Amen. Thank you, Brother Ben. Thank you also to our musicians today for turning our hearts to the Lord. If you would turn in your Bibles, please, to the book of 1 Timothy, and I want to continue our series in the pastoral epistle, starting with 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy 2, and I'm going to start reading in verse 9. The context is public worship, in particular, prayer for all people. Public prayer that is to be led by men who exercise spiritual leadership. And then in verse nine, Paul talks about the role of the woman in public worship. In 1 Timothy 2.9, the Bible says in like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel. with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broided or braided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection, but I suffer or I do not permit a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man. but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety." Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word that It guides us and directs us, and we pray, Lord, as we look to your instruction this morning, that we would have open and attentive hearts, that we would apply these things to our lives, that we would accept your word for what it is, eternal, infallible, inerrant truth that speaks to our day and to every day. We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity that we have to study your word. And we pray that your Holy Spirit would illuminate and teach us at this time. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. There was much confusion about the roles of men and women in Paul's day. One pastor and commentator writes this, the male-dominated culture of Ephesus worshiped the power of Artemis or Diana, the earth mother. yet regarded women as chattel, were property, just like the rest of the Roman Empire viewed women. This must have been terribly confusing for women living in those conditions. Prized, yet dominated. Possessed, in other words, treated as property, yet worshiped. We find confusion regarding the roles of men and women in our culture today. Our culture instructs women on what is beautiful by objectifying them. Besides that, there is a concerted attack against the biblical blueprint for the family unit, which is producing chaos in our society. and but for the grace of God, it will get worse. How are we as Christians to respond? No matter what our culture proclaims, and my friend, it's gonna get harder and harder to go against the grain, but no matter what our culture proclaims, we must be faithful to the word of God, to everything that God says in his word. God's word is not a salad bar. We don't pick and choose what we like and leave the rest. All of it is revealed truth. Last week, we saw that men are to assume a leadership role in public worship, in particular by praying for the salvation of all men, especially for those in authority. And I always want us to keep that in mind as men, we have responsibilities. So even as we turn our attention to the women today, let's not forget our role as godly men in this. Paul is going to turn now though to the responsibility of women specifically in public worship. And so I wanna divide it up this way. First of all, beauty, beauty. in verses 9 and 10. And what we're talking about first of all here is outward beauty. The Bible does not prohibit or forbid that. Paul uses three terms here to describe how women should attire themselves, how they should dress, or what accessories they should use in public. The first term that he uses is modest apparel. That means that a woman should be orderly or put together, we might say, in her appearance. Wear clothing, Paul says, that is suitable and respectable for the occasion. Let me say this, you can be fashionable in the right sense of the term. You can be fashionable and at the same time be modest in God honoring, that is possible. But avoid extremes in fashion, especially those which would communicate ungodliness. There's a second term here, shame-facedness. What that meant in Paul's day, what that came to mean was, is that a woman should dress with modesty. The word also meant respectfully or with reserve. Women should avoid clothing, according to one commentator, and I agree with this. Women should avoid clothing which suggests sensual appeal or sexual availability. Now I am not a fashionista. My wife has to dress me or else it would be a clown show because I'm colorblind. So I am speaking in an area that is not my expertise here. But let me say this, fashion communicates. Fashion communicates. Let me say music, I believe music communicates. It tells a message. There are other things in our lives that communicate. And God reserves the right to tell us how to do these things if we belong to Him. So that's the choice you've got to make. You see, if you belong to God and you wanna honor Him, then you will submit to His instruction, men and women. That's all of us. We will submit to what God says. So we should be modest in our clothing. Let me say, ladies, that there are parts of your body that only your husband should see. And the same is true for the men. Only your wives should see certain parts of your body. And we need to get back to some of these principles because they are God-ordained. Now the third term, sobriety, has the idea of being restrained and even moderate in our clothing, especially, I believe, in public worship. Restrained and moderate. And let me say this as Paul goes through here and he mentions pearls and gold and this type of thing. I don't believe that the Bible is prohibiting the wearing of jewelry or makeup. These instructions are repeated in 1 Peter 3, verse 3. I don't believe the Bible is prohibiting In fact, that might be one of the extremes that a person would go to. If a woman does not want to wear makeup, then that's fine, that's her business. But I don't believe the Bible is prohibiting that. But what is prohibited is the ostentatious display of such things, where that becomes the focus. of who we are. We show things off because of how expensive they are or because of what it says about us, because we're trying to keep up with the latest fad. One commentator puts it this way, avoid the silly extremes we often see among those in the film industry or the fashion runways of New York and Paris. And I hope that is liberating to you, that you don't have to be, you don't have to look like, you don't have to dress like the