Well, let me explain Titus chapter 1 and Titus chapter 2 to you. Taking me eight chapters to do it so far, so I think there's too much. Let me sum up. Paul is writing this letter to Titus to reveal God's will for his church. The will of God for his church.

That's the book of Titus. Titus chapter 1, The will of God for His church. That's the book of Titus. Titus chapter 1, the will of God for His church and that order will be established. And so Titus 1 is about church leaders, pastors, overseers who will put the church in order.

Titus chapter 2 is the will of God for the members of his church. The members, Titus 1, leaders, Titus 2, members. The pastors of Titus chapter 1 are to teach sound doctrine. And that sound doctrine is to come out of my fingertips and your fingertips as members of this church. That's Titus chapter 2.

The will of God for the members of His church. What you believe will come out, and it's going to come out in distinct ways. Older men in the church, sound doctrine is to come out in gravitas and maturity. Older women in the church. Sound doctrine is to come out of you in your reverent behavior.

And in your God-fearing behavior, that example teaches the young women in our congregation what is good. And it's really to those good things that Paul mentions there in verse 3 of Titus 2 that we now turn. The good things that the younger women are to be taught. So what are those good things at the end of verse 3 that the older women are to teach the younger women in their behavior? What are those things?

The answer is found in verses 4 and 5. What are the good things in verse 3? Paul says, thank you for asking. Verses 4 and 5. Look with me in verses 4 and 5.

I want to read those two verses again. So that the older women are to encourage, younger women, 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 will of God will not be dishonored. Young women, what are you to be taught? Two main things. Number one, you are to be taught the glory of making your household a priority as you serve the Lord Jesus Christ in your family.

The priority of your household. And number two, you are to be taught how to cultivate a Christian household, how to cultivate a Christian home. If you are to follow Jesus young ladies and older ladies and men this is for you too, because you're heads of your household. Here is what the older women are to teach younger women by their reverent example. Number one, the priority that God places on your household.

Number two, how to cultivate sensibility, Purity, hard work, kindness in your household. How to have a Christian home. How to have a Christian home. So let's take each of these one at a time. One at a time.

Number one, a young woman's priority is to be her home, her family. You got that? You're taking notes? Point one, there's only two points in the sermon. Point one, you guys got it figured out?

Oh, it is. It's coming to life. Young women are to be taught, point one, the priority of the home. This is exactly what Paul conveys in this passage. He sums up that which is good in two phrases at the end of verse four.

I want you to look at the end of verse four. What are those two summary phrases, those two summary statements? Encourage the young women to what? Love their husbands and to love their children. Do you know what you call that?

A household. Love your husbands, love your children, love your household. You don't need both those things to have a household. You need one. He doubles down.

You got both. Household. If you look in verse 5, it's there as well this idea that the priority of a woman should be her home. Look at verse 5. Workers at home, subject to their own husbands.

A young woman's, listen to this, priority is to be her home, her household, her family. Now if that chaps you, if already you're like, man he's like three minutes in, I'm getting upset. If me saying to you, from the scriptures, That a young woman is to learn that her priority must be her household. If that rubs you the wrong way, I'm just going to give it to you straight. That's because of feminism.

That's because of sin in you. Church, especially the young ladies, but all of us, if this point that Paul is making, that a woman's priority is her household, and that is the point he's making, If that chaps you, that's because the lie of feminism is deep in you. We are so infected by the lie of feminism in this church and in the society that we don't even know how deep that lie has gone. We don't know how deep it's gone. Feminism is a lie and do you know where that lie stems from?

That lie comes straight from Satan himself. It stems all the way back from the garden when that serpent first went to Eve in Genesis chapter 3 and asked her what question. Did God really say? Did God really say? Young ladies, feminism robs you of your God-given femininity.

It robs you of the glory that is being a woman. I mean just think about how and what feminism has taught you. It's taught you how to think, it's taught you what to think. Just think about it. Feminism tells you that in order for you to really matter in life, In order for you to have significance as a woman, in order for you to contribute and do something noteworthy in this world as a woman, you've got to do what men do.

