Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / Titus 1:10-16 - Make Them Stop
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Life Audio. Good morning there, friends and faithful listeners. We're
- 0:06Speaker 1: in Titus chapter one. Today. We're going to finish out
- 0:09Speaker 1: this chapter and talk about some of the problems that
- 0:13Speaker 1: we're going on in the Cretan churches and also how
- 0:16Speaker 1: these definitely relate to the churches today. We'll get into
- 0:20Speaker 1: this fascinating topic in just one moment. All right, faithful listeners,
- 0:30Speaker 1: I hope you've had a great start to your week.
- 0:32Speaker 1: If you ever have any prayer quests, please don't hesitate
- 0:35Speaker 1: to reach out. You can find my contact information listed
- 0:38Speaker 1: in the description of this episode, and I will write
- 0:40Speaker 1: you down in my little prayer journal and pray for
- 0:42Speaker 1: you for the week. But I also appreciate just emails
- 0:45Speaker 1: about how you found the podcast, where you live, what
- 0:48Speaker 1: the weather is like. I always like hearing about you,
- 0:50Speaker 1: faithful listeners, So don't hesitate to reach out. All right,
- 0:53Speaker 1: let's go ahead and read Titus chapter one right after
- 0:56Speaker 1: a quick message from this sponsor. All right, faithful listeners.
- 1:01Speaker 1: Hopefully during that advertisement you are able to grab your
- 1:05Speaker 1: Bible and your cup of coffee or your cup of
- 1:07Speaker 1: tea to share with me as we discuss Titus chapter one,
- 1:10Speaker 1: verses ten through sixteen. I'll be reading as I usually
- 1:13Speaker 1: do from the we B this morning. For there are
- 1:18Speaker 1: also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those
- 1:22Speaker 1: of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped. Men who
- 1:25Speaker 1: overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for
- 1:29Speaker 1: dishonest gain's sake. One of them, a prophet of their own, said,
- 1:33Speaker 1: Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons. This
- 1:36Speaker 1: testimony is true for this cause. Reprove them sharply that
- 1:40Speaker 1: they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention
- 1:42Speaker 1: to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn away
- 1:45Speaker 1: from the truth. To the pure all things are pure.
- 1:48Speaker 1: But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure.
- 1:51Speaker 1: But both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They
- 1:54Speaker 1: profess that they know God, but by their deeds they
- 1:57Speaker 1: deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.
- 2:03Speaker 1: If you faith the listeners didn't catch the first portion
- 2:06Speaker 1: of Titus chapter one, then you should. You should go
- 2:08Speaker 1: back and listen to that episode or read it for
- 2:10Speaker 1: yourself preferably. But basically, Paul wrote this letter to Titus,
- 2:15Speaker 1: who was on the island of Crete because he needed
- 2:19Speaker 1: to help establish a church there. It sounds like the
- 2:22Speaker 1: church was already planted in Crete, but they were having
- 2:25Speaker 1: a lot of problems, and Paul knew about all these
- 2:28Speaker 1: problems because he had firsthand experience he was in Crete,
- 2:32Speaker 1: and the situation was so dire that Paul, when he
- 2:36Speaker 1: left to go on the next part of his missionary journey,
- 2:39Speaker 1: he entrusted the Church of Crete to Titus, who apparently
- 2:44Speaker 1: just had the personality to be able to handle something
- 2:47Speaker 1: like this. So we talked about the first portion of
- 2:49Speaker 1: Titus on where the Church of Crete didn't have any elders,
- 2:53Speaker 1: and that was one of Titus's responsibilities was to appoint
- 2:57Speaker 1: elders to this church, not just any person that wanted
- 3:00Speaker 1: to become an elder, but a legitimate, qualified elder. And
- 3:03Speaker 1: we talked about what those qualifications were on Thursday of
- 3:07Speaker 1: last week. So that was Titus's first responsibility in Crete.
