Alright, so Titus, the book of Titus. We're working our way through Titus. I'm working my way to try to find it in my Bible. Titus, 1st, 2nd Thessalonians, 1st, 2nd Timothy, and Titus. We started off with the book of Titus. This is Paul's letter to Titus, the servant of Paul, the servant of God, who's working there as sort of an overseeing elder of the churches on the island of Crete. So maybe Paul got word that there was problems in the churches or Paul had concern that these churches were not growing very well, they were immature. So he decides to send a letter to his man that he sent there to watch over the churches with basically, let me say it this way, a game plan. a game plan to get these churches on their feet, okay? And so we come there, and the first four verses, he gives a greeting. And in the greeting, he lays out his purpose in life. Paul's purpose is the apostle to God's elect, to get the gospel to those who are going to be saved. And so he lays out that purpose, and then he lays out the method that God is going to do that in, and that's through preaching. And so then in verse 5, he then gets to the reason why he's writing the letter. So let's pick up at verse 5, we'll read through these by way of review and then we'll get to our text this morning. Verse 5, for this cause I left thee in Crete that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting or needing and ordained elders in every city as I had appointed thee. So he basically tells him, I want you to appoint elders. This is the first order of business. Get some godly leadership going in these churches." And then so Titus would know how to find godly leadership, he gives him the qualifications of an elder. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly." So he needs to be blameless in the home. He needs to be a one-woman man, and he needs to have children, not rebellious children. He needs to have order within his home with his children. verse number 7. For a bishop must be blameless. So then he talks about blamelessness within the church. As the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given the filthy lucre. But here are things that he should be, a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, or good, sober, just, holy, temperate. And here he gets into his job, he is to hold fast the faithful word as he has been taught. So these guys need to be trained in the word, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." So he's supposed to defend the word against false teachers. And this is what we talked about last week with the profile of a false teacher, starting in verse number 10. For there are many, there's a lot of false teachers out there, and we see that is no different in our day. unruly and vain or empty talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision." The situation that they were experiencing is very similar to that with the churches in Galatia. When Paul wrote the book of Galatians, they were having issues with the Jews, or the Judaizers, who were coming in here and saying, yes, we believe Jesus is the Messiah, but you need to keep all of the law. to be saved. And so he's saying, beware of these guys coming into the church. He says, verse 11, whose mouths must be stopped. silence them, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. They are ruining families." Verse 12, one of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and slow bellies. This witness is true. He says, these are the group, this is a rough description of the people you're dealing with. And he says, this is true. This is who you got. He's in a rough area. Verse 13, Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. Unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled." False teaching does this. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient, and that every good work reprobate. Their false teaching ruins their attempt at good works. And that's something we need to... A lot of people will defend false teachers, but look at what they're doing. Paul states here, it doesn't matter. Because whatever they're trying to do that's so-called good is ruined because of their abandonment of sound doctrine. So, one thing I want to point out to you, remind you about, as far as Scripture goes, is that chapter divisions and verse divisions did not always exist. And so, a lot of times, these chapter divisions thrown in there, they are helpful, helpful with us in taking the text and stopping and starting points, but we need to always remember that these things are, this is a lot of times, this one continuous flow. And in this letter, I believe here in chapter, from the break from chapter one and chapter two, it is still a continuous flow. So then, this is what we're gonna talk about. I'm struggling with the title for this lesson. I guess I'm gonna title this Sound Doctrine for the Church. Because he sort of breaks away, because the whole time so far, he's been talking about who? leadership, right? Elders. Now he's going to get into you. Now he's going to start talking about you and how we are supposed to behave, and then the church. So, sound doctrine for the church. Now, we're going to cover just three verses today. But this section is really one block, so from verse 1 to verse 10. So let's start reading chapter 2, verse 1, down to verse 10, and then we'll look at what we're going to cover. He tells Titus, continuing on, but in contrast of rebuking false teachers, but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, that the aged men... Don't you like how the King James puts that? The aged men. Be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. the aged women. Likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Young men, likewise, exhort to be sober-minded, and all things showing thyself a pattern of good works, and doctrines showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil to say of you. Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. So here Paul gives instruction. He tells Titus part of his job in verse number one as the elder is to, well in chapter one he tells him that you have to defend and point out false teaching, false doctrine. In contrast to that, you need to teach the church this is how they're supposed to be. This is supposed to be their life. Their lives are characterized this, and he breaks them down into five groups. Okay? Here's the five groups. You probably caught it as we read the text. First group, and listen, I'm not, please understand, I'm not being disrespectful this morning. I'm just giving you the text. This is how Paul gave it. First group, old men. Second group, old women. Third group, young women. Fourth group, young men. And the fifth group is slaves. So what we're going to cover today is verses 1 through 3. So we're going to deal with what Paul's instruction to Titus was that we're going to talk about the old men and the old women, okay? And we'll define those terms, okay? So, just so you understand what we're talking about. Now, let me also give a little bit of a preface here because we're talking about two separate groups. Now, the temptation is as I start teaching about what Paul is telling Titus that he's supposed to tell the people and the Christians in the church that belong to this little group are supposed to be like, your temptation is going to be... I wish that person was here to hear that. But may I remind you that before you say that, or before you think, I hope they're getting this, that God is sovereign, and God knew that I would be teaching on this, and that whoever you think should be hearing this is not here, and He knew that that's the way it was going to break out, but He knew that you were going to be here to hear it. The other thing is, before you say that somebody else should hope they get this, I'm gonna be talking about you in just a second, okay? All right, so, and this goes with the young people as well, all right? So, next week when we get to the young people, just wait. You're gonna get it this week, next week it's gonna be the young people. So, maybe we'll have Austin and April, you'll be here next week, all right? I'm just joking, sorry, I shouldn't have said that. But, yeah, me. Oh, yeah, Brother Steve, Brother Steve said him and Nancy. Somebody said you're on the line. Well, you may be a little disappointed as I get to my notes. Okay, sir. We're going to try to figure out what he means by old and young. All right. Oh, this is going to go over great. So first of all, Paul's instruction to Titus in verse 1. Verse 1 says, but speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. The new King James says this, but as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. 2 Timothy 1.13 says, follow the pattern of sound words that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. This is an ongoing admonition of Paul for the church and for those in the church. Sound doctrine is important. It's important, okay? It is huge. You need to know doctrine. This is not some boring thing that we just need to push to the side and get to the practical things of life. You don't understand the practical things of life unless you understand doctrine. Doctrine is monumental. So I broke this down three ways. First of all, teach. Teach sound doctrine. Teach sound doctrine for life. All right, so teach. He tells him to teach. running theme for any elder that's put in the church, okay? I'm just not supposed to teach for commandment's sake. I like the way John Pipers puts it. He wrote a book on preaching called Expository Exaltation. What does that mean? His whole premise is this, that we preach and explain the Bible as a form of worship to God. So first and foremost, when I or Brother Steve or any preacher gets behind a pulpit, our first and foremost goal is to worship God. You may not hear that a whole lot in the circles that we've been around, but that's our goal. Therefore, this is something that I hope we've taught here and got across. The worship service does not stop with the singing. It does not stop with the singing. The preaching is just as much worship as singing is. The giving is just as much worship as the singing. This is not a lesson on worship. I'm still doing my personal study on worship. But I say this, if you think that worship involves only music, you have a severely deficient view of worship, okay? First and foremost, our preaching and our teaching is worship to God. Second, however, we teach and we preach for the church. So one of my goals, this is why I listen all the time for classes, this is why I go to the Expository Summit in Chattanooga every year, because I'm always wanting to find ways to make what I do better to get the word to you better. Because if I get this self-centered view that, bless God, I'll teach it if they can't get it, that's their problem, I'm defeating my own purpose. Because whatever I can do to get it in your lap that you can devour it easier, I want to do that without breaking any type of biblical principles. So teach. MacArthur says this, Titus was commissioned by Paul to challenge their false teaching and false living and to speak things which are fitting for sound doctrine in order to strengthen the testimony of the churches for the gospel of salvation. So teach sound doctrine. Duke Larson said this, doctrine which remains undistorted, free from the infections of human opinion or philosophies will be healing to the soul and stability to life. He says the word, in the King James, it says, That's the Greek word prepo. It means, carries the basic meaning of being prominent or conspicuous and came to be used of a distinguishing characteristic. Eventually it was used to describe that which is fitting, appropriate, proper, and seemly. So these things