The Culture of The Kingdom: Christlike Character | Titus 2:1-15

Would you bow with me?

Heavenly Father, would you now instruct us through your word?

Would you speak through me now in the power of your Holy Spirit in Christ's name?

Amen.

I want to invite you to open your Bibles to Titus chapter 2.

Titus 2 · chapter mention

We're doing a series within a series in Titus 2 called The Culture of the Kingdom.

So let me read to you the chapter, verses 1 to 15.

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.

Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior, not slanders or slaves to much wine.

They're to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled.

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

Bond servants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything.

They are to be well pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority.

Let no one disregard you.

This is God's holy word.

Now, what Paul is doing with Titus, remember, Paul is on that long island in the Mediterranean.

He visited called Crete, and he left Titus' instructions to put the churches in Crete into order.

In chapter one, focus on the leadership that was to be in those churches and to address false teachers that were in those churches.

In chapter two, he moves to implore Titus to begin to work to develop a kingdom culture within each of those churches.

Now, that word culture is not found anywhere in Titus two, but where we're getting that is a culture by definition is the behavior, the beliefs, the actions of the cult, the people.

And so if you look carefully, that's exactly what Paul is instructing Titus to do in Titus 2.

He's instructing them to implore them to certain character qualities, so on and so forth.

So we've looked at four artifacts of a kingdom culture.

And they are Christ-like leaders, Christ-like character, Christ-like training, and the grace of God which fuels all of it.

Those four components make up a Christ-like culture within every church.

So if you're visiting a church, if God moves you from here, what you are to look for in a church are those four elements.

Now we've studied Christ-like leadership.

We looked at that last week.

This week we're going to begin looking at the Christ-like character of the people that should be within a church.

And before we launch into, you know, you look here in verses 2 and 3 and 6 and 7, addressing the older men, the older women, the younger men, the younger women, before we get into the specifics, let me first make some general observations that will frame the character that we're looking at.

First observation.

General observation.

The character of those in the church clearly demonstrates that they are citizens of the kingdom of God.

That should be true.

In other words, if you are a Christian, you should live differently than the world.

Look at verse 12.

It's very clear.

The grace of God trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.

Paul describes the present age in 2 Corinthians 4 as being the age of the devil, that the devil is the God of this age.

The evil age is where we live.

We are to live godly lives in that age.

We are to be different.

That's the first observation.

The second observation is that the purpose of Christ's death was to redeem a distinct people.

Look at verse 14 now.

Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness.

And look, listen to this language, to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

You see, when Christ died for you, he didn't die just to save you from hell, he died to make you holy.

That's why in Ephesians 5, Paul calls the church the bride.

We are to be spotless.

We are, it's a new exodus, isn't it?

We're called out of the bondage of sin and death to live for God, just like the people of Israel were called out of the bondage of Egypt.

But this is an important reality in Paul's theology.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6, 19, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?

You are not your own.

You were bought with a price.

So glorify God with your body.

So Christ died to redeem us.

You're not born a Christian.

I know I say that so often.

If you look over in chapter three, listen to this.

Look at verse three.

We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

But, isn't that a great but?

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us.

He saved us for the purpose of holiness.

And this leads to the third observation.

When you become a Christian, an experiential change takes place in your life.

So Jesus died to enact this change in your life.

But it's not just an intellectual ascent to the truth of the gospel, there's a change that happens in you and through you, where it seems like you're a different person.

I was talking to one gal one time.

She said, after I became a Christian, it's like I walked outside and even the stars were brighter.

And there's a sense where that's true.

Do you remember Paul said, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away, the new has come.

Now, if you look at this language in verse 5 of chapter 3, look at this.

He saved us.

Jesus saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness.

That's faith alone, right?

Not by our own works.

But according to his own mercy, look at this.

This is how he experientially saved you.

This is how he applied Christ's work to your life by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

Those are very important phrases.

And what Paul is doing there is he's drawing on a picture that was painted by the prophets of the Old Testament, where they prophesied that there would be a new covenant enacted by the Messiah.

Don't turn there, but jot it down and listen.

This is Ezekiel from Ezekiel 36.

Listen, the prophet says, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness.

What does that sound like?

The washing of regeneration, doesn't it?

