WWUTT 737 Many Who Are Insubordinate?

Disrespecting authority is kind of the way of the culture. Who loves authority or wants to obey it?

But this was a problem on the island of Crete where Titus was told to share the gospel and Paul told him how to deal with this problem when we understand the text.

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and don't forget our website, www .tt .com. Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. So we come back to our study in the book of Titus chapter 1 and this week we are looking at verses 10 through 16.

The Apostle Paul wrote to Titus, For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

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

One of the Cretans, 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 devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

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.

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

So we come back again to verse 10 where Paul says, There are many who are insubordinate. And as I was mentioning this yesterday,

I said this has to do mainly with those who do not submit to apostolic authority.

And that's certainly true, especially since Paul goes on to mention those of the circumcision party, meaning the

Judaizers, and including Jewish mystics. Of course, they don't submit to apostolic authority because they don't believe that Jesus Christ is

God. So in that context, that certainly applies. But this may also have a context of talking about everyone in general, especially on the island of Crete, because Paul would go on to quote one of their own saying,

Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. The Cretans were notorious for their decadence.

It was known throughout the Greco -Roman world. And we'll talk about that a little bit more in just a moment. So it may have also been a general comment.

There are many people, especially there on the island of Crete, who are insubordinate. They don't submit to authority of any kind, whether it's apostolic authority or it's the authority that God has appointed in man -made governments.

For as we read in Romans 13, there is no authority except that which God has appointed.

So God has even designated those who are going to be kings and governors and governments that exist to keep things in a certain order.

All of that comes from God. And if a person even rejects the authority that has been established by man, they are rejecting

God. For God is the supreme authority over all. I've had occasions as a pastor where I have had to confront young men who were not submissive to authority and call them to repentance.

And I think I've had a conversation like this with people of every age, young women and even adults. But this especially seems to be a problem among young men in our culture, late teens, early 20s.

I had an occasion just a little over a year ago where a young man got picked up by the cops and brought home to his parents.

And his parents contacted me and said, we've tried to get through to him. He's not listening to us.

Could you come and talk to him? And this is a family that doesn't even attend our church. And I went over to their house and I sat on the couch opposite him and he wasn't making eye contact with me, didn't even really wanna talk with me.

But I said to him, look, man, I'm gonna give it to you straight. If you do not repent of the trajectory that you are on, if you continue down this path that you have chosen, it's gonna destroy you.

And I don't mean destroy you in the sense that you're never gonna get your life together, you're never gonna get a good job, never gonna get into a good college, you won't have a wife and kids, you might end up strung out on drugs and homeless somewhere.

That may happen to you, but that's not the kind of destruction I'm talking about. I mean, on the day you die, you will stand before God in judgment and he will cast you into hell.

That's the kind of destruction I'm talking about. So I basically just preached the gospel to him. And I said that you need to fear

God and you need to repent of this sin and this evil that you are doing, and you need to obey

God and that obedience needs to fall into every other area of your life as well. So I had a talk with mom and dad and right before I left, he actually got up off the couch and hugged me and kind of gave me one of those half hugs.

And I said, hey, I love you, man. And this is the reason why I tell you this stuff is because I love you. I don't want you to go to destruction because that's the direction that you're headed.

I think he just appreciated that somebody would take the time to set him straight like that. But I would actually end up finding out later that he was still getting messed up, falling into the same kind of trouble.

I just hope these words somewhere down the line would come back into his mind and heart and convict him of his sin and he would repent before it's too late.

There was another occasion where a young wife called me up and she said that her husband had just been arrested and was down at the local jail.

And she asked if I would go down there to talk with him and pray with him. It wasn't until I got there that I found out why he was in jail.

He pulled a gun on a cop. They took me to this little cubicle and they brought him out to me.

And when he sat down, I introduced myself and I said, what seems to be the problem, man? And right then he just kind of went off, started blaming all the people that this was all their fault, this person's fault, this person's fault.

He even blamed his wife. And I finally interrupted him and said, look, dude, you pulled a gun on a cop.

You did that. You have no one to blame but yourself. And you count your blessings that you're not dead because that's usually the outcome of this sort of thing when a person pulls a gun on a cop.

They will pull their guns and they will put you down. And it is only by the grace of God that you weren't killed last night and standing before God in judgment.

He's giving you another chance and you have this opportunity to repent of this sin and serve your sentence, do your time and then get out, love your wife and your kids the proper way, which includes not falling into this reckless behavior and this rebellion against authority that he had a long track record of, it turned out.

So this is just an example of the insubordination that we might see and witness even in our own culture.

I've had this happen in our church where we've had young men who have come in the church and they're not respectful of the authority even in the church.

And how is it that Paul says we are to deal with those who are so disrespectful.

We rebuke them sharply. That's what he says in verse 13, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith.

