Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Let's hear God's Word now from Titus
Chapter two, titus two, versus three
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through five, and then eleven through
fourteen. You might think of these two
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is connected in the way that the
scriptures talk about the fruit and the vine.
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First we read of the fruit that
is to be produced in our life,
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in our lives, and then we
read of the vine, our God,
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that produces that fruit. So,
titus two, verse three. Older
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women, Likewise, are to be
reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves
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to much wine. They are to
teach what is good, and so train
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the young women to love their husbands
and children, to be self controlled,
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pure, working at home, kind
and submissive to their own husbands, that
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the word of God may not be
reviled. And then verse eleven, for
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the grace of God has appeared,
bringing salvation for all people, training us
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to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and
to live self controlled, upright and Godly
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lives. In the present age,
waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing
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of the glory of our great God
and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave
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himself for us to redeem us from
all lawlessness and to purify for himself a
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people for his own possession, who
are zealous for good works. May God
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bless his word to us. Please
be seated. One of the concerns of
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scripture is that God's Word is not
reviled. How does that happen? Well,
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happens when God says something and to
the world it doesn't seem to come
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true or doesn't seem to happen,
and so people despise God and laugh at
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him. This comes out in all
sorts of ways throughout the Bible. In
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judgment in particular, people laugh and
mock about the judgments of the Lord because
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it's been promised for so long,
they say, and it's not here,
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and therefore the judgment that God has
pronounced is reviled, mocked, made fun
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of, not trusted in. Well, there's other ways this happens to.
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God's Word is said to produce in
our lives godliness. The vine produces fruit,
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and here we are reminded that if
the vine is to be producing fruit,
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then we should seek and desire to
produce fruit, that the word of
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God may not be reviled. To
put it in a really plain and common
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way, we don't want to be
called hypocrites or even more pointedly, we
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don't want our God to be called
a hypocrite. We want to one of
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the our motivations to act and live
as the way God has called us to
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is because we love our God.
We want him to be honored and not
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dishonored. We want to go out
into the world and people to say there
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is a good man, there is
a good woman, not for our praise
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but unto the praise of God.
The opposite should hurt us. It should
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pain us to think that people would
think ill of our God because of the
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way we act. I would think
poorly of the king and his word because
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of the way we represent him.
And so tightus gives, or Paul gives
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to Tightus, instructions about the way
our households are to be conducted, the
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way our lives as individuals in various
stations and places in life are to live,
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and we've been considering these. First
we considered older men and then older
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women. Now we come to younger
women. We continue with the series of
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God's instructions to various people within the
church in considering the younger women of the
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Church, younger married women in particular, and even more narrowly, MOMS I'm
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young women with children and husband's.
Now, though, this passage has a
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special and direct usefulness to mothers in
particular, and married, young married women.
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A little more broadly, it's,
of course, beneficial to us all
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in a number of ways. For
example, it teaches men and parents what
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they should be looking for in a
future spouse. It teaches all of us
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what we ought to pray for for
our young mothers and wives. It also
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gives in brief the various curriculum topics
that older women are to teach the younger
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women, and that's the context that
this comes in. I'm we're focusing on
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younger women tonight, but of course
you noticed that this is sort of included
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in a command to the older women, which starts in verse three. Older
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women are to be likewise reverent and
behavior, not slanders or slave too much
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wine. They are teach, to
teach what is good and so to train
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the younger women to do. And
then it lists so six different things.
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Now, giving just another sort of
set of introductory comments because of this context
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of older women teaching younger women,
I want to make just a few practical
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observations. Sometimes we think that Godliness
and morals, knowledge of what God wants
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for us comes to US magically or
just automatically somehow, as if God doesn't
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use means for that. It's not
true. God clearly has chosen to work
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through particular and the ordinary means of
Christian partnership and discipleship. Sometimes we wait
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for wisdom and morals to show up
on our doorstep like a baby in a
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basket. Oh, look, here
they are, and as long as they're
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not coming, we simply don't do
anything about it. But scripture tells us
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that these things are things that are
taught. They are things that are learned.
