Titus chapter 2 is where we have
come to in our study. I just want to read one verse,
we have got to this one verse, and that is verse 6. This is
the instructions the Apostle Paul wrote for Titus to give
to these young men. And it is very short, verse 6
of Titus chapter 2. Young men likewise exhort to
be sober-minded. young men likewise exhort to
be sober-minded. Now, what's said here of young
men could most assuredly be said of young women also. They're
the same, but the Apostle Paul here is writing in particular
to young men, and I don't know how old that would be. It would
probably vary. We look at different stages in
life as we consider and there's infants and young children that
under their mom and dad's supervision, they train them, they discipline,
they keep them in check, they control them, train them and
all of that. And then you go into the stage
sometime probably up in the teenage years where we enter this second
stage of young men. And I don't know what age that
would be, probably depending upon the circumstances and the
condition, but Paul doesn't say. And then we go into the middle
age, and that comes a little quicker for some than others.
And then in old age, where we get decrepit and diseased and
weak and die. But he's writing here to the
young men, these young men that had reached the age, probably
now where they begin to control themselves, discipline themselves.
That's what this word here, sober-minded, means. to be temperate under self-control. And it is first and foremost
here to young Christians, Christian men, young Christian men, but
this is good advice. And very seldom I would say this
because these epistles are written to believers. They are written
to Christians. But this is good advice for all young men, not
just Christian men, but all young men to be sober-minded. And I told you this before, but
it has the same root as verse 2, this word temperate. And in
verse 5, discreet. And it means to be sane of mind,
a sane mind. To think properly, a governed
mind, to be steady in one's mental behavior, self-control, self-restraint,
moderate, modest. moderate and modest. Now that's
good advice for young men. It doesn't seem like much, does
it? Of all of the other ages that he deals with, given advice,
this is the shortest one here. Just one verse and probably seven
or eight little words. Sober-minded. Now why is this
so important for young men? especially for young men, to
be sober-minded, to be disciplined, to think properly, to think sanely. Well, let's look at some reasons.
First of all, in general, how many young men do you and I know
who have absolutely messed their lives up because of a lack of
self-control, a lack of discipline in their life? I have no multitude
myself. have got themselves in trouble
they never did get out of because of the lack of self-control. Young men! The scripture says
childhood and youth are vanity. And I tell you that vanity is
nowhere seen, I guess, as much as it's seen in young men. Vanity
and youth. In general, when we talk to parents,
about who's caused the most sorrow in their family or who requires
the most advice, the most attention from them, who's caused the most
heartaches in the family, almost all of them will say this, that
young man or that young man. If you talk to school principals,
if you talk to law enforcement officers, if you talk to and
see the statistics on youth, prisons where they can find youth
and you ask them who is most concerning to you? Who do you
have to pay more attention to than anybody else? And you know
what they'll say? Young men. It's the young men
that are in trouble and cause more trouble usually than anybody
else in society. Young men are the future of our
society. And yet those same young men
are exposed seemingly to more trouble than anybody else in
society, especially the young men. How few young men do we
see in our worship service? We don't see many young men in
our worship service. We've got many, but we don't
see many do it. And as you travel around and
preach to different congregations and you talk to pastors, One
of the things they'll tell you is usually when the young children,
especially the young boys, get up to be young men, they don't
like to attend the worship services. They're sort of like that prodigal
son. They want to throw off any constraint and discipline and
go out and waste their substance with riotous living. We don't
see many young people in our worship services. And consider
this about young people, and I think here's another reason
why young men especially need this advice. How much bad behavior
is learned by young men that they have to struggle against
the rest of their lives? How many bad habits are learned
in youth that becomes a terrible temptation that you just hardly
can shake loose the rest of your life? I fell into some habits
myself when I was young that I still have trouble with even
to this very day, and you have to watch and fight against. Bad
habits are difficult to break if they're learned in our youth.
Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?
