Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Timothy 2. 1 Timothy 2. We kind of off and on have been
going through the book of 1 Timothy and I felt led to veer to other
things and other places quite a bit. We started going through
it and then I would veer off and then we'd come back and I
would veer off and it's been a little while since we've been
here but so far we have made it up to chapter 2 verse 8. Picking up with verse 9, I want
to read something to you that we're going to read the rest
of this chapter. And this is something that is not very popular
today. All right? I want to read something
to you that is not very popular today. What we're about to read,
the world naturally considers this to be old-fashioned. narrow-minded, close-minded, male chauvinist, and offensive. Okay? Here we go. Verse 9 says, in
like manner also." That's coming off of verse 8, what he said
in verse 8. He said, I will therefore that
men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and
doubting. Talking about men, he had a word
to say to men there. All right, now in verse 9, he
says, in like manner also that women adorned themselves in modest
apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broided
hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array. but which becometh
women professing godliness with good works. Let the women learn
in silence with all subjection, but I suffer not a woman to teach,
nor to assert authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then
Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but
the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding,
she shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith in
charity and holiness with sobriety." Now, you women have that? Everybody
get that? Let me just tell you at face
value what this is saying. Okay, just at face value. Verse
9 says, in like manner also that women adorn themselves. Adorn means to put in order,
to arrange properly. Adorn themselves in modest apparel. Modest means decorated in good
behavior. Apparel means clothing. It says with shame-facedness. Shame-facedness means a sense
of shame or honor, modesty, bashfulness, reverence, regard for others. Respect through the idea of downcast
eyes. That's what it means. Verse nine
says, shame, facetness, and sobriety. Sobriety means soundness of mind,
self-control, sanity. Verse 9 says, not with broided
hair, that means woven, plaited, twisted, braided hair, or gold,
the actual metal jewelry of gold, or pearls, or costly array, that
means expensive clothing. Now based on that word and based
on what I'm seeing in this room, honestly, based on that word
and based on what I'm seeing in this room, if we take this
at face value, we're all in trouble, aren't we? If we just take this at face
value, we are all in trouble. You can look at that at face
value, and this is the only thing that we can deduct. We're all
sinners against God, aren't we? That's what it says, isn't it?
We're all sinners against God. We can try to make excuses all
we want to, but there's no denying it. We're all sinners against
God. I looked at that and looked at
that and tried to think, well, surely it doesn't say what it's
saying. It says what it's saying. We're all sinners against God.
And there's no point in reading that and saying, well, at least
my hair's not braided. I may have a gold ring on, but
I'm not wearing any pearls. I got this at TJ Maxx on sale. We're all sinners against God.
And I'm going to tell everybody this. Let me go ahead and tell
you this. If everyone shows up here next Sunday morning with
rags on and no makeup and long stringy hair, we will all still be sinners
against God. Okay? We will all still be sinners
against God. But then we will be sinners against
God who are bound by the bondage of the law. That'll be the only
difference. We will be sinners against God
who are bound under the bondage of the law. And I'll tell you
ladies this, and this is a strong statement, this is difficult
to deal with, but this is the honest truth. God puts men and
women both in hell for that, being bound by the bondage of
the law. And this is the reason why. If,
and this is speaking to women. Last time we were here, he was
talking to men. This time we're speaking to women. But if a woman,
if anyone, but I'll just say if a woman comes before God thinking
and believing in her heart, I'm presentable. I didn't break my
hair. I have no jewelry on. You know,
I literally, I'm wearing trash. If a woman comes before God thinking,
this is acceptable based on what I see in my flesh and what I
see in my clothes, God will accept me in the person of myself. God puts men and women in condemnation
for that. If we only look at this at face
value, all we're going to end up with is false religions recipe
for all of their women. Which is the bondage of the law?
Can we not see that in this? Don't you see exactly why men
and women both fall into the bondage of the law? That perfectly
describes false religion's bondage of the law. This is a clear picture
of oppression. That's what it is. Beat down
oppression. We have a slang term in the South. You know, people say barefoot
and pregnant and all that kind of stuff. And in no way, shape, or form does
that describe the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. In no way,
shape, or form. The bride of Christ has been
covered in the most costly robe that heaven possesses, the very
righteousness of Christ Himself. Christ said concerning His collective
bride, He said, you are my jewels and I will deck you with jewels. That's what He said. I will adorn you with grace and
beauty. How did He do that for His bride?
How did Christ do that for His bride? How did He adorn her?
Here's how He did it. He did it by taking upon Himself
a very modest apparel. The likeness of sinful flesh. Now you just think about this.
