Please turn with me to Titus 1 - starting at verse 10.  Today we’re going on in our look at the right stuff of Godly manhood.

Through Paul’s teaching Titus had come to trust in Jesus as his Savior.  Then Titus became a disciple of Paul.  Where Paul went - Titus went.  Titus learned about ministry from Paul.  In time, they came to Crete.  This island - second largest Greek island.  When Paul moved on he left Titus in charge at Crete to finish doing those things which would bring the church spiritually to the place where God will use it to share His gospel with others. 

One of those things - as we saw last Sunday - one of those things Titus was to do - was to appoint Godly men to leadership in the church.  Without Godly men leading the church the church is in serious trouble.  In reality - so are our families and community.

What we’ve begun exploring here in Titus is what Godly manhood looks like.  What it means to be a Godly man.  How we can take steps toward becoming a Godly man.

Let’s be clear - this isn’t just about men.  Mothers - what we’re looking at here is where you need to point your boys.  Or, if you’re a woman with a man in training - this is what you need to encourage him to become.  Or, if you’re just looking for a man - this is the kind of man you need to look for.

Last Sunday we looked at Titus 1 - especially in verses 6 to 9 Paul gives a list of what Godly manhood looks like:  Remember these?  If you weren’t with us last Sunday - go online and get the message.  Above reproach - in how he’s dealt with his sins, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, above reproach in his character.  There was a list of 5 negative character traits and seven positive character traits.  Its a very clear list of what Godly manhood looks like.

How many of you like these?  Talking about men we’ve got to have healthy food.  From last Sunday, who remembers what the Greek verb “orego” means?  Oreo with a “g.”  “To aspire.”  It has the idea of stretching one’s arms out - heart - soul - body - mind - in passionate desire - even lusting after - extending - reaching - longing - grasping - pursuing - aspiring after what it means to be God’s man.  (1 Timothy 3:1)

We saw this last Sunday - Bottom line:  A Godly man pursues God.  Say that with me, “A Godly man pursues God.”

Titus 1 - starting at verse 10:  For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,

Verse 10 is Paul’s Other Hand.  Say that with me, “Paul’s Other Hand.”  In contrast to what is a Godly man - what we saw in verse 6 to 9 - on the other hand are these guys.

They’re rebellious.  The Greek word is a description of men who have no regard for authority - man’s government or God’s law - parents.  They can’t be controlled.  They really aren’t in even in control of themselves.  They do whatever they feel like doing.  They’re just wild and crazy guys that are a law unto themselves.  Unto who?  Themselves. 

They’re empty talkers.  These men are constantly talking about religion and philosophy and politics and so on - giving their opinions and talking a really good talk.  What they say may even sound pretty intelligent.  They may have degrees - PhD's - and all kinds of recognition in the world - a respected position in society.  But, ultimately - from a Godly perspective -  what they’re saying really doesn’t make sense.

Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, “The wisdom of this world is - what?  foolishness before God.”  (1 Corinthians 3:19) 

Its what Jesus was talking about when He ended His Sermon on the Mount - Matthew 7:24.  Remember Jesus’ illustration?  2 guys building 2 houses.  One building on sand.  One building on the rock.  Foolishness to build on sand - no foundation - no stability - ultimate destruction.  The guy who built on the rock was called what?  Wise.  The rock is what?  What Jesus taught.  It’s the only foundation worth building our lives on.

All this intelligent sounding talk is empty of true reason - real truth.  Their speculations are futile.  Because at the core - the basis of their thinking and reasoning isn’t God.  Their words are not what God has said but about what they think.  About what who thinks?  What they think.

They’re deceivers - especially those of the circumcision - the Jews.  The Greek word for “deceiver” is “phrenapates” - which has the idea that they’re deceiving people - leading others away from God’s truth.  But, also - that they’re so caught up in their own arguments and ideas that they’re actually deceiving themselves - leading themselves away from God’s truth. 

The prophet Isaiah warned the people of his day, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”  (Isaiah 5:20)

We can see this today.  Good and evil are relative terms - a matter of perspective - interpretation - whatever I say they are.  Its not what God says about what’s good and evil - what’s morally right and what’s wrong - about absolute truth.  Its not what God says about how to be right with Him.  Its about what I say God is and what I say he - or she - or it - expects of me.

