How to Speak to a Wolf #1

Why is it so important for a man to be able to handle the Word of God accurately if he's going to be an elder? Why is this warning about wolves so prevalent in the New Testament?

Why? The term a wolf in sheep's clothing is well known to most people, but not everyone's aware that the idea has a biblical origin. It reflects a very serious issue for churches, as you'll be reminded today on the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hi, I'm Bill Wright, and we're continuing our series, Titus, God's Glorious Plan of Grace. Don has part one of a message titled, How to Speak to a Wolf. Don, God's Word is very direct about this, isn't it?

That's right, Bill. Scripture is surprisingly clear about this, and my friend, what we have to study today from God's Word might even surprise you in the strength of the admonition that it gives. Church leaders are supposed to silence false teachers by rebuking them, and if they refuse to receive the rebuke, eventually sending them out of the church. That's how important God's truth is and how important it is to protect the flock.

We'll see more as we study together. Open your Bible as we turn to God's Word now on the Truth Pulpit. Have your Bible open to Titus chapter 1 as we join Pastor Don Green now in the Truth Pulpit. Today's message is titled, How to Speak to a Wolf, and we're going to see how to speak to a wolf here today from Titus chapter 1. But when we talk about wolves, let me be specific so that you don't misunderstand exactly what I'm referring to. When we talk about wolves, we're talking about false teachers. We're not describing people who are confused in the Christian faith. We're not talking about unbelievers who are actively opposed to the Gospel in that sense. We're not talking about new Christians with wrong ideas or Christians that are trying to learn and trying to grow but ask questions and don't quite understand.

Those are not wolves. They're people who need ministry. They're people who need help. They're the reason that Paul says that the Word of God is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance. We all need to be built up by the Word of God. We're all in the process of growing. It's not that we need to grow that would make someone a wolf or we would all be wolves.

No, no. A wolf is someone more specific. Jesus said that they come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. Wolves are men who set themselves up as teachers who are set in their wrong belief.

They're settled in it. And they try to draw others into it and they refuse correction from church leaders. That's a wolf. That is someone categorically different from someone who is trying to grow and understand and is going through difficulties and all of that.

No, a wolf is someone who is intentional. He is someone who declares himself, who presents himself as a teacher. As someone who knows what the truth is and what should be taught in a local church. And he's set in his wrong belief. He's considered this over time.

He's considered this sometimes over a period of years. And he shows up and talks the talk and acts like one of us. But inside he's ravenous. He's looking to draw other people under his wrong teaching. And when he is confronted with it by church leaders, by the established church leaders of an assembly, he refuses their correction. He turns into the one who he thinks he's going to be the one who corrects the church leaders. And he actively seeks to promote doctrine which he knows is not welcome within the context of a local body.

But he's not upfront about it. He does it in subtle ways in order to draw, as Paul said in Acts chapter 20, in order to draw the disciples after himself. Develop his own little following under the umbrella of a church that is seeking to do right by the Word of God.

Those are wolves. These are men that bring teaching into a local church and undermine the clear teaching of the Word of God in a place like this. They would undermine the clear teaching with conflicting contradictory messages, contradictory doctrine, all the while trying to present themselves as one of us. They dress up like a sheep, but their paws are full of claws looking for disciples to devour. God says in his Word that those who are following Christ and preaching the Word of God must expect this to take place when it happens. And so the question is, how can we guard ourselves? How can we protect ourselves? What I want you to see is that while the elders of the church have a unique responsibility to deal with wolves, as we'll see in the future, we all have a part, we all have a share in this that we should all want to be zealous to protect what the Lord's given us, to not take it for granted.

To say, this is precious to me. And the surest way to undermine it is to give room to people who would teach contradictory doctrine, who would divide that way, who would divide with their teaching. Men who would draw people after themselves who are not recognized, who are not appointed by God or by the leadership to be in that position in the body. How do we protect ourselves from men like that? It's inevitable that they're going to come.

