Guarding the Gospel: Identifying and Rejecting Legalism

• False Teachers / Wolves [00:46:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor introduces the concept of 'fending off wolves' (false teachers) using 2 Peter 2, noting they arise from within the congregation and are motivated by sensuality and greed.
• The Importance of the Mind [00:49:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that false teachers 'pollute the mind,' which is critical because sanctification relies on the renewal of the mind and taking every thought captive to obey Christ.
• Identification of False Teachers [00:52:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor outlines two methods for identifying false teachers based on Titus 1: by their teaching (insubordination, empty talk) and by their fruit.
• Insubordination and Empty Talk [00:53:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines 'insubordinate' as refusing to obey apostolic teaching and 'empty talkers' as those speaking idly or with 'windbags' who offer no substance.
• False Teachers and Empty Talk [00:53:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines false teachers as insubordinate, empty talkers (windbags), and deceivers who add to the gospel or scripture.
• Sola Fide and Salvation by Grace [00:58:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues against the Judaizers who added works to faith, asserting that salvation is by faith alone, Christ alone, and grace alone.
• Legalism and Human Traditions [01:06:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor warns against adding 'commands of men' or legalistic rules to Christian ethics, citing examples like homeschooling or diet as potential traps if used for salvation.
• Legalism vs. Gospel Sanctification [01:08:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor warns against adding unscriptural rules (homeschooling, diet, etc.) to sanctification, arguing that such legalism loses the gospel which changes hearts from the inside out.
• Identification of False Teachers [01:11:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor outlines four qualities of false teachers: seeking shameful profit, living worldly lives, devoting themselves to falsehood, and having defiled minds/consciences.
• Cultural Context of Crete [01:15:58 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor quotes the Cretan poet Epimenides to describe the local culture as liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons, noting that the gospel transformed this wicked culture.
• Defiled Conscience and Purity [01:23:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that to the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled, nothing is pure, correcting the misinterpretation that this verse allows for licentiousness.
• Spiritual Pollution and Unbelief [01:25:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that actions performed by unbelievers are polluted by their impure motives and conscience, regardless of outward obedience to law.
• Identification of False Teachers [01:28:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines false teachers as those who claim to know God but deny Him through their works, labeling them detestable and unfit for good works.
• The Cost of Truth [01:30:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that confronting false teaching is costly, illustrated by the historical persecution of Athanasius, and urges the congregation to stand for the gospel.

• Sermon Illustration [00:47:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about explaining 'wedding crashers' to his children at a recent wedding, using it as an analogy for false teachers who look like they belong (like a crasher in a tuxedo) but are not truly invited.
• Sermon Illustration [00:49:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes the violent nature of a wolf tearing apart and devouring a sheep to illustrate the destructive impact false teachers have on the church.
• Sermon Illustration [00:50:39 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a conversation with Keith Matheson about R.C. Sproul and Francis Schaeffer's concern for young people learning to think rightly about God, highlighting the importance of sound doctrine.
• Sermon Illustration [00:54:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor mentions a wealthy man in Houston (implied to be Joel Osteen) who tells jokes at a compact center to get attention, illustrating 'empty talk' and platitudes rather than substantive teaching.
• Sermon Illustration [00:54:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor mentions a comedian at the Houston Compact Center who tells jokes to get attention, contrasting this with the serious nature of preaching the gospel.
• Sermon Illustration [00:57:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts Peter's vision in Acts 10 where God tells him to eat unclean animals (pig/barbecue), illustrating the breaking down of Jewish dietary laws.
• Sermon Illustration [01:00:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes an incident in Antioch where Peter withdrew from eating with Gentiles when Judaizers arrived, leading Paul to rebuke him to his face.
• Sermon Illustration [01:02:53 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about a tour group visiting Byzantine churches where locals expressed uncertainty about heaven based on their own efforts (70-75% sure) rather than faith.
• Sermon Illustration [01:09:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor tells a story of a man from the Mennonite/Amish community whose pastor measured women's clothing, illustrating a loss of the gospel due to legalistic focus on external rules.
• Sermon Illustration [01:09:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares an anecdote about a friend from the Mennonite/Amish community whose pastor measured women's clothing, illustrating how legalism causes people to lose the gospel.
• Sermon Illustration [01:18:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the movie 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' and the character Tuco to illustrate the violent, lazy, and gain-seeking nature of the Cretan culture described by Paul.
• Sermon Illustration [01:21:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor mentions a former PhD student who became obsessed with the 'social justice movement' and a UNC professor named Bart Ehrman who questions the New Testament, using them as examples of people who get 'off path' and stay there like 'dogs with a bone.'
• Sermon Illustration [01:26:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor tells a humorous story about his two-year-old son, Truman, nicknamed 'the drink burglar,' who drinks other people's Dr. Peppers at youth events to illustrate how impure motives pollute actions.
• Sermon Illustration [01:26:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an analogy of his two-year-old son, Truman, nicknamed 'the drink burglar,' who drinks from others' beverages after eating Doritos, thereby contaminating them. This illustrates how a polluted person pollutes everything they do.
• Sermon Illustration [01:30:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the historical story of Athanasius, the bishop at Nicaea, who was hunted by false teachers promoting Arianism. He describes how Athanasius escaped pursuers on the Nile by tricking them, illustrating that standing for truth can be costly and dangerous.

