SOUND SPEECH
The question has been asked, “If you were arrested and charged with being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”
What evidence do you have to prove your faith in Christ? Is your commitment to Christ more than just an opinion or a way of thinking? In these last days, each of us needs to do all we can to live our lives the best we can, and be the testimony to our friends and loved ones.
But how can we do this?
Believers on the island of Crete faced such a challenge. The Cretan culture had many, many gods they could worship. The people (there) filled their time with much idle chatter, empty promises, and lies. Listen to this description of the people of that place and time.
Text: Titus 1:10–13
This book of the New Testament is actually a letter from the Apostle Paul written to a Gentile named Titus. There is a lot of information about this man. Perhaps part of the reason for that is because Titus was a man made for difficult situations. You know the tough tasks, the job that no one else wanted.
Titus loved being sent out by the Apostle Paul to face a good challenge. Allow me to share with you what I found out about this man of God.
According to II Corinthians chapters 7 and 8, Paul said that Titus was dependable, reliable, and disciplined to always get the job done. Paul said that Titus had a great capacity for human affection and compassion. I like him already! Amen?
Titus possessed both strength and tact.
Titus calmed desperate situations on more than one occasion. He is a good model for Christians who are called to live out their witness during tough circumstances.
Our friend Titus was just the man to deal with that unsavory bunch on the island of Crete. Paul said these people were - “insubordinate and rebellious people that had to be silenced.”
Paul identified a lot of the problems, there in Crete, with these new believers. Paul starts off his letter to Titus with the truth we to need to hear.
That is, “God never lies” (vs. 2). As well, God’s people must be people of truth and absolute integrity.
How can that happen with these?
“…rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith…”(vs. 13)
There are times when this is necessary.
There is something for each of us in this next passage of scripture. Look closely.
Text: Titus 2:1 thru 8
This passage of scripture is our prescription to spiritual health. There is no doubt (in my heart) that this is just what the doctor has ordered for each of us.
Allow me to be candid with you. These are trying times for each of us. Many of you are not too sure about what is going on with (let’s just say) these days of transition. My wife and I have been asked what is going on and can only say that when we know, you will know also.
In the meantime, we must remain faithful and focused on the real reason why each of us are here. There are –
1. Souls to be saved.
2. Lives to be set free.
3. Bodies to be healed from sickness.
During times like this, we will all find out what we are made of by what we say and do. Are we helping or hindering?
This passage from Titus 2 is a call for us to act responsibly to our brothers and sisters in Christ, and portray Christ to those who are unsaved.
I may be speaking “sharply”, but just like verse 13 says I am speaking this way so that you may be “sound in your faith.”
In this letter from Paul to Titus he uses a word that helps us to evaluate our spiritual health. The word is "sound". We get our English word "hygiene" or “healthy” from the Greek word Paul uses.
When the Bible speaks of "sound doctrine", "sound faith" and "sound speech", it is talking about "healthy doctrine", "healthy faith" and "healthy speech". This is the kind of doctrine, faith and speech that makes people healthy.
How do we maintain good spiritual health? How do we know if we are portraying a “healthy faith and speech?”
I John 4:1 says this (in the TLB)
Dearly loved friends, don’t always believe everything you hear just because someone says it is a message from God: test it first to see if it really is. For there are many false teachers around,
There are all kinds of “teachers” nowadays. Some teach good things out of the Bible, while other teachers teach bad things such as discord, anger, bitterness, resentment, jealousy, etc.
Good teachers are folks who are spiritually healthy. The first test of good spiritual health (in us) is our relationship to "sound doctrine". This is the foundation. If our spiritual health is going to be good, it has to be based on the right information.
Sometimes people say things that are not true and you know not to accept it. But sometimes people say things that are negative and they can bring pain or condemnation into your life.
This was the problem for Titus on the island of Crete. This is not the “sound speech” you should be listening to.
Sometimes people say things that are foolish because they are hurt, disappointed or mad at someone else. This is not the “sound speech” you should be listening to. Walk away from this talk.
Well then – what is “sound speech?”
Titus 2:1 - "You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine." Likewise this is what you and I should be listening to.
