Man

00:03 Amen. Turn in your copies of the Scriptures, please, to the book of 1 Timothy. 00:08 Going to be looking at the end of Chapter 2 this morning and begin reading at verse 8 through 15. "I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. 00:27 In like manner also that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but which is proper for women professing godliness with good works. 00:46 Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. 01:05 Nevertheless, she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with self-control." On January 13, 2012, an Italian cruise ship called the Costa Concordia partially sank off the coast of Tuscany with about 4,200 people on board. 01:26 32 people died and 64 were injured. The captain was charged with abandoning incapacitated passengers and failing to inform maritime authorities. And crew members weren't much help either, as they had for long before forsaken the etiquette of the Titanic sinking, 01:46 which said, "Men or women and children first. Women and children go first, and men stand behind and stay behind and go down with the ship." This phrase was, "Every man for himself." That's what was associated with the Costa Concordia. 02:04 An Australian mother and her young daughter have described being pushed aside by hysterical men as they tried to board lifeboats. A grandmother complained, "I was standing by the lifeboats, and men, big men, were banging into me and knocking the girls. 02:22 If the men of the Titanic had lived such a thing, they would have recoiled in shame." The author, writer of this story, who recorded this story, went on to say that our media, society, the government, 02:37 and women have demanded that any incentives men have for acting like men be taken away and decried masculinity as evil. Now we are seeing the results. Men have been listening to what society has been saying about them for more than 40 years. They are perverts, 02:57 wimps, cowards, jerks, good-for-nothing, bumbling deadbeats, and expendable. Men got the message, and now they're acting accordingly, as you sow, you shall reap. Men are opting out in response to the attack on their gender. 03:14 And what happened on that ship is just a microcosm of what's happening in our society. Now this message this morning is not just about men, but it's instructions to men and to women. 03:27 And we have here a passage of Scripture that would be very easy to just overlook and just kind of move from Chapter 2 mid-section to Chapter 3 and kind of make a few comments and move on. 03:42 But it's in the Word of God, and so it requires a careful reading and a careful explanation of the Word of God so that we might know and understand what God's gender distinctions are and what His will is for the two genders of male and female. Now we must do a little bit of review here. 04:02 In the first part of Chapter 2, we have the prayer section. That prayer is enlisted for all, Chapter 1, to supplications and prayers and intercessions and giving of thanks for especially those in authority, kings and those in authority that we might live godly lives, peaceable lives, holy lives reflecting the goodness of God, 04:24 and that we might see souls saved. In verse 4, it's the Savior, this God and Savior, who desires that all men to be saved, all men and women. The word there for men is a generic word, which means men and women. He desires all humanity, all people to be saved. The God-man, 04:44 in verse 5, who is the mediator between heaven and earth, between God and man, intervenes between two parties who have been offended in order to make and restore peace, to form a compact or ratify a covenant. And that God-man we know as Jesus Christ, 05:04 the man Christ Jesus, who gave His life as a ransom for all. Again, the word all there in verse 6, to be testified in due time. And a ransom in the early centuries was what was given in exchange for another as the price of redemption. 05:23 If you were to be redeemed and bought back from slavery, even in our own American history, to be bought back from slavery was to be ransomed. And so this ransom, writing of ransom, a ransom note was used to show that the price had been paid for the slave's freedom. 05:45 And then we find that Paul was a preacher for this. He was a proclaimer in verse 6. 05:50 In verse 7, "For I am then appointed a preacher, a herald." A preacher in this sense is a herald, one who heralds and conveys the official message of kings and of magistrates and of princes and of military commanders to give a public summons and command from the lips and mouth and pen of the king. 06:11 Now in verse 8, having said all that, he turns now again to prayer. 06:16 And whereas he says in verse 4 that he desires all men to be saved, that is the generic word for men and women, in verse 8, we have a word here for men, "I desire that the men pray everywhere." That is gender-specific. It is speaking directly to males. 