The sermon based on Titus chapters 1 and 2 emphasizes the importance of sound doctrine and the distinct roles of church leaders and members. It highlights the character traits expected of older men and women, urging them to be examples of faith, love, and perseverance. Older women, in particular, are called to teach younger women through reverent behavior and avoid gossip and addiction. The sermon stresses that church members should live lives that reflect their beliefs, effectively adorning the gospel through their actions. It further underscores the critical role of older saints in setting a godly example and guiding the younger generation, stressing that their lives should proclaim God's strength and power. The sermon calls on Christians to live according to the teachings of the living Word of God, instead of conforming to worldly standards, ensuring their lives demonstrate the transformative power of the gospel.

Beginning in verse 1. But ask for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love and perseverance. Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands so that the Word of God will not be dishonored. May God bless the reading of His perfect Word.

Amen. You may be seated. Would you pray with me once more? Gracious Father, what we do not know this morning, please teach us. What we do not have, please give us.

And what we are not, Please make us for your son's sake. Amen. Well Titus chapter 1 goes like this. Titus, you're in Crete to put things in order in the church, and here are the kind of men that leaders in the church are to be. Men who love their brides, men who love their children, men of high character, men who can teach.

These are the kind of men who will love the bride of Christ and who will protect the children of God and equip the saints. These things are essential for church leadership, for church leaders, because there are going to be wolves, there are going to be false teachers who will try to come in and ruin entire households. In fact, Titus, they're already there. That's why you need faithful men who will silence these unfaithful teachers. So appoint elders to muzzle the wolves, to protect the flock, to teach sound doctrine.

That's chapter one. Titus chapter one, church leadership, those who lead the church. And now Titus chapter two, church members, church members. But as for you Titus, teach the members of your church sound doctrine and what is fitting for that sound doctrine. Faithful pastors, faithful elders will teach faithful doctrine.

And here's how that faithful doctrine will come out of their fingertips Here is what God calls the members of his church to be old and young male and female with distinctions That's Titus chapter 2 Men in the church are to act like men. And here's how, verses 1 and 2 of Titus chapter 2. And then also in verse 6. And women are to act like women. And here's how, verses 3, 4, and 5 in Titus chapter 2.

Here is how men, and here is how women, glorify God, men in these ways and women in these ways, with distinctions. And we have done all that we can as a society to erase those distinctions. But Paul says, God says here in Titus, I will have none of that. Not among my people, but as for you, God says. But as for you, Paul says to Titus, but as for you, Pastor Grant says to you, but as for you, verse one, Titus chapter two, but As for you, live according to sound doctrine.

You are different than the false teachers. You are different than the world. You don't believe what the dead and depraved believe. So stop trying to act like them. Stop trying to please them.

Stop trying to flatten God-given distinctions between men and women so that you can just fit in with the culture. No. The culture doesn't know what happiness is. They are dead in their sins. They have no concept of what it means to be happy and joyful and satisfied.

But you, Christian, you're alive. So stop being concerned about what the world thinks. Be concerned with what God thinks. Fear God. Get His smile.

Stop pining after the smile of the world, stop consulting sinners, stop consulting the spiritually dead, they don't know what Living is like. So why would you ask the dead man how to live? You don't ask dead men how to live. They don't know the dead. But as for you, as for you, you live because Jesus rose up from the grave.

As for you, you go not to the dead for counsel, but you go to the living Word, to the Word you go. To the Word of Almighty God who made these dry bones come to life in you and in me and in this church. You go to His Word which is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. And it pierces. Paul says here in the Word of God, the living Word of God in Titus chapter 2, church members, all saved without distinction, all saved by the same grace of God in the same Savior Jesus Christ the Lord Who was raised from the dead those redeemed?

They are distinct when it comes to how sound doctrine comes out of these fingers. To the glory of God. That's Titus chapter 2. I don't want you to go through Titus and have it disjointed. I want you to see how it flows.

I want you to know the book. Chapter 1, church leaders Teach sound doctrine. Guard your people with sound doctrine. The antidote to false teachers. Sound doctrine.

Titus chapter, that's Titus chapter 1. Titus chapter 2, church members. Here's how that sound doctrine comes out. Titus chapter 2, church members who believe sound doctrine that adorn the doctrine they believe by good works. That's the end of verse 10.

