I think we'll just take it a
verse at a time and look through this and pray the Lord will give
us grace and understanding. 1 Timothy 2.9, in like manner
also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness
and sobriety, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly
array. Now, the reason it says in like
manner here is because the previous thought in this chapter concerns
bowing before God. It concerns prayer and bowing
to God and holding up your hand to God. When you hold up your
hand to God, you're saying, I need you. If I'm going to receive
anything, it's going to be from you. My hand is empty. I'm coming
to you. And so you're taking a place
of humility and need and submission. And that's, of course, what's
dealt with in this verse. So in like manner, women should
be like the men in that, like everybody in that before God,
in a place of humility and shamefacedness. We'll look at that word, sobriety. And so it applies to what it
says here about women as well, and so the words in like manner.
Now, women are told how to dress here, which is interesting. But remember that the message
here is concerning taking your place before God, in the worship
of God, in praying to God, in seeking God, in receiving from
God all that we need. You're taking a certain place
And that's expressed here, he says, in the clothing, which,
as I said, is interesting. I believe this will be instructive
to us. It's very important to some people how people dress
in the worship, you know. It's almost as though they have
a dress code of some kind. But the problem here is, with
that, is that most people that care what people wear in the
worship object to people not dressing up enough. Oh, you wore
your jeans, you're showing disrespect to God. The problem with that
is here in our text, it's telling you not to dress up. Did you
notice that? It's saying don't wear expensive
clothing. They even say things like, well,
if you're going to meet the president, you'd dress better than that.
The thing is, we're not here this morning to meet the president.
We're here to worship God. You'd wear jewelry, you probably
would, wouldn't you, if you was going to meet the president? Dress up, you'd wear nice jewelry
and fix your hair nice if you were going to see the president. But we're specifically taught
here in the worship of God not to dress like that. And it's simply this, the worship
of God is not about you, it's about Him. Remember, we're holding
our hand up to God here. It's not to call attention to
yourself, it's not about how you look. And those who make
an issue of how you look are in opposition to this now. And
I'll probably make a few people mad by saying this, but I don't
see how it could be any clearer. I don't see anywhere in the scripture,
somebody find it for me and prove me wrong. where it tells you
to dress nice in the worship of God. I see where it tells
you not to. But here's the truth of the matter. The minute somebody notices how
you look, Other than just a passing compliment. You know, that's
fine. That's a nice dress. You know, you look very nice
today. That's fine. You're not thinking about that
right now while we're worshiping the Lord. That's just being considerate
and complimentary. There's nothing
in the world wrong with that. But the minute somebody is thinking
about that right now, that's when the worship is hindered. If you come in and you're wearing
a new dress, and some of the ladies compliment you on it,
and then we settle in and sing praises to God and begin to look
into the scriptures, and the last thing on anybody's mind
is what dress somebody's wearing, then there's nothing, all is
fine. It's fine, that's great. But if anybody's still thinking
about what you're wearing right now, that's a problem, and it
can happen. I've seen it happen one time,
and Vicki probably knows what I'm talking about. One time in
40 years of worshiping God, I've seen one time where what
somebody wore was a problem. It was distracting. It was something
that people were probably still thinking about when it came time
to not be thinking about that. And it needed to be dealt with.
Not by me at that time, thankfully. But even then, it wasn't that
big of a deal. It wasn't really that big of
a deal. It was forgotten in a day. The next day it was forgotten. Shamefacedness means modesty,
respectfulness, reverence. That's what it means. It doesn't
mean you're ashamed of yourself. That's not what it is. But before
God, we are ashamed of ourselves. So there may be a little bit
of that in it. But it's just reverence before him. Reverence. And I want to stress this. I
want to stress it. Reverent clothing is specifically
said here to be not dressy or expensive. Now dressing up for
worship is fine, we do that, we do that. In the way that we use that phrase,
we dress up for church, that's fine. And probably appropriate. If you have something nice to
wear, wear it to church, wear it to the worship. But all I'm
saying is, it doesn't say in our text to dress reverently
by wearing expensive, especially nice clothing and an elaborate
hairdo, like you're going to meet the president. It specifically
says, don't do that. Now, sobriety means temperate
and discreet, unobtrusive, unobtrusive, inconspicuous. And that's not
hard to understand. Inconspicuous means nobody's
noticing you, really. Not overly. And the only way that what you
wear can be a problem in the worship is if somebody makes
an issue out of it. And I've experienced that. Some people are just determined
to make an issue out of it. Even when it's inconspicuous
and reverent, they'll make an issue out of it. It doesn't fit
their dress code. And let me say this from, on
the authority of the scripture, shame on you. If you shame somebody
for what they wear to the worship of God, shame is on you, not
on them. Verse 10, but which becometh
women professing godliness with good works. Which becometh women professing
godliness with good works. Here's the thing about it. Let's
quit bickering about how nice we ought to dress and understand
what really matters. What is important in the worship?