• Pastoral Charge [01:01:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > Write down the scripture reference Colossians 2:16 for future study.
• Pastoral Charge [01:32:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > Repent of sins and trust in Christ
• Pastoral Charge [01:33:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > Stand and sing a hymn

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:09:18] Father, guide us this morning as we come before you. May the events of the day, of the week, and of the world not distract us from the love of Christ which constrains us and brings us into your presence.
[00:09:35] That, Father, we would set aside that which deters us or distracts our attention from the gift of salvation that we have so wondrously had bestowed upon us through your great love.
[00:09:52] May our hearts bow before you in humility.
[00:09:56] May we cast aside everything that would become an idol.
[00:09:59] And Father, may we adore you with simplicity, with pureness, and with holiness.
[00:10:08] And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
[00:10:12] Let's stand together as we read responsibly from Philippians 2, 5 through 11.
[00:10:18] Everyone standing.
[00:10:19] I will read the verse in the white bold print, and you will respond with the next.
[00:10:26] I will read verse 5, and then I ask you to join together reading verse 6.
[00:10:31] Have this way of thinking in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus.
[00:10:36] Together.
[00:10:37] Who, although existing, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men.
[00:10:54] therefore God also highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father let's rejoice

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:11:36] in our Lord by singing crown him with many crowns.

[00:16:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:16:56] Heidelberg Catechism is question 53 and 54, so I'll read the question and then we'll answer

[00:17:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:17:04] together. What do you believe concerning the Holy Spirit? First, the Spirit is eternal God.
[00:17:18] The Spirit is given also to me. And what do you believe concerning the Holy Catholic Church?
[00:17:37] thank you well good morning okay so let's do that again a little more pep a little more excitement

[00:18:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:18:27] good morning there we go god is good and all the time amen indeed he is well good morning again and i just want to say welcome to the king's chapel we are so glad that you're here worshiping
[00:18:41] with us on this lord's day this beautiful lord's day that we have have here or that god has provided for us. If you're a visitor or guest with us here at the church, welcome. On the behalf
[00:18:51] of the staff and the elders, we are so glad that you're here worshiping with us in spirit and in truth. And I would invite you to do two things, if you would, if you're a guest. One, you can either,
[00:19:02] option one, I should say this way, option one is in the pew before you, you'll see a blue and white connect card. And I would encourage you to fill that out and then drop it in the offering baskets,
[00:19:13] which will be passed around here in just a few moments, or you can scan the QR code below and you can, in your bulletin, excuse me, and you can fill out the digital card as well. But we'd
[00:19:23] love to have the opportunity to get to know with you, to connect with you, and ask any questions you have regarding the church or anything like that here with the King's Chapel. Well, if you
[00:19:32] will take just a few moments and open up your worship bulletin with me. And as you can see in our bulletin. We are a busy church, and I thank God for that, that he has provided for us so many
[00:19:43] faithful ministries here at the church that we can participate in and as well as to pray for.
[00:19:49] But if you will, turn into that highlight section, that middle part there as you open your bulletin.
[00:19:54] But I want to remind all of us here today that immediately after the service, I'm going to ask if you will join us in the fellowship hall for a reception to honor Jake, Jaquan, and Michael.
[00:20:07] And as we announced a couple of weeks ago, the Lord is calling them into a new season of ministry, an exciting season of ministry, and we want to honor those three faithful men right after the
[00:20:19] service. So it'll be in the fellowship hall to my left, your right, and so please join us as we honor those faithful men. Also, you can see right below, it's not too late to get your
[00:20:32] directory photo. I look so good in mine, they've asked me to do it a couple of times.
[00:20:37] Yes. And so, but Derek Sammons is out in the gathering hall. He'll be there this Sunday and as well as next. And so, if you haven't signed up, it's okay. Just pop in. They'll take your
[00:20:52] picture. It takes a whopping 15 seconds. And then that way we can upload it into the church directory. And then the third announcement I'd like to bring to your attention is our life group and summer series schedule. So today, the 17th, marked our last regular life group hour at 9
[00:21:09] o'clock a.m. And then the next two Sundays, which is the 24th and the 31st of May, we will not have life group. So no life group the next two Sundays. And then in June, every Sunday in June, we will
[00:21:23] have what we're calling our summer series. And you'll be seeing more information this coming up week regarding those classes. And they will meet every Sunday in the Fellowship Hall. We'll all gather together as one body at nine o'clock and to be able to hear some very interesting classes
[00:21:41] on discipleship, apologetics, and more. And so I would encourage you to join us starting in June at nine o'clock there in the Fellowship Hall. And for parents, we will continue to have Children's Life Group Hour. So from birth to fifth grade, that will continue to meet, as well as for students
[00:21:57] as well. So we will have life group for all ages starting in June. But again, as you can see here, there's a lot more going on here in the life of our church, and I'm going to encourage you to
[00:22:07] please be praying for these ministries, and as well as please participate in those. And you can find more information on our brand new website that we launched last Sunday as well. So check that out. And again, there's one handsome fellow on that staff page I would draw your attention to.
[00:22:23] and so I'm so glad none of you picked that up but anyway but now I'm going to ask if our ushers and deacons will come forward to receive our tithes and offerings and if you will let's go to Lord
[00:22:34] in prayer and ask him to continue to bless our time of worship. Father we are so grateful of this day and Lord we thank you for the grace and the mercy your great love that you have poured
[00:22:46] out on this Lord's day. Father I ask that as we continue to worship Lord through song and then the preaching of your word. I pray, Father, that your Holy Spirit will work on our hearts,
[00:22:57] convicting us of sin, encouraging us, Lord, to grow deeper in holiness and righteousness, and to be able to live a life that is pleasing in your sight for your glory. Father, I do pray for that man or woman in this place or that child that doesn't know you as Lord and Savior. God,
[00:23:16] I pray that you will work in their heart, regenerate their heart, and help them come of saving faith in Jesus today. Father, we love you, and we pray these things in the good name of Christ. Amen.

