Titus 2:3

Titus, chapter 2, reading verses 3 through 5, our focus on verse 3. The aged women likewise that they be in behavior as become of holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things. If they may teach the younger women, or the young women, to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blaspheme. May God bless to us His sacred and holy word this evening. Common sight in America’s southwest desert is the sentry plant. It’s a unique plant that thrives in the rocky mountain of the mountain. desert sites. It’s sort of a dramatic type of plant. Its blade leaves are about a foot wide. The plant can reach 12 feet in diameter, but what’s unique about it is its reproduction cycle. It’s called the century plant, but actually it takes about 20 to 30 years before it actually will reproduce. But it seems like a century, I guess, if you’re waiting for it to do that. and for this six-foot-tall plant doesn’t have any flowers for like 20 or 30 years. And then all of a sudden, it puts up a chute, and it’s sort of like a tree trunk-sized asparagus shoot. It shoots up in the sky at a rate of seven inches per day and can reach 20 to 40 feet high. And then it blossoms and crowns itself with these clumps of yellowish blossoms that last up to three weeks. Thus, it takes a while to be fruitful, but after years of waiting, all of a sudden, it’s very fruitful. Like the century plant, after a long Christian life, you ought to be showing great fruitfulness. Your graces may take a while to develop, but in your elderly years, certainly, they ought to be flourishing. Paul is emphasized. that sound doctrine is needed by all groups of people. He mentions five different groups in this section of Scripture in Chapter 2. We’ve already talked about the aged men, the elderly Christian men in verse 2. And in verse 3, he now proceeds to speak of a second group, the aged women. It should be noted that he uses the word likewise to… proceed in his address here indicating to us that whatever he said about the Christian men, there’s a sense in which it should be true of the Christian women here as well. As we said all along, this applies not just to the aged men, but we see here it applies to the aged women. And really, there’s a sense in which it applies to all Christians, but in particular, aged women here should show these various graces and things better mention. Now let me begin by saying this. Your behavior must be in harmony with holiness. The age women, likewise, that they be in behavior as be cometh holiness. You, in a sense, are to be a priestess of the true God. Now, if you consider the ancient world at this particular time, there were many temples, many gods were being worshipped, depending on what land you lived in. South of Crete, in Egypt, we find two chief Egyptian deities were Osiris and Isis, the sun and the mood gods. Of course, they had gods of various animals like the Stork. and the ape and the cat and the hawk and so forth and something like 20 other animals that they worship. North of Crete, if we go into the European theater, they had Mount Olympus gods, all the Zeus and Apollos and all these gods that they would honor. All these diverse gods would have temples at which you could worship. And these temples were often served by priestesses. would be trained to properly honor these gods, and they would have special robes and ornaments that they would carry about them a certain deportment, how to properly honor these gods, so they would advise all the visitors to the temple. This is the kind of picture here that Paul sort of portrays with regard to holiness. The primary meaning of this word holiness is a dedication. to God. You’ve been separated unto God for his service. Only unlike the pagan priestesses, mature Christian women are on duty full time. There’s a sense in which you carry about the temple of God with you because your body is the temple of God. So you’re on full time service to the Lord. Not just when you attend church service. Now, you are to be a priestess of the Lord all the time. dedicated to serving Jesus Christ. There’s a sense in which all of us belong to the royal priesthood, as 1. Peter 2.9 indicates to us. But Paul focuses attention here on a special way upon the aged Christian women. They are to demonstrate a special dedication to Christ. Holiness must encompass your total lifestyle. And thus Christian women are called away from the sensual, the decadent things of this world to serve the Lord God. Instead of serving self and pleasing self, you are to live in such a way that you serve and please the Lord. This is the focus of what he says. You are to be a priestess here of the true God. Now, you are to manifest your holiness, your dedication to God, outwardly. You’ll notice he says in behavior. They are to be in behavior as become holiness. Your purity, which is an inward quality, is to be reflected in the way you live. It is to be seen in your lifestyle. There’s a sense in which it is outwardly to be shown. How is this to be done? Well, if you hold your place here, but look at 1 Peter chapter 3 with me, and verses 1 to 6, 1. Peter chapter 3 and 1 to 6, here’s what Paul, or Peter, excuse me, says about the Christian women here. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any, obey not the word, they also may, without the word, be won by the conversation, and that word there means behavior, the behavior of the wives. While they behold your chaste behavior or conversation coupled with fear. Who’s adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plating of the hair or plating the hair, and of wearing of gold or putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. For after this manner, in old time, the holy women also who trusted in God adorn themselves, being in subjection under their own husbands, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters ye are as long as you do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. Now you’ll notice he classifies these women that he mentions as holy women in verse 5. But the way they showed their holiness was by their behavior. And so it was an outward form. Their humility was one of the ways in which they showed their holiness. And so a meek and quiet spirit here being in the sight of God of great price. You’ll notice that holy speech also is important. When we think about using wisdom and grace and modesty of heart in our speech, Sarah is an example here. She calls her husband Lord. She shows a submissiveness about her. And she obeyed Abraham calling him Lord, verse 6. The scripture says, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. How does holiness of heart, how’s that shown by all what we say can reflect that as well. Even your clothing, Peter indicates to us, should reflect the holiness of the character that you have. Inward beauty of soul and modesty of heart should be seen then in the way you dress. Now, pride can be displayed by outward adornment. If someone comes in here with a $5,000, dollar dress and has all this gold and jewelry on and everything else, there’s a sense in which there’s a pride aspect to that. Look at me. Look who I am. So it does display something about the character of the individual. So what does Peter say here? Don’t be focused so much much on the outward display. Look how glorious I can appear. Let me see if I can outdo everybody else. But the idea is to dress modestly, dress in such a way that reflects the humble spirit that is within. And I think that is one of the parts of this behavior that we’re talking about here. Is your attitude, is your demeanor, is your dress in accordance to one that’s dedicated to serving the Lord? are you one who is separated from sin, consecrated to Christ? Years ago, John G. Patton was a missionary to the New Hebrides Islands, which is east of Australia in the South Pacific. He labored there for many years without seeing any converts. And he kept going, even though he ran into all kinds of difficulties. He thought he was, he lived there for many years, talks about. He says, the moral conditions were so bad. He said that people would bring all their prized possessions to the church service because they were afraid they would get stolen while they were away from home. He said, the problem was that included their valuable animals. So he had to be preaching when pigs squealing and who knows what else was going to be brought to the donkeys or whatever else they had they were bringing. He says it was a nightmare. to deal with this, but he persevered. Eventually, God was pleased to save the daughter of one of the tribal chiefs there and her husband. He describes the change that came about in their lives. And one thing he noted was the woman’s clothing. Now, in this area, the women wore very little clothing at all, usually just a grass skirt. They went around popluss. However, after the conversion of this woman. The tribal chiefs thought, she came to the next church service, a very different woman. It was rather humorous, he said. But Patton appreciated the spirit behind the act. He said, you have to remember, as you go along here, that New Hebrides here is a very hot climb. And yet this newly converted woman wore every piece of clothing she possessed. She completely covered herself. She was just loaded down. with clothing she burdened herself down with whatever animal skins and hat she possessed she didn’t even know how to wear some of the clothing she someone had given her men’s trousers and she put her arms through it and draped the rest of it off to the side and it was it was sort of hilarious you know what she was doing so yet she’s layers of clothing over above she was determined that she was going to dress modestly when she you know and that’s what she did now Patton said that at first he said I you know I didn’t know what you know whether I should say something immediately to her he said because I knew her motivation was right her heart was right he said therefore after a period of time he said I attempted to explain the matter more carefully to her that she didn’t have to wear every piece of clothing she had when she came to church but it reflects the character it respects the inner desire to serve Christ to serve Christ to dress, you know, to be modest and what she did. So your behavior must be in harmony with holiness, as it says here. The second thing he says about you is that you must not be a false accuser. I should understand the nature of slander. Slander is charging someone, either privately or publicly with things that are false and untrue. It’s certainly a great previous sin. Sadly, sometimes he pops up in the church as well. The very fact that Paul mentions this particular sin to the aged Christian women indicates to us