(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Man, the title of my sermon this morning is Adorn the Doctrine. Adorn the Doctrine. And really, this is the whole theme of the chapter that we just read, Titus chapter 2. And in many ways, it's actually the theme of the entire book of Titus. But where I'm taking that title from is verse 10, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. Now, some people have misunderstood this phrase, adorn the doctrine, and here's what they think it means. Dress it up, sugarcoat it, make it palatable, smooth it out a little bit, make it a little easier to accept. That is not what the scripture is teaching here. When the Bible says adorn the doctrine, he's talking about having good works to go along with your good doctrine, a good lifestyle to go along with your good doctrine, good practices to go along with your good faith. That's actually what the chapter is about. Back up to verse 1 of Titus chapter 2, I'll show you what I mean. But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. Now become here doesn't mean turn into, okay? You don't speak stuff and bam, it turns into sound doctrine. What it means here is when something is becoming, like if I said to a lady, that is not language becoming of a young lady. What do I mean? I mean it's not suitable for a lady. It's not fitting or befitting someone to act that way or talk that way. So speak the other things that become sound doctrine means speak the things that go well with sound doctrine that are suitable, appropriate, or that fit sound doctrine. Now if we back up a little bit, we'll get the context because of course but is a conjunction. So if we back up a little bit, we can get the full thought. He talks about reprobates at the end of chapter 1. He's talking about wicked false teachers whose mouths must be stopped. I mean these wicked false prophets, they need to be rebuked sharply. And what does he say about them at the very end of the chapter? In verse 16 he says, they profess that they know God. Remember they're wolves in sheep's clothing. They claim to be godly people. They profess that they know God but in works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work, reprobate. So they say one thing and they do another. These are of course infiltrators, people who have crept in unawares, people who are teaching lies. They're teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake according to Titus chapter 1. And he's saying, they profess that they know God but in works they deny Him. But you on the other hand, he's saying, speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. You're not like those false prophets Titus. Obviously he knows that Titus, his own son in the faith, is a godly preacher that's preaching the right things. So he's saying, okay, you have the right doctrine but what about the things that become sound doctrine? What about adorning the doctrine, having good works, a good lifestyle, a good practice to go along with the doctrine? Speak thou as opposed to what? You know these other people who deny God with the works that they do, speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. So what are the things that become sound doctrine? How do we adorn the doctrine? Well he says in verse 2, that the aged men be sober. Now out of all the advice that he's going to give, because he's going to give advice to the older men how to adorn the doctrine, to the young men how to adorn the doctrine, to the young ladies how to adorn the doctrine, to the older women how to adorn the doctrine, that kind of works and practice and life to match up with the right beliefs, okay? But the thing that comes up with all four categories is sobriety. So the first thing he says is that the aged men be sober. And then if you jump down, you'll see in verse 4 that the aged women are to teach the young women to be sober. Verse 6, young men likewise exhort to be sober minded, right? And then if we jump down to verse 12, it says, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. So what does it mean to be sober? To be sober means to be in one's right mind, thinking straight, thinking clearly, rational, collected, that is what it means to be sober. And this is why when someone is inebriated or intoxicated or drunk, we would say this person is not sober. They're not rational. They're not in their right mind. They're not of a sound mind. They're not thinking straight, right? They're just being silly. They're just completely unable to be serious sometimes. You know, it's funny. We were on an airplane yesterday and there was a guy who was drunk on the plane. And this guy just was laughing his head off, the whole just, oh man, that's so good. You know, my daughter Rebecca was with me. I mean, that's how this guy was acting like pretty much the whole plane ride, just totally not sober. I mean, he's drunk. Now, you say, well, what's wrong with having a good time? And you know, it's funny, right before we got on the plane, we saw a beer ad and it had a warning label on the beer ad that said, warning, good times will be had by all. That was the warning label on beer. And that's what people think. Hey, man, it's fun, you know, get drunk. We're