This is where we have come to
in our study in Titus chapter 2. I want to begin reading in
verse 2 and read down through verse 6. The aged men be sober. Here is
what the Apostle said, that the aged men, he gave instructions
to aged men to be sober, reverent, grave, temperate, sound in faith
and charity and patience. The age women likewise, that
they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers,
not given to much wine, teachers of good things. That they may
teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love
their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good,
obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. We just want to consider verse
three tonight, the aged women. Instructions for aged women.
You know it's somewhat sad, but this is true, that some, even
some of the Lord's children, some that's very sound in theology,
don't have much of an appetite for what we sometimes call practical
Christianity. How we should live our daily
lives. You know, they say such things that You know, just teach
me about salvation. Teach me about the way of salvation.
Well, we all love that, don't we? And we all need that. The
Lord Jesus, He taught us the way of salvation. He said, My
blood is drink indeed, and My flesh is meat indeed. He that
drinks My blood and eats My flesh hath eternal life abiding in
him. And He said, The Son of Man came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister and give His life a ransom for many, as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, whosoever believeth in Him. So
He taught us the way of salvation, didn't He? He taught us that
often. But you know, He also taught
the fruit of salvation. He taught what it was to be saved,
and He taught what it was to live. for Him when He had saved
us. And how often did He make such
statements like this? Take up your cross daily and
follow Me. And you read that Sermon on the
Mount and my, what instructions that is and how the fruit of
salvation is revealed in that Sermon on the Mount because look
at what He taught us there about practical things, how to live
our daily lives. He taught us about praying, didn't
He? How to pray as Christians. When you pray, He said, don't
go out and stand on the corners where people can see you, but
go home and get in your closet and pray to your Father which
hears in secret. And He that hears in secret shall
reward you openly. Also taught us this about prayer.
Pray for your enemies. Pray for them that despise you
and curse you and hate you. Pray for them and love them and
be good to them. So he taught us many practical
things, didn't he? About being content. Don't be
anxious, he said, in this world. Don't live your lives full of
anxiety. Live your lives trusting your
Father who loves you, the One who clothed the lilies of the
field. Trust Him that He'll clothe you. And He feeds the birds of
the air. Will He not feed you, you of
little faith? So He taught us the way of salvation,
and He also taught us the fruit of salvation, how to live. And
that's what the Apostle Paul is teaching us here in our text,
here about these older ladies, these aged women. What should
the behavior be? What kind of demeanor, what kind
of character and attitude and deportment should an old lady
who has served the Lord for years, what kind of an attitude should
she have? What kind of a person should she be as she lives her
life for the Lord? And there are certain behaviors
that would be unbecoming in an older Christian lady. And there are certain behaviors,
there are certain demeanor that is becoming a child of God, an
older lady that loves the gospel. Now, when the Lord saves us,
we're a new creature in Christ. We're not what we used to be.
We're new. We're called babies, aren't we?
Babes in Christ. And we're told to desire the
sensual milk of the Word that we may grow up. When a baby is born, it has all
of its parts. It's perfect. It doesn't grow
any new organs. It doesn't grow any new limbs.
It has all of its parts. And when a person is born again,
you know they're complete. They're complete in Christ. They
have all of the graces of the Holy Spirit. and now they just
develop, they grow up as they desire the sensual milk of the
Word and that's what Paul is telling us here as we grow up
and then we become old in the Lord, these aged women, what
kind of a person should this aged woman be who has grown up
and now she's old in the Lord? What's her attitude towards God?
What's her attitude towards the worship of God and the service
of God and the truth of God? Well, he tells us here that she's
developed, she should have developed, a deep reverence. That's what
this word holiness means, that which becometh holiness. It means
a reverence in her demeanor of God, a reverence for God and
a reverence for His service in all that she does. And Paul implies
something else about her here, and he gives it in a negative
way. He gives us this negative thing
here in verse 3. He says, ìNot a false accuser.î
And that word means a slanderer or a tale-bearer or a spreader
of rumors. ìNot a false accuser.î And what
does that imply? If this is not what sheís supposed
to do and be like, But the opposite of that, what does that imply
about this aged woman? Not only that she has a deep
reverence for God and the truth of God in her service and worship
of Him, but she's a very gracious lady. She's a very kind and loving
and good woman because she's not going to slander people.
