One of the things that I note
in the study of this chapter is it deals primarily, primarily,
it deals with several things, but it deals primarily with prayer
and public worship. It deals with prayer in public
worship and it deals with prayer in public worship. Now, there
are several parts to public worship. we have gone through most of
them here tonight. As far as I'm concerned, worship
is a thing of the heart. Barnard said one time he was
going to define repentance. But he said, I'll tell you this,
if you define it, you usually kill it. It's like defining love. How do you define love? You love
or you don't love. How do you define faith? Repentance. How do you define worship? Worship
is heart matter. Worship is a personal
matter. Worship is something I can do
when nobody around me is doing it. Worship is something everybody
around me may be doing it, and my heart may be so far away from
God it's like the nether millstone. So I'm not trying to define worship,
I'm simply saying there are some major parts of worship, first
of which is this, praise. Praise. Turn to Psalm 150. Got a letter today from a television
listener who asked several questions, wanted some answers. First question
she asked, what about music in the church? I know what she means.
What about instruments? But music in general, instruments
included, praise is when our hearts and
voices are lifted to God. That's what we did while Mike
was leading us and I was leading the courses. While Mike and Debbie
were here singing, they were praising God. They were worshiping
the Lord. We were worshiping with them.
Psalm 150 says, praise ye the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in the firmament of
His power. Praise Him for His mighty works. Look at verse 3.
Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise Him with
the psaltery in the harp. Praise Him with the timbrel and
dance. Praise Him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise
the Lord. That ought to answer any misgivings people have about
instruments in a church, in a building. We just split
hairs and caused so many difficulties over these things that some fellow
invented a long time ago to attract some attention to himself. That's
where about most of it started. It's like I ran into a fellow
last week that didn't believe in eating in the church. First
of all, you wanted to find what a church is. This is not a church.
This is a building. It's a building. There's the
church. Church is people, living stones,
a living temple. And used to be years ago, they
met in homes. They didn't even have buildings
like this. Paul wrote to the church in your home. Well, they
ate together. They came together and ate together.
Now, where they get that verse is that some people are misusing
the Lord's table. They were coming together and
bringing their suppers with them and feasting and getting drunk,
and Paul said, this isn't the Lord's table. Don't you have
houses to eat your suppers and all in? Eat them down there.
When you come to take the Lord's table, worship the Lord, don't
come together for some kind of high-polluting feast, you know.
And some people have a whole lot to eat, and some people don't
have enough to eat. But they've taken that one verse, like the
Camelites, And like a lot of other people, taking that one
verse and built a major doctrine and divided congregations over
that very thing, not eating in a church. And the sole verse
of Scripture is, have you not houses to eat in? And they're
not paying attention to who said it, to whom he was speaking,
or what he was talking about. They just dug it out. And then
they'll blast the Camelites for doing the same thing. The Camelites
will read Acts 2.38, we'll just shoot them out of the saddle.
And we'll go over there and read 1 Corinthians 11, and we'll have
you in our houses to eat in, and think we stand tall in the
saddle. We're fools. And so this thing of music, instruments
in the church, is just a satanic fog to get people away from Christ.
And that's the first part of worship, praise. And then the
reading of the Word. Turn to 1 Thessalonians 5, 27,
the reading of the Word. I'm just persuaded that when
we come together we ought to read the Word of God. read the
Word of God in our worship. So even in the ancient synagogue,
this was the custom, to read the Word of God. Our Lord went
down to Nazareth, as His custom was, He went to the synagogue
on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. It was given to Him,
the prophet Isaiah, and He read Isaiah 61. And it says here in
1 Thessalonians 5, 27, I charge you by the Lord that this epistle
be read unto all the holy brethren. Where's the place to read it?
