In Titus chapter 2, let's read
just a few verses here in Titus chapter 2. In verse 1, But speak thou the
things which become sound doctrine, that the aged men be sober, brave,
temperate, sound in faith, in charity, and patience. The aged
women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness,
not false accusers, not given too 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. Young men likewise exhort to
be sober-minded, in all things showing thyself a pattern of
good works, in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity and sincerity. 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. Exhort servants to be obedient
to their own masters, and to please them well in all things,
not answering again, not prolonging, not pipering, but showing all
good fidelity. that they may adorn the doctrine
of God our Savior in all things. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously
and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearance of the great God in 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. These things teach, and exhort,
and rebuke with all authority, that no man despise thee." We
looked at this chapter last week, and I want sort of really an
introduction again to this chapter. Paul had just finished here in
chapter 1, telling Titus to take heed to those who were teaching
these silly Jewish fables and commandments of men. And said,
don't give heed to those things. Don't give heed to these commandments
and these fables, commandments of men. And he gives him here
in chapter 1 and verse 14 a general effect that these things had
upon the lives of those who gave credit to them. The person that
gives credit to these things, he said, they turn from the truth. They are in verse 14. They turn
from the truth. Anything we give credit to apart
from God's Word will always produce bad effects. A little leaven,
a little bad doctrine in the heart leavens the whole lump,
doesn't it? It leavens the whole lump. Those
scribes and Pharisees gave so much credit to their traditions
and their ceremonies They miss Christ. They miss Christ. They would not let go of their
ceremonies and their traditions and commandments of men. And
not only did they miss Christ, but they denied Him and then
crucified and slain the Lord in glory. And then Paul, boy,
he speaks, he gives some awful words here in describing these
Jews. He said their mind and their
conscience was defiled and they were abominable and unto every
good work reprobate. And now he comes here to chapter
2 and verse 1 and this is a contrast. He contrasts all of that silly
doctrine and the commandments of men with this sound doctrine
and its effect. And here is what he says in verse
1. He says, But as for you, Titus, teach what is fitting and becoming
sound doctrine, wholesome doctrine. That is what that word means,
healthy doctrine. And then in verse 2 he begins
to tell them the kind of life that is becoming those that believe
this truth as it is in Jesus. Wholesome doctrine, the wholesome
principles of God's Word, when it's gotten in the heart, it
leads to a wholesome lifestyle, doesn't it? It always does. It has good effects upon those
who believe the truth as it is in Jesus. These folks in Chapter
1, they weren't concerned with a wholesome lifestyle at all.
They weren't concerned with having a right attitude towards God.
are a proper behavior, they were too busy talking, just talking,
talking, talking. Paul said there are many unruly
and vain talkers. Have you ever noticed unruly
people usually are vain talkers? They won't submit to the Word
of God and they won't shut up and listen, will they? They just
talk, talk, talk, talk. And when people spend their time
cultivating, and maintaining a right attitude towards God
and setting their affections on the things of the Spirit of
God, they don't have that much time to talk a lot, do they?
They just spend their time cultivating this relationship with God and
setting their affections on things above and how to live a proper
life in this world, one that's well-pleasing to God. They just
don't have a lot of time to talk. Talking to a fellow today, and
he said his ex-wife was about to drive him crazy. He said,
I'm trying to work, and all she does is sleep. She'll sleep all
day and stay up all night. It's that way with welfare people,
ain't it? It's that way with these Jews,
too. It's talk, talk, talk, talk,
talk. Never just spend any time thinking about, what's my attitude
towards God? What should my behavior be in
this world? No time for that. The true grace
of God does two things for us. Now this is just sort of a way
of introduction. Number one, it saves us, doesn't it? That's
what we just read in that verse. It saves us. It comes to us when
we're dead in trespasses and sin, makes us feel our need of
being saved from sin, and it gives us a new life. It regenerates
us and it washes us and justifies us. That's the first thing it
does for us. But it does something else. It teaches us how to live
in this world. The grace of God that brings
salvation has appeared to all men teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts. So that's the two things the
grace of God does. But note this, this grace doesn't
teach us how to live our life in this world by some process
like osmosis. We don't go out and sit on the
edge of a cliff and cross our legs and close our eyes and sit
there and hmmm and get all this knowledge and direction in our
hearts. That's not the way it happens, is it? When the Lord
saves us, we're little babies in Christ. And then we begin
to desire the sincere milk of the Word, and what do we do?
