Practical Godliness to Honor God’s Word

Transcript

GR 2287
04/09/2020
Practical Godliness to Honor God’s Word
Titus 2:3-10
Gil Rugh

I hope you have your Bibles handy, we’re going to go to Titus chapter 2, Paul’s letter to Titus and the second chapter in your Bibles. We have been studying through this rather short book, the letter to Titus. One of Paul’s young companions, younger companions who was entrusted with the responsibility of helping the churches on the island of Crete to get more organized and established so they can be protected against the error that was finding its way into the church. Titus began…, Paul began this letter to Titus, calling himself in verse 1 of chapter 1, “a bondservant (or slave) of God and apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness.” And that’s really what this letter is about, truth that produces godliness. God’s salvation brought to us in Jesus Christ. The gospel that Christ provided salvation by His death and resurrection is a salvation that produces godliness in the life. So as we have talked about, Titus is about godliness in the church -- godliness in the life of the individual in the church, then godliness in the life of the church family. It takes “the knowledge of the truth,” the end of verse 1, “which is according to godliness.” You cannot separate the two, you don’t try to have a godly life apart from the truth. It’s the truth of the gospel that brings salvation, that transforms us on the inside, that enables us and empowers us now to live a life of godliness. And this is given by the “God,” in verse 2, “who cannot lie,” that’s why this is truth. It doesn’t matter how many millenniums ago it was given, it’s truth, God cannot lie. So that is the guideline and the standard. Verse 5, he gets into the letter, Titus was left at Crete to appoint elders to oversee the flock of God. They are the pastors, the overseers, they have to be godly men, men of godly character and men who know the Word. Verse 9, “holding fast the faithful word,” so that they can exhort people in sound doctrine, build them up in the truth, healthy teaching, and also be able to discern and refute those who bring error into the church. And this is very important because verse 10 says “there are many rebellious men, empty talkers,” they are coming in and having an influence in the church. This is where the danger always is. When error that permeates the world begins to make its way into the church and the truth of God, God’s truth is corrupted. Then God’s people can get confused and that was happening at the churches at Crete. Because we were told in verse 11, these false teachers “must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families” teaching things they shouldn’t teach. So you see what happens, false teaching, error, corruption of the truth ends up having an impact on lives so that people’s lives are unsettled. Now we have families that are at unrest and then pretty soon the church is brought into confusion and improper action.

So that’s what he’s talked about down through chapter 1. Verse 16 gave a warning about these false teachers, “They profess to know God but by their deeds they deny Him.” In reality, they are “detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed. That’s strong language! Remember this is the word of God who cannot lie. When He looks at the heart of those who have somehow made their way into the church, profess to be believers, that are teaching and living contrary to the truth of God. You see here we are expected to know and understand and submit to the truth and put it above everything else, including family and friends. Remember Jesus said you cannot be my disciple if you love father or mother more than me. So Christ and the truth that God gives must be the guide of our lives.

So we looked into chapter 2. In contrast to these false teachers, Timothy, “you speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.” We noted that’s healthy teaching. That word sound, we get the English word hygiene from it, something that is healthy, health producing. It’s a key word, we’ve looked at it, it’s used about 8 times in the pastoral epistles, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus. Here, healthy teaching that was mentioned up in verse 9, elders are to be able to exhort in healthy teaching, health producing teaching, the truth of God. This is precious, the Psalmist wrote that it was more precious to him than gold, the treasures of the world. Your word is more precious to me than fine gold. We have to be careful that we don’t hold it lightly, don’t appreciate what God has entrusted to us. In Paul’s letter to Timothy he told him to guard the treasure which has been entrusted to you. We have nothing more precious than the word of God. And we don’t want to disassociate Christ from the word because all we know about Christ and the preciousness of the salvation He has provided is what is given to us in this book, the Bible, God’s word. So Timothy, “speak the things which are fitting for healthy teaching (sound doctrine),” that would produce healthy teaching.

And you see where he goes now, the conduct this is what flows out of sound teaching. We don’t create that: you should have this certain lifestyle and then you could come and learn the Word. No, as you learn the Word it develops maturity in you. So he’s going to give instructions to older men, older women, younger women, younger men, slaves. Then he’s going to talk about the transforming grace of God in the salvation Christ provided which is foundational to all of this. It’s foundational to godliness.

