1 Timothy chapter 2, the last
few verses beginning at verse 11, we're talking about God's
ordained order, and understand this, for our worship service,
and as far as the authority that should be within the local churches
where the gospel is preached. That's what we're talking about. It's not something that covers
all spans of life. Because you might notice, he
says in verse 11, let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. And that doesn't mean that a
woman can never talk or anything like that. But I'll get to what
it means. Passages like this, when you
isolate them, I try to preach everything I preach in light
of the gospel. And I don't want to go away from
the pulpit having not preached the gospel. But we're going to
be talking about mainly the role of women in the church service,
in the worship service, and as the authority of the church.
And here's what I'll say that's gospel-related, and we'll see
this. The role of men and women in the church and in the family
at home is to be reflected. Now, this is for believers now.
It applies to everybody, but you know the day we live in,
all right? All right? A believing man and woman, husband
and wife, and believing men in the church and believing women,
the relationship should reflect the relationship of Christ and
His church. You understand that? That's why
it's set up in the home. And I know there are men who
take advantage of these things and do them wrongly. and maybe
not physically, but mentally beat their wives down and all
of that. And there are women who take
advantage of it too. And we'll see that as we look
at it. But Christ gave himself for the
church. And I'll say this, the main responsibility
of this whole thing in the family and in the church is upon the
man. It's on the man. We'll look at Ephesians chapter
five in a little bit here. But you know, when it says wives
being, you know, we men, you know, we want to emphasize wives
being subjection under your husband. Well, that's what the Bible says.
And I've had, you know, I'm getting to the point I don't think I'm
going to perform any marriages anymore. But I'm just kidding. But I've had girls ask me that,
you know, why do we have to obey this and do that, you know? And
here's what I told her. I said, well, I hope when you
guys are married that you are in perfect, complete agreement
on every issue. But you know that's not gonna
happen. And sometimes you have to make a decision on something.
You don't always have to make a decision on everything. Sometimes
you have to make a decision on something that you may disagree. So who's to take the lead? The
husband. Now that's true. And the same way in the church
with believing men. But Christ gave himself for his
church. He purchased his church with
his own blood. And you know in Ephesians chapter
five it sort of combines the issues of marriage and the church.
And we'll see that. But these things are important,
but understand, this is why I named the title of the message, God's
Ordained Order. So rebellion against this is
rebellion against wives. If you rebel, it's not just against
your husband, it's against God. And men, if you don't take your
responsibility, it's not just against your wife, it's against
God. Now this is God's word. I didn't write these things,
God did. I say that to cover myself because people get mad
at the preacher. Well, it's okay, I'm just the messenger. Don't
shoot the messenger. But the first thing that is revolutionary
in Paul's words here, the Holy Spirit's words by the Apostle
Paul, is this, let the woman learn. You don't realize how revolutionary
that statement is. Because back then in that, and
what that means is let the woman be discipled. That's what the
word learn means. If you're a disciple of Christ,
you're a learner. You follow him in his word and
you grow in grace and not. And so let the woman be discipled
because believing women are just as much disciples of Christ as
believing men. And I made the point last week
how when it comes to salvation now, there is no difference.
We're all sinners saved by grace. And we read in Galatians chapter
three, where he said, if you belong to Christ, then are you
Abraham's seed and heirs according to the faith. And he said, in
Christ, there's no male or female bond or free. We're all sinners saved by grace.
We're all washed in the blood of Christ. We're all clothed
in his righteousness. And we all have the life of Christ
within us by the power of the Spirit when he regenerates us
and converts us in the new birth. We all look to Christ and rest
in him for salvation. Equally. Now I know faith grows
and all that knowledge grows all of that. But as to our salvation,
our Savior is the same and we're the same. We're sinners saved
by Christ. Now that doesn't mean that we put away all differences
and don't recognize them. And that's why I made the point
last week. There's only male and female. There's no transgender.
