Sunday Sermon: Older Men and Women in the Church (Titus 2:1-5)

You're listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series. Here is Pastor Gabe.

Sound Doctrine Applied to Christian Living in Titus 2

Titus chapter 2 is where we are, and we are taking what we have read over the last few weeks in chapter 1, which has been mostly doctrine related, talking about sound teachers contrasting them with false teachers, and now we're taking that doctrine that we've studied and we're putting legs on it.

Now, how do you live this out? What are we to do in light of the good doctrine that we have heard, and that's what we're going to see here at the start of Titus 2. Before getting to our text, I came across this quote from J. Vernon McGee, somebody that I used to listen to quite regularly on the radio when I was growing up.

And McGee said, I'm afraid that we find a lot of sissy preaching in our pulpits today. The popular thing is to have a little sermonette given by a preacherette to Christianettes. There is so little urgency.

Someone has defined the average church service in a liberal church as when a mild-mannered man gets up before a group of mild-mannered people and urges them to be more mild-mannered. But what we're going to be reading about today in Titus 2, it is going to teach us how to be men and women of God in His church.

In honor of the word of the King, would you please stand as I am reading from Titus chapter 2, and I'm going to read verses 1 through 10 out of the English Standard Version. Hear the word of the Lord.

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, love, and in steadfastness. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves too 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.

Bond servants 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.

You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read, and I pray that you give the application of this text to our hearts. We see how it rightly applies to each person. We understand how it applies to us, how we are instructed as men in the church to behave a certain way and to do a certain thing, how women are instructed to go a certain way, even the young and the old.

May we understand the responsibility that we have to one another in the body of Christ, looking out for each other and growing one another in love, as talked about in Ephesians 4, so that we may grow up in every way into the head who is Christ Jesus.

It is in his name that we pray, and all God's people said, amen. Well, this week, the Summer Olympics 2024 in Paris will come to a close, and it has certainly been, as most Olympic seasons are, a season of drama.

Now, I've not watched a lot of the Olympics, but I've certainly kept up with a lot of the news that has been surrounding the Olympics, and you are probably aware that just yesterday it was said that a biological male won the women's boxing event, beat up all the women, and ended up with a gold medal.

Now, there's controversy surrounding this, of course, because nobody's admitting that he is a biological male. They're saying, no, he is a female, and he competed in the women's event as he should. In fact, the top two competitors in women's boxing were both male.

Now, I don't think that women should be beating up each other for sport anyway, frankly, if I'm to be honest with you, but we're seeing now on the world stage something that we know has been happening in our culture for the last several years, this blurring of the lines of distinctions between male and female.

Yet, even though we've seen that happening in our culture, or this idea that gender is even fluid, that somebody can change their sex or their identity, and they can be one tomorrow, and maybe the next day they decide they want to be something else.

Even though that's been going on in our culture, when you're looking at the Olympic events, you still can't escape the reality of biology. Why is this such a controversy in this women's sport? Because we know that men are biologically stronger, and if you put a man in a woman's sport, he will dominate the women.

Even now in the 2024 Olympics, you still see distinctions between male and female. This man won the gold medal in men's events. This woman won the gold medal in women's events. Those distinctions still exist, and they are inescapable, because it is how God created every one of us, as said in Genesis 127, in his image, male and female.

And not only are we biologically different, but God has assigned to men and to women.

Specific roles.

There are roles that men are specifically supposed to do, even in the context of the church, and there are roles that women are specifically to fulfill. And I want to say to you that in order to have a good functioning church, which is what Paul is describing here in Titus 2, it is a functioning, godly, biblical church.

In order to have a functioning church, we need men filling the roles that men are supposed to fill, and we need women filling the roles that women are supposed to fill. Men cannot do the women's job, and women cannot do the men's job.

Now, there are some that will try to say that the way that these roles are laid out are unfair, and a woman can do everything that a man can do, or vice versa. Usually, it doesn't go the other way. A man can do everything a woman can do.

You rarely hear that. It's usually a woman can do everything that a man can do. But I tell you that if we start blurring the lines and we start thinking that any person of any sex can do any role, then we have a dysfunctional church.

And you could just have a church of all men or a church of all women, and it would be every bit as biblical as if you had both sexes in the church, but that would be a dysfunctional.

Church.

A church with all men in it would not be a properly functioning church because God's kingdom is for men and women. And furthermore, God's kingdom is not just for the older but even for the younger. Remember that Jesus said to his own disciples, do not prohibit children from coming unto me, for to them belongs the kingdom of God.

