Since the Garden of Eden, the Liar from the Beginning who wouldn’t abide in the Truth has sought to corrupt the truth of God in humans with his devilish lies. Just like rat poison that is 99 1/2% good grain mixed with 1/2% strychnine is deadly, so just a small lie, a little error added into good doctrine can also become deadly to the soul.

Open with me to the first time deadly poison was added to God’s Truth, the result brought death to all humans because of sin. Genesis 3 is where we begin with the Serpent from of old deceiving Eve in the Garden. 

As we turn there, we are looking at what can be described as Satan’s spiritual flaws. These four lies are usually a part of his attack on humans to make us think wrongly about God! 

This morning as we open to Titus 2:7, we return to the 21st Century Men of Grace Series we have been studying this past year.

As you turn back to that little New Testament epistle of Titus, here is a quick overview and back ground to this passage: 

•    Titus was a companion in ministry of Paul, one of two special young pastors that had been mentored and sent out by the Apostle Paul.

•    The letters or Epistles that Paul wrote to Timothy (who was serving the Church at Ephesus) and Titus (who was a missionary church planter to the Island of Crete) are collectively called the Pastoral Epistles and describe the specifics of how local New testament churches were to be led and taught.
•    Titus 2:1-8 contains a curriculum for every church that has 24 qualities God desires to see in His children. 

Paul admonishes Titus to live a life of integrity that has the moral purity which lines up in secret, with the pure doctrine that he proclaimed in public.

This is the next desire God expresses in His listing of:

The Character of
God’s Servants

God is ever seeking for us to live out His Truth in a World Adrift.

v. 6 “Likewise exhort the young men”: 

Today as we open to John 10, we are looking at one of the most foundational truths of being born-gain Christians. Jesus made salvation, eternal life, and assurance of eternal security so SIMPLE. He sums EVERYTHING up with these words in v. 27:

John 10:27 (NKJV) My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

Salvation is so personal: we are His sheep; we can hear His voice; and—the way we know we are His comes from following His voice.

Today, God asks for every man in Christ’s Church to make daily choices to regain and maintain a sober-minded restrained life, surrendered to God’s gracious sanctifying power. Open in your Bibles with me to Titus 2:6:

Likewise, exhort the young men to be sober-minded (NKJV)

The Greek word God inspires Paul to write is a verb sophroneo translated in the New Testament as “sober-minded” (NKJV/KJV); “self-controlled” (NIV/ESV); and “sensible” (NAS)”. The meaning of this word is vital to our spiritual lives. This single word is what we may call the universal quality we all need to embrace, a life-long task of:

Restrained Living in an
Un-Restrained World

If we gathered every young man in the church to give them the most important Biblical lessons they would ever get—what would those lessons be to prepare them for a life of blessing, spiritual influence, and show them the pathway to spiritual maturity?

These are the types of questions that Sunday School teachers, youth workers, and pastors often ponder.

The good news this morning is, that God already thought of those questions. He actually moved upon Paul the Apostle’s heart and poured out the Holy Spirit through Paul’s mind into a letter. God has a wonderful plan for Christ’s Church.

As we open our Bibles to Titus 2:7 we come to what may be one of the greatest issues confronting our culture, our world, and our church this morning. We are watching humanity “rusting” from the inside out.

I well remember my first car. It was so exciting to own my very own $100, 1965 Oldsmobile F-85. The only trouble was that is was so rusted that it had to have large rubber mats on the passenger side so that when I went through mud and puddles of rain as I drove, it wouldn’t get my passengers wet.

Can you imagine how dampening it would be, literally, to go on a date and splash, have your young lady covered with dirty water and mud or slush and salt? Rust and corrosion had eaten through the once strong and protective steel of my car. I didn’t want it to, I didn’t know it was happening, corrosion just worked its destructive powers quietly and unseen until the metal was perforated and the security of a waterproof interior of the car was breached.

As we open to Titus 2:8 we are turning to the final quality God has expressed that He desires to see in every young man in Christ’s Church. Amazingly, the final quality is about the type of communication that a young man cultivates for life.

Paul said, encouragingly exhort those young men to have healthy communication, healthy words and feelings that they express before a watching world. Those words must stand the test of a world that measures what you say against who you say you are, if those two don’t match, they will have something evil to say about us as God’s representatives.

God is vitally interested in your health. He wants you to have healthy doctrine, faith, and love, which He explains in v.2 at the start of this list of qualities desired in all men.

One day each of us gets to stand in front of Jesus who loved us, died for us, bought us, and asked us to live as His servants the rest of our lives.

He has already told us what He wants to say to each of us: “Well done, good and faithful servants” (Matthew 25).

He has already told us that everything in life we do, say, or think is either good or worthless (II Corinthians 5), and that the good He rewards and the worthless He burns (I Corinthians 3).

So, how do we stay on course with living the good that pleases Him, the good that He rewards, and that lasts forever?