There are many who are insubordinate. They are empty talkers and deceivers. The things that they have to say do not lead people in the truth but they actually encourage people in rebellious behavior.

They themselves are rebellious and the fruit of their words or the rotten fruit that comes from their words is more rebellion.

They would just encourage other people to rebel by their own behavior, their own actions, their own witness, especially those of the circumcision party,

Paul says in verse 10. And as I mentioned earlier, that would be the Judaizers. And of course they disrespect apostolic authority because they don't believe that Jesus Christ is

God, the promised Messiah, according to their own scriptures. They reject that Jesus Christ is that Messiah.

And there's actually someone else to come. So these Judaizers were leading people astray even on the island of Crete.

You just think about all the different kinds of adversity that those

Christians who lived on the island of Crete would have been facing. They had false teachers that came from the

Jewish synagogues. They had Jewish mystics. They had the pagans themselves and these horrid

Cretans that were infecting the island. All of these different influences that had the potential to lead so many

Christians astray. And as I talked about last week, probably had led many Christians astray, had caused some of those who had previously confessed faith in Jesus Christ to go right back to their paganism.

Because as Paul said to Titus, I left you on Crete that you might put what remained into order.

The churches there on the island had been so ravaged by this false teaching that there were many

Christians who had been led astray. And the way that you keep the flock in line and keep them following after the good shepherd and not influenced by all these wolves and evil devices that are going on all around them.

You rebuke them sharply. You be direct with your words. You be sound in your faith. You rebuke those who contradict the sound faith that has been delivered to us by the apostles of Jesus Christ.

And it is by these stern and sharp and direct and clear words that people will know the right way and stay away from all of these false paths that the false teachers are trying to direct them down.

Paul is even very direct in how these false teachers are supposed to be dealt with. They must be silenced.

Verse 11. They must be silenced. Don't let them speak. Don't give them platforms in the churches.

Get them out of there. Guard the flock. Be a shepherd. And appoint other shepherds over these flocks that they may protect the flock of God from the wolves.

They must be silenced. And how are they to do that exactly? Was Titus supposed to sneak into their homes late at night and duct tape the false teachers to their bed, put tape over their mouth, or move the

Christians to an isolated spot so they couldn't hear the false teachers anymore? No, very simply, Titus needed to put the church in order.

He needed to structure things in a proper way so that the only teachers were those elders that were qualified and were appointed to lead the flock of God.

This took a platform away from the false teachers who up to this point probably had a place that they felt like they could stand in front of the people and lead them astray with all of their deceptive lies.

So once structure and order is placed into the church and those elders are overseeing things and caring for the flock of God, then they are able to control the words of these deceivers.

They are silenced. They no longer have a platform over the people to spread their deceptive poison.

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

So they were making money off of this in addition to leading people astray and people being led away from the church because of this false teaching.

Families, as it's talked about here, this isn't necessarily like husband and wife and children kinds of families.

This is the churches, the respective churches where Paul had told Titus to go and appoint elders.

Those families, the family of God, entire families, whole churches are being upset by the teaching of false teachers, not just a person here and there walking down the street and hearing some proselytizer or some philosopher leading them astray.

Though that's certainly a problem, but we're talking about false teachers actually having a place at the podium there in these churches.

And Paul said, get them out, silence them. Don't let them have that position anymore. They're upsetting entire churches with this false teaching of theirs and they're gaining from it.

They are teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. And everything that Paul is saying here about these false teachers, this is in contrast against the qualifications for overseers that we had read in verses five through nine.

Remember that an overseer of the church must not be arrogant, quick tempered, a drunkard, violent, or greedy for gain.

And so here you have these false teachers who they're teaching for shameful gain, what they ought not to teach.

It is contrary to the sound words of Christ and they must be silenced. So that these families of God would be put in a right order and would grow in godliness and in sanctification according to the true word of Christ, not led astray by these deceivers.

One of the Cretans, Paul says in verse 12, one of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said that Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons.

Remember that Titus is on the island of Crete and he is going to these various towns and villages where the gospel has been preached and there are converts that have been made and he is putting those churches into order, first of all, putting elders, appointing elders in those churches to lead

God's people. And so Paul gives a warning to Titus about exactly the kind of people that he's dealing with.

First of all, who it is that these converts used to be, but then secondly, who these deceivers are, the pagan deceivers that would try to lead them astray with their attitudes and behaviors and philosophies.

And so Paul says one of the Cretans, a prophet of their own. Now this word prophet is not in the same fashion that the word prophet would be used to describe a prophet of God, but this is a person who was probably very wise to the ways of the times and he could discern by judging the economy and anthropology and philosophy, the trajectory that people were on.

Like he could see the culture was going this direction and he could make some sort of forecast about where the culture was headed and usually men who were that discerning of the ways of the culture were correct.

