continue in our short journey
in this short letter. I'm going to read the whole of
chapter 2. Well, I'm going to start in verse 18
of chapter 1. This charge I entrust to you,
Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously
made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,
holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have
made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and
Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may
learn not to blaspheme. First of all, then, I urge that
supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for
all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that
we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in
every way. This is good and it is pleasing
in the sight of God our Savior who desires all people to be
saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one
God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man,
Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is
the testimony given at the proper time. For this, I was appointed
a preacher and an apostle. I am telling the truth, I do
not lie. A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I desired
then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy
hands without anger or quarreling. Likewise, also that women should
adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self-control.
Not braided hair in gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what
is proper for women who profess godliness with good works. Let
also a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I don't permit
a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather,
she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then
Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but
the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will
be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and
love and holiness with self-control. Now, this text is one of those
texts that if you were to go out and find commentary, you
could find it. This is not obscure, yet grammatically
speaking, there's some trouble there toward the end of that
text. And it's almost as if Paul just changed gears. It's almost
as if he changed gears, but I'll say this to you now. You hear
me say this every single week. For 11 years, I've said this,
just about without fail, you must read your Bible. Read it,
not the verses, not the commentaries, not the theological systems.
Those things are additives. Read your Bible. Because if we're
not reading the Scripture, not your study Bibles, not your footnotes,
not your favorite preachers, your Bible, if we're not reading
the Scripture purely, we will not understand it. The means
of grace by the Spirit of God that teaches us the truth and
settles our hearts to believe that which is taught to us comes
through the Word of God alone. And then understanding and working
and growing and all of these things are things that we do
as the church as we work through things together. But the word
of God must be in us. The word of God must be in our
hearts and in our minds. And beloved, I have not touched
the scripture in my lifetime the way some people have in theirs.
I have not studied the Bible nearly as much as some people
have studied the Bible. But in that same sense, I have
probably read, touched, and studied the Bible more than a lot of
other people. So it's all relative. But I'm willing to bet that at
the end of the week, that the average Christian, the average
working man and woman, the average teenager, the average child,
probably spends about six minutes with the scripture. Two minutes
looking for it, Two minutes figuring out what to read, opening up,
reading a few passages, going, oh, it's time to do something
else. And that's about the way it is. And now we don't have
to look for it anymore because we've got the app. We've got
the apps. We can just look, look, look.
But on the way to the Bible app, the social media pops up, the
emails pop up, the text messages pop up, everything else. What's
the point? The point is that the apostles
drove the point home that we must be in the word, that by
the word alone, the instruction to this elder, as we get into
the second letter, we'll see that the scriptures are the final
court of arbitration, they are the final and full highest authority
above all things, and it is the authority through which we filter
anything else we learn, think, or discuss concerning the revelation
of God to his people. And the reason that it is important
is because we want to learn And the other reason it's important,
there's a thousand reasons, you ready? That's number two. Number two
is that without reading the scripture, we will not understand it in
its context. And thirdly, some people don't
even know what that means. What does it mean in context? As it's
written together. Paul did not write chapter two
of this letter in a vacuum. First of all, then, therefore. What does that mean? I use the
cookbook analogy all the time when I'm thinking about how we
read. We don't just stick our finger in the middle of a cookbook,
open it up and go, and then stir, and just, in the air, just, I'm
cooking. No, we'd get some professional
help if we just started whisking the air, or stirring our face,
or the books on the table. There's a context in which we
follow the instructions of everything. Lord help you if you ever have
to put something together, like if you go to Ikea and you, you
know, you get these incredibly easy to follow instructions.
No. You just don't know what to do.
So you look at the pictures. The pictures aren't correct.
They don't make sense. But you don't go into that thing
and just flip it out like this. And, you know, you cover up in
the cold weather with those things sometimes. They're so big. And
you don't just go in there and just find the first tangible
word and go, ah, bolts. All right, let's just get all
the bolts and glue them together in a pile, put all the wood in
there, stomp on it. You can't start in the center
of things and understand the process. And you may even be
able to, for example, like a Lego set, put together a particular
spot or a particular thing. In the larger scheme, though,
if it's not in the right order, it won't go into the main project. If you're not reading the Bible
in its totality, if you're not reading the letters to Timothy. As a letter. You're not going
to understand how the whole thing fits within the project. And that's where all. All biblical
error comes from that practice. All the nonsense and the silliness
and the foolishness and the knuckleheadedness and the dumbness and the so-called
intelligence, all the hubris, these people who had confident
assertions about what they knew, they weren't reading the scripture.
They were holding on to a particular truth that they found appealing
or that they were even correct about and then they stood upon
it, built upon it, developed their own philosophy around it,
and their thinking was not filtered through the foundation of what
is truth, the Bible, therefore they ran sideways. And we all
do it. We all do it. And we all do it
this very moment. And this text, I do not, I do
not kid you, and I won't tell you who, because I don't want
you to go look at it, but there is a commentator from the mid
20th century who has 62 pages of commentary on the first half
of the sentence of verse 15, of 1 Timothy 2. And I found one reference that
the footnotes were three pages just in dealing with verse 11. Let a woman learn quietly. And I have seen volumes. And
I mean, not only commentaries and sermons, but series and workshops
built on verse 12. When in the scope of things,
Paul's not emphasizing that hardly at all. He's emphasizing something
else. So let's back up and ask our
question. Ask the question, what is this letter supposed to teach
us? This letter is supposed to teach us what elders are supposed
to know and do. In the context of keeping order,
unity, peace, and service, when all heck breaks loose, when people
start to act ugly, and want their own way, whether
it be myths, doctrines, genealogies that promote speculation rather
than the stewardship of God that is by faith. And the reason that
he wrote the letters to begin with is so that he could charge
Timothy to charge the church to love one another. Is that what you've heard? Beloved, we ought not be prescribing
to historical traditions of labels and theological ideologies that
are not meant to be understood in the context of the letter.
