Titus 2

Well good morning, Saylorville! If you brought a copy of Scripture with you this morning, you can find the book of Titus in the second chapter, Titus chapter 2. The title of the message this morning is Adorning the Doctrine of God in Womanhood. And just to let you know, I’ve instructed our ushers to leave the back door open in case I have to make a quick exit after this message!

I really had a great mom growing up. I have no regrets. She was a proper woman. She was all about… she was a stickler for etiquette. She was a wordsmith. She would correct my grammar constantly. She loved my dad, and she was home almost most of the time until us kids got older and then she entered into the workforce as an Avon Lady. But my mom taught me many, many valuable things in life. She taught me about anticipation; ‘Just wait till your dad gets home!’ She taught me about logic; ‘Because I said so! That‘s why!’ —  and she taught me about irony; ‘Keep crying and I’ll give you something to cry about!’ Above all, she taught me good theology; ‘God help you if you ever do that again!’

So actually, mothers are the… really, in scripture… they are the ultimate illustrations of the love of God. In fact. I say that sincerely, and in Isaiah 49, when the Israelites are severely disciplined for their sin, which took place often, they… it was so severe they concluded that God had actually forsaken them. So God, knowing that there is no greater earthly bond than a nursing mother, says this to them. He said:

Isaiah 49:[15], ‘Can a woman forget the child that she’s nursing, not have compassion on the son of her womb? They might in the rarest of circumstance, that might happen… but not Me.’

Beautiful! And then even our Lord Jesus on the night before He died, and sensing… because He told His disciples that He was leaving, and their hearts were broken… and sensing their heartache, and knowing there was no greater earthly illustration of what was about to take place with His leaving and then coming back again with His resurrection, said this. It’s in John chapter 16… and I often read this to women after they’ve had their children… in verse 20 in chapter 16. John’s the only one to record this.

John 16:20-21

20 Truly, truly I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow, (he’s talking to his disciples) will turn into joy. (And then he gives this illustration)

21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, (Can I get a womanly/motherly ‘Amen?) but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been brought into this world.’

Isn’t that beautiful? You know, the Bible is full of godly, courageous women, and they’re not all mothers, women like; Jael in the Old Testament, Deborah, and Esther, and of course, Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus, and those many women who followed Jesus all the way to the cross, to the burial, and the first of the resurrection. Speaking of which, the women were so spectacular in the days when Jesus was here they would become the first to witness the resurrected Jesus, and the first to witness of the resurrected Jesus. In fact, the Apostle… Titus is a pastoral epistle, and so is first Timothy, so is second Timothy. So in second Timothy when Paul is talking to Timothy, he doesn’t have a remembrance of his rock star dad or grandpa. He says:

[2 Timothy 1:5] ‘I remember your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice…’

Not only does he remember them, he remembers them for good reasons, because later on in that very same pastoral letter, he says:

[2 Timothy 3:15] “Timothy, you’ve known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation’ (In fact, he says) from childhood… (He uses the Greek word “brephos,” which literally means in infancy or before birth, even) you’ve known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation. (In other words, that would have had a direct connection to his grandmother and his mother mentioned earlier)

Now we’re in Titus and we don’t know anything about Titus’ mother. We know that Titus was a Greek from Galatians, [Galatians 2:3] so that makes his mother probably not even a Christian. We don’t know if she became one, but even so, Paul gives Titus these instructions. We touched on them a couple of weeks ago. We’re gonna look at them a little more earnestly this morning. In verse three of chapter two, where it says:

Titus 2:3-

3 ‘Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,

4 and so train the young women to love their husbands (and the word love is in there again) and (the original love their) children,

5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.’ (or literally blasphemed)

Now these characteristics in these couple of verses were not found generally speaking in the women on the island of Crete. Remember, Paul plopped Titus there in the island. We learned that in chapter 1, to appoint elders in all these little churches that were around the island… And he addresses first of all the older women. Now who are they? Who are the older women then? — and who are the older women now? In 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 19:

[1 Timothy 5:19, “Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband…”]

