God, I ask you that you would not leave us alone with our own thoughts and ways, which are so prone to shift based on the different pressures of life. I pray God that your word would be precious to us. It would be like honey from the honeycomb to us. May your spirit be here free among our hearts to press home the truth of your word. I pray in Jesus name.

Amen. The title is simply Keepers at Home. It's from the King James rendering of Titus 2, verse 5, from a list of things that older Christian women are called to call younger Christian women up to, Come up to these things. So the first thing to say is that it is radically at odds with the prevailing sentiment that being a keeper at home is something to be called up to, to be something to be aspired to. For many decades now, at least half a century, those outside the people of God, unbelievers, have rejected the notion that homemaking was something to be aspired to at all.

It is something that has fallen into contempt. It is something to be despised. We're used to that. It's been half a century. But more and more and more professing Christian women are rejecting the notion that homemaking is what the Word of God calls them to, and that it's actually something to rejoice in.

And so my grand objective for our time is to demonstrate from the Word of God, God speaking to us from His book, that homemaking is the calling of Christian women and that this is something that can and should be both aspired to and rejoiced in. In other words, that you can come away from a study of the book of God, of God's book, the Bible as a woman and say, God has called me to homemaking and that you have every right and expectation that this is good news. Not a restriction to be despised, but a glorious calling to be rejoiced in. I've been praying that the homemakers who are here would walk away massively encouraged and refreshed to engage with renewed vigor in this glorious calling that God has put upon you. And especially that our daughters who are here who are facing what seems to be like a flood of contradiction from every side that these daughters would catch a glimpse of this glorious calling and say, that's mine.

That's for me. I see it. God is calling me to this, and I'm glad He is. I rejoice in God's calling. Please turn your Bibles to Titus chapter 1 and 2.

Most of our time will be spent in Titus chapter 2, but I'll start in Titus 1. Titus, Paul's letter to Titus. Follow along as I read Titus chapter 1 beginning in verse 15 And then continue through the chapter break through to verse five. Titus chapter one, verse 15. Paul writes, to the pure, all things are pure.

But to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, disqualified for every good work. But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine, that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love and patience. The older women likewise that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands that the Word of God may not be blasphemed. Paul writing to Titus begins with a warning against false teachers describing them.

They profess to know God, but they deny Him in their works. They're defiled and disqualified for every good work. And then the beginning of chapter 2 signals the contrast, but as for you, he tells what Titus to be as a sound teacher. So warning against false teachers and then an encouragement in his duty as a sound teacher of Christian doctrine. So he says these things to Titus.

Teach these things to older men. One, two, three, four, five. Teach these things to older women and there's a list and part of what Titus is to teach the older women is that the older women should teach good things to the younger women to help them with their calling. The older women in the church are to take the younger women in the church, all professing Christian women, under their wings, older women taking younger women under their wings to teach them how to honor God in their calling. Verses four and five list the good things that older Christian women should teach younger Christian women.

Let's look at those two verses again, chapter two, verses four and five. Older Christian women are supposed to teach younger Christian women these things. And Paul calls them good things. That they, to be discreet, excuse me, verse 4, that they admonished the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands that the Word of God may not be blasphemed. My first observation is this, I see two categories here.

What they are to be like in their characters and what they are to do. The older women, older Christian women are to teach the younger Christian women what they are to be like, be like this, and what they are to do. Do these things. Give yourself to these things. Of course, there's some overlap.

For instance, Love your husband is both a disposition of the heart and a sentiment, what you're to be like a lover of a husband and loving a husband has practical outworkings. It encompasses what you do. A study of the whole list would be profitable and wonderful, but we're zeroing in on one of the things on the list. Homemaker. Here is a range of the translation.

New King James, which I'm working with today. Homemakers, King James, keepers at home. New American Standard, workers at home. ESV, working at home. NIV, busy at home.

None of those are identical. They use different words or a different phrase, but there's not much variation. All of them give the same meaning. The idea is that the sphere of work is the home. At home, making a home.