From all your idols I will cleanse you, and I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey all my rules.

You remember Jesus with Nicodemus, what must I do to be saved?

Nicodemus asks, What about the kingdom of God?

Jesus says, Unless you are born of water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

If you look at verse 5 of Titus 3, that's Paul's theology as well.

He is saying, unless you are born by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, you are not saved.

So what happens when you become a believer is the Holy Spirit does an inside work, a new covenant work, where he gives you new affections, a new heart that thinks God's thoughts after him.

Paul calls it in 1 Corinthians 2 the mind of Christ.

We have the mind of Christ, a new heart, new mind, and he says very clearly that every single believer is baptized with the Holy Spirit.

There's not some future baptism that you're awaiting to receive the Holy Spirit.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, for in one spirit we were all baptized into one body.

If you are a Christian, you have been baptized and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 1 13, in him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

So there's an experiential change that takes place in your life.

That's the third observation.

The fourth observation.

And this comes directly from the third.

Therefore, if you look carefully at the imperatives in Titus chapter 2, the imperatives are not just something to do, but someone to become.

Titus 2 · chapter mention

So important that you understand that.

We're not going for behavioral modification.

That's what the cults do, that's what the false religions do.

We're going for transformation in Christ.

And you notice in Titus 2, it's remarkable.

Present tense.

You are to be this.

It's not just that you are to go do this, get hyped up and get motivated by some motivational speaker and go do it.

No, he says you're to be this.

You are to be sober-minded, dignified.

Older women likewise are to be reverent.

It's not that you act reverent, it's that you become reverent.

Isn't that amazing?

Christianity transforms your life and changes who you become.

Christianity is about becoming Christ-like and not just doing Christ-like things.

Isn't that what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount?

He said, Blessed are the poor in spirit.

Blessed are the merciful.

Blessed are the meek.

It's not just those who act meek.

It's not just those who act like they hunger and thirst for righteousness.

We got plenty of those people in the church, I promise you.

Plenty of those people in the culture that are pretending to be morally righteous.

No, you are righteous.

Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of God.

That's a reality because God gives you this righteousness in your heart and changes you.

It's amazing.

Fifth observation.

This is controversial, incredibly controversial, but it's wonderful.

Christ's likeness looks slightly different based on our God-given sex and situation.

In modern evangelicalism, so many people say sanctification is the same, exact same for everyone.

And it looks exactly the same.

There's no different.

Paul begs to differ.

Paul gives specific instructions.

Notice this, it's amazing.

Older men, verse two, older women, verse three, younger women, verse four and five, younger men, verse six, bondservants, verses nine and ten.

Then of course he's addressing Titus as well, as we've seen, as we've looked at.

And so there's different components to what sanctification looks like.

And in our culture, everything screams, everything has to be the same.

It's this idea of equity, that everything is exactly the same for everyone.

That's not what Paul is saying at all.

He's saying, no, based on your God-given gender and station, your sanctification will look a little differently than others.

In our culture, what has happened is Satan has mounted a counter-offensive, a battle of the bulge.

And it's called postmodernity.

Postmodernity says there are no truth, there's no absolute truth, there are no distinctions.

In fact, if you acknowledge distinctions, it's repressive, and it keeps me from accomplishing what I want to accomplish, including the distinctions of gender and sexuality.

Carl Truman wrote a book called The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self.

He said, the intuitive moral structure of our modern social imaginary prioritizes victimhood, sees selfhood in psychological terms, regards traditional sexual codes as oppressive and life-denying, and places a premium on the individual's right, listen to this, to define his or her own existence.

All these things play into legitimizing and strengthening those groups that can define themselves in such terms.

They capture, one might say, the spirit of the age.

Well, Paul is calling us to a different age, the age of the kingdom of God, and he's saying, Being an older man is good.

Being an older woman is good.

Being a young man is good.

Being a younger woman is good.

Even if you're called to be in a station of being a servant, you're to do so in a way that adorns the doctrine of God, he says.

So it's important that we understand that there's distinctions in how this Christian character will flesh out in Titus chapter 2.

Titus 2 · chapter mention

So this morning, with the remainder of our time, we're going to look at just the older men.

This is a Father's Day message come early.

Alright, we're just gonna look at verse 2, the older men.