- 3:12Speaker 1: The second responsibility is what we talk about in verses
- 3:15Speaker 1: ten through sixteen. Today he says in verse ten, there
- 3:18Speaker 1: are also many unruly men, vain talkers, and deceivers, especially
- 3:23Speaker 1: those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped. So
- 3:28Speaker 1: there is also an issue with unruly men. Now, depending
- 3:32Speaker 1: on the version you read, it may say something different,
- 3:35Speaker 1: such as insubordinate or unsubmissive. That's essentially what Paul is
- 3:40Speaker 1: saying here that there were disobedient and insubordinate and just
- 3:44Speaker 1: not submissive men in this church congregation. They kind of
- 3:48Speaker 1: wanted to do whatever they wanted to do. They didn't
- 3:51Speaker 1: want to submit to God's will, they didn't want to
- 3:53Speaker 1: obey God's will. They just wanted to enjoy the benefits
- 3:57Speaker 1: of Christianity and following God without aca actually following the
- 4:01Speaker 1: core principles of Christianity. He says that there are unruly
- 4:04Speaker 1: men and vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision. Now,
- 4:11Speaker 1: when Paul talks about the people of the circumcision, we've
- 4:15Speaker 1: discussed this before on the podcast, but that's talking about
- 4:18Speaker 1: the Jewish people that went around claiming to be Christians,
- 4:22Speaker 1: but we're pushing their ideology of circumcision on gentile men.
- 4:27Speaker 1: They were saying, well, you're not actually saved if you
- 4:31Speaker 1: don't go and get circumcised, like you have to be
- 4:34Speaker 1: circumcised in order to be saved, because they'll forget, you know,
- 4:37Speaker 1: gentiles and Jews. That was one of the things that
- 4:39Speaker 1: made them very different from each other. The gentiles never
- 4:41Speaker 1: got circumcised. That was a uniquely Jewish thing. And the
- 4:46Speaker 1: reason the Jewish people did it was because of the
- 4:48Speaker 1: Covenant back in the Old Testament, where God had Abraham
- 4:52Speaker 1: get circumcised, and he circumcised his entire household. And this
- 4:55Speaker 1: was to show that they were a part of God's
- 4:57Speaker 1: people for many generations to come, which is why the
- 5:01Speaker 1: Jewish people to this day, the men still get circumcised. Now,
- 5:05Speaker 1: I'm not going to get into why God commanded circumcision
- 5:08Speaker 1: in the Old Testament. I have talked about that at length.
- 5:11Speaker 1: There were reasons for it, like genuinely good, healthy reasons
- 5:15Speaker 1: for the ancient people to get circumcised. But circumcision was
- 5:19Speaker 1: certainly not required of a person in order to be saved.
- 5:22Speaker 1: And yet these Jewish people were going around being like, well,
- 5:26Speaker 1: Jesus is grace, and what he did for you up
- 5:28Speaker 1: on that cross is not enough for you. You also
- 5:32Speaker 1: have to follow all of these legalistic rules, including getting circumcised,
- 5:37Speaker 1: in order to truly be saved. You know, your only
- 5:41Speaker 1: quasi saved. If you believe in Jesus, you have to
- 5:43Speaker 1: do all these other things that we make up as well.
- 5:46Speaker 1: Paul was totally against this because it was making people
- 5:49Speaker 1: question their faith in Jesus, and it was also diminishing
- 5:52Speaker 1: what Jesus had done on the cross, saying, oh, what
- 5:55Speaker 1: Jesus did for you is not good enough. You have
- 5:58Speaker 1: to do something on your own. And as we all know,
- 6:02Speaker 1: works don't save us. What we do does not save us.
