The sermon 'The Household Of A Healthy Church' by Robert Bosley focuses on the application of the household code found in Titus Chapter 2, emphasizing how it applies to the local church community. Six groups are identified: older men, older women, younger women, younger men, pastors, and servants, with a particular focus on the first four. The older men are encouraged to be sober, reverent, temperate, and sound in faith, love, and patience, serving as role models. Older women are instructed to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or addicted to wine, and to teach good things, thereby mentoring younger women. Younger women are guided to love their husbands and children, be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, and obedient, so as not to blaspheme God's word. Young men are urged to be sober-minded, with an emphasis on self-control. The sermon stresses the importance of sound doctrine coupled with good works, highlighting the need for mentorship and discipleship within the church as a family. The overall message is that doctrine and practice are inseparable in fostering spiritual health and growth within the church community.

I would take out your copy of the scriptures and turn to the book of Titus, the book of Titus, chapter 2. The Epistle of Titus, Chapter 2. The title of the message this afternoon is, the household code of a healthy church. The household code of a healthy church. And the reason for that is I believe this section of Titus, the first, really the first ten verses of this chapter, are what we call a household code.

Now we are used to seeing household codes in other parts of Scripture. We think of Ephesians 5 and 6 or Colossians 3 where husbands are told to love their wives, wives are told to respect their husbands, children are told to obey, so on and so forth. Well, this passage takes the same basic form and takes that idea of teaching proper moral behavior to the members of a household and applies it in the context of the local church. So instead of instructing individuals within a home of what virtues to cultivate and how to live in relationship with one another, here we have groups in the church being taught what virtues should characterize their lives and how they should interact as a church family. And in this household code, that really is verses two through ten in reality, there are six groups present.

First we have the older men and then the older women, the younger women and the younger men, the pastors exemplified by Titus, and servants. But for our purposes Today we're not going to look at all six. We're going to look at the first four. So I will read verses one through ten, but our focus today will be on verses one through six. So let's read Titus chapter two, verses one through ten.

Paul addressing his child in the faith, Titus. 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 slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the Word of God may not be blasphemed. Likewise, exhort the young men to be so reminded. 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. Let's pray. Father we thank you for this time that you have given us this afternoon to consider these things.

We pray Lord that you would open up the scriptures to us, open up our hearts and our minds to receive what you are saying here. Lord, help us to see wonderful things in your law. In Jesus' name, amen. So as I said, we're going to look at the first four groups of this household code, so the older men, the older women, the younger men, or sorry, the younger women, and then the younger men. And we're going to see that the family church, the church family, is to be characterized by these four groups.

And I'm summarizing as first, respectable old men. Second, holy old women. Third, pure young women and fourth, self-controlled young men. Now, Paul begins by telling Titus in verse 1 to teach the things which are proper or fitting for sound doctrine. This is in contrast to the false teachers that he has been discussing in chapter one, whom he calls empty talkers and deceivers, and he says that they must be silenced and that they are detestable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.

In contrast to these false teachers who are dangers to the church and must be silenced and put out, Titus instead of being silent is told to teach, to exhort. And here he is told to teach not only sound doctrine itself, but the things that accompany sound doctrine. He's told to teach the things which are proper or fitting with sound doctrine. Soundness in your doctrine, a healthy doctrine, that's what the idea of soundness communicates, something that is healthy, something that is ordered properly, is functioning as it should. Sound doctrine, healthy doctrine, teaching that promotes and creates true spiritual health, is not alone.

It must accompany works, or it must be accompanied by works. Inevitably, if you truly hold to real sound doctrine, and you believe and understand these things, the works appropriate to sound doctrine will follow. We heard about that this morning. That's how Paul generally divides his letters. You have the doctrine first, the indicative, and then you have the application or the imperative afterwards.

Now this letter is a little bit more imperative heavy because He's writing to this man Titus who is fulfilling basically the function of an elder. But that's the idea here. It's not just enough to know sound doctrine, but you must know it and apply it. Doctrine does not hang in a vacuum, but it works itself out in the life of the Christian. And this is something important that we cannot gloss over as human beings and fallen human beings being redeemed by Christ but still not where we ought to be, we have a tendency to correct by over-correcting.

