Father, we come before you for what I consider the highlight of the service, to be able to worship you through the preaching of your Word. We're thankful for the songs we can sing. We're thankful for the celebration of communion. I feel particularly blessed to be an elder at a church where we are able to have communion prior to the sermon so that our hearts are focused on Christ and what what he has done for us as Phil shared and then Carl prayed. And so with our hearts elevated to Christ's sacrifice, we come before you desiring to worship, and so help us to do so through attentiveness, through focus on your word, what you would say to us. I pray for this topic in particular that might be sensitive, that it would hopefully stand as a position in our church, almost a position sermon. as opposed to a position paper to establish our view of male leadership within the church and the home and that we would hold to this. As feminism, as egalitarianism continues to creep into churches and sadly influence many of them, let us be a church that holds to your word and what it teaches about this area. Help me to rightly divide it. I don't know people's appreciation for some of these verses. All I ask, Lord, is that we would all be given receptive hearts, and then most importantly, that we would apply this teaching within our church and our homes, and we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. So tell us this morning's sermon is male leadership in the Bible is God's pattern, even with Deborah. And so Sunday mornings, we've been working through Luke's gospel verse by verse. But then something took place this last week, which was a resolution from the Southern Baptist Convention. And so just by a show of hands, was anyone following the SBC, or the Southern Baptist Convention, annual meeting convened this past week? Was anyone following that by chance? Okay, so I was following it, and I learned about one of the resolutions, and then I messaged the elders, and they all said, yes, let's definitely do a sermon on this topic. And so I was able to prepare this sermon. So we interrupted our verse-by-verse study in Luke's gospel, which we will resume next week, for two reasons. First, the SBC or the Southern Baptist Convention, it is the largest Protestant denomination in our nation, or even in the world, for that matter. And so even though we're not part of the SBC, we are still Baptistic, because of its prominence and influence, I would still encourage you to generally follow what is taking place within the SBC, because it can say much about the culture of the Christian church in our nation. So it was held from June 11th through 14th and there were two main issues at the forefront of this convention. First was the election of the new SBC president. I did not have much familiarity with Bart Barber who did end up being elected. I had some familiarity with Mike Stone. I did like listening to him. I liked everything that I heard from Mike and so for Bart to be elected, I hope that he would do an even better job than I was suspecting Mike might do. So the election of the president was one of the issues. And then the other main issue at the SBC, or the conference, it's called the Annual Meeting and Pastors Conference, was the issue of female pastors. Churchleaders.com wrote, among the most significant events from the conference were those pertaining to women in church leadership. Just yesterday I was listening to the Christian Worldview with David Wheaton. David had Mike Stone, the individual who was running for the president to be the SBC against Bart Barber, on to the show to discuss the issue of female pastors, and David Wheaton who runs the Christian Worldview said, females being pastors was the front and center issue at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. Now, Heath Lambert, who many of us know as the previous pastor, or excuse me, the previous president of ACBC, the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, wrote The issue garnering the most attention at the conference was the issue of female pastors. Now, I could give you plenty of other quotes, but you get the point that the major topic at this year's conference was, if I was to say it simply, should women be pastors? Bringing this topic, so you say, well, why did this become such a front and center issue at this convention? Well, the main reason is Rick Warren. Rick Warren, as some of you might know, decided to install women as pastors at his church Saddleback. Heath Lambert wrote, and please listen to this, I know it's tempting to tune out during quotes. I will refine, trim quotes to try to give you just what I believe is most important. Please listen to this quote from Heath Lambert. He said, no one knew for sure how the vote would go until the meeting happened, but all doubt was removed when delegates voted to uphold the removal of Saddleback from the SVC by a vote of 88 percent. That very high number is even more amazing when you consider that the vote removed what had been the largest church in the SBC led by the most famous pastor in America. I disagree with that point. I think John MacArthur is probably the most famous pastor in America, but anyway. Dr. Lambert continues. He says, add to that vote the fact that the SBC overwhelmingly approved amendments to the Constitution and the BFM, which I'll explain in just a moment, to clarify our opposition to female pastors, and the conclusion is clear. Now, the BFM or the Baptist Faith and Message is essentially the statement of faith for the SBC. And so beyond just voting to uphold their position by removing Saddleback, and just understand what that means to remove Saddleback. To remove any denomination would want large influential churches in it and large influential pastors in it. To remove