What? Not all homes are equal? No, not all homes are equal. What? Homes have to be made.

Correct. Homes have to be made. Homes are more or less conducive for God's purposes for a home based on who is making the home and how they are making the home. I'll say that again and unpack it. Homes are more or less conducive for God's purposes for a home.

God intended for there to be homes. He had a purpose, purposes in mind for giving a home. And homes are more or less conducive for God's ideas for the home based on who is making the home and how they are making the home. Because a home is not just a hotel room. It's not just a place to come and sleep at the end of the day before you jet out of the home again the next day.

Now, I believe there's an important question to ask and to answer. Paul is writing to Titus in Crete in the early years of the first century, a specific author to a specific recipient in a specific location at a specific time in history. So the question is this, Is it even reasonable to apply this to professing Christian women in 2019? I'm not Paul. You're not Titus.

This isn't Crete. It's 2019. Can we superimpose this text from me to you here this year? I suggest that there are two ways to answer this question, one inside Titus 2 and the other outside Titus altogether. First inside Titus 2.

How does Paul position this in the letter? Look at verse 1. This is very important. Look at verse 1. But, but as for you Titus, Speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine, colon.

Speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. And here it comes. Here comes the sound doctrine. Sound doctrine is not situational. It is teaching God's eternal truth to God's people.

It's sound doctrine in the first century, the second century, the third century, the fourth century, the 21st century. It is God's truth for God's people. It is sound doctrine. Here's the test. Is being sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, sound in love, in patience, just for the older men in Crete in the first century?

Is being reverent in behavior not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things just for older women in Crete in the first century? No, of course not. It is sound doctrine. It is God's eternal truth for God's people. Second, what do we find outside of this text and outside of this letter?

In summary, we find from Genesis to Revelation what is entirely consistent with what we find in Titus 2. Titus 2 is not an outlier, it's the next link in a chain that stretches from Genesis to Revelation, unbroken. Consider Genesis, turn to Genesis chapter one. Turn to Genesis chapter one. I'll be reading verses 26 through 28 as a start.

Very familiar verses. Genesis chapter one, verses 26 through 28. Then God said, let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Then God blessed them. God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves on the earth.

This is Creation week, we're getting here the design of God in creation, what is in the mind of God for his creatures in what he designed and how he designed it. There are two things in view, mankind made in the image of God, a shadow of what God is like, and mankind made male and female. So there is a distinction, male and female, but across that distinction, a fundamental commonality. Both are image bearers. Now pause on that a moment.

What kind of capability is bound up in the idea of image bearer. Not man as an image bearer with tremendous capability and a woman something else. No woman bearing the image of God also as a shadow of what the almighty God of the heavens and earth is like with tremendous capability made as part of her constitution. Verse 28, they're together, given a giant mission. Man alone is not equal to it.

That's what we find out in chapter 2. Man alone is not equal to the mission, and in many ways it's a home-based mission. They're to be fruitful, filling the earth and subduing it. It could go without saying that there's a strong home-based flavor to the mission. So the home is not an afterthought, again not a hotel room where we just come and flop at the end of day in preparation of going out again the next day, home is actually central to the mission.

It's not something to give a little attention to once you've done the important things. It's the important things. And the wife is given to the man as his helper in this mission because he's not up to the mission by himself. Now look in chapter two. I'm just going to read chapter 2, verses 18, 20, and 24.

Chapter 2, 18, 20, and 24. And the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him." Verse 20, so Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to Him. Then the woman is made and in verse 24 we read this, Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh. Twice, once in verse 18, once in verse 20, we have this phrase, a helper comparable.

The New American Standard renders it a helper suitable. Both are good translation. The woman is made suitable as a companion in ways that none of the other creatures were. That was verse 20. The rest of creation paraded before Adam, and he says, not suitable, not suitable, not suitable, not suitable.

