Wednesday, April 23, 2025 PM

Titus 2:11-15 and the Pattern of Godly Living

God, we thank you for this day that you've given us, this time that we have together, where you nourish our bodies, you nourish our souls. We thank you that we can come to you with all of our needs. We thank you that you hear us.

We thank you for this time to go to your word and to go to your throne in prayer. We ask that as we look to your word, your spirit would illuminate it and apply it to our hearts, and we ask that we would be changed to be more like Jesus, and it's in his name we pray, amen.

All right, we are in Titus still.

Titus chapter 2, Titus chapter 2 verse 11. Titus 2 11.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works.

Speak these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you. We've been talking about how Paul is in instructing Titus on how he is to establish these churches, how he is to establish elders, what he's supposed to teach them, how he's supposed to talk to the Cretans, what he's supposed to instruct them on.

They have a way of living that is contrary to the way of God and that's where Titus finds himself. And so he's been being instructed by Paul on how he is supposed to live and speak, what he's supposed to believe, the things he's supposed to teach.

And so we began a couple weeks ago in this section starting in verse 11, looking at a pattern of living as God's people. He sets forth a way of living, right? And so they are to look for God's appearing.

They're supposed to live in a certain way. And so from there, we know that Titus is speaking. He's being told to speak these things. And so we ask the question, well, who is supposed to listen if Titus is speaking?

And that's everybody. God's Word applies to everyone and has something to say to everyone. So it's incumbent on everyone to listen. And then what were they supposed to listen to? They're supposed to listen to sound doctrine and the things that go with sound doctrine, which were good works and encouragement to good works.

And in Dylan's passage, they talked about the good types of good works for different types of people. And so it's for everyone and there's things to know and things to do. And so then we find ourselves, if we have a pattern of living and then we have things that we are supposed to listen to, encouragement to no sound doctrine and to live accordingly in good works, what are some of the challenges that face us?

And the text kind of points some of these out. So if we look at verse 11,. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. Well, that's just good news for everybody. It's appeared to all men and it teaches us.

Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age. So some of the stumbling blocks to living soberly, to living righteously and living godly would be denying or being ungodly or falling into worldly lusts.

This is what the grace of God teaches us against. It teaches us to deny ungodliness and to deny worldly lusts. So one of the things if we think of what are some challenges to living according to God's Word and according to knowing God's truth would be ungodliness.

Personal Sin and Worldly Lusts

Personal problems. That's the first thing is personal problems, which would be personal failings or sin. This is ungodliness. This is worldly lust that that creeps in. In 2nd Timothy 2 16, he says this,.

For they will increase into more ungodliness. So profane and vain babblings tend to increase ungodliness and so we're called to shun those types of things, right? Because the grace of God that teaches us to deny ungodliness, this is how we avoid that.

We shun profane things and we shun vain babblings. And then he talks about worldly lusts. A text that came to mind was in 1st Thessalonians 4 3, where it says,. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality.

That you should abstain from sexual immorality. So there's ungodliness, which is being ungodly or going through the world without a thought for him, not thinking of him at all, or having a care to what he cares about.

It's just a disregard for God and for his ways. That's ungodliness. And so vain babblings, right? If it's vanity, if it's without reference to God, it's vain, right? We're living under the sun instead of under heaven, right?

Like Ecclesiastes says. And so for worldly lusts, it says,. This is the will of God, your sanctification. In order to be sanctified, we are to deny worldly lusts. And so it says that we should abstain from sexual immorality.

If you would turn to Jude real quick, and I think this ties in. Looking at verse 1, we see his audience. So Jude, a bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ.

So he's speaking to those who are called and those who are being sanctified by God the Father in Jesus Christ. If you'll go down to verse 14, or turn over to verse 14,.

Jude is.

Also addressing ungodliness and worldly lusts. He's addressing a specific problem present to his day. So looking at verse 14, it says, Now Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied about these men. There were evil men.

He said he prophesied about them, saying, Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

So we see a lot of ungodliness happening there, and Jude is speaking against that. It says that the Lord comes with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment on all and to convict all of that. So we see in his day there was problems.

We see that there was a problem with ungodliness in his day. If you continue reading in verse 16, these are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts, and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.