You've got to be all that men can be. That's feminism, bottom line. Do what men do, be what men are. The pinnacle of womanhood. Be a man.

Stupid. I mean, what a load of trash. Is that what a woman is? Is that what a woman is? The highest end that a woman can achieve is to be a man.

It's garbage. It's a lie. And that's why you get men in women's restrooms. That's why you have abortion running rampant. Feminism gives you dudes in women's restrooms.

Feminism gives you dudes as the women of the year in America. Feminism gets you abominations is what it gets you. Feminism gets you abominations. Feminism says to you, young ladies and older ladies, and men we're just as infected by it. We go right along with it like a little hook in our mouth.

Feminism says your highest end ladies is found in acting like men. And feminism guts you women of the beauty and the glory that God has given to you in making you a woman. It robs you of the grandeur of your true God-given femininity. You hearing me? I'm about to make the point of why it's such a lie.

I've said it so many times in this pulpit, and I'm going to say it many, many more times, Lord willing, until you and I get it deep in our bones. In Genesis chapter one, and in Genesis chapter two, what does God do? God creates the sky, and the seas, and the moon, and the stars. He creates the fish of the sea and animals on the land. He makes the plants, he makes the vegetation, he makes the crawling things.

You know, he makes the arctic fox. You ever seen one of those? Beautiful. He creates and makes the lion. He makes the peacock.

He makes things like the elephant. Children, Have you ever seen an elephant? When I see an elephant, I'm 37 and I still go, wow! Do you ever say wow when you see an animal? My girls every time, peacock, whoa!

Better than any movie. God makes all of that, all of creation, all of this glory. Romans chapter 1, all of this creation, Romans 1 tells us, declares the glory of God. And after God creates all of this, after God creates all the plants and all the creatures, and He makes Adam a man. And after all of that, After all of this, do you think that God just threw up his hands at the end?

I'm fresh out of ideas. I guess I'll create a woman. Is that what God said? I've run out of creative juice. I guess I'll just make a woman be the helper of her husband and help manage the garden.

I guess I'll do that. God's just scratching his head. I've run out of glory. I've run out of... I'm having a hard time saying.

I've run out of glory. So I guess the last and final act of all of creation will be this dud that I'm going to call, that Adam's going to call a woman. Man, I just feel mad to even suggest that that's true. Is that true? No.

God doesn't lay duds. God doesn't and cannot exhaust His glory. And God doesn't run out of ideas. Eve was not created in the midst of God scratching His head, fighting writer's block. God created the cosmos.

You get that right? I mean this is pretty cool right here in Iowa. The cosmos. Everything. And at the very end of his masterpiece in creating this, the cosmos, He creates the crown jewel.

A woman. Women, you are the crown jewel of all of creation. Paul calls a woman in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 the glory of the glory. That's 1 Corinthians chapter 11. The glory of the glory of God.

The God who made the penguin and the lion and the eagle and the whale and the dolphin that God he chose as his final act of all creation as the crown jewel of it all to make a woman you getting that deep in your bones get it in your bones ladies. Get it in your hearts. Church, there's glory in being a woman. It's a glory distinct from manhood. Get Genesis chapter 1, get Genesis chapter 2 in your bones, sisters, so that you would see feminism for what it really is.

A thief. A thief that robs you of the beauty and the glory and the majesty of your God-given femininity of God's call upon your life to be a woman whose priority is the garden, whose priority is the garden of your home. So No more. No more of this. No more getting ruffled.

No more going home and tweeting. Not that you would do that. No more getting ruffled. When your pastor or someone else simply points out what God has said from cover to cover, what God has said here in Titus, chapter 2, that a woman's priority is to be her home. A lover of her husband, a lover of her children, a worker at home, submissive to her own husband.

That's not second class. That's not drudgery. There's glory in that. You're calling women as the glory of the glory is to prioritize your home So here this sisters hear this if you just doze off, I don't know how you could have dozed off, but if you dozed off... Listen, this is the way God made the world.

