Titus 1:15-16
~18 min read
SERMON OUTLINE
💭 Consider this: Knowing that your thoughts and behaviour are a reflection of your faith, how would you describe your faith?
TRANSCRIPT
I greet all of you in the blessed name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Our theme for this morning's message is taken from Titus 1:15-16. Allow me to read this passage for you: "Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." The Lord blesses the reading of His holy and sacred Word.
Recently, someone said to me, “I do not know why I always think such negative thoughts, and I do not know why I always behave in such a way. I'm not supposed to do those things that God has warned me against, yet I constantly do those things.” Obviously, that person was very disappointed with himself because, as a believer, he knew that he should not be entertaining those thoughts, nor should he be living such a life. Two things he said struck me: the thoughts he entertained in his mind and the way he behaved. These two things are inevitably connected. What we think in our minds will surely affect the way we live our lives.
This is what we want to learn from this passage. If you remember, we learned in our previous message that there were problems in the churches on the island of Crete, and Titus had to deal with those problems. But he could not deal with the problem on his own, so he had to ordain elders to help him set things in order.
One of the responsibilities of the elders was to rule the church, and those elders had to help Titus, the pastor, to deal with those problems. There were certain steps to take. Firstly, they had to identify those who were causing troubles in those churches. Secondly, they had to stop those troublemakers, because they were visiting the homes of the members and, instead of helping them out of their sins, they were turning those houses upside down. Finally, those troublemakers had to be rebuked sharply, which meant that, if necessary, they had to exercise church discipline.
Some people may be wondering: Why are these people bringing troubles into the church? Do they not know that the church belongs to God? Are they not afraid of God? Do they not believe in God? Why are they destroying the lives of believers by bringing in false teachings? Why are they behaving in such a way?
Here in this passage, the Apostle Paul would explain why these troublemakers would behave in such a destructive way. The title of our message is “The Product of Who They Are.” I chose this title by rephrasing the statement Jesus made: “Ye shall know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16) Remember, our Lord Jesus warned His disciples to beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves. He gave the illustration that a good tree cannot produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit. By their fruits, by their lives, by the way they behave and live you shall know them Matthew 7:16-20).
I. What They Think
Our first point is: They are the product of who they are by what they think. Let us begin with the first part of verse 15: “Unto the pure all things are pure.” The word pure refers to things that are morally holy, clean, or undefiled—things that are free from sin. It can be used to refer to things that are pure or people who are pure, depending on the context. Here, the word pure refers to believers, as Jesus said in Matthew 5:8: “Blessed are the pure in heart.”
What is man’s greatest problem? Man’s greatest problem is sin, right? And primarily sin has to do with the heart—it is a heart condition. The original Greek word for heart is from where we get the English word for cardiac. It is the seat of our personality—the sum total of our mind, emotion, feeling, desire, and will. It is who we really are.
Before our salvation, we were under the dominion of sin. Sin had absolute and total control over us. We were sinful and impure as far as God’s perfect standard was concerned. We were walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that is Satan. By our very sinful nature, we were children of God’s wrath. If nothing was done, for all eternity we would be tormented in the lake of fire.
But upon our conversion, we heard the Gospel—that Jesus Christ came into this world to die on the cross of Calvary and shed His precious blood to save us from the penalty of our sins. By the grace of God and through faith in Christ, we were saved. The Holy Spirit indwelt our hearts, and we were born again.
Positionally, we were made pure—we were justified, as in when God sees us, He sees us clothed with the righteousness of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. But as long as we are alive, living in this mortal body, known as the flesh, we are still troubled by sin. That is why, on a daily basis, we are commanded to be holy as God is holy. This is our practical purity. We have to be cleansed, we have to be purified, we have to confess our sins and ask the Lord to forgive us. Ultimately, one day, we will be glorified—that is the day we see our Lord Jesus face to face. That is our ultimate purity.
If we use theological terms, perhaps you will understand better: justification, sanctification, and glorification. We have been justified. We need to be sanctified daily. One day, we will be glorified. And that is the day when we see our Lord Jesus face to face, and that is our ultimate purity.
The phrase, "Unto the pure all things are pure," does not mean that, automatically as believers, we always have pure thoughts, and we are incapable of sinful and impure thoughts. That is not the case. What it means is that there is something inside us—there is this inner purity, there is this Holy Spirit indwelling in our hearts, and He will use the Word of God to sanctify our thoughts.