Saddleback and to remove Rick Warren was to remove the largest church in the denomination as well as the most influential pastor in the denomination, which is to say that the SBC is committed to holding to biblical truth versus platform and influence. Now, they went beyond just voting out the SBC. They adjusted their constitution and the BFM, the Baptist Faith and Message, to make it more robust in its language, opposing female pastors and establishing men as leaders within the church. So Dr. Lambert continued and he said, our convention has rejected what is popular in favor of what is true and this is a very encouraging sign for the future, end quote. And I just wanted to share that last part because I understand that we can become very discouraged by many of the things that we see happening within the church, but this is something that should be viewed as being very encouraging. I agree with Dr. Lambert on that point. Now the second reason that the elders and I decided to interrupt our study and Luke can preach this sermon today is we thought what better day to talk about male leadership within the church and then on Father's Day. So let's go ahead and get into it. Because I didn't become a Christian until my early 20s, growing up I wasn't taught many differences between men's and women's roles, aside from the obvious ones, such as, let's say, men not going into women's bathrooms or men not playing on sports teams, which sadly our nation is getting incorrect at this time. I didn't see many differences between men and women, beyond the obvious. And that was the case even when I went through Army ROTC and then became an officer. Except for a few differences, such as lower physical requirements on the physical fitness test, I didn't see many men and women facing different expectations. But here's the thing, even though I was not a Christian yet, there was this nagging suspicion, or even conviction, that men should lead. And why is that? Perhaps you have this same nagging thought in the back of your minds, too. Because, as Scripture teaches, God created men to lead, and this brings us to lesson one. We see the pattern of male leadership throughout the Old Testament. We see the pattern of male leadership throughout the Old Testament. The pattern of male leadership began at creation itself. I wanted to limit this just to one sermon, but there are plenty of evidences, even within the creation account itself between Adam and Eve, identifying Adam's headship prior to the fall. In other words, headship is not a consequence of the fall. And so we see the male headship was established at creation itself and then maintained throughout the Old Testament. Now just give me your attention. Let's just be honest. Follow me for a moment. Consider the weight of what I'm about to share with you. There were patriarchs instead of matriarchs. The tribes of Israel were named after? The tribes of Israel were named after? Fathers, men, husbands. God wanted priests from the tribe of Levi versus? God wanted priests from the tribe of Levi versus priestesses. God appointed kings instead of queens. God made all of his covenants. with men, and then the covenants were named after the men. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and then Jesus are the heads of those covenants, or the men whom God, or the mediators between God and man, or the individuals that God had those covenants established with. So here's a question, why do we see examples of female leadership in the Old Testament, such as queens, prophetesses, and at least one judge? Are these examples of rebellion against God's design, or is there another explanation? And so to answer this, let's just look at each of these individually. First, let's deal with queens. The Old Testament, Mentions three prominent Queens and they fall into two categories good and evil Let's just deal with the two evil Queens first. Who are the two evil Queens from the Old Testament? Jezebel and Athaliah. That's exactly right. Jezebel married to Ahab and their daughter Athaliah. Jezebel and Athaliah, both very evil women, they seized control and became tyrannical leaders. Jezebel instituted the worship of the false god Baal across Israel and persecuted all the followers of Yahweh. If you remember, Elijah thought he was the only one left. He was incorrect, but it had gotten so bad. Jezebel had effectively slaughtered so many of God's prophets that Elijah thought that he was alone. Her daughter, Athaliah, murdered all of her own grandchildren upon the death of her son and then seized the throne for herself. So clearly neither of these two queens serves as an example for us today. Who's the godly queen in the Old Testament? Esther, she stands in contrast to Jezebel and Athaliah. We see that throughout her life, she supported male leadership through her submission. Let me say this one more time. We see throughout godly Queen Esther's life, submission to male leadership, first through her adoptive father, Mordecai, and then to her husband, the king of Persia. In other words, it was her submission to male leadership that God worked through to save the Jews. Let's talk about priestesses. When priestesses are mentioned, they were part of pagan religions, such as the worship of Aztart or Baal. There were no godly priestesses to follow, because under the Mosaic covenant, only men could be priests. And now here's the reason. that only men could become priests because they were the teachers of Israel. Just listen to this verse, Leviticus 10, 11. The priests may teach Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken. And so the reason only men could be priests is they were the teachers and God wanted men as the teachers when it came to teaching groups containing men and women. Wayne Grudem, He's the co-founder