Titus 1:10-14
~16 mins read
💭 Consider this: We often face issues with people in the church. Based on this sermon, how can you deal with them biblically?
TRANSCRIPT
I greet all of you in the blessed name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Every church has its own set of troubles, and our church is without exception. As the saying goes, ‘Where there are people, there will be problems.’ Some people are a great blessing to the church, while others bring troubles to the church—whether they do it on purpose or ignorantly.
When there are troubles in the church, how do we deal with those troubles or troublemakers? This is what we want to learn from this passage in Titus 1:10–14. The title of our message is ‘How to Deal with Church Troublemakers.’
If you remember, the Apostle Paul had established some churches on the island of Crete. Since he could not stay there longer, he sent Titus to minister to the people there. Apparently, there were troubles within those churches. There were people in those churches who were misbehaving, rebellious, deceptive, and teaching things contrary to the Word of God. So Titus had to deal with all those problems. But how could he deal with those problems on his own?
That was why the Apostle Paul commanded him to ordain elders to help him to set things in order. One of the responsibilities of the elders was to rule the church and, if necessary, to exercise church discipline and there were certain steps to take.
I. Identify The Troublemaker
Firstly, they had to identify who were those who caused the troubles. Beginning with verse 10, the Apostle Paul said: “For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision.”
Here Paul identified the troublemakers and notice there were not just a few of them, but many. The word "unruly" was a military term used to refer to a soldier who behaved in a disorderly manner. He refused to walk like the rest of the platoon and marched in his own direction. So he had to be warned, like the officers and captains would have to warn him. If he continued to march out of line, there would be serious consequences.
There are many ways a person can be unruly—when he is not supportive of the church, when he is angry, bitter, jealous, rebellious, contentious, when he is against the church leadership, slanders them, gossips, and also gives in to all kinds of false accusations. Those were behaviours of someone who is unruly.
The phrase "vain talkers" means people who are inclined to engage in meaningless and useless discussion. The word "talkers" implies that these people may be very eloquent and articulate in their speech. It is one thing to be engaged in meaningful and constructive conversation, but it is another thing altogether when that conversation leads to sin and unrighteousness.
Have you ever encountered people asking questions, and you know in your heart that they are not genuine? They have absolutely no interest in the truth. They just want to debate, they just want to argue, and they want to trap you. They want you to say things that are sinful. They do not want you to talk about the Bible; they want nothing to do with the truth. They want to speak on their own terms, based on their own worldly ideas and philosophies.
In 2 Timothy 2:16, Paul said to Timothy: “But shun profane and vain babblings,” - why? - “for they will increase unto more ungodliness.” In other words, do not entertain such conversations.
Then Paul went on to say that they were deceivers. Their main purpose was to deceive the people. They may be well-versed in the Bible; they may quote Bible verses—but usually out of context to suit their own hidden agenda. Sadly, such people oftentimes never lack an audience. The reason why is because they know who to target—those who are gullible, those who have itching ears, those who will buy into their deception. So they will look forward to these people and then deceive them.
Next, Paul identified who these people were: "Specially they of the circumcision." This was a reference to the Jewish believers. Although they outwardly professed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they still held onto their Jewish traditions and customs very strongly. They might acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah and Lord, but to accept that Jesus was also the Messiah and Lord of the Gentiles? They could not accept that.
For them, even if the Gentiles were to be accepted as Christians, they would first have to be Jewish proselytes. They had to be circumcised first. In other words, the Gentiles had to be Jews before they could become Christians. So these people would try to bring their Jewish customs and traditions into the church.
Dear friend, when a person in the church is unruly, a vain talker, a deceiver, who do you think will be the first people to recognise that? Is it the pastor or the members? Oftentimes, it is the members, because they are the ones who interact with one another. Through their conversations, they will be able to know who are these people.
How do members usually respond to that? Some people will say, ‘Well, that is none of my business. That is the business of the church leaders.’ Others will say, ‘Well, I already knew of these problems ages ago.’ It is one thing to know about the problem, but what have you done to help resolve the problem?
Once you identify the problem, once you identify who are the ones who bring troubles into the church, the right thing to do is to apply the biblical principle set forth for us in Matthew 18:15–17. That you go to the person one on one, and when that step fails, you take one or two brethren together with you to help resolve the matter.
