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To the Pure All Things Are Pure Titus 1:15–16 · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Our focus in this session is Titus one, fifteen and sixteen,
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  Speaker 1: and I think we can do this in one episode.
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  Speaker 1: To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled,
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  Speaker 1: as opposed to the pure and unbelieving, nothing is pure,
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  Speaker 1: but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They
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  Speaker 1: profess to know God. We're talking about professing believers here,
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  Speaker 1: not just horrid people out there we think are doing
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  Speaker 1: bad things. They profess to know God, but they deny
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  Speaker 1: Him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for
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  Speaker 1: every good work. Father grantest to understand the nature of purity,
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  Speaker 1: where it comes from, the nature of defilement, and where
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  Speaker 1: it comes from. And what's the upshot, Lord of being
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  Speaker 1: really pure and not unfit for every good work, but
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  Speaker 1: fit for all things pure and every good work. Be
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  Speaker 1: our teacher. Now, I pray in Jesus name, Amen, So
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  Speaker 1: what's the flow of thought from what went before? Here?
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  Speaker 1: He is I've marked these. He has just referred to
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  Speaker 1: these false teachers and the problem people as insubordinate, empty talkers, deceivers,
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  Speaker 1: ruining whole households, in love with money, teaching false things
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  Speaker 1: for shameful gain, liars, evil beasts, giving away to animal appetite,
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  Speaker 1: gluttons and caving into their own hunger all the time,
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  Speaker 1: and turning away from the truth, so that they are
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  Speaker 1: really and he thinks of this word. He thinks of
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  Speaker 1: this word defiled morally dirty. So I think that's that
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  Speaker 1: comes into his mind after this awful description. And so
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  Speaker 1: as he turns, now, he wonders, well, what about before
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  Speaker 1: I say something about the defiled that have just been
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  Speaker 1: described so grossly in the previous paragraph. That's going to
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  Speaker 1: raise the question of the Christians who are not defiled,
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  Speaker 1: and they're going to wonder, well, what about us, Paul,
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  Speaker 1: You're harping on the defiled? What about us? So he
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  Speaker 1: begins with to the pure, and he really believes that
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  Speaker 1: they're there in the church, and he wants to encourage
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  Speaker 1: them and tell them who they are and how they
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  Speaker 1: got that way, and what it means to be pure.
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  Speaker 1: To the pure, not the defiled. All things are pure.
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  Speaker 1: Now we'll come back to that in just a minute.
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  Speaker 1: What in the world does all things mean to the pure?
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  Speaker 1: All things are pure, but to the defiled. And I
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  Speaker 1: think it's very key that he adds and unbelieving, So
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  Speaker 1: he's I think he's filling out something really crucial about
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  Speaker 1: the root of defilement, namely unbelief, which I think here
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  Speaker 1: implies belief. If the root of defilement is unbelief in Christ,
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  Speaker 1: unbelieve in the promises of God, not trusting God, not
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  Speaker 1: accepting Christ as the purifier and empowerer of our good deeds,
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  Speaker 1: then the pure people are the people who have believed
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  Speaker 1: and they do trust Christ. Now it's really crucial, I
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  Speaker 1: think when you see this nothing here to the defiled
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  Speaker 1: and unbelieving, nothing is pure. To remember Romans fourteen twenty three,
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  Speaker 1: whoever has doubt is condemned if he eats, because the
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  Speaker 1: eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed
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  Speaker 1: from faith is sin, even good things or horrible things.
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  Speaker 1: If you're not a person trusting in Christ, then the
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  Speaker 1: acts of your life are sin because they're not representing
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  Speaker 1: a reliance upon Christ, which is the essential morality, the
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  Speaker 1: essential root of all that is God exulting and shaped
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  Speaker 1: by the Spirit. It's got to be trust. So when
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  Speaker 1: he says the defiled for the defiled, nothing is pure.