We begin to grow, don't we? Grow! And He teaches us, and
most of the time, all of us experience this. It's a very slow process
of growing in grace and knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. The grace of God in the Gospel
had come to this island of Crete and brought salvation to a number
of people here. And now the Apostle Paul is writing
here and telling them what manner of people they ought to be as
they live their life in the world, in this world. I thought of several
passages of Scripture as I was studying on this. I thought of
1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 19 where the Apostle Paul said,
Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which
you have of God, and you are not your own, you are bought
with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
spirit and in your body, which are God's. Then I thought of
Philippians chapter 4 and verse 5, let your moderation, that
word means gentleness and patience and forbearance, appropriate
behavior, let your appropriate behavior be known to all men. Why? The Lord is at hand. The Lord is coming. He standeth
before the door. And then II Peter chapter 3 verse
10, this is a little bit lengthy, but listen to this. The day of
the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall
melt with firm and heat, the earth also, and the works that
are therein shall be burned up." Seeing then that we look for
such things, seeing that all these things shall be dissolved,
what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation
in godliness looking for and hastening unto the coming of
the dead God wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved,
and the elements shall melt with ferment heat. Nevertheless we,
according to his promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth
wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that
we look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in
peace without spot and I thought of another verse that kept coming
to me as I was studying this. Verse John 3, Behold what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. And it doth not
yet appear what we shall be, but we know when he shall appear
we shall be like him, we shall see him as he is. Every man that
hath this hope in him purified themselves, even as Christ is
pure. I stress these redeeming truths
for this reason. When the Lord redeems us and
when He gives us a good hope, it has an effect upon us, doesn't
it? It has a positive effect upon the way that we live. The
gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ came to these heathen
lands, to this island of And it brought salvation and began
to separate them from their former way of living and to teach them
how to live the rest of their life in this world. And that's
what it does for us, isn't it? That's what it does for us. We
look at all these redeeming passages in here. Paul started in chapter
1 and we looked at that hope that God had promised before
the world was. Then we come to chapter 2, and
I read to you there that we were to look for Him who gave Himself
for us. Look for that blessed hope and
the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior. And then
in chapter 3, He goes on there in verse 4 and says, After the
kindness and love of God our Savior towards man appeared,
not the works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy He saved us in verse 6, which He shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Lord, that being justified by His grace
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
He desaturates this epistle with these redeeming verses. And what
He's telling us with this is it's because of what the Lord
has done for you. It's because He's redeemed you
and He's loved you and He's justified you. And He's given you this
good hope. Therefore, in the light of this,
live this out in your daily lives. That's what He's telling us.
It has nothing to do with saving us, does it? It has nothing to
do with keeping us saved? It's because we're saved. It's
because we're saved. He tells us how to live. I wouldn't
want a Savior that wasn't the Lord, would you? I just wouldn't
want one. If He isn't the Lord, that He
subdues me and puts within me a desire and a love for Him and
for His ways, I just can't understand that. I wouldn't want a Lord
like that. One of the things that struck me as I was studying
verses two through verse six, especially where Paul was talking
here about the old aged men, the aged women, and the mothers,
the young mothers, and the young men. There was one word here
he uses four times in giving these instructions. He uses one
word four times to all different classes of these people, and
it is temperance. The word temperance. There in
verse two, instruct the aged men to be temperant And then
verse 4, the aged women were to teach the young women to be
sober. That's the same word, temperate,
self-control. And in verse 5, the young women
were to be discreet. That's the same word, temperate.
In verse 6, young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded. That's
the same word, temperate. All four of these classes of
people, he teaches them temperate. And the best definition I've
found of temperance is self-control. If you just want one word to
describe temperance, it's self-control. This is what the Apostle Paul
seemed to be emphasizing here is self-control for the aged
men, for the aged women, the young mothers, and the young
men, self-control. And let's think about that now
just for a minute, about this, because without self-control,
I don't know how these old men could be sound in the faith and
love and patient or any of these other graces that he speaks about.
