Book of Titus - Ch. 2, v. 7

So you don't like s'mores?

You don't like s'mores?

You know...

You might be surprised. You might be surprised today.

You never know.

I'll show you. Okay, dude, get us in the hall.

If we're already 15, after and out of such,.

Open up X.

No, I am...

I will remain silent the rest of the class.

I am happy to get us on track.

For Mother's Day.

Titus 2 and the Call to Young Men

So let's turn to Titus and talk about young men. That's right.

Titus chapter 2.

Of course, we're starting back up after a little six-week hiatus from this study when David and I swapped. And we're going to... It's hard to do it, but we are going to pick up roughly right where we left off, which was in the middle of verse 7.

But of course, before we get into it, why not go ahead and get a quick reminder of what some of the context is as we look at the beginning of chapter 2 and are reminded that Titus here is preparing to essentially minister to his congregation.

He's already been told how to appoint... how to find and appoint elders so that he can duplicate and delegate himself all throughout the island of Crete. But now, Paul is looking at Titus and giving him specific instruction, I believe, for his congregation or perhaps a number of congregations that he is overseeing during this time.

And all of this would then apply to each and every congregation throughout the island and then throughout all of Christian history for the last couple thousand years or so. And so he tells him that you are going to speak the things which become sound doctrine.

Things that can be lived out by his congregation so that the world can see these doctrines in real time. He says in verse 2, that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience.

That the aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness. To be priest-like is what the Greek term connotation is there. Not false accusers. In other words, not gossips. Not given to much wine.

In other words, they're not under the lordship of any particular thing. Wine usually being at the top. Rather, the Lord is their Lord. Excuse me, still in verse 3 here. Not false accusers, not given much wine.

Teachers of good things. And then he gets specific on what those good things are in verse 4. He says that they may teach the young women, these are mothers, to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, to be chaste or morally pure, to be keepers at home, to be good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

So we've talked about all that in detail of course, and then at verse 6, and keep in mind that what Paul is doing here is he's covering every single group that could possibly be inside of a congregation.

And he's giving exhortations to all of them. And in verse 6, he changes his cross hairs to the young men and he says, young men, likewise, exhort to be sober minded. And we talked about that verse at length because the term sober minded, you know, this is an all-encompassing term that is applicable to every area of the life of a young man.

Regardless of what their particular sin habit may be, what their proclivities may be, what their endeavors, their pursuits are, sober mindedness is the antidote to keeping them on the straight and narrow, so to speak.

And then in verse 7, Paul is still talking to young men, but what he does is he looks at Titus directly.

And he says,.

Essentially, I want you to be the role model. I want you to live this way so that you are the role model for all Christian young men for the rest of human history, essentially. Of course, we have a number of role models throughout the New Testament, but Paul wants Titus to be one of them.

And so you get to verse 7 and he says, in all things, showing yourself, that's how we know that he is now talking directly to Titus and not necessarily to young men broadly, although the application is still to all young men because what he's doing is he's simply showing us what this role model should look like and how we should live accordingly.

In all things, all parts of life, showing yourself a pattern of good works in doctrine, showing uncorruptness,.

Gravity,.

Insincerity. And so that was the verse that we left off of last time. And just a couple of thoughts that we already covered, but of course the phrase, in all things, at the top of verse 7 there, that is also an all-encompassing phrase.

We're talking about the whole aspect of the man's pursuits, the totality of man's pursuits, all of his, everything that he's doing and more specifically his conduct while he's doing it, whether we're talking about business or being a husband and father, being a friend, a son, being a churchman, being a co-worker, even when he's out working on his hobbies, everything that he's doing, he will show a pattern of good works, he will have a behavior that is Christ-like and that points back to the Lord ultimately.

Now, he moves on and he says, showing thyself a pattern of good works. And this particular phrase is a great example. This is a great example of the different, the otherness that Paul wants from these Christian young men.

