Know and Speak the Truth

Father, we ask that you would continue to pour out your Holy Spirit upon us as we read your word again and as we think upon your word.

Father, we ask that you would not just help our minds to be conformed to your word, but that we would be disciples of Jesus who are gripped by the gospel, who are learning to live for your glory.

Father, we ask that your word would touch our hearts and bring before us those different ways that we deceive ourselves and think your word applies to others and not to us.

And as well, Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would deal with our fear of your word, our fear that your word will hurt us, that you will hurt us.

Father, draw us to yourself.

Make us mindful of your son and his death on the cross for us.

And all this we ask in the name of Jesus, your son and our savior.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So I don't know how many of you, how carefully you are listening to Rachel read the Bible, but I know that the first time, and I'll be honest with you, many, many times when I'm reading the Bible, my eyes are just going over the page fairly quickly.

I'm not really taking it in.

But I remember the great shock when I saw it in the Bible that all Cretans are liars, lazy beasts, and gluttons.

And then it says, this saying is true.

That was a huge shock to me because it seemed as if the Bible is perpetuating prejudice and, in fact, encouraging prejudice.

And that was separate from the fact that the first time I read this text as well, it really, it came to me or it felt to me as if the Bible was being very sexist as well in terms of how it treated women.

And so, you know, it's part of the reason why in the early years of my Christian life, which probably went on way too long, I would keep reading parts of the Bible that I found helpful to me.

And parts of the Bible which troubled me, I would steer away from them.

So I wouldn't read books like Titus very often because of the apparent sexism and prejudice and encouragement of sexism and prejudice that I saw when I read the book of Titus.

So I know it's not really, some of you, if you're guests, you're maybe even surprised that I would be sort of talking about this in public.

But the fact of the matter is that many of us, maybe for decades in our Christian life, are afraid to read parts of the Bible because of things that it says in it.

So we're going to look at Titus.

So it would be a great help to me if you got your Bibles out.

We're going to look at the type.

We're going to look at Titus chapter 1.

Titus 1 · chapter mention

And we're going to go through the whole chapter.

And let's just see what it says and what it doesn't say.

How it confronts our hearts.

How it confronts our culture.

And at the end of the day, we desperately need God's word.

And it's going to begin in a surprising way.

In a way that, in fact, if we take it seriously, is going to trouble us even more.

Listen to how it goes.

And in the original language, the first four verses are one complicated, long sentence.

And I like pointing these things out that has some grammatical flaws in it as well, by the way.

And it goes like this.

Paul, a servant.

That's a doulos, sometimes translated as slave.

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth,

which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began,

and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior.

To Titus, my true child and a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

And as I said, it's a complicated sentence, and there's some grammatical issues.

But here's just a few things for you to know about Titus.

Titus was Exhibit A in the Council of Jerusalem when they were trying to have a debate as to whether pagans who became Christians had to be circumcised.

And Titus was Exhibit A as a pagan who had become a Christian, and the church in Acts 15 decided they didn't have to.

The pagans, for many of us guys here, it's not a requirement to become a Christian to be circumcised.

And Titus as well, this book is being written to Titus by Paul probably in about the year 63 or 64,

a couple of years before Paul himself is martyred under Nero.

And Paul is giving Titus advice about how to order and structure the church,

because there's been an evangelistic campaign in the island of Crete, and many people have come to faith.

Paul has moved on, and now Titus is to bring some order into the situation.

But here's the thing. If you could put up the first point, that would be great.

This is, on one hand, going to seem like it's a very, very obvious point,

and not actually very surprising or important.

But we need to spend some time on this, because it's actually very mind-blowing,

and very important to us to understand who we are and what goes on in the world.

The true and living God, self-revealed in the Bible, never, ever, ever lies.

In the time that the New Testament was written, in paganism, one of the things about the pagan gods,

they lied all the time. They lied all the time.

That doesn't mean that pagans lied all the time, but the gods lied all the time.

If you think about it for a second, members of the great faiths, some of the great religions on the planet,

in Hinduism and Buddhism, it's not, I'm not saying that Hindus, as individuals and Buddhists, that they lie a lot.

I'm not saying that at all.

But truth is a complicated, it's not really grounded.

The desire to tell the truth and the seeking of telling the truth isn't really grounded in the religion and the philosophy.

Because at the end of the day, in both of those faiths, the goal is to get beyond difference,

to understand that all things are one, truth and falsehood, evil and good, you and I, tree and me,

that ultimately the distinctions between these things are apparent and not real,

and the whole goal is to get beyond good and evil, beyond difference,

and ultimately beyond truth and falsehood.

So it actually means that the idea of us, and if we're honest, human beings both greatly desire to know the truth,

we're also afraid of the truth, but how is this desire for the truth grounded

when ultimate reality is ultimately going beyond all difference,

including the difference of truth and falsehood?

