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[0:00] I want you to get past the salutation.

[0:15] The subject of Titus chapter 1 is church leadership.! Church leadership. Church leadership. And specifically, kind of divided into two parts.

[0:26] First of all, Paul addresses the right kind of leadership, qualified elders. And then Paul addresses the wrong kind of leadership.

[0:39] And that will be our focus tonight. Or falsified teachers, I've called it. And that will take us from verse 10 to the end of the chapter.

[0:51] So we'll finish all that tonight. So, again, last week we looked at what Paul wrote concerning qualified elders. And tonight we're going to look at what he wrote concerning falsified teachers.

[1:04] Verses 10 through 16. So, I want to go ahead and read the passage, even though I'm going to re-read it as we go along. But let me read it all together so we can kind of have the whole thing in our minds.

[1:18] Starting with verse 10. 10 through 16. 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.

[1:43] One of them, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true.

[1:54] Therefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth.

[2:06] To the pure, all things are pure. But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. But even their mind and conscience are defiled.

[2:18] They profess to know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.

[2:30] All right. So there, what Paul has to say in Titus, he says some of the same things in 1 Timothy. But we'll focus on Titus, what he says here tonight.

[2:43] So falsified teachers. So in this passage, in those verses I just read, Paul is really giving us the, I think, the second of two reasons why Titus, why he has instructed, really commanded Titus in verse 5 to appoint elders in the church, why this was such a big need.

[3:07] As I shared, I think, last time when we were looking at the qualification for elders, that really the elders, or let me put it this way, as you define the church, what is a bona fide, a true church?

[3:26] A church is one that must have elders and deacons, those two offices that have been ordained by God for the church. And so certainly there's need for elders.

[3:38] But what we're seeing here is an emphasis on that, the extreme importance of having elders in the church.

[3:49] And so what we have here then is what I think is really the second, in terms of priority, the second of two reasons why Titus has been commanded, as he said in verse 5, to set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders, qualified elders, in every city.

[4:11] Now, I might remind you of a passage in Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 4, verses 12 through 16, where Paul gives both reasons why the church needs elders.

[4:22] And let me just read it to you. In Ephesians chapter 4, I don't have this in your notes, so you don't need to be looking for, well, what blank do I fill in here? But you can jot down this passage, Ephesians chapter 4, verses 12 through 16.

[4:38] So here are the two reasons. First of all, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying that would be building up of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith.

[4:55] That's not talking about unity in our faithfulness to God. It's talking about the faith. That is, the doctrines of the faith. So here's the goal of the duty of the elders, to bring the, to edify the body, to build up the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the doctrines of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man.

[5:26] Spiritually mature believer is the idea there. To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So that really describes the first of the two reasons why the church needs elders.

[5:39] We might even say that's the positive side, to teach correct doctrines so that we come in unity of the doctrines of the faith. So that's the first purpose. And then here's the second purpose, as Paul gives this to us in Ephesians chapter 4.

[5:57] And it is this second purpose that we are focusing on here, or Paul focuses on here in our passage in Titus. And so verse 14 of Ephesians 4 says, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

[6:21] You know, very poetic how that's put. And so there's the second of the two reasons. To guard the flock from false doctrine.

[6:33] So to teach, we could say to teach right doctrine and to guard the flock or the body of Christ from false doctrine.

[6:44] And it is that second reason that we are going to focus on here in Titus chapter 1. All right. So in this passage in Titus, Paul, I think, kind of gives us a pretty gruesome portrait of the false teachers in the church.

[7:04] And, you know, Paul addressed this issue many times in multiple, multiple times in many of his letters. And so this was a major problem in the church.

[7:16] It's a major problem in the church today. Still is. And so kind of we might think of five brushstrokes in this portrait. So we have kind of five divisions to this passage.

[7:29] And here's the first one. Their identity. The identity identifies these false teachers. I mean, who were these people in the church?

[7:42] What does Paul say about them? How does he identify them? Well, in three ways. I think first he says something about their majority in the church, in the local churches.

[7:56] They had reached a majority in many of these churches. That's why it was so critical that Titus began to work with these various churches in the cities on the island of Crete to appoint elders, qualified elders in the church, because it had become kind of a tipping point, a dangerous point, because these false teachers were becoming the majority in these churches.

[8:25] Verse 10, first part of verse 10, just simply says, for there are many. There are many. And the idea behind that word many is that they are becoming, have become in some locations, the majority, leading the churches in the wrong direction.