going to laugh our heads off from Nashville, Tennessee all the way to Phoenix on this flight, just laughing our heads off, just good times, but wait a minute, what about all the bad times that alcohol bring? Okay. Of course, there are the pleasures of sin for a season. Folks, if sin didn't provide any temporal pleasure, nobody would be doing it. Of course, there are the pleasures of sin for a season, but what about the end of that mirth? What about the end of that jovial, right? What about how do you feel the next day? How do you feel after all the stupid things that you've said come back to bite you? How do you feel after you cheated on your wife or cheated on your husband and you didn't know what you were doing because you were so drunk or you stole or you got in a fight and then you're in the hospital because you got stabbed because you blew off your mouth because you were drunk or you got in the car and you got drunk and killed someone? Look, of course, sin has its pleasures for a season, but the Bible is telling us, look, if you've got sound doctrine, why don't you get a sound mind to go along with it? Why don't you get some sobriety to go along with it? Why don't you adorn the doctrine with a right lifestyle, which has to do with temperance and sobriety and abstaining from that substance that takes away your sobriety? Folks, it's not just alcohol. It's also weed. This is a big thing that needs to be covered right now because now that it's legal in Arizona, I guess with a prescription from doctor referrals or the green doctor or whatever, these doctors are making money as they harm people and destroy their lives. They forgot that when they became a doctor, they took the Hippocratic oath, which starts out first, do no harm. Isn't that what Hippocrates said? Do no harm. Well, guess what? By prescribing marijuana, they're harming the patient. They have violated their Hippocratic oath at that point because it was a Hippocratic oath at that point, but anyway, now that it's become legal in Arizona and it's become legal in California, Oregon, I mean, all over the country, this is the trend where it's becoming legalized everywhere. People are starting to sometimes have an attitude that says, hey, this is okay for us even as Christians partake of. Now, look, I'm not against it being legal because I'm not going to touch it. My kids aren't going to touch it and I'm going to preach hard that my church members won't touch it. I believe that alcohol and drugs should be legal. If people want to go waste their brain on that stuff, that's their problem, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And you know what? Of course, the Bible has many warnings against drunkenness and many commandments to be sober, but God didn't make it illegal in the Old Testament, right? That's not the answer. Making it illegal is not the answer, folks. The answer is hard preaching against drinking and weed and all the other drugs that people are consuming. And you say, well, what's the big deal about weed? Well, first of all, it's harming your health because any time you're inhaling burning embers into your lungs, it's not good for you, okay? You're harming your lungs. You're damaging your lungs, but not only that, it takes away sobriety. Don't let anybody try to trick you and tell you that, oh, it's not mind-altering or, oh, it'll actually make you smarter. It'll make you more creative. That's what people will try to say, folks. It's a lie. It takes away sobriety. It takes away the sound mind, and you say, well, where's the biblical command to abstain from marijuana? Here's the biblical command, be sober. How can you say I'm sober when you're drinking alcohol? How can you say I'm sober when you're smoking pot? You say, well, the Bible just said not to be drunk. No, it didn't. It also said be sober. It emphasized and hammered sobriety. Why would you smoke pot, which is the exact opposite of sobriety? We see today Christians now going soft on this because of the fact that it's becoming more accepted in our society. Let me just tell you what I think about it, that if you want to be a loser, if you want to be stupid and lazy and apathetic and a fool, then smoke pot. That's what I think about it. That's what you are. If you smoke pot, you're a loser, you're derelict. That's the kind of people that smoke pot, friend. And you know, while I'm at it, let me get on this hip hop culture while I'm at it, okay? And you know what? I've already been called a racist so many times, I don't even care anymore. So I'm just going to preach against the hip hop culture because it's straight out of hell. And you know what? I love black people, and guess what's destroying black people? The hip hop culture. And you know what? There's a lot of wonderful black people, and you know what they all have in common? They're not into hip hop. You know, I'm thinking, I'm going through the list of all my wonderful black friends that are nice, normal, godly, righteous people, and you know what they all have in common? They all pull up their pants and wear a belt. You know what they all have in common? They don't smoke pot. You know what they all have in common? They don't do graffiti. You