that it must have been something that was prevalent on the island of Crete and he’s warning them don’t behave like the ungodly people on this island. The fact that he has to do that is sad, He has to tell us this, but he indicates to us this is something that would blacken the name of a Christian. This slander is sin and speaking lies and bringing false accusation against another brother or sister in the Lord to destroy their reputation is terrible. And it certainly is a bad reflection on you if you would do something like that. Now there are many ways you can commit this sin. You could spread somebody’s personal secret weakness, which perhaps in love you should have covered, but you broadcast it. You could put the worst possible construction on what someone had said when there’s a better construction you could put on it, but you picked the worst. You can change the truth a little bit, adding or taking away from something that perhaps someone said in order to twist what the meaning actually was. We find that all that. the time in the news. You see that happen in political circles all the time. You could conceal the truth, leaving a false impression of someone’s words or actions. You could attribute a false motivation to someone when you don’t really know the heart of this individual. And you can simply tell a lie about someone. All these things could fit under this category of slander. There are those who take a vicious delight and bringing trouble in people’s lives. Maybe out of envy. Maybe out of spite toward them. For some reason or other, maybe they did something and you didn’t like it and you’re trying to get even and that happens. But great harm can come out of this sin. And so Paul, or Paul indicates to us here that this is not something that the Christian should engage in. It’s very destructive and very harmful. And he tells us not to do such a thing. I read a story about a happy little family that lived in a small town in North Dakota. The young mother had not been entirely well after the birth of the second child. She was still, I guess, recovering. And each morning the neighbors were aware of the love in this, excuse me, each evening the neighbors were aware of the love in this family when they could see the husband and father coming home and the mother children would meet him at the gate. And that evening, if it was a summer evening, the kids would be romping in the backyard with dad. Mom would be sitting there smiling and laughing at what was going on. One day, a village gossip started a story that the man was being unfaithful to his wife, and it began to spread around. And eventually the young woman heard this particular story, and she couldn’t bear it. Believing the rumors to be true, the poor woman was overcome with her. grief. When the husband came home from work the next night, no one greeted him at the gate. When he went to the house, he didn’t smell any food cooking. No dinner was being prepared. When he went down in the basement, there were all three hung there. The mother evidently hung the two children and then hung herself. All on slander, on a lie that wasn’t true at all, that someone had spread. just to be spiteful, just to be harmful to this family in North Dakota. A gossip tongue is a very terrible thing, and it can do a lot of damage, and you can see how people can react to false things being said. So you should understand the nature of slander. Now, you need to avoid slander, not false accusers. You know, Leviticus, even when you go to the law. what does it say in Leviticus 1916? Thou shall not go up and down as a tailbearer among thy people. Don’t go around spreading tails. Whispers, backbiter, slanderers are classified as vowsified as vows sinners in the eyes of God. The brook of Proverbs talks about the six abominable things that God hates. And among these are a lying tongue, a false witness that’s speaks lies and one who sows discord among the brother. Proverbs chapter 6, verses 16 and 19 you find these things listed. Now this precept is specifically directed to women. Not that men can’t be guilty of the same thing, but perhaps there is a natural inclination in them to slander. The Holy Spirit, knowing specific weaknesses of all of us, particularly addresses women with regard to this. And therefore, women in particular, are forbidden to go from house to house as tablars and busy bodies speaking things which they ought not, as 1 Timothy 513 indicates. Now, older Christian women, perhaps you’ve already raised your children. You may have more time. You may have more opportunity to go about the town, so to speak, and talk to everybody. And so they are particularly mentioned here. Now the tongue can be full of deadly poison. It can bring a curse as well as a blessing, and so we have to be careful. The story is told about a young man during the middle ages. It went to his minister saying, I’ve sinned by telling slander statements about someone. What should I do now? And the minister told him, I want you to go and put a feather on every doorstep in town. The young man did it return. back to the minister and said, well, what else can I do? He said, now I want you to go back and pick up all the feathers that you put on everybody’s door. He said, that’s impossible. The wind’s probably blown them all over the place by now. And the minister said to him, so has your slanderous word