She's not going to gossip about people. What do we sometimes
hear about old ladies? Boy, there's some phrases concerning
old ladies. That stupid old woman. Have you
ever heard anybody? That gossiping old woman. That
slandering old woman. That lying old woman. That talkative
old woman. Haven't we heard all of those
things about old women? And sometimes, I'm sorry to say,
they earn that reputation. A gossiping, slandering old woman. And he tells them here to be
sure That you're the opposite of that. She's deeply and sincerely
reverent in her whole attitude towards God and she's honest,
she's truthful, she's loving to her family and to the family
of God and to mankind in general. She's just a good woman. And
we heard that said about some Christian, she is a good woman. Well, that's what Paul's saying
about these aged women. She's a gracious, loving, kind,
she's a good woman. And you take a woman who has
lived a long life with this kind of behavior and she has this
kind of demeanor about her, isn't that a wonderful testimony to
the grace of God? And what a help such a woman
is to the congregation, to the people of God every place. I want to show you a couple of
scriptures. You can hold this here if you
want to and tie this, but I want you to look back over to the
left to 1 Timothy chapter 2. Look here in verses 9 and verse
10. Two descriptions he tells us
about women, Christian women. Look in I Timothy Chapter 2 and
look in verse 9, "...in like manner also that women adorn
themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness..." That
word shamefacedness means modesty, modesty of heart, modesty of
spirit. "...and sobriety..." That means
self-control. "...not with broidered hair,
or gold, or pearls, or costly array." But that which cometh
women professing godliness with good works. Now this is the way
women back in Paul's day and Peter's day used to appear attractive. You ladies know this and I am
not going to dwell too much on this, but you know that women
especially, do not bother us men too much, but women do not
like to get old looking. They want to remain attractive.
Now, I can't blame them for that. That's fine. I don't want my
wife to get unattractive physically. I want her to try to maintain
a little, you know, appearance of attractiveness. But the way
they used to remain attractive back in Paul's day was they brooded
their hair. And they wore these costly jewels
of gold and precious stone and things like that. Now, if we
was writing this today, what would we say? Well, they had
a facelift. We'd write this, say, not with
facelifts. Quit getting your skin stretched to get the wrinkles
out and the Botox and the implants and all of that stuff. Why do
women do that? Why do women do that? It's because
they want to appeal. They want to remain attractive.
But Paul said, don't do that. That's not the beauty of a woman. If a woman wants to maintain
her beauty, then her beauty, her real beauty, is inwardly. Inwardly. And we'll see that
in just a minute in I Peter 3. If a young lady wants to maintain
her attractiveness to God and to man, then don't get caught
up in the fashion and folly of this world. Concentrate on that
beauty, that inward beauty that's pleasing to God and helpful to
man. And I'm talking about that beauty
of an inner man that's very attractive both to God and to man. That's
what makes a person beautiful, is it not? Not just the women
but the men, but an older woman that has this attitude. of meekness
and quietness and reverence for God and love and grace and kindness
to others. My goodness, how valuable that
woman is. And if she just maintains that
attitude like that until she gets old, oh my goodness, isn't
somebody like that sweet? They're just so sweet. And he
says, good works. That which becometh a woman with
good works. I often think of Dorcas. Remember Dorcas in Acts chapter
9? She was an old widow lady, the
best I can discern because she died. And all the widow ladies
were gathered around her just weeping because they loved Dorcas.