know, can you picture Valerian out doing graffiti somewhere? Folks, the hip hop culture is destructive to the white people who listen to it as well. Folks, it's not about race. It's about a destructive, wicked culture that encourages people to sag their pants, smoke pot, get drunk, to talk about women that they're intimate with as hoes and dogs and all this stuff. Folks, that's a wicked culture, graffiting and destroying property. You know, and I'm all for art. I'm all for murals. You know, I like murals, okay? And look, I've been to a lot of towns that have a lot of great murals, right? And even when we were in Palestine, you know, we appreciated some of the murals that the Palestinians have put on that wall, and yeah, they're defacing that wall, but that wall shouldn't even be there in the first place, amen? But anyway, it's on their property. If somebody builds a wall on my property, I might graffiti it too if it's on my property, amen? But anyway, the point is, you know, artwork is great, but you know, most of the graffiti that you see, it's not actually beautiful artwork. It'd be one thing if they actually did some beautiful artwork under a bridge or on a building somewhere. It's just some stupid tag sign. You can't even read the dumb thing, or it's something obscene, or just big bubbly letters and everything like that. All it does is just stink up the joint. It just makes it look trashy, bring down the value, bring down the neighborhood, you know, and then you see the hip-hop practitioners walking down the street, and they're like... Right? Because they have to... They can't even pull their pants up. They have to hold their pants up. They look like they need their diaper changed or something, right? Folks, that is the opposite of sobriety. Get serious about life. Be sober. Get rid of the marijuana. Get rid of the alcohol. Get serious, right? Get of a sound mind. Be rational, and get serious about serving God, and don't get sucked into this hip-hop doctor. And look, I know there are even people in our church who have smoked pot, even while going to our church. I hear about these things, you know? And look, if you're smoking pot, you need to stop, okay? And I'm not so naive as to think that no one in our church would ever smoke pot or that no one in FWBCLA would ever smoke pot. Guess what? I know that that some people's background is the hip-hop culture. They've come out of that world of hip-hop, and if they're mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have opportunity to return, the Bible says. And I know that there are people in our church that have smoked pot, even while being a faithful member of our church. And folks, you need to get right with God if you're smoking pot, and don't try to make excuses. Of course, everybody's going to rationalize their sin. Oh, I have some pain, you know? Come on. You're smoking pot because you're being a derelict, hip-hop, wannabe, deadbeat is what you're doing. Okay? Don't do it, folks. Be sober. Amen? The Bible says that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate. And these three words are very similar to one another. It's really just hitting us with synonyms in order to really drive in the point, words that are closely related. These are all things that he wants to characterize us as believers so that we can adorn the doctrine, being sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, right? That means you believe, right? Sound in charity, that means you love, right? And sound in patience, that means that you have patience the way that you ought to have patience. So we need to adorn the doctrine, adorn the right belief with the right practice. Practicing sobriety, temperance, patience, and love. Those are the things that we need to add to our faith. And then the Bible says the aged women likewise, that they be in what? Behavior. Right? They're not having the right behavior to go with the right doctrine. Folks, I'm glad that you believe that salvation is by grace through faith. I'm glad that you believe in the eternal security of the believer. I'm glad that you even have your eschatology dialed in and you know that it's post-trib, pre-wrath, and boy, you understand the doctrine of the Trinity. But how about we get some behavior to match the doctrine? Let's adorn the doctrine with good works. He says that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, right? As is suitable or appropriate or fitting or befitting holiness. And then he says, as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things. And again, this is hammering the sobriety point by saying they're not given to much wine. And then he also says that they are teachers of good things as opposed to being false accusers, right? Gossip, tattlers, busybodies. They're actually teaching good things, not, hey, did you know that sister so-and-so, you know. They're actually teaching good things, right, instead of being a tattling busybody. He says also that they may teach, verse 4, the young women to be sober, always the main point, 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. So when the Bible talks about adorning the doctrine of God, our Savior, remember that's the text verse, right, verse 