This is the way that God made the world. This is the way He made the cosmos. And if you stop embracing your God-given femininity, if you stop giving yourself, ladies, to the glorious and unmatched calling of being a wife and or being a mother, being a helper and submitting to your husband or submitting to your father if you aren't married yet, if you give up on the whole as your priority, if you give up on nurture, God's cosmos, God's world won't work the way it's supposed to. You stop doing what God has called you to do, the world stops working right. And you'd think, well, where you getting that?

Last week. The world stops working when you give up your calling do you think your calling is important? I don't know how to say America's jacked up And that's what happens you get you get a jacked-up nation When you don't fear God and you don't call glorious what God calls glorious. That's what happens when you try to redefine reality in a world that God created. It doesn't work.

The abominations of homosexuality, transgenderism, abortion. Ladies if you don't get this deep into your bones, if you give up on the glory of being a woman in God's world, the world won't work the way it's supposed to. Your calling is massive. So if you wrestle with this, if you wrestle with what I'm saying, and I hope you don't, but if feminism has you by the throat this morning, there's really good news. Did you know that?

There's really good news. Bring your sin of rebellion before the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus is real. Redemption is real. The Gospel's sin-severing, lie-severing power is real.

So bring your sin to Christ. Bring the lie of feminism that is deep within you. Bring it to the Lord. And the promise to those who repent and confess their sin is that Jesus Christ will cleanse you. The promise is that He sets prisoners free.

The promise is that He gives new hearts and a new spirit and a new mind and a new nature. He makes the blind see. He redeems your life from the pit. Run to Christ. Cling to Jesus Christ the Savior who bore your sin in His body on a tree and took it with Him to His grave.

And then He rose up triumphant over that sin and over all of your sin, and He left that sin paid for in His grave. So come to Christ. Confess your sins to Him who loved you and gave Himself for you, and then ask Him that He might show you in His Word what it really means to understand the glory of womanhood. What it really means to understand the glory of submission to your husband and the glory of what it means to prioritize your household. Ask him to get this deep into your bones and he will.

He will. Now you need to listen. I need to be sure to point out something. The problem with this kind of sermon, the problem is that when you say stuff, people put words in your mouth. So you go home and you're like, oh, so are you saying that?

So I'm gonna do my best to tell you what I'm not saying briefly. I need to point out that Paul here in Titus 2 is making clear that the household is to be the priority of a woman. The priority, but not necessarily always the place. There is a distinction there. A woman's place is not always the home, but it is always the priority.

Let me say that again, because again, people need to hear this clearly. A woman's place is not always the home, but it is always the priority. So consider Proverbs 31. Proverbs 31, remember that? It's the text, I think, on biblical femininity.

A woman's place isn't always the home, but the home is her priority. Listen to Proverbs 31, And here is a woman in Proverbs 31 who isn't robbed by feminism, but she has the glory of her calling from God deep within her. Proverbs 31, I'll read a few verses beginning in verse 13. You don't have to turn there, I'll read it to you. She looks for wool and flats, listen to this.

She looks for wool and flats and works with her hands in delight. She's like merchant ships. She brings her food from afar. She rises also while it is still night and gives food to her household and portions to her maidens. She considers a field and buys it.

From her earnings she plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength and makes her arms strong. She senses that her gain is good, her lamp does not go out at night. She stretches out her hands to the distaff, and her hands grasp the spindle. She extends her hand to the poor, and she stretches out her hands to the needy.

She is not afraid of the snow for her household, for all Her household are clothed with scarlet. She makes coverings for herself. Her clothing is fine linen and purple. Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them and supplies belts to the tradesmen.

That's not a woman whose place is solely in the home, but that is a woman whose priority is the home. A woman whose work serves the home. She's a merchant, craftsman, She's in and out of the house. This is a woman whose work helps her husband. This is a woman whose work serves her children.

A woman whose work, be it in or out of the house, all serves that household. This is a woman whose work is so glorious that at the end of Proverbs 31, her household and her works praise her in the gates. I really appreciate how Pastor Michael Foster puts this. Michael Foster says this, women are designed by God to work. Scripture never presents women as idle or passive.

