Introduction.

1. One thousand five hundred Australians were surveyed in 2004 to determine which professions they trusted the most. Ambulance Officers and Fire Fighters topped the list as those who were most trustworthy. Religious Ministers/Priests were fourteenth on the list and considered less trustworthy than Plumbers and Accountants, but just more trustworthy that the Auto Mechanics and Bartenders. That the world should consider servants of Christ as less than totally trustworthy is great cause for concern, shame and reveals the need for revival in the leadership of the church. When church leaders live compromised lives the world has the right to dismiss them as hypocrites. The leadership of the church has given the world a very poor witness to the God of truth and holiness and in doing so has provided opportunity to the world to slander the name of the Saviour. This very poor ranking in some way confirms that the church is sliding into apostasy. If members of the congregation cannot trust their Elders, the church is in a very sad state as it means that those in the Eldership are not blameless men firmly anchored in sound doctrine who promote godliness by proclaiming the truth. Titus needed to find men suitable for the Eldership in order to promote the faith and establish sound teaching in the hearts and minds of their brothers and sisters in Christ, in order to honour God.
   
   
2. Christians living in Crete were greatly influenced by their culture and needed to break free from the lifestyle promoted by the national traits of being, liars, evil beasts and lazy gluttons and live in a way that reflected the truth about the power of the Gospel that had reconciled them to God. In the church there seems to have been some who had imbibed false doctrine and were spreading it among believers. Paul described these people as those who are defiled, who claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are despicable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good. While the Cretans saw nothing wrong with their self-centred, self-pleasing, self-indulging and self-gratifying lifestyle, the Gospel condemned it as wicked in the eyes of God. Those who by God's amazing grace embraced the life giving Gospel of Christ became opponents of their former lifestyles and were expected to call their fellow-countrymen to repent of their sinful lifestyles. The church (all believers) needs to be very clear that it is anti-sin in every form and in everyone. If you are calling others to repent of sin while you indulge yourself in those very sins you are a hypocrite and bring shame and dishonour to Jesus. Believers in Crete needed to have consistency in what they claimed to believe in Christ and the way they lived.
   
   
3. We need to remind ourselves that the churches in Crete would have met in the homes of members, for prayer, study and worship. Households bore witness to the Lord and encouraged neighbours, friends and family to come to their homes to hear the truth of God's Word. Protecting households from the dangers of false teachers and their unsound doctrine was a task Titus needed to give urgent attention to as some household were under attack. In Titus 1:10-11 Paul gives this directive; ‘For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.' What must Titus do as he seeks out suitable men for the Eldership? Listen to Paul's very clear instruction; ‘But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine.' Titus 2:1 Titus is to busy himself in promoting sound doctrine in the conversations he has with church members in Crete to counter the false teaching and transform those who deny God by their lifestyles. Sound doctrine is the foundation of the morals, ethics, values and actions of the true Christian life. Moral problems lead to behavioural problems, which reflect the lack of sound theology. Sound doctrine in believers must promote godly morals, ethics, values and actions and therefore lead to godly lives. Paul gives directives to Titus concerning the fruits sounds doctrine must yield in men and women. Paul divides men and women into two categories the older and the younger. Titus was also to give attention to instructing slaves who had become believers. Today we will focus our attention on the working of sound doctrine in producing fruits of Godliness.

The working of sound doctrine to produce fruit.

1. How does sound doctrine produce fruit in believers? The NIV along with some other translations take the liberty of adding the word teach in verses 1, 2 and 3. ‘You must teach what is according to sound doctrine. Teach older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love, and in endurance. Likewise teach older women to be reverent in the way they live.' The emphasis is placed on the important role of teaching sound doctrine in the Christian life. The Christian life is taught and learnt, it does not come automatically. You need to be taught how to be like Christ and how to live committed to doing the Father's will. This is not external behaviour modification, but the transformation of the mind and heart to embrace the reality of the newness of life in Christ Jesus. Listen to Paul expressing this truth in Ephesians 4:20-24, ‘But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.' This transformation or sanctification is an ongoing process that takes a lifetime of learning and is made effective by the rule of Christ.
   
