One thing we know about Titus is what’s stated in this little book that Paul wrote to him.  He said, “I’ve left you in Crete that you would set in order the things that are lacking,” amen?  So, here’s a man that was to go in there and set this church in order.  Now, the Cretans were in a place, spiritually, where probably the best term would be they were not necessarily a real motivated church.  In fact, they were “slow bellies,” amen?  The rebuke that comes to them, it’s really almost humorous.  Titus 1:12 says, “One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.  This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.”

He’s there to set this church in order.  He’s told to “rebuke them sharply.”  One of the things he’s going to be rebuking this church for--this was a church that was drawing on the grace doctrine.  For a lack of a better term, these “slow bellies,” wanted to just lay around and have everything added to them.  It's the same thing that we see spoken to the church in Thessalonica, “If you don’t work, you shouldn’t eat,” amen?  That same doctrine is what Titus brought to these guys.  You’re going to see in this one tiny little epistle how many times the phrase, “good works,” is used.

We can’t just hear this doctrine; amen?  We have to be “doers of the word.”  Thankfully, for the majority of our flock, we don’t know anything else, especially doctrinally, but even practically.  We don’t know anything else to do when the Holy Spirit speaks.  When the shekinah glory moves, we don’t know anything to do but to pull up our “tent stakes” and follow the glory; amen?  Follow the Word of the Lord, follow the admonition, follow the Chief Shepherd of the church, because “His sheep know His voice and another they will not follow.” So, we pray, study and we learn the voice of God so that when any of the false shepherds speak, we know, “That’s not the voice of God.  I know “the good shepherd who lays his life down for the flock.”