Sound Doctrine, Sound Living | Titus 2:1-6 (Mark Evans: 7-30-2023)

The sermon focuses on the importance of sound doctrine in leading to sound living. It discusses the qualities and responsibilities of older men and women in the church, emphasizing the need for sobriety, self-control, faith, love, and endurance. The sermon also highlights the importance of honoring and valuing the wisdom of older individuals in the community. Overall, it encourages the church to live in a way that reflects the power of the gospel and sets an example for the world. If you have your Bibles, do feel free to make your way to Titus as we find ourselves in chapter 2, continuing on our sermon series through this wonderful book. And for today's Scripture reading, we will be in Titus chapter 2 and in the first six verses of Titus 2. And these are the words of the God who can never lie. But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women, likewise, are to be irreverent in behavior, not slanders or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good. And so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. And the grass withers and the flower fades. Let us pray. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we do praise You for Your Word, that it is reviving to the soul, that it is able to make us wise unto salvation. And so we pray for such wisdom now. And here we are humbly before You, saying indeed, speak, O Lord, that we might evermore grow up into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ. And we ask it in His name, and amen. Amen. You may be seated. Well, it was fairly recent that we ran out of vitamins at our household. And so that brought me online to order another round, and I was quickly reminded that there's really no such thing as just generic vitamins. Instead, my search brought me across vitamins for children, vitamins for teenagers, vitamins tailored to women, vitamins tailored to men. I quickly realized that even this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are vitamins tailored to the nursing mom, vitamins tailored to the man over 50. And at least the theory behind all of this is that nutrients that are fit for a young boy, for example, are not going to be fit for an older woman, and vice versa. No, those nutrients would need to be customized. And I'll leave it to the nutritionists of the world to fine-tune those formulas. What we have in our text this morning is similar, but it is indeed the perfect formula, spiritual nutrients that have been fine-tuned to perfection. And so we'll soon see these are not generic spiritual vitamins. No, these are customized doses for the older man, the older woman, the younger woman, and the younger man. As when God calls us, He does not call us merely as amorphous humans. No, God calls us as a man, as a woman. God created us, male and female, and so God calls us as male and female with these distinctly masculine and feminine callings. And now I'm well aware there's controversy surrounding vitamins. Some would say that vitamins are expensive. Others would say all vitamins gets you is expensive urine. But not so with the truth of Scripture. We'll soon see how these spiritual nutrients promote spiritual health. And so the overarching truth of this section is that sound doctrine leads to sound living. Sound doctrine leads to sound living. And we're going to see that truth as applied again to older men, older women, younger women, and younger men. And so right away, verse 1 helps us to remind us just where we are in the letter. You see verse 1, Paul says, but as for you. And you can hear the contrast in that word, but, as in, well, the world does this, but as for you. And so just remember last week, we looked at those deceivers, the empty talkers who profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works. We looked at the culture of Crete, this decadent bunch of liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. And now we see in contrast how the Christian community, by God's grace alone, is to shine as light in the midst of this crooked and twisted generation there on the island of Crete. And that, of course, is both a timely and a timeless truth. But very much is the same for us today, that our lives, your life, is a living testimony of the power of the gospel, shining as light and setting before a watching world the work of God's Spirit in God's people. And so Paul continues in verse 1, and he says, but as for you, Titus, you teach what accords with sound doctrine. Now remember, last week we also reviewed that word sound. It just means hygienic or healthy, right? And so Paul says, teach healthy doctrine, because doctrine always, always leads to living, right? Bad doctrine leads to bad living. Right doctrine leads to right living. As one theologian said, what comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Simply a way of saying that what we believe with our hearts, with our minds, always, always shows up in our lives, for better or for worse. And so here Paul says, salute, right, to your health. Teach what promotes spiritual vitality. And so with that in mind, let's look at our first group, this address to older men. I will