We see it for the oldest generation and even for the younger generation as well. And so as the apostle Paul comes here to giving instructions about how people are to function in the church, we have instructions that are specific to men, instructions that are specific.

To women.

And you also see something here that is multigenerational. There is an instruction that is given to older men. There's an instruction given to older women on even how to teach younger women. And there is instruction for younger men to receive the instructions from their elders as well.

So this is how this is going to break up for us over the next couple of weeks. I'm actually not going to be here next week. I'm going to be preaching up in Gilbert. So this week, we're going to look at primarily the instructions that are given for older men and older women.

Next week, somebody else is going to be leading the teaching. And then the week after, we'll come back to this section and we'll see specifically those instructions for the younger women and the younger men.

But notice that we begin first with instructions to older men because they are going to be the ones that are first expected to step up and lead in the congregation of the church. Now, the way that this passage breaks down for us today is we're going to be looking at it.

We have it broken down into three parts. Number one, notice this first verse, but as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. This is a bridging verse that takes all the instructions that we've heard in chapter one and then gives them application that we see here in chapter two.

And we're going to have another bridging verse at the end of chapter two. So chapter two is bookmarked with two bridging verses. As for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Look down at verse 15 and you'll see, declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no one disregard you.

It is a call back to the doctrine that Titus has been taught. And then that'll take us into the practical instructions that we'll see in chapter three. So for our first point today, we're looking at this bridging verse of teaching what accords with sound doctrine.

Secondly, we're going to see instructions that are given to older men. That's in verse two. And then thirdly, we'll see instructions that are given to older women in verse three. And then after that, when we come back to this section, you see the instructions to younger women, instructions to younger men, and even instructions to bond servants that are given here also in chapter two.

So let's come back up to the top and we'll look at this first verse at the start of chapter two. But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Now, remember our theme as we have been reading through Titus has been that doctrine and life.

Go together.

What you believe will affect the way that you behave. And that is true for everybody. It doesn't matter whether they are a believer, a professing Christian or not. What a person believes absolutely has everything to do with the way that they conduct themselves.

In this world.

Paul is instructing Titus, who is going to be instructing these churches that have been planted on the island of Crete. They have been taught the gospel. They have come to faith in Jesus Christ because of the declaration of the gospel.

But then there are other things in these churches that remain incomplete. For example, back in verse five, Paul says, this is why I left you in Crete so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I had directed you.

So these churches don't yet have sound men of God that have been placed over the congregation to help shepherd them. And that is one of the assignments that Titus has for going back into these churches and setting these things in order.

Then what we had in verses five through nine were the qualifications of a sound teacher. These are the kinds of men that Titus should have been appointing. And they were set in contrast with false teachers that needed to be silent.

That's what we looked at last week in verses 10 to 16. Silence the false teachers, but give a platform to those sound men that will guide God's people into all truth with sound doctrine, good doctrine or good teaching.

Doctrine is just a word synonymous with teaching. So good teaching leads to godliness. If we have sound teaching that flows from the gospel of Jesus Christ, the person who hears it and does what is exhorted of them to do will be more godly in their living and in their behavior.

But if you have bad doctrine, if the teaching is bad, then it leads to more and more ungodliness. So now after talking about those things, talking about the importance of right teaching, silencing those who teach wrongly, Paul then comes into chapter two saying, as for you, Titus, contrasting him with the false teachers, don't be as those men, but for you, teach what accords or what flows from sound doctrine.

Now I teased this at the end of the sermon last week and I said this is going to be like a teaser for what we're going to be talking about today. What accords with sound doctrine is what results from the sound teaching of the word.

And so now what we have in chapter two with regard to men and women in the church, how they are to behave, how they are to conduct themselves. This is what flows from sound doctrine. This is what is in keeping with sound doctrine.

If a person is listening to the gospel, if they're listening to the teaching of our Lord Christ, then what should we expect their lives to look like? And we begin with the environment of the church. Now, Paul doesn't limit these instructions to just how they will conduct themselves in the church.

That's chapter three. Chapter three, we'll even talk about how we conduct ourselves in the world. But for now, since we're talking about the context of the church, this is how men and women are to be in the assembly, the called out assembly of people who worship and serve the Lord.

So that's verse one. And it's very rare for me for my first point to be my shortest point. But in this particular sermon, that's going to be the case. I was on a message board with some other pastors not long ago.

And I asked them, how many of you like me spend like 30 minutes on your first point and then 10 minutes on every subsequent point after that? And the pastors were responding, oh, my goodness, I thought I was the only one.

Glad to hear that there are others that do the same. Point one for me is going to be the shortest today. We're going to spend more time looking at these instructions, first for older men and then for older women.

