Titus Chapter 1

shalom and welcome to via israel a hebrew phrase which means you shall love israel we hope you'll stay with us for the next 30 minutes as our teacher dr baruch shares his expository teaching from the bible dr baruch is the senior lecturer at the zehra avraham institute based in israel although all courses are taught in hebrew at the institute dr baruch is pleased to share this weekly address in english to find out more about our work in israel please visit us on the web at loveisreal.org that's one word loveisreal.org now here's baruch with today's lesson [Music] there is a word that has great significance for the last days and this word is apostasy and what apostasy is from a biblical perspective is turning away from that which is true that which is good from god's perspective and we know that the apostle paul tells us that as we approach the last days that's exactly what's going to happen among many congregations they are going to move away from right doctrine that which is sound according to the revelation of god we're going to begin a three-part study in the epistle to titus paul wrote this epistle to titus and one of the purposes for it was for titus to set things in order god's order and it's for this reason that this epistle has great relevance for you and me we're called to be an influence in this world let me say it a different way we are called to have a testimony and through a god-pleasing testimony we will influence others we will bring change and in order to do that we have to be willing to speak out to step up and to say what truly needs to be said so take out your bible and look with me to the book of titus the epistle that paul wrote to titus and chapter 1. now in this study these three parts we're gonna go through each chapter each verse and pay close attention to every word we want to see literally what this epistle says in order that we can understand it and apply it to our life in order that we can have influence that we can bring change first and foremost that we would change and then secondly we would change others around us that we would draw closer to the purposes the will of the living god notice how paul begins the first thing that he says is paul a servant now some will say a bond servant of god this same word can be translated as a slave but not a slave in the sense that one is taken by force and and demanded to do certain things and if he doesn't then he will be punished one of the reasons why many translations in english translate this word a bond servant is because it has to do with an individual who has submitted and in essence every god-fearing person should be a servant a slave a bond servant unto the lord in the torah we know that moses is called repeatedly the servant of god and this is why when we look at this first verse as it continues there's something that stands out and probably most english translations never make mention of this now as i said we're going to study this book it is not for the purpose of giving some message some call to action something that that interests individuals to to do something but rather we're going to take this approach we're going to study this learn it and then trust that the holy spirit will use it for the purposes of god and the more we understand what this epistle truly says the better able we will be to apply it demonstrate it and bear fruit that is pleasing to god and the first thing i want to point out as we look at this first verse and continue on there is a conjunction now we know a conjunction takes one thought and it unites it with another and in the new covenant greek there are two primary conjunctions one is kai normally is translated and and its primary purpose although there's others but its primary purpose is to simply unite two things then there's another conjunction day and this is a conjunction of disunity meaning that it unites two things but that second thing usually has a different purpose it might be in contrast to it manifests something that is not a continuation but it can be something that is different and this is why we see here in verse 1 that it says paul a bond servant of god and most will say and but there's a difference here paul is saying not only is he like many others a servant of god that he has submitted to the things of god but there's an additional aspect something that's unique something that is different and what is that that paul is not only a servant but he's also has the call of an apostle and this is what he wants to emphasize so this second conjunction is being used for the purpose of emphasizing his apostleship so paul yes he's a bond servant of god but also he is an apostle of yeshua hamashiach that is messiah yeshua according to and notice this next word faith and then there's a description of this faith this faith of the elect of god now in actuality the definite article is not here but it's very hard to translate it without the definite article and the reason why the definite article does not appear in greek here is to say that this is not a unique experience this just isn't for him but this faith the faith of the elect of god all people it is something that everyone is being invited to later on when when paul uses this same word for faith he uses an adjective this is the word for common and what it means is it is available it is the faith that that all humans must respond to but notice there's something else he's talking about the elect of god and this word elect although many times people will bring a lot of theological significance to this word elect but what it literally means is simply to be chosen and notice that faith is mentioned first in the greek text it's the ones who according and he's making it personal about paul who is an apostle of messiah yeshua according to faith the faith of the elect of god and and now we have that normal conjunction that word kai it's uniting something it's giving us a very important truth and that is it's speaking about the connection between faith and knows what he says the knowledge of the truth so knowledge of the truth in the text we see a relationship between faith and truth and