Sermon for MHBC (20 June 2021). You can listen on Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, or our website. Live at 11:00am on Sundays. Also available as a podcast here or by searching “Monument Heights Baptist Church” in your favorite podcast app.
There’s a Latin phrase in Christian thinking, coram Deo. It means something like “before the face of God.” The idea is that we live our lives in the presence of God. Everything we do is under the watch of God. That’s the whole idea of Titus 2. The whole motivation for living a particular sort of life is living so what God has done in Christ might be made to look beautiful.
One of the most important aspects of our renewal effort here at Monument Heights is being a distinct community, being a group of people that are readily and easily identifiable as Christians. Titus 2 has some specific instruction for us. Sound doctrine is meant to form our lives before God. It is “teaching for the sake of life in God.”[1] And it is that teaching of sound doctrine that forms a distinct community—a community that lives coram Deo.
Let’s look at v. 1. Remember Paul is writing to Titus who is tasked with establishing the church in Crete. Here’s the command in v. 1: But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. This is the charge to Titus. “Teach what is consistent with sound doctrine.” We will see an example of that doctrine in vv. 11–14. But I want to say a couple of things about this command.
First, the church cannot abandon faithful teaching. What does that mean? It means consistent and careful exposition of Scripture, letting Scripture speak, and not figuring out ways to reject the stuff we don’t like. It means not being afraid of statements of belief like confessional statements. I want you to know the creeds and the New Hampshire Confession, which was this church’s first statement of faith, and the Abstract of Principles, which was the first Southern Baptist statement of faith and about half of it makes up our current statement of faith. These things can’t simply be dismissed or considered the realm of theologians and professionals.
This is prerogative number one for pastors. Teach sound doctrine. Pastors must be resident theologians able to accurately and faithfully handle the word of God. We are not here to be clever or give some life advice. Unfortunately, we all know that there is tremendous pressure not to follow this exhortation. Working in Scripture and doctrine isn’t easy. It doesn’t always seem appealing, so lots of pastors feel compelled to go elsewhere. Their sermons are not expositions of Scripture but stories and tips with some Bible verses sprinkled in.
Think about it this way. When you go to the doctor you expect her to be well-versed in human anatomy and biology. You expect her to be keeping up with current medical research. In short, you expect her to be an expert. So it goes in the church. Teaching is serious business and one who stands in the pulpit Sunday after Sunday ought to be competent and faithful. Teach what accords with sound doctrine. To continue the doctor analogy, and I’m borrowing from theologian Kevin Vanhoozer here, through sound doctrine, pastors are prescribing heavenly medicine. He writes, “[D]octrine is a prescription for the health of the body of Christ, yet many churchgoers refuse to take their medicine, preferring to swill the low-intellectual-calorie, sickly sweet soft drinks of popular culture. It is largely thanks to the doctoral work of pastor-theologians that sound doctrine—heavenly medicine from above—gets into the bloodstream of the body of Christ.”[2]
The second thing I want to say about this is that doctrine is not less than head knowledge, but it is also so much more. The head knowledge is foundational and indispensable. We can’t follow Jesus if we don’t know who he is or what he teaches. Or take an example relevant to our congregation, we can’t do missions faithfully if we don’t have the biblical foundation for what missions is and why we do missions. But doctrine that doesn’t lead to transformation is not sound doctrine. Doctrine without doxology is dead. Doctrine without transformation is just trivia. Doctrine and devotion are inseparable.
So being a distinct community means that we are founded on sound doctrine that influences every aspect of our lives. It is a life oriented to the triune God in every way. Paul is going to give instructions for five specific groups of people in vv. 2–10. The groups are older men, older women, young women, young men, and slaves.
Now I don’t want to spend a lot of time on the specifics. These verses explain how to live as a Christian in the world. And the primary concern here is how the community reflects sound doctrine and the truth of the gospel. That’s all going to be spelled out in vv. 11–14, and we will spend some time there.
There is tremendous freedom in the Christian life because Christ has set us free. But it is necessary that that freedom, that license, doesn’t become a means by which the gospel is slandered. And what we see is sound doctrine changes our relationships like marriage and parenting. Sound doctrine encourages self-control and purity and kindness.
Before we read the passage, I should say that Paul isn’t just laying down a blanket statement. For example, when he speaks to slaves in v. 9, he is not instructing everyone to become a slave nor is he endorsing slavery, but he is saying that as a Christian in a society where one mind find themselves in slavery, this is the proper behavior. The same can be said for the specifics about women in this passage. Let’s look at vv. 2–10. Remember the main thrust: that the word of God would not be stained.
2 Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. 3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. 6 Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. 7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. 9 Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, 10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.
Christians lead distinct lives whatever culture they are in. The same goes for us. Part of being a distinct community in Richmond in 2021 means reflecting unblemished living in society. And all of this is rooted in the teaching of the gospel. Look at v. 11: For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
Notice that connecting word “for.” Live this way because God has already acted in Christ. Remember the pattern in Scripture is always: here is what God has done, now live this way in light of that. “I am the God who brought you out of Egypt. Have no other gods before me.” So Paul says, the grace of God has appeared. It has been made known in Christ. It has happened in Christ with the result that salvation is being brought to creation.
God’s grace to us in Christ trains us to live distinct lives. Verse 12: training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.
And we live this way because we always keep an eye on the future. The reason you don’t see Paul starting a revolution on slavery here is because the Christian notion is that time is short and the Lord Jesus will set everything right when he returns. Now of course that is a subversive message and changes how we live in the in-between. Verse 13: waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. In other words, live distinct lives now all the while being watchful for the return of the king.
And how is it possible for us to live distinct lives? Through the work of Christ. Verse 14: who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Do you see the connection? Christ redeemed us to purify us. Christ acted so that we can be distinct, so that we can renounce the ways of the world, so that we can pursue godliness. We can’t do this on our own. But Christ redeemed us so that we can. See, salvation isn’t just forgiveness. It’s deliverance. The power of sin is broken so that we can do something different.
Then Paul gives his final exhortation to Titus. Verse 15: Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. So distinct communities begin with sound teaching, sound doctrine, being proclaimed. Again, this is why preaching is so central to the life of the church. Preaching sound doctrine creates the atmosphere for a distinct community.
I want to tell you about Geneva, Switzerland during the Reformation. The architect of this city is a name you’ve probably heard—his name was John Calvin. Calvin essentially envisioned a distinct Christian community that was like a gym—a place where Christians were being constantly shaped and formed and strengthened. Key components were: morning prayer at the church, two public worship services a week, encouragement of twice daily family worship, and constant exposure to sound doctrine.
Bonhoeffer tried to accomplish something similar in resisting the Nazi regime. My vision here is essentially that. It’s part Calvin’s Geneva, part Bonhoeffer, part Benedict option, and part historic Baptist.
I long for us not just to be a church full of people or a popular, influential church. I don’t even necessarily want to be the church everyone loves. I believe God is calling us to be a distinct community of intentional Christian formation. I believe our mission is to produce believers who are oriented to the triune God in every area of their lives. This is a combination of where God has placed us, who he has gifted us to be, and what passions the Holy Spirit is stirring among us.
So just imagine that vision: a distinct community of intentional Christian formation. Imagine Monument Heights not just being another church, but being a distinct community founded on sound doctrine that leads to living all of life coram Deo. I believe that is what God is calling us to. Do you want to be part of that? It will be different. It will be challenging. But I think it will change each of us so much that we will wonder why we hadn’t been doing it all along.
[1] Boulton, Life in God.
[2] Hearers and Doers, 136.