All right. Finish up your thought. I'll give you 30 seconds. All right. Can I start us off with prayer? Father, we thank you for giving us an opportunity to share and discuss the things that we've gleaned and learned. I pray that as we just supplement that with a little teaching time, I pray that you would cause us just a hunger for more.

And so we thank you for this evening, this opportunity for us to gather together to study. And we pray just for your spirit to really provide for us greater insight. In Jesus' name we pray. So you never want to take a passage just in isolation. So if you guys remember from the last several weeks, what we covered was the elders need to be above approach.

And we looked at in the yellow, there are five ways-- these are five negative traits that an elder is not supposed to be, six positive traits, and an adverb saying that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine or refute those who contradict. So teaching sound doctrine, refuting those who contradict, that's going to be a very common theme.

Two ways, offensive, where you have to feed the sheep, defensive, where you actually have to fight off the wolves. And that's going to come up again several times. And we're going to also learn, not just today, but in chapter three, how do we go about doing these things? Because it does say show every consideration, right?

How do we silence? And those are some of the things that we're going to look at. But the first thing I do when I take this whole context is I break it up in the flow of thought so my eyes can see it easily. If you look at the leftmost column, you'll see that.

For there are many rebellious men. They must be silenced, so reprove them severely. And you speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. That's what's important. Do you guys see how I kind of organize it this way? There are bad people messing up the church inside, right? They got to be silenced.

So two things-- reprove and speak. Do you guys see this little couplet again? Exhort and refute. So refute those who contradict, exhort in sound doctrine. And when I kind of break it up this way, it's easier for me to just track along in my mind so I don't get lost in the woods.

And the greater context of this chapter is Titus has a couple tasks that he has to do. One is to set in order and appoint elders. If you guys remember that from a few weeks ago, he's got a couple things he has to do is there's a little bit of a chaos.

He's got to set it in order and appoint elders. This is a tall task. Why? There's chaos. There are factious men who are upsetting whole families and hurting the church. So and what are these people doing? Titus 3 gives me a little bit more context. But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strifes and disputes about the law.

They are unprofitable and worthless. So it gives you insight into the men of circumcision, what they're doing. So it gives you a little bit of insight there. Reject a factious man after a first and second warning. Knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned. So these are the kinds of men that are there.

And Titus, in the context of this group of people, is supposed to set them in order and appoint leadership. So I'm going to just go through these verses, just highlight a few things. There are many rebellious men. The word rebellious is anupotaktoi. So if you guys have studied this before, hypotaso means to submit.

It's like a military term. Submit, get an order, the commander says something, all the soldiers hypotaso. This is the opposite of that. Anupotaktoi, which means they're insubordinate to the faithful word. So these guys refuse to submit to the gospel truths, the church, and the apostolic authority. So they refuse to submit.

And this is actually also something that the elder's children are not supposed to be, if you guys remember, not accused of rebellion, and dissipation. So that might give you an insight going backward a little bit to verse 6. Empty talkers, mataiologoi, a logai. Greek is not my first language, I'm sorry.

And we're taught to read and interpret. We're not taught to verbally read. So it really literally means they talk about stuff that has no meaning. Empty, just senseless babbling. And deceivers, this is the only time this is used in all the New Testament, this word. Phrenapatai, phrenapatai, phrenapatai? Phrenapatai, okay?

So when I do it in the English, it makes it a little harder. Misleader, conniver, seducer. Why would such people be so persuasive? If there's a false prophet who is clearly a false prophet, he sucks at being a false prophet, right? Why are false prophets so effective? Because most of what they will tell you is truth, with a slight perversion.

And I always use this for the children's ministry, but rat poison, I don't know if this is scientific, but this has been passed down in illustrations for many, many years, is 98% of rat poison is food. 2% is poison. With that 2%, what does it do to the rat?

It kills. So the false teachers that are among the churches now, most of what they will say is true. Circumcision, does that sound like something that comes from the Bible? Yeah. Does adhering to the Mosaic law sound like something that comes from the Bible? Yeah, but why is that considered rebellion?

So these false prophets, they're probably very gifted people who are very good at lying and twisting and conniving, and they're probably very charismatic. So be very careful not to be wowed and wooed by talented speakers, gifted writers, celebrated pastors. And that's why you need to watch not just their doctrine, but their life.

But why do people follow empty talkers? 'Cause they're pretty good at empty talk. First Timothy says they pray on weak-willed women. I don't know if you guys did a little cross-reference. One of the reasons why it's so easy to, Christianity has become a gimmick today. So a lot of people, their Christianity is not coming from the word of God, it's coming from culture.