What do we do when they show up? Well, we find in the book of Titus, as we continue on, we see very clear instruction from God. Turn to the book of Titus, and what I want you to see is that collectively, collectively we share in this responsibility and also this prerogative.

Yes, yes, that's an important word. We share in the prerogative to protect ourselves from the wolves who will inevitably arise in our midst. Titus chapter 1 is our text. Titus chapter 1 beginning in verse 10.

We had seen last time, we had an introduction to elder qualifications. And it ended on this note. It ended on this note in verse 9, Titus chapter 1 verse 9. Paul is describing how we know if a man is qualified to be an elder, a leader in the local church. Well, one of the marks of men like that is that they hold fast, look at verse 9, they hold fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching. They hold to a system of biblical doctrine and they protect it.

And they know it and they understand it and they can explain it. And, he goes on, so that he, meaning this elder, he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. That was his closing mark of the qualifications of a biblical elder, is that he knows the word of God, he's able to teach it, and he can address and refute those who contradict it. It's a high calling. It's a high standard. That's a high responsibility for a man. No man should take on the office of elder lightly in light of the fact that we're responsible for protecting the doctrine of the word of God.

Why is it so important for a man to be able to handle the word of God accurately if he's going to be an elder? Why is this warning about wolves so prevalent in the New Testament? Why?

Why? Well, you have to understand that the word of God is protecting us from those who would do damage to our souls. The word of God is warning us that we're in the midst of a spiritual battle and that men will come and try to undermine that which we hold dear. Look at verse 10. Paul says the elders have to be able to hold the faithful word because, verse 10, there are many rebellious men.

See, he's picking up the same thing that we saw in five passages earlier. There are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain. One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. 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. I love the Bible. I love the New Testament. I love this letter of Titus. And one of the reasons that I love it is because Paul here is not writing what we've become so conditioned to in our academic circles in Christianity in the 20th and 21st century. Paul is not writing an abstract philosophy of church ministry here. He is writing in response to an existing problem with real people in real churches that he cared about. And he's writing to Titus to help these people.

We see that whole families were upset by what was going on, families in some ways just like yours and mine, who were being uprooted and upturned, overturned in the work of these false teachers, these wolves. This wasn't abstract theology to Paul. He was dealing with real life people, real situations that needed immediate, urgent help from spiritual leaders in order to overcome the attack of these wolves that were in their midst. The New Testament is written to address practical issues with practical people, with real people.

And so we're not reading an abstract dissertation here. Paul had people in his heart that he was looking to protect as he wrote this letter. Wolves were on the march. Wolves were attacking the Christians on the island of Crete.

They were upsetting entire families. And Paul wrote to Titus so that that assault could be turned back and these people could be restored to their joy and their confidence. And as we read this passage, as we study this passage, we're going to answer two questions in response to it.

The first question, if you're taking notes, there will be times that will come, maybe soon, maybe further off in the distance, where we have to deal with a false teacher in our midst. I want you to understand now, before the situation arises, why we deal with things like we do. You have to understand, you have to realize the biblical pattern that God has given for church leadership to protect the flock from those men who would try to devour them with their wicked motives and their false teaching. And so the first question we're going to answer out of this passage is, what do we do with wolves? What do we do with wolves?

What do we do with them? Some people have maybe this slightly unspoken thought, the expectation that the local church is like a town hall meeting where everyone is welcome to voice their own opinion and that it's okay. You know, we're used to an American democracy and there are competing voices. We see that all of the time in politics, in our government, and they subconsciously import that into their view of the church. Not true.

Absolutely not true. The church has a standard that it upholds and conflicting, contradicting, undermining voices are not meant to be accommodated and given voice in front of the sheep. Paul says, what do we do with wolves? Paul says, silence them. He says, silence them. Look at verse 11 as he's described these rebellious men in verse 10. He said, there are many rebellious men, verse 10, skipping over, he says, verse 11, who must be silenced.

What do we do with wolves? We silence them. The word that Paul uses there, to silence them, this word has the idea of causing something to be put on the mouth.

