Scripture referenced 15 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Luke 12:6 quoted during greeting time about sparrows not forgotten by God
6 “Aren’t five sparrows sold for two assaria coins? Not one of them is forgotten by God.
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Keep this verse
Titus 2:1
opening of the household code, teach what accords with sound doctrine
1 But say the things which fit sound doctrine,
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Titus 2:2
older men to be sober minded, dignified, self controlled, sound in faith
2 that older men should be temperate, sensible, sober minded, sound in faith, in love, and in perseverance:
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Titus 2:3
older women to be reverent, not slanderers or slaves to wine, to teach
3 and that older women likewise be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good;
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Titus 2:4-5
older women to train younger women to love husbands and children, be self controlled and submissive
4 that they may train the young wives to love their husbands, to love their children,
5 to be sober minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that God’s word may not be blasphemed.
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Titus 2:6
younger men urged to be self controlled
6 Likewise, exhort the younger men to be sober minded;
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Titus 2:7-8
Titus told to show himself a model of good works with integrity, dignity, and sound speech
7 in all things showing yourself an example of good works; in your teaching showing integrity, seriousness, incorruptibility,
8 and soundness of speech that can’t be condemned; that he who opposes you may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say about us.
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Titus 2:11-12
grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
12 instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age;
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Titus 2:9-10
bond servants to be submissive to masters, not argumentative or pilfering, so they may adorn the doctrine of God
9 Exhort servants to be in subjection to their own masters, and to be well-pleasing in all things; not contradicting;
10 not stealing, but showing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior, in all things.
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Titus 2:13
waiting for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ
13 looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ;
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Titus 2:14
Christ gave himself to redeem us from lawlessness and purify a people for his own possession zealous for good works
14 who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.
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Titus 2:15
declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no one disregard you
15 Say these things and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no man despise you.
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Titus 1:1
Paul identifies himself as a doulos, a slave of God, apostle of Jesus Christ
1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s chosen ones, and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness,
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John 3:16
God gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes would not perish but have everlasting life
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
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Romans 12:2
closing benediction, do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
2 Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message was part of an ongoing study in Titus 2, picking up where the previous week left off. The pastor worked through the fifth and final group in Paul's household code, bond servants, and drew out what their instructions reveal about what it means to belong to Christ. The sermon closed with a challenge to every believer to examine whose will they are actually serving.
What was said
Paul's letter to Titus was written into a Roman world structured by the Patria Potestas, the legal authority of the eldest male over the whole household. Against that backdrop, Paul tells Titus to teach what accords with sound, healthy doctrine to each group in the church, and self-control runs through nearly every one of those groups. The pastor noted that the previous week ended with a charge to concentrate on self-control, then told on himself, admitting that paying close attention to that command made McDonald's harder to resist all week, not easier. The point was serious: the grace of God has appeared so that believers actually can live self-controlled lives, but submitting the will to that grace is the daily work.
The fifth group Paul addresses is bond servants, the Greek word doulas, meaning someone who belongs to another with no ownership rights of their own. In the Roman Empire, roughly one in three people in the city of Rome and one in four across the empire were slaves, so this was no small footnote. Paul's instructions to them are to be submissive to their own masters in everything, not argumentative, not pilfering, and showing all good faith. The pastor acknowledged the weight that word slavery carries, particularly for anyone shaped by American history, and stated plainly that the Bible does not sanction the institution. He also noted that doulas, the very word for slave, is consistently used in the New Testament with the highest dignity, most often to describe believers who willingly live under Christ's authority.
The reason Paul gives for these instructions is a "so that" that the pastor said he always appreciates. Bond servants are to behave this way so that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. The word for adorn, kosmeo, is the root of both cosmos and cosmetics. It means to beautify, to arrange in order, to make compellingly attractive. The life of a believer is meant to make the teaching about God and salvation appealing to the people around them, not to argue them into it.
That leads into the verses the pastor said are the hinge of the whole passage. The grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people, and that same grace trains believers to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. He was careful to say that universalism is a heresy, that not all will be saved, but that the provision is there for all. More than that, the grace of God is not only for salvation but for sanctification, the ongoing process of being made more holy. Every time Titus mentions salvation, the pastor said, it also follows with sanctification.
Christ gave himself to redeem a people from lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. The pastor pointed out the turn there: after all the concern about slavery being wrong, the text reveals that Jesus himself is calling out a people to be his own possession, his own doulas. The good master is the one we should want to belong to, and belonging to him means good works will flow naturally from that relationship, not as a means of earning salvation, but as the fruit of it.
The pastor closed with Titus 2:15, where Paul tells Titus to declare these things, exhort, and rebuke with all authority, letting no one disregard him. He distinguished between exhortation, urging people toward goodness, and rebuke, sharply disapproving of sin, and said both are part of the job, though rebuke is the harder one. He then played out Bob Dylan's 1979 song "Gotta Serve Somebody," which argues that every person, regardless of status, is serving someone. The application was direct: you will either voluntarily submit to Christ as your master, or you will involuntarily serve yourself, which Dylan and Paul both suggest amounts to the same thing as serving the devil.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- The pastor talked about self control appearing four times in just the first few verses of Titus 2, and then admitted he struggled with it himself that week. Where in your own life do you notice the gap between knowing what self control looks like and actually practicing it?
