God's Instructions for the Older Women in the Church

We'll take your Bibles and let's go to Titus as we resume our study through the book of Titus. We're in Titus chapter 2. Paul has assigned Titus to the island of Crete to quote, set things in order in the churches on this island. Now Crete part of, of course, the Roman Empire, a Greek island with, well, it was a wild and woolly place. It was a sinful place.

And the cultural sinful rebellious ways where we're taking its toil on the local churches on Crete. And so Paul's ever-present commitment and duty was to keep strengthening the churches, purifying the churches, bringing them to more solid biblical health. But he couldn't get to all of them so he would have associates, Titus being one of those associates. And he left Titus on that island to get things in order in these churches. And now we come to a very practical area where he's talking about the various segments within the church and we come today to the older women in the church.

Literally the phrase set things in order that comes out of chapter 1 can be translated straighten things out. So we had a clear message to the older men straightening us out. Now there's a clear message to the older ladies straightening you out. Now the men haven't arrived and the ladies haven't arrived but we ought to be on the right trajectory.

Can I get amen there ladies? We don't want to be going backwards. Perhaps some of these ladies in Crete were actively openly going in their own direction. Perhaps many of them were just kind of unaware of how the lifestyle they enjoyed in the Cretan culture does not fit biblical truth and they need to start changing. Nevertheless it's amazing to me 2,000 years ago Paul writes this and it's as contemporary as this morning's new feed on your social media. I mean it, nothing's changed. Man hasn't changed, man's sin condition hasn't changed, the way men indulge in sin. Now we're more technological about it but sin is still sin, rebellion still rebellion.

Our tendencies are still our tendencies. So we come to Titus chapter 2 verse 3. Paul writes to Titus as he goes around to these churches getting things fixed. Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good. This is God's instructions for older women in the church. So Paul's giving these specific instructions to various age groups within the church and he has two main goals in mind from the balance of his writings and the balance of biblical truth. Number one, that is that some things are true for all age groups and all segments of the truth of the church. Basic sound doctrine, conversion, those truths apply to everyone. But secondly we're seeing here that that truth has to be rightly applied to various segments or to various age groups and genders within the church. The goal of course is always that God would be honored and glorified by each age group or each segment honoring the truth in the way that fits and applies to them. Thus we are esteeming our Creator's wisdom over the ever-changing foolishness of man's so-called wisdom.

Do we not see that in our culture today, this ever-changing fickleness about what's right and wrong, good or bad, up and down, just constantly changing? But God's truth never changes and so we choose that we will stand on the unchanging truth of the Word of God for our place and our calling and culture and in the church and in the home. And what we also see is that God gives us this not only for his honor and glory but for human flourishing. That you will do best in this life. You will be happiest and most fulfilled when you approach life God's way.

Whether a young man or young woman or an older man or an older woman. God wants you to flourish and do well. You see God's not gonna go back and reprogram your DNA.

He made you, he knows how you work best. And we get in on the owner's manual. You see, when you're saved you have the Spirit's illumination, a new heart.

So when you look at the owner's manual, the light comes on and we get in on the owner's manual. A best way for our lives to function. Now all Christian virtues are commanded for all ages and genders.

All sins are forbidden for all ages and genders. But God our Creator has designed some truths that especially apply to specific ages and specific genders. For example, Colossians 1 10 reminds us, So that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. God wants that for all of us.

What's the authority that enables us to do this? To bear fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God, pleasing him in all respects? Well 2 Timothy 3 16 and 17. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the men of God may be adequate and equipped for every good work.

God has given us his authoritative sufficient word to instruct us as to where we are in our lives. You see, God knows our diseases well. He's the good physician.

No more than that, he's the great physician. You are never too young and you're never too old to need the careful prescriptions from God's Word for your place and your time in life. And we saw last week God's prescriptions, if you will, for the older men in the church. And now we come to the older women. Now what are the older women in the church?

I don't know. It's kind of funny reading these scholars, they all just kind of speculate around. I'm just gonna say 45. If you're 45 and up, then you're an older lady in the church. But you might be 36 and a half and be one, I don't know. You might be 50 and be one, but you know what I think the text is implying here. Now you cannot overestimate the value of a godly older woman.