[00:23:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:23:26] For all of you social media mavens and minions, there's a video at our Instagram site that you

[00:27:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:27:58] need to look at today and do all the things you do with social media. I don't know what all those are. Some of you are probably more adept at it, but Logic on Fire is our conference that's coming
[00:28:08] in over a year, and we're talking about it now. So there's a video of Grant introducing the conference at Instagram, Logic on Fire, and I think it's other places as well. We just need you to like it. We need you to share it. We need you to comment, but that would help us tremendously.
[00:28:27] And this gives me a chance to catch my breath, and we're going to stand together, and we're

[00:28:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:28:33] going to sing the power of the cross. Let's have everyone stand. Magnificent. I invite you to open

[00:33:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:33:46] your Bibles to Titus chapter 1. I'm going to read verses 10 to 16 and we'll continue to stand in honor of the reading of God's Word. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and
[00:34:04] 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.
[00:34:27] 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.
[00:34:41] To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure.
[00:34:47] but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
[00:34:52] They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.
[00:34:56] They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for every good work.
[00:35:02] This is God's holy word.
[00:35:05] You may be seated.
[00:35:07] And let's go to the throne of grace.
[00:35:15] Heavenly Father, we praise your name.
[00:35:17] Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
[00:35:21] for you alone are God the one true God the God of eternity the God who is all powerful the God who is omniscient the God who is our creator the God who created the heavens and the earth
[00:35:38] and Lord we don't just praise you because you are our creator we praise you because you are our redeemer that in your love as we just sang you came, you sent your one and only son
[00:35:53] God of very God, light of very light, truth of very truth. He came into the world, took on our flesh, miracle of miracles, the incarnation, and lived a righteous life, died in our place for our sins. And because he was perfect and because he is God, he rose from the dead
[00:36:16] in three days, verifying proof that all those who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved and receive a resurrection body like Christ's body. And Lord, we thank you that you ascended to the
[00:36:32] right hand of God the Father, where you inaugurated your reign over the heavens and the earth, where you rule even now, and you ever live to make intercession for us. Lord, we know that you hear
[00:36:45] us this morning because our mediator has nail-pierced hands and a pierced side, so it is in the power of the name of Christ that we come this morning knowing that our prayer is effective.
[00:37:00] And Lord, we pray in faith knowing that you honor the prayers of your saints. Lord, do a mighty work in our midst. May your Holy Spirit be present this morning, sharpening our minds, making our hearts
[00:37:17] more effective for Christ may we love Christ more as a result of seeing Christ in the word Lord sanctify us smooth off any rough edges in our lives Lord may we be willing to submit to
[00:37:35] your truth Lord our desire is not to be insubordinate or rebellious or lukewarm our desire is to submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ. So Lord, awaken us more and more to your reign over our lives. Bring us safely through the trials that we are experiencing. We know that many
[00:38:01] are walking through the valley of the shadow of death, but Lord, we are confident that your mercy is greater, that your kindness is greater, that your grace is greater. For it is when we are weak
[00:38:12] then we are strong so Lord we acknowledge our weaknesses in every way and everything we acknowledge that we lack wisdom and so Lord we ask of wisdom we acknowledge that we lack strength so we ask for strength we acknowledge that we need your grace but we know that from your fullness
[00:38:29] is grace upon grace Lord we pray for the advance of the gospel in the world the proclamation of the kingdom of God in countries near and far.
[00:38:42] We pray, Lord, for pulpits everywhere, that the truth would be proclaimed, that Christ would be seen, and that you would be magnified.
[00:38:52] We pray, Lord, for all those who are in authority, governing authorities.
[00:38:56] We pray, Lord, that you would win them to Christ, that they would bow the knee to the lordship of Jesus Christ so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives in this age, Lord, that the gospel would continue to advance.
[00:39:08] Lord inhabit our praises may we see Christ more clearly for Christ's sake Amen

[00:39:16] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:39:16] to continue to assist us in our worship let's turn in our hymnals to 255 number 255 at the cross would you stand and I'm going to ask you to sing this in a different manner
[00:39:33] you can stand the women will sing verse 1 just the women because they sound a little bit prettier than we do and then stop ladies at the end of the first verse do not sing the chorus and we will all come back in and sing verse two at the cross

[00:39:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:39:50] bow with me one more time heavenly father i pray lord that you would now speak through me in the

