God's Plan for The Church's Aged Treasures

Titus 2 and the Church’s Aged Treasures

Okay, good morning redeeming grace. What a blessing we have this morning. Good morning, good morning. This morning I want to return back to our series in Titus, Titus chapter 2. Titus is the third book of the pastoral epistles, and it's been a little over a month ago, but this series is titled The Characteristics of a Healthy Church, and I thought how timely this is as redeeming grace grows in grace in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

So this series is titled The Characteristics of a Healthy Church, and this is going to be part 2, and I've titled part 2 God's Plan for the Church's Aged Treasure. God's Plan for the Church's Aged Treasure.

Chapter 2 is basically a directory of the one another church. This is the called out ones, the ecclesia. There's five classes here we look at. We're going to see, number 1, the aged men, number 2, the aged women, 3, the young married women, 4, the young men, and last, slaves, also known as employees.

In part 1, we looked at the importance of sound doctrine. As Pastor just mentioned, that the vital church grows first and foremost on the Word of God. Sound doctrine, healthy doctrine, without error, without pollutants to the Word of God.

The Word of God is pure. So in part 1, we looked at sound doctrine being the foundation of all our unity. We gather not in confusion, but we gather in unity under one in truth, and that's paramount. Today people gather in all other things but the truth.

So today, I gave an illustration last time regarding this series about Michelangelo and the Pieta. And just to bring us back up to speed, where this delusional man jumped the barrier and marred God's masterpiece.

So did the fallen angel because of his pride, jumped the barrier in the Garden of Eden and marred God's only masterpiece. The only masterpiece that he put his signature on. So, I have several questions I want to answer through this sermon.

And I want you to pull up your seat. I'm going to move quickly. I've got a lot of ground to cover. This is loaded. And I had to slim this down. I had over 15 pages of notes. I just want you to be fed and to love Jesus and His church.

So, this morning I'm going to direct your attention to verses 2 and 3 of Titus chapter 2. So, doctrine and life must agree. They must be harmonious. They must tie together. So, let's just go ahead and read this chapter, if you will.

Where you're at, can you please stand? This is in honor of God's Word, if you're able. Please stand and let's read God's Word aloud, if you're able. Hear the word of the living God. But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine, that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, impatient.

The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.

Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works, in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility. Sound speech that cannot be condemned, that the one who is the opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.

Exhort bond servants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well-pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, which means stealing, but showing all good fidelity, showing all good honesty, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.

Amen. You may be seated.

Thank you.

So this morning, I'm so unqualified. As I mentioned previously in the last time I spoke, I'm just a carpenter. I love the word of God, I love His people,.

I love being with you all,.

And I love fanning your flame and pointing you to the lover of your soul. This morning, obviously, this message is going to be addressed specifically to the older men and older women. However, all Scripture, as you know, is profitable for our own personal holiness and godliness.

Each one of us has a duty within the church, within the church militant. We have a responsibility unto God and then unto man, God being the captain of our salvation. This glorious life of sanctification should be presented to God as a thank offering for His amazing grace.

So, here's the several questions I want you to keep in mind as I go through this sermon. I want to answer these questions. Number one, so where will this healing come from? Where will this healing come from?

Number two, how many times have you heard professing Christians say, I don't care about doctrine? Number three, how does God view time? Number four, how does God view His aged treasures? And that will be the questions that we will try to answer within this next hour or 45 minutes to an hour.

But I just want to admit, I'm so unfit and unqualified to speak to the older men and women. I'm just another sinner trying to tell another sinner where to find bread. But I want to be faithful to the Lord.

So, this morning, if you will, I want to take you back to something. In Genesis chapter 1, Adam and Eve was placed in the midst of the garden.

God commanded them,.

The day you eat of this tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die. I believe Paul within this pastoral epistle is admonishing Titus. He's saying, set in order what's lacking in Crete. These young Cretan Christians were young.

They were feeble to fall back into all these schisms. Dionysius was a god of wine there. And you're going to see how many times this is mentioned within two verses about be sober, be not intoxicated with wine because the background in which this is setting.

And nothing's changed today. So, in Genesis 1 .28, God commanded them, Multiply and subdue it. Multiply and subdue it. What God was really saying? Make God lovers and work and labor. What I have given unto you, make it better.

Make it better. So, I believe Paul in chapter 2 here, is taking us back to the garden to say how will healing and restoration come. Because if you look at this, and within these classes, it's the old teaching the young.

You have old with the young, old with the young. Men and women. Purple and red, separate. But then you have also workers with their employers. So, Paul, I believe, is taking us right back to show us in the beginning, this is how healing is going to come.

