Young men, so potentially volatile, impulsive, passionate, arrogant, ambitious, inexperienced, need to become the masters of all the areas of their lives. Everything needs to come under control. Welcome to Grace To You with John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Maybe you've heard that experience is something you can't get on an easy payment plan. You don't get it now and pay for it later. It only comes with time and age. So the question is, what about younger men, those who have less experience than older men? Can their contributions to evangelism and teaching God's Word be as significant as those of older men?
Those are important questions that John MacArthur considers today as he continues his study, Revolutionary Living in a Dark Culture. Before we turn to the subject of living in a way that's countercultural, John, we received a letter from a listener who has been helped by some of your more recent messages on having a biblical worldview in these increasingly difficult days. So if you would, please read that letter.
I'm happy to do that. You know how much I enjoy sharing these wonderful letters with our listeners. This one begins, Hello, Pastor John, you have been a faithful shepherd to the flock, which includes radio and podcast listeners like me. I've read many of your books and listened to hundreds, if not thousands of your sermons.
Wow. I pray that the Lord will allow you to continue to guide us through these increasingly dark days. I'm so thankful for how you have addressed current cultural issues, interpreting them from a biblical point of view and teaching us how to respond without fear and to stand firm. Because I have moved frequently and am rather shy, it has always been difficult to get reestablished in a good church. However, your messages on the importance of membership in a local church continue to convict me.
By using the Find a Church tool on the Master's Seminary website, I was able to locate a church near me that has sound doctrine and is pastored by one of the Seminary's alumni. I'm so grateful that one of the emphases of your ministry has been to prepare many others to follow in your footsteps as a pastor. With love in Christ and she signs her name, Deborah.
Absolutely. The two priorities of my life, preach and teach the Word of God to the people of God and train men to lead the church of Jesus Christ. And Deborah, helping you stand firm in a world that is hostile to Christ continues to be the goal of grace to you. As Deborah points out, I am committed to seeing men prepared for ministry.
This is something we do all over the world, really. We have training centers in 18 locations around the world training pastors. It's also my prayer that the people who worship at Grace Church and like the people who listen to Grace to You would become students of Scripture also. And to that end, Grace to You is here to equip you with verse-by-verse teaching to help you grow in your knowledge of the Word of God. We're doing that through daily broadcasts, along with television programs, topical books, commentaries, the MacArthur Study Bible, and thousands of free online resources, including our sermon archive with 3,600 messages. Of course, as friends like you benefit from our teaching and pray for us and even give as you're led and able, we're going to keep making our resources available to you and to millions around the world. So thank you for standing with us and ministering to God's people for the final and ultimate glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, friend, thank you for listening and learning with us each day and for taking an active role in this ministry with your prayers and your financial support.
And now to continue his study, Revolutionary Living in a Dark Culture, here is John MacArthur. Open your Bible, if you will, to Titus chapter 2. We are continuing in our series in this chapter on the character of a healthy church...the character of a healthy church. We, the church of Jesus Christ, as I'm sure you know if you've been a part of our fellowship for any time, are here on earth for the purpose of being human agents to bring salvation to the lost.
That's really what we're here for. We're here for the purpose of evangelism. We also engage in edification, we engage in ministry, we engage in prayers, worship, fellowship. But all of that will be perfected in heaven. Evangelism won't have any place there at all because the Bible is clear at the end of Revelation that no one who is a sinner unsaved will ever enter heaven. And so the Lord has put on hold the fullness of our fellowship and the fullness of our praise and worship, the fullness of our bliss and blessing and left us here for the express purpose of being human agents of salvation for the lost. And I really think that for the most part, the evangelical church understands that. For the most part, they agree on that purpose. However, they do not necessarily agree on the means for carrying it out.
I suppose that isn't anything new. The church has always struggled with what technique or what methodology or what style it should use, what approach to reach the lost. The church has in the past, and I think is today as much as at any time in my life, been confused about how we are to evangelize, how we are to reach the unsaved. We have really done everything we could to sidle up along with the world and sort of become a Christian counterpart to every worldly attraction.