- The sermon described how the household code in Titus 2 was meant to be lived out so that 'the word of God may not be reviled.' Can you think of a time when a believer's conduct, good or bad, shaped how someone around them thought about the gospel?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 8,312 words
0:01
Speaker 1Alright. Good. Would y'all stand with me and Imma invite Scott up to the front. Thank you, Judy for being over on the piano. We're going to sing Jesus is coming again.
0:09
It's hymn number seven fifty three. Looking forward to that great and glorious day. Amen. Of the Lord. Jesus is coming again.
0:17
Hymn seven fifty three. Just
0:23
Speaker 2hanging out now. Little bit of harmony here and there. Marvelous message we bring glorious carol we sing wonderful word of the king Jesus is coming again coming again morning maybe noon maybe evening, maybe soon, coming again, coming again, Jesus is coming again standing before him at last trial and trouble all past crowns at his feet we will cast Jesus is coming again coming again coming again maybe morning maybe noon maybe evening, maybe soon, coming again, coming again. Oh, what a wonderful day it will be Jesus is coming again
3:10
Speaker 1Thank you. That one is one of those that we start doing this and y'all start doing this. I don't know why it is. I just know that it is. Sunshine
3:16
Speaker 2of So my roller skate days way back, like, seventies or something. Don't know.
3:22
Speaker 1That's good. Seven forty seven.
3:24
Speaker 2Good melody. Good words on that one. Yeah. There we go. It was top of that verse.
4:50
Top of that verse.
4:50
Speaker 1Just like I heard a voice from the back.
4:57
Speaker 2He got he was chatting with your bride back there.
5:01
Speaker 1There is is there another verse to that song, Blake? Hey. Okay. Here we are.
5:11
Speaker 2Yeah. Too happy not to continue on. Let's continue on.
5:13
Speaker 1Let's see. Hymn number seven forty seven.
5:17
Speaker 2No. There. There's
5:24
Speaker 1How about the last? On the last
5:26
Speaker 2Hit it, Judy. There is gladness. Alright.
5:28
Speaker 1There is gladness in my soul. Alright.
5:30
Speaker 2There is gladness in my soul today. Amen. Let's see if there's sunshine in the souls out here.
6:10
Speaker 1Smiles. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. We do have a few announcements this week. The first one is that next week at 11:00, we will not be having church here in this building.
6:20
We will be having church but it will be over at the Teton County Fair. Actually, if you know Jackson, this being Snow King Avenue and this side over here being north, we're going to have it right in this area which is where the Lions Club breakfast has been and normally is. That's where they're putting the big top this year. They're not doing it over on this side of Snow King near the 4 H Building. It'll be over here.
6:45
There will be some parking there at the fair and you can park there and go to church there. We're going to be there. The 09:00 band will be leading in music and the Lions Club breakfast is starting in that morning and they will overlap us by a little bit. So, church starts at eleven and the breakfast ends at 11:30. Okay?
7:04
So, come eat your pancakes while we're doing the song service. If you want to, I would I would recommend come and say at 09:00, getting your breakfast, and then being through with it and hopefully some people hang on and come join church that might not otherwise be there but that's the plan. Teton County Fair, 11:00 next Sunday, we will be meeting at the Teton County Fair and you can just drive over there. Another thing I'd like to add is Nick Staren is performing stand up at the Teton County Fair. You know he's a part of an improv troupe here and they do that.
7:36
A lot of those folks come to First Bee. Nick is our office assistant and he's performing stand up comedy at the fair Friday night at 06:30. It's fresh off of his European tour, okay? Don't think I'm joking. Anyway, he's he is he is going to do stand up.
7:53
That should be fun. Home sweet home, Monday night set. First beat is happening tomorrow night. Carl, you're on? We're on.
8:01
Really? Meal, music, and message. Alright. And a message from Luke, I assume. Very good.
8:09
Alright. Good. Good deal. Next week though, that'll be the thirtieth of the the end of the month, the thirtieth will be at Mike Yoko Park. So, next week, Monday night, we'll meet.
8:19
That's not tomorrow night but next week, Monday week, if you're from the South, we'll meet up at Mike Yoko Park for our Monday night fellowship. We have a lagoon trip going down to Salt Lake City to an amusement park that is youth group trip, August tenth and eleventh. If you would like to go or would like to send one of your youths from middle school, high school, please plan on doing that. Talk to Mike Demetrius. Also, we like for our Bible studies and for our small groups to be organic.
8:50
I like for em to just kind of grow up from from the populous here, from the congregation and grow up. We like for that but we are trying to inspire you. So, I like grassroots stuff but we are going to fertilize a bit and just put this before you. Springtime, I mean, fall time is a good time for Bible studies to get started. So, if you've been thinking, I feel like God's leading in that direction.
9:10
I want to start something at my house or I want to start something at the church at a different hour. Let me know and let us know and we'll work with you on getting a Bible study started. You've got right now media and a lot of other resources but look at your bulletin for more information on that. There is a family camping trip. This is for young and old alike.