Then may you who are accustomed to do evil do good. I tell you,
habits, bad habits, learn when we're young. It's difficult to
break. We see it in society, don't we?
We see sometimes whole society learning bad habits. We see it
in whole families. And then we see it in people's
hearts when they're young that they get accustomed to doing
this and accustomed to doing that. And then it's difficult
to get rid of those bad habits. Thank God there's grace. Oh,
thank God, there's grace to break the power of those bad habits,
the power of sin that we learned when we were in our youth. But
you know so often, even though the power of sin may break the
habits and forgive the sin, boy, it don't always cleanse the memory,
does it? When Job was in his great trial,
and boy, this is sometimes where we remember the sins of our youth
is in our trial. Job said this, Thou writest bitter
things against me, Lord. You make me possess the iniquities
of my youth, not it so much the guilt of them, but the thought
of them. And David himself prayed in his trial, Lord, remember
not against me the sins of my youth. I have some precious memories
of my youth, very precious memories, but you know so much of it is
mired youthful lust and vanity and bad habits that I had. The
Lord saved me when I was 23 years old. I wish He would have been
pleased to save me when I was 13. I would much rather look
back in my youth and think upon the knowledge of Christ than
to look back in my youth and think upon the knowledge of some
bad habit that I require or some youthful lust. So this is why
this encouragement here and this exhortation from the Apostle
Paul is needful for youth. It's needful. And then think
of this, and young men seldom think of this. They just don't
think of this. It's not natural for a young
man to think of this. Young men die. Young men die. Young men think that they're
going to live long enough to bury their parents. But you know, there's a lot of
parents that bury their children, that bury their men, that bury
their young men in the family. David buried two of his young
sons, didn't he? Job buried ten of his children. the scripture says it's appointed
and to me and what's the back and who does that a point it's
god is and sometimes he appoints young men as well as old man
i remember when i was driving a truck this might do things
when i was driving a truck really made impression upon me about
young men die we had an incident out there on twenty eight at
uh... delta high school that was uh... Four boys, and I could
just almost see them. I've done this countless times. School's out. And boy, you want
to get out on the road with your friends and have fun. These young
teenagers come out of the parking lot in their car and pull right
out in front of a semi. Hit them head on. And the driver
of that semi says that he cannot get it out of his mind. He made
eye contact with all four of those boys sitting in that car.
And he said, I saw the fear on their faces just before the impact,
and it killed all four of those young boys. Young men die, don't
they? I was coming from Muncie, going
to Anderson, driving my truck, and came up on three or four
cars sitting there, and I knew something bad had happened to
Semi in a car, and I got out and went through back window
of this car and made my way up to where this young man, he was
a Ball State student, and I talked with him. And he had a hole here
in his head. And the dash had been driven
back against his waist and he'd pinned in. He was just bleeding
profusely. But I told him, I said, I think
you're going to be all right. He told me his name. He was talking
with me. Told me his mom and dad's name. The next day I read
in the paper, he never made it. He died. But young people don't
think about that, do they? They die. Young people die. This is good instructions to
exhort young people to be sober-minded. Be in self-control. Be sane in
your thinking. This is always important here.
This is so important. It's not always the sin that
we think young people fall into. Avoid open sin and profane sin. But you know one of the sins,
too, that young people have to be aware of, and this comes right
back to self-control and modesty, and that's secret pride. Especially young believers have
to be careful of secret pride. Too much self-esteem, too much
self-importance. In our text, this word exhorts
young men to be sober-minded, I want you to look at a couple
of places. There are four or five places this word is used.