Can I get amen guys? You cannot overestimate the value of a godly older woman. Her value to the home, her value to the church, and her value to society is inestimable.

You just can't, you can't put your finger on how substantial and vital godly ladies are to the well-being of all things. And I think that's one of the reasons why the Bible requires honor to older ladies, just like the Bible requires honor to older men. You younger ladies should honor the older ladies in your life and particularly the older ladies in your church. Now if you're a teenager here, great school girl, young single girl, or young mom, young married lady, I want to say something to you.

If one of our older ladies comes up to you and says, sweetheart, you ought to dah dah dah dah, or you ought not to dah dah dah dah, your next word should be, yes ma'am. Honor. There's ladies in this church that deserve that kind of respect.

They've walked it, they've lived it, they've suffered for the truth, they deserve it. So the Bible requires, as a matter of fact, Paul wrote to Timothy when he was over in Ephesus. Timothy's doing in Ephesus what now Titus is doing in Crete. And he says, now when you're dealing with the older ladies, now Timothy was a young man.

See, I can talk a little bit different because I'm an old guy now. But Timothy was a young man and Paul says, now look, you don't correct the older ladies, you appeal to them like a mother. The honor the older ladies deserve. And Paul's wise and it's God's wisdom, and Titus is going to be wise, and it's God's wisdom that Paul and Titus both are in effect saying, you older ladies got to take over this job, us men need you doing this, we don't need to be doing this. We're gonna say that in verse 4, we'll get to that Lord willing next week. So he says here in verse 3, look at it there in your text, older women likewise. I think that at least refers back to the general principles he outlined for older men up in verse 2. So just like the older men, the older ladies should have those same basic virtues. We saw that in verse 2 concerning the older men, that now applies also to the older ladies.

They need to be temperate, they need to be dignified, they need to be sensible, sound in faith, in love, and in perseverance. That's true for all Christians. But as men or women, as we grow older in the faith, these things must be more seen in our lives, these godly virtues. But now we come to verse 3 in verse 4, and he adds further duties that are fitting for the women of the church, and particularly this time to the older women of the church. Now at this point when we start talking about the particular roles and responsibilities of women, the women who are not spirit-controlled and spirit-led will usually rise up and say, well but now wait a minute, my husband doesn't do this.

And here's what happens, we all have at least a twinge of this rebel spirit. We live behind the conjunction, but, but my husband, but, but this, but that. And but God didn't give you a conjunction to hide behind. He just says, this is my will for you. Older men, this is my will for you. Younger men, we'll see that in August perhaps, Lord willing, this is my will for you.

Now older ladies, this is my will for you. And we need to understand the ways of God. God is not about you finding out what looks equal and what looks fair. God is about you doing what he tells you to do and watch how he works it out. Watch how he comes to your aid like he did Sarah, who called Abraham Lord. And he says in the New Testament, you've become her daughters if you do what's right and are not frightened by any fears. So he says, do your role. And by the way, Abraham made her a good man, but God made her do it his way, not her way. I'll say this again, but ladies, have you, have you realized God didn't give you a fix-him husband, he gave you a love-him husband.

Get quiet in here. I promise you, he needs fixing, but it's not primarily your job. God's got a big old stick and if you'll put yours down, he'll pick his up. Some ladies get into senior adulthood and they're still welding the stick and they found out something. They're trying to push that donkey with that goad and it don't work. He kicks back.

I'll never get through this if I don't hurry on. So God adds things to the older ladies in addition to the, maybe you would say, the number of things he gives to the men. And I pondered that for a little bit and wondered why does he give the ladies the same basic things. And let me give this foundation one right here, being sound in the faith.

That's the foundation stone for older ladies. Sound in the faith. That means your personal faith in God, your love for Christ, your treasuring of Christ, your resting in Christ.

