Foundations for the Believers

We want to once again welcome Elder Hutchinson to the Jefferson Park pulpit today. I also want to welcome his wife, Kimberly, and their two children, Mason and Olivia. I haven't had the pleasure of meeting them yet, but I'm looking forward to meeting them after church. So we do welcome you all again. For those that were not here last week, Pastor Hutchinson is the Senior Vice President for Business Administration at Southeastern Seminary, where he's also a graduate. He also is the chairman of the Elders at First Baptist Church in Durham. And so I do welcome you again, Elder Hutchinson. We thank you for your time coming down and for the generosity of your church. I'd also encourage everyone to come back tonight as Pastor Hutchinson will be going verse to verse of James, Chapter 1, verses 2 through 18. So I'd encourage you to come back tonight. But we welcome you gladly. It's good to be back, bringing my family. We went to go see the sights on this wonderful rainy weekend. So we donned our rain boots and raincoats and plugged on. Saw everything we wanted to see. So it's great to be back with you. This morning, we are going to look at Titus chapter 2, verses 1 through 10. Titus chapter 2, verse 1 through 10. And we're going to start off by reading this. And if you join me by standing as we honor God and his word. Titus chapter 2. Verse one through 10. But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine, older men are to be sober minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith and love and steadfastness. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanders or slaves to much wine. They're to teach what is good and so train the young men to love their husbands and their children. to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their husbands, the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself, in all respects, to be a model of good works, and in your teaching, show integrity dignity and sound speech that cannot be condemned so that an opponent may be put to shame having nothing evil to say about us. Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters and everything they may be well pleasing and not argumentative not pilfering but showing all good faith so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. You may be seated. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the graciousness that you have shown towards us, Lord. We pray that as we look at this passage this morning, that our hearts would be transformed by the teaching of your word, that this would not simply be a time to sit back and to listen to somebody else speak, but a time to listen, to internalize, to have Our heart transformed to seek your will, Lord, so that we might walk from here better being able to please you and to glorify you in all that we do. We pray this in your mighty, wonderful and gracious name. I'm not sure about you, but my kids will recognize this. When we go out to eat or we go any place, there's kind of these ground rules we have to set down. Those of you that had kids or have kids now, you've probably been through this. Things like, it doesn't matter where you sit, who you sit next to, what you get to drink, what you get to eat, you're going to obey mommy and daddy at every turn. And you kind of have this prep time before you get out of the car as to what's getting ready to happen as you prepare your kids for this particular event. And so we set these ground rules up because we kind of know that there are some natural inclinations of things that are going to happen. Well, likewise, with us in our flesh, there are some natural things that are going to happen. And what Paul is doing is Paul is writing to Titus and he's saying for these groups in the church, there are certain ways that you are to behave that are different from the way that you would naturally behave. And so he lays out these things that are here, these ground rules, these foundations that he sets forth for them. One of the marks that's interesting as you look at this that I would say of a healthy church, and this isn't particularly addressed here, but just the fact that he addresses these groups. One of the marks I think of a healthy church is that it's made up of children, parents, grandparents, signifying that all age groups are represented. When you look at this body here, at the age range that's here, it's beautiful to see this from the young to the old that's in this church. There are lots of churches that are defined by different ways and they have the impossibility of being able to carry out a Titus II ministry because they look one certain way. And any time that a church becomes to look one certain way other than doctrinally sound, it's a church that needs to rethink where it is that their foundation is and how it is that they go about doing church. But one of the things that's interesting here is that we get all groups we get older men we get older women we get younger women we get younger younger men and we also get teachers are all addressed in this passage. So if you might want to look at it this passage that we're going to look at this morning is an equal opportunity offending passage. Everybody gets hit this morning in this passage as we look at this. So this is this isn't one of those passages where you get to hear and say yeah there's somebody here that needs to hear this. You know, that person that's sitting about two rows behind me. Yeah, they need to hear this. This is one of those passages where everybody in this room is going to get hit by what it is that we see here in this passage. One person that was commentating on this passage stated that no condition and no period of life is to remain unaffected by the sanctifying influence of the gospel. No condition and no period of life is to remain unaffected by the sanctifying