If you go to Titus 2, look at verse 10. Look at Titus 2 10. So that, look at the very end of verse 10. So that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. He goes through all these different vocations that God calls men to, women to, and young men and young women and and even bond slaves.

And at the end of all that, here's how it comes out of your fingertips. Why? So that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. What's Paul saying there? Paul is telling you at the end of verse 10, the way you live is an indication of the message that you believe.

I want you to get this. The example that you live with your life is the example that you give about the doctrine you believe. It adorns the gospel, the doctrine of God. It literally puts clothes on the gospel. The way you live puts clothes that adorns the gospel.

Are you hearing that? Your life, the example that you set with your life doing these things as a man, doing these things as a woman that Paul lists here in Titus chapter 2. These things that you do are like a sampler for what is in your heart. A sampler about the message, the doctrine that you say you believe. I don't think they do this much anymore.

Maybe they do. But does anybody remember the good old days when you could walk into a store and they would give you free samples? Do they still do that? Costco? Wow.

Krista, we've got to change it up. I have not had a free sample in many years. But just think about that for just a second. What are they doing when they give out free samples? What are they doing?

They've got a box of products behind them normally. At least that's how I remember it. Got a box of products in front of them or behind them. And they're standing there with a spoonful or a cup full of sample of a product. A sample of a product.

Here, taste this. Taste this sample. This taste it will tell you what's inside the boxes if the sample is good then you know what's inside the box is good. If the sample is bitter, there's no way I'm buying that box. Because there's bitterness inside.

I think in a very similar way, that's the reality that Paul is driving at here in Titus chapter 1 all the way through to Titus chapter 2. False teachers, that's the end of chapter 1, false teachers by their deeds they what? They deny God. That's the end of chapter one. Their sample is rotten.

The sample of their lives is rotten and so it is easy to see that the message of false teachers is rotten because the samples of their lives are rotten. But as for you, Titus, Titus chapter 2 verse 1, but as for you, as for you men, and as for you women, and as for you boys and girls, As for you church, may your life be a taste of the true gospel of Jesus Christ who went to the cross, who bore the wrath of God that you deserve, who took your sin with him to the grave. And he was raised up triumphantly over your sin and over your death so that you too would die with him and you too would be raised up with him to walk in newness of life. May your life give but a taste of that sweet good news. That's why Paul says in Titus chapter 2 verse 1, but as for you, Titus, but as for you, Christian, by The example of your life, by giving yourselves to these things in Titus chapter 2, far from denying the Gospel of Jesus Christ that these false teachers do, the example of your life, from You being the redeemed ones, the example of your life adorns the gospel of God our Savior.

I want you to get Titus chapter 2, dear ones. I really want you to get Titus chapter 2. It's amazing. The example of your life Christian, what you do, you are telling one another, you are telling The world, taste and see that He is good. Taste and see that the doctrine, the message of Christ, crucified, risen, reigning, is the most precious news in all the world.

That's Titus chapter 2. The example of your life matters. In Titus chapter 1, elders are to be good examples to the flock. And so it should come as no surprise then, that the same message continues here in Titus chapter 2. Older men and older women in the church are to be good examples to those who are younger in the flock.

So I need you to hear this. Older men, older women, if you're confused what category you've fallen, just assume older. Just assume older. Here this older women, older men, by the example of your life, you teach Those who are coming up behind you. You're teaching.

You are teaching with your life as it's coming out right here. And so I wonder if you've ever considered this, older saints. I wonder if this has just gone by you every time you've read Titus. Have you ever considered that here in Titus chapter 2, as Paul describes what the church and her members must be, have you ever considered that he begins with the older saints? Ever stopped and thought, why does he begin with the older saints?

Why older men and older women? Why not start with the younger and work your way up? Why does he do that? It's a really simple answer. Listen to this older men and older women.

Listen please. It is because you older saints set the tone for the church. You older saints are the example in a real way. Your lives according to the Word of God are almost like a compass for the church by which you set the trajectory for the church. You give me a church full of young people with no older saints to guide the way, and I am afraid of great disaster for that church.

Would you give me a church full of older saints whose lives are full of Christ, Saints whose knees are worn out from prayer, Saints who know their God, Saints whose examples are like neon lights flashing. This is the way to godliness. This is the way to great contentment. Give me a church full of saints like that, full of older men and older women whose affections for Christ burn deep inside of them, and you will have a church that lasts and endures to the end. I'm not making this up.