[8:42] I think we could say that about many churches in our country that reached the tipping point. In fact, entire denominations where the false teaching have become, the false teachers have become the majority.

[8:59] And so the entire church or an entire denomination has tipped over into false doctrine away from the teachings of God's word.

[9:11] So that's what was happening here. And again, explains, I think, why they were so successful in their kind of wicked designs.

[9:21] And you say, is there a word here about their success? Well, it says there in verse 11 that these false teachers were able to subvert whole households. Now, we'll talk here a little bit about what that word household means.

[9:34] It's even worse than you think. And so they were successful in what they were doing. They had become kind of the majority, very influential in all of the local churches there in Crete.

[9:46] All right, so he identifies their majority. And then Paul identifies them by their personality. By their personality. Verse 10 goes on to say they were insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers.

[10:02] All right, so there are three things mentioned there. Insubordinate. Insubordinate in what way? To the leadership of the churches? Well, not really because they didn't have any.

[10:14] They had become the leaders. You could say, by extension, they were insubordinate to the apostle Paul who planted these churches. And insubordinate, very likely, to Titus, who was Paul's representative there on the island.

[10:29] But I think the idea is that they were insubordinate to the truth of the gospel. To the truth of the gospel. They were subverting the truth of the gospel that was handed down to them by the apostles, of course, or the word of God.

[10:45] And, by the way, this term insubordinate by implication also reveals that these people were not outside the church, they were inside the church.

[10:59] I mean, you know, you wouldn't describe unbelievers on the outside of the church who are trying to subvert people in the church. You wouldn't describe them as insubordinate because they're not under any authority in the church.

[11:11] So, just the fact that they were insubordinate indicates that these were actually professing Christians members of those local churches.

[11:25] And, and so they're insubordination again or we could use and some versions do use the word rebellion. Their, their insubordination was toward the gospel, the truth of the gospel and also again by extension the teachings and authority of the apostle Paul.

[11:44] All right, so they're insubordinate. This is kind of describing the kind of people they were, their personality. They were also idol talkers, idol talkers.

[11:55] and, you know, the word here means that, means empty, fruitless talk. You know, and, and even the, you know, you could characterize their talk as being doctrinal, but it was fruitless doctrine because it was false doctrine.

[12:18] You know, for example, you know, you could imagine someone having, people having an endless discussion on whether or not God could create a rock that's so big that he himself couldn't pick it up.

[12:33] All right, that's, that's just a fruitless talk. Of course, their idol talk was much worse than anything like that. Maybe, uh, another, better example would be people who spend hours speculating on, on what seems to be contradictions in the Bible.

[12:51] I know people like that. And, uh, for example, you know, uh, some irreconcilable truths that some people think are taught in Scripture.

[13:02] You know, for example, Paul's teachings on faith and James' teachings on faith and works and the relationship between those two things. And a lot of people have gone on and on and on and go on and on and on about the, the, uh, seeming contradiction between Paul and James and so, some have decided that James was wrong.

[13:21] We ought to take James out of the Bible. And, uh, some have decided that, uh, you know, there's contradictions so maybe the Bible is not all true. You know, all, all kinds of conclusions have come out of that and all those conclusions are wrong.

[13:35] But there are people who spend hours talking about so-called irreconcilable truths that are taught in Scripture. Or, uh, spending hours talking about unprovable miracles.

[13:48] recording the Bible as to think, uh, you know, to suppose somehow that miracles need to be proved scientifically, which is ridiculous. I've watched entire programs on PBS and maybe you have too about some of the miracles that you find in Scripture.

[14:04] and, uh, and, uh, and so they proposed to tell us that they have found scientific, uh, uh, reasons why these things could have happened. Explanations for, for the parting of the Red Sea.

[14:18] You know, ridiculous things. and, uh, there are people who just get all wrapped up in that kind of fruitless talk, idle talk that, that, that's worse than just simply idle talk.

[14:29] It leads people to come to wrong conclusions, uh, about Scripture and about God and the nature of God and so forth. Uh, and then that's influential to other people and causes those people who are weak in faith anyway to become even weaker and begin to doubt.

[14:46] So you can see some of the ramifications of this kind of idle talk that goes on among professing believers or about the deity of Jesus and the humanity of Jesus.