influence of the gospel. So the first group that I want us to look at is that with teachers, and I want to look in verse one and verses seven and eight of this passage in Titus, chapter two, verses one and seven and eight, these foundations for teachers. Paul writes to Titus and he says to him in verse chapter two, verse one, that is for you teach what accords with sound doctrine and in verse seven and eight show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works and in your teaching show integrity, dignity and sound speech that cannot be condemned so that an opponent may not be put to shame having nothing evil to say about us. So the first thing that we see here is he starts off with this word, but which means we have this transition from chapter one. Keep in mind, this is a letter we don't typically have. Paul didn't write this with chapter and verse, but yet here he's transitioning his thought and he's putting in front of Titus what he is supposed to be doing that's opposite of what's been going on. Matter of fact, if you look back in Titus chapter one, verse 10, one of the things that Paul says is that there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. Do we know who those are talking about? Those are the Jewish Jewish people during this time that he's talking about. So here he's describing them as insubordinate, empty talkers, deceivers, especially those of the circumcision body. They must be silenced since they are upsetting the whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. So basically here in Crete, where Paul has left Titus to set up leaders of the churches in this area, there are those that are going around that are teaching unhealthy doctrine. They're upsetting the families, they're upsetting the life in the local church that's in this area. And he's saying, but guess what, Titus, for teachers and for you, there is something different. But as for you, he says, teach what accords with sound doctrine. There's an incredible standard that is set up in Scripture for teachers. An incredibly high standard as to what it is that they are to hold to. And one of the things that they are to do is only teach that which accords with sound doctrine. This isn't always the case. You can turn on the TV, you can find any TV preacher, and I will guarantee you that 95 percent of the TV preachers that you see are not teaching in accordance with sound doctrine. So that's a pretty bold statement. Well, it is. Because the fact that if you go all around the natural tendency, again, from a teaching perspective, is that we teach what sounds good to us. You know, we teach something, we see one little part of Scripture, it intrigues us, and so therefore we end up basing an entire ministry, an entire theology, an entire philosophy that's based off of it. And we're not teaching with what accords with sound doctrine. When any teacher gets up to teach, it should be a situation where when he's teaching a passage of Scripture, And he comes across something in that scripture and he thinks, wow, I've just got an incredible new thought. You should put a stop sign up in front of you right at that point. Doesn't mean that you might not be right, but what it does mean is that you should look through the entirety of scripture and find out, does this that I'm getting ready to share, does this actually line up with what scripture presents? Does scripture actually teach this that we are to that that we whatever it might is that we come up with is explained within the passages of the Bible? I remember one Christmas. Sitting in front of a TV, talking about these TV preachers and I was getting ready to go home, I was I was a single student, I was getting ready to go home for Christmas and on came a famous TV preacher who's still preaching today and a preview for his next week sermon came up. And he says that we're going to be looking at Isaiah, chapter nine, verse six. And he says now and this is the passage where it says that a virgin shall conceive. He says now to marry that might that meant conceiving Jesus. But to you, that might mean conceiving a new job or raise at work. You go, where in the world did you find that in Scripture? I don't see that anywhere. And so here's a preacher that had gone off the path of not teaching that which is in accordance with sound doctrine, but teaching that which sounds good, is palatable, is interesting to the people that we listen to, is interesting to the people that are listening to it. And so this teacher has this high standard to teach what is accordance with sound doctrine. Sound just simply means healthy. The fact is, is that we have scripture that has given us doctrine from A to Z that addresses everything that we need to know within our life and the life of a local church and our service unto God. And therefore, there is no place else that we should have to turn to when it comes to good teaching other than looking to scripture itself. This is where it is that should drive. In other words, when we get up in the morning, we make decisions about the things that we're going to do. Scripture for us, not only for teachers, but also for all of us that are in the pew, should be the driving force, should be our source of sufficiency to gain wisdom, direction as to where it is that we are to go and how it is that we are to serve God. But teachers, as they get up and they explain scripture, they are to teach that which is in accordance with sound doctrine. In addition, he says in verse seven and eight, he says, show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works and in your teaching show integrity and dignity. So let's first of all deal with this example that we see here in verse seven. He says, show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works. That's because in this role of the teacher, it's not just simply doing your