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And so those who want to grow
in Godliness, young women, younger
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women, must learn to submit themselves
to their older sisters, to their mothers
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in the faith. They must learn
to humble themselves as students that they may
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mature, and that, of course, is not always easy. You don't
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always like what your teachers have to
tell you. You want to do your
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own ways. You think you know
what is right. It requires a spirit
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of humility to be able to learn
a second practically, unless the older women
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and younger women are together in some
way, that's difficult to imagine how this
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is going to happen. How are
older women going to teach the younger women
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unless they are and somehow getting together, meeting together, living together, working
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together? Without some kind of context
like that, this would seem to be
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impossible. Of course you can learn
a lot from books, and there are
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good ones out there, but there's
no substitute for a living lady who knows
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you, who loves you, and
there's of course, a hundred different ways
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that this might happen. I'm I'll
leave you to figure that out, but
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let me just mention that to the
older women in particular and encourage you in
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particular, as those who have authority
and honor by virtue of your age and
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the design of God. Let me
encourage you, older women, to reach
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out to your daughters in the faith, though we hope those who are younger
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will be eager to seek your counsel. Often the young are not wise enough
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to do so. They are controlled
by what Simon Times called the tyranny of
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the urgent, moving from one thing
to the next to the next and forgetting
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the things that you have learned,
sometimes through hard knocks. So go and
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offer yourselves to them. Perhaps you
can offer to help in their homes,
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perhaps you can take them to lunch. Perhaps you can meet with them at
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Church and ask how to pray.
There's so many different kinds of things.
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I'll just suggest that one obvious solution
might be to use our ladies Bible study.
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Men, is this something you can
support your wives in? There's,
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of course, other ways to do
it, but the nature of the goal,
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this teaching and learning, demands that
we think of some kind of constructive
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and practical ways to work towards that
goal. It doesn't necessarily have to be
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formalized or anything like that, but
we should have a goal in mind and
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move towards that direction. This is
what the Scripture teaches. Well, let's
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move on. What does God want
from his daughters? He lists six things
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to love their husbands and children,
to be self controlled, to be pure,
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to be working at home, to
be kind and submissive to their own
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husband's now, of course, we
can only touch on these in a very
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brief and some ways shallow way,
but I hope the overview of this will
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be I hope the overview will accomplish
setting a general sense, or maybe even
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something a little more particular than general, but the kind of direction in which
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we ought to be headed. So
let's look at these in let's look at
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these six things. First, to
younger women are to love their husband's and
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children. It is a beautiful thing
that starts this description of God's daughters.
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It starts with love, not that
it stops at that point, for love
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has to flow through everything that we
do. The woman who hates her husband
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or hates her children will never be
able to fulfill in any real meaningful way
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the other commands that she is commanded
to do. It's good to ask yourself
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and be honest. Do you hate
your husband? Do you hate your children?
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Or maybe it's not. You wouldn't
use language quite that strong, but
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you might say that you tolerate them. God calls you to something higher.
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He calls you to love not just
when it's easy, not just when they're
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cute and sweet, but at all
times. Now that kind of love,
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we all know, is a difficult
kind of love, but not so for
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God. When we consider the great
love of God as it's given to us,
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unlovable, difficult in transients as sinners, we know the great goodness of
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God and the power and strength of
his love. So when you consider the
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command to love your husband's, your
husband and your children. Look to God,
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who is love, to produce it
in you. Look to Jesus on
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the Cross, who died for you
when you were unlovable, and ask him
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to help. Help you draw from
that well. The well that Jesus provides
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never runs dry. Women are to
love their husbands and children. They are
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also to be self controlled. Now
this, of course, is not to
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given exclusively to women, and many
of these things could be applied to others
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as well, but because we all
need self control. But, like love,
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self control is not always easy.
In fact, sometimes it's very,
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very hard. The Bible tells us
that the flesh is powerful and it within
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us and it wages war against the
spirit. It's not something that's just kind
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of going on in the background.
It's one of the its central in many
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ways to who we are and the
kinds of lives we live in the world.
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But our bodies are a temple of
the spirit, which means the spirit
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has already won the battle against the
flesh. We have been born of the
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spirit, the spirit says in his
word, which is both a reason to
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exercise self control and the promise that
we believe in order to be self controlled.
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What do I mean by that?