This is an example, this phrase is an example of what exactly does set them apart, what exactly does make them look different from the rest of the world and allow them to accomplish great things. You know, over the last 2 ,000 years we've had many great examples of.

Very.

Lazy, erratic, bad motives when it comes to approaches to ministry. And we've seen ministers time and time again just totally botch the ministerial office, whether we're talking pastor or deacon or whatever it may be.

And so,.

Paul, knowing that this is already the case, we already looked in the first chapter at these false teachers that are coming in and trying to get in there and do things with the wrong motives and trying to subvert whole houses.

As Paul said, we already know that that's the case and Paul knew that this would be a pattern that would continue for ever. And so, Paul is setting Titus up and every good Christian man after to look different and how to look different, how to be different.

And again, this phrase is a great example of it. This is Paul's way of telling Titus that he needs to practice what he preaches. This is a phrase that we're all familiar with. And he says, show yourself a pattern of good works.

You're going to be the preacher. You're going to be the one bringing the doctrine before the congregations. Now go out and live it yourself. Show yourself a pattern of good works. And when you do that,.

All of the sudden,.

People will take your teaching seriously. It's one thing to wax eloquent on whatever doctrine a pastor could do. It's another thing when he goes out and he shows his congregation what it looks like in practice.

And when they see him doing that and striving.

For.

Holiness and godly living and all these types of things, what it does is it makes them take all of his words seriously from that point forward. Again, we talked about this a little bit the last time we were together, but we can all think of preachers, quote unquote, just in the modern era, in our lifetimes, that have just absolutely embarrassed themselves time and time again with their conduct, with the way they live, in some cases with what they preach.

And what is the result when we see this happen? The result is that they are not taken seriously and none of their words are taken seriously. And in some cases it can be.

A.

Bad testimony on God's word itself. Not that God's word is messed up, but rather the perception of it is messed up because of these ministers that are not showing a pattern of good works. And so we talked about all that and then we asked the question, because what is Paul saying?

Show yourself a pattern of good works. We asked the question, what is the proof of regeneration? What is the proof of an immaterial thing, something that we can't see but we know is a reality? In fact, here in a little bit, in this very letter we will get to the verse that talks about the washing of the regeneration of the Holy Spirit.

What is the proof of this though? What is the proof of something we can't see? Of course someone can say that they're saved, but the way that God has ordained for this miraculous thing to be seen, in order for us to be able to have something as miraculous as a spiritual birth to be seen by the world, his ordained means for that is through patterns of good works, and that's what Paul is talking about here.

Of course God defines the good. So someone could take this one phrase, patterns of good works, and they can shove.

Any kind of.

Box or rule book that they could come up with into that phrase and say, see we're just obeying Paul here. You know, you need to follow these rules, these steps in order to be obedient to Paul. Anyone could do that, but the problem with that approach is that when Paul says, show yourself a pattern of good works, you have to ask yourself, by what standard are the works good?

Who defines the word good? And of course we have to remember that God is the one that defines the good, the patterns.

Of good works. He.

Doesn't leave us guessing. And of course, that's why when we look at the New Testament, let me show you guys just one example that I happened to stumble across yesterday during our Bible study.

Yeah, go ahead.

Yeah, did the internet go out? Okay, that's fine.

God is the one that.

Defines the good works, and like I said, he doesn't leave us guessing. That's why the commandments of the New Testament, when we come upon them, we need to take them very seriously. And why, though they are commandments, though they are instructions, though they are rules, if you want to put them in those terms, they're not rules in the sense of condemnation, or in the sense of a burden, or a weight that you're having to bear, like would be the case under a religious group like the Pharisees.

Rather, the commandments that Jesus gives us are a grace in and of themselves. And as you read the New Testament, you will see it pop.

Up.

Let's see here. This isn't in my notes. I'm just trying to see if I can spot it really quick, because I saw it yesterday.

There's a.

Part, here it is, it's at the end of chapter 14 in 1 Corinthians and Paul, after laying out a number of very specific doctrines and very specific instructions for good practices in the church, he ends all of this by saying, If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you, I, the Apostle Paul, write unto you, are the commandments of the Lord.