But I want to show you a couple of places. Look in Romans chapter
12 where this very same word is used. And look how it is used
here. And this is why I say that it
is right the opposite of pride. Look how the Apostle Paul says
it here in Romans chapter 12 and look in verse 3. Romans chapter 12 verse 3, For
I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is
among you, not to thank of himself more highly than he ought to
thank, but to thank soberly, that's that same word, temperately,
to be modest, sound in his thinking, to thank soberly according as
God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith, not to thank
of himself more highly than he ought to think. So this word,
being sober-minded, is right the opposite of pride and having
too much self-esteem and self-importance about one, too highly of oneself. Young men are apt to be too proud
in their appearance. It's natural, isn't it? It's natural for a young man
to be proud because he's young. and because he's healthy and
because he looks good. That's natural. The Bible says
a young man glories in his strength. That's why he gets in the front
of the mirror and flexes his muscle. Remy does it all the
time. This is when he puts on his clothes and looks in the
mirror. He sees how good he looks. He glories and that's natural,
isn't it, for a young man to do that? He loves to show off. It hasn't been that long ago
since I was a young man. I know what young men do. It's
pride. It's easy to get lifted up in
pride, is it not? Pride of dress, pride of birth,
pride of family, pride of heritage, pride of education, pride of
my job. I've got a good job. I'm making
good money. I'm independent. But these are
obvious things, aren't they? These are obvious ways that pride
shows itself. And sometimes we laugh about
that. But there's another kind of pride that sometimes is very
dangerous and it gets in young people. It gets in young preachers.
It gets in young Christians. And that's the pride of intellect. The pride of intellect. Thinking
too highly of oneself in his heart and in his mind. This is
one of the greatest and most hurtful forms of pride that afflicts
all people. Even the old people have trouble
with this, but Paul is saying especially to the young people,
not think insanely about themselves. Too much self-esteem. Boy, self-esteem
has ran amok in our day, hasn't it? Self-importance, self-esteem. The pride of intellect. is the
greatest form of pride. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity
edifieth. The ability to learn on any level,
if you're talking about the spiritual level, if you're talking about
the natural level, if you have the ability to learn, you've
got that ability from God. None of us could have any sense
about anything spiritual or natural if it wasn't for God giving us
that ability. But when this ability is cultivated
as it should be, the mind has this natural tendency to be stirred
up to be proud. I have noticed this in my own
life. I've noticed it in the life of others. Calvin said it like this. He
said when God gives the ability and knowledge is cultivated,
if He doesn't afflict, it always leads to pride. Knowledge without
humility is a dangerous thing because it always leads to pride. That's why I think when the Lord
calls a young man to preach the gospel, the best thing He can
do to that young man is afflict him Because if you don't keep
him humble, he'll begin to learn, and the first thing he does,
he begins to think too highly of himself. He gets lifted up
in pride. Young men should cultivate their
intellect. They should learn. They should
grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The Scripture tells all of us as Christians to do that. Young
men should create a social life. a spiritual life of knowledge
of spiritual things of God and Christ and self and salvation. When a young man or young woman
professes Jesus Christ, then it's expected of them to grow
in grace and knowledge as newborn babies. But you know what? A
social life should be cultivated too. Joe and I was watching a
What was the name of that program that was something about where
these go off in the wild and separate themselves from society?
I forgot the name of that. Live free or die. Was that it?
Live free or die. Some of you may have seen it.
But you got these people. Some of them were businessmen.
But they got out of society. They want out of society. They
want to get off the grid, they call it, and get out of society.
make their own way and grow their own food or hunt their food and
dig for water. And they call it being free.
They're a bit more free than you are or I am. They still have
to labor for what they've got. And the first time they get sick
enough, they're headed for a hospital just like you and I did. But
we need to cultivate. Young men need to cultivate a
social life. Young men need to learn a trade.
Young men need to seek education to make a living, to support
themselves, and to support others. And listen to this. A certain
amount of self-esteem is necessary to do that, is it not? It is. We're not talking about self-esteem
if it's regulated, if it's controlled, but we're talking about self-esteem
run amok. Self-importance not regulated.