leave it to you to decide whether or not you are an old man. But either way, looking at verse 2, he says, older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-control, and sound in faith, love, and endurance. And so firstly, let's just take great notice that while the modern church prizes all things young and novel, Paul leads off with the aged and their exemplary lives. And first comes a virtue not often talked about. You see it there, sober-mindedness. But a better translation would actually be the virtue of temperance. Temperance. Temperance is a word often unfortunately only associated with alcohol, but it goes much deeper than that. Temperance would mean that a man has wisely regulated all of his desires, pleasures, and appetites in a virtuous way. That's actually the great irony of the temperance movement that we had here in America in the early 1800s, a movement that eventually ended up prohibiting alcohol completely. And calling that a temperance movement is ironic because that is precisely not how the virtue of temperance operates. Because temperance has the ability to be in the world with all of its lusts, all of its temptations, and yet have no desire for its indulgences and excesses. Because the temperate man has rightly ordered his soul. And so there be no need to outlaw alcohol because his desires have been rightly tempered and modulated. Closely related, you see next, he also has self-control, his ability to make sound judgments and exercise restraint when needed with his thoughts, words, emotions, actions. Rather than his passions ruling him, he can rule over his passions. And lastly, Paul calls for this trifecta of soundness, sound in faith, love, and endurance. So the older man doesn't just have faith, he has a resilient faith. It's this faith forged over the many years of walking with the Lord and his faith being tested. We can easily drop in our minds Father Abraham, who over decades and decades only grew stronger in his faith, that he did not waver concerning the promises of God. And of course it was only by passing through such furnace of testing that his faith was forged. Secondly, you see the older men have a sound love, sound love. So unlike our modern day that thinks of love as spontaneous and impulsive, something really only for the young at heart, I know you see instead love matures with age. As the psalmist says, they will still bear their fruit in old age. It is the older tree, not the young sapling, it is the mature tree that actually bears the fruit. And so too with us, the older we get, the more and more our love for the Lord Jesus Christ and for His people grows and grows. And so you can see we already have this great contrast to the worldly picture of the proverbial so-called grumpy old man. All right, that in old age man just grows more bitter, more critical, more cynical, more self-absorbed. No, instead he's sound in faith, love, and lastly to round it out, verse 2 says the old man has endurance or steadfastness. This is the great spiritual inverse that as our bodies decline, our strength, our physical endurance only diminishes. Yet as Corinthians says, the inner man is being renewed more and more day by day. And so like Paul at the end of his life, the old man is able to say, I have fought the good fight. I have kept the faith. I have finished the race that was set before me. And so you can see why these attributes very much adorn the older man. Like Proverbs says, gray hair is a crown on top of his head, a sign of his wisdom. That's why we ought not to skip over this word in verse 1, that such old men are dignified, that is worthy of respect and honor. And so while our world dishonors the elderly, even viewing the elderly as a drag upon society, our culture exalts them. As Leviticus says, you shall stand up before the gray head. Socrates once said that we should view an older person like a traveler who has gone to a land, the land to which you are headed. It's as if the elderly come to us from the future and they visit us with their wisdom from that land. And so just a word to both our older men and our older women. You ought always to be encouraged that your lives are a great example for younger Christians. Your lives are proof of God's faithfulness to preserve His people. And your wisdom is of great usefulness to the church. Do not ever believe the modern lie that the church is a place where the only usefulness is youthfulness. That is not so. And so with that, having looked at the older men, let us now turn to the older women. Again, I will leave it to you to decide if you are an older woman. But he continues his train of thought and he says, likewise, in verse 3. And then he says, the older women are to be reverent in behavior. That root word in reverence is actually the word used for priest. And that's a pretty good picture of reverence, right? What made the priest so priestly was their devotion, their dedication to God in all of their ways. They had a distinct reverence about them. Alright, when you were around a priest, I would imagine it would start to dawn on you. Oh wow, this person stands in the presence of God in a special way. This person is a sanctified