work on a passage of scripture and getting up and sharing it and teaching it. But it's also it's also shown by the way that you live your life. So what he what Paul is telling Titus is, guess what? It's not just the adeptness that you have of being able to handle scripture. Of being able to give a great delivery, of being able to teach that which accords with sound doctrine, but you also have to be a model for those that you're teaching to. They have to be able to look at your life and see, OK, you know what? I see how now this plays out. It kind of brings to mind the old cliche that that Morris is caught than it's caught. In other words, that we look and see what it is that's going on in somebody's life. And we see, OK, when he gets up and we see that he teaches a passage of Scripture, we see this played out in his life. And so therefore, we can kind of see how it is that this applies the scripture that he's teaching. How is it that it applies to this situation? We look at this and we determine how it is that we can take this passage of scripture and we can say, OK, now I understand what he's talking about when he teaches this, because I can see how it is that I live my life because of the model that we are setting up, that the teacher is setting up in front of the people, this model of good works. That's before them. Second, Timothy, chapter two, verses one through 13, this whole idea of sound doctrine tells us that follow the pattern of sound words that you've heard from me in faith, love and Jesus Christ, that you've heard from me that are in faith and love and Jesus Christ. He also says in First Peter, chapter two, verses first Peter to 12, keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable. So that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God in the day of visitation. And he says in 2 Corinthians 4, chapter 4, verse 12, if I can get that out. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways, and we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word. But by the open statement of truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. This is the examples that are used within scripture. Matter of fact, this high standard that's given to us, we know in James chapter three, verse one, that James tells us that not many of you should become teachers, my brother, for you know that we who teach will be hold will be judged with greater strictness. So not only are we teach what's in accordance with the sound doctrine, not only are we to be this example that we see here in verse seven, but in addition, we are to show integrity and dignity in the way that we in the way that we act. In such a way that we also have sound speech that cannot be condemned. All right. So we've got this idea of sound doctrine and now we have this idea of sound speech. What's going on here in the two these two these two aspects of it. Sound doctrine is that most people believe that this is referring to when somebody is before a class in a pulpit and they're teaching the things that they are teaching. Sound speech is referring to this teacher and the way that he's living his life outside of the church and the conversation that's happening. Is that this conversation is happening is healthy conversation. It's solid conversation and it all has a purpose for it is that it cannot be condemned. Why? So that any opponent may be put to shame having nothing evil to say about us. Let's face it. Many times as Christians, especially those that are teachers or preachers, they say silly things. That's the best way to describe them. They say silly things. There are too many times in the Christian life where the things that we put forth from a teaching perspective end up becoming the things, the statements that we make end up becoming the stumbling block rather than Christ himself being the stumbling block. There is one stumbling block that is presented to us in scripture for the unbeliever, and that's Christ. If it's the way that we act, if it's the way that we talk that's the stumbling block, then there's something that's wrong. If you as a teacher or you as a preacher or whatever role that you might find yourself in communicating God's word, if you find yourself in a position that what you say. Becomes the object of the stumbling block, and when I mean that becomes the object that somebody looks at and points out, this is why it is that I'm not a Christian because of this, because of what it is that this person said or what it is that this person did. That's when we find ourselves in a place where it's the wrong stumbling block, because the stumbling block should be Christ. And so what Titus is what Paul is urging Titus here in the section in verse eight is that the sound speech should be should be done in such a way so that it could not be condemned so that any opponent may be put to shame having nothing evil to say about us. There is plenty when it comes to the offense of the cross in Jesus Christ for this lost world to get upset about. And rightly upset about because it is confronting them with their sin. There's enough that's there and that should be the stumbling block that we drive people towards, not the things that we some of the silly things at times that we say. Thinking of some of the things that happen and not necessarily just from the teaching realm, but some of the things that you see church signs, church signs are famous for this. We can say as Christians, some of the silliest things on church signs. But if you put in the context of a lost person driving down the road, they'd look at that and they'd either laugh or shake their head and go, What are they talking about or bumper stickers or T-shirts? We say some of the silliest things sometimes. And what happens is, is what we say in those situations becomes the stumbling block and not Christ himself. Christ should