And so, we hear the term commandments, sometimes we think of the Ten Commandments or something like that, and that's just fine.

That's good.

But what we need to remember is that the term is.

Still,.

It's pulled over in various contexts in the New Testament as well. Not just the fact that all of the Ten Commandments are reaffirmed in the New Testament, but also in the fact that the Apostles expound upon the kind of, let's call them the baseline commandments.

They expound upon them and give us more nuance to them. And so, one of the reasons why it is so important for us to pay attention to what those commandments are, especially for young men in this context as we read the New Testament, is because that is how we know what God defines as good.

And when we know what God defines as good, we will then be able to live that out and show a pattern.

Of good works.

The Pattern of Good Works

Okay, so, that's where we left off. Now, this phrase, showing yourself a pattern of good works, is very important in and of itself, but there's a really interesting word here within the phrase. So again, we're looking at verse 7.

And the word pattern, so we're showing ourselves, young men are to show themselves a pattern.

Of good works.

And that same, the Greek term there could also be translated example or ensample. And you guys have heard that word used before. We often talk about the ensamples of the Old Testament. In other words, perhaps a story or an image or a message of some kind.

Is, can.

Then be viewed as an ensample of a spiritual truth that is then talked about in the New Testament. So we talk about ensamples, we talk about examples, the Old Testament showing us examples of things to come and that sort of thing.

And this Greek term for pattern could be translated as ensample. But what the word literally means is the mark of a blow. In other words, you take something.

And.

You hit it with a hammer and it leaves an indention. That's what the word means. And so you picture hitting something with a hammer. And what's really interesting about it is this exact same Greek word for pattern here is found in a very unique context in the Gospel of John, if y 'all want to turn there.

It's just one verse, but I'd like for y 'all to look at it because it's interesting. Look at John chapter 20. The Gospel of John chapter 20. And keeping in mind what are we talking about? We're talking about young men.

We're talking about young men living out their lives in a way that is pleasing to God. Paul is instructing them. He's telling Titus to live this way so that all young men can look at him as their role model.

And he says I want you to show yourself a pattern of good works.

I'll get.

There in just a second. It's chapter 20.

And.

He wants us to remember, or he wants this image in Titus' mind to be something that's striking. Something that won't leave him. Something that he'll be able to remember in the future, especially when he's tempted to veer off of the narrow path, so to speak, and start living in a way that may not be a good role model.

All of the sudden.

But Paul says I want you to show a pattern of good works. So look at verse 25. And I want to point out an interesting context in which this exact same word is used. It says the other disciples therefore said unto him, we have seen the Lord, but he, and this is Thomas, doubting Thomas, before he saw the Lord for the first time, he said, but he said unto them, except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into the side, I will not believe.

Now the Greek word for print there is the exact same word that Paul uses for pattern when he says show yourself a pattern of good works. So again, this is to give you an example of what the literal term means.

It means to leave a mark. The mark of a blow. Just like the blow, or the mark of the blow of the Roman's hammer into the hands of Jesus, this is the Greek term that Paul uses here. And why is that?

The word.

Means, you know, to be a die, or to be a mold, or the form, or the imprint of something, such as the imprint of the nails in Jesus' hands. And that's what Titus is supposed to be. He's supposed to be the imprint of something.

He's supposed to be the form, or the mold of something. And this is what Titus is supposed to be, but it's what every Christian man is to be. He is to be the perfect living imprint of virtue, of God's virtue.

He's the imprint of virtue. He's to be an example, or an example for others to model.

And so.

What Paul is doing here is he is, again, trying to leave this somewhat striking picture in Titus' mind to remember that, to remember who he represents, ultimately. It's not a matter of arbitrary rule-keeping.

It's not a matter of, here are some things that you can do to look a little bit different from the world. It's not a matter of, you know, here are my suggestions for living in a way that I think could lead to a successful life.