Paul talks of older widows, and he places them in the place of need, if they’re 60+. Okay? But here he’s probably… most expositors think he’s probably thinking of women who are around the age of 40+. Okay? So he’s talking to those of you, you’ve been around a while. You’re still moms and you’re always moms, (if indeed you are moms, and you know, once a mom always a mom. Amen, moms?) But when you’re at around 40, you’ve got some tread marks on your life. You’ve got some experience to divvy out. And I’ll come back to that. He says that they’re supposed to train. You see that word train? It’s a really interesting word. There’s… this particular word “appeals,” It’s appealing to the intellect. It’s like Paul saying to the older women, ‘You speak to the younger women. Talk some sense into them.’ That’s what he’s saying. And I think every young mom here can get it. Right? It’s enough for you to change your… you’re changin’ poopy diapers, and clean them, and trying to be a good wife and everything. You just don’t know which end is up sometime. Right? And so the older women coming along… ‘We’ve been there. I know where you’re at. You’ll come out of this.’ And you talk sense into them. That’s the idea. He says: “…love your husbands…” [Titus 2:4] “to love their husbands... to love their children.” This is really interesting to me. The word love there is not the word that we’re so associated with, that agape. It’s not agape. It’s the word “phileo.” It’s the word for friendly, affectionate kind of love, because this wasn’t always true in the first century with moms and their children. So he’s really addressing the interactions that you young moms have with your children. It should be affectionate. It should be friendly. And that’s the idea here. It’s beautiful, really. And the point is, if you’re older… share! Share your joys, share your sorrows, share the hardships, share the heart aches, share the blessings that you have in your life, and share the blunders that you have had and you have made. Don’t be afraid to do that. The younger ones need to learn from the dumb things you did when you were young. And we’ve not always been good at this. I’m just saying, we’ve not always been good at this. You know, we just like to isolate, you know, with the stage of life. ‘I’m older, so I hang out with older women.’ ‘I’m younger, so I hang out with younger women.’ That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, biblically or otherwise. We need to be learning from one another, and this is really an obedience thing if you’re an older woman. This is an obedience thing. This is how you’re supposed to be addressing the younger women, and the younger women should be looking up to those older women for all their experiences, not because they’re perfect, not because they haven’t screwed it up. The fact is, you should be hanging out with the ones who screwed it up, ’cause they’ll help you. Right? (Nobody said, ‘Right.’ I’m in trouble already!) So I’m really glad that we started the Titus Project. It’s a “light” thing. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s a thing where we’re trying to get the younger women to connect with the older women and vice versa. And it’s already happening. It’s a beautiful thing, and I pray it continues to happen, ’cause it’s not just a beautiful thing, it’s an obedient thing.

So here is the rub in the text. Let’s get to… we talked about it a couple of weeks ago, and I told you then we’re gonna get after it, and so we are.

[Titus 2:5, “… to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.”]

Working at home… submissive to their own husbands… (Can I get an Amen? Laughing) So working at home. Okay? This isn’t an isolated text. 1 Timothy 5:14, says essentially the same thing.

[1 Timothy 5:14, “So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.”]

And this is really dealing with… Listen to this… This is addressing you moms with children, and particularly those who are younger children. This is addressing the sphere in which you should be known. It doesn’t mean you can’t be outside the home. It doesn’t mean you can’t work outside the home, but your general… the main sphere in which you’re known, it should be in the home. And by the way, 25% of working women today in this telework age in which we live are in the home. So you’ve got some good things going that way…

But submissive to their own husbands. That’s another… you get your axel wrapped on this, don’t we? I mean, submissive to their… by the way, the word submissive is a really strong word. It’s actually a military term… “to rank under.” And this is where those who are abusive or who weaponize Scripture, they’ll use this word against their wives. And you’re just wrong and sinful for doing so, because you literally miss the header that comes in Ephesians chapter 5 where it says that husbands and wives are to submit to one another.

[Ephesians 5:21, “… submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”]

Have you ever read that? It does say that. There is a mutual submission within marriage. Any good working marriage will have mutual submission. Yet, right after that, it talks about the wife is to submit to her husband, and husbands have the taller order, to love their wives. But again, submission. It’s a strong word, and it’s hard to receive. It’s worse if you’ve got a dirt bag for a husband… worse yet, if you’ve got a husband who claims to be a Christian but doesn’t act like a Christian. That’s even worse!