06:38 It is speaking directly not to females, not to women, not to both, but to males. Now it's interesting because as I travel the church, when I see people worshiping in various settings, oftentimes you have upraised hands, just like this says, lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting. 07:00 However, when I observe this, I find that most of the time it's the women that are using the upraised hands and not the men. So what gives? I don't think it's wrong for a woman to lift her hands in worship, but this command is specifically given to men. Now we must take note of that. 07:20 What does it mean to pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and without doubting? Well, one of the things that hands do, we need to look at what do hands do. Hands do work. They work. We work with our hands. 07:40 We give with our hands. We assist others with our hands. We even fight with our hands. If you're going to knock somebody, block off while you fight with your fists and your hands. We reach for something with desire with our hands. 08:01 If you see a glass of water here and you're thirsty, you reach for it with your hands. And you greet one another with a handshake or a pat on the shoulder or on the back or reaching out for an embrace. You do that with your hands and your arms. Now what does that have to do with lifting up holy hands? 08:20 Well, I think what it has to do is that everything that we do in life for this man, the man of God, is to be surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a position of surrender. It is a position of vulnerability. 08:40 It is a position of offering. And it is saying, "Lord, what I do in my life as a man of God with my hands," which represent my heart, because the psalmist said in the book of Psalms that we must have pure hands and a clean heart, pure hands and a clean heart. It's about having hands that have been purified. 09:01 Our life has been purified. Our life has been sanctified. And we offer that purity of our works and of our spirit and soul in submission and surrender to God. Now is that necessary for women to do that also? Of course, absolutely. But for some reason, he specifically tells us as men to do this. 09:23 We must have holy hands. They knew in the Old Testament times that acting was not enough. It must involve clean hands. And so just to raise hands in worship without having cleansed our hands and purified our hearts is to be hypocrisy. 09:44 Now the early church took over the Jewish attitude toward prayer. And the Jewish attitude towards prayer was that they would stand in the place of prayer with their hands raised and their palms upward. And this became a normal pattern for prayer in the early church. 10:02 Of course, then the priest would probably turn his hands in blessing as he blessed the congregation on behalf of the Lord. But numbers of times in the Old Testament, especially, we find out that there's referred to as praying with upraised hands. It's an indication of openness to God. 10:22 Psalm 143, verse 6, "I will stretch forth my hands unto thee. My soul thirsts after thee in a thirsty land." And if that's sitting there and you're thirsty and you reach for it and you have a passion for a glass of water on a hot, thirsty day, and you take that water, even so we reach out to God with the same sort of passion, 10:43 the same sort of thirst is what he's saying in Psalm 143. Reaching out to God in Psalm 28:2, "Hear the voice of my supplication. 10:52 When I cry unto thee, when I cry unto thee," he says, "when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle," in crying out to God and offering God the fruit of our lives, the work of our hands, and the heart condition that's been touched by Him. 11:11 It is an indication of intense prayer and petition. Moses fighting the Amalekites with Joshua down in the valley and Moses upon the hill. And the Bible says that when Moses lifted up his hands, there was victory. When Moses let his hands fall down to the side or get weary, drop his hands, there was defeat. 11:32 And so Aaron on one side, her on the other side, kept his hands propped up and so they could have continual victory in the battle with Amalek. And so intense prayer, lamentations, 2:19 says, "Arise, cry out in the night, in the beginning of the watches, 11:53 pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up thy hands toward Him for the life of thy young children that faint for hunger in the top of every street." Times were desperate. Things were going wrong. The battle is on. It's intense. It's raging. 12:12 And what can we do but just come to the Lord with the fruit of our works and the cry of our heart and offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God in praise and prayer. Praise and worship of God, Psalm 63, verse 4, "Because thy loving kindness is better than life, 12:32 I will lift up, thus will I bless thee while I live. I will lift up mine hands in thy name." Psalm 134, "Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord. 12:45 Let my prayer be forth before you as incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." God delighted in the evening sacrifice. 