9:29
Some or all of your family, whoever likes to camp and wants to is welcome. Family camping trip, August the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth at Coulter Bay. You can contact Brian McCooey, Todd Lampa, or Mike Demetrius. All three of them know about this. They've already reserved the space for quite a few folks.
9:47
So please, if you like to camp, come join us up there for as much or as little as you want to do. I probably will not spend the night but I will go up for the weenie roast for sure. We'll probably sing some songs. They're even planning a church service on the night on the on the morning. The nineteenth, is that right, Diane?
10:03
The nineteenth is going to be a Sunday morning and so the guys are planning on doing a church service out there too. We'll still have church here. I'll still be preaching here but that'll be for whoever's on that family came to Cripple wants to spend Saturday night, go to church out there on Sunday. Any other announcements or prayer request, you can check your little paper bulletin that you're handed on the way in or you can grab one on the way out. Am I missing anything?
10:25
Forgetting anything. Okay. Alright. I'm glad to see y'all this morning. It is very very good to be in the house of the Lord.
10:31
Would you all stand up and just greet one another and we will bring you back together with a song. And and are not five sparrows sold for 2 pennies yet not one of them is ever forgotten by God. Luke 12. Amen.
13:09
Speaker 2Why should I feel discouraged and I know he watches
16:34
Speaker 1Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I'll invite the frontline to come forward, frontline team. Would you pray with me? God, I thank you for a beautiful, beautiful morning, a beautiful place.
16:46
It never gets old. Never gets old. Your mercies are new every morning. The wonder that we have for your creation, lord. Is amazing.
16:58
Your creation is amazing, lord, but it all points. These mountains point upward. They point to you. I pray lord that we would this morning concentrate our efforts on you and on your will, your will for our lives, your will for our talents. Would you use em lord to advance your good gospel?
17:21
I pray that you would, lord, advance the kingdom through that which we give, that which goes in these plates this morning, lord. It's an acknowledgement that you have given us all that we have by your grace and we want to say we trust you to do what you will with our lives and with our resources. God, would you extend the good news to the ends of the earth? Would you use us as your willing participants and obedient servants? In Jesus name, amen.
18:51
Speaker 3You're welcome. You. Feel a thing. You say I am strong when I think I'm weak. You say I am held when I am falling short and I believe what you say of me I believe oh I believe
22:01
Speaker 1Thank you, Abby Kate. That, if y'all don't know who that is, that's Abby Kate Pearson. She is our godchild. She and her mom and her brother are back there with her too today. But she's been staying with us all summer and every summer, all summer this summer and last and the one before.
22:15
And each summer, she always sings on the last Sunday. And people come up like, who was I? She's been here all summer, but she's leaving this week. But thank you very much for giving up your time and your talents there at Ivy Kate. So all right.
22:28
And now hey, amen. Amen. We love her. We love her. Love her.
22:33
She's great. Titus two is where we are in our study. We have gotten up to Titus two. I started a message last week that I said was like a Kit Kat bar. We were going to break off a piece.
22:43
We didn't know how much we We're going to share next week but that's what we have done and I had planned on 15 verses and planned that sermon out and I made it through eight, I think. I skipped forward a little bit in the text. I'm going to go through so to help you ground this sermon. I'll do a refresher real quick about last week. So, Titus two is a household code and we went over the household code for, let's just read it but as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.
23:12
Paul is writing a letter to Titus. Paul has left Titus on Crete to help him put in order all the things that remain. He said, Paul had been there with Titus. They started planting churches. They're needed to be elders appointed.
23:23
They're needed to be order within the church and so, he says, to Titus, as for you, Titus, teach what accords with sound that is healthy doctrine. The word there is the same word we use as hygiene. Don't let anything impure or any germy buggies get in there. Keep it clean and pure, sound, healthy, doctrine. As for you, teach what?
23:46
Accords with sound doctrine. Teaching matters. This particular passage hits teaching over and over and over again. He realizes that he is in a society that does not believe the word of God. He realizes he's in a society that is very very selfish and wealth oriented and also very deceptive in their ways.
24:09
So, he is saying, Titus, stick with what it says. All chapter one, stick with what the Bible says and then chapter two, he says, but as for you, Titus, don't do like those false teachers. Don't go after irreverent babblings or endless genealogies. As for you, Titus, teach what accords with healthy doctrine. Doctrine is another way of saying teaching, application of knowledge.
24:32
Last week, I also mentioned the Patria Potestas. That was the law of the land in ancient Roman Empire. The Roman Empire had it set up so that Patrifamilius, the father of the family, was in charge. He was almost like an it was actually an extension of the Roman government. We have the Roman Imperial folks and then below that and below that but each eldest male in his family was the one that was in charge and I'm talking about the oldest living male.
25:01
So, granddad usually or maybe great granddad. He was the one that was in charge and he got to say who his kids would marry or if they would marry. He got to say, who did what tasks and when. Last week, I had a couple of granddaddies that just said, I like that system. I think we ought to institute that system.
25:18
Seems like he gives me a lot of power. You're saying that's biblical? Well, not exactly. That's the context into which they were write, he was writing this letter. Everybody knew that the father of the family was the one in charge.