In Islam, once again, not saying that individual Muslims lie,

but in Islam, God is God.

If he wants to tell a lie, he can tell a lie.

If he wants to tell the truth, he can tell the truth.

Who are you to speak to him? Slap, slap, slap.

Just being a bit, sorry, I don't want to be dismissive.

But God is so sovereign and so powerful, he can do literally whatever he wants,

whatever he feels like, it's completely and utterly up to him.

In a sense, he's not bound by having to tell the truth.

And so, and then you think in our modern world, you know, in university probably,

there'd be many, many people in university that say the whole idea of truth

and knowing the truth is a modernist conceit.

That any claim to know the truth is really just a claim to know power

and to desire to have power over others.

And, I mean, one of the ironies is if that you say then is your claim

that all truth claims are just power claims,

is that claim that you just made an attempt to have power over me.

They'd want to insist that it was true, not actually a claim of power.

That, in fact, in both the ancient and the modern world,

on one hand, humanly speaking, existentially, we have a great desire,

we have this complicated relationship with truth,

but as part of that complicated relationship with truth,

we do want to know the truth.

We know that we ourselves tell lies,

but we hate it when somebody tells us a lie.

Sometimes, in relationships, we want to bring the truth out in the relationships.

Others, times, we're hoping that our wife or our husband

will not speak the truth to us.

We have complicated relationships with the truth,

but what's it grounded on?

One of the reasons that in the modern world

that the truth is very hard to ground

is because at the very heart of modern thought,

this is the government, this is the media,

this is the university, this is arts and entertainment,

there's a great incoherence.

Because as a key building block of how people think in the modern world

is the belief that life came about completely and utterly by random chance.

And after life came about, then evolution happened.

So in a sense, the modern story is,

life came about completely randomly by chance.

Eventually, men and women descended from the apes,

therefore know the truth and tell the truth.

That doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

It doesn't follow at all.

The Christian story,

the big overarching story,

is a very, very, very different story.

And I think that the Christian story,

as revealed in the Bible,

is the only story that actually makes sense of our lived experience.

The Christian story is that fundamentally,

the true and living God,

self-revealed in the Bible,

never, ever, ever lies.

And this God who never, ever, ever lies,

and only is the truth and speaks the truth,

that he created and sustains all things

and made human beings in his image.

And so it is that we human beings have a desire and a drive

to speak and to know the truth.

The true and living God,

self-revealed in the Bible,

he is the same one who's created all things,

designed, in a sense, all things,

sustains all things,

made human beings in his image.

And therefore, we have a fundamental desire and drive

to know the truth and to be in the truth.

That in our heart of hearts,

we want to be people of the truth,

not people of the lie.

To tell another group of people

that they are people of the lie

would be a huge offense.

Every human being wants to be

part of the people of the truth.

So some of you might say,

George, okay, this is,

this went really in a different way

than I thought this text was going to go.

But this is how the book of Titus begins,

by making these very, very bold claims about God.

But some of you might say,

George, but the problem is we all lie.

Like, George, you lie, don't you?

You've lied in the past.

You lie today.

You're going to lie in the future.

Like, how does that fit in with your story?

But you see, this is actually, once again,

why I believe that it's only,

if you think about it,

that the biblical narrative,

the biblical meta-narrative,

is the only narrative

that makes sense of our experience.

Because as I described at the beginning,

just a few minutes ago,

how the biblical narrative works,

I didn't complete the narrative.

And to complete the narrative

is that the true and living God,

who has, in a sense, existence in and of himself,

is the one who's created all things,

designed all things,

he sustains all things,

he made human beings in his image.

And at some point in time,

in our primal history,

we human beings decided that we would be God.

I think Genesis 3,

regardless, for any human being,

secular, spiritual, not religious,

there is no story more true

that has ever been written than Genesis 3.

But Genesis 1, 2, and 3

explains so much of human life

and human endeavor.

So human beings rebelled against God

and desired to be God,

to have his role.

And in doing that,

we became bent,

we became twisted.

And God did not annihilate his image in us,

but our reflecting the image

and the likeness of God

became impaired.

We became impaired.

We became bent or twisted.

And so on one hand,

we now have a complicated relationship with God.

On one hand,

in the depths of our beings,

we long and yearn for the true and living God.

On the other hand,

in the depths of our beings,

we do not want God to be present.

We want to be God ourselves.

We want to know the truth.

On the other hand,

we don't want to know the truth.

We want to be able to manage

and massage what is said

so that the truth that is said

in public or about ourselves

will be ones that further our own ego

and our own drives and desires.

But at the same time,

we want others to speak

the unvarnished truth to us.

Unless it hurts.

We have a very complicated relationship

with the truth.

And I think only the biblical narrative

actually grounds that

at a very, very fundamental level.

And it reveals to us

why it is that we need a savior.

That I can never leave myself

to save myself.

