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Sermon: Titus 2:1-6
Titus 2:1-6
But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: 2 That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. 3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; 4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. 6 Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.
Going to the doctor for a checkup is something a lot of people do often.
They want to make sure their health is not failing in ways they can’t detect on their own.
Not a bad idea.
trying to stay healthy is just a smart thing to do.
Likewise we are prone to miss some signs of poor spiritual health if we don’t check up on it on a regular basis.
In Paul’s letters to the pastors Timothy and Titus he uses a word that helps evaluate spiritual health.
The word is "sound".
We actually get our English word "hygiene" from the Greek word that Paul uses.
When the Bible speaks of "sound doctrine", "sound faith" and "sound speech", it is basically talking about "healthy doctrine", "healthy faith" and "healthy speech".
How do we maintain good spiritual hygiene?
How do we know we are spiritually well?
That is a very important question
how do we know if we are truly spiritually well
especially since there are so many different types of messages being preached in today’s society?"
1 John 4:1
1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
that verse basically tells us not to believe everything we hear.
Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you.
Not everyone who talks about God comes from God.
There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world today.
so I have a series of tests we can use to make sure we are spiritually healthy
The first test of good spiritual health is our relationship to "sound doctrine".
If our spiritual health is going to be good it has to be based on the right information.
Consider what the Bible says about "sound" or "healthy" doctrine:
Titus 2:1
1 But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:
we must teach what is of sound doctrine.
2 Timothy 1:13
13 Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
Paul tells us to remember what he has told us
to keep the truth in God's word as the pattern of sound teaching
Titus 1:9
9 Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.
we must hold firm to the trustworthy message of God's word just as it has been taught,
Sound doctrine has an encouraging and uplifting effect.
One of the reasons why reading, studying, hearing teaching and preaching from the Word of God is so beneficial is that it is very encouraging!
Sound doctrine is healthy and encourages us because it is true and trustworthy!
One of the most encouraging things we can do is pick up and read a message from the Word of God!
our spiritual health can grows weak because we are pulled down by all the discouraging things around us.
we need a constant diet of sound doctrine.
False doctrine can lead to a spiritually unhealthy lifestyle.
1 Timothy 1:8-10
But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; 9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;
Why are some lives spiritually unhealthy?
The doctrine they have been listening to and following is not sound is not true therefore its not healthy.
We cannot maintain good spiritual health if we are following false teaching.
The Word of God issues some warnings in that area.
2 Timothy 4:3
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
people today gather around a great number of teachers that simply say what their itching ears want to hear.
what we need is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth according to the word of God
people can digest false teaching because it’s what they want to hear at the moment, but like eating junk food, they will eventually pay the price.
on false teaching the junk food Our spiritual health will eventually suffer.
We will find ourselves more easily discouraged,
more easily prone to sin,
more easily led astray by even more serious false teaching.
The second test for spiritual health The Bible talks about is "sound faith".
Titus 1:10-13
10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: 11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. 12 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. 13 This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;
there are many rebellious people
mere talkers and deceivers
they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach
for the sake of dishonest gain.
we have to be very careful what we listen to
If we listen to and follow doctrine that is not sound, naturally, our faith won’t be sound.
Only sound doctrine produces sound faith.
Sound spiritual health is dependent on sound spiritual intake.
illustration:
back in the late 90’s nasa lost a $125 million Mars orbiter?
One engineering team used metric units while the other used English units for a key spacecraft operation. For that reason, information failed to transfer between the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft team at Lockheed Martin in Colorado and the mission navigation team in California. The navigation mishap pushed the spacecraft too close to the planet’s atmosphere it burned and broke into pieces, killing the mission on a day when engineers had expected to celebrate the craft’s entry in Mars’ orbit. There’s been a meeting of the minds since then and they’ve all decided to use the same measurements from here on out.
That’s what we’ve got to do to maintain good spiritual health.
We’ve got to get on the same page as God.
We’ve got to use His measurement system
His measurement system is sound doctrine which alone produces sound faith.
Look at some of the examples of a life of sound faith that the Bible mentions.
Let's look at our scripture passage once again and then put it all together with some specifics.
Titus 2:1-6
But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: 2 That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. 3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; 4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. 6 Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.
These verses clue us in to the fact that our spiritual health is based on sound doctrine - which is evidenced by sound faith - which determines how we live.
simply put How can we tell if our spiritual health is good?
by How good we are living?
Thirdly, the state of our spiritual health can be diagnosed by the soundness of our speech.
Let’s go just a little bit further into Titus chapter 2. starting at Verse 6 again -
6 Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded. 7 In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, 8 Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.
Titus was to be sound in speech,
which was also part of what was to be taught to the members of his congregation as well.
"How can we tell if our spiritual health is good?"
by how we are talking.
How’s your speech?
Is it sound?
Is your speech uplifting and positive?
Ephesians 4:29
29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers
Negative talk is bad for your spiritual health.
Gossip, backbiting, mean words, harsh words, unwholesome words, negative words -
they don’t build anyone up so we shouldn’t use them.
They’re an indicator of poor spiritual health.
James 1:19
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
conclusion:
So how do we know if our spiritual health is good?
Sound doctrine - do you listen to it and follow it?
Sound faith - is your life producing the right kind of works?
Sound speech - are you talking right?
What if the Holy Spirit convinces you that you have room for improvement in any one of these areas?
what should you do?
Revelation 2:5
5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
Repent and do the things you did at first.
there's no shame in coming to this altar
and there is no shame in coming back if need be.
I would rather ride the altar on my knees all the way to heaven than stand up and walk straight into hell