It's a causal stem in the original language, to cause something to be put upon the mouth. It has the idea of muzzle them. Muzzle them. Eliminate their influence from the body. Silence them.

Don't let them continue to speak and influence the sheep of God who are being greatly upset by their false teaching. That's what you do with a wolf that manifests himself. When you recognize a wolf in the local church, as an elder in the church, elders are responsible to go and silence that influence so that they cannot be divisive, disruptive, and destructive on the spiritual lives of those who are under their care.

Remember we said a couple of weeks ago that one of the duties of an elder is oversight. One of the duties of a shepherd is to protect the sheep. A shepherd in the first century was especially responsible to protect the sheep from wolves. Paul takes, and the Bible takes that metaphor of wolves and literal sheep and applies it and says, here's what you do, there are spiritual wolves, you have to protect the sheep, the flock of God that you're responsible to feed and tend, you have to protect them from those spiritual wolves who are out for blood. And so, what do you do with a wolf? You silence them.

And this is all still part of the same point, but I'm going to ask a different question here. If you're going to silence a wolf, you have to be able to spot him. You have to be able to recognize a wolf. You have to know what a wolf looks like.

So you say, oh, this is one that I have to address. This is one of those men that Christ warned us about that we have to deal with. And listen, listen, I am very sympathetic to the fact that sometimes this is really difficult to do because one of the marks of a wolf is that he's in sheep's clothing. He may not look dangerous to you. You may not recognize immediately the thought that he's got the warm, fuzzy, full, maybe an attractive, even a winsome personality. You cannot, beloved, you cannot, we cannot measure the safety of a man by the winsomeness of his personality.

That is one of the quickest ways to be drawn into the jaws of a wolf is to look at things outwardly like that. Oh, he's so friendly. He's kind of funny.

I like being with him. Of course, if he bared his teeth right from the start, you would never be drawn to him. And so you have to look more carefully. You have to think.

You have to be discerning. We as a church, we in leadership, have to know how you can spot a wolf. And Paul here in this passage shows us how to do that so that we can know who it is to be silenced. Look at verse 10 with me again, verses 10 and 11.

Actually, we'll just stick with verse 10 for now. There are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision. That's the situation that Paul was addressing, but it's a prevailing, it's a repeated problem.

These are the ongoing marks of a wolf. Notice, first of all, in verse 10, that Paul calls attention to their rebellion. He says there are many rebellious men. They are insubordinate. They are insubordinate toward leadership. They undermine confidence in the God-appointed authority in a local church. They come in and they undermine that. Sometimes with open assaults like cannons attacking the foundation of a fortress, sometimes with subtlety like termites just quietly infesting, undermining the strength and the stability of that which the local church is built upon. But you can note a wolf, you can spot a wolf by their insubordinate rebellious attitude toward church leadership. They think they know better. They undermine your confidence.

Why did they do that? You know, what he said there wasn't right at all. A lot of times, not always, but a lot of times you can tell a wolf by, the wolves are often the ones sitting in the back row.

Nothing personal to those of you that came in late. But wolves depend on operating in the shadows, quietly whispering, quietly showing the fact that they're in opposition to church leadership. When you start to hear something like that, be on guard. Say, uh-oh, uh-oh, now wait just a second, you're kind of new here, haven't seen you before and I'm hearing strains of rebellion. What are those pearlys things coming out?

Are those the fangs of a wolf that I see, that I detect? Why this growl from inside you toward the leadership of a local church? Paul says they're rebellious men, they're insubordinate.

When you start to see trends of that, be on guard. Paul also points out, look at verse 10, there are many rebellious men, they're empty talkers. You can spot a wolf by his empty talk.

A wolf loves his pet theological issues, but ultimately their talk is unprofitable. They have a big tongue, but their arms are a little bit too short to reach the plow to help in the work, or sometimes their arms are just a little too short to reach the wallet in their back pocket. They want to teach, they have lots of things that they want to say, but when it comes to actually being involved in constructive deeds that help people in the life of the body, in actually supporting the pre-existing work that they come upon, you don't find them. They might show up Sunday by Sunday, but when it comes to work, they're all talk.