12:55 And so as the sweet-smelling aroma from the evening sacrifice, even so the heart that surrendered to God as men of God lifting up holy hands without wrath and without doubting. Now he says here, "Without wrath and without doubting." It means that we're to be at peace. 13:15 We are not to doubt that God hears us. 13:18 We are to pray in purity, to pray in sincerity, to pray without hypocrisy, to pray in unity. 13:30 As he said, "Without doubting," that can also be translated as quarreling, without quarreling. You see, God is not pleased with a person who quarrels amongst the brethren. And he will not hear their cry because it's an abomination to Him to sow discord among brethren. 13:52 So without disputing, quarreling, dissension, controversy, argument, but openness to God. Now you may say, "Brother Todd, this is not our practice." Well, then my question is to you, why is it not our practice? Why is it not our practice? Well, it's charismatic. I don't see anything in here about being charismatic in this verse. 14:14 I don't think it has anything to do with being charismatic or non-charismatic. I don't think it has anything to do with how loud the music plays or how soft it plays. 14:22 It has to do with a command and whether or not we're going to come under the authority of the command of God to lift up holy hands without wrath, without quarreling, without doubting, and offer ourselves in surrender to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. You say, "Well, I don't feel comfortable doing that." Well, 14:42 I don't feel comfortable doing a lot of things either. When I first drove a car, a motorcycle, I probably didn't feel comfortable with it. It's a time of learning. It's a time of practice. It's a time of stretching ourselves out of our own ethnic and cultural baggages, baggages, baggage, and our inhibitions. 15:03 Well, I'm just not that expressive. All right. Well, if you don't want to do it publicly, do it privately. Do it in your prayer closet. But there's a principle here of man taking his place in the presence of God. That's what this is about. It's about taking our place in the presence of God. 15:23 It's not to be done for show. It's not to be done to prove to somebody else how spiritual we are. It's to be done as an act of surrender and of outreach and of sanctification and consecration to God alone. So we see that is a command. 15:44 Now the question is, men, will we come under the authority of scripture? Now there are many scriptures that we say we believe and we come under the authority of that scripture and we practice that scripture, the clear commands of scripture. And that's good. This here, brothers, is a clear command of scripture. 16:05 And so we have to do something with this, at least in our private worship. And I would suggest also there's power in seeing men worshiping with upraised hands, not to be a display to God or to man, but to God. Now we come to verse 9, and the emphasis shifts, 16:27 but not entirely. The focus shifts from the men to the women. Verse 9, it does not entirely shift because he says, "In like manner also." So that connects it with verse 8, "In like manner also." Well, what is this like manner? 16:46 Well, you see, what happens in the heart when we are without doubt and without quarreling and without dissension and we've offered to God the work of our hands, when we've offered that to God, it naturally elicits a response, a response. 17:07 And so it is with the sisters. When they have filled their life with good things, with the Spirit of God, and they're walking in a way pleasing to the Lord, they also will have a certain response that is a biblical response. 17:25 And so one of the things we see here is the distinction of the sexes. We see men being addressed. We see women being addressed. And I realize that we understand this here, but let us go on record to say that there are only two genders. There are only two sexes, male and female. 17:47 There are not 70. There are not 55. There are not 29. There are not four. There are two. God made them male and female. And I would go so far to go on record to saying that anything that blurs that distinction is not of God, 18:06 but is of the flesh or possibly even from the enemy because it is the enemy's desire. He's been working at this for a long time, but he's finally getting it accomplished in Western civilization to blur the distinction. And so that not only are we unclear who's a man and who's a woman, 18:26 but we're unclear where one stops and the other starts. And we just kind of blend it all together and destroy the image of God as God has created it to be reflected in men and women. There's a distinction of these sexes. And part of the distinction of these sexes is about adornment. 