We get out of one ditch by promptly driving into the other. Some will over-emphasize doctrine to the point where practical application has no use to them, where some will focus so much on the imperatives that they forget that imperatives are built on truth. And so Titus is being commanded here by Paul not only to teach doctrine, but also to teach the application of that doctrine. The two go hand in hand. We must remember these things.

And in this case, Paul is communicating that good works, what the good works are, that will spring from sound doctrine in the church, and he's using the form of a household code. This genre of literature was semi-common in the ancient world. The philosophers, the moralists, would often tell the people how they should behave, what virtues to cultivate, and the apostle Paul freely borrows that form and uses it to communicate Christian truth. And so he is teaching how the members of the church as the household of God ought to live and how they ought to relate with one another. And he begins with what we can safely call are the patriarchs of the church, the older men.

And so we see that older men are to be respectable, older men. Very in verses two and three, I'll read it again. The older men are to be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, and in patience. Sorry, just verse two, not verse two and three. First we need to consider what is meant by older.

In our culture, We have a culture that despises old age. We have a culture that worships youth. But the Bible does not operate in that way. The Bible elevates old age as virtually being synonymous with wisdom. Now that's not always the case.

There are obviously foolish and wicked older people. But the idea is that as you age you should grow in your knowledge and in your holiness and in your obedience to God. And so we should not hesitate to embrace this. If this does describe us, we should not hesitate to embrace that category of being an older man or an older woman. Now it's somewhat subjective, obviously, of who would fit into this category?

What is the cutoff between being young and being old? Well, we know biblically Paul refers to himself as an older man in Philemon, verse 9, and at that time he's probably about 60. This is probably about the same age he is here writing this epistle. And extra biblical sources often will use the terms for older men, presbuta, sorry, I'm losing it, But these terms for an older man generally starting around the age of 50. And the idea seems to be these are men who have older children, maybe adult children, and are coming into that time of life where maybe even they're becoming grandparents, they're becoming grandfathers.

These are the patriarchs of the church, the men who lead, who instruct, and give wisdom to the church. And these men are commanded to be four things here. First they're commanded to be sober, then reverent, temperate, and sound. They are to be characterized by soundness, soundness in their faith and love and in patience. So we'll look at these one at a time.

Sober, this word is used multiple times. It's also used in the qualifications for an elder earlier in Titus as well as in 1 Timothy. And that makes sense because what is an elder, the word elder is simply the word for an older man. So it makes sense that the qualification for an elder should be the goal for all older men. They are to be sober.

Now when we hear sober, we tend to think in the context of drinking. And that is certainly at work here. That is definitely a component, it may even be the primary component when we consider the command given to older women in verse 3, that they are not given too much wine. However, this mindset of soberness has to extend beyond just consumption of alcohol. It is a mindset characterized by clarity of thought, of an ability to think carefully, to think rationally, a mindset that is not clouded by alcohol or anything else, a mind that works and functions properly so as to instruct how to live.

That is what is meant by soberness. They are also to be reverent. Now this refers not to them being reverent in their behavior or their attitude towards something else. We, for instance, reverent towards God. Obviously men are to be these things, but that's not what is meant here.

This word reverent means that they are to be revered men. Other versions will translate as dignified or respectable. These are men that are honorable men that others can look up to. Older men in the church are the kinds of men that the young men look up to and say, that's the kind of man I want to be like. They are to be the kind of men that their wives have no trouble giving them the respect that they're commanded to give their husbands.

They are to be dignified older men giving an example of what it is like to live in obedience to God. Men who live a life of moderation and holiness whose lives and morals are above reproach, and so they become role models to the next generation. That is what is meant by reverent. They are also to be temperate. And again, this word has the idea of control.

Often this word is translated as self-controlled, as well as the word for sober. They're almost parallel to one another. They're almost synonymous. A man that is temperate, he is a man that is thoughtful in his actions. He is controlled.