It's got to be real from the heart. If it's not real from the heart, the things I will tell you this morning, you will rise up against, you will push against, you will contend against them. And you'll have enough of that if you do belong to Christ. But it becomes dominant if you're not sound in the faith. A lady needs to be sound in the faith and not trusting in the false gods of human emotion and sentimental persuasions. That's a fight for all ladies, fight for all men too, but especially for the ladies. In Paul's phrase of not being a silly women, in other words, you need to be a principled woman whose faith is settled on the principles of God's Word and not chasing after silly, emotionally based, fickle persuasions as the world throws them at you.

When I say the world, I mean a lot of people in Christian clothing, a lot of people who call themselves Christian preachers and teachers throw all these various new ideas at us. Your emotions get stirred, here you go, hit this one. Principled women have done some of that in their younger years, but they're older now. And they catch themselves before their emotions get them off of the Word of God. That's a woman who's sound in the faith.

We must start there. There is nothing worse for the health of God's local church than for older ladies to be fickle and swayed here and there by every wind of doctrine. Now, before we get to the specific things of verse three, let me talk about this aspect of why these older women are given probably more duties than it seems the men were given. I think, number one, it's because women, because of the way God made them, are more easily swayed and impacted by false teaching. Women, generally speaking, there's exceptions, but because of the way God made ladies, the unique strengths he gives them, gives them corresponding weaknesses.

And they're more easily swayed than men, and so maybe they've moved further away from their biblical duties. I just heard this recently, kind of to illustrate the point of the need for male headship in ladies' lives and in the home. Juvenile delinquency is greatly reduced in two-parent households.

You've heard that over and over, I'm sure. When a mom and a dad are present, the significance of children in rebellion and getting in trouble, etc., goes way down compared to mom-only households. But did you know that households that are led by a single father have about the same rate of delinquencies of houses led by mother and father?

Interesting. The point being, God ordained the home to have a head, the stability of a loving and compassionate, but firm and faithful, godly father and husband. Secondly, I think perhaps the ladies in Crete had moved further than the men. I'm not saying this is an absolute, but that seems to be what is pointing out here, is because the men of Crete had failed their wives. The men of Crete had not lovingly led their wives and protected their wives. Men, we are called to protect our wives physically, emotionally, spiritually. There's times when a man had to say to his wife, no, we're not following that teacher, we're not reading that book, we're not going to that church. Now obviously men, we need to be kind and compassionate, but sometimes a man's got to be a man. Your wives were made by God to need your headship.

It's non-optional. Now I know we live in that age and the spirit of the age is we don't need men, we don't need their headship, we can do just fine. Have you ever looked real good at an old feminist? They ain't doing very good. They are not doing very good, even though they've convinced the federal government to be their surrogate husband. Federal government's got program after program after program, regulation after regulation after regulation, hand out to help women not need a husband.

But you'll find out the federal government's not a good husband. Older ladies who rebel against God's design, now listen to me, do not end well. There is a payday someday to violating God's order of things. Did you remember, ladies, I said earlier God cares about your flourishing.

He wants you to flourish as one of his children, as one of his ladies in his work. So secondly, not only are women more vulnerable to be swayed, but the men of Crete had obviously failed in protecting their wives. We do know for a fact, look at any godless culture, any godless culture like Crete and like the one you and I live in today, you will find that the women tend to move their hearts away from their husbands, away from their children, and away from their homes.

Ungodliness always has that fruit of it, or in it. Now perhaps the responsibility for the failure of the women in the church at Crete is significantly due to the weakness of the men to lead and protect those ladies, but it is clear that the ladies themselves are to address this issue and to bring, or begin rather, a Reformation back to God's ideal. That's why in the next verse that we'll look at next week, Lord willing, he says that older ladies teach the younger women.

Get them back to where God designed for them to be so that they will be under God's blessing and God's flourishing and then they will exemplify to the world the wisdom of God, not the so-called wisdom of men. Doesn't this issue in Crete of the women turning their backs on being married, many women in our culture doing that today, just don't need to be married. We'll just have serial monogamy of monogamous relationships, live in sexual immoralities, we'll put off children because the fulfillment for women is in the world and having a career and it's a lie from Satan. That is not your primary fulfillment as a woman and the statistics are coming in very clearly.

