Well, we have an interesting
passage of scripture before us this morning. 1 Timothy chapter 2. Going to read the whole chapter
and then begin our comments in verse 8. It says, I exhort therefore
that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving
of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are
in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in
all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable
in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved
and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God
and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Where unto I am ordained a preacher
and an apostle, I speak the truth in Christ and lie not, a teacher
of the Gentiles in faith and verity. I will, therefore, that
men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and
doubting. 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, but
which becometh women professing godliness with good works. Let the woman learn in silence
with all subjection, but I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp
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 and charity
and holiness with sobriety. Now, this is a passage of scripture
that can get a man in trouble pretty quick. But we must understand that the
Lord has one purpose in the earth. And if we get this in our mind,
And we understand that the purpose of God in the creation of the
world is to magnify the glory of His grace through Jesus Christ
in the redemption of a people which He loved from before the
foundation of the world. Now if we understand that that's
the purpose of God in the creation of the world, then we understand
that all of the things that He designed in the world and all
of the order which He placed in the world is unto that end
to bring glory unto His name. When we look at this passage
of scripture and we're looking at verse 9 through verse 15,
when we look at this passage of scripture and we just take
it out of its context in which it's given, it can be used as
a bludgeon to bash women put them in their place, as some
might say, or whatever, that's not at all what Paul is getting
at here. I've heard some say, well, Paul
was a male chauvinist. You know, he believed in the
subjection of women. Well, he did believe in the subjection
of women in the sense in which the scripture teaches the subjection
of women. Without that order that God has
placed in the earth and which he demands, men devolve into
chaos. The world devolves into chaos.
Now we see that being played out in our society. We live in
a society that has rebelled against the standards of God. It tries
to make things acceptable, but simply are not. I mean, you know,
it doesn't make any difference how men think about it. It doesn't
make any difference what my opinion is. I might read this and say,
well, I don't agree with that. So what? I mean, there's a lot
of things that we may not agree with. That doesn't change the
truth of it. And so the only way that a person
can come to this passage of Scripture and disregard it or consider
it to not be useful is to say that they will not have God to
rule over them. I mean, that's just as simple
as I can put it. You know, it can't be any other
way. Now, Paul didn't make this up. But he was taught this by the
Lord. And he was taught it for good
reason. The Lord has loved his bride. The Lord made male and female
in the world for the purpose of manifesting the relationship
of Christ and his church. Now you can go to the book of
Ephesians and where it tells about husbands and wives and
the relationship of husbands and wives. And he says, behold,
I tell you, this is a mystery, but it is about Christ and his
church. See, that's what marriage is
for. Now we know that the Lord often has secondary purposes
in the things that he does, but the primary purpose of all that
he does is to manifest the glory of Christ and the relationship
which he has to his bride. And that's the same thing that
he's saying right here. I mean, if you come to this passage
of scripture with any other concept, then you are going to go astray
in how you would approach this. The Lord is not against women. He made women
for the very same purpose that he made men, which was what? To magnify the glory of his grace.
And he would illustrate. the relationship of the bride
to the husband, or Christ, the church to Christ. And so he gives
this, you might say, a contrasting
viewpoint, or a contrasting of setting the role of men and the
role of women. set forth here. And I believe
he's speaking as this whole book of Timothy, as he wrote to Timothy,
telling him how that he ought to behave himself in the church
of God. In other words, these are instructions
that he's given to Timothy to teach the people of God that
we might operate in a proper fashion. And so it is that he
begins, he says, I exhort first of all that prayers be made for
all men. Then he says, I will therefore
that men pray everywhere. Now, that can mean men and women. Men does not necessarily mean
men strictly as the male species, but it does here. He said, I
will that men pray everywhere. It is specifically given to men
as they are a type of Christ that men pray everywhere. The
Lord Jesus Christ was a man of prayer. And God's people, God
would have his people, men, leaders of their home to be men of prayer. And so it is, he says, I will
that men everywhere, pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without
wrath and doubting. We talked about that last week,
what that means. It means set apart unto the Lord. It means given to the Lord. The
man in the household has a role that he must play. He must be
the leader in his home and he must be that one who would be
set apart unto the Lord. I've said this many times. Now
you can't teach your children to believe what you believe.