person. And so Paul commends that kind of sanctity for the older woman. Now Paul next gives two warnings that would work against such reverence. The first, he says, verse 3, is don't be slanders. You'll be familiar with that Greek word, it's the Greek word diabolos, right? Don't be a diabolo. It's actually the word for devil. Paul is saying don't be devilish. And you can see why they translated diabolo as slander, right? One of the devil's great tactics is to slander God's people. And so for older women, that would of course most naturally take the form of gossip and speaking ill of others. Paul seems to have this idea in mind in 1 Timothy when he warns against being idle, going from house to house. Not only idlers, but gossips and busybodies. We could put it this way, when men have a lot of free time, they have certain sins they are often more prone to. Idle time can get men into trouble. And so too when women have a lot of free time, they have certain sins that they may be more prone to. And so Paul draws attention particularly to this sin of just aimlessly flitting about, merely to meddle in the lives of others. Endlessly talking without purpose, all to stir up gossip. Obviously men can and do gossip, but Paul indicates that generally speaking, these are the more besetting sins for the woman to do battle against. Secondly, he exhorts the older women to not be enslaved to much wine in verse 3. Perhaps in view there is a quick way to increase gossip is just increase the alcohol content. The two pair together very nicely. And so the older woman, like the older man, is to be in complete self-control. And indeed what an adornment it is to come across an older lady whose tongue is always seasoned with grace and her soul marked with reverence. And now to round out this section on older women, let's set up the end of verse 3 like this. If you're ever asked, hey, don't you belong to that rather backwards denomination that doesn't allow women to teach? You should promptly respond, oh no, that is patently false. That is absolutely not the case. Not only are women not prohibited to teach, they are in fact rather encouraged to teach and their teaching is vital to the health of the church. And you see that truth in full bloom at the end of verse 3. This is all one word in the original. The older women are teachers of the good. This is the crown on top of the queen. It's often said you cannot give away what you do not have. You cannot teach what you have not lived. And so what an adornment this is for the older woman. That the reverend woman can teach the good because she has lived a lifetime of goodness. She has accumulated years and years of wisdom, faithfulness, and godliness and it is out of that rich storehouse that she brings forth treasures of wisdom. It is no accident that when Proverbs describes wisdom, it describes it as lady wisdom. She cries out saying, my fruit is better than gold, even fine gold. My yield is better than silver. And so the older woman not only lives a life of reverence, they also pass it on to the next generation. And so that makes our transition to the next group rather simple. We've seen that the older women are in fact teachers of the highest order. But we should ask, okay, well, who then are their students? Who is in this classroom of life, so to speak? And you see it in verse 4. The older women are training or perhaps better translated as encouraging and advising the younger women. And so let us now consider our third demographic, the younger woman. And you can see the overarching subject of what older women are encouraging younger women towards in two very clear areas in verse 4. Firstly, love your husbands. Secondly, love your children. Now you can easily anticipate a young woman responding, well, yes, of course. What else would I do? Right, that's as obvious as it is natural for me to do. If love comes easy to anyone, it comes easiest to the young woman to love her family, but not so fast. Remember, scripture often speaks to our weaknesses, our blind spots, our potential pitfalls. If the old women are to encourage this, we're right to infer this may not be so simple after all. Indeed, this word for love is not the Greek word agape. It's certainly not the word for a kind of emotional or sentimental or romantic love. And I know it's more like Titus is going to go on to say, here is what love looks like in terms of its duties, its commitments, and its disposition. And so firstly, such robust love is going to mean that the young woman's orientation and her devotion is toward her husband and toward her children. So if you asked her, what are your highest priorities and where are your deepest affections? She could confidently say, towards my husband and toward my children. And that indeed speaks right to the woman's glory as help or suitable. As 1 Corinthians says, woman is the glory of man. As Proverbs says, the excellent wife is like a crown on top of her husband. That's a glory, of course, that compounds all the more in childbearing and in child rearing. And so just a preliminary word to our younger women, you ought to be fully aware that the way of the world is utterly opposed to this