[00:45:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:45:32] power of your holy spirit if there is anyone here who does not yet know christ as their lord and Savior. We pray that you would open their hearts to the truth. We pray, Lord, that all of our minds
[00:45:45] would be sharpened, would be renewed, and in so doing, we would be transformed more to the image of Christ. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Well, put your finger in Titus 1, but before we
[00:46:00] get there, I want you to turn over to 2 Peter. It's right towards the end of your Bible, to chapter 2 of 2 Peter, and you'll see why momentarily, but the title of the message this morning
[00:46:19] is Fending Off Wolves.
[00:46:22] Earlier in the week, I said the title was Dealing With Wolves, and then I realized we needed a stronger verb, so we're now to Fending Off the Wolves.
[00:46:33] Look at 2 Peter 2 verse 1, but false prophets also arose among the people.
[00:46:41] underline that phrase just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies even denying the master who bought them bringing upon themselves swift swift destruction and many will follow their sensuality and because of them the true the way
[00:47:03] of truth will be blasphemed and in their greed they will exploit you with false words their condemnation from long ago is not idle and their destruction is not asleep so several things to notice I think that are very important one you you see Peter emphasize that the
[00:47:27] false teachers come from amongst the congregation in other words they don't look necessarily like outsiders. They look like they belong. Last week we were at a wedding and we were explaining to our children this phenomenon of wedding crashers. They were like, what's a wedding crasher? It's
[00:47:50] somebody who's not invited, but they wear a tuxedo and they come to get the free food, but they look like they belong. In other words, the wolves don't look like sheep.
[00:48:02] they come in and they peddle false teaching and the other thing I want you to notice that Peter says what is their motivation for doing this it's almost always one of these two things verse two
[00:48:18] he says many follow their sensuality their sensuality you know the name David Koresh Joseph Smith Muhammad all of them were deviants and secondly he says verse three and in their greed they will exploit you with false words in other words they're trying to make a buck off of
[00:48:44] you they're trying to exploit your wrong thinking with false teaching in order to deceive you and deceiving you, they can make money from you. Now, false teaching is very dangerous. The reason why I use the word wolves to describe the false teachers is because that's the word Paul used
[00:49:10] in Acts chapter 20 when he spoke to the Ephesian elders. He said, fierce wolves will rise up from in your midst so wolves what do they do to the sheep have you ever seen a wolf eat a sheep
[00:49:27] i know i know we talk about these and fairy tales and that sort of thing but it's it's very violent it's awful to see a wolf tear apart a sheep break its neck and then the the pack devouring
[00:49:43] a sheep, but yet that's the picture that we're to understand with false teachers. Why? Why such a picture? Because what false teachers do is they pollute the mind. They pollute the mind. The mind is so important in the Christian life. Remember Paul said we are to be transformed by the renewal
[00:50:02] of the mind. So in your mind, you think rightly. You think according to the truth, according to the knowledge of God and then the Holy Spirit uses that thinking to then sanctify you. And that's why
[00:50:17] Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10 5, he says, we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. That we destroy any falsehood that would wage war against the truth. And so the mind, listen, is so important
[00:50:39] in the Christian life. I was talking to a guy named Keith Matheson this week, and he had been discipled by a person you probably have heard of, R.C. Sproul. And Matheson was telling me about
[00:50:54] the Ligonier Study Center up in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, and then Francis Schaeffer's Study Center in LaBrie, Switzerland. But both Schaeffer and Sproul were very concerned that young people, college students and young adults begin to learn how to think rightly about the
[00:51:15] things of God, about the knowledge of God and about the gospel. So it's very important that we are able to teach positively the Christian truth, but then what is Satan trying to do at every step
[00:51:31] as we're teaching faithfully sound doctrine what does he do he inserts counterfeit doctrines and it's devastating to people's lives when people imbibe falsehood and then to build their life off of lies it ends up leading them to hell so this is deadly serious deadly serious
[00:51:59] Jesus said better to save your soul than your body so we need to understand the reality of false teachers how they operate how we can identify them how do we understand who they are and here in this passage Paul gives instructions on identifying them and and what to do with them
[00:52:30] But he's really going to tell us how we understand who they are in two ways.
[00:52:36] In verse 10 and 14, he's going to describe how we can know them by their teaching, and then in the other verses, how we can know them by their fruit.
[00:52:47] What do they look like?
[00:52:49] So how do we know them by their teaching, and then how do we know them by their fruit?
[00:52:53] So if you look at verse 10, notice what he says.
[00:52:56] and again this this dovetails right off what we studied last week about elders being able to rebuke those who contradict the truth so this example is given as a polar opposite he says there are many who are insubordinate empty talkers and deceivers especially those of the
[00:53:18] circumcision party so Paul is describing the state of Crete and the churches in Crete and he says in and around the churches there's a problem Titus that you and the elders will have to address
[00:53:34] and that is there are many many who are insubordinate that word insubordinate simply means that they refuse to obey apostolic teaching all that Christ taught and commanded he says there are many who are empty talkers I saw this translated in one place windbags
[00:53:57] there are many speaking nothing speaking idly just just babbling on just nothing of substance gentle platitudes you can do it with Jesus added on to it I grew up in in Houston and there's a
[00:54:21] guy at the compact center in Houston and he gets up every Sunday and he tells a joke the three guys went into a bar that sort of thing tells a joke he says I always do this to get people's attention
[00:54:36] and you know that sort of thing he's worth a hundred million dollars you know I'm talking about Osteen Osteen and he talks about nothing just how you can be better how you can pull yourself up how you can be a kinder person and by the way if you give money to the church God's