that's why i say so frequently faith is just not believing something biblical faith is when you believe the truth of god when you have knowledge of god's true revelation and secondly when we look at this same passage again we see that this this truth when we respond to it when we apply it to our life that's what faith is it brings about us becoming the elect of god chosen by god and then finally it says cut and this is the word for according to but the purpose here is to show a result sometimes that word kata and if you're looking at it and many people do through different aids and such they'll say well wait it's not the word kata it's the word kat but the last letter alpha was removed why because the next word begins with a vowel a greek vowel and when that happens we remove the last vowel of this this word kata and what it speaks about is a result so we see paul saying that he he has received a call because of faith that god has chosen him through this faith and this faith comes by knowledge and that's the key faith comes by knowledge of the truth and when we take truth and faith and put it together what's the outcome we'll look at the end of verse 1 the outcome is godliness and this word has to do with a behavior what paul is revealing is this faith true faith rooted in the truth of god when you know god's truth and apply it to your life there's going to be an outcome it's going to produce godliness and there's a relationship between this word godliness in practice and the manifestation of god's glory so look at this verse again verse 1 paul says that he is a bond servant of god but an apostle of messiah yeshua according to faith the faith of the elect of god and the knowledge of the truth which produces that bears out godliness that's what he's saying here look now to verse two when we have faith and that is when we respond to the truth of god when we see godliness being demonstrated in our life you know what we we then have we have a proper expectation now expectations need to be rooted and when we look at this text we're going to see the next word is the the greek preposition epi and here once more if you look at it you see the same rule the the iota fell off it was removed because the next word here l piece has to do with the the what begins with a vowel as well and therefore it falls off it's now the reason why i'm going into detail which many of you may not find necessary or interesting is i want to demonstrate something this word epi usually means upon founded upon and what he's saying here is something that we learned from the patriarchs the reason why the patriarchs were faithful individuals why they when they heard and had knowledge of the truth of god they took that truth those promises that god manifested to them they acted that is they received them with faith and that faith produced an outcome a godliness but what was their motivation their motivation was just what we talked about god's promises they had hope but their hope did not originate in what they wanted but it originated with what the truth of god revealed to him to them and that is the promises of god so we see here that all of this was founded upon it was established by hope and what was that hope notice how the next phrase ends we're speaking about eternal life now does that just mean that they didn't want to die it was because god says if you respond and enter into this covenant as abraham a covenant you will live forever and ever and ever well that may be part of it but what we see is this phrase for eternal life should rightly be understood because the word eternal here is an adjective that describes the kingdom of god so they had a hope and that hope was the kingdom life they wanted to live according to kingdom principles they wanted to manifest the character of the kingdom in their life this is foundational and it's only when we have that desire then and only then and this is an important takeaway then and only then can we have an expectation that we are going to be recipients eternally of the promises of god now here's a question that many people need to ask themselves see we're speaking about something that has end times relevance and god's purpose for the end times it's a transition away from this world from the ways of this world into the kingdom of god and the question we have to ask ourselves is am i interested in that kingdom do i desire the character of that kingdom to experience that to take hold of it to be part of it and am i interested in kingdom promises here's the problem i see many people teaching and they're using the word of god inappropriately they are perverting the word of god to get individuals to believe that through scriptural principles which have been twisted that you can achieve worldly ambitions you cannot do not come to faith do not think that being a believer in messiah yeshua is going to assist you in accomplishing your worldly desires those worldly desires need to be nailed to the cross we have kingdom desires what motivates us are the kingdom promises of god and that's what he's talking here saying about this faith this this desire that we have which is based upon and hope of of kingdom life and then we continue on in verse 2 it says god who promised now notice how god is defined here it is a word it's a adjective in this case for a liar it describes one who is false and what the greek language does it takes one letter the alpha puts it in front of as a preposition to a world word and it negates it it causes it to be the opposite so we are a follower of a god that is not false many translations and this is fine say a god who and they'll make it a verbal form cannot lie and he cannot lie now let me tell you what a foolish person does they'll say well is is everything possible for god and most people say yes he's omnipotent he is all-powerful he can do anything can he lie ah he can't lie the scripture says and they think that they have a conflict that's ridiculous see the bible says god although all things are possible he's never going to do anything against his character if he did he would not be this holy god so it's not that he's unable he chooses