He is not going to fly off the handle at the least provocation. He is not going to do the first thing that comes into his head, but he is going to be thoughtful and careful in how he responds to the situations that come his way. As I said, this is almost synonymous with the word sober. If there is any distinction to be made between them, then the word here for temperate might have the idea of focusing more on his actions and his response to the world, whereas sober-mindedness might be more of the intellectual mental state of clarity of thought. That might be the way to distinguish these two things.

They're also to be sound in faith, in love, and in patience. Oh, again, soundness, healthy. They are to have a proper and healthy spiritual life marked by faith, love, and patience or endurance. They are to be sound in faith, and it might possibly be best understood as sound in the faith, that is, they are sound in their understanding of Christian doctrine. They understand what truths their faith is built upon.

Now I'm not saying that every older man has to be an academic. You don't have to be a professional theologian to be sound in your faith. You don't have to spend every evening reading Bavink or John Owen, although I would encourage you to do so. Those are great things to do. You don't have to be able to define perichoresis or immediately off the top of your head recall all the arguments against subalienism.

Again, good things. But soundness in the faith is much more simple than that. Do you know the fundamentals of your faith? A man, an older Christian man who is sound in his faith is one who can generally interpret the scriptures rightly and who can explain them to his family. He knows the truths of the Christian faith and he can explain what he believes, particularly to his children and to the young men he is discipling.

And this soundness is beyond mere head knowledge, but includes his daily faith, his daily trust in God and his promises. It's not just he has mental understanding of doctrine but he lives by faith knowing that God is good and answers prayer and fulfills his promises. A man who lives by faith is also a man who is sound in his love, his love for his wife, his love for his children, his love for one another in the church. A man characterized by true love and patience, patience under trials. He endures when God brings hardships to his family, to his business, to his church.

He endures knowing that God is at work. Now we are blessed, I believe, as a congregation to have many older men who fit this description. And you men that do fit into this age category, is this your aspiration? Do you read this and say, that's who I want to be? Because this is what God is calling you to.

A man of admirable moral and mental qualities that others, especially your sons, can look up to. Now in our culture the idea of a man becoming more and more respectable as he ages is almost completely lost. Older men are thought of, if they're thought of at all, in our culture as being problems, as being things to be pushed out of the way and ignored if possible. Older Men are told to give up the last of their days living in idleness and often drunkenness. But the scriptures instead call us to a much greater vision, a much more glorious vision of what true biblical masculinity is.

God gives older men to his church to be examples and leaders so that the rest of the body has these role models to look up to. You younger men, you younger boys, God calls you to make this your goal. Who are you looking up to? Is it the holy men that God has put in your church and in your families? Or are you looking to the fools that parade themselves on your screens?

Look up to the godly, dignified men in our church. Follow their example and become men like them. Next, Paul moves on to the older women in verses three and four. The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may admonish the young women." He begins by saying, likewise. In other words, the older women should live a lifestyle similar to that of the older men.

And he again gives a list of four things, two positive and two negative. First there to be reverent in behavior. This is a different word than the word used regarding the old men. This word is actually very fascinating. As I was studying this, I probably bored my wife to tears as I was just going on and on about this word.

It's actually a fascinating word. It's a compound word, meaning fitting to holiness or fitting to a temple. And it's actually a term that's used nowhere else in scripture, even the Greek version of the Old Testament, but it is used in extra-biblical literature to refer to priests. It's used to refer to those whose life is devoted to serve the gods. It is a priestly term.

And so the idea here is that these women, holy, older women, are to live lives marked by devotion to God. Their priest-like role is that they live their entire life in submission to God. And that is reflected in her behavior. She is to be devout in her behavior, not just her mind. She lives as one completely under submission to the will and the law of God.

And in this priest-like role, her offering to God is this life of good works. Andreas Kostenberger in his commentary puts it this way, he says quote, Paul frames the role of Christian women within the local Cretan context suggesting that fulfilling their domestic and familial calling is their proper service offered to God. That is the service God caused you to offer as a holy older woman. And he gives us two negatives, two things that older women are to avoid. They're to not be slanderers or given to much wine, both of which would be things that older women then and now can easily fall into.

