This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I'm glad you're back for day three of our look through Titus chapter 3. I said
at the end of yesterday we're going to be looking today at one of the most
dangerous sins that we often ignore. It's talked about in verses 8 to 9 of Titus
3.

Let me read those verses. This is a trustworthy saying and I want you to stress
these things so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote
themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for
everyone, but avoid foolish controversies about genealogies and arguments and
quarrels about the law because these are unprofitable and useless.

Now these verses, verses 8 and 9, verse 8 talks about the necessity of devotion
for Christ's sake and verse 9 talks about the danger of discussion for
discussion's sake. In verse 8 we hear live out this devotion of God, devoted to
doing what is good because who God is in your life. That's excellent.

That's profitable for everyone. That's a good thing to do, but then in verse 9
there is this sin that we sometimes commit that's easy to ignore. There is this
sin of chasing after foolish controversies, of discussion for discussion's sake,
of enjoying the argument way too much.

Now what's the sin of it? The deepest sin of it is that you're encouraging false
teaching. So the encouragement here is I should repent of the sin of encouraging
false teaching.

As you hear that, I think most of us think me encourage a false teacher? How
could I do that? Why would I do that?

That certainly isn't about me. And wait just a minute. To understand what's
being talked about here, you have to understand the motivation of a false
teacher.

First Timothy chapter 6 verse 5 talks about that. Anyone it says there who has a
different teaching that does not agree with the true teaching of our Lord Jesus
Christ and the teaching that shows the true way to serve God. This person,
here's the motivation, is full of pride and understands nothing, but is sick
with a love for arguing and fighting about words.

And this brings jealousy, fighting, speaking against others, evil, mistrust, and
constant quarrels. That's the motivation of a false teacher. They love to argue.

Most of us are not that way so we can't understand that motivation. False
teachers are full of pride and so they love to argue because guess what? It
brings the attention on them.

And the result of that is it's predictable, it's jealousy, it's fighting, it's
all the things that result from argument. One of the indications of whether
false teaching is being allowed in a church or in a group is the quality of the
relationships in that church. Now, it's not the only indication, but it's one of
them.

Because when false teaching is in a church, when false teaching is allowed in
any group, it's going to result in fighting, speaking against others, evil
mistrust, constant quarrels, and oftentimes the opposite is true. The other way
around, we have to look. If I'm seeing a lot of fighting, I'm seeing a lot of
quarreling, one of the questions I should be asking myself as a follower of
Christ is, is there some false teaching here that I'm allowing into my life,
that others are allowing into their lives?

That may not be the reason, it could be some bitterness or something else, but
false teaching could be the culprit. Warren Wiersbe once said, "I have learned
that professed Christians who like to argue about the Bible are usually covering
up some sin in their lives, are very insecure, and are usually unhappy at work
or at home. " And I would agree that that's true.

So what are we supposed to do about this? You think, well, I'm not the false
teacher, so it's not my fault, what do I have to do with it? What am I supposed
to do about it?

Well, we just read it. I'm supposed to avoid foolish controversies and
genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law. I avoid it.

That is my decision. And if I don't choose to do that, that's a command. If I do
not choose to avoid it, that's a sin.

I have to admit, I haven't always avoided it, so I have sinned in this way. I
need God's forgiveness for that, but I also need His strength in not sinning
that way any longer. Avoid this.

In fact, in these verses, we're told very clearly what to avoid, three specific
things to avoid, genealogies, foolish controversies, and genealogies, secondly,
and arguments and quarrels about the law, thirdly, those three things, foolish
controversies, things that people just love to argue about. Who said this? And
when did that happen?

Arguing about that is the easiest thing in the world to do. It can get your
adrenaline up. It can even be fun for those who are the false teacher.

It's not fun for you. You go home, maybe, and you think about it again and again
and again. You try to make it right, but you can't.

Avoid it instead of trying to make it right in this case. How do I know when to
try to make it right and when to avoid it? We're going to be talking about that
through this week.

The other thing they were dealing with in this church was genealogies. They were
counting up whose line this person was in and whose line this person was in and
what it meant. You get these very complicated arguments based on old genealogies
in the Old Testament.

We have the same thing today in different ways. You sometimes hear a false
teacher. They make things sound so complicated, like no one else could figure it
out.

That's when you know they're going down many times the line of false teaching.
And they also had arguments and quarrels about the law. Which law was right to
keep?

How should you keep this law? Paul says it's all in the same category. It's all
to be avoided.

So how do you do that? How do you avoid someone who wants to argue? You stop
talking.

How do you avoid someone who wants to argue? You just smile at them. It can make
you feel foolish and they may even think that you look foolish in that moment,
but it is the least foolish thing that you can do.

The foolish thing is to get drawn in. The foolish thing is to begin the argument
with them, just as a personal illustration. If you read the internet today,
there are all kinds of critics out there.

They might even criticize me personally sometimes. And if you are someone who is
a teacher in any way, people get to hear what you teach, you're going to get
criticized too personally. That's seemingly what some people think the internet
is for.

When I read one of those criticisms, there is something in me that wants to
answer it. And I have done that at times. You know what happens when I answer
it?

More argument. It doesn't calm the argument down. It just increases it.

Now, I'm not talking here about someone who has a legitimate question on a
website or in an email or anywhere else. I'm not talking about who honestly
says, "Hey, when you said this, did you mean this? " Or, "I'm confused about
what you said here.

" I'm talking about the person who says things in an argumentative and
incendiary way. They say things that you recognize from the very beginning.
They're going after the controversy.

They say things that are personal attacks, even though they don't know you. They
say things that amplify one part of the argument in ways that are ridiculous.
And anyone could see that if they looked.

When you see that kind of arguing, what's the best thing to do? Avoid it. You
avoid it.

Now, do you want to avoid it? Absolutely not. I don't.

Everything in me wants to attack it. Everything in me wants to prove that I am
right. The way to prove that you're right is not by arguing with the false
teacher.

That's just meeting their need. The way to prove that you're right is to
continue to do what's right. To continue to teach the truth, to continue to do
the good things that God has caused you and called you to be able to do.

Because one of the greatest dangers in spending time on false teachers is that
you don't have time for the truth in your life. If you focus on the negative,
it's going to take away time for the positive. And what's the positive?

The positive in these verses is what we're talked about and told to do in verse
8. The positive is do what's good. Devote yourself to that.

That's excellent. That's profitable for everyone. Arguing with false teachers,
that's like wrestling in the mud with a pig.

And the problem with wrestling in the mud with a pig is you're both going to get
dirty but only one of you likes it. Pigs like mud. They like arguing.

So what do you do instead? You do what's good. So that very motivation you feel
when someone is false, even maybe towards you, and the anger comes up.

Instead of turning that against them, you turn that toward good. Who could I
serve? Where could I share the truth?

How could I get out to others what they really need to hear? Use it to motivate
truth in your life. Now, if you're like me, you need God's strength for that.

So let's pray for his strength right now. Jesus help us. We don't want to
encourage false teachers.

So first we need wisdom. We need wisdom to see when it's an honest question, a
weak believer who just needs some time or it's a false teacher. Help us to see
that.

I believe you will. And as we see that someone who continues to teach the false
thing over time, I believe you'll give us strength and we ask for it. Strength
to instead of instead of coming against the false teacher, help us to avoid it
and help us to instead do what is good.

Jesus, our selfishness wants to wants to get involved in the argument. But it is
your grace that can call us to what's good. So let your grace win the day today.

Today in your name, we pray, amen. Tomorrow we're going to continue to talk
about this. We're going to talk about some specifics about what to do when
confronted with false teaching.