THE MODEL MAN OF GOD
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on May 30, 2010 under 2010 |
Preached Sunday, May 30, 2010
from
Titus 2:6-8
Theme: In the local church, God calls the pastor to serve as the godly model for young men.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
This morning, we continue our study of Paul’s New Testament letter to Titus. But before we begin, I need to pause first and ask a special indulgence from the congregation. I want very much for the whole church family to gain a great blessing from this morning’s passage; but I need to let you know, right from the start, that this morning’s passage is primarily directed at me!
So, I hope you’ll put up with the fact that morning’s passage requires that the preacher preach to himself! But I hope very much that you’ll listen in too. What this passage has to say to me as the pastor impacts not just me alone, but also the whole church family—as well as the cause of the gospel that it’s our privilege together to share with the lost and needy people around us.
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You see; Paul, in this section of his letter, was urging Pastor Titus to instruct the Christians that were in his care to live the kind of lives that advances the gospel in this world. The group of churches which Titus served was in very serious need of such instruction. False teachers were bringing harm to the church families by spreading their false doctrines. And one way that Paul dealt with this problem was telling Titus to establish good, strong, godly spiritual leadership over each of those churches—pastors who could faithfully defend the integrity of the gospel from those who would distort it. That was the focus of the first chapter of this letter
And another way of dealing with this problem was for Paul to encourage Titus—and those leaders that Titus established—to exhort the people in the churches to faithfully live lives that match-up with, and properly “adorn” the gospel that the churches were to proclaim. This is the focus of the second chapter.
Paul begins in 2:1 by telling Titus, in contrast to the false teachers who were spreading their spiritual toxins among the people, “But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine . . .” And he then goes on to touch on each age group within the church, and specify how they are to live in a way that truly affirms the gospel message to the unbelieving world. He began with older men; saying, ” that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience . . .” (v. 2). He then speaks of the older women; that Titus is to teach ” the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things . . .” (v. 3). And because those older women are better suited to minister to the younger women, Paul goes on to instruct that “that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed (vv. 4-5).
And as Paul goes on to speak to the different age groups, he comes to younger men. He writes; “Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded . . .” (v. 6). But just when it looks like he is going to give us a list of the things that young men are to do, Paul suddenly turns the attention on to Titus himself—and by extension, all the men who are in positions of spiritual leadership and oversight in the church; “in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you” (vv. 7-8).
So, you see; this is a passage of Scripture that teaches us what kind of lives young men in the church are to live for Jesus Christ. But it does so by telling the pastor of the church to model for those young men the kind of life they are to live! It makes this a sermon that I must preach to myself—in the hopes, of course, that you’ll kindly listen in.
And all of it, as Paul says, is for the vital purpose of defending the credibility of the gospel that we are to proclaim—”that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you”. So, even though its a sermon I must preach to myself, it’s not just about me. And it isn’t just about young men in the church either. It’s crucial to all of us who proclaim the name of Christ—and to the lost people to whom we seek to proclaim Him.
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Now; before we get into the details of this passage—and especially before we begin talking about what it has to say about your pastor—I feel we need to stress something very important first.
It would be very easy for someone to misunderstand the nature of this morning’s passage—and all the verses around it. Someone could easily read the list of things it mentions, and to think that it’s a passage about becoming better people. Someone might look through this list, be inspired by the kind of things that it tells us, and make it their personal resolve to be more faithful in doing good works, or to become a person of integrity, or to behave in a more dignified manner, or even to clean-up one’s act with regard to speech. There’s no doubt, of course, that all of those things are important to do. But what I’m afraid of is that someone might respond to this passage as if it were nothing more than a call to rise up in the power of their own initiative, and work hard at becoming better people. If that were to happen, not only would it be a terrible misinterpretation of this passage, but it would also fall terribly short of accomplishing the goal it sets forth to us of advancing the message of the gospel.
In rightly interpreting and applying this morning’s passage, we must first completely and personally embrace the absolute truth of the very thing that its specific instructions are intended to defend—that is, the good news that God declares a man or woman 100% “righteous” in His sight on the basis of faith alone in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross for us. This is not a command for us to all live “impressive” lives of moral reform in the power of our own abilities—all so that people outside our church might look at what good people we are, become impressed with us, and cease from ever speaking evil of us.
A crucial premise of the “good news”—the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ—is that you and I could never, by our own efforts, make ourselves acceptable in the sight of God. We could never, by our own good deeds or religious acts, make ourselves worthy before Him. And it declares to us that, instead, God has lovingly sent His own beloved Son to become one of us, to walk on this earth without any sin, to live in perfect obedience to the Father, and to then take our sins on Himself and die on the cross in our place. He became our sinless Substitute; so that the guilt of all our sins rested on Him as He died on the cross for us, and that all His righteousness becomes credited to our account before God through faith when we believe on Him. The good news of the gospel, then, is that God now accepts us as 100% righteous in His sight on the basis of our faith—not in what we can do—but in what the resurrected Lord Jesus alone has done for us.