He's feeling the deficiency and God makes the woman and joins them together as one. He puts them in the Titus union, a man but a man with a helper who is comparable to him as a companion and comparable to him in capability with the capabilities of an image bearer for the joint fulfilling of their mission. The connections to Titus 2 are obvious. Love your husband, love your children, make your home. Submit to your husband.

You're helping him, you are one with him. Now consider the Psalms, turn to Psalm 128. Consider the Psalms. Psalm 128, I'll just be reading verses one through four. Follow along.

Psalm 128 verse one. Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy and it shall be well with you. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house. Your children, like olive plants all around your table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord." Verse one says we're talking about a God-fearing man who walks in God's ways. He is laboring fruitfully. He's enjoying eating the labor of his hands. He's made happy. His wife is laboring fruitful.

There is a flourishing family and her labors are in the very heart of their home. She is working at home. Connections to Titus 2 are obvious. This Christian woman's sphere of influence is her home. She is making her home a flourishing home as the wife of a man who fears God and walks in his ways.

Consider Proverbs. Proverbs 31. I'm actually going to give Proverbs 31 much less than it deserves because I have time limitations and I know it's already well-known among you, so I'm not even going to read it. But I'm asking you to consider what you already know about Proverbs 31. It is the biblical picture of the God-fearing wife, the wife who walks in God's ways.

In many ways, it's the mirror image to the man in Psalm 28 is the woman, the wife, in Proverbs 31. Psalm 128 was the God-fearing man who walks in God's ways and you get a glimpse of his wife in Proverbs 31. It's the God-fearing woman who walks in God's ways and you get a glimpse of her husband. If you ask anyone familiar with the Bible, where can I find a description of the God-fearing wife? They'll instantly say, Proverbs 31.

Two quick observations, but I think very important observations about that text. First, this is a home builder. This is a home builder. The woman, the wife, the mother in Proverbs 31 is nothing if she's not a home builder. Her husband safely trusts her and her sphere of considerable influence is her home and her influence is considerable.

Go reread that chapter. What does Proverbs 14 one say? Listen to Proverbs 14 one. The wise woman builds her house. But the foolish pulls it down with her hands.

This is exactly what we see in Proverbs 31, a wise woman building her house. It will not build itself, it does not build itself, it will never build itself, it requires a wise woman to build the house. The second thing I notice in Proverbs 31, it jumps right off the page, the breadth of her activity and influence is breathtaking. Am I wrong or right about that? The breadth of the Proverb 31 woman, wife, mother, the breadth of her activity and influence will take your breath away.

She's caring for her family. She's engaging in significant economic activity from her home. So that answers the question. Can a woman be engaged in significant economic activity? Yes, of course, from her home.

The home is the base of it. She's caring for the poor. She's supplying the merchants. You read Proverbs 31, you need an app. Proverbs 31 Proverbs 31 screams this, not the maid, not the maid.

The Proverbs 31 is building a home, the maid is tidying a home, not the maid. The connections to Titus 2 are obvious, It's just what Paul says the older Christian women should teach, the good things that the older Christian women should teach to the younger Christian women. Be like this. Do this. It's all in Proverbs 31.

Consider the prophets. Malachi 2 verse 15, in Malachi 2 verse 15, God through the prophet asks and answers a question. The question is this. Why does God take to a man and a woman and bring them together and make them one? What's the answer?

He seeks godly offspring. That puts a fine point on it, doesn't it? That is home-based by definition, isn't it? God through Malachi is speaking of the product of a home, what he desires to come out of, a home that has been built, a home that has been made. Not a hotel room, a home.

The output of a hotel room is not godly offspring. He seeks godly offspring. The connections to Titus 2 are obvious. God has something very specific in mind for what should come out of that home. And so God puts a home builder there.

This doesn't overthrow the doctrine of election as if you do all the right things, you're guaranteed this result. But the truth that you see across Scripture is that God works through means. He's establishing the means for the salvation of children here. Not a foolproof formula, but women who are building homes, making homes, should labor in hope that the fact that God has given these children into these homes with gospel preachers, he did it to put the means of salvation into their life. You should work in hope.