- 6:06Speaker 1: The only way we can be saved is by believing
- 6:09Speaker 1: on Jesus. And we know that faith is not a work,
- 6:12Speaker 1: because Paul specifically says faith is not a work. So
- 6:16Speaker 1: we can't boast about any work we've done because we
- 6:18Speaker 1: haven't done anything even if we are saved. Because faith
- 6:21Speaker 1: is not a work, there's no works that we can
- 6:25Speaker 1: do to get ourselves closer to God. And Paul was
- 6:29Speaker 1: very adamant about this, and yet there were a bunch
- 6:32Speaker 1: of Jewish people in Paul's day saying that works do
- 6:36Speaker 1: in fact save you. And another thing they would say
- 6:39Speaker 1: in Paul's day that was very common also is you
- 6:41Speaker 1: couldn't eat certain meats in order to be saved, or
- 6:45Speaker 1: certain foods you had to only eat kosher. So that
- 6:48Speaker 1: was the two things that these judaizers were spreading in
- 6:52Speaker 1: Paul's day, and unfortunately a lot of this stuff made
- 6:55Speaker 1: it to the island of Crete. That is how wide
- 6:58Speaker 1: spread this bully became. Now, of course, that wasn't the
- 7:02Speaker 1: only bad ideology being spread around the churches in Paul's day,
- 7:06Speaker 1: but that was certainly a big part of it, which
- 7:08Speaker 1: is why he says, especially those of the circumcision, their
- 7:12Speaker 1: mouths must be stopped. That means Paul is telling Titus
- 7:19Speaker 1: that these people need to shut up, and that Titus
- 7:23Speaker 1: needs to shut these people up, and not just Titus himself,
- 7:27Speaker 1: but also any elder that would be coming into the
- 7:30Speaker 1: church as well. They needed to have the personality that
- 7:33Speaker 1: would stop these bad ideologies from spreading further in the church.
- 7:38Speaker 1: And man, you know, this is something that we do
- 7:40Speaker 1: not do in today's society. In our churches. We just
- 7:45Speaker 1: allow very very stupid ideas to get infiltrated into the church.
- 7:52Speaker 1: We don't stop them at all, because we're too scared
- 7:54Speaker 1: to hurt people's feelings. We're too scared to say this
- 7:58Speaker 1: is garbage ideology that should not be getting spread in
- 8:01Speaker 1: our churches. And I mean, think about the language Paul
- 8:04Speaker 1: is using here. Their mouths must be stopped. That is
- 8:07Speaker 1: some really strong language, and it is not what the
- 8:10Speaker 1: churches today are doing. It is very hard, actually to
- 8:14Speaker 1: find a church that is godly and biblical. I mean,
- 8:18Speaker 1: you can find a church on any street corner in
- 8:20Speaker 1: America pretty much. There are tons and tons of churches
- 8:25Speaker 1: available to you, but chances are most of them are
- 8:27Speaker 1: teaching some form of bad ideology to its congregants. So
- 8:32Speaker 1: it's so hard to find a church that is actually
- 8:36Speaker 1: reading the Bible and teaching what it has to say.
- 8:40Speaker 1: It's hard to find a church that isn't affirming to
- 8:43Speaker 1: every sin. It's hard to find a church that even
- 8:46Speaker 1: talks about sin in a lot of cases. It's hard
- 8:49Speaker 1: to find a church that isn't legalistic, like these judaizers
- 8:53Speaker 1: that Paul mentions here, not to mention all the other
- 8:56Speaker 1: strange beliefs that are in the world today. It's hard
- 8:59Speaker 1: to find a church that teaches out of the Bible.
- 9:02Speaker 1: Growing up, I went to a church, not the cul
- 9:06Speaker 1: ty church that I grew up in, but the church
- 9:07Speaker 1: we went to after that. For a while, the pastor
- 9:11Speaker 1: like barely spoke out of the Bible. He would preach
- 9:14Speaker 1: messages from books, especially books about war heroes. He was
- 9:20Speaker 1: really into that because he had been a chaplain in
- 9:24Speaker 1: some branch of the military for a very long time.
- 9:26Speaker 1: So he idolized people who fought for our country. And
- 9:30Speaker 1: I mean, that's not a bad thing, right, but that's
- 9:33Speaker 1: definitely not what you should be preaching your sermons on.