Its the ultimate lie of humanism.  Man is accountable only to man.

People may not state it this way.  But thinking this through to its logical conclusion - if God isn’t the authority then who is?  The unholy trinity of Me, Myself, and I.  These men actually believe that they can replace God with themselves.  That’s self-deception.  Who’s the authority?  They are.

The bottom line:  These are men who do what they feel like doing.  Who spout off great sounding ideas that have no basis in God’s truth.  Who have created a brand of religion where they’re the center of it.

Do you see Paul is getting at here?  A Godly man pursues Who?  God.  An ungodly man pursues...  himself.  Say that with me, “An ungodly man pursues himself.” 

Verse 11:  who - these ungodly men - must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.

Let’s pause there.  Verses 11 and 12 are Paul’s Warning.  Say that with me, “Paul’s warning.”

Paul’s says that these ungodly men need to be silenced - literally the Greek word means to stick something over their mouths - gag them - shut them up.

That sounds harsh.  Not very PC.  What about getting together and discussing things over coffee and donuts?  Paul writes, you need to shut these guys down - quick.

The reason - Paul warns - is because whole families are being “upset.” 

The word for upset is “anatrepo” - it has the idea of being overthrown - overturned.  The same root verb is used in the Gospels to describe Jesus “overturning” the tables of the money changers in the temple.

Imagine Jesus putting together discussion groups to dialogue over the situation in the Temple.  Searching for some kind of compromise.

Jesus overturned the tables to turn the money changers back to God.  These ungodly men are overturning whole families and turning them away from God.  The reality - in either case is too crucial to dink around with.  God’s people - families - are being led away from God because of these self-focused ungodly men.  Its a disaster - a melt down - in progress. 

In verse 12 Paul quotes a Cretan poet - Epimenides - this guy - who was writing in the 6th century B.C. from this place - Knoosos.  Epimenides was well respected by the Cretans.  He was a local hero - someone they were proud of.  Epimenides wrote in a well known poem of his, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”  The Cretans were proud of that reputation.

These men claim to have great wisdom about life and about God and religion - but ultimately these ungodly men fit right in with the culture.  They’re living the Cretan dream.  La Vida Loca.  Partay.  They’re liars - evil beasts - the opposite of all God created us to be as humans.  They’re lazy gluttons.  They’re part of what’s going on in the world - not God’s kingdom. 

Isn’t that true today?  In family after family where dad - or the male figure - is ungodly - or a Godly man is absent - the family is in serious serious trouble. 

Do you see Paul’s warning?  These ungodly men - focused on themselves - are leading families - the church - God’s people away from God - leading them towards a culture that’s ungodly - towards looming disaster.  Paul warns.  This is serious.  Stop them.  Now.  There is no room for compromise.

Verse 13:  This testimony is true - what Epimenides wrote is true.  For this reason - which is another way of saying “therefore” - because of the damage that can be done by ungodly men - for this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.

Verses 13 and 14 are Paul’s Concern.  Say that with me, “Paul’s concern.” 

How many of you have seen the movie Groundhog Day?  The premise of the movie is what?  Bill Murray plays the role of a guy who’s stuck reliving Groundhog Day over and over again.  Every morning he wakes up and it’s Groundhog Day - again.

In what you’re about to look at - Bill Murray is trying to get this girl to like him.  He’s making a list - trying to do all the right things - so that this girl will get interested in him.  This is guy thinking - linear - singular task - goal orientated.

One other thing you need to keep in mind - every time the scene restarts it’s a new day.  One more time he’s woken up and its Groundhog Day - another opportunity to impress this girl.

(VIDEO)

If you’re a woman you might be thinking that this guy’s a real jerk.  But, as men - can you feel for this guy?  If I can just get it right - go down this list giving all the right answers - then I’ll get what I want.

When Paul gives us a list of what a Godly man looks like - back up in verse 6 to 9 - there’s a real danger for us men - to reduce being a Godly man to items on a task list.  When it comes to being a Godly man - we can look at that list and think:  “If I can just do these things.  Try harder.  Not make mistakes.  Then I’ll be a Godly man.”

That’s so frustrating for us.  We’re trying so hard to do all the right things - and still not achieving our goals. 

