On Being a Mature Christian Woman #2

What Paul has in mind here for you Christian women to be mindful of the fact that rather than being a malicious gossip, rather than being given over to the things and the influences of this world, is to realize that God has placed you particularly in the body of Christ with a ministry that you are to carry out.

Hello, I'm Bill Wright. We're continuing our series, Titus, God's Glorious Plan of Grace. Today, Don presents part two of a message titled, On Being a Mature Christian Woman. A good self-assessment in light of Christ was point number one.

Our teacher has three more to bring to your attention in a moment. But first, Don has a few opening words before we get started. Well, hello, my friend, and welcome to The Truth Pulpit. I realize this may be your first time in hearing our broadcast, and let me just encourage you to stick with us over the next 25 minutes. We love to teach the Bible in a clear and hopefully compelling way that is easy to understand and easy to apply to your life.

There won't be a lot of heavy promotion at the end of the broadcast. We just want to minister God's Word to you. If that sounds like something you're interested in, stay with us as we study God's Word together on The Truth Pulpit. And now, here's today's lesson from The Truth Pulpit. Now, where does belonging to Christ manifest itself in your life? That's the overall attitude that we have. Well, how does God want you to work that out?

That's what we're going to see in our next three points that we'll cover fairly quickly, I think. Secondly, ladies, following the logic of Scripture, following what Paul says, the second point, you look at your speech. You look at your speech. In a particular way, God brings the application home to your tongue. Look at Titus 2, verse 3. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, set apart for God in all that they think, say, and do. What does that mean, Paul?

Well, let me get more specific. He says, not malicious gossips. Not malicious gossips. As you're conscious of being set apart for Christ, you must understand, realize, embrace, and aim your heart for the fact that you must consciously use your tongue, use your lips, use your voice for high purposes. Your voice, your tongue, is given to you for high purposes.

As one's set apart for Christ, one aspect of being set apart for him is that your tongue is set apart for the purposes that he's appointed you to speak. Now, Paul states it in the negative, saying, not a malicious gossip. You know, that's the same word that's used for the devil. It's the same word that's used for the devil, and it's used here in the sense of slandering people, just as Satan himself is the great slanderer of men. Paul is saying, don't be like the devil in the way that you speak. Don't be a slanderer of those that are around you. Your tongue is set apart. Your tongue is not for the purpose of wickedness. Turn back to the book of Proverbs.

We'll see the positive side of this. Proverbs chapter 31. And we'll put a couple of things here together as we consider your speech, ladies. Proverbs chapter 31. And you can look specifically at verse 26 as you're turning there. Remember, ladies, what we're talking about here is what does it mean to be set apart for Christ? What does it mean to be reverent in all of your behavior?

Well, the Bible starts it with your tongue. Speaking of a virtuous woman, in Proverbs chapter 31, verse 26, it says, she opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. Wisdom and kindness, ladies, not slander and evil reports. That is what God requires of older women in the church. Now, many women in this body, many women in Truth Community speak with wisdom and kindness.

I happen to be married to one of the best of them in that regard. And I am profoundly grateful for all of you ladies that the Lord has brought you here. And in light of this biblical pattern, in light of what Paul is saying here, each one of you ladies, young and old here, this gets really, really penetrating in its searching of our hearts. But particularly addressed to you older ladies, each one of you must ask yourself, is your tongue one that speaks kindly? When you open your mouth, is there wisdom that comes out?

Is there kindness toward others that come out? Or, is your mouth known for its biting sarcasm? Is your mouth known for its critical spirit?

Is your mouth known for expressing hostility toward others? You see, when God calls us to be set apart, and He calls us not to be malicious gossips, He's really penetrating. You have to understand that your mouth is speaking from that which fills your heart. And if you see that kind of sarcasm, if you see worldly things coming out of your mouth, if you see unkindness and foolishness coming out, realize that God has just pinpointed a place for change in your life. Don't resist the conviction of the Holy Spirit on that point. Don't try to brush it off. This is the work of the Spirit of God through the Word of God trying to set you apart and make you more like Christ.

And because you love Christ, you embrace that which points you further in that direction. You say, yeah, this stings. Okay, it stings.

But you know what? I see the way forward. I need to start training my tongue. I need to start thinking before I start speaking. And asking myself is what I'm about to say a reflection of wisdom and kindness or something else? And if it's something else, let your right hand become your best friend. Just let your right hand silence your tongue until wisdom and kindness is prepared to come out. It's all about loving Christ.

It's all about being set apart for Him. Realizing that when Christ laid His hand on your life to save you, when Christ drew you to Himself, He drew all of you, including that tongue in your mouth, to Himself to be set apart and used for His purposes. And as you godly ladies are growing in Christ, realize the opportunity there. This is not simply God correcting us for the bad things that we say. It's God saying, recognize the purpose for which I saved you. Recognize the purpose for which I gave you the tongue. And if you are prone to a bubbly, outspoken personality, that's great.