- 9:36Speaker 1: You should be preaching your sermons on the Bible. So,
- 9:40Speaker 1: I mean, even that kind of stuff, it is hard
- 9:41Speaker 1: to find a church that preaches from what the Bible
- 9:45Speaker 1: has to say, and the majority of church elders and
- 9:48Speaker 1: church of leaders are too scared to do what Paul
- 9:53Speaker 1: says to do here, which is to make these people
- 9:56Speaker 1: stop spreading bad ideology, to make them stop, to make
- 10:00Speaker 1: their mouths stop. Paul says, the reason they have to
- 10:03Speaker 1: be stopped is because these are men who overthrow whole
- 10:08Speaker 1: houses in verse eleven, teaching things which they ought not
- 10:11Speaker 1: for dishonest gain's sake. These people are overthrowing houses with
- 10:16Speaker 1: their garbage, and the only reason they're doing it is
- 10:20Speaker 1: because of dishonest gain's sake, whether they're doing it to
- 10:23Speaker 1: feel holy or righteous, whether they're doing it because they
- 10:29Speaker 1: think it's going to gain something for themselves. Like Brownie
- 10:31Speaker 1: points with God, or they're doing it because it's just
- 10:34Speaker 1: the popular ideology and they don't want to go against
- 10:37Speaker 1: it because they're scared. They might be doing it for money,
- 10:42Speaker 1: or for fame, or for attention. Whatever reason they're doing it,
- 10:46Speaker 1: it is not for the right reason, is what Paul says.
- 10:51Speaker 1: That's why they have to be stopped. They are overthrowing houses,
- 10:54Speaker 1: they are making people question their faith. Verse twelve says
- 10:59Speaker 1: one of them, a profit of their own says Cretans
- 11:02Speaker 1: are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons. This testimony
- 11:06Speaker 1: is true. I'm sorry that those two verses absolutely crack
- 11:10Speaker 1: me up every single time I read them. The Cretans
- 11:13Speaker 1: had a very bad reputation, and that word Cretan to
- 11:17Speaker 1: this day is still used as an insult for people
- 11:20Speaker 1: who are lazy. That is how infamous the Cretans became.
- 11:25Speaker 1: And Paul's like, even the Cretans know how bad they
- 11:27Speaker 1: are that even one of their own prophets said that
- 11:31Speaker 1: Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons, and
- 11:35Speaker 1: Paul's like, this testimony is actually true. The Cretans really
- 11:40Speaker 1: are liars, idle gluttons, and evil beasts. So Titus had
- 11:45Speaker 1: his work cut out for him, and Paul says for
- 11:48Speaker 1: this reason, reprove them sharply that they may be sound
- 11:52Speaker 1: in the faith. I think it's interesting that Paul knew
- 11:57Speaker 1: Titus could do this job. There's not a lot of
- 12:00Speaker 1: men out there that are willing to reprove other people
- 12:05Speaker 1: sharply for the faith. This is a very uncommon thing,
- 12:10Speaker 1: and in fact, out of all the churches I've ever
- 12:12Speaker 1: been in, I don't know that I've ever seen it.
- 12:15Speaker 1: I don't know that I've ever seen a pastor honestly
- 12:19Speaker 1: reprove somebody without humiliating them. By the way, the church
- 12:23Speaker 1: that I grew up in, the call ty one that
- 12:26Speaker 1: one sermons would be preached about people from the pulpit,
- 12:31Speaker 1: and that was just a form of shame and humiliation
- 12:34Speaker 1: that I'd never recommend. It was handled so improperly and terribly,
- 12:39Speaker 1: and a lot of times for some of the silliest things. Actually,
- 12:43Speaker 1: my grandma used to go to the church I grew
- 12:47Speaker 1: up in as well, just for a little while. She
- 12:49Speaker 1: didn't go for very long. But my grandma was about
- 12:51Speaker 1: ninety pounds and skinny as a stick and short too.
- 12:54Speaker 1: My Grandma's the tiniest little lady. For all the days
- 12:57Speaker 1: that I knew her, she was always cold. She didn't
- 13:01Speaker 1: have any heat in her trailer, and it was unbearable
- 13:05Speaker 1: in the summer. It was like a tin box and
- 13:07Speaker 1: she was comfortable in it. It was terrible, but that's
- 13:10Speaker 1: how my grandma was. And so the church was very
- 13:13Speaker 1: cold to her. So she'd bring these sweaters. And you know,
- 13:16Speaker 1: she was also a very blunt woman, so she'd tell
- 13:19Speaker 1: the pastor and the other people, this church is freezing.