So we talked about the older men, they are to be temperate, dignified, sensible. That’s one of the key words in these sections here, it gets mentioned repeatedly, it was to be a characteristic of elders. It doesn’t matter your age or you sex -- sound minded, healthy in the faith, in love, in perseverance. So older men are to be godly men. These characteristics go along with what are required of elders. The qualities of elders are just the qualities of a mature person. All of us are striving and desirous of growing to greater maturity, these are qualities that ought to be characteristic of us. So the older men, temperate, dignified, sensible, healthy in faith, in love, in perseverance. They have been established in the Word, they have become mature in their thinking and understanding of God’s truth. So they have a settled trust in the Lord that governs their life, they live their lives trusting the Lord and demonstrating the love. Remember the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5? What the Spirit of God produces in the life of the child of God. The fruit of the Spirit starts with what? Love, that’s what he’s talking about here. Perseverance, endurance; now we sometimes say we want to finish well, an older man ought to be molding a pattern of stability in their lives. The word perseverance, steadfastness, you have in your margin, two words where you keep at it under pressure, you’re willing to live under the pressure. It’s a characteristic of immaturity, I want to run every time pressure comes, difficulty comes. You want a mature person who can manifest stability in the heat of conflict, under the pressures of life.

He’s going to transition to older women. And we note these are relative terms. In ancient writings they can be used, they’re comparative. Sometimes someone will use an older man of someone who is over forty, sometimes over fifty, sometimes over sixty. So it’s not fixed, they’re comparative here and it might have to do with the congregation, a new church established with new believers. When I came many years ago there were less older people in years, many younger people, well, relatively many, but the people we had were younger. As we have grown we have more older people, more younger people. What is to characterize the older people? This is what you want to measure ourselves with. Older women are likewise and that term likewise appears through the section in the pastoral epistle, and it denotes a comparison in the same way. It doesn’t mean the older women are the same as the men, as male, they’re still women, female, but older women. Godly characteristics are to be true of them as well cause it’s the same salvation that they have entered into, it’s the same Spirit of God dwelling in them, it’s the same God producing His character in the life of the older man and the older woman.

So you see older women likewise are to be reverent. Reverent, it’s a word that has its basis in the work of a priest, but what it comes to mean then is their life as a child of God, their relationship with God. Their life is to be lived in the context of their relationship to the God that they love and serve, they are serving God. So it’s not men serve the Lord and the women do the other things, we all serve the Lord. Here the women are carrying out their lives with reverence. Realizing what they do, and he’s going to go on, some of the things we see they’d be out of character for a woman serving the Lord. So they are to be reverent in their behavior. We are talking about conduct because remember back in chapter 1 verse 1, “the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness.” That truth that comes from the “God who cannot lie.” When it really becomes part of our life through faith in the gospel, the truth of Christ’s death and resurrection, we are changed on the inside, made new. So now godly women, they are reverent, their life is service to the Lord.

The negative side they are not malicious gossips. I don’t know whether I ought to read the quote from John Calvin, the sixteenth century reformer, but I will. He says, “talkativeness is a disease of women and it is increased by old age.” Now I didn’t say that, I didn’t even say I agree with it, I just told you what John Calvin, the reformer said. Malicious gossips, we ought to be careful. You know what the word is? Diabolos, that’s the Greek word, diabolos. You hear that watching old westerns, somebody named their horse Diabolos. But it means a slanderer, it’s usually used of the devil, that’s its normal use in the New Testament, to refer to the devil, he’s the slanderer. Well, for behavior that is to be reverent, that is functioning in context of a relationship with God and serving Him, you certainly don’t want to be doing that which is characteristic of the devil, the slanderer, one who speaks evil and improperly, so you have to be careful. If you back up to 1 Timothy 5, and we haven’t been going back and forth, but he warns, he’s talking about younger widows here, but he warns them about being idle. At the end of verse 13, they are not to be gossips and busybodies, want to be careful of that. In biblical times the women would get together at the place where they did their wash. Those kinds of settings might provide an opportunity for talking about things and people, and maybe improperly so they are to guard against improper speech. I’m not saying the men can’t speak improperly and sometimes they do and it’s not right for a godly man. But here he’s focusing on what he wants the older women to be careful of.

They are not to be enslaved to much wine. And again, we talked about this with elders. Some of these qualifications seem to be rather, you know, low, shallow. Well, you don’t have to tell them not to be a drunk, everybody knows that. But what becomes acceptable in the world makes its way into the church. I spoke with a man who was on the board of elders at another church. I would not consider that church an evangelical church although the pastor was raised in an evangelical home as he shared with me when I talked with him. But the man who had served on the governing board of that church said we had to talk to him about coming into the pulpit on Sunday mornings under the influence of alcohol. Sometimes what becomes acceptable in the world makes its way. So we talk now about the virus and alcohol sales are going up. Sometimes being in the home, idleness, at any rate, they can’t be enslaved to much wine.

