You deal with so many different
subjects, so many things that you wouldn't deal with normally
and you know last week we talked about prayer in public worship and how that the Lord Jesus Christ's
only mediator between God and man And that he's the one that
gave him a ransom for all. But when he says, I will therefore,
and he goes on and then he says, verse eight, I will therefore
that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without route and
without doubt. And then he says, in like manner
also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness
and sobriety with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array.
Now here's the thing, the scriptures have much to say
about our roles in the church, our position in the church, the
things that we do when we're gathered in public worship. And
he's talking here about women being sober, silent, submissive,
and subject, because this becomes them. But our women have the
same savior, same mediator. They love Christ and are loved
of Christ. But in the affairs of the church,
it's a different story. And he said, and like men are
also. As the men were called on to pray, public prayer, and
to pray for everyone in authority and in power that we may lead
peaceful and godly lives. Let the women pray likewise.
Let them pray likewise. Let them pray with patience.
Let them pray with sincerity. Let them pray from their hearts.
And as they said about the men, without wrath, don't be angry
with God. Don't be upset with God in the
way he's dealing with you in the world. Don't be upset with
one another. Don't be upset with somebody
in the church that would hinder your prayers. without wrath,
don't have no wrath for anybody. Don't be upset with God, don't
be angry with anybody. Because when you come to pray,
if you got anything against anybody, our Lord said, lift your gift
and go make it right, go ask for forgiveness. But here he's
talking about praying And pray with sincerity from the heart,
no wrath and no doubting. Don't doubt that God won't hear
you. Don't doubt that God won't listen to you. Don't doubt that
God won't receive you for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. And
then in public worship, he's telling women here, said adorn
yourselves. That word adorn yourselves means
to be orderly, orderly, well-arranged. Decent. Have you clothes, you
know, things being harmonious. Arrangement. And that's what
it means to be adoring yourselves. And so, and then he says, with
modest apparel. You know, these things are things
that believers shouldn't even have to be talked about to and
dealt with. Because it's just something that
the Spirit of God teaches people with modest apparel. You know,
you wear things that don't draw attention to yourselves. That's
what he's talking about. With shamefacedness and sobriety.
That's the word sobriety means. With a sound judgment. With sound judgment. With some
wisdom. And that's what he's talking
about. And then he says, don't dress. He says, not with broided
hair or gold or pearls or costly way. Women shouldn't dress in
a showy, conspicuous, suggestive, extreme manner. And to do it
to attract attention from others or to lift themselves up in pride. I remember, I've seen several things happen
over the years where people had to be talked to. There was a
young lady in our congregation years ago I don't know if her mother, grandmother,
or anybody wouldn't talk to him about it, but finally a woman
went and talked to him and said, listen, you don't need to be
dressing this way in a service. You're showing off too much body.
You're showing off too much flesh. And nobody had ever talked to
her about it before. Nobody ever said anything to
her about it before. And she really appreciated it.
And so you know, when people dress to attract attention to
themselves in a suggestive, showy, conspicuous way, they're doing
it for one thing, to get people to pay attention to them, or
else they're so proud. They're so proud. And that's
what he's talking about here. And there should be... And he's
talking about, you know, not gold. And look what he says here,
not with broiled hair. That means Don't decorate your,
you know, don't put your hair up in a real, real, real fancy,
conspicuous way. Now, I'm gonna say something
here, and I don't, you know, when you're out in public, you
can tell who people has got, just got religion. You know,
especially in the Church of God, and Mennonites, and people like
that, because of the way they wear their hair. They got it
put up all in big bands and got it all fixed a certain way because
that's the way everybody wears it. And so they wear it that
way in great old big things and then they cover up their head
with all kinds of stuff and that's what he's talking about, you
know. Don't decorate your hair up, don't fix your hair up. And
over in Exodus, they're talking about women wearing tires on
their head. And what that means is, is that
to fix it in such a way that it draws attention just to your
head. Don't do that. And that's what
he's talking about here. And then don't decorate the body
with gold, or pearls, or jewelry to attract attention. I don't
guess none of y'all had to worry about that, do you? That's what
I mean. You know, to talk to women that
know Christ and understand Christ and the things of Christ, you
know, this is something that don't even need to be said. But
I remember one time, we was in a meeting and Brother Mahan and
I was sitting outside after a meeting, sitting out on chairs in the
motel. And there were some people in
the service that night, a woman in particular, she had gold.