of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and this is what he wrote. Think of the Bible as a whole, from Genesis to Revelation. Where is there one example in the entire Bible of a woman publicly teaching an assembled group of God's people? There is none. So God did not want women being priests because he did not want women teaching mixed groups or being the primary teachers. Let's talk about prophetesses. While there are no biblical examples of women publicly teaching men and women, women could be prophetesses because it was not a leadership position and it did not involve teaching men. John Piper and Wayne Grudem, they're the authors of Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and in this book they wrote this. In the Old Testament, some women were prophets but never priests because the priests had the more settled and established positions of leadership in Israel. Prophecy is a different kind of gift from teaching and when, and just keep this in mind, it's gonna come up later and it's gonna be significant, that prophecy is not the same as teaching. Prophecy is a different kind of gift from teaching and when women functioned as prophets, They did so with a demeanor and attitude that supported male leadership. Women who have the gift of prophecy did not exercise it in a public forum as male prophets did. The reason for this is that such a public exercise of authority would contradict male headship." So let's briefly consider the two prominent prophecies in the Old Testament so that we can see how their ministries not only didn't conflict with male leadership, but actually supported male leadership. You can go and turn to Exodus 15. We will be flipping around an amount this morning. In Exodus 15, to give you the context, we're picking up right after Israel has crossed the Red Sea. So Israel crosses the Red Sea, and then Moses leads the nation in a song of praise. If you look in Exodus 15, verses 1 through 19, this will be important. We're not going to read the whole song, but I just want you to notice in Exodus 15, verses 1 through 19, Moses leads the nation of Israel in a song of praise associated with God successfully bringing them through the Red Sea and then defeating the army of Egypt. Then Miriam did something similar. Miriam is one of the most prominent prophetesses in the Old Testament, Moses' sister. Miriam does something similar to her brother. It picks up right after Moses' song of praise that he led the nation of Israel to sing, look with me, in verse 20. Miriam the prophetess, the sister, notice she's called that, Miriam the prophetess. the sister of Aaron. She took the timbrel in her hand," and then notice this, "...all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances, and Miriam answered them, Sing to the Lord." We're not going to read the whole song. Who did Miriam lead? So, who did she lead? And who did she not lead? When she was going to lead women, she went out with the women. She did not even lead the men in the singing here, as Moses had done. Conversely, consider what happened when Miriam joined Aaron in challenging Moses' leadership. And I just want you to go ahead and turn to Numbers 12 if you'd like. And if you don't want to turn there, I just want you, whether you turn there or not, I want you to notice the plural words in this account, plural words, showing that Moses' brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam, engaged in the same sin. I just want you to notice in this account that Aaron and Miriam engaged in the same sin in attacking Moses's authority or leadership over the nations. The number is 12, verse 1. Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, then verse 2, and they said, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? Notice the word us there, and I was just going over this with my wife this morning, and she had an observation which I appreciated, I don't want to sound harsh, but what Miriam says here is basically what many women who claim to be pastors in the church today say. Well, hasn't the Lord spoken through us also? And the Lord heard it. They thought that they should have some of Moses' authority. In response, God quickly called the people of Israel to the tabernacle of meeting. He appeared in the pillar of cloud. He rebuked Aaron and Miriam. He defended Moses, and then he gave Miriam leprosy for rebelling against God's appointed leader, her brother Moses. Then, as you probably know, Moses intercedes for Miriam, and her leprosy was cleansed. Now let's fast forward 1,000 years to the other prominent prophetess, Huldah. So Miriam lived during the wilderness wanderings. Huldah the prophetess lived during the reign of one of Judah's greatest kings, and that's Josiah. And so here's the context. I have to cover a lot of ground this morning, and so I just hope you can follow me as I provide context versus reading everything. So Huldah was a prophetess during King Josiah's reign, and if you remember, one of the dramatic events that occurred was the temple had been discarded, Josiah restored it, and during that restoration process, when they were digging through the temple, what did they find? Yeah, they found the law. Shocking, right? To find God's law in the temple or God's word in his church. And so they find the law there, they bring it out, they read it before Josiah, he tears his clothes because he's so horrified by the reality that the nation has fallen so far away from God. So then what Josiah does is he sends messengers to Huldah the prophetess. And just listen to this, 2 Kings 22, 13. Josiah said, go inquire of the Lord for me concerning the law that has been found, for great is the wrath of the Lord against us. So the messengers went to hold of the prophetess, and she said to them, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, tell