Sermon #1095                                            Miscellaneous Sermons

Title:            The Pure and the Defiled

Text:            Titus 1:15-16

Reading:     

Subject:       The differing judgments of believers and unbelievers

Date:            Sunday Morning – July 11, 1993

Tape #        

Introduction:

The Book of Titus is what we call a “Pastoral Epistle.” It is called that because it deals with the calling, character, conduct, cares, and conflicts of those who preach the gospel. It tells us what pastors must be, what they must do, and how they are to rule the church of God by the Word of God. With those things in mind, I want to show you several things revealed in Titus 1 that will serve as a natural introduction to my text and my message this morning.

1. Every true gospel preacher is “a servant of God and an apostle (messenger) of Jesus Christ” (v. 1).

2. The faith of God’s elect, (the gospel of Christ, all the doctrines of Holy Scripture), promotes true godliness (v. 1). Nothing revealed in Holy Scripture promotes licentiousness in any way. If what you believe leads you to a course of life that is contrary to godliness, your faith is a false faith.

3. The hope we have of eternal life in Christ is based upon the immutable purpose and covenant promise of God made concerning us before the world began (v. 2).

4. The Word of God is made manifest to men through the preaching of men who are sent of God to preach the gospel (v. 3). God communicates to men by other men! He makes his Word manifest by preaching!

· His written Word – The Scriptures!

· His essential Word – Christ!

· His decretive Word – His elective purpose!

5. All true Christians believe the same thing essentially. Our faith is “the common faith” of God’s elect (v. 4). We believe the same thing about…

· The character of God.

· The character of man.

· The character of salvation – By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

6. One reason for the establishment of the pastoral office is to set and maintain order in the house of God (v. 5). Paul left Titus in Crete “to set in order the things that were wanting.”

7. Every man called of God to preach the gospel and lead his people as a pastor is qualified and gifted by the grace of God to do so (vv. 6-9).

          Titus was to ordain elders in every city; that is in every city where churches had been gathered. But any man ordained as an elder must meet the character of one called by God.

· He must be a man.

· He must be a man of blameless character and behavior.

· He must be a gracious, hospitable man.

· He must be a doctrinally sound man.

· He must be an able, gifted teacher and preacher of the gospel.

8. Every form of legalism, will worship, works religion, and religious superstition and tradition must be stopped and rooted out of the church (vv. 10-14).

          God’s servants are very tolerant, patient men. They are tolerant of failure, patient with faults, and forebearing with offenses. But the servant  of God will not and must not tolerate any doctrine, or any doctrinal tendency that will subvert the gospel of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ. Such evil must be rooted out! (Jer. 1:4-10).

          Now, I want us to look at verses 15-16. I want to talk to you in the time that remains about The Pure and the Defiled.

Proposition:

In every congregation there are the pure and the defiled, the sheep and the goats, the wheat and the tares, those who know God and those who only “profess that they know God;” and the preaching of the gospel separates the one from the other.

          This text is very commonly misused and perverted. Paul does not mean for us to understand that a wrong thing becomes right if a man’s mind is pure!

          Let me explain the text to you and you decide whether you are among the pure or the defiled. Do not try to decide which category your neighbor falls into, but which one you fall into.

I. First, Paul tells us that some people are pure.

Some of you sitting here are pure, really and truly pure. Certainly not in your own eyes, but in the eyes of God and in the eyes of honest judgment you are pure. “Unto the pure all things are pure!” Who are these pure men and women?

Illustration: The harlot – “I have done no wrong.”

· Not those who imagine they are pure – The Pharisee!

· Not those who try to make themselves pure by legal works and religious ceremony.

“They alone are pure who are justified from all sin by Christ’s righteousness, and are clean through the word or sentence of absolution spoken by him; and who are washed from their sins in his blood, and have that sprinkled upon their consciences,a by which they are purged and cleansed from all sin; and have the clean water of sanctifying grace spinkled upon them, and have clean hearts and right spirits created in them; and whose hearts are purfied by faith, and have pure principles of grace and holiness formed in them”

John Gill

          Be sure you understand these three things:

A. Every believer has been made pure by the grace of God.

1. Made pure by having his sins blotted out in blood redemption (Eph. 1:7).

          2. Made pure by having the righteousness of Christ imputed to him in justification (2 Cor. 5:21).

          3. Made pure by having Christ’s righteous nature imparted to him in regeneration (Eph. 4:24; Col. 1:27; 2 Pet. 1:4).

          4. Made pure by the Word of God effectually applied to the heart (John 15:3). None but the pure will enter into glory (Rev. 22:11; Ps. 24:3-4).

B. Every believer has been made pure by the grace of God, but no child of God in this world is absolutely pure (1 John 1:8, 10).