12, adorning the doctrine. What is adornment? Well, if I adorned something, I'm making it look better. You know, a woman's adornment would be her ornaments or her clothing or her jewelry, right? So she's becoming adorned in order to make herself look nicer. If we adorned a building, we're making it look nicer, we're decorating it, right? But where people misunderstand the scripture is where they think the adornment means, hey, let's polish up the doctrine, sugarcoat it, make it palatable. That's not what the Bible's saying. The adornment is by having the life that matches the doctrine, having the works and the behavior that are just as sound and right as the doctrine is. That's the adornment. So what's the opposite of adorning the doctrine would be causing the doctrine to be blasphemed, right? So if adorning the doctrine means making the doctrine look good by having a lifestyle that matches up with it, by having good works that people can see and glorify your Father in The opposite of adorning the doctrine is to actually cause the doctrine to be blasphemed. Where people would look at the doctrine and say, I don't want to believe in that. I don't want to go to that church. I don't want anything to do with that. What's going to cause the doctrine to be blasphemed? The wrong lifestyle, the wrong practice. And so that's why he says that these women need to love their husbands. They need to love their children. They need to be sober. They need to be discreet. They need to be chaste. Chaste is talking about purity there, right? And he says that they need to be keepers at home, taking care of the house, not delinquent in their domestic duties. And then it says that they're to be good and obedient to their own husbands, that the Word of God be not blasphemed. So if they're a feminist, that's going to cause the Word of God to be blasphemed if they're disobedient to their husband or if they're neglecting their household duties or if they're not chaste, they're actually out committing adultery or if they are not sober, if they're given too much wine. You know, I've noticed sometimes women as they get older, sometimes they get into this wine culture. You know, we talked about the hip hop culture. Now let's talk about something a little more posh. You know, maybe they're not over at Big Daddy's Liquor, but you know where they're at, Total Wine and More. Total Wine-o is what it ought to be called. You know, yeah, Big Daddy's Liquor is great for, you know, Brother Ghetto to go get his fix. But let me tell you something, sometimes the ladies or the more posh, they'll be a little more sophisticated with the wine cellar. And oh, it's a very good year. You know, the only year that's a good year for fruit juice is 2019, amen? That's a great year. You know, may I suggest, you know, April 2019, excellent choice, madam, you know. So I, you know, I want to drink a beverage that's going to keep me sober, that's not going to intoxicate or inebriate or cause me to be drunken, all right. And so sometimes ladies will get into this kind of ritzy, rich, you know, glass of Chablis or, and the only reason I know that word is because I used to live on Chablis Circle when I was a kid. I grew up on Chablis Circle. You know, all the streets in my neighborhood were like Merlot, Champagne, you know. Turn right on Zinfandel and then take a left on Chablis. I'm just giving you directions by house now. And then you're going to turn on Merlot or whatever. So folks, there's nothing posh or sophisticated or cool about it. You're drinking the same stuff that some wino in the gutter is drinking. You know, you can slosh it around and smell the cork and do whatever you want to do and spit it out. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, you're a lush. At the end of the day, you're getting inebriated, you're getting drunk, you're not sober. It's not godly, it's not righteous, it's not cool. Just stop, right? Be sober. And so he's saying that we want to adorn the doctrine of God. You don't make the doctrine of God look good when you're drinking. You don't make the doctrine of God look good when you're smoking pot. You don't make the doctrine of God look good when you're cheating on your spouse, when you are disobedient to your husband or doing all these things that you're not supposed to do or when you don't care about your children, you don't love your children, you're delinquent in your household duties. These things don't adorn the doctrine. In fact, the Bible tells us that they cause the word, at the end of verse 5, to be blasphemed. How would you like to be the cause of God's word being blasphemed? Stupid, blankety-blank Bible. You want somebody to say that because of you? Shame on you. I don't want to cause the word of God to be blasphemed. I want people to see my good works and glorify my Father, which is in heaven. Oh, well, Pastor Anderson, that means you're going to have to sugarcoat the message so you can adorn the doctrine. You're going to have to leave out the part about the homos or leave out the part about the feminine. No, we're going to preach the whole doctrine, and we're going to adorn the doctrine with a lifestyle and works and practice and behavior that