In fact, the default assumption of scripture is that women are industrious. But that work has historically been rooted in the home. Not because women are lesser, but because the home is vital. Home is vital. Did you hear what Foster just said?

Being called to work in the home and for the home does not diminish the calling of a woman. It magnifies the calling. You understand why? Because as goes the home, so goes the church. And so as goes the home, goes the church and the world.

And you're to make a home, which changes the what? The world! The cosmos! As goes the home, as so goes the church. And as goes the church, so goes the world.

You're going to tell me that because a woman's priority is to be her household that somehow that diminishes who she is and what she does? You're not listening to God. I get a kick. Man, I'm sure many of you get a kick out of this. I get a kick out of people asking me if my wife works.

It's my favorite question and it happens all the time. Carissa, do you work? They ask her too, but does your wife work? And this actually happened at my most recent haircut appointment. And she asked if Karissa worked, and I paused the haircut.

And I paused the haircut to look at this nice woman cutting my hair she's very kind I looked right in the eyes and I said I want to read what I said because I just want you to hear it I said I cannot conceive of a more important work than that of which my wife performs. She is nurturing and caring for and teaching for immortal souls in my home right now. And she kind of looked at me, She didn't say anything. So then I answered the question, yeah, she works. She does the kind of work that keeps the world working, is what I told her.

Here's another thing. The godly woman of Proverbs 31 is not a woman who isn't educated. Okay? Read Proverbs 31 again tonight. And if you do that, there's no way that you come away from that text of scripture and say that women don't need to be educated.

Are you kidding me? If you believe a Christian home is the foundation for a healthy church, and it is, And if you believe that a Christian home is an essential pillar for a healthy society, for a healthy society, and it is, then this idea that the woman who is managing her home and nurturing children and teaching children in that household doesn't need education or training in some way. That's just dumb. It's dumb. You can't ask your wife husbands to export what they don't have.

You can't export what you don't have. You can't ask your wife, you can't ask your daughters, you can't ask sisters in this church to embrace the glorious calling of God upon their lives to nurture and educate and raise the arrows in your quiver, your children, unless they're equipped to do so. These sisters are teaching your children that they are holding up the very foundations, the very pillars of society in making and maintaining a Christian home. A pillar of society. You don't think women need to be trained up for that?

So there is just this popular notion among some people. I'm not saying the answer is college. I'm not saying that. Don't put that in my mouth. I'm a big fan of that, by the way.

I like New St. Andrews. I like that. But this idea that women don't need to be educated, and I mean, man, what does that say about the way you view your children? What does that say about the way you view the home?

Like, she's under your authority, she's managing your household. There needs to be preparation and training for that. So right here in Titus chapter 2 Paul says young women you need to learn these things from older women. And part of that education and training can and often should be formal. They can't teach what they themselves don't know.

Education and training are vital. But a lot of it needs to come from you older women. So young ladies, if you aren't married yet, if you aren't married yet young ladies, sit down with your fathers tonight. And if you don't have a father to talk to, talk to your spiritual fathers, your pastors, or Titus 2 says you can speak to old godly women in this congregation. I will always make time for you though.

I don't want to hear this, I don't want to bother you. You are not a bother. The email I get from Joe Schmo about not liking how we're reformed That's a bother And I know that push the delete button So you do not hesitate to reach out to your pastors Reach out to pastor Matthew reach out to me You don't have but if you have a father go to him or go to go to an older godly women in this congregation and sit down and work through ways in which you can be trained, in which you can be educated, and prepared for the majestic calling of managing a household one day. The task in managing a household is huge. The stakes, I hope I somehow can, in some way convey to you how high the stakes are.

The stakes are high. Paul says as much at the end of verse 5 and Titus 2 verse 5. Look at the end of verse 5. Do all of this so that the word of God will not be dishonored. Ladies, if you give up on this calling, and then if you give up on that calling, You should encourage your wives in.