teaching. That as Satan deceived Eve, so too our current moment would have you absolutely be deceived in this area. So you live in a unique time in history. You live in an egalitarian age. You live after the first, second, and third waves of feminism. You live in the wake of the so-called women's liberation movement. You even live during a time when the simple question, what is a woman, cannot be coherently answered. And all such things are touted as being pro-woman when they are in fact the furthest thing from it. And so what that means is that you live in a moment in which your vocation, your calling as a woman is ridiculed, mocked, and despised by our society. And I'll give you just one quick example from my life. I remember from my time in the corporate world, we would often go and attend these very fancy, swanky dinner events with all the pomp and pageantry that so-called accomplished people love to go and see and be seen. And in the course of conversation, they would often ask me, what do you do? I'd give my answer, and there'd be very much a nod of affirmation. And then in the course of conversation, they would ask my wife, what do you do? And the patronizing response is well summed up in that little word, just. As in, oh, you're just a homemaker? Oh, you're just a housewife? Without obvious implication. I mean, you know, what do you think of significance, of purpose, of meaning? But on the drive home, we would have a good laugh to one another. Because while I went to work and did so-called important things like send emails and host Zoom calls, my wife was at home raising up the next generation of eternal souls that will last forever. And so if the world wants to label that as just a housewife, Lady Wisdom will have the last laugh. And so to our younger women, do not buy what the world is selling you. It is the highest of vocations for a woman to love her husband and to love her children. You are fashioning the very arrows that will win the war. And so you can tell what I call it is by what will be required. So leading off, Paul says in verse 5, this calls for the young woman to be self-controlled. It's often said, I thought I was patient and then I had children. Because there are a few things that test the heart more than taking dominion of a home, right? The temptations are daily, not weekly, not monthly, actually hourly might be a better description as to the frequency of temptations. To lose self-control, to be impatient, irritated, even angered. For folly is bound up in the heart of a child. Proverbs says you can count on it. Children will have folly. And so the young mom is daily performing hazardous duty, right? She's daily confronting folly at every turn. And so she must have the patience to play the long game, as it were, and bringing that child from folly to maturity. And it takes great wisdom to know that you are planting seeds that will be harvested much, much later. Secondly, Paul says the young women are to be pure. Certainly sexually pure, obviously, but more broadly, morally pure and upright. As Peter says, it's the wife's pure conduct that is so precious and powerful that it can win over even the disobedient husband. And next in verse 5, Paul says the young woman is to be working at home. A way of simply saying that her energy, her orientation is ever domestic, inward facing, building up her family all in support of her husband. And we would do well to remember that the oikos, that is the home during this time, was not a place to just watch television and take a nap. It's often noted that it's really only after the industrial age that the home became what we now think of it as, as a place to retreat and to veg out, to just sit on the couch and watch a movie. G.K. Chesterton once said, the worst of all modern notions is that domesticity is dull. Because during this time, homes were active beehives, little centers of activity, industry, commerce, education, and overall improvement. You can think of Lydia, that seller of purple goods. And it's likely that all of that activity was taking place in the home. And so let it be said that this caricature of a homemaker who is just sitting at home in sweatpants, eating bonbons all day, is exactly that. It is a caricature and not in view in verse 5. Rather, this idea of working at home in verse 5 means just that, that there would be much productive work to be done. This is why 1 Timothy encourages women to bear children and to manage their households. That word for manage, it could even be said to be rule over, lord over your household. And so once again to our younger women, the spirit of the age would deceptively bait and switch you in precisely this area. Instead of being lord of your household, it would have you be slave to the world, all under the disguise of freedom. Instead of being oriented towards your home and your family, the world would say, why settle? Why are you not capitalizing on society's progress? And this lie most chiefly shows up in what I would describe as careerism, careerism. And that's the idea that a young woman pours out all of her time, her talent, her sacrifice, all in pursuit of a career. And so it often looks like a young woman