18:46 In fact, we might ask the question this morning, does dress matter? Does dress matter? And so you say, "Well, wow, Brother Preacher, we're going into legalism. You've done stepped over the line. We're talking now about dress. All we can do is talk about dress this, dress that." No, we don't talk much about that at all. 19:06 In fact, we're talking about the heart in relation to dress this morning. But God says dress is important. It's so important that he dedicates several verses here to addressing it. 19:18 He says, "I want you to adorn themselves, yourselves, in modest apparel with propriety and moderation and with that which is proper for women, professing godliness with good works." So notice I didn't go through the negative, the whatnot. 19:40 I went through, first of all, the what too, the what should be rather than the what shouldn't be. Now, if you look at a number of different translations, and I did, it's a little bit difficult to say, "Well, now this word actually means this and this and this." There's a lot of different translations that try to translate these words. 20:00 But I'm going to give you some of the translations. And sisters, when you stand in front of the mirror, it might be good to have this list taped to the mirror. Husbands, maybe you need to tape it to the mirror too. But it'd be good to have this taped to the mirror. 20:18 It'd be good to take it along with you when you go shopping for clothes because the translations go like this. What should it be? Should be modest, sobriety, sensible, shamefacedness. Now, that's the one word we don't often use, 20:38 but it has the idea of awe, reverence, and possibly even downcast eyes. Decency, respectably, propriety, appropriate, good sense, godliness, proper, discreetly, moderation, 21:00 devotion to God, attractive by good works and godliness. And so we can ask the question, both men and women, do my choice of clothes follow and fit that pattern? All those descriptive words are different ways of translating the scripture when it comes to the subject. 21:21 So I thought, we'll just lay them out there. We'll just lay them out there this morning for us to consider as we choose our clothes, as we wear our clothes, and as we choose our adornment, ornamentation. 21:37 So he says now what not to do, what not to be is to have braided hair. Now, that doesn't mean a simple braid, I don't believe. What it means is an elaborate braid where they would weave gold strands and pieces of gold and silver and gems into their hair, 21:57 into their hairdos, and have elaborate hairdos or gold or pearls or costly clothing. This jewelry and ornamentation to draw attention to self with elaborate hairstyles, expensive clothes, detracting from the beauty of Jesus within us. 22:19 This is the problem with so much ornamentation, is it detracts from the beauty of Christ. 1 Peter, we're not going to look at that this morning, but you can read that. You have read it. 22:31 "Who is adorning, let it not be the outward adorning, but let it be the inward adorning, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit so that nothing would detract from the beauty of Jesus within and good works without." Notice he says in verse 10 that it should be accompanied with good works. 22:53 Character qualities such as being sober-minded, the soundness of mind. He refers to that, women professing godliness, being sober-minded. It has the idea of reigning in all passions and desires. It talks about the character qualities of the inner woman, 23:13 the inner person. It is not corruptible. It doesn't deteriorate with age. And the ornamentation of a meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price. 23:27 And so we just remind you, sisters, this morning that our apparel should be lining up with all these descriptive words as well as avoiding jewelry and ornamentation. Now you say, "Well, Brother Todd, what about the wedding band?" Some people wear the wedding band and say, "Well, that's not ornamentation. 23:48 It's not jewelry." Well, they would say it's like a wristwatch. It does something. It's utilitarian. It accomplishes something. So therefore, it's not jewelry. Or some may say, "Well, we'll just not wear gold or silver. We'll make a wood band or we'll make a silicone band, 24:08 and let's use that as our symbol." The only problem with that is you may be picking at parsing at the letter of the law, but we still have a problem because it is an unbiblical symbol and is often used to replace the biblical symbol, 24:28 the biblical symbol being the Christian woman's veiling, the headship veiling. And it very often happens, if not always, over time, when the wedding band is adopted, the Christian woman's veiling is discarded. Now you say, "Well, Brother Todd, it doesn't have to be that way, but with the weight of history, that's the way it is. 24:49 That's the way it turns out. And that's the way that it most often happens in churches." And so we address it this morning because not that we see it here at Living Water, but we would not want to see it here at Living Water because it's an unbiblical symbol. It is a pagan symbol. 