WWUTT 741 Being Mindful of Each Other?

In Titus chapter 2 we have an order of mentorship in the church. Older men mentoring younger men, older women mentoring younger women.

It's because we, as the body of Christ, need to be mindful of one another when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We are in the book of Titus chapter 2.

If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there. And since we're jumping into this chapter this week,

I'm going to go ahead and read the whole thing, all 15 verses. Paul wrote to Titus, but as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

Older men are to be sober -minded, dignified, self -controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.

Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.

They are to teach what is good and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self -controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands that the

Word of God may not be reviled. Likewise urge the younger men to be self -controlled.

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame having nothing evil to say about us.

Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything. They are to be well -pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our

Savior. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self -controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great

God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, who are zealous for good works.

Declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority.

Let no one disregard you." What a beautiful chapter that we are given here, and I mean really, there's no chapter in the

Bible that isn't beautiful. But here in particular we have not only the instructions that Paul is giving to Titus, but the instructions that the

Holy Spirit gives to the entire body of Christ. Now there are some specific things that are said to Titus here.

The chapter starts that way, as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. But that wouldn't just apply to Titus, that applies to me.

I'm convicted by that, with the Holy Spirit of God through the Apostle Paul saying to me, as a pastor of a church congregation who shepherds the flock of God, as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

That which flows from the true words that have come from our Lord Jesus Christ. And as a pastor, that's what it is that I'm supposed to be teaching.

But in the context of what we have in this letter, it starts with an instruction to Titus. And then in those instructions we also have a picture of what an orderly church is supposed to look like.

This started with appointing elders in the church. That's what Paul, that's the instruction Paul gave to Titus in chapter one.

Appoint elders in every town as I instructed you. And then you have the list of qualifications for an elder or a pastor in the church.

And then once that is set, you've got sound men of God who can teach the word of God.

And then what does the rest of the church look like as a result? And here's what we have. We have this order of mentorship with older men mentoring the younger men, and then older women mentoring the younger women.

And those instructions that pertain to that, which we'll get into that a little bit later this week. And then you have instructions to Titus again.

As for you, show yourself to be a model of good works, show integrity, dignity, sound speech that cannot be condemned.

And once again, these are instructions that convict my heart of how mindful I need to be on how

I behave in my conduct, how I commit myself to the word of God. That when I preach from the pulpit, then the way that I live my life every day during the week matches what it is that I'm teaching.

So I'm being changed by what I'm preaching as well. Then Paul has instructions for bond servants.

We'll bring that into context and understand that clearly when we get to it. And then again, we have these instructions for the whole church.

The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce on godliness and worldly passions and to live self -controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age.

I mentioned that verse last week. Did you notice how many times that term self -controlled came up in chapter two?

As I said, I believe it was last week I said this self -controlled comes up more in Titus than in any other book in the

New Testament. And this is set against the character and the behavior of the

Cretans. Cretans are always liars, evil beasts and lazy gluttons. But you need to be self -controlled.

It's easy to fall into a tendency to become lazy, to just become lackadaisical, to not even consider or think about the things that have to be done.

But if we are growing in Christ, if we've been changed by Christ and we are growing in sanctification, we're growing in holiness, we are becoming more like Christ every day that we read his word, that we pray, that we love the people that are within the body of Christ.

Every time that we put these things into action and we commit ourselves to the Lord daily, we are growing in holiness.

And this has to be a conscious effort that we commit ourselves to. It's not enough that we abstain from something bad.

We have to actively be pursuing those things which are good. And notice that the statement that's made there in verse 14 is that God has purified for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

We're not lazy gluttons. We desire to do the work of God and we have zeal for it.

We're excited about doing work that pleases our God and father in heaven.

And then finally closing out the chapter is yet another instruction for Titus. Titus has been commissioned by an apostle of Jesus Christ to do this work on the island of Crete.

And as he goes forth with that apostolic mission, he has authority granted in Christ.

Don't let anyone disregard what it is that you say, because what you say comes from the Lord. If what

Titus was teaching was what Paul taught him. So coming back to the start of chapter two, again, we have that opening with an instruction to Titus, but as for you teach what accords with sound doctrine, but as for you, so clearly this is contrasting against the false teachers that we read about in verses 10 through 16 of chapter one.

So we have, here's what, here's what a good pastor is supposed to look like. That's in chapter one, verses five through nine.