It is a matter of Titus being a manifest person representing something that, again, is immaterial. He's representing the attributes of God. He's representing the virtue of God as a Christian man. He is to be the imprint of God's, well, God's virtue, but God's moral framework for living.

Again, that's why I mentioned that verse in 1 Corinthians 14 a minute ago when Paul talks about the commandments of the Lord. The way that we can know what the pattern looks like so that we can be that imprint of godly virtue is to know what is godly in the first place, what is pleasing to God in the first place.

And,.

Again,.

I know I'm somewhat repetitive as we go through these verses because they're somewhat meticulous. There's a number of things that Paul is hitting up, but I don't want us to lose the main principle and the main important application in the weeds of the specific word studies and things like that.

Who is Paul talking to? He's talking to Titus. Who is Titus? He is a very young man, possibly in his early 20s. He's bearing a lot of responsibility already on his shoulders. He's already an ordained elder.

He is already exhibiting the spiritual maturity in order to fulfill these roles. In fact, if you recall way early in our study, Paul took him with him. Paul took Titus with him to the council of.

Antioch.

No, no, no. He took him to the Jerusalem council in Acts chapter 15 to show the apostles there and to some of the believing Jews that felt that circumcision was still necessary for salvation. He brought Titus to say, look at this guy.

He's a Greek. He's not compelled to be circumcised, and I'm not compelling him to be circumcised, and he is just as godly and just as much a model of godly living as any of the rest of you. That is what Paul thought about Titus, even as young as he was, but he's still young.

And so he's talking to Titus in that context. He knows what appeals, what are some of the things that appeal to a young man, because of course Paul was there himself at one point. And he also knows that Titus is to carry the burden even further by being the role model himself for other young men.

And so Paul knows something, and he's being intentional with the way he's laying all this out because of this thing he knows, and what is that? He knows that men, young men, always look up to other men.

They look up to other men, and if they can't find a role model in another man, if they can't find a model that can inspire them, and that they see standing for truth, and that they see is not capitulating to every wind of doctrine, just because that's what's the appealing thing to do in the moment.

Just like with clothing and with home decor and all this kind of stuff, there are fads that run within the currents of Christianity and theology and things like that. Fads pop up, they come and go. And just like with looking at a picture of yourself 20 years prior and kind of laughing at the wind pants, or the velcro shoes, or the floppy hat, or the bell-bottoms in The Case of Dead, although I still think those are kind of cool, whatever it may be, just like when you look back in the past and see these fads, and you see those didn't really play out all that well, the same is true for theology, and things that are taught within Christianity.

Most of the quote-unquote progressive movements within theology over the last several decades,.

The last.

120 years leave rotten fruit behind. And so young men when they are zealous, when they have zeal, and they are perhaps new in the faith, and they look around them, they're going to be looking for a model that stands firm even in the midst of all of the fads that are coming and going, that stand firm even against the doctrines that they know, just using common sense that seem contradictory to what the very words of God says, many of which are right here in this epistle we've been reading.

They want to look for a model that will not succumb to the fads, and to the things that seem appealing in the moment, because they are popular. They want to find a role model, again, that stands firm on the truth, and if they do not find a role model that fulfills all those things, talking about young men here, what they'll do is they will find a model somewhere else, and sometimes those models are just as bad, just in a different way.

There are a number of guys in the, there are a number of guys out there that appeal greatly to young men right now because they're very masculine, they are exhibiting masculine virtues that are virtues, because God put them there, but the problem is they're exhibiting them in a very worldly, fleshy, fleshly fashion, and men are fed up with feminism, and they're fed up with the progressive movements of the last few decades, they see the rotten fruit, they see the appeal of it going down, they see the way that they are treated because of what has been brought into the world, and so what they're doing is they're looking for role models of older men that can help them wade through all of that, give them the answers for how to live through all of it.

What they're doing is they look to the church, and they see a bunch of pastors that have succumbed to the feminist movements and things like that, and that are just as bad as anyone else. They're not finding the role models they need, so what do they do?