Older men and older women, God addresses you first. It's not a mistake. You don't let that plain fact slip right on by you. It's massive in its implication. You set the tone, aged men and aged women.

You light the way with the Bible in your hands and in your hearts as your lives are examples that teach what is good. Because out there, you know this, out there examples abound. And they abound to eternal death and eternal torment and disaster for the church. But you. But as for you, gray-bearded men and silver-haired women, you who love the Lord Jesus Christ, your week after week, year after year example in the church, far from abounding to disaster, your example may abound to life everlasting.

Your example to eternal satisfaction and prosperity for this church. So that the closer you get to death, by your example of finishing well, in teaching what is good by living out sound doctrine, as you near death, as you get closer to dying, the church becomes more alive. What a way to go! What a way for your life to be spent! That in your dying, life happens!

I am struggling to think of a more glorious calling than that. Do you know that Jesus died to give life? It's a glorious calling for you elderly saints as the years in front of you are less than the years behind. What a glorious calling by your example to bring life to a church. And so I am so tired of hearing from those older than I that they have no use in the kingdom.

Is that what God says? Surely not. You haven't read Titus 2 very carefully, if that's you. Have you not seen that the first two categories of people, The first two categories of saints that Paul addresses. It's not the young.

It's not the youth. It's those who are old. That tells you something about the way God views the end of your years. So stop disagreeing with God. Stop that.

It never ends well disagreeing with God. Don't end your life disagreeing with God. Your calling, elderly saints, is Psalm 71, verses 17 and 18. Psalm 71, 17 and 18, this is your calling. Oh God, you have taught me from my youth, and I still declare your wondrous deeds.

And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me until I declare your strength to this generation your power to all who are to come what a calling even when I'm old and gray when I'm feeble and at the weakest point of my life, here at the end, oh God, let my life be spent in declaring your strength to those coming up behind me, to this next generation. May my life be spent in declaring your power to those who are to come. In a way that I finished the race, in a way that I set an example for those behind me, What a glorious calling God gives to aged saints throughout his scriptures. Psalm 71. Whoa.

Listen to pastor and theologian Ian Hamilton. Ian Hamilton, he's a pastor and theologian. He does a lot with Ligonier. Listen to what he says. Listen to this, brother.

It's a bit of a lengthy quote. Please listen. The accepted strategy of the church today is that you concentrate on the young. But I tell you, one of the greatest needs of the church of God is not youth ministry, but the ministry of older men and older women that lead such godly lives that they shine. And as young folks grow up, they see a quality of life that they admire and that God ministers from.

And that example, I tell you, speaks sermon after sermon, week after week, year after year. Unlike the world, older men and older women are not put on the scrap heap of uselessness when they reach a certain age. God never pensions His people off until they reach the glory of His presence. That's why for you older folk, there ought never to be a day when you start to freewheel, where you think, I can just cruise into glory from now on. I'll leave it to the younger ones.

No! You see, more than ever in old age, Christian men and women are to be examples to the church. That's what Paul is about here in his encouragement to Titus. He wants to see these older men and older women become examples to the church. Examples of faithfulness, love, endurance, self-control.

Examples. And Hamilton goes on to write, I doubt there is a more moving sight in the Christian Church than seeing an aging declining Christian pressing on There is no more moving sight He says I tell you it thrills my heart to see a Christian pressing on in age, but conversely, there is hardly a sadder sight than seeing an aging Christian who has lost his way as he has begun to free will and stand back. We need to remember the words of our Lord that he who endures to the end will be saved. God values the older generation as much as he values the younger. You're never on the scrap heap of usefulness to God.

You're never pensioned off from His service. You, aged saints, have a profound ministry. And you see, it's because we're so obsessed with public gifts that we think, well, the most important gifts are those who can speak and those who can knock on doors. Those gifts that the youth can do. I tell you our great need are examples whose lives make credible those who knock on doors.

Examples, those whose lives make credible that which is taught from the pulpit. Examples, those whose lives make credible the message that is declared from the very Word of Christ." End quote. Do you get it? This is a very long introduction, isn't it? Necessary so you get Titus chapter 2.