the man who sent you to me, referring to King Josiah, thus says the Lord. Now I'm not gonna read her whole message to you, but she passed along the message that God gave her to give to Josiah, which she gave to the messengers, and then the messengers took that back to Josiah. Here is the end of it. 2 Kings 20, verse 20. This is still Huldah speaking to the messengers for God. King Josiah, your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place. And they brought back word to the king. So the significance of Holder's response is that she did not publicly proclaim God's word. Rather, she shared the message God gave her with the messengers. They took it back to Josiah. So she exercised her prophetic ministry in a way that did not obstruct, but then supported or instead supported male leadership. There are other prophetesses in the Bible revealing that this was not an anomaly or that women should not be prophetesses. Judges 4.4 says Deborah was a prophetess, whom we'll talk more about in a moment. Isaiah 8.3 says Isaiah's wife was a prophetess. Luke 2.36 says Anna, who spoke about Jesus' birth in the temple, was a prophetess. Acts 21.9 says the four daughters of Philip the evangelist were prophetesses. But in each of these cases, like Huldah, there's no record of these women having the public teaching ministries of their male counterparts. Other women in the Bible are not called prophetesses, but they're recorded as prophesying. 1 Samuel 2 records Hannah, the mother of Samuel, prophesying. Luke 1 records Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, prophesying. And then further in Luke 1 records Mary, the mother of Jesus, prophesying. But in each of these instances, what you see is the women prophesied under the headship. If we had time, we could look at each of them. Each of the women prophesied under the headship of a husband or a father, in the case of the widow Anna, the temple's male leadership. So there was always some male headship over these women when they were ministering. In discussions about male headship, Who's gonna be the first, or in any discussion arguing for female leadership, let's word it that way, who's gonna be the first individual always thrown out? It's going to be Deborah. And so because of that, she warrants a little closer attention. And it's understandable why she's mentioned, because judges were primary rulers of Israel for almost three and a half centuries. They commanded armies. which made them some of the strongest leaders in the scripture. And so my point is, I can understand why Deborah is thrown out. Let's try to answer this question, and go ahead and turn to Judges 3. And this brings us to lesson two. Deborah supports male leadership because, part one, there's no mention of Deborah being appointed by God. Deborah supports male leadership because there's no mention of Deborah being appointed by God. I don't want you to think this is my opinion or that I'm being harsh or insensitive to her role. So look in Judges 3 with me. Throughout the book of Judges, as men are elevated to the office of judge, we read verses that confirm that those men were chosen or at least empowered by God for that office. Just a few examples. Look in Judges 3.9. When the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer from the people of Israel. This is Othniel. Look a few verses later at Judges 3.15. The people of Israel cried out to the Lord, and the Lord raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud. I'm not gonna have you see every example, but this pattern does continue through the book of Judges. Judges 6, 14, the Lord said to Gideon, God is saying, go in this might of yours, you shall save Israel, have I not sent you? So he had God's election, or it was evident God had chosen Gideon to do this. Judges 11, 29, the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. Judges 13, 24, Samson grew, the Lord blessed him, the spirit of the Lord began to move upon him. So there's this confirmation throughout the book of Judges when we see these men elevated to this office or appointed for this role. But with Deborah, we don't see anything like this. If you look with me at Judges 4, verse 4, we can see how we're introduced to her. Now, Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. We're introduced to her, we read that she's female. But what's missed in the English translations of the Bible is there's a negative emphasis that appears in the original Hebrew text. Just listen to this from Wayne Grudem. Wayne Grudem wrote in his book Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth, and please just don't tune out as you hear his commentary on this verse. Wayne Grudem says, Judges 4-4 suggests amazement at the unusual nature of the situation in which a woman actually has to judge Israel because the verse piles up a string of redundant words to emphasize that Deborah is a woman. Translating the Hebrew text literally, the verse says, Deborah, a woman, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she was judging Israel at the time. Something is abnormal, something is wrong. There are no men to function as judge. This impression is confirmed when we read of Barak's timidity and the rebuke he receives, as well as the loss of glory he could have received. End quote. Now the next part of lesson two, Deborah supports male leadership because part two, her ministry was private versus public. Her ministry was private, similar to the prophetesses and how they operated or ministered privately versus publicly. Look with me at Judges 4 verse 5. She, this is Deborah, she used to sit under the palm of Deborah, I suppose it was named after her, between, because she was there so frequently, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment. So the people