They are to be teaching what is good. This is a compound word, teaching what is good, of the word teaching and the word good, and he’ll go on to elaborate this. But teaching which is consistent with the word of God. They are not going to be teachers in the church, we’ll look at that in a moment. The realm in which they are teaching is to have an influence on the ladies they teach, to prepare them for the realm they are in. This is one of the areas that becomes so controversial because the church if it’s being biblical is so out of step with the world, it becomes more obvious and very obvious in our day. And you see the breakdown continues. It started out, well, women ought to have equality with men in that they ought to be paid the same amount if they do the same job. There is no consideration, are women different than men, is male different than female? And for the world, equality means there is not, although they don’t argue that consistently. But nonetheless, if you don’t say they are exactly the same, you’re saying they are not equal. Well, even that argument is used in evangelicals and that’s where error sometimes gets into the church. Here they are to be teaching what is good, but their teaching is in the realm of helping younger women, what? Understand their position. It could also help older women perhaps, who are new believers. But here he’s talking basically dividing up the group, these are general categories and so on. If an older woman gets saved at an older age obviously she’s going to have to learn things about godliness and her role as a godly woman that she didn’t know before. Paul is speaking in broader categories and terms here.

So they are teaching what is good so that they may, in verse 4, “encourage the young women to love their husbands.” And that encourage is related to that word we talked about being sensible. It’s not the word like parakaleo that we think of often as encouragement but sophronizo. It’s related to that word translated sensible. It means to bring someone to their senses, and then it can mean to advise them, to urge them, to understand, to help them think biblically so they act biblically. Sensibly in a biblical context, they are learning something perhaps they did not know or hadn’t been taught, how to function biblically. And obviously as young women come up they’re not going to learn in the world what the Bible says they are to be. Where are they going to learn it? We talk about the women’s movement today and it is open and flagrant, but it’s not new. Because remember, the devil has always been working to undermine and corrupt the truth of God in every area. So from time to time different areas are more obviously under attack, so to speak, by the devil. But it was a problem in New Testament times, a problem in Old Testament times. Paul addresses it in a number of his letters so much so that some who claim to be Bible teachers say, well, that’s just his rabbinic background and the culture of the day that was influencing him and the training he had got. But remember we are dealing with the word of God who cannot lie so this is God’s truth and that’s just a way of undermining and trying to do away with the word of God that you don’t believe. But the danger of these kind of people is they claim to be believers! So we have what is called evangelical feminism, I would say you get to have something of an oxymoron, they are just opposites. You cannot approach things from the thinking of the world and have biblical thinking, you have to start with the word of God.

So you’re to encourage, help the young women to think sensibly, to know how to love their husbands. You may say, well, I thought you fall in love or you’re not in love, you don’t have to learn that, it happens. Not biblically. They have to understand how they are to love their husbands. Just a compound word of husband and love. So there are things they can learn. What does it mean to love your husband, to see your relationship properly biblical? And again, there’s different instructions for single women, they still have to be godly so some of these won’t apply. Women who don’t have children (he’s going to talk about children), they may be married and not have children. All those things that he’s speaking here, again, in the broad categories that are normal. And we go to other points of scripture and he deals with matters perhaps related that we would say, well, if you don’t have a husband this doesn’t apply. But godly character applies everywhere. He’s applying that godly character and conduct in general situation that would encompass most of the people. Encourage the young women to love their husbands. What does it mean to love your husband, to care for him, to take care of him, to encourage him? We sometimes go to Proverbs 31 and they use it for the woman working. But, you know, her husband is sitting in the gate. She’s not sitting in the gate where the men who were leaders and an influence in the city were but she was a key part of that, enabling him. And so here, how does a woman learn to love her husband? Christian women need to learn that. Young women, they are getting married, what’s my responsibility? The world says get a job and get out there and make something of yourself, don’t be tied to your husband, don’t let him dominate you. You’ve got to be a free spirit, you’ve got to do your own thing, your own thinking, be your own person. You know, they grow up in the schools and are taught that, they go to the universities they are taught that, it permeates everything. You know, I guess there’s some people doing that but they’re not the people we consider important and should be considered. How many people do you see on news and they are being interviewed because they have such a great home? It’s not what the world admires, the world is at enmity with God and the people of the world are.