need to be proper, sound doctrine. Listen, Brother Steve and I take great pains to study for our messages for this reason. You need to have confidence that whoever's getting behind the pulpit is not being swayed by some kind of false doctrine or false teacher and it's going to come out in some subtle way in our teaching. I say that because just here recently in my personal life, I've seen some, bumped up against some other, in my circle, some people that, I mean, just on the surface look straight as an arrow, but are quoting certain sources that I'm like, that's straight heresy. Of course, the people in the congregation have no idea about it. They don't know who this person is from Adam, but the person who's supposed to be doing the preaching and teaching is quoting this person, and this guy's a looney tune. And so you need to have the confidence that we are up here teaching sound doctrine, and in order to do that, our doctrine has to be sound. I say that in such a way that I look back, there was a time when I would get up and teach and preach, and my doctrine was not sound. Maybe shame is the word. sort of a little tinge of shame because of the times that I had done that in the past, and my doctrine was not sound. I went on a trip with some preachers. I'll tell you more about this later, Steve, because you may laugh. But I went on a trip with some other guys in the ministry. I didn't know. I was sort of new to the group, so I was meeting them, and they were asking me all kinds of questions. They asked me about my ordination. how my ordination went. And in case you don't know, an ordination for a pastor or a preacher, traditionally they go and they sit in a room after they've done a lot of study and preparation, and then like a group of preachers, sometimes a large group of preachers, for hours will sit there and drill them with hard questions about doctrine, about the Bible, about this thing and this thing. And then you have to do your best to answer on the fly without any time to go research anything. And then after it's over, you go sit while they determine whether you're acceptable into the ministry. Well, my ordination was nothing like that. And I was telling them about my ordination, about how they were trying to ordain about 13 of us at one time. So they brought us up there one at a time. We gave like, this is what we were instructed to do. Go up there, give a 30 second testimony of your life, basically how you got saved and called to the ministry in 30 seconds. Because they had 13 of us, they didn't want to be there all night. And then after that, you need to say that you affirm all the doctrines of this church. That was all I had to say. I affirm and believe all of the doctrines of such and such, name the church. And then after that, we'll turn it over to them to ask you questions. I got asked one question. What are your plans after you graduate from college? Well, I was like, well, I want to go in the ministry. And I said something about to that tune. And then after that, he was like, any other questions? No other questions. And that was it. And then a couple of nights later, I was ordained in front of the church. I told that story to this group of guys. An older man just sat there and looked at me. He's sitting there eating a sandwich, just eating a sandwich. He looked at me and he says, I would have failed you. And I was like, yeah, I would have failed me too. It was pretty pathetic. But it is extremely important that those that are doing the teaching and preaching are teaching sound doctrine. And then lastly, teach sound doctrine for life. MacArthur said, truth requires certain behaviors that reflect and are appropriate to it. So, this is where it gets into. So, what we are supposed to be doing is not just teaching sound doctrine, but teaching how sound doctrine appropriates in your life. So, let's get to that now. Verse 2. We see the instructions, Paul's instruction to older men. Alright, so ladies, just take a back burner. We're going to talk to the guys here, okay? Older men. Verse 2, that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, and patience. Just a couple of comments that I thought MacArthur put in his commentary on the introduction of this I thought was, I want to throw out there for everybody. He says, Old age is often associated with such things as maturity, wisdom, and patience. Ideally, wisdom is with the aged men and with long life as understanding according to Job 12.12. But that's not always the case. Increased age typically brings decreased energy, diminished vision. and hearing, more aches and pains, and often more depression. Sorry, my phone is going nuts. And more depression, hopelessness, and cynicism. There's a passage in Ecclesiastes that breaks down the process of old age and sort of just, this is what happens, this is what happens, this is what happens, and Solomon is sort of writing, this is what either you're going through or what you have to look forward to. For a Christian, however, old age should bring greater love for God, for the people of God, and for the sacred things of God." He put these two notes down. Moses was 80 years old when God called him. Listen to this testimony. At the age of 83, After having traveled some 250,000 miles on horseback, preached more than 40,000 sermons, and produced some 200 books and pamphlets in his life, John Wesley regretted that he was unable to read and write for more than 15 hours a day without his eyes becoming too tired to work. That's pretty convicting, isn't it? Warren Weersbe said, a church needs both the old and the young and they should minister to one another. The grace of God enables us to bridge the generation gap in the church. I have grown to a point in my personal ministry where I am not so concerned about having a church loaded up with a certain age group. In fact, the church in the New