One of the most controversial issues facing the church these days is the issue of women preachers, including the question of whether or not a woman should be ordained and then function as a pastor. In fact, the rise of women pastors in the last few years has affected a number of Protestant churches with the following denominations ordaining women and installing them as pastors and elders. USA Presbyterian Church, United Methodist Church, Assemblies of God and other Pentecostal traditions, Salvation Army, Church of the Nazarene, the Friends, those would be the Quakers, and certain Baptist and Lutheran groups. And it's not only theologically liberal churches who ordain women to the pastorate. Sometimes people think that, but that's not necessarily the case. There are some Bible-believing churches who are doing this too. The most well-known of these is Saddleback Church in California, pastored by Rick Warren. And it's become quite a volatile issue with many people, even those who profess to love Christ and to love his word, rejecting what the Apostle Paul wrote on this subject, and accusing Paul of not only being wrong, but of being a male chauvinist, being a hater of women. But those who do this not only slander the apostle Paul, but they reveal a very low view of scripture and a low view and an erroneous view of the divine inspiration of the scriptures. And they fail to understand that everything that Paul wrote in the New Testament, he wrote as an apostle who was inspired by God. Therefore, Paul's views on the role of women in the church are God's views. being under the supernatural guidance and control of the Holy Spirit when the apostle wrote scripture, Paul did not allow his views to be influenced by the culture of the day or by his own personal bias, nor did he allow his views on women and their role in the church to be affected by his Jewish background. He simply wrote the truth as God controlled and guided him to write. And one of the key passages, places in scripture where Paul laid out God's instructions concerning the role of women in the church is the passage we have come to tonight in our ongoing study of 1 Corinthians 14. Here's what Paul wrote concerning how women were to behave when the church came together on Sundays. He's talking about Sunday church meetings. Here's what Paul wrote, 1 Corinthians 14, starting not at the beginning of verse 33, but the middle of verse 33, going to verse 36. As in all the churches of the saints, the women are to keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the law also says. If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home. For it is improper for a woman to speak in church. Was it from you that the word of God first went forth, or has it come to you only? Now, as you recall, these verses are found in a passage of scripture in which Paul is stressing to the Corinthians that God wants order in his church. Due to the Corinthians allowing their Sunday church services to degenerate into chaos and disharmony and confusion with a number of individuals all speaking at the same time in tongues as well as prophesying or preaching, Paul makes it clear that this is simply unacceptable and it has to stop. And the reason he says that this has to stop is found in two verses in 1 Corinthians 14 that really help us to get a handle on this passage and what it's about. The first one is verse 33, the beginning of verse 33 where Paul says, for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. And then verse 40, but all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner. Now, In these two statements, Paul is rebuking the Corinthians for their conduct, their behavior in church, which was anything but peaceful, anything but proper, anything but orderly. Not only does he rebuke them in this passage, but he instructs them on what they needed to do to restore order in their church services. You see what the Apostle Paul is doing, folks, in this final section in chapter 14 as he is instructing the church on how to carry on an orderly Sunday service. So that there's no confusion, there's no chaotic disorder going on, and everything is carried out in an organized, peaceful, and harmonious manner. So what we have here then is Paul laying down some very specific regulations, procedures for the purpose of bringing orderliness to the church when they met on Sundays. Therefore, starting with verse 26 until the chapter ends, In verse 40, Paul lays down certain regulations for how the Corinthians were to conduct themselves in their church services. He does this by regulating three very specific areas that were problems and were really at the heart of the confusion taking place when the Corinthians gathered on Sundays. Now, the last time we studied this passage, we looked at the first problem area that Paul addressed and regulated, and that area being the use of spiritual gifts in the church service, specifically the gifts of preaching and tongues. And tonight, we want to look at the second problem area that was contributing to the chaos and the confusion taking place at Corinth and the instructions Paul gave for bringing this area under control. So having told the Corinthians how to bring the spiritual gifts of tongues and prophecy or preaching under control, he now moves