Titus 2:7-8

Titus chapter 2 and verses 7 and 8 for our text and study this evening. In all things, showing thyself a pattern of good works, in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sounds speech, that it cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say. of you. May God bless to us His sacred and holy word this evening. You’ve ever seen the coconuts high up in a palm tree. You begin to realize it’s not an easy thing to harvest coconuts. I read a story where some natives who lived in places where they have coconut palms have discovered a unique method for collecting the nuts. The best way to harvest the coconut, it seems, is to throw stones at the monkeys that live up in the trees. The monkeys have a habit of imitating what they see humans doing, and they grab the first weapon at hand, which is a coconut, and throw them down at the human beings. Well, after a while, you get a whole bunch of coconuts already thrown down from the trees, so you don’t have to go up the trees to get them. And the natives just go around, collect the coconuts have got out. thrown down and use them. Imitation is something which is useful in the spiritual realm as well. We see here Paul talking about being a pattern here of good works. Now Paul was presently addressing the various groups of Christians that are on the island of Crete. And he has various things to say to each group, particular areas that they need to focus upon. We’ve talked about the aged men in verse 2. We’ve talked about the aged women in verses 3 to 5. We’ve talked about the young women in verses 4 and 5. We’ve talked about the young men in verse 6. And he’ll have something to say about servants in verses 9 to 10. But here, he inserts something for Titus in verses 7 and 8. Now Titus is a young man and there is a sense, therefore, in which these verses would fit right in with verse 6 for young men. Yet obviously it seems that Paul is speaking to Titus himself. As a healthy believer, he is to provide an excellent role model to be imitated for the young men. We could broaden this, of course, the teaching here and apply it to all Christian young man. Indeed, we could apply to all Christians, in fact. And so we want to look at the idea of a Christian example tonight from this text of scripture. Let me begin by saying this. You are to be a good example of a Christian, as we see here in verses 7, the first part of verse 8. You are to be a pattern in all things. He says, in all things, showing thyself a pattern of good works. The word pattern here, two posse, is elsewhere translated example. And the King James also you have the word ensample, meaning literally, but the word literally means a blow, like to strike a blow. In particular, it’s the impression. or the mark of a blow, such as a hammer blow. Now, have you ever tried to drive in a nail and you missed the nail head, and you hammer went and hit the wood instead of the nail, at least a round impression mark on the wood from the hammerhead. It’s also used in the sense of the Thomas, this word is used with Thomas, when he claimed he would not believe in the resurrection of Christ unless he could see in the Lord’s hands the print, tuppas, of the nails, the mark, or the nail impressions, he wasn’t going to believe the resurrection. It’s used of the impression of a seal. People often write letters and words. which they use a wax seal and they have some type of decorative thing that they metal that they press into it while the hot wax is hot and it leaves that impression on it and so we have that idea also so Paul is telling Titus here to be a model to be an example to other believers to follow leave an imprint or a mark for others Paul says something very similar to Titus or to Timothy in 1 Timothy 412, let no man despise thy youth, again a young man, but be thou an example, a teupas of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, and spirit, and faith, in purity. What is said of Timothy here provides an explanation of what the good works are to be, that he says, to be a pattern of good works. These are the kinds of things in your speech, in your conduct, in your love, in your zeal for the kingdom of God, in your purity of life, in your faith, and so forth. Calvin said, example draws where precept fails. It’s one thing to know what you should do as a believer, but it’s another thing to see that worked out in somebody’s life and actually lived. I’m not a tailor, but my wife, Raina, has not a lot of sewing in her life. And I’ve watched her purchase a pattern at the store, you know, cut out the pattern, pin it to the fabric, cut the fabric according to the pattern. And if you simply showed me the picture on the front of the pattern, of the dress with the model wearing this particular dress, I wouldn’t have any idea of how that dress was made. I could, I see the end product we’re supposed to have, how do you get there? But by watching the fabric being cut, according to the store pattern and observing, you know, rain-a-skillful construction of all the parts into the actual dress, it’s eye-opening. You see how it’s done. The pattern allows you to grasp the manner in which the dress is supposed to be made, which the picture on the pattern doesn’t provide. Biblical precepts are so like the picture on the envelope. This is what you should be. But you desire to know how do we get there? How do we get to this end result? Here are people who have worked out these matters, and we see them living. according to the biblical principles. And it’s encouraging to us when we see someone who actually is applying these principles to their life, a living example. And you can watch them do it, so to speak. A simple