And so, we are to declare that good news to the people of this world—that God pardons guilty sinners like us, and accepts us in His sight on the basis of our faith in Jesus. We don’t seek to live good lives in order to earn God’s favor, but rather because we’re already in His favor. And we don’t seek to live in such a way as to impress people with our moral superiority, but rather to prove the truth of our claim that we have been washed clean by Jesus.
Now; all of that is to say that, if you have never placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you need to do so before you can rightly understand and rightly apply what this passage is saying. You see; it’s not about a personal commitment to moral reform. Rather, it’s about living a life that faithfully declares that you have a personal relationship with the Redeemer from sin and have been born again by faith.
I sincerely hope that you have placed your faith in Him. And if you haven’t, I hope you will do so this very day!
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So; with that important point in mind, let’s now look closer at this passage and see what it tells us about young men in the church, and about the pastor who is to model for them the kind of godly life that flows from a faith in Jesus Christ—and, most of all, about the message of the gospel that is proven to the world through such lives.
First, we see that . . .
I. PASTORS ARE TO EXHORT YOUNGER MEN TO BE ‘SOBER-MINDED’ (v. 6).
Now; in affirming that, I have to acknowledge that we’ve really messed up in churches today. We’ve done a terrible disservice to one of our most important resources in the work of spreading the gospel! We’ve embraced the idea that young people don’t contribute much to the cause of Christ. We’ve grown accustomed to not expecting much of them; and sadly, they’ve learned to fulfill our low expectations! It takes just a moment’s notice to see that the rest of the world doesn’t think that way. Many very influential unbelievers, with a very ungodly agenda, highly emphasize the resource that young people are; and have, accordingly, placed high expectations on them to fulfill that agenda! But we in the church have have failed to realize what a world-transforming resource young people are meant by God to be for the cause of His gospel.
Paul sure didn’t seem to have a problem understanding that! He wrote to a young pastor named Timothy, in 1 Timothy 4:12-16, and indicated the kind of high expectations he had for him when he said,
Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you (1 Timothy 4:12-16).
It was as if Paul were saying, “Timothy; church people are going to sometimes look down on you because you’re young. They’re not going to expect much from you. But don’t you give them any reason for thinking that way. In fact, in the power that God supplies by His grace, you go ahead and surprise them! You become the example to them of what full-hearted dedication to Jesus Christ looks like! You commit yourself to living with all your energies for Him! And you do it for the greatest and most meaningful reason possible—because other people’s eternal salvation hinges on it!”
I’ll never forget how I once read those words of Paul to Timothy. It was way back when I was a very young man—in my early twenties. No one was expecting much from me. But I remember sitting on a sofa one evening and reading those words. They stirred my heart with a sense of God’s call on my life! I believe today that God used those words back then to spurred me on to get the kind of training necessary to become a pastor! And I believe Paul would have had Titus speak to the young men in exactly the same way that he had spoken to Timothy—”Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity! Study the word! Grow in doctrine! Pay attention to the way you live! Make evident progress!”
Paul told Pastor Titus, “exhort” young men in the faith—or as some translations have it “urge” them! It’s a stronger word than he used with respect to older men, where he told him to “speak” to them; or than he used with older women, who were then to “admonish” or “school” younger women. He wasn’t to scold the younger men, or to boss them around. But he wasn’t tip-tow around them and say ‘pretty-please-with-sugar-on-top’ either. The need was too great for that—and the opportunity that God has given to them was far too exciting. He was to urge them to see the high place of duty that God has given them—that is, to declare the mercies of God their Savior to the world around them—and to rise up faithfully and energetically to the call.
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Now; notice the specific thing that Paul called Titus to urge them to do. He said that he was to urge them to “be sober-minded”; or, as it is in some translations, to be “self-controlled”. Did you know that this same Greek word is used in Paul’s instructions to Titus regarding all the other groups of people? In verse 2, he commands that the older men be “temperate”. In verse 5, he commands that the older women teach the younger women that they be “discrete”; and it’s implied that the older women be that way too. And so, here also, the younger men are urged to be “sober-minded” or “self-controlled”. Everyone in the church is to be what Paul is urging the young men to be.
Being “self-controlled” would certainly be something that a young man who follows Jesus needed to be urged to do. The whole world around him cries out to him to give in to his passions of his flesh. But as Paul writes to young Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:22; “Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart”. This word—sometimes translated “self-controlled”—would certainly has something to do with that.