Testament, as we can see from this passage, was supposed to be understood to have all of age groups. A church that just has older people is out of balance, and a church that just has young people is out of balance. Now, let's talk about this idea of old or age, as the King James puts it. What is the specification here? Like what age can you determine that this is talking to me and I'll put myself in the younger men or younger women bracket? Newt Larson wrote this in his commentary, in the Greco-Roman world in which Paul lived, only two age categories were recognized, young and old. In his time, older men were probably those over about 40, while the young encompassed everything else. Now, this is the other thing. I read a couple commentaries. This is not settled because a couple of them through different age groups out there. I think the most understood one that I found was one that said that the understanding here of the division between old and young was the idea that having children, the time of having children had left. So when the childbearing years of having children is over with, then, therefore, they moved into the different bracket for them. Now, we live in a time where you have young family planning, you have your 30s, you have your middle-aged, you have your some, you know, I mean, they have even different divisions for seniors. And so, And it's all to be politically correct. We don't want to offend anybody in any age group, and that is certainly not my purpose today. But the Bible does give us a distinction here between older and younger. So as I said earlier, we are talking about the older men. First, he says that they are to be sober. All right. So men, This is what Paul says that we, you, are supposed to be, sober. John Phillips said the word translated sober means literally free from intoxicants. Nothing will destroy a Christian testimony faster than drunkenness. So Endal said a sober person keeps things in balance and within limits. Be sober. Next, your King James translate this word grave. This does not mean that they're ready to go into the grave. It means honest, honest or honorable. This does not suggest a solemn person who never laughs. There is dignity to old age that produces respect and this respect gives an older saint authority. He is to be worthy of respect, which is not gained by age alone, but by the grace, goodness, and purity of their lives." Next, he says, temperate, temperate. This is safe or sound in mind, self-controlled or discreet. If somebody younger wants to come to you to ask a question, they should understand that they have your confidence. They should have respect that you're not going to blab it about in something just because you thought of something to say. Next, he gives three more, but all encompassed in the idea of being sound. This is healthy. This is the word hugino. To have health, be well, to be uncorrupt, to be sound or wholesome. So he says you need to have a wholesome or a sound faith, charity, and what does the King James say? Patience. Okay, so first, faith. Faith encompasses correct doctrine, correct relationship, correct living. This kind of personal faith is rooted in a daily walk with God as Father and an immersion with God as Father and an immersion of one's life in the Scriptures. I thought what a testimony that we heard from the life of Scott Cutshaw at his funeral that he was a man of the Word, a man that searched the Scriptures even as he had become a grandpa and a patriarch in his family. He did not give up his daily discipline of being in the Word, and so should the men of this church. Sound in love. Now this is one I think is interesting that Paul gave to the older men and not anybody else. But when you think about it, most of the times, and listen, I'm not talking about concretely dead set, this is always the way it is. But most of the times, you don't have to tell a lady to be loving. You know, that's part of their makeup many times. That comes natural. But to men, we're more like, if you're going to be dumb, you've got to be tough. Rub some dirt on it and get back out there, you know? Sort of that hard-edged type of thing. That was sort of how I was raised. That was the man of my life. But Paul finds it important that these older men within the church have a discipline of love. Of course, we know that there's many different Greek words for love. What is the one he's using here? Well, it's the word agape. It is the word agape. This is charity, benevolence. Love seeks the welfare of others, even at a personal loss, one commentator said. Of course, we understand that there's a very huge importance of love for all Christians that Paul lays out in 1 Corinthians 13. And so that should also doubly apply to the older men in the church. And then lastly, sound and perseverance. This is the idea of patience in your King James. It says hopeful, endurance, constancy, enduring. I like to add this word, dependable. Dependable. The older men in the church should be men that you can count on. You can count on them. How am I doing so far? Okay. All right. Well, now let's move on to the next section. Paul's instructions to older women. Paul's instructions to older women. Now, if you notice in verse number 3, he says this, the aged women likewise. Now, go down to verse 6. He says, young men likewise. And I think he uses it another time, but I'm not seeing it right off the hand. But this is the idea of after the same manner. He uses the word likewise and suggests that there's qualities parallel to those of older men. So he starts with the older men, then he moves to the older women, and then he goes to the younger women, and then he goes to the young men, and he continues to use that term likewise after the same manner. And what it is doing is he's building. So what he's saying is, what I just said about this group? You need to understand