From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: We do love people, but we love people enough to tell them the truth. And when you see somebody in a cult, know that that person is deceived and they're deceiving others. They're going door to door sharing their poison. They're going from hospital bed to hospital bed, from OR to OR with dirty hands.

We wouldn't let that happen in a hospital. We don't want that to happen spiritually. So that's why we have to know the truth and walk in the truth, stand up for the truth.

Guest (Male): Have you ever heard the term rabble-rouser? Well, that's somebody who stirs things up. He stirs up people in the church in advance of their own agenda.

Now, the Bible makes clear that the false teachers in Crete, where Titus was pastor, were certainly rebels and rabble-rousers, upsetting people in the faith. And when Paul wrote to Titus, he said that he wanted him to set the house in order and deal with them.

So what application does this have for us today when people want to come into the church and corrupt the purity of sound teaching? If you're in a church now who's dealing with rabble-rousers, today is your day to listen.

This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. We're in part two of the lesson called Rebels and Rabble-Rousers. You can hear part one when you go online to fromhisheart.org, click the listen link.

Now though, have your Bible open to the book of Titus, as Pastor Jeff gives us important biblical insight into how to handle troublemakers in the church.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Now, the false teachers, the Bible makes it clear they were rebels and they were rabble-rousers. They were upsetting people and upsetting people in the faith. Look what Paul says in verse 10.

"For there are many rebellious men." This is why you have to refute those who contradict. "For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision." He had a lot of problems with people who were Jews who claimed to be now converted Jews and Christians. Those folks were giving him problems. The whole book of Galatians is about the problems that he had with the Judaizers.

It says in verse 11, "who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families." "Teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sorted gain." "One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons."

"This testimony is true. For this cause reprove them severely that they may be sound in the faith." "Not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth." "To the pure, all things are pure. But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled."

"They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny him." "Being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed."

So what does God want us to learn? What does he have to say about dealing with false teachers, about dealing with people who want to corrupt the truth and the purity of sound teaching? Two lessons. Lesson number one, false teachers can be identified.

There are false teachers. Peter said, "Hey, false prophets arose among the people just as there will also be false teachers among you." And Jude, the last book of the Bible before the book of the Revelation, he says that false teachers have come. Peter says they're coming, and Jude says they're here. And Paul was dealing with them on the island of Crete.

The devil's always working, and he works through people to make crooked the straight paths of the Lord. So the very first thing is, you can identify a false teacher and I can identify them. Paul knew who they were, and Titus knew who they were. And he gives a description of what a false teacher looks like to help you and me. Because not everybody who's talking about heaven is going there.

Not every church who has a preacher and they gather on Sunday morning. Not every church has a preacher who really believes the truth, who really preaches the truth. Not everybody you listen to on, you might see on television or on the radio, or you read something on the internet that this guy or this woman wrote, it's not all true. So it's important to be discerning and to be able to recognize truth from error and false teachers from true teachers. So let me give you some characteristics of a false teacher.

Number one, they are unwilling to submit to authority. "For there are many," verse 10, "rebellious men." Rebellious men are unwilling to yield to authority. That word rebellious can also be translated insubordinate, unruly. They're not listening to anybody. They wouldn't listen to Paul, they wouldn't want to listen to Titus, they wouldn't want to listen to the pastor of the church, anyone that they would put over them. They're rebellious because they're like, "I know, I'm going to do my own thing. I'm not listening to you."

That's one of the first big marks, is a rebel. So that's one of the first marks. They're not going to submit to authority. Well, that's a, that's a big, big problem. The devil is at work in that situation where someone won't submit to authority. And in a false teacher, that's one of the big things that you see, he's not submitted to authority.

Secondly, false teachers are empty talkers. He says that there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision. Now, these guys, just like in Corinth, just like in any of the places that the false teachers would go into, they were good at talking.

They could sound really impressive, they could sound really persuasive. They would come in with this secret knowledge, with this new knowledge. They would talk about things that the people had never heard about before. It's all this stuff that's like, "Whoa, that sounds pretty cool." But the bottom line is it's empty. They're empty talkers. It's just a bunch of hot air. It may sound impressive, but there's no substance to it, there's no content to it.