II Timothy 1:13 - "What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus."
In Titus 1:9, while giving the character qualities of a pastor, the Bible says,
"He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it."
Sound speech and sound doctrine has an encouraging and uplifting effect.
One of the reasons we find reading, studying and hearing teaching and preaching from the Word of God to be so beneficial is that it is very encouraging!
Sound doctrine is always healthy and it always encourages us because it is true. You can trust it with your life!
Example: Years ago, on a PBS (TV) program, they were filming at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. A man named, Dr. Daniel Boorstin brought out a little blue box from a small closet that held the library’s rare keepsakes.
The label on the box read, "Contents of the president’s pockets on the night of April 14, 1865." That (by the way) was the tragic night that President Lincoln was assassinated. Dr. Boorstin began to remove these personal items of the President’s and display them on camera.
There were five things in the box:
1. A handkerchief, embroidered "A. Lincoln."
2. A country boy’s pen knife.
3. A spectacles (eye glass) case repaired with string.
4. A purse containing a $5 bill – of confederate money!
5. And some old and worn newspaper clippings.
"The newspaper clippings", said Boorstin, "were concerned with the great deeds of Abraham Lincoln." One of them actually reports a speech by John Bright which says that Lincoln is "one of the greatest men of all times".
Today that’s common knowledge.
The world knows that to be true, but in 1865 millions of people did not agree with the President. In fact, history tells us that the President’s critics were mean and many. At the time, President Lincoln was very lonely and agonized over the suffering and turmoil of a country that was ripped to shreds by a costly war.
Can you imagine President Lincoln pulling those newspaper clippings out of his pocket every once in a while? Just to read something encouraging in the midst of all the discouragement he was going through? It was all he had to hold on to.
Listen carefully. One of the most encouraging things any of us can do is pick up and read a clipping that is about us. We call that the Bible.
In spite of the foolish remarks of foolish people, we have the proof found only in God’s Holy Word of who we really are.
Sometimes our spiritual health grows weak because we are pulled down by all the negative things people are telling us.
Today our hope can be found in a constant diet of “sound speech and sound doctrine”. Not in what our critics are saying around town.
You should know that false doctrine or slanderous remarks only causes us to doubt, get disgusted or discouraged.
Why do we feel like that sometimes? Because the doctrine and speech we have been listening to is not “sound speech or sound doctrine”. We cannot have good spiritual health if we are listening to the false teaching or the false condemnation being said.
Listen to this sharp warning from the Word of God.
II Timothy 4:3 - "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."
We can let ourselves take in false teaching and false condemnation because it’s what we want to hear (at the moment). It is kind of like eating junk food. It tastes satisfying for a moment, but we will eventually pay the price.
Words of discord and discontent are just junk talk. That kind of talk isn’t healthy for us, and it has nothing that will give us the strength and energy we need.
What you say is what you are communicating to anyone who is listening to you. Your speech must be “sound” and your doctrine (what you believe) must be “sound”.
EXAMPLE: You may remember the big disaster NASA had back in the late 90’s when they lost the Mars Orbiter that cost $125 million. Let me remind us what happened. One engineering team used metric units while the other used English units for a key spacecraft operation.
And that is the very reason the information failed to transfer between the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft team at Lockheed Martin in Colorado and the mission navigation team in California.
This navigation mishap pushed the spacecraft too close to the planet’s atmosphere where it burned and broke into pieces, killing the mission on a day when engineers had expected to see things they had never seen before.
Our communications with one another is far more important than we realize. What we say to one another can either resolve a problem or just create one.
QUESTION:
Do the people you work with see the Christlike deeds or attitudes from you as a believer where you work?
Has your own walk with Christ produced any visible fruit in front of the people you work with?
Such as patience, staying power, compassion, loyalty, better management, hard work, or faithful service?
How can I tell if my spiritual health is good? Well, how are you talking?
How’s your speech? Is it sound? Is your speech uplifting and positive?
Close:
Ephesians 4:29 - "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."
That’s the kind of evidence that shows whether faith in Christ has any power and impact.
Matt 12:35-37
35 "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.
36 "But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.
37 "For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."