be the stumbling block, not the things that we say. So we should be of the sound speech. This teacher that's set up here is this teacher that teaches accordance with sound doctrine. is a great example for those that he's teaching speaks with sound speech that cannot be condemned. So this world might not have anything evil to say about us. What this tells us is that our actions and we're going to see this with the other categories in this passage, our actions impact our missionary work. Not just the way the teachers teach, but these other things that we're going to see with older men and older women. and younger women and younger men and those that find themselves in the authority of others. The way that we act impacts our ability to be effective missionaries in this world. And when I mean missionaries, I'm not just simply talking about in the sense of missionary, that person that goes over to China that you know about. I'm talking about you sitting in the pew in the missionary work that you're involved in and carrying the gospel of Christ to this lost and dying world. And so, therefore, we find ourselves in this situation where the way that we act impacts this. And so the foundations here for the teachers are make sure that when you teach, if you want the application, make sure that when you teach that you're teaching with what accords with sound doctrine. Spend the effort, the time to examine scripture, to find out whether or not these things are true. Keep in mind, as I said, when you come up with that moment of This great new thought that no one else has ever thought of before. That's when you should put up a stop sign and go, you know what? There's over 2000 years of church history and it's a little scary if you come up with something that's never been thought of before. It reminds us of what Solomon told us in Ecclesiastes, there's nothing new under the sun. There's nothing that's new. There's always there's always changes among the things that have existed but there's nothing that's new under the sun. And so we should teach that which is accordance with sound doctrine and we should live our life as an example to those that we are teaching. So we see these foundations that are set up here for the teacher. But next I want us to see the foundations that are set up for the old. We'll see this in verses two and verse three. Older men are to be sober minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith and love and steadfastness and older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanders or slaves to much wine, and they are to teach what is good. Now, there's no one old here, is there? No, of course not. Didn't think so. What we see here in Scripture is Paul is starting with the older and why is it that he starts with the older folks in the church. I think it's out of respect and I think it's also a desire to let those who are older in the church know that your ministries have not come to a conclusion. Retirement is something that we always look forward to in the American working society. That time that we get to stop going to work on a daily basis and we get to have better choices to what it is that we want to do on a frequent basis. However, retirement is not something that comes from a personal in the realm of personal ministry. Retirement is not something that comes or talks about the things that the way that things used to be. It reminds us in Psalm 92 verse 12. That the psalmist said this, that the righteous flourish like a palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon and they are planted in the house of the Lord and they flourish in the courts of our God and they still bear fruit in old age. Do you hear that? They still bear fruit in old age. They are ever full of sap and green to declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him. So in this passage, it starts off with older men. And it says here, first of all, that older men are to be sober minded. Some of your versions will probably say temperate or maybe sober. What is it that this is talking about here with sober minded? Sober minded if there's some conflicting takes on what's going on here with this particular word. Some say that if they simply take this as sober it's simply talking about our interaction with alcohol and not being given to too much wine. But I think more properly in this idea of sober minded here is the ESV translates it and we also see over in First Timothy Chapter 3 some of the things that are required of those who are in a position of leadership within the church. I think that what we see in this idea of sober minded is that there is a clarity of thought. There's a clarity of thought, in other words, by the time that you get to be an older believer. There should be a definite clarity of thought regarding the things of God in your mind. Not a confusion of thought, but a clarity of thought. Why is it that he's starting off with older men? There is a natural order that God has set up with with creating men that are within leadership position within the local church. And it is the older men that we should be looking to as the example that's there. Let's be perfectly honest. I don't know this church well enough to comment on it. But of the churches that I do know that I've been a part of, especially the church that I grew up, I'll be perfectly honest. The. Older folks in our church. That we couldn't carry out a tired Titus 2 ministry. Church for them was more of a social event than it necessarily was an encounter with God. It was hard to be able to look to many of the older people in our church as an example for actual Christian living. We saw good moral people. People that didn't want to do bad things. But we didn't see people whose hearts were after God. And this is what it is that's being called upon with the older people. So older men are to be sober minded. They are to be dignified. This refers to the actions that they do. There's basically they don't carry themselves in a silly manner. I think when I hear this word dignified there's a man where I live that owns a store in the downtown part of Wake Forest and he's just a silly man to use that term. He's just a silly man. There's nothing dignified about him. When I say silly I don't mean jokester. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm just talking about the way that he carries himself that no one takes him seriously. Because he doesn't carry himself in such a way that presents this picture of dignity in the way that he acts. So older men are to be sober minded, clarity of thought. They are to carry themselves and their actions in such a way that there is this dignity that is carried about them. There to be self-controlled. Now, this word self-controlled is something that we see a form of it show up in all of the categories that we have seen or that we're going to see this morning. Self-controlled basically just means is that you look at your actions and whereas you find yourself from a fleshly perspective wanting to head a particular direction, you decide through the power of the spirit, this isn't going to be the direction that I'm going to head. Basically, as you look and there's there's opportunities for temptations, for sin in your life is that you look at these things and through the power of the spirit, you submit yourself to the spirit. It tells us in Galatians 516 that if you submit yourself to the spirit, that you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. And so that if we find ourselves in these positions where we are presented with these opportunities is that we basically show discipline and self-control. And then finally, here it says for older men. that they are to be sound in three different things, faith, love and steadfastness. Now, we've already talked about this word sound and the fact of sound doctrine. Basically, being healthy, so when this is an older man, what he's saying, what Paul is saying to Titus, if there are older men, this is how what is supposed to be in displayed in their life, a soundness, a healthiness of faith. In other words, when we are to look for examples of faith, People that are trusting greatly for what God is going to do, it should be the older men that we look to and we see that. And when we want to see that, we think, OK, how is it that I can apply that to my life? Well, I see this in Bob's life or I see this in Jim's life, how it is that he does these things to be sound in faith, also to be sound in love. They are to live their life in such a way that there is this unconditional love towards the saints of God. This is one of the things that are there. Now, if you ask yourself the question, why is it if these things aren't natural, what is it that is natural? Well, in the aspect of love, we know the old movie Grumpy Old Man. Most of you have seen it. You know, why is that? Because that has a tendency to be a stereotype. It's not all it's not all older men, but it has a tendency to be a stereotype of kind of the grumpy old man. Just leave me alone. OK, don't bother me. But yet older men are called to be sound not only in faith but also in love that they show towards the saints and towards others and also in steadfastness. Last week we talked about suffering and when we talk about these examples that we look at with faith we're to look at them with love but also steadfastness or another word is endurance. But it should be that older men are in such a place. That when we're looking for how do we make it through the trials and the tribulations that are in this life, the suffering that we face, it's the older men that we should look to because of the steadfastness of faith that they show, the steadfastness of love, the steadfastness of hope. that they have in Christ. It very much reminds us at the end of First Corinthians 13, 13, where Paul tells us that now faith, hope and love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love. And so we see in this passage where he substitute this idea of steadfastness for the idea of hope. And so these things are to be evident within the older men. So what I would challenge you, and this is hard, I'll tell you, this is hard as a younger man to stand up here and to say, This is how older men should act. But keep in mind, this is not me saying these things. This is scripture saying these things. So I challenge the older men in this congregation. Look at this passage. Are these the characteristics of your life? Of sober minded. Of dignified, self-controlled, being sound in faith, love and hope and endurance. Are these things evidence or characteristics of your life? Well, as we move on from older men, older women or older men, we now turn to older women. Older women, Paul says this to Titus, older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior. This is simply talking about actually the way that this word simply works is that they are supposed to be worthy of the temple, worthy of the temple is the way that this is described. And so in essence, what he's described is here the way that your righteousness in which you act is that there is to be this behavior in your life where there is this reverence. I kind of equate this more to what's going on with the older men, with this idea of dignified, of dignity that's here in the way that you carry yourself. There is a reverence in the way that you carry yourself in front of God's people. But interesting here, talking about the things that we are not supposed to be like and the fact that these things are not natural to us. is Paul tells Titus that older women are not to be slanders. What does this mean? Don't gossip. All right. Why is it that Paul is pointing these things out? Because I think that Paul