- 13:21Speaker 1: I don't enjoy coming because of how cold it is. Well,
- 13:25Speaker 1: the pastor of that church just couldn't get past that.
- 13:28Speaker 1: My grandma said that, and for like six years kept
- 13:33Speaker 1: bringing it up in sermons. Oh, you know, people they
- 13:37Speaker 1: leave the church over the stupidest reasons, like it's too
- 13:40Speaker 1: cold in here. And that wasn't the reason my grandma
- 13:43Speaker 1: left the church, by the way, But man, like for
- 13:46Speaker 1: six years, maybe longer, I don't even know, that pastor
- 13:49Speaker 1: was still hung up over the fact that my grandma
- 13:52Speaker 1: felt that it was too cold in the church. Not
- 13:54Speaker 1: saying my grandma was right or wrong to complain about it,
- 13:57Speaker 1: but still it was a way for the pastor to
- 13:58Speaker 1: shame somebody that didn't appreciate every single aspect of the church,
- 14:04Speaker 1: which is why whenever we see church discipline come up
- 14:08Speaker 1: in passages like this, it's always talking about reproving somebody
- 14:12Speaker 1: to their face, not stating it passive aggressively from the pulpit,
- 14:17Speaker 1: but going directly to the person and telling them you
- 14:20Speaker 1: are wrong. In the Book of Galatians, Paul had to
- 14:24Speaker 1: do this to Peter because Peter started hanging out with
- 14:27Speaker 1: all the Judaizers and leading people astray. Because you know,
- 14:30Speaker 1: Peter was like second in command of Jesus and people
- 14:34Speaker 1: respected him, and so Peter, who was scared of the Judaizers,
- 14:37Speaker 1: started just like becoming buddy buddy with them and making
- 14:40Speaker 1: people lose their faith in Jesus's grace. So Paul was
- 14:44Speaker 1: obviously very angry about this because he's somebody that didn't
- 14:49Speaker 1: want any of this garbage being spread to the new churches.
- 14:52Speaker 1: So he went directly to Peter in front of all
- 14:55Speaker 1: of Peter's friends, and he was like, Peter, you know,
- 14:58Speaker 1: before your friends all we got here, you were sitting
- 15:02Speaker 1: and eating with all of the gentiles and acting like
- 15:05Speaker 1: a gentile yourself. So what changed? Why are you doing this.
- 15:10Speaker 1: That was Paul reproving Peter publicly to his face, and
- 15:15Speaker 1: it was a good thing that he did. He needed
- 15:17Speaker 1: to do it because Peter was going off the wrong
- 15:19Speaker 1: track and causing other people to lose their faith. And
- 15:23Speaker 1: that's what Titus needed to do in this church in Crete.
- 15:25Speaker 1: And he had his work cut out for him because
- 15:28Speaker 1: not only were these garbage principles being spread around, but
- 15:31Speaker 1: the Cretans themselves also had a bad reputation, so there
- 15:35Speaker 1: was several difficult things happening in this church. Paul says,
- 15:40Speaker 1: reprove them sharply that they may be sound in the faith,
- 15:43Speaker 1: not paying attention to Jewish fables and commandments of men
- 15:47Speaker 1: who turn away from the truth. So there you go.
- 15:50Speaker 1: Paul says, this stuff is not biblical, what these judaizers
- 15:53Speaker 1: are doing. They are spreading myths and fables and their
- 15:58Speaker 1: own commandments, commandments of men, not commandments of God, and
- 16:02Speaker 1: they're turning people away from the truth. And now in
- 16:05Speaker 1: verse fifteen, there's a kind of a perplexing verse right here.