They go somewhere else to find them, and they do find them, but they're not in the places that they should be, and then they are then pulled into the opposite side of the spectrum. They overcorrect, and it can be just as ugly, just in a different way.

Everything I'm saying is happening right now as we speak, and everything that Paul is saying in Titus 2 ,000 years ago is directly applicable to what is happening as we speak. What he's saying.

Is, I know that these.

Young men need role models, because naturally they seek to in father figures, and in men they look up to, in their uncles, their grandfathers, men that are in the circle of their fathers, they look to them to see how they work, how they exhibit masculinity, how they treat their wives, how they treat their daughters, how they treat those around them, how they lead, how they lead the church, how they lead in businesses.

They are looking for all of these things naturally. Paul knows this, and so he's setting up Titus to be someone that these young men can look up to, and in doing so, he's teaching every other, he already talked about the old guys at the top of the chapter, but they can certainly pull from this too.

He's teaching all men how to live so that others can look up to them, and so that those young men have someone to look up to. And so then, of course, we ask the question, and you'll hear this kind of argumentation out there.

In.

The bigger churches that I.

Was referencing a second ago that have succumbed to much of the feminist dogma over the last few decades, over a century, and they will say things like, you know, we just need to look to Christ, we just need to look to Jesus, and that's all we need for all standards of godly living and things like that.

And they treat Jesus as some kind of moral archetype, rather than as the Lamb of God that came to live in a particular way to die for the sins of His people. They look to Him as this moral archetype that then, oddly, it turns into this weird kind of legalism almost, even though most of the churches that are doing this are actually kind of the opposite of legalists, and they create what I would call more of the easy-believism, antinomian, kind of cheap-grace type foundations that they are built upon.

They look to Jesus and they create this moral figure, and one of the reasons I think they do it is because there is so much detail left out of Jesus' life, as John tells us at the end of his gospel. If I were to write the books, if I were to write books listing every detail of everything that I know about this man Jesus, the world could not contain Him.

That's how the gospel of John ends. So we have very specific,.

Very.

Succinct accounts of Jesus' life, and it's every detail that we need to know about His work that led to His finished work on the cross, and Peter does tell us that we should imitate Him, no doubt. But here's the thing.

If we ignore some of what Paul says, which I'm going to read to you all in just a second, young men will be left wanting because the Lord ordained it in such a way as to His people on earth in manifest form, because Jesus is in heaven now, and these young men they are yearning for role models.

They are yearning for someone to look up to, and they want someone that they can see, and in their zeal, the Lord knows that it's something that they need, because otherwise they could just go nuts. They could go crazy.

They could be led astray in any number of ways. So what does the Lord do to prepare for this? Well, everything we just read in Titus, but in Philippians chapter 3, verse 17, I'll just read it really quick, still the apostle Paul talking,.

He says,.

Join in following my example, my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. And who is the us? It's the apostles, the disciples, and it's Paul specifically in this context. So why didn't Paul just say follow Jesus, follow His example?

Well, we are told that in the first epistle of Peter, but again, the Lord and His grace is providing for these young men, and young men that would come for 2 ,000 years after, and however much longer we have before He comes back.

And so Paul says look to me as an example, because I am someone that you can see, I'm someone you can feel, I'm someone you can touch. Peter does the same thing too, which is interesting.

But.

Paul is saying, look to me as an example, look at the way I'm living. I am striving for holiness. I am striving to live up to the standards that Christ gave, so look to me. And of course, by extension, all of us can look to Paul, and all of us can look up to our spiritual.

Forefathers,.

And our spiritual mentors in life. We can look up to the Brother Otis's of the world, to the Bill Nichols of the world, to the David Mitchells, to the Myron Goldins, the Rocky Freemans. We can look up to these guys as examples as well, because God ordained for them to be examples, to be examples as well.

Another example, 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 16 says, Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. This is the Apostle Paul talking again. He doesn't say, be ye followers of Jesus, that is said elsewhere in a different context.