that you need to follow this as well, but let me give you a few more things for you. And so that is sort of the idea. So what we just said, ladies, applies to you and your personal experience, okay? And when we get to the young men and the young ladies, Same thing, okay? So that's why it's important that all of us are following what we're saying here, okay? So Paul then goes to the instruction to older women. He says, the aged women likewise that they be in behavior as becometh holiness. What does this mean? Okay, this is talking specifically about their outward behavior. The word that some translations use is reverent. What is this talking about? I'm not going to try to pronounce the Greek word because it's too hard. Behavior, demeanor, condition, behavior. Daniel Aikens said this literally means temple fitting or appropriate behavior in a temple. The basic meaning is that this woman should live in such a way as befitting a godly person. Now, this is all important because of what he's gonna say towards the end, but I'll get to that in just a second. Next one, what do I have on there? Not a slander, okay, good, I changed it up there. The next one he says, not false accusers. Now, this is interesting. The New American Standard has this translated, not a malicious gossip. That's pretty strong, isn't it? But check it out. Here's what it actually says in the Greek. It has the word for not, which I can't remember right off the bat what that says, and then it just has one word. So, your King James says a false accuser. The New American Standard says malicious gossip. Here's the Greek word that is used, diabolos. What does diabolos normally mean? It's also a transliteration in the Spanish, diablo, which means devil. That's pretty strong, isn't it? He tells the aged women, stop being a devil. But it has a specific thing. Why did they translate it, false accuser or a malicious gossip? Why are the translations translating that? Because the idea of a Diablos, or Diablo meaning devil, is sort of a newer concept as it's come along because the actual definition of the Greek term in its ancient understanding is a false accuser, somebody who slanders somebody else. Now, the reason we equate it with the devil or Satan is because almost 25 or 30 times it's used in the New Testament it refers to the devil. as his characteristic of being a liar, somebody who slanders or false accuses. Now, putting that together, let me say it this way. Gossip and slander is satanic. I mention this in my preaching sometimes. I say that you're no more like the devil himself whenever you are puffed up with pride. Here, Paul mentions to the ladies, and I think this really needs to go to the men as well. Now, this is the different context in which we live. And this time, in the time of the Cretes and the Greek culture, if men had a problem with another man, they were violent. They were very violent. That's why Paul tells the qualification for an elder not to be a striker. You're not supposed to be a brawler. If you have an issue with somebody, you don't just go pop them in the mouth. Now, we've taken that and we've dialed it down in today's language and we said, listen, a preacher does not need to be somebody that's getting in fights with somebody verbally all the time. But the actual understanding of this culture that it was written to, I mean, the men were in fights all the time. They were a wicked people. But the women didn't just pop each other in the mouth. What did they do? The women of this day would tear somebody down with their tongue and ruin their entire reputation with their mouth. Now, you ladies probably could all say not much has changed because of personal experiences you've had in your lifetime. Interesting thing. I was talking to somebody the other day. I don't want to give any names, but I was talking to somebody the other day. They were telling me sort of their life story, their life experiences. And they're a Christian now, but they were telling me about how wild of a life that they had growing up. It said that whenever they were in high school, They were in fights all the time, fights all the time. This is what he said. He said, the worst, worst thing I've ever done that I still feel bad about today was I beat a guy so bad they had to put him in the hospital. And he said, I broke his jaw. And then after he got out of the hospital, his family moved to another state because it was so bad. I said, did you get in trouble? He said, oh, yeah, I got arrested. But I mean, that was just a day. That was just something that happened quite often for me. I said, well, why'd you beat him so bad? Get this. He said his sister said that he messed with her. Then came to find out that was a total lie. He took her seat on the bus, and she got mad, so she went and told her brother, who she knew would beat him up, that he messed with her, and so he went, beat the guy to an ever-loving pulp. He said, I probably would have killed him if they wouldn't have pulled me off. all on a lie. The tongue has great power. And so Paul said, for the older ladies, the aged women in the church, you are to be reverent, your behavior in the church is to become that of holiness, and you're not to be a slanderer. You're not to talk falsely of others or accuse somebody falsely. Okay? So, let's move on from that one. Next, not addicted to wine, not addicted to wine. Interesting that he qualifies this qualification to the older women, not to the younger men, not to the younger women, and not to the older men. Many of the commentators that I read after basically said that this day and age that Paul lived in, especially in the Greek culture, was a very party type of culture and drinking was prolific. And so there was much drinking. Of course, he did tell the older men to be sober, but he tells the women not to be addicted to wine. This is doulo oinos. means