The word of God is what gives substance, not just a rah-rah pep rally. And so that's the second thing you look for, is there substance here or is it just empty talk? And it says also that they are upsetting people's faith. One of the other marks, it's not just that they're willing to submit to authority, it's not just that they're empty talkers, but number three, they're upsetting to people's faith.

Now, what is a teacher supposed to do? He's supposed to build up people in the faith. But these guys weren't building anybody up. They were upsetting whole families. And so these teachers would come in and they would have their teaching, and here's what their teaching mainly focused on: it had a mixture of Jewish ceremonies.

It had a mixture of Jewish ceremonies and dietary laws and circumcision, and they were, because he says they're mainly coming from the circumcision, they're mainly Jews, Jews that had supposedly become Christians. They would call themselves Christians, but they still had all their Judaism that they brought in. They, their church is all around like that. There are denominations like that.

Where their teaching, when you boil it down, it's Jesus plus your good works, Jesus plus something else you do, Jesus plus, you know, X, Y, and Z, and that will get you to heaven. And the X, Y, and Z is all on you, and so you have to work for your salvation. That's a lie. That's a lie from hell. The Bible says it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us.

So that they would come in and they'd upset people's faith. Hey, the goal of preaching from a true preacher is to help you see that God is able. No matter what your situation, you trust God. And his word is true and you can count on him. And it's as the scripture says in verse nine, it's the faithful word, the true word, the sure word, the word that you can base your whole life on. Every word of God is tested, the scripture says.

And so teaching that is right builds up your faith. Teaching that is wrong begins to erode away your faith and it upsets people's faith. And they were deceiving people, and why were they deceiving them? It says in verse 11, "for the sake of sorted gain." This is the next point about a false teacher. They're greedy, they care about money.

They are, as one preacher said, prophets, P R O P H E T, for profit, P R O F I T. It's all about money. They just look at people out there and they think, what can I say to them that will get them to give me money? And false prophets are really good at that. False teachers, they're really good at that. They do it all for the sake of greed, of sorted gain.

And then he says that they're liars. I love verse 12. He says, "One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said this, 'Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.'" "This testimony is true." Now, what is Paul talking about? Who said this? Well, there was a Greek philosopher, poet, his name was Epimenides, and he lived in the 6th century BC, and he was the one who came up with this phrase, "Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons."

Not just beasts and gluttons, but evil beasts and lazy gluttons. And Paul picks up on that. He said, that's true of the false teachers. They're liars. They don't tell you the truth. They tell you what they think you want to hear. They'll lie to you. Why? Because they want your money. They're in it for sorted gain.

So that's one of the marks, they're liars and they are mastered by their fleshly appetite. They're evil beasts, they're lazy gluttons. Paul talks about that in Philippians chapter three. He said, "Many men of whom I've told you and now tell you even weeping, that they're enemies of the cross of Christ, whose God is their appetite."

Their belly, their fleshly desires. These guys who are false teachers, they're mastered by their fleshly desires. When Peter talks about the false teachers in Second Peter chapter two, he mentions two things about them that always go with false teaching. There's greed and there's sexual immorality. Those two things, you mark it down. Anytime you find a false teacher, you'll find greed, you'll find sexual immorality. Because they're mastered by the the desires of the flesh.

And then he says that they are deceived, they're deceiving, and they're divisive. The three D's. Deceived, deceiving, and divisive. He says in verse 10 that they're empty talkers and deceivers. They're deceiving people with the Jewish myths, with the other things from Judaism that they're trying to bring over into Christianity, saying you have to have this, this, this new knowledge and things like that, deceiving people.

And why do they deceive people? Well, they deceive them for, for gain and for greed, but they're also deceived. Paul says that in Second Timothy chapter three and verse 13. It says, "Evil men will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." Those things go hand in hand.

Guest (Male): If you've been a Christian a long time and you've been in the church a long time, even a great church, you still have seen the evidence of rabble-rousers. Pastor Jeff will elaborate a bit more as we conclude this message from the series Setting the House in Order, a study of the book of Titus. Stay tuned.

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Dr. Jeff Schreve: You know, when you meet someone who's in a cult. Say the Mormons, because they're very active. Mormonism is a cult. When you meet someone who's a Mormon, who is so committed, who's riding his bike, he's going on mission, he's doing all that, he seems so, so nice, so clean cut. You say, "Well, how could that guy be in a cult? You know, he just, he, he says he believes in Jesus, and and I just want to embrace that."