When they meet together to worship. Read it, read the word. You don't
even get to bring your sermon, read the word. Because that's
God's sermon. And then thirdly, giving. Now
I know this is something a lot of people get all bent out of
shape over. 1 Corinthians 16. And that giving,
if you'll follow the New Testament, our Lord stood and watched the
giving in the synagogue. They came down and gave their
gifts. Everybody, we will agree on this,
everybody ought to give. Everybody ought to give as unto
the Lord. Everybody ought to give out of
a willing heart and a willing spirit. Everybody ought to give
generously. Everybody ought to give in proportion
as God has blessed it. We agree with that. Then why
are we so secretive about it? Well, one fellow might be embarrassed
because he doesn't give as much as the other. Now wait a minute,
you're destroying the very principle of grace there. I know there
are men in this congregation that make four times what I make,
five times what I make. According to the Word of God,
they ought to give four or five times more. There are men and
women, young people in this congregation that make half of what I make.
I don't expect them to give what I give, nor should they be expected
to give that much, nor should they be embarrassed in my presence.
It's like they're preachers that have greater gifts than others,
but that means we're not going to let them preach. Huh? What about that now? And here's
Mike Bartram can sing. Somebody else can't sing as well.
Well, let's just don't let him sing. Oh yeah, let him sing.
You don't expect him to sing like Mike. He's a music major.
He has a gift. You don't expect him to sing
like Mike, but I'm not going to quit singing because I can't
sing like Mike. And I'm not going to quit giving because I can't
give like John. You see what I'm saying? And
there's no use in being embarrassed about this. Now here's the verse
that says, don't let your left hand know what your right hand's
doing. That's the verse. In other words, don't let anybody
see what you give. Keep it on the table, you know,
and slip it in, or a box somewhere. Giving is a part of worship.
We meet together on the Lord's Day to praise him openly. We
meet together on the Lord's Day to read his word openly. We meet
together on the Lord's Day if the widow can give a penny or
two pennies or the man who's blessed can give more. We meet
together to give and no man's looking on the gifts of others,
no man's bragging about his or feeling bad because he can't
give. Is that right? That's the spirit
of grace. Now watch 1 Corinthians 16, now concerning the collection.
Paul wasn't embarrassed about it. I don't mention money. I
tell you this, somebody's got to pay these light bills. Somebody's
got to pay that television bill. Somebody's got to pay these missionary
salaries. Somebody's got to mention money. You and your wife mention
it quite often, I'll bet. Now for the collection. As I've
given orders to the churches of Galatians, even so do ye. You do this. Upon the first day
of the week, that's Sunday, I think, let every one of you That's the
boys and girls too. It's everybody. Lay by him in
store. Now y'all try to see who can
give the most. No, sir. Y'all be embarrassed and don't
give at all if you can't give more in the next. No, sir. As
God has prospered it. That there be no collections
or gatherings when I come. I don't want to come up there
and have to start taking up collections to pay the bill. You do it systematically. You do it every Sunday. Don't
wait for the apostle to come and do it. Do it all the time.
on the first day of the week. It's part of worship. It's like
the feast of the firstfruits. It's like the first thing of
the flock belonged to the Lord. It's like the firstborn. It's
like all these things belong to the Lord. And Israel wasn't
bashful about when a man harvested his field, he got the firstfruits,
go and give to the Lord. When he got his flock out there,
the first thing of the flock belonged to the Lord. They just
knew that. If he had a big flock, A big bunch of them belonged
to the Lord. If he had just four or five, then one belonged to
the Lord. But he wasn't embarrassed about that. He gave as God had
given him. And I don't think we're supposed
to make a show, you know, or anything like that, but on the
first day of the week, giving's a part of worship. And then preaching
the Word. Let's turn to Acts 20. Another
part of worship is preaching the Word. Preaching the Word
of God. Acts 20, verse 7. And upon the
first day of the week, when the disciples came together, to break
bread. Now that's another part, is the
Lord's table. They came together to observe
the Lord's table. They came together to break bread,
Paul preached to them. Alright, now back to our text.