Women 35, 45 and up who put off marriage, put off husbands, put off having children are starting to be very depressed and longing for that kind of intimacy and that oneness in that home and that family that they believed the lie of the enemy that said you don't need to have this. This is not the most important thing. I'm not saying it's wrong for a woman never to have an employment outside of her home, it's not what I'm saying. I'm saying when that becomes your goal in life, when that becomes your modus operandi, your purpose and pattern, it leads to emptiness, it leads to ruinous things.

All right, that's the introduction. Roman number one, he says in verse three, you're to be reverent ladies inside and on the outside, reverent on the inside and on the outside. Verse three, older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior.

Now the word reverent there comes from two words, one means to become and one means holiness. Your behavior is to become holiness. The point is, and the word behavior there is a word that emphasizes the heart condition. It emphasizes the inner demeanor or the inner constitution. What it means is what you are in your heart should also be in your behavior, but it's both and.

It's what's on the inside and what's on the outside. The point is that the godly woman's behavior starts with having a holy heart, a reverent heart. She's reborn of the Spirit of God and that's given her a gospel humility that begins to be exhibited in her godly behavior. Her pattern of conduct flows from the inner condition of the redeemed heart. Ladies, I have nothing for you if you haven't experienced the new birth, nothing.

I can't help you if you haven't experienced the new birth. It has to start there. In other words, Paul is saying these women should be the real deal. They should be true through and through. The pattern of conduct is to be the expression of the heart, of her innermost being. As my girls were growing up, my girls were so pretty and well they're still pretty. But they would put on a new dress or something and I would say, oh you're beautiful, you're so pretty, but I tell you what, the Lord wants you to be pretty on the inside and on the outside.

And I guarantee they can still remember that probably most every day when they get dressed to do their whatever they do during the day. Pretty on the inside and pretty on the outside. Now so when talking about behavior here, we'll get to some specific things in the second half of this verse and certainly there's many, many things that could be included. But for the balance of biblical truth, by way of application, let me give two thoughts that the woman, a godly woman's outward behavior, there are two things that should be shown. Number one, it should be shown in her countenance. Her countenance. The heart is humble so her countenance is humble.

In contrast to the hard, harsh and cutting countenance of the worldly feminist, the contentious woman. Proverbs 131 verse 1 speaks of this reflection of the countenance and the psalmist said in Psalm 131 verse 1, Oh Lord, my heart is not proud. No, it starts with the heart. Nor are my eyes haughty. What's in my heart is seen through my countenance and the eyes are the centerpiece of the countenance. If countenance is right, it's usually because the heart is right. 1 Peter 2 14, speaking in the context of ungodly people around us, says they have quote, eyes full of adultery. In other words, the unholiness is seen in the countenance.

It's seen on the face. I think this is especially true of women. It's true of men, but it's especially true of women because God made women with a beauty in their face that I think is greater than men. You know, one of the greatest things I like about women is they're not men.

Let's quit muddying this thing up. What a perverse, wicked, stupid thing. I like women to look like women and act like women and be women like God made them. So the eyes are the countenance reflects the heart and this is especially true of ladies. 1 Peter 3 3 and 4 is a perfect description of how truly godly ladies enter beauty, enter godly beauty is reflected in behavior and their countenance. 1 Peter 3 3 and 4, your dormant must not be merely external, braiding of the hair, wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses, but let it be the hidden person of the heart. There it is again, inside and comes on the outside with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit. She's at rest in the wisdom of God for her role in life.

She's not pushing against it, fighting it, contending against it. She's at rest and that comes out in the outward behavior of a gentle and quiet spirit which is precious in the sight of God. So countenance is the first one. Another behavior I would say is dress, a lady's dress. The outward adornment of the body must reflect the inner condition of the new heart. The outer dress should comply with the inner godliness and not accentuate sensuality. It's been my experience through the years that two ladies can wear the exact same outfit, the exact same shoes, and one of them exudes a modest and attractive appearance and the other exudes an immodest and sensual appearance.