And then contrary to what a sound man of God is supposed to be, we've got many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

And they're upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. So Paul goes from presenting what a sound teaching man of God is supposed to look like to the behavior that you're going to see among the people of the island of Crete, not just among the

Judaizers, but even among the pagans. One of the cretins has said of their own, they're always liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons.

Therefore, you must rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. Dealing with laziness apparently requires a sharp rebuke.

And you know, as a pastor, that's, that's actually been my experience to helping a person or rather talking to a person who has a problem with laziness and using kid gloves and being gentle with them.

I have never seen that motivate a lazy person. Maybe you have a different experience. I've never seen it work.

You want to motivate somebody who's lazy. You have to be sharp with them. You have to be direct.

You have to basically give them the get off your bum and do something speech. Okay. So, so that's the way that Paul is telling

Titus to deal with those who are lazy and misleading others. And even by their example, they're dragging other people into their laziness.

These lazy gluttons, they're just getting fatter on, uh, on the, the stuff that they think that they're entitled to and they themselves are not doing any work.

And so you must rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. The point of the rebuke is not simply to say,

Hey, you're a fat slob. Get off your can and do something. That's not really for the sake of doing that.

It's so they would be sound in the faith. That's the objective. So when we bring a rebuke to somebody, when we're correcting behavior and we're doing so in love, remember that first Peter three 15 in your heart set apart,

Christ is holy, being ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within you. But doing this with gentleness and respect.

And back in second Timothy chapter two, Paul saying to Timothy, the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone able to teach patiently enduring evil for it is

God who may grant repentance. So when it comes to telling somebody to repent or giving them a rebuke, this still must be done gently correcting opponents with gentleness.

But I believe you can issue a shark, a shark, a shark, rebuke, sharp shark.

Same thing. You can issue a sharp rebuke in a gentle way that still can be done.

Now I will say I've done sharp rebukes in a not so gentle way. I've certainly done even with my own children.

I'm confessing. I'm confessing to that. But you can give a sharp and stern rebuke to a person that is still being done gently.

That's not in their face, calling them names, spitting at them and stuff like that is as you're muttering words and saliva is flying out of your mouth.

We still must be deliberate and intentional and calm and under the control of the Holy Spirit even when it comes to rebuking others that they may be sound in the faith.

And again, that's our objective. This is all being done in love. It is a, it is a desire to grow a person all the more into the image of Christ to be zealous for good works.

And for those who are lazy, it may require a sharp rebuke. Do not let them be devoted to myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

And then what we concluded with last week versus 15 and 16 to the pure. All things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

And I showed you how those verses in particular have to do with the

Jewish purity laws. And so the Jews were trying to tell these new Christians that they have to abide by these

Hebrew purity laws if they want to be good Christians. Believing in Jesus is not enough.

You also have to follow the purity laws that had to do with diet and some other things. Verse 15,

Titus 1, 15 is not permission for a Christian to do whatever they want. And to the pure, all things are pure.

So I can watch what I want. I can listen to what I want. I can wear what I want. It doesn't matter because because, hey, to the pure, all things are pure.

That's simply not the case. We do not have the liberty and the freedom to do whatever it is that we want.

And then going through various scriptures that I gave you back on Wednesday, go back and listen to that broadcast.

If you miss in that, if you miss that particular episode. So I'm not doing that again today, but I'm able to move on.

So that so that you understand the concept of Christian liberty. That is a concept that's really being abused a lot in evangelicalism today, particularly on social media and among who are generally termed the young, restless and reform.

The YRR movement. There's this idea that, I mean, we can we can drink hard liquor. We can smoke cigars.

We can wear what we want. We can grow our hair however we want. We can tattoo ourselves up.

We can get all kinds of piercings. We can watch these kinds of movies and then we can have podcasts about all these horrible movies and shows that we're watching and and we can listen to whatever music that we want.

We'll even talk about that, too. I mean, the the stuff that we devote ourselves to in the name of Christian liberty.

Is this really about God or is it about pleasing ourselves and entertaining one another with how hip and cool we can be?

See what I'm able to do, what I can still do. And it's legalistic if you tell me that I can't do that because Titus 115 says to the pure all things are pure.

There's a context going on here, and it specifically has to do with the purity laws that the

Hebrew false teachers were imposing upon these new Christians on the island of Crete.