And yet, I believe the word has much more to do with the young man’s mind than just with his body. He’s to think seriously and soberly about who he is in Christ; and what that identity in Christ means in everyday practice. It certainly gets down to the way he keeps his body from doing what is wrong. But I believe it has more to do with the way he keeps his mind focused on his own true identity in Christ—and on what the implications of that identity are in everyday life.
And I note that, in this, Titus is to be the example to the young men under his care. This is to be true, not only of Titus, but also of all pastors in believing churches with respect to the young men who are in them. As Paul goes on to show . . .
II. THEY ARE TO MODEL SUCH ‘SOBER-MINDEDNESS’ TO THEM BY THEIR OWN LIVES (vv. 7-8a).
Note that Paul says this is to happen “in all things”. The pastor is to be a model of what it means to be “sober-minded”—in all ways and in all areas of life—to the young men under his spiritual oversight. He is to “mentor” them in these things. He’s to show them—by his own manner of living—how they, as men who belong to Christ, are to think and live with respect to all the details of life, in full accordance with who they truly are in Christ.
And it’s then that Paul goes on to show the specifics of what such “sober-mindedness” looks like. For example, he tells Titus to set an example of good works. “. . . in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works . . .” (v. 7).
Now; as we’ve already made clear, we are not saved by our good works. We’re saved only by God’s grace through our faith in Jesus. But in the kind of saving faith that the Bible teaches us, good works are never set aside. In fact, we are saved by faith in Jesus in order to do the kind of good works that truly please God. As Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8-10;
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:8-10).
And so; one of the things that Titus was to model for the young men in his church is that, if they’re truly saved by faith in Jesus, then they’ll demonstrate that salvation by a life characterized by good works. In fact, Titus was to demonstrate to them the truth of the thing that Paul would say just a few verses ahead of our passage this morning; that Jesus Christ “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14).
There’s something I’ve learned about young men. They can sometimes be very hard to get moving at first. That’s true even of many young Christian men. After all, they—like everyone else around them today—live in an age that tends to promote self-indulgence, and that exalts in being passively ‘entertained’. But once they’re encouraged to get up and get into action; once they join in with others who are working to do something good, and are shown what to do, and begin to take a task in hand; once they get a sense of doing something worthy in the work of the Lord, a fire becomes lit in them. It’s hard to stop them!
Well; all this means you need to pray for me—that I’ll be a worthy example to follow; that I’ll be a model of industriousness in Christ! Pray for me that I’ll “in all things” show myself to the young men God entrusts to us to be “a pattern of good works”.
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Second, Paul urges Titus to show integrity in his teaching. He says, “in doctrine showing integrity” (v. 7). Now; if you’re using another translation that I’m using, you’ll discover that another word follows after this in my translation that’s not in yours—that is, the word “incorruptibility”. The most reliable texts of the Greek New Testament don’t have that additional word present; but I suspect that it may have easily made its way into the text because of Paul’s words about “integrity” in doctrine. Certainly, one who has integrity in his doctrine or teaching will not be “corruptible” in them either.
In the place where Titus was ministering, there were many false teachers who lacked integrity in their teaching. As Paul says in 1:11, some were teaching what they ought not teach “for the sake of dishonest gain”. They were willing to add to the word of God, or subtract from it, or even omit it altogether, if it would somehow mean that they could make money from it. And certainly, we see that today; don’t we? Many are sadly characterized by, as Paul says elsewhere, “peddling the word of God” (2 Corinthians 2:17)—that is, “commercializing” it in order to find favor with their audience, and “altering” it in order to make more gain from it. And the man of God is to be an example to the young men in Christ of one who is diligent to show himself “a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
A second way that Titus was to show “integrity” in his teaching and preaching ministry was in his own obedience to it. Nothing turns someone off to the gospel faster than a hypocritical preacher. People can see right through a phony—and young people can especially do so! A preacher must be true in his life to what he preaches in the pulpit. He must have “integrity” in his teaching.
But I think there’s still another sense in which Titus was to model “integrity” in his teaching. And that was that he was to be unafraid to proclaim the word of truth, and to bravely and clearly state what the word of God demands of us, even if people don’t like hearing it. The pastor’s preaching and teaching ministry must never be shaped and altered to accommodate a fear of men. He is to do as Paul says elsewhere: “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2). If ever there was a time when young men need to see an example of courage and boldness, it’s when their pastor rises up to proclaim the word of God before an unbelieving and ungodly culture!
Now; when the pastor exhibits that kind of “integrity”—carefully expositing the unchanging word of God, faithfully living it, and boldly declaring what it says to others—he teaches the young men under his care that the Bible truly matters! He shows them that it gives us a truth worth believing, and worth obeying, and even worth defending with one’s own life! Please pray for me that I’ll grow to be increasingly that kind of man—and that the individual young men in our church will see it and want to be that kind of man too!