They must learn “to love their husbands, to love their children.” You say, well, that’s natural, too, motherly love is just an instinct. But it’s beyond that, these aren’t just emotions that happen to come out. What does it mean to love your children, take care of them properly? The book of Proverbs gives instruction on raising children. You have in those opening part of Proverbs on the influence of the woman particularly and you close on that. What does it mean to love your children, take care of your children? I couldn’t stay home with the kids, I just couldn’t do that. Wait a minute, what is it? Well, you know, we’ve created an environment if you don’t get out of that somebody else can take care of the children, you know, anybody can take care of the kids. And besides if I had to stay home and take of the kids I’d go crazy. Oh, wait a minute! Maybe they need to learn to love their children. Oh, I love my children, I just don’t want to spend all day with them. Well, maybe there’s some things that need to be taught, things given. You appreciate that true satisfaction and fulfillment will come from fulfilling the role God gives you. Obviously, if a husband and wife…, God doesn’t plan that they have children then there’ll be adjustments on what she does, things that will fall upon her and the home and so on. But the general pattern here encompasses most.

“To be sensible,” verse 5, there’s that word clearly brought out. It’s to characterize the older men, they are to be sensible; it’s to characterize the elders, they’re to be sensible. You see, God wants His people to think soundly, soberly, correctly and that means we think biblically. Our first thought is what says the scripture, what does the scripture say? I think sensibly then we have a balance, things aren’t out of control in my life, I’ve got my mind together, my thoughts together, sensible.

“Pure,” a proper kind of thinking, pure thinking which would be biblical thinking, godly thinking, we get our minds… So we have to be careful, you know now so much can come into our homes with TV, and internet, and everything else. We just bombard it almost incessantly with the world’s thinking. We’re in Romans and we get to chapter 12, we’ll have “do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the making new (renewing) of your mind,” our whole thought processes. I have to be careful, I just continue to take in what the world says, what the world thinks, and you know I begin to make adjustments to fit that. No! My thinking is sensible, pure.

“Workers at home.” This doesn’t say she can never be outside the home for anything or never work outside the home. Obviously in some situations she will, if she’s not married she’ll probably work outside the home, that becomes natural in some situations where she is, she may work. The point is this is her realm and she has to be careful that’s taken care of. Now again, if she doesn’t have family that gives her a freedom for other things and other involvements always consistent with what she is as a woman. But that’s her realm. That’s why back in 1 Timothy chapter 5 where we were a little bit ago, in 1 Timothy chapter 5 he says in verse 14, “I want younger widows to get married, bear children, keep house.” That word “keep house,” a combination of the word we just transliterate into English despot and the word house. To be the despot of the house, the master of the house, the ruler of the house, now under her husband, we’re going to see that in a moment, but that’s generally her realm. For the woman that’s what God has ordained. Now again, that doesn’t mean she can never be outside the home or work outside the home but has to be careful that realm is taken care of. “Give the enemy no occasion for reproach; for some have already turned aside to follow the devil (Satan).” So you see how Paul and the Spirit directing Paul, saying this is foundational material for godly living.

Back in Titus chapter 2. “Workers at home, kind.” This whole realm, we’re going to work through this and I want to look at a couple of other passages. Again these are qualities and characteristics of any godly person. It’s just a reminder the older women are teaching the younger women and helping them to think biblically, these are the qualities that are characteristic. The world wants the woman to be like the man, be strong, be brass, look at the language of the world. You know, it used to be that you think that of the men. I worked at the steel mill when I got out of high school and you learned some language you didn’t know was used in English cause my parents didn’t use it at home, I didn’t use it in school. I remember one day I was late with some papers that had to be turned in for steel to be rolled and that. The man enabled me to learn some language that I hadn’t learned before, that I should not repeat. Young women are to be kind. The women now think, we talk like the men. But of course if something does go well then we have the ‘me too’ movement because men took advantage of me. But if men and women are the same it’s just you fight it out. Men usually don’t say, well, that man took advantage of me. But these things the world does because they constantly want to fight and reverse the roles, reverse the roles. So we have more emphasis on how the man ought to be submissive and how the woman ought to be in and we don’t have anybody in this position in government. We’re still waiting to have a woman be president. You know the quality like kindness, how often do you hear, well, yeah, you want the woman to be kind. You ought to tell the men to be kind. Yeah, we ought to tell everybody. But God here is addressing the women and the older women ought to be teaching the younger women these qualities. They’re not going to learn them in the world.

“Being subject to their own husbands.” Here we are at the real area of conflict, the word subject is the common word to be subject, to be arranged under the authority of someone else. It’s used in a military context, it’s used in other things, it means you are under the authority of someone else. They are to be subject to their own husbands, this is God’s plan from the creation. I want to be careful here, I want to make you alert. They are talking about a marriage here. Some people say this only applies in marriage. Back up to 1 Timothy 2 and here Paul has talked about what he wants the men to do and say he’s going to spend more time on the women than he did the men, but he spent the whole letter on the men. He’s talked about what godly men ought to be to be elders. But every man ought to ascribe to godliness, not just elders, but certain of those godly men will be appointed as elders, certain of them will be deacons. We have many godly men who are neither an elder officially or a deacon officially in our church but still meet the qualifications and have the qualities of godly men. So that’s something we all aspire to, we’re seeing that with some of the qualities laid out for older men, older women, I mean these are just godliness. It doesn’t do away with the distinctions God has created.

