Holding On to God's True Word

He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

Our passage this morning expands on this principle, where we see Titus needing to rebuke those who stand in opposition to God’s word. In order to protect the church, he must establish Christian leaders of God’s teaching who are willing to defend the truth, for the sake of the building of the faith of the church and so that they may carry out good works.

But before we jump into our passage, I want to look at one question:

Why is Truth important?

Truth leads to Life

This isn’t just Eternal Life: this is also increased benefit in the present life. Without living according to the truth of God’s word, you cannot complete good works. But by living according to God’s word and God’s design, good works are able to be accomplished.

And there’s a really important record in scripture of an event that changed the course of human history that underlines the importance of Truth. It’s where truth was first exchanged for a lie, and death entered the world. Yes, I’m talking about the garden of Eden.

So let’s turn there briefly to review and refresh our minds on the narrative. Beginning with Genesis 2, verses 15 through seventeen.

Genesis 2:15 ESV

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Genesis 2:16 ESV

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,

Genesis 2:17 ESV

but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

So Adam was given one rule to live by in the garden. Think of it this way: The Garden of Eden is a temple of God- the place where God is worshipped, and he walks and dwells with his people. In fact, all God’s temples in the Old Testament, if you think of the Tabernacle, and Solomon’s temple … incorporate garden imagery: trees, pomegranates, so on and so forth. And in God’s temple, in God’s presence, there must be nothing unholy. If we need an example of this, we can just look at Aaron’s two sons who were set to be priests in God’s temple, but who offered unholy fire before the Lord and he took their lives for it in order to stress the point of his holiness. God does not dwell in the presence of sin. He is holy: his is above sin; he never sins; he is distant from it. Adam, as a priest in God’s garden temple, was to maintain the integrity of the site: to preserve its upkeep, yes, but also to maintain its integrity: that the place wouldn’t become defiled and corrupt. And part of that duty meant not eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If Adam disobeyed God, unholiness would enter in before the presence of God, and Adam would be cast out, since God is perfectly holy and does not dwell with sin – and Adam’s path would lead to death. Adam’s job as a temple high priest is to keep God’s word, to safeguard its integrity.

Adam needed to keep God’s word

We’ll see how well Adam does in just a bit.

So God gives Adam instructions as the garden temple’s high priest, and he also creates a helper for Adam- Eve. Eve is such a perfect fit for Adam that Adam proclaims: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!”. Lord, there could be no one more perfect to be a partner in life, a partner in the tasks and duties that you have given to me.

But even though Adam had the perfect helper, did he execute his duties well?

Genesis 3:1–3 ESV

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

So Eve clearly understands the instructions given to her from the Lord, likely passed on to her by Adam.

But here’s where the serpent shows up:

Genesis 3:4–5 ESV

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Now here’s where the lies and deception come in: That the result of disobeying God will not lead to death, and that equality with God was something to be achieved by man. Eve, don’t you want to be greater than how God made you to be? To be more wise? To be like God himself? And what was Eve’s response?

Genesis 3:6 ESV

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Deceived by a lie that appealed to her own selfish wants, her own lack of satisfaction with everything that she had, Eve reached out and ate the fruit, and disobeyed God. She saw something that was desirable, that appealed to the appetite of her flesh. Rather than trusting in God’s word and its outcome, she places truth aside and gives in to her desires. And she eats of the forbidden fruit. But Eve is not the only culprit here. Where’s the head priest of the garden temple when all of this is happening?

“And she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Adam is right there with her! He sees all of this transpire. He doesn’t step forward and say to the serpent, this is wrong! Begone out of here, you deceiver! He doesn’t step forward and say to Eve, “No, we must obey God and trust him, lest we see death.” Imagine if he had! If Adam had been faithful to fulfill the role of keeping and guarding the temple as God had established him to do. Rather than driving the snake out of the Garden and helping Eve see the truth and life, instead Adam allows this to transpire. He not only allows it, but he buys into it as well. Adam wanted his own gain, more wisdom, more understanding to be like God. He wasn’t content with how God made him to be … he rejected the task that God had given him and desired something more. And so

Genesis 3:7 ESV

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Genesis 3:8–9 ESV

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

Genesis 3:10 ESV

And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

Genesis 3:11–12 ESV

He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”

So the Lord tries to get to the root of the problem. But Adam, rather than stepping up and taking responsibility, out of his own fear and timidity, shoves everything onto Eve. He essentially throws her under the bus. Was what he said partly true? Did Eve give him the fruit? Yes. But also, did Adam step forward and try to stop her? Did he try to keep the garden, as the Lord had asked him to? Not at all.