Oh, she had so much gold on, gold bracelets, gold necklaces,
and all just loaded up with gold. Henry sat there and told me,
he says, you know, he said, you sell that gold that woman had
on? I said, yeah. She said, do you know how much
we could do for missionaries if she sold that stuff and gave
it away? That's what he said. She sold her gold and gave it
to what we could do to help missionaries in Mexico. That's the way he
looked at it. But that's what people do. They
do their stuff to show their wealth, to show their power,
to show their glory, to show their pride. And they do that
to dress themselves up to make everybody look at them and say,
well, man, they've got some money. Boy, look at what they're wearing. And that's not what we do. We
should dress that wouldn't draw attention to ourselves. And that
goes for men, too. Don't draw attention to yourself.
We want Christ to get the glory, not us, not the way we dress,
not the way we decorate our body. We want Christ. to get all the
glory. And I tell you, and here's the
thing, men and women both ought to realize this right here, that
true beauty, true beauty and true adornment is of the heart,
is of the hearts of the spirit. It's not the body, it's the heart
and it's of the Spirit. I can show you that over here
in 1st Peter chapter 1. Now you keep Timothy there. Let
me show you something over here in 1st Peter chapter 3. Oh, the
heart. The heart. That's, you know,
the beautiful Spirit. And He gives some sound advice
right here. exhortation to women that's married
to unbelieving husbands. Likewise, you wives be a subjection
to your own husbands, but that if any obey not the word, if
they're not believers, they also may without the word, without
listening to the gospel, they may be warned by the manner of
life of the wives. by their life that answers to
Christ. And while they'll behold your
chaste or pure lifestyle and that manner of life with fear,
fear of God, fear of displeasing him, whose adorning, let it not
be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing gold
or putting on apparel. But listen to it, let it be the
hidden man of the heart. and that which is not corruptible,
even the ornament, oh, here's how to be dressed up, even the
ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight
of God of great prize. Oh my, so it's a spirit, and
that's where the most beauty comes from. But then he goes
back over here now, let's go back to 1 Timothy and look in
verse 10. And here's the thing about it.
I meant to say this right at the very beginning. He's talking
about talking to women who profess godliness, profess faith in Christ,
profess a subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, but
these things, all the things that we talked about becomes
women professing godliness. If you profess God and you profess
Christ, this is where you are to be, not draw attention to
yourself. But with good works. Now you know
the scriptures when it talks about good works. There's a woman,
y'all don't know if y'all remember reading about her or not in the
book of Acts in chapter nine. There's a woman named Tabitha.
Well, she died. But this was a woman who made
all kinds of garments. She made garments and she prepared
clothes and things for other people. She made clothes and
she done things for other people. And she was making all this stuff
for other people. That's what she did. And she
died. And she died. And a bunch of
women came to Simon Peter and told him, Simon says, her name
by name was Dorcas. But says, she has known for her
good works and all the things that she did for other people
and all the things that she done for others. And boy, Peter leaned
over and raised her back from the dead. But that's what they
was talking about. And you know something? Todd
was talking to me the other day and he was talking about three
different Marys in the Scriptures and the things that God did for
them and what they did for the Lord. You find in the Scriptures
that the women that ministered unto the Lord Jesus Christ, they
followed Him around and ministered to Him of their substance. And
Martha and Mary remember Him, them that they asked the Lord
Jesus Christ to come supper one evening. And Martha was just
working, working, working, working, working. Just like, you know,
a woman wouldn't do if she's fixing a meal. Like Eleanor does,
or Kim, or anybody else, or any of you, when you're fixing a
big meal, and everybody's gonna come in and eat with you. You
do that. But she came to the Lord, and
she said, Mary was sitting there doing nothing but sitting at
the feet of Christ. And she came to him and says,
Master, tell Mary to get up and work with me, help me. He said,
Martha, Martha, you worry about a lot of things, but I'm not
fixed to take away from Mary what she's doing. So there's
a time to do things and there's a time to set at His feet. But
these women ministered unto the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want
you to look over here in 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 9. Now this is talking about a widow.