So that phrase it's uh for older men, single word.

It's a similar word to press butteras, the word where we get the elder.

It simply means the old men.

I looked it up in the lexicon this week, and it described, on average, a male between the ages of 50 and 56.

So if that's you, you are an old man.

And if you are over fifty-six, you're an ancient man.

So here we go.

Older men.

And you'll notice, and we're just going to look at these very briefly.

There's six qualities that Paul describes older men with.

Sober minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and steadfastness.

Let's look at these.

So sober-minded.

Its most basic meaning speaks to a mind that is not dissipated by alcohol.

Same word is used in 1 Timothy 3 to describe an elder.

An elder is called to be sober-minded.

On the island of Crete, there was a Roman god, Dionysius, and people would have these pagan feasts, really, they were just episodes of debauchery, and they would get drunk.

And so drunkenness was part and parcel with pagan idolatry.

And I think similarly in our day and age, if you go to the bar scene in New York or here in Raleigh, what takes place where the consumption of alcohol takes place?

And when you take part in that culture, you become numb in your moral decision making.

And so Paul is saying you must avoid that at the most basic level.

But positively, being sober-minded is more than just avoiding drunkenness.

It means a mind that is alert, a mind that is attentive.

Now, this word is used, for example, in 1 Peter 4 7, Peter says, The end of all things is at hand.

Therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.

So we're exhorted to be sober-minded because the Lord is returning.

The end of all things, Peter says, is at hand.

The end of all things happens when the Lord Jesus returns.

What happens when the Lord Jesus returns, Matthew 25?

There will be a judgment.

The sheep on the right, the goats on the left.

So Peter says, in light of this, we must live in light of the second coming.

And therefore, be sober minded.

Our bridegroom is coming.

So we don't live flippantly.

We're aware.

Negatively, we're told to be sober minded because our adversary.

Opposes us.

1 Peter 5.8 says, be sober-minded, be watchful.

Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

So we are to be aware of Satan's schemes.

We are to be vigilant.

We are to be watchful.

How can you grow to be more sober-minded?

How do you become more sober-minded?

Sober-mindedness comes through the renewal of the mind.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, that you may discern what is the perfect will of God.

So you must be constantly, daily, hour by hour, engaged in renewing your mind.

Largely the battle for the Christian life is waged in the mind.

We have to understand this.

That's why Paul says, take every thought captive, every thought.

Don't allow, all the time, I find myself sometimes thinking, something that dishonors the Lord.

What do you do in that moment?

You repent, you say, I don't need to think about that.

Think about whatever is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, excellent, or of good repute.

And to do that, you need to be daily in the Word of God.

What are you watching?

What are you intaking?

Are you listening to good podcasts, to good preaching?

Those types of things.

You need to be renewing your mind.

And what that does is it causes you to be alert.

It causes you to be aware of spiritual things when your mind is constantly being renewed.

So that's the first quality of older men.

Second, dignified.

Dignified.

It describes a man who is worthy of honor and respect.

Jay Adams, who started the biblical counseling movement, translated this word serious.

There is a seriousness and a weightiness about their lives.

This word is the Greek word symnos is used to describe deacons and the wives of deacons in 1 Timothy 3.

It's a word that is described, used to describe Titus in verse 7.

Show yourself in your teaching to show integrity and dignity.

There it is.

It's a seriousness, a spiritual seriousness.

Notice it's not a gloominess.

Doesn't mean that you don't have a sense of humor or that you take yourself seriously.

It means that you take the things of God seriously.

So how does one become dignified?

How do you become dignified older men?

And the only way to do this is to spend time with God.

The only way to become a dignified man is to spend time in the presence of one who is true dignity.

To spend time with God.

Moses had a gravity and a weightiness about him.

Remember when he came down from the mountain, the light from his face shone.

And that gravity and that weightiness was there because he had spent time with God.

And every great man in Scripture is marked by that one component that they spend time with the Lord.

Elijah.

Paul had his Arabia.

Elisha, the room in the Shunamite woman's house.

They spend time with the Lord.

And then that marks them.

A.W.

Tozer said this, talking about this serious type of man.

He said he differs from the ordinary Orthodox Christian only because he experiences his faith down in the depths of his sentient being while the other does not.

