July 1, 2018 – The title of this Bible Study is “The underlying theme of Discipleship and Authority” which is to get you thinking about listening and obeying. Authority is placed in the universe and begins with God. Pastor Greg teaches us the difference between a professing Christian and a confessing Christian. He speaks about the sanctification process and sound doctrine. This is not a sermon against women. This is a sermon for women. To take care of women. The reason we have a Savior is to take care of us. Get out of God’s way. Pastor Greg asks us a very important question to ask ourselves, “Who are you in the way with?” If you’re in the way with Christ and you believe in Jesus Christ and you’re not just “professing” that but you’re “confessing” that, then you have to begin to obey Him and ask Him what you should be doing now. He also speaks on the 4 food groups of word, prayer, fellowship and communion.
We are reading Titus 2:1-9 from the New Testament.
If you have a bible, find Titus chapter 2, and if you want, you can look ahead and find these additional verses which we will also be referring to. They are:
Titus 1:12-16; 2 Timothy 3:17; Proverbs 21:8; James 1:22-25; Romans 10:9; Matthew 11:29-30; Romans 13:1; Acts 2:42-46; 1 John 4:19; John 8:32; Isaiah 53:2; Proverbs 16:31; Isaiah 30 and 31; Proverbs 21:31; 2 Timothy 1:7; Galatians 5:22; John 15:5; Matthew 26:29; 1 Timothy 4:8; Matthew 26:29; Genesis 3:19; Genesis 3:16; and Ephesians 5:24-25
Pastor Greg is reading this chapter using the New King James by Tyndale House Publisher version.
Titus 2:1-9
Titus chapter two. We’re going to be beginning in verse one for this morning’s message, but I do have a little bit of a dove tail that I would like to look at in chapter 1 verse 12 of Titus. Now Titus was left on the island of Crete. He is setting things further in order after Paul left him there. We have no record of this on any of Paul’s missionary journeys. Titus is young in the faith and he’s dealing with assigning elders, in Greek it’s “presbyteros,” to lead in the church. When we closed out in our last lesson in Titus 1:12 he said, ” one of them a prophet of their own…” He’s giving a testimony about the Cretans. ” He said “Cretans”, and you know, you could possibly put “humans” in there.
I like doing that. I know that you’re not supposed to change the word of God, but I think this speaks of the sin nature of humans. Humans “…are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” I know we don’t like that. In the King James version it is “the slow bellies.” I thought that was funny. “This testimony is true, therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turned from the truth. To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but even their mind and conscience are being defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny him being abominable, disobedient and disqualified for every good work. ” What I really want to do is look at it just for a moment to help us understand that there is, according to this text, there’s a difference between a professing Christian and a confessing Christian.
Okay, a little play on words. There’s people who profess to be a Christian, but it clearly says in works that they deny Christianity. They deny Him the only true God. “…being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.” This is what the word of God came to save us for. It was to make us able to approach God, which was to make us able to do every good work according to 2 Timothy 3:17. It makes us complete and prepares us for every good work. And then I ran across this scripture in my reading in Proverbs 21:8, “The way of a guilty man is perverse. But for the pure, his work is right.” Now. I’ll just want to read to you this same verse in the King James version because it’s a lot different. “The way of a man is froward and strange, but as for the pure, his work is right.” Now listen, the natural man is guilty. The natural man is froword and perverse, but when we come to Christ, He purifies us. He gives us His imputed righteousness and positionally we are pure, but practically he is purifying us. Therefore the professing Christian cares nothing about their actions or about being purified, but the confessing Christian confesses their sin. The confessing Christian has turned their hearts toward the process that God is doing to sanctify us. They are concerned about what their witnesses is. They are concerned about how they’re living. So in purity their conscience is not defiled. In purity they’re turning their heart to let God wash and cleanse them. James, Jesus’ camel kneed, half brother, says that we are to be doers, not disobedient and disqualified for every good work, but we are to turn our hearts toward being doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves. So part of what God is doing is we’re perfectly pure positionally, but he is purifying us practically in the sanctification process. That’s why he’s washing and cleansing us. So professing Christians are the ones that say, “I’m a Christian. I said a prayer. I go to church,” but nothing changes in their life. Their heart does not become new. In fact, what they do is when they hear a sermon like their heart becomes hard. They begin to say, “Don’t judge me, man. I’m under grace.” Listen, grace is not there so that you can disobey on purpose. Grace is not there so you can set your heart on any life you want. Grace is there to save you from that type of behavior, from that rebellion. Grace is there to rescue us, to bring this to safety and deliver us from that kind of thinking. Our hearts need to be turned, and we need to begin to surrender to God and learn to be obedient more and more every day. Not sinless, but sinning less because he’s training our hearts. He’s changing the desires of our hearts to be more like Him so that we turn to His word for answers. So that we turn to His Spirit. So we turn and trust Him to take us through the trial, through the pain, through the suffering to the other side.
So a professing Christian hears the truth and doesn’t do anything about it. They deny by works and then they’re abominable, disobedient and disqualified for every good work. Listen, it doesn’t mean they’re not doing anything in a church. It doesn’t mean that they’re not out preaching the Gospel. It doesn’t mean that they’re not running a food bank, but it’s not God’s works. They’re doing them in religion. Because as God begins to purify you and me, as God begins to make us more like His Son, Jesus, then all we want to do is to tell people about Jesus. That’s what He came to do. To proclaim the heart of God. He came to proclaim the Kingdom of God. He came to show the love of God that is available to anybody who will confess with their mouth and believe in their heart. Not just profess with their mouth, but believe in their heart and begin to trust in God fully in everything. He’s training you over the little things going on in your life. He’s training you to trust Him over the bigger things. He wants you to trust Him.
Sometimes that’s difficult. How does it come about? Well, there’s people that we watch. There’s people that we trust that God has made leaders in the church. That God has put around us. It might be the person that shared the gospel the first time with you. It’s called discipleship. If you’ll begin to set things in order in your life, think about it. When I first got saved, man, God just took a whole lot of stuff. Bam. It was gone, and I didn’t do anything. The grace of God just yanked it out of my hand and pulled it away from me, but there was a few little things that I had to ask, “What’s up with that, Lord? ”
And I had to begin to learn to turn from. You may be going through this now. You might be saying, “You only did it then?” No! We’re all going through it still. It’s called the sanctification process. We’re slowly being purified even though positionally we’re fully purified. You have to turn your heart. There’s nothing wrong with His power. There’s nothing wrong with His plan. There’s nothing wrong with His kingdom. There’s nothing wrong with His atoning sacrifice. There’s nothing wrong with what He has done. He’s waiting on us. It’s everything that we do when all we do is profess and we don’t obey. All we do is hear and we don’t go. All we do is we get the word of God and then we go do exactly what we’ve always done. Listen, you cannot go with God without changing. You have to listen to the word of God. It takes sound doctrine to do that. It takes discipleship. It takes other people.