[14:59] You know, so, you know, how does that work? How do those go together? Well, you know, Jesus can't be, just rationally speaking, can't be totally God and totally man at the same time and so there must be some other explanation to that.

[15:12] So people talk about that and they come to wrong conclusions because, uh, they don't just simply believe the Bible and, uh, it causes, uh, others to lose their faith or how about the, the, uh, uh, the, the difficulty of reconciling the sovereignty of God and the will of man, you know, when it comes to salvation and so there's all kind of talk about that that's fruitless or how about the biology of the virgin birth, you know, uh, how could that possibly be and so, you know, people get wrapped up in trying to, uh, uh, to explain that in some other way or really they end up explaining it away, you know, uh, when it, when it comes, uh, comes down to it or the science behind six days of creation, you know, how's that possible?

[16:03] Well, it's not possible. So, you know, that, that is how they're thinking. I mean, it's certainly possible. With God, all things are possible. But, but this is what happens when you, when people within the church start, start, you know, involving themselves in idle talk or fruitless, empty kind of talk.

[16:21] It may start out very empty and useless, but it eventually leads to heresy or false doctrine and that's very influential, uh, in the way other people believe.

[16:32] So, science versus the Bible, discussions about that. Creation versus evolution, discussions about that. And, uh, I could go on. Those are just some that came to my mind as I was thinking about all this.

[16:46] So, we're talking about people. This is their, this is their personality. They're in the church and they have gained places of leadership. They're very influential. And, uh, and they are, but they are insubordinate to the truth of the gospel.

[16:59] And, in this case, uh, these churches in Crete, insubordinate to the authority and teachings of the apostle Paul. Uh, and they are idle talkers.

[17:09] They spend time with fruitless and empty talk. And, but more grievous than all of that, Paul then identifies them as deceivers. And, and it always leads to that.

[17:23] Uh, deceivers. Because they're, they're kind of man-centered conclusions that they have come to rationally, you know, using reason rather than scripture and faith.

[17:36] Uh, they're man-centered conclusions. They may seem reasonable, you know, on the surface, and they may seem irrational, but, but they're always wrong when you depart from scripture.

[17:50] But here's the problem. They're not just content to believe wrongly. They must also lead others to believe wrongly. You ever notice that about those who teach, uh, who come to, uh, uh, false doctrine or other conclusions that are contrary to scripture.

[18:07] They're not content just to believe it themselves. They've got to get other people to believe it with them. And, uh, and this was the problem, uh, in the church. So they are deceivers, deceivers.

[18:19] All right, so Paul is giving us some identifying marks about these false teachers, their majority within the local churches, their personality, and third, their nationality.

[18:33] Their nationality, he says something about that, uh, in, uh, the latter part of verse 10, especially those of the circumcision.

[18:44] So what, what were they by nationality? They were Jews. I mean, that's, that's, uh, what he meant. In fact, we could, you know, kind of add a word there of the circumcision party, uh, the circumcision, uh, that would be Jews.

[19:01] The churches in Crete, uh, of course, were, would have consisted of both Gentile and Jewish, uh, uh, members, Jewish converse to Christianity.

[19:13] Well, Gentiles. Uh, there was, uh, I think I've already mentioned this. Historically, there was a very large settlement of Jews, uh, on the island of Crete at the time.

[19:24] So there were Gentiles and Jews. Church would have, churches would have been, been made up both. Uh, and, uh, Paul, but Paul identifies these false teachers as Jewish.

[19:36] They're Jewish. Those are the circumcision group. Now, in other places, uh, Paul referred to these Jewish false teachers as Judaizers.

[19:49] Judaizers, and that fits pretty well with what I think we're, we're understanding here about what Paul says about these people, what they were doing in the church. Uh, and the Judaizers, what do they do?

[20:03] Well, primarily they, they, they were trying to, uh, to teach that to be a Christian, you've got to be a Jew, got to be a good Jew, uh, in keeping all of the Old Testament, uh, not just the, the, uh, uh, the Ten Commandments, but all of the laws, ceremonial laws, all of the laws that were just shadows of the real, uh, the coming of Christ.

[20:31] So, uh, so that, that was the Judaizers, and, uh, they made then various requirements for salvation. They were actually adding works to the gospel, subverting the gospel, uh, and so they added, you know, these requirements for salvation based upon obedience to the Old Testament.

[20:51] Uh, and, Paul addressed this issue quite often in his letters because it was a major problem in the, in the early church, the Judaizers, and, uh, so they made, uh, these requirements.