A woman prone to using her tongue sharply and falsely to harm the reputation of others, and a tongue that has become far too accustomed to the taste of alcohol." Not that alcohol itself is bad, and that's not what Paul's getting at here. His emphasis is not on the wine itself, but the addiction to it. The better translation here for not given to much wine is not enslaved to much wine. A woman, a godly Christian woman is to use her mouth for what it is intended for, worship and instruction, not slandering others and not simply feeding her own sinful appetites. Also, the women are to be teachers of good things, teachers of that which is good.

Instead of living a life of idleness and allowing the problems that come with age cause them to be self-centered and withdrawal, the older women are to be teachers. They are to look to how they can impart their wisdom to the next generation. Now, they're not called to be pastors, they're not called to preach in the congregation, but they are called to teach the young women and children, we know from other passages. But here he specifically say, there are to be teachers of good things so that they may admonish the young women. That should be the ministry role of the older women.

How can they encourage and train the next generation of women in the church? Now when we read the word admonish, that tends to have a negative association, at least it does to me. When I read admonish, it sounds like something that's been done wrong and it needs to be corrected. And that may be partly going on here, but the word itself does not necessarily require that. The Greek word does not.

The word actually derives from one of the words for self-control or soberness, sathana rizzo, to train to soberness, to train to self-control. It has the idea of raising someone from the silliness of youth to the sober mindedness of adulthood. That is what is meant by this word. And it encompasses all training and encouraging, teaching. Honestly, one of the better ways that we might understand it is is mentor the older women are to mentor the younger women And just as our church is blessed with many godly older men, we are blessed with many godly older women.

And it is a wonderful thing that we should thank God for. It's a beautiful thing to have women who are truly reverent in their behavior, who are truly devout in every area of their lives. This is to be the aspiration of all women in the church to live out their days as they get older, to live out the rest of their days in godliness and seeking to instruct the young women that they are in contact with on how to live and they are to show that example in their behavior. The older women are to be mothers in the church caring for and leading the rest especially the younger women by their example. So if you are in this category or you're close to this category, let me ask you, is this true of you?

Are you living a life of this kind of reverence, of this kind of devotion to your God? Are you turning away from the sins that are common to your age and your sex? And you younger women, is this what you aspire to be? Or again, are you being led by the nose by the fools that are on social media and entertainment? What kind of women are you younger women wanting to be?

You girls, what kind of woman do you want to be? I implore you to be this kind of a woman, to follow this example, follow the example of the older women in our congregation, follow the example of older godly women. And now Paul turns to the younger women, the younger women that are to be marked by purity. Now Paul interestingly uses the longest list to address the character of a younger woman. He uses seven different things here instead of the four for the older groups.

Maybe this is because Cretan society was uniquely perverse and it was more difficult, exceptionally difficult for the younger women to be what God called them to be. I don't know exactly. Perhaps their society was so twisted that it was uniquely damaging on the morals and character of young women. But I do know that is the world we live in. We spend a lot of time and rightly on teaching young men what they ought to be and we ought to, but young women are under attack like never before.

This whole, for instance, the whole transgender movement, so-called transgender, that both, it's a nonsense word, there's no transformation that takes place and nouns have genders, human beings have sex. So it's a nonsense word to begin with, but this transgender movement is targeting our girls. You understand this, right? Young girls are far more likely to fall prey to it than our boys. And so we live in a culture that this word is very appropriate to.

You young girls, what kind of women will you be? And Paul tells you how you are to live. We read first that they are to love their husbands and to love their children. And now we may read that and say, well, that's, what kind of degenerate culture needs women to be reminded to love their husbands and love their children? Ours?

Yes, first century Rome, obviously, but ours. How many counseling sessions with women going to complain about their husbands? How many counseling sessions could simply be boiled down to go home and love your husband? Did you know that in the United States, women are the ones most likely to file for divorce or to leave their husbands? And it's not even close.