I can never leave myself

to fix myself.

It doesn't matter

if I have an out-of-body experience.

It doesn't matter

if I meditate,

if I learn physics

and anthropology

and poetry

and music

and business

and all of those other things.

I can never leave myself.

I can never leave

my bentness,

twistedness,

fallenness.

Those aspects of me

that still very much show

and reflect

that I am a designed being

and that I am made

in the image of God.

Yet there's something.

I can never leave that

to save myself.

And so it is

despite all of my desires

to justify myself,

to appear righteous to myself,

to appear completely

and utterly controlled,

despite all of my desires,

whether it's done

through spiritual,

not religious,

whether it's done

through religious ceremonies

and rituals,

whether it's done

through science

or the humanities

or art

or philosophy

or political action

or political institutions,

I cannot save myself.

And unless God

comes into space and time

to do what I cannot do,

then I will always remain

and all of the people

around me

will remain bent and twisted.

Our complicated relationship

with the truth

and our complicated relationship

with lies

reveals that we need

a savior.

And that's the other thing

about this text

which is so completely

and utterly powerful.

Like, it not only reveals

that the God who does exist,

that the true and living God,

self-revealed in the Bible,

never, ever, ever lies,

but it also reveals

that he saves,

that his desire is

that we will begin

to live a life with him

under his care

and authority

that will go on

for all eternity.

Like, look again

at Titus 1.

Look at verses 3 and 4

in Titus 1.

Like, at the same time,

just after in verse 2,

it says,

the God who never lies

has promised before

ages began

and at the proper time

manifested in his word

through the preaching

with which I have been entrusted

by the command of God

our Savior.

To Titus,

my true child,

in a common faith,

grace and peace

from God the Father

and Christ Jesus

our Savior.

That the text

introduces us,

you know,

one of the reasons

that we fear the truth

is because many people

use the truth

towards us

in a brutal way.

And if we are honest,

sometimes we use truth

in a brutal way.

In a way to shame,

to humiliate,

to put down

as a means for us

to gain power

and control.

And we often project

and transfer

what we do ourselves

and what we are worried

that we will do ourselves

and what people do

to us ourselves

and we project that

onto God.

And the same self-revelation

of God

that reveals

that he only speaks

the truth

that he never,

ever,

ever lies

reveals

that he is Savior

and that he has sent

his Son

into history,

into space and time

to save us.

If you could put up

the next point,

Rebecca,

when I receive

the Gospel,

I receive

grace-filled

power from God

which makes me

right with him

and leads me

to start living

right with him

and all that

he has created.

it's important.

In all of our

understandings

of the Christian faith,

it's not just

that I have

this individual

personal relationship

with God

that has no social

consequences

nor consequences

in terms of

how I relate

to the created world

and other people.

It's not just

that the cross,

as we put our faith

and trust

in what Jesus

has done for us

on the cross,

that we are

receiving a power

that comes from God

to make us

right with him

but that same

power that comes

from God

that makes us

right with him

and all begins

to work within us

a desire to live

right with him

and God didn't

just create me.

It's not a

narcissistic world

where there's just

me and God.

It means that I

start to have a desire

to live right

with others.

That that's what

grace does

when grace

comes into our lives.

It's one of the signs

that we have received

grace from God.

Not that we live

perfect lives

but often what

should be characterizing

Christians is not

perfection but

penitence.

Lord have mercy

upon me.

And that's what

grace does when it

comes into our lives.

And that's one of the

things that's,

this is the introduction

to the entire letter

and Paul is going to

be driving this home

in terms of the fact

that not only does he

want the people

in the Cretans,

the people on Crete

to come to a faith

in Jesus but for them

to understand that when

they come to a faith

in Jesus it's not a

license for them to

be arrogant.

It's not a license for

them to be violent.

It's not a license to

do whatever they want

but that the same

grace that's going to

make them right with

God will be to begin

to put within them

the ability and the

hunger and the

yearnings and the

longings and the

self-awareness and

the delivery from

self-deception so

that we can actually

start to try to live

right with other

people and with

the created order.

If you could just

put up the next

point, another way

to put this is that

God calls us,

that's the significance

of the elect,

it's an image of

God calling us

ordinary human

beings.

Like, you know,

if you come here

today and you're not

sure whether you're

a person that's

giving your life to

Jesus, you're not

even sure if you

want to have

anything to do

with Jesus.

What I can tell you

right now is that

God is calling you.

He's calling you

as you sit there.

He's calling you

by name.

He wants you to

come to him.

He wants you to

hear his word.

He wants you to

hear about what

Jesus has done for

you on the cross,

that you might

respond with

open-handed faith

and receive from

him the power that

can only come from

him, that's filled

with grace and

mercy, that will

make you right

with him.

And God calls us

so that we will

come to saving

faith, know

the truth, live

a godly life, and

begin to live with

him forever.