When I first got saved I learned to pray in a prayer meeting. I learned to live a life as a Christian by following my pastor. Nobody told me, “Hey, go follow the pastor around.” But in the first two years I went to more funerals than I’d ever went to in my whole life. And in the first two years I went to more weddings than I ever went in my whole life because God put that desire in my heart. I said, “Wait a minute. If I’m going to be a Christian then I need to see what this looks like practically walked out. I need to understand what’s going on.”
I relate it like this. I was in prison for 12 years. In prison you want to survive. You need to watch and see what’s going on. And the old dude would say, “II you pay attention and listen well enough, you’ll live long enough to get outta here.” So you would look at the old guys that have been there for awhile. They knew the ropes. They knew how to live. They knew where to go and what to do and what you could get away with. It’s called discipleship. We call it apprenticeship, but it’s discipleship in evil when you’re doing it in prison.
And we do that in life. When we come to Christ then we think we can do it on our own. We think that we can continue to live any way we want and ignore discipleship. Ignore sound doctrine. Ignore Christian living. But believe me, I believe as a family and as a body part of God, that we should be together as often as we can because we’re a family of God who lives in the house of God. That’s where we’re growing up. We’re underneath the Father who’s parenting us with his Holy Spirit right now and His word. That’s what’s going on. If we’re not doing the right thing, don’t be surprised if we don’t get chastised. He chastises those He loves. He’s not trying to destroy you. He’s trying to spank you so that you’ll get in line and not go playing in the road again. And he does it with all of us.
My biggest point is that when our works don’t follow our profession and our confession, then we know that we’re not really living in God’s house. It’s not very difficult to figure out. That’s what he’s trying to point out in chapter one. He’s telling Titus, “Just teach sound doctrine, the truth, the word of God.” It’s the very first nutrient that you get after the Holy Spirit enters you in and seals you until the day of redemption – baptizes you into the body of Christ. The very first thing is truth. Sound doctrine.
So where is the enemy going to attack? “Well man, I missed them. They got saved! Man, I missed them. They’re sealed. They’re positionally pure. Now I’m going to attack them in doctrine. Now I’m going to try to destroy by not letting them get any truth because they will stay baby Christians. They’ll never be effective. They’ll never be able to be used. They’ll never be a leader. They’ll never shine a light to anybody because they will be dead to the true life of Christ. They will be an abomination to truth.” That’s what he talks about here in chapter two. He explains in verse 10 why we should change, why we should do differently.
It is not enough to be a professing Christian. Listen to me, it’s not enough to profess. “Christian” is such a loose term now. But never forget that they were first called Christians in Antioch. Why? Because the watching world noticed that they were Christ like. You can’t fake Christ’s likeness. All you can do is abide in the vine and let him produce fruit. All you can do is abide in the vine and let him prepare you and purify you for every good work. Let me just read this in Titus 2:1, “but as for you,…” He’s speaking to Titus. There’s a contrast going on here about those that are abominable, disobedient and disqualified for every good work. “…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, in patience. The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slander, is 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.” See that? “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 one who is an 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, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our savior in all things” Why? “For the grace of God that brings deliverance…” from the sin nature “ …has appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. We should live soberly, righteously, and Godly in this present age. Looking for….” That’s where our eyes are fixed .”… the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us…” Why? “…that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself, his own special people, zealous for good works. Speak these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.”
Prayer – Father, pour out Your Spirit and teach us this morning. We surrender here to you. Help us to understand and help us to hear and go and obey and receive with meekness the implanted word for the continued saving of the soul, for the deliverance from the sin nature that sneaks up on us and tries to lead us in a different direction. Wake us up, Lord, in Jesus’s name, Amen.
Now, before I take off again and really talk about this, I want you to see a couple of things. One is if you read the text and look at it, you see the underlying theme of discipleship. Older men teaching younger men, older women, teaching younger women. So there’s an underlying theme also, not just of discipleship but of authority. Listen, there’s an authority there.
It used to be in our society. I remember this story where I was running to the baseball diamond on Perry Street, and my gum shot out of my mouth. This 90 year old lady said, “Young man, you get back here and pick that up.” And you know what I did? I got back there and picked it up. Because when I grew up in society, there was a respect for elderly people. There was a respect for authority. The devil has successfully removed it almost completely. Even in the church today. We do not respect elders, authority. We do not respect anything about the word of God and we will walk away with a hard heart and say, “Yea, that’s what he thinks.” Because we’re living in days, just like the days of judges. There is no king on the throne of our life. We do whatever feels good, and we ignore the truth of God’s word. So therefore He can’t use us. He can’t purify us. He can’t prepare us for every good work. And all we do in our hearts is profess and we deceive ourselves. We’re not confessing our sin. We’re not looking at truth.
So there’s an underlying theme of discipleship. It’s when an older person teaches a younger person how to do it. They typically use the older ox and the younger ox. You put them both in the yoke. Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon yourself, though your burden is heavy. I will make it light ” He takes it for you. The older person is yoked with a younger person. You’re following them around. You want to know how to do what they do because they been there long enough to understand it. Now that is assuming that they know the sound word of God.
That what they would do with the ox. They slowly walk around, threshing the grain, and then after a little bit they released the pressure. All of it was on the older ox. Then they would release it to the younger ox a little bit at a time, a little bit at a time until they could separate them and put both of them with another younger ox. It’s called discipleship. You’re training in footsteps, how to walk, but there’s no pressure upon us ever to do anything in the Kingdom of God because Christ has already done it all for us, so He’s always got all power, all might. He’s always got all the word. He’s always got all the truth. He always knows what is next. All we have to do is follow. Be in the way with him. Be yoked with Him.
You can’t be yoked with the world and say you’re following Jesus. Because you’re being trained by the world and all of its devices. So you’re really yoked with the world, so you have to sever that. So many people refuse to sever it. Then they live and say, “Why is my life so messed up still? Why is my marriage so messed up still?” It’s because you’re not coming to Jesus. You want to feel good. You want to have a little bit of religion. You want to think everything’s okay, but you’re not coming to the throne room. You’re not yoked with Jesus. You’re professing, but when you confess and began to do what the Bible calls us to do, not because we want to work our way into religion, but because this is the ONLY salvation there is. This is the ONLY prescription there is. There is no other prescription.
There is no other savior coming. His kingdom, His planet, His way. So the other underlying theme though is “Authority.” Do we want to let somebody have authority in our life? In Romans 13 it tells you there is no authority except that which is from God. So when you let somebody have the authority in your life that is a scary thing. “You’re not the boss of me.” That’s why so many marriages end in divorce. “You’re not the boss of me.” They end there because God’s not the boss of them. It’s not because they don’t want their husband or their wife to be the boss of them. It’s because God is not the boss. That’s why marriages end in divorce. It’s because they’re really not living for Jesus and listening to His word. They say, “The grace of God will cover it. I’ll be all right.” That’s an excuse not to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
So authority is placed in the universe. It starts with God. Everybody has to answer to God and then God hands out authority in His church. He doesn’t give anybody absolute power because He’s the absolute power, but He does give authority. There has to be head sheep. You follow them while they’re following Jesus. You follow them when they’re sound in doctrine. They’re not perfect because they’re being purified. People in the church are all supposed to be doing that together. It’s a one another thing that we’re doing together and it’s supposed to be done under the sound teaching of the word of God. Underneath the Holy Spirit and as we equip the saints. We’re supposed to be meeting. This is simple stuff. We talked about it yesterday in the men’s meeting. Acts 2:42-46. They’re meeting in the temple. That’s a corporate meeting to equip the saints, and then they’re meeting personally from house to house breaking bread. They’re having fellowship. They’re getting to know one another.