I mean that, on the one
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hand, when we think about our
bodies as temples of the spirit, when
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we think about ourselves as the battle
ground in which the spirit is waging war
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and winning that war, it gives
us great encouragement and reason to fight,
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to strive, but it also gives
us the strength and encouragement and the direction
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we need to fight, because if
you fight in the fight, in the
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flesh, with your pride and your
self righteousness, seeking to be esteemed among
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others, you only feed the fire
of your own sinful desires. Self control
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comes from seeking God control, turning
to him in prayer and repentance and faith,
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asking that the spirit himself would subdue
within you what is fleshly and make
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a dwelling place there. Third,
women are called to be pure. MOMS
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have to get their hands dirty a
lot, but not their hearts. Wives
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and mothers should seek to live lives
which honor their husband's and honor God and
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live lives which are pure. A
Clean House means nothing if it's if all
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around there is dirt, the dirt
of an immorality. Philippians eight reminds us
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the things that we are to look
at and to consider and to spend time
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dwelling on are things that are pure, Paul writes. Finally, brothers,
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whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure,
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whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is anything excel of
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excellence, if there is anything worthy
about praise, think about these things.
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Here again, it is the spirit
of God that strengthens and teaches us what
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is pure and what is not.
This doesn't mean that a Christian woman is
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a formalist, a traditionalist or a
prude, but neither is she a libertine
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or a careless person. In either
case, she doesn't seek purity as understood
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by the world, but she learns
it from her Lord and her God.
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A Christian woman doesn't seek, and
likewise, a Christian woman does not seek
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purity by the world, but from
God himself, who cleanses her mind of
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impure thoughts, who forgives her sins
when she is at fault, who washes
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her clean whenever she gets dirty.
This is the hope of all of us
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who struggle with impure thoughts, who
cast ourselves into impure things, that we
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have a God who makes us clean, who washes us and makes us pure.
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You remember, I told you that
these two passages in titus relate to
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the fruit and the vine. Listen
to the words that connect to the vine.
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We are a minded that it is
our savior, Jesus Christ, who
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gave himself for us to redeem us
from all lawlessness and to purify for himself
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a people for his own possession who
are zealous for good works. How do
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we pursue purity in our lives?
How do we become people that are pure,
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not just on the outside, but
on the inside as well? It's
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by finding salvation, it's by finding
cleanliness and forgiveness and redemption in our Lord
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and Savior, because in him he
has made a people pure. We have
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no means of getting ourselves clean,
but we and he, but in Jesus.
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We do not of getting ourselves cleaned, but by being cleaned by him.
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Jesus washes us, he washes the
filth away, and in this are
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younger women and all of us have
a lot of hope. Number four,
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working at home. This phrase does
not limit a woman's work only to the
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home. It doesn't exclude other occupations
and activities that she might be involved in.
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Why? Because, both by precept
and by example, the Bible tells
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us that, holy do women do
more than work at home. There are
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queens like esther, whose home is
also a governmental office, and extra and
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which she exercises is the authority that
she has in that vein. Miriam was
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a prophetess who served Israel and in
various acts of worship. Lydia was a
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seller of purple goods, and the
Queen described in proverbs thirty one. is
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working at home, yes, but
also in the fields, in the market
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place and among the poor. So
what does Paul mean when he says working
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at home? Well, what he's
doing is he's saying positively what could be
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put negatively, which is to not
be meddlers or busy buddies or in other
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people's affairs. They are to be
working at home. In other words,
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their business is to be there with
their families. Paul says a similar kinds
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of things and gives similar instructions in
a similar passage in first timothy or he's
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talking about younger widows again, to
this particular group of people here, those
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who have lost their husband's and he
tells them to be, I'm, busy
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at home and not about and other
people's business. They are to use their
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time wisely to focus on the tasks
which they have been given. They are
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to submit to the Lord in the
callings to which he has called them,
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to be content in them and to
work hard in them. And number five,
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they are to be kind. Perhaps
the opposite of kindness is cruelty.