We have Christian motorcycle gangs, Christian body-building teams, Christian dance clubs, Christian amusement parks, and I even read about a Christian nudist colony. Now wherever Christians got the idea that we would win the world by imitating the world, they didn't get it out of the Bible. There's not a shred of biblical justification for that kind of thinking. In fact, James made it very clear when he said, friendship with the world is enmity with God. And John put it this way, if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
Those things are all in the process of perishing and have nothing to do with eternal issues. If the marketing strategists are wrong, and if we don't have to become and shouldn't become like the world to win the world, then what do we do? What is to be our strategy? And not so much in terms of actually speaking the gospel, but what is the underlying issue that gives us a platform on which to speak? How do we win the attention of the world of sinners so they will at least listen to the truth? What should be our strategy?
What should be our methodology, our technique, our marketing posture? I think the principle is utterly foundational and it is stated for us in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus put it as simply and directly as He could, and it cannot be improved upon. He said this, let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who's in heaven. Jesus basically said the ultimate evangelistic platform is created by the virtue of your lives. Our credibility in the world is our testimony. The platform from which we speak is virtue, godliness, righteousness, transformation. The greatest and the most powerful element of evangelism is not technique, it is not some marketing strategy, it is not cultural relevance, it is the power of a transformed life, collectively the power of transformed lives in the church. When the world looks and sees a person or people who are holy, virtuous, who are at peace, happy, satisfied, fulfilled, and have hope in their hearts for eternity, they see the evidence of God's transforming power. That's the proof.
That's how you market the product by letting people see what it is. That is exactly what Paul is calling for here in Titus. He knows what the evangelistic strategy is to reach the remainder of the island of Crete and wherever else the Cretan Christians might journey. He knows what the issues at hand are. He knows what has to be done to make the Word of God to be honored, as he says in verse 5, to silence the opposers, as he says in verse 8, and to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior and ever respect, as he said in verse 10. He knows exactly what to do and that's what he calls for in chapter 2, godly living.
We must proclaim the saving message, yes. We must give a clear word about sin and judgment and repentance and faith, but it has to be made believable by our lives. It does no good to speak about a God who can save when you show a life that doesn't evidence it. Now if we're going to accomplish the goal of evangelism, the God-given task of reaching the lost, it all starts with the kind of people we are, not the technique. Ephesians 2, 10 says that the Lord saved us unto good works which God before ordained that we should walk in them. In Philippians chapter 2, that very dramatic and powerful text, verse 15, we are to be blameless, innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world. It is our blamelessness, it is our innocence, it is our godliness in the midst of crooked, perverse people that lay the platform on which we hold fast the Word of life. Now because that is so essential and basic, Paul instructs Titus here in chapter 2 to bring the churches at Crete up to a standard of virtue.
That's what chapter 2 is all about. God is a saving God and God has saved people in order that they might live godly lives in order that others might also be saved. So in the second chapter, Paul is writing to his young son in the faith, Titus, and he is telling him how to get the church in every city throughout Crete, and you remember there were many of them, up to the place they need to be in terms of virtue to make the gospel believable. First of all, in verse 1, he gave him a general command when he told him to speak the things fitting for sound doctrine. He knows that godly living is dependent upon a proper understanding of God's Word. You can't live a good theology unless you've got one. And so he starts out by saying, you've got to speak the things fitting for sound doctrine.
You lay the foundation of divine truth. Then he says, you've got to approach every group in the church. The older men, verse 2, are to be taught to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love and perseverance. The older women, in verse 3, are to be taught to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved in much wine, teaching what is good. And then the younger women are to be taught to love their husbands, love their children, be sensible, pure workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, that the Word of God may not be dishonored. In other words, as a shepherd and a pastor, you've got to do for old men what is most needful for them to maintain their testimony, and for old women what is needful for them, and for young women what is needful for them. And this morning we come to the fourth category, young men, verse 6. Likewise, urge the young men to be sensible in all things.