When we have hundreds of pages written about a particular passage
that is disconnected from the intent of the letter, it is wrong. Now, could some of it be right?
Yes, because a stop clock is right twice a day. You know that
old adage. But we don't go there and then
come back and say, aha, now I know. Don't listen to James Tippins
and say, now I know what this means. Just like people think they know
what Ephesians 5.22 means. Wives see every man in the room
smile, you know. Submit to your husbands in all
things. So how do we read the Bible in
America? Misogynistically sometimes. In a patriarchy, sometimes. Egalitarian hermeneutic, for
those of you who understand the different systems. The complementarian
hermeneutic. The feminist hermeneutic. You're
like, what? Good, I hope you said what. because
that's unbiblical crap. It's trash. It may be where you've
come in the context of what you think the Bible's taught you,
but that ain't what Paul had in mind at all in teaching this
or writing this. He wants to show the elders how
to keep peace and unity and harmony. Preaching of this text, I can
give a lecture and teach you like a seminary professor, which
I could enjoy. So you can make good on the test
and write your papers or I can be your pastor and I can preach
the Bible according to how it should apply to our lives as
a body. And then call you and command you according to Christ
to fall in line according to the things that the word of God
teaches me to tell you. There's a huge difference. Unbelievers can teach lectures.
100% accurately. Don't believe me? I've got a
lot of professors in my lifetime who confess to be atheists, who
nail the doctrines of grace, and you can't argue against them.
It's subject matter. Subject matter. Anybody can argue
subject matter. But God's Word is not about subject
matter. It's about the subject, Jesus
Christ. The Lord Almighty, the creator of the world, who out
of nothing put everything in order, out of nothing separated
light from darkness, out of nothing called life into being and created
all life according to its kind. This is the gospel message. It's
not a science journey. And the church should be instructed
to get their biology right because the Bible says. No, the church
is instructed to worship God because He is the cause of it
all. And if we don't understand that, we don't know how any of
it fits into the project of the whole. The scripture. Individual writings. Thousands of different, over
thousands of years. preserved one message. Paul wants us to see what elders are supposed to do so that I don't get to tell you
what my job is. You get to check if my job is
being fulfilled. And I'm ahead by a year, because
when we get to 2 Timothy, when Paul tells Timothy, he talks about, you know, Janus
and Jambres, or Janus and Jambres, depending on how you want to
say it. As they oppose Moses, there are
men continually to oppose the truth. And part of that truth
that Paul, Corinth, And in Galatia and other places, he says that
some of the truth that you're opposing is the instruction that
I'm telling you to do. Because if you believe the gospel
of grace, then you'll obey the apostles of grace. Perfectly? No. But you can't say, I don't
have to and I will not do it. You can do that and it doesn't
stand, it doesn't change your position before the Lord does
it. Just like when we were young, we could stand up to our parents,
and I'm not, and I'm not, and we're still a child in time out,
or with our bottoms torn up, or whatever else the discipline
might be, the correction. But Paul reminds Timothy these
men will not get very far because their foolishness will be plain
to all. Their continued behavior and their lovelessness and their
abuse of the Word of God and their myopic ignorance will be
plain to all as it was with these two men who opposed Moses. What's
he talking about? Don't worry about these types
of people. There's an order in which God,
through Paul, is commanding the church to live under, and that's
why Timothy received these letters, so that the elders of the church
will know how to keep order. And also, he wrote to Titus in
the same manner. And then he goes on to tell Timothy,
you haven't done that, you followed my teaching. This is a year from
now. You've followed my conduct. You've
followed after my purpose as a preacher of the truth. You've
followed after my faith. You've imitated my patience. You've imitated my love. You've
followed after my rootedness, my steadfastness. You've also
shared in my persecutions and sufferings. Because you remember
Antioch, Iconium, Lystra. But I endured these persecutions,
Paul told Timothy, because from them all the Lord rescued me. Did the Lord keep him from them?
No, the Lord brought him out to continue to serve the church.
He did not die. And then he tells Timothy, he
says, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus
will be persecuted while evil people and imposters will go
on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for
you, you keep doing what you've learned. And you keep and continue
in what you have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned
it and how from as a child, when you were a little boy, You were
acquainted with the sacred writings, with the holy scriptures, with
the Old Testament as we know it. And these things are able
to make you wise for salvation. through faith in Jesus Christ.
And then he says, all scripture is breathed out by God and is
profitable for teaching, profitable for reproof, profitable for correction
and profitable for the training and righteousness that the man
of God may be complete equipped for every good work. And then
I command you before God in the presence of God Almighty, young
Timothy, and in the presence of Jesus Christ our Lord, who
is the judge of the living and who is the judge of the dead,
and by His appearing in His kingdom, I command you to preach the Word,
to teach the Scripture to the church, to be ready in season
and out of season, to reprove and to rebuke and to exhort. How? By banging the pulpit, stomping
your feet and yelling real loud and getting real slobbery. No. with complete patience through
teaching. So a sermon may sound like a
lecture, but if it instructs us, it's teaching. It's giving us something to know
and giving us something to apply and giving us something to...
And sometimes the application is just being still and being
at peace. And sometimes the application is to stop acting like a knucklehead.
Sometimes the application is to be a better steward with your
time, money, and body. Sometimes the application is
to learn to love your neighbor a little bit instead of being
so selfish. But it's all rooted in the gospel.