illustration is to look at the issue of prayer. The Bible talks about prayer and the need for praying as a Christian. How do you do it properly? You may know some of the principles of prayer. You may think about, well, I know, know adoration, you know, confession, Thanksgiving, supplication, those kind of things. But isn’t it wonderful, the Bible gives us actual prayers that we can read the prayers of Jesus or read the prayers of David or read the prayer of Hezekiah or Paul or Abraham or whatever the case. We actually have a living example. One day the disciples came to Jesus and teach us how to pray. He gave them a model prayer. But isn’t wonderful that they did. They had also heard them praying John 17, the high-prisly prayer. They got the whole impression of how to pray. And many other prayers, I’m sure they heard Jesus pray. Now, this exhortation to Titus as a minister can be, and as I said earlier, applied to every Christian. In Titus’s case, he needs to be a pattern for all the people of God at the church because, as he’s already told, the people on the island of Crete were not following the biblical examples that they should, and they were not following the pattern that they should. And so he has to warn them about that. We’ll show them how to do it, is what Paul is saying here. Provide a flesh and life example of the truth of God’s work. You know, many people have been attracted to the Christian faith because they saw someone actually living out the Christian life. Now, he says here in all things, you’re to show a pattern of good works. That it means in every area of your life, in your home life, in your work life, in the neighborhood, whatever you engage in, your recreation, it doesn’t matter. In all things, show this pattern. Now, good works here are works done as the fruit of faith. They are performed in obedience to God’s law, and they were done for God’s glory. Now, elders and deacons certainly should be exemplary Christians. The teaching of the Word of God should be a supplement, I should say, the teaching of the Word of God should be supplemented by a godly life. So you are to be a pattern in all things. Now, you are to have soundness and doctrine, he says. He says in verse 7, the second part in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned. Being an example for others to follow, here is based upon sound doctrine. I don’t know how many times this has come up, but let me reiterate it once again. You can’t have a godly life if it’s not based on true teaching. Sound teaching. All believers. believers need soundness and doctrine, and even more so, those who preach or teach the Word of God like Titus. All these words, this uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, all relate back to sound doctrine. Back to that word doctrine. Doctrine here is basically the teaching, the precepts of the word of God. And thus he says here, there’s not to be any. any corruptness, no deterioration, no rottenness in the doctrine that one would proclaim. It must be free from error or false teaching or corrupting influence. Literally, your doctrine is to be incorruptible. The negative form of this is used for the physical deterioration and decay of the body. Do you remember the occasion when Jesus and disciples went to visit that Mary and Martha’s home right after Lazarus had died. And Lazarus has been buried in the tomb, and his relatives and family and friends are all gathered mourning and trying to comfort Mary and Martha. Our Lord arrives, and he also weeps when he gets there. And then he says, where have you laid him? And he goes to the grave, which was a cave, we had a stone rolled in front of it, the entranceway. And Jesus says, take away the stone. And what does Martha suggest here? She says, but Lord, by now he stinks. By now he’s decaying. He’s rotten. He’s corrupt. We don’t want to open that. Without embalming methods, you know, the flesh and the organs of Lazarus would decay rather quickly in that type of environment. And this is what he’s saying is how false doctrine is presented. It is an awful stench. It is a corruption of the truth. Now, uncorruptness in the King James Version means just the opposite of that. You recall the body of Jesus Christ after his death, because of his absolute holy, did not see corruption, did it? So we’re not to have corruption in our doctrine. Now, doctrine also is said to be, need to be, would be presented, if you would, with gravity and sincerity. Dignity and seriousness. Sound doctrine is precious. It is to be carefully handled. You have to count the doctrines of the Word of God as things that are vital, things that are of great importance. Doctrines such as the substitutionary atonement of Christ and the resurrection of Christ and things of this nature are not to be treated lightly. These are vital, essential doctrines without which you cannot be saved. Sadly, there are false teachers who speak of these truths in hypocritical fashion, but they do not actually believe the gospel. They may wish to sound somewhat orthodox in order to be accepted. But Paul speaks of those in Philippians who do not preach Christ sincerely. They do it in pretense. They do it for money, he says. They’re not doing it sincere. clearly. They don’t count the doctrine, the truth of God’s word as precious. They don’t handle it with great care. In fact, you’ll find it many times they will just take the biblical word and change the meaning of it so that they may sound like they’re saying something biblical, but actually when you boil it down, you get down to what they’re actually saying. They’re actually corrupting the truth of God’s word. So a true teacher of the Word of God must sincerely believe what he proclaims to be God’s truth. Now at first glance the word sound or wholesome, if you would, speech may appear unrelated to what he has previously said. But if you see sound speech as that of preaching or teaching, then it fits right in with what he’s saying here. We must not deviate in our teaching and preaching from God’s Word, the doctrine of God’s Word. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 6 in verses 3 and 4 with me this evening. Paul writes here, if any man teach otherwise than what the truth is, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord, Jesus Christ and the doctrine which is according to godliness he is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings. Must not deviate. Now it is amazing in light of such passages as this that put such emphasis on doctrine and being sound in doctrine and not deviating and not corrupting the doctrine of scripture. that there are churches who would cast aside doctrine as something it’s divisive and not useful to the church today. We just all come together and be one happy family and not, let’s not get into doctrine. It’s too divisive. The truth is, as we have repeatedly said, unity should be built on doctrine. It is because we believe these things that God says in his word and what Christ teaches that we are here gathered, worship, being together. The true teacher of God’s word indeed must be a true believer in God’s word. So he says what the Bible says. And you know that that is the truth. Such sound speech, he says, cannot be condemned. It cannot be censored because you know it came from the word of God. Now, that doesn’t mean you won’t be opposed. That doesn’t mean you won’t be criticized by those who are unbelievers, but not in the sight of God and not in sight of God’s true people because they will appreciate the fact that this is God’s word that’s being proclaimed to them. Perhaps we can draw from this passage that your life ought to open the way for a verbal witness with regard to the doctrine of God’s word. So you are to be a pattern, be a good example, if you would, of a Christian. Secondly, he says your good example should shame and silence the adversaries of the gospel. You’ll notice in the last part of verse 8, he says here, that cannot be condemned, that he which is of the contrary part, may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you. Now, you are going to face opposition and adversaries as a Christian. The indication here is there are those who are of the contrary part. The word contrary sometimes used of contrary winds. Can you think of a ship, maybe a sailboat out on the water? And the idea is there is opposition. The wind is going in the opposite direction as to what they want to sail. It’s a contrary wind. Now today we’re maybe more likely to think of a headwind while we’re flying somewhere in an airplane. it slows down the progress of the plane. They hit these headwinds. Stephen once told the Jews, which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? They all were opposed to what the prophets taught and stood up against them. Moses was often resisted by the vast majority of the people of Israel, who were rebellious and stiff-necked people, as Christ, as our Lord tells us. The scriptures tell us. Janice, the Egyptian magicians. We read, they resisted Moses, when he was before Pharaoh. Alexander the Coppersmith was an enemy of the Apostle Paul. He beststood our words, Paul says. Elimus, the sorcerer, withstood Paul. and Barnabas as he preached the gospel, they preached the gospel on the island of Cyprus. Christ himself was strongly opposed by the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the rulers of Israel, and even the people at one point. Their hostility was such that they end up crucifying him. They hated the light of Christ’s doctrine. As long as there is a devil, And as long as there is darkness in man’s heart, there’s going to be opposition to the light of the doctrine of Scripture. You can count on it. You are set as sheep among vicious wolves, Christ said. People naturally hate the light of the gospel of Christ because it exposes their evil and corrupt ways. They don’t like it. It’s like if someone was, a thief was robbing your house. house and all of a sudden your outside lights go on and everybody can see he’s out there trying to get in, break in the window or something. He’s exposed. Someone’s going to see him. Jesus warned if people hated him as the master, they’re going to hate his disciples as well. And so this principle is not restricted to just ministers. Do not think that when you witness to people and you have a concern for their souls and you’re trying to teach them the truth of God’s word that you’re always going to be received and welcomed. God’s message irritates the carnal mind of men. They naturally are going to oppose it. You can expect it. Let me say that some of the enemies of the faith are also found within the visible church. They sneak in unawares, as the scripture says. they are wolves in sheep’s clothing. These are people who set themselves against sound doctrine when it is proclaimed in the church. Realize that those who are faithful preachers of the Word of God are the particular targets of the most fierce adversaries of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They’re on the front lines. They’re in the heat of the battle. So pray for your pastors. Pray for your elders. That they may be delivered from evil and unreasonable men because there are plenty, there’s plenty of opposition around them in this world. Pray for them that they may be strengthened by God to preach and teach the word of God faithfully because