realizes what our natural tendencies are just in the flesh, what our natural tendencies are. You know, if you remember old Randy Travis song, he said the chorus of one of Randy Travis's songs went this way. He says, I'm going to love you forever and ever, forever and ever. Amen. As long as old men sit and talk about the weather and as long as old women sit and talk about old men. This is just kind of this natural tendency, you know, we get in this state of there's nothing else to talk about, so we talk about other people. There are prayer requests. that we share for others and the difficulties that are going there. So they are not to be slanders or they are not to be slaves to much wine. Basically this just simply means with our interaction with alcohol and probably in this case whether it's just in general old women or whether it's even this in particular here in Crete is that they are not to be slaves, they're not to be enslaved to much wine. Basically not to find themselves where they're drunkards. That's essentially what this what Paul is saying is don't find yourself in a position where you can be classified as an older woman, as a drunkard. But what's interesting is where these things are here that he tells them not to do. There are some things that he very specifically tells them that they should do. And this is where we transition into some foundations for the young. But what's interesting is the way that he transitions into at the end of verse three and into verse four. What we see is that these things that are being taught from older women to younger women can only be taught if they are characteristics also of older women. OK, so there's a transition here that we go with the end of verse three and verse four. So keep in mind that as we look at these things for younger for younger people, especially for younger women, is keep in mind these things can only be taught by the older women because they are things that have been lived out in their own life. So at the end of verse three Paul tells Titus they are to teach what is good. So women do have a teaching role and they have a strong teaching role especially when it comes to the lives of young women. Why is it that you think that Paul sets up this situation in this in this community here within Crete in the life of a local church that it is the older women that are to train the younger women. Well it's simple. Whereas Titus can get up and Titus can expound scripture and he can appoint elders that can expound scripture and teach scripture. Quite honestly, there is no way that Titus can as effectively speak to the life of younger women as older women can. Because of the examples, because of the way that they have lived, the things that they have lived through. They have the ability to more effectively speak in these. It's not that Titus isn't to or that when we come across places in Scripture that we say, OK, we're not supposed to deal with that because that's for older women to younger women. No, we're still supposed to teach those things. But here from a primary role, what we see is learning about these things within the local church is that these things are to happen from older women, taught from older women to younger women. What are some of the things that they are to teach and likewise are to be exemplified in their life? Verse four. So train young women. Interesting that they use the word train here or teach. This isn't something that is passive. This is something that's active that's going on in the life of a local church. This idea of training young women. In other words, for older women that are in this church, it should be in your mind of how can I invest my life in the younger women that are in this church? How is it that I can invest my life the things that I've learned the things that are in Scripture. How can I invest these things in a practical application in the lives of the young women that are that are in this church. So what are some of the things that they teach that they are to teach there to love their husbands and children. You think this is kind of silly to teach them to love their husbands and children. Well let's face it men sometimes we're not very lovable. And the way that we live our life when you have children, children at times as we love them with all of our hearts, there are those trying moments that we have when it comes to raising children. And so older women in the end, in the roles that they have lived their life and the way it is that they have exemplified a love for their husband and a love for their children are to teach the younger women how to love their husbands and their children. To likewise, verse five, we see this world, this word again to be self-controlled. How it is to control your passions, control, control the temptations that you face in this life, how it is that you control the fact of just like he's talked about earlier in verse three, that the older women are to be slandered. How is it that you control yourself from getting into this category of the way that you live your life? So to be self-controlled, to be pure, simply meaning chaste, righteous, holy, how is it that you accomplish this? The Christian life is lived out in the details. The Christian life is lived out into when I wake up on Monday morning, how do I do this? How do I do this in such a way that brings glory to God? Well, it's the role of the older women to teach the younger women how it is that they are to be pure, how it is that they are to be chaste, how it is that they're be working at home or some of your versions say busy at home. Now, this is kind of an interesting passage in the next two issues here that we talk about. Still a lot a lot of debate within the Christian world working at home isn't necessarily meaning that a that the only place that are there that a wife can't work outside of