It's going to come through, of course, the Word of God first and foremost, which is paramount, is in verse 1. But if you look in verses 2 and 3, in the whole, this healing and restoration is going to come through mutual relationships within God's community.

This healing is going to come through God's community. God's community, we see the history of that in Acts chapter 2. We see the whole book of Acts as the history of the church. So, with that said, I want to give you a little background.

Crete is the largest island in Greece. This is in the middle of the Mediterranean island. In the Mediterranean Sea is an island. Paul, on his first missionary journey, discipled Titus and left him behind, and he became a believer there.

He became a faithful believer and helped him in many other ministry endeavors. So he wasn't a novice. This right here, my beloved, this is a truth war, and still today is a truth war. There are many challenges that this young Christian church in Crete was facing.

False teachers were trying to divide with legalism and tradition, philosophical speculations, cultural sins. It said in chapter 1 they were gluttons, they were lazy, they were evil beasts, it said, basically just as if they had no conscience, just doing whatever the flesh wanted to do.

So all of these tugged at this early church. And you know, beloved, it's still tugging at the church today. Satan is after that holy remnant, that holy seed. As Pastor mentioned earlier, but it's not a battle of equals.

God will build His church. So I want you to please remember, doctrine does divide, but doctrine encourages rather than discourages godliness. So the question I have, the first question, how many times have you heard professing Christians say, I don't care about doctrine.

I just want to worship. Just give me Jesus. Doctrine divides. It creates fightings. Doctrine disturbs the peace. Oh, let's forget about doctrine and worship. How many times have you guys heard that? Thousands, hundreds.

I mean, really I'm going to summarize what they're really saying. Really what they're saying is, I don't need the Bible. I don't need the Bible. Just let me have Jesus. What they're saying is,.

Nothing has changed.

Individualism and self. This is not a self-made community right here in Titus 2. This is not an individualistic community. This is not. This is a one another community. So it says, I don't know if you can recall, but in Timothy it says, in the perilous times, they will heap up teachings and doctrines, teachers to tickling of their ears.

But you know, beloved, not just doctrine anymore, sound doctrine. The perilous days are now. They're here. They don't even want doctrine, much less sound doctrine. So I want to read you something, and then I'm going to dive into this.

But this is going to be a preface to this. In the beginning, there was a great awakening in the U .S. And it included George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and John Wesley. This was in the New England states.

This was a great movement of God. God used these men. But I want you to hear something. Please hear this. This really is saturated in love. It's something the young, when it says, do not rebuke an elder, but exhort him as a father, you're going to hear these things dripping in this,.

Of love.

It sounds like Galatians 6 .1. When a brother's in sin, restore him with gentleness. This is the letter of George Whitefield, his letter in response of election to John Wesley. Reverend and dear brother, God only knows what unspeakable sorrow of heart I have felt on your account since I left England last.

Whether it be my infirmity or not, I frankly confess that Jonah could not go with more reluctant against Nineveh than I now take the pen in my hand and write to you. Was nature to speak, I'd rather die than to do it.

And yet,.

I am faithful to God and to my own and others' souls. I must not stand in a neutral position any longer. I am very apprehensive that our common adversaries will rejoice to see us differing among ourselves.

But what can I say? The children of God are in danger of falling into error. Numbers have been misled whom God has been pleased to work upon by my own personal ministry. And a great number are still calling aloud upon me to show my opinion.

I must show them that I know no man after the flesh, that I have no respect to persons, any further than is consistent with my duty to my Lord and Master Jesus Christ. This letter, no doubt, will lose many friends.

This letter will, no doubt, lose many friends. And for this cause, perhaps God has laid this difficult task upon me even to see whether I'm writing to forsake all for Him or not. For such considerations as this, I think it my duty to bear a humble testimony, earnestly to plead for the truth which I am conceived.

For some time before, especially since my last departure from England, both in public and private, by preaching and printing, you have been propagating the doctrine of universal redemption. And I remember how Paul reproved Peter for his dissimilation.

I fear I have been sinfully silent too long. Oh, then be not angry with me, dear and honored sir, if now I deliver my soul by telling you that I think in this you have greatly erred.

So that's a preface to our text.

Because here's Titus doing the same thing. Titus is doing the same thing. So what I want to share with you first, and I'm going to move quickly, is the way God removes... Sorry, my landlord was calling me.

I want to answer the question, how does God view time? Because here, God starts with the older men and then the older women. We live in a physical world with multi-dimensions, height, width, depth, and time.

So what is God's relationship to time? In Psalm 90 verse 4, Moses used a profound analogy in describing the timelessness of God. For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday.

