Turn with me in your Bibles to
the book of Titus. The book of Titus is two books
back from Hebrews, Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews. Titus chapter two. I wanna give an overview of this
chapter concerning this subject. What is it? Oh, I'm sorry, okay. An overview of this chapter,
Titus chapter two. and how we ought to live. That's
the title of the message, how we ought to live. And of course,
the we that I'm referring to there is believers. Sinners saved
by the grace of God, justified in Christ on the basis of His
blood and righteousness alone, and made alive by the Spirit,
brought to faith, given the gift of faith. And I always think
about that. I mention that all the time from
the pulpit here, That if we have faith, what a gift that God has
given us. Repentance, all of that. The
gift of perseverance. Continuing in the faith. And
this is what I'm talking about. How true believers ought to live. And I just want to start beginning
here at verse one. Actually, just two words in the
first verse that sort of form the whole basis of understanding
how believers ought to live. Now we understand that believers
ought to live according to the word of God. But here's where
it begins. Look at verse one. But speak
thou the things which become, or are fitting, or appropriate
for sound doctrine. Now that word sound doctrine,
that's basic doctrine. That's true doctrine. That's
doctrine. That's, you know, the word doctrine
means teaching. That's what it is. The teaching
of God, you know, we're taught by God and as Christ sends forth
the spirit, we're taught in his word. He leads us to the word
and he reveals it to us. He reveals truth. That's what
sound doctrine is. And of course, we're talking
about the gospel doctrine, the gospel of Christ crucified, risen,
the glorious person and the finished work of Christ. Paul wrote, I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Believeth what? The gospel. And he says to the
Jew first and the Greek or the Gentile also. said, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. We're talking about the doctrine
of righteousness. What is righteousness? How do
we think about it? How is it defined? These things
and it's the glorious person of Christ, the finished work
of Christ to secure the salvation of His people, that's the righteousness
of God which is the merits of Christ, obedience unto death
as our surety, our substitute, our redeemer, our keeper, our
glorifier, everything. He's all in it all. And he says,
for it is written, the just, the justified shall live by faith. So what do you mean live by faith? Somebody says, well, it's live
by believing, but believing what? Sound doctrine. And when you
consider this, how important it is, understand that one of
Satan's greatest widespread deceptions is trying to tell people that
it doesn't matter what you believe, it's how you live. It doesn't
matter what your doctrine is, what matters is how you act,
your attitude. Are you sincere? Are you moral?
Are you dedicated? And that is a lie from hell.
That is a deception that people believe. Most people In religion
today, I would venture to say most people who call themselves
Christian really don't know what their doctrine is. I've even
heard of people going into churches and talking to the pastors, looking
for a church to go to, looking for the pastors, trying to find
out what their doctrine is. And I heard one pastor told a
friend of mine, said, oh, we don't preach doctrine. We don't
deal in doctrine. We just come here and jump up
and down and sing good songs and get emotional and all of
that. My friend, that's satanic. And
you may think I'm using too strong words for it, but I'm not. This
doctrine is the truth of God's grace in Christ. And the doctrine
is summarized in the last few verses of this chapter. Look
at verse 12. He taught, well, verse 11, the
grace of God that bringeth salvation. That's our doctrine, that's our
teaching and you can't begin to live how you ought to live
as a believer, as a sinner saved by grace, unless your belief
and your living, your life, your motivation is based upon sound
doctrine. You can't do it because If our
doctrine is wrong, it's all wrong. We are people of truth, people
of light. And I'll just read you some scripture.
I think about this one all the time. This is Romans 6 and verse
17. If you wanna mark it down or
if you wanna turn there. But the Apostle Paul writing there,
and listen to what he says. He says, but God be thanked that
you were the servants of sin. Now that means you were a slave
to sin. And what he's talking about there
is an unbeliever, a person, even God's elect before we're born
again by the Spirit, we're slaves to sin. We're in the darkness
of unbelief, in the ignorance, legalism, all that would oppose
God. He says, but God be thanked that
as you were the servants of sin, listen to what he says, but you
have obeyed from the heart Now what have you obeyed? That form
of doctrine which was delivered to you. And I've told you about
that passage that if you were reading the literal translation
from the original language, it would read something like this.