And another vital part of worship, I've given you four or five here,
praise, reading of the word, giving, preaching, the Lord's
table, and then prayer. Now, this chapter deals specifically
with the subject of public prayer in worship. Now, I'm sure this
deals with private prayer as well. Whatever is said about
public prayer certainly is applicable to private prayer, but this deals
with public prayer mainly. Let's look at verse 1. I exhort
therefore, first of all, that supplications and intercessions
and giving of thanks be made for all men. And we're not only,
I'm going to take this step by step, we're not only to pray
for ourselves, and we're in the habit of doing that, I'm the
chief offender, we're in the habit of praying for our children,
and we're in the habit of praying for our church and our friends,
but Paul exhorts us here, he exhorts us that prayers be made
for all men, even our enemies. would have prayed for all men,
even as our enemies. And the illustration I use is
this. Do you suppose the early church
prayed for Saul of Tarsus? I doubt it. I doubt it seriously. In fact, when the Lord came to
Ananias and said, Ananias, go down to a street called Strait,
the house of one Judas, I believe, was his name. There's a fellow
there by the name of Saul of Tarsus. I want you to go and
take the gospel to him. What'd he say? Lord, I know that
fellow. I've heard about that fellow,
how he hates the gospel. Oh, I don't want to go talk to
him. Well, if you didn't want to talk
to him, you know you didn't pray for him. But he exhorts us to pray
for all men. Who knows whom the Lord may call? Who knows? Now let's take this
here, look, that's one thing I want you to say, pray for all
men. Now I'm going to change that, and I think help us to
understand some things, but all sorts of men. You think I'm messing
things up, but you stay with me. Now here's the word supplications. Supplications, here's what supplications
are. Supplications are petitions before
the throne of God For mercy, grace, material and spiritual
needs. Supplications. Means just what
it said. Supplications. Let your supplications
be made with thanksgiving. But that's supplications for
all men. Petitions before the throne for
grace and mercy, material and spiritual needs. Alright? Then
the second word he uses is prayers. I say supplications and prayers.
What is prayers? Prayers is the spirit of devotion. The spirit of devotion and good
wishes. I've often said here, the hardest
thing in the world is to stay mad at somebody when you're praying
for them. And the hardest thing in the
world is to speak evil of a man for whom you've prayed before
the throne of God. It's pretty hard to do. Well,
now I am possible. And so prayers, a spirit of devotion
and good wishes, and then the word intercessions, you see that?
Intercessions is pleading on behalf of another. Hold that
right there and turn to Job 1.5. Let me show you daddies and mothers
something here. Job 1.5. In Job 1.5, this is self-explanatory, and it was
so when the days of their feasting were gone about that Job sent
and sanctified them, talking about his children, and rose
up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to
the number of his ten children, all of them. But Job said, now
here he is doing this for them, Cecil. He's offering a sacrifice
for his children, burnt offerings for his children, prayers for
his children. That's intercession on the behalf
of another. For Job said, it may be that
my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. And thus
Job did continually, continually, all the days. He interceded for
his children. intercession. All right, here's
the next word, giving of thanks. Now that's the element that must
characterize all our prayer. Don't, I'm saying this to myself
and to you, don't ever come angrily before God. Don't come murmuring. Don't come finding fault. Don't
come questioning his judgment. Come giving thanks. So he says
supplications, prayers, intercession, giving of thanks. Now let me
ask this, really would prayer Would a selfish prayer even,
Charlie, be acceptable to God? Certainly not. A prayer that's
self-centered, a prayer that is offered only for ourselves
and our own gain and benefit and blessings, it couldn't be
acceptable to God. He said, if you forgive not others,
I won't forgive you. And this wouldn't be the spirit
of grace and wouldn't be the spirit of love. And so this is
the reason Paul says to the church, public worship, public prayer,
I exhort that this supplication, so forth, be made for all men. Now, I say this is saying all
sorts of men, because if you make this, every son of Adam,
every person, you're going to run into some problem, tremendous
problem. Now, I'll show you something
else. Look down at verse 4. If this, I want prayer and supplication
intercession to be made for all men indiscriminately, every son
of Adam, every human being, every descendant of Adam, then you've
got to make verse 4 say the same thing. God will have all men