25:31
He got to say what happened. So, that's the paterfamilias. That's the area of the context he's writing into. As for you, Titus, teach what accords with sound, healthy doctrine, and immediately, he starts dividing the groups and saying, older men, he divides groups into five different sections and we covered four of em last week. Older men are to be sober minded, dignified, self control.
25:54
We spoke spoke a lot about self control last week because it's in, it's mentioned four times in these first few verses. Older men are to be sober minded, dignified, self controlled, sound, again, healthy in their faith. Not legalistic, not licentious, but healthy in their faith. In love and in steadfastness, they are to be healthy and sound. Older women, so older men, then older women.
26:17
Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach. Again, it's to teach, and it's older men and older women within the church. So this is what Titus was supposed to teach to the churches. He can say this with a megaphone to society at large and they would probably just disregard him as a crazy person but if you have submitted your life to God almighty and you have accepted the salvation offered through Jesus Christ, this message is for you and how you should order your life and how Titus should continually be teaching this and the older women should teach what is good and in such a way as this, so train the young women to love their husbands and their children and to be, it says again, self control.
27:05
That hits both list. Older women, older. I mean, younger women right there. They're to train them by modeling and to be self controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, not just to everybody in general but to their own husbands and then he gives us a so that and I'm always thankful for the so that. So that, the word of God may not be reviled.
27:26
In the society, people can say, why would you believe the old book anyway? That's crazy. But if the way that you live your life is upright and it is a model of Jesus like behavior, then they take note of that and they have nothing to slander the very word of God which is their hope of salvation. That make sense? Okay.
27:46
So, that the word of God may not be reviled. Train the young this way. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self controlled and that's all we got, right? Last week, it was the young men just be self controlled because what do young men struggle with? Self control.
28:02
Show yourself in all respects. He's speaking back to Timothy at this point. I mean Titus at this point. Show yourself, Titus, in all respects to be a model. What's the best form of teaching?
28:13
Modeling. Being an example for your students. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works. And in your teaching, show integrity and dignity. Integrity meaning that which cannot be corrupted.
28:28
Dignity, and sound speech, healthy speech that cannot be condemned. Speak in such a way that no one will condemn you for it. So that any opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. So, I asked last week at the towards the end, why should we be living out this household code? Why is it?
28:50
And then I skipped ahead in the text because I know that on Sunday mornings, I mean, some of y'all are even on vacation. You're junkies for Jesus. You're showing up on vacation to church and I'm glad that you are and I'm thankful for it. Some of you return visitors. I see that.
29:03
When you come out here, you're asking yourself, it's Sunday and we should be in the house of lord, right? So, I skipped ahead in the text to those because primarily, the people who show up here on Sunday mornings are believers are are looking to be believers. They're looking for encouragement in their faith. So, the fourth time in 11 verses, he says, that they would live self controlled in verse eleven twelve. It says it.
29:26
It says, for the grace of God has appeared. The grace of God, the unmerited favor of God is that he gave his only begotten son, right? Whosoever should believe in him or whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life. So, the grace of God has appeared and that grace of God appearing brought salvation for all. It's not to all.
29:50
Not everyone will be saved. Universalism is a heresy. Maybe a convenient heresy for some but it is a heresy. The grace of God has appeared. Bringing salvation to all for all people training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passion.
30:09
I won't stay on that a minute. So, the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passion and we mentioned self control and I left it with you last week actually. I just left it and I said, read it like this. If you are a believer in Jesus already, I want for you this week to concentrate on self control because the grace of God has appeared for all people to live self control. Now, how many of you struggle this week with that?
30:33
I'm going to tell a quick little story. I I have been doing alright. You know what I'm saying? Last six months, I've been doing alright. I have not been to McDonald's in six about six months, somewhere right in there and I've been doing fine and then I preached this sermon and I could not get my mind off of Chicken McNuggets for crying out loud.
30:52
I was like, and I found myself on Tuesday, on Tuesday going through and I went through the thing and I got Chicken McNuggets and surprise. Coming back. I didn't tell this this much in the first service but I carried this big old bag of McDonald's back in. I'm coming to church and I was kind of sneaking into the cover of darkness and I walked through and I walked through and there's a young lady that comes to Sunday morning, 09:00 and Monday night, and she's a nutritionist at the hospital. When I walked through the door, the only person I saw was her.
31:19
First one. I was like, Tuesday night, sneak into my office. I finished my supper. Dog gone if I wasn't there on Wednesday morning and on Thursday morning. Thursday morning, I I had somebody in from out of town.
31:34
He's going, McDonald's is the easiest. Just let's do it. I'm like, no. I don't wanna do it. But, yeah, okay.
31:38
It's fine with me. Oh, McGriddle. Oh. I struggle with self control in that area this week because I was paying attention to it. Does that make sense?
31:49
So, the grace of God has appeared and I had the I had the access. I could've submitted my will to the will of the father. The grace of God has appeared for all people to live self control. We can live a self controlled life. We actually can.
32:05
I had a guy come up afterwards and he said that there was an MA, McDonald's anonymous meeting this afternoon. I don't mean to make light of it. I was actually serious about this. So anyway, the grace of God has appeared. The more it seems, the more you pay attention to it, the harder it is.