become impossible to retreat. A word to the wise is sufficient. Once it’s spread, sometimes there’s no taking it back. There’s no way to reclaim it. So it be who’s who’s who’s, all believers to be careful to avoid slander. Look to your own calling in life and its responsible abilities and avoid meddling in the affairs of others. Beware of envy, which often is the cause of the hatching and these kind of statements and things that would ruin someone’s reputation. Don’t let malice, you know, grow in your heart. Learn to esteem your fellow believers. good name and reputation and guard it. In receiving reports about others, try to excuse those being spoken against as best you can. Try to put the best possible construction on things if you can. And love thinketh no evil. And sometimes we perhaps need to cut someone off and say, I don’t want to hear any more about that person. You know, just, I don’t want to hear it. And stop them in the middle of something that you think is out of line. So you must not be a false accuser. The third thing he says here is you must not be a slave of alcohol. Literally here, the text says, not to much wine enslaved. We have this idea here that’s stated clearly not given. given over to control directed by much wine. When you become immoderate in your use of alcohol, it becomes dangerous because of what kind of behavior can come out of you drinking. I have no problem with society calling this an addiction, but we should clearly understand. The Bible never says that alcohols, alcohol abuse is a sickness. It’s not a sickness. It is a sin. If the Bible tells you you can control it and not drink too much of it, then it’s up to you. The responsibility goes on you. You can’t say, well, I was born this way. I have this hereditary situation. No, it’s not so. There have been plenty of people who have been the offspring of drunks, who have lived godly lives and have not gone that way. themselves. And just, you know, people today that want some kind of excuse outside of themselves, and they’re always trying to look for that. We, you know, scripture is very, cuts right to the point. Don’t do this. You are responsible. You know, if a drunken man is shameful, a shameful sight to behold a drunken woman is worse. You lose your ability to discern reality, to think clearly, to speak responsibly, to act godly. Often a woman’s heart may be hard, and I’m afraid, you know, frequently women carry deep hurts from the past, and sometimes women will turn to the bottle thinking this is going to solve my, you know, problem or medicated or something. But a woman who gets drunk can lose her inhibitions, especially with regard to morality, with regard to speech, with regard to any modesty that she might have. you don’t know what you’re, you know, what you may do when you’re drunk. People do crazy things when they’re drunk and not even realize, you know, some of the things they’re doing. You have to be careful here. Yes, your life may be hard. Your consolation is not to be found in a bottle, it’s to be found in the Lord when you have difficulties in life. Perhaps in the modern world, we could expand this thought to drugs. The pills, you know, things of this nature, which people may use, you know, to medicate themselves in some way and dull the pain. I’ve spoken about the problem associated with alcohol in a past study in Titus, so I’m not going to dwell on this matter. We talked about it under the qualifications for elders. However, I will add that there are so many warnings about the danger of alcohol in Scripture that it ought to give you pause. With regard to the use of alcohol. Well, the Bible doesn’t condemn the moderate use of alcohol. It doesn’t say you can’t use it. It does give us a lot of warnings about the abuse of it. And so be extremely careful with it. Do you really need to drink it? And if you’re going to drink it, please be extremely careful about drinking it. I realize some people might want, you know, a glass of wine with their dinner or something, and the Bible doesn’t say you can’t have it. but we have to be careful with regard to alcohol that it doesn’t become a problem for us, that we have self-control in this area. So you must not be a slave to drink. The fourth thing he says here, you must be a teacher of good things. Now, I have to say this very clearly, so we understand this. This is not referring to being a public teacher in the church. Some people might come to a passage. Like I say, see, the Bible says that women can teach. Well, we’ll talk about what they can teach in a moment. But let’s look at this very carefully. You know, whenever you come across something, you say, well, you might want to put your emphasis on here. Like someone might say, well, see, women can teach. Well, you can’t just take one verse of scripture and say, well, there it is. What about the other verses of Scripture? What they say? Well, how does the scripture? coincide here with what it says, let’s say, in the book of First Timothy. Back up just a couple of pages, 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verses 11 and 12. It says, let the women learn in silence with all subjection, but I suffer not a woman to teach, nor do you assert authority over the man, but to be in silence. The answer to this is that Paul is speaking in 1 Timothy here about orderliness, in the public assembly of the church. If