indiscriminately, every son of Adam, every descendant of Adam
to be saved. That can't be. That can't be, because he ruled
out Pharaoh, said I raised him up for the same purpose. He ruled
out Judas, said a son of perdition from the beginning. He ruled
out Esau, said Esau have I hated. And like that, you see, so it
can't mean every human being. Then look at verse 6, and Christ
gave himself a ransom. You know what a ransom is? That's
a full payment for release. You've heard the word ransom
used in a kidnapping. A child's kidnapped, and they
say, got a ransom note, $100,000, you have your child back. Pay
the $100,000, get the child back. That's a ransom. And if Christ
ransomed every son of Adam, they're all going to be saved. Same thing
with redemption. If he redeemed by his atonement,
by his sacrifice, by his blood, every son of Adam, they've all
got to be saved because Christ didn't die in vain. He cannot
fail. So what I'm saying this means
is this, in your public worship, prayer is to be made for all sorts of
means. And he goes on in verse 2 and says, for kings, for those,
you say, well, he's a rebel, he's an unbeliever, pray for
him. What he is and what office he holds does not disqualify
him from prayer. Would have prayed for him. God
saves a king or he saves a thief. He knew David, he knew the thief
on the cross. Or he may save, you say, that liberal professor
in that seminary will never be saved. Well, there was never
a more ranked Opponent of God's grace and Saul of Tarsus who
was a who was a professor But God saved him and this is what
he said Jew and Gentile white and black Male and female old
and young all sorts of mean kings verse 2 all that are in authority
We may lead a quiet and peaceable life pray for all these men now.
Let me tell you something. Let me help you here We're not
to pray for those in hell Wouldn't do any good would it? went up,
so that's a group we're not to pray for. We're not to pray for
people in heaven. We're not to pray for those in
heaven. I'm not going to pray for Jeff and Edgel tonight, and
these others who God has called home. They don't need it. And neither am I going to pray
for those who sin unto death, whatever that is, I don't know.
But John said there is a sin unto death, I don't say that
you should pray for it, right? And then back, look at verse
20 of chapter 1 of 1 Timothy. Just back one verse there in
chapter 1, Paul says, of whom is Hamanias and Alexander, they
made shipwreck of the faith. He said, I've delivered them
to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. He wasn't praying
for them either. He delivered them to Satan. And
then our Lord Jesus Christ turned to John chapter 17. Let me show
all of you familiar with this verse, but let's just look at
it one more time. John 17, 9. This is our Lord
praying. He's certainly the example of
prayer. This is our Lord praying, and he's saying in John 17, verse
9, I pray for them whom thou hast given me. I pray not for
the world. I pray not for the world. That's what he said. I pray for
them. The people for whom Christ prays, he must have. God the
Father, he said, I know you always hear me. So what he's saying
in 1 Timothy, and please understand this, and I know there are people
who come running up to you and say, well, Scripture said God
will have all men to be saved. Those all men, and all men has
got to be all sorts of men. It just has to be. And that's
what he's saying in verse 1. I exhort, therefore, first of
all, supplication, prayers, intercession, giving of thanks be made not
just for your family, for your church, or for the Jews, or for
a given nation, but God has a people out of every kindred, nation,
tongue, and tribe unto heaven, and prayers to be made for all
sorts of men. All sorts of men. All sorts of
men. Now here's the reason. It may
please God to convert them. It may, when he's talking about
even kings there, it may please God to convert them. I do know
Daniel said, the Lord sets up kings and removes kings. And
I know this, when he says, pray for kings and those in authority
that we may lead a quiet, peaceful life, you say, what's that got
to do with it? The king's heart is in the hands of the Lord.
He turneth it with us wherever he will. Do you know that God
can even He does influence the very attitude and decision of
law-making bodies. I do know this, and a lot of
you weren't even alive in World War II and have very little interest
in it, but I do know this. I do know for some unknown, unexplainable
reason that Hitler, with his great war machine, never crossed
that channel but turned around Cecil and started into Russia
and was defeated. England would have never stopped
him. You know that. He'd overrun them like Sherman
went through Georgia. But there was a man who, a military
brain with all of his military aides and everybody has turned
and went into a country that just swallows up armies. They
swallowed up Napoleon. They swallowed up Hitler. Like
anybody turned to go into China today, just swallow them up.
