Called To Be God’s Woman:

A Titus 2 Woman

 

KEY VERSE:  Titus 2:3-5                                     Lesson 7 – The Aged Women:

                                                           Behavior that becometh Holiness

Lesson based on Titus 2: 3A                                                              Holiness for You – Pt. 3

 

I.  Definitions:

 

1.         From your homework sheet, the first question has to do with the word, habit.  The question is what is a habit and how is it formed?  What could be the motivation for forming a habit?  Briefly, how did you answer that question? 

 

            A.  Habit - Behavior pattern;  Synonyms:  custom, tradition, modus operandi, practice, standard operating procedure

 

2.  Also, we looked up the word ‘excess’.    What were your findings for this word?

 

            A.  Superfluity, surplus; intemperance; Synonyms: plethora, overabundance. 

 

            Q.  In your opinion, are excesses a good or a bad thing and why? 

 

II. “…Not given to much wine…”

 

            [B] Titus 2:3   Our study tonight continues with a further exposition into the charge given to aged women, as relating to behavior that becomes holiness.  We have already touched on having lips that speak truth and other areas in our lives where our mouths may cause us to sin if they are not sanctified unto the Lord.  The aged women are to be reverent  and dignified, as would be fitting in things that pertain to God.  In order to carry out God’s distinctives for them, temperance is as vital to them as it is for the aged men, verse 2.  And, it is the same for all who call themselves by the name of Christ.

 

            In this next phrase, Paul’s instruction to Titus is that aged women be “not given to much wine…”

 

            Matthew Henry’s Commentary [Vol. VI, pg. 862] has this to say regarding this charge:

                        “The word denotes such addictedness thereto as to be under the power and mastery of it.  This is unseemly and evil in any, but especially in this sex and age, and was too much to be found among the Greeks of that time and place.  How immodest and shameful, corrupting and destroying purity both of body and mind!  Of what evil example and tendency, unfitting for the next thing, which is a positive duty of aged matrons, namely, to be teachers of good things!”

 

            Matthew Henry warns about “addictedness” and coming “under the power and mastery”, in this case, of wine.  Is he overstating his position?  Is he over-reacting?

  

            We may argue that we just have a little sip now and again of wine or some other alcoholic beverage.  We might argue that we know what we are doing and we don’t get drunk; it’s not a habit and we don’t drink to excess.

 

3.  [B] Romans 6:16-18 – What is God’s Word saying in these verses? 

 

            Because of Adam’s sin, we have by birth, a sin nature that is master and has power over our being, over our life, over our personality and the choices we make.

           

            And, in Christ, we have been “made free from sin”, verse 18, free from the mastery and power of sin and can, because of Christ, choose to be a servant of righteousness.  The Bible teaches that which we serve, whether sin or Christ, is what  determines to what or to Whom we are in bondage. 

 

            Perhaps alcohol is not our problem.  But there are excesses in our lives that could be just as detrimental to our being fully useful to the Lord.  These would be things that would take a lot of our time; time spent vainly and away from either being with the Lord or seeking and doing His direction for us.  The Lord didn’t call us to vanity or self-indulgence. 

 

            Where is your heart?  What is it you treasure?  Does our treasure keep us from God?  From His Word?  From fellowship with other believers?  From spiritual growth ?  From our regular weekly church meetings?  From serving the Lord? From making HIM FIRST –- in ALL things?

 

4.     Listed in I Corinthians 6:9-11 are those who will not inherit the Kingdom of God; they are unsaved and these mentioned here have wicked lifestyles.  In verse 11, Paul says, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed…sanctified…justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”  Clearly, the Lord has called us unto righteousness and our liberty in Christ is not a freedom to sin, nor an invitation to come under the bondage of sin, as we see in verse 12b.

 

5.         Q.  What is righteousness? 

 

            A.  Moral excellence; “right-wiseness”; integrity; virtue, honorableness… 

 

The Dangers of Excesses

 

            Excesses in any form may deem us as useless for the Lord’s work.  Let’s explore what God has to say about the dangers of excesses and in particular to drunkenness since this is the topic addressed in Titus.

 

6A.      [B] Proverbs 23:20 and [B] Proverbs 19:15. 

 

            Q.  How did you answer question 6? 

           

            A.  Proverbs 23:20 warns about not keeping company with those who are heavy drinkers: DRUNKARDS!  And, verse 21, gives us the why.  It is a progression:  Drunkards come to poverty, as we see in Proverbs 19:15 [B].    It begins with drowsiness which leads to slothfulness, which leads to idleness which leads to hunger.   