32:22
So this whole message hopefully will help with that. The grace of God has appeared for all people to live self controlled. So, there's the list and it says self control out of three out of four of those list and really the older women were supposed to teach by example to the younger. I'd say it hits all four list. Self control and then we get to the meet this week.
32:40
Bond servants is how it starts off. Bond servants. This is the fifth group. We've already had four. Older men, older women, younger women, younger men and then it says, bond servants.
32:50
That word is doulas. Doulas can mean bond servant. That's the way it's translated here. Servant or slave. Properly, this is someone who belongs to another.
33:03
Dulas. Someone who belongs to another and they have no ownership rights of their own. In the time that this was written under the law, everything. I said last week that a a father of the family could sell their child into slavery up to three times. It was a limited scope but he could sell that child in.
33:24
And he got to say whether that happened or not. That's a different context than I think of slavery. When I see slave or slavery, it immediately takes me back in my mind to Civil War America. I'm from Georgia. Y'all know that.
33:35
You can hear that. And when I think about it and when I talk about it, there are all these different viewpoints and sides that come in and slavery is an absolute reprehensible, indefensible position but it was the law of the land at this time. It was the law of the land pre civil war and so people, you know, weighing things out. The Bible does not sanction it and I believe no doubt about it that the Bible has the seeds of overthrowing institution of slavery all over it. Colossians by Lehman, right here.
34:14
There's not any place where institutionalized slavery has come to an end without a Christian witness in the world. Slavery, honestly, is still the way of the world. At this time, when he wrote bond servants, the next group of people that we're talking about, slaves, bond servants, servants are slaves. When he wrote that to them, one out of three people in Rome were slaves. One out of four in the rest of the Roman Empire.
34:39
So, 25% of the people, that's a lot of slaves. It's a significant chunk. They had less rights than younger men. Yeah, less rights than younger women, less rights than anybody. They had no ownership rights of themselves.
34:52
Yet, ironically, Dulos is used always in the New Testament with the highest dignity. It is most often referred to as believers who willingly live under Christ's authority as his devoted followers. So, it means a slave. That's what Dulos means. It can be literal or figurative.
35:12
So, a literal slave that is the personal property of another human being. Does that just get to the, it gets down to my inside very very deep and causes an emotional stir. A slave, a literal like they are owned by another or figurative. Paul uses slave to sin multiple times. Involuntary because you know, when I think back to Civil War, pre Civil War America, it was the the kids that were born to slave parents were also slaves.
35:44
That was involuntary. It's not something. When they were brought over, most in most cases, it was involuntary. They were not selling themselves into slavery. Some did.
35:53
That's a possibility that could have happened but it was not the norm. In this time, if you owed a debt, you could sell yourself into slavery until your debt paid off. You served that person until your debt was paid off. It's kind of like our time. A lot of us are in debt, right?
36:09
And we are slaves to the debt that we've created for ourselves. So a slave can be literal or figurative, involuntary, or voluntary. You can submit to someone as a doulas. So doulas, bond servants, douloi actually, are to be submissive to their own masters. It is to their own masters.
36:30
It's not to everyone that is above them in social standing. It's to their own masters. In everything, sounds really broad. In everything, they are to be well pleasing. I define that one for you but well pleasing but it's easy to understand, right?
36:45
Well pleasing. Not argumentative. Not pilfering but showing all good faith. So there's the list for bond servants. I've got the others up there in gray, but bond servants are to be submissive to their own masters and everything.
37:02
So I have equated this. Six weeks ago, I said this from up here. I said, if you hid it and all you can think about is our context in America of slavery and that it was racial and that it was all these things and it clouds your vision of it. I said, think of it as this is written to employers. Now this text does not talk about to the directly to the masters or employee employers.
37:25
Sorry. I messed that up. Bond servants are employees. And so I changed that in an updated version and I had somebody write me a nasty little, I think that was too big a leak. Think about it.
37:36
Are we bound by contract to someone to serve them while we are there? Yes, I would say that we are. Do you expect a full, if you're an employer, do you expect a full day's work for a full day's pay? You do. So, for bond servants, submissive to their own masters and everything.
37:51
I I mentioned Matt Lutzman is a stonemason. He sits over there in the first service and I said, if I was working for Matt and I get there and he tells me, what I want you to do is move that big pile of rocks and put em over there with those other rocks and so I get there and now I'm working for him. I'm like, well, I don't want to do this, but I'm more skilled than this. I know better to do this. I don't know why he's got me doing this.
38:15
I have three other people that could be doing this. And then I go, well pleasing. It's like when Matt comes around, oh yes, sir. Everything's fine right now. I'm I'm moving these rocks just as fast as I can.
38:27
No, that's that's eye service. That's lip service. It's not well pleasing is get the job done in as efficient way as you can. Not argumentative. I don't know why you think I ought to do the rocks.
38:36
I there are plenty of people that can do the rocks. I'm more of a creative type. Not pilfering might take some rocks home or a bag of mortar here and there. Not taking. Slaves at this time in all the writings from the ancient East, it was like slaves steal.