you look at chapter 3, verses 14 and 15, he says here, these things write eye unto you, hoping to come unto you shortly, but if I tarry that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar, and ground of the truth. So here he’s saying, in the church, women are not to teach. you know, if you look at chapter 3 of 1 Timothy here, you’ll see that women are not permitted to hold church office to be an elder or a deacon in the church, not to exercise authority as a teacher over the congregation of men and women. In the worship service, a woman therefore, cannot teach, nor are they allowed to lead in prayer. Notice 1 Timothy 2.8, I will, therefore, that, men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. Now, there are various reasons for this. Paul provides two of them here in 1 Timothy chapter 2 in verses 13 and 14. Let’s look at this. He says, for Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in transgression. The first is this. Adam was created first, and then Eve. The woman should not exert authority over the man because of the creative order of God. It carries importance. The woman is to be submissive to the man. The second thing, he says, is that Eve was the one deceived by Satan, not Adam. Eve took it upon herself to teach Adam, which led to the fall of man. she’s the one who said, look, this tree is good for food, and it, you know, it’s going to make us wise. And when she became the teacher, what happened? So you’re to learn from this example, it’s not the woman’s place to teach the man. Thus, Paul, in speaking to Titus here, is talking about private teaching, which does not involve the gathered congregation. In other words, the passage doesn’t even have to refer to like classrooms. instruction. He’s simply speaking of a one-on-one type of teaching. Now we don’t forbid women to teach, let’s say, Sunday school class of children or your, you know, the lead at home and in family devotions when the husband is away or something of that nature. There’s no problem with that. In informal settings, more flexibility. is allowed. However, in the former worship service, the woman must not assume authority. That’s clearly stated, and I think that should be something that shouldn’t be a problem. So he’s not talking here about the public gathering and teaching in the church as it means. So I suggest to you this is private instruction of the younger women. And going against the feminist movement, which has invaded the church, I fear at times perhaps we lose sight of the positive effect that women can have in the church. There should be an appreciation for the large and indispensable place that God has given the older women to teach the younger women. The instruction that they are to provide, you’ll notice in verses. four and five has to do with the family, the attitude, the behavior of the younger women. You’ll notice that the teaching mostly is involved with regard to private duties. The goal is to encourage the young women to wisely conduct themselves in godliness with regard to the family. They were to teach good things, those things which will honor the Lord, will keep the Word of God from blasphemed by unbelievers. Now, it’s easy to condemn younger women. They stumble sometimes with regard to family, maybe with regard to godly living. It’s another thing to take the time out to train them, to help them in this area, in God’s ways. I’m not saying that you older Christian lady should yank a younger Christian woman off to the side by her ear and, you know, berate her for all her failings. but you must speak the truth in love. And your concern needs to be to edify to encourage these younger women in godliness. And this applies, of course, that you’re living in a godly manner, that you have experienced what it means to raise a family in a godly way, so that you have incorporated these biblical principles yourself, and now you can help the younger women to do so. The blind can’t lead the blind. So you have to have some experience in this area where you can be helpful to others. So be gentle but helpful to young Christian women. Help them with their mindset, their approach to family life, take the opportunities as they are presented. Now, you younger women must be teachable. You must have a spirit which is willing to be teaching. to learn from those who are more experienced, more knowledgeable perhaps than you. You can find a godly woman in the church and you can ask her questions about, you know, how do you deal with this or how do you deal with that? Maybe everyday issues in the family life. The passage doesn’t say you can’t take the initiative to do this. But let an older woman know that you need some help. You’re willing to hear what she has to say. Take advantage of her. her vast Christian experience in marriage and raising children and so forth and let it be of benefit to you. Because I think this is what Paul has in mind here in this situation. Well, that century plan only blossoms after several decades, but it puts on a pretty wonderful display. Well, like this plant, those who have long been in the Christian life ought to be able to put on quite a display of spiritual fruitfulness. age Christian women need to behave in harmony with holiness and be willing to teach others godliness. Those are the two basic teachings that we find in this text tonight. Well, let us close with a word of prayer.