They’re understanding the body parts. I still can’t use my legs properly because I ignored them when I was a kid. Haha. It’s a joke. It’s the body. You have to know what the body is doing. When the whole body is separated then it’s not in fellowship together, then you have no idea how to function properly. But when we all come together, and we begin to function as a body of Christ and understand who’s gifted in what, it’s more discipleship. “but they continued steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine. Sound teaching, fellowship.” Believe me, you cannot be a Christian without fellowship. If you’re not hanging out with other Christians, then you’re yoked to the world. You’re deceived. I’m just telling you,
I’ve been preaching this for 10 years now, 20 years now, I’m not going to stop preaching it. There’s nothing else. That’s the example of the early church. The early church grew. You and I are hearing about the Gospel today because they were in the word, prayer and fellowship. If you saying that you’re a Christian, you’re professing if you’re not confessing your sin and hanging out to help bless other Christians. You’ve got to get involved in it or you’re trapped in the world. You’ve got to order your life around it.
I’m not telling you this legalistically, I’m telling you, if you want to survive and be effective and have a life that blesses God and pleases God, it’s a life of faith. It begins in the word, prayer and fellowship. Then you take communion to remember what He’s done and that He’s coming back. As you fix your eyes, watching for His glorious appearing that convinces you to keep confessing and to keep being purified and to keep going.
As you get into the body of Christ and you’re fellowshipping then somebody else comes and goes, “Hey, I want to know about Jesus.” Then it keeps an old dog young. It’s not just people who are in authority or teaching youngers. It keeps them young. It keeps them going, it keeps them having a reason to live in a hope to breathe for so they can train the next generation.
So there is authority and the authority is assumed both ways by God because you’ve said, “Lord, my life is a mess. My sin nature has killed me. I was headed for death and now I believe in your son Jesus and I know that I’ve been living wrong. Will you change me?” And then we say, “Don’t touch me. Don’t talk to me. Don’t get around me. I don’t want to hear nothing about your word.” That’s a professing Christian. A confessing Christian now surrenders their heart to God and begins to say, “I need to learn how to do this.” See if it was a job, how quick would you get fired? “I want a job with you. Can I work at your factory?” “Sure, right there is foreman Bill. He’s going to teach you how to make those widgets.” “I don’t want to listen to Bill. Forget bill. I ain’t making those widgets. I just want a job.”
Think about how nonsensical that is. We’re talking about our soul, but the devil has convinced us that we can do it alone. The devil has convinced us that we don’t need sound doctrine. The devil has convinced us that we don’t need to pray. The devil has convinced us that all I had to do was profess it and I’ll be okay. It’s deception. There’s no authority under that except for you. You’re still on the throne if all you do is say, “I’m a Christian” and there’s no works afterwards that follow the evidence of a fruitful life that’s abiding in Christ, that’s planted in the word of God, that’s planted in the Kingdom of God, that’s looking for the chastisement of God and the correction of God.
So again, underlying themes is what I’m getting at. Discipleship is here. We’re seeing that and what they’re doing, but the other underlying theme is the authority. You’re giving somebody an authority to speak into your life, and you’re releasing authority to speak into their life. So there’s a partnership going on in that fellowship. In order to disciple somebody I have to give you authority to speak into my life, and at the same time you have to surrender your heart and say, “I’m going to listen to what they say.”
But you’re really asking God to change you. If you’re asking God to change you, guess what? You might be listening to David Koresh for awhile, but if you’re calling upon the god of the universe and reading your Bible and you’ve got the other parts of fellowship in your life, you’re not going to follow David Koresh for very long. I only use that name because it was the closest one to my tongue. There’s a lot of nuts out there that are still doing it in the church today and there’s massive following them, but they have nothing in their church to do with the word, prayer and fellowship. Nothing. Not just “some” missing. It’s “all” missing. No Spirit there. A lot of fancy programs, a lot of money, maybe a lot of big buildings, but where’s God? He’s left the building.
So you cannot be discipled unless you say, “I’m going to let that person speak into my life.” Part of what we’re doing right now is equipping the saints. You’ve come here on Sunday morning so that I could speak into your life. The problem is if you walk out of the door and you say, “Well, I believed his first point and the second point, but the rest of his points stunk, and I don’t really want to do them”. Then you’ve divided the authority of the word of God. Now, if you can show me clearly where I misquoted the word of God and missed teaching sound doctrine, then you’re okay because I’ll apologize and we’ll get together and we’ll fellowship together and we’ll make sure we’re right.
But as long as I am telling you good sound, healthy truth for growth in the Christian body, the Christian life, so that other souls can be saved, then you’re being rebellious when you walk away and you don’t ask God to teach you how to do it. “Help me do it, Lord. Help me do it. Lord. I want to have a heart that will go and see souls saved. Help me do it, Lord. Why did you call me? Which part am I? How do I get into the word, prayer and fellowship in a way where my life is ordered around your house because you bought me with the blood of your son.” Anything else is culture-anity. Listen to me. Anything else. I’m not trying to steer no sheep into no pin. I’m not trying to create nothing. You can fellowship wherever you want. You can love however you want, but I’m trying to teach clear sound doctrine according to the scriptures. I know what’s changed my life and I know He moves us from pin to pin, but you better find some sound doctrine. Apply it to your heart and know that you know Jesus because the devil is out there in the spirit of antichrist is out there to deceive the elect if it’s possible.
So the underlying theme, discipleship, it’s a natural thing in the family of God, It’s normal, natural. It’s a natural thing to find somebody to watch, to come underneath. It’s a natural thing to desire to help somebody else grow because there’s somebody that’s younger than you. It’s normal for Christians to want to do that. Why? Because the love of God compels us to do it. Because He first loved us. He came down. He laid his life down so that he could change us and bring us back into right relationship with God. So the very example of the heart of God is that the spirit of God would want to bring people back into relationship with God. If we’re listening to the Spirit of God, then that’s exactly what we want to do. Whether they say they know God or whether they do know God, we want to help them grow in their relationship with God. Because that’s what Christ did. He laid his entire life down for that. Sound doctrine but contrast. Listen, we do not want to be disqualified and find out when we approach the throne room, that is the white throne judgement we’re approaching instead of the Bema seat, especially as professing Christians who say they’ve confessed their sins to God.