And it ain't that. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter
three, please. 1 Peter chapter three. Likewise, you wives be in subjection
to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also
may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives. While they behold your chaste
conversation or conduct coupled with fear. You see what this
has to do with, it has to do with worship. The fear of the
Lord, you're in the worship. who's adorning, let it not be
that outward adorning of plating of the hair, which there's nothing,
if you wanna braid your hair, braid your hair. This is talking
about, it's taking the attention away from what you look like
outwardly in a physical sense and putting it on this, or putting
on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart. Hidden man of the heart in that
which is not corruptible even the ornament The ornament of a meek and quiet
spirit that were quiet We'll talk about that in a minute.
It doesn't just mean you hear make any noise There's more to
that than that Which is in the sight of God of great price I
I don't think God considers gold and diamond jewelry of great
price, but this he does. A meek and a quiet spirit, fear,
reverence in the worship of God. That comes from a place that
you can't see. And it has nothing to do with the
outward apparel. For after this manner in the
old time, the holy women also who trusted in God adorned themselves,
being in subjection unto their own husbands. A good work. In our verse, it says with good
work, but with good works. In other words, that humble spirit,
that quiet spirit, that reverent spirit. A good work is anything
done by faith in Christ. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. But a work done by faith and
one that's done out of love for Him. The only time I believe in scripture
where the Lord said she did a good work, you remember what it was? And I guarantee you the only
reason she would have done that is because she loved the master.
She loved the master. So verse 11, and by the way,
that's real beauty. That's real beauty. Having the right spirit before
God and before others. Verse 11, let the woman learn
in silence with all subjection. Now, I've heard this verse quoted
a lot, and we tend to focus on the word silence more than the
word learn. I think the word learn is key
here too, don't you? Let the woman learn. You come
in here with a haughty spirit, know it all, and you know, wanting
to tell everybody everything. And we've all experienced that. There's
a lot of know-it-alls in this world. Just, you know, spreading
advice where nobody really wants it. You're not gonna learn anything. We're here to learn of Christ.
It's not a coincidence that this is the next thing after not dressing
in conspicuous expensive clothing. We come to learn about the Savior
and to worship Him, not put on a fashion show or be a know-it-all. And don't miss the word silence,
though. It means peaceably. It doesn't just mean you don't
make any noise. It doesn't even really mean here I don't believe.
To me, in the context, it doesn't mean you don't say anything in
church. But it means peaceably. It means
this, in a way that's not disturbing to others. That's what it means. Behave yourself in a way that
doesn't disturb anybody. You know, it's so easy for people
to talk about people and talk about things that cause division.
Whenever an assembly gathers together anywhere for any reason,
that tends to happen with people. Especially in the worship of
God, we've got to be aware of that. Learn, don't tell. Hear, don't talk. And having that spirit doesn't
mean that you don't say anything. It just means you know why you're
here. You know what you need. You need to learn of Christ.
And that doesn't go real well with being loud and boisterous
and know-it-all and having to have your way about everything. And of course this goes for men
and women. I think maybe the reason that women are singled
out here is probably because there was a specific problem
in the place where Timothy was that was being addressed. But
everybody in the worship of God is to be submissive, not to the
pastor, but to God. We came to hear from God. Remember
what we read a moment ago. Listen to this part of it concerning
this verse too. First Peter 3.3, who's adorning,
let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing
of gold or of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man
of the heart in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament
of a meek and quiet spirit. That's the meaning of the word
silent here, which is in the sight of God of great price. Even we can see the value in
shutting up, can't we? But to God, that's a great price. Verse 12, but I suffered not
a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to
be in silence, to be in that spirit of quietness, of non-disturbing
spirit. Now I want to read this scripture
with regard to this verse. I say, for not a woman to teach,
nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. So
listen to 1 Corinthians 14, 34. Let your women keep silence in
the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak, but they
are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And I
believe that's concerning where Adam and Eve there to be an under
obedience. I think we're gonna read that
in a minute where it talks about how the consequences of the curse
were that the woman was gonna look to the man and not the other
way around. She's gonna be in subjection
to him. And if they will learn anything, verse 35 of 1 Corinthians
14, if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at
home for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. And again,
it's clearly talking about speaking in an authoritative way. It's
talking about speaking, they're to learn, not teach. And that's
what we've been talking about. And really that's true of everybody.
We're here to learn, not to teach people things. Even I, as a teacher,
am here more to learn than I am anything else. It doesn't mean that women have
to not say a word while they're in the church building. That
would be distracting, wouldn't it? It'd be so unnatural. No, that's just not it, is it?