So you have that word “likewise” in verse 9 of 1 Timothy 2 because he told the men, he wants them to pray. And the women…, I take it when the church meets men are to lead in prayer. We have evangelical churches, even in our own city, who don’t follow that. A pastor who pastored here for many years who did a sermon. The tape was passed on to me using my sermon as what he would disagree with. Well, we have to come to the Word and wrestle it out. I want the women to adorn themselves properly in their clothing, not just with external, doesn’t mean they can’t fix up, doesn’t mean they don’t wear clothes. It just means they don’t follow the world, their concern is the inside. But verse 11, “a woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.” They say, well, this is the church. Now some, and it started with one of the presidents of an evangelical school, maybe didn’t start with him but it gained great popularity because of his influence, well, this was a cultural situation of a specific problem. And the problem was that at Ephesus at that time the ladies weren’t educated and so they weren’t qualified to teach men. So you see now we begin to take parts of the word we don’t agree with and say, well, it just applies to that time, in that culture. But you understand this revelation from God was closed about 2000 years ago with the book of Revelation, it was all written at a different time period, in that sense, in a different culture. That means that we can become the authority just to discard whatever we don’t like, well, that was just that culture, well, that was just what was going on in that time period. And where do we stop? I read on the deity of Christ by a man. His writings are accepted in evangelicalism, but I don’t think he was truly saved, I’ve read his biography. He said, well, that’s true, calling Christ deity. And you have Roman emperors that down through time and other people that wanted to be honored as god, the pharaohs so, you know, that doesn’t mean He was truly God. Well, wait a minute. Was that just that period of time and the influence? So want to be careful here.

Verse 12, “I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.” Is he talking about just in the church? It could be true if you are married that a wife is submissive to her husband or in the church but other than that it does not apply. But what does he use to establish this? Verse 13, “For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.” There was no church in the garden of Eden. The very order of creation establishes the hierarchy, God created Adam first then Eve, that establishes the order, it must be recognized. Now God does not say the world’s going to recognize it, they are in rebellion against Him. The church must, His people must. It’s like in the Old Testament, Israel were the people of God, He had chosen that nation, He gave them His laws, they were to obey it. He doesn’t send the prophets to tell the Babylonians to start functioning according to what God says, or to the Assyrians, or to the Philistines. Of course, they come to God’s people. The only call to the world is turn to Me and be saved. We read in Isaiah 45, all the earth, turn to the only God who is the only Savior, now your conduct must conform to godliness. So believers will go back to the opening chapters of Genesis, how does it start? God created Adam first and then Eve, and he summarizes here. He uses other arguments in another passage we’ll go to. And it was Eve who was deceived and fell into transgression, not Adam. No matter what you want to do with deception, the fact is those truths about the fall into sin, Adam wasn’t deceived, Eve was. It is used as a reason why the woman isn’t to teach or exercise authority. So now does that mean the woman is more susceptible to deception? Was that just a historical fact? Whatever those you come to, those very facts that Adam wasn’t deceived but Eve was supports the point that she is not to be the teacher, she is not to be in authority.

These facts precede the existence of the nation of Israel, they precede the existence of the church. This is what we call creation mandates. It’s like marriage, marriage is what we call a creation mandate, it applies to everyone in the world and it was recognized, and is recognized, to one degree or another. It goes back to what God established, it applies to everyone and everyone who disobeys is in disobedience. God addresses His word to His people and tells the disobedience about those who don’t belong to Him and says that should not be your practice. That’s what it means, you don’t get conformed to the world. Now we have those who claim to be evangelicals. How much of the word can you deny and still claim to be an evangelical? One who believes the gospel and the truths of the word of God? Some say, well, the opening chapters of Genesis are not to be taken literally, it follows the pattern of the day. We’re back to culture and those things. So the best we get is, you know, in time God brought out of theistic evolution man and a woman. Well, the Bible builds on that. What did Jesus say when they asked about divorce? Have you never read in the scriptures, in the beginning God created a male and a female? That solves it. Can we talk about Christian homosexuality? No. He said, didn’t you ever read the scripture? Christ took it literally, He wasn’t confused, in the beginning God created a male and He made a female. What don’t you understand, what don’t you understand about the implications for marriage on that? If we don’t go back to the Word as our authority we’re just out here groping like the world and we grab on to some things. And we’re constantly trying to make adjustments so we can fit the world, so we get along better. God’s goal is not to make us fit the world, it’s to make us different than the world. You know, the things He did with Israel mark them off and made them strange so the rest of the world around them just hated them cause they were different. People hate the Jews today, they’re different, people hate the church today, true believers, because they’re different. But sometimes we’re not different, then Jesus said, woe to you when all men speak well of you for that’s what they did for the false prophets. We want to be careful whose approval we are looking for.