But they made that decision. I tell you who made that decision,
God made that decision. And kings make decisions, but
God makes them. Our God's sovereign, not only
in salvation and creation, but in providence. The heart of the
kings and the hands of the Lord. So he said pray for them, pray
about this. Now let me give you some reasons,
starting with verse 3. He said, I'll tell you why we
pray for all sorts of men. because it's good and acceptable
in sight of God our Savior. What here? That we pray for our
enemies, that we pray for men in authority, that we pray for
kings, that we pray for all men, that we pray for folks out there. Samuel said, God forbid that
I should sin against God in ceasing to pray for you. Here's another
reason. Because God will have all men
or all sorts of men. That's the only way you make
that read. God will, the will of God is to save some kings. You know, Queen Victoria said
this. She told a preacher one day, she was supposed to be a
very pious believer. Spurgeon referred to her quite
a bit as being a believer, but she made this statement. She
said, I thank God for the letter M. And they said, why? She said, well, that verse in
1 Corinthians doesn't say not any mighty, not any noble, it
says not many. And that lets me in, not many.
And so God can save kings, professors. He can even save preachers. He
can save anybody. He may be pleased to do it. That's
right. And I'm not just being facetious.
Best place to miss Christ right here in religion. and religion. So he will have all sorts of
men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. And I
know there are people everywhere may hear this tape and say, well,
he's adding to the Word of God. But let me show you a verse of
Scripture. Turn to the book of 2 Peter for just a moment. And brethren, when you're interpreting
Scripture, When you're interpreting Scripture, you've got to interpret
Scripture in the light of Scripture. The best commentary on the Word
of God is not Dr. Gibb. The best commentary on
the Word of God is the Word of God itself. And the best commentary
is not your books. They're good to read, but God's
Word. And this is what he's saying
in verse 20 of 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1.20, knowing this first,
know this first, that no scripture, no prophecy of the scripture
is of any private interpretation. Now that doesn't mean that I
can't interpret it privately. That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about that no single passage from a given
book can be interpreted in the light of itself. It has to be
interpreted, Tom, in the light of the rest of the Word of God.
The rest of the word. What grace means in 2 Peter,
grace means in Genesis. So find out what grace means
in Genesis. And when he said, repent and be baptized for the
remission of sins, there's no way that baptism is going to
remit your sin. Therefore, you can't interpret
that scripture in the light of itself. Being baptized for the
dead over there, for somebody that's already dead, no way that
can mean what it says there. It's got to mean what the rest
of the word of God says. See what I'm saying? And you
just take any verse like that when it says, God will have all
men to be saved. Well, now, I just know that's
not what that's saying, because the Bible doesn't teach that.
The Bible teaches that God's will is going to be done. He
doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. And he worketh everything after
the good pleasure of his own will. And if he wills the conversion
of every human being, it's got to be done. You can't say God's
will won't be done. A fella said one time to a friend
of mine, Big Brother Thornberry, he said, you believe what will
be, will be? Well, he said, that's better than believing what will
be, won't be. That is hard to swallow, isn't it? But he says
that no scriptures are in private interpretation, for the prophecy
came in the will of God, in the old time, not by the will of
man, but by the will of God. Paul's scripture. Man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word. So become acquainted, not
with a verse here and a verse there, like a crow picking grains
of corn out of a cornfield. Become acquainted with the whole
book. Read your Bible not by verses, but by books and epistles. Read the whole thing. It's like
the letter that Paul wrote to the church at Galatia. They didn't
turn over to the last verse and read that. They read the whole
epistle box. And it fits with the rest of
the Word of God. All right, read on verse 5. Pray for all men, all sorts
of men, Jew and Gentile, old and young, for there's one God
and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
That's the only way they're going to be saved too. It's Christ. God gave the Son of people. He
was a surety, he came into the world in the flesh, obeyed the
law, went to the cross and died, was buried and rose again, ascended
to the right hand of God, where he's a high priest, having made
atonement for our sins, where he intercedes for us, and that's
the only way a king's going to be saved or a poper. That's the
only way a Jew's going to be saved or a Gentile. Now you,
if you're one of these ultra-militant pre-millenarians who talk about
another gospel for the Jew in the millennial age, you're wrong.