- 16:09Speaker 1: It says to the pure, all things are pure. But
- 16:12Speaker 1: to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure,
- 16:15Speaker 1: but both their mind and their consciences are defiled. Now,
- 16:19Speaker 1: when Paul says to the pure, all things are pure,
- 16:22Speaker 1: he is not saying that sin becomes purer to the
- 16:25Speaker 1: pure person. He's not talking about immorality. He is talking
- 16:31Speaker 1: about legalism right here. And the best example I could
- 16:34Speaker 1: give is in the context of food. The judaizer said,
- 16:39Speaker 1: if you eat unkosher food, that means that you are
- 16:42Speaker 1: not truly saved. But to the person who is pure,
- 16:46Speaker 1: who truly believed in Jesus, they understood that that's just
- 16:51Speaker 1: legalism and that they can eat unkosher foods because those foods,
- 16:56Speaker 1: regardless of what they eat, are not bringing them any clothes,
- 17:00Speaker 1: sir to God, Like what you eat is not going
- 17:02Speaker 1: to gain you any points with God. The pure understand this,
- 17:06Speaker 1: and they don't need to be boggled down with all
- 17:09Speaker 1: of that legalism. But to somebody who is not pure,
- 17:13Speaker 1: everything to them is unpure. They try to take the
- 17:16Speaker 1: freedom of grace away from other people. They say, Oh, well,
- 17:21Speaker 1: I don't know how you could be saved if you
- 17:23Speaker 1: don't go to church on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and
- 17:26Speaker 1: Wednesday night. I don't know how you could be saved. Oh,
- 17:30Speaker 1: I don't know how you could be saved if you
- 17:32Speaker 1: listen to music with drums in it. I don't know
- 17:35Speaker 1: how you could be saved if you don't wear a
- 17:37Speaker 1: skirt a certain length or wear a covering on your head.
- 17:42Speaker 1: These are all legalistic ideas that are not found in scripture.
- 17:46Speaker 1: And by the way, I'm giving specific examples from my
- 17:48Speaker 1: own personal life. To the people who are impure and legalistic,
- 17:53Speaker 1: everything in their mind is impure, and they become judgmental,
- 17:59Speaker 1: not just of each other, but of themselves as well.
- 18:03Speaker 1: They don't live in the grace that Jesus gives them.
- 18:06Speaker 1: They become concerned about some of the silliest things. If
- 18:09Speaker 1: any of you know somebody who falls into legalism, you
- 18:13Speaker 1: can tell that they just are miserable, like they don't
- 18:16Speaker 1: have any fun because everything to them is impure, even
- 18:21Speaker 1: if it's not going to necessarily cause them to sin.
- 18:24Speaker 1: That's what legalism does. It takes the joy away from
- 18:29Speaker 1: living as a Christian. It takes the joy away from
- 18:32Speaker 1: the grace that Jesus gave us. And once again, Paul's
- 18:35Speaker 1: not talking about anything immoral here, like clear sins such
- 18:39Speaker 1: as lust or stealing or mistreating other people. He's not
- 18:43Speaker 1: talking about those things. He's talking about just living in
- 18:46Speaker 1: the freedom that Jesus gave us, not worrying about every
- 18:50Speaker 1: little thing. This actually takes me to a kind of
- 18:53Speaker 1: bizarre verse from Ecclesiastes, Chapter seven, verses sixteen through seventeen.
- 18:59Speaker 1: Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon in his older years.
- 19:04Speaker 1: He says in verse sixteen, don't be overly righteous, neither
- 19:08Speaker 1: make yourself overly wise? Why should you destroy yourself? Don't
- 19:12Speaker 1: be too wicked, neither be foolish? Why should you die
- 19:15Speaker 1: before your time? And a lot of people have some
- 19:18Speaker 1: problems with those two verses that Solomon wrote because they're like,
- 19:22Speaker 1: what do you mean, I shouldn't make myself overly wise
- 19:24Speaker 1: or overly righteous? Isn't it good to be righteous and
- 19:28Speaker 1: to be wise? Well, yes, of course it is. But
- 19:31Speaker 1: Solomon is talking about an excess here. He's talking about
- 19:34Speaker 1: crossing over into legalism, where you are so focused on
- 19:38Speaker 1: not being corrupted by the world or the sin in
- 19:41Speaker 1: the world, that you just suck the joy out of
- 19:44Speaker 1: your life. Because that's honestly, what legalism does. It takes
- 19:48Speaker 1: freedom and joy away from people. And Paul says that
- 19:52Speaker 1: the people who are legalistic are actually defiled and unbelieving,
- 19:57Speaker 1: and nothing to them is pure. But both if their
- 20:00Speaker 1: mind and their consciences are defiled, he says, they profess
- 20:05Speaker 1: that they know God, but by their deeds they deny him,
- 20:07Speaker 1: being abominable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work. So
- 20:11Speaker 1: the person who is overly legalistic, once again, they are
- 20:15Speaker 1: stating that Jesus's grace is not enough. They're showing that
- 20:19Speaker 1: with their works. They're saying, Nope, Jesus can't possibly save
- 20:24Speaker 1: with just his blood. It's like taking the spotlight off
- 20:28Speaker 1: of Jesus and just putting it on ourselves in a way,
- 20:32Speaker 1: kind of making ourselves like God's. When we say that
- 20:35Speaker 1: our good works are going to save us, we are
- 20:39Speaker 1: essentially making ourselves out to be God's. We are becoming idolatrous.
