WWUTT 746 Being a Woman of God?

Titus 2 and the Gospel That Produces Godliness

There are many places we can go to in the scriptures to find out what it means to be a godly woman. But very simply, a godly woman is this, a woman who loves and wants to be like Jesus when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text, as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt .com.

Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky. We are still in Titus chapter 2, and I'll begin today reading the section that covers verses 1 through 6. The Apostle 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. So as we've been going through these instructions, we stopped last week about midway through the instructions that are given to women here, so that's what we're going to come back to.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ as the Foundation for Christian Living

But first of all, remember that this is flowing from the instruction to be sound in doctrine. So first and foremost, we love the gospel. A church is to be in love with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It should be proclaimed every single Sunday.

There should not be a Sunday that goes by where the good news of the message of the gospel has not been proclaimed. The word that has come to us through Christ's apostles, he commissioned them to go and talk about what it is that they had seen and heard.

Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, who put on flesh and walked among us, that he confirmed who he was by the miracles that he performed. He spoke with authority. He commanded that we would do the will of God.

And he himself modeled in his own life complete obedience and perfection in keeping the law of God, which he fulfilled, fulfilling all the law and the prophets. He laid down his life for our sins. He completed perfectly in his life to become that spotless Lamb of God that when he died on the cross, he was that perfect atoning sacrifice.

Dying in our place, taking upon himself the wrath of God as he was executed there at the hands of both Jews and Gentiles. But this was according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. On the third day, he rose again according to the scriptures and according to what he told his own apostles was going to happen.

He was going to be taken away. He was going to be killed, but he would rise again from the grave. They saw him for a period of 40 days between his resurrection and his ascension into heaven. And then the apostles received the gift of the Holy Spirit and went into Jerusalem, proclaiming this gospel that they had seen and heard, telling the people to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins and by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, they would be saved from the judgment to come and be given Christ's eternal life with him forever in glory.

This is the gospel that has been proclaimed, which we have heard. The first time we were told to turn from your sin and follow Jesus Christ and you would be saved, that's the message of the gospel and it is by the declaration of that gospel that we have been saved.

And so we have a righteousness that is not our own. It has been given to us in Christ. I just preached yesterday on 2 Corinthians 5, 21. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Double imputation, our sins placed upon Christ on the cross. His righteousness has been given to us and we've been clothed in it like wearing bright white spiritual robes. And we wear a righteousness that comes not from ourselves.

It has been given to us in Jesus Christ. So as we are growing in an understanding of this righteousness, it is going to produce in us Christ-like behavior. And so Paul tells Titus to teach what accords with sound doctrine.

Everything that comes from the true words of the gospel of Jesus Christ and it will produce godliness in the lives of the hearers. This is why the gospel must be proclaimed every Sunday. Because whatever instruction has to be given to the church according to the section of the word of God that's being read or studied that particular week, the church comes to obedience in light of the gospel.

It is because they have been saved by Christ that they are now able to serve him in a righteous way in light of the gospel. Without the gospel, we're just following law. We're just trying to keep the law, which we can't do.

Jesus himself said no one will be justified by the law. When he had the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector in the book of Luke, the Pharisee stood there in the temple and proclaimed himself righteous because of all the great things he has done.

But the tax collector beat his chest and said, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. And Jesus said, it's this man, the tax collector, who's going to go down to his house justified while the other one is going to be condemned.

No one is justified by their works. Even Jesus proclaimed justification by faith. He was the first to teach it, which was why his apostles then taught it in the epistles that followed. And so because of the gospel of Christ by which we have been saved and we are being saved, it is through the gospel that we are continuing to be made like Christ.

And we are growing in his righteousness and godliness is being produced in our lives. So teach what accords with sound doctrine and then what accords with sound doctrine looks like this. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith and love and instead fastness.

If they love the gospel, this is what a gospel-loving man in the church is going to look like. And then we have the older women, likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, slaves to much wine.

And we're going to come back to these characteristics again. But first of all, before we go into once again, understanding what it means to be a woman of God, according to this list, let me say first that understanding what it means to be a woman of God is a woman is supposed to be like Jesus.

That's it. You know, we've got our list of things, of course. We've got it right here in Titus 2. I even went through Proverbs 31 last week and all of that is well and good. This is what a woman who fears the Lord is supposed to look like.

But at its base, summarizing all of this, what is a woman supposed to be? She is supposed to be someone who is an imitator of Christ. That's something we often say regarding men. Men, be lovers of Jesus.