You do not want to get there and say, “What? White throne?!! Wait a minute, Greg said… wait a minute Joel Osteen said…wait a minute.” There’s a lot of liars out there. Liars. “But as for you,” This is what he’s telling Titus. “Don’t be like a Cretan.” You see salvation changes you. You were once a liar. You were once a Cretan. You were once this person, but now speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine.” It means to preach because you preach to the unsaved. It means to utter words. That’s all it means. Speak. You’re uttering words. You’re opening your mouth. Every time you open your mouth, I don’t care where you’re at, if you’re on the job, or you’re at the gas station saying, “Uh hey. Hi, we’re lost. And we were all looking for highway 36,” you’re preaching. You’re saying something to people. It’s a pulpit and especially as believer priest. Now, how are you dealing with it?
I left here yesterday after the men’s meeting, and I pulled over to the gas station. Craziest thing because I’m always prayed about how do we reach people in this area? Craziest thing in the world. I pulled up. I’m on the phone, I pull up to the pump. I swiped my card. It says, “What’s the zip code?” I pushed the zip code in. It says, “Do you want a receipt?” I said, “No.” It says, “Remove nozzle, select grade and pump.” I put it in, pumped the gas. I turned it on. I KNOW that I turned it on. Walked around, got my gas cans, turned around, took the lids off of them, and looked up. The pump turned off and says that I pumped. $30 in my tank. That’s 10 gallons and something. I’m looking at it wondering, “Why did it kick off? That’s crazy. Wow.” So I get my card out again, put it in again. It clears, it goes through all those questions. I put it back in the tank because I know the tank aint full with 10 gallons. I already had a quarter of a tank of gas. I have a 25 gallon tank. It pumps another 20 gallons and I haven’t even filled up my gas cans yet. I go, “This is impossible!” That’s 30 gallons of gas that went into a truck that already had five gallons in it, and it’s only a 25 gallon tank.
I go, “This is ridiculous. This pump just ripped me off.” I’m like, “All right, well maybe this is my chance to meet some people in the community because there’s some clerks in there that I probably haven’t met because I never go in the gas station.” I said, “So okay cool, Lord. I’ll go in and talk to them.”
I said, “Hey, the pump I think just um, did something because I’ve got 30 gallons of gas and I only needed like 20 and there’s none on the ground.” And she’s looking at me like, “You’re a nut, ain’t yeah?” I go, “No. I pumped. It turned off. It showed that I put 10 gallons in, and then I pumped again, and it showed it put 20 gallons in. That’s 30 gallons in a truck that has a 25 gallon tank.”
She was just looking at me. I’m not being mean to her. She’s not understanding it. You know what I mean? It’s kinda like when you ask, “Can I get change for a dollar? ” And they don’t understand. It’s the new culture. It’s a new age. I’m not mean. It’s just truth. And the truth will set you free. And so I couldn’t convince them of this. And so they started grabbing receipts. I go, “Well, listen, somebody’s got to refund my $30 because it took money from me and didn’t give me any gas obviously or it’d be all over the ground.” And I said, “Well, come out here because I haven’t put any gas in my gas cans, and I want you to witness that, that I didn’t put in any in them.”
Because at one point she had said, “Well, uh, I don’t know if you’re telling the truth.” And she don’t. She has no bearing. She doesn’t know who I am. And so I said, “Oh my goodness.” And she puts the receipts out and I’m looking at the receipts, I’m going, “Look, you can see the receipts, $54 and $30 and I got a 25 gallon tank.” So we go out there, and finally I looked at the one receipt, and I go, “That’s not my credit card.” So somehow through all that process, the pump shut off and then put back up the previous. And I’d go, “I apologize.” So I apologized to them. But it wasn’t nothing that I did. Unless you clear the previous sale, you cannot punch in your zip code. You cannot say, “No, I don’t want no receipt.” Somehow it clicked back over and he had never pumped any gas and it had diverted back to the old way or the old receipt. There’s a teaching here. I’m looking to be involved and now I look like a nut with them. And so I have to apologize. I said, “Well I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened there. Something happened with your pumps, but I know I didn’t get any gas.” See how things can happen? It can go back and you’re really wanting to go forward and you’re going backward because you’re not listening and doing what the instructions say to do. So I don’t know where I started with that. It was a good story when I started. Wasn’t it?
So they thought I was nuts. She really did. There kept looking at me like, “You’re nuts, dude.” I’m like, “Listen, something has happened with your pump.” They actually ended up telling me that we don’t do any refunds. All we do is man those pumps. That’s all BP. We don’t do anything with it. I’m like, “So how am I going to get my money back? ” They said,” We don’t know.” “You mean that you work here and you don’t know how I’m gonna get my money back?” They go, “Well, they never messed up.”
“Teach the things that are proper for sound doctrine.” So everything that I was doing at that moment with these people that I care about and I pray every week for 10 years that they’ll be save was me preaching from a pulpit. Do you see what I’m saying? So when I go in there, if I’m yelling like a madman, they’re like, “Oh, that’s that pastor over there. We’re not going to that church.” I did everything to remain calm and I’m looking at them like, you don’t know how to fix this. And I’m like, “Lord, what is going on here?” But believe me, it was a pulpit. So I got her name. Her name was Bobby. There was a couple of other girls working and I go back in and I apologize for what I had done. See, that’s called a witness because I could’ve went nuts like some people do, but it’s a pulpit.
What’s going on in your pulpit? “I’m not a pastor, Greg.” But you’re a believer priest. The people you’re talking to, everywhere you go, you’re supposed to be speaking the things to them that are sound in doctrine. You’re supposed to be concerned because the love of God has appeared to all men teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust. See, if it was all about just my gas, then there could have been some real serious problems. The same thing is going on with a refrigerator of mine. It’s a continuing saga, but you have to look at as that God has allowed it. You can trust Him.
You’re there to speak sound doctrine to every person you’re talking to. You don’t say, “Jesus loves you. You need to get saved. You’re a sinner. You’re hell fire. You’re going to hell!” You don’t have to say that, but you do need to conduct yourself properly during your stay here on this planet because you’re in the house of God. You’re His child, and when you go into society, you’re representing Him. You’re an ambassador for Him, and He’s watching. That’s what this discipleship is about. We want to be like Jesus. There’s other people that are being more like Jesus than you were when you become an infant. There’s other people that are more like Jesus in certain areas than you are. That’s why you need fellowship to help you learn how to be like Jesus. That’s why you need the word of God and the truth to help you learn to be like Jesus. That’s why you need to most undoubtedly pray and spend time in the face of Jesus. Because that’s called a humbling yourself. That’s called a dependency upon God. That’s called confessing, not professing. “Here I am Lord,” confessing. “I have no power to live this life down here. The only power I have is to let my sin nature run rampant unless I let you take the wheel.”
Isn’t that a terrible saying, “Jesus, take the wheel?” Are you kidding me? I’m sorry. I get really mad over clichés. The worst one is, “He’s my copilot.” Really? You’re headed for Hell then. He’s supposed to be running everything. I don’t want him to take the wheel. I want to follow Him. That’s what happens with a lot of parenting. We take the wheel, and the child never learns how to do anything. Jesus wants to have us yoked with him. We’re walking behind Him, yoked with Him. He’s doing all the power, all the way. He’s already did all the victory. He’s already received the glory and is sitting down at the right hand of the father.