[21:04] One of them would have been circumcision. That was the big one, uh, uh, for the Jews, uh, the Judaizers requiring circumcision in order to be saved. Paul vehemently fought against that.

[21:18] Sabbath law, Sabbath worship, uh, was it, was another one, and, uh, dietary laws, and I, I'm going to, uh, uh, as we go along, I think we're going to discover the primary issue here, uh, in the churches on the island of Crete, that these Judaizers, they were really pushing the dietary laws, and, and the, uh, in the, in the larger, larger scheme of it, or the broader scope, the, uh, uh, ceremonial cleansing laws, uh, which would have included what you ate, as well as things that you would touch.

[21:56] This was really their primary focus. All right, so, what about today? Well, the issues change. They vary, perhaps, uh, from what the Judaizers on Crete were pushing for, uh, but the spirit of Judaizers still, still alive and well, uh, in, uh, in the churches today.

[22:18] There were those in the churches, uh, on Crete that were requiring beyond what the Bible teaches, uh, in order for a person to be saved.

[22:28] So, the issues may be different, but Judaizers are still alive and well in the churches today. All right, so we're talking about falsified teachers.

[22:39] First, their identity. Now, second, their infamy. And I use that word in the sense of their wicked actions against the body.

[22:51] Very wicked, uh, um, though they wouldn't, uh, identify themselves as wicked, and what they were doing is wicked, because they would say they were in the right. Uh, but, uh, what they did against the body of the local church, very wicked.

[23:07] Verse 11b says, they subvert whole households, teachings, teaching things, which they ought not for the sake of dishonest gain.

[23:19] Now, let's think about this word households. Uh, the word households here likely does not refer to families, but likely refers to house churches.

[23:32] House churches. And, uh, these false teachers were turning entire churches away from the truth and toward false doctrine.

[23:46] And, uh, and then their primary motive, uh, uh, was not, uh, out of any conviction about their doctrine, but rather for personal gain.

[23:57] That was their primary, uh, uh, motive. And, uh, which, which, uh, you know, he says is dishonest, says it calls it dishonest gain, and, and certainly was for two reasons, uh, because it's dishonest, because the doctrine they were teaching was wrong, was false, and, and it was dishonest because they were hiding, uh, their true motives.

[24:23] When they were taking leadership roles in the church and teaching false doctrine, trying to gain a following and turn a church in a certain direction, uh, they, they weren't, uh, it wasn't about doctrine, really.

[24:36] It was personal gain, so it was all prideful, all based upon the flesh. And, you know, when you think about it, think of the most, uh, about most of the prosperity preachers on television today, uh, who make millions of dollars, you know, and, and they're teaching a prosperity, but the only ones are really gaining is the preacher.

[24:59] And, uh, you know, occasionally one of them will be exposed, but, uh, beyond my understanding, it doesn't make any difference to a lot of people. You know, think about Jim Baker, exposed for his dishonesty, and yet, now he's still preaching, still has a following.

[25:19] It doesn't matter to people. Uh, or, you know, how about Creflo Dollar? I hope you don't watch that guy on TV. And, uh, you know, in his, uh, you know, I got to think about it, the tip-off is his name.

[25:35] Creflo, Creflo Dollar. Uh, you know, his $65 million jet. Okay. Who, who's paying for that? And, how is he gaining that money?

[25:47] Through his, through his, uh, teaching, very influential, and it's for personal gain. Uh, all right, so their identity, their infamy against the church, and next, their iniquity.

[26:00] Verse 11, first part of verse 11, because I skipped that a moment ago, and then verses 12 through 14, whose mouths must be stopped, and then we pick it up at verse 12, one of them, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.

[26:20] This testimony is true, Paul said. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables or myths, and commandments of men who turn from the truth.

[26:35] All right, so two things here. First, the sin, all right, the sin is described, the iniquity is described, and, and it's interesting, Paul compares these false teachers to certain types of Cretans, and I've worked that very carefully, not all Cretans, who are Cretans?

[26:58] Those people who live on Crete, are they the ones who populate the island of Crete? That's where this is taking place. All right, so Paul is going to, first of all, compare these false teachers to a certain type of Cretan, infamous Cretan, maybe we could say.

[27:18] The prophet of their own is a reference to a certain philosopher. Epimenides, Epimenides was his name, and he was a very famous Cretan philosopher from the 6th century B.C.