That's what Paul is

wanting the people

in Crete to

understand.

Now, some of you

are going to say,

okay, George, you've

spent a lot of time

on this.

Is this going to be

one of those times

where you're a little

bit like a magician,

you know, and you

have the dancing

girls and all that

other stuff, and

you're trying to do

some little sleight-of-hand

stuff so that we can

forget this other

sexist and

prejudiced stuff.

No, I'm not doing

that at all.

And depending on how

you look at it, what's

going to come next is

either greatly tragic

or greatly incoherent.

But it's really

important for us to

grasp this opening

introduction before we

see what it is that

Paul is going to say

and isn't saying in

the rest of the book.

So let's look at

verse 5.

Is Paul now going to

be making some

sexist statements?

Is he propping up

patriarchy at the

expense of women?

Verse 5.

This is why I left

you in Crete, so

that you might put

what remained into

order and appoint

elders in every town

as I directed you.

And the word elder

here, we'll just

pause.

In the Greek, it

sounds like

presbyter.

And we're going to

see in a moment

that the presbyter

position and the

episcopus or the

bishop's position,

he's sort of

treating them

almost as

synonymous.

And so it's

not the same

word as is often

used for pastor,

which comes from

a different word.

There's a different

text that come

out of it.

The word underlying

the word that we

use as pastor

comes from the

idea of shepherd.

But this word

elder isn't

describing somebody

who's old.

In this room, I

don't know if

there's some

visiting clergy,

but as in

Anglican polity,

I'm the only

elder in the

room.

I know I'm

getting elderly

as well, but

I've been an

elder since I

was 28, when I

was set aside to

have this role of

the presbyter in

congregations.

And different

denominations have

different ways of

ordering them and

all that type of

stuff.

But there's this,

most denominations,

apart from Salvation

Army and Brethren,

have some sense of

the elder who's

set aside.

And so that's

what's it.

So I'll just say

it again.

Verse 5, this is

why I left you in

Crete, so that you

might put what

remained into

order.

That's his big

task, and he has

one other task,

and appoint elders

in every town as I

directed you.

If anyone is above

reproach, the husband

of one wife, or

literally, a one

man woman.

That's what it says

literally in the

Greek.

A one man, sorry, a

one woman man.

Yeah, yeah, I'm

getting old.

Not only will I

have to be doing

this very shortly

with a walker like

this, but my

eventually goes so

gag-a, you're going

to have to take me

away from here.

The cane will

gently drag me

aside, and I'll

sit there happily

singing hymns and

praise songs.

Anyway, sorry,

hopefully in tune

still.

It literally says

a one woman man.

That's literally

what it says, a

one woman man.

His children are

believers, continuing

in verse 6, not

open to the charge

of debauchery or

insubordination.

For an overseer, that

is the word that's

usually often

translated as

bishop.

Episcopus is the

underlying Greek

word.

As God's steward,

must be above

reproach.

He must not be

arrogant or quick

tempered or a

drunkard or violent

or greedy for gain,

but hospitable, a

lover of good,

self-controlled,

upright, holy, and

disciplined.

And in the original

language, verse 9 is

emphasized.

If we were using a

more modern way to

communicate the

original language, it

would be bolded.

He must hold firm to

the trustworthy word as

taught so that he may

be able to give

instruction in sound

doctrine.

It also means healthy

or wholesome doctrine,

and also to rebuke

those who contradict it.

So, here's the first

thing.

I'm going to go in a

way that you're

completely and utterly

maybe going to

surprise you, but it's

a really important word

to Canadians today.

Brothers and sisters,

those of you who are

here are Christians,

we are not Muslims.

We are not Hindus.

We are not Buddhists.

You can be a very,

very, very devout

Muslim and never go to

the mosque once in your

entire life.

You can be a very

devout Buddhist,

very, very devout

Hindu and never go to

the temple once in

your entire life.

It's very interesting

that Paul here, he's

done a ministry of

evangelism throughout

the island.

Many people have come

to faith, and it's

not now that he says,

well, now that they're

in faith, just teach

them to download

Matt Chandler's latest

sermon, because what it

means to be a

Christian is to just

listen by yourself to

sermons from really

good speakers like Tim

Keller or Matt

Chandler, and that's

the Christian life.

He doesn't say, just

by the way, every once

in a while you should

come together a little

bit like a crowd, and

I'll just zap you with

the Holy Spirit, and

somebody will have a

prophetic word, and

then afterwards you

just sort of disappear

and you go back.

As I put it here, if

you could put up the

point, Rebecca, that

would be great.

God does not make

happenstance crowds.

Sorry, every once in a

while I have to show

you that I'm educated.

God does not make

happenstance crowds.

He forms communities

on the move.