But what's the matter with a person? What do we say about those people
who don't have enough self-esteem, enough dignity, enough motivation,
but what they'll sit on the couch all day long or play some kind
of games for hours at a time, and they're young men that should
be getting an education, learning a trade to know how to support
themselves and others, but instead of that, They're doing those
things that's absolutely useless. They're not cultivating a social
life. And what do we say about people
like that? Have you no shame? You're 22 years old and you're
sitting on the couch or in your mom and dad's basement playing
a video game? Have you no shame? They have no self-esteem at all,
do they? So there's nothing wrong with
cultivating a social life. and learning trades and getting
educated in those things. But what we're talking about
here is that run amok, getting educated, getting a good job,
things going well and getting exalted into pride and begin
to think too highly of yourself. There's this danger here that
we're warned of, and Paul warns the young men of, especially
the young men, as these faculties are cultivated, intellectual
faculties, social faculties, and as we experience a measure
of what some might call success, we are in danger of something,
and that's secret pride, not being sober-minded, thinking
too highly of ourselves. I say through the grace given
unto me to every man that is among you not to think of himself
more highly than he ought to think. But just let our knowledge
begin to increase. Let us begin to experience a
measure of success in the spiritual realm as well as the natural
realm. And what happens? We begin to think more highly
of ourselves than we ought to. Aren't we that way? That's natural. And a young man needs to be warned
against that and to be on the lookout for it, to be sober-minded.
Even Paul had trouble with this, didn't he? Man, he began to increase
in knowledge and the Lord revealed all of these things to him. And
he was talking about being caught up into the third heaven and
seeing all of these wonderful things that he couldn't even
talk about. And the Lord had to give him this thorn in the
flesh to keep him beat down. Why? Lest I be exalted. Lest
I start looking down on other people and say, man, man, you
ain't near worth what I am. You don't know nothing to what
I know. Begin to think too highly of yourself. I think it was Spurgeon,
some of you may have told, someone may have told me about this,
Spurgeon was left to pulpit one day and And somebody met him
when he stepped out of the pulpit and said, Spurgeon, what a great
message. I want to be the first one to
tell you. He said, I'm sorry. Somebody already told me what
a great message that was. He said, the devil told me that
as soon as I stepped out of the pulpit. Pride. That's pride,
isn't it? That's pride. Young men are apt
to ignore wise counsel of the old and experienced. That's natural,
too. You can hardly find a young man
that has knowledge and has humility. You just can't hardly find it.
It's a very rare thing. Rehoboam, I think was his name,
Solomon's son, they took over the kingdom after Solomon died,
Rehoboam, and they were ready to have a rebellion. And they
came to him and said, your dad taxed us to death, he burdened
us to death, and we want you to give us some relief. And he
called the old man, the old wise counselors together. And he said,
I need some advice. What would you advise me to do?
And they said, you better lighten the load. Your dad really did
burden society with his taxes and all the money that he spent.
He said, let me call the young man and get their advice. So
he called the young man. They said, boy, you need to just
take control of him and tell him you're not listening to him.
You're going to tax him more. He took the advice of the young
man. Young men are apt to reject the advice of old men. That's experience. And Rehoboam
lost the kingdom then. He lost the kingdom. Young men need to take the advice
and listen to the older men. One man said this, when a man
is young, he thinks himself to be so wise. At 30, he begins
to expect and suspect it may not be so true. At 40, he knows
it's not true. At 50, he considers himself a
fool and begins to reform his plans. So that's usually the
way it goes, isn't it? I said one time I didn't have
a liquor since the last 40, and my wife said 60. I said 60. So it varies in age, doesn't
it? It varies in age. But two things
you seldom see in a young man is knowledge and humility. A
young man so full of knowledge of God, and in the social realm,
and yet esteeming others higher than themselves, better than
themselves. For a young man to be sober-minded
will elevate his true character. He that humbles himself shall
be exalted. Some young men are afraid to
be humble. They're afraid people will laugh at them, and that's
the very way to be exalted. Being sober-minded will increase
the opportunity and influence of doing good in this world. And by being sober-minded, a
young man will escape those snares that others have fallen into.