[27:38] All right, so he's, Paul's quoting him, and he's quoting him because the people, the people who lived on Crete, they would've, they would've known this quote. I mean, they would've been very familiar with this.

[27:50] And what did Epimenides say? He said, Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons. And how does Paul respond to that? He says, this testimony is true.

[28:04] Now, you know, just on the face of it, it's a little difficult to reconcile this. I mean, why would Paul, if the philosopher's talking about all Cretans, why would Paul agree with that?

[28:16] And I don't think he is. Paul's not calling all Cretans liars and evil and lazy people. It's not meant to be an ethnic slur.

[28:31] After all, by the way, from what group of people was Titus to appoint elders to these churches? Cretans. So they're not all liars.

[28:43] Paul can't mean that. This was, according to the philosopher, was something that was known of many of the people in Crete. They had a reputation. They didn't mean that all Cretans were liars.

[28:56] I mean, many of the true believers, I mean, the true believers there in the churches on that island, on Crete, were, I mean, they were Cretans.

[29:09] So he's not talking about that. But Paul is simply using what was a well-known expression to identify the sinfulness of these false teachers.

[29:21] liars. He says they are liars. He's just emphasizing this part of their sin. They're liars.

[29:33] All right? They're evil beasts. Some versions have the word brutes. What does that mean? Well, it just simply means they're out of control. They're out of control like a beast, brute.

[29:47] Can't control them. All right? So they're liars and you can't control them. And they're lazy gluttons, which is just another reference to what their true motivation was.

[29:59] And that was for personal gain. You know, that's what they wanted. You know, it's kind of interesting, I think, that in the Greek world of Paul's day, they had an expression, and this is recorded by historians, they had an expression to cretize, cretize, which means to lie, to lie and cheat.

[30:24] So it would have made sense. The readers of the letter, as Titus would share this letter with the churches on the island, they would have identified with this, you know.

[30:38] And so they would have identified that and connected it with a group of people that Paul wanted it connected to, and that is the false teachers. Some people even today use the term cretin.

[30:53] I mean, it is, I looked it up, I'd heard it before, and I looked it up on the Urban Dictionary. You can find that online if you want to. There's actually an Urban Dictionary.

[31:06] And a cretin is an idiot. You know, people call a person a cretin, that means they're an idiot, or they're, they're an ignoramus, or even a beast, a beast of a person.

[31:20] You beast, you cretin. And though it, you know, kind of evolved a little bit, it all came from this philosopher who said what he said about cretin.

[31:32] All right, so Paul's not trying to get into that. He's not trying to besmirk the people on the island of Crete. He's just trying to identify, connect, what they would have known very well, and connect that with the false teachers in their churches.

[31:47] Now, their false belief slash teaching is described here as Jewish fables or myths and commandments of men.

[32:00] That's what he says in verse 14. The implication is that this was part of their teaching. Jewish fables and commandments of men. Now, the exact content of these Jewish fables or myths, really, we don't know.

[32:18] It's not easy to determine. He doesn't elaborate on that. You know, what these Jewish myths were. I don't think it, you know, some other kind of beliefs that maybe were going around among Jews, some have thought maybe it was Gnosticism, you know, some of that kind of blended with Judaism.

[32:44] It might have been. But I think that it was just a strong statement about the Judaizers, these Jews, their attempts to force Jewish law into the Christian context.

[32:59] I think that's what it is because the second part of this, the commandments of men, that's clearly what the Pharisees had done with the law. And Jesus addressed the Pharisees many times.

[33:10] And we know that the Pharisees had added layers upon layers and layers of laws and regulations specifically about how to keep the Sabbath day that were never part of God's scripture.

[33:25] Never part of scripture. But I think someone has counted something over 800, close to 800 different laws that were devised, developed by the Pharisees presumably to help people to keep the law concerning the Sabbath.

[33:42] But they made these requirements and made them really additions to faith. That's what the Judaizers were doing. As well as certain laws concerning or governing ceremonial cleansing, which I think is really the idea here.

[33:59] All right, so that's the sin described, but then Paul includes something else here about their iniquity and that is their salvation desired. Paul really desired their salvation.

[34:13] And we should too, of heretics and false teachers. Not that they would just simply be punished or excluded and kicked out, but that they would repent and believe properly.

[34:27] now he begins by saying there that they must not be allowed to continue teaching their false doctrine. You cannot take a kind of laissez-faire type of approach to false teaching.