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A third thing that Paul tells Titus to do is to be reverent in his manner of life. As Paul puts it, the pastor was to model “reverence” (v. 7), or “gravity”, or “dignity”—that is, with a sense of the holy “majesty” of things. And please understand—it’s not that he’s to set an example to them of gloominess, and glumness, and of never laughing or having fun. Rather, it’s that he’s to model to them how they are to be appropriately serious about the things of God, and to treat them in accordance with their true worth.
The young men in our church have grown up in a culture that doesn’t really show much reverence for anything anymore. In fact, some entertainers are celebrated because they’re said to be “irreverent”. But this should never be true of the man of God. He certainly ought to be the happiest man on earth, and be able to have a laugh better than anyone—but he should also be a man who knows how to treat sacred things as sacred, and holy things as holy, and serious things as serious.
A man of God ought to be reverent, because he truly sees things as they are. When I think of this, I think of what Peter said in 1 Peter 1:17-19; where he wrote,
And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot (1 Peter 1:17-19).
We have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ—God’s beloved and sinless Son! That’s a very serious matter! And so, when we come to church, we ought not to be silly and flippant about the things of God. Don’t get me wrong—it’s not a time for sadness either. But it is a time for great seriousness! We’re a people who deal in the most serious matters in the universe! We’re to conduct our time on earth with an attitude of “fear”—not in an negative, phobic sense; but rather with a sense of reverential awe—and even holy dread—at the sacredness of the things with which we, as the people of God, have to do!
The pastor is to model this to the young men in his care! Pray for me; that I’ll always model to them the kind of “dignity” and “reverent manner” that ought to characterize an ambassador of Jesus Christ in this world.
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And finally, note that Paul urged Titus to exhibit soundness in his speech; “sound speech that cannot be condemned” (v. 8). Our speech is to be “sound”—that is, healthy; and the pastor is to model this for young men.
This, I fear, is an area where many of us have let young people down. They hear some pretty bad talk all day long—and we’ve learned to put up with it when we start hearing it come from their lips. It’s very easy to pick up the use of euphemisms and phrases from this world that are utterly inappropriate to be found on the lips of God’s people. The pattern for the follower of Jesus is found in Ephesians 4:29; “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” As Paul says in Ephesians 5:4, “filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor course jesting” are things that are not “fitting” for God’s people. We need to exhibit a sound manner of speaking. The pastor especially needs to take the lead.
And the reason this is so important is because it reflects on the gospel. Do you remember that educational audio program that was advertised on the radio a few years back?—the one that promised to increase your vocabulary? Do you remember how the ad said, “People judge you by the words you use . . .”? Well; the unbelieving world judges our gospel by the words we use in everyday life. Do they see by the soundness of our speech that Jesus Christ has truly transformed our hearts? Or do they hear us talking in the same foul way that they do?
Charles Spurgeon once talked about a preacher who was visiting a man who was dying. As it turned out, that dying man had attended the preacher’s church once before and heard him preach a great sermon on Christ. The man said that he never forgot the sermon, and that he almost gave his life to Christ that day. He even tried to walk along side the preacher on the way home—hoping to ask more about giving his life to Christ. But as he lay dying, he then told the preacher that “the moment you got out you cracked a joke, and all the way back you made such fun upon serious subjects, that I could not say anything about what I felt, and it thoroughly disgusted me with religion, and all who professed it . . .”1 Sadly, that man died shortly thereafter—without ever believing on Jesus. People truly do judge our Savior by the words we use. What a sobering thought!
The preacher is to model sound speech to the young men! Pray for me that I’ll be an exemplary “speaker”. Pray that I’ll always watch my language. Pray that I’ll keep away from inappropriate humor, or silly talk. Pray that I’ll avoid gossip and cutting comments about others. And pray that I’ll thus set an example for others—especially young men.
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And note, finally, that . . .
III. THIS IS ALL TO BE DONE FOR THE SAKE OF THE GOSPEL (v. 8b).
Paul says, “that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you”—or, as some translations have it, “of us”. It’s not that they may never have anything evil to say about our message. Our gospel is about Jesus; and Jesus Himself warned us that, if they hated Him, they’ll hate us also (John 15:18). But rather, its so that they may not have anything evil to say about the one who proclaims that gospel to them. It’s so that they will look at the lives of godly pastors—and the young men who follow their example—and see the kind of sober-mindedness that shows itself in good works, doctrinal integrity, reverence of attitude, and soundness of speech.
So; brothers and sisters, pray for me—that I’ll be a model of those things. And pray for the young men in our church family—that they’ll follow a godly example. And pray for the gospel—that nothing bad can be said about those who proclaim it!
1C.H. Spurgeon, The Soul Winner (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1963), p. 83).
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