Israel was always falling. They were always failing. And
you look at the one reason above everything else, it was a lack
of self-control. Almost always they fail and they
fail. were felled and fallen because
of lack of self-control. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah,
what was their problem? Self-control, wasn't it? A lack
of it. The great nations, Babylon and
Rome, they tell us Rome rotted from inside, indulging in their
sins and the pleasures of this world. And the things that most
attributed to their destruction Babylon, the Great, and Rome
was a lack of self-control, giving themselves over to fleshly and
worldly and sinful indulgence. J. O. Dox made this statement.
He's a historian and a preacher. Heathen society in its later
periods was remarkable for the weakening of self-control. Self-indulgence
became at once its danger and its disgrace. And you know that's
what happened, that was what was going on on this island of
Crete. They said it was just heathenism, it was an awful place. And this is the island that Christianity
invaded, the gospel invaded. Judaism couldn't help this island. The heathen philosophers, they
had their philosophy. They could see what was going
on. They saw what the indulgence of the flesh and worldly pleasures
did to society. They wrote against it, but they
couldn't stop it. And these Pharisees with their
commandments of men that they were teaching here and they had
their silly fables, that made things worse. It was only the
gospel. of the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ that invaded these heathen lands and this island of Crete
that not only saved them from their past sins, but put grace
within them to live a selfless, self-denying life in the hope
of heaven. It was only the gospel that did
it then, and it was only the gospel that can do it now. They
tell us that this island was in danger and disgrace. It was
in a state of decline because of self-indulgence. And here
the gospel came and not only saved these people from their
guilt and the power of sin, but it taught them here, our text
said, to live soberly. And there is that same word again,
soberly. Soberly. Temperate. self-control, and righteously
and godly in this present evil world. I was sitting talking
with Brother Fortner, and he said it looks like to him that
we're going back to heathenism. And one of the evidence of it
is a lack of self-control. Well, we're seeing that in our
day, aren't we? A lack of self-control. Look at the riots and murders
in our inner cities. They're almost out of control,
aren't they? I say most of our inner cities is a very, very
dangerous place to live. And what is it? People's passions.
Passions are out of control. They're committing crimes. All
kinds of crimes. Crimes of passion. You'll see
them on the TV cameras showing them jumping on police cars and
setting buildings on fire. Murders. Crimes of passion. What's happening? A lack of self-control. We see it all around us, don't
we? We hear a vulgar speech. I've never seen a time in my
life where language has gotten so bad. Jo and one of the grandbabies,
when we was gone this weekend, they were in a little park. And
she came back and said the filthy language kids were using. vulgar
language that kids were using. I saw some kids, just little
kids on TV the other day, and the parents had sent them out
to demonstrate. And some of the vulgar gestures
and some of the vulgar language was absolutely amazing. You just
couldn't believe it. I was on a bus and I was sitting
up front and the lady and her little daughter looked at 10
or 12 years old was sitting in the back, and three guys were
sitting back there. And I never heard such four-letter
words, loud words, just in a casual conversation. And finally, I
heard the lady say, my daughter is here. Would you please quit
that? Corruptible language coming in. And what is that? A lack
of self-control, isn't it? Just a lack of self-control.
Self-control and appetites. Eating and drinking. You know
a large portion of our problem right now, health problem. I
know we have some health problems that we can't control. But you
know what one of our biggest problems is? Self-control, isn't
it? It's self-control. I read where
one man said, we're digging our grave with a fork and spoon.
And it's self-control, a lack of it, self-control. Self-control
in finances. I heard a statistic the other
day, and if I remember it right, 80% of people making over $100,000
cannot come up with $1,000 during an emergency. They make over
$100,000 a year and can't come up with $1,000 during an emergency.
Ain't that amazing? We owe $19 trillion. That's how much in debt we are
as a nation. And what's the problem? Self-control, isn't it? We want
more than we can afford, and we want it now, and we want more.