on to address the problem of women speaking in the church services. So we break in at verse 33, but the middle of verse 33, and I'll tell you why in a moment. Paul says, as in all the churches of the saints, Now, these words are found, as you can see, they're the second part of verse 33. The entire verse says this, for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. Now, concerning this verse, it is helpful to know that in the original Greek text, there is no grammatical punctuation. Therefore, it is left up to Bible translators to decide how it should be read. And with this verse, most Bible scholars feel that instead of putting a comma after the word peace, there should be a period, so that the words, as in all the churches of the saints, really begins a new sentence, and it begins a new thought. And the reason for this is because the statement, for God is not the God of confusion, but of peace, that's already a complete sentence. That's already a complete thought. In and of itself, that's already complete. And then to add to the words, as in all the churches of the saints, really doesn't make much sense. In fact, it's just not logical. It isn't related to what has just been said. But it does make perfect sense that the words, as in all the churches of the saints, with those words, that Paul is making a new point, which he goes on to explain. That point being that what he is about to say is something that all the other churches outside of the church of Corinth practiced. All the other churches practiced, but not Corinth. In other words, what Paul is about to tell the Corinthians is how the other churches outside of them functioned when it came to the Sunday services and in particular the role of women. That is to say the regulation he is about to lay down for the Corinthians was the standard universal practice of all the other churches, Christian churches. This was the way Paul is saying to them, this is the way that he and his fellow apostles taught the other congregations to behave. And what was that practice? What is he talking about? Well, it had to do, as I just mentioned, with the way that women in the church were to behave on Sunday when the church gathered for their meeting. Paul spells this out very clearly in verse 34. The women are to keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves just as the law says. Now, in looking at this verse, it's important to remember what Paul has just finished saying. We have the disadvantage of having a week or two, sometimes three weeks break, and we forget where we left off. But let me just remind you of the context and what Paul has just said. He's just finished giving regulations concerning those with the gift of prophecy or preaching, how they were to behave. So if you back up to verses 29 through 32, here's what you read. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted. And the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. So having given instructions about how preaching was to be carried out in the service in a very orderly manner, speaking one by one, Paul now makes it clear that women are not to preach in the church services. So when he says they are to keep silent in the churches, he's forbidding them from taking on the role of preaching to the congregation when the church gathers on Sundays. Now, understand Paul isn't forbidding women from singing in the church. They can sing. They can certainly sing solos. Nor is he saying that they can't give personal testimonies in the church. He's not saying that. But what he is forbidding, what he's forbidding them to do is to get up on a Sunday and preach or teach in a Sunday church service. Now that doesn't mean that women have no role in the church. Women can certainly instruct other women. They can certainly instruct children, teach children. In fact, in Titus chapter 2, Paul tells the mature older women in the church to teach by way of encouragement the younger women. Here's what Paul said in Titus chapter 2, starting at verse 3. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in their behavior. not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. So women aren't forbidden from teaching other women. But what they are not allowed to do, as I said, is to get up and preach or teach when the entire congregation of men and women gather on Sundays. And the reason for this is because that would put them in an authoritative role over the men in the congregation when God has ordained that women are to be in the role of submission to men. And this is precisely the point that Paul makes in verse 34. If you look again at verse 34, I want you to notice that after stating that women are to keep silent in the churches, you're talking about teaching now, preaching. Not that they can't utter a word, not that they can't whisper, you're talking about preaching. Paul then reinforces this command by stating, for they are not permitted to speak. And then, notice, he explains why they are not permitted to preach in church by stating they are to subject themselves just as the law also says. In other words, the reason they are not to be teaching a church congregation made up of adult men and women is because the law of God says that women are to be in subjection to men. And by law, what Paul is