We’re supposed to do our part because He’s training our hearts. He doesn’t want to train your physical body. He wants to train your heart so that your heart will move your physical body to do His work because of who He is. He doesn’t want you to train your body, and you just go do it because you feel obligated because the pastor said to do it because all the rest of the churches are doing it. He wants a heart that has compassion and mercy and grace upon people because you’ve been yoked to Him. You don’t learn that stuff unless you get involved in the word, prayer and fellowship. You need to begin to take communion and really think about what your sin nature will do to you If you don’t do these things.
It’s kinda like being a new parent. You bring the baby home and say, “The doctor said, we should give him this every three hours, and we should do this and this and this.” “Hey, let’s just close the room and maybe he won’t cry. Let’s just go in the living room and do what we’ve been doing.” Do you think that baby is going to live in that room? You think it’s going to survive? Trapped in that room? Laying on its back with nobody to help take care of it? No! And the devil knows that you ain’t going to survive. So he isolates you and then he decimates you, and then you walk around going, “I’m a Christian.”
It’s the same thing all across our nation. It’s professing, but there’s no confessing. There’s no body life. Then there’s no change in the soul of a person. So the heart still is exceedingly wicked. And when we hit the wrong nail, we still yell out those words. I’m not condemning anybody for any of this. I’m trying to shine light because the grace of God has appeared. I’m trying to shine that down on this deception of culture-anity. We all go through it. I’m not trying to be separate from it. I can be preaching like this and looking at it too, because it’s all of us that are trying to learn how to live a Christian life.
I said that I went to a pastor’s conference to let you know that I’m still being discipled. I haven’t arrived. I’m listening at the pastor’s conference to guys that have been teaching the word of God for 40 and 50 years because God has showed them things that He’s not even going to show me because He’s going to come back and take the church home before I need it. Yet we spend all of our time doing other things instead of speaking things that are proper for sound doctrine. “Proper” in the King James is “become.” It means “suitable” and “right.” It actually means “comely”. It’s a word we don’t use anymore “comely.” I remembered we used it about Jesus. “…There was no comeliness about him.”
But there was a lot of comeliness in His words. It drew you to Him because they were living and powerful. His appearance? No. It was the same as everybody else, But those words…there was power in them. They sent people to arrest Him, but they come back mesmerized. They couldn’t even arrest Him. They couldn’t even do their duties. “Well, He said stuff we didn’t even know. We were like, whoa, what did you send us here for?” It made them delusional. They couldn’t even follow their orders. We do it the opposite way. Think about it. We go to church, and we hear what we need to do and then we’d go back out there and let the world confound us when we’ve got the truth!
Suitable. “…Sound doctrine.” Doctrine is instruction and teaching. Doctrine is instruction that teaches you how to live. It teaches you how to walk out this Christian life in God’s house because you become a child of God. You’re in His house, He’s your father and He’s given you the Spirit inside of you to lead you and He’s taken all the punishment away for spilling little glasses of milk and He’s still out in front of you saying, “Follow me. Follow me. I’ll train your heart.” Sound means “healthy:”, “uncorrupt,” “wholesome “. Sound doctrine produces sound, healthy, spiritual Christians.
I can tell you over and over and over, about a pastor from another denomination that came to our church. He had been with the other denomination for 11 or 12 years and he was a baby Christian in many areas when he came into our church. And he had been a pastor for 11 years in another denomination, but he had been believing unhealthy doctrine and it had stunted his growth in any other truth because he stopped right there. When you allow a lie in your action, in your talk, in your life that you don’t want to bow your heart down to God, He can’t do anymore until you deal with that sin and confess it. Oh, He’s still there. He still loves you with a never ending love, but you can’t grow. You can’t grow because you’re quenching the Holy Spirit, the very thing that grows you. Now, if you have a heart willing to confess that and you’re still working on it and you can’t get it out of your life completely and you’re still working it out. You’re going, “Lord, I know what’s wrong. Show me how to get rid of it. “ Then He will use that to keep growing you and to make you sick of yourself and to make you want to be purified. But when your heart is saying, “I’m going to go on live my life. I’m just going to go to church and feel good about myself.
I’m not going to get involved and do everything that I’m not supposed to do to to let God deal fully with me.” Try that at work. Try that at school. Try that anywhere else in your life. That’s how families get broken. When you’re not engaged in the family doing your part in the family. That’s how jobs get lost when you show up and all you want to do is what you want to do and you don’t want to do what the boss is telling you to do. Because there’s no authority in your life. It doesn’t work anywhere else. God saying, “I’ve got it all figured out. If you just listen to me.”
So then he says, Titus 2:2, “…..that the older men be sober, reverent..” We’re going to get a bunch more of these word. They are a little bit different in the new King James verses the King James. I’ll talk to you about them. “…Temperate, sound in faith. ..” There’s that word again. Healthy. Sound “….in love….” Notice the word “sound” is not there, but he’s talking about it. He set it up with sound. Sound in faith, sound in love, sound “…in patience.” Right?
Now we’re going to talk about the older women. This is what they’re supposed to be doing. I want you to know that the Greek word for elder is “presbyteros.” The word for “age men” and “age woman” is a word that comes from that word and there’s only one letter difference in the two. The man is “presbutes” and the woman is “presbutis.” So I want you understand that there’s inherently authority in the church with the older saints. I’m not telling you that they’re living right. I’m not telling you that they’re doing anything perfect. It’s in our society and yet we ignore. There should be honor to the aged the Bible teaches us.
The hoary head is a crown. If it’s found in righteousness. The bible teaches us. We used to do these things in regular society and not just church. There is something there and it’s telling us, instructing us that they already should have been listening. The aged should have been listening and growing. You can tell when somebody is. That’s the person whom you want to disciple you. It’s purposely taken from that same word to show you that there are some inherent authority to a person who’s been walking with the Lord for 10 or 20 years and they’re changing. Not somebody that’s professing that they’d been walking with the Lord for 10 or 20 years, but they’re still not in the word, prayer and fellowship. They still don’t know their gifts. They still aren’t doing anything to further the cause of God’s kingdom so souls can be saved. That’s not the people we’re talking about. But that’s what goes on in “culture-anity” because we will not come underneath the authority of God’s word and follow Him and surrender.
So first, the older men are to be sober. It means “circumspect.” Circumspect means to walk exactly as you know how. To try to do exactly what you already know how. What you’ve already learned. Have you ever watched a little kid? We watch little Arabella. She’s learning how to walk. She’ll revert back to crawling sometimes. What she does is that she tries to get a little bit further every time. She’ll stand up. We watch her want to go further. They want to know more. That’s what a good healthy Christian should want. To walk further, to do more, to reach out to, to be used more and grow every single day. That’s healthiness in the body of Christ, but when the you’re letting the devil pour gasoline into your soul and all this other stuff into your soul and the world speaks louder than the word of God to you and we care more about the world, then there’s a problem with our Christianity.
