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March 23, 2022 4:00 am
We live in a culture that prizes things like dependence or accomplishments. Self-reliance when the apostle Paul wrote to young believers in the first century in Crete. He pointed them to transcendent values that still apply to us today. Alistair Beggs teaching from chapter 2 in the book of Titus today on Truth for Life were in verses five through 10 Donna Swanson who is so tremendously helpful in his day uses for words. I want to give you Dominic's phone that I just give you the menu component of yourself uses for words to describe what is involved in glorifying God appreciation adoration affection and subjection. When we are subjecting ourselves our minds to God's truth are times to his praise. Our hands to his service. When we bring our minds if you like underneath the privileges the responsibilities of the demands that are set out for is in the Bible because remember how we learn to glorify God and enjoy him the answer is he's given is the only route to this in his word, the Bible eloquently understand how this transforms everything that you do when 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 try 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 going to live our lives in relationship to vocational and employment and everything else and unless we constantly stand back and say 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 on the Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday so that we can constantly hear on the radio. Don't worry, it's only three days left. Now to the weekend. Only three days to go and you can make sense of your existence down in the such and such place or overhear that next place our whole world is programmed in that way.
And if we're not careful will be right there as well. So we'll see everything that were doing as soon as simply an addendum to all the things we really want to do.
But when you realize that the 14th load of laundry now that I've ever done 14 loads of laundry I have never done four loads of laundry by the fact is, and I don't mean this in any disparaging way.
I mean I'm in I'm in all that laundry room when ice when I see all the things my wife dies that she hadn't told all these things intention.
How you do all these things to be honest, fellas.
You you can't make the toast pop up in the egg boil and the TV go simultaneously. If your life depended on Uganda and yet she does this this this this this multiple things and she sits down, assess yourself with the wall of my doing. She isn't able to say I'm glorifying God and enjoying him forever and she doesn't have sufficient motive for doing anything.
She stood is not hard to see how a failure to grasp the ultimate big picture, then extends itself into the utilities and failures and alienation's of contemporary life.
There's a reason Woody Allen is messed up as he is. He doesn't know the answer to the first question in the shorter Westminster catechism and he needs to. Tiger Woods needs to know the answer to this first question in the catechism and so do you and so do Y. Glorifying God in everything enjoying him in everything. Now that's with that said, come back to the application which is ours to make. In relationship to the home and in particular in relationship to young women training the young women to love their husbands and their children to be self-controlled, pure, I wonder these are couplets of vision. Be self-controlled, pure working at home and crying doesn't really matter the role, as in my version inures to ensure you don't need to really work too hard to understand, self-controlled is a call to be able we are resident, the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and gentleness and kindness and meekness, and so on, and self-control. He's already said to the older women are too tight. Is make sure that the older women are not out of control.
Don't let it be you hang around wine bars and getting totally smashed their number to be any help to you in the congregation. A tall make sure that there are slanderous make sure that their tongues are not going south and in the same way the younger women are not to be self-controlled and pure pure purity. This scrupulous. The scrupulous avoidance of everything that is impure and avoidance of immorality in my thinking. In my reading and my viewing in my acting in my dressing. I know that this this book somewhere around as I see it every time I turn around this pops up all the time. Some lady is written a book to try and help all the sexually frustrated women in the universe. I can cut free and and live their lives the way they should. I haven't cracked a cover on it.
But I do know this is trash it's immoral is unhelpful and you shouldn't be anywhere near a young Christian woman's library while because the Scriptures call us to absolute purity and anything that under that undermine means that purity is inevitably harmful for us. I'm only pointing that out. I don't mind. And by the lady who wrote it and about the book at all. Frankly, and said I just keep seeing some people going all these advertising a book, no, no, I'm not no this man something in first century Crete, then it appealing first century Crete when they read it out. He said and and make sure that the older women teach the younger women be self-controlled and pure. The people of the Ronson will appear means in Greek and you know what pure means in Cleveland. You know what it means in relationship to your mind. You know I means in relationship to books and magazines, and junk all rights of the flipping the same thing as the whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are all eat whatsoever things are good and kind and nice and of good report.