And so it's easy to kind of manipulate that. All right? Now, why are these guys so successful? I'm gonna read a couple sections of this for you. Second Timothy three, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Many false prophets don't know that they're false prophets. Does that make sense? Yeah, is it possible for a false prophet not to know that he's a false prophet? Absolutely. Lord, Lord, did we not perform miracles and in your name, like, cast out demons? I never knew you, right? That's Matthew chapter seven.

So they don't know. Second Timothy four, one through five, I'm just gonna read the blue part. This is why it's important to preach the word. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves, teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.

People will hear what they wanna hear. Nod your heads if you understand that. People want their ears tickled. If I err on the side of legalism, give me some rules. You guys know people like this who are hardworking, who want to feel like they're very devout. You give them rules, they'll go crazy.

That's how cults form, right? People who are in sin, who don't wanna hear it, they want you to emphasize the forgiveness of God, the love of God, the kindness of God, the sweetness of God, because they want to know that their sin is actually not that bad. So it's easy to prey on people who want to hear deception.

So that's kind of the context, and the many rebellious men are preying on these things. So the next three weeks, or the next several sessions, we're gonna be looking at the rebellious people, and we had to break it up. Otherwise, you guys are going through like seven, eight verses at a time.

So in order to make it more palatable, starting chapter two, we're doing five verses each week. We're breaking this up a little bit. So we're gonna be looking at, today, 10 to 12. It's gonna continue next week, 13 to 16, and then it's touched upon on how Titus is supposed to be different on October 20th.

So I'm not gonna go over all of these today. I'll talk about this more next week. Now, those are the circumcision. Who are these guys? Okay? The Judaizers is what they're usually known as, and there's only one reference to the word Judaizer in Galatians 2.14, and this is where it comes from.

When I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, if you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to eudaizo? How do you tell them to live like a Jew?

And this is Paul confronting Peter. Now, a couple background things that might be helpful. If you're studying through Genesis, you won't get the word Jew until you're almost done with the Old Testament. Have you guys ever thought about this? Why are they not the Jews? Why are they called the Hebrews?

It's because Jew means of Judah. So 586, when the temple's gone and then they have no land and the people of God are driven into exile, they need to be recognized somehow. So the pagan world around them called them of Judah. You didn't. So from that point on, they're called the Jews.

So Ezra and Nehemiah, you'll see the word Jews. Before that, no Jews. It'll be either Hebrew, Ephraim, and different words. Israel, but not Jews, okay? So they started getting called Jews after they got exiled. And early on in church history, before the early church was founded, many Gentiles converted to Judaism, okay?

One of the early deacons was a proselyte. He was a convert. One of the seven original deacons. He was a convert to Judaism. And if you were a Gentile that wanted to become a Jew, you would have to do three things. One, you would have to be circumcised if you're a male.

Second, you would have to do a ritual bath cleansing, okay? And the third, you would have to take the yoke of the law, it's called. You have to take the yoke of the law. There's 613 Mosaic laws and interpretations of the Mosaic law, okay? It's called the halakha. That's what I'm supposed to adopt.

I'm supposed to do this. Sabbath laws, dietary laws. So those three things, if I really wanted to follow the Jewish God, I would have to do that. And there was money to be made there, okay? Can you imagine? Oh, you want me to perform your circumcision? $400. You want me to do your ritual bath cleansing?

I'll give you discount, $300. And you wanna buy the 613, this scroll of the Mosaic laws? I'll give you even, make all three, even thousand. So there's sort of gain to be had there because people want to either be extra religious or they want to have free grace. And those are always two sides of the same coin, okay?

So Gentiles converted to Judaism, early church, for the most part, all the apostles went to the Jews first. Do you guys know this? Okay, in Acts chapter one, it's like, go to Jerusalem, then to Judea, and then Samaria, and then the ends of the earth. Most of the apostles, all their ministry was to the Jews.

Apostle Paul's first decade or so was also ministry to the Jews. So that's why you had a lot more Jewish Christians and culturally Jewish believers in the church, all right? And there were Cretan Jews at the Pentecost. And for these groups of people, belief in Jesus as a Messiah enhanced, but did not necessarily replace their Judaism.

It's like a hybrid, okay? These are the woke folk of the day, all right? So the important question that they had was, must a Gentile first become a Jew in order to be a Christian? And the answer for the Judaizer is yes. That's who they are, okay? The Judaizer would answer that question, must a Gentile first become a Jew or some derivative of that in order to become a Christian?

Yes, and that was a circumcision party, okay? And a lot of the Pharisees who converted to Christianity were in this, and you see that whole episode in Acts chapter 15, all right? And because there was a large group of this circumcision party, they started persecuting Gentile Christians. And that's why you see the book of Hebrews trying to encourage them in their being persecuted to don't go back to the traditions of old.