Well, this sounds an awful lot like 2nd Timothy where it talked about vain babblings, right? They have many words, but they're just swelling people up. They're grumbling, they're complaining, they're walking according to their lusts, and they have these swelling words that they flatter people.

Verse 17, but you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. How they would, they were told, how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts.

These are central persons who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. Continuing verse 20, but you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, pray in the Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

We see a lot of overlap here in Jude with what Paul is telling to Titus, right? Here he mentions praying, being built up in your faith, your holy faith, praying to the Holy Spirit, keeping yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

And so we see he's talking about the last days. In Titus, he talks about living in these present, in the present age. Those are the same thing. The present age that Titus was talking about is the last days that Jude was talking about.

That was their age, and they had these problems. We have similar problems, right? So ungodliness, worldly lusts, those are personal problems that would keep us from walking in accordance with God's Word, from following that pattern, and from hearing the Lord.

Those are personal problems. But that leads us into present problems. Just like then, they had present problems that they were addressing, and ours are not that dissimilar. If you'll turn to Romans,.

Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1, starting verse 22.

Professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever.

Amen. And then looking at verse 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. This is something that Paul is addressing in his age.

It's not that dissimilar to what we face now in our present age. When we think about our present problems, they're very similar. So one way to phrase this, I've heard people use this. Knowledge excuses us from biblical instructions.

They would claim, well, we know more now. We know better now. We've moved beyond that. We have studies, and we have science, and we have experts. Our knowledge now excuses us from having to obey what the Bible says, because it's a flawed book written by flawed men, and they didn't really know.

But we know better. So knowledge excludes us. But that's simply not the case. Because when we look at it, it says, professing to be wise, they became fools. And it says there in Romans that they did not retain a knowledge of God.

And so God turns them over. I want to read a quote from a famous psychologist. This is just one area of study in the modern age. And this is what he has to say about psychology. It says, the words secular pastoral worker might well serve as a general formula for describing the function of the therapist.

We do not seek to bring the patient relief by receiving him into the Catholic, Protestant, or socialist community. We seek rather to enrich him from his own internal sources. Such activity as this is pastoral work in the best sense of the word.

So the pursuit of psychology and the therapist is to replace the pastor. The word psychology comes from the Greek, which is the soul. Right? A study of the soul. And so the psychologist is seeking to take soul issues that once belonged to the pastor and fill that role and say, well, we're going to improve man by our own wisdom, by our own knowledge, without reference to God.

We are wise enough to do that. So we will improve him by using things within him. Well, that's contrary to what the Bible says. And so they would claim that our knowledge excuses us from these antiquated things of the Bible.

Present Age Errors and the Rejection of God

So looking at our verse in Titus, we see how they go about doing this in our modern age. There are modern methods in the present age. For example, in a Dylan's passage, he goes through and he says older men teach the younger men, younger women teach the younger children.

They talk about husbands and wives. It talks about parents and children. According to modern sensibilities and everything we've learned, gender is a social construct. It's all made up, right? We know better now that that's just something that's just an antiquated system that people used to use.

Parents know it takes a village to raise children now. We don't need these parental relationships, right? Your children belong to the state and so we'll raise them for you. So then we also see if you continue on in Titus where it talks about slaves obey your master.

Well, that hasn't gone away because now we have this idea of continued guilt. We have to find a guilty party and they need to pay reparations for the things that they've done and this goes on forever back and back and back as far back as you can go and you pin it on someone and now they owe me something because we know better now.

In verse 12 of Titus 2, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. Well, that's been defined now. There is no God, so there's no ungodliness. So any kind of peccadillo or strange thing that I do, that's just a quirk.

That's just a personality trait or maybe it's some type of disorder, right? I have a problem stealing. So we're going to label that kleptomaniac and I just can't help it. That's how I am. I have this disorder and if you'll just bear with me, that's just what I do.

Well, the Bible calls that stealing, right? The Bible calls that a sin and the only way to deal with sin issues is repentance and forgiveness. There's no reconciliation. If someone steals from you and says, well, that's just how I am.

How do you reconcile with that? It drives division, which is what sin does. And so we've put labels on things that the Bible calls sin to make ourselves more comfortable with it. All in the name of knowing better.

But according to scripture, there are eternal edicts for our present age. God created man, male and female, right? That's not a social construct. That's baked into creation. God made us that way, right?