That's just rebellion against God, saying, God, I hate the
way you made me. That kind of thing. So I'll remake
myself. And that's rebellion. That's
what it is. But that's what this is all about. So when he says,
let the woman learn, back then, especially in the Jewish culture,
women were thought of lowly. They were. And they could go
to the synagogue, go to the worship service, but whether or not they
learned anything was inconsequential to the men. In fact, you might
have seen movies or read historical accounts where back in the early
days, a woman would want to go to college. In the Jewish culture,
that was forbidden for her to go and learn. But Paul says,
no, that's not right. She's a disciple of Christ if
she's saved by the grace of God, and she's to learn just as much
as the men are to learn. So I look at it this way. Paul
was not a male chauvinist pig. Paul was the great liberator
of women in that sense. But let's understand, what we're
talking about is the fact that all true believers are learners,
they're followers of Christ for salvation according to the gospel
message. Come unto me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, Christ said. Not just some. And if you're
a laborer and heavy laden, we know that's the Spirit's work
in us. And he does that for a woman just as much as he does a man.
One of God's elected is a woman or elected and he does the same
thing for them. So, This shows, and here's another
thing I've got in your lesson. This shows us that our worship
services should be a time of preaching and teaching the word
of God for our learning, for our growth in grace and in knowledge.
A worship service, I put this in, a worship service should
not be an emotional circus. Now there's nothing wrong with
being emotional. But you gotta understand, there's a difference
between just being emotional, which I get sometimes, and you
all get sometimes, and emotionalism. Emotionalism is when people judge
the truth or the presence of the Holy Spirit by their feelings. And I've heard people, you know,
they go into one of these, what I call circus worshipers, And everybody's jumping up and
down, waving their hands, hollering. And they come out and they said,
well, we just felt the spirit. Well, if the gospel's not preached
from the pulpit, you didn't feel the Holy Spirit. What you had
was an evil spirit. So a worship service is to be,
we're here to worship God. That's what, remember I titled
the lesson last week. We're here to worship the Lord.
And we need to prepare ourselves in that way. So all of this coming
together. Now what he says is verse 11,
let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. And that's
what he's talking about here, is God has set forth this order
of things and he says in verse 12, now here's what he's talking
about, about the subjection. It's not that a woman can't ever
speak, even in church. But he says, I suffer not a woman
to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
And what he's talking about in the church, in the church offices
as pastor, teacher, elder, even deacon, those offices, they're
not for the women, they're for the believing men. A woman who's
pastoring and preaching is going against the word of God. And
I've never heard one preach the gospel. So it's not that a woman
can't witness now. You can witness. You witness
to your children, your friends. You can speak to others about
this. Teach your children at home,
all that. But he's talking about in the
church where the men have the authority as pastor and teacher
and elder and deacon. And so That's what he means by
this. Don't take it any further. Usurping
authority. You know what usurp means? It
means to steal. Stealing authority over the man,
but to be in silence. Well, you'd wipe out 90% of charismatic
churches, if not more, because they're run by women. So the
proper authority to reflect Christ and his church is that the men
have the positions of authority and the women are in the worship
service. Now you're to learn inside. Now,
you men, essentially, when somebody's up preaching the gospel or teaching
it, you should remain silent too. I mean, as far as just getting
up and interrupting and all that. You can say amen and all that,
that's okay. But this is the ordained order. And so, in all subjection. So the rule of a woman not speaking
in the assembly applies only in the matter of pastoring, preaching,
and teaching in the worship service. You know, I thought about this.
You can look back in the scripture and you can see many instances
where believing women witnessed the gospel. Lydia, for example,
and you could go on. Deborah, the prophetess. When
it calls Deborah the prophetess, it's not saying she had the office
of a prophet like Jeremiah or Isaiah. It just says she had
the word of God. Because that's what prophecy
is. It's speaking forth the word
of God. And she was able to do that.
And that's a good thing. So, understand that. And you
can go back and find a lot of, you won't ever in the Bible,
Old Testament or New, find a woman being a pastor, or being an elder,
or teaching believing men. But you will find women living
a godly life. You will find them witnessing
the gospel. Mary, in her prayer, has a gospel
message there. But she wasn't usurping authority.