When it is past,.

Or as a watch in the night. God's perspective of time is far greater in different demands. We see time as we go through life as we age. I'm going to quote a blogger named Tim Challies, and I thought this was excellent.

Aging is the dash on the tombstone, the little line that is in its progress from left to right, from joy of birth to sorrow of death encapulates a whole life.

End quote.

So I'd like to add a little piece to that though. Within this one another community, within the healthy church, the dash is the life of sanctification. This is the life of sanctification, the dash. So Jesus came, and this is what Jesus came to do.

Matthew 1 .21 And she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. For he will save his people from their sins. Matthew 16 .18 And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.

And the gates of hell will not overpower it. So these are the two things Jesus came to do. And beloved, I want you to always remember that tenfold declaration that Peter gave. And you can go and be a Berean and check me out on this.

But remember he said, Peter, who do you say that I am? And he said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You can look in almost every translation and it never changes. Ten represents authority.

Within the Ten Commandments, it's the same thing. He has full authority. Amen. I hope you guys are staying with me. Okay, here we go. Look at verse 2. Look at verse 2. This is where we're going to start.

And notice how God starts within His own church. That the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, love, and patience. God starts with the older men. Does that question ring a bell? Why does God start with men?

I'm going to share something with you. I believe the moral decay of society is because of godly men have failed. We have failed. We have failed to be the men in our houses first and then in our workplace.

I believe, according to God's Word, that as a man is to be Christ, a priest within the house, he has a greater responsibility. For Adam was born first, then Eve. So, I want you to just look at this word, older.

I want to look at this word, older. Older is approximately 50 to 60 years and greater. It's just what it is. And what I love about this pastoral epistle is that it's very frank. It's very clear. The cookies are low.

It's just cut and dry. It is so cut and dry. So, look at God's starting places with the older. I'm going to stop right there and ask you a question. Is this where the church is starting today? I don't think so.

I believe the church today, unfortunately, serves to please men and the young juvenile audience. However, the greater problem is not serving the juvenile audience. They have all discredited the all-sufficient authority of God's Word.

These churches reject explicitly many of the people that are nearest and dearest to God. Isn't it just God that would take the meek and lowly in heart, the outcasts, those that seem to be of no use? It's like you're the last man picked on the team.

When your body is failing, God says, No, you're the pillar of my church. You are battle-tested. You become resolved like an anchor. You're a treasure to my bride. You're the crown of my bride. And I'm going to share this with you.

Because think about this. He does not say the gel-spiked is the crown of glory. The gel-spiked hair is the crown of glory. He says the gray hoary head in Proverbs 16 .31 is the crown of glory. So, how do these explicit means to people that are nearest and dearest to God, how do they do this?

These explicit means to discard them. You ready? I'm going to spit these out quickly. They abandon the traditional hymns. They abandon the Psalter, the psalm book of the Word of God itself. And they trade this for emotional, syrupy, emotional music.

Better yet, noise. Number two, they fog the stage. They shoot laser lights all throughout it like you're at a concert. My question is, how can you read your Bible in the dark? Number three, they crank the music up so loud that you cannot even think within yourself.

I'm going to stop right there because it's disgusting. And this is truly idolatry worship. And God is not pleased with this and it is not received. I'm going to share this with you. This is a quote. And I don't know who this is.

But, as the worm hides in the sweetest part of the fruit, so does Satan in religion. So the Lord does not see as man, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16 .7.

Therefore, the older, please, don't lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed day by day, Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians. Let us stand in the ways as Jeremiah said.

Listen to how beautiful this is. Jeremiah the prophet. Oh Lord, have mercy upon us. Let us stand in the ways and see. And ask for the old paths where the good way is. And walk in it. Then you'll find rest for your souls.

There it is. So, the older men, how does God view these aged treasures? I'm going to take you on a... I'm going to have to challenge you now to keep up with me. If you will, how does God view aged treasures?

Let's first look at Exodus 20 verse 12. You can flip there. And as you know, this is where the Ten Commandments are at. The question I have here is, how does God view the aged treasure? Exodus 20 verse 12.

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God has given you. Go with me now to 1 Kings 12. 1 Kings, we're going to be looking at King Rehoboam. And this right here, this scripture is loaded.

1 Kings chapter 12. How does God view the older, the elder, the aged? 1 Kings 12, starting with verse 6. Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who stood before his father Solomon while he still lived.

And he said, how do you advise me to answer these people? And they spoke to him saying, listen to this. Listen to how gentle this is. This is not forceful, this is not putting words in the king's mouth.

