Titus 2:1; Titus 2:7-8; Titus 2:11-15
Please turn in your copy of God’s
Word to the book of Titus. We’ll read today from chapter
2 verses 1 through 15. You’ll notice in your bulletin
there are a number of odds and ends of verses listed. Those
are the ones that will be for our sermon today, but I do want
us to read Olive chapter two. We’ve looked over the last many
weeks at how Christians in various places in life, whether by age
or gender or station in the culture ought to live. We’ve looked at
how older men and older women ought to live. younger women
and younger men, slaves or those in the workforce. And now today
the focus lands on the minister, even Titus. And so this is Paul’s
advice or his commands to Titus on how he ought to minister to
the churches on the island of Crete so that the Cretans may
faithfully live as new creations in Christ and therefore be an
effective witness to a dark and dying world. And so let us give
our attention to God’s holy and inspired word as we read chapter
two, beginning at verse one. Paul says to Titus, but as for
you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are
to be sober minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in the
faith and love and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be
reverent in behavior, not slanderers 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. Now he speaks to Titus, 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 in everything. They are to be well-pleasing,
not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith so
that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live
self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. waiting for our blessed hope,
the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus
Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness
and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are
zealous for good works. Declare these things, exhort
and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. Amen. This is God’s word. Pray with
me. Our God, we have eyes, but often
cannot see. We have ears, and very often
they are stopped up. We have hearts, but they are
hard. They are accustomed to the world. They are accustomed
to our own desires and even the temptations of Satan. So now,
as we, your people, call by your name, submit to your authority,
to your word, we pray, King Jesus, that you would rule over us,
open our eyes, unstop our ears, soften our hearts, We pray, Jesus,
our prophet, that you would speak to us. Show us the will of God
for our salvation and the will of God for our obedience. And
we pray, our Father, that Jesus, our priest, would make the way
open for us to serve you. We thank you for his example,
for his grace in our lives, and pray for your help and blessing
now in Jesus’ great and awesome and holy name. Amen. No doubt
over your lifetime, you’ve heard lots of preacher stories. As
a kid, you sit in the pews and you fill in the Bs and the Ds
and the zeros and the eights during church and you figure
out what life is like and you look at the preacher and you
draw pictures of them. You hear stories that your parents tell.
Maybe some of you, particularly if you’ve lived through the 1980s,
you know stories of preachers from the television scandals.
We are living in an era now where the prosperity gospel is huge. It’s at the forefront. And you
look through any local Christian bookstore, you’ll find that there
are all kinds of people peddling all kinds of things with their
picture on it and not the picture of the Lord Jesus. In the last
A few weeks we’ve also had recounted before our eyes and our ears
the life of Billy Graham, a faithful servant, a gospel minister, an
evangelist. And so no doubt all of us come
to the table today. We come into this place knowing
something about preachers, knowing something about ministers. We understand also that ministers
live under a lot of scrutiny. You’ve probably in the last weeks
heard good things about Billy Graham. You’ve probably heard
bad things about Billy Graham. You’ve probably in the course
of your time as a Christian, as a member of a church, you’ve
had what we like to call roast preacher for lunch. It’s a common
thing even in the South. And so we assume as Christians,
we assume as the people of God that when we look at the life
of a minister, whether it’s our minister, one on TV, one who’s
in the public eye, We understand that their life and that their
ministry should match in some way, shape or form. It should
match the gospel that they preach. Who they are and what they say
should have a lot of cohesion. It should match. It should jive,
as we like to say. Now, we know that as we scrutinize
preachers, there’s lots of fair things said, there’s lots of
unfair things, there’s lots of right things and wrong things.
There’s lots of assessments made and sometimes it’s with the right
tools and other times it’s with the wrong tools of assessment.