And it's all the condition of the heart. Well, Paul says first, Titus, teach the older women to be reverent, be godly in their hearts and in their behavior. Particularly, verse 4 is going to tell us, the young women need to see this. The young women have enough battles and fights without you older women helping them be carnal. The older ladies you've had long enough to make your mistakes and get through this stuff. Number two, he says, teach the older ladies to keep a tamed tongue.

The older women likewise would be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips. Someone said that a person with an evil tongue is a beast in the form of a human. But the word here for gossips is the word diabolos. It's the word for Satan, the accuser. So really, according to God's Word, God says malicious gossip or an evil tongue is the devil in human form. You're never more like Satan and you're never more in godly in conduct when you spread falsehoods or even spread the truth with an ill intent.

Satan loves it when you act like him. Now, wrong speech can include several things. And guys, this is good for all of us, but for some reason it seems that ladies seem to be more prone here than men. Research, psychological researchers have found that when men are at odds, they can even come to physical blows, and they're more apt to be angry and come to that than women. Women may walk away, but then they engage in character assassination with their words.

Men are less likely to do that, so we've got different sins, but we're equally sinners. Wrong speech can be, first of all, spreading truth with ill intent. You can say things that are right, but is it the right context?

Is it the right place? Does this serve the purpose of loving that person? It could be wrong speech when it's exaggeration filled with drama. Now ladies have silly fun times, and men have silly fun times, but I mean sometimes we can get in a rut of exaggeration to where we are just learning to speak lies. Thirdly, when we're silent, when the truth needs to be spoken. Maybe somebody says something about someone, and you know it's not true, and you're just kind of intimidated, you don't speak up. That can be wrong speech in the sense that you didn't speak a word of truth in a setting where things needed to be set straight. So with this being true, that falsehood in speeches of Satan, then looking at our federal government in Washington, D.C., I think the whole place is run by Satan. I've never, I'm telling you, I've been around a long time, I've never seen the depth, the twisting, the minutia of detail of being deceitful and corrupt and lying in my entire life. Well the ladies of the church need to, the older ladies need to make sure that they are not given to a pattern.

You failed, we've all failed, but it should mark who you are. It shouldn't be the pattern of your life to indulge in these things. First Timothy 5 13, when Paul was writing to Timothy about straightening up things in the church at Ephesus, he said the same basic thing. First Timothy 5 13, at the same time they also learned to be idle. He's talking about ladies who are not busy with their ministries and just busy having fun in the world.

They learn to be idle and go around from house to house and not merely idle but also gossip and busybodies talking about things not proper to mention. The point is, get busy with your duties ladies and don't give yourself over the idleness which leads to the temptation of wrong speech. Being older and being honorable means committing to our duties that God has ordained.

And for ladies that's your husband, that's your home, that's your children. Not saying you can't do anything else but that's your priority. Whatever else you do is moonlighting.

Whatever else you do is moonlighting, you have an assignment. And the bad example evidently of the ladies of Crete was that it was hurting the younger women. It was poison to the younger women. It's a great shame and it is honor to the older ladies. They should know better, they should do better.

Instead the point of our text of course is to again fill up your time with your duties because the younger women need it. Now let me mention a couple of things under a little heading I call quickly repent. We're all sinners but you can be a spirit field sinner who catches it quickly and repents quickly. In the idea of malicious gossip or wrong speech, quickly repent of having a heart of jealousy and envy. If you let jealousy and envy foster it, you are immediately going to be plunged into wrong speech.

It's just a breeding ground for wrong speech. Quickly repent. You know the only way to get over jealousy and envy is when you see somebody have something, do something, have a gift, look a certain way, whatever it is, and you're thinking, I wish they didn't have it and I had it, immediately throw yourself in the sovereignty of God and start praising God that he knew it was better for them to have it than for you to have it. Immediately throw yourself in praising God for his sovereign choices. Secondly, quickly repent, very similar to the other side of the coin perhaps, of unforgiveness and bitterness. Oh, how powerfully, destructively, does unforgiveness and bitterness lead to poisonous speech? Acts 8 23, I see that you are in the gall of bitterness.