[00:54:57] going to bless you financially if you sow a seed do you remember jesus getting up at the summer on the mountain telling a joke and and just idly talk you know before i get to the beatitudes let me just
[00:55:13] tell you about these three guys who went into a bar let me just tell you about this guy on a deserted island okay now you're listening blessed are the meek they shall inherit the earth or peter at
[00:55:24] Pentecost? Holy Spirit falls? There were a couple guys in a... No, that's not what they do.
[00:55:34] Souls are in the balance. Preach the word, Paul said, in season and out of season. 2 Timothy 2.16, avoid a reverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness. And then he says,
[00:55:53] deceivers. So insubordinate, empty talkers, deceivers. And that word means a misleader of the mind, someone who tricks people, somebody who imports ideas that are contrary to apostolic doctrine. That's what it means. So what were these false teachers teaching? What were they saying?
[00:56:17] And we can piece it together a little bit. It's hard to put together exactly what they were what they were teaching but were given clues here in these seven verses first thing that they were
[00:56:30] doing is that they added to the gospel these false teachers added to the gospel and we see this in this next phrase he says notice especially those of the circumcision party now the circumcision party, if you study how that phrase is used in the New Testament, it simply means those who were
[00:56:55] converted Jews. It means those who were Jewish who came to believe in Jesus. And at first you remember all the Christians were Jews. All the Christians were Jews or Jewish proselytes. And it was through the book of Acts that we see the gospel going forth through the Gentiles. And
[00:57:15] there were all sorts of questions about that. Do Gentiles have to obey the food laws that the Jews kept? Do they have to keep the Sabbath? Do they have to be circumcised? And at first, they thought
[00:57:26] this. Remember, Peter, though, had a vision, Acts chapter 10, and God tells Peter, you know, a pig coming out of the sky, some barbecue, take and eat, Peter. He says, by no means, and then some,
[00:57:39] you know, tells him that three times, and he takes him to Cornelius' house, and then Peter later relates to the Jews they can't believe it you're saying it's fine to eat bacon yes it's fine this
[00:57:49] is what God has has said but that was the circumcision party the Jewish Christians now there was a group who rose up in the circumcision party of the Jews so it was a subgroup of that
[00:58:05] group, and this group was called the Judaizers. And this group taught, yes, we believe in Jesus absolutely 100%. Jesus is Messiah. But in order to be saved, you also must keep the law. And by the
[00:58:29] way, the Gentiles, if they want to be saved, they also must keep the law. So this group of Judaizers rose up, and this became a huge problem in the early church. So when you read Acts 15 about the
[00:58:46] Jerusalem Council, the whole issue is about the Judaizers and people saying it's faith in Jesus plus something equals salvation and of course what happens when you add anything to faith in the salvation equation you negate faith because you end up if you're saying I believe
[00:59:10] in Jesus and I also believe in my good works and my keeping the law you immediately ask the question how much good works gets you in and you immediately in reality trust in the good works
[00:59:24] and not in Christ. And so the reformers articulated very clearly, sola fide, we are saved by faith alone. Solus Christus, we're saved by Christ alone, not your own work. And we're saved sola gratia, by grace alone, apart from works. Ephesians 2.8, for by grace you have been saved through faith.
[00:59:49] it is the gift of God not of works so no one can boast so this was the issue if you read the book of Galatians this is the issue and you remember Paul even tells the story when he was in Antioch
[01:00:03] and Peter's there and Peter was eating with Gentiles probably eating some nice barbecue and all of a sudden a group came from Jerusalem and Paul says they were from the circumcision party but they were Judaizers and when they came Peter stepped away from the Gentiles
[01:00:24] and Paul said I had to rebuke him to his face because he was out of step with the gospel how was Peter out of step with the gospel because he was holding up something in addition to Christ
[01:00:37] for salvation so listen very carefully those of you who came and maybe you're just thinking through what are the claims of Christianity. This is it. The only way that sinners like you and me can enter heaven is by the work of Jesus Christ and Christ alone. Only he is the Savior that has
[01:00:57] died in the place of sinners and rose again from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father.
[01:01:03] Only Christ is salvation, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which you can be saved no other name people don't like to hear this but jesus himself claimed i am the way
[01:01:14] the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me the only way to have a right relationship with god to not enter into judgment is by faith in jesus christ alone and when you
[01:01:29] add anything to that and i don't care how helpful you're trying to be you are blaspheming the gospel Paul said if you preach a different gospel let that man be anathema let that man be damned
[01:01:46] because it is dangerous to add to the gospel Paul says jot this reference down this is Colossians 2 16 therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a
[01:02:04] festival or a new moon or Sabbath. He's talking about Jewish dietary laws. Sabbaths, adding things to the gospel. He says, these are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. So important that we understand this rightly. The Eastern Orthodox Church,
[01:02:29] all the different segments of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, sadly these groups have confused this very issue confused it i was talking we we took a group to footsteps of paul it was really a also a byzantine church uh tour because in every place
[01:02:53] they've built a byzantine church on the the historical location where paul went and you go into the byzantine church and we just talk to people ask them if you were to die how sure are
[01:03:04] zero to a hundred that you would go to heaven i'm 70 75 i'm trying to be trying to be a better person trying to pray more i'm trying to to to go to the church more they don't understand
[01:03:20] the gospel because their churches have added works to the gospel so and that's exactly what these false teachers were doing they were adding to the gospel moreover they were adding to scripture look at verse 14 skip down to verse 14 Paul says not devoting themselves he's telling
[01:03:45] them rebuke them so that they're not devoting themselves to Jewish myths Jewish myths now Jewish myths, we can piece this together, were fanciful, fictitious stories that Jews passed down, sometimes sensual in nature, and they were completely speculative. They were just made up.
