Our lesson begins in chapter
2, Titus 2, verse 6. Last week, we looked at Paul's
instruction on the behavior of the aged men and women and the
young women. And now here in verse 6, he picks
up with the young men. He says, young men, likewise,
exhort to be sober minded. Just like the aged women are
to teach the younger women, the aged men, the pastors and the
elders, are to teach the young men. Both by word and by example,
teach them to be have the behavior that the different behaviors
we looked at last week of these different groups to be temperate,
to be sound in faith, to be sound in love, to be patient, to behave
themselves in holiness. And Paul particularly mentions
here sober minded. And I look that word up, it means
to be in your right mind, he tells young men to be in their
right mind, because typically that's who needs to be instructed
in this, young man, to be in your right mind. Don't act like
a fool. Grow up and have the mind of
a man. Don't be a 25-year-old child with all your attention
being consumed on video games and these sorts of things. Put
away being consumed with childish things and be a man. Young men
tend to be rash and hot-tempered. Paul says, now you teach them,
don't act like a fool, but be sober-minded. Be earnest and
sincere about following Christ. And you'll never be sorry that
you spent your youth following Christ. Spend your youth following
Him. Be sober-minded. Be in your right
mind. You know that the prodigal son, You know, when he realized. I need to go back to my father's
house, the servants at my father's house are better off than me
when he came to his right mind. That's what Paul said, you be
in your right mind, spend your youth following Christ. Now,
verse seven, Paul switches here to the behavior of the pastor.
He says, in all things, showing thyself a pattern of good works
in doctrine, showing uncorruptedness, gravity and sincerity. Now, here's
Paul's instruction to Titus and really to every preacher, and
this applies to every believer as well. Practice what you preach. Put into practice what you preach.
Preach sound doctrine. Believe sound doctrine and show
the fruit of sound doctrine in your daily life. You know, good
doctrine and good conduct go hand in hand. If there's not
good conduct, I can tell you why. It's because there's no
good doctrine in the heart. That's just so. So Paul tells
Titus as the pastor, you be an example of both sound doctrine
and sound conduct. Because if you don't have sound
conduct, I don't care how sound your doctrine is, nobody's going
to listen to it. There's not a person in this room that would
let Bernie Madoff and give you advice on how to invest money
because you'd say, look where it got him. I'm not going to
do that. I'm not going to follow his advice. In the exact same
way, you wouldn't let someone who acts like a reprobate teach
you sound doctrine from the scripture. You'd say, well, look where it
got them. So Paul says, you be an example of good works. And
that's Peter said the same thing to the elders that are among
you. He says, you're not lords over God's heritage, but examples
to the flock. And Paul is doing just what he
said. He's practicing what he preaches.
Look back at Second Timothy, chapter three. Paul set the example
for other young preachers, for Titus and Timothy and others.
In 2 Timothy 3, verse 10, he says, But thou hast fully known
my doctrine and my manner of life, my purpose, faith, longsuffering,
charity and patience. And everything over here in Titus
2 that Paul says for Titus to teach people. Look over here,
Paul says you've known. my example in each and every
one of those things. You know my example. And if you're
going to be an example of good works, then people will listen
to your sound doctrine. And this is described, these
good works and being sound in your conduct, as first being
uncorrupt, uncorruptness. And that word simply means integrity,
both in and out of the pulpit. Conduct yourself with integrity.
Don't mix in any of man's ways, man's ways of thinking, man's
ways of doing things, which scripture describes as corrupt. Follow
the word of God in integrity. Next, gravity. And that word
is the same word we looked at last week. Be a person who should
be respected. Earn people's respect. Then they'll
listen to your doctrine. And third, he says, sincerity.
And that's purity, purity of doctrine. purity of motive and
purity of behavior. Feed people the sincere milk
of the word, not mixed with hypocrisy, but the sincere milk of God's
word. And verse eight, he goes on,
but the pastor's example here says, have sound speech that
cannot be condemned. That he that is of the contrary
part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. Use
sound speech, both in and out of the pulpit, sound speech.