38:54
That's what they do. Well, they're in a bad situation and they feel that it's necessary. If someone feels like I'm not getting paid enough to do this, office supplies might be a temptation to take home. Oh, company's got plenty of that. Not pilfering, taking.
39:08
It can range from petty theft to large grand theft but showing all good faith. We expect that an employee will, in all good faith, do the job, right? Well, he says this but he's saying it to Christian slaves. Yes, you're in a bad situation. Some of them would not have thought anything about being in that bad situation because that's the way it has always been.
39:29
Submissive to their own masters and everything. Well, and not argumentative, not pilfering but showing all good faith and then he gives us another so that which I love. So that in everything, they may adorn the doctrine of God our savior so that slaves by their work or employees by their work may adorn the doctrine of God our savior. He's not preaching to the society as a whole. He's preaching to Christians.
39:56
If you are a Christian and you have submitted your will to Christ's will, you are to do everything as if unto Christ so that in everything, you may adorn the doctrine of God our savior. So, this, so that is very very important. Adorn. The word there is kosmeo, and kosmeo is from the world, cosmos, the world. You may think of it as a chaotic world, but sun, moon, and stars in their courses above and all the manifold witness of nature is an orderly thing.
40:27
It's an orderly universe. The scientific precision down to the last atom. Properly, it is to beautify, having the right arrangement, to sequence by ordering, to adorn, to make compellingly attractive, to make very appealing, to make inviting and awesomely gorgeous. Why do people come here to Jackson Hole? Why do people come here?
40:55
Because it is awesomely gorgeous. Really, it's attractive. I'm from Shiloh, Georgia and I think it's pretty. But we don't have 5,000,000 visitors a year in Shiloh, Georgia because it's not this pretty. This place is adorned.
41:09
I mean, draws people. It's also, this is the term, the root of the English term cosmetics, cosmos cosmetics. It is what adorns. Is Tanya here? Tanya?
41:24
I told a joke in the first service. Tanya said, you might not know how to tell it in the second month, but do it anyway. She's heard the joke a bunch of times. I think I've told it once in church, and that was this morning. There was an evangelist.
41:37
We used to schedule revivals every August in Georgia. So, we schedule this revival. Guy comes in. He's got a banana yellow suit, cowboy boots, big hair, and he comes in and he is just blasting, blasting, blasting and he he was he was a heavy parkour guy and he said, I have people come up to me sometimes and say, preacher, you think it's a sin for a woman to wear makeup? And he said, I got to tell you the truth, folks.
41:59
I think it's a sin when some of them don't. Sorry. You need a brain break every once in a while. Cosmetics comes from cosmeo, okay? It is to beautify or adorn in a way that is attractive.
42:11
That's what the word means. So, so that in everything you may be attractive to the doctrine which is the teaching about God our savior. The teaching about God our savior. There is a way out. I've already mentioned John three sixteen for the for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
42:33
That's good news. There's bad news in there, right? So, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish because we all stand in peril unless we trust trust in Christ. So, that in everything they may adorn that teaching that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. There's no one that comes to the father except by him.
42:51
So, that doctrine or that teaching is adorned by the way that you live out your life. Four, really big. Four, because this is saying because of this and this is one of the verse the verse I used last week. For the very grace of God, the unmerited favor of almighty God has appeared. Bringing salvation for all people.
43:15
We'll all accept it? No, not all will. But it is there for all people. So, it's about salvation but it's also goes further than that. It's bringing salvation for all people.
43:29
For the grace of God has appeared, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. The grace of God has appeared for us to be able to walk away from the worldly passions and ungodliness and it's about sanctification. So, every time in Titus, I think I checked it the other day. Every time that it mentions salvation, it also follows it up with sanctification. The grace of God has appeared not just for our salvation and we tend to think in that way but it's also the grace of God has appeared for our sanctification and y'all might have thought that I was joking a bit about McDonald's thing.
44:03
Could've been anything. I know that. But probably in our society is more acceptable than some other sins but that that one, I do actually have the power through Christ. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead to get over that. I know people who have gotten over addictions.
44:20
They praise God for it. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power that's at work. Now, was I submitting my will? I was not. And I was not living self control.
44:33
The grace of God has appeared so that I can but I was not doing it. So, that's where we were last week. It's the fourth time in 11 verses. It's pretty important. He goes on to say, upright, upright is from the same root about God is right and God is just and you can live a just and upright life.
44:52
You can live a godly life in this present age and when I hit the present age, I think of this, there are and a lot of our songs this morning about heaven. Like, if you're looking at em, a lot of em are about heaven. God lives in this present age says that we can already enjoy being a part of the kingdom while we are alive on this planet. It's not just about pie in the sky, by and by heaven is our reward. That's not what it's about.
45:14
It's about becoming a part of what God is doing in the here and in the now. It's been said that there are some folks who are so heavenly minded, they're of no earthly good. That is not what Titus is about. He's saying that good works will flow out of a life that recognizes the salvation and sanctification of Jesus Christ. Godly lives in the present age.
45:33
I use this slide from time to time. I didn't even explain it to the visitors this morning but God chose from the beginning how we would be redeemed. Christ agreed voluntarily came, lived a perfect life with no sin debt. He lived a perfect life, died a perfect sacrificial death, was buried, and was resurrected and the witness of that provision that was made by gracious and loving God, unmerited favor was shown to the world. That gospel witness of that good news has gone forward and for each individual person, there is a moment where you have to accept or reject that.