Show yourself to be an example of good deeds with purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech, which is beyond reproach, in order that the opponent may be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us. Having discussed the old men, the old women, the young women, and now he comes to the young men. This is most important to Titus because he is one of them. Very likely a little bit younger than Timothy who was probably in his upper 30s. We find Titus maybe in his early 30s. Much younger than Paul who now describes himself as the aged, he has gone past the 60 mark, somewhere in his middle 60s. But Titus is specifically a young man himself and so he has a unique contribution to make to young men that he couldn't make to old men, nor could he make it to old women or young women since he does not understand personally the role that they uniquely play. So this is really his group. Therefore, though verse 6 is directed at the young men, verses 7 and 8 are directed at Titus.
You say, is this a change? Is there only one verse, verse 6, very briefly addressed to young men? And then he goes on to talk to Titus. No, I think the whole thing relates to young men and what he says to young men in general in verse 6, he says to Titus in specific in verses 7 and 8 because Titus is to be the example to all young men. This is setting a pace of spiritual character and spiritual devotion that he couldn't set for older men not having reached that point in life and he couldn't set for older women or younger women because he does not know fully and personally the role of women. This is his group and so he is called on not only to exhort them in verse 6, but to set the example for them in verses 7 and 8. All of it then relates through him to the young men. Three aspects of responsibility become obvious here, exhortation, example, and effect. Let's start with exhortation, verse 6. Likewise, urge the young men to be sensible in all things.
Likewise is just a word transition that introduces a new category like the prior three categories. In the same way as other groups have been called to live a godly standard and the unique things of their particular role are addressed, so in the case of young men. Here Titus is encouraged to take up personal leadership and personal care over young men of which he is one, and this would be no doubt the greatest emphasis of his life and ministry. Older men would need to be taught by other older men. Older women would need to be encouraged and instructed by other older men or older women.
Younger women were to be instructed by older women and now the young men are instructed by one of them who is godly, though young, namely Titus. Now what about young men? How young is young? Well, men, you're going to rejoice as the ladies did a few weeks ago to know that this relates to anyone under 60. You would consider yourself to be young.
Enjoy it while you can. It refers, generally speaking, to men under 60 since 60 seems to be not only the cultural break point in that time, but even the one which Paul identifies in 1 Timothy when he talks about widows who are over the age of 60. Young men fill up a large category then, somewhere from say 20 to 60 or thereabouts. And young men have their own set of special problems and dangers. They are maybe more intense in some ways in the earlier part of that vast period called young, but they seem to stretch through the whole period. They are the time when men are still basically virile and strong and aggressive to one degree or another and healthy and somewhat ambitious. And those are dangerous years for all of us men.
I thought about the dangers that come to young men and I thought I might share some of them with you. First of all, there is the danger of laziness...laziness. You might call it indulgence.
This is usually programmed, but it's also innate in fallenness. Man, generally speaking, is lazy. He needs some compunctions and some controls and some strong motivations to work. But general laziness can be exacerbated in the home when men are young. Lazy men are usually produced by homes that lack discipline, where they're never really taught to pull in the loose ends of their life and be constructive. Lazy men are also produced in homes where there is partiality, where for whatever reason the parents have selected this particular individual for particular benefit and partiality.
And so he does not see himself as one among many but one above many, and therefore looks not at what he can do to serve others but what others can do to serve him, and that creates laziness. Lazy men are usually produced also in homes where they were never taught hard work, homes where they were indulged and had plenty of money and plenty of goods. Lazy men are produced in homes where parents are absent, where there is no father. Lazy men are produced in homes where there is no particular concern about watching over them. They are left to themselves without caring, without discipline, without work, and left to do what they please. Young men will choose to do nothing beneficial.
They become victims of their own programmed lethargy. It's a dangerous time to be young if you don't learn discipline, if you don't learn work, if you don't learn diligence. Secondly, another danger of youth is freedom...freedom.
Getting young people loose from the family confines, the family accountability, the family scrutiny too soon, too fast, too far. They get a car and they have total freedom. They're out from under strong influence. They're out from under restraint. They're out from under consequences of their behavior. They're out from under instruction. They're out from under discipline. They're out from under fatherly control.
And when they begin to do what they please in their freedom, they usually please to do what is not honoring to God or productive. The third danger is a decadent culture. Young men being raised in a decadent culture are accustomed to vice.