So understand that. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
five. This is a passage where a lot
of people, you know, they claim Paul hated women and all that
stuff. That's crazy. That's just modern
day rebellion, is all it is. Because all of this in the worship
service, we're here to worship God, and the woman is to have
an attitude of, I put quiet submission, this doesn't mean passivity,
doesn't mean she has no part, because we're all here to worship
God. But understand that. But look at Ephesians five and
verse 21. He says, submitting yourselves one to another in
the fear of God, and the fear there means worship. And it says,
wives, submit yourselves unto your own husband as unto the
Lord. You see that? There's your key,
as unto the Lord. Now your husband's not your savior. Christ is your Savior. But this
is the ordained order in the home. And he says, for the husband
is the head of the wife, head of the wife, even as Christ is
head of the church. See that? And he is the Savior
of the body, Christ is. He says, therefore, as the church
is subject unto Christ, Let wives be to their own husbands and
everything. Now, here's how it all comes about, and here's the
greater responsibility. Listen to this. Husbands, love
your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself
for it. Now, here's what I'll guarantee
you. And I tell this to any couple that's getting married who ask
me to counsel them, as they say. If the husband could love his
wife as Christ loved the church, she won't have any problems admitting
to you. If you love her as Christ loved
the church, you won't beat her or you won't keep things from
her, you won't ignore her, and you'll listen to her. Christ
listens to us, not for advice, but she may give you some good
advice. She may be a better budgeter
than you, whatever gifts she has, but you're to listen to
her. You're not to treat her as a plaything or as a slave,
but as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. And
he says in verse 26 that he might, in order that he might sanctify
and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word, that
he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and
without blemish. You see there? That's Christ
and his church there. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. That's another way of saying
love your wife as you love yourself. How do you want to be treated?
treat her the same way. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself." Now why is that? Because when you marry, you're
one flesh. Two become one. And so, he says
in verse 29, for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but
nourisheth it and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church,
for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall
be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one. That's
a problem with a lot of marriages. You got either a man or a woman,
he didn't leave his mother and father. Verse 32, that doesn't mean ignore
your mother and father. It means you are the man's the
head of the home, the wife is his wife, and you make your own
together. You don't let the father-in-law
or the mother-in-law control the marriage. And so verse 32,
this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and
the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular
so love his wife even as himself. And the wife see that she reverence
her husband, respect him, is what that means. Okay, go back
to 2 Timothy 2. Now what he does here, the responsibility
for leadership in public worship is spiritual men. Leading in
public prayer, I put in here in parentheses, reading scripture,
preaching the word, serving the Lord's table, baptism, that's
for men. Women are to remain silent in
any manner of instruction to lead that leadership. And of
course, all of this is, I'll say conditional, our salvation's
not that. Does the man believe and preach
the gospel? That's the key. Because if the
head of the wife in the home is driving her, and let's say
she's a believer, and he's not, well, you're not to let him drive
you into a false gospel of idolatry, and vice versa. I've seen many men who've left
the truth to follow their wives into a false gospel. Don't do
that. You say, well, she might divorce me. Well, you know what
the Bible says about that, don't you? If that happens, I've known
men whose wives have left them over the gospel. You let them
go. You say, well, I don't want to
let her go. Well, do you want to deny the Lord? And then believing
wives who are married to an unbelieving husband, Peter says to be a staunch
disciple of Christ, and it may be, there's no guarantee, it
may be the Lord will use you to bring him to the Lord, to
bring him to the gospel. But if he's gonna leave, he says,
let him leave. If they're determined, you can't
force it, all right? So understand that. Well, look
here at verse 13. He says, for Adam was first formed,
then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived
was in the transgression. Now, he gives us three reasons
here for this order of things. Number one, Adam was first formed,
then Eve. God ordained the hierarchy beginning
with creating Adam first as the head, and Eve came out taken
from his side. And as Peter said, even though
the woman is the weaker vessel, the woman's subordination is
not just a position of weakness, it's a position of respect. So
Adam was first born. Secondly, Adam was not deceived,
but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Now
I've heard a lot of speculation about the fall. I've heard people
argue about, when did Adam sin? Well, he sinned when he disobeyed
God. And somebody said, well, now
he sinned in his head before he actually took the fruit. OK,
that's all right. Why argue over that? That means
nothing. Adam sinned and brought the whole
human race into a state of sin and death and depravity. That's
what he did. Eve was deceived by the serpent.