You have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which
you were delivered. what he's saying there is that
living right, living the way we ought to live, begins with
God by a providential work, however it happens, bringing us under
the true doctrine of Christ. Bringing us to a place or to
a human being, a man or a woman, who can tell us the truth about
how God saves sinners. A church, a preacher, a tape,
Well, we don't do tapes anymore, do we? A CD? Whatever, you get
the message. Reading the gospel. God brings
all of his sheep to the gospel. The true gospel, not a false
gospel. Not a gospel that says God loves
you, Christ died for you, now the rest is up to you. That's
a false gospel. If that's your doctrine, it's
not sound. It's not true. It's not solid. And you can't live right under
that. So he says, you have obeyed from
the heart. Now we know what the Bible teaches
us, that the natural heart of the natural man or woman, that
is as we are born naturally, is deceptive. Jeremiah 17, who
can know it? Above all things. So what does
God do when he brings us under the doctrine of Christ? He gives
us a new heart. Now, the heart is the mind, the
affections, the will, the conscience, the desires, you see, what drives
us, our goals, everything about the inner man. God gives us a
new heart, and how does he give it? Under the preaching of sound
doctrine, the doctrine of grace, how God saves sinners. he says
in verse 18 of Romans 6, being then made free from sin, liberated. Now what does that mean? It means
that we're liberated by God to see the light, the truth, the
doctrine of Christ, to lay hold of it, believe it, to know it.
He gives us an understanding Somebody told me one time, he
said, well, you act like we have to be intellectuals to be saved.
No, we have to be under the teaching and revelation of a teacher who
cannot fail. And you know who that is? That's
God Almighty through Christ. He can teach the dumbest of us
the truth. He can. You don't have to be
an Einstein to grasp hold of this, because he's the master
teacher. he sends the Spirit to convict
us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, to know Christ,
to know ourselves. What is the doctrine of man in
the Bible? Man is totally depraved, wicked, dead in sins and he cannot
save himself. If left to ourselves we would
never choose Christ or come to Him or bow to Him. We have to
be given a new life, a new heart, a new spirit, a new mind. the
power of God and he may use a man like me or a man or even a woman
teaching an individual or teaching her children the gospel and he
teaches us and he seals it in our minds in our hearts and he
says being then made free from sin that is the deception of
satan that kept us in darkness You became the servants of righteousness. Now, what is it to be a servant
of righteousness? It's not trying to make ourselves
righteous by our works, because that's sound doctrine. That's
bad doctrine. That's a lie, isn't it? But he
makes us servants of Christ, who is our righteousness. And
then I think about this verse here in the line of sound doctrine,
2 John 9. Most of you all can probably
quote it. But he says this, he says, John writes this by inspiration
of the Spirit. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. Now, can you get
any clearer than that? Now, what that tells me and what
it should tell you is that I better be sure that my doctrine is the
doctrine of Christ. Not only is it the doctrine that
Christ teaches us in His Word by the power of the Spirit, even
using what the world calls the foolishness of preaching or whatever,
but not only that is from Him, but that doctrine tells me the
truth of Him. Who is He in His glorious person? He's God manifest in the flesh. The Word made flesh, Emmanuel,
God with us. That's what he had to be in order
to save his people from their sins. He had to be able to keep
the law perfectly without any taint of sin, without any corruption,
which he remained throughout his life and his death and his
burial and his resurrection, and still so. Yes, he was made
sin. Yes, he was cursed. Yes, he was
guilty, but only by imputation, and that's it. Don't take it
any further because if you do, you're getting away from sound
doctrine. That's why we're righteous in
him. His righteousness imputed. That's the only way that I can
stand before God and be accepted in the beloved. Washed in his
blood, clothed in his righteousness. this glorious person died for
his sheep to secure their salvation unto final glory and he will
not lose even one of them." That's sound doctrine. Now that's where you begin to
live under the Lord, that's where you begin to live as a servant
of righteousness speaking those things which become sound doctrine
and we could go on and on about that You know, somebody, you
know, we talk about the words of scripture, you know, what
Paul told Timothy just back in one passage here in 2 Timothy
chapter three, he says to Timothy, he says, continue verse 14, thou
in the things which thou has learned and has been assured
of knowing of whom thou has learned them. Well, how did I learn this? I know a man stood behind a pulpit
and preached the gospel to me, but he had no power to make that
my doctrine. He really didn't. Oh, I know
he can get people to agree with him. I can get people to agree
with me sometimes, but I can't implant it on your heart. I can't
give you a new heart. I can't give you a life. I can't
regenerate you by the spirit. That's only the spirit's work.
But who did Timothy learn these things? Paul taught him. Well,
he learned them first from his mother and his grandmother. You
see that? He says, back up in verse 11,
or even, yeah, it's even farther than that. But anyway, he talked
about Timothy's mother and grandmother, through whom he learned the gospel
from, but they couldn't regenerate him. They couldn't birth him
again. They couldn't give him a new heart. So how did you learn
him, Timothy? From God, the power of God. he says in verse 15, and that
from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures. That's the
Word of God, that's the written Word of God, the scriptures.