approached her privately, just like with Huldah and other prophetesses. They did not publicly teach the word of God. Rather, Deborah's another example of a woman limited to private and individual instruction. And even when Deborah calls for Barak, look for this in verse six. Deborah sent and summoned Barak, the son of Abba Noam, from Kiddush Naphtali and said to him. So she spoke to him privately. The next part of lesson two, Deborah supports male leadership because part three, she encouraged Barak to lead. I want you to notice some key phrases in verse six. Go ahead and look at it with me. It says that Deborah, she sent and summoned Barak, the son of Abba Noam from Kedesh Naphtali and said to him, has not the Lord, the God of Israel commanded you it's obvious who God had chosen to lead. And I want you to understand something about this verse. Deborah is not commanding Barak. She's not giving him an order. She's telling him what the situation is. The situation is, you're in charge, Barak. You need to do this. Get your act together. As a prophetess, she received a word from God and she passed it along to Barak, confirming what Barak already should have known, that God commanded him to lead the army. Now, I believe for anyone being honest with this text, this verse alone could almost settle the debate. Deborah told Barak that God commanded him to lead. It was an order from God, not from Deborah, for Barak to be in charge. It goes on, verse six, go, notice this, gather your men at Mount Tabor, taking 10,000 from the people of Naphtali and the people of Zebulun. Now this is significant. Deborah was the judge at this time, so she was in a position typically occupied by Israel's commander and the individual who would command the troops. But rather than summon the troops herself, She tells Barak that God wanted him to lead the men. She says, gather your men. They're your men, Barak. These aren't my men. I'm not in charge of them. I am not their commander. You are. Verse seven, and I, now this is God. God says, I will draw out Sisera. Sisera is the general of Jabin's army. I will draw out the enemy general, notice this, to meet you. by the river of Kishon with his chariots and his troops. So God had Deborah tell Barak that God wanted Sisera, the enemy general, to meet who in battle? Okay, come on, this is significant. God specifically said who he wanted the enemy general to meet in battle, and who was it? It was Barak, it was not Deborah. Deborah says, God's gonna draw out the enemy general, not to meet me, but to meet you, Barak, in battle. That is God's plan. Verse 7, and I, again, this is God, God says, I will give him Sisera into your Barak's hand. Now this is interesting, you know from the scripture reading, so this is what's very sad. God actually wanted Barak to get this incredible victory. God wanted Barak to get all of the glory for this battle and for defeating the enemy general. What do you think every commander in the Old Testament would want? Nothing more than being able to defeat the enemy general. And Deborah says to Barak, God wants you to be able to get this victory over the enemy general. But because he wouldn't do it, who got the victory over the enemy general? Jael did when she drove the nail through Sisera's head, right? These are confirmations that even while serving as judge, Deborah affirmed the rightness of male leadership when it came to leading God's people, not only looking to Barak to lead, but telling him that's what God wanted. Sadly, Barak would not step up and assume the role that God had for him. Look at verse eight. This is almost shocking. Barak said to Deborah, if you will go with me, I will go. But if you will not go with me, I will not go. Now, here's one of the problems when we read scripture. We're not always told how outrageous certain things are. But can't you tell that it's outrageous and absurd that a man would say to a woman, well, I will go to battle if you'll go with me. But if you won't go with me, I will not go. Who would say that? I mean, no matter how timid you are, what man looks at a woman and says, well, I'll go out and I'll face them if you'll come with me. But that's what he said. It's hard to read. It looks wrong to us. Lesson two, Deborah supports male leadership because part four, she rebuked Barack for failing to lead. Barack should not have insisted that Deborah accompany him to battle. He should have taken leadership of the army himself, but when he wouldn't do it and insisted that she come with him, look at verse 9. Deborah, she said, I will surely go with you. Nevertheless, the road on which you are going will not lead to your glory. You will not get the glory for this, Barack. For the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. That's referring not to Deborah, but to Jael, who drove the tent peg through Sisera's head. And then Deborah arose and went with Barak to Kadesh. And sure enough, Deborah's prophecy came true. God defeated Sisera's army, but it didn't get to be Barak. And in the glory, Jael got that. Gloria, when she defeated the enemy commander, skip to verse 21, Jael, the wife of Heber, took a tent peg, took a hammer in her hand. She went softly to him to assist her, drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was laying fast to sleep from weariness, and so he died. Jael got the victory, but you can tell it was God's plan if Barak had been obedient for him to get that victory. And this brings us to the next part of lesson two. Deborah supports male leadership because part five, Her account is descriptive versus prescriptive. You've heard me say before that one of the biggest mistakes we can make with scripture is when we take what is descriptive or describing something and make it prescriptive or instructive for us. Because the