And the Bible says she was full of good works and alms deeds
that she did. They missed her so bad they washed
her body and laid her out in the upper room and called for
Peter. He came to Joppa and all the widows was around crying
over Dorcas. Oh, we've lost Dorcas. And they
had all of the coats and all of the blankets that she had
made people and all of them was brangling there and said, Look,
look what a fine woman this was. Look what a gracious woman this
was. Look what she did. And they wept. And the Lord raised
that woman from the dead. I guess He thought, Well, they
need her. I want her. She's a flower in my garden and
I'm longing to have her up here with me, but they need her. They
need her. She's an aged woman that was
so gracious. But look what Peter says now
in 1 Peter chapter 3. Here he tells about these women
and about their inward attitude. Look here how he says it in verse
3. We're not going to look in verse
1 and 2. We'll look at that next week. Very interested. But let's
look at their attitude. Here's what I'm talking about,
the inward beauty. Who's adorning? Let it not be
that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and wearing of gold,
or of putting on of a pearl. Now, Peter's not saying anything
against plaiting of the hair. He's not saying there's anything
sinful about that any more than putting on of a pearl. I mean,
there's nothing wrong with putting on of a pearl. You better put
on your pearl before you go outside. But what he's saying, don't let
these things be what concerns you. Don't use these things just
to maintain your attractiveness, to be beautiful and appealing
to this world. What is appealing? What is appealing? but let it be the hidden man
of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament
of a meek and quiet spirit," look at this, "...which is in
the sight of God of great price." A meek, quiet, reverent, good,
Gracious, loving, merciful Spirit. That's in the sight of God of
great price. But that's the inward man. What
he calls here the hidden man of the heart. And you can't see
it, see? You can't see that. You can just
see the fruits of it. And the fruits of that for a
woman is a meek and quiet and gentle nature. That's grace showing
itself. What he calls here the hidden
man, Paul calls new man which is created in righteousness and
true holiness, and that inner man which delights in the law
of God after the inward man. And Peter says here, this is
in the sight of God a great price. And you know something? You take
an aged woman like this, she never grows old. She never grows
old. We've seen women like that, haven't
we? They're like a rose that bloomed and never did fade. You
see a beautiful rose and it's full bloom and oh, it has such
a sweet fragrance about it, but then it dies. It just wibbles
up and dies. But here's the amazing thing
about an aged woman that's like this. She bloomed when she was
a young Christian woman. She fully blossomed and she stayed
that way. And she became sweeter and gracious
as she grew older. And that's the demeanor that
she has. And now that she's old, she's still fresh. You know,
this inner man don't grow old, does he? What grows old is that
which is born of corruptible seed. That's why you folks are
looking so wrinkled and out of shape and everything else. It's
because this corruptible seed. But there's within. This hidden
man is incorruptible. And you know something? That
inner man will never grow old. It will never age. He will continually
grow. And you take an older lady, an
old saint of God, and she's so vibrant, she's so lively in her
spirit. You remember Anna during the
temple, that old widow? when they brought the Lord Jesus,
eight days to circumcise Him. And Samuel took Him up and said,
Let me die. My eyes have seen the Lord. And
this old lady came in. And she lived there at the temple.
She reached the point in her life that she desired to serve
the Lord and be such a help to His people, she said, I'm just
going to move in the temple. And they fixed her room or something.
She lived there at the temple and it says she served the Lord
day and night in prayers and fasting. Such a servant of God
and such a help to the people came there at the temple. And
she came in, I assume she was 84 years old. and some calculator
age as being maybe 106 years old. But here she came in. Can you see this old lady and
what a sweet old lady she was? And she looked at the Lord Jesus
and she began to tell about Him. She spake of Him to all that
looked for redemption in Israel. And she was a gracious old lady. And that's what the Apostle Paul
is talking about, this aged women here adorned themselves with
a demeanor that is well-pleasing to God and helpful to man. And she'll stay young. She'll
stay young. On her deathbed, she'll be young
at heart. Old Scott Richardson wrote a little article about
one of the things that he wanted was to stay young at heart. And he did. He did. Even when
he was old and decrepit looking. Boy, he had a young heart about
him. Young heart. So that's the demeanor. That's
the demeanor. One of reverence towards God
and helpful towards men. Back here in our text in Titus
chapter 2, let's quickly look at a couple of more things in
chapter 3. Paul gives two negatives. I've
often said this. We can learn so much When the
scripture sets something forth as negative, we learn when it
does it positive. Sometimes I've learned more from
looking at negative things that's said than I have positive. And
right here's what he says. He says two things. The aged
women likewise, they be in behavior, have this demeanor that becometh
holiness. Not false accusers. That's the first one. Not given
to much wine. That's the second negative. Now,
I've been told this. I don't know this. for a fact,
but I've been told this, that two of the things that affect
aged women is they like to gossip and they like to drink too much
wine. I don't know if that's so or
not. You ladies have to judge yourself on that. But this accuser,
not false accusers, I looked that word up. He was very interested.