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This is very important to remember because
women have an amazing amount of power,
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as they as it has been said, and rightly, the hand that rocks
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the cradle rules the world. I'm
you see this in various novels, in
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Shakespeare and Jane Austin. Though the
women may not have a certain kinds of
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outward authority, it is often very
quickly obvious that they have a much power
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and are able to use it in
all sorts of ways, both for good
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and for evil. And Paul says
that they are to be kind. The
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power that they are are given,
the things that they do, the way
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in which they exercise their callings before
God. They are to act in ways
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that are kind. It is easy
to be cruel, it is easy to
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be manipulative, it is easy to
hurt and to harm, but God tells
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these younger women to not give into
those kinds of temptations, but to be
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gentle, to be loving. This
is, of course, the way of
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our Lord. Again, to consider
the vine out of which the fruit is
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produced. There is our Lord who
gives himself up for us. It's our
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Lord who brings us our salvation,
who comes to us in gentleness and meekness
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and humility. Jesus, of course, is powerful and had every right to
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wield that power with a kind of
crushing authority, but instead he comes in
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love, and we are called to
treat each other in the same way.
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And finally, number six, younger
women are called to be submissive to their
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own husband's here we see in the
Bible that her relationship with Christ bears directly
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on this point. In particular,
in Effusions Five, God says that just
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as the church is to submit to
Christ, so wives are to submit to
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their husband's submission, of course,
does not mean that she is required to
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take his blows or his tyranny,
or she is to go against the will
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of God if he commands her to
do evil. God doesn't command his daughters
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to do evil, but to do
good, to honor and submit to their
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husband's means striving to lift up their
character, to seek their godliness, to
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follow their lead to advance their credit
among others. It means living righteously and
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not scandalously. It means keeping one's
duties and being faithful in all things.
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And, as with all these other
things, this is also hard because of
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the sin in ourselves and, in
particular, because the weakness of men.
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But she serves the Lord and it
is made bearable and even joyful. Peter
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I'm describes when he's talking about similar
duties and he talks to women, he
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has in mind a particular situation where
a wife is called to do these things
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that Paul is describing here in titus, but in a particular context, where
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she has a husband who does not
obey the word of God, who isn't
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a Christian, who doesn't have the
priority she has, doesn't have the loves
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that she has, isn't motivated by
the same things, isn't warring against the
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flesh, and she is called to
lead a godly life, to submit,
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and Peter Recognizes that is hard.
It is a hard thing. It is
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a hard thing to serve the Lord
when people are unlovable and difficult. It's
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hard to submit and give honor when
a husband is not very honorable and is
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difficult to follow. But the Lord
reminds women and reminds all of us that
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wohend whatever duties we are called to
him in. We are called to serve
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him ultimately in these things, and
in that there is a lot of joy,
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because to do the Lord's will,
even when it's hard, to know
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that he is strengthening us in the
tasks that we are given, to know
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that he is sanctifying us through those
difficulties, is to know that we are
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close with God and we are walking
in his ways. Scripture reminds us that
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he sees us in our struggles,
he knows our difficulties, and so when
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we consider these things in hole,
we will need consider this direction that God
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would have his daughters to walk in. We see a lot of goodness.
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We see that if if these things
were be to care, if these things
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were to be carried out and God
were to bless them, as he often
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does, what we find are very
happy and pleasant results, most of the
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time, happy homes, pleasurable places, marriages that are strong. Of course,
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it's not always that way and of
course we don't always do these things.
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Younger women, like older women,
and younger men and older men,
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you have a lot to repent of. As you go through this list and
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you look at these things, with
each one of these no doubt and hopefully,
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you can see in yourselves ways in
which you fall short, ways in
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which you have not loved as you
ought to love, ways in which you
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have not been self controlled or pure, or working at home or kind or
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submissive. If we're honest with ourselves, whether we're women or not, these
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are things when we when God calls
us to a way of living in a
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kind of righteousness, we know that
we struggle. The flesh does wage hard
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against us. But again, that's
why we consider the vine. It's why
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we consider our Lord and our Savior, who makes us zealous for good works
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when we're tired, who purifies us
when we are unclean, who gives us
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righteousness when we are unrighteous, who
controls us when we lack self control,
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who loves US WHEN WE ARE UNLOVABLE. Younger women, that means you have
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a place to turn, a God
who rescues and loves and takes care of
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you, a husband who is inestimably
honorable and always good. Submit to him,
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submit to him in faith, and
God will um work in you.
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He will do the things that he
is promised. When we consider these things,
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when we consider our God, let
us strive after these good things,
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but strive in Him, knowing it's
in him that we live and work,
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and it's him who is working these
things in us. Let us pray for
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our younger women and for all of
us and our souls.