Well, in the scripture today. in the encouragement that Paul
gives to Titus. And I probably shouldn’t use
the word encouragement. He’s not encouraging him to do this. He’s
telling him to do this. So in this passage of scripture
where Paul, the great apostle, is telling Titus how to minister
on the island of Crete in those various churches. We get a picture,
just a little one, it’s not a full picture. There’s other places
we can go to for a fuller picture, but at least in Titus, we get
a picture of what a minister in some ways ought to be and
to do. We notice in chapter two, the
apostle Paul is speaking about various people, various genders,
various age groups or social standings. He intersperses some
commands or charges to Titus. He says, as for you or show yourself
or be a model display. We must remember, dear people
of God, that ministers are under scrutiny, but first under the
scrutiny of almighty God. And yes, under the scrutiny of
the people who are for sure to judge a man and his ministry. But we must remember that God
is the one who sends preachers. God is the one who sends them.
And he sends them with a message and a ministry. He sends them
with a charge to keep. And so today from this passage,
I want us to notice four things that just come right out of chapter
two. And they’re found in those verses
that we have mentioned that are listed in your bulletin. The
first thing we’re to understand is this. The minister is to teach
what accords with sound doctrine. We find that in verse one, teach
what accords with sound doctrine. Now, some of you men in the church
have probably had your wives say something like this to you.
You’re not going out looking like that, are you? And what
does that mean? It means somehow, some way that
what you’re wearing is not fitting for the occasion. You’re not
mowing the yard, you’re going out to dinner. You’re not painting
the house, you’re going to church. You’re not dressing like that.
We’re going on a date. You understand that there are
times where we dress fitting for the occasion. That’s exactly
what the Apostle Paul is telling Titus. The things that the pastor
teaches must accord or fit with sound doctrine. And so the words
that he speaks must be accurate. They must be fitting. They must
be in accord with sound doctrine. You know, we wonder today why
the world, why the Christian world is so confused. We wonder
why after so much doctrinal uniformity at the time of the Reformation
and that doctrinal uniformity even came to America. Did you
know that many in America in the 16 and 17, even 1800s, didn’t
matter if you were Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopal,
we had very similar reformational doctrine. Now, some churches
have gone off to the left and become liberal. Other churches
have gone too far to the right and become way too conservative.
Some have gone Pentecostal. Some have gone this way and that
way. And we’ve gotten away from that. And so we stand back and
wonder and say, why is the evangelical church in the United States,
with all of its opportunity and blessings afforded to it, why
is it so confused? Well, there’s a simple answer
to that, I think. It’s that many churches, many pastors, many
culpits do not proclaim what accords with sound doctrine. We preach fads. Sometimes we’re
well-meaning and we want to help people understand something and
we come up with something cutesy and it actually obscures the
gospel more than it makes it easy or plain to understand. And so in this passage we’ve
been studying the last several weeks, we’ve seen that the Apostle
Paul has commanded Titus, he’s charged him as a minister on
the island of Crete to teach what accords with sound doctrine.
What he tells the old men or the older women or the younger
women or the younger men, or even the slaves or those who
are employed, what he tells them they ought to be and do is they
live faithful Christian lives in the world Those things accord
with sound doctrine. And now the apostle Paul is,
if you will, turning the gun on Titus. Now you, Titus, you
minister of the gospel on the island of Crete, you, my missionary
associate, my faithful companion in the gospel ministry, you must
live a life that adorns the gospel. And it’s going to come out in
your teaching. Teach what accords with sound
doctrine. You know, dear brothers and sisters,
we have friends, we have churches, we have people who all around
us are well-meaning and well-intentioned, and for the sake of hoping that
others will come to faith in Jesus, we’ve done different things. We’ve come up with new techniques
that are not the biblical techniques. We’ve come up with gimmicks instead
of gospel. We’ve come up with all sorts
of things. And we have confused our friends and neighbors. And
so what the apostle Paul is saying to us is how much better a witness
will we be when we just say plainly what the Bible teaches? Teach
what it says. Say what it teaches. Proclaim
its gospel. Don’t come up with a new one.