25:10 If you do some research as to where the wedding band came from, do you realize why the wedding band is worn on the fourth finger? Because the pagans believed that there was a vein from the fourth finger that went directly to the heart. And so therefore, it was symbolic that I love you with all my heart. And so we'll put it on the fourth finger, 25:30 not the third, not the second, not the fifth, not the first, but the fourth. It's pagan, you see. It's simply pagan. And a lot more could be said about this, but we ask, where does it start? It starts with paganism. And where does it end? It ends with wholesale adoption of jewelry and ornamentation. I've seen it happen. 25:50 I've watched it happen. I've lived long enough. I've been in enough different church settings to know what I'm saying. 25:57 And so we would classify the wedding band as being ornamentation as well as fancy watches and lapel pins and all those things. God convicted me a long time ago. I used to wear a little lapel pin on my suitcoat. I said, "Well, that has to go. 26:17 And I don't wear that anymore." Not that I say that I'm going to be a super Christian because of it. This is something that God asked me to do for consistency's sake. So we have men and women. Now we come into the third section of this passage this morning, 26:38 and this would possibly be the most controversial, men and women finding their way, finding their place in the church and in the plan of God. There's instruction to both here, full and entire submission on the part of the sister, 26:59 of the woman, and loving leadership is implied in relationship to the man. Notice he recalls for the sisters to have full or entire submission. This does not mean that a woman checks her intelligence at the door when she gets married. 27:17 Neither does it mean that she avoids and abandons discernment or influence over her husband, but it is a stern warning against disregarding authority. So he says, "I want the women to learn in silence or quietness." The word silence can also be referred to as quietness. 27:39 Their public meetings, their church services were out of order. Women were dominating the services, men sitting in a section of the church and women over on the other section talking back and forth to each other. Various things were happening in the early church that brought about this. 27:56 But the fact of the matter is this is what Paul is prescribing under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that the women learn in quietness or silence, that men need to lead, not lord, and men need to protect and not provoke. I think that would be worthy of comment this morning, 28:18 that one of the reasons sisters find it difficult to submit and find their role in the submissive role is because men are not leading well. And so men, we need to lead and not lord. We are a leader. We're not lord of all. We're not dictator. We are director. 28:38 We are to protect and not to provoke. And so this answers the question about women in the ministry. Now, let me go on record as saying I believe in women in ministry, but I do not believe in women in the ministry. There's lots of biblical example and evidence of women in ministry. 29:00 And if you are a sister in the church, a woman in the home, you have a ministry. Amen. You have a ministry. There is plenty of work to do. The women in the life of Jesus ministered to Christ and then ministered for Christ. Mary Magdalene, the first one to the tomb, 29:20 the women, Mary and the couple of ladies there, first one to the tomb, last ones away from the cross, first to the tomb when the death of Jesus, Martha ministering to Christ and to others, the woman at the well, a witness to her community, Dorcas, 29:41 also known as Tabitha, a Christian woman who had a tremendous ministry, Lydia, the seller of purple, who had a ministry in receiving Paul and Silas when they first came to Philippi, or was it Paul? I think it was Paul and yeah, 30:01 Paul and Silas, not Paul and Barnabas, and received them into her home and became a mother in the church, as it were, Anna, the prophetess in Luke chapter 2 and Romans chapter 16. He talks about Phoebe, and he talks about Priscilla, Aquila and Priscilla, 30:20 laboring together in the work of ministry. But we believe that Paul is reserving the ministry for men. And I'd like to go through with you this morning what is known as the Danvers Statement because it says it so well. 30:40 It says it's far better than what I could say it. And so we're going to just go through this. You can find this on the BMA website. You can also type in on a website, Danvers Statement. And this was adopted back in the late '80s, I believe, by a group of Bible teachers and Bible leaders in various churches. 30:59 And they had a concern. Their rationale was, "We have been moved in our purpose by the following contemporary developments, which we observe with deep concern." By the way, as you read this, it hasn't gotten any better. It hasn't gotten any better. 