And of course, they're having to refer to the Old Testament
here. His grandmother and his mother knew Christ as he was
revealed in the Old Testament as revealed to them by the Spirit. And he says, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus, And so he says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
Now, you know, that means God breathed. This is the word of
God and it's profitable for doctrine. That's the first thing he brings
up. If my doctrine is inconsistent with the scriptures, then it's
not sound. It's not gospel. It's not grace. And he said, it's for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness, right living.
How am I going to live right if I don't know the doctrine
of Christ, if I don't know the truth? Christ said, the truth
sets you free. You know, as I read that back
in Romans 6, 18, being then made free from sin, well, it's the
truth that sets you free. Now, Christ is the truth. He's
the embodiment of the truth. But his words are truth. Peter
said that. He said, you have the words of
life. Christ said his words were life. That's what it is. So correction for instruction
and righteousness that the man of God, that is a sinner saved
by grace, a believer, may be perfect. That means complete.
Now what does the Bible say about our completion? We're complete
in Christ. And he is the fullness of the
Godhead bodily and we're complete in him. And thoroughly furnished
unto all good works. In other words, we start out
furnished Already, we don't have to bring our furniture in to
this apartment. We're furnished by God, His grace,
His power, His goodness, His truth. And there is no right
living apart from that. You understand that? That which
becomes sound doctrine. Well, what becomes sound doctrine?
Faith in Christ. as he is identified and distinguished
in the book of God, who he is, what he did, why he did it, where
he is now, what he accomplished. We've talked about it. Repentance,
that's apt for sound doctrine. That is turning our back and
repenting of every false way, every idol that we used to hold
on to, every experience that was not done in the truth of
God's grace. You say, well, I got baptized
when I was 12. What were you hearing from the pulpit? Think
about it. If it wasn't the gospel, if it
wasn't sound doctrine, turn away from it. All you did was just
take a dip in water. And the only way you got cleansed
by that is to have some soap with you and you get cleansed
physically, that's it. Baptism comes with an identification
of Christ through sound doctrine. Perseverance, that becomes sound
doctrine. Continuing in the faith, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. The obedience of
faith, seeking to obey God in his word, motivated by grace
and love and gratitude. Now he's gonna talk about our
manner of behavior. And I wanna go through some of
these. And that's important. But our, Character and our conduct,
let's put it that way. Our outward manner of living
amongst our friends and even our brethren, that cannot make a person wise
unto salvation. It takes the gospel, it takes
the scripture, the truth, the sound doctrine that drives us
to Christ, the true Christ. And if my manner of living leads
you to believe that salvation is by works, Then where does
that leave you? Leaves you in a mess. That's
not right living. That's not how believers should
live. Let's look at the next verse. He talks about aged men,
verse two. The aged men be sober. What does
that mean? That means vigilant. That means
understanding what we're here for. Clear-minded is one way
to put it. What are we here for? The glory
of God. Grave, that means serious. Now what he's talking about,
that doesn't mean we can't tell a joke or that we can't be happy and
joyous and laugh. It means that when it comes to
this thing of salvation and the gospel, we're serious. We're
to be grave. Temperate, moderation is what
he's talking about there. Not given to overindulge in all
the things. That's appropriate for sound
doctrine. Sound in faith. That's faithfulness. And so that's
sound doctrine, because without sound doctrine, you don't have
soundness in faith, in faithfulness. In charity, that's love. Love
your neighbors, yourself, especially your brethren. Look to Christ
and love the brethren. That means love and forgiveness,
everything that comes along with love. Not trying to earn your
salvation. Patience, that's endurance. Keep
on keeping on, we say that. He talks about the aged women
here. The aged women, verse three, likewise, that they be in behavior
as becometh holiness. That word holy means separate.