Listen carefully. Familiarity with vice does not produce disgust, it produces attachment. Familiarity with vice does not produce disgust, it produces attachment. Moral perceptions are blurred, sensibilities to evil are dulled, and when young people, young men become accustomed to vice, they are victimized by its allurements. Fourthly, another danger that comes to young men is godless education. They are exposed in their education to attacks on God, attacks on Christ, both overt and covert. They are exposed to attacks on the Bible. Christianity is either ignored, laughed at, jeered at, or not considered at all as intellectual.
They go through a process of education that basically leaves God out or defines Him in human terms, and it's powerful stuff because mentors and teachers and professors carry authority with them. It's a dangerous time as the foundations of life and the belief in God which is so innate to the human heart. The reasonings, as indicated in Romans 1, are attacked and devastated and shattered in the educational process, and men lose their sense of reality about God. And then in a general category, number five, I would say it's dangerous just because of overall immaturity. Immaturity has its own problems. Somebody said it's too bad youth has to be wasted on the young, but that's how it is. And youth because it is youth is immature and because it's immature it has its own set of problems. For example, temptation is strongest in youth. Lusts are most compelling at that time. Habits are formed that rarely can be killed, even in old age.
I have stood by the bed of dying men who have confessed to me with tears that they have never been able to overcome the habits of pornography that they began when they were youth. Youth is a time that presents more opportunity for sin, more frequent opportunity for sin. Youth is a time when ambition is strong, when pride is controlling. Youth is a time of unwarranted confidence, confidence you don't deserve because it's never been tested and you've never been proven. It's a time of imagined invincibility. It's a time of lacking of experience, and experience mellows and softens and brings reality.
It's a dangerous, dangerous time. And the future of the church is yet dependent on young men growing up in such dangerous times. So, says Paul to Titus, urge the young men to be sensible. To get control of themselves, he means. The word urge, parakaleo, come alongside and exhort or encourage, a familiar New Testament word. It means to instruct, to teach, to counsel, direct, to guide, to exhort, to admonish. It's a method of influencing through the spoken word, is what it is. A method of influencing through the spoken word.
Come alongside and instruct them to be sensible. Now that word simply means to control themselves. It's that same word sofranneo.
We've looked at it a number of times. We saw it in chapter 1 verse 8, chapter 2 verse 2, 4, 5, that common word that simply means to develop self-mastery, self-control, balance, to get their faculties and their appetites, their longings and the desires in to harness, to develop discernment and judgment. Such exhortation, by the way, appears similarly to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, 22.
It appears in 1 Peter 5, 5. Young men must have self-control, self-mastery, balance. They must exhibit power over their appetites and their faculties. These are essential if they are to be godly.
They've got to control their lives. That means, parents, that when you're raising your children, you need to teach your children conformity to holy standards and that means you need to control them so that your control becomes their control in time. And then would you please notice the first three words of verse 7? They really belong at the end of verse 6.
The verse numbers are not inspired. They were put in later by men and I think that there are a number of reasons why we would include that phrase at the end of verse 6 so that it reads, likewise urge the young men to be sensible in all things...in all things. First of all, that means that verse 7 begins with, show yourself and moves to the example model. Show yourself to be an example from the exhortation emphasis of verse 6. The word yourself, then, in verse 7 becomes properly emphatic and introduces a new thought. So the phrase, in all things, fits better at the end of verse 6 and stretches this matter of mental balance and self-mastery and self-control and balanced behavior in the Christian life to an almost infinite level in all things. Young men, so potentially volatile, impulsive, passionate, arrogant, ambitious, inexperienced need to become the masters of all the areas of their lives.
Everything needs to come under control. Paul said, I beat my body to bring it into submission. He reminded us to walk in the Spirit, Galatians 5, and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. So Paul says, you exhort young men to walk in the Spirit, to seek with all their might to harness themselves and live in spiritual balance and self-control and not to become victimized by those dangers that are lurking all around them. That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. His current study here on Grace To You is titled, Revolutionary Living in a Dark Culture.
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It's a great gift option. You can order the MacArthur Study Bible at GTY.org or call us at 800-55-GRACE. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson with a couple of questions for you. If you're a young man, what can you do to become a godly leader? And why is that important? Find out tomorrow. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time on Grace To You.
