wife fell into sin and then he sinned also.

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He was being lazy. He was not taking charge and fulfilling the role that God had designed him for.

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When I've done pre -marriage counseling with couples, one of the things that I encourage the husband to do is continue to pursue your wife.

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It's very easy, especially for the man in the relationship, more so for the man than for the woman.

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It's very easy that once they get married, the guy kind of enters into this mentality of a, well,

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I got her. Yeah, I've won. That's it. We've gone to the altar. We've said our vows.

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We've made a covenant before God. We've exchanged rings. She's mine. The pursuit is over.

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What else do I need to do? I've got her. And then he kind of becomes lazy. He's no longer romancing his wife.

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He's no longer chasing after her and she will feel it. He may not think that anything has changed.

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He may think everything is fine and hunky -dory, but she doesn't have that same love and affection and attention that she got from her husband before he was her husband.

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So the way they were when they were dating or when they were engaged and suddenly now they're married and he's devoted to his work or he's watching

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TV or some of these other kinds of things. It's easier for the guy to fall into that tendency than it is for the woman.

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And so I will encourage the man that you have to be pursuing your wife and the health of your marriage is more dependent on you as the man, as the head of your household than it is upon your wife.

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Women have a responsibility in the marriage also to love their husbands, to be affectionate with him, to be interested in the things that interest him, to encourage him and be his help mate.

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But I think that those things are easier for the wife than it is for the husband. The husband has a greater tendency to become lazy and to be disinterested in some of those things in his marriage.

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So there must be a conscious effort on his part to continue to be active in the pursuit and the love and the romance of his wife.

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Likewise, showing attention to his children and training them in the discipline and the instruction of the

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Lord. That's more so on the man than it is on the woman. The wife, the mother will have more of a mothering tendency than the father will have a desire to want to show that same kind of attention to his children.

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So men have to be more conscious about these things. And it's really easy for a guy to become lazy and just out of laziness because he didn't do anything.

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His family would fall apart. His marriage would fall into shambles and his kids would become rebellious.

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So that's just an example within the home. But there are plenty of other ways in which people can fall into being lazy gluttons here in our

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American culture. I think we've all witnessed how there are people who will milk the welfare system.

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They are abled bodied. They are perfectly capable of going to work and getting a job. But instead, they maybe apply for a job here or there or there's nothing that they want to do.

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They won't ever go do a job that that they dislike. They're only going to pick the jobs that they like.

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And because there's not something that I want to do, they don't go apply for a job. So they milk the welfare system and they will demand that the government give them handouts.

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And I experienced this even at the church. People who are coming in and expecting the church to give them a handout.

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And every once in a while, somebody will try to make me feel guilty because I won't help them out. There was a guy not long ago came in the church and said, hey, was wondering if you could give me some money for something.

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I can't even what I can't even remember what he was asking money for now. But I said, sure, I've got some things that need done around here.

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You could mow the grass. I've got some trash that needs taken out. The floors on on this level haven't been vacuumed,

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I think, in about a week. And so if you could get in there and vacuum it, that would be great. And he chuckled at me and said, nope, and turned around and walked out.

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He just wanted a free handout. He wasn't willing to work to earn it. He just wanted me to hand him something for free.

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And I'll get phone calls. In fact, I just got one this week from somebody calling me up saying that their power got shut off and they were asking if we had any funds set aside that we could give to them and help them turn their power back on.

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Well, if somebody gets their power shut off, they've been delinquent on that bill for a long time. And so we we've never agreed to that.

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Now, we we have had situations where somebody within our church has hit dire straits and we've helped them out paying bills, keeping the water running and the lights turned on.

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We've done that with a member of our church because we know that person and we know the situation that they're in and we know that they're honest.

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And the last time that we did this, that we helped somebody out that way, when they came back into some money, they actually paid the church back plus extra thanking us for our help, the help that we gave to them and hoping that if a situation like that comes up again where somebody else needs help, we now have a little extra money that we can provide for another family that is in need.

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As Paul said in Galatians, chapter six, that as the opportunity arises, let us show charity to everyone, especially to the household of faith.

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So we certainly take care of our own. But there are plenty of people out there that will want to take advantage of those who have much and those who are well to do.

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They need to take care of me. They owe me that doesn't belong to them. They need to spread the wealth around that democratic, socialistic mindset that seems to be affecting millennials today.

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And when they take what they have not earned and they do not deserve, the reality is that they are taking from those people who really need it.

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When welfare has been set aside for those people who really cannot do anything for themselves, but those who can work for themselves and yet they take they take from the system, they take advantage of the system.

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They are taking from people who truly need it. And so how do we deal with these people?

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Well, Paul says, at least in the context of how the Cretans were to be handled, they must be sharply rebuked, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith.

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So there are those who have just come from their paganism into understanding the gospel.

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And they are now Christians. They're confessional Christians. They've joined the church, but there's still those fleshly fleshly tendencies in them to act like Cretans.

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And Paul says to grow them in the faith that they may be sound, rebuke them sharply, be direct, be specific.

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Don't let it continue. Be immediate. Make sure they know that the pursuit of godliness means this.