is suitable or fitting to that doctrine. So we don't need to change the doctrine. Here let's adorn the doctrine by changing it. Oh, let's adorn the doctrine by hiding it. Okay, how would we adorn a beautiful woman, right? Adorn it. Well, what does the Bible say that women should be adorned with good works? Not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works. Let their adornment, the Bible says, be the adornment of a godly life, right? Good works, Christian virtue. But as the world considers adornment, what do they look to? They look to the pearls, the gold, the costly array, right? How about the burka? Is that the popular adornment? The ninja outfit with just a little slip of yes? No. So look, we don't adorn the doctrine by hiding the doctrine, okay? That's not what adornment means. Adornment means to decorate by adding to. You're not taking away or hiding anything, okay? So the point is that when we adorn the doctrine, we're not hiding the doctrine, we're not altering the doctrine, we're not changing the doctrine, we are decorating the doctrine. We're adding something to it to make it look better. And what do we add? Good works, good behavior, good life. That's what the Bible says. We don't have to twist the doctrine, folks. That's wicked. So the Bible says that the word of God be not blaspheme, verse 6, young men likewise exhort to be sober minded in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works. I believe that he says this at this point because Titus is a younger man. And because Titus is a younger man, he doesn't really spend a lot of time on telling the younger men what to do. He's telling Titus, more than anything, you need to model the way for the young men. You need to show them sobriety, you need to show them a godly life, you need to be a pattern of good works to them because you're a young man, they're young men, be a pattern of good works in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity. So first we get the doctrine right, uncorrupt, grave, sincere, then we adorn the doctrine with the right behavior. See what this chapter is emphasizing? He says in verse 8, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you. Exhort servants to be obedient under 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 how are the servants or the employees going to adorn the doctrine? They're going to do it by being a great employee, a great worker. So if you go to your job and you're the best worker on the job, you just adorn the doctrine. Now people are going to be more likely to get saved, more likely to listen to the gospel, more likely to become a Christian than if you went to work and you're the worst worker on the job, you're a slacker. Let's see specifically what he tells the workers. He says, let them be obedient to their own masters. That means when the boss says, jump, you ask how high on the way up, right? You need to be a very responsive and obedient worker that wants to do what he's told and not always rebellious. You always have a better idea. You never listened to instructions. You need to be ready to obey the boss at work to please them well in all things, meaning make sure the boss at work is happy with your performance and you know who's the judge of whether you're a good worker or not. It's not you. It's the boss. A lot of people, well, I'm a great worker. I'm a great worker. Yeah, I got fired from that job, but I was a great worker. According to who? Well, according to me. Okay, but what did your coworkers say about you? And even more important, cause that's not the final test. The real test is what did the boss think? Was the boss pleased well in all things? You know, here's the thing about bosses. They tend to like employees who do a good job. They tend to like hard workers. They tend to like people who show up on time and work hard and get things done. And they tend to like people that are making them money. You know, most people are in business not to just have a social network or to provide a service to the community. Typically people are in business to make money. And when people are in business to make money and they've got a worker that's making them money, typically they're pretty happy with that worker. So we need to work on treating our boss at work well, being deferential, being obedient, and making him happy. You know, please the boss at work is what the Bible said. Please them well in all things. Not answering again. You know what not answering again means? Don't talk back. Answering again is what we say as talking back in 2019. Don't talk back. So we tell, well, you know, you just always have a quip, always a response, always a back talk instead of just, yes, sir, just yes, sir, go get it done. And don't always just be answering again, talking back. Not purloining. Okay. What does it mean to purloin? That's kind of a strange word, right? It's a very uncommon word. It means to pilfer or to pilch, to steal. It's basically purloining is the guy who's working the cash register and he's skimming off the top. That's purloining, right? He's dipping into the goods. He's stealing from his job, whether that be cash or goods, purloining is when you're robbing your employer by actually stealing things on the job, okay? So it has to do with stealing. Not purloining, but showing all good fidelity. Fidelity is faithfulness, right? Think of the semper fidelis, right? The semper fi, always faithful. So showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God our savior in all things. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. So we start out with the right doctrine, the grace of God that brings salvation, has appeared to all men. Hey, I'm glad that you've got the doctrine of the grace of God. I'm glad that you have received God's grace, that you understand God's grace, that your faith is in the grace of God for your salvation. But now let's adorn the doctrine because the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. And guess what? It teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. So just because salvation is free, just because salvation is by grace through faith, just because we can't lose our salvation, doesn't mean that we should go out and do whatever we want. Now if we go out and do whatever we want, we're still saved, but God's going to punish us, he's going to chastise us, and we're going to bring shame and reproach to the cause of Christ and cause his word to be blasphemed. And none of us want any of those things, or at least we shouldn't. So therefore, we should follow the teaching of being sober, righteous and godly in this present world, right? Until we go to heaven, hey, while we're on this earth, let's live the right kind of life. Verse 13, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and look, he's not here just to save us from our sins, redeem us from all iniquity. The grace of God brings us all salvation. Is that the only purpose of Christ's coming? Is that the only purpose of the Bible being delivered unto us? The purpose is that we first get saved, and then second, that we become godly people, right? That we would become a peculiar people, zealous of good works. That we are a people that is set apart and sanctified, holy, a holy nation, right? That we would be God's chosen people, that we would live a right kind of life to go with the right kind of salvation and the right kind of doctrine. Folks, salvation is step one. Now, salvation's enough to get you into heaven, but what about this present world? Let's take step two, baptism. Let's take step three, right? Getting in church, obeying the Bible, getting the sin out of our life, and on and on as we take step after step after step in becoming a better Christian. The Bible says in verse 14, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. You know what it means to be zealous of good works? It means you're passionate about good works. You're excited about good works, right? You're fired up. You're not just going through them, oh, well, I guess I have to do some good work. I guess I'm supposed to adorn the doctrine. I guess believing in Christ isn't enough. I actually have to go do something. Folks, be zealous of good works. Hey, when do we get to start? Where do I start? Where do I sign up? Who do I see, man? Put me in, coach. You know, I want to do some good works. That's what the Bible is saying here. Be zealous of good works. These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee. Now, why would people despise us? Well, when you don't have the doctrine and the life that match. People are going to despise that when you say one thing and do another, when you've got the right doctrine and the wrong life. Then in Chapter 3, he just rolls into the same thought. He still continues to tell you how to adorn the doctrine when he says, put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. So again, he's giving instructions, how to live right, how to act, how your behavior should be to adorn that doctrine. He says, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. So notice he goes back and forth between talking about how being saved is not by our works, it's not by works of righteousness which we've done, it's by grace, it's by faith, but then he comes to, okay, but now let's go do the works though. The works don't save you, the works are not part of salvation, but now that we're saved, let's take the next step of obedience and serve God. So he says here, in verse 7, that being justified by his grace, so we're not justified by works. Being justified by grace, by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. So the salvation, it's super clear, he starts out in verse 1 of chapter 3 saying, be ready to every good work. Then he reminds us in verse 5, it's not by works that we're saved. But now that we're saved, let's adorn that doctrine. Now that we've got the right salvation, now let's get the right lifestyle. Now that we've got the right belief, let's get the right behavior, the right practice. He says this, that being justified by his grace, verse 7, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God, right, they've already done that, they've already got that out of the way, they've already gotten saved, might be careful to maintain good works. Now why does the person who has believed in God need to be careful to maintain good works? They're already saved, they're going to heaven, no matter