What is the consequence for Adam’s actions? Look at verse 17

Genesis 3:17 ESV

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

Genesis 3:18 ESV

thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.

Genesis 3:19 ESV

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

The result of Adam’s sin was death- to the dust you shall return. The punishment also includes work and hard labor during life. But the main thing to be noted here is the fulfillment of God’s initial instruction, that Adam will surely die if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam, as the head priest in God’s garden temple, had failed.

Now, there’s much more we could continue on in this Genesis passage. But for the sake of the message today, the point I want to emphasize is Adam’s failed responsibility to safeguard God’s word. He failed to and guard what the Lord had entrusted to him: his wife, the Lord’s own word and promise of life and not death. And because of Adam’s failure, sin was brought into the world.

And this problem with men has persisted through all of human history. Paul summarizes this well in Romans when he says “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped the creature rather than the creator.” “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.”

And so, without God’s help, without God’s intervention, man’s result of their sin is death. They will compromise the truth and buy into the lie every single time. I am reminded of Ephesians 2, where it says that

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

And this is the natural state of man in their sin. It is the result for every man and every woman without God. And mankind existed in this state, until one man conquered sin and death, never to die again. This one man has been the exception to the rule of death for all mankind. And his name is Jesus Christ.

You see, Jesus held on to God’s true word.

Jesus held on to God’s True Word

He was the perfect priest of God: as a human man, he obeyed the Lord perfectly in all things. He kept and guarded the truth. The Spirit of the Lord dwelled within him, and he kept himself unstained from the things of the world. Christ himself became a temple that the Lord could dwell in. God’s holy presence resided in him. That’s why, when Jesus died, God raised him to life. Jesus was not under the curse of Adam- his body would not be doomed to return to dust.

And Jesus broke the pattern of sin and death for his disciples, for those who follow after him. He sets the example to train new priests in the kingdom of God: those who will obey God’s commands and will cast out the serpent from the temple rather than letting it live and persist. This is why, when we get to our own passage, that keeping and guarding the trustworthy word as taught is so important for the early church. Jesus himself claimed to be the way, the truth, and the life. He guarded and perfected the way of truth. Because he was without sin, his teachings have not been corrupted by man’s debased mind. He became the better Adam: the better priest of the temple of God.

So now, mankind has a choice: to follow under the order of Adam, to disobey God and to mark an increase in their own profit and gain by exchanging God’s instruction, God’s command for a lie and whose path leads to death, or to follow under the order of Christ, who safeguards the truth and maintains righteousness, leading many to everlasting life.

And this choice, this conundrum, is exactly what the early church in Crete is facing when Paul writes this letter.

And we pick up in our passage for today, beginning in verse 10-

Titus 1:10–11 ESV

For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

Paul and Titus are establishing elders, faithful men who hold to the teachings of Christ, to safeguard the truth. That people may not be fed lies, but may find life in Christ.

Now, this circumcision party is referred to elsewhere in scripture. We know that they wanted to add more to the saving work of Christ: that they were teaching the burden of the Jewish law and following all sorts of steps to get to heaven than to simply believe in Christ. For them, faith in Jesus was not enough.

But Titus was instructed to establish men who could hold true to the teachings of Jesus: Who followed after the priestly order of Christ rather than Adam, who didn’t seek their own gain.

And now Paul jumps from his main argument to a supporting argument, verse 12

Titus 1:12 ESV

One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”

This testimony is true.

In other words, this is the natural state of man. Before Christ, this is what Crete was known for. It’s like Rhode Island or Australia, a place where thieves or former convicts would come to evade the law. They would give in to worldliness- laziness, evil, gluttony. But this isn’t what God has created mankind to do. They are living a lie, living in a deception, rather than living in the truth of Christ.

Titus 1:13–14 ESV

This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

Now, there’s some debate as to who is to be rebuked and why. Are the false teachers from earlier to be rebuked? Are the Cretans to be rebuked? My answer would be both: the false teachers seem to be Cretans who are spreading lies, who are seeming to be influencing others for their own profit: for creating their own following. And who will be sound in the faith? Well, those who listen to the rebuke.