Gall means, literally the word there means a yellowish green bile. It's awful. Bile is awful.

And the text wants you to just get that sense. This is ugly, gross, and awful. Then the bondage of iniquity. You're in the gall of bitterness.

You are wrapped in the stronghold, the wicked stronghold of sin and that's leading you to have the wicked speech coming out of your mouth. Oh, brothers and sisters, do not let unforgiveness and bitterness fester in your hearts. Catch it quickly.

Call it wrong. Repent of it. Lay it before God. Then when it comes up five minutes later, repent again, and repent again, and repent again.

Don't let it fester. Hebrews 12 15, see to it that no one comes short of the grace of God. I think the idea is that God's grace has given you the capacity not to let this happen.

If you'll look to God in repentance, he'll give you the grace to overcome it. That no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble and by it many be defiled. When you're bitter, look, listen to me, some people say, well, you know, these people sin this way, but they're not hurting anyone else. Your sin always hurts someone else. Sin always hurts others. Sin always hurts others, but probably no sin like the sin of unforgiveness and bitterness. If you're unforgiving and bitter, one way that it spews itself is in spewing out language that wrongly destroys the reputation of others.

Usually when you're bitter, everything that reminds you of the event or the person who hurts you, you spew on them the same venom that you feel toward the person who wronged you because you never learned that the person who wronged you wronged you under the sovereignty of a God who loves you and has a purpose. Joseph sold by his brothers in effect into bondage, but God had a purpose. Daniel left imprisoned in wicked pagan Babylon, but God had a purpose. Jesus falsely accused, nailed to a cross, caught a blasphemer and a demon and his father Satan, but God had a purpose. You've got to go back to those events and say, God, I don't see it, but praise your name, you have a purpose and I'll be unforgiving and I will not let a root of bitterness come in me that will end up poisoning all those around me. God helped the homes that are drowning in the poison of bitterness. But you know with Jesus there's always repentance and a fresh start. Romans 3 for the ladies, and I guess you can tell this replies to all of us, amen?

It's good stuff for all of us. Number three, maintain a sober and disciplined life. It was common, it's known in history that the ancient women of Greece as they would grow older would, you know, their houses are empty, they don't have children, their husbands hopefully got easier to take care of, and they were idle. They just would indulge in the pleasures of the day.

And so there was a lot of drunkenness among the older ladies as they just hung out in their little cocktail clubs and parties and did their little rich lady things. The idea here in verse 3 where he says, nor enslaved to much wine, is the idea of a habitual looking to it, a longing for the intoxicating nature of it. But the point is you're enslaved by it because you're enslaved when you're looking to anything or anyone more than Christ. Is He your rest? Is He your joy?

Is He your treasure? Let me make a point this morning. Brothers and sisters, you're a slave to one master, the Lord Jesus Christ, and you cannot go and come as He commands if you're enslaved to another.

That's the point here. Ladies, you cannot be for Christ what He's ordering you to be, what He expects you to be, if you're enslaved to things like pleasures, idleness, and the drinking of liquor. There's no point in time, brothers and sisters, when you and I are not a slave. You're either the slave of sin, animal lust, or worse. All of this nonsense, all of this word salad and twisting of words today to try to explain how it's good and right for all this perversion and unnatural sex acts and everything.

All of this sophistication is a bold lie from hell. The driving force behind all of this stuff is they like to sin. They don't have any hope in God, so the only thing they got left are the pleasures of the fallen nature.

So what new twist on sin can we create? All of this drag queen stuff is a sensual sexual stimulant. Men dressing up like women in the most haughty and gaudy and vulgar ways, and of all unbelievable, wicked things to say, we want to parade this in front of children.

All for one simple reason. Excuse me, it's crude. We sexually get off on this. That's wrong. It's inappropriate. It's sinful.

And we must stand against it. It's all a sexual lust. Since when was mankind defined by his latest sexual lust? That's the beneath the dignity of animals. God didn't even let most animals go into heat but once a year.