Bible is filled with sinful people, there's lots of sinful things that happen. It's terrible if you look at someone sinning something descriptive and make it prescriptive and believe that that's something you're supposed to do. I can't tell you how many people do that with Deborah. That is exactly what happens so frequently with this descriptive account with people trying to make it prescriptive. And this is the danger of using Deborah's judgeship to support female leadership. Her example actually serves as a rebuke to the nation of Israel regarding the absence of male leadership because it was a reflection of the poor spiritual condition of the nation and a rebuke to Barak for being unwilling to lead. The book of Judges and the account with Deborah and Barak are not presented as examples for us to follow. Judges records what? One of the spiritually darkest seasons of Israel's history, 340 years. It's not until you get to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel describes the days of the judges and says the word of the Lord was rare. God had to raise up Samuel to bring the word to the nation because the word had been absent. You don't look at the spiritually darkest season of Israel's history and make it prescriptive. In fact, Judges is actually largely a record of what not to do. Think about this for a moment. If you wanted to summarize the book of Judges, It's really a description of the breakdown of male leadership. That's what the book is about. And we know that because the summary verses, Judges 17, six and 21, 25, describe the days of the judges. There's no king or no leadership in Israel. Instead, everyone does what's right in his own eyes. The nation abandoned God. That's the context in which Deborah ended up becoming a judge. Later, during another dark period in Israel's history, the prophet Isaiah said this. Listen to this, Isaiah 3, 12. My people, infants are their oppressors, they're being oppressed by children, and women rule over them. Oh, my people, your gods mislead you, they swallow up the course of your paths. So Isaiah the prophet told the nation that having women in leadership was actually a sign of God's judgment because of how far they had drifted from him. Now, what application can we take away from the account with Deborah and Barack? Interestingly, I do think Deborah is incredibly prescriptive. I think there's much to learn from Deborah. She encouraged a man to lead. I mean, that's the lesson from her. Anyone who wants to look at Deborah as an example has to encourage men to lead because that's the example from her. As much as Deborah does, I agree, show women what to do, Barack shows men what not to do. He failed to lead, he would not lead. And so on Father's Day, one of the good lessons to take away from this for women, encourage your husband, encourage men to lead, support them, And then the lesson for husbands is be leaders in the home. I don't mean authoritative, I don't mean dictatorial, I don't mean cruel or harsh, I mean gentle, kind, loving like Christ, prayerfully, loving our wives, loving our families, praying with them, reading God's word with them, that's the type of leadership. The next lesson, the pattern of male leadership continued into the New Testament. Lesson three, the pattern of male leadership continued into the New Testament. Now just think about this. Let's just be honest. I just feel like this is so plain, it is so clear to us if we will be intellectually honest with Scripture. The times that I have heard people argue against this, they have had to be so incredibly dishonest with the plain teaching of God's Word that you almost can't continue the conversation with them. Think of the New Testament. The twelve disciples that Jesus chose were? He could have chosen six men and six women. In Luke 10, it's the only instance of record in the gospel, so it doesn't get as much attention, but Jesus sent out the 12 men, 12 disciples, and then he sent out the 70, and the 70 were men. Jesus could have chosen 35 men and 35 women, But he didn't, just like he could have chosen six men and six women for the 12 disciples. 12 disciples were men, the 70 were men. Church leaders are identified as men. Turn to 1 Timothy 3. I'll quickly read the qualifications for elders. As I read some of the qualifications, I just want you to listen to the masculine words and phrases. One more time, as I read these qualifications very quickly, listen to the masculine words and phrases. 1 Timothy 3, 1, the saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Overseer is synonymous with elder. He desires a noble task. Verse 2, therefore, an overseer or elder must be above reproach, the husband of one wife. Verse 4, he must manage his household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. We see the same for deacons a few verses later. Look at verse 11 when he starts discussing deacons. Verse 11, their wives. He doesn't say their spouses. He clearly has men in view for deacons. Their wives must be dignified. Verse 12, let deacons each be the husband of one wife. So deacons are described masculinely, husbands with wives. Paul clearly did not expect women to be deacons. Now you could say, well, why do we see, even in conservative churches, why do we sometimes, and it's not an argument I'm gonna have, if I meet a pastor and he's got female deaconesses, I'm not going to fight this battle with him, but why do we see that sometimes? Let me just let you know. What's the word for deacon? It's the Greek word diakonos, which is the same word for what? For servants, yeah, it's the word for servant. So because some women in the New Testament are identified as servants, there can be translations that call them deaconesses, but really it's just to say that they're servants. We can tell that when the