It's clearly not it. It has to do with the worship
itself. And of course, no one is to speak during the worship
except whoever's preaching. But this means there are no women
pastors. It just means that. They're not
to usurp authority over the man. They may call themselves that,
but it's not of God. It's not God's order. And let me say this about that.
Don't mistake subordinates for inferiority. You know, people that oppose
the word of God, they say, well, you're teaching that women are
inferior to men. No, we're not. We're teaching
what God said, and he didn't say that. You're assuming that. You're making a jump that's not
to be made. You're misunderstanding what
God said. Men are not better than women.
Women are not inferior to men, but in God's order of authority,
women are to be in subjection to men. And I've said this before,
trust me, women, it ain't all it's cracked up to be, making
the decisions. But by God's grace, we're gonna
be men and we're gonna do that. We're gonna do that. Women are to be in subjection
in the worship and in the home. And let me say this, men are
no strangers to a position of subordinates. We're all subordinate
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're not the kings of
the world. We're all the bride of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And listen, there's no male or
female in Christ. Let me read that to you, Galatians
3.26. For you are all the children
of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ, and there is neither
Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither
male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Those distinctions don't mean
anything in Christ. Now that being established though,
men need to be men. They need to lead their families
in a way that's responsible and kind and godly. Train up their children in the
fear and admonition of the Lord As the Lord instructs, we're
to love our wives as Christ loved the church. Boy, I think about
that sometimes. And if it's not this way in a
relationship, the fault lies just about as much with the man
as it does the woman. Maybe just as much. Some say, well, it's the man's
fault, and the man is in the position of authority, but it's
both fault. Verse 13, for Adam was first
formed, then Eve. So this comes into it, the way
that God created us, the order in which he created us. Listen
to 1 Corinthians 11, eight. For the man is not of the woman,
but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for
the woman, but the woman for the man. And that phrase, for
the man, the woman was created for the man. I believe that's
what we see in Genesis 2, 18. The Lord God said, it is not
good that the man should be alone. Boy, I agree with that, don't
you? We'd be in trouble, Ben. We'd
be in trouble, wouldn't we? We'd be sad too. It's not good
that the man should be alone. I will make him and help meet
for him. That's what we just read. The
woman is for the man and help meet for him. And Adam was not deceived, verse
14 back in our text. Adam was not deceived, but the
woman being deceived was in the transgression. Now here again,
it's not a matter of who was more sinful or who's superior
to the other in this. It's not a matter of that. Is
it more evil to sin willfully or to be deceived? I'd say if
you're gonna argue that, it'd be hard to argue against the
fact that it's more evil to do it willfully. We know that it was Adam's sin,
not Eve's, that plunged man into death, spiritual death before
God. Eve heard what Satan said, and
if she was deceived, then it seems that she thought it really
would be a good thing. That's what Satan implied. This
is gonna be good. You're gonna know good and evil,
just like God. And she thought, yeah, that does
sound good. She didn't know any better. Adam knew. He knew what he was doing was
in defiance against God. He knew it was sin. And we don't know, we can't really
know, I believe, that if he knew the extent of the consequences
or not. I don't know how he could have.
The Lord said, in the day you eat thereof, though, you're gonna
die. But he wasn't deceived in this.
He knew it was disobedience. He knew that it was defiance
against God, rebellion. So how does this apply to our
text? Well, the woman was deceived.
Adam wasn't deceived, the woman was deceived. It doesn't mean,
as I said, that they're more sinful or less sinful than men. It's just a characteristic of
women from the very beginning. And so, Paul mentions that here, and
then look at verse 15. Notwithstanding, she shall be
saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity
and holiness with sobriety. Now think about this for a minute. In order to understand this verse,
I believe we have to look at Genesis three. So turn there
with me if you would. Genesis chapter three and verse
14. Genesis 3 14 And the Lord God said unto the
serpent Because thou hast done this thou are cursed above all
cattle and above every beast of the field Upon thy belly shalt
thou go And dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life, and
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. Unto the woman, he said, I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow shalt
thou bring forth children. Now, I don't know why the translator
put the word sorrow there, but if you look that word up in the
original, it means pain. And that makes a little more
sense, doesn't it? Pain, in pain. You women, a bunch of you know
what that's all about, pain. Multiply thy pain, and in pain
thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy
husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said,
because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and has
eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not
eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt
thou eat of it all the days of thy life, thorns and thistles,
thorns also, and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou
shalt eat the herb of the field, and the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread. "'Til thou return unto the ground,
"'for out of it was thou taken, "'for dust thou art, and unto
dust thou shalt return.'" Now, the main result of the fall is
what God said before this. He said, in the day you eat thereof,
thou shalt surely die. That's the spiritual consequence
of sinning against God. And spiritual death passed upon
all men in Adam. but there are specific temporal
effects of the fall that are assigned here to Satan and to
Adam and Eve. To Eve, it has to do with childbearing. That's why Paul mentions it in
1 Timothy, because he's referring all through to Genesis chapter
three, which we've seen already. He's referring to that. Eve was
deceived, Adam wasn't. He's talking about the fall.