Older Men: Sober-Minded, Dignified, Self-Controlled

So look here at verse two. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound. We see that word sound again. That was in verse one, sound doctrine. So now we also see that he is to be sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.

Now, Paul starts with older men, then older women, then younger women, and then younger men. In the text, we have on either side of the women instructions for men. You notice that? So the older men are first, then older women, younger women, and then the younger men.

Now, I don't know if this was Paul's intention or not, but coming right off the warning against false teachers, we have this picture of godly men, old and young, standing strong. And then the women and even, you know, you might consider the children because it's also talked about there about a younger woman who is raising up children in her household.

So you have the women and the children that are in the middle. What I do know is that Paul starts with older men because no one in the church is more influential than the older men in the church. It's not that men are more important, but the older men hold the most influence.

It is from the more mature men that the elders will be chosen. These men that Paul had told Titus that he is to raise up and appoint as shepherds in the church that we read back in chapter 1. Remember from Titus 1 .5 that this was one of Titus' objectives and that elder was from the word presbyter, so he is one who is a leader or as we also considered a shepherd in the church.

We know from the context because Paul contrasts older men with older women in verse 3 that we're not talking about the elders of the church here in verse 2. We're talking about the older men in the church, those who are more mature and more experienced, especially in the context of faith.

There's no value in being old if you're not also godly. You've heard and perhaps you've even used the expression grumpy old man. Ever used that expression before? I had a friend of mine who used to say, I'm aspiring to be a grumpy old man and now I'm just working on the old part.

It's such a common euphemism in our culture that there were two popular movies under that title, grumpy old men and grumpier old men. It's easy to become a grumpy old man. That's an easy thing to do. How about a godly older man?

Psalm 71 says, O Lord, you are my trust from my youth. Even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me until I declare your strength to the next generation, your might to all who are to come. So look with me at these instructions for older men.

Verse 2, older men are to be temperate. That's another word for sober minded. They are to be dignified and they are to be self-controlled. Another word that's used there for self-controlled is sensible.

And they are to be sound in faith and in love. In the English Standard Version, it says, and in steadfastness. If you're reading from the New American Standard or the Legacy Standard, it probably uses the word perseverance.

That's another word for steadfastness. So you'll notice here we have two sets of three. We have, first of all, sober minded, dignified, and self-controlled. And then following that with a second set of three, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.

Now, it may look like at first, it may not look like this at first glance, but the first set of three is actually the result of the second set of three. Remember, we've been considering how belief and behavior go together.

So if a man is sound in faith and in love, and he is steadfast in this, he perseveres in this, then he will demonstrate soundness of thought or being sober minded. He will demonstrate this love that he has in being dignified, and he will also be self-controlled.

Sound in faith describes your relationship with God. Sound in love describes your relationship with other people. Steadfastness is your perseverance in these relationships with God and with his people.

So one of the signs of fruitfulness in a Christian's life is that you are growing in your love for God and for his word and in your love for his people, for fellow Christians. A man who loves God and loves the people of God will also show himself to be sober minded, dignified, and self-controlled.

So to be temperate or to be sober minded, some of you might have in a different word in a different translation, this means to be clear headed in your thinking. You are not easily given over to wild and fanciful ideas, particularly when it comes to doctrine.

You have such a sound grasp on the truth that your mind is guarded from being persuaded by things that aren't true. Philippians 2 .5 says to have the mind of Christ. And that's not merely for your sake.

That's also for the sake of others. Ephesians 4 .14 -15, I quoted a portion of in my prayer this morning. It says that we are no longer to be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every shifting wind of doctrine, by the craftiness of men, by their deceitful scheming.

But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, into Christ Jesus. Men, if you are the kind of guy that tends to believe all the kinds of craziness that you hear in the world today.

And it seems like whenever an election season rolls around, the theories and the ideas just get crazier. If you are tossed around by every different wind of doctrine, you hear a new teaching that comes about and you think to yourself, well, that sounds unique.

I've not ever given it that thought before. And you start to take that teaching and wedge it into the Bible as though you found it there. But that's not where you found it. You found it out here and you're trying to wedge it into the pages of scripture.

If this is the kind of person that you are, then you are not just a danger to yourself. You're a danger also to your church. If you are the kind of person who loves drama, and when I say drama, I mean, you tend to make things a bigger deal than they really are.

Or you think that whatever you're passionate about, whatever you get excited over, whatever you obsess in, well, that needs to be everybody else's obsession too. And if that's the kind of person that you are, you lack temperance.