It doesn't create static

communities, but communities

that are going to be on

the move, because the

rest of the letter is

going to be about how to

transmit the faith,

movement, how to

transmit the faith to

new believers, how to

share the gospel with

people who are outside of

the church, how to

transmit the gospel to

children, the new

generations that keep

arising.

God here calls, first

of all, he calls you to

a saving faith with

himself, and then he

calls you into

community, and the

community is going to

have some type of

structure.

It's a very, very

powerful word, because

especially in 2016 in

Ottawa, where you can

have far better sermons

than I can give, you can

find online for free.

You can just spend your

Sunday mornings going for

a drive in the country,

or, you know, hanging

out at your favorite

cafe or Tim Hortons.

You can listen to Tim

Keller or somebody like

that, way better speaker

than I am, way wiser than

I am, and that can be your

Christian life, and the

Bible basically says that's

not the Christian life.

That while a devout

Muslim or a Buddhist or a

Hindu can be devout in

all of those ways within

their own context and

never actually meet with

others, Christians are

designed, God has called

us to walk together.

Could you put up the next

one?

Here's another way to put

it.

Some of you have been

here before over the

years.

This is one of the little

sayings that I've

developed.

We enter the Jesus way

one by one, but we walk

the Jesus way with Jesus

and others.

We enter the Jesus way

one by one.

We have to come to a

personal saving faith in

Jesus.

We don't inherit the

Christian faith from our

parents or our

grandparents.

We might be told it by

them, but we have to

receive it for ourselves

personally.

So we enter the Christian

faith through the Jesus

way one by one, but we

walk the Jesus way.

We're to walk it, not to

sit it.

And we walk it with Jesus

and with others.

And that's the Jesus way.

That's the Jesus way which

is presented in the New

Testament.

And somebody might say,

okay, George, whoa, whoa,

look at that time.

husband of one wife, a one

woman man.

Well, let's look at verse

six again.

If anyone is above reproach,

who can be an elder, who

can be an episcopist?

Anyone who is above reproach,

the husband of one wife, a

one woman man.

For many years, I was a

supporter.

I don't know how to go

into it.

I'm just going to go into

it.

This might not be very

polished or anything like

that.

Just a little bit of a

personal history about me.

For many of you, you know

that for many, many, many,

many decades, I was a firm

supporter that women could be

elders.

This text was a problem to

me.

And the way that churches

and many Christians, not

necessarily saying you, the

way that many churches deal

with this, the very plain

sense of the original

language that's consistent

with other texts in the

New Testament, some churches

deal with this by talking

and understanding that the

Bible is just a repository of

symbols.

It's sort of like if you go to

watch Daredevil on Netflix

and the Punisher goes into a

room and when he opens the

door and in the room, there's

a whole pile of different

weapons.

And the Punisher can go and

get a different weapon,

whatever he feels like he

needs.

And some people say that

they're being biblical because

the Bible is like the

Punisher's room of lots of

weapons and explosives and

ammunition.

And you can just sort of pick

the bits and pieces of

ammunition you need for the

task that's at hand.

But that really goes against

the whole understanding that

God never lies and that it's

one word that he speaks.

It's that the call of the

Christian is to have a

consistent and coherent

reading of God's word, even

if that means you go against

the culture.

But that the goal is not just

to always go against the

culture, not just to be what if

the culture says yes, I'm going

to say no.

If the culture says no, I'm

going to.

It's not just to always be a

pain in the butt to the

culture.

It's that mindful of the

culture, mindful of what you're

understanding, mindful of how

they understand things at the

same time that we want to

ultimately read and know the

Bible and have the Bible

form us and the Bible speaks

one consistent, coherent word

and we need to seek it.

And, you know, there's others

who basically say that, well,

you know, you can never solve

these problems of why it is

that in Acts, in Romans 16,

which we just looked at last

week, and if you're curious

about what I said about it, you

can go online and listen to it.

And in Romans 16, it's very,

very clear that Phoebe is a

really important person.

The church has lots of

authority, that Prisca teaches

Apollos, that Junia is an

apostle and Junia is a woman's

name, that they have

significant ministries that

they teach, that there's

women who prophesy and pray in

public gatherings with men and

women.

If you read the New Testament,

you read the book of Galatians

and you read the book of

Ephesians and you read other

books, it's very, very clear

that women, there's no

distinction between whether or

not women have the abilities to

lead, whether they have the

abilities to teach, whether they

have the abilities to exercise

different types of authority.

It's very, very clear if you

read the New Testament that

there's this fundamental

equality in the receiving of

different gifts.

And so some people just say,

well, you'll never figure out

the difference, so we should

just pick the nice Canadian

option and say that women

should be elders.

In other words, we'll just

ignore Titus.

Another way that people deal

with it is just say, well,

that's just a cultural thing.

Paul didn't know better.

But the problem is that the

very same texts in the rest of

the Bible that help us to

understand Paul's great desire

and high value to women and all

of their gifts are the very same

ones that show that, in fact,

Paul was quite willing to go

completely and utterly against

his culture.