not to because it is against his character and in the same way that he's committed to his character and by the way his character is the kingdom character so if we love god we're going to be motivated by his character we're going to want to be like him and that's going to draw us into the kingdom meaning having a kingdom perspective a kingdom desire being committed to the kingdom purposes so god's made a promise this god who does not lie who is not false and he made it when before the times of old and this is that same word for eternal he made it prior to the the ancient of days meaning he made it before and how he might be able to understand it is before the foundations of the world now one of the things that comes into my mind when i hear the foundations of the world before that i think about the lamb who has been slain and in essence what we're talking about when we talk about faith and covenant promises and a hope that will not disappoint and a kingdom reality all of those things are are related to who messiah and the reason why that they are available is because he is the lamb of god who was slain when it says slain before the foundations of the earth meaning god had that as his purpose for his son doesn't mean that he was literally slain before the foundations of the world he was slain two thousand years ago but before this world began and eternity passed god knew all things and he knew that that his son was going to lay down his life in order for a kingdom reality to be offered to who to all humanity now does that mean god has to offer to all humanity no but that's his desire and we know before and we see this in matthew 24 verse 14 before god's wrath will will be poured out there's going to be that everlasting gospel the gospel of the kingdom is going to be proclaimed to all the nations of the earth let's go back to verse 2 speaking about this god who cannot lie he has promised from before the the ancient times and now notice what it says look at verse three but and this is the same word of of a a contrast what's being contrast and why isn't being likened because previously he was speaking about a promise a promise that was made a long time ago and now we're no longer talking about simply the promise of what god was going to do now we're speaking about this is the different part the manifestation of that promise look again verse 3 but he manifested in its own time meaning at the proper time his word and many bibles will say preaching but its word for proclamation and this is a word for a proclamation of significance it is something that is said that is important and going to have a outcome some type of outcome but it's going to be a significant one for who for all humanity so god made this promise before the foundations of the earth but now it says in its own time he has manifested his word in proclamation which he says i was entrusted it was entrusted to me according to and this is important commandment according to the the commandment and there's two things that needs to be said here so significant that the word commandment comes into play and what does commandment have to do with well commandment is a proclamation that demands a response so he's talked about a significant proclamation and now he's saying by commandment that is it demands a response a specific response and then as we move forward notice it says commandment of god our savior now the question is who are we referring to when it says a commandment of god our savior is referring to god the father or messiah here now when we just look at it here there's no way we can be dogmatic we really can't answer the question there are two possibilities but we cannot come to a a conclusive answer is it god the father or god the son but when we keep reading we can come and this is what we mean when we say scripture interprets scripture look on to to verse verse 4. now he speaks about titus hebrew titus titus and then he uses a term for a child a child that is a a production of a marriage now even though titus was not a biological child of paul what paul was saying is by this promise they become a family and he's emphasizing this relationship as a father son this one who is an apostle and the one who is a servant to the apostle one now that assists and is joined with paul in this labor this fellow laborer but he's called here a a child and the reason why it's not sun even though obviously tdis is masculine but he uses the word child to emphasize this family responsibility according to and here's what i said earlier this this common faith now it's not common meaning it is uh insignificant there's i mean you see it all over the reason why common is used here is that it is that which is relevant for all human beings if someone's going to have faith there's only one type only one kind of true faith so titus here or titus is this this this i believe most english translations will say true son and he's meaning that in the spiritual sense according to the common faith and then notice what he says about this common faith next two words grace and mercy we cannot over emphasize the significance of these two words for our new covenant faith this faith that jeremiah speaks about that that brings about eternal forgiveness that god will never remember our sins that he has cast them away from his presence and his knowledge he's able to do that so this faith and he says of grace mercy and peace from god our father or god the father and and here's what's important the lord messiah yeshua and then it says our savior now here we see something we see undeniably that our savior at the end of verse 4 is referring to messiah yeshua and therefore that is how we know going back to verse verse 3 at the end where it says of god our savior it speaks about here the divinity of messiah it refers to messiah as god he's our savior but he's also god and that's why when you understand the biblical language and you pay attention to all these scriptural indicators from grammar you can make statements because i can look at this and say undeniably it is beyond any argument when we pay attention to the greek we see here that paul this is