You may have heard someone say that we ought to live godly lives so that we can be happy or successful or experience a deep sense of peace. Today on Truth for Life, we'll discover how biblical teaching and godly living serve a much higher purpose than our happiness.
Alistair Begg continues his study in the series titled, Get It Right. I invite you to turn with me to Titus and to chapter 2. It's always good to be able to see that what is being said is actually in the Bible, or to check that it's in the Bible, to make sure it's in the Bible. You need to bring all of the sermons under the control of the Bible. You never just take anybody's word for it.
Make sure that you have a good, careful look. Verse 1. But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the Word of God may not be reviled.
Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself, in all respects, to be a model of good works, and in your teachings show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Slaves are to be submissive to their own masters in everything. They are to be well pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority.
Let no one disregard you. Amen. Gracious God, with our Bibles open before us, we earnestly ask for the help of the Holy Spirit to illumine the page to us, to help us both to see and to understand, to believe and to obey. Accomplish your purposes, we ask in Jesus' name.
Amen. Well, the teaching ministry of Titus—and it is a teaching ministry, as we can see from these three chapters—is to stand out in contrast to the false teaching that has already begun to invade these congregations on the island of Crete. And what he does in terms of integrity and dignity and sound speech that can't be condemned, as is mentioned in verse 8 here as we read it, is to be in stark contrast to what is coming from the mouths of those who, according to the tenth verse of chapter 1, are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers—people who are devoting themselves to all kinds of mythology, attaching to Judaism, and people who are pronouncing for people commands that are essentially the inventions of men.
They're man-made regulations. And Paul is warning Titus against such individuals and is saying to him, it is absolutely imperative, Titus, that when you teach, you teach what is in accord with the sound doctrine. In other words, all the things that I have made clear to you, Titus, about the gospel, about who God is and how he has made himself known, and what he has done in the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem a people that are his own—when you lay that down for the people, then you must make sure that you teach them that there are things that emerge from the clarity of that instruction—a view of the world that is mandated by those convictions, characteristics of interpersonal relationships and private life that flow from the gospel, and implications in the everyday events of society, as we're going to see in chapter 3. But all of it, Titus, you must make sure is comprehensive in the minds of those that you're instructing.
And this is no easy task. But there's no reason for Paul to come back at the end of this section and say, Declare these things. Apart from the temptation that would be there for Titus not to declare these things, for him to step away from the implications of much of what he is forced to say about what it means to be married, what it means to be unmarried, what it means to be controlled, what it means to be involved in the politics of life in Crete, and so on. No, he has to make sure, again in verse 15, that he exercises a ministry of exhortation, and that he is prepared to rebuke, and that he is prepared to do so with all authority—not the authority of Titus' personality, but the authority which is his as a minister of the gospel—and no one should disregard him.
No one should disregard him. And again, the reason that it is so important is in order that those who are his flock, who are under his care, would understand that there is a lifestyle that accompanies this sound doctrine. Now, we're jumping back into it here halfway through verse 4, because the exhortation that has been given to the older men we have looked at, to the older women in verse 3 we have considered, and then we had begun to look at the fact that to these more mature women has been entrusted a training and a teaching role within the church—not one that is primarily formalized, as in a classroom, although there is a place for that, as is clearly obvious, but rather the kind of teaching and training that emerges as a result of rubbing shoulders in the everyday events of life. And the personal trainers that are to be emerging, just as folks run into one another, are to be providing the opportunity to teach these young women, notice in verse 4, to love their husbands and their children. And we ponder the fact that it is an interesting thing, that you would have to be trained to love your husband and your children.
Are you not just supposed to do that naturally? Well, what he's referring to here is not love as a victim of our emotions but love as a servant of our wills. And that the first blush and enthusiasm of early married life lasts about thirty-six months, I think, by recollection. After thirty-six months, you move into another phase where she's a wonderful girl, but she's not just as wonderful as she was at thirty-two months, and you haven't been as wonderful since about twelve months, and so the whole thing has moved into another dimension. And the lady may find herself saying, Dear Mia, maybe I should read People magazine and find out what I'm supposed to do. No, you didn't do that.
Don't read that nonsense. Just find an older lady in the church. She'll help you.
She'll be able to say, Don't worry, I can help you with this. I can train you to love your husband and to love your children. Now, this is going to go on with further instruction, and I want to pause very purposefully and for a fair amount of time here to identify for you the purpose statements that run through this entire instruction. There are three of them, first in verse 5. The reason for this instruction in relationship to the women, the young women in the home, is in order that, you will notice at the end of verse 5, the Word of God may not be reviled.