So this is what it puts, verse 15, “the woman will be preserved (saved) through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.” There we go, back to godly conduct, her realm will be the home. You come through the Old Testament, when God established Israel there were not female priests. He establishes the kingdom, there are no female kings, except one queen, Athaliah, but that’s in an ungodly context, nobody recognizes her, it was part of the rebellion that was going on against God. Certain things are established. Come to the church and its elders, leadership is established as male. I think that permeates. I was asked in a meeting of pastors, well, we’ve got a conservative woman and liberal man, who are you going to vote for? In other words, you’re asking me if maybe if I think both are unbiblical I just don’t vote. You’re asking me would I vote for someone I didn’t think was biblically qualified. Not that they have to meet all the biblical qualifications but as far as leadership is male, I would not vote for a female for president. I think we have them and if a woman gets appointed president, I will submit to the laws of the land just like I do when an ungodly man is appointed. But remember the prophets said one of God’s judgment is He will give women and children to rule over them. That doesn’t change the fact.

Sometimes people go to Galatians 3, in Christ there’s neither male nor female. The way of salvation is the same for men and for women. The salvation that a woman receives is the same as the man receives. But it doesn’t change her from being a woman nor does it change a man from being a man. So the principle is established here.

Come back and go through Titus and come to Peter. There are many passages, I want to get a little further on here, so we won’t go any more of those. But go to 1 Peter chapter 3, I want you to just see this applies whether a woman is married to an unbeliever or a believer. Chapter 3 verse 1 and you note the context here. Often this is in the context of being a servant, servants or slaves or household stewards are all under the authority of someone else so back in chapter 2 verse 18, “Servants, be submissive to your masters.” We’re going to talk about servants or slaves in a moment in Titus cause he pulls together here the characteristics. They are both under authority of others. So here he puts the servants first then he’ll use the example of Christ. He’s going to talk about the women and their being under authority, then he’s going to talk about slaves. Then he’s going to talk about the authority of Christ and the work of Christ in Titus. But look at chapter 3 verse 1. In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives,” just live godly. Doesn’t mean you can never talk but you don’t wear them down by nagging him. They observe your chaste and respectful behavior, you respect him because he’s your husband.

Just like we respect the rulers that are in place because they’re the ruler that God has put over us. May be the most ungodly. We understand Nero was the ruler when much of our New Testament would have been written, when Peter writes. Paul and Peter are both going to die at the hands of that godless man, a vile…, even his people came to the place they couldn’t take him anymore. But all they have to say is be respectful to the leaders. Verse 13 of chapter 2 said, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him.” Well, I don’t agree with them. Well, they tell you to do something that is unbiblical you can’t do it, otherwise you do it.

You don’t obey them because they’re respectful, you respect them because God has put them in the position. So the wife respects her husband because he’s in that position over her. Your adornment must not be external. And our English Bible put ‘merely’ because that’s obviously there cause you’re going to put on clothes which is the last part of verse 3, don’t let it be putting on clothes. Well, obviously, we put on clothes, that’s part of being chaste and modest. “Let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.” An opportunity when a woman has a husband who can be difficult, she manifests what God has done in her heart that enables her to do what is pleasing to God. And sometimes you look at a person and you say, I don’t know how they put up with that. Because God gives special grace who submit to Him and commit to doing His will, they draw on His power.

In the same way “in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands,” that’s the mark of godliness. Then he uses Sarah who obeyed Abraham and called him lord. Say, well, we’re getting a little bit… now, that was in that day and that culture. Abraham is 2000 years before Christ, that was a different culture, that was a different day. The women were almost slaves of their husbands. Come on give me a break, you don’t expect us to do that today. Well, do we accept the writing of Peter here as the word of God, or not? So we begin to dismantle part of the word, then we have to dismantle the other part, we decide we’re going to be consistent so we become consistent with our inconsistency. Then pretty soon the word of God has no authority in our lives. There’s the example, this is talking about an unbelieving husband. You say, well, Sarah at least had a godly husband. Yeah, who put her in an Egyptian pharaoh’s harem and lied, even pharaoh was aghast when he finds out what he’s done. He’s not necessarily admirable in everything he does but she called him lord. Do what is right without fear, verse 6, she trusts the Lord.