You should labor in hope. As you love your husband, as you love your children, not simply in a sentimental way, but in a biblical way, God's intent is to bring salvation into the lives of children who he's placed in these homes and that they would become God fearing men and women who walk in his ways also. Consider Paul writing to others in 1 Timothy. I only have one verse, so you can go there if you want, or you can just listen. 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 14.

1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 14. Paul writes this, Therefore I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully. Paul here is giving counsel about young widows, giving instruction regarding young widows. He wants them to remarry, bear children and manage the house. King James renders it Guide the house.

It's a Greek word that is full of authority. It is essentially a compound word literally meaning house master. He wants the young widows to be house masters, to marry and love their husband, to have children and love their children, and to be house masters or house rulers. Oikos despotaios, home or house, despot, ruler, master. This doesn't overrule or contradict anything that Paul teaches elsewhere about authority in a home, but it certainly adds depth and clarity.

The role of a homemaker, the role of a home builder is a role of authority. Ultimate authority? No, but a woman has wide latitude in her making and building as the suitable helper who bears the image of God. A woman has wide latitude in her homemaking and homebuilding as the suitable helper bearing the image of God of her husband. Tremendous capabilities bound up there.

Most of my wife Janet's day is spent as the final say in the matters of our home. Most of the day, she's the boss, and I work at home. But I'm working on other things, and she's building our home, she's making our home, and she's the boss for most of the hours of the day. She's a house master. She's a house ruler.

And so I am free, like the husband in Proverbs 31, to contend in the gates. If you go back to Proverbs 31, you learn all this about this woman, wife, mother, but you learn something about the husband. He's in the gates. Why is he in the gates? Because he doesn't have to be at home.

Home is in hand. Home is in capable hands. There's a housemaster there. There's a house ruler there so he can go contend in the gates. How will Christian men contend in the gates if Christian women aren't house masters and house rulers?

How? So the truth is we see the same thing across scripture. It is everywhere. In the histories, Genesis, in the poetry and songs, Psalms, in the wisdom books, Proverbs in the prophets, Malachi in Paul's other letters to Paul. It is simply sound doctrine.

God's eternal truth for God's people. So Titus two Paul calling women to be homemakers is the farthest thing from an outlier. Don't tell me it's an outlier. It's just another link in a long chain from Genesis to Revelation that says the same thing, that sets forth the same vision and calling for women. But somehow the church is increasingly declaring that the world has the right idea and that we should follow them.

Let God be true in every man, a liar. If all the world aligns against homemakers, take the homemakers, stand with the homemakers, Declare to the professing women of God that it is not only your calling but that you have every right and expectation and every reason to rejoice in it. Don't you dare be ashamed of that calling. Rejoice in that calling. It is a grand calling, a great calling, a big calling, a calling that will require your life.

Embrace it. Love it. Rejoice in it. Allow me to close with six appeals. Number one, to homemakers and future homemakers, build on Christ.

This makes no sense without Christ. This is worthless without Christ. This is meaningless without Christ. You try to make sense of this in the face of the flood of the world in the other direction without a new heart and without embracing the Bible as your final appeal for doctrine and practice. You have no hope.

This starts with loving Christ, throwing yourself on Christ, trusting his word down to the last word. Without Christ, this is just moralism. Without Christ homemaking as the woman's calling is just another rule. With Christ, it's beautiful and compelling and glorious. Number two, Christian families and Christian churches must preserve this.

If not in churches and Christian families, where? If the professing followers of Jesus won't build their lives on the Word of God, who will? And if we don't, how can we object when the Word of God comes into contempt? If we as professing Christians will not build our lives on the Word of God, how can we object when the Word of God comes into contempt? The last phrase of Titus 2, verse 5, which is what the whole message has been about, the last phrase is this, that the Word of God may not be blasphemed.