We'll come back to that. So that the Word of God may not be reviled. In relationship to Titus' ministry himself, the soundness and integrity of it, it is in order that, verse 8, opponents may be put to shame, and then in verse 10, in relationship to the functioning of employers and employees or slaves and the slave owners, it is in order that in everything the doctrine of God our Savior may then be adorned. Now, the reason I pause here is because I think if we lose sight of the purpose of this instruction, we may fall foul of all kinds of ideas—that somehow or another this is an archaic expression of a lifestyle that is embedded in a kind of Pauline theology in a first-century church that has no immediate application to those of us living in the twenty-first century—or that we may view the instruction simply as a mechanism for our own well-being, that it is here in the Bible in order that we might sort of live happy and peaceable lives. There is no question that when we do as God intends for us to do, the potential for peaceful lives and a measure of happiness is there. But you will notice that the purpose in all of these instances, with this intensely practical instruction for the local fellowships in Crete, is in order that God in everything may be glorified, that God's Word may be magnified, and that God's people may be built up. So in other words, if you come to the passage about, How am I supposed to live as a young woman? and sort of treat it in an atomized way, in a How does this affect me way? then you will immediately go wrong. And if we're tempted to do that, then the rest of us who are not young women will find ourselves saying, Well, why is this not just a class for young women?
I mean, I'm not a young woman. Why are we even studying this passage? Well, we're studying the passage because it's in the Bible, and all of the Scripture is profitable for correction and reproof and for training and righteousness, and all of us are involved with one another as brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. Therefore, if we're going to exhort and encourage one another, we're gonna have to do it on the basis of something, and the something that is the basis for our exhortation and encouragement is nothing other than the Word of God itself. So how am I, as a father, to encourage my daughters to live with their husbands in relationship to Titus chapter 2?
Not exclusively, but definitely. How am I to learn to live in a way that is honoring to my wife in relationship to Titus chapter 2? How am I to make my way through the journey of my days in relationship to the instruction of God's Word? In other words, all of it is about God and about the gospel and about his glory. It's all about God and the gospel and his glory. When I was thinking along those lines this week, I said to myself, you know, it is very important that I keep in mind—and the folks keep in mind as well—the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
And I'm sure you would agree with that immediately just when I mention it to you. And we didn't go any further than the first two questions to help us here and to establish purpose. First question in the Shorter Catechism is, What is the chief end of man? which is the fundamental question of all of life. It's the question, Why do I exist? It's the question that says, Why do I go to work? It's the question that addresses everything that I do and all that I am. And to get the answer wrong is horrible.
To get it right is fantastic. What is the answer? The answer that is given is that the chief end of man—that is, men and women—the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. To glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And the second question, then, asks, What, then, what rule has God given in order that we might know what it is to glorify him and enjoy him? And the answer is, the only rule that he has given us is his word, the Bible.
Now, you see how that all fits together. Why do I exist? As a young woman, as a young man, as a senior, or whatever it might be, I exist to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. How in the world am I going to find out how to glorify God and enjoy him?
The answer is, by turning to your Bible. Now, let me just remind you of what the theologians have taught us concerning the glory of God. First of all, that God in himself possesses an intrinsic glory—an intrinsic glory, a glory that is essential to his being as God.
It's not something that is added to him or maybe subtracted from him. The queen? And she has a glory, is represented by her throne, is represented by her crown, is represented by her jewels.
But when you remove the throne, the crown, the jewels, the barge, the coaches—she's just like everybody else. All of that glory is not intrinsic glory. It is, if you like, an attached glory. But the glory of God is intrinsic to his being. To remove his glory would be to remove him as God.
It is impossible. So when we think about giving glory to God, we don't think for a moment that we're adding to the intrinsic glory which is his as God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But what we're doing is actually ascribing glory to him.
So there is an intrinsic glory that is inherent in his being, the glory that he has in himself that is an essential part of him, and then there is the glory that is ascribed to God, which simply means that we lift up his name, that we magnify his glory in the world and in the lives of others. We make much of God. So, whatever it might be, we've sung already this morning that creation sings the Father's song. We were making much of God as creator.
We go back into a world that is increasingly interested in denying that truth. And we teach our children to say that before there was time, before there was anything, there was God. That he created the heavens and the earth, that the evening stars declare his glory, that the birth of every child is an indication of his handiwork, and so on. And in seeing these things and in affirming these things, we give glory to God.
Thomas Watson, who was so tremendously helpful in his day, uses four words that I want to give you—I want to expound on them, and I'll just give you them, and you can ponder them yourself—but he uses four words to describe what is involved in glorifying God. The first word is appreciation. Appreciation. The psalmist says, You are exalted far above all gods.
We appreciate the fact that you are above and beyond every other kind of man-made, invented God. Appreciation. Secondly, adoration. Adoration.