There's one God and one mediator. And that Jew, I don't care where
he comes from or when he comes around, is going to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ or perish. That's just so. That's just so,
and we don't have a gospel, and that's what he's saying. You
pray for all men because that's good in the sight of God, because
God's going to save all sorts of men, and because it's just
one God and one mediator, that's Christ for all sorts of men,
and Christ Jesus gave himself a ransom for all sorts of men.
John said he didn't die for our sins only, taught to the Jews,
but for the sins of the whole world. That's what John's saying. You don't know how prejudiced
these Jews were against Gentiles. You remember the Lord told Peter,
he sent down that sheep. Well, Cornelius, the Gentile,
the Lord wanted Peter to go preach to him. He knew Peter wouldn't
do it, naturally speaking. So he sent that sheep down and
told Peter to rise, kill, and eat. And Peter said, not so.
He just told the Lord he wasn't going to do it. He said, I've
never eaten anything unclean like that. And he said, Peter,
what I've cleansed, don't you call unclean. You rise and eat.
And so Peter went down and preached to Cornelius, and they called
him on the carpet for it. The Jews did. And he said, God
told me to preach to them. And he said, I'll tell you, brethren,
God saves them. And that's what John's saying.
He said, not for our sins only, not for the Baptists only, but
for the whole world. Christ died for a world of sinners.
And that's just so. Alright, in verse 7, Paul says,
I'm ordained to preach an apostle to those Gentiles. I'm a preacher
to those Gentiles. That's the reason you need to
pray for them, because God sent me to preach to them. They were
called Gentile dogs by the Jewish people. Alright, let's look at
verse 8 now. Watch this. More instructions
about prayer in public worship. I will, therefore, that men pray.
Everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubt now you
stay with me now Here's the male and female in public worship
in this verse the Apostles Instructions concerning public prayer takes
notice of me That's exactly right now women. It's the duty of women
to pray and It's the duty of everybody to pray. But he's talking
about public prayer. That's what he's talking about
here. He's talking about public prayer. And he's saying it's
the place of men to pray publicly and there to lift up holy hands.
What that is, that's an outward sign of the elevation of the
heart. That's what that is. Holy hand lifting up. Holy head
the Jews actually did it and you'll see some folks doing it
today And I've got no objections if it's sincere if it's genuine
if it really is an outward sign of the lifting up of the heart
if it's done spontaneously and not You know as a show It's alright
if you want to sometimes slip out and I'll get on your knees
when you pray fine, but now I feel a little bit conspicuous, and
I feel like maybe he's showing off a little piety if you do
too much of this public demonstration. And bodily exercise profits little.
It's a heart worship and a heart prayer. But lifting up holy hands
in prayer is an outward expression of an inward elevation of the
heart to God. And he says, do it, do it without
wrath. That is, do it in a loving spirit. You can't pray angrily, either
with men or God. And do it without doubting. That
is, free from doubting, free from unbelief. Come to God in
faith. I will, therefore, that men,
in public worship, not ladies, but men, everywhere, lift up
holy hands, lift up the heart, without anger, in a loving spirit,
in faith now your women in like manner the women to adorn themselves
a woman's gonna adorn herself and They have been ever since
ever since this started back yonder Ned, but to adorn themselves
that is They're to adorn themselves in clothing and modest apparel
now the women are not to conduct public worship they're not to
pray publicly in the presence of men or are they to teach and
but they are to be in public worship. You see what he said?
He's including, they're here, they're in public worship, and
they're to adorn themselves for public worship. Let me, I summed
it up this way. For public worship, a woman is
to be dressed in apparel, and whatever else is included in
that dress, which is not showy, conspicuous, suggestive, or extreme. I told somebody one time that
you're just running into almost as much danger overdressing as
underdressing. You know what overdressing is?