I'm strapping up on a horse and riding off from my outline a little bit here. The sexual desires and drives are God-given, good, and blessed. But when we raise children, listen to me, those sexual desires are to be guarded. They must not be exposed, taught, stimulated until it's time.

Song of Solomon, the context of sexual love says, do not awaken my love before it's time. Guarded. Guard your children. Guard your grandchildren.

This is a wicked lie. We got to expose them to all this stuff in case they're one of these things. Here, I'm telling you, we know what they are. They're little devils is what they are. Their little fallen sinners is what they are. They're little depraved sinners and if we don't guard them, we can let Satan get the advantage and seduce them toward things that are ungodly and destructive and ruinous to their lives. We guard them, then we guide them. We guide them. No, we don't follow that kind of lust and morality. We don't follow that thing. You're to be pledged to one woman or one man for life.

Let me move on. These ladies in the church had given themselves over to pleasures and of all things, the enslavement to liquor and older women is most shameful and disgraceful. No one ever said my mother is a drunk or my grandmother is a drunk with anything other than grief, sorrow, and shame in their hearts. It might do you some good to know that, well, praise the Lord, we struggle at grace life, but we're not where Crete was. We're not having to caution a group of ladies in the church to stop being liquored up every afternoon, but if you're undisciplined in giving yourself over to the pleasures of the world instead of fulfilling your duties as godly lady in the church, it's the same difference.

It's bigger than just the alcohol element. The home, the church, the culture needs no much more. It depends on godly, mature women to be chaste and dignified and strong and sober, who with a gentle and quiet spirit are always ready to dispense words of wisdom to those around her. Again, in context, he's going to say it's for mainly the younger women to learn from you. So the godly ladies should know well the error of the lie that this age throws at us that liberty and liberation means throwing off biblical duties and indulging in worldly pursuits, including drunkenness. That's a lie, and the older ladies of the church understand that well. Well, fourthly, our last one, older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior. That's reverent inside and outside. Not malicious gossip, that's taming their tongues. Not enslaved to much line, sober and disciplined in their life and in their pursuits. And then, lastly, teaching what is good.

I'm gonna have to cut some things out here. Well, first of all, let's just begin by saying, teaching what is good must be balanced with 1st Timothy 2, 11 and 12. 1st Timothy 2, 11 and 12, a woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness, but I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man but to remain quiet. So this is not talking about ladies entering the office of preacher or teacher in the church, or elder, we would say. That's not what this teaching is.

Again, what's the context? Verse 4, that they might teach the younger women. But the idea here is teaching what is good.

So let me move through this and you'll get it next week, I'm sure. Teaching what is good is so effective among younger ladies because they've been there and they've done that. They have the experience. I've said this numerous times, I want to say it again, there is not a segment of the church that is being more attacked, that is being more taken advantage of, than the young women of the church. I mean Satan, he surveyed the field, he said, this is our best target, the young women of the church. Satan knows that God made women to feel more deeply, to care more deeply, to be more emotional, that's a wonderful gift. Side note again, brothers and sisters, women have this miraculous power God's ordained for them to have to conceive children.

Just take that precious child. That's a power and a strength that the world demeans but God exalts it. That's not a nothing, that's a foundational glory to birth that child.

Gives her breast to nourish and feed that baby and gives her a strength and a capacity to defend and protect and care for and treasure that precious baby. And our enemy, Satan, works without rest to rip that away from women's thoughts and minds. It's a glorious strength that God's given women and Satan keeps battling, battling, battling, battling against our young women. We need an army of older ladies to launch a counter assault and say this is glorious and good and of God and blessed.

You're not being robbed, you've been given a gift. Your child's not your problem, your home's not your enslavement, your husband's authority's not your difficulty, these are gifts from God. We need older ladies to say we've had enough. We're building up the hedge, we're building up a bulwark to hold back the wicked schemes of the enemy and protect our young ladies.

Am I making myself clear? I can illustrate how Satan seems to have such advantage with ladies, young women, even girls when they're not protected by good pastors and good daddies and good husbands. In 2003, the Gallup organization did a youth survey 20 years ago. They did a youth survey and in that survey the Gallup organization found that twice as many young girls supported gay marriage as young boys.