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  Speaker 1: This right here unbelieving explains that on the basis of
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  Speaker 1: Romans fourteen twenty three, if you don't believe everything you
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  Speaker 1: do is sin, so nothing is pure. One Timothy one
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  Speaker 1: point five is pointing in the same direction. The aim
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  Speaker 1: of our charge is love, love for people that issues
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  Speaker 1: from a pure heart, a good conscience, sincere faith. All
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  Speaker 1: three of those are here in this text pure. But
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  Speaker 1: both their minds and consciences are defiled, and they are unbelieving.
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  Speaker 1: So faith is here or lack of it. Purity is
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  Speaker 1: here or lack of it, And consciences are here and
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  Speaker 1: they're not clean. They're dirty. This unbelief as the root
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  Speaker 1: of this defilement is now described as their minds and
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  Speaker 1: their consciences are defiled. In other words, when sin is
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  Speaker 1: the root nature of your soul, it ruins the capacity
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  Speaker 1: of the mind to think rightly about the world and
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  Speaker 1: about God, about Christ, about his revelation, and conscience, which
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  Speaker 1: is the awareness of our own thinking and doing, passing
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  Speaker 1: judgment on ourselves. That's distorted and corrupted and made dirty.
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  Speaker 1: So unbelief here is really essential to grasp. Now, how
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  Speaker 1: how do you become pure? Here's here's Titus to fourteen.
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  Speaker 1: Just the next chapter, fourteen verses later, Christ gave himself.
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  Speaker 1: So here's Christ on the cross for us to redeem
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  Speaker 1: us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a
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  Speaker 1: people of his own possession who are zealous for good deeds.
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  Speaker 1: Christ's blood shed on the cross is absolutely essential for
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  Speaker 1: us to purify our hunsciences. And out of our confidence
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  Speaker 1: in this purifying work, you could say this justifying work
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  Speaker 1: flows a new power for good deeds, of which these
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  Speaker 1: folks are, These defile folks are totally unfit, unfit for
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  Speaker 1: every good work, whereas the pure are going to be
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  Speaker 1: fit for every good work. Which leads me back now
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  Speaker 1: to the when I say every I'm going to relate
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  Speaker 1: that to all things here. What does what in the
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  Speaker 1: world does he mean when he says to the pure
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  Speaker 1: all things are pure? And we're not going to be
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  Speaker 1: so naive as to say, oh, adultery is pure, and
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  Speaker 1: murder is pure, and lying is pure. He doesn't want
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  Speaker 1: us to go there? Well, where does he want us
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  Speaker 1: to go? And a lot of people, I think, jump
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  Speaker 1: out of the context and go to Romans fourteen Corinthians.
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  Speaker 1: I'm eight or over to one Timothy? What four we're
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  Speaker 1: It's talking about foods, and all foods are clean for
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  Speaker 1: Christians if they trust Christ. This is not here. Now
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  Speaker 1: that that may be behind this somewhere, but that's not
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  Speaker 1: in this context. So I'm I'm trying to figure out
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  Speaker 1: what for the pure All things are pure means as
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  Speaker 1: a phrase that stands here and is very similar. I'm
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  Speaker 1: gonna go here for a clue, a pointer, very similar
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  Speaker 1: to all things are pure. Right here. It's so similar
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  Speaker 1: that I feel warranted to come over here and wonder
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  Speaker 1: whether this is pointing to the same reality. So here's
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  Speaker 1: Luke eleven. The Lord said to him, Now, you, Pharisees,
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  Speaker 1: cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but
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  Speaker 1: inside you're full of greed, wickedness, impure tea, you fools.