women on the magazines that you see at the checkout counters. Women are objectified so many times in our culture and it's so easy because it is our human nature to want to look nice and to want to be attractive. Now this is something that both men and women have. And it usually starts when we're young, as we become aware of the opposite sex. When I became a teenager, one of my goals was to be a bodybuilder. And my other friends, they wanted to do this as well. So my friends and I, you know, we would go to someone's house who had weights and we would lift weights. Or, you know, we would go to the local gym, and then when we were in public, you know, we would always walk around like this, you know. And we would douse ourselves with cologne. I don't know if they had Axe body spray back then. I don't remember it, but I would have used it if they had it. And basically bathe in it, and so you could smell us coming a mile off. Okay, that's the extreme. But we tend to gravitate toward that kind of thing. We like to draw attention to ourselves outwardly. But the Bible says that the N word is more important. It's the heart, it's the heart attitude. It's not that you can't beautify yourself on the outside, but avoid the extremes and avoid that as your focus. It really is true what they say, beauty is only skin deep. It really is. What about the beauty of the heart? That takes us to letter B, and that is that the woman is to demonstrate inward beauty. He says in verse 10, basically, do what is proper for a woman who professes to know and love God. That ought to be what we communicate, both men and women. So Paul is not railing against outward beauty or forbidding women to beautify themselves. I don't believe that's the point of this passage. And I think it would be unfair of us as husbands and as fathers to forbid that. But what he is saying is that outward beauty should not be our focus. What God desires more than anything else is a right heart attitude with him. The Lord looks on the heart. In Proverbs 31 and verse 30, this is a great verse if you want to turn here, Proverbs 31 and verse 30. This is a great verse for a young man who is looking for a spouse. But in Proverbs 31 and verse 30, The Bible says this, Proverbs 31 in verse 30. Favor is deceitful. In other words, you can be deceived by the outward charm that a person has. Just because you like them, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're the right person. And beauty is vain. Beauty will fade over time. And we're talking about outward beauty. But a woman that feareth the Lord, She shall be praised. There is a type of beauty, well, inward and outward, there is a type of beauty that is enduring. And you can see that in a godly woman. So that's beauty, number one, beauty. Number two, behavior, behavior. This is in chapter two. verses 11 and 12. Now what's going on here is that Paul is giving basically three instructions in verse 11. And then he amplifies them or he elaborates on them in verse 12. So first of all, letter A, the woman must receive rather than give instruction. And this is in relation to her husband. It doesn't mean that she must submit to all men in society, but in the home and in the church, she is to be ready to receive rather than to give instruction. That is her posture. Now, this is not a gag order for women on church property. I don't believe that it prohibits a woman teaching other women or teaching children. I don't think it prohibits a woman giving a testimony or participating in a Sunday school class. What it means is this, and that is that leadership roles in the church are reserved for men. Exhortation is reserved for men. the roles of leadership that we have here, which are pastor and deacon. We would also say elder. I want you to look at me or look to letter B with me. She must also receive instruction with a quiet spirit, with a quiet spirit. And then letter C, she must submit rather than exercising authority. What does this mean? Well, it means she is to learn with a submissive, willing spirit. And ladies, this is the case in public worship, and it is also the case in the home. Let me say to you men who might be wanting to point fingers at your spouse at this point, or to women in general. Let me just add this, because I think that this is necessary in any passage like this so that we're balanced. Are you the type of person that can be followed? Are you the type of person that is a joy to submit to? Do you like it, men, when other men lord over you? Do you like it when they act like a tyrant? Now, the Bible commands us to submit no matter what, and that is the case. But you see, men, we have a duty and a responsibility to lead in the right way. And that means that when it comes time to participate, we should be the ones who step up and take the lead. I appreciate godly women. What would we do without godly women? But at the same time, man, we have to be willing to take on that role of leadership. And let me say this, I appreciate that about this church since I have come here. It is not that way in many churches. You go to a lot of churches and it's the women who are in control, basically because they have to be, because the men have refused to step up and to do what they ought to be doing. And if there's any area of life that is vital and important, it is this area of what we would call church life, public worship. We men ought to be faithful in the house of God. We ought to be listening. We ought to be engaged. And we ought to take spiritual headship seriously. And we need to do so in a way that is kind and compassionate. You know, there are some women that perhaps are so rebellious and stubborn that they wouldn't obey anyone, no matter who it was. But I think that most women would gladly, well, Christian women would gladly obey a man who steps up takes seriously his leadership role, and he does it with kindness, and he does it with a servant's heart. I think a lot of women are looking for that type of gentleman, and that's what we as men ought to be. Beauty, number one, and then number two, behavior. A meek and quiet spirit, that's what the Bible calls for. Now listen, our culture does not call for that today. And that's what I'm gonna get into in the next part. And that is the biblical foundation of all of this. Some people say, well, Paul was just a prisoner of his time. He was a captive of his culture. Well, if that's the case, then how do we know that any