Don't give Satan or his enemies a foothold because of something
you said. Keep a watch over your tongue.
Sound speech. Conduct yourself in such a way
that if someone says evil things about you out here in the community,
people won't believe it because they say, that doesn't match
the man I know. Sound speech so people won't
believe those things people say about you. You know, a believer,
no believer ever wants to bring shame on the name of Christ,
on the name of our Savior. Our desire is to see people saved,
to see people come to Christ. That's our desire. I desire that
so much that people in this community would come to know Christ by
hearing the gospel that we preach. Now, we know most of them won't.
Most people won't believe. But don't let them use our behavior
as an excuse for their unbelief. That's what he's saying. Now
next, Paul says he's got instruction here for servants. And if you
want to know how to please God and men on the job, here's how. Verse 9. Exhort servants to be
obedient unto their masters, and to please them well in all
things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all
good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our
Savior in all things. Now, if you want to be successful
On the job, you want to be pleasing to your Lord and pleasing to
men. First, Paul says, be obedient. You know, this is not rocket
science. This is really simple things. Be obedient. Just do what your
boss tells you to do when he tells you to do it. That's simple. And don't just do it on the outside.
Do it with the song in your heart, with a good attitude, really
trying your best to please him. You ought to go home every day
with pride of workmanship, pride that you did a good job. And
remember here, you're not just being obedient to your boss.
You're not just pleasing your boss. You're pleasing your Savior
by being obedient to your Savior. What did Paul tell the church
at Ephesus? You work in singleness of your heart as unto Christ. Now, if you're working to be
obedient to Christ, being obedient to your boss is not going to
be a problem. Be obedient. This is not answering again.
Don't smart off when your boss tells you to do something. Don't
smart off to him. And, you know, I've seen people
do this. They smart off, but then they go do it. You know,
they do go do it, but they're kind of grumbling about it. Don't
do that. You will earn the respect. of
your boss if you do what he tells you to do with a good attitude.
That's so. And then after you gain his respect
and after you gain his trust, sometime when he is wrong, maybe
you can make a suggestion about how to do things another way.
And since you've got his trust and his respect, maybe he'll
listen if you present your case the right way. You can't present
it grumbling to him. You can't answer again. And maybe
he'll listen to you, but if not, say, okay, and go do it the way
he told you to do it because he's the boss. Be obedient. Then
Paul says, not purloining. You know, one of the best ways
to be a bad employee is to steal from the company that you work
for. Steal time and steal materials and money and so forth. And this
is such a simple thing. This is so obvious. If you want
to be a good employee, don't steal. I mean, it ought to be
so obvious it ought not even have to be said. But it's shocking
is the amount of theft that goes on in the workplace. The workplace,
I mean, I can't tell you. When I worked for the chain of
convenience stores, I stopped counting at 100, 100 people I personally fired for stealing
from the company. I quit counting. It's rampant. And the workplace would be so
much better if every parent taught their children long before they
ever got a job, don't take what doesn't belong to you. It's just
so simple. It's hard enough for a business
to make a profit and keep paying you without people stealing from
them. So don't steal from them. Then
he says, showing all good fidelity. And this is very interesting.
I look this up. You know what this good fidelity means? Faithful
to Christ. You show faithfulness to Christ. You prove yourself to be loyal
and trustworthy for this reason, that you have faith in Christ.
And your boss ought to be able to give you an assignment and
then forget about it because he knows it's done. Your boss
should never feel like he's got to look over your shoulder to
see if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing because
he sees you have faith in Christ. And if you conduct yourself that
way, you have adorned the doctrine of God, our Savior. We don't
just adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior in the pulpit or while
we're here in the church building. It's in your daily life, in your
daily walk. That's how we adorn the doctrine
of God, our Savior. Make your conduct in such a way
that you make the gospel attractive to others because they like the
way you conduct yourself. And this applies to every group
here, the aged men and women, the young men and women, pastors,
servants. In everything you do, adorn the
doctrine of God our Savior. In everything you do, you make
it a point that what you do adorns the doctrine that we believe.