Giving to God the glory that is due to his name. Thirdly, affection. Affection. And not the affection which emerges as a result of receiving something, so that a godless and unbelieving person may have a measure of affection towards God, because the sun is shining and it isn't raining. So they say, Well, if there is a God in heaven, I'm feeling predisposed to him today, because it's a nice day.
If it's not a nice day, then I don't feel that way. That's not the affection. Not the affection which emerges in response to something, but the love or the affection or the delight that sets its heart upon God in the way that we would set our hearts upon a treasure, or in the way that just rejoices in the company of a good friend, so that the friend doesn't bring us anything?
The friend is just there. And we just say, Oh, this is great! Isn't it great to be together? I love you as a friend.
I'm glad of your company. This means everything to me. We glorify God when we display that kind of affection. And the fourth word is the word subjection. Subjection.
Appreciation, adoration, affection, and subjection. When we are subjecting ourselves, our minds to God's truth, our tongues to his praise, our hands to his service—when we bring our minds, if you like, underneath the privileges, the responsibilities, and the demands that are set out for us in the Bible. Because remember, how will we learn to glorify God and enjoy him?
The answer is, he's given us the only rule to this in his Word, the Bible. Now, loved ones, do you understand how this transforms everything that you do? When we understand this, then it changes everything. It changes the way we view life in its infancy.
It absolutely transforms what it means to be a teenager, trying to work out your existence, figure out your hormones, and everything else that goes on. It actually makes a huge impact on the way in which we decide how we're going to live our lives in relationship to vocation and employment and everything else. Unless we constantly stand back and say, God, what am I doing here in the universe? and get the answer right, then we will be like everybody else in the universe, chasing desperately for a Friday to try and get through the miserable existence of the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Our whole world is programmed in that way.
And if we're not careful, we'll be right there as well. So we'll see everything that we're doing as simply an addendum to all the things we really want to do. But when you realize that the fourteenth load of laundry—not that I've ever done fourteen loads of laundry, I have never done four loads of laundry, but the fact is—and I don't mean this in any disparaging way, but I mean, I'm in awe of that laundry room when I see all the things my wife does. How do you hold all these things in tension? How do you do all these things? I mean, be honest, fellas, you can't make the toast pop up and the egg boil and the tea go simultaneously.
If your life depended on it, you can't do it. And yet she does this, this, this, this, this—multiple things. And she sits down and says to herself, What in the world am I doing?
And if she isn't able to say, I'm glorifying God and enjoying him forever, then she doesn't have sufficient motive for doing anything she's doing. It's not hard to see how a failure to grasp the ultimate big picture then extends itself into the futilities and failures and alienations of contemporary life. There's a reason Woody Allen is as messed up as he is.
Because he doesn't know the answer to the first question in the shorter Westminster catechism. And he needs to. And so do you. And so do I. Glorifying God in everything.
Enjoying him in everything. When our greatest aim is to glorify God, our lives are completely transformed. You're listening to Truth for Life and Alistair Begg with a message titled, Teaching that Accords with Sound Doctrine. If you'd like to know more about why God deserves all the glory and how we can honor him, we want to encourage you to get a copy of today's featured book. It's titled, Know the Truth, a Handbook of Christian Belief. For decades, this book has been a popular reference source for Christians because it thoroughly explains what the Bible says about important foundational topics. That's how the book is organized by topic. So you can learn specific principles one at a time.
Study the Holy Spirit or the Trinity or what it means to be reconciled to God. Those are just a few of the topics included. Know the Truth has been an important book for so many, including Alistair who is actually here with us today to tell us about it.
Alistair? Thanks, Bob. Know the Truth by Bruce Milne has been a foundational book for me personally and then in the leadership here at Parkside. It is just a very, very helpful handbook of Christian doctrine.
His touch on the ball, if you like, is light. He doesn't skip things and he doesn't get caught up in technicalities. It is a book to help somebody really anchor their faith and their understanding of Scripture. And it's also a wonderful book for somebody who has never really thought out the nature of God and the doctrine of Scripture and what humanity itself even is. So I couldn't commend it more warmly and I'm glad that it is a book that we're offering this month. Yeah, this is a book that will not only help you personally, it's one you'll want to consider using for your church and new members classes or give it to a friend who wants to learn more about what Christians believe. You can request your copy of the book Know the Truth when you donate to support the teaching ministry here at Truth for Life. Go to truthforlife.org slash donate or call us at 888-588-7884. If you would prefer to mail your donation along with your request for the book, write to Truth for Life at post office box 39-8000 Cleveland, Ohio 44139. I'm Bob Lapine. We learned today that our chief purpose in life is to glorify God. But what does that look like, especially in a culture that values things like autonomy and self-promotion? Join us tomorrow for the answers. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.
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