Exhort the young men to be sober-minded. Paul was writing concerning preachers,
young preachers, when he told Timothy, Don't let a novice get
into the pulpit. Don't lay hands suddenly. Don't
ordain a novice. Lest, being lifted up with pride,
ye fall into the condemnation of the devil. And what does it
mean to be lifted up in pride? You've lost your control, haven't
you? You've lost self-control. You've lost self-restraint. A
young preacher asked me not long ago, he said, Bruce, do you have
any advice for me as a young preacher? I said, just one thing.
Stay low. Stay low. Stay down at Jesus'
feet. Stay low. If you don't do that,
you'll hurt yourself more than you can imagine. But if you'll
do that, you'll help yourselves and others more than you can
imagine. And this is another place where
this same word is used to prove this point. You remember when
the Lord Jesus cast all the devils out of that maniac, that legion
of devils? And they came out of the town
to see him, and he was clothed and sitting at Jesus' feet in
his right mind. That right mind is the same word
that we're studying on here, sober-minded. And you know that
you're in your right mind when you're sitting at Jesus' feet
when you keep yourself down and low at His feet, listening to
His Word and hearing His voice. And when you get up is when you
get yourself in trouble, sober-minded. Another place this word is used
in 1 Peter 4, verse 7, listen to this, But the end of all things
is at hand. Be ye therefore sober. Be sober,
be sane, be temperate, self-control, self-restraint, moderate, modest,
and watch unto prayer, everything is coming to an end, isn't it? This is one thing that young
men need to remember, especially while they're young. And you
know, it's going to take God's grace for young men to apply
this and to remember this. Because when they're young, they
think, man, I've got so much to look forward to. I'm going
to get this and I'm going to get that. And that may be so. But everything is coming to an
end. The end of all things is at hand. Our intellectual abilities, our
knowledge that we have of this world, our possession, our jobs,
everything as we know it, this world as we know it is coming
to an end. And if we'll keep that in our
mind, if young people will keep that in their memory, it will
help them to be sober-minded, to think properly of this life. I want to show you this and read
you this right quickly in closing. In Ecclesiastes chapter 11, the Bible has so much to say
of young people, to young people, and especially to young men.
Here Solomon is writing to them. Ecclesiastes chapter 11. Look
in verse 8. Ecclesiastes chapter 11 verse
8. It is on page 754 in the Pew
Bibles. Ecclesiastes chapter 11 verse
8. If you go to Psalms, just keep
turning over the Proverbs and you go to Ecclesiastes. If a man live many years, and
rejoice in them all, yet let him remember the days of darkness,
for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity. Rejoice,
O young man, in thy youth. God does not forbid a young man
to rejoice. Let your heart cheer thee in
the days of thy youth. and walk in the way of your heart
and in the light and the sight of thine eyes. But know thou
that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment. Therefore consider that. Remove
sorrow from your heart and put away evil from your flesh. Remove
that sin that is going to bring you sorrow. and put that evil
away from your flesh. Give yourself wholly, heart and
body over to the Lord. For childhood and youth is vanity. Remember now thy Creator in the
days of thy youth. For look at this, while the evil
days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say,
I have no pleasure in them. One of the things that will keep
all of us more sober, sober-minded, is to remember the day is coming
when this life's going to end as we know it. And we're going
to lay this earthly house aside, all the possessions and everything
that we've rightfully worked for, that we rightly possess,
and this world is going to cease to be and we're going out into
eternity and we'll look back upon this life and say, my, how
short that was. What did this mean and what did
that mean? Nothing in the light of eternity. So while a young man cultivates
his mind and cultivates his body and rightfully seeks to have
a social life, just remember anything that interferes my life
as a child of God and my worship of Him and my service of Him.
Remember, don't let it interfere with that. Make sure everything
else is secondary to our worship and our service of God. Exhort
young men to be sober-minded. We may want to look at that again
next week.