I mean you can teach them what that is, but you can't cause
them to believe what you believe. But you can teach them what you
believe. so that they can never, throughout
the course of their life, wonder what it is you believe. They'll
know what you believe if you teach them what you believe.
They may not like it. They may rebel against it. But
they will never be able to say, well, I don't know what he believes.
Your children need to know what you believe. And that is what
it is to be the leader in the home. And so he says, I will
that men pray everywhere. And in like manner, in the same
manner in which the man goes about being a man, the woman
is to go about being a woman. Now we live in a society that's
conflated, dad, have they not? I mean, we don't really know
what a man is or what a woman is. In fact, we got people that's
leaders in our government that can't even tell you what a woman
is or what a man is. That's chaos. I mean, that's
stupid. I mean, how ridiculous is that? I mean, these people, and I'm
not gonna stay on this, but I just wanna say this. I mean, this,
it is pure lunacy. It's chaos. It's lunacy. It's
crazy when people have lost sight of the fact that God created
men and women. Everybody really knows that.
Don't they? I mean, they're pretty simple. I mean, it's a pretty common
thing. And so, but it's just a rebellion against God. When
men say, well, I can't, I mean, you know, men can have babies
just like women can. I mean, that's enough of that. That's stupid. All right. So,
but the Lord has set forth an order in the earth. And for people
to disregard it is to their own folly. Just like Brother Al was
talking about the children of Israel. When they departed from
the way of the Lord, they paid the price for that. And when
societies disregard the order of God, they pay the price for
that. Now, we know that the Lord would manifest, as well as He
will manifest the glory of His grace in the redemption of His
people in the earth, He will also manifest the depravity of
man in the wickedness that he unrestrained when he removes
his restraints from them, what they become. We're in that position
right now in our society where the Lord is removing the restraints
and causing the things that Paul would be saying here to be considered
somehow foolish, somehow couldn't possibly be true, couldn't be
right. But that's what Paul says. And so let's look at what he
says. In like manner, in the same fashion in which men are
to pray everywhere as those who are the leaders, in like manner
also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel. Now this has
a practical application. in that he's saying to women,
don't dress up in something that's flashy, something that does not
cover you up, something that would not be godly apparel. Now, I'm not a fashion expert,
and I'm not gonna go about and try to tell you, well, your skirt
needs to be this long, and you need to do this, you need to
wear your hair like this, and all that. That Lord never called
us to do that. But he did say here that the
women adorn themselves in modest apparel. And every time that
you are, and this applies to men as well, it doesn't just
apply to women, but it's specifically given to women here in this context. that every time you look at what
you put on, that needs to be your consideration. Is this modest
apparel? Now I know different people have
different ideas about what's modest, but I think most people
have a basic understanding of what would be modest. and what
would not be. And so he says, let them adorn
themselves. But there's more to this than
just what kind of dress you wear or what kind of clothing you
put on. But he said, let them adorn themselves
in modest apparel with shame-facedness and sobriety. See, I mean, that's
what he's talking about here is with seriousness. considering what you are. You are a representative of the
bride of Christ, one loved from before the foundation of the
world. You are put on a pedestal. You are put in a place that nobody
else occupies. with shame facing us, not with
broided hair, gold or pearls or costly array. Now, this is
mentioned again in the book of Titus, I believe it is. The emphasis,
and I don't think this is, the emphasis is, he's not saying
here, you can't ever wear any jewelry. Don't wear jewelry,
don't do this. He's saying, let these things
not be the adorning, let your adorning be not the adorning
of your body, but let your adorning be the adorning of the Spirit
of God. These things may have their place
from time to time or whatever, but these are not the concerns
that you are to have in your mind, as he mentions these things
here. This is not the most important
thing. Now I know women in general have more concern about their
appearance than men do, and I'm glad they do, because men are
pretty crude creatures. And, you know, the Lord, the
women are like the flowers, men are like weeds. And, you know,
both grow, but the weeds don't... Yeah, well, we're like those
that, you know, we're sand spurs, and they're roses. So that's
kind of the way that is. And so he says here, don't let
it be the adorning of these things, but that which becometh women
professing godliness with good words. Is that not what the people
of God, women of God, should be desiring? Is that not what
the Spirit of God would teach women to be professing godliness
with good works? I mean, is that not what Solomon
spoke about when he spoke in the 31st chapter of Proverbs
where he speaks about a virtuous woman? That's a glorious thing. Now that used to be something
that was more highly valued in society than it is now, a virtuous
woman. And Solomon said, a virtuous
woman, who can find? It's become rare. But that is
that place where God would have his women to be. And then he says, let the women
learn in silence with all subjection. Does that mean that they are
supposed to, they have to sit with their heads bowed and cowering
in fear? Is that what he's saying here?