It's a lack of self-control. The Proverbs said, He that is
slothful in his work is a brother to him that is a great waster. And that's the problem with our
country, is it not? A great waster, and it's a lack
of self-control. And would you have ever thought
we'd live to see the day? that so much open and profane
lust is overlooked and accepted and legalized. And what's the
problem? Self-control, a lack of self-control. And this nation's going to be
among all the other nations that went down, and here's going to
be the moral issue, a lack of self-control. That song that Katharine Bates
wrote, America the Beautiful, you don't hear this line. You
never hear this line. I've never heard this line sang,
but it's the second verse of that song. Here's a part of it.
America, America, God mend thy every flaw, confirm thy soul
in self-control, thy liberty in law. There's been a lot of
countries that have failed and self-control is at the bottom
of all of it. And I'm just saying this, this
was what was taking place on Crete, this island, and this
is what's taking place now. And we're going right back into
heathenism. And here was the challenge to the grace of Christ
in that day, and it's the challenge today. When he saves a man, he
sends him back into this godless society that has given up self-control,
and he says, now live a life of self-control. And it's not
always easy, is it? And the world thinks you're too
narrow, and the world thinks you're too dogmatic, and the
world thinks you're crazy, and you're fanatical. But without
self-control, what else do we have? What else do we have? You'll notice in Scripture, sometimes,
often, so often, the great sins that godly men and good men fell
into was because of a lapse in self-control. Noah was over 400 years old when
he got drunk. Isn't that amazing? You thought
that man learned better, wouldn't you? You thought he'd know better.
Four hundred years old and he got drunk. What happened to him?
Only for a moment he lost self-control, didn't he? A lot. What happened to him when
he couldn't resist or didn't resist the well-watered plains
of Sodom and Gomorrah? A lack of self-control. David
didn't resist Bathsheba, a lack of self-control. Solomon loved
many strange women, a lack of self-control. And Peter couldn't
control his passion and cut off a man's ear. And look at the
pride that James and John had when they wanted to set one on
the right hand and one on the left. And all of their problem
was this, a lapse in self-control, a lapse in self-control. Lust
of the flesh, lust of the eye, the pride of life, Paul said,
I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. We keep ourselves under subjection,
self-control. We don't do that by beating our
bodies. We don't do that by starving
our bodies half to death. Luther thought he could do that.
He thought he went to the monastery and sat on sharp stakes or lay
naked on the floor and fasted himself half to death, and it
would subdue this old sinful man. That's not the way you subdue.
That's not the way you keep yourself under control. There is but one
thing that can truly control us, and that's the grace of Christ.
That's the grace of Christ. That's the only way to keep this
old man under control. The grace of God that bringeth
salvation has appeared to all men teaching us, effectually
teaching us, powerfully teaching us that denying ungodliness and
worldly lust we should live soberly and righteously and godly. I
tried. I tried to keep all this old
man under subjection before I was ever saved and I couldn't do
it. You've got to have a heart, don't
you? You've got to have a love. You've got to have grace to do
it. If we don't, self-control is such a gracious
and important virtue. If we could possess all others
without it, I don't see how we can. How could an aged man be
sober and reverent and sound in the faith and love and patience
without self-control? It's impossible, isn't it? How
could an aged woman be in behavior as becometh holiness without
self-control? Or a young mother, how could
she keep the home? How could she be obedient to
her husband and love her children as she should without self-control? Or how could a young man avoid
the vanity of youth without self-control? I tell you, it's important, isn't
it? It's important. Self-control is important. And I think that's why the Apostle
Paul emphasized it here in all these different age groups. Self-control. And may the Lord haste the day.
May He haste the day where we won't have to pray anymore. We
won't have to watch anymore. We won't have to live in self-control
anymore. May God haste the day where we'll
be free. That's what I long for, isn't
it? that glorious appearing in our great God and Savior when
we'll be free. We'll be free. I tell you, in
heaven there'll be no watching. There'll be no praying. There'll
be no poring over scriptures to try to see Christ and get
help. We'll be free. Be free. I long
for that day, don't you? But here is the place where we
exercise self-control. Here's where we take up our cross
and we follow the Lord Jesus. That's where all this takes place.
But there in heaven, there'll be none of that. Thank God for
such a hope. I hope this word's been a help
to you, a blessing to you. Greg, would you dismiss us?