And as a pastor for over 40 years and as a parent, this is deeply personal to me. And my heart literally goes out to those of you who are mothers, those of you who are wives, who struggle in abusive relationships. We want you to know here at Saylorville Church that we pray for you. We’ll do more than pray for you. We wanna help you. We wanna assist you. We wanna counsel you. We wanna encourage you. We are here for you.

Now on the other hand, submission is not a cultural thing, like say, head coverings of                1 Corinthians 11. And by the way, the issue of 1 Corinthians 11, the head covering thing, the issue is not head covering but head ship. The cultural norms in Bible times varied. It wasn’t universal. In some places women always wore head coverings.  In other places they did not. Listen to this. Head coverings in the Bible in Bible times served like a wedding ring; Covering on… married and submissive. Covering off… probably not married and maybe even rebellious. Now listen, our culture doesn’t require head coverings, but if you’re married and you’re not wearing your ring, you might get a raised eyebrow. Right? It could happen.

So, by the way… guess… I wonder if you know when women, wives, wearing wedding rings came into vogue. It did not come into vogue until the 12th century. Now, rings were as ancient as the Egyptians. They wore rings, but it wasn’t until the 12th century that women started wearing wedding rings. You want to hear something even more shocking? Guess when it became vogue for men… World War II. Chances are, your great-grandfather never wore a wedding ring. It wasn’t until members going off to war, they started thinking, ‘Oh, we better put on a ring… remind ourselves we’re married… we’ve got a wife back home.’

Now whether it’s a head covering, or a ring, or something else in the future, these are… listen to this… these are changing symbols of submission. Submission, however, isn’t a symbol. Never has been, never should be.

Now I love history. I am an… I love history, but history is not our hermeneutic. We… the Bible interprets history, not the other way around. The Bible is our authority. History is not our authority. And God never gave us the right to retrofit His word to fit our feelings or our culture, whether it’s 1825 or 2026.

So, advocates of women pastors… there we go… We went for it! Advocates of women pastors refer, often refer, to history. Sometimes they only refer to history. So, you know, for instance, they looked to Ephesus, because Timothy, who Paul was writing, and not in this context, but in 1st and 2nd Timothy, Timothy was a pastor in Ephesus. And so women were running wild in Ephesus, and therefore, as the argument goes, because they are so out of control, Paul had to put extra restrictions from them becoming pastors that no longer apply. This is just foolishness! Not that there weren’t women running wild, and… I’m not denying that. Despite clear, and repeated, and consistent biblical instruction, we’re supposed to chalk up Paul’s words as historically a cultural thing. That’s a silly! Listen carefully. Male leadership in the church is not a cultural thing. It is a consistent thing. Almost everyone in Orthodox circles will agree that the New Testament pastor/elder, is the equivalent of the Old Testament priest, and there were no women priests in the Old Testament. And by the way, historically, women didn’t even appear on the scene taking the realm and the role of the pastor until the mid-1800s. So, according to that thinking, we got it wrong for about 2000 years.

And by the way, we have to remember… remember the caveat that Paul, himself, gave to Titus as he was reflecting on the way women conduct themselves in the church. He said:

[Titus 2:4] “… that the Word of God may not be (what?) blasphemed.” (Spoken against)

And by the way, if you speak against the Word of God, you speak against the God of the Word. That’s the idea here. It’s been blasphemed today, and is being blasphemed today, by those who use… and I’m underlining, U-S-E… use the Bible, not denying that they use the Bible. I’m not even denying that they’re sincere about it… but they use the Bible, and they often have a higher view of culture then they do of Scripture itself. That’s deeply bothersome to me… and should be to you.

So let’s land this thing. Shall we? How do we adorn the doctrine of womanhood? I just want… just two ways here from the scripture: First, by following God’s divine order. That’s the first thing, by following God’s divine order. Look at it.  I’ll put it up there, 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We don’t even have to go all the way back to Genesis where it begins. And we will go there, but here’s what it says in chapter 11, verse 3. Paul writes:

1 Corinthians 11:3, “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.”

So there you have the divine order just laid out for you. So, Father God, God the Son, husband, wife… that’s the divine order. This is not a competency thing. This is not a quality thing. This is not a knowledge thing. I just said that the women have outclassed the men in almost every era of Christianity. That’s true, but this is not… not even a spiritual thing. It’s a headship thing. It’s a God ordered thing. In fact, when the Apostle Paul is… denies a woman in the context of the church to teach a man… we’ll get to that in a little bit… Here’s how he supports it in 1st Timothy chapter 2, verse 13. He says:

1 Timothy 2:13, “For Adam was formed first, then Eve;”

So he takes us back to Creation order. The headship is grounded in Creation order. Men… by the way, you men, before you get headstrong about your headship, remember, the first thing that wasn’t “good” when God was creating things? Yeah, you… by yourself.