It's used 38 times in the New Testament, accuser. Once it's
used to describe the attitude of people of the last day. In
the last day when perilous times shall come, men shall be lovers
of their own self, false accuser. Two times it's used for women.
The deacon's wife is to be grave, sober, not a false accuser. And here in our text, not false
accuser. But here is the thing I found
out. Thirty-five of those thirty-eight
times, this word is translated, the devil. The same word. Ain't that amazing? So that may
give you ladies something to think about. And that's all I'll
say, okay? Not false accusers. And he goes
down then and he says, you know, not given to wine. That word means addictive. are
enslaved to wine. He doesn't forbid the use of
wine at all, but he says don't be addicted to it. And this goes
back to what we studied about last time about self-control,
doesn't it? And here's the problem, isn't
it? Here's the problem that all of us have. It's this whole thing
of self-control. And it concerned every group.
Every age group in our text is concerned. He started out with
age men in verse 2, and he says, Be temperate. The age women,
not enslaved to wine. In verse 4, young women, that
they be sober. That's the same word, temperate,
self-control. And in verse 6, exhort young
men to be sober-minded. Same word, self-control. What
He's telling us there is what we know when we look around us.
It's so easy for the flesh to become addicted, be enslaved
to things. We see that all around us, don't
we? We talk about how teenagers or even younger children are
addicted to their cell phones and addicted to their little
games. They'll sit in the living room and text each other and
won't even talk to each other. Addicted to them. We've got people
addicted to drugs. We've got people addicted to
alcohol. I knew a guy, Joe and I had a couple years ago that
were friends. This guy was literally addicted
to trading cars. His wife was scared to death
every time he went for a ride because he'd come back with a
different car. He almost bankrupted their family because when he
saw a car, he'd go get it. He'd go get it and break it on.
I was talking with a friend of mine just the other day, and
his mother's very old, and he said he's concerned about her
because she's been going to the racetrack. And he just knows
that she's addicted to gambling, and he's afraid she's going to
lose what she's supporting herself with. Isn't that the trouble
we have? All of us have this potential
to become addicted. Whatever it is, we can take things
that's lawful. food and drink and pleasure and
relaxation, things that are lawful, and we can abuse it by not being
self-controlled. And here is what the Apostle
Paul said when he talked about things that are lawful. He said,
things that are lawful for me But he said, I will not be brought
under the power of any of them. I'm not going to become addicted
to the things of this world. They're not going to enslave
me. And boy, that's the thing that we face. And that's what
Paul warned these ladies about. Don't become addicted to wine. Stay under self-control. There's
one thing that you and I should be addicted to. all of us should
be addicted to this, and I hope God gives us grace to be addicted
to this, and that's to serve our Lord, to serve our Lord,
and to serve one another. The house of Stephanas, Paul
said they're addicted. They're addicted. But you know
what they were enslaved to? The ministry to the saints. They served the saints. They
served the saints. God give us grace to do that. Not to be addicted to anything
in this world, but to His service and His glory. And then lastly,
and we'll pick up this next week, teachers of good things. Teachers. The aged women, teachers
of good things. And boy, aren't older ladies
good teachers. By their example, they teach. And God don't call them to teach
publicly. He's never called a woman to
preach publicly and to teach publicly like I am now. He said,
I suffer not a woman to teach or to usher with authority over
a man. But boy, I tell you what, they're teachers, aren't they?
They're better teachers than men are. And that's what we're
going to look at next week, to teach these young ladies to love
their husbands. And I'm looking forward to that.
That word love your husband means to be fond of, fond of your husband,
fond of your children. And we'll look at that next week,
the Lord's willing. I hope that's been a help to
you and a blessing to you.