the home. This is not exactly what this is talking about in this case. But this is talking about primary responsibilities and primary responsibilities for the wife in any relationship from Scripture. Don't get mad at me. This is Scripture. You've got to make a choice. Either Scripture is true or it's wrong. OK. We can't pick and choose what it is, is the fact that the primary role that is presented here for young women is working at home. As I say, this doesn't necessarily preclude working outside of the house, but this does refer to an attentiveness within the house. And likewise, what we see is not only to teach them how to work at home or busy at home, but also how to be kind and submissive to their own husbands. Kind just simply means what it means. It means kind. There's not a whole lot of comment that you can give on the word kind. What's the opposite of kind? Mean. Don't be mean. OK, so these are one of the things that they are to teach is how it is that they are to live their life, but also teach them to be submissive, submissive to their own husbands. This is the order which God has set up. We see this in Ephesians chapter five and the order that God has set up within the home. This doesn't deal with an equality issue. That's not what this is talking about. This isn't saying that that that women are lesser than men. We one of the things that we know from Galatians 328 is that in the eyes of God is that from a salvation standpoint is that there's neither male nor female. There's neither Jew. There's neither Greek. That there's an equality in the eyes of God when it sets up to a salvation standpoint. But likewise, there's an order that exists within the things. There's an order within a church. You have pastors and elders. You have deacons. There's leadership roles that are set up. And we're called to respect and obey that those those particular authorities and likewise in the context of a home. God has set up an order and part of that order happens to be the husband being the very spiritual leader of that home. And so therefore the wife is to find himself submissive to this. Now again one of the reasons why this ministry is so vital from older women to younger women. is because I can sit up here and I can say, younger women, you're to be self-controlled. You're to be pure. You're to be busy at home. You're to love your husband and children. You are to be submissive to your husband. You are to be kind. I can say all those things. But you know what? There's lots of details on a day-to-day basis as to the way that we do things that impact properly fleshing out these things that younger women are called to. That's where the vital ministry of the older women come in. To be able to look at the younger women and say, this is how you do this. This is how you carry this out. Likewise, what does this tell us younger women? For younger women, this tells us that we should be respectful to the older women. A lot of times that we can find ourselves in a position with those that are older of being dismissive. What do they know? They're old people. What do they know? But what scripture presents for us here is that there's this incredible role that is set up for older men and older women within the local church. And so likewise, younger men and younger women are to look to these as an example, not to be dismissive. But likewise, what's called is this heavy standard to older men and older women to live their life in such a way that it is a good example for those that are coming behind them. For the younger woman, the passage that we're most familiar with in Proverbs 31, 10 through 31, it sets up here that the writer of this proverb says this, that an excellent wife who can find, she's far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not harm all the days of her life, and she seeks wool and flax and works with willing hands. She is like the ships of the merchants. She brings her food from afar and she rises while it is yet night and provides food for her husband and portions for her maidens. She considers a field and buys it. This is a savvy woman. OK, she considers her field and buys it. She perceives that merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night. She puts her hands to this staff, and her hands hold the spindle. She opens her hands to the poor and reaches out the hands of the needy. She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all of her household are clothed in scarlet. She makes bed coverings for herself. Her clothing is fine linen and purple. Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land, and she makes linen garments and sells them, and she delivers them, sashes to the merchants. strength and dignity or clothing and she laughs at the time to come and she opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue and she looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also and he praises her. Many women have done excellently but you surpassed them all. Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her work praise in her gates. This is what the younger women are called to. This is what the older women are called to teach the younger women to do, to live their life in such a way. But as we transition here, what's interesting is he goes on for younger women and now he goes to younger men. And as we go to younger men, what we see here is that he gives one thing with younger men. He simply tells them be self-controlled. It's interesting, you see all these characteristics that are given against the younger men. He says, be self-controlled. Why? Because that's our biggest challenge. Self-control is our biggest challenge. The ability to be able to live a righteous life. And so he sets up here, you think, OK, the younger men get off easy. No, all that's wrapped up within that word. And this is where it comes to the fact