scripture is saying that our god and savior is messiah and it speaks about his divinity now let's move on to verse 5. verse 5 we see a purpose that paul gave to titus he says this on account now we wouldn't say that in english would we we would say on account of this and we'll find out what this is in a moment but in greek the language the order is flipped and the reason for that is to show emphasis he's wanting to emphasize this not for the sake but this it was this purpose that that motivated him to do something and what was that look again at verse 5 we'll translate it how it normally sounds in english on account of this i left you in crete so paul commanded titus to remain he left him in creek and ordered the things and it literally means the remaining things meaning those things that have not been completed we might be better able to understand it by the term those things which are lacking those things that that are not as they should be and that's why the next word in the text has to do with putting things in order so those things that remain those things that are lacking those things that are not as they should be that titus would put them in order and how would he do this by a point and says and that you shall appoint kata polin each city according to the city meaning each city elders so there needs to be in every city this is biblical every city elders that represent the the believing community meaning they are over and will talk about this word over in a moment they have an authority now this does not negate what some would call the priesthood of all believers that we are individually responsible to god we are individually called to study and come to conclusions but nevertheless there is authority and one of the big things in this first chapter of titus is authority paul is going to speak strongly against those who do not demonstrate a submissiveness to authority for on account of this i left you in crete in order the lacking things those things that lack that you would would you should put in order and a point in every city elders as i to you have directed and this is commanded so paul is saying here i have set you there for the purpose of specifically entrusting elders in every city and what was the reason for this well keep reading verse six and now he's going to be talking about these elders who they are notice it says for if it is in the masculine if anyone is blameless now he's going to be dealing with some of the the characteristics the qualification for an elder for if there is one who is blameless a one woman man now some and i would be in this category would say that an overseer one who's going to be an elder needs to be a man who has never been divorced married to one woman others take different approaches to that and and understand one woman man in a different sense the purpose here is not to uh go into a great discussion of that other than it says a one woman man children having faithful meaning having faithful children and not and here it is among a accusation of and this word means improper immoral unethical living what he says is this an elder a leader an overseer and i'll come to that word in a second should not be one that is is easily accused of improper behavior doing that which is offensive to god that which is immoral unethical that which is not in submissiveness to the instructions of god the commandments of god and the character of of our god and our savior so we shouldn't be that way that elder or overseer or look at the end of verse verse 6 or and this is word for insubordinate this is what i was speaking about when it talks about one who is is not recognizing authority as believers we need to recognize authority godly authority and secular authority and if this this authority that's secular does not ask us to do something that is in conflict with obedience to the word of god we should submit to that for example if there's a rule saying that that you cannot park your car in your driveway overnight well the bible doesn't demand that we we do it so if we're not supposed to don't be contrary be submissive recognize that authority it's not a biblical issue but if some secular authority says you can't have a group over to your home to study god's word well that means we would have to rebel against that because we are always the supreme authority is god what we are commanded to do in his word but here it's a general statement that we should be submissive to authority not insubordinate but but humble ourselves now look at verse 7 for it's necessary and now we have the word for an overseer i realize that some english bibles translates this as a bishop but a bishop is simply one who oversees a congregation or a series of congregations and such so he tells us it is necessary and this is a strong word it means whenever this word day delta epsilon iota appears in the text it speaks about something that is absolutely necessary it must happen it is god's will and it cannot be cannot be changed so he says for it is necessary that the overseer that he and this is the second time we see this word be blameless to be blameless as a steward of god an agent of god someone that that is employed under god's authority that he should not be egotistical that is self given to his will that he should not be one that is ruled by anger and this has in the prefix the word for for wrath meaning he should not be one that is given over to wrathful bursts of anger nor it says literally near wine now some will say not given too much wine but it literally says not near why nor and this is a brawler it means that he shouldn't be one that settles things by by physical means that he is easily angered and and brought into a physical confrontation that is not fitting for an overseer it says also that he should should not be and this word means uh greedy one that is is strongly seeking gain i think this is a very important characteristic that he is not motivated and we use the word grain but another one could be the word for profit we're not seeking some financial gain we're not motivated in our decisions our behavior by by financial profit that is not something that