But there are other contexts where he says be ye followers be an example of me. Why? Because young men need role models that they can see and that they can look up to. And the Apostle Paul knows this.

If you skip a few chapters in the same book, chapter 11 verse 1, he says again, be ye followers of me, and listen to this, even as I also am of Christ. So there, you have kind of both sides of the same coin.

You have one man, the Apostle Paul, looking to Christ as his example for living. And as he lives that out, in real time, day to day, week to week, in the flesh, the younger men around him can look to him as an example, as he follows Christ as his example.

And so, again, a little bit repetitive, but it's important. Paul understands this principle really well, the principle that men always look up to other men. He understands this principle because he obviously, like I said a moment ago, could have just said, imitate Jesus every single time he had the opportunity to say that.

Sometimes he did, sometimes he says, imitate me. But when you're talking about men, especially young men that need the direction, they have all of these wonderful attributes just packed into them, ready to explode, ready to conquer the world.

It's all in there, but if it's just unleashed in an aimless fashion, kind of like the analogy I used for little boys a few weeks ago, you know, you want the fire, but you want the fire contained. You don't want it just out and about and ready to consume the whole house.

You want it in the fireplace. Young men are the same way. They have a fire within them that wants to be unleashed in a way that takes dominion and subdues the earth and fulfills the creation mandates.

But if they do that aimlessly, it can be a disaster. And we can see that all around us because they are walking around aimlessly because they haven't had the role models, because people, men, have abdicated their responsibility to lead them, and because they're within a culture that at this point doesn't like them very much, and they can feel that, and it hurts.

They need the role models. They need the examples. But when you're talking about men, again, young men struggling in this world, weak in the faith in some cases, striving for holiness, they desire a model that they can see and whose faith is already strong.

Their faith may not be there yet. So they need to be able to see what it looks like so that they are not left aimless, like I mentioned a second ago, and not left unsure and in a cloud of murkiness wondering, what on earth am I supposed to do with all of these feelings that are within me and these desires that are within me?

Just a couple more words, and I'll close it out. We can move on to verse 8 next week. He goes on to say, In doctrine, show yourself uncorruptness. Uncorruptness, the Greek term there, could just as easily be translated integrity.

In other words, it's the opposite of corruptness. So in your doctrine, Titus, young man, as you are the example for other young men, show integrity in everything that you do. In your doctrine specifically, but that will flow out into everything you do as well.

He says.

Gravity as well. What is gravity? Well, that's honor. That is respect, to be a respectable man. What's interesting about it is it's not just honor in the sense that the world may view something honorable.

The Greek term is very specific because it carries the connotation of a pure honor, a purity, a majestic honor, almost like a king on a throne. That is the type of gravity that these young men need to be showing.

They need to be serious. They need to be honorable. They need to be respectable, but in a pure way. And then he ends by saying sincerity. And what's interesting about it, the Greek term could be translated there incorrupt.

Well, he already said to be uncorruptible in your doctrine, but also be sincere. And sincere is a fine translation because that would be the most literal translation of the Greek term, to be a sincere man.

But it carries the connotation of being sincere by being incorrupt, which is kind of repetitive on Paul's part, but it's intentional. It's intentional. It's important to be pure and things like that. And so this is the pattern.

Of good works.

He starts to spell it out for us quite a bit there, and he will continue on in verse 8, but we will have to move on to that next week. Do y 'all have any thoughts or anything you'd like to share in our final minutes here?

I'm glad to be back in the swing of things here. Appreciate y 'all being patient with me, kind of bringing everyone back up to speed, doing a little bit of review. We'll get our cadence back shortly, and I'm really excited about it because we are very close.

As we'll see next week, he continues, it says, sound speech that cannot be condemned. He that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say about you. So he brings the enemies right back in, and he shows how these young men living in this virtuous way is a weapon against the enemies of the world.

Yes, Emily.

This isn't a question.

For me, but.

If there's a guy that doesn't know where.

He should start.