Now these are things that happened long, long before Social Security
come along and Medicare. Let not a widow be taken into
the number under three scores years or under 60 years old,
having been the wife of one man. See, the church used to take
care of widows. I mean, they'd take care of them.
They'd furnish them home and they'd feed them and clothe them.
And that's what they'd do. And then he says, and here's
another thing that she had to be married to one man, well reported
up for good works. In other words, here's some of
the things she did. She brought up her children.
You're talking about a good work. There was a fella come here years
ago, and he had, oh my goodness, 10 or 12 kids. I mean, he had
a bunch of kids, remember? And he wanted to preach so bad,
he wanted to be a preacher. He wanted to be a preacher. And
he kept talking about, you know, taking service. And I told him
one day, I said, listen, you got a full-time ministry taking
care of your children and teaching them. If you want to be a minister,
teach ministry to your own children. Said, you got 10 or 12 of them,
however many you got, take care of them. You got a full-time
job doing that. I went off in a meeting somewhere,
and I was gone for a week, and I come back, and they're packed
up, moved, and left the country. But you know, that's what he's
talking about here. If you've brought up children,
if you've lodged strangers, people that you didn't know, but you
took them into your home, If you've washed the saints' feet,
if you've relieved the afflicted, if you know people that were
sick and you sat with them and you helped them, and if you diligently
followed ever good God. So that's what he's talking about,
you know, taking care of one another, taking care of people
that's in need. Those things go without saying. And then look what it says now
here in verse 11 of chapter 1 Timothy 2, 11 and 12. Let the women learn
in silence with all subjection, but I suffer not a woman to teach
nor usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. Let
the women learn, let the women learn, let the woman learn in
silence. Now women, I don't care who it
is. Women are not to teach, they're
not to preach, they're not to lead in prayer, they're not to
have a voice in the business affairs of the church. Not supposed
to do that at all. Not supposed to do that. And
look over here in 1 Corinthians 14. I know that people do it. I know that there's some real,
real popular women preachers. what they call women preachers.
But what a shock, what a shock when they find out that they
were supposed to not do that. First Corinthians 14, 34. First of all it says, God's not
the all the confusion but of peace as in all churches of the
saints. 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. Now the law he's talking about
here, and we'll go to it in a little bit, is Genesis 3.16. When he
talks about the law here, he's not talking about the moral law,
he's talking about the word of God. And we'll show you that
here, and you can see that in your margin. And if they will
learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it
is shame for women to speak in the church. So if you want to
learn, and this is talking about business, if you want to know
what's going on in the church. You know, women are not to be
teachers. A woman is not to be a teacher, but to be learners. In subjection to their own husbands,
to their husbands. And to preachers and ministers
of the word. And what do you learn? The same
thing anybody else is to learn. We want to learn Christ. That's
what I want everybody to learn, but I want women to come, they
want to learn about Christ. Salvation by grace. The hopelessness
of a person and soul apart from Him. To learn about forgiveness. To learn about justification,
imputed righteousness. To learn about all the things
that Christ did for us and learn about Him. And that's what, you
know, to be learners, not to be teachers. But now, listen,
they may play and teach other women and children, and I can
show you that over here in 2 Timothy 3.15. Look over here, and then
we're gonna show you another place. Old Solomon said, my son, hear
the instructions of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy
mother. And women are not to usurp authority over a man. But look what he said here in
verse 15. He's talking about learning from the scriptures.
That from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures which are
able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ.