Did you hear me? Twice as many girls said we think this is good and right than the young boys, double. I don't think it's because young girls are more sinful, it's because God made them different and it's right and righteous for them to think through their emotions in their heart. Until a young girl, they're not talking about, they're not thinking about all the implications, they're thinking about this seems fair and good and loving because God made young girls to feel that way. But if we don't have presidents who are godly heads of the country, if we don't have senators and representatives who are godly heads of the people they represent, if we don't have pastors who are faithfully godly heads in leading their churches, if we don't have husbands who are faithfully godly heads in their households and fathers who are faithfully godly heads of their households, Satan can seduce and manipulate and misuse those women's strengths in a way that makes them a weakness.

Ladies, are you hearing this? So the older ladies have to rise up, Paul tells Titus, and teach these younger ladies, sweetheart, don't be taken in by these lies. I know you feel deeply about it and your compassion is well taken, but there's a line where compassion turns into wickedness, such as the young girls saying gay marriage was okay. I don't know about you, but I don't want any of our ladies to lose their compassion. I don't want any of our ladies to lose the compassion to have tears and emotion. We need that, guys, amen?

I don't want any of our ladies to lose that passion for the home and the babies. But we need to see how Satan is taking advantage and trying to ruin the lives of young women. Matter of fact, every survey you find on these wicked things that are happening, start with abortion, don't misunderstand what I'm saying ladies. I'm talking about nationwide, if the ladies didn't vote, those things would have never been legalized. That's just the facts.

Why? Because they feel with their hearts. Well it is, we can see that, and we do understand that that could be a heart for a lady, and satan, here he goes. See, you will never, ever, ever, ever, I'm gonna get out here again ladies, you will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever convince me that God didn't make women differently, and give them strengths that men don't have, but gave them weaknesses, or allowed weaknesses that men don't have. And He gave men strengths that women don't have, and then men have weaknesses that women don't necessarily, generally speaking, have. And one way we know one of the weaknesses and vulnerability of women is that emotional makeup, is that women in majority support killing their unborn babies.

Doesn't get more low than that. How could women made in the image of God, given that precious gift, come to that conclusion? Because they're vulnerable, they need the protection of headship. Getting back to the text, older ladies, the church needs you, the culture needs you, the home needs you. You're so, see I'm not, ladies please, I'm not preaching to demean you, or denounce you, not even to rebuke you, but to hold you up for the precious, glorious, powerful, important role God's given you. If the older ladies do not teach what is good, then they're actually facilitating or enabling the teaching that is bad. Ladies, this is a duty. You're all teachers, at least in your life and your example, is your duty to help rescue and turn back the younger generation of women from sin and the squandering of their lives on flighty cultural whims. Get them back to the Word of God. Let me close with this.

It's a figure of speech. All you ladies who are 45 and up, here's my final word. Be a hypocrite and start now. Because I know what you're saying, well I didn't do so well here, I didn't do so well there, I didn't do so well here and there. First of all, but you did do a lot of things well.

You did do a lot of things well. It's kind of like that drug commercial the government put out years ago, where they were trying to tell parents to teach your children not to smoke marijuana because it led to cocaine, it led to everything else. Now they've changed their mind on that too, by the way. And they had a little advertisement that said, be a hypocrite.

Even though you did it, help your children not to do it. So ladies draw a line in the sand and say, well if I may have dropped the ball here and there, at least I know what dropping the ball looks like, at least I know what it does, and I can help the next generation do better than I have. And that's been a theme of mine in Pam's marriage. Hopefully our next generation do better than we did. So as I said in our prayer time earlier, I'm very aware that there's a growing number of ladies, and by the way, this has been going on a long time.

I'm not saying it hadn't been doing, but there just seems to be a new urgency, a new conviction about older ladies influencing the younger ladies along these lines of truth. May your tribe increase. And can I say it this bluntly and crudely, the world may go to hell, but this church ain't going with it. We're not going with it. We're going to be loving and kind and compassionate and sweet, but have back bones like saw logs on the things that matter. Amen.