And the other problem is, and it's

the same one with the so-called

trajectory argument, is that

somehow or another the Bible is

incomplete, but if you follow the

Bible, you can see the trajectory

and where it's going to go.

And this idea that there's texts

like this are just Paul's

cultural blindness, or that the

Bible has some trajectory and

there's the truth which it's

pointing to, but it doesn't

actually articulate, that I never

held those positions when I was

trying to understand Titus 1,

because I understood that it's a

blank check, a get-out-of-jail-free

card to ultimately believe

whatever you want.

Now, it could justify apartheid.

It could justify any moral thing

that our culture wants that the

Bible says, no, we can always just

say, well, it's just a cultural

thing.

We can always make up some

trajectory.

So for many, many, many years,

had lots of other things that was on

my mind.

I just said, Titus 1 exists,

1 Timothy 3 exists, Romans 16 exists.

I have no idea how there's a

consistent message here, but the

problem isn't in the Bible, the

problem's in me.

The problem's in me.

And then about six or seven years

ago, I was reading something and

there was a footnote, and I'm one of

these really weird people who reads

footnotes.

You know who you are.

We're a very, very tiny club,

footnote readers.

I'm coming out of the closet.

I'm a footnote reader, and I love

footnotes.

I always look at them.

People see some of the books.

I have two page markers, one for

where I'm reading and one so I can

find the current page and the

footnotes at the back of the book

so I can keep going back and

forward and looking at them.

And anyway, what I now believe is

this.

I think there is a very consistent,

coherent way to read the New

Testament, where virtually Acts 16 and

Titus 1 fit together very clearly.

Phoebe wasn't an elder or an

episcopist.

Prisca wasn't an elder or an

episcopist.

Junia wasn't an elder or an

episcopist.

Philip's daughters who prophesied in

churches, they weren't an elder or an

episcopist.

that what the Bible is saying here is

not supporting patriarchy and it's not

denigrating women because the New

Testament very clearly teaches that

women can teach and they can lead.

What the Bible here is saying is that

not that all men are elders and women

are non-elders, but that God sets aside a

very, very, very small group to have the

role of elder in a community on the move.

And only men are called to that particular

position.

And what it means, not that all men are,

but just a very, very small number of men

are.

And once you see that distinction between

that authoritative type of teaching and

role of an elder and all the other things, I

think you can have a completely and

consistently consistent reading of the

word of God.

And it's a very, very, and what it means is

that those more traditionalist readings of

the Bible that want to try to make it look

as if that men are somehow superior, that

men are giving these roles because we're

not controlled by emotion or we have

better abilities to speak or lead, all

those traditional and patriarchal assumptions

are completely and utterly rejected by the

New Testament, I believe.

And in fact, actually, if you go back and you

read 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, if you read

all of the Pentateuch, when you see about

why it is that God chose Israel, what is

it that God consistently says to the nation

of Israel?

I didn't pick you because you were the

best.

I picked you because you were the least,

because I wanted to show my glory.

And in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, he describes

Christians as not being the wise and the

powerful of the world, but the weak and the

foolish.

That God uses the weak and the foolish to

shame the wise.

And so I know I'm an elder.

And I'm not saying that God has chosen me

to be an elder because I'm smarter than you

folks, holier than you folks.

In heaven, when God reveals the meaning of

our lives to us, I'll turn red.

Not because he sings my praises, but because

of all the things about me that are weak,

that led him to choose.

Any elder.

I really believe that.

And so what this text is saying is that a

man or a woman can be the president of the

United States.

A man or a woman could be an astronaut, a

race car driver.

They can care for the kids.

They can run businesses.

They can sing songs.

They can play classical musical

instruments.

They can be deputy ministers.

They can do all of those types of things.

A man or a woman can do all of those types

of things.

If that's what they want to do, if that's

the gifting, if that's the vocation, God

calls different people to do all of those

different things without any type of

distinction whatsoever.

But he just calls a very, very tiny number

of men and only men to be the elder or the

Episcopal in the church.

And I think that's a consistent way to read

the New Testament and the Old Testament.

And it's profoundly countercultural.

I resisted very deeply wanting to come to that

conclusion.

It is very un-Canadian in 2016.

But at the end of the day, I believe that the

true and living God, self-revealed in the

Bible, never, ever, ever lies.

And that he saves us as he tells the truth.

It's all for our good.

I've lost my...

There we go, in the notes.

Now, some of you are going to say, well, George, I

don't know what I'm going to think about.

Here's what I want to say about what I just

said.

If there's one takeaway that you get from this,

be...

I'm going to make a bit of a Bible reference

here.

Be a Berean.

I can't remember where it is in the book of

Acts right now.

And I can't find my place in my...

I spot in the notes.