The world stops working. And the word of God is dishonored. What I'm preaching up here gets minimized. Your children and your children's children and their children will be affected by that. So we have right now, the world, if you give up on this calling, if you give up on this priority, the world will break down for generations.

But if you give yourself to this calling of household priority, generations will be built up. You know, your work, if you give yourself to this, will outlive you by generations. Generations. That's the kind of work I want to be involved in. And that's exactly what Michael Foster, quote him again, that's exactly what Michael Foster says about women and their work in and out of the home.

Listen to this, and I quote, her external labor is an extension of her calling, not a replacement. So the key question that you have to ask yourself is, is the work I'm doing outside the home an extension of my God-given calling, or is it pulling me in two directions and undermining the work that I'm called to do in my household. It's not about rigid rules. It's about priority and faithfulness to what God has said. So if you're wondering, am I prioritizing my home?

Ask that basic question. Is the work I'm doing outside the home an extension of my God-given calling, or is it pulling me in opposing directions? If it's pulling in opposing directions, you have your answer. If it's just an extension of your God-given calling, you're serving your husband, you're serving your household, and your husband says so, yes, that's exactly what you're doing. Keep on moving on, baby.

Keep on going. So pursue training ladies, pursue education, pursue a job, and do all of it. If you do that under the authority of your father or under the authority of your husband, if you do that in that vein, and to the end of serving your household one day, your labor will not be in vain. Okay? Your labor will not be in vain.

A young woman is to learn the glory of being a woman and the glory of God's call at being a woman and prioritizing the household, and a woman who is freed from the lies of feminism, and a woman who sees the glory that is in womanhood, she then works to cultivate Christian virtues, Gospel virtues in that home that God's given to her. And so that's the second and final exhortation that Paul gives to us here in Titus, Chapter 2, to young woman. A young woman, her home is to cultivate sensibility, purity, and kindness. A woman's home is to be a Christian home. So I want you to think about this for just a second.

What are the things that church leaders and pastors, we've had eight sermons, this is the ninth, eight sermons prior about Titus, and half of those were, more than half of those were in Titus chapter one. We spent considerable time looking at the pastoral qualifications in Titus chapter one. I want you to think about those qualifications for just a second. What virtues does Titus chapter one hold up as qualifications for shepherding the Church of Jesus Christ. Do you remember the virtues?

Hospitality, loving what is good, devotion, self-control, obedience not rebellion, filled with the Spirit not wine, holding fast to the faithful word. You go through Titus chapter 1, you see all these things. Don't those things in Titus chapter 1 for pastors sound awfully similar, maybe even the same, to what we find here in verse 5 of chapter 2? That's on purpose. Some of the same Greek words.

Young women are to learn to be sensible, pure, and kind. That's the beginning of verse 5. Sensible, pure, workers at home and kind. So how do the men of the church who are to be pastors, shepherds, overseers, how on earth can those men possess the virtues they're supposed to possess in Titus chapter 1? Here's how.

By the grace of God in being brought up in Christian homes. That's the normative way it should be done. Of course God is sovereign and He can work outside of that ideal. But this is God's ideal. This is the normative pattern.

A Christian home. Sisters, if you get what I'm saying, the future of the church in raising up godly shepherds, and not just shepherds of the church, but shepherds over entire households, godly husbands. That future of this church and these families in our midst begins with Christian homes that you make. Cultivated by your nurture. Your homemaking that will last for generations.

That's why I can barely keep, I struggle when I go see my grandmother. She hugs my children. I can't keep my emotions together, because that example, that reverent behavior, is echoing and will far outlive my grandmother, Verlbrough. So I am your pastor because of my father, yes. You have heard me multiple times talk about Charlie Brown.

His name is Charlie, if you're visiting. Not being funny. My dad is a huge impact on my life. But I am your pastor, yes, because of my father, but all the more because of my mother. I couldn't mean this more.

Sheila Brown, I thank God for my mother. I will go to the grave feeling as though I cannot adequately describe the debt that I owe to my mother and how she cultivated in me and now in my children Christian virtue. I just went home this past weekend, saw my brother married, it was glorious. And sometimes I will hug my mother. I just fight my, these eyes, ah!