office is in view, though, the qualifications, God has men in view even for deacons. In Titus, You don't have to turn there, I'll just read it. Titus 1.5, appoint elders if anyone is above reproach. The husband of one wife for an elder must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant. He must hold firm to the trust where the word is taught so that he may be able to give instruction. And so whenever churches, and I know this is unpopular, but whenever churches appoint female leadership, they've become pragmatic. They have caved to feminism and egalitarianism. They have drifted from the very, I would say, plain, simple teaching of God's Word. Turn to 1 Timothy 2.12. First Timothy 2.12, I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, rather she is to remain quiet. This verse is so crystal clear. But the number of ways it has been twisted over the years in feminist, egalitarian churches to push that agenda is just tragic. Let's deal with the end of the verse. The end of the verse says she is to remain quiet. I want to briefly address this by having you turn to 1 Corinthians 11.5. So 1 Timothy 2.12, I don't permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, rather she is to remain quiet. Turn to 1 Corinthians 11.5. And in this verse, I want you to notice that it discusses women praying and prophesying. So We're trying to understand a woman being quiet, what exactly that does and doesn't mean. Now, in 1 Corinthians 11, 5, it says, Now, what I want you to notice in this verse is that it discusses a woman praying and prophesying, which she couldn't do if she was to remain what? All the time. Quiet, okay, keep that in mind. Look a few chapters to the right at 1 Corinthians 14, three, so I can define prophecy. Or let me say it like this, so I can let scripture define prophecy for us. So we're talking about a woman praying and prophesying, and then in 1 Corinthians 14, three, we get this very concise, wonderful description of what prophecy is. The one who prophesies, notice this, speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. Because it says prophecy, and I'm not trying to be overly simple, because it says prophecy involves speaking to people, prophecy could never be performed alone or privately. It can never be done, and by privately I just mean with a woman or man, by himself or herself. It must always involve someone else who hears the prophecy or that the prophecy is given to. Now, we must always associate prophecy with predicting the future, right? But according to this verse, prophecy is little more than speaking edifying and encouraging words or statements to people. So in 1 Corinthians 11, 5, when it says that a woman prophesies, she can't be doing it by herself. She must be able to share encouraging or edifying words to others. There must be some spheres, as my point, in which it's acceptable for women to speak to people for those people's upbuilding and encouragement and consolation since women pray and prophesy. And we see this, I'd say, in our church. I'll use my church, excuse me, our church, Christ's church that I get to serve in as an example. Sunday school, evening service, women have shared testimonies. They can share encouraging, edifying statements. But to be clear, that is not teaching. Prophecy and teaching are distinct from each other. So then it begs the question, well, can women teach? We know women can teach because Titus 2 commands older women to teach. If you are an older woman, Titus 2 has commanded you to teach younger women to love their husbands, teach them how to love their children, take care of their households. So 1 Timothy 2.12 does not forbid women from having, it does not forbid women from having authority over other women or children. It simply forbids women from having authority over men. And if we put all these verses together, we can come up with the following harmony. Because women can pray, prophesy, and teach other women, they're not expected to remain completely silent or quiet all the time. Women would be allowed to share, like we see in Sunday school or evening service or home fellowships. Women would be allowed to teach other women to teach children, like you see in our Sunday school ladies' conference or in any of our women's studies. But Scripture does not allow women to teach men because then it would put women in positions of leadership or authority over men, which 1 Timothy 2.12 clearly forbids. So in gatherings like this, our worship service, that involves men and women, we have men preach. We have men teach, we have men read scripture, or young men that we strive to see become older godly men. Regarding the ordinances, because we believe they should be overseen by the elders, we have men deliver the community devotion, the prayer, we have young men distribute the elements, we have men perform baptisms. Now one question you might have is, are there exceptions? Are there exceptions? Or maybe another way to say it is, is there a way to observe the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law. And I guess I would say like this, we're thankful to have women in certain positions in the church. Perhaps you could even call them leadership positions, and here's what I mean by that. Jody Van Gelder has been the choir director. Amy Zumstein runs the kitchen at camp. Bethany Brothlot was over VBS last year. Dorothy Criss is over VBS this year. I see these women being in these positions as ways to observe the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law. When these women are in these positions, the elders try to support them. We come alongside them. When I'm doing the teaching Wednesday night and Jodi does the choir, I ask Jodi, what time would you like me to start teaching or when would you like me to conclude or is this going