talking about, he's referring back to the very first book of the Bible, part of the law, Genesis chapter 3, verse 16, where we read that God told the first woman, Eve, that Adam, her husband, he said, he will rule over you. Now the statement about Adam ruling over Eve and Eve being in submission to Adam, it was not limited to them as the first married couple, but it was intended to be a timeless principle that wives are to be in subjection to their own husbands. In fact, Paul even mentions this back in chapter 11 of this letter. But more than describing the husband and wife relationship, it was intended to convey a universal truth. That truth being that when it came to spiritual leadership, men were to be in authority over women and not the other way around. Now the Apostle explained this in another one of his letters in 1st Timothy chapter 2, where he wrote these words, starting with verse 11. A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression." Now, these words by the Apostle Paul are also said in the context of the church meeting on Sundays, just a different church now, he's addressing the Ephesians. What the Apostle says here, it's exactly what he's been saying in chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians, but I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. But then Paul goes on to explain why this is the case. And in doing so, he helps us to understand what he was saying to the Corinthians. But let me pause here for a moment. I don't have this in my notes, but Michelle had asked me recently, she said, are you going to share what happened to you years ago? So I will. This is off the cuff. Many years ago, Michelle and I were invited to the island of Fiji. Fiji is made up of many islands, but this was the main island of Fiji. And I was asked to teach. people expository preaching. It was a rather large room and so I was teaching. I was actually co-teaching with a professor from Dallas Seminary. I think he was teaching the Book of Romans and I was teaching expository preaching. And there were a lot of Christian workers there, many from the Methodist Church, many from Salvation Army. That was just the background of this island. And I made the point, I went to this passage in 1 Timothy 2, and I was making the point that we don't know a whole lot about how the early church conducted their services, but we do know that teaching was a major part of it. And I went to verse 11 of chapter 2 to prove my point that women must quietly receive instruction. with entire submissiveness, simply to make the point that whatever went on in the church in the early days of the church, there was teaching, because the women were to sit there quietly and in submission and be taught. Well, you would have thought that I denied the faith. As soon as I said that women, and I went on to say women are not to teach, but are to be taught, you would have thought that I denied the faith. There was a point where I said, any questions? And immediately, and there were something like, I don't know, about 300 or so people there. I mean, it was a large crowd. And immediately, I was challenged bombarded, questioned, accused. It was abusive. It was so bad to the point that when we took a break, the man who had invited us there said, no more. Don't take any of these questions anymore. That was the atmosphere. that was going on. This is a very real issue, and that was years ago. They had never heard anything like this, but the Apostle Paul taught this, and Paul not only teaches it, but notice his explanation as to why this is the case, why women are not to teach men. Notice what he writes in verses 13 and 14, which is very, very helpful. Paul said, for it was Adam who was first created and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. By the way, when we got finished that day, the professor from Dallas Seminary said, I'm sure glad it was you and not me. Now, with these words, Paul is going back to the early chapters of Genesis and the creation of male and female And that tells us something important. It tells us that the truth of women being in submission to men, men being in authority over women, is not a cultural issue. It's not cultural, because that's what some people say. They say, well, this was only for the church at Corinth. That was a very unusual situation. And that's not what Paul said. Or this was only for the church at Ephesus. It was only in the early days. of the first century. That's not what Paul said. This is not a cultural issue. This is an issue that goes back to creation. And it's really, it isn't even based on the fall of man. This was before the fall. But it is based at creation. God ordained the role of male leadership by first creating Adam. and then creating Eve. This is Paul's argument. Now Genesis makes it clear that both Adam and Eve were created by God and they were both created in the image of God, which means that they were equal before God. Neither of them being superior nor inferior to one another. It's important to understand this. It's important to understand that authority and submission can coexist without meaning that one gender is better or superior to the other gender. This is made abundantly clear by the fact that the New Testament teaches that Jesus was in submission