of the Bible is true, right? But you see, this is God's Word. Paul was the instrument, but this is God's Word to us. This is the Word of Christ to us. And so there are women who might have a problem with this, but listen, you'll have to take it up with the Lord, because He's the one who said it. And in the end, all of us are submissive to Him. Now, your culture is going to tell you otherwise. In a recent article, this is talking about the biblical foundation that Paul gives. In a recent article, Kevin DeYoung asserts that a biblical view of men and women has to amount to more than a couple of conclusions about number one, wives submitting to husbands in the home, and number two, ordination in the church being reserved for men. Both of those things are true. Wives should submit to their husbands. Ordination, I believe, is reserved for men in the church. Those things are true, but is that all there is to it? You see, what Paul does here, he doesn't go to Jewish culture or to his culture. He goes back to the Bible. In fact, he goes back to the very beginning, to the book of Genesis. So you see, if you take Genesis seriously, then you have to take these directions seriously that Paul gives. So going back to 1 Timothy 2 and verse 13, who does he start with? What two people? Adam and Eve, the first woman and the first man. And he says, this is the pattern. that God has established. It is something that God has built into creation. So what DeYoung is saying is this, we have to have more than just these two conclusions. But what he says is, we need to help church members, especially the younger generations, see that God created the world with sexual differentiation. Now, here's a radical thought. Men and women are different. It's radical these days, right? But he says, this is at the heart of what it means to be human beings made in the image of God. We cannot understand the created order as we should until we understand that God made us male and female. He didn't make 50 different genders or no gender at all. What a weird concept. How perverted and how twisted that is. But you see, that's what happens when people are no longer anchored to divine truth. There's no longer boundaries. There is moral chaos. In his book, Taking Sex Difference Seriously, Stephen Rhodes argues that traditional patterns of male initiative, that means men take the authority, they take leadership, and female domesticity have been constant throughout history. because the most fundamental human passions, sex, nurturing, and aggression manifest themselves differently in men and women. Here's an example. One day old female infants respond more strongly to the sound of a human in distress than one day old male infants. You ladies aren't surprised by that at all, right? You're trying to get your husband's attention and he's watching a football game. There could be a nuclear war going on outside and he's drawn to the screen. Well, here's another, unlike their male counterparts, one week old baby girls can distinguish an infant's cry from other noise. They have certain abilities and differences from men. According to Leonard Sachs, a medical doctor and PhD, and he's taken a lot of heat for this, and by the way, he's not a Christian, but he said, no amount of nurture can change the nature of our sexual differentiation. We are different. You remember Bruce Jenner? Transition to Caitlyn Jenner? There was something very, very telling when he first came out to the world. And he did this magazine photograph. And it was right there on the cover where he appeared as a woman. And by the magic of Photoshop and other techniques, they were able to make him look very female, very feminine. But if you'll notice, his hands were behind his back. Why do you think that was? Well, the story is, is because there was nothing that they could do to hide those big masculine hands. And they looked totally out of place. Consider that a living parable. There's some things about yourself you cannot hide and you cannot deny. He may call himself a female, but he is a male. In his book, Why Gender Matters, Sachs said, girls can see better, hear better, smell better than boys. Conversely, boys are hardwired to be more aggressive. Well, that's a mystery, isn't it? I'm sure I'm not telling you parents anything new. Boys are hardwired to take more risks. and to be drawn to violent stories. All of us can give testimony to these things. You see, all of this has to do with the order of creation. In verse 13, Paul says, for Adam was first formed, then Eve. What this means is that Adam was created to be the head of the woman. Adam's headship, that is, his position of ultimate responsibility and authority for his marriage and family is supported by a series of factors. You may want to write these passages down. 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 3. We don't have time to go over all of these, but the Bible is very clear about this. 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 3, verses 8 and 9. 1 Corinthians 14, verses 34 through 35. talks about male headship. Ephesians 5.23 also talks about male headship. Ephesians 5.23, and there are other passages that we can go to. But here are those factors that point to the headship of the man. First of all, Adam's creation is prior to the woman. Adam's naming of the animals was prior to the creation of Eve. In Near Eastern culture, when you bestowed a name upon someone, it was a way of showing authority. Also, Adam's naming of Eve subsequent to God's creation of her. Right after God created her, Adam bestowed the name upon Eve. Also God's holding Adam, not Eve, responsible for his and Eve's sin. Now Eve was responsible, but God held Adam ultimately responsible, even though Eve had sinned first. And then the woman's designation as the man's suitable helper. All of these things point to the headship of the man over the woman. Now, we can accept this or we can deny it, but you do so to your own peril because it's biblical truth. And that leads us to letter B, and that is the overturning of the creation order. You know, you can see this today with feminism and the damage that feminism has done to our society. But you know, the logical end of feminism is to try to eliminate any difference between men and women. Did you know that? That really is the goal. And so now that radical feminists have done that, now they're complaining because male transgenders are winning in