[Genesis 2:18, “Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”]

Now, there are two… when it comes to women pastors and eldership, pastors in general, there are two basic… and there’s a lot of variations that… there are two basic biblical philosophies in the church. One is egalitarianism. Egalitarianism means “an equal.” That is, a woman can do anything. There’s no limits to what a woman can do. She can be a pastor. Complementarianism, this is what our church, the position we take, we believe it’s a biblical position… Complementarian has the word complement in it. You hear it? And this is right out of… Genesis chapter 2. I’m going to make a helper fit for him. The woman complemented the man. It wasn’t good that he was to be by himself. And likewise, the man complements the woman. So, the first thing in adorning the doctrine of God in womanhood is, we do so by following God’s divine order.

And secondly… this is the last thing I would spend a little time on it… is by following God’s divine boundaries. Now we already saw some of those here in Titus, the older women teaching younger women and those characteristics and such. But there is a scripture which is basically the haymaker for why a woman should never be a pastor. And those who take a lower view of Scripture, they believe in Scripture, but they raise culture above it here. They struggle with this one admittedly even. But in 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 12… In the context... now mind you, this is the context where Paul says… he’s gonna tell us later, he’s gonna say:

[1 Timothy 3:15] ‘… if I delay, I want you to know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God, in the church of God, which is the house of God, the pillar and buttress of the truth.’ That’s 1 Timothy 3:15. And he says here, when it comes to the women, verse 12:

1 Timothy 2:12, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.”

That… the idea is stillness there. I just want you to look at that first part. Do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man. What’s the context? — the church. A lot of you were thinking of it… scared, spit-less to say anything. The point is, women are not to be teaching men when the church is gathered, because by so doing, you would be assuming the office of eldership. You would be assuming the office of the pastor, which God, Himself, has reserved for men. In fact, if you look at chapter three of 1 Timothy, just quickly read it.

1 Timothy 3:1-7

1 “The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, (that’s the word we get our words, “bishop,” “pastor,” “elder.” They’re synonymous) “he desires a noble task.”

2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive,

5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?

6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.

7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.”

It’s pretty clear… He is not sheep. That said, it doesn’t mean a woman can’t teach a man in other settings. Let me explain that, but for the time being with a little satire. Let me light it up here. Let me give you eight reasons.

Eight reasons why a man should not be a pastor.

One, a man’s place is in the army. (That was supposed to be funny!)

Secondly, their physiques show, they’re more suited to such tasks as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. (I didn’t make this up) It’s “unnatural” for them to do ministerial task. Three, man was created (I like this one!) Man was created before a woman, obviously as a prototype. (I knew you’d like that one, ladies. It gets better) Thus they represent an experiment rather than woman, God’s crowning achievement in creation. [Applause]

Fourth, men are too emotional to be pastors. Their conduct at football games is proof. (That’s pretty good!)

Fifth, some men… (I didn’t write this) some men are handsome, distracting women from worship. (This is… what in the world! Unbelievable!)

And pastors should nurture their congregations~ not a traditional male role.

Another one. Men are prone to violence. They’d rather settle disputes by fighting over them. And finally, men don’t have to be pastors to be useful in church. They can sweep sidewalks, repair the church roof, and lead the song service on Father’s Day.

How’s that? So last week, Pastor Kyhl gave a powerful illustration of the fence. Do you remember that? He talked about having this, his home that was butted up against a super busy street, and there was no… he had no fence, and he saw it… people just literally came and swung on a swing set! — and just the idea of letting his kids out in the backyard… yeeah… and then they put up a fence. Fences keep out the unwanted intruders. Right? — while providing both freedom for the child and peace of mind for the parent. That illustration fits here, too.