46:18
Now, we have the gospel witness going forward and I pray that it we keep on going forward but individually, your moment of belief is that place where you are saved. Now, God chose it from the beginning. I'm not going to argue about the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man but you will believe if you are of the elect. So, that's that whole responsibility thing. Belief, one is saved right there but this passage is primarily about the sanctification part.
46:48
As we submit our will to God, we are more sanctified. Sanctified. When we fill with pride, we sink. Does that make sense? God resist the proud but he gives grace to the humble and he will lead us on the upward way.
47:01
He will. It's the work of the Holy Spirit. Until that day, that great and glorious day of the Lord, what a day that will be. When we are ultimately saved and glorified and we don't have to study war no more. We were not tempted by the same sins.
47:18
We're between that already and not yet. You can be a part of the kingdom before you are in heaven. We're waiting for our blessed hope. We're in that place right there in the midst of having believed but not yet be in there. Waiting for our blessed hope, that is our ultimate salvation.
47:37
The appearing of the glory of our great God and our savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us to redeem us. That's about salvation. To redeem us from all lawlessness. That's leaning towards sanctification which is the process of being made more good and holy. He goes on for sure and says, and to purify for himself, a people for his own possession.
48:00
Jesus Christ gave himself to redeem us from lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession. I see that as sanctification and then I look at it further and I go, a people for his own possession. Now, my whole thing about slavery is it's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong. How could a master blah blah blah? I I get that and then I see that the tables all of a sudden are turned that Jesus is seeking to purify for himself a people for his possession.
48:34
He is the head. He is the master. He is the one that we are to look for and we should be a people for his possession. Back to the beginning, it says, bond servants which I took you to was do loss, bond servants, servants, slaves. Someone who has who belongs to another.
48:51
Do you belong to Christ? Is he your master? Without any ownership rights of your own. What he has given, he has given by his grace. Paul, a doulas, Titus one one.
49:07
This is the way it starts off. Paul, a doulas, a slave. It's it's servant in the English Standard Version but it's the same word. A doulas, a slave of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness. So, the knowledge of the truth saves you.
49:27
Yes, I mean, it does. That's where you come in contact with the gospel. You have to accept or reject. You accept and then it says, for the sake. Of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness.
49:42
It's also about sanctification and it does lead to good works. Works cannot do not and will not save you but when you are saved, it will spawn good works in your life. In hope of eternal life which God who never lies, so it's salvation, hope of eternal life, which God who never lies promised before the ages began and at the proper time, he manifested it through the in his word, through the preaching. Again, that's proclamation and teaching. Teaching is very important in Titus.
50:14
He left him there to put in order the things that were not by his teaching. And preaching with which I've been entrusted. Paul says, by the command of God, our savior. I want you to think about this that Dulos is used with the highest dignity. I just pulled this out of Thayer's lexicon.
50:29
I didn't make this definition up. It's used with the highest dignity in the New Testament. Namely, of believers who willingly live under Christ's authority as his devoted followers. So, whether you're an older man or an older woman or a younger woman or a younger man, if you are a believer, do loss is what you hope for is to have a master who is good and gracious and benevolent. Bond servants are to be submissive to their own masters and everything.
50:59
Do you think Christ would be the perfect master he is? So, I want to go back to this too. This last little thing, the slave being literal or figurative. I know that you are not a slave literally but are you figuratively? Is it involuntary or voluntary?
51:21
Bond servants would be submissive to their own masters and everything and if Christ is calling out a people for his own possession, he's calling out a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. This is something that you are to be doing good works. They will not save you. They are because you are and you want to adorn the teaching of God our savior. Declare these things.
51:45
This is the last verse. Declare these things. Again, with the teaching. He keeps saying it. Declare out loud in the assembly of believers.
51:53
Declare these things. Exhort and rebuke with all authority. Exhort and rebuke. How often do you use the word exhort and rebuke? So this morning, an exhort and rebuke, we don't use in modern parlance, but we don't use parlance in modern parlance either.
52:12
Declare these things, exhort and rebuke. Exhort. What is exhort? It's stronger than encourage. It is to urge towards goodness.
52:22
Exhortation is to urge towards something that is good. A good action, a good work, a good attitude, a good whatever. To exhort is to encourage or urge toward goodness. And that one's actually a little bit easier. Y'all come on, it's this.
52:37
We can do this. Pay attention to social justice issues. Go for it. Let's do this together. Let's build somebody a house.
52:44
Let's do that sort of thing. Exhort. Help out at CES, community entry service. Help out at a school. Help out.
52:51
That's great to exhort people to that. This one's a little more difficult. Rebuke. Rebuke. It's my job to both exhort and rebuke.
52:59
Exhort, I'm comfortable with. Rebuke is harder for me. It's no less a part of my job though. Declare these things. Exhort and rebuke.
53:07
Rebuke means sharply disapprove of sin. I had it as encouraged goodness and discouraged badness but that's just wimpy. Sharply disapprove of sin in our midst and the reason being, it's bad for us. It's not just like, oh, that's fun. Don't do it.