And I hug her, And that hug is so meaningful to me. And I don't know how much she knows. I've tried to tell her. And when I hug her, this is the woman who has profoundly influenced me. Profoundly shaped me.

By the grace of God, she has completely altered the trajectory of my life. So don't you ever, ever tell me that the calling of a wife and the calling of a mother is anything short of cosmos-shaking. Charles Spurgeon once said, Never will it be possible for any man to estimate what he owes to a godly mother. And of his own mother, Spurgeon wrote this, I am sure that in my early youth, no teaching ever made such an impression upon my mind as the instruction of my mother. Neither Can I conceive that to any child there can be one who will have such influence over the heart as the mother who has so tenderly cared for her offspring?

Amen. A young woman is to cultivate Christian virtue in her home and by the grace of God her little boys and her little girls and their little boys and their little girls and their little boys and their little girls to a thousand generations, by grace, will rise up and call her blessing. One of my little girls this week, this was precious. I mean you can't ask, it's just like something you find in a movie. But better.

One of my little girls, she came up to my wife and she said this. This is exactly the words. Mommy, can you please teach me how to be a mother? Gah! I mean what a joy!

What a calling for my wife to teach four immortal souls how to nurture and make a home that shakes the cosmos. So sisters give priority to your household and if you have failed if you've not made your home a Christian home If you've not made your household your priority hear me once more the blood of Jesus is real The cross and the resurrection is true He So run to the Savior Jesus Christ and He promises He will not cast you aside. He will not look at you and say, failure, He'll say. He has said, come to me. Come to me, you who are weary, heavy laden, burdened down by your failure, come to me, I'll set you free.

I'll take your burden. I'll find it, alright? I'll give you rest. The Lord Jesus, He loves to restore the years that the locusts have eaten. He's not finished with you yet.

Run to Christ. Come to Christ. Young women, if you aren't married, hear this young women, If you aren't married, you are still in a household. So serve your father and your mother. Give yourself to the household.

Be trained by older women in preparation for what God might and I think will provide in the days ahead. You do that, your labor will not be in vain. And I don't know where it went, but I thought I had a book. But there's books out there. On your way out, when you leave here, there's a stack of books.

The title is called Yoohoo. It's by Rachel Jankovic. I think young ladies and older ladies, you should all grab a copy. If you're going to read it, grab one. That book deals with the lies that the world's going to tell you, the lies of feminism.

It's going to deal with that directly. Work through that book with your mother. Work through it with an older mature godly woman in this congregation. And older women, don't wait for them to ask you to do it. The worst thing that the younger ladies can do is say no.

It's really hard to say no to you. I've tried. I'm serious. It is worth it, sisters. It is worth it.

This is worth it. In making the household your priority and cultivating a Christian home, listen to this, you will build a place of rest for your husbands, a place of rest for your children in the midst of a hard and difficult world. This week was really hard for me. Exceedingly hard for me to come home to my house, to my wife, to my children, Charis had made all the difference. In cultivating a Christian home, you build a place of rest, memories will be made, and the world, the cosmos will be changed.

So I'm going to say it once more, sisters, your labor, your calling is glorious. Older women are to encourage 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 as one brother put it, the health of our homes affects the credibility of the Gospel. When Christian women build their home with sensibility, purity, and kindness, they put God's Word on display. They make it beautiful.

They make it believable. But when women neglect these things, when our marriages are marked by bitterness, when our homes are in disarray, when our lives are no different than the world, it brings shame on the name of Christ. There's no such thing as a private household. Every home preaches. The only question is what kind of gospel he proclaims.

And may our homes preach the glorious gospel of Jesus the Christ. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this your word. Thank you for the women in this congregation. Strengthen them.

The joy of the Lord be their strength. Root out the lies of feminism. And replace those lies with truth that there is no more glorious calling than what you have made for them, a calling that will echo into eternity forever. So help us, Lord, as a church, to get these things right to get him deep in our bones For Jesus sake and our joy in him