Be on guard for people like that. Stop and think, is this man a doer or just a speaker? Does he just talk?

James said, faith without works is dead. You know, just empty talk. They love to talk, they want to teach, they want you to listen to them. They've got 10 things that they're always ready to talk about, but ultimately it just proves to be empty babble. When you really step back and look at it, it's just empty babble, usually over something insignificant that they try to magnify into a great issue. Empty talk.

Pay attention to that. In Crete, in the time that Paul was writing, these leaders were people that were obsessed with their Jewish heritage and with Jewish teaching. Look over at chapter 3, verse 9. Paul doesn't really explain in verse 10 what their empty talk was, but he expands on it, he comes back to it in chapter 3, verse 9. He says, avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. Paul isn't any more specific than that, but evidently these rebellious men were making a big point about the Old Testament law.

They were emphasizing Jewish teaching, maybe some of the extra biblical things that Jews were known for, their added rules to the marks of the New Testament, their teaching about the law. Turn over, this is an important verse for you to see. 1 Timothy, chapter 1, just two books back to the left in your Bible. Or if you have an iPad, you can scroll up and find 1 Timothy, I suppose. 1 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 5.

We'll just kind of follow this through for a moment, even though I hadn't really planned on doing this. Paul says in 1 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 5, that the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. There's a spiritual purpose to our mind. We want people to understand the truth, we want them to have a clear conscience that comes from knowing that their sins have been cleansed by the blood of Christ, and we want them to be sincere in their devotion and their following of Christ. That's what we're after. That's what we want, love and a sincere faith. He said in verse 4, actually, let's go up to verse 3.

I kind of jumped in the middle of it. Paul is dealing with this same issue again, this issue that we opened with in our introduction. He said, verse 3, he said, I left you in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines. Timothy, you've got to silence these men. You have to silence them.

You have to put a stop to what they're doing. Verse 4. Or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. We read verse 5, look at verse 6. For some men, there's plural, there it is. It's right there, it's right on the surface of the page, of the text.

How can we miss this? How can we be careless in light of everything the Word of God says? For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussions, wanting to be teachers of the law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. Don't judge a wolf by whether he seems hesitant or not. Wolves are often very confident in their error. They're very forceful. And Paul says they're often rooting what they're forceful about in the law of God. In the Old Testament, they're forceful about that when they don't really even know what they're talking about.

They don't understand the implications of what they're saying, and yet they come to you and they speak confidently. Paul looks at Timothy and he says, Timothy, you've got to stop that. You've got to silence it. You can't let it take further root.

And so, these men, as we go back to Titus now, turn back to Titus, Titus chapter 3, verse 9, going back there for a moment, he says, avoid these foolish controversies. Avoid it. Avoid it. Don't get tangled up in it, Titus. Avoid that kind of strife and disputes about the law because all that junk is worthless. It's unprofitable. Don't get messed up in that. Don't waste your time on it. Just silence it and make it go away.

That's the instruction. That's how you deal with a wolf. In a culture that has elevated tolerance to the highest order, the message you're hearing in this lesson from Titus is certainly counter-cultural.

Wolves cannot be tolerated in a Christ-centered church. Pastor Don Green will tell us how we are to silence such false teachers on our next broadcast. Join us then on The Truth Pulpit.

Meanwhile, we invite you to visit our website, thetruthpulpit.com. There you can download podcasts or find out how to receive CD copies of Don's radio messages for your personal study library. And if you want to go even more in depth, you'll also find the link Follow Don's Pulpit. That'll take you to Don's full-length weekly sermons not subject to the time editing needed for radio broadcasts. And if you're in the Cincinnati area, check out the service times for Truth Community Church also on our website and plan a visit. We'd love to welcome you. Thanks for listening. I'm Bill Wright, and we'll see you next time for more from The Truth Pulpit.