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Keep them self -controlled, living upright and godly lives in the present age. That's an instruction that's coming up when we get to chapter two.

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So, again, that instruction to be self -controlled comes up more in Titus, which is just three short chapters than it comes up in any other book in the

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New Testament. So Paul goes on to say that they must be sound of the faith and not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

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Now, the context where we're going from here on to the rest of this chapter through the chapter has to do with Jewish false teaching.

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So let me read all of it and then maybe you can see the context here. Do not be devoted to Jewish myths or the commands of people who turn away from the truth to the pure.

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All things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

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They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

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Do you see how the context there versus 14, 15 and 16 is specifically dealing with Jewish false teachers?

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So before it's kind of back and forth between Jewish false teachers and pagan philosophers.

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But here, once you get in versus 14, 15 and 16, we're specifically talking about those of the synagogue.

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They have both the Cretan tendencies in them and their Jewish mystics who teach falsely and deny that Jesus is the

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Christ. And so Paul says they're devoted to Jewish myths. So it's not even the faithful teaching of the law and the prophets.

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It's not the traditional Jewish teaching. It's Jewish myths. They've gone beyond what was given to the to Moses and the prophets.

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And they've gone off into other speculations and wild ideas. And these are also the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

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So they do not see Christ as being the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Paul goes on in verse 15 to say to the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

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Now, let me be very clear with this. This does not mean this is not a license for a

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Christian to do whatever they want. And I've heard Titus 115 used that way, like I can watch whatever

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I want. I can listen to whatever I want because the Bible says to the pure and that's me.

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I have been washed in the blood of the lamb to the pure. All things are pure so I can do whatever it is

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I want. Well, no, that's that can't be the case at all, because we are told explicitly in the scriptures to stay away from sexual immorality, any kind of sex outside the covenant of marriage.

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We should have nothing to do with. And Paul said to the Ephesians, do not become partners with those who are among the sons of disobedience.

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At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. So walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true, all that's good and right and true.

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Not everything is good and right and true, but only those things which God has said are good and right and true.

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And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them, for it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.

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But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible for anything that becomes visible is light.

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Therefore, it says, Awake, O sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.

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And as Paul said in Romans chapter six, how can we who are dead to sin still live in it?

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If we're continuing to live in sin, then we are not slaves to righteousness.

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We're still slaves to our sin. We have not yet been set free by the grace of God. And so there is certainly instruction that's given to us in scripture of things that we are to stay away from.

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Our speech is always to be gracious. We are not to speak foul words for James says in James chapter one, that if a person's speech is perverse, if they've not bridled their tongue, then their religion is worthless.

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They do not have a genuine confession of faith if they cannot even keep control of the words that they say, if their words are not honoring to God.

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Paul said this to the Philippians chapter four, verse eight. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable.

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If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things, what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things and the

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God of peace will be with you. So Titus one 15 is not permission to watch whatever you want or listen to whatever you want or say whatever you want or do whatever you want.

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That's not what this verse is about. Specifically, the context has to do with the purity laws, especially those pertaining to food.

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Yet, Jesus said in Mark seven 19, he declared all foods clean. He says this also in Luke 11 41.

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Everything is clean for you. The apostle Paul said in Romans 14, verse 20, do not for the sake of food, destroy the work of God.

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Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.

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Everything is indeed clean. So those that are not convinced that all foods have been declared clean, they are defiled and unbelieving and nothing is pure.

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Both their minds and their consciences are defiled. And then in verse 16, this is definitely a context verse that has to do with the

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Jews. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.

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Very similar to something Isaiah said in Isaiah 29 13. This people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips while their hearts are far from me and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.

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So they are listening to the commands of people. Verse 14, who turn away from the truth.

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They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for any good work.

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Why? Because the law doesn't make us good. The law shows us our sinfulness and our fallen nature before God.

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It is God who makes us good. It is the righteousness of Christ that has been given to us that makes us able to do things in a righteous way that is pleasing unto the

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Lord. And it is only those who believe in and follow Jesus Christ that are able to do any good work that God declares as good and is pleasing and acceptable unto the

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Lord. So turn from your sin and worship Christ and be devoted to good works.

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We come to the end of Titus chapter one. Next week, we'll get to Titus two. Let's conclude with prayer.

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Our wonderful God and Savior, I pray once again that you would teach us to be hospitable to one another, that we would love good.

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Those things that you have said are good, that we would be self -controlled, that we would be upright, living holiness and pursuing holiness as we seek after Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith, and that we would be disciplined, disciplined enough not to fall into laziness, but be active in the pursuit of those things that you have told us to do and are pleasing unto our

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God who saves us, who loves us and takes care of us. Let us hold firm to the trustworthy word that has been given to us, handed down from your prophets and apostles.

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So we may be sound in our doctrine, knowing how to rightly handle the word of truth and even rebuke those who contradict it.

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Help us to be gentle with those who are opposed to the truth, that they may turn from their sin and know

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Jesus Christ through the word of the gospel that has been shared with them. And we pray this in Jesus name.

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Amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.