Remember the Rich young man who came to Jesus - knelt before Him - asked Jesus, “What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus rattles off a what?  A list of commandments.  “Don’t murder.  Don’t commit adultery.  Don’t steal.  Don’t bear false witness.  Don’t defraud.  Honor your father and mother.”

The rich young man said, “I’ve done all those.  I accomplished the list.  So, now what?  What do I need to do to inherit eternal life?  I still haven’t achieved my goal.”

Jesus said what?  “Sell your possessions.  Give the money to the poor.    Trust that God will give you a reward in heaven.  And follow Me.”

The man choked on the answer.  Why?  Not because task wasn’t clearly defined - or doable.  But because of what was required of his heart.  Trusting God - loving God - from his heart.  (Matthew 19:16-22)

If we were to watch the rest of Groundhog Day - what comes to light is that this woman that Bill Murray is after isn’t interested in being a reward for accomplishing stuff on a list - most women aren’t.  She’s interested in being loved from the heart.

Same is true of God.  David cries out to God, “I’d give you sacrifices if you delighted in them.  I’d offer up burnt offerings if it would please you.”  Hear the list?  “But, the real sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit - a broken and contrite heart.”  (Psalm 51:16,17)

God wants our hearts.  Say that with me, “God wants our hearts.”

The ungodly men that Paul writes about - here in Titus - Paul writes that these men were - verse 14 - were paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments.  Its important that we understand what Paul means by that.

These men spiritualized the Old Testament - called them Jewish myths - spiritualized them in much the same way that people today will claim that the Old Testament is a collection of stories - not actual people and historical events.  They said - there’s some historical accuracy.  But, we can’t take it literally.  The Old Testament is mainly myth - the spiritual hopes of the Jews.

This thing about Jesus and His resurrection - well that’s kind of more like a spiritual thing.  Didn’t really physically happen.  It was more like a spiritual resurrection - Jesus getting closer to God.  Jesus was more enlightened than most and He showed us how to get to God - to fulfill the hopes of the Jewish people - what we see spiritualized in the Old Testament.

What we really need to do is to live holy lives - to put off the desires of the flesh - all the sin of the is world - follow the example of Jesus.  That’s what will get us closer to God.   Hear the list?   All the sacrifices?

They had lists.  Mostly based on Old Testament law.  Lists of what people could eat and not eat and when they could eat and when they couldn’t eat.  Regulations that went on and on - governing every part of a person’s life.  So that - if we were to do all those things on the list - we would be able to move closer to God.

But God wants our what?  Hearts.  A Godly man pursues God from the heart.

Stay with me on this:  There is a real danger for us as men that we will see our relationship with God as a “to do” list and not as a relationship coming out of our hearts.  We can be so focused on ourselves - and not God - then we can very easily reduce our relationship with God to a set of self-deceiving things to do and convince ourselves that if we do all these things we’ll be doing what God requires of us.

Verse 13 - the word “reprove” is the Greek word “elegcho” - expose them.  Bring stuff out in the open with the idea of turning them back to God.  “Severely” has the idea of quickly - abruptly.

Paul’s concern for the men who are caught up in all this is that Titus doesn’t beat around the bush - doesn’t ignore them and hope they’ll go away.  Paul tells Titus to get the issues into the open where they can be dealt with.  Where correction can take place.  Where they can be turned back to what’s right instead of letting them lead others towards what’s wrong.  Deal with them - honestly and openly.

Bottom line:  Don’t just shut them down.  But, help them to get this - to see what’s really important - what’s really at stake here is their hearts.

Verses 15 and 16 are Paul’s Illustration.  Say that with me, “Paul’s illustration.”

Verse 15:  To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.  They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.

The apostle Peter was in Joppa - up on the roof of the house he was staying at.  About noon he’s up on the roof praying.  God gave Peter a vision of a great sheet coming down out of heaven.  Heaven opens up and this sheet gets lowered down by the four corners.

Do you remember this?  On that sheet were all kinds of what?  animals and crawling creatures and birds - what would have been ceremonially unclean for a Jew to eat.  Pork sausage - baked ham.  God tells Peter to get up and eat what’s on the sheet.

Peter argues with God.  “I’ve never eaten anything unholy.  I’m kosher.”