to the Father. And yet both are equally God. Jesus certainly wasn't inferior to the Father. The Father wasn't superior to the Son. They were both equally deity. The Lord never ceased from being equal with the father even though he was in submission to him. However, the fact that Adam was created first means that he was to be his wife's protector. and to function as her leader. And when those roles were reversed, and Eve became the leader by taking the lead in sinning, as she was deceived by the devil, she led Adam into sin. That's the point that Paul's making, and ultimately, the entire human race was led into sin. In other words, what Paul is saying is that it is God, God, who from the very beginning ordained decreed that men should lead and women should follow by submitting. And that's why women are not permitted in the leadership role of preaching to men in a church service. And that is exactly what Paul is telling the Corinthians in chapter 14, verse 34. The women, he said, are to keep silent in the churches. for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves just as the law also says. Now I recognize that this, what I'm preaching tonight, and this biblical truth runs completely contrary to the way our society views men and women. I understand that, especially these days as the distinctions between male and female are so blurred and so often reversed. But we have to remember our society has no moral compass. This is sheer lunacy. This simply reflects a depraved mind that is unable to think clearly about moral and spiritual issues. The beliefs that our culture now embraces as normal, it used to be that you could classify that under the heading of insanity. Insanity. What you can trust is not our society or culture. What you can trust as truth is what God says. And what he says is that women are forbidden to preach in church. Sadly, though, as I said earlier, there are certain Bible-believing churches led by Bible-believing leaders who sincerely think that Paul was wrong and that women should be ordained and allowed to serve in the church as pastors and elders. In fact, as I said earlier, there are some who would accuse Paul of hating women and being prejudiced against women. That's absolutely wrong. Paul respected women. He worked alongside of women in the ministry of the gospel. He says so in Philippians chapter 4 verses 2 and 3. He mentions two women here. I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche, those are the names of two women that he knew, to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement, also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. So in some way that we don't know, these two women worked alongside of Paul in the cause of the gospel. Paul respected women. The New Testament reveals that women played a vital role in the life of the early church. The Book of Acts is filled with incidents of women, godly women, doing good works, godly works in serving the church. But you don't read in the New Testament anywhere, especially in the Book of Acts, about a woman being a pastor in any of the churches. Now in response to the errors of those who disagree with Paul, one commentator that I use by the name of Jack Hunter, I don't know much about Jack Hunter except that he's a Scottish Bible teacher who has ministered in the United Kingdom. He wrote this, I thought this was very good and so I want to read it to you. He wrote this concerning Paul's words, let the women keep silent in the churches. Here's what Jack Hunter said. He said, it is absolute. There's no way around it. It is simple, clear, plain, and authoritative. It is somewhat pathetic, the length to which some expositors go to explain it away. The meaning cannot be mistaken. No rule in the New Testament is more positive. No matter how plausible may be the reasons for disregarding it and allowing women to take part, the language of the apostle is clear and positive, and cannot be set aside. The prohibition is absolute in the gathering of the saints." I think he's right. He's absolutely right. There's no room for bending on this. But in addition to forbidding the women from preaching in the church service, there was something else going on at Corinth which was causing chaos when the church came together. And Paul addresses this in verse 35. If they desire, they here, the women, if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home. For it is improper for a woman to speak in church. Now, based on what we read here, we don't know exactly what was going on, but it would appear that certain women in the Corinthian church, in addition to preaching on Sundays, were also asking questions out loud during the Sunday church service, and they were disrupting the meetings. And while there's nothing wrong in asking questions, nothing wrong in desiring to understand biblical truth, what Paul is addressing here is the disorderliness of these women. Remember, these verses are found in the context of Paul teaching that God is not a God of confusion and that in a church service all things must be done properly and in an orderly fashion. Now, understand something important. Paul is not saying that women cannot ask questions, that they can't ask questions in certain settings, like a home Bible study or a Sunday school