influences that is not something when you look at that individual that you say ah he likes the finer things of life he he is motivated by achieving experiencing these things verse 8 but what is he now the word is literally a lover of strangers and most understand this in an idiom which means that he's hospitable and hospitality oftentimes had to do with entertaining strangers let me say it another way entertaining foreigners and that's why the believing community those who are trying to get away from from difficulties in their own country those who are suffering persecution oftentimes because of some tribe they belong to some people group that they are part of and such we see this rapidly in in places like africa we should be individuals that love these strangers and want to practice hospitality to them now there are are limits you can't simply invite hundreds of people you may only be able to help out one or two and the same thing for a government the government cannot open up its borders to an onslaught of just in limitless supply and in numbers without end of refugees but there should be that that desire to help out to love them to practice hospitality so it says an overseer and this is part of the congregation of the lord an overseer should be a lover of strangers a lover of good meaning committed to god's will one that is so reminded that is that he's stable in his thought process and this aspect of sober means he makes decisions rooted founded upon the truth that he's righteous that he is pious meaning this that he's not casual with spiritual things that he is rather deeply concerned about spirituality about religious truth about dogma and how he and others apply that to their life so this word is important and then secondly or finally it says in in verse verse 8 that this one is self-control that's one of the fruits the outcome of the holy spirit that we can control our self meaning what overcoming temptation that we are not easily defeated by the the schemes the strategy of the enemy verse nine we we seek this one an overseeker should be one who seeks and this holds on to holds according to the teaching of the the faithful word now this speaks about the word is faithful and that we should hold fast to that and here again all these things stem out of what we're reading in verse 9 that they hold fast to the overseer that leader that elder is going to hold on to the doctrine of the faithful word in order that he is able also to encourage and notice where first and foremost this encouragement is encouraging in sound teaching it's foundational and that's why it's so important to be part of a fellowship where the overseer the leader is committed to sound doctrine and if one is not using the proper methodology for interpreting the scripture understanding it then there's not going to be sound doctrine and the problem is too many people are way too casual about about the biblical texts and therefore we see why this passage is so relevant today that the overseer first and foremost he is one who's going to hold fast to be committed to what does he say to encouraging the teaching of sound doctrine and not only encourage sound doctrine but go to something else also the ones who are contradictive those who are speaking things contrary to sound doctrine what must this one do he must convict reprove bring reproach upon them and that's why it's so important that at times we name names we say there's certain individuals that are dangerous that when we look at how they handle the word of god and their consistency to profit financial gain we need to warn others and simply say such people are shysters they are not individuals that are appropriate to oversee anything that is related to the work of god and in the last days as there's increase in false prophets that's what the word of god says messiah told of that we are seen in emphasis on prophecy today not biblical prophecy but prophets i hear all the time oh i was so pleased to be in the presence of of a prophet whoever and and i was at this meeting and prophets such and such was speaking well i don't recall that one in the bible calls themselves a prophet rather what we find is this we find that god appointed them to prophesy to give prophetic truth you know we call jeremiah the prophet isaiah the prophet but i don't believe that isaiah had a business card that said isaiah prophet no they were bond servants they were individuals that did not emphasize their their their position but their labor to be faithful and laboring into the purposes of god so we need to be people if you're leaders you need to be people willing to confront reprove those who speak contrary to the truth of scripture and that is desperately needed today for people to say i'm sorry but what you're teaching what you're presenting it is false it needs to be said now we can say it in love and we'll see the motivation is to bring people back to the soundness of biblical faith we'll come to that in a moment but look now to verse verse 10. and talking about those who need to be reproved because they're in contradiction with the word of god notice what he says in verse 10 paul's speaking he says for there are many and then he uses this conjunction chi to emphasize even even and he's speaking about those who are unruly and by the way this is the same word that we saw towards the end of verse 6 where i translated those who are insubordinate those who reject authority and you know why they reject authority because authority is calling them out they don't want to submit to the truth because the truth isn't accomplishing their purposes and it won't the truth of god accomplishes god's purposes which we're supposed to submit to and as we grow and mature god's purposes will be the most pleasing things of our life but that's what maturity is about for there are many meaning speaking against sound doctrine and these are unruly they are empty talkers and what does that mean it means those who speak that has nothing of an eternal significance now i'm going to just digress for a moment by going back to sephir kohelet that is the book of ecclesiastes see one of the things