And so that's what we want people to learn. Then I want you to
look over in Titus chapter two. Just keep right on going until
you're right. To your right, generally one page, and look
what it says here in chapter 2, verse 4 and 5. It's talking about, you know, women
may pray and teach the other women and children. That they
may teach young women, the older women, that they may teach the
young women to be sober. And again, that means a sound
judgment, to have some wisdom. to love their husbands, to love
their children. Now why would anybody need to
be taught to love their husband or love their children? But that's
what he's teaching here. And he says to be discreet. Now
what does that mean? Every time you hear something,
every time you see something, don't run off and tell somebody.
Somebody tells you something, shows you something, teaches
you something, says something to you about something, be discreet.
Keep that to yourself. Be discreet when you're around
other people. And then look what he says. Keeper chaste, that
means pure, keeping yourself pure for your husband. Keepers
at home, good, obedient to their own husbands that the word of
God be not blasphemed. Oh my. And then that's what, that's
this stuff. These things just seem natural
to him, you know, if you've been to understand the gospel. But
look what he goes on to say back over here now in 1 Timothy, chapter
2. But he said in verse 12, but I suffer
not a woman to teach nor usurp authority over the man, but to
be in silence. Not to usurp authority. Now,
how could you, you know, usurp authority over a band? Could you see a, you know, I've
known churches, I've said this before. You take women out of
free will Baptist churches and women out of Church of Gods,
and you wouldn't have nothing left. Because women run everything. I mean, I've been around them
and they really do. They really do. I remember years
ago, there was a woman down in Winesap, that man alive, they
didn't make a move or anything without checking with her first.
She was the one that had all the authority, you know. But
listen, that's not right. There's nothing right about it.
But men and women have been out of sorts for so long, so long,
that if you deal with, if I was in the average Baptist church,
went to the average Baptist church up here in town, and dealt with
this right here, do you know how upset people would get? Now
you don't get upset because you know that these things are so,
and that you know it's natural, and it's the way that God ordained
things, and you're not upset, people don't get upset about
it, they know Christ. And then there's two reasons,
two reasons why, they're to be silent. and not usurp the will
of the man. Because here's the reason, two
reasons. The first one, for Adam was first formed, and then Eve.
Then Eve. You know, it's because of what
Adam did, and what Eve did, she was, Adam was the first. Adam
was the first man. And then Eve came along. And
since Eve came out of Adam, that made Adam to be the head. That
made Eve to come out of her side, not out of his foot to step on
her, not out of his head where she's got to usurp the third
of him, but out of his side where they can love her right beside
him. But at the same time, it was the woman And the original
relationship was Adam was first and then Eve. Now I want you
to see something over here in Genesis 3.16. This is what he's
talking about about the law. And then man's headship in creation. You notice Adam was first formed,
then the woman. And look what he said here in
verse 16. Under the woman, he said, I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow shalt
thou bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband,
and he shall rule over thee. Because that's the way it was
in the original, and that's the way it's supposed to be now.
A woman, because of what God said, and the way it was in the
original creation, in any attempt To assume the part of the head
is to overturn God's order, that would just be an awful, awful
thing to do. And look what it says now in
verse 14. Here's the second reason. Adam was not deceived, but the
woman being deceived was in the transgression. You know, the
reason we fail is because Adam deliberately disobeyed God. But
the woman was the one that was deceived. You know, she confessed. She said, you know, that serpent
beguiled me. The serpent beguiled me. The serpent lied to me. The serpent
mesmerized me. And that's exactly what happened.
That's why Paul says, you know, be not deceived. You know, that
Eve was first deceived by the guile and subtlety of Satan.