If you like what we often label conspiracy theories, like I do, I love a good conspiracy theory. But there's a balanced and proper way to handle such information. Don't fear the government or big pharma or whatever else is going on more than you fear God.

That was a bird that hit the window back there.

That's what that was.

That's a conspiracy. That's it.

They're after us now. They heard what I was saying. So without the distraction, let me repeat that again. Don't fear the government or big pharma or some uncover agency or something that somebody is whispering about online.

Don't fear those things more than you fear God. Isaiah 8, 12, let him be your fear and your dread. And that is having temperance. That's what it means to be sober minded. Now, how about that next one, to be dignified?

Men, this means to behave in such a way that is worthy of respect. The interesting thing about the definition of this word is that it implies that you are involved with other people. So you actually have relationships with other people that they may know and see and test your conduct and recognize you as being someone worthy of emulation or someone worthy of respect.

What do they think about your character or your behavior? Do you act in a way that would make anyone admire you? Do you want to act in a way that when people look at you, they think, now there's a man who wants to be like Jesus.

However far away that you might think you are from that, we should all desire that. Ephesians 5, 1 says, be imitators of God. Now that third word, to be sensible or to be self-controlled is exactly what that means.

Being able to control yourself. In fact, some translations use the word self-control instead of sensible because that's the more plain definition of the word. This is a man who knows how to curb his desires and impulses.

And again, you do this not for yourself, although you should. For your sake, be self-control. A person who lacks self-control, we've recognized how destructive that kind of behavior can be, right? You've known people who just seems like everything they decide to do seems to be something that is more and more self-destructive.

So having self-control is certainly for your benefit, but more specifically in this context, it is for the benefit of other people. The man of God is self-controlled for the sake of others. My friends, no one sins on an island.

Your sin does affect other people. And the way that you act and the way that you behave can bring a reproach against the church that you're a part of. Consider what Paul says here in 1 Thessalonians 4, 3 through 6.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and in honor, not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God, and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in these things.

So recognize there that Paul is talking about how you can sin and that sin will be against you, but you can also sin in such a way that will transgress a brother or a sister in the Lord. When I first took over as the pastor of my church in Kansas, it was a very busy season, of course, when you have a transition of pastors like that.

And there were some things that were going on that the other pastor that I took over after just left undone. He was not a disciplinarian. He would not confront people in their sin. And so some people were allowed to run in various positions while they were also living sinful lifestyles on the side.

To give you an example of that, we discovered that one of the women that was leading part of our AWANA program was actually living with a man out of wedlock. And so we had to confront that and remove her from that position.

And in so doing, it creates work for everybody else because now we have to find somebody to fill that position or we have to move some people around in order to make sure that these kids are being cared for and they're being led according to the verses that they were learning and the different lessons that we had to them in our Wednesday night program.

So just kind of give you an example of that. Now, in this transition, there were not elders. I think we talked about this a little bit when we went through different church polity and having a plurality of elders.

When I first took over as pastor, I was the only guy. I was the only one kind of at the top leading things. I was taking the church in the direction of understanding why it was important for us to have a plurality eldership.

But we weren't there yet. And so a lot of the decisions that had to be made, I just had to do it myself. And there were things that I couldn't delegate to anybody else. It was just stuff that had to be done and it had to be up to the pastor to do it.

But there were a lot of well-meaning people that came to me and said, is there anything that we can do for you beyond praying? We love praying for you, but is there something that you can give us to do?

And sometimes I would have something that I could delegate out. But again, other times there were just things that the pastor had to do or some other men, friends of mine could help me do in some of those respective roles.

But finally, at one point when I was teaching through, I don't even remember which book it was at the time, but when we were doing application toward the end of the sermon, I just took a moment to say, a lot of you have asked me what you can do to help me.

And I appreciate your request. Some of those things I can't delegate out. But as I was thinking about this, going through the passage that we're reading about today and what we can be doing together as a church, here's just a very simple application, a very simple command that I would give for you to do and apply to your lives.

And this would help me and it would help you and the rest of the church. Stop sinning. And a lot of the people, when I said that, reacted just like that. But I did have a few people that came to me afterward.

One man in particular, I remember coming to me and saying, pastor, you can't just tell people to stop sinning. You can't say stop doing that. You know, we've heard you preach that there's no one good.

There's no one righteous. So we can't just stop sinning like you instructed us to do. So how can you say that? And I said, well, if you need chapter and verse, fine. First Corinthians 1534, stop sinning.

It is actually there in scripture. Now, of course, under our own fleshly power, we don't have the ability to just stop sinning. But I'm talking to a people who are not living in the flesh. At least I hope they're not.