[34:42] You know, just kind of let it happen. You know, not interfere with it. Got to deal with it and that's why he says in verse 11, first part of it, their mouths must be stopped.

[34:54] Actually, it's the word that means muzzled, like he would muzzle a mad dog or violent dog, muzzle, must be stopped. And then they must also be, according to verse 13, rebuked sharply, which is really, I think, describing church discipline.

[35:14] They must be dealt with in the church in the scriptural way. They must be rebuked sharply, and then for what purpose? Well, certainly to stop the false teaching, I mean, that's certainly the purpose here, and that goes without saying, but also the goal is that they may be sound in the faith.

[35:37] So this is the desire, Paul's desire, verse 13, sound in faith. Now that may mean salvation, it may just simply mean those who were actually saved, but they've gotten off into doctrinal error, doctrinal correction, whatever the case may be.

[35:57] And again, reveals why Titus was to appoint qualified elders in every church to teach correct doctrine and to correct false doctrine.

[36:08] All right, so falsified teachers, let's wrap this up, their identity, their infamy, their iniquity, and next, their impurity. Verse 15, to the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but even their mind and conscience are defiled.

[36:29] All right, and I think it's here at this point that Paul identifies the primary content of the false doctrine. And there are all kind of ways, all kinds of false doctrine, but I think he's specifically talking about ceremonial cleansing laws.

[36:48] They were part of the old covenant. And apparently these Judaizers, their focus was on those laws. And so kind of it works this way.

[37:01] He says, to the pure, now that would be those who are pure through faith. The same, to the pure, all things are pure. All things are pure.

[37:12] That is those things we touch, those things that we eat. And no ceremonial cleansing is needed. It's faith. We're saved by faith, not by works. So, to the pure, all things are pure.

[37:25] We don't have to have ceremonial laws and cleansing laws that we must obey in order to be pure. We're pure because of our faith. Then he says, to those who are defiled and unbelieving, that's, of course, the unsaved.

[37:42] unsaved, these are unsaved people, to them nothing is pure. All is sinful. Even what we might want to call, or they might want to call good, is actually sinful.

[37:57] You know, our righteousness is as filthy rags to God. And so, that being the case, no amount of ceremonial cleansing will work. it's not going to cleanse you, not going to make you pure.

[38:11] It doesn't work that way. And the irony of all of it is to teach that purity for God only comes through the observance of the Old Testament ceremonial cleansing laws.

[38:22] To teach that is to reveal your own impurity, your own defilement. He says, defiled in the mind and the conscience. That is, your thinking is corrupt.

[38:36] And your conscience is corrupt. All right, what's the difference between conscience and thinking? Well, conscience is, you know, the problem was they could not, they could no longer discern between right and wrong.

[38:52] And then one more thing, their integrity or lack thereof. Verse 16, they profess to know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, disqualified for every good work.

[39:06] All right? So they had no spiritual and personal integrity, no spiritual reality. They were fakes. They were fakes. And this is what, how Paul concludes this.

[39:20] They were fakes. Outwardly, looking outwardly, these false teachers were very religious. And that, that's why their influence, their deception was so powerful.

[39:33] Outwardly, they looked very religious. Christians, they profess, they claim to know God. Their confession was Christianity. And I think personally, they really believed it.

[39:45] They believed that about themselves. So outwardly, these false teachers were very religious. Inwardly, inwardly, these false teachers were the exact opposite of what they professed.

[39:58] confessed. But in works, they deny him. So they, you know, they confessed him outwardly, but in their works, it revealed the reality inwardly, and that is that they denied him.

[40:14] They denied him. And then, lastly, upwardly, from God's perspective, these false teachers were abominable, which means they were detestable.

[40:26] detestable, disgusting to God. They were disobedient. Disobedient to who? To God. Truth of the gospel.

[40:38] To Paul's apostolic authority. Disobedient. They are detestable to God. Disobedient to God. And, therefore, disqualified.

[40:50] Disqualified or unfit for every good work. And that points to the irony. Those who trusted in the good works that God does not demand, like the ceremonial law, cleansing laws, Sabbath laws, dietary laws, those who trust in the good works that God does not demand were actually unfit for the good works God actually desires.

[41:23] Desires of all true believers. We've been saved unto good works. But to trust in good works God does not desire actually made them unfit for the good works that God does desire.

[41:37] Thank you.