31:15 Number one, the widespread uncertainty and confusion in our culture regarding the complementary differences between masculinity and femininity, that is, that they're different. They complement each other rather than being the same. 31:30 The tragic effects of this confusion in unraveling the fabric of marriage woven by God out of the beautiful and diverse strands of manhood and womanhood, the increasing promotion given to feminist egalitarian—and I wrote that sameness. Egalitarian basically means that men and women are the same. 31:50 I inserted that—with accompanying distortions or neglect of the glad harmony portrayed in scripture between the loving, humble leadership of redeemed husbands and the intelligent, willing support of that leadership by redeemed wives, the widespread ambivalence regarding the values of motherhood, 32:11 vocational homemaking, and the many ministries historically performed by women. Number five, the growing claims of legitimacy for sexual relationships, which have biblically and historically been considered illicit or perverse, and the increase in pornographic portrayal of human sexuality. These are all concerns, 32:32 and we go into the writing and the adoption of the Danvers Statement. Number six, the upsurge of physical and emotional abuse in the family. Folks, abuse is a horrible, horrible thing. And male leadership and headship in no way ever justifies or implies abuse. 32:55 Amen. 32:57 Number seven, the emergence of roles for men and women in church leadership that do not conform to biblical teaching but backfire in the crippling of biblically faithful witness. Number eight, the increasing prevalence and acceptance of hermeneutical oddities. 33:15 That means weird interpretations of scripture devised to reinterpret apparently plain meanings of biblical texts. In other words, people are trying to redefine what the Bible clearly says. Number nine, the consequent threat to biblical authority as the clarity of scripture is jeopardized, 33:35 and the accessibility of its meaning to ordinary people is withdrawn into the restricted realm of technical ingenuity. That's rather technical language there. And number ten, and behind all this, the apparent accommodation of some within the church to the spirit of the age at the expense of winsome radical biblical authenticity, 33:54 which in the power of the Holy Spirit may reform rather than reflect our ailing culture. Now, what is the Danvers Statement affirming? Based on our understanding of biblical teachings, we affirm the following, and we affirm this here at Living Water. Number one, both Adam and Eve were created in God's image, 34:15 equal before God as persons and distinct in their manhood and womanhood. Number two, distinctions in masculine and feminine roles are ordained by God as part of the created order and should find an echo in every human heart. Now, notice here in the text here, 34:34 we haven't gotten to it yet, but I'll get to it now. Verse 13, "For Adam was formed first, then Eve." And so the text refers to the biblical creation order. 34:49 Number three, Adam's headship in marriage was established by God before the fall and was not a result of sin. This is so crucial. Headship was established before the fall and therefore is not negated by the cross. 35:05 Some people will say, "Well, it was a result of the fall." And since the cross overcomes the results of the fall, then the cross negates headship. No, no, no. 35:16 No, the cross overcomes the distortions of headship that resulted from the fall, but it did not distort or overrule headship and the creation order. The fall introduced distortions into the relationships between men and women. 35:35 In the home, the husband's loving, humble headship tends to be replaced by domination or passivity, two ditches. The wife's intelligent, willing submission tends to be replaced by usurpation or servility, that is, by taking control or by being a doormat. 35:57 Both are equally a problem. In the church, sin inclines men toward a worldly love of power or an addiction of spiritual responsibility, abdication of spiritual responsibility, and inclines women to resist limitations on their roles or to neglect the use of their gifts and appropriate ministries. The Old Testament, 36:18 as well as the New Testament, manifests the equally high value and dignity which God attached to the roles of both men and women. Both Old Testament and New Testaments also affirm the principle of male headship in the family and in the covenant community. Redemption in Christ aims at removing the distortions introduced by the curse. 36:40 In the family, husbands should forsake harsh or selfish leadership and grow in love and care for their wives. Wives should forsake resistance to their husband's authority and grow in willing, joyful submission to their husband's leadership. In the church, redemption in Christ gives men and women an equal share in the blessing of salvation. 37:02 Nevertheless, some governing and teaching roles within the church are restricted to men. And we see this in verse 12, "I do not permit a woman to teach," that is, to teach in a mixed setting because she is commanded to teach other women and commanded to teach children. 