But one of the things...

It says that when Paul went to Berea, the people

there were more noble than others.

Because as he spoke day by day, they searched the

scriptures to see if that was true.

And that's what I want you folks to do.

Search the scriptures.

Read the Bible from cover to cover.

Read quietly.

Read deeply.

Read to note the things that are similar and the

things that are different.

Read to know for yourself.

Read the Bible.

Be a people of the Bible who soak your mind and

your hearts in the scriptures.

And know that God who speaks in the Bible doesn't

lie.

He wants you to know the truth and he wants to

save you.

And that no Christian should be like I was in the

early years of my Christian life, afraid to read

parts of the Bible because I thought it would make

me sexist or make me prejudiced.

Nobody should fear God's word.

Know there's a type of godly fear which is based on the

idea that God is God and that I am not.

That God is God and that comes into conflict with my

God project.

And that's that there's a type of godly fear.

But God doesn't want anybody to fear his word.

He wants them to search the scriptures.

That's what I urge you.

Search the scriptures and share with me how you read the

Bible.

I just want to know and read the Bible in a consistent,

coherent way that brings God glory.

Please pray for me that that's what I can do.

I'm almost out of time.

What about the, that sexist stuff, George?

Actually, before we go to that, could you put up the

next point, Andrew?

You'll notice here where it goes back, you can pray for me in

terms of an elder about all the different things about elders.

They shouldn't be, they shouldn't be arrogant or quick

tempered or violent or greedy for gain.

Here's the other thing about the Bible and knowing the truth.

One of the reasons that people are uneasy about knowing the

Bible is that many of us have met Christians who read the

Bible because they like weapons.

They like to justify their anger, their intolerance, their brutal

treating of people, their brutal put-downs, their superiority.

Many people that we have come across, I remember being the chaplain in a

college for a while and there's this one student and all he ever wanted to

do was show his superior knowledge.

He had this unbelievably complicated, arcane, reformed, systematic theology.

He would ask me questions about whether I was this or that.

I didn't even know what the word meant.

And he did it to mock me, to show that he knew more than I did.

And we've all come across people like that.

And here's the thing, if you read Titus 1, knowing true doctrine never gives

anyone permission to be arrogant, quick-tempered, brutal, aggressive,

and I would add anger-driven.

No, you're not understanding true doctrine if it leads you to be brutal and cruel.

It doesn't matter how technically correct it is.

You have missed the point.

God's word humbles us, always humbles us.

It touches our heart to humble us.

And that's sort of what the lead-in is to this part that's apparently prejudiced.

Verse 10.

Let's look at that part.

If you didn't hear it before, you're going to hear it now.

The thing that, I don't know how many times I read Titus before, it shocked me.

For there are many here who are insubordinate,

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.

One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said,

Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.

This testimony is true.

Therefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in faith,

not devoting themselves to Jewish myths

and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

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.

Now that's a pretty shocking statement.

Now here's the problem.

Here's one of the things that you understand that you have prejudice.

If I'm driving along the road,

and somebody's driving really poorly,

and I eventually get by them,

and I say to myself,

Ah, woman.

That's a woman.

I'm prejudiced.

Now you fill in the blank.

A man, a black, a white.

Ah, a guy who drives an Audi.

Ah.

You know, one percenters.

Okay?

If you pass another person,

you say,

Oh wow, they're not driving very well.

But you pass another person,

and you say,

A woman.

You have a prejudice problem.

If people here think they don't have any prejudice issues,

it just shows your lack of self-awareness.

Just shows your lack of self-awareness.

It's a human problem.

It's not a problem for men,

or a problem for women,

or a problem for whites,

or blacks,

or Asians.

It's a human problem.

This categorizing,

and dismissing,

of people.

So is that what Paul is doing here?

You know what Paul is doing here?

He's setting the hook.

You see,

all of Paul's readers

who weren't from Crete

would have agreed with this.

In the ancient world,

there's actually a word

coming from Crete

that if you call somebody

to Cretanize,

or that they're Crete,

you're telling them,

you're describing the person.

If you were to say to somebody,

Oh, he's like a,

he's a Crete.

I don't know how to say it exactly in Greek.

What you're saying is that

they lie

and are untrustworthy.

It's actually in Greek.

And it goes back to the fact

that in the Greek,

Crete religion,

they believe that Zeus,

the head of the gods,

was born in Crete,

but also that he died in Crete

and was buried in Crete.

And so for the rest

of the ancient world,

how could the supreme God

be buried in Crete?

They're obviously liars

and untrustworthy.

But if Paul just said this,

there'd be a problem.

Just look across

at chapter 3, verse 3.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Those Cretes,

those Cretes,

they're liars,

evil beasts,

lazy gluttons.

Verse 3.

For we are,

after he's done all the other stuff

that we'll look at,

you know, next week.