- 20:45Speaker 1: And what's interesting, that's kind of what Paul alludes to
- 20:48Speaker 1: right here by using the word abominable. He calls these
- 20:50Speaker 1: people abominable. That word has ties to idolatry, by the way,
- 20:54Speaker 1: that's essentially what it means, idolatrous. These people are becoming
- 21:00Speaker 1: idolatrous because they're believing that their own works can save them.
- 21:03Speaker 1: But that is just not the truth. Our own works
- 21:06Speaker 1: can't save us. Only the work that Jesus did on
- 21:09Speaker 1: the cross can save us. Faithful listeners, I've got a
- 21:14Speaker 1: few closing notes I'd like to say right after this
- 21:17Speaker 1: sponsored ad. It's interesting the older I get, the more
- 21:23Speaker 1: I realize that there is a fine line that you
- 21:26Speaker 1: have to walk with almost everything. If you cross the
- 21:29Speaker 1: line too much in either direction, you start going off
- 21:32Speaker 1: the right path. Maybe that's why God says narrow is
- 21:36Speaker 1: the way that leads to life, but broad is the
- 21:40Speaker 1: way that leads to destruction. There really is a thin
- 21:43Speaker 1: line you have to walk. You don't want to be
- 21:45Speaker 1: too much like the Cretans who just did whatever they
- 21:48Speaker 1: wanted to do without truly following the principles of Christianity.
- 21:52Speaker 1: But you also don't want to be like the Judaizers
- 21:55Speaker 1: who were trying to follow the Old Testament laws so
- 21:58Speaker 1: strongly that they were denying the grace of Jesus. You
- 22:02Speaker 1: got to toe that line and say, yes, Jesus did
- 22:05Speaker 1: give me grace and he did save me, and I
- 22:07Speaker 1: have freedom and joy because of that. Because Jesus saved me,
- 22:11Speaker 1: I want to live for him. I want to live
- 22:13Speaker 1: a moral life, so faithful listeners, I hope you've been
- 22:15Speaker 1: enjoying the Book of Titus so far. We only have
- 22:18Speaker 1: two more chapters in Titus, so we're probably going to
- 22:21Speaker 1: fly very quickly through this book. But then again, like
- 22:24Speaker 1: some of these smaller books, have a lot of deep
- 22:27Speaker 1: topics in them, so maybe we'll spend more time in
- 22:30Speaker 1: Titus than I even realize. I don't know, but faithful listeners,
- 22:33Speaker 1: I hope you have a fantastic and wonderful rest of
- 22:36Speaker 1: your day. I will see all of you guys tomorrow
- 22:38Speaker 1: for another episode from Second Chronicles. I'll see you guys
- 22:41Speaker 1: then six am or whenever you choose to wake up
- 22:43Speaker 1: and listen. Happy listening, and God bless. I just want
- 22:52Speaker 1: to take a second to thank the team at Life
- 22:54Speaker 1: Audio for their partnership with me on the Bible Explain podcast.
- 22:57Speaker 1: In fact, if you go to life audio dot com
- 23:00Speaker 1: find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network.
- 23:03Speaker 1: They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.