Don’t try to figure out a cuter or more innovative way to preach
it or proclaim it. Just give the word of God and
let the Holy Spirit do its work. You know, I think we would be
very surprised I think we’d be very surprised as Americans who
are trying to be prosperous, who are trying to be successful,
who want to put in a little and get a lot. We would be very surprised
if we just watched. And if we did church the way
the Bible says to do church, worship the God, the way he says
to worship in the Bible, preach the gospel that’s given to us
in the scriptures, have faith in the means for accomplishing
the great commission. Don’t get innovative, don’t get
cutesy, don’t get liberal, don’t get social gospel, don’t get
off the rails, so to speak. Just do what God says simply. And we, we might see the effects
that the apostles saw, that the early church saw. The word of
God spread and the church grew in numbers. It would be that
simple. And so the first thing this passage
teaches us is to teach what accords with sound doctrine. The second
thing this passage teaches us, we find in verse seven, Paul
tells Titus, the minister, to be a model of good works. Be a model of good works. That’s
the second thing we learned from this passage about the minister
of the gospel. As we have grown up in the church,
no doubt we have read stories from the Old Testament, even
the New, and we’re told be like Abraham, have faith. We’re told
be like Moses and have leadership. We’re told be like David and
show what it is to be a man after God’s own heart. But you know
who we should really be like in the scriptures? We should
be like Jesus. We should look to Jesus. He is
the great example. He is the great model in the
scripture. But sometimes we find in the
apostle Paul’s teaching, he says something like this about his
own ministry and the ministry of those who are called to serve.
He says, live in such a way that as people imitate you, they imitate
Christ. Live in such a way that as people
imitate you, they will be imitating a good thing, a godly thing,
and then they will be themselves godlike. And so Paul tells Titus,
be a model of good works. Be a model of good works. You know, we like to name our
boys Bible names, don’t we? You know, sometimes you bump
into some kids who are Isaiah’s or Jeremiah’s or David’s or I
don’t think bumped into a Solomon and really not a Jesus either.
But we bump into people with biblical names. We want people
to to measure up, to live like. others. And so the Bible teaches
that we should be models of good works. And so the minister himself
ought to be a model of good works. And maybe you could fudge this
into the elders as well. The men who minister in the church
should be models of good works. Remember several weeks back when
we installed our newest deacon, We examined the study of good
works. Be zealous for good works, Paul
tells Titus to teach people. We should all be models of good
works. And what did it mean? What did
it mean to be a model of good works? Well, as we studied several
weeks back, it meant this, particularly for the young men who were to
be self-controlled. It was this. Don’t lose your head. Have your
head about you. Think about how you live. Think
about what you do and think about how to live a godly and faithful
life. Verse six said to urge the younger
men to be self-controlled. And as soon as he finishes saying
that, he says to Titus, and you be that example. Now that makes
me want to just go home and hide in the corner. Over the last
several weeks, we’ve looked at the admonitions to older men
and to older women and to younger women and to younger men. And
now it lands on the pastor. So if you are one of the younger
women who took those passages a little hard and you said, Oh
me, well, you see that turns on the pastor as well. Be a model
of good works. You do it first. You show others. You show others how to live faithfully.
What a what a great and call our tall order that is be a model
of good works. Now think about this for a moment.
If young men. in America had a model of good
works and they imitated that model of good works, wouldn’t
we see quite a societal change? Wouldn’t we see a wonderful effect? You know, a lot of times as Christians,
we focus on who’s going to be the next president, who’s going
to be the next senator, who’s going to be the next judge. And
we worry about those things and we should. But you know, I think
the greatest social change in whatever country you live in,
whether it’s America or Iran or China, or you name the nation,
the greatest societal change does not come through legislation.
It does not come through the judicial branch. It does not
come through the executive branch. It comes through men and women
and boys and girls who come to faith in Jesus. and have become
new creations in Christ, and they live out of the riches of
new humanity as we are called to live and commanded in the
gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And so we need
models of good works, but we need young men, we need old men,
we need middle-aged men living as examples of good works, and
what a change that would bring. Now, the third thing the apostle
Paul speaks of after telling Titus that he should teach what
accords with sound doctrine, after telling him he should be
a model of good works, he says, you teach with integrity, dignity,
and sound speech. Let your teaching be characterized
with dignity, with integrity, and with sound speech. You find
that in verses seven and eight. Sometimes we wonder why ministers
do what they do. Why do they preach? Why do they
teach? Why do they lead worship? Why do they study? Why do they
visit? And we could go on and on. And we’ve for sure seen examples
of good ministers. We’ve seen examples of bad ministers.