entering the workforce right out of college, climbing the ladder, breaking through the glass ceiling, looking to advance just as much if not more than her male counterparts, and only coming up for a breath of air to go for maternity leave and then go right back underwater, submerged into her career. And what tends to appease the conscience along the way is the false idea that the young woman can be both mom and employee of the year. And the even more deceptive lie is the idea that a big pursuit will not only not detract from motherhood, it will in some mysterious way only make for a better mom at the end of the day. But you see verse 5 deals a death blow to that mentality. It calls for the wife's orientation to ever be towards her husband, her children, and building up her family. And now to clarify, this is certainly not to say that a young woman in no circumstance is ever to be engaged in work. Indeed, we only glance at Proverbs 31 and we see the woman there who is very active in commerce and in industry. And certainly things like life stage, the ages of the respective children, and just plain making ends meet play a role in this. But as always, it starts with the why. What is the heart behind it? Is it a dual income in order to sustain a lavish lifestyle? Is it to chase gratification, a little more independence, a sense of accomplishment or fulfillment? I remember at my last company, we hailed it as a great success when the first woman was placed on our board of directors. Yet no one stopped to ask the question, how are we defining success? Proverbs 31 describes it this way. She looks well to the ways of her household. Her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband is known in the gates. That is the exceedingly great reward held out to the young woman. And so as Proverbs says, let her works praise her in the gates. While the world may despise it, Scripture says her work is worthy of great praise. The next verse 5 continues and says the young woman is to be kind. Kindness never confused with niceness. Kindness is the virtue of seeking the good of another. As Proverbs says, she opens her mouth with the teaching of kindness. And lastly, Paul concludes and counsels young women to be submissive to their own husbands. That the word of God may not be reviled. And we covered submission during our study in Ephesians. But we're to note once again, Scripture does not teach that women are to be submissive to men in general. Nor for wives to be submissive to husbands in general. As if men are somehow over women in this area. No, rather you see the clear teaching for a wife to submit to her particular husband. And only her particular husband in as much as he is the head of the wife. And we see this added adornment that such submission prevents the word of God from being reviled. Because when a wife submits to her husband, what does it do? It just casts more and more light upon the greater marriage. That is the bride of Christ as she submits to the Lord Jesus Christ. And flourishes in such submission. And so there's a word to the younger women. And you can see, it is no small task. It is the highest of callings. And Scripture would tell you, do not grow weary in doing good. God is on your side as it were. More than you even know. And so may his promises be your strength. And do not forget, the main point of this section is that you're not alone. God can and does provide you with the help of older, wiser women. And I would just say, practically speaking, that where you sit you have struck gold as it were. You have won the lottery. Because where you sit in this congregation even, you have a wealth of wisdom. Of older women who have gone before you. Who have modeled this in their lives. Who have reaped the fruit of this. And they will be eager to encourage you along the way. And so with that, we come now finally to our fourth group. This strange creature known as the young man. And this part may seem a little anticlimactic or disproportional. By my count, the older men had six exhortations. The older women had five exhortations. The younger women had the most at seven exhortations. And yet here we come to the young man and we have just this one exhortation in verse six. Young men, be self-controlled. And so what are we to make of this command? And only having one. Maybe the implication is that young men are just naturally more virtuous. And they're quicker to learn. And they require less instruction. Okay, good. People are laughing. Yes. I need only say, just spend a day with a young man and you'll be quickly disabused of that notion. Now as we've seen, Scripture speaks to matters of chief importance. The areas that we may be most prone to neglect. But areas that if we can master them, it will go well for us. And that is certainly the case when it comes to self-control and young men. Again, does this mean no one else needs self-control? Obviously not. We just saw that the older men and the younger women are implored to have it. But you see the emphasis here, this sense of urgency. You even see verse 6. Paul says, And that's because a young man who lacks self-control is particularly vulnerable. He can become a cause