class. That's certainly fine. That's appropriate. Our home fellowships are wonderful settings for men and women to discuss biblical truths and to exchange questions and answers. But what Paul is talking about is a Sunday church service and that is a setting, in that setting he is forbidding women to openly ask questions. Now apparently the manner in which these women were asking these questions during church was disruptive and it was adding to the confusion and chaos to the service. It may very well be that After someone preached a message, I tend to think this is what was going on, that these women spoke up and questioned the speaker and challenged the speaker, questioned the meaning of the passage, questioned the application of the message. It's also possible. that in their questions, as I said, they were not simply asking for something, but deliberately challenging the speaker, challenging then his authority. His authority as a Bible teacher. But regardless of what exactly was taking place, in these women asking their questions, Paul doesn't pour cold water on these women's desire to learn and to understand. He just doesn't want them to stand up in church and challenge speakers and ask their questions out loud and be disruptive and creating confusion and chaos in an already chaotic church service that just lended to more chaos. And so notice what the apostle tells these women to do. He tells them to ask their husbands at home. In other words, if you have questions about what you're hearing in church, then wait until you're home and then ask your husband for clarification on the meaning of the message and its applications. This would be the appropriate thing to do. A woman asking her husband these questions, she would be putting herself in submission to her husband, which is exactly what God wants for her. It would also put her husband in the position of being her leader, which is exactly what God wants of him. Now today, we may not have the exact same situation of these women shouting out questions in church, but the truth still remains that a Christian husband ought to be able to lead his wife by being her primary teacher of biblical truth. And this assumes that he knows the Bible, it assumes that he understands the Bible well enough to answer her questions. So, husbands, the question is, can you answer your wife's questions? Do you have a basic understanding of biblical truth? I understand you may not know a lot of theological issues, I understand that. Then you ask your pastors or you do some reading or so forth. But the question is, do you know the Bible well enough to lead your wife? You should, and may that spur you on to be a better student of the word. Regardless of whether or not a Christian woman can find help from her husband at home, she should. Paul makes it clear she is not allowed to disrupt the church service by asking her questions in front of the entire congregation. In fact, notice how Paul ends verse 35. He says, for it is improper for a woman to speak in church. This word that's translated improper, it means shameful. It means disgraceful. Paul says that for a woman to speak out in a Sunday church service is so inappropriate that it is indecent. In commenting on this issue, my pastor friend who I've referred to before, Carrie Hardy, who's done some great studies on 1 Corinthians 14, he said this about the shamefulness of women speaking at church. He said, regardless of the duties she must fulfill in life, regardless of the strength she must exhibit in difficult times, regardless of her incredible giftedness, a godly woman is expected by the Lord to display to the world what meekness looks like. God wants the refinement and delicacy of the female sex to be carefully preserved. So to help accomplish this preservation, when it comes to spiritual matters, prescribed guidelines are to be followed, including not speaking out and leading in mixed corporate assemblies of the church. So Paul has laid down a rather strict regulation concerning women not speaking in church, and therefore, knowing the Corinthians as he did, He expects that they're going to be reacting negatively to this. They're going to strike back. They're going to push back as to what he's just told them. And so in anticipation of this, notice what Paul says in verse 36. Because he turns it around and he challenges them with apostolic sarcasm. This is a sarcastic verse. Verse 36. Was it from you that the word of God first went forth? Or has it come to you only? Now, in this verse, Paul, notice he asks two questions. As I said, he asks them with sarcasm. First, he asks, did God's word go forth from you? Meaning what? Meaning, were you the source of Scripture? Did the Bible originate with you? And the answer is, of course not. Of course not. They weren't the source of Scripture. God is the source of Scripture. So why would Paul ask such a question? Well, he asked this in order to make the point that since they weren't the source of Scripture, they needed to come under the Scripture and obey it. You're not the one who created this. Your job is simply to obey it. In other words, you need to do what God is telling you to do concerning the women in your church. The second question the apostle asked is, has God's word only come to you? And