Think about these things as we fill your head with do not think for a nanosecond young lady that you can fill your head with all that other drivel and have your emotions completely stimulated by that which is immoral and impure without finding that your lifestyle will begin to fall because we are what we think and unless our minds are completely disengaged from us, which is an indication of insanity than what happens through our minds affect seventh so they are to be not only self-controlled and pure about working at home and kind working at all and kind I like to keep them together because I think I think that when you take that working at home thing I working at home doing all the work in all my things probably hard to becoming no present under the much work you won't have to be honest know because I don't want to put our stuff is not really a lot to do with knowing that a lot left Sue so good at it and who are very interfered by the define is what is this mean the work at home. Some translations say keepers at home, sneaking around the house. Clearly not. I we can make it say more than it says but we cannot say less than he said was the obvious application here, the obvious application is that a young woman's sphere of influence is primarily in the home sphere of influence exercised by a young woman is primarily in all and she fails to exercise it, thereby going somewhere else to exercise it and she leaves a phenomenal gap behind and so apart from the necessities that may become upon is as a result of the exigencies of life may be a single mother's whatever it might be is hard to to square the increased acceptance of a kind of day care mentality in relationship to the clear instruction that you have here in this verse the presupposition is that young women have husbands and have children if they have children.
Therefore they have to look after the children.
Therefore, have to look after them in the whole and is going to demand being kind. I think this is probably the key place where young women and actually young couples face the supreme challenge of Romans chapter 12 one and two.
Remember, Paul says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable service of your spiritual worship and then immediately says and do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. In other words, is, as Phillips paraphrases Dall in the world around you squeeze you into its own mold just because everybody else is adopted a certain way of going.
I think that doesn't mean that you as a Christian young woman have to do the same thing you can you can either choose to go over the flow or you can choose to go against the flow and any dead fish can swim with the tie. Now he's not directing this solely to the young women you will notice immediately comes down. He says in the same thing is true for the younger man verse six. Likewise, words, the younger men to be self-controlled if the younger men are going to become the leaders in their homes, then they're going to have to exercise a headship because of their wives are to be submissive to their own husbands, so the husbands are going to have to be submissive to what the Scriptures say so that they can exercise the leadership so that they don't abrogate their leadership so that all walk away from insane or another to be a leader in my home issue are and if you would be a leader in your home you better be self-controlled and so better.
I so that our wives then can be submissive to his notice and notice carefully submissive to their own husbands submissive to everybody's husband.
My weight is not submissive to use her, nor is your wife to me submissive to their own husbands, that doesn't imply any sense of inferiority at all. If you think it does. You don't understand your Bible. There is no more an expression of inferiority in this and there was any inferiority within the Godhead whereby Christ, the son submits to the instruction and direction will of the father, Christ and the Holy Spirit and God the father are coequal and coeternal with one another, so the son submits to the father in order that the purposes of God might be established in salvation and the wife submits to the husband in order that the purposes of God in creation might be worked out. It's really very straightforward and the obedience that is represented in submission is is not the obedience of children to their parents, as if somehow or another the husband now has a sort of autocratic authority to come up with a list of rules and regulations and then just demand that is way fulfills the law. No, it's not.
It is simply that the wife exercises her submission to the ultimate headship of Christ by exercising submission to the headship of her husband and a husband exercise her submission to the headship of Christ by providing the leadership that he frankly may want to avoid its straightforward but it is an easy reason is so important as we've seen is because a healthy home.
I healthy home that functions in unity and in harmony that brings glory to God is a tremendous lighthouse in contemporary society and was in Crete and frankly it is in Cleveland and failure to live in the fulfillment and submission. Subjection to use Thomas Watson's work.
Failure to live in subjection to the truth of God's word whereby we give him glory and enjoy. Simply maligning's the Bible and provides ammunition to those who call and say you Christians are no different from anybody else until I was in your house and see I didn't see any indication of submission. I have and I have inherited many unkind words. My in and in the in a month as I heard from you about your husband.
I met you for coffee and all we did with net net net net net net. My husband didn't come home that in the thing that net doing that, to the glory of God really help you to enjoy it posted. So that's what he says is I'm not giving you this instruction so that you will be able to pragmatically simply benefit from these things but in order that no one will align the word of God in order that people will not be able to say that will be shamefaced when they say things against seam takes into an entirely different level. And that's why he is able to see the same thing and will finish here with slaves.
Slaves are to be submissive. Notice again the phraseology to their own masters. I notice how comprehensive this is in everything and everything you can think this out for yourself. But I think that creates the impression at least that these are Christian slaves in Christian masters because slavery was embedded within the context of the Crete and the whole room Roman world. When we think of it in terms of your 1930s in in in the southern states of America. We think about it entirely differently from what it was and Paul here is not addressing the question of slavery per se.