          The believer is a person with two opposing natures, the flesh and the Spirit, sin and righteousness, the old man and the new man. That makes the believer a person who lives with a constant warfare in his being (Rom. 7:14-24).

C. Yet, in the tenor of his life and in the essence of his truest self, every believer is pure. Grace has made him pure. Christ has purified unto himself a peculiar, pure people!

His faith is unfeigned. His love is without dissimulation. His hope is without hypocrisy. He loves purity, hates wickedness, speaks the pure language of Canaan, and holds the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. Believers are men and women who are pure…

          1. In their doctrine – Our doctrine…

· Honors God.

· Improves manhood.

· Promotes godliness.

2. In their hearts (Matt. 5:8).

· Their affections.

· Their desires.

3. In their consciences (1 Tim. 3:9).

          A pure conscience is a conscience purged of guilt by faith in the blood of Christ. A pure conscience is a conscience void of hypocrisy, honest with God.

          4. In their minds (2 Pet. 3:1).

          Believers do not have their minds set upon and wrapped up in earthly things. They think on those things that are pure (Phil. 4:8).

          5. In their actions – “Keep thyself pure” (1 Tim. 5:22).

          I do not claim for any believer perfect purity of life. But I do claim for every believer that perfect purity of life is his ambition and goal. He follows a pure example (Christ) and lives by a pure rule. If you follow a straight line, you may not walk perfectly straight, but you walk a straight course; and God’s people, following Christ, walk uprightly in this world.

          God’s people are a people of pure religion. That means they are pure…

          6. In their motives (Matt. 6:9-13).

          If you know God, if you have a saving, experimental knowledge of the living God, if you have true, saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are pure. If you are not pure, you do not know God. That brings us to the second thing revealed in this text…

II. Every unbeliever is defiled.

Unbelief and defilement go hand in hand. Wherever you find the one, you find the other. I do not say that all Unbelievers live in open, profligate defilement. Not at all! Outwardly, many unbelievers are as upright as any believer. Paul the Apostle was not one whit more pure outwardly than was Saul the Pharisee.

          Indeed, the people Paul is talking about in this text are outwardly religious people, people who profess to know, love, and live for God. But they are defiled….

· Originally defiled in the fall (Ps. 14).

· Naturally defiled from birth (Ps. 51:5).

· Actually defiled in the deeds of transgression.

Paul says, “Even their mind and conscience is defiled.”

Now, listen to me — Religion cannot make you pure. Only Christ can. If you are without Christ, if you are an unbeliever, you are defiled.

A. Your heart is defiled (Matt. 15:19).

B. Your mind, your understanding is defiled (Rom. 3:11).

C. Your conscience is defiled.

Whatever you do, do not let your conscience be your guide. Your conscience is as corrupt as the rest of your members. The Word of God alone must be our guide.

D. Your life is defiled (v. 16).

III. Thirdly, Paul declares, “Unto the pure all things are pure: But unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure.”

What on earth does that mean? It means two things. Listen carefully. It is so very important that you understand Paul’s doctrine in this text.

A. The Holy Spirit here teaches us that everything the believer is and does in worship and service to God is pure, because he is pure in Christ; and everything the unbeliever is and does is defiled, because he is defiled (Isa. 1:10-15; Hag. 2:14; Rom. 14:23; Heb. 11:6).

· The believer’s prayers are a sweet savor to God. The unbeliever’s prayers are an abomination.

· The believer’s sacrifices are a delight to God. The unbeliever’s sacrifices are repugnant.

· The believer’s service to God is acceptable, sweet, and honoring to God. The unbeliever’s services to God are abominable and reprobate.

NOTE: In the worship of God the heart is everything. “The Lord looketh on the heart!” (John 4:23-24; Phil. 3:3; Lk. 16:15).

B. This text is also a declaration that everything pertaining to spiritual life and godliness to the believer is pure, but to the unbeliever nothing is pure.

1. The attributes of God.

          2. The providence of God.

          3. The doctrines of the gospel.

· Election (2 Thess. 2:13).

· Redemption (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

· Distinguishing grace (David before the ark).

NOTE: Some say, “Don’t preach those things. Men will use them as an excuse for sin!” The stench of a manure pile must not be blamed on the sun but on the character of manure!

4. The worship of God.

5. The church of God.

Illustration: A buzzard and a dove flying over the same field

                                spot different things.

· The man who is pure is the one who sees purity in others.

· The man who is defiled sees defilement. “No love there!” “No zeal there!” “No holiness there!”

Application:

1. Here is a test by which you may safely judge the condition of your soul: Are the things of God pure to you, holy, delightful, and honorable?

2. If you are yet defiled and unbelieving there is no reason why you should remain that way (Zech. 13:1).

Illustration: Barnard and “Old Faithful”.