And there’s a word to husbands. Live with your wives in an understanding way as with someone weaker since she’s a woman. That’s not a put down of a woman, recognize what God says about a woman, she’s not made to be a man, she’s made to be different. Oh, she’s inferior. No. I usually use the example of pots and pans and dishes. Little kids like to pull out the pans, pots and pans under the sink and rattle them around. You don’t put your fine china down there and say, don’t play with those pans, here use these dishes. No, you put them up where they don’t get at it. Is that because the dishes are inferior? What do you mean inferior? They were created, they’re made, they were created for something different, they’re not made to be thrown around like a pan. We don’t let the world control our thinking. So men are to be godly, they show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life. Not because she’s just like a man but she’s experienced the same saving grace of God as the husband has if he’s a believer. So he starts out with an unbeliever, showing your concern is to be what you should be where God puts you. If you have an unbelieving husband my concern is as a wife is to be a godly woman under the pressure. That’s the same way he talked about with slaves, Peter did in chapter 2. You may have a totally unfair, difficult master, that doesn’t change your conduct. It’s alright for me to sin because he’s a bad sinner? No! No! Lord, you put me in this pressure, I learn to trust you in ways I wouldn’t have learned. That doesn’t excuse a man for mistreating his wife, I’m boss here, I make the decisions. You don’t. Be quiet and do what I tell you, that’s not a godly man, that’s an ungodly man trying to use the scripture to support his ungodly desires. I mean, those things are true for everyone but in our day we want to walk on eggshells less we say something and I know, I’ve even had phone calls. You don’t love women, you don’t care about women, and oh, Indian Hills, that’s that church that hates women. It’s just not so. God doesn’t hate women. He provided a Savior for women just like He provided Him for men. He created them to be everything He wanted them to be and created man as male to be everything He wanted them to be so that they would complement one another, not conflict and compete with one another. It’s sin that has brought the mess that we have.

Come back to Titus chapter 2. All of this is done “so that the word of God will not be dishonored.” That’s it. Let me remind you, a woman cannot be disobedient to her husband and be a godly woman. She dishonors the word of God, she’s unfaithful to the God she claims to serve. Period. Unless he’s telling her to do things that are clearly unbiblical, I want you to commit immorality, I want you to go shoplift for me. But those aren’t the issues we really deal with except in exceptional cases. They just don’t like it, that’s why they have to be taught how to love their husbands and their children, taught these godly characteristics. Men have to learn how, how do I help my wife be what God has created her to be? How important is it that I be everything God says I should be so I treat her as I should as a fellow heir of grace and appreciate her as the woman God made her to be? This is what Titus is about, these things are in the context of a book where he’s concerned the church is being moved off its commitment to God’s truth and the godliness that comes from that, that’s what he’s talking about here. He flowed right out of this because of teachers that were having an influence upsetting whole families. Then in verse 16 of chapter 1 he said they’re detestable, disobedient, and worthless for anything good. And here you teach the things for healthy doctrine that goes right into conduct in the families because the families are being upset. We want to be careful we don’t avoid these things just because, well, I just don’t know if I’m comfortable with that. I need to make an adjustment, the word of God doesn’t need to be adjusted. It doesn’t adjust to me, I adjust to the Word.

Likewise, verse 6, “urge the young men to be sensible,” and that’s all. One of our men that I was having a conversation with, he said, well, that’s the best you can hope for young men, that they will be sensible. But he’s not done, he’s going to use an example of a young man and that’s Titus. You note, the sentence goes on. “Urge the young men to be sensible,” he’s already talked about that, you don’t need to elaborate, he’s repeating these, but now he’s going to use Titus as an example, because compared to Paul, Titus is a young man. Verse 7, “In all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds,” you should be the example. So it’s not just older men who should be an example for young men or older women to younger women, but we want this to be permeating because we’ll have others that are immature. “In all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds,” and then “with purity in doctrine”, soundness in doctrine. There’s our word again, healthy in doctrine, uncorrupted truth as Peter would talk about, as newborn babes long for the pure unadulterated milk of the word, same idea. Here we have healthy in doctrine, in teaching. “Dignified,” we saw that with the qualities of elders, there is to be a seriousness, not a gloominess but a seriousness. We’re about business here, part of the orderliness here is that the church is not going to become a place of entertainment, and godly men would not want it to be. There’s a certain seriousness about what we’re called to do. Women are going to hell, God has provided a Savior to change lives. They must have healthy teaching built into them, so they can be godly.