That's fine. Just sanctify it and use it to speak that which I would have you say. This is part of what God calls us to. So, how do we become mature Christian women?

First of all, you've got to be a woman. I can't be a mature Christian woman. I have to aim myself to being a mature Christian man. But if you're a woman, you want to grow in Christ, you set it in your mind. Your self-assessment is, I'm set apart for Christ.

I'm serious about that. Nothing is more important to me than that I belong to Christ. And then it starts to work itself out. The way that you speak, this brings us to our third point. Your self-assessment, your speech. Third point, your sobriety.

Your sobriety. Look at verse 3 with us. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips. Nor enslaved to much wine.

And that word enslavement is a perfect translation of the verb form there. It has the idea of being under bondage to alcohol. And so, ladies, let me say this, just by way of a general statement. The more that you separate yourself from this alcohol-soaked generation in which we live, and the drug-infested way and times in which we live, the more you will reflect the reverence of a woman who belongs to Christ. In one sense, there's not even a need to address, is it okay to have a little sip of something once in a while? We don't even need to address that in the sense that what you want to do as a woman set apart for Christ, and in light of how profoundly negative the impacts of all of that is, you should look at it and think about it, not what can I do, but how far can I stay away from it? And not even get to the point of whether it's sinful or not to take a simple sip.

I'm not even going to address that. That's not the point of the passage here. Not to be enslaved to it. But ladies, for those of you that really love Christ, to understand that the issue isn't how close can you get to enslavement and not sin, you should think about it in terms of how far can I stay away from it and thus sanctify myself for the purposes of loving my Christ. And if you think about it in those terms, I'm more than content to leave it to your conscience. Having said that, having talked about that sobriety, saying, don't be enslaved to much wine.

You know what, ladies? What he says here in the totality of Scripture's teaching about wine and the Christian life, it's far more searching than you would realize. My guess is that for most of you Christian women here, you're not closet drunks. I realize there might be some that are like that, but for the most part you're not closet drunks. And so you look at that and say, that has no application to me.

I can check that one off and it doesn't search me at all. Well, look, a little tangent here for all of us. If you're reading through Scripture and you come to a passage and you look at a passage and you say, that doesn't convict me at all. That has nothing to do with my life.

I'm sure I fulfill that perfectly. Chances are you need to take another look. Chances are you need to think more deeply about it. Because the Word of God always searches us.

It always convicts us. There's always something that we can appropriate from it. And so I don't want you to be content saying, okay, I'm not a closet drunk. I'm not enslaved to much wine. Because Scripture searches us more than that. You see, not being enslaved to much wine has a positive scriptural counterpoint that we need to consider here.

It's not enough simply to avoid the negative. We're to be marked by certain positive characteristics. Turn over to Ephesians chapter 5. And ladies, just remember, God brings us to this to make us better, to sanctify us, to show us how better to live out the affection that is in your heart for your Savior. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18 gives us both the negative and the positive side that Paul only alludes to in Titus chapter 2 verse 3.

Ephesians 5 verse 18. And do not get drunk with wine. Got it, pastor. Oh, but the sentence isn't over yet. Oh, no.

There's more here. For that is dissipation. But be filled with the Spirit. In contrast to being drunk with wine is being filled and under the control of the Spirit. And what does that look like?

What does that mean? Verse 19. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father, and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

Do you see it? Do you see the positive scriptural counterpoint to being drunk and filled and under the control of wine? Scripturally speaking, it's not just that you avoid that and you're okay. There's a whole realm of Christian existence that should flow out of your life and mark everything that you do. To be sober is to not only not be intoxicated, but it is to be filled with the Christian character that is the mark of knowing the Spirit of God. And so when you say, okay, I'm not enslaved to wine, good. That's good. But set your aspirations higher.

Aim higher and ask yourself questions like this. Is my heart, when I think about music, is my heart filled with Christ-centered songs? Look at verse 19. This is Ephesians 5 and 19. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.

What's your heart singing about? Verse 20, always giving thanks. Is your heart filled with gratitude? Is your life filled with deferential love to others in the body of Christ? You see, ladies, the opposite of intoxication for the Christian woman is not merely sobriety in a physical sense. The opposite of that is a Spirit-filled life that is filled with godly music in your heart, a sense of singing with joy to Christ, grateful to Him, loving others in the body of Christ. That's the mark of a spiritually mature woman. Those of you that have aspirations for Christ, that's where you set your heart and your goals after. It's a sobriety that is a God-filled sobriety.