of great harm to himself and to others. He can even become incapable of having a wife and having a family if he lacks self-control. And this is a plague on our society. Young men are often given to vices such as pornography, drugs, drinking, sex, and so on and so forth. All lacking self-control. But here's the good news. And that is that if a young man can possess self-control, he is also capable of much good. This is why Proverbs, which of course is written to young men, as we just read, says that the man without self-control is like a city without walls. That would be a city that is a defenseless city against attacks and intruders from the outside. And so too for the young men. I ask of you the question. If your walls were inspected, how sturdy are they? How secure are they? How good are they at defense? The weaker your wall is, the more defenseless you are from the attacks of Satan, the lust of the eyes, and from the pride within. And so incidentally, parents, what a word for us. That one of the best things, one of the best gifts we can give our children is that of self-control and self-discipline. A gift that will serve them for the rest of their lives. This is why Proverbs has so many great nuggets on how to forge self-control. You can get that well-known proverb, Proverbs 23. Do not withhold discipline from a child. If you strike him with a rod, he will not die. Indeed, it will save his soul from death. Once again, we can contrast that with the world's methodology. I came across a recent article from the Cleveland Clinic, reputed as one of our nation's top medical facilities, which argued that children who are spanked are more likely to be defiant, show more aggressive behavior later on in school, and increase risk of mental health disorders and perhaps the worst fate of all ever to befall mankind, a lower self-esteem. Yet Proverbs says that discipline will save a child's soul and it will be of great help in forging self-control. And of course, discipline can be abused and malpracticed. But the abuse of a good thing only all the more highlights its goodness when rightly practiced by a loving father and a loving mother. So Hebrews says, such discipline, it will yield a fruit of righteousness. And so there is Titus' word to older men, older women, younger women, and younger men. Now if we stopped here, this is a section that is obviously chock full of virtues and morals. If we stopped here, you might go home today and think, I just got run over by a dump truck of morality. But one of the things we ought to be reminded of is that Christianity is absolutely concerned with morals, yet is never moralistic. Concerned with morals, yet is never moralistic. And by that I just mean bare moralism. I just mean the pursuit of a moral life without Christ. Living a moral life apart from Jesus Christ. Living a virtuous life as an end in itself and by the strength of man. Scripture never calls for us to live such a life. And not only that, it condemns such an approach. Just think, for instance, of the virtue of self-control that we discuss much today. Self-control from the Christian does not arise out of the heart of man. No, it is a fruit of the what? A fruit of the Spirit. Because it is by the Spirit of Christ working in us and through us. It is by the Spirit of Christ convicting us when we are wayward and off the path. It is by the Spirit of Christ empowering us to resist temptation. And it is by the Spirit of Christ strengthening us and edifying us to have the mind of Christ and the Word of Christ dwelling in our hearts richly. Moralism is a dead-end road in itself. But everything we have discussed today, whether it's the young mom at home, the old man's endurance, the old woman's reverence, everything we looked at comes about by the work of the Spirit, by working the Word into our lives, by the grace of God. Because isn't it true that everything we've covered today is summed up so perfectly in the man from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ? For he always walked in perfect self-control. He was always kind, always good, always walked in loving submission to his Father, always sound in faith, love, and steadfastness. A steadfastness that led him all the way to the cross, laying down his life for his sheep to purify a people of his own possession who would be zealous for good works like these, who would be ever transformed from one degree of glory to another into the image of the beloved Son. Indeed, he has become for us wisdom from God. Let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, we do praise you for your Word, its excellency that you would instruct us in the paths of life. Here we are, Father, indeed we confess we cannot do so by our own strength and of our own resources. But you are the God of all grace, a grace that trains us to renounce ungodliness and to live upright lives. And so here we are to cast ourselves upon you, to humble ourselves upon you, that as you have always been unto us, that you would continue to be gracious, to empower us to live the lives that you have called us to live, all to adorn your gospel and to glorify you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.