He exists in a world of spiritual reality.

He is quietly, deeply, and sometimes almost ecstatically aware of the presence of God in his own nature and in the world around him.

Friends, that only happens through prayer.

Prayer is not just asking God for things.

Prayer is entering into his presence.

Prayer is communing with God.

That's why Paul says, pray without ceasing.

You are to live the life of God throughout the day.

When you encounter things, God, help me.

Use me.

Help me to not be afraid.

Help me to be strong and courageous.

It's this life of God that we are to be engaged in.

Tozer goes on to say, his religious experience is something elemental, as old as time in the creation.

It is immediate acquaintance with God by union with the eternal Son.

And that brings this serious mindedness to your presence.

There was a great man of God.

As a boy, he went and heard a famous preacher in London named Charles Spurgeon.

You've probably heard of him.

And he went to the Metropolitan Tabernacle with his father.

And after leaving, hearing Spurgeon preach, he and his father were walking on the road and he said, Father, I'd like to give my life to Christ now.

And right then and there, he knelt down and he prayed and he gave his life to Christ.

And that young man then entered school and studied art, became an art teacher, and in November of 1901, he had a dramatic encounter with God.

He since God calling him to ministry, he became a missionary in Britain, in America, Japan.

When World War I happened, he went simply as a chaplain to the soldiers, to the British soldiers in Egypt.

He developed appendicitis, and not wanting to take up a cot for the wounded, he died there in Egypt in 1917.

His name is Oswald Chambers, and he wrote a book you're probably familiar with, My Utmost for His Highest.

He actually didn't write it.

His wife put it together posthumously after he died.

Here's a quote Chambers makes.

Whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.

That's the serious-mindedness that we're talking about, the dignity that we're talking about.

And it comes from spending that time with God.

Isn't that a great way to live?

You fear God and not men.

That's how we need to live, Christians.

Not afraid of our own shadow, afraid of what the news and observer might write about our church, or afraid about what the culture might say.

For too long, Christians have been concerned about what the secularists think about us.

We need spine in our backbones.

We need to fear God and not men.

Self-controlled.

Such an important quality.

And this quality, we talked about how there's distinctives with older men and older women.

This quality should be true of every single Christian.

Every single Christian.

In fact, you notice Paul simply tells the younger men to be self-controlled.

That's it.

Hopefully the younger men will grow into these other qualities.

He just says to the younger men, be self-controlled.

He tells the younger women to be self-controlled.

He says in Titus 2.12, he says, the grace of God teaches us to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.

So this quality is to be true of every single Christian.

And it simply means that you're able to control your desires.

You're able to control your actions.

Here's the litmus test.

Negatively, can you refrain from buying something when you really want it?

Can you do it?

I know it's hard.

Can you keep your eyes from looking at someone?

Can you do it?

And you gotta train it.

Job, I've made a covenant with my eyes that I will not gaze upon the virgins.

Can you stop eating?

That's an uncomfortable one, especially in Baptist circles.

Can you keep your tongue from speaking despairingly of others?

Can you do it?

I don't care how much theology you know.

If all you do is speak ill of people, you're not very Christ-like.

Can you stop coveting what God has given to others?

These are the basics of self-control and positively.

Can you prioritize good works in your life?

Can you prioritize a devotional life?

Are you staying up at night just young people playing video games?

Can you prioritize God in your life?

Can you prioritize worship with saints on the Lord's day?

Now, self-controlled.

We're all exhorted to do this, right?

Here's a little secret.

This is the key to success in everything.

This isn't just the key to success in Christianity.

Self-control is the key to success in everything.

You go to the literature at Barnes Noble talking about leadership and business and all that.

There's a book, you'll see it called Atomic Habits.

Has anybody seen that book?

It's basically self-control.

Can you develop good habits and can you keep away from bad habits?

There's another book we were talking about as a staff this week called Grit.

And it's basically, can you do things that you started?

Can you finish tasks that you completed?

Or do you start doing something, you forget, sometimes walk away, that sort of thing.

Can you finish what you started?

This is basic to finishing things.

But here's the problem.

Why do so many Christians who I believe believe the gospel are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, completely in bondage to various sins?

And you're asking yourself, I want to be self-controlled.