There is a saying: a person's life is the product of what he thinks. In a sense, it is true. For example, a person who thinks in a proud way will inevitably be proud. Or, you may say it another way: he is proud because of the way he thinks. A person who keeps dwelling on immoral things, it will lead him to be a fornicator. Or a person who keeps on dwelling on greed or covetousness, it will lead him to steal and cheat.
If we allow our minds to dwell on negative things, you and I will start to imagine things that will happen. But in reality, we do not know what will actually happen. It will affect us; it will cause us to be worried and concerned. Like a friend of mine who went for his medical check-up because he was feeling unwell. Even before the result came out, he was already thinking, "I think it is cancer. It must be cancer. Surely, it is cancer." In the end, the medical result was good.
Dear friend, are you troubled by sinful, impure, and negative thoughts? Instead of letting your minds be consumed by those destructive thoughts, you must let “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). And how can you do that? Well, the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:8:"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."
In other words, we must let the Word of God evaluate our thoughts. Everything that goes into the mind, we must use the Word of God as a yardstick to measure them, to evaluated them. Just as precious metal, like gold, has to go through the refinery to remove all the impurities, and then the end product is pure gold, 100% perfect gold. So, the believer will evaluate everything he thinks through the Word of God and the wonderworking of the Holy Spirit, his thoughts will be cleansed, and the end product will be the outward purity.
Look at the second part of verse 15:"But unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled." The word "them" was a reference to those troublemakers. They were unbelievers. They were not washed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. That was why they were defiled, which means corrupted or contaminated.
They were morally and spiritually unclean. They were still under the control of sin. They did not have the Holy Spirit, nor did they believe in the Word of God. Therefore, their mind and conscience were defiled because there was nothing to help them evaluate what they thought. All their perspectives, intentions, motivations, emotions, desires, feelings, and actions were tainted with sin.
Dear friend, God has given to every human being—whether believer or unbeliever—a conscience. The conscience is the moral sense of right and wrong. The difference between the believer and the unbeliever is that the believer has God and His Word to rule over his conscience. The unbeliever does not have the Word of God nor believe in God, so his conscience is subjected to and open to anything and everything. What he thinks is right is right; what he thinks is wrong is wrong.
That is what is happening in this unbelieving world today. People will say, ‘If you are born a man but feel that you are a woman, you are right—you are a woman.’ Or, ‘If you think that as long as the baby is in the womb and not outside the womb, the mother has the right to decide whether to let the baby live or die, you are right.’ Or, ‘If you think life is meaningless and you have lost the quality of life, you have the right to opt for euthanasia (also called mercy killing).’ That is what the unbelieving world thinks because their minds and consciences are subjected to and open to anything and everything.
What was once considered morally right is now morally wrong. What was once considered morally wrong is now morally right. When a person keeps thinking on those things and continues to be distorted in his thinking, do you know what will happen? Soon, his conscience will be seared with a hot iron, as 1 Timothy 4:2 tells us: "Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron." What happens when your clothes are seared with a hot iron? They will be burned, right? When the conscience is seared with a hot iron, it will be numbed—no more feeling of guilt anymore. Then, it will reach a point of no return.
Yesterday night, I was listening to someone interviewing a famous evangelist who preached the Prosperity Gospel. She's a female pastor. She has made millions and millions of dollars from her congregation and flies in her own private jet. The interviewer asked her, ‘You preach the Prosperity Gospel, and you preach that the more the people give to the church—to you—the more money they will receive in return. Is that really true?’ She replied, ‘Yes, of course. If they give $10, they will receive $100 times more in return. The more you give, the more you receive.’
Then the interviewer said, ‘But there are some people who took out their life savings—money that they had to pay for their medical surgeries, to pay their bills, to support their own families, their children’s education—they gave everything to you. Are you not bothered? Are you not troubled?’ She replied, ‘No. Why should I?’ This is what it means to have the mind and conscience defiled—seared with a hot iron. No more feeling of guilt anymore; it is already numbed. All the mind thinks of is money and more money.
II. How They Behave
Let us move on to our second point: they are the product of who they are by how they behave. Verse 16: "They profess that they know God." The word "profess" implies that these people outwardly or publicly profess that they knew God. They believe in God. Perhaps they were publicly baptised as members of the church; they came before the congregation and professed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ or even were ordained as ministers of the gospel. But it was only an outward profession of faith. Inwardly, they do not really believe, as the Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:5: "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."