God says to Peter,  “What I’ve cleansed no longer consider unholy.”  (Acts 10)

It is the same point Jesus made when He said, “Its not what enters the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.”  (Matthew 15:10)

Its not the externals that are important.  Its not what goes on outside of us - the things we do or don’t do - all those things that the ungodly men of Titus’s day were focused on - what defiles - what makes one unholy - what keeps one back from God - all the things they said needed to be done to get past that defilement - to get to purity - what to eat or not eat - the list - the sacrifices - the externals of what makes one pure before God.

Its not the externals - the list - that’s important.  Its what?  It’s the heart.

Let’s think together about how this applies to us today.

A man was trying hard to get the ketchup to come out of the bottle - hitting it on the end.  During his struggle the phone rang so he asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer the phone.

“It’s the pastor, Daddy,” the child said to her father.  Then she added, “Daddy can’t come to the phone to talk to you right now.  He’s hitting the bottle.”

What are the things about ourselves that we let people see and the things within us that even we don’t want to see?

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3 - starting at verse 13:  “[We] are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.”

For 40 days God’s people had camped at the foot of Mount Sinai waiting for Moses to come down from his conference with God.  Remember this?  Finally Moses - this great Godly man - Moses comes down the mountain holding God’s law - written on tablets of stone by the very hand of God. 

When Moses comes down off the mountain his face is shining - radiating with this great brilliance that shows everyone that he’s been in the very presence of God.  So while Moses is talking to the people its hard to look at him - there’s this glow thing going on with his face - and the people are starting to get really uptight out about this.  So, when Moses finishes talking he puts a veil over his face - to cover up the glow.

That’s important.  Whenever Moses spoke with God - when he was in God’s presence - Moses would take off the veil.  God wasn’t bothered by the glow.  But, whenever Moses spoke to the people - he’d wear the veil - so the people wouldn’t get distracted.

According to Paul in 2 Corinthians 3 - even after the glow had faded - when Moses spoke to the people - Moses still wore the veil.  So after a while the veil - not the glow - began to symbolize Moses’ special relationship with God and his position before the people.  They’d see the veil and think Moses is a Godly man.

We all wear veils  - veils of position and knowledge and appearance and family life and spirituality - outward coverings.  We wear veils to cover our wounds - our feelings of inadequacy - our struggles to be sufficient - competent - acceptable.  We wear veils to cover where we fall short of fulfilling the list of what it means to be a Godly man.  Even the list itself can be a veil - as we’re working so hard to be Godly - but afraid of exposing our heart. 

Paul shares with us the way out from behind our veils.  2 Corinthians 3 - verses 16 and 17 - Paul writes “But whenever a person turns to the Lord the veil is taken away.  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”

A while back someone in the church sent me this:  My son Zachary, 4, came screaming out of the bathroom to tell me he’d dropped his toothbrush in the toilet.  So I fished it out and threw it in the garbage.  Zachary stood there thinking for a moment, then ran to my bathroom and came out with my toothbrush.  He held it up and said with a charming little smile, “We better throw this one out too then, ’cause it fell in the toilet a few days ago.”

Don’t you just love honesty?  God is honest with us in dealing with our hearts.

When Jesus went to the cross He dealt with the deepest issues of our hearts.  He took with Him all of our sins - our inadequacy - our inability to measure up to God’s standard of holiness and righteousness and sinlessness.  All of our failure was nailed to that cross with each nail that was driven through Jesus.

Freedom comes - a relationship with God and healing and boldness and confidence in life begins - when we admit to ourselves that all this fear and hiding and striving by our own effort - going down lists - will never make us Godly.  We need to receive what Jesus - by grace - has done for us on the cross.

That’s what Paul writes - 2 Corinthians 3:18:   “But we all, with unveiled face - having given up trying to do this on our own - beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

Looking in the mirror first thing in the morning is a moment of truth.  What we see staring back is the real us.  Scary.  But, look in the spiritual mirror - when our lives - our hearts - are given to Jesus - who lives within us - who’s transforming us - and changing us to be in His likeness - look in the mirror and instead of seeing our own messed up - ungodly selves - we see Him - who is able to make us into the Godly men He has created us to be.

An ungodly man focuses on who?  Himself.  Scary.  A real need for having a veil.  A Godly man focuses his heart on who?  God.  May we focus on God.

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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible®, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation.  Used by permission.