Now, all of this applies to both men and women, but he uses specific
things that those women who believe the gospel are to remain separate
as we all are. know that word sanctify means
to separate, we don't consort religiously with the heathen. Over in 1st John chapter 3 or
2nd John rather that I read, look at this in 2nd John in verse
9 where he said He that transgresses and abides not in the doctrine
of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. And then he says
in verses 10 and 11, look at this. If there come any unto
you and bring not this doctrine, this sound doctrine, this sound
teaching, this doctrine of grace, receive him not into your house,
neither bid him God's speed. For he that biddeth him God's
speed is a partaker, a fellowship, a participant of his evil deeds. Now that's not saying that you
can't have an unbeliever in your house. First of all, what he's
talking about here is the house of God, the church. In other
words, we don't receive into our membership those who do not
believe this gospel. We just have to say, well, we're
not one. Now we know sometimes people
can tell us they believe it and not mean it, but that's not our
business now. Christ's gonna separate the sheep from the goats.
if somebody comes in and says well I want to join your church
well what do you believe? If they don't claim at least
to believe this gospel we're not to receive them into our
fellowship because what we're doing is promoting them in their
evil deeds and so what he's talking about is religion here. I've
had people come to my house and knock on the door, and you know
who usually it is, it's usually the Jehovah's Witnesses, and
they want you to promote their religion. Or they want you to
go, can't do it. That's just off. So this is what
he's talking about, and holiness, being separate. Look back at
verse three of Titus two. They're not to be false accusers.
accusing falsely, not given too much wine. I don't know why he
says that specifically to the women, but you know, the men,
you don't be given too much. Don't be a drunk, that's what
he's saying. It's very simple, isn't it? A teacher of good things,
be a teacher of good things, you women. Teach other women,
teach the older women, teach younger women, he says here.
Teach your children, all of that. good things, things that are
honoring to God and appropriate to sound doctrine. Verse four,
that they may teach the young women to be sober, that is, you
might have in your concordance the word wise there, use wisdom,
to love their husbands, to love their children, there's the marriage
and the family see, the woman has a responsibility, the man
does too. Read in Ephesians 5, husbands
love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for
it and he might make it an appropriate bride for him and wives submit
to your husbands as unto the Lord. He goes on, he says in
verse 5 to be discreet, that is to be careful in judgment,
careful in all these things. Chaste means loyal to your husband,
You women, be loyal to him. He's to be loyal to you. Keepers
at home, that doesn't mean a woman can't work outside the home,
but she's to be concerned with her home life. And so is the
man. And he's to help and she's to
help. Obedient to their own husbands. I know a lot of people don't
like that word obedient now, but think about it. He's not
talking about blind obedience here for a woman. You follow
your husband when he leads you in the Lord and in the right
things, not in just arbitrary things that makes him selfish and things
like that. I told a couple one time, a girl
asked me, said, why does it say wives obey your husband and all
that? And I said, well, here's what
I told him. I said, well, as you go out throughout
your married life, I said, I hope that you and your husband agree
100% on everything that you should do and need to do. But I told
him, I said, but I doubt that's going to be the case. Don't you? And when you come to a choice
that has to be made and you can't come to agreement, who's to take
the reins there? The husband is. That's what the
Bible teaches now. The husband's to be the head
of the house. he's never to lead his wife or his children in things
that dishonor her and the children or dishonor God but it's always
to be in those things that are good and appropriate to sound
doctrine. Verse five, that the word of
God may not be blasphemed. Well you know when I see that
I always think about 2 Samuel 12. You remember when King David
He'd already committed sin with Bathsheba. She'd already had
a baby and it died, or it was going to die. He'd already had
Uriah the Hittite killed. And you remember in 2 Samuel
12 where the prophet Nathan came to David and told him the story
of the man who had a hundred sheep, and the man who had one
sheep, and the man who had a hundred. He took the sheep from the man
who had only one. And remember what David said?
He said, I'll bring him to justice. He needs justice. And Nathan
looked at him and said, thou art the man. And David was convicted. And Nathan told him this. He
says, the Lord has forgiven your sin. Why'd he tell him that? Well, so he'd go out and do it
again. No. Because it was true. This is what the Lord instructed
his prophet to say to his child. The Lord's forgiven you. Unconditionally
on the basis of the blood of Christ. But you're gonna suffer
some consequences. The sword's not gonna leave your
house. And you know one of the reasons he told him that he was
gonna have trouble with his own family and his house? Because
you've given the enemies of God room, reason to blaspheme. Now that's what he's saying,
we don't wanna do that. I don't want my bad behavior. I know, listen, I know the enemies
of Christ and his church blaspheme God every day. You know that. But I don't want to be an instrument
to cause them to do that. That's what he's saying. We wanna
point sinners to Christ and live lives that do not hinder in our
witness of the gospel. So now verse six, he goes to
young men. Young men who are believers,
that's who he's talking about. Young men likewise exhort to
be sober-minded, be discreet, level-headed, clear-minded. And verse seven, in all things
showing thyself a pattern of good works. That's what we need
to be, a pattern of good work. Not in order to bring attention
to ourselves, not in order to earn God's favor and blessings,
not in order to make a name for ourselves. Let your light so
shine before men that they may see your good works and do what?