   

2. When we speak about teaching sound doctrine we build on three fundamental assumptions.

   1. The person being taught has been born from above. Until a person is born again the knowledge they accumulate is purely intellectual and lacks the transforming and animating power of the truth accompanied by the Spirit of God. You need to be made spiritually alive in order to assimilate Biblical truth into your lifestyle. Listen to Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:14, ‘But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' We need to take note of four important things Paul states in this verse; Firstly note the term natural man describes a person who does not have the Spirit of God. The natural man belongs to the world, the man with the Spirit belongs to God. Secondly note the natural man does not accept/receive the things of the Spirit of God. The natural man does not process in his mind heart and will the things of the Spirit of God as being true and of great value therefore rejects it. Thirdly note the truth of God is considered by them to be foolishness. To the natural man the whole concept of the gospel is fanciful, meaningless, irrelevant and a crutch for the weak. Fourthly we need to note that the reason the natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit of God is because they are spiritually discerned. On this matter William Hendriksen says, ‘Granted the unbeliever can excel the Christian in various ways: intellectually, educationally, philosophically, or even morally. He may be a worthy citizen and a leader in society who shuns the sensuous excesses that characterise other people. Yet, the non-Christian is unable to understand spiritual matters. He lacks the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit to enlighten his understanding.' To understand spiritual things you need to think spiritually and a person who is dead in their trespasses and sin (Ephesians 2:1) cannot think spiritually. A person needs to be born again if they are to think spiritually. It is important for us to take full cognisance of the situation the atheist or agnostic is in. They are like a man living alone in an isolated place who is subject to an electrical power failure on a pitch black night. He has no light. He has no idea what caused the power failure, and is unable to predict how long the blackout will last. He is powerless until the electricity supply is restored. Unless the power of the Holy Spirit enlightens a person spiritually they remain in spiritual darkness. We need to add an addition point to the importance of being born from above - Paul in Romans 8:7-8 concerning obedience to the Law of God, says, ‘Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.' Until you are born again you cannot please God. No matter how much sound doctrine you teach to an unconverted person it will not bear fruit simply because that person cannot please God. It is like sowing wheat seeds on a concrete slab; it cannot and does not germinate, grow and produce fruit.
      
      
   2. The infallibility of the Word of God. The Bible is a wonderful and amazing gift from God for in it the voice of God remains recorded forever. If you want to hear God's voice go to the Bible and you can hear his actual words. If you want to check to make sure you heard precisely what God said, go to the Bible. As Edwin Palmer says, ‘The Word of God is a living miracle; it is God ever speaking to man, just as if he were speaking in a visible form to you in your own room.' The Bible was brought into being not essentially by the work of men, but by the work of the Holy Spirit. Listen to 2 Peter 1:19-21, ‘And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a  light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit' Paul understood this process at work in him and in 1 Corinthians 2:13 says, ‘These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.' The Scriptures are more than a perfect record of what God has said, as God is present and speaks every time the Bible is read silently or aloud.
      
      Jesus in John 17:17 prays for believers asking his Father, ‘Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth.' Jesus equates the Bible with truth. Jesus prays that our lives conform to the truth of the Scriptures. It is God's will that believers build their lives on the foundation of the Word of God. The Bible must inform you of the truth about God, yourself and salvation. Until you believe what the Bible says you believe the lies of the devil. All the lies the devil brought to us while we were still in the darkness and bondage of sin need to be replaced with the truth spoken by God. The Word of God alone is our source of truth. The Word of God must rule over you and you must wholeheartedly submit to it. We need to be clear that when you refuse to accept the truth of Scripture on any issue it is a display of great arrogance as you are declaring that you are wiser than God. You are saying God is wrong and you are right. When Jesus replied to the temptations of the Devil with the words ‘it is written' he did not argue, but moved on to the next temptation. Will Houghton is right when he says, ‘The Bible calls itself food. The value of food is not in the discussion it arouses but in the nourishment it imparts.' The Word of God must nourish your life so that you grow to become more and more like Christ Jesus.
      