“Sober.” People are drunk. I’m just telling you that people are drunk everywhere you look. If you were once blind and now you see then all you need to do is to say, “Hi,” to somebody and you will find out that people are out there drunk on something. They’re drunk on themselves. They’re drunk on life, they’re drunk on real drugs or real booze. I freak out sometimes trying to have a conversation with people. I’m looking at them like, “Are you awake?”
I’m not being mean here. That’s the people we’ve come to save. They are the ones that need to hear from us. They’re the ones we need to be sober about because they’re are going to die and go to hell if we don’t get it right. We can’t walk around in the church full of wine which is dissipation. We need to be filled always with the Holy Spirit, concerned about what the spirit of God is doing in saving souls. “Sober.” Circumspect. Not intoxicated by everything else around us. You know what that is? That’s when you’re being led by something other than God. Other than the Holy Spirit. You’re intoxicated with it. What’s your power? Where are you going for help? Where are you going for strength?
Look what they did in Isaiah 30 and 31. They went down to the world for help. That was their strength. They were intoxicated with the power of the world. When you go to the world for help, you’ve walked away from God. I’m not telling you, don’t go to the mechanic. I’m saying, no matter what you’ve done, no matter where you’re at, no matter what – here it is. Proverbs 21:31. The horse is prepared for the day of battle, But deliverance is of the Lord.
You do your due diligence. You do your preparation. You know you need a mechanic, but you’re still trusting in the Lord to deal with your car because that mechanic can put the wrong part on. You see, your trust always has to be back with the Lord. You cannot say, I’m going to Egypt. I gotta go get some help. They know better down there at the hospital than they do with the great physician God Almighty on the Throne Room and his word of God. You’re training your little heart to trust in the world instead of trusting in the one you’re yoked to. Trust in the word of God.
“Sober.” Are you sober and you know that Jesus is the only way and that whatever his word says is true? That’s sober, not intoxicated, not led to believe that something else is better for you. “Reverent” The King James version says, “grave.” I’m thinking, in our culture grave means death. Isn’t sober supposed to be about that? Dead to self. Reverent means honorable and honest. In the Webster’s dictionary it means “holding a distinguished rank in society. ” So it’s a reputation.
I talked to you a little bit about that a while ago. We don’t see that anymore. Even in the courtroom, even with police officers, lawlessness is abounding. There is no honor. There’s no authority. There’s no reverence. And it ought not to be with Christians. You can see it with people that don’t profess or confess, but with Christians it ought not to be. We don’t respect judges, we don’t respect police officers. We don’t respect our parents. We don’t respect ______ You fill in the blank. There’s no authority. There’s no reverence. There is no honor. We used to say that among thieves. “There’s honor among thieves.” I ain’t taking his stuff. Don’t put yours down though. How ignorant. It’s a rank. “He’s a good thief. I’m not touching his stuff. ”
It’s not there anymore because the devil has successfully trained it out and he’s doing it through our “indoctrination stations” / our schools where nobody’s the boss except for the government.
“Temperate” – sound in mind and self control, moderate in opinions and passion. “Discipline” can be a good word for it. 2 Timothy 1:7, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.” A temperate mind. You’ve got your emotions under control. You’ve got your life under control. You’re looking to God and you’re trusting in Him and you’re sober minded. Your understanding that there’s an adversary trying to kill you. Understanding that you’re called to be a part of a body of Christ. Understanding that you are about the business of God because you’re His child and you want to see souls saved. That’s sober. That’s grave. That’s temperate. “Patience.” I love this word. Patience. It’s waiting, a cheerful or hopeful waiting. It’s building endurance. It’s a constancy. There’s another word we’ll look at later.
Fidelity. It’s also awaiting a constancy. Why is that important? “Fidelity” in the Greek is pistis, It’s our word for faith. It’s where we have a profession in Christ, but we also have a constancy in waiting upon Him and trusting in Him and knowing that He is on the throne. We just do the natural and abide in the vine. We get in the word, prayer and fellowship and do the natural and he’ll give us a desire for souls. He’ll give us His desire to do His work. He’ll put His compassion in us. Nothing wrong with having passion.
We need some passion over some right things, some good things. We don’t have it anymore in our culture, not even in the church. We come and go like little pied pipers and say, “Well, I went to church. I did my little thing, I did my duty. Now I can go out and just have all kinds of fun and do whatever.” These things apply in your day to day life. Everywhere you’re at. It’s your character. It’s not Sunday actions where we pretend. It’s every place. In fact, sincerity and integrity is going to be one, and that’s what that word grave is. Its gravity. Grave – gravity. Strange. So is the English language to me. “Sound” again is healthy or well. Sound in love, sound in faith. These are things that we should be because of the spirit of God in us.
We’re growing in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control that listen, that fruit will naturally happen if we’re reading the word, if we’re praying, if we’re looking to fellowship with other saints in the body of Christ and do our part. It all naturally happens. You know why? Christ said it to us. “I am the vine and you are the branches. If a man abide in me and I in him, you will bear much fruit…” Not you MIGHT. Not you COULD. Not that THERE’S A CHANCE. But you WILL if you abide in you live in these tenants that he’s given us. Sound healthy doctrine. The early church did it always in the temple like we’re doing now in the houses day to day. There was a Koinonia fellowship going on. They had all things in common. Why? Because they lived in the same house to house of God.
In many ways, the megachurches really messed this up because families are supposed to be in church. The smaller the church, the more intimate you can be. You know what’s the problem with that? Then you know how the other person is like. You know when they’re home and that their feet stink. You see the chinks in their armor. That’s where you give grace and mercy. That’s not where you bash them in the head. The body of Christ is supposed to be compassionate and loving and giving grace and mercy. IF that person wants to cooperate with the rest of the family and come underneath the authority of the word of God and live according to God, then you help them grow. But if they resist that, then you ask them to leave. You give them the right hand of the door, not at the right hand of fellowship.
“Women.” That’s the word “presbutis”. it means “the aged women.” Look what they’re supposed to be. “The older women likewise…” Notice that? I liked that because it says “likewise,” So “the older women, likewise,..” They’re supposed to “be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love and patience, and that they may be reverent in behavior….” Their behavior is reverent. It means sacred and holy, suitable, and proper. Not slanderers..” That’s gossiping. It’s “false accusers” in the King James version The Greek is “diablos.” The devil. Satan. I’m not picking on women. Men can be diablos too. They can be false accusers and slanders too,. But we’re talking about what the text says. It says “older women, likewise” don’t be slanderers. Don’t sit around gossiping about everybody. You’re not redeeming the time when you do that. Any of us. We’re not redeeming the time when we’re talking about other people instead of praying for other people, it would be more beneficial to pray for them than to talk about them.