Why am I not self-controlled?

Let me give you four quick pieces of advice.

To be more self-controlled, first, you must rely on God's power.

This is the secret that we have as Christians that the secular world does not understand.

They just do behavioral modification and the issues come roaring back.

The Christian has God's power, Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Paul says when he talks about the armor of God in Ephesians 6, Ephesians 6.10, he opens it up and he says, Finally, brothers, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

That word strong is actually a passive verb, and it means to be strengthened.

It's not, oh, I'm, you know, I'm I'm getting strong for Jesus.

No, it's to be strengthened in the Lord and in the power of his might.

And it's not a coincidence that he closes eight verses later saying, pray at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication.

The power comes through prayer.

And so you will not defeat a sin that you are not praying for God's help to defeat.

So you begin praying.

Secondly, you identify that sin and you put it to death in your life.

You put it to death.

This is so basic.

Romans 8.13.

If you live according to the flesh, you will die.

But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Jesus says, if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off.

If your right eye causes you to stumble, tear it out.

So as you're going through the day and you have various sins, think about why I am doing this?

And oftentimes the sinful action is just the tip of the iceberg.

Because beneath that lust or beneath that craving is a deeper sin.

Pride, selfishness, covetness, lack of gratitude.

And so you ask the Spirit, Lord, reveal the sin in my life, and then when it's revealed, you put it to death.

You give no opportunity for the flesh.

Third, it's not just not doing things, it's putting on Christ.

It's putting on Christ.

This is over and over again.

Colossians 3 12, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other.

Romans 13.14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

So you're doing these positive things.

Am I putting on the armor of God, the armor of light?

Am I putting on meekness and humility and sacrificial service?

Am I doing these things?

Because oftentimes we get so focused on trying to prop ourselves up that we forget about other people.

And God's wanting to do this work of sanctification in us, but it has to be a positive work as well, not just I'm going to stop doing something.

And then fourth, and this goes back to being sober-minded, is that the mind must be constantly being renewed.

The battle, again, hear me say this, is in the mind.

So you want to have scripture at your disposal, memorize scripture.

Meditate on it.

Listen to what Paul says.

To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.

It's in the mind.

And I might add a fifth one.

This is a bonus.

Is walk in fellowship and accountability with other Christians.

If you have a sin issue that you cannot get to the bottom of, now you need to go to a trusted brother or sister, a brother if you're a man, a sister if you're a woman.

Say, what do you see in my life?

I need accountability.

If you're enslaved to a sin, brother or sister, you need to do these things to pursue being self-controlled.

Fifth, sound in their faith.

Sorry, fourth, sound in their faith.

Wow.

Okay, so older men, sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith.

This notice this phrase sound in.

That phrase goes with the others.

Sound in faith, sound in love, sound in steadfastness.

That phrase, healthy, yougaynos, where we get our word hygiene.

We've talked about this.

That goes with all of faith, love, and steadfastness.

A sound faith is gauged by two factors.

One, the object of the faith, and secondly, the strength of your convictions.

First, the object of your faith.

What do you believe?

For this reason, I don't care how sincere a Mormon is, he does not have sound faith.

A practicing Roman Catholic does not have sound faith because they deny the very doctrine Paul teaches in this chapter, justification by faith alone.

An Orthodox Jew does not have sound faith.

It doesn't matter how sincere they are, because they deny that Jesus Christ is the Messiah.

So, to have sound faith, the object of your faith must be correct, the doctrine of Christ and the apostles.

But secondly, we can't stop there.

It's not enough just to know the truth intellectually.

You must have convictions regarding these things in the heart.

What does James say?

Do not be merely hearers of the word, but doers of the word.

So it matters how we live out what we believe.

The convictions that we hold must be made manifest in our lives.

And a word for this is wisdom: is that you know the truth and you also know how to apply the truth.

Fifth, sound in their love.

Sound in their love.

This is so important, especially for a church like ours that's orthodox in doctrine, because what we never want to be is dead orthodoxy, where our love for Christ has grown cold.

And what Paul is saying is that the older men of all people are to be raised up as the examples of those who love Jesus Christ, who love God, who love the church, that their love is to be the example for the church.

So similar to faith, our love is gauged scripturally by two factors.

What we love and the degree that we love it.