It's a two to one. Women are twice as likely to start divorce and to leave their husbands. So yes, you young women, you need to be told, love your husband. And this is not just focusing on emotion. Love is not merely having an affection or a kind feeling towards someone, but it is practical.

Show love, be loving to your husband, be loving to your children, care for them. Yes, there is an emotional, a feeling component of it, but you lead your emotions. You do not become a slave to them. You tell your emotions where to go and how to work. You lead them.

Instead of receiving the worldly advice of, well, if you don't feel love, then just leave. Instead of following this worldly, evil counsel, go home and love your husband, love your children, emotionally and practically, And turn to the older women in the church. That's what this is here for. The older women are to encourage, to mentor the young women. If you are a young woman and you're having a trouble in this area, turn to these godly older women.

They can help you. That's why God gives you so many mothers in this church. So they're to love their husbands and to love their children. They're also, he says, to be discreet. What does that mean, to be discreet?

Well, the idea here is that It's actually the same word translated as temperate in verse 2, referring to the character of the older men. Older men are to be temperate, the younger women are to be temperate, or as the New King James says, discreet. The idea is self-controlled. They should be in control of themselves, their bodies, their passions, their emotions. They have themselves under control.

Like a horse with a bridle in its mouth is under the control of a rider. A young woman is to have control over herself. They're also to be chased. Now this is the idea of purity. Not simply sexual purity, although that is part of it, but moral purity, a life of purity, a life of holiness.

All Christians are to pursue holiness regardless of your age. Men are to be holy, women are to be holy, younger women are to pursue holiness. A young Christian woman is to be a model of good behavior. And they're to be homemakers. Now a young woman is to love her husband and children emotionally as well as practically And one way of accomplishing this is by taking care of their home.

Now this conveys the idea of having oversight. Literally the word means busy at home. They are to have their main center of focus on the home and on ensuring that the home is well organized and proper and fitting for her family to live in. Now this word does not absolutely forbid work outside the home. However, it does at a minimum show that a wife's first duty is to care for home, to care for the house, not just the cleaning and keeping the property tidy and all this stuff, but the idea of managing it well, which can go into finances, education, all these things.

This is the work of a mother, of being, as Scott has pointed out, the home despot, the tyrant in the original sense of the home, the one with almost supreme authority in the home. That's to be the mother in organizing and accomplishing all that the home needs to accomplish. They're also to be good. This probably has the idea of being kind or gentle. They're to be good toward others, good toward their children, kind, gentle with them, obedient to their own husbands.

The word is actually submissive, as we see in the other household codes. They're to submit to their own husbands, as is proper. Just as love needs to be instilled in the younger women and they need to be reminded of these things, women need to be reminded that they are to be in submission to their husbands. But it is a submission done out of love for their husbands, out of love for God, not grudgingly or half-heartedly. And why?

Why should the young woman do this? It's interesting that here is where he adds a reason so that the Word of God may not be blasphemed. There's a particular emphasis on the the work and roles of a young woman as a mother, as a wife, as a homemaker, that if that is all out of order, it causes God's word to be slandered among the Gentiles. There's something unique about when those who do not know God see a woman who is rightly ordering her house and loving her husband and caring for her children and cultivating all these virtues, there's something uniquely powerful about that that causes the world to say there's something here. There's something to this.

And when that's out of order among women who profess to know and follow Christ, it causes God to be blasphemed. Be careful how you live, young women. It matters, not just to you, but to the world. So take note of how much of an emphasis is put on you young ladies here. And consider why that may be.

Again, it may be that Creighton society was so uniquely bankrupt in this area. It's certainly not because women are more prone to rebellion than men. That's obviously not the case. Often men are more prone to abandoning their responsibilities for God than women are. However, at least one reason, I think, for why there's such an emphasis on the character and the morals of young women is because of how uniquely valuable and powerful a weapon a godly young woman is in the hands of God.

A holy young mother, a holy young wife is a uniquely powerful tool in the hand of God to accomplish the mission he's given the Christian home and the church. And so you young women set your sights on this. Be this kind of a woman. You young girls set your sights on this. Make this your ambition, not to spend the rest of your life in a cubicle somewhere slaving away for men who do not care about you.