Paul begins with the aged. We need you, Crossroad Church, need you, aged saints. Gray, bearded men, silver-haired women, sages in this congregation. I need you. My wife needs you.

My children need you. Do you know that my children's children need you? This is real. I'm visiting my grandmother, who was faithful. She's 91 today.

Tom's not quite that old. His birthday too. And I'm looking at my grandmother, my children's great-grandmother. And I am overcome with gratefulness because my grandmother was faithful with her children, and my father was faithful with his children, and now because of her faithfulness, her great-grandchildren, her children's children's children are being raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord. If you aren't getting what I'm saying, Wake up!

I mean, this calling is not anywhere close to the scrap heap of uselessness. We need you, aged. So older women, older women, what example are you to be? This church needs your example, so what example are you to be? Well, Paul tells you, in verse three of our passage this morning, you are to be reverent in your behavior.

Reverent in your behavior. I want you to notice how Paul structures his instruction to women in verse 3. There is a structure there, look there in verse 3. He begins with the positive. You're to be reverent in your behavior.

And then he has two negatives. Not malicious gossips and not enslaved to much wine. And then how does he end verse three? He ends with another positive, teaching what is good. That's verse three, bookended by positives, reverent in your behavior, teaching what is good.

And here are two things you shouldn't be, malicious gossips and enslaved to much wine. Reverence and behavior, teaching what is good, and then what's not good on the inside. So what's verse 3 all about then? It's all about example. It's all about modeling righteous, reverent behavior.

Reverent behavior. Reverent behavior is not malicious gossip. It is not being enslaved to substance. No reverent behavior is teaching what is good. It's being a good example, according to God's perfect, sufficient word.

It teaches what is good. So I want you to get this. The way an older woman teaches a younger woman is not primarily through leading a seminar. Not saying seminars are evil. Not saying seminars are wrong.

There's a place for those things. But if you're talking Titus II kind of teaching, It's not what he has in mind clearly. The way an older woman teaches a younger woman is not primarily through seminar, but rather by modeling righteous, reverent behavior. Older women, you teach what is good by your behavior. You teach what is good and you teach what is not good with your behavior.

You're teaching with your behavior, dear aged sisters. You adorn the doctrine that comes out of my mouth and the mouth of your pastors from the Word of God every Sunday. You adorn the gospel that is preached from this very pulpit. You push it into the corners of the lives of young ladies by the way you live. By the example that you set.

Your example, reverent behavior, teaches what is good. That's really clear from verse 3. Your reverent behavior in contrast to the irreverent behavior teaches what is good. And what are the good things that your life and your example teach? What are the good things?

At the end of verse 3 it says, teach us what is good, right? Teaching what is good. What is the good things that you're going to be teaching? Well that's verses 4 and 5. What are the good things that you should be teaching the younger women, aged women, verses 4 and 5?

These are the things taught by older women to younger women whose lives are marked by reverence. Verse four. So that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands so that the Word of God will not be dishonored. So I want to sum it all up. Sum it all up for you.

Older women are to be reverent in their behavior. Why? Because their reverent behavior teaches what is good. And what are the good things that their reverent behavior teaches? Verses four and five.

Love for their households, sensibility, purity, working faithfully at home, kindness, submissiveness, And what's the reason for all of those good things being taught? What's the reason? This is a huge reason. What's the end of verse 5 tell you? So that the Word of God will not be what?

Dishonored. Dear aged sisters, please look at me if you would. You cannot miss this. If you don't teach what is good By modeling for our younger saints how to love your household, how to work hard for the glory of God, how to be kind. If you don't teach what is good by the example of your lives, The Word of God will be dishonored.

It will be dishonored. What I am teaching here, right now, and every Sunday, will be dishonored. The work of your pastors will be undone if you do not teach what is good through your reverent example. And yet somehow in some way, after all that Paul has just said in these verses, people are going to say to you, older women, People are going to say to you, older women, the calling of an older woman is just not that important. I mean, That's ridiculous.

Don't listen to that garbage. In your example, in your behavior, the honoring of the Word of God, the same Word that I'm preaching from right now, is on the table. That's what's up for grabs. God ties older women teaching younger women what is good to the honoring of His almighty word. Do you think that me preaching is a good thing?

It's a high calling. It's a good thing. It's a right thing. Every Sunday, this is the climax of our time together. He ties that to what you do.