It's all rooted there. And in Paul's day, he goes on
to tell Timothy later in chapter 4, 2 Timothy, he goes on to tell
him that there's going to be a time where people are all going to
endure sound doctrine. It was then, and it's today. And there are a lot of friends
of ours and friends of yours and them and the cousins and
all and everybody else. And you know, there's a lot of
times we find an affinity in a particular small place of interest
in a theological way or a biblical way or an application way. And
then that thing is all that anybody ever cares about. And they don't
want to hear anything else related to living the life of faith as
a body, as a family. Having a large family is very
difficult. Dozens of loads of clothes a
week. Double-digit dishwasher loads
a week. Why you got 30 plates? Because
sometimes we don't wash them fast enough before we have to
eat again. You only need five or seven or however many people
lived in my house. It's a lot of work. Where did
the shoes go? Wherever they want, you see. Where did the dirty clothes go?
That's the new carpet. There's order that is required
when you live together. And Paul's writing this instruction
about order. This letter is not to the society of humanity. This
is not a letter written for society. This is not a letter written
about how the world ought to operate in the context of understanding
everybody's place. This is a letter that has already
taught us to remember the gospel, that anybody who devotes themselves
to outside and peripheral things need to be taught to stop, and
to be quiet, and to be at peace, and to learn. And is that taboo? Shut up and listen. See, Paul
doesn't say it like that, does he? He's like, please, just be
quiet, just listen, be submissive, be humble, be calm. And then
he talks about the first thing that the church needs to do,
Elder Timothy, you need to teach the church and you need to know
this. Charge people to be quiet and then tell them that they
must pray. First of all then, I urge. I demand. This isn't a recommendation. Paul is saying, you're going
to tell the church that they need to be praying. And they
need to be praying according to the will of God, which is
good and pleasing in His sight, praying for all types of people.
The good, the bad, the ugly, the rich, the poor, the sweet,
the sour, the young, the old, the kings, the paupers, everybody. Pray for them. Don't just pray
for yourself and those around you and the people that you like
and the people that get along with you. Pray for everybody. Pray that we would
live a life of peace, Why? Because prayer, what's the key
here? Listen to this. The key here is Paul is teaching
that the church must live and the elders also must live in
a state of humility before the Lord. It's hard for men in America
to be humble. And we can say, oh, you know
what? I'm just really humbled by that. It's typically a humble
brag. I'm such a strong, humble guy.
I'm so powerful in my humility. You see? And we don't see it
because if we saw it, we'd be ridiculously wicked if we kept
in it. We don't see it. We're deceived
by it. Humility. Prayer is the foundation. It's the baby steps of humility.
Instead of doing something, we sit still and ask God. Oh, I
can pray. I can pray like a man. Oh, God. Burn their heads. I mean, you
know, WWF, NWA, whatever the new initials are for wrestling
if it's still on. That's the way most men, I mean,
you know how full the churches would be? We'd all have to, like,
wear chains and what do you call that stuff? The ammo and chains,
the link ammo. We'd just have to wear it just
to look bad enough to come to church. If we all had prayer
meetings that were imprecatory, bring down the fire in prayers,
you know? Have to wear leather chaps just
to get out of the car. To stand the heat of such fervent
prayer warriors. That's not what Timothy tells
the elder. That's not what Paul tells the elder Timothy to do
and to teach the church. He says, pray that we may live a dignified,
quiet, and peaceful life. That ain't manly. I don't want
to unload the dishwasher. We don't need to wash the dishes.
Let's shoot them and buy new ones. I mean, you know, that's
what we think in the church. And that's what we feel in the
way of America. We are kings of our own kingdoms,
but yet we owe taxes to everybody. So, I mean, you know, what in
the world is going on in the church? Disunity, discord, frustration. And men get aggravated. Men get angry. Men get even. Men stand for God. Only with
Christian soldiers. You remember that song? I remember
singing that thing when I was barely old enough to stand. Marching
as to war. Only problem with that song was
it didn't have cannons to go in it with the organ. 1812 overture. Slide over. Let's do
it. Give me my gun, my Bible, and
my axe. Gotta have an axe. No, prayer is humble. And we've
already taught about prayer. We've already seen the prescription
for prayer that Jesus gives, and now we're seeing the application
of prayer and this command for the elders of the church to make
sure that when things happen in the church that people pray,
not talk. That's why the emphasis on quiet, on calm, on being to
yourself. It's a great evil when people
share information about other people. that is not glowingly
edifying concerning those people. It is a grave evil. It is the
gravest evil of all in the church of Jesus Christ. Because most
behaviors can be noticed and corrected a lot simpler, but
gossip and chatter Whoo, it's tough. And what is it usually
rooted in? Anger. Well, what's the opposite
of anger? Submissiveness and humbleness and peaceableness
and all these other words that I'm using incorrectly. Keeping you on your toes. Prayer
and humility is good and pleasing. And when we are learning the
priority of prayer, we pray for all those people in our lives. so we can benefit from God granting
divine peace among them. It's for our good. We also see
that Paul is teaching that humility is necessary. We can't control
anyone. We can't control our own attitude
sometimes. How are we ever going to control
a faction in the church? How are we ever going to change
things? and agree on how it should be
changed and dealt with. That's the beauty of the scripture,
is that it gives us everything within the boundaries of what
is good and pleasing to the Lord, and in that, it is good and pleasing
for us. We can't control the government.
So what are we talking about as much for? We need humility, not activism. And notice I'm not teaching pacifism.
There are times when we need to say as citizens what needs
to be said, but once we've said it, we've said it. Shut up. You know? It's like at the football
game when the cheerleaders run out and everything and they got
the big flag and they're running with the flag. You know that
guy? It's always a guy because the flag weighs 300 pounds. I
mean, it's, you know, he's running. He doesn't stand out there and
flag that thing during the game. knocking his own teammates down.