It's to attract attention to myself, to show off. And this
type of thing, dress so that you won't be offensive. Dress
so that you won't be, your own heart won't be lifted up with
pride. No excessive, when he says this
plaiting of the hair, this broaded or braided hair, or gold or pearls,
this excessive arrangement of the hair, or the wearing of gold,
silver, and decorations to attract attention, he's talking about
public worship, public worship. And you come to public worship,
don't get yourself too fixed up for public worship. No, that's
just exactly right. We need to spend more time conditioning
our hearts for worship than our bodies anyway. We're not here
to recognize one another or to brag on one another, show off
new clothes and that sort of thing. Women as well as men ought
to realize, someone said, that true beauty and true adornment
is not the adornment of the body anyway, but the right ordering
of the heart. That's what it is. I think in some of our churches
that this thing has gotten out of hand, this fancy hairdos and
wearing of gold and all this sort of stuff, you know, and
you say, well, I had on plenty of clothes. You had on too many.
You had on too much stuff. And you just got too fancy, and
you attracted attention. And we're not here to attract
attention. We're not here to lift our hearts up with pride.
And that's what he's saying. Women, adorn yourselves in modest
apparel. sobriety, not with fancy arrangements
of the hair and adornment of the body and the wearing of gold
and silver and pearls and costly array, but that which becometh
a woman professing godliness with good work. Now, let your
women learn in silence with all subjection to their husbands.
I suffer not, this is as plain as I shall not kill. Not that
strong, but it's just plain anyway. He said, I suffer not a woman
to teach. nor to usurp authority over man,
but to be in silence." Now, let me tell you, this is what the
words say. Women are not to teach publicly. They're to teach children
at home. They're to teach little children and other women. Let
me show you that. Turn to Titus 2. Titus chapter 2. And it says here, verse 1 of Titus 2, "...speak
thou the things which become sound doctrine." That the aged
men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, and charitable
in patience. And the aged women, and we ain't
going to have a teacher here, are we? There's no way anybody
in here is going to teach. These women are going to teach. But
that the aged women be sober, be likewise, be in behaviors
of becoming holiness, not false accusers, not giving a much want,
teachers of good things. Who are they going to teach?
The younger women. Boy, they're going to teach them to be wise,
to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet,
chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husband,
that the word of God be not blasphemy. And that's what they're to teach.
Very profitable thing. So many of the ladies are interested
in teaching doctrine, you know. And these are the things to teach,
practical things. And they teach children. They
teach the older women. All right, women may pray, instruct,
and teach others in the home, little children and all, but
it plainly states that they're not to lead in public prayer. Here's what public prayer is.
When I say, David Adkins, lead us in prayer. This man is leading
this congregation before the throne of God. And the scripture
talks about others saying amen. Now God never ordained any female
to lead a bunch of men in front of him. You know why? Read the
next verse. For Adam was first formed, and
then Eve. That's headship in creation.
Secondly, verse 14. Adam was not deceived. The last
time a woman led man, she led him straight to hell. That's
exactly right. Adam was not deceived, but woman
being deceived was in the transgression. She gave to her husband. And
God said, don't ever do it again. Don't ever lead him again. Don't
ever lead him in doctrine. Don't ever lead him theologically.
I mean spiritually. Now, let me tell you. I know
one preacher told me one time years ago, he said, I've destroyed
my wife. I've literally destroyed. I could
tell it. I was in their home. I was holding a meeting for it.
He said, I've browbeat her. I've lorded it over. I've enforced
this woman, man, head of the home so much, I've taken away
her incentive. I've taken away her personality,
I've taken away her independency and individuality. Well, he's
a fool and he knows it now, but it's over. She's gone. She's
like a piece of clay to be kicked around. Husbands love your wives. Dwell with them according to
knowledge. A woman has a right, a strong right, she's a mother. In marriage together, she makes
decisions about the home. Don't come to the point where
your wife has to get permission to start the car. That's foolishness. He's talking here about spiritual
matters in public worship. He's talking about the priesthood
of the home. If your wife wants to buy her
a couch, let her buy her a couch, you know. If she wants to go
visit one of her friends, don't give her the third degree and
a questionnaire and tell her you heard of the house, you know.
