Sermon Tone Analysis

March 16, 2012

By John Barnett

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For two thousand years God has been looking in each generation of Christ's Church for a few good women--who will give themselves to His plan for their lives.

That plan has been laid out for them in Titus 2.

When these women offer themselves as willing servants to follow God’s plan, His grace energizes them to live a life that magnifies Christ at every level, and glorifies the Lord with eternal rewards.

The 12 virtues that God desires to be in the lives of these grace-energized women are what we are studying in Titus 2. This morning God declares in v. 5 that His plan for your life, if yielded to Him, is purity.

He asks, “Will you follow my plan, surrender your life and let Me make you a grace-energized woman of purity?”

We have been invited by our Holy God, who dwells in unapproachable light (I Timothy 6:16), to become His very dwelling place (I Cor.

6.19-20).

What is the only request that the One who lives within us, using our body as His temple asks of us?

Purity, He asks us to keep this place He lives clean.

The sheer level of sexual temptation assaulting believers at every level in Paul’s day, rivals our own times.

Men fed upon lust, and found sexual gratification every where they could; and women obliged giving them much to lust after and became willing participants in all types of sinful behavior.

That is why the sin that Paul mentions most often in every letter is sexual sin.

The early church was immersed in a flagrantly sexual culture.

The believers of Paul’s day were being squeezed by the pressure all around them to not resist, but to just float along with the culture of self-expression, self-gratification.

Purity in the moral realm has always marked genuine believers throughout the centuries of the church.

Paul was clearly telling Titus that God’s expectations in an immoral and lust-filled Roman world was absolute purity.

That is the meaning of *hagnos*.

In the first New Testament letter James said the very same thing in no uncertain terms, that believers must keep themselves “unspotted by the world” (James 1:27).

God is very serious about purity and holiness; and He uses them interchangeably throughout the New Testament to describe the sanctified lives he demands from His children.

Purity is the description (adjective *hagnos*) of the believers who are allowing God to sanctify (verb *hagiazo*) them.

In fact, God's Word says that all believers are being sanctified or they are not genuinely saved.

Hebrews 12:14 /"Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:"/ NKJV

That description of Jesus wants in His church is the next character quality of a grace-energized woman in Titus 2:5.

God asks for grace-energized purity.

This morning we are studying the ninth of 12 characteristics for grace-energized women, found at the start of verse 5.

Christ's church has been called to this high standard and empowered by the Holy Spirit to stay morally pure.

Believers have faced sexual temptation at every intensity level—and by God’s grace have found strength to resist.

From Joseph fleeing from Potipher’s wife (Genesis 39:6-13) to Paul’s charging Timothy to do the same thing “flee also youthful lusts” (II Timothy 2:22) God’s desire for His children is clear.

Jesus explains that it is impurity of thought that leads to impurity of action (Mt.

15:19) so moral purity starts with a sanctified mind.

The word “chaste” (KJV/NKJV) or “pure” (NIV/NAS) that Paul wrote to Titus in this verse is so important to God that He guided the Apostles to speak of this purity and holiness over 300 times (using 11 closely related Greek words) in the New Testament that encompass every New Testament reference to holiness, purity, and sanctification.

Paul uses this word to describe the constant choices believers make to be Christ-like.

It is the same word John used when he said a believer, “purifies himself, just as He is pure” (I John 3:3, NKJV); and that James describes the first manifestation of the wisdom of the Holy Spirit as, “wisdom that is from above is first pure” (James 3:17, NKJV); and that Peter uses to describe our choices to be different from the godless culture as our testimony to them of the power of salvation, “even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear” (I Peter 3:1-2, NKJV).

Paul says women be chaste, conduct yourself like the holy servants of Christ Himself.

Don’t give in to the culture, don’t reflect the sexual license of the day—stand for purity and keep yourself pure for Christ's sake; and to be a role model He can use in His church.

But we know that--

*Purity is Grace-energized Sanctification*

As we were saved only by the accomplishment of Christ's sacrifice on the cross—so we live each day ‘by faith’ (the same faith by which we were saved).

We are always dependent upon Christ's gracious death upon the cross that saves and keeps us!

“*Sanctification* is a process-the process of becoming more like Christ, of growing in holiness.