Hey, gotta get our banner out. Get off the field. You've already
shown your banner. We know. You hung it up for all
of us to see. You got a t-shirt made, a hat,
glasses, everything. It's all over. You tattooed it
on your face. We got it. It's a joke, but an application. We need to be humble more. We
need humility because of grace. Jesus humbled himself. The God
of the cosmos humbled himself. And we can't. He needs us to
stand up for him? In a fleshly way? No. We have humility because of grace.
This priority of humility is the point of this letter. It's
about order and humility and sensibility And we have humility by the gospel.
We're to pray for gospel peace. We're to pray for God to grant
salvation to all people. Now, we don't have to read in
and tell God every theological nuance that we have come to understand.
God, we know that you won't say but these particular ones. So
we're going to pray for them, for not these. We're not God. We're not God
the Son. We don't have to be theological in our pleas to the
Lord. We don't know. His will be done.
We know that all who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ
will come to know the truth. But is it an error to pray for
everybody that we know around us to be born again? No, it's
actually commanded of us. Because what does that do? It
changes our evangelism, doesn't it? See, the evangelism of America, the
evangelism of the worlds, the evangelism of the cults, it's
all about what man can do to be saved and what we can do to
encourage them and what can happen and all the processes and the
manipulation and the decisions and the will and all this other
kind of stuff, but yet the scripture says that God is sovereignly
saved His people, so we are able to know that God is sovereign
in even the smallest and most disastrous details of our lives,
and we should pray for His will to be done. while we do that
which is clear to us as His will. We don't have to pray theological
prayers in order for God to get it. Oh man, I just didn't know
what they wanted until they got that correct. I'm so glad you
prayed it that way. I wasn't thinking that way. God
is not waiting for us to get it right. We pray for God to
grant repentance and faith to everyone who hears, and He will
surely bring His own to the truth. We shouldn't read into everything
because of our fear of a lack of sovereignty. This priority of humility is
the point of this letter. It's by sovereign election, sovereign
grace. The Gentiles, all peoples, no
respecter of persons, and this includes men and women. Now you see the context of Paul's
writing. Pray for all people everywhere
that we may live at peace. And we're going to live at peace
as the church in this way. We're going to pray for them.
And then we're going to go and do this in the worship services,
in the assembly. This is about elders teaching
the church what an orderly gathering is all about. The roles and responsibilities
of order, which puts us constantly in the focus of God's sovereignty,
which always helps us to stand in a place of humility. I can't repeat that, but there's
the conclusion. So then we have humility in the
commands. of what God has appointed, what
God has called, and what God has required. Now there would
be a good outline, but I don't teach by outline, so you can
write it out. I desire then. Verse 8. There's the introduction. Verse
8. I desire then. Therefore, see, this all fits
together. This isn't Paul changing gears. If he changed gears at
all, it was that parenthetical that he talked about the gospel
and the mediator. But there's a point for it. Because
God is the God of men and women. God is the God of Jew and Gentile.
God is the God of male and female. God is the God of children and
adults. And I hate to have to say this
continually, but there is a faction of people that I have come to
know who don't believe children can be born again. They most
certainly can be born again. And many of them certainly have
been and will continue to be. So here Paul says, I desire.
And when Paul says that, he's saying, I command. He's not saying, this is what
I really want. I want the floors and the sofas and the, I want
to change the panel. No, no, no, no. This is what
Paul is telling Timothy to command of the church. This is not moral
instruction. This is not practical instruction
that is isolated from the context of the scripture. I desire that
in every place, where's that at? Not just Ephesus, but everywhere
that we have planted churches, that in every place And he gives
two distinct people groups in the context of the order of the
church. Who are they? Male and female. And in this
text, he's talking about adults. And most importantly, most scholars
would say in the grammar, he's talking about married couples.
But either way, let's take it for adult men and adult women.
And this isn't all inclusive. He's not talking to them. He's
not teaching the men and he's not teaching the women. He's
teaching the elders to teach the men and the women. And he's saying, because of all
this discord, because of all this frustration, because of
all the stuff that's going on in the church, there are two
things I want you to make very clear to the men and women of
the church. So that they may be humble and at peace in the
context of God's sovereignty over all of this, that he purposed
it all, but that we maintain a sense of order and a sense
of peace that reminds us of the gospel, that reminds us of the
creative power of God, and that helps us to stand in a place
where we are not in despair. And I'm just gonna go ahead and
say some things that need to be said that aren't part of the teaching,
but misogyny is sin, beloved. Men ruling over women as subservients
is sinful. Anyone thinking that women are
lesser beings is sinful. Period. Ruling over our wives, thinking
that they're our property is wicked. Because we have the instruction
outside the assembly that the body of Christ submits to one
another in all things. And what is the greatest brother
or sister except our wives and our husbands? The first relationship
as a picture of the gospel. This is an orderly gospel grace
instruction relating to the worship of God by God's people at the
gatherings. And this is only instruction
concerning the gatherings. And it's given due to the matter
of false teaching and the division that was created because of the
false teaching. Paul is giving order to the assembly and he's
showing the gospel of unconditional grace, sovereign and free, as
the picture of order. Let there be light, the light
was good, God separate, God shines. 2 Corinthians 4, 6, God who said
let light shine on darkness has shone in our hearts to give us
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ is the Lord and
the Savior, the Creator, God, the Redeemer of men and the Redeemer
of women of all tongues, of all nations, of all tribes, of all
positions. And we see the creation again.
If we go to Ephesians 5, which we talked about a little bit
last week. Maybe that was the wedding that I did. Yeah, sometimes
it all runs together. But we see Paul saying that husbands
love your wives as Christ loved the church. Christ submitted
to the Father. and became nothing and died and
was crucified and hated for the sake of presenting his bride
holy and blameless and spotless in the same manner husbands love
your wives. Laying down your life, your desires,
your power, your will for the sake of your wives. Isn't that oxymoronic in our
culture? We ought to worship with all
humility, revealing the picture of Christ in the church, just
like marriage does. And that's where he goes, because what's
the foundational substance of the church, the husband and wife?