So don't you be deceived or led astray by the subtlety of Satan
from the simplicity that's in Christ. And when you find out
about the woman being the one deceived and the one in the transgression,
she had the priority in the transgression. That she doesn't have the strength,
she doesn't have the wisdom, she doesn't have the knowledge. Like a man supposed to, should
be. And then here is comfort. Let
me give you this. In verse 15, oh my. This is a
strange thing here. He says that women, notwithstanding,
she shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and
charity with holiness, with sobriety. Now when he, you know Eve, when
she, when they fell, she can see him, God said, in sorrow,
you're gonna have children. And nevertheless, the apostle
says here that the pain and distress put upon women in childbearing,
because Eve was first deceived, doesn't hinder them from being
saved. Now this doesn't mean that every time you have a baby,
that you're gonna be saved. In fact, how many people, oh
my goodness, everybody be saved. That's not what he's talking
about. Shall be saved in childbearing. Now what he's talking about saved
in childbearing is talking about the God man. Talking about he
that's born of a woman. Talking about the seed of the
woman. He's talking about him that was made of a woman. And
that's what he's talking about, he's talking about the Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ, through childbearing, through Mary bearing
the Son of God, through Mary, through this childbearing of
the Son of God, through Christ coming into this world, that's
where salvation comes. It don't come through women having
babies, it comes through Christ being born. It comes in the fullness
of time, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem us out from under the law. Behold, a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son. Why you gonna call him Emmanuel?
Who's that? God's come to be with us? Oh
my. And that's for salvation. If
he hadn't have come, there wouldn't be no salvation for man or woman
alike, nobody. And so that's what he's talking
about. And God, oh, thank God for women. And you know, God's
blessings are for women in a wonderful, precious way. They're blessed
to have a home and take care of it. They're blessed to have
children and raise them. They're blessed if they're godly
and love Christ and know Christ. And then he goes on to say this,
if they continue in the faith. This is like he talks about anybody
else. He talks about me continuing
in the faith. They'll be saved through Christ
if they continue in the faith. That's with anybody. But they
said they'll be saved through Christ through the seed of the
woman if they continue in the faith. And I tell you there's
no doubt and with love and sobriety with a sound mind, and there's
no doubt of a woman's eternal salvation or anybody's salvation
that trusts Christ. And I want to show you one more
verse of scripture in closing, and I want to close with this
in Ephesians chapter 5. We use this in a marriage ceremony. I do. Most people do. Most preachers
do. Look what he says here in verse
23 of Ephesians 5, 23. He gives two illustrations here,
for the husband is the head of the wife. Can't have two heads on a body,
you can't do it, for the husband is the head of the wife. Now
listen to this, even as Christ is the head of the church, and
Christ, he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church
is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands
in everything. But then he goes on to say this,
and I love this, this puts it right in the proper perspective
for all of us. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Now
I tell you, I know this, that we're the gospels priest where
men act like men. Don't act like effeminate. Don't
act like Phil Donahue or some of these effeminate men that
just don't, that's wishy-washy. They're men. They act like men. They conduct themselves like
men. And they're not overbearing, they're not mean. And if a man,
if a woman's got a strong man, I believe she'd be glad to do
whatever he says. And so, well, that's the best
I can do with it. That's the best I can do. You
know, preaching to the choir. Preach to the choir. We don't, I don't have any trouble,
and y'all, you know, it's just a wonderful thing to have a loving home, loving wife, loving
husband, it's a wonderful thing. Our Father, in the precious name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, oh, that lovely name, oh, Lord, how
we thank you for allowing us to look into your word tonight,
Lord, I know these things are necessary
to teach, necessary to instruct, but Lord, God bless us. Lord, bless our dear sisters.
They're so faithful, so gracious, and loving, and kind, and I don't know of any of them
that don't have good works, that's not opened their home, Let's
not help the sick, not help those in trouble. I said, don't pray. And don't want to usurp any authority.
So Lord Jesus, I thank you for them. And Lord, bless our congregation. Bless our hearts together. Knit
us together in love with one another. Thank you for your gospel. Thank you for your truth. Thank
you for your people. We bless you in Christ's name.
Amen. Learning to lean. Learning to lean. I'm learning to lean on Jesus. Finding more power than I've
ever dreamed, I'm learning to lean on Jesus.