Verse 8, “sound in speech which is beyond reproach.” Why do we do this? “So that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us”. You see, that’s the concern, well, the unbeliever will slander us. The Devil is the Diablos, we don’t want to join forces with him. As he told the older women and same for the men, we’re not to be slanderers, that’s the mark of ungodliness. But, we don’t want to give them any excuse because I don’t conduct myself properly. So your speech is beyond reproach so I shouldn’t say what I shouldn’t say even when I with unbelievers. You know, what they do say afterwords, you know, he talks just like us, yeah, he says just like us, he ran down the boss just like we do, he jumps right into that, he likes a dirty joke just like we like. He talks just like we do when he’s with us. That doesn’t mean you have to have holy speech, but you want to be careful. Wherever I am, whatever I’m doing, first and foremost I’m a child of God representing Him. I don’t want to pull myself down to fit in a wrong sense. That doesn’t mean I can’t talk about the football game with them, I can’t talk about things of common interest, but I don’t want to go where they might go with things. My speech has to be honorable, beyond reproach.

And slaves (verse 9) here, as we wrap this up quickly, “bondslaves,” that’s our word slave, “be subject.” There’s our word, same word used for the women to their husbands. “Subject to their own masters in everything.” Now we noted Peter talks about when you have an unfair… you know, some masters could be overbearing. Their requirements… you couldn’t do it and they could beat you for it, that’s not an excuse not to be respectful. It’s like we have rulers that might do what we don’t agree with. On it goes. “Be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith,” conducting ourselves faithfully, consistent with what we believe, “so that we adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.” That’s what we’re concerned about. We get concerned about the person, the slave, about the master. Lord, in this situation how can I be a godly person with a master like that? God didn’t know what He was doing when He put you in that position? Jesus said if you do good to those who do good to you, everybody does that. Scratch my back I scratch yours, pad my palm I pad yours, that’s the world. A believer stands out when he’s maybe receiving something that he doesn’t deserve, he’s been mistreated. That would be a slave. You show all good faith so that you will adorn the doctrine of our God in every respect.

The end of verse 5, for the young woman’s conduct, “so that the word of God will not be dishonored.” This is what it is all about for all of us, men, women, male, female, older, younger, male, female, doesn’t matter, slave, master. You know what the number one thing is? Godliness. Lord, you’ve redeemed me by Your grace, I deserve nothing. He’s going to come to that in chapter 3, we deserve the judgment that the unbeliever is getting. We are recipients of God’s grace I am to manifest. Why does God put up with me, what did He put up with me? What is He putting up with in the world? You look and say, I couldn’t take this, I’d wipe the world out in a moment but He doesn’t. Why? He’s patient, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth. These calamities come, He brings them, why? To remind the world judgment is coming, you’re not as secure as you think you are, you could be gone in a day. Turn to me and be saved, I’ve provided a gift for you, it’s free. Believe in the Savior I’ve provided, I’ll cleanse you, forgive you, and make you new on the inside and give you an eternal security. We don’t want to lose focus here, like, oh boy, how are we going to get through this?
This virus is going to overtake us, our country will never be the same. We’re strangers and pilgrims here, that’s how we live. I’m not glad we’re suffering, I’m not glad for what we go through, and naturally I’m not looking to suffer. But when the Lord takes some of the comfort away now is my trust in Him shaken? I don’t even trust you in good times, Lord, you understand this is not a very good time? Well, we went through the book of Ecclesiastes, remember you had no control over the future, He controls the future. It’s His time, He determines when it is a time to live, when it’s a time to die, and on it goes. You know, I have to think sensibly (we just blow by these), now is my time to think sensibly, soundly, to focus on the truth. Be sure…, yes, I have settled my eternal relationship with the living God, that’s where he’s taking us in verses 11-15, that’s the basis for all this. Now we live securely in an unsecure world. That’s why we started out in the announcements I mentioned, I want to be careful. There was a pastor in some of these evangelical churches. A pastor gets interviewed and they just want to say, well, we have hope, we want this country to have hope and there are better days ahead. This reminds me there are terrible days ahead, this world needs to understand there is a God who has graciously, patiently offering you something that may not be available to you tomorrow. You may be gone, the door may close, today is the day of salvation. We as believers want to walk with that security otherwise we get caught up in the confusion of the world, blown around, unsettled, fearful. And we miss the joy and privilege of having inner peace and tranquility because the peace of God stands guard on our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And that’s what biblical truth does for us.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of Your word, the greatness of the salvation you’ve provided in Christ that overcomes the wretchedness of our sinful condition. The hopelessness of life, the fears that come, Lord, we are secure in You. I pray for any who are listening today, if they have not trusted Christ. Perhaps they grew up in this very church with godly parents, went to Sunday School, went to youth group, maybe were baptized here. But Lord, they’re lost and without hope in the world., their life is empty, they don’t know the security and joy and peace you bring to a heart. May this be a day of salvation for them. May all of us as your children live confidently knowing tomorrow is under your control and you care for us today. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.