37:21 In the book of Titus, chapter 2, she is commanded to teach, but not teach over men or to have authority over a man, but to be in quietness or in silence. In all this, in all of life, Christ is a supreme authority and guide for men and women so that no earthly submission, domestic, 37:40 religious, or civil ever implies a mandate to follow a human authority into sin. In both men and women, a heartfelt sense of call to ministry should never be used to set aside biblical criteria for particular ministries. 37:56 Rather, biblical teaching should remain the authority for testing our subjective discernment of God's will. Just because a woman says, "I have a call to preach," does not mean you can set aside the biblical instructions because authority of scripture trumps a subjective internal feeling. 38:17 Number nine, with half the world's population outside the reach of indigenous evangelism, with countless other lost people in those societies that have heard the gospel, with the stresses and miseries of sickness, malnutrition, homelessness, illiteracy, ignorance, aging, addiction, crime, 38:36 incarceration, neuroses, and loneliness, no man or woman who feels a passion from God to make His grace known in word and deed need ever live without a fulfilling ministry for the glory of Christ and the good of this fallen world. In other words, there's plenty of work to do. 38:53 Number ten, we are convinced that a denial or neglect of these principles will lead to increasingly destructive consequences in our families, our churches, and the culture at large. And we're seeing that unfold before our watching eyes. 39:11 Paul gives two reasons for limiting 39:16 leadership and teaching and preaching to males. One, we mentioned already the creation order. Adam was created first and then Eve. And the creation characteristics, Adam was less likely to be deceived. 39:35 Woman is more likely often to be deceived. That's Paul's measure of the argument here, verse 14. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. Now, that may be a hard word. That may be a hard word. 39:56 And this is by no means implying that all women are deceived and that men are never deceived. But it is saying Adam was not deceived. And so I will not pretend to understand all the implications of verse 14, but we do know that it is God's word. 40:18 Interestingly enough, I read of a woman by the name of Rebecca McLaughlin. She writes of her struggles with the concept of submitting to her husband in Ephesians 5. We're not in Ephesians 5, but I think it bears record this morning. And this is her testimony, 40:37 "I came from an academically driven, equality-oriented, all-female high school. I was now studying in a majority male college, and I was repulsed." She's a feminist or was. "I had three problems with this passage. The first is that wives should submit. 40:55 The second problem was that wives should submit to their husbands as to the Lord. And the third problem was the idea that the husband was the head of the wife." She said, "I had a problem with all those." At first, she said, "I tried to explain the shock away, but when I trained my lens on the command to husbands, husbands love, 41:17 lead, cherish, nurture as Christ our example." She said, "When I trained my lens on the command to husbands, the Ephesians passage came into focus. 41:29 When I realized the lens for this teaching was the lens of the gospel itself, it started making sense." This is her testimony, "If the message of Jesus is true, no one comes to the table with rights. 41:48 The only way we enter is flat on your face, male or female. 41:55 If we grasp at our right to self-determination, we must reject Jesus because He calls us to submit to Him completely." Hence, pulling together verse 8 for the men and 9 through 15 for the women, 42:13 a full and total submission to Christ in the role that He has ordained for us. She went on to say, "Ephesians 5 used to repulse me. Now it convicts me and calls me towards Jesus, the true husband who satisfies my needs, 42:32 the one man who truly deserves my submission." Then she says this, "Yet it is a daily challenge to remember my role in this drama and notice opportunities to submit to my husband as to the Lord." She's a natural leader, she said. She's just a born leader. But she looks for opportunities to submit to her husband as to the Lord, 42:53 not because I am naturally more or less submissive or because He is more or less naturally loving, but because Jesus went to the cross for me. Yes, that makes a difference. It's about Christ and taking the role that He has assigned to us. 43:14 Now, we must look at verse 15 briefly. Nevertheless, she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with self-control. Now, what does that mean? What does that mean? 43:35 An initial just preliminary reading of that one could get the impression that her salvation is 43:46 related to her childbearing. Well, I guess if you don't have children, then