that we've got to be able to look to older men, the example that's there, we look to these things and see how it is that we should live and so that we should be self-controlled. And since we're running out of time here, one of the things I want us to do is quickly look at those that are under authority, foundations for those that are under authority. Verses 9 and 10. Slavery is something that we no longer have in our society here in America, thank goodness. Because it's something that we realize is not appropriate from a human quality standpoint but yet it is something that exists currently within the world. It is something that has existed. But one of the things that I can take up here is as we see in verses 9 and 10 and that is that OK so slavery doesn't exist here that we don't skip over this passage. No because I still think that this properly applies to those that find themselves under authority in a day to day situation. Basically who you work for. This is what this was, I think, referring to the way in which you carry yourself. Look at some of these examples where to be submissive. To our own masters and everything, those that are over to us, just like a husband submissive or wife submissive to the husband, likewise, an employee to his employer, submissive. This is not something that many times employees find themselves in. They will quickly dismiss or quickly throw away that which has been given to them. But we as Christians are to find ourselves in a position where we are submissive to those that are over us. We are to be well pleasing. In other words, we're to work hard at what we're doing to please those who we're working for. This is a goal that we are to have in these situations. Likewise, we're to not be argumentative. It's naturally we see something and we know better. And so it's our opportunity to be able to address those things that we know should be better. But yet scripture tells us that we're not to be argumentative, not pilfering. Basically, this just means not stealing. It costs in America, it's estimated in America that employee theft cost us 50 billion dollars a year. Employee theft costs 50 billion dollars a year. That's the total gross domestic product of some smaller countries, countries like Cuba, Lithuania, other countries like that. That's a significant amount of dollars. We as believers in these situations, there is great temptation in these cases. We as believers are to find ourselves in a position where we are not participating in that. We are not pilfering, but showing all good faith. Why? So that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior. Again speaking to the missionary call that we have before us. The reason that we act this way in these employment situations and those that have authority over us is because of the fact that we are representing Christ. And when we live our lives in this way what we see is that we are adorning the very doctrine of God our Savior. This is part of this missionary effort that we have as we are reaching out to this lost and dying world. So from an application standpoint as we close. We are to have an active effort to please God because these things that we see here aren't going to come naturally to us. These aren't the things that we're going to put our feet on the floor, get out of the bed, put our feet on the floor on a Monday morning and are just going to happen. These are the things that we're going to have to submit ourselves to the spirit, submit ourselves to God's word to see these things happen in our lives. Too many times in local churches, older women and older men fade into the background. This is not your time to fade into the background. This is your time to rise and to lead and to teach. Older women are to have an incredible role, but it must not be worldly teaching. When you teach the younger women how to live their life, make sure it's not from worldly standards. Make sure it's from biblical standards that are presented here within scripture. Younger women, you must recognize priorities. There's priorities that are given here in this passage. And likewise, you must respect and look to the teaching of older women. Younger men are tagged with their primary problem, self-control. And these are one of the things that we have to, again, submit ourselves to the spirit to follow. And it's important also for teachers to remember as we look at this passage that they are not only to speak, but they are to live their life in such a way that people can look at the sound doctrine they teach and say, this is how it's lived out and this is the pattern that I'm to follow. So these are the challenges before you in Titus chapter 2, verse 1 through 10. We all have something to work on as we look at this passage. We all walk away from here somehow impacted by what it is that we're called to do. And the reason why I know that is because these things aren't natural. These are things that we have to submit to the Spirit of God on. And therefore, I know that these are things that all of us in this room have areas in which we need to work. Let's close in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your graciousness. We do thank you for your love. We do thank you for the fact that you give us Scripture that very clearly tells us how it is that we are supposed to live our life. Dear Lord, there are some tough things in this passage, some things that we might not have been living our life in accordance to. And Lord, I pray that we might find ourselves faithful to these things, that we might look at these things and resolve that I'm going to change the way that I live my life because of what it is that Scripture calls me to. Lord, through your spirit, give us the power to overcome our flesh, this battle with the flesh. And we pray these things in your mighty, wonderful and your gracious name. Amen.