[01:04:11] They were not biblical. They were oral stories that people told about the Bible. Probably they dealt with different names and genealogies the reason I say that is because when Paul addresses false teaching again in this letter in Titus chapter 3 verse 9 he says avoid foolish controversies
[01:04:31] genealogies dissensions in quarrels about the law for they are unprofitable and worthless and so they engaged in speculative theology adding to scripture adding to scripture listen when John wrote the book of Revelation we call it the canon which means the the rule but the canon of the
[01:04:59] books that are authoritative was closed there is no book 67 so it's a telltale sign when somebody says. An angel named Moroni gave me extra revelation when I was up on a mountain.
[01:05:18] Whenever somebody begins to say, I have a new word from God, watch out. Because now what they're going to do is they're going to pull a power play on you. Yes, of course I believe the Bible. I'm
[01:05:35] not denying any of that of course but did you know that that God has sent me as his prophet a new prophet and I'm telling that is a power play that almost every false teacher the past 2,000 years
[01:05:50] has used they add to scripture and then thirdly they add to the Christian ethic in other words they are legalist. They invent new rules, new laws, new standards. It's not the law of Christ.
[01:06:09] It's not even the law of the Old Testament. But they come up with these new guidelines that people have to abide by. So if you look at verse 14, he says, commands of, the actual word is men,
[01:06:23] commands of men who turn away from the truth. And that phrase, whenever that phrase is used, it's used twice in the gospels a variant form is used in Colossians 2 22 but whenever that phrase
[01:06:36] commands of men is used it's used to describe the laws of men that are being used to replace the law of God it's it's used to describe men inserting their own moral rule so for example Jesus says
[01:06:57] Matthew 15 8 this people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me in vain do they worship me listen teaching as doctrines the commandments of men so remember the the in second
[01:07:16] temple Judaism the Pharisees the scribes made up all sorts of rules that that were to extrapolate the Old Testament law. So they made different extraneous rules that weren't biblical that Jesus was confronting over and over and over and over again. Jesus, why aren't you washing your
[01:07:40] hands? Why aren't you washing your hands, Jesus? Don't you know that it's what proceeds from the heart and out of the mouth that defiles the man, not what comes into the mouth and into the stomach
[01:07:51] that defiles the man? Jesus is confronting this all the time. People that are saying you must abide by the practices of men. So most likely they made rules regarding what you could eat. They made
[01:08:06] rules about marital relations. The reason I say this is because the parallel passage in 1 Timothy 4, Paul addresses people that were saying that you have to abstain from food, marital relations, these types of things. So they were into adding rules to Scripture, legalism. And
[01:08:29] friends, I know that that's what false teachers do, but at the same time, we must be careful that when we are giving instructions on sanctification, that we are not holding up a legalistic unscriptural standard over someone's head you must put your kids in homeschool
[01:08:53] you must eat gluten-free you must put your kids in private school you must go to the gym four times a week if you're going to be part of this church I was talking to somebody this week and
[01:09:12] they grew up in the Mennonite community, Amish, Pennsylvania, right? And he was saying that when he would go to church, the pastor would be out measuring what the women were wearing, looking at what the men were wearing, were they dressed appropriately? And I asked him, I said,
[01:09:34] did they have the gospel? And he said, no, they had lost the gospel. Because when you start adding these rules you lose what's important the gospel changes you from the inside out we're going to see
[01:09:52] this momentarily and then that causes you to desire to obey Christ and of course we lift up the law of Christ we're not antinomian anti means against nomian law we're not we're not against the
[01:10:03] law of course we believe in a moral standard but the moral standard is obeyed as a result of the gospel transformation of your heart but not in order to earn your salvation and of course listen
[01:10:17] we need to be very careful that we're not inventing laws in addition to the moral standard of the bible the bible has enough laws for me i mean is that i mean am i the only one are do we need more
[01:10:32] rules. So all of these things, the asceticism, these rules that they held up, the Jewish legalism, the fanciful myths that they were teaching, all swirled around in Crete to make a kind of anti-gospel cocktail. And it was infecting the different churches. So next Paul
[01:11:05] turns to how you identify them by their lives so that's what they teach then he says this is how you can identify them by their fruit or their lives he's going to describe four qualities
[01:11:21] about them that you can look at the first quality is that they seek shameful profit in verse 11 he says they must be silenced since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach that word silenced it's it's the only place in
[01:11:49] the new testament this word is used it's a word that described a muzzle on a dog you just it clips the jaws shut so they cannot open. Paul's saying these guys must be silenced. How would they be
[01:12:05] silenced? He says later they need to be rebuked. The elders of the church must be able to rebuke them and if they do not listen they are to be turned out of the church. This is what we see
[01:12:16] in 1 Corinthians 5, Matthew 18. They're to be rebuked and if they will not listen they are to be turned out of the church. Why? Because what they will do, what they do is they upset whole
[01:12:28] families by their teaching. How do they upset families? Well, it is a very existential, damaging thing to tell someone that they must do A, B, C, and D in order to get to heaven.
[01:12:46] because every day when I wake up my conscience is clear and I don't worry about where I will go when I die because I'm resting in the true promises of God amen because I know in whom I
[01:13:07] have believed all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved I know what Christ has done i'm looking outside of myself to christ it's wonderful to live the christian life i'm not scared of death if my children or wife were to die i'm not afraid because death where's
[01:13:30] your victory where's your sting but then what if i tell you lee corso not so fast you you do need to work. You do need to do some, you do need to deny yourself. You do need to obey the Jewish
[01:13:49] food laws and Sabbaths. And oh, by the way, have you checked into these stories I'm telling about the genealogies from Chronicles? There's some inside baseball here in what I have.