what, they have eternal life, nothing can separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. No man can pluck them out of his hand, right? They shall not perish, they have everlasting life. But it says here that they should be careful to maintain good works, why? Because these things are good and profitable unto men, okay? If we're going to be a blessing to other people, if we're going to be profitable to men, we've got to have some good works. If we just have faith and we hide it under a bushel, if we have our doctrine that's right doctrine about salvation but we hide it under a bushel, what do the profit the people around us? Nobody around us gets any profit from that. That's why the Bible says don't hide it under a bushel, put it on a candlestick and he said let your light therefore so shine before men that they may see your what? Your good works, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Why don't they see your faith? Because faith is invisible, faith is an invisible, you know, this is faith. How can I show you faith, right? Faith is an abstract concept. You cannot see it with the human eye. What you can see is works that demonstrate faith. Like how do we know of the faith of Abraham? Because he offered Isaac his son upon the altar. That's what showed us the faith of Abraham. So if we're going to show our faith to this world, if we're going to adorn the doctrine, if we're going to make the doctrine something that people want to believe, not something that they shun or blaspheme, then we need to have the works to match up with the faith, the behavior, the life to match up with the faith. So let's be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable in the men. But avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law for they're unprofitable in vain. So step one is get the right doctrine. Get saved, get the right doctrine, the right belief, sound doctrine. Step two, get into all kinds of really deep philosophical, navel-gazing, vain-jangling type discussions. That's the pinnacle of Christian excellence. That's the sign of spiritual maturity. No, wrong. What is the real sign of spiritual maturity is the works. Now with the Bible saying here, what's not profitable are foolish questions. What's not profitable are genealogies, contentions. Contentions are basically debates, strivings, fighting, arguing, debating. He says what's not profitable are contentions and strivings about the law for they're unprofitable in vain. Now, he clarifies this further by saying a man that is a heretic after the first and second ammunition reject. So we should not spend our time arguing with heretics. You know what I'm saying? Just arguing with heretics and getting sucked into their dumb questions or just their dumb philosophies and getting sucked into their genealogical concerns and things like that. We need to stay away from that stuff because it's unprofitable. So of course we want to learn the Bible. Of course we want to learn knowledge and doctrine. The more doctrine, the better. The more knowledge, the better. The more we can learn, the deeper we can go into scripture, the better. But we want to make sure that we don't just get really good at knowing the Bible. All right, now let's go argue with heretics. Let's go argue with the Mormons. Let's go argue with the Jehovah's. Man, I'm ready to take these Latter-day Saints to task. I'm ready to take these Calvinists to task. I'm going to chew them up and spit them out. Folks, is that why we learn the Bible? No, we learn the Bible and then we get the behavior and the life and the works to go with the sound doctrine so we can be profitable unto men, so we can reach people with the Gospel, so we can evangelize and teach and shine the light and be a godly influence so we can pull for what's right and push against what's wrong, not so that we can just argue and just fuss, especially not about silly, dumb questions. There are a lot of dumb questions out there. I know Jesus never sinned, but could he have sinned? What does that even mean? That could mean different things to different people. That's just a navel-gazing, vain jangling where you start getting into these really weird ... He didn't sin, folks. How can you say, oh, but he could have ... What? He didn't. It's already done. Those are the kind of silly things that people will argue about, debate about, fuss about. Now, we should contend for the ... I'm not saying that we should just put aside doctrine because we all agree, because the man that's in heretic, we don't say to the heretic, hey, buddy, I don't want to debate. I don't want to have contention, so let's just be buddies. It's like, no, I reject you. Bye. See the difference? Well, I'm still talking to you. See you, sucka. I'm gone. I'm done. Right? We don't have to just finish every conversation with a heretic. Well, I got to show him. Well, show him once, show him twice, and then just show him you walking away. Right? The man that is in heretic after the first and second admonition, reject. Why not keep arguing with the heretic? Because it's unprofitable and vain. We only have a little bit of time on this earth. Let's redeem the time because the days are evil. Let's