Teaching That Brings Order

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 99
• Hymn — He Loves Me Too
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin
• Assurance of Pardon — 1 John 1:9
• Scripture Reading — 2 Samuel 3:26–39
• Membership Vows — Kade and Morgan Boes
• Pastoral Prayer
• Hymn — Take Time to Be Holy
• Sermon
• Hymn — Gracious Spirit
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: Teaching That Brings Order

Scripture: Titus 1:5–16

I. Sound Doctrine Brings Order Through the Restoration of the Family

A. Paul left Titus in Crete to appoint elders and put things in order (Titus 1:5)

B. The key elder qualification emphasized here is holding firm to sound doctrine (Titus 1:9)

1. Elders must be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and rebuke those who contradict it
2. This verse serves as a bridge into the problem of false teachers in verses 10–16

C. False teachers were upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain (Titus 1:10–11)

1. The churches in Crete were likely in an early, home-based, missional phase without yet-appointed elders
2. Paul quotes the Cretan prophet Epimenides (c. 600 BC): "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons" (Titus 1:12)
3. To "cretinize" someone in the first century meant to gain someone's trust and then exploit them

D. False doctrine, like the warning in Exodus 34:5–7, does not merely harm an individual — it spreads to the third and fourth generation

1. Elders are responsible to silence false teachers, not merely dialogue with them
2. Illustration: A pastor who wrote a pointed letter rebuking a guest preacher for adding political conditions to the gospel, calling himself "a she-bear protecting her cubs"

E. Caring about people and caring about doctrine are not opposites — they are inseparable

1. Sound doctrine protects families, children, and future generations
2. The church's motto: We take doctrine seriously because we love the people of God

II. Sound Doctrine Brings Order Through the Restoration of the Guilty

A. Paul's shocking goal in verse 13: rebuke false teachers sharply so that they may be sound in the faith (Titus 1:13)

1. Despite calling them liars, evil beasts, and gluttons, Paul desires their restoration
2. Order in the church is seen when heinous sinners are transformed by gospel doctrine, not when generally good people work out minor flaws

B. The false teachers are identified as the circumcision party — judaizers (Titus 1:10; cf. Galatians 2)

1. Judaizers held to a "gospel plus" salvation — gospel plus man-made rules such as circumcision and observance of Old Testament ceremonial laws
2. Paul summarizes their teaching as "commandments of men" (Titus 1:14)

C. We are all susceptible to pharisaism — law-giving rather than law-obeying

1. Since the fall, the sinful inclination is to set our own standards for right relationship with God (cf. Genesis 3)
2. Man-made rules are like carbon monoxide — they seep in unchecked because they appear morally upright on the surface
3. We never come to Scripture as empty receptacles; we come bent inward as sons of Adam

D. Sanctification means being stripped bare of unchecked biases, hobby horses, and grudges, and being clothed with Christ plus nothing

1. Only then can we be law-obeyers and submitters to God's Word rather than law-givers
2. The goal is Christ alone, with nothing added

III. Sound Doctrine Brings Order Through the Restoration of the Heart

A. The circumcision party emphasized externals — food laws, circumcision, ceremonial observances

B. Paul's rich irony in Titus 1:15: "To the pure all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure"

1. The false teachers' attempt to achieve purity through external observance reveals their internal defilement
2. What is impure is not external things but their consciences and minds

C. Jesus confirms this in Matthew 15:11, 18

1. It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out from the heart
2. The heart is the source of defilement, not creation itself

D. God created all things good for man's enjoyment (Genesis 1)

1. Defilement entered through the fall of man — the impure heart turning away from God to become its own law-giver
2. Christ's blood and Spirit cleanse the internal heart, restoring right relationship with God's good creation
3. Romans 8 — creation groans not because it is inherently evil, but because it is in bondage due to man's fallen heart
4. Cleansed hearts can now obey 1 Corinthians 10:31: "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God"

E. Jonathan Edwards: "The first and great work of a Christian is about his heart… see that your chief study be about your heart"

F. Those who gauge their standing with God by self-concocted external benchmarks are, as Paul says, "unfit for any good work" (Titus 1:16)

1. Rest in the finished work of Christ, who makes all things new — most especially the defiled heart
2. A cleansed heart makes us fit to serve and work for the glory of God