And then you get to the New Testament and we see that marriage is an image of Christ and the church. It points back to Christ. It's not a social construct. Instead of guilt, continued guilt and reparations, there's forgiveness and restitution, right?

There's repentance and reconciliation. Instead of labeling sins as disorders and kind of a version of hedonism, do whatever is right for you, there's a denying of self that brings an actual freedom instead of a slavery to our sins.

And all of this points back to Christ. The male and female, it points back to Christ. The forgiveness and restitution, that points back to Christ. Denying ourself, that brings true freedom. Christ denied himself and went to the cross.

And so we have eternal edicts. Rather than knowledge is excusing us from biblical instructions, we are told that a fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, right? If you want knowledge, you've got to fear the Lord.

We don't start with knowledge and say, well now because we know so much, we can unhitch ourselves and free ourselves, unshackle ourselves from God. You can't know anything without the creator of the universe creating and creating us and setting us within parameters of the world that he made.

And so there are eternal edicts. And so the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. And that's how we get true freedom. To continue on, we had personal problems, personal sins, that we must repent of and seek reconciliation for if we're to follow God.

There are present problems that we face in the world, things that are being put upon us to believe. And then there are people problems. We deal with people every day. So in verse 15, Titus 2, it says, let no one despise you.

Well, what are some reasons why Titus might be despised or a Christian might be despised? Why we run into personality issues or we run into differences of opinion, but it's a little bit deeper than that.

So let no one despise you. And that comes right after he says, speak these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority. So there's a lot packaged in there. There's the repeated phrase to speak these things and then exhort and to rebuke.

And then he.

Ties it in with authority. Do this with all authority. Now, there's several things going on there. So if you back up into verse 5, in Dylan's passage, Titus is to teach the things which correspond with sound doctrine.

He needs to teach you these with authority and these are different good works. But if you look at the reasons why we're not supposed to just believe certain things devoid of good works, he gives a reason on why these good works are to be tied with what we believe.

In verse 5, it says this, backing up a little bit, verse 4, that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands.

Why? That the word of God may not be blasphemed. All right. Well, who's doing the blaspheming? It's saying that women are to do this so that the word of God will not be blasphemed. Well, that's outsiders looking at us and saying, you talk a good talk, but you're saying it all comes from the Bible, but your life doesn't match.

And so they blaspheme the word of God. They're saying it's not true because of the way that you live. So he's saying you ought to have actions that follow what you believe so that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

If you look at verse 8, let's start in verse 7, In all things show yourself to be a pattern of good works, in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.

He pairs, again, sound doctrine with right living. Those go together. And the reason is so that their mouths may be stopped. They won't have anything evil to say about you. He lives what he says he believes, though that matches.

And so it goes together. And in verse 10, it's the same type of thing. Not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior, in all things. Another instruction to good works, not stealing, so that they may adorn the doctrine of God.

They're displaying the doctrine that they say they believe in the actions that they're doing. And he says to do this in all authority. Ryan will probably get into this because he mentions authority here, and he mentions authority in the first verse in chapter 3.

He's telling Titus, you have authority. You have to speak these things with authority over these people to do these things. But then in chapter 3, he says, you have all of these good works to do, but you also have to submit to these other authorities.

He talks about ruling authorities. Submit to these people that rule over you. Be obedient to them. So we have people that are in authority, and then we have people that are under authority, as someone under authority.

So for those who are under authority, say the members of the congregation, they're under Titus's authority as an elder, and they're also under the authority of the government there. There could be a tendency to balk against any type of authority.

Titus, what authority do you have to tell us to live in this way? And what authority do you have to tell us to obey the leaders of our government? Why can't we just live lawless? Then he's saying, this is where good works help you to have that authority, because you're walking in the way that you say that you believe.

You're showing that your life has been changed. And so you've got people under authority. And so I put 1 Samuel 15, 23. It says this, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.

Right? Being rebellious is a sin. Throwing off authority that's been put in place by God for your good, rebelliousness is sin. Another verse is Hebrews 13, 17. This is talking about to elders. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they watch over your souls as those who must give an account.

To this end, allow them to lead with joy and not grief, for that would be of no advantage to you. And so there's general rebelliousness of all authorities. And more specifically, he's talking about elders, right?

Paul is telling Titus, speak these things with authority. You have authority to speak these things. And so they are called the congregation, and us by extension, are called to listen and to obey. Because it is good for us.