Elders/pastors/teachers … as priests in the temple of God and stewards of God’s word and of truth, are to lead others out of darkness into light. They are to call those living in sin to follow after righteousness, so that they may have faith in Christ and have life. The natural state of Crete was worldly evil, but the light of Christ leads mankind into hope, right ways of living, and truth.

There are going to be those who hear this call and who reject it, choosing to follow the priesthood of Adam. But there are going to be those who hear this truth as it is called and who will follow in the order of Christ: renouncing disobedience to the Lord and committing themselves to following in His ways.

Paul continues in verse 15

Titus 1:15–16 ESV

To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Those who do not believe in Christ, are not following after God in obedience, have a debased and defiled mind. Even though they might proclaim that their way leads to a better life, their proclamation is a deception. Just like the lie from the serpent in the Garden of Eden … If you seek your own way, you won’t surely die. What God says won’t surely happen … he’s just trying to deceive you, to rob you from what you could be. You could be so much happier and more fulfilled in this life if you give in to the passions and desires of your heart. God is only holding you back from those things.

Let me warn you now, that this way of thinking is a full-frontal assault on God’s holiness, on his temple, and against his people.

Godly pastors, Godly elders, will recognize this attack. And rather than following in the order of Adam and letting these things slide, they should follow after the order of Christ, and defend truth. They speak forth boldly to proclaim the things of God. They love others by seeking after and defending the truth as found in God’s word, rather than appealing to mankind’s understanding. For we know truth and life are found in God and not with the world.

But if God’s ways are defended, are guarded and protected by faithful pastors and elders, then the temple, the place where God’s glory dwells, will remain pure and undefiled. And God can dwell there. And where God dwells, there will be overflowing fountains of joy and blessing and spiritual fruitfulness. There will be life, life lived in relationship with him. And people will be known and loved by their creator in ways beyond what they could ever imagine. Those people who are currently in the world who feel lost, who have no hope, who are struggling in life, will find hope and peace and rest in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.

And what’s the result of defending God’s truth?

Good works. You see, one’s outward works are only a product: they’re a product of your life, how your character is, what you’ve been doing. Some do good works as a facade, in order to cover up and make amends for all of their bad works. But these aren’t genuine good works because they are committed selfishly: for a person’s own personal gain. Genuine good works are conducted from a heart of thankfulness and reception to God: performing a task because of what God has done for you, not the other way around. And this was the message Titus was to carry to the false teachers in Crete, who tried to add more works onto their salvation. But Titus was to hold on to the teaching as he was taught, which is salvation by God’s grace, which leads to good works, not the other way around.

So Hold on to the Word of God.

Hold on to God’s True Word

Hold on to the Truth in Christ. Trust in Him, and no other. For when you put your faith and trust in Christ, he will never leave you nor forsake you.

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is the promise that God gives to those who believe in him and trust in his word above all. He will not depart from you.

Our God is the living God, the herald of truth, the one who seeks your best interest, even if it means showing you that you have been doing things the wrong way. Life is not to be lived in lies to others, or in laziness, or by hoarding things for yourself. But God’s way is a way of love and self-sacrifice. God himself came in the flesh, Jesus Christ the righteous. And rather than giving into the passions and desires of sinful flesh, Jesus lived obediently before God. And he gave his life up as gift for those who believe and trust in his name: that we may be found blameless and guiltless.

So church, recognize that Truth leads to life and good works. Identify and train leaders that safeguard God’s truth. And hold on to God’s true word, just as Jesus did.

Recognize that Truth leads to Life and Good Works

Identify and Train Leaders who safeguard God’s Truth

Hold on to God’s True Word, just as Jesus did

Let us be recognized as priests in the order of the righteous Christ, rather than under the order of sinful Adam.

If there is anyone here who has not yet put their hope and faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and savior, let me invite you to do so today. There is no better decision you could make in all of life than to begin a personal relationship with the God who loves you and who died to save you from your sins. If that is you today, I welcome you to speak with myself or any one of our regular church members after the service, so that we can pray with you and speak more with you about who Jesus is and what he has done.

May many come to know the truth of God’s eternal word and the steadfastness of his promises, so that they have life and joy and peace.