When he says let the women learn in silence? No, I think primarily
he's saying don't be a busybody. Don't be somebody who's always
interjecting your opinion into the situation. Now, it's more than that. And
the reason, what is the reason for that? Because again, the
woman is given the role of the bride, and what does the bride
know concerning the Lord? Not really much of anything.
We don't know anything as we ought to know. Now that doesn't
mean that women aren't many times smarter than men. You know, it's
an amazing thing, really. I think in many ways, women are
far more intelligent than men. But the role that God has given
them is not that. Now, again, sometimes women don't
like for somebody to say that, but that's just what the Lord
said here. I suffer not a woman to teach." Now he's talking here,
of course, in the church setting. He's not saying that a woman
can't be a teacher. I mean, most teachers probably
are women. In school, I mean, most of my
teachers when I was growing up were women, and I'm glad that
they gave themselves to that. I learned a little bit along
and along. And so he doesn't mean there's no setting in which
women can teach, but he's saying in the church, when the church
is gathered together. Why? Because we're to come together
and manifest those things that we talked about, the relationship
of the bride and the Lord. And so he says here, I suffer
not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man,
but to be in silence. Now, I wrote a paper a while
back, well, it's been several years ago, that was Paul's intention to
muzzle women. No, that wasn't Paul's intention. And there are many places and
ways in which Women do speak in the church. When He says,
let them learn in silence, He doesn't mean they're never to
say anything. I mean, I believe, let the redeemed
of the Lord say so. I mean, the Lord gives to women,
just like He does to men, a desire to praise Him. There's nothing
wrong with praising God. Nothing wrong with a woman praying
aloud in an assembly. But there's something wrong for
a woman to take over an assembly. Not because you might not be
smarter, you know, but that's what he said. He didn't permit
it for a woman to teach. It's not the role. It's not the
place. It's not proper. For then he
says, for Adam was first formed and then Eve. Now, you can't
get around that. Why did the Lord first form Adam? And then he took Eve out of her
side. Because he would show by illustration that Christ, insofar
as the woman is concerned, or insofar as the church is concerned,
Christ is without beginning. And insofar as the woman in relation
to the man, he existed before she did. And she was taken from his side.
Now the scripture tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ was given
a people from before the foundation of the world. And they were chosen
in Christ. Now how did they get in Christ?
See some people think about election when they read about it in the
scripture as though God lined up all the human race and then
he went eeny, meeny, miny, moe and he picked out some. That's
not the way it is at all. The Lord created his people in
Christ. There's never been a time when
the people of God have not been in Christ. From before the foundation
of the world, that's what that means. I mean, if it's before
the foundation of the world, it's before anybody knew anything
about anything. The Lord chose a people in Christ. He didn't choose to put them
in Christ. He chose them in Christ. Now
that's a deep subject. That's a subject that some people
have gone shipwreck on it. But it's a true thing nonetheless.
The union of God's people with Christ. And that's what he would
manifest here. Adam was first formed and then
Eve. Eve was taken from the side of Adam. Just like the bride
was taken from the side of Christ. That's a glorious thing, dear
brethren. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived.