When Christians say, we like that gospel stuff, we like that stuff about Jesus and His blood and being cleansed and being set free, we don't like this over here, we'll take this but we won't take that, The word of God comes into contempt. You cannot say, oh, we only care about the gospel. None of this other stuff matters because when you, you want the world to take this, but you've not taken this, the, the other parts of scripture, you've brought the word of God in contempt. They won't believe any of it. That the word of God may not be blasphemed.

If the people of God won't bet their lives on the truth of this book, who will, who will come to it? Number three, connect this to Christ and the church. Connect womanhood, being a wife, being a mother and think of it in light of Christ in the church. Here's the question. We just Jesus has made?

We just there to tidy up, bake cookies? No. He gives us earth shaking work. Yes, He's our head, but He brings us into a glorious great commission. That tells a woman much of what she needs to know about her calling and role.

It is a microcosm of the Great Commission. If Jesus is the ultimate husband and the church is the ultimate wife, then a home is a microcosm of the sphere of her great commission. We're the church. We're not just the maid. We're not just there for tidying up and baking cookies.

He told us to take over the world. And now homemaking isn't compelling enough when a home is a microcosm of the great commission? Number four, daughters, you have to choose. You have to choose. You cannot have it all.

The world says you can have it all, you can have this and that, that's not true, that's a lie. That works with hobbies. Home building, homemaking as it's conceived in the Scriptures is not a hobby. It will require your life to do what God is prescribing in His Word. It is not a part-time vocation.

It requires rigorous advanced preparation. It cannot simply be if and when I decide to get married I'll just brush up on home economics. If that's what you think you have the wrong thing in mind. It's not the home building, the home making that the Bible is calling for. Daughters, I'll say this.

If you don't understand the breadth and the glory of the role, You'll just feel limited and restrained and stifled by all that I'm saying. But know this, God's prescriptions for us in our gender roles are designed to focus us, not restrict us. Now they do restrict us. God is telling us what to do in his word. But the design what God has in his mind is to focus you.

There's beauty and good and help in focus. Not to restrict you. He wants to focus you on glorious work. Don't kick against that. Making a home, building a home as God has envisioned requires focused, sustained effort.

There's no way around it. It's not a hobby. And daughters, I'll say this too. Daughters, are you listening? Never accept any man in marriage who doesn't have all of this straight all the way down to his core or you might end up the maid.

God has designed a home to be a great commission outpost and for a husband and a wife to labor side by side for the glory of God on a great mission. If you accept a man as a husband who doesn't understand that, you might end up the maid. If you accept a man who's got that all the way down to his core, though, you're going to live a glorious life. It's a glorious calling. You'll end up rejoicing in this calling.

Don't take a husband who doesn't get it. Number five, church, people of God, embrace this as indispensable. The world falls apart when the people of God abandon this. None of the counterfeits pass the test. Home is my true priority, but I spend all my time out of the home working on others' priorities.

Faults, that's a counterfeit. It doesn't pass the test. Homemaking is not a hobby. Number six, homemakers. A room half full of homemakers.

You've swum upstream. You're probably tired. We praise you. Your children will rise up and call you blessed We say today many daughters have done well, but you excel them all Receive the fruit of your labors may the Lord bless you and keep you May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

He's given you earth-shaking work. It doesn't seem like it from one day to the next Or one week to the next, maybe one month to the next, maybe even one year from the next. You'll look back and bless God that you embraced His glorious calling. Believe that. If the Bible is true, that is true.

God, thank you for your word. It gets more contrary to the prevailing sentiment every day. God, I pray that you would encourage the homemakers here, bless them, give them strength for this mighty work that you've set before them. God, I pray for our daughters who hear the contradiction of your word every way from family, from neighbors, from friends, from people in the community. Every time the television is on, God, I pray that you would make them strong.

I pray that for them, they would be content for you to be true and every man a liar. Make them strong in the Lord, I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.