There's no such thing as the singles church, right? You've
never seen a church full of singles, have you? You have. Now they're
all married. That's what they do. So in the structure, we won't order.
We want to understand the picture of the gospel. We want to be
able to trust in God to deal with this without our festering
it all and making it worse. So let's get our worship services
in order. He says men should pray. Are
women supposed to pray? Absolutely. But right now he's
specifically dealing with two particularly obvious things that
happen in the church. And he's saying men should pray
in every place of worship, every gathering, and women too. There's
not a qualification of an elder that's not also a requirement
of every Christian member of every church in the world. In
the attitude, in the heart of things, and in the practice of
things. Lifting holy hands. Hands of
grace, justified by the blood of Jesus, surrendering to the
sovereign order of God's glorious grace on display in Christ Jesus,
in the church, and in the home. This is His body, the church
of Jesus Christ, and no one is above another person in the kingdom
of God ever. And what does he say? No anger,
no quarreling, no frustration, no backbiting, no debating, no
bickering, no suspicion, no assumption, Mind your business, men. Mind
your business. And women, he'll tell in another
letter, mind your business. He's not picking on men and women.
He's not upset about these things. He's showing the gospel. He's
not even commanding it of them. He's telling the elders to make
sure that they teach it rightly. This is where our hope will come.
There's never a time to get into the business of others or to
begin to call out the sin of others where there is not a God-given
instruction on how to do so and why and when. The elders are required to be
involved in every bit of that. Because they must maintain the
sense of order and peace and understand that patience and
teaching and long suffering, I know I'm being redundant there,
needs to be the stream through which all of this stuff is handled.
Because if we don't do it according to the scripture, it's always
going to end in disaster. It's always going to end in divorce.
It's always going to end in being kicked out of the garden. See
the picture? Now you know where Paul's going,
right? Because he goes there. We heard it already this morning. The men in Ephesus wanted to
be right and they were not quiet about it. It was the actions of these people
who wanted to be right and they weren't quiet about it. He's telling
everybody else just to be quiet. He said, you know what? When
we get together, y'all need to put your hands and surrender. That
was a symbol of surrender. It was a symbol of offering up
a plea to God for grace in the Old Testament. Hands, you prayed
with your eyes open, you looked at the heaven, you raised your
hands up. This was the posture of prayer in the first century
for Jews and for subsequent believing Jews, Jewish people. Live holy hands. This is not
an instruction, you gotta raise your hands. They gotta be holy.
Oh, those jazz hands, sorry. What do holy hands look like?
I mean, no. Pray, being justified by the
blood of Christ. Reach to your Father. In front
of whom you have boldness to go because it's a throne of grace
because of Christ Jesus No one is above anybody else. So put
away your anger put away your malice Have you heard this instruction
before to the Church of Ephesus? You've already heard this instruction
Jesus says it to the disciples love one another as I've loved
you Jesus wasn't furious when he was arrested He wasn't furious,
you know when he was furious self-righteousness with the leaders
of those who were holding hostage in bondage people who didn't
fit the mold and then taking advantage of them financially
and the only reason that that is recorded is so that we know
that the prophecy that was taught of Christ that he would have
zeal for his father's house it showed the very ones against
whom he had anger that he was the very one coming in the name
of the father and they still said because they weren't given sight. Women could be angry, too. Women
get angry, men get angry. So this instruction, even though
it's directed in the context of men, there's a reason, because
he's showing the picture, men and women, Christ and the church,
elders and the body. He's going to get there. He's
going to get there, because that's the very next thing he talks
about after this, is now let's talk about the elders. This is
not random stuff, Paul. been given this by the Spirit
of God. He's not, he's not loose in his brain. He's very focused.
So no anger or quarreling. Women could be angry, but let's
be honest, a lot of times what we see in the context of when
women are trying to get their way is they try to one-up each
other, right? I mean, I don't know. I'm not an expert on women.
I never thought I was. I did when I was 20. I never thought
I was. Never want to be. It's impossible.
Deuteronomy 29, 29. unless the hidden things belong
to God alone. And the same thing could be said about men. We don't
even know ourselves. And so Paul's not just saying,
oh, men are always angry, women aren't dressing right. He's telling
all people to be humble. And he's given this picture so
that we can see the gospel in it. But yet so many people who
like to control other people love to take this stuff out of
context, create a pretext, create an entire 62-page theology on
it, and say, ha-ha, woman, shut thy mouth. Paul's not saying
that, as you'll see. Prideful, blowhard arrogance
and anger and self-righteousness is mainly a man thing. That's why every man in here
was like, I could come to a prayer meeting like that, rah, right? The one I described earlier.
But what does he say? Men, you must be quiet. You must
be humble. You need to pray as I'm commanding
you to pray. Command the men to pray as I'm
telling you, Timothy, to tell them to pray. You must be lowly,
you must be slaves who worship the Lord. All men in the worship. See, Paul's not
saying this is a problem, he's just saying this is what I want
you to teach people in the context of these problems. This is what
I want done. All women are not being indicted,
all men are not being indicted. Imagine for a minute the loud-mouthed
debaters who know it all and who put the record straight or
who quote, keep it real on the false teachers. And imagine the
wives of the church who are standing up for their husbands or are
trying to get into these quarrels or trying to get a little prideful
because their husband's powerful. I don't know. I don't really
have to imagine it. I've seen it in 23 years in the church. I've seen it in our congregation
several times. So false teachers try to get
attention, and then the angry men try to get attention, and
the women try to get attention. Everybody's trying to get attention
when we're supposed to be focusing on Christ. So for men, attention is pride
and power. For women, it's other things. Likewise, look at that.