Ladies, let me say this gently. Say it as one of sinful failings. A woman whose mind is filled with secular media, a woman whose mind is filled with a grumbling spirit can't lay claim just yet to being this reverent woman whose heart is given over completely to the Lord of her salvation. You see, we have to let the Word of God search us and examine us. A heart that is reverent, a heart that is set apart, sets aside a lot of stuff and sets itself over to the spiritual virtues of which the Word of God commends to us.

So you think about your life from that perspective. On being a mature Christian woman, your self-assessment, your speech, your sobriety, and realizing all that Scripture says about the opposition to drunkenness, that those positive spiritual traits are there. Fourthly, ladies, your sympathy.

Your sympathy. And this brings us back to Titus chapter 2, 3, and we're almost done here. Titus chapter 2, verse 3. Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, not enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good.

There it is. Your sympathy, teaching what is good. It bleeds over, teaching what is good. Verse 4, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, and on it goes there in verse 5.

Teaching what is good. And so what Paul has in mind here is for you Christian women to be mindful of the fact that rather than being a malicious gossip, rather than being given over to the things and the influences of this world, is to realize that God has placed you particularly in the body of Christ with a ministry that you are to carry out. As an older Christian woman, having gone through some of the battles of a difficult family life, having gone through some of the difficulties of raising children and all of that, your mindset needs to be, okay, here I am set apart by Christ.

Here I am with these life experiences. Let me look around and see if there's someone younger who's like I was that could benefit from my loving encouragement and sympathetic help to them. You older Christian ladies, there's your ministry in the church. This is what God is calling you to do in particular, to have in mind the younger ones coming up.

You know from direct personal experience how hard it can be. You ladies, and I can speak directly to my wife on this, you know what it's like to be married to a man who is sometimes difficult to live with, and you've found the path of godliness through that. God gave you that character. God gave you that experience so that you would be quick and eager to share it with those who are struggling under the weight of what you used to struggle under yourself. That is a primary aspect of your ministry in the body of Christ. You understand the challenges and the trials that are unique to younger women.

You're not to be consumed with your own life and your own activities and the own stuff that you do. There should be such a sympathy that's born out of your heart of being a Christian woman that you look out and say, oh, let me help. Let me bring my love to bear upon your life.

Let me accept that responsibility to help you with sympathy. You older ladies, truth community can become a profoundly special place if those of you at that station of life embrace godliness, embrace this self-assessment, this speech, and this sobriety that we've talked about. I want to embrace it so that I would be a blessing to the younger ones that are in the congregation.

I may be in my 40s, 50s, whatever. There are women in their 20s and 30s who need to hear from me that I can help. You look for those opportunities. This is not just a pastor looking to make a congregation better. Ladies, what you need to see is this is the text of scripture authored by the Spirit of God telling you what your job is in life. You are to have a ministry mindset that says, I want to minister to these younger ladies.

I know what it's like. I know they need my help and encouragement, and I'm going to be available for them. That's the sympathy of an older Christian woman.

It's obvious from the context. What Paul is picturing here is especially private interaction, especially that one-on-one environment where a younger Christian woman can open up and say, this is hard, and you respect her confidence, you respect her trust, and you honor that and say, here's what I did, and it helped. Let me pray with you, with everything that we've said here, the exalted position of being a Christian woman, the exalted place that your tongue has, and the exalted place that God calls on your affections, and this opportunity to have a direct personal influence on the course of a family through the love that you would show to a young wife and a young mom.

Let's be clear about something. What God has set before you is no second-class status in life. God has given you an exalted, noble, worthy position. You have a particular opportunity, a particular responsibility to manifest the godly life of one who is set apart for Christ and let us all see what the fruit of that looks like. That's noble. That's worthy of handing your life over to.

That's something for a woman. The women who embrace this life will quietly, but deeply and profoundly manifest the glory of Christ to the circle of influence that God has given to you, to your family, and to those of us that are watching. Ladies, Christ is calling. Christ is calling you. Christ is calling you and saying, Rise up and embrace this view of being a mature Christian woman. This is the call of God on your life. Those who respond will know blessing untold that echoes throughout all of eternity. Today on The Truth Pulpit, Pastor Don Green has concluded a message from the book of Titus on being a mature Christian woman.

Of course, God's word also has something to say to young Christian women, and Don will focus in on that next time. We do hope you'll join us for more from our current series, Titus, God's Glorious Plan of Grace. Meanwhile, we invite you to visit our website, thetruthpulpit.com. There you can download podcasts or find out how to receive CD copies of Don's radio messages for your personal study library. And if you want to go even more in depth, you'll also find the link, Follow Don's Pulpit. That'll take you to Don's full-length weekly sermons, not subject to the time editing we need for radio broadcasts. And if you're in the Cincinnati area, check out the service times for Truth Community Church, also on our website, and plan a visit. We would love to welcome you. And now for Don Green, I'm Bill Wright. We'll see you next time for more from The Truth Pulpit.