Imitate Christ. We have the instruction there in Ephesians 5, particularly pertaining to husbands. The husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.

Sure. And what does it say to wives? Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. So when we read those instructions, oftentimes there might come with those instructions of disparity.

Men are supposed to be imitators of Christ. Women are supposed to submit to their husbands as the church is supposed to submit to Christ. But when it comes down to it, all of us who are believers and followers of Jesus are supposed to be imitators of Jesus.

These are instructions that have to do with the husband-wife dynamic as a picture of the way that Christ loves his church and the church submits to Christ. That's all that's supposed to be there in Ephesians 5.

But it in no way takes away from the responsibility upon a woman to likewise be an imitator of Jesus. True godly womanhood is a woman who desires to be like Christ. That's godly womanhood. So yeah, we have our list of instructions and things of this nature, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be someone who wants to be like Jesus.

She wants to be like her Savior. We who are Christians are to be imitators of Christ, whether you are a man or whether you are a woman. Even women are to be imitators of Jesus. The serpent lie of our culture right now is feminism.

Like this is the snake in the garden whispering to Eve, did God really say? That's what feminism is in our culture right now. It is the snake whispering to women. Did God really say that this is what womanhood is supposed to look like?

Now I got something better for you than that. You don't need to submit to your husband. You don't need to work at home or put your house in order or love and care for your children or be your husband's help meat or any of these other things.

You can be as much of a man as any man. That's essentially feminism. Teaching women that they can be men just like the men are. It is a lie of our culture trying to teach women to be men instead of being women of God.

And yet the instructions that we have for us in Scripture regarding good godly woman behavior looks like this. They are to love their husbands and children and be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands that the word of God may not be reviled.

And you say to me, well, Pastor Gabe, I'm a single woman and I have no children. So how can I be a godly woman following those instructions when I don't have a husband or children to love? Well, I was giving that specifically counter to the lies of feminism culture.

But the instructions for single women in the Bible, we've already read those too. Verse 3. 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.

Those instructions right there, which are godly instructions for women, they apply to single women as much as they apply to married women, married older mature women in the church. Can a single woman not teach a younger woman how to love their husbands and their children?

I believe a single woman can do that. She has the same word of God that the younger woman is using. And so she can be so well-equipped and spiritually mature in these things that she is able to teach other women in the church what it means to love their husbands and their children.

It's not just something that comes by experience, although that certainly helps. But you've got in the Bible, in the Old Testament, you've got the stories of midwives who themselves may not have been married or had children and yet they were there to teach the other women how to love their children and be good workers in the home.

We have other instructions elsewhere that would apply as much to single women as they would to married women. 1 Timothy 2 .9. Likewise, also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire.

That applies as much to single women as it does to married women. And then you have the Apostle Paul, something that he said in 1 Corinthians 7 .7, I wish that all were as I myself am, but each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

You are single, that's a gift from God. And celebrate God for that and ask how he can use you in your singleness that you may give praise and glory and honor to him in reverent behavior. It is still upon even single women to behave reverently.

And that's the first instruction that we have here in verse 3, older women are to be reverent in behavior and they are a model of good behavior even for the younger women. So though this applies to older women, even younger women are supposed to be reverent.

Now what does it mean to be reverent? Well, the dictionary tells me this. Here's the definition that I found in the dictionary. To be reverent means feeling, exhibiting or characterized by reverence, deeply respectful.

When I go to the Greek dictionary to understand this word that is translated reverent in the English Bible, here's what it gives me in the Greek dictionary. To be reverent means to be suitable to a sacred character.

And it comes from another word that describes a sacred place or a temple. So you think of the instructions that we have that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God, you are not your own.

1 Corinthians 6 .19. So to live as a temple of the Holy Spirit would be to live reverently. And this is an instruction that applies to all women. Be reverent in your behavior. Now last week when I was reading the instructions for older men, I played a clip from Voti Bacchum that was penetrating and convicting about what it means to be sound in faith.

This instruction that Paul gave that older men are to be sound in faith. Well, I've got another clip from Voti Bacchum and this time for the women about what it means to be reverent in behavior. Here's Dr. Voti Bacchum.

Reverent Behavior, Modesty, and the Dignity of Womanhood

We've skewed the lines. We are no longer raising women in our culture. We are raising men who happen to be biologically capable of having children. That's what we're raising. And then only if it doesn't interfere with career goals.