Likewise, likewise, likewise. I desire men in every place should
pray with holy hands without quarreling or anger. Likewise
also, in the same manner. In the same manner. So as women
are praying in holy hands and all that other stuff, I also
want you to understand the attitude. I've entitled this message, and
I typically don't, but I entitled this message to the attitude
of worship. Because it's really what it is. It's an attitude
of humility and service to one another. It's an attitude of
putting ourselves last so that we might be first for someone
else. Women, in the same manner in
which men are to be humble and quiet, spending time in prayer
and learning, so the women likewise are to be humble and quiet, spending
time in prayer and learning. For example, men put on their
zeal and women like to put on their pizzazz. And I know that's
all a trope, but it happens. If we want attention, what do
we do? We know how to get it. We know
how to get it. Hot tippers and hot dressing
can get attention, but it's not something that needs to be considered
in the context of the assembly of the church. Look beautiful,
people. There's nothing wrong, listen,
there's nothing wrong with being passionate and there's nothing
wrong with looking beautiful. There's nothing wrong. And there's
not a type of dress that matters. That's cultural and climate. It doesn't matter. What matters
is the intention of the heart. And that's what Paul's getting
at here. but in everything we should be
humble. Listen to what he says. Now keep in mind, Paul is using
the wives as a picture of the church, just like Jesus does,
just like John does, and just like Moses did, according to
God. So he's saying that the church,
as the husband shuts his mouth and stops his anger and worships
God in submission and humility, the wives, likewise, should be
adorned with the outcome of that. They should look the part of
what their husbands have done, who shut up and worship God and
His sovereignty, who then created a church to be beautiful, to
be glorious, to be pure. Have you ever heard that taught
that way? Probably not. But that's the context. Men, adorn yourselves with humility
and quietness and holy hands and prayer. Women, adorn yourselves
with what? Modesty and self-control. Respectable
apparel. Not with braided hair, gold or
pearls or costly attire. What is that? Showing. But what
is proper for women who profess godliness? With good works. Modesty. Do not bring attention. Don't be proud. Be lowly. Not prudish. It's not a prescription. There's no purity in prudishness. Men, the power, the role, the
knowledge. Look at us. Be quiet. Women, the hair, the
looks, the attention, the prestige, the wealth. Look at us. Be quiet.
Simmer down now. So Paul is saying just simmer
down now, be at peace and play the role of the picture of Jesus
Christ in the church. And this is when we get together
what we are to see, what we're supposed to understand. Just
like the Lord's table, we remind ourselves of the body and the
blood of Jesus. And when we look at one another,
we remind ourselves of the work and the redemption and the Lordship
and the humility and the passion of Jesus, that we are his bride. Modesty, which means self-control. Don't be angry, don't seek attention.
No fighting, no debating. No fancy hair to try to draw
the eye. Expensive, flashy, powerful symbols. Swoosh. I mean, you know how
it is. Nothing wrong with dressing nicely,
having nice things as a steward. Having the same pair of shoes
for 15 years or the same shirt for 20. Hoping you don't change
sizes. But the point in Paul saying
with modesty and self-control is good service, service to the
body, service to one another, service, service which is fitting
and modest and proper. And then we get to this next
verse, verse 11. And on and it just seems like
this beautiful Afghan that he's created. There's a string and
some well-intended old lady says, let me get that string and she
unravels the whole thing. It's like, ah, what happened?
It's the same thought. The church is the bride. The
church are the women. Women play the role. Men play
the role. Learning with submissiveness,
which is humility. Learning. Why is this important?
It hasn't always been couth for a woman to learn. And sometimes in our circles
today, men think the big theology camps are what learning's all
about, but Paul's saying the service camps and the humility
camps are where it's all about. And that women do not need to
be neglected in the context of the teaching. Because the church
learns. They hear the voice of her Savior.
We follow after Him. We come after Him. Women play
that role in the body. Let them learn. Don't make them
have to stand up and beg and fight and find other ways of
having a purpose. Let them learn with submissiveness,
which is humility. Let them be a disciple of Christ,
just as men should also be a disciple of Christ. Let women also do this. It's
not about ability. It's not about worth. It's not
about the world and governments and homes. This instruction that
he's given here, it has nothing to do with anything but the worship
service of the saints and the picture they're in. Because
in verse 11, or verse 12, it says, I don't permit a woman
to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to
remain, and I'm going to change the word there, submissive. Because it's not an instruction
for women not to talk. Yet, I would dare to say, raise
your hand if you've ever heard somebody tell you that. We'd
all have our hands up. There are whole denominations
that live on that premise. It's not about that. It's about the picture. Who's
the greatest picture of that? Jesus Christ. Look at Peter's
epistles. Though he was reviled, he did
not return revile with revile, but he kept quiet. He submitted
himself to the one who is faithful, to the one who is sovereign,
to the one who is in control of all things. Oh, wow. So this is like Christ
as well. Quiet is not about speaking. Learning with submissive is about
humility, not about what women are able or permitted to do. Women are able
and commanded to share the faith. Women are able and commanded
to teach the Bible. And women are commanded to admonish
others and to encourage others as sisters in the faith to instruct
and remind her husband of that which the scripture teaches in
their home or at dinner or wherever, in the car ride over here. And the husband is also supposed
to submit to his wife in the faith. Because the marriage picture
will part when the true is with us. Quiet is like Mary in Luke chapter
10, when Martha was doing all the good serving and the doing
and the doing and the doing. And Mary was at the feet of Jesus,
listening and learning and becoming wise and effective in her faith. And Jesus said she chose the
better. That's what Paul's talking about. Let the women learn and
grow and be effective in the faith. So we have 2 Peter. We have that there that is given
to the Hebrews. It's not to the men only. It's
to the children, to the saints, the men and the women that our
election and calling is undergirded and that we do the things that
we're called to do. In this command, is about order. The quiet there is about order
and learning and growing in grace. To put on worshipful hearts and
display the heart of Christ, not our wealth and our privilege
and our power and our control and our abilities. This is the picture of Jesus
Christ, though He was God, did not take equality with God, something
to be grasped. And this command here is given
to Timothy. not to the men and the women. So how the elders
instruct this is a delicate, patient opportunity of disaster. We don't have to worry about
culture and everything else. Beloved, the point of all this
is not to get the church in line. The point of all this is to point
the church to that which is perfect. Timothy is to oversee this vital
instruction of the women also, not neglecting them, and to teach
the men that the women also must learn and live out the faith
and service to the church just like they are to Then why not elders? Because
in the assembly there's a picture. Remember? A picture. Christ. The picture is Jesus. Jesus created the world as God.