And what is the apostle Paul saying to Titus here? He’s saying
that you make sure whatever you teach, whatever you teach is
full of integrity. Your words have to match your
life. What you say has to hold true
with the scripture. People can’t hear you say what
you say and say, I don’t believe a word he says. And I don’t mean
saying, I don’t believe the Bible is not true. That’s a whole different
problem. It’s that the life of the minister, the way of his
living does not match. We like to say it this way. He
doesn’t practice what he preaches. And so the apostle Paul is telling
Titus, you teach with integrity. You teach with dignity. I have a book in my office. It’s written by a Welshman who
was a medical doctor in England. He became a preacher. His name
was Martin Lloyd-Jones. Some of you probably heard him,
read his books, listened to his sermons. He wrote a book called
Preachers and Preaching. And it was one of the first books
we had to read in seminary. And it was given to us by what
I call one of our old school professors. And there was a chapter
in the book that talked about Ministers. Ministers, you get
your hair cut. Ministers, you shave your face.
Ministers, you wear a clean shirt. You wear a pressed suit. You
wear a tie or bow tie, of course. But he talked about the dignity
that accompanies the high office. You know, you don’t have to go
very far or flip too many channels or look on too many church websites.
And there are many who are clowns in the pulpit of God. and their
dignity is missing. And so they attempt to uphold
and lift up the word of God, and yet they are juvenile in
their behavior. And you see, friends, you don’t
have to be stodgy and death-like, but there should be some dignity
and honor and reverence by the man of God as he handles the
word of God. And there’s room for variation.
There’s room for address and all the rest. But it should be
handled with dignity, teach with integrity, teach with dignity. And then he says with sound speech,
speech that is whole speech, that is complete speech that
cannot be contradicted. You know, a minister is a minister
under privilege. He is called by God. He is called
by a church. And he has set apart so that
his professional life can mainly do two things, figure out what
the Bible says, the three things, figure out how to live the Bible
yourself, and then figure out how to teach that Bible to others. And he doesn’t have to go sell
cars or insurance or work in a factory, though some are tent
making ministers. But ministers are set apart to
do the work of the gospel so that they can teach with integrity
and dignity and with sound speech. Their teaching should be sincere.
The motives should be pure. They should be serious. You know,
so many ministers now are their own brand name. I mean, you see it in their websites. Look at my website, buy my book,
make a donation. And there’s a place for some
of that we understand. But the job of the minister is
literally to be invisible and simply be a mouthpiece that points
others to Jesus Christ. And he does that best when he
teaches with integrity and dignity and with sound speech. The fourth
and final thing that he tells Titus, he says, declare, exhort
and rebuke with authority. Notice how these last two points
have really landed on his speech. Let no one disregard you. The
final verse 15 says, let no one disregard you. Some of you have
probably been to a dangerous place or two on earth. You know,
if you go to the zoo and there’s the tiger’s cage, you’re not
supposed to get too close because the tiger might just reach his
paw through the bars and get you. You know, we don’t want
to mess with a poisonous snake. We keep our distance. I can remember
as a kid when we would go down to Baden Lake and we’d ride out
in the boat and we’d go look at the dam. And there was a cable
across the water a little distance back from the dam. It said, don’t
go any further or something like that at your own peril. And dear friends of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the purpose of the church, the purpose of the
church, no matter how far off the beaten path it has gotten,
no matter what we see out in culture, the purpose of the church
is to declare the glories of God. The ministry of the church
is declarative. We are to declare the word of
God to the nations so that men and women and boys and girls
can come to faith in Jesus. And then once they come to faith
in Jesus, we continue to declare the will of God, not only for
their salvation, but for their faithful living. And so look
at this final command from Paul to Titus, declare, exhort, rebuke
with authority. You have been sent by God to
preach on the island of creep. You know, we watched the news
lately and of course we don’t know who’s holding the position
in our high offices. But when our president sends
someone to another country, they go as an emissary of our nation,
an emissary of our president. And so we want them, don’t we?