And so you've got those that are under authority. What about those are in authority? So Titus is in authority, and these ruling people, the government that he's going to bring up in chapter 3, they are people that are in positions of authority.

In 1 Peter 5, 2, he talks to the shepherds of the flock. So 1 Peter 5, 2. Be shepherds of God's flock that is among you, watching over them, not out of compulsion, but because it is God's will. Not out of greed, but out of eagerness.

Not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being an example to the flock. How are you an example to the flock, if your life doesn't match the doctrine that you're trying to teach? Right? Titus is supposed to speak these things, and he's supposed to live these things.

And the encouragement is this is how an elder is an example to the flock. They're watching over them. They're guiding them. They're not lording it over them. You have to listen to me because of who I am.

The authority that they have is derived from somewhere else. It comes from God. Because they're put in that position, they're called by God to that position. This is also the case for ruling people. People who rule over us.

Luke 22, 22 verse 25. This is Jesus speaking. So Jesus declared, the kings of the Gentiles lord it over them. And those in authority over them call themselves benefactors, but you shall not be like them.

Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who leads like the one who serves. And so Titus brings up, or excuse me, Paul speaking to Titus brings up this issue of authority.

Speak these things with all authority, and then he's going to turn around and say be under authority. And right between that he says let no one despise you. Right? If someone is claiming to be an authority, but they're saying that this doesn't apply to me.

It just applies to you. There's an opening to be despised. You're a hypocrite. If you're saying one thing and doing something else, you're playing the actor. That's what the word hypocrite means. It was an actor that would go around and wear a mask.

You're playing the part, but it's not true. And so anyone who is in a position of authority, and who is speaking certain things, and not applying it to themselves, and not living in that way, they're a hypocrite.

And it brings condemnation on them. The outside world looks upon that and says it's not true. The whole thing's not true. And so I think this is why he puts that in. Let no one despise you. Right? Let there not be an opening for ungodliness, for worldly lusts, but let your actions match the doctrine that you're teaching.

And that's why all throughout chapter two, you see him go back and forth between teaching doctrine and talking about good works. He keeps pairing those together. So we have personal problems, present problems, people problems, and then lastly, very shortly, we've got the pietist problem.

The Danger of Being So Heavenly Minded That You Do No Earthly Good

And Dylan used the word pietist in, I think, a correct sense. And the way that we live, what we believe matches the way that we live. But then there's this pietist problem of this kind of holiness. And you've probably heard the phrase, you're so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good.

Well, that can be separated into a couple different ways. So as an example, I'll bring up eschatology. There are different beliefs about what's going to happen in the future, how Christ will return. You can say, I'm thinking about how we get to heaven, when we get to heaven, and then you argue over it to the point that you divide.

Right? So I'm being heavenly minded. I'm thinking about solid doctrine. We're trying to solve this. But at the point that you divide, then it's no earthly good to anybody. And then the other part is, I'm so heavenly minded, I'm not going to act here on earth, because God is just going to take us away soon anyways.

And so you can be so heavenly minded in that sense, that you're not doing the things that God has called you to do. If you think of the example when Christ was called up in his ascension, and the disciples are standing there looking into the heavens, and then two robed men in white are like, why are you standing around looking?

He's going to come back the way that he came. What did they do? Did they stand there and say, oh, he's coming back? Then we're just going to wait here and keep watching. No, it says they went into Jerusalem to do the things that Jesus had told them to do.

Going to Jerusalem, Judea, and all the ends of the world. So there are things that we are called to do, and we can't let doctrine get in the way of that. They go together. So not living the way that we should is a hindrance, and then not having solid doctrine or arguing over doctrine is a hindrance and can be a problem.

So with that, I will pray. I'll be finished. Lord, we thank you that you come into this world that we have contributed to problems. We know that in Adam we have fallen, we have a sinful nature, and yet you came to redeem us and redeem the world.

We thank you that you provide the solutions to our problems. We thank you that we can know you and that you in providing the Holy Spirit change us into the image of your Son. You make it where we can follow you.

We are not left to our own devices to sort it out, to fix ourselves, because we do not have the ability to do that. You are gracious to us every day, and we thank you for that, and we ask that.

You would.

Guide us all the way home, and on the way we ask that we would be faithful and obedient to bring others with us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.