53:25
It's bad for us. Paul says, flee, flee sexual immorality. He means flee it. Get away from it. You're not designed to handle it.
53:33
It's good in its proper place but that's not immorality. That's morality. Rebuke, sharply disapprove of sin. Now, am I to do this for absolute everybody in my whole society? Titus was given the charge to the church at Crete.
53:48
I'm given the charge to the the people who show up here to this church. I need to exhort you towards that which is good and I need to rebuke you when something is bad. That's my job. That's what I'm supposed to be doing. I think that's what we're supposed to be doing for one another mutually.
54:06
With all authority because we have the authority. This is the authority. Now, if I go and I say in the public square, in this nation where it's the separation of church and state is one of the foundations of our democracy. If I go in and I say, according to this, that's great but I don't expect that anyone who has not, I don't expect anyone who has not submitted their will to the will of God, to the will, to the, to the, to Jesus. I don't expect anybody to pay any attention to what I say from this.
54:35
Does that make sense? I don't expect for society to act like they are Christians when they are not. But I do and the Bible does and Paul does and Titus does and I do expect that when Christians are, that you will. So, exhort and rebuke with all authority. As long as you are sticking with the authority that is given here, you have the authority.
54:57
When you go outside of it, you don't have any authority whatsoever. Ties two fifteen and then he closes off with one more little blurb. Let no one disregard you. That's hard. In our in our day, we take in so much information and we disregard so much information.
55:13
What a wackadoo that guy is. Let no one disregard you. I have to be grounded in what it says. That's all of chapter one of Titus but I have to stick to it and I have to keep on going, exhorting, and rebuking and holding people to it. Let no one disregard what it is that you're saying.
55:32
I think that's the last slide. I have one more thing. The first service, some people got it. Second service, looking around the age groups, where were you in 1979? 1979, Bob Bob Dylan Dylan became a Christian like in '78, '79, right around in there and his first album after that, he wrote a song called Gotta Serve Somebody.
55:54
It's number 43 on the best 100 Dylan songs. It's also number two on the worst Dylan songs depending on who you talk to. John Lennon hated it so bad that he wrote a vitriolic response to it called You Gotta Serve Yourself or Serve Yourself. And the reason I want to read some of this, I think it's well written. I like the song.
56:15
It's Bob Dylan, so it's not like it's a beautiful song. But it's well written. And it's hard for me not to mock him. I'm sorry when I'm saying it. You may be an ambassador to England or France.
56:29
You may like to gamble. You may like to dance. You may be the heavyweight champion of the world. You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls, but you're going to have to serve somebody. Yep, you're going to have to serve somebody.
56:40
It may be the devil, and it may be the Lord, but you're to have to serve somebody. So, what he's, what this is saying up here, slave can be figurative or literal. Y'all are not literally slaves. Figuratively, you can be. Voluntary or involuntary.
56:57
Either you will voluntarily be a slave to your master Jesus Christ. Or I think that the other position is involuntarily, you will serve yourself or like Bob Dylan says, or the devil. I I don't think a lot of people choose voluntarily. I'm going to serve the devil. I think that self, the pride of the flesh, and the devil kind of goes together.
57:19
You might be a rock and roll addict prancing on the stage. You might have drugs at your command, women in the cage. You may be a businessman or some high degree thief. They may call you doctor. They may call you chief.
57:31
But you're gonna have to serve somebody. You might be a state trooper. You might be a young Turk. You may be the head of some big TV network. You may be rich or poor.
57:39
You may be blind or lame. Maybe living in another country under another name, but you're going to have to serve somebody. Yes, you are. You're going have to serve somebody. Construction worker, working on a home, living in a mansion, or might even live in a dome.
57:52
You might own guns, you might own tanks, might be somebody's landlord, you might even own banks. You're going to have to serve somebody. Get to me on the next verse. You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride. Maybe a city councilman taking bribes on the side.
58:07
You may be working in a barbershop. You may know how to cut hair. Maybe somebody's mistress or somebody's heir but you're going to have to serve somebody. That is true. You're to have to serve somebody and what he's saying is, he's turned the tables on us and said, submit willingly.
58:29
Be well pleasing to your master. That's that's all I have for this morning. If y'all would stand, Judy, would you come on up and we'll sing? Scott, would you come up to? How about I surrender all?
58:46
I surrender all. Voluntarily giving up your rights is not something that we do a lot here and now, but I do think it is what we should do. Lord God, I pray that we can say, lord, God, we can say, yes, lord but we can't say no. Lord, we can just say, yes, lord or we can say no. But if we're to make you lord of our life, we need to be listening and obedient to what it is that you're asking of us.
1:00:47
In Jesus name, lord, I ask that you would transform our minds, that you would transform us into the image of Christ, that you would make us. Lord, more and more day by day as we submit our will to yours, into the image of your blessed son, Jesus. Would you do that? Jesus name, amen. I have one more benediction verse that is, do not conform to the pattern of this world any longer but be transformed by the renewing of your mind and then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is.
1:01:18
It's good and it's pleasing and his perfect will. I pray that for all of us this week as we go. Jesus name. Amen.
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