“…not given to much wine….” Apparently the people on the island of Crete had a lot of problems with wine. “Much” is a quantity. It’s interesting that even in the Strong’s it gives you the comparative word for wine in the Hebrew. Okay, and when you go back and look in the Hebrew, this word means “intoxicating wine.” It’s not just a drinking wine to take care of your belly because the water was horrible. This is a wine that literally intoxicates you is what it is in the Hebrew. It’s fermented wine and it’s called a “banqueting wine.”
In other words, we’re not supposed to be intoxicated. Jesus said, “I will not drink of the vine again until I see you in my kingdom.” Where’s that going to be? At the banqueting table, at the wedding supper of the lamb. That’s the time we can celebrate, people. The enemy is killing us with a celebrating, entertaining culture that we’re all about everything about pleasing the flesh instead of about being pleasing to God. Instead of about being about the father’s business like Jesus was. He’s our prime example. Boy we love to please the flesh. We love the banquet. We love the buffet, we love to go________. You fill in the blank. We’re being slowly put to sleep with our behavior. So “not given to much wine.” I think it’s kinda like, “Bodily exercise profits a little….” Well, be careful with the wine because you’re supposed to be sober. You’re supposed to be an example, and I can probably make a case for not drinking at all, but listen here, because there’s a lot of women that want to be teachers. Look at this. “Teachers of good things.”
Want to be a teacher? Teach younger women. Want to be a teacher in the body of Christ. Teach children. I’m serious. I’m not joking here because it’s a big thing on the scene today. The southern Baptist has had a big split because they want to make women pastors and teachers. They say that we’ve kept women and minorities down. Does that sound anything like the world? it doesn’t sound like sound doctrine to me. I’m not being mean to a woman. You know what’s been mean to the women? It’s the world, the devil and the church by lying to them and not preaching sound doctrine to them.
Teachers that they be admonished. That’s teach the young women to love their husbands, love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands. Notice its their own husbands. “…that the word of God may not be blasphemed.” That’s about all I’m going to get to. I thought I could get to 10 verses, but I’m going to get to this and this is going to take awhile. I was talking with my wife this morning. We don’t understand what the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) movement has done to women. We don’t understand that the ERA movement started in the garden. It started with Adam and Eve. Adam was given the headship position in the garden to name, to tend to, and take care of the garden. Then God notice that he did not find a helper comparable, so He put him into a deep sleep and He created woman as a helpmate.
Because of Adam’s abdication of the throne to be leading the garden Eve steps up and listens to a lie that wasn’t sound doctrine, and she took a leadership position in the garden and it caused the original sin. But God blames it on Adam in the new testament because he should have been leading. Okay? Listen to what I’m getting ready to tell you because everything that we’re going through, we’ve talked about it before.
All that the devil is doing with the ERA movement and with all these equal rights and this empowerment is destroying the picture of the church and Christ loving his bride. It is destroying the picture of what I’ve been talking about – fellowship with the family of God, discipleship and the training of the heart of the people of God. What’s the greatest institution? The bride of Christ, the church, shining our light. Where is the training to take place at? In the home! Who’s responsible for it? Well, the man is, he’s the head, but the wife is the one teaching. She’s teaching submission to leadership. She teaching authority. She’s teaching other women. She’s teaching the children’s little hearts to be the next Billy Graham until they’re of the age when the man takes over and begins to train them in how to preach.
So the greatest place that the church has been damaged is with ERA. It’s taken the woman out away from parenting and modeling submission, modeling what’s supposed to go on on the planet. Which is always a picture of Jesus Christ loving His church. It’s always a picture of the husband laying his life down for the bride that he might wash and cleanse her with the washing of the water through the word. The devil always wants the woman to think, because that’s part of the curse. You will have to work “by the sweat of your brow.” She will want to be head over you, but the man will rule over her. Genesis 3:16. So a woman in her sin nature always desires to be like the man, but she’s not created that way. It’s an obvious thing. Listen, listen.
Seventy years ago it was just as obvious that a man shouldn’t get married. Seventy years ago in the church, it was just as obvious that a woman wasn’t made for the workplace. It was! I’m just telling you, it was just as obvious in the perception of the people of God because God is in authority. It His house. It’s His planet. He is the one that created man first. He is the one that designed the man to protect the bride, to cover the bride, to love the bride, to lay his life down for the bride, to be the one that actually teaches her. She voluntarily submits to him and follows him so she will know how to teach the children.
That’s the same way you and I are doing for Christ. But when we ignore it, and we voluntarily disobey God, we’re ignoring His leading and how to live in society and be a witness to other people so that they can join the family of God. So that’s how the enemy is destroying the church and the family at the same time. All because of an “you ain’t the boss of me” attitude. All because we don’t want to come underneath sound doctrine. That’s it! It started in the garden and is still going on now. It’s just worse.
I’m not picking on any of the ladies. I’m not picking on anybody except the devil and the lies and trying to teach sound doctrine. I hear people say, “Well, you know, you can’t change it. We’re already so far down the road.” Really? We want to go to hell? When you know truth and you ignore it, you’re ignoring God. You’re disobeying the Authority of God. Really? Is that the way we’re going to do it? That’s we got where we’re at.
No, it’s not too late. It’s never too late to repent of sin as long as you have breath. I believe probably one of the hardest positions in the world and maybe one of the greatest positions in his world is being a mother. It is being a wife, being a homemaker. All I have to do is look at my wife following me and she does a good job of it. I’m thinking, “You must be nuts following me” No, I’m teasing. You’re never going to go wrong following Jesus Christ because He laid his life down for you. Listen to me, but just because a man lays his life down doesn’t mean his wife is going to follow, and if a man doesn’t lay his life down, it doesn’t mean that his wife shouldn’t still be all of these things. There’s nowhere in the scripture that says, “IF your husband is a godly man…” The Bible says that she’s supposed to be all of these things regardless of what the husband is doing. There’s instruction specifically. You break them out. You’re still supposed to do this. How hard is it? Probably is as hard as following me.
“The older women, ” listen, you’re not looking forward to retire and unless you’re looking forward to training younger women, when you retire. That’s the church. You don’t go learn stuff so you can go do nothing. Men don’t and women shouldn’t. We’re learning so we can tell others. We’re growing so we can help others grow. We’re going so other people will learn that that’s the example…. to go. We get it all from Christ. We get it all from the sound healthy doctrine because He is the word of God. He’s 100% perfect. He’s 100% sound. He’s 100% healthy – everything about Him, His life and godliness. No excuses, but we need to say, “Look, this is our heart. This is what we need to be doing.” Again, discipleship, again, “older women” It’s assuming that they have been doing what they should be doing, but we should honor them even if they are living bad. As Christians, we’re always honoring. Jesus honored people. He honored the laws, he honored all kinds of things, but He spoke the truth clearly, and the only time we’re allowed to not honor is when it tells us to dishonor God.
When you’re called to dishonor God because you’re honoring somebody else, that’s the time you can change your mind and you can dishonor the rest of the people and honor God. That is the ONLY time. Any other time we are lights, we are trying to get people saved and we’re declaring the Kingdom of God. Titus 2:4, “…teach young women.” How else will they learn?