             

6B.      Q. And, from the verses you read at home, what is the summary of the warnings against drunkenness? 

           

                Proverbs 20:1 – Strong drink causes an ‘uproar’. Person is deceived and lacks wisdom

 

                Proverbs 23:29-30 – Miserable in spirit and physically

 

                Isaiah 5:11 - Woe (misery, agony, anguish, suffering) to them.   

 

                Luke 21:34 – Excessive drinking would keep us from being watchful for the Lord’s return.  (“overcharged with surfeiting” – filled to excess)

 

                Romans 13:13 – Walk honestly: not in rioting and drunkenness, nor illicit sex; nor in sexual excesses.

                Ephesians 5:18 – Be FILLED with the Spirit!

 

            A.  SUMMARY:  Excesses and in particular, drunkenness leads to no good thing.  We are miserable in every part of our being: emotionally, mentally, physically and most importantly, spiritually.  This sin brings nothing but misery and suffering.  Instead, Ephesians 5:18 says we are to be “filled with the Spirit”. 

 

III.  Flesh Versus the Spirit

 

            Excesses can lead to unrestrained behavior, as in Daniel 5:1-4 [King Balshazzar‘s feast lead to sensuality].  Luke 15:13 speaks of the Prodigal Son that after having received his inheritance left home and went off into the world into riotous living. 

 

7a.       From [B] Galatians 5:16-26 we are told to WALK in the Spirit. 

                        There is a war going on inside the believer; a conflict of our self-will or our flesh against the Spirit of God.  We are born with a sin nature and it reigns and has dominion over our being, over our lives, over our choices, over our thinking, over our speech, over the places we go and over the things that we do and will make us most miserable except for the Holy Spirit’s control in our lives.

 

                        At salvation, we received the Holy Spirit as God’s earnest…His down-payment for us here on earth, and as promise of Eternal Life with Him forever when we die.  Receiving the Holy Spirit at salvation is having the Spirit of God dwelling in us, but it is not to be confused with being filled with the Spirit.  There is a distinction between being sealed and being filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

            First, let us consider our relationship with the Holy Spirit. 

            Q.   How is a believer dependent upon the Holy Spirit? 

 

            A.  Verse 16 – Walking in the Spirit expresses a dependence on God as we put our trust in Who He is and What He says He will do.  God’s Word says, if we do this, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 

 

            Q.  What is the evidence we are walking in the Spirit?

 

            A.  Verses 22-23 give us a good measure to check ourselves out by:

            How is our walk?  Is there evidence of His love, His joy, His peace, His longsuffering, His gentleness, His goodness, His faith, His meekness, His temperance?   I don’t know about you…but I feel the pinch of the Holy Spirit stepping on my toes!

 

             FYI - More on the Holy Spirit, The Comforter: 

                Luke 12:12 and John 14:26  tells us the Holy Spirit teaches us What to say.

                I Corinthians 2:13 tells us the Holy Spirit is the teacher of Spiritual things.

                John 16:13 tells us the Holy Spirit guides us to all truth.

                John 6:63 tells us the Spirit gives life.

                Romans 8:11 tells us the Spirit who raised Christ from the dead will also raise us up to eternal life.

                John 14:16 confirms that He abides forever.

                John 14:26 tells us The Spirit will bring Christ’s words to remembrance

                John 15:26 reminds us that He always testifies only of Christ.

                John 16:7, 8 It is the Spirit that convicts the world of sin.

               

 b.        Consider and Meditate:    How are we going to practically apply this verse?  How are we going to be victorious over the flesh and it’s works?  What areas in our lives need to be put to death?  God and sin cannot abide in the same dwelling.  Only one will rule.   

 

c.         Romans 6:12 says, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.”  Clearly, sin needs to be removed; put to death.  This is an action WE take, it doesn’t just happen.  We make up our minds to put to death our besetting sins…those sins that plague us and cause us to miss the mark persistently; repeatedly.

 

            [B] Romans 13:14 – Q. What does it mean to ‘put on the Lord Jesus Christ’?

 

            Cross-reference this verse with Galatians 3:27 [B] .   “baptized into Christ”: This is not a water baptism but a Spirit baptism.  To put on Jesus Christ is to appropriate all that Jesus Christ is and emulate Him, respond as He would respond. 