that that king solomon desired was something that was eternally significant something that lasts not something that was vain futile here today gone tomorrow and this is these empty talkers if you listen to them they are not teaching you anything that has kingdom implications to it so they're empty talkers and they are deceitful ones and then we have one particular group that that burden paul he says especially those from the circumcision and what's he talking about he's making reference to the judaizers those who said faith in messiah is fine if you if you for the purpose of salvation kingdom life also take upon yourself the yoke of the torah and first and foremost the sign of that was circumcision they were teaching without circumcision meaning unless you make yourself a debtor of the law you will not be saved paul is in in strong opposition to this and therefore over and over paul would when he could he would drop references to these individuals calling them the circumcision because they demanded all men be circumcised in order to be saved now paul wasn't against circumcision he was against circumcision for the sake of being saved not being saved unless you were circumcised first so he says especially those from the circumcision which it is necessary and notice what he says to silent and the important thing is paul's saying they need to be silent who entire households they have and it's hard to know how to translate this word this is one of the words that that has many connotations to it talks about corruption talks about overturning something and that can mean bringing destruction these individuals brought destruction into entire households for they were teaching what it is not necessary this is important they were teaching it's that same word for that which must be they were teaching the things which were necessary not to be teaching i wonder today how many people that you you hear on the radio or on television those who have the most popular books in in the believing community i wonder how many of them paul would say it is necessary not to read them they don't have anything that's necessary within them and what's the outcome the next word and it's awkward to translate it but he's saying here that they are teaching that which is unnecessary and it is going to bring about shame it's it's going to show the the baseness and what does that mean how carnal we are sinful beings and the pursuit of these things which ought not to be taught those things which are unnecessary for spirituality to be pleasing to god and have a god-pleasing testimony when they're taught it's going to bring out that base that base which is a sinful origin it's going to show the sinfulness and that brings about shame and once again what's what is the tool that the enemy uses to to get people to teach what they ought not right here it says kerdus which is gain profit for the sake of it's that same unusual order because it wants to emphasize their desire of profit their desire to have worldly gain and that's what makes them easily being manipulated by the enemy verse verse 12. paul says a certain one from them said then he wants to tell us who this certain one is one of their own prophets and they even rightly said and remember where where titus is left in crete it says cretes always are our liars they are evil beasts and this goes back to that that base condition following animalistic instinct rather than truth so he says they're evil beasts when you follow that animalistic instinct when you do what seems right in your own eyes you're going to be doing that which is evil that which is contrary to the will of god and then he has the word gastrus and in in greek is a word for gluttony so they are people driven by their own hungers their own desires their gluttonous and they are lazy now he's saying here that that one of their own prophets said this about the cretes and then he goes on look at verse 13. he says this testimony is true on account of which there is now and he uses word for a case and this is uh another word might be a a predicate there is now a base for what he says based upon this true testimony that they are liars they are evil beasts they are gluttonous and lazy because this is true there is a predicate there is a basis for what does he say reproving them rebuking them and doing so look at the the near the end of verse 13 doing so behumra that's what it would say in hebrew do so sternly or harshly now i like this because paul is telling us something it is acceptable to be very harsh with those who are embracing and teaching falsehood who are motivated by financial gain who are are in bondage to their cardinal nature these people it's necessary to rebuke them harshly why so look at the end of verse 13 in order that soundness should be in the faith so we need to always be people who are highly concerned for the soundness of doctrine our faith and here paul is saying the leaders you need to be willing to rebuke reproof convict those who who are not teaching the truth of god verse verse 14 and not giving heed this means being committed to not being committed to what does he say jewish fables now when i think of jewish fables i think of so much of the oral law all of these stories these these legends we should not be giving heed to these things or and what comes with these legends these myths these stories that that that filled the rabbinical literature i'll tell you what comes with it the commandments of men the the masort has kanim the traditions of the elders so he's saying don't let these myths these legends that are part of the oral law don't let them deceive you in embracing the commandments of man because when you do so and i want us to look carefully at this next phrase it is in the the perfect condition and it's also passive and what that means is this he's speaking about something that has had this outcome in the past it has this outcome in the presence and it has this outcome or will have in the future when you embrace these jewish stories when you take hold of the commandments of man that is going to and notice this next word is in the passive it means something is