And if something that you think about doing would detract from
the gospel that we preach, don't do it. I mean, it's a really
simple way to decide. Is this going to detract from
the gospel that we preach? If it will, then don't do it.
And if something would be Christlike, something you're thinking about
doing would be Christlike and would show the glory and beauty
of the gospel that we preach, then do it. It really is that
simple. That's adorning the gospel. Now
verse 11, he says, four, the grace of God that bring us salvation
hath appeared to all men. Four, here's why believers desire
to adorn the gospel. Because God has been gracious
to us. It always starts here because
God has made his grace appear to us. Why does a believer desire
to live a life honoring our Savior? Because we're under grace, not
under law. Because we want to, not because
the law requires it. Now, let's break this down. What
has appeared? Grace. God's grace. And God's grace is, first of
all, sovereign grace. Sovereign. God chose those to
whom he would be merciful. I'll be merciful to whom I will
be merciful. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. God's sovereign grace has appeared
to all men. Next, in Isaiah 55, you can read
this, free grace. God's free grace appeared to
all men. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye, buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without
money and without price." God's grace is free grace. Sovereign
grace. It's free grace. And it's eternal
grace. It's grace that was in Christ
Jesus before the world began. And now God's made it appear
to us. Fourth, God's grace is immutable. Unchanging grace. I change not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. And this grace that has appeared
to us, has appeared to us in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's for Christ's sake. In Ephesians
1, all through Ephesians 1, just go through and count how many
times does it say, in Christ. In Him. In the Beloved. In Christ
Jesus. This grace is in Christ. If you
want God's grace, go to Christ. That's where you'll find it.
It's in Him. Now, who does God's grace appear to? Well, Paul says
here, all men. And there is a sense that all
men, the whole world, experiences God's grace, isn't there? God
causes the rain and the sun and air to breathe. Everybody has
air to breathe, whether they're believer or unbeliever. have
food to eat, everybody to an extent experiences some of God's
grace. But God's saving grace, His electing
grace, His sovereign grace appears to God's elect, to all kinds
of men, to men and women from every tribe, kindred, tongue
and nation on this planet. God's grace appears to sinful
men all throughout this world. If you're a sinner, God's grace
is for you. That's who His grace appears
to, sinful men. And you'll notice God's grace
does not offer salvation, does it? God's grace doesn't make
salvation possible. God's grace bringeth salvation. If you know the Lord, it's not
because you did something. You know that. It's not because
you did something to make Christ's death effectual or you did something
to accept Jesus. You're saved, born again, washed
in the blood because God the Holy Spirit came where you were. He found you when you were not
looking for Him and He brought salvation to you. He brought
it to your heart. He revealed Christ to your heart.
He gave you life. He brought salvation to you because
you wouldn't have reached out and took it. He had to bring
it to you. He brought it to where you are and you're saved. But not just from hell, not just
from the wrath of God's justice. Everybody wants to be saved from
hell. You will not find anybody that says, yeah, I want to go
to hell. We're not just saved from hell, although we are. We're
saved from sin, from sin. So we don't live in sin anymore.
If Christ has saved you from sin, then don't yield yourself
to be a servant to sin anymore because you've been saved from
that. God's grace that brings salvation brings salvation to
the soul and it brings obedience to the life. Look at verse 12,
teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should
live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.