Now it does not mean that you only approach the person one-on-one once, and that’s it. No, you go to him multiple times. When that fails, you bring one or two brethren together with you multiple times. And when that fails, you have to approach the church leaders. When that person refuses to repent, then discipline would have to be exercised; otherwise, it will spread to the whole church.
II. Stop The Troublemaker
Such people had to be stopped. This is our second point. Look at verse 11: “Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.”
They must be silenced. This is the meaning of "whose mouths must be stopped." They must be silenced because they were subverting whole houses. Now the word "subvert" means ‘to destroy’ or ‘to turn the house upside down.’ Here it implies that these people were not involved in the public pulpit ministry.
These people were not preaching and teaching in the worship service. So what did they do? They would visit the members in their homes, perhaps conduct Bible studies. They would present themselves as Bible teachers, knowledgeable in the Holy Scriptures, with the pretense to counsel the people. But instead of helping the people, they were turning the house upside down.
In 2 Timothy 2:14, Paul warned Timothy of such people who would strive with words that are not profitable but to destroy. These people loved to fight over words. They loved to raise questions which were controversial, to cause confusion, to cause doubts. They would argue about things that are non-essentials. They would fight over those things that had no spiritual significance at all.
Dear friend, it is good to have Bible studies, but there’s always this danger of having private Bible studies outside the spiritual guidance of the church and the reason why is because there’s no control. The leaders of those Bible studies are not theologically trained, and who knows what kind of Bible materials they use?
Have you ever joined a Bible study class, and the leader would raise question after question? And when you walked away from the Bible study, you were actually more confused than before you walked into the class. It happens all the time. Those questions contributed nothing to edification, nothing to encouragement, nothing to build up your faith.
It is good to ask questions. If you do not ask, you will not learn. But there are people who ask questions to generate an argument, just for the purpose of winning the debate. That is where the problem lies. They do not want to know the answer. They are not keen to know the truth. They just want to fight.
They ask those questions to make themselves look smart and others look foolish. When others appear to be smarter than them, they will be envious and jealous. There’s always this rivalry, this competitive spirit in their hearts. Whether they do it on purpose or they do it ignorantly, when they strive with words, they will destroy the hearers.
For the unbelievers, it will cause them to turn away from the gospel. For the believers, it will cause confusion, doubts, discouragement, and disobedience. You see, these troublemakers will not choose someone who is strong in the faith, someone who is grounded in the Word of God. But rather, they will choose someone who is weak.
And who is the weakest? The one who is living in sin. Take a moment and consider this: when a person is living in sin—whether it be adultery, or alcohol addiction, or fornication—let’s say you visit him, you support him, and you demonstrate to him that you sympathise with him. You understand him, you stand with him, you avoid talking to him about the Bible, you shun away from telling him the truth, you will not confront his sin.
What would happen? He would embrace you. He would love you. He would welcome you, and then he would tell everyone that you are the most loving and understanding person. And whatever you say, he will listen. He will believe every word you say.
In reality, you are not helping him. You are destroying his life as well as his family too. Do you realise that some people will gravitate towards those who are living in sin—not to help them get out of their sins, but to win over their support.
For what purpose? Well Paul says, "For filthy lucre’s sake." In other words, for financial gains. They come to you; they visit you—not because they love you. If they love you, they will tell you that what you are doing is wrong. They will confront your sin. They will want you to repent. But they will not do that. They want something from you in return. Paul says, "For filthy lucre’s sake."
The question is: how do we stop such people? Obviously, our almighty God is sovereign. He’s in control of everything. Sometimes God will stop such people by removing them from the church. At other times, God may even stop such people by way of sickness or even death.
Many of us here are parents. When we know that someone is destroying our children, what will we do? We will do everything within our power to protect our own family, right? How much more the Almighty God? The church belongs to Him. Jesus died for the church. His precious blood washed away all our sins. The church belongs to Him. God would do everything within His power to protect the church.
Please, do not play the fool with God. But our God is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). That includes people like the troublemakers. God wants them to repent. That is the reason why God has ordained spiritual leaders like pastors and elders to protect the church. That is the reason why God has given the requirement for pastors and elders to be apt to teach—to teach the Word of God so that the people will know the truth.