Don't be going around saying your calling is weak. It's tied to the Word of God. So what a glory that God has given to you, aged women. What a glorious calling to be reverent in your behavior so that you would teach what is good by the way you adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. Older men, what are they supposed to be?

Men of gravitas, men of maturity. Likewise, women are to be reverent. That word likewise there in verse 3, older women likewise, that word likewise there at the beginning of the verse is simply there to demonstrate that the calling of both older men and Older women are both of inestimable value in the life of the church. So what does it mean then to be reverent? Maybe I've been saying the word reverent a whole bunch of times and you're like, I have no idea what that word means.

Well, the word reverent could be translated holy, pious, devout. It really is beautifully the feminine companion to the masculine gravitas. It's husband and wife, Gravitas and reverence. A woman who fears the Lord, that's a reverent woman. A Proverbs 31 verse 30 kind of woman.

Listen to Proverbs 31, 30. Charm is deceitful. Beauty's vain. But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her the product of her hands and let her works praise her in the gates.

A reverent woman, a woman who fears the Lord, a woman who so models a household manager submitting to her husband who loves and cherishes her children and the children in this church, that kind of woman, you just pray, oh, that such reverence would rub off onto the likes of my children. It's the kind of woman you want hugging on, Blessing and spending time with your children. A reverent woman is a woman like the prophetess Anna in Luke chapter 2. You remember her? Faithful to her husband.

She's advanced in years and finally her husband dies. She's a widow and even after her husband dies, her faithfulness, it doesn't stop. She lives, she's in the temple all the time. She's never left the temple serving night after night, day after day with fastings and prayer. And she's looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

And there at the end of Luke chapter 2 she sees Him. She saw the Lord Jesus and she rejoiced. Redemption had come. That's a woman of reverence. A reverent woman is a woman who practices the presence of God.

A woman who has been taught the catechism like so many of you young ladies have been taught. That catechism question, can you see God? Does anybody know the answer to can you see God, young ladies? Can you see God? No, but He always sees me.

He always sees me. A woman of reverence, a woman reverent in her behavior, she lives that catechism answer out. I cannot see God, but He always sees me. And the fear of the Lord, reverence for the Lord, is born out in her life. He always sees me.

She lives in the presence of Almighty God, Coram Deo. A reverent woman, when they speak, when they're silent, when they're busy, when they're at rest, there is a certain dignity about them. That's a woman of reverence. And again, Paul says reverent behavior here at the beginning of verse 3. And then he ends the verse with what that behavior looks like.

Reverent behavior is teaching young women what is good, which leads into verses 4 and 5, modeling love for your husbands, love for your children, sensibility, what it looks to be pure, what it looks to be a good worker at home being subject to your husbands that's what it means to be reverent that's what it means to be living in the fear of the Lord we're going to come back to that. But between reverent behavior and teaching what is good, what is there? Paul gives you two behaviors that are irreverent. Not reverent, contemptuous. Behaviors that demonstrate no fear of God, but quite the opposite, behaviors that do not teach what is good, but teach what is evil.

And those two behaviors you'll see in the middle of verse 3 are being malicious gossips and enslaved to much wine. So the first irreverent behavior, what an older woman is not to be, what an older woman in the church cannot be, is a malicious gossip. What is gossip? What is gossip? Well, Pastor Brett Kaprinica, one of my former pastors who I love very much, he describes gossip this way.

Gossip is discussing the details of another's life that you do not have the biblical right to share. Say that again. Gossip is discussing the details of another's life that you do not have the biblical right to share. Say that again. Gossip is discussing the details of another's life that you do not have the biblical right to share.

Now does that mean that all things about someone else, if shared to someone else, is gossip? Of course not. I mean the Bible tells us that it's right to pray for one another, right? It's right to help one another, to serve one another, and the ways that you do those things necessitate, they require sharing things about other people's lives, even when they're not in the room. It's required.

You know the difference. Not difficult. Don't play mind games. You know the difference between gossip and righteous good sharing of information. Gossip is typically Malicious.

It's the modifier that Paul uses here. Malicious gossip. It's a morsel of information that you you don't really need to share but man you want to it's juicy. I just gotta share this. Probably a good indication.

Probably should pause. You've got to. Do you have, here's some questions. Do you have permission to share this tidbit about a person in the church with others? Do you have permission?