Sometimes we hear people say, ‘But these people say they are Christians. They know the Bible very well, and they even preach the Word of God publicly. How can they be false teachers and unbelievers?’ Obviously, we cannot evaluate a person’s heart, nor can we read his mind, whether or not he truly believes. Only God alone can do that. But the faith that a person professes to believe in must be supported by something, and that is his behaviour—by the way he lives his life.
If a person has true saving faith, then it must be supported by something inside him—something supernatural. You will be able to observe his life that there’s this demonstration of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. What are those virtues? They are the fruits of the Spirit, which means the Holy Spirit is working in that person’s life, producing those virtues. There is an inner power that supports his profession of faith, and it is manifested in his outward godliness. So it is not just outwardly professing your faith without any support—it must be supported by a transformed life.
There are these people who profess to believe or even appear to be godly, but it is not supported by the transforming power of the gospel. It is not supported by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is only an outward profession of faith, only a show of godliness—a form of godliness with no real substance. Everything inside is empty.
That was why Paul went on to say: "But in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." (Titus 1:16) In other words, by their works, by their lives, they deny Him—who? Jesus Christ. They deny the Lord Jesus Christ by their behaviours. They demonstrate their unbelief.
"Being abominable" means utterly detestable. Now, this word is very interesting because sometimes it is used to refer to how God hates idolatrous practices. At other times, it was used to describe the Antichrist. When they deny God—when God is not their God—Satan is their god, and they are following the example of the Antichrist, who is the ultimate denier of Christ. Their disobedient lives betray their false profession of faith.
"And unto every good work reprobate." As far as their good works are concerned, in the eyes of men, men may praise them, men may pat them on their backs, and say, "Well done! You are so kindhearted and generous." But as far as God is concerned, God says they are worthless, disqualified, and rejected. That is the meaning of "reprobate." In other words, they are unbelievers, lost forever and ever.
Can you imagine this description being used on any one of us sitting in this room? And God says, ‘You are a reprobate.’ Let’s say we only have an outward profession of faith. We only mouth the name of Jesus Christ, but inwardly we are empty—void of the Holy Spirit, absolutely no manifestation of the fruits of the Spirit. We are always opposing the Lord’s work, bringing troubles into the church. We are detestable, disobedient, incapable of doing any good work that is acceptable to God. We are reprobates—worthless, disqualified, and rejected. That means as far as our salvation is concerned, our spiritual condition—we are lost forever.
Dear friend, a million upon a million years—where would you be? Where would our souls be if we are reprobates, disqualified, and rejected by God? Then we will be in the place the Bible says the lake of fire, where the fire never stops burning. How tragic that would be! That is why we must always search ourselves. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says "Examine yourselves,“— referring to the believers, you profess to believe God, now examine yourself, “whether ye be in the faith;“—are you really in the faith or not, “prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?"
In other words, test yourself. Take the Bible and examine yourself in the light of Scripture. Am I a true believer? If I’m a true believer, why am I behaving like this? Why am I thinking such immoral thoughts? Why is there no conviction? Why is there no guilt? Why is the Holy Spirit not working in my mind and conscience? Why am I always doing the things opposite of what God has commanded me? Take the Scriptures and test yourself.
That is what the Bible says. It is better for us to know the truth now so that we may repent and believe, rather than believe in a lie that everything is all right—that my soul is all right—as long as I have this outward profession of faith, as long as I mouth the name of Jesus Christ, it is all right. Once we swing into eternity—once we draw our last breath—it will be too late.
Dear friend, the local church, like Bethel BP Church, is made up of sheep and goats—believers and unbelievers. We hope that everyone who professes faith in Jesus Christ is a true believer. We genuinely hope for that. But the reality is that it is not. There will always be false teachers and false believers in the church of Jesus Christ.
What makes these people all the more dangerous is that they are in the church. They are intermingling with the believers, and those immature believers who are gullible will accept their outward show of false spirituality. They will gravitate towards them, thinking that it is the real thing. They will support these people to be leaders in the church. And when these people become leaders, can you imagine the harm and how destructive it is to the church of Jesus Christ?
Satan can attack the church in so many different ways. He can use persecution, trouble, adversity, disunity, disharmony, worldliness, complacency, and so forth. But his primary instrument is always people. He will use people to pretend as true servants, as true believers in the church. That is what Satan would do. They may appear to be godly. They may agree with the Bible intellectually. They may be very persuasive. But at the end of the day, they have no love for God, no love for His Word, or for His people. They only love one person—themselves. They are lovers of themselves.