She should have deferred to Adam, her husband, but she didn't.
So she had an act of rebellion there, but she rebelled against
God. Adam knew full well what he was
doing. You know what Adam did? He took sides with his wife against
the Lord. That's what he did. And of course,
we all know that everything of this was ordained by God. Look
back over in Genesis 3. I'll hurry here. Genesis 3. You know, we have what we call
the first declaration of the gospel plainly spoken. Some people
say it came in Genesis 1 because when God said, let there be light,
that's true. But those are metaphors. Just
like when God saves a sinner, he looks at you and he said,
let the light come on. And he reveals himself. But the
first declaration of the coming of the Messiah was right here
in Genesis 3.15. He says, talking to the serpent.
Now what God's doing here, he's pronouncing curses. And he first
pronounces the curse upon Satan, the serpent. And what's that
curse? He says in verse 15, I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed, it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Now the first thing you see about that is this, woman doesn't have
the seed, man does. But Christ is called the woman
seed, why? Because he wasn't born, he wasn't
formed, and he wasn't combobulated the way we are by man. Christ was formed within Mary
by the Holy Spirit. And so he's called the seed of
woman. So the curse upon Satan is that he's going to be destroyed.
He said, he shall bruise thy head. That's a death blow. You'll
bruise his heel. Now Christ died, but he arose
again. So it's not a fatal blow from
Satan because Satan didn't punish him and he didn't offer himself
to Satan. It pleased the Lord to bruise him, to crush him.
and he did it for our sins imputed to him and he died and was buried
and he arose again the third day. That's the seed of woman. In verse sixteen he pronounces
the curse upon Eve, the woman. Listen to what he says. Unto
the woman he said I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth
children and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall
rule over thee. Now he mentions childbirth and
I'll get to that in just a moment. But you know what that literally
means when he says thy desire shall be to thy husband? That's
not talking about sexual desire. It literally means, and I've
got it listed in your lesson here, it means thy desire shall
be to thy husband means literally that she will always have the
desire in her own sinful nature to rule over the man. That's
what it literally means. One of my favorite authors in
college was a guy from Columbus, Ohio named James Thurber, and
he wrote a series of stories about the war between men and
women. And it was funny, but he got it wrong. You see, that's
the conflict. And the only remedy for that
conflict is Ephesians 5. Just like the only remedy for
condemnation brought about by Satan is Christ. The only remedy
for the relationship of a man and woman is Ephesians 5. Husband
loves your wife, wives be in subjection to your husband. The
curse upon the man was to work by the sweat of his brow. And it's a continual thing. And
of course the only remedy to that is work as unto the Lord. But anyway, I won't go into all
that. Go back to 1 Timothy 2. Adam was not deceived. He knew
full well what he was doing. And so this is the way that Lord
set it up. And then there's a third reason.
The way the church is organized with the man as the head and
the woman is a picture of Christ. So that's a third reason. So
since the church is here for the glory of Christ in all things,
even our organization as a body speaks of him as the head. Now
verse 15 says this, notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing
if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.
Now the fact that Eve, you know, childbearing is a painful thing,
the travail, but that doesn't mean, because she was deceived
and so the curse is not having a child, the curse is the pain
that you go through, and that doesn't mean you cannot be saved
by the grace of God. That's not a curse that sentences
you to hell or anything like that. So understand. And so it
does not in any way hinder the salvation of sinful women, sinners
saved by grace. And that pain that you go through
doesn't hinder it. And that doesn't mean that if
you don't have children, you're consigned to hell or anything
like that. Those are just speculations. But you know what one of the
references that I think of when I see that saved in childbearing?
Christ is the woman seed. He came through the woman. He
didn't come through the man. And so shouldn't that give us
a greater respect for women, especially godly women? Those
who continue in faith, looking to Christ, charity, love, holiness
with sobriety, with a clear mind. See what I'm saying? And I believe
that's the reference here, one of the issues of saved in childbearing,
because it was the woman who bore the child, Christ Jesus,
Mary. Now it wasn't all women, it was
just Mary, we know that. But he's still called the woman
seed in Genesis 3.15. And I think that's significant.