Hold on to the gospel, okay? And this is such a big problem in the New Testament that 2 Corinthians 11, all of Galatians, Philippians three, Colossians two, all the pastoral epistles, Hebrews, they all address this. And so what these Judaizers in Crete taught, I don't know. It's hard to know exactly, okay?

But they were teaching things that were upsetting entire households or churches, depending on how you look at that, with things that they shouldn't teach for the sake of what? Sorted gain, because there's money to be made, okay? So that's, hopefully that gives you a little bit of insight. Many rebellious men, how do we silence them?

And we had a good question in our group, are these rebellious men only that we're supposed to pay attention in our church, or are we supposed to call out false prophets all over the world? And now we can kind of do that, right? I can Facebook comment on some dude in Zimbabwe and be like, hey, you preaching health and wealth.

Bad prophet, right? Like, I could do that now. Is that my job? To correct all of Christendom with sound doctrine, or my church? How do we silence them? Do we silence them, like getting into a Facebook wall war? Have you guys seen those before? Oh yeah, oh, yeah, new ones, blah, blah, blah.

It's just, it's unproductive. That's why I don't engage in that, 'cause no one's ever been won over on Facebook. People just get angry, right? So you can kind of think, how do we silence these men? Little puberty. (audience laughing) So first, verse 13 is what we're gonna look at next week.

Reproving them severely. And you're gonna be a little bit emotionally and spiritually constipated here when you're looking at this passage. Okay, reprove them severely. But later in chapter three, it'll be like, showing all consideration. Gentle. So, ugh. I know how to, some of you are like, dude, I know how to confront.

My theme verse is Proverbs 27, five. Better is open rebuke than hidden love, right? I got this. But then I'm supposed to do that with consideration and grace and love? Right, so then it gets stuck. How do we silence these guys? Titus is told to speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine, and raise up an army of people who will do this.

Do you see why he's telling him to get elders? Raise up an army of folks whose life and doctrine will correct these buffoons. That's what he's saying. And actions that speak loudly of the power of the gospel of Christ. Let women, older women, younger women, older men, younger men, bond slaves, all of you guys, live in such a way where you cosmetic, cosmeo, adorn the doctrine of God, to silence these guys.

So that's how we're gonna look into that in chapter two. In chapter three, verses eight and nine, you'll see that we're supposed to avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the law, because these are unprofitable and worthless. So when I'm combating a false teacher, is my first go-to weapon, like loud, like fire with fire, equal footing, like bashing him for being so spiritually stupid, is that my role, is that how I combat it?

Titus seems to suggest no. But how do I reprove them severely? Now that's a question that I need to ask, okay? So, and then the bottom part, for the sake of sordid gain, and ultimately it's those who love the church versus those who use the church. There are teachers who teach because they love the kingdom of God, they love the souls in the church, and then there are teachers who will teach because it makes them profit in one way or the other.

And the sad thing is, from a distance, they look exactly the same. So actually when I do counseling to, it's usually for girls who are thinking, is this the right man for me? And if they're not dating, I'm a little bit more free to give this advice, 'cause once they're dating, it's a little harder, 'cause I don't wanna influence them too much in a reckless way.

But before they start dating, I say, look, you need to find a man who loves the Lord. But if you find a guy who just loves the church without loving the Lord, then you're in trouble, because the guy who loves the Lord, five years from now, 10 years from now, will be more humble, will be more gracious, will be more Christ-like, but the guy who loves the church will be a grumbler, complainer, all the way through, and then you're gonna be attached, so be careful.

Those who are fond of sordid gain are those who want to leech off of the church, and that's what you're supposed to avoid, okay? And that's why elders and leaders should be those not fond of sordid gain. All right, so that's something that we see. Verse 12, one of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, "evil beasts, lazy gluttons." And some of you guys have already done your research.

This is Epimenides of Knossos, okay? I don't know if it's Knossos, probably not. Epimenides of Knossos, a philosopher of the sixth century, native of Crete, one of the seven great wise men of Greece, and the funny thing that he actually once said was, "The absence of wild beasts on the island "is supplied by its human inhabitants." So there are no wild beasts on this island, okay?

But the people make up for that. And then in this context, long time ago, they used to use the word kretizo to mean lie, to cheat. So that's why it was a pretty bad city, where it's just a culture of lying, okay? I just thought that was interesting. Now, you guys might have skimmed over verse 12, all right?

"Always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." And as I'm trying to do my inductive study, and as I have the framework of all 46 verses in my head, I actually noticed something. Hey, everything that Titus is supposed to exhort amongst all the Christians in these churches of Crete go against lying, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons.

You guys see this? Christians should not be liars. Instead, they should be dignified, teaching what is good, purity in doctrine, sound in speech. Evil beasts, self, no control? No, they need to be temperate, teaching what is good, reverent, sensible, sensible, sensible, sensible, sensible. Example of good deeds, not pilfering, showing good faith.