      
   3. The internal work and ministry of the Holy Spirit. While the Bible is God's infallible Word and is perfect in every way, this does not mean that anybody can read it and accumulate its truth and knowledge like they would any other book. The Scribes and Pharisees studied the Old Testament Scriptures with great zeal but they never came to know its truth, if they did they would have embraced Jesus. Listen to Jesus speaking to them in John 5:39, ‘You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of me.' They had the Bible but could not grasp, comprehend, understand or identify the truth concerning Jesus. The fault was not in the Scriptures they studied, but in themselves, they were natural men. The New Testament also implies learning difficulties in those born again. Christians are very poor students. Jesus in Luke 24:25 laments this fact when he says to those with whom he walked on the road to Emmaus, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!' Christians even though they are born again in their own strength and capacity are woeful in their understanding and application of the Scriptures. Listen to Luke 24:44-45, ‘Then Jesus said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me." And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.'  To be born again and have the Bible is not enough we also need to work of the Holy Spirit to give us the light in which to read the Scriptures. Listen to Paul in Ephesians 1:17-18 praying for believers, he asks, ‘that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.' Listen to Ephesians 3:14-19 ‘For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.' All Christians need the internal work of the Holy Spirit to understand and comprehend the truth God has given in his Word. The Holy Spirit is given to all believers, to be their comforter. The work of a comforter is not to make you feel better nor enable you to do miracles, but to give you strength, courage and motivation to glorify God in all things. It is the Holy Spirit according to Romans 8:15-16 that bears witness to your spirit concerning the fact of your adoption in Christ. He also urges you to cry, ‘Abba, Father' to give you assurance and security as a son of God. This urging of the Holy Spirit is vital to you taking ownership of the fact that you are a son of God and enjoy having a heavenly Father.
      
      
3. Teaching sound doctrine is a bit like making plywood. Plywood is made up of thin wooden sheets (veneers) layered and bonded together, the grain direction of the veneer sheets alternate to give amazing strength in all directions. Teaching sound doctrine by the power of the Spirit through the Word is laying down one doctrine on another to laminate them on to the heart, mind and will, in order to strengthen the inner-being against sin. As knowledge of sound doctrine grows so the inner-being is reinforced against the wiles of the devil. Paul in Ephesians 6 calls on believers to put on the full armour of God, each piece of armour is a layer of doctrine.  Listen to Ephesians 6:14-18, Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Christians are to be armed with sound doctrine and it is the task of the Elders to make sure believers are being supplied with the armour.
   
   
4. Because the effectiveness of teaching sound doctrine is totally dependant upon the Holy Spirit, some believers think that they can be passive in the process of teaching and learning sound doctrine. A child with an unwilling attitude and does not apply himself will not learn even if he has the most skilled teachers in the world. To take a passive attitude in this process is wrong and grieves the Holy Spirit. God holds you fully responsible for growing in sound doctrine, he expects you to fully apply yourself. You need to get interactive with the Scriptures, recognise that God himself is talking about you and directly to you, and if you ignore him you provoke him and he will discipline you. You need to give yourself diligently to establishing exactly what the Lord is telling you to do or stop doing in your thoughts, words or deeds. You need to be like the folk in the town of Berea. Listen to the testimony of the Scriptures concerning them, ‘These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.' They listened to Paul but checked all that he said to make sure that it was sound doctrine that agreed with the Scriptures. They took fully responsibility for what they believed and double checked from the Word of God. It is in the double checking that great blessing is found for it confirms that what you have heard is exactly what God has said. Double checking transforms what you hear from being the opinion of a man to the command of God.

Conclusion.

I have told you that you need to be firmly established in sound doctrine by the working of the Holy Spirit through the Word by the teaching of the Elders. You need to take what I have said and check that it agrees with the Scriptures, in doing that it will become very clear that this is not my opinion, but God's command to you. Only once you have heard the voice of God commanding you in his Word to be established in sound doctrine and the Holy Spirit convicts you of this will you do something to meet this command. If you do nothing to meet this command given by God then either your attitude grieves the Holy Spirit or you are still a natural man without the means of hearing and seeing the truth of God.