As they go to a rogue nation and say, do this or die. Do this and we’ll make peace
with you. Do this and we’ll trade with you. Don’t do this and there’ll
be consequences. What do we as a nation want when
that emissary goes? We want compliance. We want that
other nation to quit making bombs. We want the other nation to quit
stealing our trade. We want the other nation to do
whatever it is that we are bartering with them to do. And we might
even say, If we were the leader of the free world to our emissary,
you declare the will of America. You exhort the will of America.
You rebuke with authority those who are not doing the will of
America that makes peace or trade or whatever happiness on earth.
And we might even say, let no one disregard you or don’t back
down. But how come it is in the church
of the living God, When we have ministers and elders who are
called by God, set apart by God, to preach the word of God and
teach the word of God and declare the word of God, to show the
gospel, to show the way of the Christian life, we very easily
disregard it. We say, oh, that’s for some,
that’s for others. And dear friend, if you are disregarding
the word of God in your life, let me encourage you to understand
that you do so at your own peril. Maybe some of you who are young,
you say, this is my parents’ religion, this is not gonna be
mine. Maybe you’re thinking about all the options in the world,
or maybe you’re somewhere in the middle of life and you say,
you know, the word of God was important to me, now it’s not
so much. I’m busy, I don’t read, I get to church a couple times
here and there, and I know I’m meddling now, but it’s my job,
as you can see. We need to realize that the word
of God is for the people of God. And it’s to shape us and to conform
us into the image of Jesus Christ, that image that was bruised and
broken and destroyed when Adam and Eve fell into sin. And so
we let the word shape us. We let it mold us. We let it
move us. We let it fix how we worship. We let it inform how we live. We let it shape our lives so
that a watching world can look at us and say, hmm, there’s something
different. And I can’t quite put my finger
on it, but they come to us and say, you’re different. What is
it that’s different about you? And we say, let me just tell
you about Jesus, about who he is and all that he has done. You see, dear brothers and sisters,
the role of the church is to declare to the world, the dark
and dying world, that there is a solution to the problems that
we see. And that solution is offered
only in Jesus. And it’s offered freely in the
gospel. And to all who are weary and need rest, to all who are
kicking against the goads, to all who are lost and without
hope in this world, Jesus, through the church, open wides his arms
and says, come to me and receive rest. Come to me and receive
salvation. But we understand, don’t we,
after our study of Titus this far, that very often we don’t
get to say anything until people have seen how we live. And how
we live as it gives hints of a gospel, as it gives clues that
there is a savior, it then gives us the opportunity to speak.
And so dear brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus Christ, how
important, how important if we want our church to grow, if we
want the church to grow, how important is it for us as we
sit under the ministry of gospel ministers, How important is it
for us to hear it and to receive it and to practice it in our
lives so that the world will see and so that we can tell about
Jesus? Let’s ask for God’s grace. Lord,
we want to be faithful. And we can only do it through
the one who has been faithful, Jesus, our savior. So give us
your grace to live a life that is pleasing in your sight and
that is curious to the watching world. And when asked, give us
the grace, the foresight, the thought, the presence of mind
to speak of Jesus, who he is and what he’s done, the way of
salvation, and give your spirit to these people that they may
hear and receive and believe and trust in Jesus. and that
the heaven may be full of people who bow their knee to him. Help
us in this, we do ask and pray. And we do ask that you would
give the church in America and around the world, faithful gospel
ministers, so that your message is clear and that your name is
made famous to the ends of the earth. Help us in this, we pray
in Jesus’ name, amen. Let’s respond to God’s word as
we sing from our hymnals, number 275, How Firm a Foundation.