of course the answer is no. God's word has gone out to all the churches, all the apostles as they founded these churches. And the point that Paul is making with this question is since all the other churches follow the practice of women not speaking in their church services, then you need to follow that practice as well. This is the very issue, folks, that we started with, that Paul brought up at the beginning of his teaching about women speaking in the church. Notice, let's look back at the second part of verse 33, as in all the churches of the saints. In their arrogance, and this church was very arrogant, the Corinthians felt that they could do whatever they wanted to do, even if all the other churches were obeying the apostles and forbidding women to speak in church. It would appear that the Corinthians were the only church that was really out of order with this. Listen, no church has the authority, no local church has the authority to do whatever they want to do. Every church is compelled to obey the Word of God. But that's not what the Corinthians were doing. They were doing their own thing when it came to women preachers. As I said, it would appear that they were the only church at that time where this was a problem. I mean, Paul mentioned it about to the Ephesians when he wrote to Timothy. It doesn't appear that it was a big problem there, but it was a big problem here. And Paul will have none of it. They weren't the source of the Bible and they weren't the only church to receive the Bible. All Christians and all churches are to be under the authority of scripture. That's exactly what we endeavor to do here at Lakeside. We are not a law unto ourselves. We don't make up the rules. We are no different from any other evangelical church in that we exist to honor the Lord by obeying his word. So how do we apply what we've learned tonight? Well, here's a few points of application. First, we affirm that at Lakeside, it is men who are given the roles of teaching and preaching. However, this does not mean that we stifle women who have been gifted in teaching. And yes, women can be gifted in teaching the Bible just like men. but they are not to teach men. So what do we do at Lakeside? Well, here's a few things. We have a wonderful ladies' Bible study, Insight for Women, meets on Wednesday nights as well as Thursday mornings, where women, many of them, teach women every week. So ladies, you can get involved. Also, women are encouraged to teach children in our Sunday school classes. We have a great need for more Sunday school teachers and helpers, so get involved, ladies. Women can also disciple other women, and in obedience to what Paul taught in Titus 2, they can train other women on how to love their husbands and their children. So ladies, do that. We also have women who counsel other women and teach them biblical solutions to their problems. All of these are opportunities for the women of our church to teach and to be taught by women. In addition, by way of application, what we've learned tonight should also motivate the men in our church, especially husbands, to grow in their understanding of God's word so that you can answer your wife when she asks a question about what she heard in church on Sunday. and how to apply the Bible, she ought to be able to get from you solid biblical answers. So husbands, get going. Start reading good books to help you to understand scripture. Start listening to sermons and paying close attention to what you're being taught. Take notes. Start asking your pastors questions so that you might have answers for your wife. And all of us, both men and women, we need to have an attitude that says whatever scripture says, regardless If it is contrary to the thinking of our culture, we are in submission to it. If you don't know Christ as Savior, as Lord, then I exhort you to be in submission to Him, to His authority. How do you do that? You repent of your sin, you place your trust in Christ alone for salvation with an attitude that says, Lord, you are indeed my Lord. I surrender my life to you. And if you'd like to speak to to one of our pastors about that as we close the service, just let me know that. But let's pray together now. Our Father, we thank you for what we've studied tonight. Lord, in so many churches in our day, especially in charismatic churches, some of this stuff is still going on, crazy stuff, just still going on. Women who are teaching and being disorderly, and not simply in charismatic churches, but in other places too. But Lord, help us. Help us to be those who understand the word of God and respond in obedience to it. Lord, we know what I've taught tonight. I know that it goes against our culture. Unbelievers who would hear this would think we are so outdated and relics of a distant past. But this is your word, which is never outdated. So help us to stand for the truth with an attitude of love for you. We love the women of our church. We don't want them to be frustrated. We just want them to be everything you want them to be, and for the men to be everything that you want them to be as well. And we would pray, Lord, if there's anyone here or watching who needs to surrender their life to Christ, that tonight might be that time. We pray all of this in Jesus' name, amen.