women's sports. Males dominate once again. Do you see the problem? Do you see the futility of it, of trying to go against God's plan? But it's even more serious than that because it represents the overturning of the order that God established from the very beginning. In verse 14, the Bible says, Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Now, we missed the point of verse 14 entirely if we think that Eve was more gullible than Adam. And some people take the verse that way, that somehow Eve was stupid. I don't believe that's true at all. Listen, all of us are gullible. The Bible says that every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and what? Enticed. We are all deceived when it comes to sin. But anyway, it's not that Eve was more gullible and that's why she was deceived and became a sinner. Eve's sin was a willful attempt to overthrow the creation order. She hoped that when she ate from that tree that her eyes would be opened and she would be like God. As Philip Jensen explains, Eve's sin involved overturning the order of creation, and this is how she did it. By her actions, she taught her husband to participate in that sin with her. She took the authority of going against God, a serious sin. And similarly, Adam failed, and he was held more responsible. He listened to the voice of his wife. He became the pupil instead of the teacher. He became the subservient one instead of the one in authority. He heeded and followed her instruction. He was taught by her, thereby putting himself under her authority. God's creation order was totally reversed. Now you can trace every evil in this world to that very thing. And listen, ladies, it is your failure, but it's the failure of the men as well. All of us have a share in this. And if it's gonna be restored, then all of us need to have a hand in that by the grace of God. both men and women, we need to work together by the grace of God to restore what God wants established. Now, we sometimes say, how could Eve have listened to the voice of the serpent? How could she have done this terrible thing? But let me tell you this, the voice of the serpent is alive and well. In our culture, on our college campuses, In fact, feminist social scientists often use words like dominance, oppression, repression, inferiority, subservience, red flag words, right? But all of this they use when speaking of the roles of men and women. In fact, in this day and time among many elites, The traditional family is viewed as an evil, an evil to be eradicated because it represents repression and oppression. If you doubt that, then read the writings that they put out themselves. Of course, they don't have any good solutions, but they call it patriarchy. They use terms with the worst connotations that they can find. As one writer put it, this terminology, when they use words like oppression and repression, is designed to make all social role differences appear repulsive. Now, my friends, that is the voice of the serpent. You say, how could Eve have listened to this the same way that people are listening to it today? They are listening to the voice of Satan, who destroys men and women. So Satan says, look, God is keeping you down. He's repressing you. You need to wise up here, because you've gotten the bad end of this deal, and you need to rise up. You need to assert your rights. People are telling us the same thing today. and the end result is going to be the same, but for the grace of God. And that's what leads us to letter C, and that is the restoration of the creation order. Verse 15 is one of the most difficult passages in all of the Bible, and I'm not gonna give you all the possible interpretations, but I'm gonna give you what I think it's saying. Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith, and love and holiness with sobriety. What I believe this verse means is that the woman finds, in the context, the woman finds redemption through acceptance of her divinely appointed role. God appointed her to have children and there is suffering in that. She finds redemption through acceptance of that divinely appointed role while continuing in faith, love, and holiness with self-control. That's the duty that all of us have is to accept what God says about us and his plan for our lives. All of us have someone to submit to. Chaos ensues when we don't. when we go against God's plan. John Stott says this, Paul's teaching on headship is rooted in divine revelation, not human opinion. It is rooted in divine creation, not human culture. It's not something that changes from one culture to another. It is something that God established from the very beginning. Now, we can either obey Or we can disobey, but we cannot deny that God has spoken in this matter. What is our response? Will we accept the instruction that God has given? If we do, there is blessing. But if we don't, there is chaos. There is a curse. Salvation begins by submitting to God. That's what salvation is all about. When we come to Christ and when we admit that we are the ones who are wrong, we are the sinners against God. We need His forgiveness. He is the sovereign. We need His grace and His mercy. My friends, there is blessing in submission to God. Because he is the one who made us. He knows what makes us tick. He's the one who loves us more than anyone else. Then after we're saved, we go on submitting to his loving guidance. God help us to do that today. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word. We know that it's not always easy in this culture to obey. And I pray that you would protect us from the voice of the serpent. There may be some people in this room who just need to be converted. Maybe they need to submit to you by asking for forgiveness of sins and being born again by your spirit. Maybe there are others that are really struggling with this issue. They are honestly struggling with it. They are believers. The voice of the serpent and the voice of the world is so persistent. And Lord, I pray for your grace upon them to accept your instruction, Lord, that all of us would be submissive in accepting this instruction and all the other instructions that you have for us. And I pray that we would immerse ourselves in your word, that we would have a truly biblical worldview. Lord, we pray in this world in which we live that we would be a witness to your plan and purpose for humanity and for the church, for our individual lives. We ask all this in Jesus,