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  Speaker 1: Did not he who made the outside make the inside also,
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  Speaker 1: But give as alms those things that are within. That's
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  Speaker 1: a strange phrase, give as alms. So here they are
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  Speaker 1: making a big pretense that they're almsgivers, and Jesus says
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  Speaker 1: you're not, because you're so greedy and wicked and impure
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  Speaker 1: on the inside. So if you give as alms things
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  Speaker 1: that are within, in other words, if you stop being
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  Speaker 1: greedy and wicked and impure on the inside, then behold
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  Speaker 1: all things are pure for you, which I think means
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  Speaker 1: you will be motivated now from within, not by greed,
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  Speaker 1: not by wickedness, not by impurity. You'll be motivated by love.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, your almsgiving won't be hypocrisy anymore. You
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  Speaker 1: really love people from within. Giving almsrom within means really
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  Speaker 1: non hypocritically loving people. And if that's the kind of
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  Speaker 1: person you have become by God's grace, then you will
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  Speaker 1: be motivated only to do what's pure. I don't think
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  Speaker 1: it means here every conceivable action becomes a good action
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  Speaker 1: for you. I think it means all the actions that
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  Speaker 1: you are now motivated from within to do are pure actions.
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  Speaker 1: And so if you go back here, I think that's
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  Speaker 1: the idea to the pure. All things are pure to
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  Speaker 1: those who have trusted Christ have by that faith become
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  Speaker 1: loving people. The aim of our charges love from faith.
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  Speaker 1: Faith has now produced love in your heart. Then the
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  Speaker 1: things you are motivated to do, all the things you
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  Speaker 1: want to do, are pure. You're motivated for every good work.
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  Speaker 1: Now here's an example of how that might work. They
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  Speaker 1: profess to know God. So these are professing believers causing
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  Speaker 1: all this problem, but they deny Him by their works,
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  Speaker 1: so they're not loving people, and they're showing that on
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  Speaker 1: the inside they don't trust him, they're unbelieving. They deny
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  Speaker 1: him by their works. So their inability to do good
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  Speaker 1: works and their proneness to do evil works, selfish works,
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  Speaker 1: show they haven't become true believers on the inside. They're disobedient,
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  Speaker 1: they're detestable. It has gone so far. Now, what would
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  Speaker 1: be an example in this context of a failure to
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  Speaker 1: believe in God? Unbelief that has produced unlike loving behavior.
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  Speaker 1: So in the previous paragraph we saw this shameful gain.
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  Speaker 1: They are teaching and ruining households. In other words, they're
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  Speaker 1: not loving people because they're selfish. They're just doing it
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  Speaker 1: for money. Well, where does the love of money come from?
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  Speaker 1: How do you become pure and free from the defiling
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  Speaker 1: effects of the love of money that ruins households? And
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  Speaker 1: Hebrews thirteen is the answer like this, keep your life
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  Speaker 1: free from the love of money, be content with what
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  Speaker 1: you have. How why what's the root? Cause? God has spoken?
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  Speaker 1: And what did he say? I'll never leave you, I'll
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  Speaker 1: never forsake you. So we can confidently say the Lord
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  Speaker 1: is my helper, I will not fear what command do
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  Speaker 1: to me. In other words, if you believe this, you
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  Speaker 1: won't love money. You'll be free from the love of money.
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  Speaker 1: This person and is not believing that promise of God.
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  Speaker 1: He's denying the promise that God will take care of him,
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  Speaker 1: and therefore he's unfit to do any good acts of
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  Speaker 1: love because he's so selfish. So what's the upshot of
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  Speaker 1: this entire unit right here? The upshot is, we must
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  Speaker 1: know God. We must be believing. And if we know God,
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  Speaker 1: if we are believing people, if we trust his promises,
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  Speaker 1: if we rely according to Titus two fourteen, on the
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  Speaker 1: one who died for us that we might be pure,
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  Speaker 1: there will flow out from us, as it says in
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  Speaker 1: one Timothy one to five, love that flows from genuine
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  Speaker 1: faith in Christ. And we will be fit for every
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  Speaker 1: good work, and all things that we are prone now
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  Speaker 1: to do out of our new heart will be pure
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  Speaker 1: for us a