He wears glory. He appears in glory. And He laid
the costly, infinite value apparel of His own glory aside. And He took upon Himself for
His people, from His people, a shamefacedness. He took that
upon Himself. The shamefacedness of the cross
of Calvary. He became His people. That's
what He did. He became them. And He accomplished
for them what they could not accomplish for themselves. And though He was rich, He willingly
made Himself to be poor so that His wife, through His own poverty,
might be rich. He gave it all to her. You see
in verse 14, it says, Adam was not deceived, but the woman being
deceived was in the transgression. That's the glory of the gospel
right there. Envision what happened in the garden. Eve fell into
sin, fell into deception. And it says, whenever she brought
that fruit to Adam, Eve was deceived, not Adam. He knew what he was
doing. For love's sake, he saw what
she had fallen into. He saw the condemnation she had
fallen into. And he laid a hold of that, knowing
what he was doing. He fell into that with her. That's our salvation. The Lord
Jesus Christ was not deceived. His people, his bride, We were
deceived by sin, deceived in sin. The Lord Jesus Christ was
not deceived. He knew exactly what He was doing
when He paid the price to redeem His bride from all of her sin
and iniquity. Now, this is what I want to say
about all this, okay? I am all for respectful worship. Let me get to the bottom of it,
all right? Let me get to the heart of it. That's what it says.
I am all for respectful worship. I promote respectful, reverent
worship. I believe that when we come before
God, this is the holy God we're coming before. We need to come
in fear. We need to come in reference.
We need to come showing love and respect and thankfulness
to Him. I believe that. If anything on
this earth is worthy of us presenting ourselves in a respectful way,
like a wedding ceremony. You know, we conduct wedding
ceremonies in a very respectful way, in a very orderly, formal,
respectful way. If anything on this earth is
worthy of us presenting ourselves in a respectful way, how much
more should we present ourselves that way to the holy God of heaven
and earth? This is the holy God. The God who owns us and made
us and saved us and sustains us and keeps us and loved us
and prepared a place for us. How much more? Is there anything
that he's not worthy of? You know, I was writing all this
out thinking I'm going to stand up in a suit. I don't wear this
suit out of law. I have been very kindly, lovingly
told many times, you know, if I come somewhere to preach, you
don't have to wear a suit. I know that. I know that. I don't wear it out of law. I
wear it out of love and respect for the one I'm speaking on behalf
of. You know, I don't know what else
to say about it. This means something to me. I'm
not talking about this, I'm talking about this. This means something
to me. I am for respectfulness. I promote
respectful worship, but here's the thing about it. I don't want
it to ever be said that I promote disrespect. Never. I don't want it to ever be said
that I promote rebellion against the Word of God. This talks about
women not teaching and usurping authority in worship. They teach the children but not
the adults. I don't want to ever let it be
said that I promote disrespect or rebellion against God's Word
in our worship. But I'll tell you this. If all
we get out of this is the bondage of the law, not only have we
ruined it, we've missed it. We've missed it and we've ruined
it. We've missed the whole thing
and we've ruined the whole thing. Our Savior has called us to liberty. And we can stand fast in that
liberty. Our Lord has set us free from
the bondage of the law. Do we realize how much law is
in this book? Do we realize how many laws and
commandments have been given in this book? Our Lord set us
free from the bondage of the law and here's how He did it.
He didn't disregard the law and ignore the law and disrespect
the law, not at all. He fulfilled it. He came and
fulfilled it. He did put on modest apparel.
He did put on humility. He did make Himself to be poor. Oh, while Pilate was accusing
Him and everyone was accusing Him, He could have opened His
mouth and said, Father, would You take care of this? He didn't
say a word. He opened not His mouth. He stood
there in silence. He fulfilled everything this
law demands for us. And these words were not written
to tell us what clothes to wear. They were not written for that.
We came into this world naked and we are going to leave naked.
These words were written for one reason only. In this portion
of scripture, there's a road that leads to Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. And our business is to find that
road and get on it. Noah's ark was given for one
reason only, to show what Christ accomplished for His bride. That
serpent on the pole was given for one reason only, to show
what Christ accomplished for His bride. That Passover lamb,
that was told for one reason only, to show what Christ accomplished
for His bride. And we can go through every account
all the way back to Adam and Eve, who are the two people listed
right here. Adam and Eve were put on this
earth to show us what Christ accomplished for his bride. And
in this, Adam represents Christ and Eve represents the bride,
men and women. Now, I believe this will be a
help to you. If you ever read the scripture
and you wonder, why does it say things like this? I believe this
will really help us understand the spiritual teaching of the
scripture. When we see the scripture talk
about the relationship between men and women, it is a spiritual
picture. These are spiritual things. God
is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit
and in truth. This is a spiritual picture of
Christ and His bride. That's what this is. represent God's chosen men and
women, the bride, the Lamb's wife, women. That's what it represents. The
Apostle Paul told us that in Ephesians 5. He had all of this
to say. You can read Ephesians 5 sometimes.
He had all of this to say about husbands and wives, husbands
and wives. And then he said, I'm actually
speaking a mystery to you. He said, I'm really talking about
Christ and His bride. That's what I'm really talking
about here. So understanding that, let's read what this word
has to say spiritually to women, okay? Which is you men, us men,
and you women who are the bride of Christ. This is telling us
how we are to approach our God in worship. Look at verse nine
with me. It says, in like manner also that women adorn themselves
in humility. The modest apparel of the heart.