not waste our time arguing with people that aren't interested in truth. I'd rather spend time discussing the word of God with someone who is interested in truth, not someone who just is a heretic, right? Knowing that he that is such as subverted and sinneth being condemned of himself. You know why I think it says he's condemned of himself there? He's saying, it's not your fault that this guy is a heretic. So don't feel like it's your responsibility to just not leave until this guy gets it right. He's condemned of himself. Tell him once, tell him twice, if he won't listen, you move on at that point, right? And I shall send Artemis under the orticicus be diligent to come unto me to Nicopolis for I've determined there to winter. Bring Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey diligently that nothing be wanted unto them. And then look at verse 14. He comes back again to the theme and let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses that they be not unfruitful. You see that? Don't be unfruitful. Have the works so that you can bring forth fruit so that you can do good and be profitable unto men, adorn the doctrine of God, our savior in all things. Don't sugar coat the message. Folks, I have heard people use this scripture about adorning the doctrine of God, our savior, and they'll say, oh, when you preach hard on sin or you preach, uh, you know, Leviticus or whatever, you're making Christianity look bad folks. That's what Christianity looks like. That'd be like saying by not putting a bag over that lady's head, you're making her look bad. You're making, you took the bag off her head. You're making her look bad folks. That's what she looks like. This is who she is. I think she's beautiful. Yeah. Let's get a little adornment, right? Let's brush her hair, brush the teeth. You know, Hey, let's put on some nice clothes, right? Let's get a little door. Let's adorn the doctrine, but we can't just say to the doctrine. Okay. Time for plastic surgery. That's not adornment. All right. We're going to have to put you under the knife. Hey, Oh, excuse me. I'm here for my makeover. All right. Scalpel. Whoa. I'm just looking to be adorned here. You see the difference between adornment and altering, chopping and changing, hiding, concealing, censoring, no, no, no folks. Let's preach all the doctrine. Let's have sound doctrine. Let's preach the whole word of God, all the council of God, Genesis to revelation, right? Oh how love I thy law. It is my meditation night and day, right? Let's preach every word. I love all of it. This is a great book. All of it. I love it. Okay. But now let's adorn it. And folks, we have way too many Christians in this world that man, they can tell you everything about end times. I mean, they know the book of revelation up one side and down the other. They know the seals from the trumpets and the vials. And you know what? I want you to know about the seals and the trumpets and the vials, but how about adorning that doctrine? Because there are a lot of people who know a lot of doctrine, but they're not doing the works. They're not following the commandments. They're going to work and they're a slacker. They're a poor wife or a poor husband. They're a poor child or a poor parent. Folks, that's not adorning the doctrine. Okay. Or they are not helping people, loving people, doing good, being a good person. And then they have all the right beliefs. Well, that makes the right beliefs look wrong. When you have a bad person with the right belief, folks, we want to be good people to match up with a good belief. Now, of course, none of us is perfect, but let us strive. Let us work toward adorning the doctrine of God our savior in all things. What's the dorm? Is it that outward adornment of plating of the hair and of gold and silver and putting out of apparel? No. It's the ornament of good works. Speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. And then what is he supposed to speak? What's Titus supposed to preach? He's supposed to preach about the behavior of old men, young men, old women, young women. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this great book of Titus, Lord, and we thank you for the doctrine. We thank you for the grace of God that bringeth salvation, all men. We thank you for the fact that we're justified by faith and that it's not of works. We thank you that we understand those doctrines and we have the doctrines of justification and salvation down, Lord, but we pray that you would just help us in our personal lives to adorn that doctrine by being the best husband, the best wife we can be, the best child, the best parent, the best worker, the best employer, the best boss that we can be, Lord. Help us to adorn your doctrine in all things. We don't want your word to be blasphemed, Lord. Help us never to be a cause for your word to be blasphemed. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. You know, if God's word is blasphemed because of God's word, then so be it. Somebody hears what God's word says and they blaspheme it, so be it. But if they blaspheme God's word because of your attitude on the job or your behavior as a wife or a husband or a child or a parent, woe unto you.