It's a good question to ask. Have you spoken about this little tidbit of information with the actual person themselves first? Would you say this tidbit out loud if they were in the room with you? The answers to those questions will help you know whether you should be sharing that little tidbit or not, whether it's gossip or whether you have the biblical right to share that information. Now, lest you think that gossip is just kind of a small deal to God, well, it's one of the two things that he pulls that he says right here of like irreverent behavior and one of them's malicious gossip.

So it's a big deal. But in case you are not convinced by Paul's verse here to Titus in Titus 2-3, listen to what Paul says in Romans chapter 1 verses 29 through 32 about depraved men and women who have turned their back on God and God's given them over to every evil. Listen to this in Romans chapter 1. Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, they are gossips. Slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful, and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death.

Did you catch all those sins? Did you catch all those? That's quite the list of sins if you were even paying attention to half of them. And smack dab in the middle is gossip. So what does God think about gossip?

Romans 1, 32. Those who practice such things are worthy of death. Being a malicious gossip is a really big deal. You set that kind of example older women and you're going to lead our young women into death. Watch your tongue.

It's the rudder of your ship's life. You see how great a forest it can set ablaze with your tongue. Older women are not to be malicious gossip. It leads to death. Instead, how should a woman use her voice?

Right? How can, this is a really good question if you're going, man, I wrestle with gossip. Okay. Well, I got a question for you. I'm going to answer a question.

How can you fight that sin in your life? Number one, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and then let it play out. How should a woman use her voice? How can you fight against this sin in your lives? What does verse four tell you?

A godly woman should be using her mouth in such a way for the nurture and admonition of her own household. Building up her house in the fear of the Lord. That's verses 4 and 5. And so a woman whose mouth is being used for the building up of her own household will have a much harder time using that same mouth and that same voice tearing down the household of another. You don't got time for that.

You know what I'm saying? You don't got time for that. You know what I'm saying? You don't got time for that. If your mouth is being used for the edification of your own household, it won't be used.

It would be a much harder time being used for the tearing down of another's household. So let me say it again. A woman whose mouth is used for the building up of her household will have a much harder time using that same mouth and that same voice tearing down the household of another through gossip or slander. Now there's a difference between gossip and slander. Just real quick.

Gossip is sharing true information that probably shouldn't be shared. And slander is, gossip typically leads to slander, and slander is, well, sharing things that aren't true. It's real easy to slide from one to the other like that. Proverbs 14, verse 1. The wise woman builds her house up, but the foolish woman tears it down with her own hands.

Older women, if you're still unconvinced, if you're calling, Proverbs 14 verse 1, the wiser one builds up her house. We're talking about whole households being built up. What was the thing that Paul was so upset about the false teachers doing in Titus chapter 1? No. Ruining entire households.

And here is women making sure that doesn't happen. This is a glorious calling. The wise woman builds up her house, the foolish woman tears it down with her own hands. You're as bad as a false teacher. Wow.

This is massive. Older women are to teach younger women what is good through their reverent example in the way they use their tongues. So Aged Sisters, let me ask you a question. Do you want to teach the young women in our congregation what is good? Do you want that?

You should be nodding. Then don't gossip. Because by your example, you teach a woman how to destroy instead of nurture. You teach a young woman how to ruin entire households, just like the false teachers. And in doing so, you join with the false teachers, if you gossip, in denying God.

Malicious gossip is serious. And so is being enslaved to much wine. Older women are not to be enslaved to much wine. This is a quick one. An older woman is not to be a slave to substance.

Wine is listed here. I think it could be other substances that enslave you. Too much wine can lead to what? The first one, malicious gossip. Too much wine can lead to what?

The first one, malicious gossip. Too much wine can lead to evil slander. So don't give yourself over to it. Much wine is bad. What is Paul urging?

Paul is urging self-control here. A godly woman is to be self-controlled. It's the fruit of the Spirit, right? Galatians chapter 5, and yet when a woman is a slave to wine or some other substance, she's no longer controlling herself, but she's being controlled by that which is not the Spirit of Christ. She's being controlled by something else.

And that's evil. That's not teaching what is good. But if she has self-control, an aged woman teaches what is good. It's real basic logic there. Too much wine, listen to this, too much wine, too much substance which enslaves you it won't move you towards greater love for your children and greater respect and submission to your husband.