a slave to wine. Newt Larson said, drinking seems to have prevailed among older women within society, but the Christian was to follow a higher standard. So, this brings us to the last point, and we'll stop there today, but I want to make this point. He says, verse 3, the aged women likewise that their behavior become as holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine. He deals with these three major things first, and then he comes to a positive. And what is the positive? It's an admonition. He says, teach. Teachers of good things. Now we're going to get into verse four, and we're going to cover this because it leads right into the younger women. He says in verse four that they may teach the young women. Before you can teach, Paul, and this goes for just about every time Paul talks about this, whether it's women, whether it's elders, whatever it is. Before you can teach, you must be an example. You must be an example. Because one thing that God, that Paul taught, that Christ does not want in his church is blatant hypocrisy. Blatant hypocrisy. shameful. Listen, like or not, whether it's correct or not, whether they have the right view or not, the fact of the matter is in every age the world has a view of how Christians are supposed to be. Right? I mean, whether they have a right biblical understanding of how we're supposed to be or not, they have a view that whenever you say you're a Christian or you belong to a church, they automatically have an idea in their mind of how you are supposed to live and how you are supposed to behave. And watch this. Whenever you do not follow their standard, whether it's right or not, The testimony of Christ becomes no effect for them. They don't want to hear what you say. So that's why, being an example, you hear these people say, I want to be called to preach. All right, slow your roll, buddy. Before you want to be called to preach, are these qualifications your life? Do you look like this in your personal life? That's where we need to go first, not give them a pulpit. The idea of an example before putting someone up to teach is hugely important in the Scriptures. It's always there first. First, you live this way. First, this is your testimony. Then this, you teach others. Now, let me say a couple of things about the teaching. He says, teachers of good. The Greek word is kaladidaskalos. Now, didaskalos or didaskalo is the word for teach. It has the prefix here, kaladidaskalos. Now, this refers not necessarily to a formal classroom education, but teaching by example. Now, let me say this. Is there other places in Scripture that talks about women teaching in a formal setting? Yes, I'm not saying that here. I'm not saying that women are not to teach at all in a formal situation. Women can teach women. But what I'm saying is that's not what he's talking about here. What Paul is talking about Titus in this specific text is this. You need to train the younger ladies in the church. you need to train the younger ladies." Chuck Swindoll said, although younger women may seldom approach older women for advice, listen to this, they watch. They learn by example, even when they aren't completely aware of the fact that they are being taught. Some of you may think, I'd be more than happy to teach some of the younger ladies in our church, but they have no interest in coming to They're watching you. They're watching you. John MacArthur said, having taught their own children well, older women now have the responsibility for teaching younger women in the church and encourage them also to be righteous and godly wives. So this is more of an idea of the teaching here. It's more of an idea of a discipleship, a one-on-one sort of mentoring type of thing, a mentor-mentee situation. But, quite honestly, I think that the principle is there. I mean, he sets up the way that you're supposed to live, the way that you're supposed to behave, and the younger women will see how you are. For some reason, and I don't quite understand it, it's just sort of how it's worked out. From the time that I went into the ministry, maybe not my first year, but when I went to West Virginia, I tended to get paired up and spent more time with seniors. And when I say that, I mean men. I had really close relationships with about two or three white-haired guys at the church in West Virginia. And it's been that way here as well. And while I may not ask them, and even those here, certain questions, Me personally, I do watch them. And I have picked out certain things out of the lives of the men that I've been around that are gray-headed and well into their years and saying, I want to be like that. And I'll just say this, if I've done that, I'm pretty sure there's been some young ladies that have done that too. So here's my, if I could say, I love y'all so much, but say one last thing here. The question you need to ask yourself is, am I completely sure I'm sending forth the right example for these young mothers and young wives in our church? So, from there, next week, we're going to go into the young women, young men, and then we're going to talk about the slaves, which many commentators talk about the employer-employee relationship. Okay? So, let's pray. Father, we thank You so much for all that You've done for us. You are a great, wonderful, loving God. And we see that you have a purpose and a reason for the examples in your church, and we pray that we can live up to those. We pray that we will always keep that in the forefront of our minds to keep on going. Even though we may not fill up to it, and maybe it may be easier on our day to do a certain thing or not be there, we understand that there are those coming after us that are watching. And so we come today to praise you, to glorify your name, and we pray that everything that is done in the morning service will do so. We love you in Jesus' name. Amen.