it is a difficult task. Sometimes we’re like Jeremiah. We have to be told to, you know, don’t be frightened by their faces when they give you the hard looks. You know, you tell them what I have told you to tell them. that’s always a temptation. Pray that God may uphold them as they endure the battles for the truth, that they wouldn’t waver, that they wouldn’t compromise. Pray that God would provide comfort for them. But there are times when you will be treated as an outcast. There are times when you will suffer for serving Christ because you desire to honor Him in life. And when that occurs, let us find satisfaction that we were faithful to Christ, regardless of what man thinks. So you will face opposition in adversaries as a Christian. Now, you will be spoken against by those who oppose God’s truth. This word, this phrase, the phrasing here of this statement here, he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you. No true evil thing to save you. They’re going to say bad things about you. you. But his point is what they say about you really isn’t true. They’re going to make up things. They’re going to try to discredit you in some fashion. But the indication is that they’re not going to actually be able to say anything truly bad about you because the way you’ve conducted yourself. You remember when King Ahab ascended to the throne of Israel and the nation was given over to idols, and particularly to bail worship. And Jezebel, his wife, introduced, I think, this bail worship in particular to the nation. And that God became the national craze. He became the god, if you would, of the northern kingdom. And Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God to anger than any of the other kings before him. So when Elijah the prophet was sent Ahab, with the message of judgment that no do nor rain was going to fall. The king was furious. He attempted to kill Elijah. And you remember Elijah had to be hid by God for a period of time over three years. Eventually, God appears to Elijah and tells him, I want you to go and confront Ahab. And so there was going to be this contest on Mount Carmel between the prophets of bail and the lone prophet Elijah to prove who was the true God. So after three and a half years of reign, you can imagine the king of Israel wasn’t going to be a very happy camper when he saw Elijah. God was causing Israel to, of course, to reflect upon their ways and their need to be brought to repentance and so forth. When the elusive prophet finally appears before the what do you think Ahab said to him? Did he say you know I’ve had time to reflect and Elijah God is right my people and I have sinned against the Lord we have need of forgiveness will you help us to seek the Lord’s face no that wasn’t Ahab’s response when Ahab saw Elijah Ahab said unto him art thou he that troubleth Israel you troublemaker You troublemaker Yeah, prophet’s a troublemaker. Now was it true that he was the troublemaker? No, because Elijah told him, I’m not the one that’s troubling the people. You’re the troubler of Israel. You and your house because you follow bail and forsaken the commandments of the Lord. But that’s typical of the kind of things those who faithfully proclaim God’s word are going to have to face. This is the kind of thing that happened to Paul. Remember he goes up to the temple after his third missionary journey and he has a collection for the saints at Jerusalem because of their poor condition. He’s taken his collection among all the Gentile churches and he goes there to present this collection. And he’s made a vow and he goes up to the temple to complete the vow and he gets to the temple and what happens. The Jews make all these charges against him. He brought a Gentile into the temple and defiled it. This guy is opposing the law of Moses. This guy is a disturber of the peace. And Paul ends up, of course, they try to kill him and he gets arrested by the Romans who come along and pull him out of the crowd. Of course, he ends up going before Felix. and having the answer for what happened. And what does he say? He said, all these charges are false. Neither can they prove any of these things. Trophemus, who was seen with Paul in the city of Jerusalem, who was a Greek, did not go into the temple with Paul. Paul taught that the law was wholly just and good. Now he did condemn the Jews for using the law on biblically by trying to justify themselves by keeping the law. But the law of God was held in high esteem by Paul. There’s no question about it. Nor was he stirring up trouble. He was just going to completing his vow. He keep minding his own business. And yet look at all the charges they brought against him. So all these bad things against him with the idea of actually putting him to death. But he wasn’t guilty of any of these things. Paul and Barnabas in the New Testament go to Philippi. They find this young woman who has a demon following them about. And evidently she prophesied and made money for her handlers. Paul gets tired of the constant statements of this woman who follows her, or follows him and Barnabas. And so he turns around and cast the demon out of the woman. And so what happens? why he gets taken to court and charges are brought against them and what do they say in Acts 16 these men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city these guys are troublemakers these troublemakers ought to be put in jail yeah really ought to be kicked out of the city so what happens the next thing you know I’m sorry that was Paul and Silas wasn’t it instead of Barnabas it was Paul and Silas in they end up in jail in Philippi. Were they doing anything really wrong? No. Somebody should have been