These things, salvation is an issue of the heart. Out of the
heart are the things of life. That which is flesh is flesh.
That which is spirit is spirit. the modest apparel of the heart,
we must put on, ladies, okay, fellas, bride, we must put on the modest, humble
apparel of the heart when we come here. Verse 9 says, with
shame-facedness, crying in the heart, I am so sorry. Let me ask you all this, are
you all sinners? I am. I have already sinned so
much this morning. I'm ashamed. I have shamefacedness
to stand here before you. Really? I'm so sorry. I'm such a sinner. God be merciful to me. Is that
not what all of his saints cried throughout the scripture and
what all of his saints still cry today? God be merciful to
me. This is the truth. Verse 9 says, "...with shamefacedness
and sobriety." That means truth. The honest truth. The sobering
truth. We need to come crying, truth,
Lord. You've given me a clear mind
on the truth. I don't try to hide anything
from You. Everything you have to say about me is true. You're
the only thing that's true. Let God be true and every man
a liar, right? Verse 9 says, not with broided
hair or gold or pearls or costly array. That means we're not adorning
ourselves at all. We don't come in the pride of
this flesh at all. In the heart, Lord, I don't come
in my own self-righteous covering at all. I have nothing of any
value to come in. That's what it's saying. In the
heart, we're coming and saying, I have nothing. I don't have
any gold. I have no pearls. I have no beautiful hair. I have no beautiful covering.
My covering is self-righteousness and it's filthy rags before you.
It's just filthy rags. I have nothing of any value.
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us. This is all unto you. If
there's any value here, it's you alone. Verse 10 says, but
which becometh women professing godliness with good works. In our flesh, what are we? Ungodly. Who does Romans 5 say
the Lord Jesus Christ died for? Well, you say, well, he died
for us. Well, who does Romans 5 say it is? The ungodly. What do we profess godliness
to be? Okay, if we're going to come
professing godliness, what do we profess godliness to be? One word answer, Christ. We're professing godliness, therefore
we profess Christ. What are our good works? What
does Romans 3 say? It says there's none that do
us good. No, not one. Somebody said, what must I do
that we might, what must we do that we might work the works
of God? He said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We have no good works, but Christ
The only good work that we have is the work of faith to believe
on Christ. And Ephesians 2 says that was
given to us and performed in us by the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the author and the
finisher even of that. We profess Christ. We look to
Christ. Verse 11 says, let the woman learn in silence. With all subjection, honestly,
what do we have to spout off before God? Solomon said, keep thy foot when
thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear than
to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they
do evil. We all want to be swift to hear and slow to speak, don't
we? So slow we have nothing to say
for ourselves. Only let Christ speak on our
behalf. Only let Christ speak on our
behalf. Job spouted off for a while and
then he finally said, I think it's time I put my hand over
my mouth. Verse 12 says, but I suffer not
a woman to teach nor to assert authority over the man, but to
be in silence. Oh, God forbid that we try to
assert our authority over Christ. I'll tell you this. That's where
false religion has gone wrong. That's where false religion has
gone wrong saying, I know that your word says this. But we're going to go another
route. We think we have a free will,
and we're going to follow our own word on the matter. Verse 12 says, I suffer not a
woman to teach, nor to assert authority over the man, but to
be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then
Eve. Christ is the head of us, not
the other way around. That's all there is to it. He
is our God. We are His creatures. He is our
King. We are His subjects. He is our
head. We are His body. Who's in control right here?
The head or the body? We acknowledge that and we love
that it's so. I'm telling you, I do not want
anybody to be in control of me but Jesus Christ Himself. I don't
trust me. I don't. There's none good but Him. If
I want good, it needs to be at the hand of Him. Verse 14 says, And Adam was not
deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
That's the gospel of our salvation. The willingness of our husband,
as the scripture calls him. to redeem us. He willingly took
that sin upon Himself. He willingly entered into that
condemnation from God for us. All that condemnation from God
was poured out on Him instead of us. And for that reason, God's
people cry, Amen. Thank God. We rejoice that causes
us to love him, that causes us to be thankful to him, that gives
us the deepest desire in our hearts to submit to him and to
follow him and to look to him and to trust him. Verse 15 says,
Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing if they
continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. Because of Eve's fall into sin,
the Lord said to her that in the curse that that sin brought
on her, that He would greatly multiply her sorrow and her conception. That's what He said. He said,
in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. But right there in
that same place, He also told her that through
that conception, Through that line of delivering children,
He said, the woman's seed will come. The one not born of man, but
born of the Holy Ghost. And in that child that would
be born and that would come, He said her salvation would come.
And this chapter ends by saying, all who look to Him in faith
And in love, and in reverence, and in truth, we'll be saved. We'll be saved. Here's the point
of this. And here's the point of every
other page between these two leather covers right here. It's
all about Him. It's all about Him. It's not
about us, that's what we need to take from this. It's not about
us, it's all about Him. I pray God will teach us that
no matter where we turn. It's all about Him. Alright,
you're dismissed.