And you're going to see a different contrast. If you will be a servant to these people today and serve them, and answer them and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever. But King Rehoboam, he rejected this advice which the elders had given him.

And he consulted the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. And he said to them, what advice do you give me? How should you answer these people who have spoken to me saying, lighten the yoke which your father put on us?

Then the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him saying, thus you should, listen to what they say, they're forceful now. Thus you should speak to these people who have spoken to you saying, your father made your yoke heavy, but you made it lighter on us.

Thus you shall say to them, my little finger shall be thicker than my father's waist. And now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke. People came to Rehoboam the third day as the king had directed saying, come back to me the third day.

Then the king answered the people roughly and rejected the advice which the elders had given him. There it is. And he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men saying, my father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke.

My father chasing you with whips, but I will chase you with scourges. Do you see in this the love that God... Proverbs tells us in the counselors of many, there's surety for our souls. So you see in this, the wrong advice was taken here by young counselors.

Okay, if you will turn back to Deuteronomy 32. This is still how God views the aged treasure. Deuteronomy 32, starting in verse 7. Deuteronomy 32, verse 7. Remember the days of old, consider the years of my generations.

Ask your father and he will show you your elders and they will tell you. When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set boundaries of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

For the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the place of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, howling wilderness. He encircled him, instructed him and he kept him as the apple of his eye.

The apple of his eye. So, as you see, I'm going to go through some quickly and you can just write these down. Proverbs 20, verse 29. The glory of young men is their strength and the splendor of old men is their gray hair.

Listen to your father, Proverbs 23, verse 22. Listen to your father who begot you and do not despise your mother when she is old. That's Proverbs 23, verse 22. And listen to Ecclesiastes 7, chapter 7, verse 8.

The end of a thing is better than its beginning. The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. That verse is loaded. Psalm 92, verse 14. They shall still bear fruit in old age. They shall be fresh and flourishing.

Psalm 37, verse 25. I have been young and now I'm old. Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken nor his descendants begging for bread. Listen to Isaiah 46, verses 3 and 4. Listen to me, O house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel who have been upheld by me from birth, who have been carried from the womb even to your old age.

I am He and even to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made you and I will bear you. Even I will carry and I will deliver you. So God has promised. Do you know when you watch the National Geographic channel, the animals prey on the weaker, those that are not as fast as they once were.

God has promised to deliver and keep you. If you look at this, look back in verse 2 with me. The older men are to be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, and patient. My dad was a barber growing up, and I think Ms. Lillian's father was a barber too or someone in her family.

But my dad had a barber shop on the square in Monticello, Georgia. My mom always said, Keith, I don't want you up there. I don't want you up there. You're going to hear too much. You're going to hear too much and learn things that you should never hear.

And you know, being stubborn and self-willed, I still went. But I want to tell you, I lost a lot of respect for many so-called noble men within society. Here in this barber shop, I want to share with you the things I've learned from older men in my life, and these are the temptations I've grown to see and know within older men.

And I believe the Word of God says it too. Because young Timothy, me, young Titus, is told, put these things in order that are lacking.

Teach these things.

They have to be taught because they don't come natural. These things are lacking. So these are some temptations of the older men. These are eight faults. And this is not original. This comes from A .W. Tozer.

So listen to this. He's got eight common faults found in older men. Number one, talkativeness. They tell stories and lie fables and etc. Number two, fault finding. Number three, gluttony. Four, resentful.

Five, stubbornness. Six, a propensity to reminisce. Seven, levity. Eight, drunkenness. And nine, I'm just going to add this one, just dirty in gestures. So what is this a result of? This is a result of the lack of the Spirit of God, and by grace not teaching these.

So gluttony, there's cures for gluttony.

Fasting.

Stubbornness is a result of the loss of the ability to adapt. And you know and I know, a lot of times the older, they have pains in their body that they can't even speak of. They don't even know where it's coming from.

And a lot of times, it's nothing so urgent to rush them to the hospital. But, and they drown this with alcohol to be inebriated, to not be able to think soberly, to ease the pain. But they have a rude awakening when they wake up to see that the pain still exists.

Fault finding. You know, it's as if anything that goes on right now, generations are long and gone, the best has already happened in the past. This is their perspective. But God has a cure for this disease,.

And these diseases.

You know, if you look at this, God has a cure. That older men are to be sober. Older men are to be sober. Older men are to be considered, think about this, older men are considered to be trailblazers.

Trail guides. Trail guides.

Stand in the way and ask. Who are you asking? You're asking the older men that followed other men,.

That followed the prophets,.

The apostles' teachings.