Now the gospel teaches us Christ, doesn't it? The gospel teaches
us who and what we are by nature. The gospel teaches us where you
can find salvation. The gospel teaches us who God
is, but it doesn't stop there. The gospel also teaches us how
to walk through the rest of this life. The life we have in this
world pauses that sound doctrine, that teaching us how to walk
through this life. The gospel teaches us to deny,
to hate everything that is opposed to Christ our Savior. You know,
never one time in my, I mean, not one time in my life have
I ever been tempted to wear a Tennessee sweatshirt. I'm telling you,
I'd go cold before I would put on that hideous orange. I detest
it. You know, Tara asked me the other
day, well, did you root for Tennessee against Ohio State? Not a chance. I mean, I'd root for anybody,
but I mean, how much more Should a child of God detest wearing
ungodliness, the conduct of ungodliness and sin that caused our Savior
to suffer for us, we ought to detest it, to shun it at every
opportunity. And if we love Christ, it's impossible
to love anything that's opposed to Him, that's contrary to His
character or His glory. The gospel doesn't just prepare
us for the world to come, now it does, but the gospel also
teaches us how to walk through this present world, to walk through
this world as the salt of the earth. The gospel teaches us
to reject idolatry, the worship of anything but Christ. The gospel
teaches us to deny ungodliness, anything that's contrary to God's
holiness and character. The gospel teaches us to reject
the worldly fleshly ways of living and teaches us to live honestly
in righteousness and holiness before God and men. Now I could
spend a lot of time, but I think it's unnecessary, giving you
lots of examples about how you ought to conduct yourself in
this world. But you know, now in your heart and mind, you know
what you ought to and ought not to do in this world. And if you
have any doubt, I mean any doubt, you just keep coming to the surface.
And before long, as we go verse by verse through Scripture, Scripture
will tell you how the believers walk, how the believers are supposed
to walk through this world. But you know right from wrong.
The problem is not that this group of people doesn't know
right from wrong. You know right from wrong. The
problem is doing it. Now you know what's right and
wrong, now do it. Pray that God will give you the
grace and the strength and the wisdom to live like you ought
and like you want to. Live in this world in love for
Christ. Live in thanksgiving for His
grace, His grace that appeared to you, that brought salvation
to you. Live imitating Christ in fear and reverence of the
Lord. What did our Lord say? If you love me, keep my commandments. If you love Christ, follow Him. The best and really only motivation
for the believer is love. If you love Him, follow Him. And live in this present world
like you're just passing through. You're not so attached to this
world. Now live in it like you're passing
through, like you're waiting to leave this place, because
that's what every believer's doing. Look at verse 13, looking
for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great
God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Live in this world with your
loins girt and your shoes on your feet, looking for Christ
to come and take us home. We're leaving this place. Conduct
yourself appropriately. And remember, don't get too attached
to the things here. Use them and enjoy them as God's
blessed you, but don't get too attached to them because you're
leaving these things. You're not staying here. You're
leaving them here and going to be with your Lord. You know,
Janet, she loves to change things around in the house. I mean,
she doesn't just move furniture around. She moves this room to
this room, this room to this room. She repaints Things have
been the same in our house longer than they've been our whole married
life. Every day I come home from work thinking, I mean, I know
it's coming. We're going to repaint and change
things around. She loves to do that. But in
all of our travels, never one time has she moved a piece of
furniture in a hotel. Not once. She'd never painted,
she'd never hung a picture or moved a picture, never. She takes
care of the things, you know, that belongs to the hotel, but
she'd never invest anything in it. Why? We're not staying there. We're just there for the night.
We're leaving in the morning. That's the way the believer goes
through this life. I'm telling you, don't hang on
too tight to it. We're leaving in the morning.