Life from nothing made order, called it good. Jesus created
man and woman. Out of man came woman. They shared the same essence,
they shared one flesh, the bride of this man given to her. Husbands
are the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church.
Wives are to submit as unto the Lord, just like the men are to
submit to the Lord. Husbands, pastors, goodness,
what a mess. I'm an elder, but I'm a sheep. I'm a husband, but I'm a bride.
I have a role to play. And my wife is my closest sibling
in the faith. And I must submit to her as my
sister when she tells truth to me. But she does not have the
calling to hold all this together in the picture of Christ in the
church for the assembly. And you know what, beloved? Neither
do all men. Jesus gave himself up, he remained
quiet, he remained submissive. The church, Jesus is the head,
the apostles are the planters and the writers of instruction,
and we submit to these things to reveal the picture of order
and life and goodness. So women, learn. Don't worry
about the eldership, for God has ordained it in this manner
for our good. Jesus has died and we have died
with Him. He lives and we live with Him.
He is God yet He accomplished redemption through submission.
This is a superb picture. Men are to be humble and quiet
in their attitudes and worship and submission and learning and
so should women. Men can pray in the church and
women can pray in the church. Men can read the Bible and women
can read the Bible. Children can pray and read the
Bible. Men can sing and women can sing. But only qualified
elders can tell the church what they must be doing and give oversight
to that. And only qualified husbands can
be qualified elders. Because that is the picture of
Christ. Christ being the only qualified husband. Of all of us. This applies to
the gathering, not the home. Not work, not school. Women can
teach theology in a school if they want to. They can teach
the Bible in a school. That's nonsense. Paul isn't talking about seminaries.
They're not even biblical. It's okay. It's not a problem. We have a class. It's okay. We
want to do a whole series on election. That's fine too. But
the assembly, the life together. See, we've got to stop thinking
that church is something we attend. It's who we are. We are the gathered
ones. We are the ones called out and
as a part of a family are supposed to be concerned with one another.
Women can be governors and presidents and leaders and CEOs. The pastor's
not the CEO of the church. He's not the leader of the church.
He's the first slave that's gonna have to give an account to God
because God called him and he doesn't want it. You see? He
doesn't really want it once he gets it. Like, ah, ooh. What
is this? I quit, sorry, by the command
of Christ. Paul didn't wanna be an apostle.
He wanted to go home to be with Christ. But he loved being an
apostle for the sake of Christ so that he could serve Christ's
people. To live is Christ, to die is far better, but I choose
to stay that I may be a benefit to you. Only elders, if anybody but a
married elder, qualified, gives oversight to the church, it is
disorder. And it happened in the garden.
That's what happens when we do what we think is best, or better,
things fall apart. When people don't submit to the
instruction of the scripture, things fall apart. We can say
all we want to, we want order, we want peace, world peace, our
peace, life peace, world peace, and a piece of turd pie is what
we're getting because we fail to submit to the things that
God has called us to. Elders alone have the role And
the burden and the picture of the order comes through qualified
men who are elders. Not all men can instruct and
give oversight to the church. Not every man can teach the church. Only qualified men who are given
that role. Not all men could die to save
the church. Only one man could die to save the church. appointed of God and appointed
to the task. The living out of the faith is not theological
debate or administrative oversight or control. It is doing through
service for the sake of Christ. This is the calling of the body
and of the elders. And in that calling, the elders serve Christ
in overseeing these things, instructing these things, and insisting upon
these things. But now, some of us would say,
yes, how do we know the elders are right? Well, the elders will
do what the scripture says to do. And in that doing, they will
be patient and long-suffering and gentle. And they will say,
I hear what you're saying, and I understand how you got there,
but let's look at what the Bible says, and let's get back to the
Bible. Not, I'm the pastor around here, dummy. Do what I say. You
are disqualified, in my mind, forever, the moment you say that. But by the grace of God, we can't
say forever. Why is this important? Because chapter three is coming. The saying is trustworthy. If
anyone aspires the office of overseer, desires a noble task,
therefore an overseer must be. I'm about to have to tell you
how to judge me. But before you judge me, I get
to judge you, men and women, you see. Beautiful, isn't it? So now nobody gets judged and
we all just love one another. God is the Savior of all types
of people, men and women, Jews and Gentiles, and none of us
can establish our own righteousness. We must be given another's righteousness,
Jesus Christ. The body and the blood of Jesus
out of which flows life for his bride, the birth of one who cannot
be their own head, thus the picture of marriage as the gospel, the
oversight of the gathering as a gospel, all reflect the same
picture. We are not Jesus, but we are
born out of his body. Eve was born out of Adam. The
church then in both realms of grace reflects the picture of
Christ. The husbands, qualified, serve as elders as unto Christ.