Glorify your Father which is in it." We want to bring glory
to God, don't we? We want to honor Christ. We want
to support our brothers and sisters in Christ in the gospel that
we believe. We want people to know that grace
is not just a doctrine that we claim in our heads but it's the
power live righteously, to live right under God, not seeking
to accomplish a righteousness of our own but submitted to His
righteousness. And so he says, in doctrine showing
uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, all these things he's already
said. Verse 8, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that means
right doctrine and also those things which would support it.
that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no
evil thing to say of you." You know, Christ said, blessed are
you when men shall say evil things and reproach you wrongly. In other words, if they accuse
us, let's do our best to make sure they're accusing us falsely.
And if they accuse us rightly, let's repent. That's what the
Bible teaches. Verse nine, he goes to servants
who are believers. we would probably in our day,
well let's read verse nine, exhort servants to be obedient unto
their own masters and to please them well in all things not answering,
again not talking back, we don't have servants and master that
but we have bosses, we have employees, employers and that's I believe
that's what he's talking about. Verse 10, not purloining, not
stealing, but showing all good fidelity, faithfulness to do
the job you're hired to do with respect, that they may adorn
the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. These things,
this living like this is not our doctrine, but it adorns the
doctrine. That's what it does. And it doesn't
bring sinners to hear the gospel. The Lord may use us to bring
a sinner in under the gospel, but it's not just because of
our outward life. It's because they're one of his
sheep lost in their sins and he brings them in to hear it.
And then he gives us the whole foundation and motivation of
all of how we ought to live. And here it is, verse 11. Number
one, the grace of God that bringeth salvation. My friend, it's all
grace. grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life not by our holy living but by Jesus Christ
our Lord. His living unto death, the merits
of his obedience unto death, his blood, his righteousness
and he said hath appeared to all men. Now he's not saying
that the gospel has appeared to everybody without exception.
There are people who live and die and never hear the gospel.
There's people in this city who've never heard the true gospel,
but he's talking about all sorts of men. This is what he's talking
about. All of God's elect, aged men,
young men, aged women, young women, whoever they are, God
has a people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
And he goes on and said, teaching us, verse 12, that denying ungodliness
and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously and godly
in this present world." You know what he's talking about there
in that verse? The warfare of the flesh against the spirit
and the spirit against the flesh. We're in a warfare. That's how
we ought to live. We ought to live every day in
that warfare. Put on the whole armor of God.
That's right. The shield of righteousness,
the belt of truth, that's doctrine. All of that, that girdle that
holds everything together. But that's what we're in. We're
in a battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. And
how do we battle? Look at verse 13. Looking for
that blessed hope. What is our hope? It's the hope
of grace. It's the hope of righteousness.
It's the hope that we have in Christ. It's the certain expectation
of salvation and the final glory. through the blood and the righteousness
of Christ, our Savior, our Lord, our King. And the glorious appearing
of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. He's coming back,
folks. Could be any day now. We don't
know. We may die before he gets here
and come back with him. He may come back before we die. And why do we know these things
are true? Look at verse 14. Christ gave himself for us. He's our surety. Our sins imputed
to him. His righteousness to us. He's
our substitute. He's our redeemer. He's our life
giver. He's our preserver. He's our
mediator, our intercessor. Everything. And he did it that
he might redeem us from all iniquity. That's our justification. the
ground of our justification. God chose us and put us in Christ
and imputed our sins to him, his righteousness to us. And
he came in time and he took our place under the wrath of God
and paid the dead in full. And then he says, and purifying
himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. That's our regeneration
and conversion. He gave us life from the dead.
We're a peculiar people. Some people say that's purchased.
He purchased us and that's good. And He made us what? Zealous
of good works. Those works that God does within
us to the praise of the glory of His grace that continually
drives us to Christ for all salvation. And he says in verse 15, these
things speak and exhort, encourage, that's what exhort means, encourage
in sound doctrine. Rebuke with all authority, that's
correction when we need it. And the authority is the word
of God. And then he says, let no man
despise thee. In other words, what he's saying
there is don't give them a reason to despise you. Sometimes we
do and we have to repent. We pray that the Lord will bless
us and look past our faults, because we all have them. We
have a lot of them. And we just have to throw ourselves
at his mercy, pray for his forgiveness, which he's already given us.
We know that. And pray for each other to forgive
one another. All right, let's sing a couple
verses of hymn number 269, Under His Wings, 269.