And a believer is leaving in the morning because we have a
blessed hope. A blessed hope. This hope is
blessed. because of who we're waiting
for. We're waiting for the Lord Jesus
Christ who is blessed forevermore. Our hope is a blessed hope because
Christ is the ground of our hope. Christ is the very reason that
we have a hope. He's the object of our hope and
he's the glory of our hope. Our hope is blessed because it's
in Christ. And this is a good hope. It's
a good hope through grace, the grace that's appeared to all
men. It's a good hope because this hope that we have comes
from the promise of the Father who cannot lie. We have this
hope because the Son purchased it, the Son who cannot fail to
be discouraged. We have a good hope because our
risen Savior said, I'm going to repair a place for you and
I'll come again for you and receive you to myself that where I am,
there you may be also. This is a good hope because we've
already been given the earnest The pledge of this hope in the
person of the Holy Spirit who dwells in you. This is a blessed
hope and it's so blessed because when Christ appears. We'll have
full redemption, body and soul made just like him. Look over
at first John chapter three. This is our blessed hope. And there's consequences in the
life because you have this blessed hope. In 1 John 3 verse 2, Beloved,
now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be
like him. We're going to be made like him,
for we shall see him as he is. That's our blessed hope. But
I look at verse 3. Here's the consequences for those
who have this blessed hope. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Everyone
who has this hope in himself is going to live righteously
in a holy life in this world. Now, verse 14, we're waiting
for our blessed hope, the appearance of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for us. that he might redeem us from
all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous
of good works. Now, without exception, when
Scripture speaks of the believer's walk and our motive for a good
holy walk, the motivation is always Christ. It's always who
he is and what he's done for his people. And here Paul tells
us that the Lord Jesus Christ God's only Son gave Himself for us. He didn't pull out His wallet
or His checkbook and pay something, give something that belonged
to Him to redeem us. He gave Himself. He gave His
body. He gave His soul as an offering
for sin. He gave everything that He is. The price of our redemption was
the suffering of both the body and the soul of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It was His death. And who did
He give Himself for? He gave Himself for His enemies. Christ died for us while we were
yet sinners. Now, if you have any understanding
of the miracle of that kind of grace, that God's holy, beloved
Son would give Himself for you where you're and you see your
own worthlessness and nothingness and iniquity, if you have any
understanding of that kind of grace, you will live for Christ. Not only will you live by Him
and in Him, and you will, you'll live by Christ and in Christ,
but you will live for Him. Christ died to redeem us from
the curse of the law, to cleanse us from all of iniquity, to make
us pure, He set us free from the condemnation of sin, and
He set us free from the controlling power of sin. Christ gives His
people a new nature that's His nature, that's holy, that hates
sin. Now, how can someone who claims
to be a believer, who claims to have that nature, not shun
sin and not hate it? Can't be done. You can't live
and love sin that caused the suffering of our Savior. that
caused him to have to give himself for us. And Christ doesn't just
make us legally pure, although he does. He makes his people
pure and holy in the sight of God. He gives us a new nature
that's pure, that's holy, and has a zeal for God, that has
a zeal for his glory, that's zealous of good works, serving
his people. Now Christ, when he gave himself
for us, he bought us. He bought us for his glory and
for his use. We're not our own. We're bought
with the price. That's what this word here in
the text is peculiar. It means purchased. You're purchased
for his use by the blood of Christ. So how can you not live for him,
be zealous of good works, of a righteous walk before him?
So, verse 15, he says, Paul tells Titus, as a pastor, Titus, these
things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no man
despise you. These things, this sound doctrine
of how a sinner is saved and how a believer conducts himself
through the rest of his time on this planet, that sound doctrine,
and that's to be preached over and over and over again, preached
clearly preach strongly, never compromise. Believers are to
be urged and encouraged, reminded to look to Christ and to follow
Christ in our daily walk. And Paul says, you speak this
with all authority. You speak the sound doctrine
with all the authority of God's word. We can have authority if
we're saying what God's word says. That's where the authority
comes from. And don't let anyone despise you because you lived
contrary to God's word, contrary to sound doctrine that you preach.
Don't let anyone despise you because you allowed your doctrine
to be corrupted. You just say, well, it's not
that big a deal. And you just start an avalanche. Don't let
someone despise you because you allowed your doctrine to be corrupted.
And don't let anybody despise you because you shunned to declare
unto them the whole counsel of God. You ought to despise the
man when you get to the end of your life and you lay down on
your deathbed and realize that man didn't tell me the whole
truth. He didn't declare unto me the
whole counsel of God. Paul tells Titus, don't let that
happen to you. Don't let them despise you because
you failed to preach unto them sound doctrine. God's Word. All right. Lord bless you.