If you're ahead, you don't have to prove it. You don't demand
respect, you earn it. That's exactly right, whether
it's the pulpit or home or wherever it is, on the job or anywhere
else. Treat others as you would have them treat you. Be kind
and tender and compassionate, but I've still got to hold the
line on this thing of the man is head of the woman, and Christ
is the head of the man. But Christ treats us tenderly,
doesn't he? And we're to love our wives as
Christ loved the church, and we're to treat our wives as Christ
treats us. And the Lord lets us, we make
some decisions according to his will, we seek his will, we seek
to please him, we seek to glorify him, and a home ought to be that
way. But please me, a lot of the preachers
and folks I used to run around back when I was young is always
trying to prove he's head of the house, and that proves they're
not. That's exactly right. I like what that fella said,
and I got time for a little foolishness, but that fella said that his
wife made the minor decisions in the home, Paul, and he made
the major decision. And so I said, well, what's the
minor decision? He said, well, like, where are
we going to live, and what kind of car are we going to buy, and
what kind of furniture are we going to buy, and where are we
going to eat when we go out? And he said, that's a minor decision?
He said, yeah, she makes all those. Well, he said, what's
the major decision? He said, well, Major decisions,
whether the U.S. ought to pull out of the U.N.,
that's pretty major. And whether we ought to recognize
Red China, he said, that's important, I solve all them problems. Well,
I hope you understand what I'm saying. I hope you understand
the direction I'm going. Live together in peace and joy
and happiness that your prayers be not hindered. Treat the wife
as the weaker vessel, as a gift of God to you, as a charming,
lovely, wonderful person in the home who has some rights and
authority and these things as a wife and mother. But wives,
respect your husband. Don't speak evil of them or to
them. Not in their, not publicly anyway. You've got a complaint, make
it to him. And you men receive the complaint and give it some
judgment. She's usually right. But I'm
talking about public worship and teaching. And don't, please
don't, and I urge the young men here, don't get this, don't take
this head of the house and the head of the woman and the head
of this, that and the other and kill your wife, because you can
do it. And trying to be a good Christian,
she'll submit till she submits herself clear into jelly. And
I've seen that done. and i've seen women in churches
i've seen churches where the women have been just so zip-lipped
that they're even afraid to ask a question or shit like that
you know even in a sunday school class or in a home or anywhere
but this is talking about public worship it's talking about usurping
authority and it's talking about leadership you ladies need to
express yourselves you need to open up you need to learn you
need to listen you need to inquire you need to help one another
you need to teach one Well, women are supposed to keep silent.
Well, when you ladies get together, open the Word of God and express
yourself and have prayer. And he's saying, if there's a
man present, let the man. But I think in the home, whether
husband and wife and children, let the wife lead and pray. That's
not use of an authority because you're one. A man and his wife
are one. You follow me? And you say, well, a woman is
not supposed to lead a man in prayer. You and that woman are
one now. And when she prays, you pray.
Isn't that right? God will give you good judgment.
We don't need to be fools. He'll give good judgment. And
follow the scripture. I hope this has been a blessing.
I hope God will use it. Let's bow for prayer. Our Father, our earnest prayer
is teach us to pray. Give me the spirit of prayer.
A continual attitude of prayer. Make this a praying church. We would shun outward form and
outward piety and that which is obnoxious and abomination
in your sight, trying to impress anyone. But Lord, we want a heart
worship and a heart love and a sincere relationship with thee, one which
is real and genuine. Teach us not only how to pray,
but the things for which we should pray. And reveal this scripture
to us. Reveal, as we go step by step
through the word together, give us understanding and bless us
according to your will. Bless each home represented here.
Each wife and husband and child, grandchildren, every family unit
in this family as a whole. We pray for Christ's sake. Amen.