thankful they got rid of the demon, but that didn’t count. Moses was charged with taking too much upon him when it came to authority by the Israelites. Was he taking too much authority upon him? Was his family, Aaron and Moses, or were they, you know, lording it over the Israelites? Didn’t God? choose them to do this? Didn’t God send them down to Egypt? Amaziah accuses Amos before the king saying that the land is not able to bear his words, they’re too harsh, you ought to go home. Don’t you have some other land? Again, go back to your homeland and teach down there in Judah. Don’t come up here in the northern kingdom. Deatrophies, a religious leader among the people of God in the New Testament and Third John opposed the teaching of the Apostle John. The purpose of speaking evil Jude is to silence you, to discredit you. And out of the abundance of the heart, the mouse speaks. If there’s melus in the heart, it’s going to come out in the tongue. They find you an odd person. They don’t like you. Here’s what Peter said. He says, wherein they think it’s strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot. You don’t pursue the wild and sinful ways of the world like everybody else. It’s like Mr. Christian going into the town where Vanity Fair is and you don’t speak like we do, you’re not buying our wares, you don’t dress like we do, we don’t like you. It gets them into trouble. And so he says here, they speak evil of you, Peter says. May the Lord grant his people grace, especially faithful ministers who would do her harsh and bitter words spoken against them, falsely. Now, you must endeavor to silence and shame such adversaries by giving them nothing to condemn you of. He says here that we ought to live in such a way. Be this pattern of good works so that those that are on the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you. In this case, no true evil thing to say of you. You go through this life, you you might think they’re always seeming they’d find something evil to say a lot of people. But if you live and you speak in such a way that your own conscience is able to testify that before God and man, you have a clear conscience, as Paul said, before Felix, that carries weight. You’re giving no occasion for the enemy that charge you with anything. Such people are watching for an occasion to oppose. and blaspheme you. It’s like poor Daniel, they’re looking at every, they’re getting his life under the microscope trying to find something to condemn him. Remember how the scribes and Pharisees watched Jesus Christ closely? They tried their best to find some way to condemn him. Is he going to heal on the Sabbath? Well, our Lord did heal on the Sabbath. But he also, when he did so, he clarified matters for. them. Is it lawful on Sabbath days to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it? Why, if you had a donkey that fell in a ditch, wouldn’t you get it out of the ditch on the Sabbath day? Shouldn’t this person who’s crippled up because of this disease be freed from this burden that’s upon them? And so Jesus often cut off occasions for the scribes and the Pharisees to condemn him. He silenced them. Remember where they came to Peter, does your master pay the temple tax? And what is Jesus tells Peter, you know, to go fishing and catch that fish and find that coin in the amount, pay the tax for both of us. Not that we should have to pay the tax, but keep them silent. They can’t condemn us for it. We endeavor to do the same thing. There are times when the Lord will bring great conviction and shame upon people because they know in their hearts that they really have nothing again truly that they can say against you and they have maligned you anyhow when David the man after God’s own heart ran into Saul as a king who was wicked and rebellious and David fears the Lord and Saul of course is one who is a very wicked man and he’s jealous of David and and David, you know, is in trouble, and he has to flee for his life. Saul didn’t obey the Lord by refusing to do what he commanded. He was troubled by an evil spirit, but he was envious and hateful of David. And he wanted to portray David as an evil, rebellious citizen that ought to be put to death. David flees for his life. And then remember that one occasion when Saul and his army are seeking David and the king decides he’s going to take a rest in the cave of Gettian guess it was in the cave. David’s in the cave. David doesn’t kill King Saul. King Saul comes out of the cave and David suddenly appears and the king becomes aware of the fact that David saved his life and David attempts to persuade Saul that he has no malice towards Saul. And at that point Saul has to confess thou art more righteous than thy for thou has rewarded me good whereas I have rewarded the evil. He was ashamed. He was put to shame by David’s good behavior versus his bad behavior. It’s this kind of thing I think that Paul has in mind here. May the Lord grant us the grace to speak and act in such a manner that the enemies of the gospel Christ are silenced. They have nothing true to say evil against us. Let me close tonight by saying that. the natives who lived in countries with palm trees know that monkeys will imitate human beings. So they throw the stones up, the coconuts are going to come down. And that’s how they can gather them. Imitation is something which is helpful in the spiritual realm as well. You are to be a good example of a Christian. And your example should silence and shame those who are adversaries to the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the approach that Paul would have us have in dealing with those of the things of the truth. Well, let’s close tonight.