was in the transgression. Now some read that actually not
exactly how, what the Paul is saying here. He's not saying
Adam was not in the transgression. He's saying Adam was not deceived
and was in the transgression. The woman was deceived and in
the transgression. In other words, the woman didn't
do something worse than the man did. The man actually did something
worse than the woman did. Because the woman, being the
weaker vessel, was deceived. She actually believed that maybe
what Satan was saying was true. Adam knew it wasn't true. And he committed sin anyway. So don't think that this is saying
that somehow the woman did a worse thing than the man did, because
that's not it at all. But so that he would show that
there is a difference between the bride and Christ. The bride
being weak with no strength of our own, and we would be deceived,
would we not, if he didn't keep us from it? And so it is that
he would show us that that is the case. Now that's not to say
that all women are more easily deceived than men. Because men
can be easily deceived as well. But it's just pointing out that
in this relationship, that's the way that it is. And so it
is, but I do believe this to be a true thing, and again, I
don't wanna get myself in trouble here, but women sometimes are
more gullible than men are. Now, you can get mad at me if
you want to, but that is the case. Because of this, women
have a more tender heart than a man does. And they're more
likely to see good in somebody than a man is. I mean, that's
just the way that it is. Now, that's not a bad trait on
the one hand, but nonetheless, as the Lord has set it forth
here, it defines for us why he is setting forth these things
as it is, and why it is that women are not to be teachers in the church of God. because
they are more likely, or at least in this context, they were in
the place of being deceived. Now, I've got myself probably
into more trouble than I need to be, but. But look, we can't
deny what the scripture says here. And anybody that comes
around saying, well, I believe that women can preach just as
well as men. Well, they may can preach better
than men, I don't know. But I don't wanna find out because
the Lord said they ought not to do it. I don't care who does
it. or how good they do, what big
following they might have, or how many books they might have
wrote. The scripture says they should not do it. The older women ought to teach
the younger women, and many times they fail to do this. And they
should be doing that. Nothing wrong with that. Now this 15th verse, I'm not
gonna spend a lot of time on it because It's a difficult passage
of scripture to discern exactly what it is that Paul's saying
here. I think I kind of understand it, but I don't want to let you
think that what I'm going to tell you here is, I know for
a fact, just absolute truth of it, and there's no other way
to look at it. I think there's several ways you can look at
this. Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing if they
continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. Now,
there's been many false ideas that's been put forth with this,
one of them being, well, you know, if a woman's faithful in
all of this, she'll never have any trouble when it's time to
have children. Well, that's ridiculous because
many godly women have died in childbirth. So that can't be
what it means. It does not mean that. I believe that in the contrast that is given
between the men and the women, it does fall upon women as a
general rule to be the those who raise their children. I mean,
the mother has far more influence on her children than the man
does. I mean, children by and large will abandon their daddy,
but they ain't gonna abandon their mother. Because the mother
has a bond with her children that just cannot be easily broken
as a general rule. Now there's exceptions to all
things, of course. And I believe that what he is
getting at here is that as a woman fulfills her role, as what she's
given to do, that she shall be saved in childbearing. That is,
this will be a blessing to her rather than a curse. Because
you remember what the Lord said to Eve. He said that in pain
and sorrow, you're gonna bring forth children. Now, and that
is in a physical way, that's a, it is a traumatic experience. I've never given birth. I don't
believe men can have babies, so I never had one. But I've
been present when my wife gave birth, and I know that it is
a traumatic experience, but it is a most glorious thing as well,
is it not? when that child, I can't imagine
what it would be like, but I can think a little bit about it,
that all of the suffering and pain is immediately forgotten
when that child is brought to the mother's breast. And she
shall be saved in childbearing, and I don't think this just means
childbirth, but in the bearing of children, if they continue
in faith and charity with holiness and sobriety. In other words,
as a woman continues in these things, she's blessed. She's saved. She's brought out
of that place where she might be thinking, well, I'm less than
a man. No, you're not less than a man.
You have brought forth children into the world. Many of whom
may be, perhaps all of whom may be, the elect of God. Those who belong to Christ. Oh,
what a glorious thing to consider that. That's no lesser place
that a woman's given. She's given something that a
man can never have. And so I think that's what he's
saying here. that she shall be blessed, she
shall be delivered, she shall be helped as she continues in
these things. Now, you know, if a woman abandons
the truth of God, she's not gonna see that, is she? I mean, there's
women that curse their children, but godly women don't. You know, a godly mother desires
the benefit of her children, not just in this world, But she
wants to impart to them the truth of God. Oh, I'm thankful for
a mother that loved me enough that she taught me the things
of God. And what little I knew, but she
was in her own faithfulness to be in
the house of God when God's people gathered together, she brought
me with her. And I thought I had a drug problem
at a young age, because she drugged me to church every time that
the doors was open. And I thought that was a terrible
thing at the time. But thanks be unto God that it
was not. And I believe that is the gist
of what Paul's saying here. But I know this, whether that
is exactly what it is or not, it's a true thing nonetheless.
And may the Lord help us.