In your Bible reading, do you remember the couple mentioned repeatedly, Aquila and Priscilla? Do you remember them? And this is what they looked like. So Aquila and Priscilla, or… wait a minute! — or was it Priscilla and Aquila? Is it Priscilla and Aquila or Aquila and Prisc…? Which is it? Is it Aquila and Priscilla or Priscilla and Aquila? They’re actually mentioned six times in your Bible. Did you know that? Here’s the very first time that they’re mentioned in Acts chapter 18. I’ve got it up here for you.

Acts 18:2a, ‘Paul found a Jew named Aquila, (That’s the dude) a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla…’

So that’s the right order. Amen? — man > woman! So what happens is… then along comes this out of the… just out of the gates… young guy full of vim, and vigor, and the Holy Spirit!  His name is Apollos. He is just rocking it for Jesus! — but he didn’t know much. And so here’s what we’re told in chapter 18, verse 26:

Acts 18:26, “He (Apollos) began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained (expounded, instructed, exposited) to him the way of God more accurately.”

They’re mentioned six times. The first time, Aquila and Priscilla. Five times afterwards, Priscilla and Aquila. Now, I don’t want to overdo this, but here’s what I think. When they took him into their home, that wasn’t a church gathering. All right? I think Priscilla had the gift of teaching.

When I was at the little country church that I pastored, we led scores of people to Christ, and there was a couple, Ken and Barb. They were… I used to call them my Aquila and Priscilla. I should have called them my Priscilla and Aquila ’cause she was a theologian. She knew the Word, she had depth, she was a soul winner, she was a great disciple. Her husband was kind of like a country pumpkin. He loved God, he loved the Word. He just wasn’t very… he was like three miles wide about three inches deep. And if you want to be… you want your furniture moved or you want your truck worked on, he was your guy. But they had people in their home all the time, and they were discipling, and… I’ve gotta tell ya, it was mostly coming from Barb.

I was asked to go to a Women’s study here about a year ago to just observe how it was going. We had 50, 60 women… maybe more… in the study, and Deb Blackman from our church was teaching. And I’m sitting there going, “Wow! That woman can teach the Bible!” It was amazing! It was amazing! You get the point.

Again, the Apostle Paul was talking to Timothy and Titus in the context of church. Again,

1 Timothy 3:15, ‘… until I came back, you ought to know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God, which is the pillar and buttress of the truth.’

The point is, sisters, if you are adept in the Word of God, teach! Yes, your primary teaching should be other women, and children, but you don’t have to be afraid if you’re in another environment that’s not the church gathered if a guy’s learning under you. Use your gift! — and do it for the glory of God. Whether you’re single, or married, or divorced, or widowed, or a mother… adorn the doctrine of God, your Savior. Is He your Savior?

It’s not lost on me that the word adorn in [Titus 2] verse 10 is the word “kosmeo?.” You get our word, “cosmetic” from the word. And before you can adorn the doctrine of God with children, and other women, and in private places, even men, you better be adorned on the inside before you adorn anything on the outside. You better have the raiment of Christ, the righteousness of Jesus. And some of you just don’t have it. And I’m not just talking to the women now.

Some of you here have never had a time in your life where you believed the Good News, that Jesus the Son of God…

And by the way, I just thought of this. The Trinity is one of your greatest inspirations. You have perfect unity, perfect equality, equal power, and yet there’s submission. Thanks, Lord! If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus Christ, you’re doomed. You’re doomed without Him. You have to believe that Jesus died for you, rose again for you, trust Him as your Savior, and you’ll be adorned from the inside so that you can adorn the doctrine of God, your Savior in every other way.

Do I need to head for the door? Okay. Let’s pray.

Our Father, thank You for Your word and for the beauty of it. We don’t have to add to it. We just have to rightly divide it. Thank You for our women. Oh God, You’ve given us so many spectacular women. They love You, they love Your Word, they’re teaching one another, teaching our children. My wife’s doing it right now. And Lord, thank You. Thank you for our younger women who are trying to figure out which end is up right now. And I don’t mean their kids’ bottoms either. They’re just trying to figure it out, and they need help. And I pray that you would inspire our older women to love on our younger women, and You would inspire our younger women to look up to our older women. We can all learn. We can all learn. We don’t want to blaspheme Your Word, Lord. We want to honor it, lift up Your Son, and adorn from the inside all the way out. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. Let’s stand. [Music]