an appropriate length of time? So we try to come alongside these women and help them in those positions that they are in. There's no way that our church would effectively run without women using their gifts and serving in these different offices and capacities. Now an obvious question is why can't women be in leadership over men, which is the real issue at stake here. Why can't women be in leadership over men? And I just want to say before answering this and be perfectly clear, two things about the Bible's teaching on male leadership. First, male leadership in the church or in the home does not mean that women are any less worthy. or deserving of honor. In fact, 1 Peter 3, 7 commands husbands to do what with our wives? Honor them. They aren't of less value. They aren't less gifted. They aren't less talented. Just because women are not identical to men does not mean they are not equal to men. Women have strengths that men do not have. There are some ways that women can flourish that men simply could not, especially in the home, especially with children. And there's kind of this idea that, well, you're not gonna let women lead in the church because you don't like women. Many of the women I know need less on their plate. They're so overwhelmed trying to take care of their homes and their children that if they were expected to then lead it like my wife, as an example. It is a blessing to her to not have to worry about leading in the church. And that's not to say that she doesn't help or serve me in tremendous ways as an elder's wife, but to expect a wife who already has, a woman who already has all of these responsibilities to be then taking on leadership in the church. And if you listen to me, you say, well, I'm an older woman. and I don't have all these responsibilities with children as I used to, well, then you should be thinking about the younger women and how you can teach them and invest in them. Come alongside them in all of the overwhelmed, stressed-out seasons that they find themselves in and think, what kind of blessing or assistance can I give? Because I can remember what it was like when I was in the trenches with all of those small children. As an older woman, you should think, what a blessing it is to not have to worry about the leadership of the church because I'm so focused on investing in the younger women in the church and helping them to love their husbands, love their children, be homemakers. And the second thing that the Bible's teaching on male leadership doesn't have anything to do with is talent and gifts. There are some women who are fantastic teachers, some women who are fantastic leaders. And they should use those gifts and talents in all of the areas permitted by Scripture. All of those spheres that God has given them to exercise those gifts and talents over other women and over children. Now, I want to conclude with this. I know that this is not an easy teaching to absorb in our gender-confused world. When we live in a world where men can claim to be women and women can claim to be men, or some people can claim not to be a man or a woman, but can destroy the English language and take singular words and make them plural and call themselves they or them, a teaching like this is not going to go over well. And have you heard that saying that so goes the world, so goes the church? then it's even more important for us to put our stake down and not budge from it, and to say we're going to stand here on the plain teaching of Scripture. We see the direction that the world is going, and we understand that there are some men, even prominent ones like Rick Warren or some churches, even prominent ones like Saddleback, that are going that direction, but we will hold to the Bible's teaching. Feminism, egalitarian, can creep into the church, creep into the teaching ministry of some pastors. but we want to hold to the Bible. Habakkuk 2.4 says, the just shall live by faith. Hebrews 11.6, without faith it is impossible to please God. I mention these two verses because one way that we can live by faith and please God with our faith is by embracing the Bible's teaching even if we don't understand it, or perhaps would even disagree with it at times. Walking by faith means being willing to say, I am going to trust and obey. If you have any questions about anything that I've shared this morning, I'll be up front after service, and I'd consider it a privilege to speak with you. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the instruction on male leadership that applies to the church and also to the home. I pray, Lord, that we would be able to hold to this position, not just during the years you bless me to minister in this church, but hopefully for generations to come, even in this church, that your word would be the foundation and bedrock for it. I pray that whatever was taught this morning that rightly divides Your Word and is truthful would bear witness to each person's heart, and that the leaders within the church, not just now but for years to come, would be able to hold to this. Lord, help us as elders to walk in the instruction that You have provided. I pray for the wives and the women here, Lord, that You would give them great burdens to teach other women, to teach children. If they're older, to minister to younger women. For the younger women, give them the perseverance they need to take care of their children and their homes. We thank you for the ways you've designed. This is really about your design, Lord. It is beautiful. It is wonderful. It is the way for families and marriages, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers to thrive, Lord. And so help us to apply the design in your word to our marriages and to our church and families. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.