So in his letter to Timothy here, he's speaking of the woman and
how she was deceived, and now he mentions the result of that,
and specific to her, is the pain of childbearing. The primary
definition of that word sorrow, as I said in Genesis 3.16, is
pain. But also, as Paul mentions here
in our text, it is by that same means, by childbearing, that
God saves. God saves by childbearing. And
since he's mentioned, he's talking about the woman, he says, she'll
be saved in childbearing. Yeah, it's a consequence of the
fall, but it's also the salvation of the soul. And here's why. In the same context here where
God pronounces the pain of childbearing, he also declares The salvation
of his people that will come also by childbearing. It's by
the woman's seed. That the serpent's head will
be crushed. That word bruised means crushed. Now turn with me to Matthew 1.18
and let's just rejoice in this beautiful passage of scripture
that we're familiar with. Matthew 1.18. Matthew 1.18, now the birth of
Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused
to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the
Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being
a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was
minded to put her away privately. He being a just man and her being
found with child, and he knew it wasn't his child, thought
that she had done something terrible, and he didn't want her to be
shamed for that, so he put her away privately. But while he
thought on these things, can you imagine what he was thinking
on these things? What a heartbreak. What heartbreak
that would be. Behold, the angel of the Lord
appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David,
fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived
in her is of the Holy Ghost. Do you think it was painful for
Mary to give birth to the Savior? I thought about that, and I'm
not sure about that because this birth was different in some ways,
wasn't it? It wasn't a typical birth in
some ways, so I don't know for sure about that. I suspect it
was painful. It was a natural birth in the
sense that unto us a child is born. Unto us the son is given,
but he was a child born. and she shall bring forth a son,
verse 21, and thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall
save. Though, as the context of our
verse is talking about the consequences of the fall, and we know that
the one consequence that's specifically addressed to the woman is the
pain of childbearing, and we all know what that is, not by
experience, all of us, but we all know what it's talking about,
don't we? But also this is how God saved us by a child being
born. So what a beautiful thing. Even though a remembrance of
the curse and yet the very salvation of the soul. He shall save his
people from their sins. Verse 22, now all this was done
that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the
prophet, saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall
bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which
being interpreted is God with us. Then Joseph being raised
from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and
took unto him his wife." Can you imagine the relief? when
the Lord revealed to him what was really going on here and
the joy with which he married her. And knew her not till she had
brought forth her firstborn son and he called his name Jesus. I don't know if it was painful
for her to give birth to the Lord, but I suspect it was because
every woman who has ever given birth to a child has experienced
the pain that the Lord ordained. He said, it's gonna be that way,
and it may be dulled by drugs, and if it was in the last several
decades, it may well have been dulled by drugs, maybe not, but
that doesn't change the fact that the pain was there. But
also when a woman is giving birth, to a child and is in pain, it
would be good to remember that though this is because of the
curse, the pain is, yet in this same way was born the one who
was made a curse for us, that we might be redeemed from the
curse of the law. In the sorrow of childbearing,
there is remembrance of the one called the man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief. And it's by believing on Him,
what does it say at the last part of our verse? Continue in
faith. If they continue in faith, it's
by believing on Him and love for Him and love, charity, love,
and holiness in Him that we're saved. with sobriety, and this
ties it all back to what he's been talking about all along.
You see, all of this has to do with Christ. It's not that we're
supposed to wear certain things a certain way so that we're conforming
to the dress code of the Bible. It's just simply, we're here
to worship God, and anything that distracts from that is inappropriate. It's inappropriate. The only reason I point out that
it's the nicer things that are prohibited here, because it can
be either way. It can be distracting if you
come in here wearing flip-flops and Speedos, that would be distracting. If you wear something that's
worth a dollar, it's distracting. If you wear something that's
worth $500, it can be distracting. It's not about that. It has to do with worshiping
the one who was born to save us from our sins and through faith, believing
on him and love for him and holiness in him. He saves us with sobriety. This all, the reason women are
reverent and self-controlled and modest and submissive in
the worship of the Lord is not because, not just because, well,
them's the rules, you know, that's not, it's because they believe
on Christ. The last part of our last verse,
they believe on Christ. That's why they do that. They
love Him. And they know. that they stand
before God in Him. No matter how they're dressed,
they stand in the robe of His righteousness. And that's why
men must be the kind of men that a godly woman loves to be a woman
for. It's not a joke. It's God's order,
it's God's way. And it has to do with the worship
of Christ. And may God give us grace to
worship him that way with a quiet and humble spirit, with a coming
to learn. And really, even as the speaker,
even as the one who proclaims this, I'm here learning with
you. He's the teacher. May it always
be that way. Let's pray.