So they could say, this is where everybody's going, that would end up happening and he would look like a prophet, but it wasn't like he had some sort of gift of foresight.

He was just very wise and discerning in the ways and matters of his own people. So in this case, he's a

Cretan himself. He is a guy from the island of Crete, a prophet of their own. And he said this of his own people,

Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons. Now Paul is probably very wise in drawing from someone else rather than making this assessment himself.

He goes on to say, this testimony is true. So what this guy has said about the

Cretans, yeah, that absolutely describes them. But it was wise of him not to say that himself, so that as this letter was read, even though this was to Titus, it contained wisdom that would be read in all of the churches there on the island of Crete.

As this came from Paul, it would be understood, this is not the Christians criticizing us. This is not the

Christians coming at us as holier -than -thou people and making these judgments and assessments of us.

Rather, Paul says, this very forecast about the Cretans has been made by one of their own.

And it's true. It's the way they are. And so this is the kind of people that you have to deal with.

This is the kind of climate that these churches exist in and the kind of adversity that they're going to be facing as they try to survive on this island.

Cretans are always liars. They're always, it's kind of like anything that comes out of a Cretan's mouth, you would not be able to trust it.

They're evil beasts. They just act like animals. And as I said before, the debauchery of the

Cretans was well known. There was one particular historian,

Polybius, who wrote that it was almost impossible to find personal conduct more treacherous or public policy more unjust than what would be found on the island of Crete.

Cicero also stated, moral principles are so divergent that the

Cretans consider highway robbery honorable. So that gives you a little bit of an idea of the kind of people that this was on this island.

They were depraved even by pagan standards. And who Paul was quoting from was likely

Epimenides, who was from the island of Crete. And Paul had quoted from Epimenides before in Acts chapter 17 when he was preaching at the

Areopagus. And so Paul draws from this man again to make this generalization about the people on the island of Crete.

And that's perfectly fine. We talk about how generalizations are so evil and wrong, especially in our culture today in which microaggressions, everybody is so sensitive toward microaggression, like there's always some sort of racist or prejudice undertone to just about everything that you say, whether or not you're aware that you say it.

That's what's referred to as a microaggression. And so generalizations are always evil and wrong.

We should never make a generalization of anybody because that's actually racist. You're being a racist and you don't even know it.

But generalizations are completely acceptable when used in the right way.

When missionaries are prepared to go into a particular area, whether it's in North America or it's in another country abroad, they are educated and get an idea of the people, what the people are like before they go into that particular area.

I just had a conversation with somebody the other day in which we were talking about a group that needs to be met with the gospel.

And he was talking about people who come out of that false teaching that we're attempting to evangelize to.

People who come out of that false teaching are very, very sensitive and you have to deal with them very gently or you could lose somebody.

Someone who becomes a convert could end up falling right back into the false teaching that we had just won them out of with the gospel.

So generalizations are good when it's used in that way, when it helps us to understand the kind of people that we're dealing with and needing to reach with the gospel.

It's this kind of people, Paul says, needs to be rebuked sharply. There's gonna be those groups of people we need to handle with kid gloves.

We may need to be gentle with and very gracious with the way that we deal with them and share the gospel with them.

But in this particular occasion, this group of people on the island of Crete, the way that they're best dealt with is sharply, directly, clearly.

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

Again, we come back to the way that we started in the lesson today, that people would not follow after those who are constantly rebellious and encouraging other people to be rebellious, insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers.

And we'll come back to talking about that a little bit more tomorrow, finishing up this section in Titus 1 10 -16.

Let's finish today with prayer. Our wonderful God and Savior, we thank you for the instruction that we have been given.

And I pray that we would not turn up our noses at this wonderful law that has been given to us and the instructions that have been spoken to us by Jesus Christ through his apostles.

We would not be found insubordinate, but rather we would be submissive to you, your majesty, your authority as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, sitting enthroned over all of creation.

And it is our delight to call upon you as Father and worship you as Lord.

And so I pray that you would awaken this strong desire in our hearts for everything that you have said and love your word and desire to obey it and follow it.

For Jesus said that you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments.

Help us to know how it is that we need to deal with the people in our lives, whether that's individuals or the community in which we live.

How do we respond to this people and share with them the gospel that they may turn from their sin, repent and know you and be saved that we would be seasoned with salt.

As Paul said in Colossians chapter four, our speech would always be gracious knowing how to answer each person with the grace of God that has been revealed to us when the gospel was proclaimed to us.

And so keep us faithful in these things and always submissive to the Lord God for in our obedience to you, does this obedience come into every other area of our lives, knowing that we serve the

Lord Christ first to your great glory and name. Amen.

This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web and we thank you for selecting ours.

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