But having the Holy Spirit of God, they do have the power that has been given to them to abstain from sin and walk in holiness. And my friends, especially talking to you men, since that's the section of Titus 2 that we're in, that's a standard that you need to be modeling for the rest of the church.

Pursuing holiness and righteousness in Christ that the rest of us can look up to you. And we see someone who models godliness and Christ likeness in their behavior. I don't know about the rest of you, but when I'm in need of counsel, I don't often turn to men who are younger and less experienced than I am.

I need the wisdom and the experience of an older godly man. And we need men who can say, as Paul did, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. First Corinthians 11 one. We need men who have borne the burdens of life and are still able to say, my redeemer is faithful and true.

We need older men whose body is wasting away from the years and we can tell. And yet you have a wonder and an enthusiasm for the gospel that mirrors the energy.

Of a small child.

I remember a brother named Ray who was a Sunday school teacher in my church in Texas. He's in his nineties now. And the man walks with the gait of a 90 year old. But when you talk to him about Jesus and you look in his eyes, you see such a youthfulness and a vigor there that I wish I had.

I loved talking with him about the Lord. And there were some members of the church that probably thought of Ray as a grumpy old man in some respects. But you get to talking with him about Christ and what he knew the Lord had redeemed him from.

And he loved to tell the story of Jesus and his love. When Moses died, he was 120 years old. Nobody in here I expect to live to be 120 years old. Nobody probably wants to live here that long for that matter.

Lord, take me home. Deuteronomy 34, seven says, now Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was not dim nor his vigor abated. Moses was old in body, but not in heart. His eye was fixed on God and his enthusiasm was for God's promises.

And older men, we need you to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women, it's your turn. Look at verse three. Older women, likewise. So some of those things that have been said to the older men, women, you need to take that to heart and imitate that as well.

Older Women: Reverent in Behavior, Not Slanderers, Not Enslaved to Wine

Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor slaves to much wine, but they are to teach what is good. So older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior. It was just to the older men that there to be temperate or sober-minded, dignified, and self-controlled, that's reverent behavior.

So the older women, in like manner, are to be reverent, a word that is synonymous with sacred, just like a pastor might be called a reverend. So it's interesting to see that word applied to the older women.

This is to behave in such a way that is suitable for sacred or holy character. If you have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you, you are a sacred place. 1 Corinthians 6, 19 says, do you not know that your body is a temple, which is also translated sanctuary, a sacred place of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God.

So it is being said here of older women that they should demonstrate a sense of sacredness. The elders of the church, the pastors and the overseers, certainly they should behave in reverence. And here Paul is saying that responsibility and that duty is also for older women.

They may not hold an office of pastor or overseer or elder, but nonetheless, they demonstrate the character of one who may hold that office, that they may, in their reverent behavior, guide and instruct others, especially the younger women.

And it's interesting to consider how much of this instruction given to older women is like the qualifications for a pastor that we saw previously. In Titus 1, 7, we read, the overseer must be above reproach as God's steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine.

Remember that was said of the elder. And he must also teach what is good. So what do we see here for older women? She is to be reverent. She's not to be a slanderer or a malicious gossip. She's not to be enslaved to much wine.

And she also is to teach what is good, specifically in the context of teaching those that are younger than her and younger women. Now, that doesn't mean that she is qualified to be a pastor. The contrast here clearly states whom she is to teach regarding the younger women.

But in her character, in her behavior, she should be held to the same standard that we would hold a pastor to, that a pastor must hold himself to. I remember years ago, one of the pastors at the Shepherds Conference was preaching from 1 Timothy 3, 1 through 7, and he said the following, can we all just admit that the qualifications for pastors really are not all that remarkable?

And he's saying this to a room full of pastors. The point he was making was to say that any Christian should aspire to those characteristics that we see should be emulated by the elder or the overseer.

Not everyone is going to be called to preach, but we are all called to holiness. The sun came out above me here. I feel like saying that statement was like, we're all called to holiness. So here, the older women are being given a huge responsibility in the church, be reverent in behavior, or as it says in the King James, for you King Jamesers, be in behavior as becometh holiness.

Now, the next part says they must not be slanderers, or in some translations, they are not to be malicious gossips. About this, the great London preacher John Gill said, they are not to be false accusers of the brethren and sisters, which is to act the part of the devil.

And indeed the same word is here used, which is commonly given to him, the accuser. She is not to raise false reports of bringing false charges against members of churches and sowing divisions among them.

So women control your tongues. Just like the older men were told not to be given over to wild ideas. Don't let your mind wander in the way of assuming the worst of your brothers and sisters in the Lord.