It just continues.

So here's God's cure for this. He says be sober. What this means is literally what it means. Be sober from intoxicants. Nothing will destroy a Christian testimony greater than being drunk. Beloved, I hate to say this, there's some no longer in our midst.

It's sad, but I've seen this happen firsthand. It just gives the enemy of God an opportunity to blaspheme Him.

And it's sad.

Paul warns about this.

But remember in Galatians, he said don't... Be filled with the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit. Number two, look at this, it says reverent. Be reverent. This means venerable.

Venerable.

This man can be taken serious. This man can be taken serious. He's no longer childish. The younger look to him, as I mentioned earlier,.

As a trail guide.

They can go to him for information. They can go for him and trust. They're going to steer them away from false teachers. This older man has an eternal perspective. And he's learned this through God's sovereignty, through trials.

That's God's university. Number three, temperate. This means to be discreet or self-controlled. Not given to extremes. By God's grace he's come to love now the giver greater than all the gifts. In summary, he's eaten up by the love of God.

Now we move,.

As you see, that's the body and the behavior. Now we move to the spiritual. Look at this. He says, sound in faith. Sound in faith. By faith we worship God. Without faith it's impossible to please God.

This shows our maturity towards God.

Godliness.

If you want to see the perfect picture of this, I'm going to move on. Sound in love. The perfect picture of love, and you all, and I know, is 1 Corinthians 13. This is the perfect picture and portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you want to remove love and put Jesus, that's what it reads. Jesus is love. Jesus is patient. That's the perfect picture of love. So, love extends to all the commandments. This is the highest form of love, which is agape love.

This is what Christianity is all about. 1 John 4, 8 tells us, God is love. Love reaches out, love seeks out, and when all else fails, love will still remain. So as you see these last three, if you look at this, you often see faith, love, and hope.

But it says faith, love, and patience.

Patience.

Patience.

Patience.

These three sum up the maturity of Christian perfection, Christian maturity. If you will, now let's move on to verse 3. The older women, the matrons, the older women, and praise God for the older women.

You know, here at Redeeming Grace Church, we are not without. God has given us some that don't have mothers, He's given us mothers. Some of us that don't have fathers, He's given us fathers. Some of us don't have children, we have many children.

God is the giver. So now we turn to the older women, and praise God for the older women. I believe, I mean, you look throughout Scripture, and you think about King Lemuel's mother, think about Anna the prophetess, think about all these faithful women, think about Martha and Mary, think about Mary Magdalene, think about Priscilla and Aquila, how they took Apollos to the side to teach him.

So, now we turn to the women, the older women. And listen, hear the Word of God. The older women likewise, that means what was just mentioned, they're to be the same. That they be reverent in behavior, basically practical holiness, not slanderers, not giving too much wine, and teachers of good things.

Okay,.

This right here, I want to. Now, as A .W. Tozer spoke about the men's temptations, now I'm going to turn you, the other direction to the women's, the older women's temptations. And the reason why I'm quoting A .W. Tozer, because I'm still young myself, and I want you to chase after him,.

Not me.

Not me, but... So here, these women here in Crete are no longer pagan women. These are Christian women who have been transformed. These pagan women now are to put aside all these existing things that had a grip on them.

They're to adapt to a whole new way of life. These women are now elevated by faith. And beloved, you think about this, in our society, where the Word of God has not been faithfully preached and proclaimed, women are considered second-class citizens.

But God is no respecter of persons. God is concerned with the inward man and the character of older men, older women, young men, and young women. So now these women are now elevated by their faith in Christ.

Previously they had not been elevated. We see this all throughout our society, still today. Beloved, I just want to mention, God sees men and women equal, but we cannot confuse their offices. He has clearly given each office clearly defined duties.

So these women are responsible to live a holy life in dress, in conversation, in moral conduct. This is their behavior they're to represent. Oftentimes I've seen what has most impacted me is mostly by what an older woman doesn't say.

There's such a grace in her, an elegance, because the joy in her countenance speaks greater than what could ever come out of her mouth. These are the particular, the temptations, if we look at, if you continue on, not to be slanderous, not given to much wine.

Slandering happens like this. Does it sound familiar? Did you hear about? Do you know?

Have you heard?

This is the temptation of older women and to be given to wine. But there's a cure for these as well. I had someone once ask me, have you prayed for this person as much as you've talked about them? To me that's amen and ouch.

A .W. Tozer said these should be the Christian rule as the cure. He said ask yourself these four questions. Is it necessary? Is any ends going to be served by the passing of this? Is this even true? Have you done your homework to seek out if this is true?