This process begins the *instant you* are converted and will not end until *you* meet Jesus face-to-face.

Through the work of His Spirit, through the power of His word and fellowship with other believers, God peels away *our* desires for sin, renews* our* minds, and changes our lives.

Sanctification is *about our own choices and behavior*.

It involves work.

Empowered by God's Spirit, we strive.

*We figh*t sin.

*We study* Scripture* and *pray, even when we* don't feel like it.

*We *flee temptation.

*We *press on; *we* run hard in the pursuit of holiness.

The New Testament epistles call us to personal purity or holiness, and are built around dozens of imperatives (or commands).

Remember that *God never commands me to do what He hasn’t already given me the grace to accomplish by faith through His Spirit!*

“Our participation in the process of *sanctification* comes only after we've been totally accepted and made right before God through faith in Jesus.

*So yes:*

• We *work* hard at obeying God's word.

• We *read* our Bibles.

• We *pray*.

• We *memorize and meditate* on Scripture.

• We *share* the gospel.

• We *serve *in our church.

• We* fast.

*

*God commands us* in *His Word *to *do* many things; and our obedience is both pleasing to Him and brings *His* blessing to our lives.

But not one adds to our justification, our standing before God, our eternal life.

Only grace sustains lasting change and *sanctification*.

Through the cross we overcome not only the guilt of sin, but the power of sin as well .

So this morning, we are asked to yield every part of our lives to the Lord.

We want a Word-filled walk that is worthy of the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.

That leads us to learn and cultivate--

*Grace-energized Motives*

If our whole mission in life is to please God (as we learned a few weeks ago in I Thessalonians 4:1) then that motivates us to want to know what pleases Him, and to seek to do those things.

So we ask ourselves, “Does the New Testament explain how to mentor younger women in the grace-energized purity as a way of life?”

Yes, we see this grace-energized mentoring when Paul instructs Timothy how to have the women trained is the proper way to dress.

Let’s turn there next in I Timothy 2:9-10 where Paul says train the women to:

1 Timothy 2:9-10/" in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing,10 but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works."/

NKJV

That timeless Biblical standard is as applicable today as when it was first established.

Paul was speaking against the backdrop of Roman culture.

There are writings still in existence from several ancient writers who described how women dressed in the Roman culture of Paul’s day.

That culture was the driving influence in Ephesus where Paul wrote Timothy, as well as Crete where Paul wrote Titus.

Juvenal, a first-century Roman writer, pictured everyday life in the Roman Empire noting that women were preoccupied with their appearance.

Another writer explained that this preoccupation was driven by the most famous people of the day.

The wife of the Roman Emperor Caligula, had a dress worth more than one million dollars by today’s standards, covered with emeralds and pearls.

The rich of Paul’s day are noted in these sources as wearing dresses that cost up to 7,000 denarii (or the full time salary for 20 years work by an average factory worker of Paul’s day).

Can you imagine how disruptive it was to a church service when someone walked in wearing nearly a lifetime of earnings for the majority of the people there?

That is why James (2:1-9) warned about giving these golden, glowing clothes wearing rich people preferential treatment!

“Rich women also displayed their wealth through elaborate hairdos with expensive jewelry woven into them.

That’s what Paul meant by “braided hair and gold or pearls” (1 Tim.

2:9).

The Bible does not forbid women from wearing simple braids or gold, pearls, and high-quality clothing.

Both the bride of Solomon (Song 1:10) and the virtuous woman described in Proverbs 31:22 wore beautiful clothes and jewelry.

However, the Bible does forbid wearing those things for wrong motives”.

Women who offer their lives to the Lord to follow His plan are asking Him to guide them into a –

*Grace-energized Appearance*

Both Paul and Peter explain that a godly woman ought to attract attention by her godly character, not her physical beauty.

That is why Paul here (v.

9-10) instructs Timothy about the way women are dressed as he writes “adorn themselves with proper clothing.”

The word “adorn” is kosmeo that has entered our English language in the word ‘cosmetics’.

The basic idea of this Greek verb was “to arrange,” “to put in order,” or “to make ready.”

Paul actually explained to Timothy that a godly woman should get ready for a worship service by wearing “proper clothing.”

The word behind “proper” is just the adjective form of kosmeo and meant “well-ordered.”