Please what he's saying is this, that when Christ transforms you whenever your status in life, then if you do what you do in wherever you are set to the glory of God into the enjoyment of his purposes, and if you make sure that you not guilty of night chat that you're not stealing stuff.
They are not argumentative than what you will discover is that you will make the doctrine of God our Savior, the wonder of the gospel you will make it increasingly and wonderfully attractive.
I think that these are probably Christians because otherwise he couldn't say in everything. If you if it's going to submit in everything he can submit to that which would violate your conscience. They can submit to that which would cause them to us to to disobey the clear instruction of God's word so the assumption would appear to be that they are living within that framework, it all comes down to the simple things that we learned along the way, doesn't it. You know the old doggerel you're writing a gospel chapter each day by the deeds that you do in the words that you say and men read what you write, distorted or true.
So what is the gospel according to you, what is the gospel look like when you have to go through another week.
As a young mom with a traveling husband with children who are unwell where you facing the blues. The discouragements you said yourself that I don't how long I can keep the cell what my doing here we tell you what you're doing is glorifying God and joining pushing a broom, clearing getting the serial that golf splattered on the way out when you left in the that the bombs going off in father Joe went off with it that the screaming origins that are your wonderful children and you and you and you look at the thing said man. The only way I know you can do this is you don't have to do it, to the glory of God. If you do it to try and feel good about yourself or to make others impressed with you since efficient multilevel work, you will never sustain at sure as children in Scotland. We had a song that some of you will of son that is well this this is not a sentimentalism is actually quite good theology did you sing this song Jesus wants me for a sunbeam to shine for him each day in every way try to please him at home and school at play sunbeam Sunday, Jesus wants me for a sunbeam sunbeam sunbeam yes I will be a sunbeam for him. Sometimes as yesterday the sun has a peculiar iridescence to through the lingering raindrops on the leaves and on the Windows the way that the smile of our life's may have an iridescence to it that shines through the tears which accompany our endeavors to fulfill the expectations of God's word. See, you don't stay married because of the benefit to stay married because God says stay married. Glorify me live for me shine for me and if we want to know how to do it starts in verse 11 and he tells us, but I wouldn't be no sunbeam if I went verse 11.
Right now, so we will pause and pray the Lord our God, for your word. We thank you. Help us to imbibe all that is true of yourself.
Help us to forget everything that is on true or unclear or unhelpful and live in the light of your promises.
Pray, particularly for those in our congregation who are up against it in relationship to these things that your word will be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path that your kindness will bring us to repentance into faith and that we might walk with you in lowliness of heart fulfilling the functions to which you've called us within your body and we pray in Christ name we live our lives.
God's way we give him the glory and we make the gospel attractive to other listing to Truth for Life.
Alistair Begg, teaching us today from Titus chapter 2 and hopefully our commitment to godly living compels our friends and neighbors to want to learn more about Jesus and about the gospel. That's one of the reasons were so excited to be able to offer all of Alister's teaching online for free any message or series in our online library can be passed along to someone you know who might be curious about Jesus.
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Thank you. If you're not yet true partner. We want to invite you to join this team today go to Truth for Life.org/truth partner or call us at 888-588-7884 just takes a minute to help bring the good news you hear on Truth for Life to a large audience. When you become a true partner site. Thank you by inviting you to request two books that we feature each month right now are offering a classic handbook on Christian belief. It's titled know the truth. This is not a book that you read once and then you're done with this is written to be an ongoing guide for our use to help explain what the Bible says on a broad variety of topics that formed the basis of our faith. Each chapter in the book know the truth explores a specific subject, something like the Trinity or the deity of Jesus the second coming of Christ. The author provides extensive scriptural references so you can cross reference what you read in the book with your Bible. Be sure to request know the truth when you sign up to become a true partner. Once again, you can do that it Truth for Life.org/truth, partner, or you can request the book with a one-time donation to give birth visit us online at truthforlife.org/donate. I'm Bob Lapine. When we read the apostle Paul's directives in Scripture. They are certainly straightforward but they're not always easy.
How's it possible for us to live out our faith each day.
Find out tomorrow as we hear the conclusion of a message titled teaching that accordance with sound doctrine.
The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Learning is for Living