Make it your aim to cultivate these virtues and be especially intentional when these virtues come into conflict with the world around you. And even when they come into conflict with the cliches of what we often will think of as good people or even evangelical culture in general, polite society. Just because something may seem to be good doesn't always mean it is. For instance, how often do we hear women say that their greatest love is their children? Well, here, Paul tells them to love their husbands first and love their children, And I do think that order is intentional.

A young wife should love her husband more than she loves her children. You'll have those children for a few years. Lord willing you'll have your husband the rest of your life. And so you should cultivate that love even more than the love of your children. Yes, I'm not saying you should not love your children, obviously, but there is an order and I believe it's intentional.

Lastly, young men. He gives young men the shortest command to be sober-minded. And this is actually the same word we've seen other times, temperate, self-controlled. This is the calling of young men. Now why are the young men given only one command when the young women are given seven?

Again, it's not because young men are more naturally prone to godliness. I think it's because most of the sins that young men can fall into can be summarized of control yourself. And that's the idea here. It's fundamentally one of self-control. That is your obligation as a young man.

Learn how to control and restrain yourself. John Stott in his commentary summarizes this call to young men as a life of control of temper, of tongue, of ambition, and bodily appetites. Young man, control yourself. Young men have a great desire and it is a God-given desire to be active, to go out and do things, to go out and take dominion, to go out and conquer, to go out and find a woman. These are good desires, but they need to be ordered and controlled.

They are good desires, but they are desires that must be governed by God's law. Self-control is not the abandonment of the desires that you naturally have as a young man. Rather, self-control is the turning of these desires toward good and godly ends. So you young men, control yourself. You have this almost limitless energy and strength.

That's good and God's given it to you for a reason. Use it for him and his kingdom, not yours. It's interesting to me here that the older women are told to teach the younger women. Titus is here to teach the younger men. And I believe this is for a couple reasons.

One because Titus is standing in as an older man. He is a kind of an elder in the church. Literally, again, an elder means older man. An elder in the church is to be one of these dignified men. And so as this example of an older man, he is to instruct the younger men.

And so I think this principle shows that the pattern we are to follow in the household of the church is younger men being mentored by the older men, and the explicit command of the younger women being mentored by the older women. Now, this is not to say that the older men can never give instruction to younger women or vice versa. There are times for that. But generally, the principle is the older teach the younger. The men teach the men.

Now some will take this and use that to try and justify some sort of conception of youth group or children's church, and I think it's actually the complete opposite. This isn't telling one man who may or may not be much older to teach a group of both sexes. This is not about classroom instruction at all. None of this has been about being in a classroom. This is discipleship.

This is mentoring. This is day-to-day life. The elders who have wisdom and experience communicating what they know to the next generation. This is Deuteronomy six in the church. Teach them as you walk by the way.

That's what we have here. This is family discipleship with the church as that family. Not programmatically, but organically. The young, youngers are to be mentored by the olders in the virtues appropriate to their sex. And so we don't have a youth group and this passage is not a justification for it.

Instead our young men, you young men, you have many fathers here to look up to, many fathers to learn from. And you younger women, you have many mothers to learn from and look up to. You older men, you have many sons that need your wisdom and that need the example of your holy life. And you older women, you have many daughters who need the example of your reverent behavior. You have many daughters to train in the faith.

So this is what the church is called to. As a family, how we love one another, how we encourage one another, how we conform one another to the image of Christ. Yes, our doctrine matters, but what we do with that doctrine, how we live out that doctrine also matters, and this is the vision God calls us to. Let's be zealous to fulfill it. Let's pray.

Father we thank you for this time. We thank you Lord for your word and the clarity with which you speak to us through it. God help us to fulfill these duties. Lord we thank you that you have blessed us in so many ways. We pray, Lord, that your blessing would continue.

Strengthen the older men and older women in our church to be these examples to the next generation. Help the younger men and younger women to to learn from them and to grow in their faith and in their love. And may all these things be done to the glory of Jesus Christ. In His name we pray amen