And it was about them. Paul said they must be silenced for their upsetting whole families teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

So there is certainly a legalistic way in which purity can be taught. If you're telling somebody you have to live this way in order to be saved, well, that's false teaching and in fact, heresy, because you're adding to the gospel.

You're saying that in order to attain salvation, you must live this way. So that's certainly not

OK, but nor is it all right to take it to the other extreme in which we suddenly have the freedom to do whatever it is that we want as long as we give

God glory and in what it is that we're doing. Are we actually committing our minds and desiring that God would be glorified in all that we say and do?

Or are we trying to tiptoe the line with pleasing and entertaining ourselves?

And as long as I don't cross this line, then I'm not going into the territory of doing something that displeases God, in which case our focus is not on God.

Our focus is still on the sin and this line that I cannot cross. But we need to be fully devoted entirely to the

Lord Christ. And what he has said is good and pleasing and acceptable.

Are we a people who are zealous for good works?

Do we devote ourselves entirely to the work of God, renouncing ungodliness and worldly passions and living self -controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age?

Is that our focus and is that our concern? Are we even being mindful of our brothers and sisters in the

Lord? Are we not aware that the things that we are doing in the name of Christian liberty may actually be causing a brother or sister to stumble whose conscience is not as strong as ours might be concerning these particular things?

Maybe you are not convinced that what you are doing is sin, but if you know that somebody else doing it may fall into sin, then it's probably better that you don't do it.

The Apostle Paul went as far as saying, I'm not going to eat meat if it's going to cause my brother to stumble, even giving up something in his diet he probably really enjoyed.

But more important to him than good food was the conscience of his weaker brother or sister in the faith.

And Romans chapter 15, I think it's verses one and two, tell us specifically that we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the week and not to please ourselves.

Let us each one, let each one of us consider our neighbor for his good to build him up or her up instead of trying to dig in our heels and claim what we're able to do in the name of Christian liberty, because there's nothing wrong with this.

I'm not sinning because I do this. It's fine. Don't be legalistic.

Don't tell me to do something that I cannot do. You're just being a Pharisee. It's very common, very common.

I wasn't planning on talking about this today. Like I said, I just said, hey, go back and listen to the other episode so I don't have to talk about this today.

But I think since teaching on it this past Wednesday and then going through the weekend, perhaps my mind was more attuned to it since I had just preached on it.

You know, it's the sort of a thing that you just bought a white car. And so now you see how many white cars are on the road since you have a white car and you didn't notice how many white cars there were before.

So it's sort of a thing here. I just taught on it Wednesday. So then I went through the entire weekend noticing just how liberal

Christians are being with Christian liberty to the point that they're probably not being as holy as they think they are.

We'll even name our podcast, the particular niche or fad that we think that we can do liberally because of the

Christian freedom that we have. This may be a little bit too on the nose, but I'm going to say it anyway.

You don't reform bars, you leave them. Here in Titus, chapter two, we are given explicit instructions on being mindful of one another, especially when it comes to how we grow each other in the faith and help one another in this process of sanctification.

I've heard Tim Challey say that sanctification is a community project.

It is not just something you do in the growth of your own holiness, but you help others do it also.

And we are all growing together in Christ. So this is why you have this order of mentorship that's given in the church congregation, older men mentoring the younger men and older women mentoring the younger women and bond servants being submissive to their masters,

Titus and other pastors being self -controlled and being in all respects a model of good works.

And all of this is a byproduct of sound doctrinal teaching.

As for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. And we'll come back to that again tomorrow, starting with what the expectations upon older men and their influence in the church there in Titus, chapter two, verse two.

Let us conclude with prayer. Our God and Savior, we thank you for the salvation that we have been given.

And I pray that we do not take this salvation for granted as an excuse to indulge in things that look a little bit more worldly than they actually look heavenly.

May we have minds that are focused above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

These things that are on earth that we're not even going to take with us. Why do we get so caught up with thinking that we can indulge ourselves in these things just because we want to?

Do we have hearts and minds that are focused fully upon Christ, who is supposed to be our first and our greatest love?

Or are we still trying to find excuses for living the way in the world that we want to live? Help us instead to live self -controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age.

As Paul said to the Philippians, in which we shine like stars in the universe, holding fast to the word of life in a crooked and depraved generation.

Teach us holiness and convict our hearts, more so than they've already been convicted. For we know that this conviction is godly if it is in the

Holy Spirit, leading us to more and more Christ -likeness.

It is in His name that we pray, Amen. Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.