You know, Joel Osteen was the one that said, "Yeah, Mormonism's a little different than Christianity, but they, they say they believe in Jesus, so they're, that's good with me." It's not good, because they believe in another Jesus whom we have not preached. Just because you say you believe in Jesus doesn't mean it's the Jesus of the Bible.

Gordon Hinckley, who has passed away, passed away in 2008, I believe, he was the president of the Mormon Church. He admitted in a private meeting with some Mormons, but a reporter was there and reported this, he admitted this. He said, "Do we believe in the traditional Jesus of Christianity?" He said, "No." He said, "We believe in the Jesus that is talked about from Joseph Smith that was revealed to Joseph Smith." Well, Joseph Smith, the Jesus that Joseph Smith talked about was revealed to him in the 1800s. Or early 1900s, somewhere around there. And you know, it's like, wait a minute, what, what happened from that time until the church? Well, everything was corrupted, everything was polluted.

Well, that's, that's Mormonism. And the Jesus of Mormonism is not God in the flesh. Jesus of Mormonism is not co-equal with God the Father. The Jesus of Mormonism is the spirit brother of Lucifer. That's another Jesus whom we have not preached. Just because somebody says that they believe in Jesus, you got to find out which Jesus do you believe in? Because there's only one Jesus and that Jesus is the only one that can save you, and that Jesus is God in the flesh.

And so, see, there, a person like that, he is deceived and deceiving. He really believes. Many of the people there, they really believe what they believe. But you know, sincerity is not the test of truth. You can be sincerely wrong. The guys that took the planes and flew them into the World Trade Center buildings, they thought, when I die, I go straight to heaven, and I'm going to have 70 virgins. That was their thinking. See, they, they think in terms of fleshly desires. So a man, I got 70 virgins that are going to be a part of my harem, and that is heaven. Well, obviously, they were sincere, because they did that thinking this is what's going to happen. They were sincerely wrong. Sincerely wrong. So sincerity is not the test of truth. What God says is the test of truth.

So deceiving and being deceived, and then they cause division because they're pulling people away from the body. And you know where a lot of cultists go to recruit? They go to churches. When I was in Houston, the cult would come and they would put flyers on the cars while we were at church. Tony Alamo did that, he's done that before, before he got sent up to the big house. He did that here. You know, and he'd have his followers put stuff on the cars, on the windshields of people that are in church. Well, why? Because they like to go after people at the church, the stragglers, those that don't really know, they they they have a little bit of knowledge, but they don't really know and they can take that person and turn them into a pretzel and pull them away. They always cause division. So that's a false teacher.

The Lord says, "Hey, they can be identified. You can see, you can find out about them. There's some tell-tale signs." And then secondly, false teachers must be silenced. That's what he told Titus to do. "For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced, because they are upsetting whole families." "Hey, shut them up, Titus." "Go after them, Titus. Muzzle them, Titus. Don't let them talk anymore. Don't let them come in as the guest speaker at the house church anymore." "Kick them out." "Shut them up." "Refute them with sound doctrine."

Listen, the pastor's job is to confront them and to reprove them. Now, the easy thing to do is to say, "Well, you know, I mean, okay, you believe differently from me, and I don't want to come across like an ogre, like, you know, I'm the authority and and you're the bad guy." And so lots of guys, they just back up and they just say, "Well, you know, that's not my calling." It is your calling, if you're a pastor, because a pastor's supposed to do things: exhort and refute those who contradict. Paul took a lot of time, and in a lot of his letters, he's refuting those who are contradicting.

Because what the devil wants to do is have people come in the OR that haven't scrubbed up, and I'm just going to start working on this body. You're going to kill people if you do that in surgery. Spiritually, and see it's the surgeon's job, when I scrubbed in, they wouldn't let me in the OR. That surgeon wouldn't let me work with him in the OR until I scrubbed up all the way to my elbows and and cleaned up really good and was sterile. He was going to make sure because his name, his reputation, his neck was on the line if I came in with dirty hands and, yeah, filled up in this woman's chest, feel her heartbeat. He wasn't going to let me do that stuff.