We do it with dogs. “Get him a young dog and it’ll make him feel young. They’ll run around really good together.” But we won’t do it in the church? It’s really strange to me how we ignore it and we don’t want to get close to each other and we want to stay away. It’s assuming that the older women already love their husbands. It says in Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives,…” And he tells wives to submit Hupotasso. It’s the word “obedient.” Be obedient to your own husbands. The older women are to “teach the young women to love their husbands. Love their children.” Shouldn’t we love since God is love? “… to be discreet, chaste homemakers, good, obedient…” Here it is “hupotasso.” That is a military term meaning to orderly rank yourself under. That’s authority again. Man comes from God and woman comes from man. This is not a sermon against women. This is a sermon for women and women turned it into a sermon against them. It’s a sermon to take care of women. The reason we have a savior is to take care of us. It’s a sermon for us. All this doctrine is for us. It’s not for God. You’re not changing him a bit. It’s for us and it’s the same thing when we say that a woman is supposed to be obedient and submit. It’s because she has a husband that is supposed to be covering her and loving her and laying his life down for her and taking care of her and providing for her needs and stopped taking care of his own needs.
The word “sober” is used like four time, but always a different word. The word “good” is used like three times, always a different word. You don’t know that unless you look these words up. They mean different things, but they sound like they’re saying the same things. “…discreet” is self-control and sound in mind. It’s moderate. Again, it’s the same word. Discreet is the same word for temperate. It means discipline. “Chaste” is innocent, and modest and clean. It’s pure, it’s the word get holy and consecrated from. It’s the Greek word “hagios.” That’s what a woman is supposed to be doing when she’s chaste. Look around. Where’s the modesty anymore? Look around. When you start telling a woman that she’s equal with a man that she starts acting like a man. She starts dressing like a man and she has no modesty anymore. And she wants to be a leader and she speaks brashly and rudely and she talks to people in a way that is not becoming of a woman. I’m just telling you, that there’s no modesty anymore. There’s no innocence anymore.
And then “..homemakers.” The King James says this, and you may want to look it up, “keepers of the home.” It means a stayer at home. That’s what it means. A stayer at home. When we say that they are a “Stay at home mom”, that’s what it means. Stay at home mom = keepers of the home. I think it’s the most important position on the planet because you’re raising the next generation of the church underneath the leadership of somebody who is supposed to be a godly man. Stayer at home. It means domestically inclined, but it’s from a word that means family dwelling. “Obedient” again is used.
Hupotasso to their own husbands. Why would a woman be obedient to their own husbands? Because it’s a witness. Why would we be obedient to Christ? Because it’s a witness. He’s our husband. Why would we be be obedient to Christ? So that other people could see that there’s a true living God. So that other people could see that we’re yoked with Him. It’s a witness. It’s a light. It shows that there’s a changed life. Why would a woman be obedient to her husband so that people will see she’s underneath submission, but she’s really doing it to God. She’s not doing it to that man. She’s doing it to God because His sound doctrine calls her to do it. I’m telling you right now, ladies, if you want to see some hot fire underneath your husband’s seat? Get out of God’s way! He ain’t gonna use you as an excuse anymore. Get out of his way, and let God get to your husband and to your marriage. I guarantee you that some things will change. Get out of the way. Get out of the way. It’s not going to happen in 10 minutes. It’s not going to happen in 10 weeks, but you get out of the way and God will get your husband.
Let God deal with him. Quit doing His job for him. Quit making excuses for him. Just be discreet, chaste, loving, obedient, homemaker so that the word of God is not blasphemed When we do all these things as the bride, it’s a great witness for Christ. When we don’t do those things, then there’s a terrible witness. You know how bad it is when people find out you’re a Christian and you haven’t been doing what you’re supposed to be doing. It’s like “They’re a Christian? You work with them? There are Christian?” That’s because they’re not being discreet and chaste and they’re letting the word of God be blasphemed. Which means railed upon which means a vilified, defamed, speaking evil against so that we can actually by our actions blaspheme the word of God. Disrespect it. This is some heavy stuff. It doesn’t change who the church should be even though the church is not living this way. It’s not being preached in the churches. “It’s okay for a woman to go do anything she wants to do, be anything she wants to be.”
That’s the new religion out there. It’s a new empowerment out there. I’m not saying that women are going to go to hell for doing it, but I guarantee it’s quenching the Spirit if we don’t do what God wants us to do, I guarantee it’s not going to end well. We wonder where we went astray? We’re listening to unhealthy doctrine. We’re bringing in unhealthy teaching into the church. It all goes back to authority and leadership because when a husband’s loving his wife as Christ loved the church, she has no problem following him. She has no problem submitting to him. Now I can submit to God’s love really easily. It doesn’t mean that I’m perfectly obedient at it, but man, how could you not? The problem is that men don’t want to lay down their self-life. I see the way some men treat their wives. It makes me sick. I had to remember that I’m a man and that I but for the grace of God could go there and that I sometimes speak rudely to my wife. When I watch the way men treat their wives, when we’re supposed to be a representative of the Church of God, when we’re supposed to be Christ like I, I’m just telling you, sometimes it makes me sick at my belly.
Men will chase everything and do everything they want to do and if their wife does anything, they want to get mad at them. They want to yell at them. I have never seen Christ yell at me unless it was, “Please don’t do that. You’re going to get hurt! You’re going to get hurt!” It wasn’t because of me sinning. Senate. He’s like, “Oh, I love you with a never ending love, and I died for you. You don’t need to do that. ” Why would you go there? My husbandman is me, the bride of Christ. He is so very good to me. In everything He gives me sound, healthy and appropriate. It’s going to purify me. It’s gonna make me ready for every good work. It’s only me that messes it up. It’s the same thing in the marriage. It’s the same thing in the church. When we ignore sound healthy doctrine, and we let people tell us it’s okay to do things which the Bible says it’s not. Who are we going to come underneath the authority of?
Do we have a king in our life? Are you listening to sound healthy doctrine. Are you ordering your life around the house of God or your own self life that’s still alive because you’re following your sin nature and the world? Who are you in the way with this morning? Very important question. If you’re in the way with Christ and you believe in Jesus Christ and you’re not just professing that, but you’re confessing that, then you have to begin to obey him and ask him what you should be doing now. I’m telling you that there are four food groups, word, prayer, fellowship and communion for the soul of the child of God.
Prayer – Father, we give you praise and glory and we thank you for being a mighty God. Lord your word is so powerful. It cuts, but it also heals. It takes away and prunes, but it also brings forth fruit and it’s always healthy no matter which one it’s doing. It’s always good for us because you’re a good Father. Thank you that we can be part of your home. Thank you that we can come to your table and sup. Thank you that you love us enough to rebuke us sternly and then welcome us back as prodigals. Lord, help us not to deceive ourselves by never doing what we hear is right. Help us not to end up in a ditch following our emotions and feelings in the world. We pray for salvation of souls and that we would be lights that would lead people to your throne room and we give you praise in Jesus’s name. Amen. The Lord bless you.