The pastors and elders must follow the example of Jesus Christ. Remember when our Lord Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights—in the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Each time, our Lord Jesus responded by saying, ‘It is written, it is written, it is written’ (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10).
When the Sadducees approached Jesus and questioned Him about marriage in heaven, Jesus responded by saying, ‘Do you not understand the Holy Scriptures? That in the resurrection, there’s neither marriage, nor are people given to marriage’ (Matthew 22:29-30). When the Pharisees sent one of their scribes to test our Lord Jesus, to tempt Him, ‘What is the greatest commandment in the law?’ Jesus responded by saying, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ (Matthew 22:37-39).
Each time, our Lord Jesus quoted the Holy Scriptures. The only way to stop the troublemakers is to use the Word of God. You cannot use the Word of God unless you know it, unless you are equipped with it, unless you study it to show yourself approved unto God, ‘a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth’ (2 Timothy 2:15). So, you and I must know the Word of God, must be equipped with the Word of God, and we must study it, know it well, so that we can deal with the troubles that come into the church.
It is the responsibility of the pastors and elders to rule the church, to protect the church, and not to allow any Tom, Dick, or Harry to take the pulpit because this is the place where God’s Word is dispensed to the people. The pastors and elders have this awesome responsibility to protect the Church of Jesus Christ.
Recently, a pastor from another church visited our church, and he wanted to preach on our pulpit. I do not know him personally, nor do I know his doctrinal stance, so I prayerfully considered and then I politely declined his request. Some people said to me that I’m rude and proud not to allow an ordained minister to preach. But I do not know him; I’m not familiar with him. I do not know what he believes in. How can I allow him to preach on this pulpit? Others say to me, ‘Why must our church only use our own DHW Bible study notes? Why can’t we use other Bible resources?’ But we are not familiar with those Bible resources, and there are so many controversies, compromises, and strange doctrines floating around in the evangelical world.
Now, I’m not implying that I’m perfect or that the church is perfect. No one is. If I make a mistake, I’m happy to correct myself and clarify. But I cannot represent someone whom I do not know, and I cannot represent the Bible resources or the author of those Bible resources whom I do not know. As long as the Lord has called me to serve as a pastor, it is my responsibility to protect the church, and I must protect the pulpit ministry of the church. Even though sometimes I may be misunderstood and people may not understand, I hope they do. I hope you do.
III. Rebuke The Troublemaker
Our final point is: Rebuke the troublemakers. Paul said in Titus 1:12, “One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.” A “prophet” is a ‘speaker’ or ‘spokesperson’, and here this person was not a prophet of God because of the phrase, "a prophet of their own."
That means he was a speaker of the Cretians, he was a native of Crete, and some theologians believed that he was a very famous poet, highly regarded by the people. He knew the people very well, and he made this interesting statement about the Cretians. He said, they were known as liars, and they behaved like wild animals with uncontrolled sexual passions, and were all very lazy. Apparently, Paul affirmed that what the prophet said about the Cretians was true.
Look at verse 13, Paul “This witness is true.” - In other words, Paul said, what your own prophet has said about you is true - “Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth”. “Jewish fables” means Jewish ‘myths’ or ‘legends’ or ‘stories’. For example, they were prone to add numbers to the names of their forefathers. Like the way they did to Abraham, they said, the name ‘Abram’ means ‘318’. So they said that Abraham had 318 servants. Can you imagine that? They had all kinds of speculations and mystical interpretations. Those were man-made commandments, and those man-made commandments turned the people away from God’s truth.
Today, we have not been spared from these kind of speculations as well. Do you know how many people have tried to interpret the number 666 in the Book of Revelation? So they look at all the names of the people with six letters, from Caesar to Hitler to Stalin. They said, all these people bear the name 666.
Several years ago, a Jewish mathematician claimed that he had decoded the Bible with a computer formula. And he claimed that the Bible had prophesied about the assassination of Kennedy, the election of Bill Clinton, everything from the Holocaust, to Hiroshima, to the moon landing. They are all nonsense. There will always be these kind of people who will compromise the truth and and fine tune the message. They will twist and turn the Word of God to suit their own agendas, turning the Bible in to fables, or myths, to suit their own lifestyles, to suit their own itching ears.