causing them to turn away what's causing them to turn away these jewish myths and these commandments of men it causes them to turn away from what from the truth verse 15. now we're coming to the end and i want us to learn a principle he's going to share with us a very important principle let's just read what he says and then we're going to discuss it verse verse 15. he uses a condition mind day what is mind mende it's two different words two conjunctions and when they're used in one one phrase it speaks about on one hand this but on the other hand that so we could translate it on one hand everything is clean to the ones who are clean but to the ones who have been defiled it says and faithless nothing is clean now what does he mean well what he's saying here is this if i am clean meaning committed to the things of god remember the last thing that he said at the end of the other verse previous verse truth when i'm committed to the truth all things i can utilize for the kingdom of god doesn't mean when he says all things are clean meaning you can do whatever sinful thing you want it's okay that's ridiculous what he's saying here is this that anything can be used by one who is clean committed to the truth he knows how to be a steward of that he knows how to utilize that how to deal with that for the purposes of god but those who are unclean those who are not committed to the truth of god all things for them no matter what it is even if it's something that's truly clean they'll misappropriate it they'll use it for a wrong purpose so nothing for those who have been made unclean that's what it literally says here and this is a past condition a present and will continue to be a condition and that causes them to be unfaithful and for them nothing is clean then he says but those that are are unclean or those who are and the idea here is those who have been defiled but those who have been defiled also their minds also their conscience meaning they they have been defiled by embracing that which is untrue turning over to those things which are in conflict with the purposes of god and that brings about a defilement that affects the way we think and also the very conscience meaning that which god gave to us and i've shared with you before that the hebrew this is greek but in hebrew the word for conscience is related to the word for compass one is matipen and the other one it's mat spoon so very similar conscious is the compass that god gives to us but when we reject the truth when we begin to live in defilement that is committed to the things we ought not be it's going to cause us to think wrong and it's going to cause the conscience not to work verse 16. and hear how this manifests itself in a practical sense such people it says they they confess they know god but here's the problem but in contrast to that that's that conjunction of contrast but in contrast to that the the works meaning the works of one who knows god the works of the truth what did they do they deny and they become and this next word means well the best way to understand it is they become gross they become that which is is so unappealing that which is rejectable rejectable we don't want anything to do with with their behavior their teaching we see it as just a reproach so they become gross and and notice this they become disobedient what's that word for disobedient against the faith that's literally what it is they become against the faith and also against every good work against every good work now the last word here comes from we get the english word to document something by it oftentimes you want proof and they give you a guarantee it's a document and it's for attesting to something and those of faith what he's saying here is those of faith will document what is a good work what is pleasing to god what is related to the will of god that's what faith produces but those who are disobedient that do not have faith what are they going to do they are not going to document they are going to be against giving any evidence that this is a good work they are going to be opposed to that which is related to the will of god so when we look at this first chapter of titus we see that paul is encouraging this young man one that paul loves one that he sees as a true child of his because of his shared faith a shared commitment to the will of god and he tells this young man i'm leaving you there in crete and it wasn't an easy place to be we saw that it's a place full of liars people who are far removed from the instruction of god and what did he tell this young man to do he says you need to fight contend for sound doctrine right teaching teaching that is related to the truth of god and when you encounter that which is not sound that which is not related to the truth you need to speak out against it harshly severely and that is what we are all called to do if we fail to do this we're going to see more and we begin with this term apostasy and i'm going to conclude with it we'll see greater opacity coming into the congregation of believers yes god says it's going to happen but that does not mean that we ought not stand against it be people who speak out and who rebuke those who speak based upon personal gain and those who reject that which is a good thing in order to further their ungodliness well we'll close with that until our next lesson titus chapter 2 as we continue our conference in this book of titus well we hope you will benefit from today's message and share it with others please plan to join us each week at this time and on this channel for our broadcast of love israel.org again to find out more about us please visit our website love israel.org there you will find articles and numerous other lectures by baruch these teachings are in video form may download them or watch them in streaming video until next week may the lord bless you in our messiah yeshua that is jesus as you walk with him shalom from israel

Channel: LoveIsrael.org

Views: 2,259

Rating: 4.8974357 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: K8yNs_PsZBM

Length: 65min 25sec (3925 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 16 2020