Just like counterfeit money—the moment you notice it is fake, it does not match the real thing. Some may make or look more real than others. It doesn’t matter; it is still fake. What must you do? You must reject it because it is not only worthless, without any value, but it is dangerous. It is criminal.
How much more when such false teachers and false believers creep into the church? The question is: how can we tell the difference between the true and false believers, true and false teachers? By their lives. What they think in their minds will surely affect the way they live their lives. If you observe very carefully—if you listen carefully—you will be able to tell the difference.
If I can end with these three practical points: Firstly, we need to watch what they teach. What does he believe in, and what does he advocate? Is the Bible—the whole of Scripture—the basis of everything he believes and teaches? Or does he only use certain Bible passages selectively to support his unbiblical ideas? Listen carefully. Does his message only apply to the people and not to himself or to his loved ones and friends, which means he is double standards?
You know, once there was this minister who preached very strongly and eloquently against sin and worldliness. One day, someone showed him a picture of worldliness. By the word ‘worldliness,’ I think you know what I mean—it is a picture that is not acceptable, that has immoral content. And at the corner of the picture, there were the names of his children, who had clicked ‘like’ on the picture. You know, nowadays, people indicate on the computer screen the emoji thumbs-up or thumbs-down. The moment he saw the names of his children with the thumbs-up, immediately he went into defense. He tried to find excuses that such pictures are alright—they are acceptable. That is what I mean by double standards.
Secondly, we need to watch how they behave. Some preachers may be very orthodox; their messages may be sound. But their lives do not measure up to their preaching. In other words, they only preach but they do not walk the talk. Like the old Puritans would say: ‘Do not be impressed by the man who has mastered the Bible but be impressed by the man whom the Bible has mastered.’ There’s a world of difference in that statement. The question is: has the Bible transformed our lives?
Finally, we need to watch his converts, his followers—people whom he associates with, especially those who have been with him for years. If they are weak, confused, corrupted, distorted, and unconcerned about the Bible, about spiritual things like worship and services, it is not guaranteed, but it can be an indication that the leader is not godly. Why? Because Christ-honouring and Bible-honouring leaders will produce Christ-honouring and Bible-honouring disciples as well. As I’ve said, it is not guaranteed, but surely there is a connection.
Dear friend, we pray that the Lord will give to all of us the wisdom and discernment to distinguish between what is true and what is false. And this is the only way to protect the church and keep it pure and sound until our Lord Jesus returns. May the Lord help us.
Let us pray. Father in heaven, we give Thee thanks for how Thou hast given to us this opportunity to consider the words of Paul to Titus as they need to deal with the problems in the church. Today, our churches are not spared as well. We are living in perilous times, and Thou hast taught us, as our Lord Jesus has reminded us: "Ye shall know them by their fruits." (Matthew 7:16a)
We pray that Thou will grant to us this wisdom and discernment through Thy precious Word and through the working of Thy Spirit, that we will be able to discern. And most importantly, for our own selves, we need to examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith or not. Whether we be real or not. Are our professions of faith just an outward show of our beliefs, and there’s nothing inside us. Inwardly, we are empty, void of the Holy Spirit. God forbid—that will mean we are unbelievers, we are reprobates. And once we draw our last breath, it will be too late.
Oh Lord, teach us and help us that we humbled ourselves before Thee. There’s nothing more important than the salvation of our souls, and it is also so comforting to know that once we are saved, forever we are saved.
But today, Thou hast reminded us that we ought to make sure that we are saved too. So may every one of us who has professed our faith in Thee come before Thee and, through Thy Word and through the working of Thy Spirit, examine our own lives. Is there the demonstration of the fruit of the Spirit? Is there any guilt whenever we sin against Thee? Is there any conviction? Is the Holy Spirit doing His work to convict our hearts and our conscience?
If not, then we repent and believe in Thee. And as Thou hast said, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). Not even the criminal who was crucified beside our Lord Jesus. At the last moment of our Lord's life, even when he turned to Jesus “And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom” (Luke 23:42), “And Jesus said to him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
Oh Lord, may Thou continue to teach us and help us and preserve our church, that the gospel—the pure gospel of Jesus Christ—will be preached without compromise. All these we give Thee thanks and pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.