For we ourselves

were once foolish,

disobedient,

led astray,

slaves to various passions

and pleasures,

passing our day

in malice and envy,

hated by others

and hating one another.

Dang it.

I'm a Crete.

In the Old Testament,

if you go back,

there's this very powerful story

where David had slept

with another man's wife

and then he makes her pregnant

and he calls her husband

back from the front

and he gets him drunk twice

to try to get him

to sleep with his wife

and then when he fails to do it,

he has Uriah killed in battle.

And then Nathan the prophet

comes to speak to David

and Nathan tells a parable

about there was a very rich man

who had huge flocks

and he had a guest who came

but rather than taking

one of the lambs

from his own flock,

he went to this really poor guy

who only had one lamb

and he treated it

like it was his favorite pet,

almost like his son

or his daughter

and the rich man

took that little lamb

from the poor man

and killed the poor man's lamb

so he could feed it

to the guest

and David gets irate

and says,

that man deserves to die

and then Nathan says,

you are the man.

You are the man.

And what Paul is doing

in Titus 1

is making us realize

by the time we get to Titus 3

if we're listening carefully,

you are the man.

You are the man or the woman.

I point at somebody,

I have three fingers

pointing back.

Every human being does

unless you are missing

those three fingers

but then the story

doesn't work.

But you are fundamentally

three fingers pointing back

and he is setting the hook.

See, here is the problem.

The problem is

that you might say

it is insubordination.

I call it cutting edge

creative thinking.

You might call it

insubordination

but I call it

that you are just

insecure in your leadership.

You might call it

insubordination

but I call it

the fact that

I am actually

theologically trained

to know the Bible

better than you do.

You might call it

empty talking and deception.

I call it

superior verbal skills

and confidence.

You might call it

empty talking and deception.

I call it

that I am better educated

than you are.

You might call it

shameful gain.

I call it

being practical with money.

You might call it

circumcision party.

I call it

appropriating the best

of our traditions.

You might call it

empty myths and stories.

I call it

I just know more things

than you do.

You might call

our minds and consciences

defiled.

I call it

that I am liberated

and progressive

and I am gripped

by the gospel.

You might call it

detestable.

I call it

appropriately contextualized

in our culture.

In other words

we read

Titus 1

Titus 1:10

verses 10

to the end

and all we do

is think

boy I wish

that that church

knew about that text.

Boy I wish

my dad heard that.

Boy I wish

the young people

knew that.

Boy I wish

the men knew that.

The women knew that.

The bishops knew that.

The priests knew that.

And we don't see

the three fingers

pointing back

at ourselves.

See that's

the context

within the word

which the word

of God

comes to us

is that

in the words

of the psalm

we flatter

ourselves

too much

to detect

or hate

our own sin.

Could you put up

the final point

and I invite you

all to stand?

And the final point

is a prayer

and

you know

all of this stuff

about flattering

ourselves too much

to detect

or hate

our own sin

it just shows

that we need

a savior.

It just shows

that we need

a savior.

that we need

God

to exercise

power

to make us

right with him

and we need

to not only

be gripped

by how he's

made us

right with him

but gripped

in such a way

that it starts

to change

our lives

that we can be

so in a sense

comforted

by the security

that it's not

it's no longer

me justifying

myself

me making

myself

righteous

me making

myself

looking superior

me trying

to manage

my appearance

so people

don't see

the sin

or the emptiness

or the hollowness

that's in the depth

of who I am

that it's me

managing my image

that at the end

of the day

the gospel

is this profound

message

that God

and only God

can make us

right with himself

that there's not

a hollowness

that would devour

us at the center

of us

that God saw

our need

and loved us

so much

that he sent

his son

to die upon

the cross

for us

that only

as the gospel

grips us

can we actually

begin to have

the security

to look

at our own

self-deception

and self-flattery

to consider

without unmaking

us

that every time

I point

at another

person

I'm pointing

three fingers

back at myself

so for some

of us

maybe this is

a way

to begin

to enter

the Christian

faith

it's a conversion

prayer

for others

of us

who are

followers

of Jesus

I suggest

that Titus 1

leads us

to desperately

need to pray

a prayer

like this

so if

those who are

led

if you would

like to say

it out loud

with me

that would

be great

dear Lord

please help

me

I flatter

myself

too much

to detect

or hate

my own

sin

please bring

your word

to bear

on my heart

that I might

repent

and amend

my life

please make

me a disciple

of Jesus

gripped by

the gospel

living for

your glory

Father

pour out

your Holy

Spirit

upon us

deliver us

from a fear

of your word

make us

people who

search the

scriptures

to know

the truth

thank you

Father

that you

are a God

who never

lies

never

ever

ever

lies

and that

you love

us

and you

sent your

son to

die upon

the cross

for us

Father

we praise

you

and all

this we

ask and

thank

in the name

of Jesus

your son

and our

savior

amen