The church at large, men and women, submit to Christ through
the service of the elders, thus aspiring to this role belongs
to the gospel reflection of God's order, which is headship in the
home, which is a picture of Christ in the church, and so on and
so forth. So, therefore, the oversight and the instruction,
the teaching, the correction of the church is to be done by
overseers, not the men and the women of the congregation. The men and women of the congregation
are to be calm and quiet, submissive. So should the elders, learners,
so that they will learn the truth in doing the life of faith for
the church. We are to learn application as
we learn truth because it is all the doctrines of Christ. And in doing this, we do not
subvert the gospel by other means. We do not subvert the order of
Christ's church by other means. When Adam was in the garden and
God instructed him and then Eve went into the center of the garden
and was tempted. Adam failed. How? He didn't say no. God had said,
and this is what happens when God's order is not intact. It is God's purpose to show this.
And left to ourselves, we will fall and we will die. And left
to ourselves, our joy will be depleted. But God has established
that which is good for us. When we attempt to undermine
God's simple, gracious purposes, we will ultimately lose our joy
and everything will fall apart, just like if we let anyone have
their way outside of God's way concerning these things in the
church. we will fall away. And we are
not going to let that happen. In verse 15, now we get to this
incredible idea that, well, she, a individual woman, see he goes,
Adam was formed first in Eve, the creative order, a picture
of the gospel, a picture of Christ and the church. Now we live it
out continually. And Adam was not deceived. He
was, but he willfully disobeyed that
which he knew. He was deceived in thinking, I might be like
God too. This woman of mine, I think I
can do it. He blamed her for his transgression,
but God wasn't going to listen to it. The woman was deceived
and became the transgressor. The church is the transgressor. Christ is the head, the holy
and anointed one, this picture. But yet, verse 15, in which all
this stuff seems to be written, yet she will be saved, the woman
will be saved through childbearing if they continue, then they,
plural, in the faith, love, and holiness with self-control. So
we have to ask ourselves, what in the world is Paul talking
about? He's going to show the gospel. He's already shown it
here in the introduction. He's shown it again in the command
to pray. Now in the order of good worship
and praying together as the saints, he is saying that we are going
to show that this is the picture of God's purpose. He's lobbying
back and forth with his illusions from gospel truth to the fall,
to the first couple, to the married couples of the church, to the
elders, to Christ, and everything. And so when you've read the Bible
and you continue to read the Bible in its context, you begin
to see how all this fits together and it becomes simple. At the first gathering in the
Garden of Eden, everything fell apart by the sovereign purpose
of God who revealed His graceful power, which is the seed of woman. So here, just as Moses wrote
according to what God spoke to him in Genesis 3, according to
what Paul has taught to us in Ephesians 5 and other places, women like Eve are the picture
of the perfect, glorious truth of God's eternal love for His
church, for His people. God promised salvation through
Eve's progeny, not Adam's. Think about it. The Virgin Mary, through whom
Jesus was born, the Savior of the world, the creator of life
coming into the world through her, the salvation. Now, why
does Paul teach it this way? Because this instruction is what
the church is commanded from God to do in the midst of false
teaching and divided opinions. This is the point. Just be orderly. Elders, be orderly. Have an orderly
life. Have an orderly home. Does that
mean no problems? I don't know. Just handle it
orderly. Handle it peacefully. In Titus, Paul tells him to Chapter
2, verse 15, "...declare these things, exhort and rebuke with
all authority." I want you to hear this. "...let no one disregard
you." And later on in chapter 3, he says something very similar.
He says, "...charge them to speak an evil of no one, to avoid quarreling,
to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people."
And so on and so forth. So this command of the elders
to give oversight for the good of the church is a place of peace. So to those
who will not do the things that they're told to do are going
to be corrected. That means you need to do this,
please stop doing that. And now what Paul's already said, charge
them not to do this, not to speak about these things, then teach
them what is right according to these things. Be patient with
them. But those who will not do this,
They're going to be corrected. If they're not corrected, if
anyone, in the sense, no matter their own personal theological
ideas or what they think they're going to tell God that they're
going to do, they don't obey, they're going to be put out until
they do obey. Or they're going to leave of their own accord
and then they're going to be put out for abandonment. Order is the point of the gospel.
in the context of the local assembly. Order points to the Gospels,
what I should have said. God made all things, He put them
in order, and He upholds them by the word of His power. This
is the point, the purpose of this teaching. This is how you
read the Bible in context. You read it, and you read it,
and you read it, and read it. How many times have I read Timothy in
the last 30 weeks? I can't tell you. It's an all-day
journey. And you think I'd have it memorized
by now, but I keep going, oh, what is that? I have to go back.
I want to hear it. I want to read it. I want to see it. Grace Truth Church will not tolerate
abuse in the church. And to subvert the precious gospel
of Christ is abuse. To refuse instruction and teaching
is abuse. And the elder of the church will
not tolerate it. But we will be intolerant patiently, lovingly,
and gently. So that Christ's instruction
to his people will bring us orderly worship, orderly discipline,
and the most beautiful thing is reconciliation. Because that's
what the gospel is, is a letter, is a story, is a power of reconciliation. Let's pray. We thank you, Father, for your
word and for the teaching. And God, as you know, I'm no
expert. Father, all the years of learning
and grammar and all sorts of things, Father, there's so much
junk that I have dogmatically stood upon without ever testing
to see if that's what your word says. And so I thank you for
loving me graciously to teach me patience. to teach me how
to love the sheep more and more, to teach me how to love my family
and my wife, that I might also help instruct the body to do
the same. And so, Lord, help us to be at
peace. For there is no cause for alarm and aggression, hate, and misogyny. There's no cause for any of these
things in the body of Christ. And if we would all learn the
humility of submission as a picture of grace. Then we would be far
better off. In our own minds, in our own
thoughts, in our own emotions. So what I pray for us now as
we take the table to remember the body and the blood of Jesus
Christ, who you crushed to bring order, to bring life to a dead
and disorderly people. In Jesus' name, Amen.