you can't be saved. That's not what it's saying. That's not what it's saying. It's not what it means. Salvation is also not just in scripture, not just a spiritual term, but it is also a physical and emotional term. So salvation involves the spirit, 44:07 the soul, and the body. But this says there are three basic ways of commentators looking at this scripture. Number one, they say, "The childbearing saves her." She will be saved in the childbearing, 44:26 which I guess the definite article is in the original, which means it is referring to Christ, that her transgression is forgiven by the Lord Jesus Christ if she continues in the gospel and the qualities of biblical grace. Well, that's one way of looking at it. 44:47 Another way is tied to that by saying she will be saved in childbearing and referring to the promise to Eve in Genesis 3:15, 45:01 that you will bear a son and the seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent and the head of the serpent will bruise the seed of the woman's heel. And this is referring to Christ and salvation coming from Christ. I still don't think that's the proper interpretation. The third one that comes closer, 45:22 it goes like this, "By having children and fulfilling her divine design of motherhood, 45:29 she would be spared the evils of society and take her place in the faithful testimony of the church." That would be another way of looking at this. Does this mean if she marries and has children, she will be saved? No. Does this mean she cannot help with the family's income? 45:49 I don't believe that. Proverbs 31 talks about a woman who helps with her family's income in a variety of ways. But what this does, at least if nothing more, state is that the home should be the center of her world. The home should be the center of her world. 46:12 And as the home is the center of her world, regardless of how much she goes out and comes in and what other ministries she has, the home, her children, her husband, her family, the center of her world, and that reflects the faith, love, holiness, 46:30 and self-control of a woman of God and is pleasing to God and will spare her many temptations in life and reflect a good testimony for the church of Jesus Christ. 46:45 When we lived in Oregon, we lived very close to the largest privately owned 46:52 lumber or wood lumber mill in the world at that time. And many was the woman who would go to work in the lumber yard, the lumber mill. This is a mill, it's not a lumber yard. It was a lumber mill, Roseburg Lumber. 47:09 And oftentimes it was said through the years that when a woman went to work in the factory, well, there goes her marriage because over and over and over and over, 47:24 she was exposed to temptation in the workplace and even became the temptor in the workplace that she would not have been had she been centering her life around her family, her husband, and her home. Now, that doesn't just happen in the factory. It happens many places. 47:46 So we have to do something with this verse. Sisters, is the home the center of your world? Brothers, is your work sanctified and submitted and surrendered to Christ? Are we walking in submission to the authority of God's word, 48:07 standing against a culture that has gone berserk with a minority view, worldview, saying, "We are Christians. We are followers of Jesus Christ. 48:22 These are our values, and scripture is our defense." And so I would ask you this morning, men and women, are we willing to come under the authority of God and His word, 48:40 specifically this morning as it has been outlined for us in First Timothy chapter 2? Let's pray. Father, we thank You this morning for men and women. We thank You for boys and girls. We thank You for youth, guys and girls, young people. 49:00 We thank You, Lord, for the distinction between the sexes. It is a grand design by You that reflects Your glory. It's been so messed up. It's been so abused. It's been so misused. It's been so misunderstood, 49:20 and it's been so distorted and perverted. On both sides of the ditch of the road, as we find ourselves responding too many times in ungodly, unchristian ways to our husbands, our wives, our children, our parents, and our Lord. 49:42 And so this morning, we simply come to You and we ask, Lord, that You will give us hearts that will submit to Your authority, to Your authority, as we move forward through these days of trouble around us. 50:04 I'm going to invite You this morning as men to stand. All the men, stand, please. 50:14 Hadn't necessarily planned on doing this, looking for the benediction in Jude. 50:22 Now, you can close your eyes. 50:25 You don't have to worry about anybody looking at you. I'm going to give you an opportunity. Not going to give you a requirement, but an opportunity to practice First Timothy 2:8, to lift up your hands and pray. 50:45 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God, our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, 51:06 dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.