It won't do it. Addiction to substance won't make you more hardworking or more sensible. No, it's quite the opposite. It will encourage gossip. It will encourage slander.

It will encourage irreverence. And therefore it teaches what is evil. My pastor, again, Pastor Brett Keprinicka, he goes further. He states this, that Paul here is reflecting on a woman who is in despair over life, grieved over what she never achieved, family heartache, physical pains, or loss of loved ones that drives her to controlling substances in an attempt to shield herself from the disappointments of life. But a gospel-centered older woman who is to teach what is good, a reverent woman, she is not enslaved to any intoxicating substance because she brings her concerns to the Lord and she leaves those concerns with him.

She finds her satisfaction in fellowship with the Lord Jesus and his people." End quote. So bottom line. Older women, You are to teach younger women in this church what is good through your reverent behavior. And reverent behavior is not marked by malicious gossip or addiction to substance, but instead reverent behavior is marked by what is good. And your example teaches what is good.

So that's how Paul ends verse 3, and that's where we will end this morning. Finally, older women are to be teaching what is good. So aged sisters, Your reverent behavior teaches my little girls and the little girls in this congregation and the younger women in this congregation Your example teaches verses four and five Through your reverent behavior you teach what is good by encouraging the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands so that the Word of God will not be dishonored. And two Sundays from now, Lord willing, we're going to spend considerable time talking to the young women from verses four and five. Considerable time.

About God's call upon their lives as they follow you, as you follow Christ. But it will be a pretty much moot point two weeks from now. Two weeks from now when I talk to the younger women, it's going to be a pretty moot point if older women, if you don't embrace the glorious call of God upon your life. They need you to show them verses four and five. There are limitations of what your pastor can do.

Do you know that? I cannot meet up with a young lady and not be disqualified. I don't want to be disqualified. I want to get to the end and be faithful to Carissa And that be it. I want to end well.

So I can't do what you can do. And yet you're going to insist still, well, it's not a big deal. It's a huge deal. It's a huge deal. They need you to teach them verses four and five largely by your example.

And so I was talking to Isaac this week, and he was telling me that he couldn't think of a better example of Titus 2 verses 3 through 5 than our sister Jean Cook. She stands and she sits by the side of her husband through the thick and the thin. Mostly thin. And she is demonstrating the glory and the beauty of a godly woman's vocation. She loves her husband.

She loves her children. And there is no other job that she could possibly pursue that would even come close to the glory that is in that hospital room and in that home right now. There's no other job, there's no other vocation that could even light a candle next to the glory that is in that room, in that hospital, and in that home. If you want to know more about that, this has to happen. It is really hard work for Gene.

Do you know that? It's really hard for Gene. It's hard work because it's a high calling. I think some of us think, well, if it was the right kind of calling, it'd be easy. No, you get the right, you get a high calling is not easy.

You ever tried to change a diaper? And you have a super snipper? My wife, through diaper after diaper, I think it's okay to share. I'm not trying to boast, that's why I'm concerned. I'm at the dinner table, and here's my wife, she makes dinner, she cleans little babies' bottoms, she's potty training, raising my children well, and I'm at the dinner table, this is even better, I'm just sitting in my bed reading a book, and I'm hearing my daughters in their independent rooms, just like middle of conversations, just yelling out Bible verses.

They have the entire first chapter of Titus memorized. You're right, the calling of a woman is so bad. But my wife, I look at Gene, there are so many examples here. Keep up the good work, aged women. And sisters, if you have failed and your life is not marked by reverent behavior, if you think, I have failed here, and I need you to hear this good news as I end, confess your sins to Him who is faithful and righteous.

Confess to Him. And His promise personally to you is to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. The blood of Jesus is real. Resurrection is real. Redemption is real.

Cleansing is real. You're not on the scrap heap of uselessness in His kingdom. No, no, you adorn the gospel of redemption. Your vocation defined here in Titus chapter 2 is a glorious validation of the very Word of God and His redeeming power to the ends of the earth. That starts in your home.

It starts in your vocation. Let's pray. Father, thank You for this Your Word. Please plant it deep within us. Make us new.

Transform us by Your Spirit and cause us to now sing from Psalm 128 with full assurances that The promises that we're about to sing herein for us and our households, they are yes and amen. In the Lord Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.