Now, it's the pastor's job to make sure that doesn't go on in the church where somebody's pushing false doctrine, so he has to confront it and he has to refute it. Now, he says this in verse 13. He says, "This testimony is true about the Cretians. For this cause reprove them severely that they may be sound in the faith." The word severely means to cut them off. You rebuke them, bam. You don't just kind of ease your way into it. It needs to be decisive. You need to shut them up. Because they're upsetting people, they're eroding people's faith, they're leading people astray, and so deal with that head-on. He has to confront and reprove, and you remember the pastor's job is to protect the soundness of the faith.

You know, I take that very, very seriously. That's what God wants me to do. To make sure, you know, I'm not perfect and and I don't know everything about the Bible and I'm sure I've preached some things that maybe it's not exactly right. But I never do it with the idea of trying to deceive or trying to get people's money or anything like that. It's I come to the scripture. I mean, Peter even said about Paul's writings, he said, "Some things are hard to understand." I mean, Paul writes about some things and you're like, I'm not exactly sure what he means. And that's where you, "Lord, show me." Show me. I was talking to somebody the other day and we were talking about a passage in Genesis chapter six, and she had me listen to this guy teach on Genesis chapter six. And after she got done, she said, "Well, what do you think?" And I said, "Well, you know, there are several different interpretations of what Genesis chapter six, this passage about the Nephilim, you know, what that means." This guy's just taken it and saying, "Well, this is what it means." He doesn't even give you the other interpretations.

Godly people can disagree on certain passages of scripture. What godly people don't disagree on is the heart of Christianity: that Jesus Christ is God, that he died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead on the third day, that it's God's grace plus nothing other than your faith that leads to salvation. People of faith that really know the Lord, they're all in agreement about that. We can disagree on some ancillary things, but the main thing, we can't disagree on that. The moment that you start disagreeing on that, you jettison yourself out of the faith.

And a pastor's job is to protect it, to make sure that the word of God is being taught and truth is going out and people are understanding the truth. And as Mark Driscoll said, a pastor has to feed the sheep and shoot the wolves. He doesn't make friends with the wolves. He shoots them, because he cares about the sheep. Watch out for guys that don't ever want to talk about any of that stuff. "Well, I don't want to be controversial. I don't want to say anything that would ruffle some feathers. I don't, you know, I mean, I'm just not that, that's not my calling." Baloney. It is your calling if you're called to be a pastor.

Because you have to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict. You have to watch over the OR to make sure nobody comes in there who hadn't first scrubbed up. That's key. Now, you know, as we close up, I was thinking about, okay, how does this apply? Well, if you're a false teacher, it really applies. But nobody's going to own up to that probably. But all of us can be influenced by false teaching. All of us can say, as I mentioned Joel Osteen says when it comes to Mormons, "Well, you know, I don't want to judge. I don't want to say anything negative. They're nice people." Hey, they are nice people. They have great commercials. But that doesn't, that's not the test of truth. How good are your commercials? Right? How nice are you? You have to go back to the word.

Farrell and Farrell had a song years ago in the 80s. The song said, "You got to find it in the word." Whatever teaching, you got to find it in the word. If it's not in this book, throw it out. And you got to live your life based on the word. And we do love people, but we love people enough to tell them the truth. And when you see somebody in a cult, know that that person is deceived and they're deceiving others. They're going door to door sharing their poison. They're going from hospital bed to hospital bed, from OR to OR with dirty hands. We wouldn't let that happen in a hospital. We don't want that to happen spiritually. So that's why we have to know the truth and walk in the truth, stand up for the truth.

Guest (Male): You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. And today you heard part two of the message Rebels and Rabble-Rousers. It's from the eight lesson series entitled Setting the House in Order, a study from the book of Titus. If you'd like a copy of it on CDs or MP3 download or on a USB flash drive. Call 866-40-BIBLE, 866-40-BIBLE, or go online to fromhisheart.org. Again, the series Setting the House in Order.

Thank you for being with us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles and we trust that you'll be here Friday for the next lesson in Pastor Jeff's series Setting the House in Order, a study of the book of Titus. Join us for the message The Master's Plan for Discipleship. Tomorrow, here on From His Heart.