What we love and the degree that we love it.

Jesus said in Matthew 22, 37, you shall love the Lord your God.

There it is.

Who are we to love?

God.

How are we to love him with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind.

We're to love him.

And that is to be at the center of our soul, our affections.

But sadly, so often we love other things, don't we?

Jesus said to the Church of Ephesus in Revelation 2, he says, I have this against you that you have abandoned the love that you had at first.

John said in 1 John 2.15, do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

So you're to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

And then, moreover, we're to love him with a high affection.

Jesus warned that in the last days, which I believe we are in, in Matthew 24, he says, Because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

The love of many will grow cold.

And so, friends, especially you older men, you are to stoke and to flame in your soul a zealous love for Jesus Christ.

It's not unmanly to have affections for Jesus Christ.

And that we be carried forward.

We're not just stoically, you know, we're we're obeying out of duty, but we obey and we live this life out of love for Jesus.

Love for Him.

How do you increase that love when you don't feel it?

How do we stir up these affections?

And I think scripture is clear.

Is you go back to God's love for you.

Redeeming love will be my theme and shall be till I die.

This is love, not that we love God, but that He first loved us.

Right?

We go back again and again and again to this the love.

Of God for us in Christ.

And when you go back to the love of God, and we have a big view of God's love for us in Christ, how can you help but not love Him and have those affections for Christ?

Let me read you what Edwards said about this, Jonathan Edwards, talking about the early Christians.

He says, although there was nothing that was seen, in other words, they didn't see Jesus, nothing that the world saw, or that the Christians themselves ever saw with their bodily eyes, that thus influenced and supported them, yet they had a supernatural principle of love to something unseen.

They loved Jesus Christ, for they saw him spiritually, whom the world saw not, and whom they themselves had never seen with bodily eyes.

So that's the older man's sound love for Christ.

Should be true of all of us.

And then six and finally, sound in their steadfastness, sound in their endurance.

This means their fortitude, their patience, their perseverance, the capacity to hold out in the face of opposition.

Now I don't want to pick on old people here.

But I have seen something.

And I've seen it in my own life.

Okay?

So I'm not just this isn't just a problem out there.

It's a problem with me.

Is the older I get, the more I get frustrated when things don't go exactly as how I wanted them to go.

When I was younger and things were difficult, live to see another day.

You know, that that sort of things will be better tomorrow.

Oh, it's it's hot, I'm hungry, whatever.

Now I find myself, if there, you know, I get up and there's no coffee in the coffee grinder and we're out of coffee, oh, it just frustrates me.

Anyone with me?

So the older we get, we tend to become less patient, less enduring.

Now, what Paul is saying, this is why it's so countercultural.

He's saying that the older men are to be the examples of steadfastness.

That you endure, that you hold up.

And the only way to do this is with faith and a trust in the sovereignty of God.

Amen.

If you don't believe that God is sovereign over all of your circumstances, everything that happens, that he works all things according to the counsel of your will, when you get that bunion, when you get that pain in your back, you will react in a negative way.

But if you believe that all of these things are orchestrated by a sovereign God, you have faith that he's working it for your good, you will be steadfast.

You will hold firm, you will hold the line.

And what Paul is saying is that as an older man is what you are to be an example of.

Not the complainer, not the grumbler, not the one who's saying, Oh, woe is me, but you are to show us what it means to be steadfast and persevering.

So if you look at the whole picture, let's look at the whole picture.

Sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith.

They believe the right things, they have convictions about them, sound in love.

They love God, they love the church, they love the word, they love their neighbor, and their affections are zealous and then steadfastness.

They're sound in their steadfastness.

They're patient, they're enduring, and they are a model for all of us in how to be patient through trials.

And again, let's end where we began.

How does this all work?

It works by the grace of God, the power of Christ in you.

Praise be to him.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for redeeming us from all lawlessness, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age.

We thank you for drawing us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of your Son.

Lord, we pray for the older men.

Lord, may the older men within our midst be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, sound in love, sound in steadfastness.

May they be an example to all of us.

May they be the bulwark of this church.

May they be zealous for Christ.

May they believe sound doctrine and have great convictions in their belief.

Lord, do this work within our midst.

We pray this for Christ's sake.

Amen.