[01:14:04] It begins to lodge doubts in the mind. It begins to cause, especially immature believers, baby Christians to be unsure where do I stand with God I thought we stood on grace but you know Tony he's a trustworthy guy he's telling us that we got to do these things what inevitably happens
[01:14:29] when a false teacher does this is the people that begin to listen to them they begin to go to him because now they're dependent you know Tony's telling me what I need to know forgive me if your name's Tony by the way I just he's telling me what I need to know for my soul
[01:14:51] oh Tony you need a little bit of money absolutely you're helping us get to heaven of course we'll pay you that money we'll move on to that compound with you we're all going to heaven
[01:15:05] Tony's got the secrets this is how these wolves operate they get in for the money and for the sensuality. And secondly, so not only do they seek shameful profit, they live worldly lives. So you look at their life and you do not see Christ. You do not see holiness and
[01:15:37] sanctification. You see worldliness. Now this is really interesting what Paul does.
[01:15:43] Paul must have known something about Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People.
[01:15:49] because he doesn't just outright attack the Cretan culture, although he does.
[01:15:56] Because look what he says.
[01:15:58] He says, verse 12, one of the Cretans, he quotes this poet, this Cretan poet from 600 years before.
[01:16:09] He says this poet said, and they called him a prophet.
[01:16:14] Paul's not saying that he was a biblical prophet.
[01:16:17] The Cretans referred to him as a prophet.
[01:16:18] But he said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.
[01:16:27] Wow, what a description of the Cretan culture.
[01:16:31] Next verse, Paul's going to say, this testimony is true.
[01:16:38] So this is the culture.
[01:16:41] There's some people, some sociologists and some, you know, if you go to university, people will tell you that all cultures are created equal.
[01:16:49] Have you heard this?
[01:16:50] all cultures are equally good. No, no, no, no, no, no. The more a culture is enlightened by the truth of God's Word, the better the culture is. But what inevitably has happened through history, if you read or watch the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, is cultures are started in a place
[01:17:13] of more virtuous, and then they decline over time. As they go further and further away from God's revelation, they descend. Cultures are always in a place of descending, and sometimes by God's grace revival, God renews the church, and then that begins to renew the culture, and the culture
[01:17:35] becomes more godly and Christ-like. But the Cretan culture was bad. It was like Las Vegas.
[01:17:45] Bad. That the people, there was a verb to Cretanize, to Cretize, and it meant to lie.
[01:17:53] So literally, a verb in the Greek language was used that described dishonesty in the language of Crete. Cicero, the philosopher poet, said this, moral principles are so divergent that the Cretans consider highway robbery honorable. So if you look at what Paul says,
[01:18:24] quoting the poet is named Epimenides, Cretans are always liars. They don't tell the truth.
[01:18:34] they're evil beasts that means that they're violent they do bad things for gain and they're lazy gluttons they don't want to work when I read that description this week I was thinking about one of my favorite westerns the good the bad and the ugly I was thinking about Tuco who's the ugly
[01:18:54] never works always robbing people killing people trying to get shameful gain such was the case at crete and what paul's saying the reason why he's bringing this up is i think one it's a helpful reminder of the power of the gospel that the gospel had gone to this culture
[01:19:22] and it transformed lives. Do you have to be a moral people in order to receive the gospel?
[01:19:32] The answer is no. In fact, it's often the wicked who understand foremost that they need a savior.
[01:19:39] And so the gospel had come to this wicked culture filled with lazy people, liars, and violent men, and the gospel had converted them. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and then to the Greek.
[01:20:01] The gospel can convert any sinner. It's powerful. But Paul says, even though the gospel has done this work, he's saying rebuke the false teachers sharply because their lives look like the rest of the culture. Their lives look like the world. They're not counterculture. They look like the
[01:20:25] culture. They look like the world. Remember James said, James 4, for you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? And these false teachers looked exactly like the culture around them. Third, they devoted themselves to falsehood. So they're out for
[01:20:50] shameful gain number one they're worldly number two and they devoted themselves to falsehood this is really important because what false teachers do is they get off on a false tangent and they devote themselves to it like a dog with a bone they just stay there and they stay on these
[01:21:15] genealogies, they stay on their false teaching, and they become obsessed with that reality.
[01:21:25] A few years ago, there was a movement within the church called the social justice movement.
[01:21:36] Y'all remember this? 2015 to 2000, really 2020-21. And there was a guy who entered the PhD program with me at Southern, and he quickly left the program. But this guy imbibed the social justice teaching, that it was really a Marxist grid that put everybody in categories of oppressor or victim
[01:22:09] based on your ethnicity, language, sex, all of those things. And this guy bought into that hook, line, and sinker. And I pulled up his name on Amazon, and ever since then, he's been writing books and he's been writing books about the same thing wokeness he calls it
[01:22:35] social justice but it's it's wokeness and he's been doing it for the past seven years he stayed on that thing there's a guy at UNC Bart Ehrman his thing is he questions the validity of the
[01:22:51] Gospels and the New Testament. And he fancies himself a textual critic, and he writes book after book after book after book, challenging the inerrancy, inspiration, and authority of the New Testament. These guys are dogs with a bone. They get off path, and then they become
[01:23:13] devoted to that path. And then fourth and finally, they have defiled minds and consciences.
[01:23:22] Look at verse 15. To the pure, all things are pure, but the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure.
[01:23:32] Both their minds and their consciences are defiled. So they don't have a renewed mind.
[01:23:40] If you're a Christian, you have, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, the mind of Christ. You're given the mind of Christ. You begin to think in a Christian way when you are regenerated or born
[01:23:52] again. These false teachers are not born again. They're not Christians. They have a defiled mind and a defiled conscience. And notice what Paul says. He says, to the pure, all things are pure.