That's what we're raising. We're raising women to conduct themselves like men. Like one of the boys. To be loud and boisterous and inappropriate. And to draw undue attention to themselves. Both in their conduct and in their dress.

That is irreverent. And it's happening because we have an epidemic of unprotected women. Because just like the illustration we heard earlier you know, if the young woman is out at midnight on the corner with a bunch of hoodlums, you know, you want to bring them back to their fathers.

I feel the exact same way when I see the way some young women dress. I want to bring them home to their dad and I want to say, hey, I brought her to you because I'm sure that you didn't see her leave the house this way.

And beyond that, I'm sure that somebody went and bought these clothes without you knowing it, snuck them in the back of her closet and you never saw them because had you been aware that these were even in her closet, you would have gotten rid of them.

That's why I brought her here to you. You and I both know, dads who have daughters who dress inappropriately take one of two tacts. Tact number one is this tact of, well, you know, yeah, I understand, but that's the style, you know, these days.

Or tact number two, he wants her to look like that. He likes the attention that she draws when she dresses like that. Both of those are completely and utterly inappropriate. And I say this as the father of a 17-year-old daughter, I realize how difficult it is to buy and find modest clothes.

I realize it. I realized it when my daughter was 12. I did. Again, does this mean, you know, turtlenecks in the summer and all this sort of... That's not my point. Men, what we're looking for is a woman who whenever she prepares herself to go out, asks this question.

To what aspect of my person am I drawing attention today? And is that honoring to Christ? You want a woman who presents herself in totality everything about her like that as though she is looking in the mirror and saying to what aspect of my person am I drawing attention by the way that I act, by the way that I dress to what aspect of my person am I drawing attention?

That tells you a great deal about a woman. Men, if you are around a woman and you find yourself doing, you know, the male neck exercise, I call it the male neck exercise because I find myself having to do that.

A lot of times women are dressed so inappropriately and there's so much cleavage there or the shirt is so tight revealing the shape of their breasts that I find myself doing this in order to exaggerate so that I don't find myself going if she's a woman who makes you constantly have to do the male neck exercise either there's some more discipleship that needs to happen or she has just told you what she thinks is the most important thing about her.

She has just communicated to you what she thinks is the most important thing about her. Why? Because that's the thing to which she is trying to immediately draw your attention. Reverent in her behavior.

And again, these are things that many young ladies haven't heard. Many young ladies haven't had a father to sit them down and say listen, your value and your worth is not contingent upon men lusting after you.

And ladies, if you haven't heard that let me say that to you right here and right now because that's the lie that the culture has sold to you. Your value and your worth is contingent upon how men lust after you.

And from the minute you began to develop curves, this is the idea that the culture has thrust upon you. You see it everywhere. And so in order to feel valuable you have to dress yourself and present yourself in such a way that you make people look at you and so you walk around all the time like this and like this but look at me look at me it's because you don't know where your worth is it's because you don't know where your value is and so you've developed behavior that is irreverent because you don't know where your worth is and because you don't know where your value is look at me, you deserve to be honored and respected and protected not demeaned.

You are not a piece of meat to satisfy the sinful fleshly desires of a man your price is above rubies the scriptures say. It's outward beauty it's fleeting, it will fade it is useless, it is meaningless but that meek and that quiet spirit it's imperishable and that's what's valuable about you and it burdens me that you don't know that it burdens me that your father never said that to you.

I can tell by the way you present yourselves, some of you that your father never said that to you and you're yearning for male approval and the only way you've learned how to get it is go to the most base part of the male nature that's not it that's not it you must be reverent in your behavior and if a man is not decent enough to be attracted to reverent behavior, you don't want him anyway.

Amen to that. And as a man who is a father of three daughters those instructions were convicting even to me. So once again women a Christ-like woman is a woman who imitates Christ and obeys his word.

Prayer, Benediction, and Ministry Sign-Off

Let's pray our wonderful God. We thank you for the salvation that we've been given in Christ. And it is by this good news that we come to understand your word. And what is pleasing unto God. May we obey the commands of our savior for we have been bought with a price.

We know that we are delightful to you because the works that we do are carried out in God by the righteousness that we have been given through Jesus Christ our Lord. So teach us to be self-controlled and pure and submissive to your word.

And may we look out for one another teaching and training one another to renounce ungodliness and live self-controlled upright and godly lives in the present age. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

You've been listening to when we understand the text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. We hope you are a part of a church family committed to gospel teaching and we thank you for including us in your Bible learning.

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