And then lazy gluttons, no. Christians should be the hardest of workers. Dignified, sound in perseverance, not enslaved to wine because when you're addicted to Netflix or video games or alcohol or other things, you end up procrastinating the stuff that you're supposed to do. You work hard at play and you play at your work.

No for the Christian, right? Not enslaved, working and building up homes. So that should give you insight into chapter two, verse five. Women, workers at home. Do you think the point is that they can't work outside the home? Or do you think the point really is, outside or at home, they need to work hard instead of being like lazy princesses, okay?

Be subject and well-pleasing, hipotaso, versus the other one, rebellious, right? Be subject and well-pleasing, not argumentative. So are you guys following the logic here? Why does Paul quote a pagan, Cretan writer? Because he's saying the Christians in this pagan, Christian area need to be very starkly different so that the saying, Cretans are always liars, is actually refuted by the lives of the Christians that are there.

You guys get that? So the next week, we're gonna be looking at the rest of this section. So kinda keep that in mind. Next week is a little harder because it almost seems like there's hope for the prophet. If I rebuke a false prophet, okay, I'm not gonna name anybody, but let's say I rebuke a health and wealth gospel guy, maybe I can win him over, right?

That's what it seems like, okay? And then what's the, to the pure, all things are pure. What is that? So next week, you're gonna have to dig in a little bit. All right? And the passage actually, for me, ends in chapter two, verse one, but we're gonna just do up to the end of chapter one.

Here's some application questions that you guys can discuss. What are the best ways for you to combat unsound teachers and teachings? I kind of stay away from online battles because I have a lot of, I went to Berkeley, and I have Berkeley and Stanford friends who are all 20, 25 years removed from college.

A lot of them have a lot of money. A lot of them are very successful, and they think they are super wise. And they've all, and there's a lot of them that are saying all kinds of stuff about why churches are wrong, why Bible thumpers should, you know, they're not Christians, and all of these things.

What churches should be for, and all of these things. And I don't engage. Why? It just goes in circles. So that's a personal conviction. I don't engage in that kind of a discussion. So how do I combat a false teacher? Do I make it public? Do I do it privately?

And I don't wanna be like, who are the false teachers in my life? 'Cause that's a little bit more of a dangerous question, because it becomes apparent. But what are the best ways? And what are the ways that you can better pray for the spiritual leaders that are in your life?

All right? So you don't wanna only use the past 12 verses to be like, huh, our seven leaders, huh? I don't know if they fit this. Oh, Pastor Peter Chung is pugnacious. Right? Like, that kind of stuff is legitimate. You can hold my feet to the fire and test my character, test our teaching.

But if you love the leaders at this church, what should you do? You need to pray that we are above our approach next year. We're above our approach the year after. We're above our approach all the way to the finish line. 'Cause it's easy to start ministry well. It's hard to finish well.

Right? And we're all getting stretched. And the first thing that happens when our churches get stretched and the leaders get stretched is we start praying less and depending on our own strength. So those are things you guys can pray for. Right? That we're not fond of sordid gain, not in terms of money, but maybe it's in terms of renown.

Maybe we need to have a Berean, like everybody needs to know Berean. You don't think that temptation's gonna be there? Right? And the busier we are, you don't think there's a temptation to say no to family and yes to church? So all of those things that are stretching us, it should help you to pray that we don't become like this.

And also that you guys all become very equipped and astute in the word of God so that you can take on a lot of discipleship role for new people in the church and not just pass them off to the pastors and elders. So you guys are seeing how I would apply this passage if I was a non-pastor.

Right? One, how do I refute those that are around me who are negative? And two, negative as in like they're not teaching orthodox stuff. And two, how do I pray for the spiritual leaders around me? Right? How do I pray for Pastor Peter? How do I pray for Pastor Mark?

How do I pray for Pastor Nate? How do I pray for the elders who are working full-time jobs and doing this on all their free time? Like how do I pray for everybody? And how do I pray for you to pray for us? So it becomes just a big, like we really need to be above approach, not just in our lifestyle, but in what we teach.

Amen? Amen. Because our churchianity world is surrounded by all kinds of strange teaching that's coming into the churches. And we need to be alert and aware of how to combat that. Not being jerks, but severely reproving in love where we need to. So how do we do that? And that requires spiritual wisdom and discernment.

All right? I'm gonna leave the rest of the time for you guys to just discuss this. Oh, that's for next week's homework. The application is this. Next week's homework is pretty much exactly the same. I just changed number one and the date. Okay? Wednesday 10/6 and Titus 1/13 to 16.

Everything else, exactly the same. So maybe you guys can take some time to pray for the leadership, pray for each other. And if you have specific areas where you need wisdom, maybe now's the time to ask. Okay? All right. (papers rustling) (papers rustling)