[01:24:06] Now, some have taken that verse out of context and said that it means that if you're a Christian, you can do anything and it's pure. You can have illicit sex. You can use drugs. You can get drunk.
[01:24:19] If you're pure, all things are pure. It's not what Paul's talking about at all. Obviously, Paul never sanctioned diluting the mind. Ephesians 5.18, do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
[01:24:37] We are to be holy. What Paul's referring to is this whole thing that we saw about asceticism and Jewish food laws. He says in 1 Timothy 4.4, he says, for everything created by God is good,
[01:24:54] everything. You can eat the pigs, you can eat the squirrels, you can eat it all. He says, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving. I said squirrels because my great-grandfather used to hunt squirrels, but you weren't supposed to eat those in the Old
[01:25:11] Testament. I always thought that was weird, by the way, but don't judge me for that. I've never eating a squirrel. He says, for it is made holy by the word of God in prayer. On the other hand,
[01:25:26] he says, if you are impure, even if you do, quote, the holy things, you are still impure because it flows from an impure mind and an impure conscience. Paul says anything that does not proceed from faith is sin because the mind is motivated by wrong motives. So everything the
[01:25:52] unbeliever does, everything the unbeliever does, even if it's, quote, obeying some sort of Old Testament law, it's polluted. It's polluted by their impure, defiled mind, everything that they do. So maybe they do a good action, but in their mind, it's out of a desire to prop themselves up
[01:26:16] before God, something like this. Everything is polluted that the unbeliever does. Our two-year-old son, he does everything with us. Like, you know, he's the fifth, and we just bring him along everywhere we go. So we'll be at these youth events out here, and all the youth have their
[01:26:35] Dr. Peppers and their Cokes, you know, their sugar water. And we call Truman, Truman's name, nickname is the drink burglar. Because kids will take a Dr. Pepper, take a few sips and put it down and go play basketball. And then all of a sudden Truman's over there, he's drinking their
[01:26:56] Dr. Pepper. So he just goes, he goes from drink to drink and drink. But here's the problem.
[01:27:03] once Truman takes a drink of your drink it's done because he had those Doritos in his mouth and he's back washing all of that back into your Dr. Pepper and so it doesn't matter how good that
[01:27:25] Dr. Pepper is we love our Dr. Pepper from Texas but if Truman's drunk the Dr. Pepper it's done pour it out throw it away the drink burglars struck and that's kind of the idea that Paul's
[01:27:43] getting at he's saying if it's from a polluted person everything's polluted downstream from that you you don't come back from that and so what needs to happen is and and the reason why Paul is saying rebuke the false teachers is that the hope is is that they would repent from their false
[01:28:06] teaching they would repent from their dead works and like all of us come to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith that is the hope that is the goal now verse 16 is a summary statement so this is a
[01:28:23] summary statement of everything we've covered they profess to know God but they deny him by their works. So you see it. And here's the tricky thing. These false teachers, they're not saying I'm an atheist or I'm not a Christian. They're claiming to be Christians. They profess to know God,
[01:28:48] but they deny him by their lives. They are detestable, he says. They are disobedient to the word of God, and they are unfit for any good work. John said in 1 John 2, 3, he says,
[01:29:04] by this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. So Paul gives these
[01:29:21] instructions, and that concludes his instructions about how to identify these false teachers.
[01:29:26] about their false teaching and about their false lives and the response is is that the elders are to rebuke them now here's the thing do you think satan is sending false teachers into watered down
[01:29:45] prosperity churches they're already there where is he sending the false teachers bastions of the truth he's trying to penetrate the truth fortresses that are in the world with false teaching they creep in unnoticed just like those wedding crashers we talked about they come in and they purview
[01:30:11] their false teaching in order to lead people astray and I'm sure I am sure just as the sun came up this morning that we will be dealing with this in the months and years to come so all the
[01:30:27] more we talked about last week about knowing sound doctrine all the more reason why we need to be pressing into sound doctrine because in that way we will be able to spot the counterfeit now is it
[01:30:41] costly to confront false teaching. It is. Do you know the name Athanasius? Name ring a bell?
[01:30:52] The bishop who distinguished himself at Nicaea standing for the doctrine of Christ. People remember him for standing for the deity of Christ at Nicaea and for the triumphal victory at Nicaea, the Nicene Creed, but what many people forget is that after Nicaea, there was a new
[01:31:15] emperor after Constantine who bought into the Arian doctrine that Jesus was not God but was like God. And for years, Athanasius was on the run from the false teachers. They hunted him down and they tried to kill him. At one point he was on a boat on the Nile and a faster boat was behind
[01:31:39] him trying to catch him. Athanasius, smart fellow, pretty quick-witted, said let's turn around and go past him the other way and maybe they'll think that we're someone different. And so sure enough they came to the quicker boat and they said, hey there, we're looking for Athanasius.
[01:31:57] and he said keep rowing he's on ahead of you and they kept going and he survived my point is is that standing for the truth is sometimes costly and we have to be prepared for those
[01:32:13] costs amen amen lord we want to stand for the true gospel the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints, sola gratia, that we are saved by grace alone, solus Christus in Christ
[01:32:33] alone, sola fide, by faith alone. Lord, we stand for your truth, the word of God, all 66 books, infallible, authoritative, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and we stand with the law and ethic of Christ, the law of God that is given to us in the scriptures, not adding to it or taking away
[01:32:56] from it. Lord, if there's anyone here who does not know Christ, I pray, Lord, that you would open their eyes to the truth, that they would repent of their sins and trust Christ today in faith. Lord, our desire is to grow in grace, to grow in godliness, that we would be transformed
[01:33:13] by the renewal of our minds. For Christ's sake, amen. All right, I invite you to stand and to sing. We're going to sing a great, great song of the Christian faith.

[01:33:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[01:33:27] Jesus prayed sanctify them in the truth your word is truth to that we say yes Lord sanctify us amen