I think I’ve shared this story before about a little boy who came back from Sunday School. When he returned home his mother asked him, ‘What did your teacher teach you at Sunday School?’ The little boy said, ‘Our teacher told us the story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea.’ The mother said, ‘Tell me what you have learned.’ The little boy said, ‘ Well Moses and the Israelites were being chased by the Egyptians. They ran all the way and they came to the Red Sea. In front of Moses was the Red Sea, and behind him were the Egyptians. Moses cried out to God for help, and God sent the army to build a bridge across the Red Sea. Moses and the Israelites quickly hurried across the bridge over to the other side. Then God sent the helicopters and fighter jets to all destroy the Egyptians.’
The mother was shocked and horrified, ‘Is that what your teacher taught you in Sunday school?’ The little boy replied, ‘No, but would you believe me if I told you exactly what my teacher taught me at Sunday School?’
Dear friend, the Bible is the Word of God. Do you think God needs our help to fine tune His Word? God forbid! Do you think God needs our help to change author and make the Bible more acceptable - palatable - and acceptable to the people? God forbid!
What must we do? Paul says, “Rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith” (Titus 1:13). To rebuke “sharply” means to rebuke ‘severely’. So it was the responsibility of the pastors and elders to rebuke people sharply. They must be bold, they must not look to men but look to God.
Again, we must employ the Word of God. Remember, ‘All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works’ (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
The Word of God alone is sufficient to teach, reprove, rebuke, correct, instruct. We do not need to alter it, change it, make it more acceptable, palatable. We just need to be faithful and preach the Word of God faithfully as God has commanded us so that the people may be sound in the faith. Sound in the faith means to be spiritually healthy in the faith.
Dear friends, there may be trouble in the church. When trouble comes, how do we deal with those troubles? How do we deal with those troublemakers?
Firstly, we need to identify who are the troublemakers. Who are the ones who cause all these troubles in the church, bringing in all these strange doctrines, teaching the people the wrong way, turning them away from the faith.
Then, we need to stop them. The Bible says, you must stop them, silence them. If necessary, we need to exercise church discipline.
Finally, we need to rebuke them sharply. This is the only way we can keep our church strong and healthy. This is the only way that our church can be the light and the salt of this earth. This is extremely important because all of us sitting in this room, we are dealing with the souls of men.
Some years back, when I visited a church in Sydney, one young person came to me and said, ‘Pastor, isn’t it an awesome thing to deal with the souls of men?’ That statement remained in my mind until now. All of us sitting in this room, we are dealing with the souls of men. It is extremely important, we must protect our church so that the souls of our people will be spiritually healthy to the glory of God.
Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, we give Thee thanks for enabling us to consider this portion of Scriptures. We praise and thank Thee for how Thou hast sustained this church. Indeed, many things have occurred in the ministries of our church, but in all these moments, we know that Thou art with us. Thou hast taught us through Thy precious Word how we ought to function as a church.
As we study the whole counsel of Thy Word, we take heed. We want to learn from Thee. We want to be instructed by Thee. And Thou hast taught us this blessed morning the way Thou has taught young Titus through the Apostle Paul—how to deal with the church troublemakers.
O Lord, we pray that we will take heed, that we will also follow Thy instructions. Protect our church for as long as our Lord Jesus will tarry in His return. So that when He comes, He will find us faithful. We give Thee thanks and we pray all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
THE BOOK OF TITUSThe Commitment Of A Faithful ServantThe Commitment Of A Faithful ServantTitus 1:1
The Hope Of Eternal LifeThe Hope Of Eternal LifeTitus 1:2-4
Why Do We Need Godly Leaders?Why Do We Need Godly Leaders?Titus 1:5-9
How To Deal With Church Troublemakers?How To Deal With Church Troublemakers?Titus 1:10-14
The Product Of Who We AreThe Product Of Who We AreTitus 1:15-16
What Legacy Are You Leaving Behind?What Legacy Are You Leaving Behind?Titus 2:1-3
Message 6: To Fight the Good Fight of Faith is to Hold Fast the Faithful WordMessage 6: To Fight the Good Fight of Faith is to Hold Fast the Faithful WordTitus 1:9-11