 

How can we get a full picture on this?  It is not a fanciful, romantic notion, but a conscious understanding of Who Jesus is, What His Character is like and How He would respond in any given situation.  The only way we can know this is to read, study and meditate on His Word.  Also, as we pray, it is not an exercise in asking but an opportunity to draw near to Him and get to know Him.

 

Returning to our passage in Galatians 5:16-26, how else are we dependent on the Holy Spirit?  Verse 16 says we are not under the law.

                     

            [B] Verses 20-21 shows us the things that the flesh manifests.

 

            Q.  What is Verse 21 saying about those who exhibit a lifestyle of these works of the flesh? 

             A.   They “shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”                                              

 

            In verses 22-23 [B], we see the manifestation of all that is ours because of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  This just means we have this ‘fruit’ available to be used IN us…but only as we give the Holy Spirit His Way with us…only as He fills us.   In order for the filling to take place we have to be empty of ourselves of all that reeks of “I”.  All, that is not congruent with the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit in us.

  

            Is this a realistic possibility?  Can we truly manifest the fruit of the Spirit?

Ezekiel 36:27, “And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”  God has done His part: He has given us the Holy Spirit’s indwelling.  Our part, is to determinedly give way to the Spirit in us and obey His direction and leading.

 

            [B]Galatians 2:20

            Q.  What is our responsibility according to this verse? 

            A.   We are to live by faith in Jesus Christ. 

 

            Q.   What does it mean to ‘live by faith of the Son of God’?  

            A.    Let’s turn to Romans 6:1-6 [B] to see more on this matter.

 

         RQ.   Because Christ is living in me, do I become a non-personality?  

            A.     No, I still have a personality that is “me”, but the character of that personality, the “old man” as Scripture puts it, has been transformed into the “new man”, Jesus Christ. 

 

                   Galatians 6:20 is saying that my old nature , my sin nature, is crucified , that is, put to death, with Christ.  Yet, I myself am not dead.  I now live in my “new nature” and that is alive, because Christ is the new nature in me that is alive.  However, though I am now separated from the power of sin, I am still a sinner by natural birth.  At salvation my ‘new nature’ entered into me, I still must “lay sin aside”; we must still make a willful choice to obey and follow God’s commands.  Ephesians 4:22-23,  exhorts us to “put off” our old nature and to “renew our mind”

HANDOUT:

Interest or identification?

I have been crucified with Christ. Gal. 2:20 .

The imperative need spiritually is to sign the death-warrant of the disposition of sin, to turn all emotional impressions and intellectual beliefs into a moral verdict against the disposition of sin, viz., my claim to my right to myself. Paul says—“I have been crucified with Christ”; he does not say, ‘I have determined to imitate Jesus Christ,’ or, ‘I will endeavour to follow Him,’ but, ‘I have been identified with Him in His death.’ When I come to such a moral decision and act upon it, then all that Christ wrought for me on the Cross is wrought in me. The free committal of myself to God gives the Holy Spirit the chance to impart to me the holiness of Jesus Christ.

“ . . . nevertheless I live . . . .” The individuality remains, but the mainspring, the ruling disposition, is radically altered. The same human body remains, but the old satanic right to myself is destroyed.

“And the life which I now live in the flesh . . . ,” not the life which I long to live and pray to live, but the life I now live in my mortal flesh, the life which men can see, “I live by the faith of the Son of God.” This faith is not Paul’s faith in Jesus Christ, but the faith that the Son of God has imparted to him—“the faith of the Son of God.” It is no longer faith in faith, but faith which has overleapt all conscious bounds, the identical faith of the Son of God.

^[1]Chambers, O. 1993, c1935. My utmost for his highest : Selections for the year . Discovery House Publishers: Grand Rapids, MI

 

d.         I John 3:24  

 

            Q.  What is the evidence that Christ lives in us?

 

            A.  According to this verse our obedience to His commandments is the evidence that Christ is alive and dwelling in us.

 

FINALE:     Reread Titus 2: 2-3. 

 

            The Titus 2 ‘aged’ woman, we could say, ‘mature’ woman or one that is seeking to be matured by the Lord, is one that is like the aged man sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith and charity, in patience and acts and has the deportment of holiness. 

           

            She is one that uses her opportunity to speak in a way that is edifying to the hearer and brings glory to God. 

 

            This woman doesn’t allow excesses in her life that war against the Spirit of God. 

 

            Next week we will address the next phrase in this verse, “teachers of good things”.  All the virtues required of the ‘aged’ woman are necessary and required in order that she may fulfill God’s purpose in her and in particular: “teachers of good things…”