1 Timothy 2:11-15 "God's Design for God's People Pt. 2"

Church, 1 Timothy chapter 2.

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

This morning we'll be looking at verses 11 through 15, which read, Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.

Rather, she is to remain quiet.

For Adam was formed first, then Eve.

And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control.

Every time that we read the Bible, every time we open God's word, our culture and our context is influencing that.

Our worldview comes along with us to church, so to speak.

God has made us as whole people.

So when we open God's word, all that comes with us as we seek to understand this.

So be mindful of that.

So from everything you interact with, from the news on TV to how you read your Bible, everything is filtered through this worldview that we have.

Everyone selects or claims true truth, to which all other truths are subject to.

Everyone, regardless of religion or belief system, claim truth by which they judge all other truth claims.

This is a reality.

So we need to be mindful of that every time we open God's word.

Who has the final authority?

In the letter of 1 Timothy, this letter, Paul is writing to Timothy, who is pastoring the church at Ephesus.

And Paul writes to instruct Timothy in how the church is to honor God, how it's to behave and be faithful to God's commands.

A short little recap of what we've covered so far.

Paul begins the first part addressing false teachers who are trying to use the law and genealogies and myths to earn salvation, rather than believing in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.

Paul then reminds Timothy of his own salvation, how Christ came to save sinners.

In chapter 2, we're then given more instructions to pray for leaders and those in places of influence, so that the Great Commission would be fulfilled.

That we are given then instruction on how men are to behave, not quarreling or angry, but prayerful with holy hands, living in a holy lifestyle.

Then we're given instruction on how women are to behave as well.

They should adorn themselves with respectability and with modesty, not looking to make themselves the center of attention, but rather to promote Christ above all and to walk in godliness.

Then we come to verses 11 through 15.

And many would argue that these are some of the most controversial verses in Paul's writings.

Keep in mind, Paul wrote this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

These are God's words without error.

And there's no doubt, as we look at these verses, there's some challenges here.

There's technical challenges in these verses, and there's cultural challenges in these verses.

Much of the debate around the issue of women serving as pastors or elders or overseers, we think those are anonymous terms, synonymous terms.

To be a pastor is to be an elder is to be an overseer.

There's one and the same.

So much of the debate around can women serve in this role centers around this very passage.

So as we move through this, please be gracious with me.

Be attentive to God's word.

And whatever your view is on this issue, submit it to God's word.

Make sure your convictions are grounded in the right thing in God's word.

Okay, so we're going to tackle this a little bit different than usual.

We're going to kind of have three phases, if you will, to this sermon, three movements.

First, we're going to do the hermeneutical and exegetical work.

Now I'll explain if those words, if they don't mean anything to you, I'll explain them.

But essentially, this is how do we approach this passage?

How is the passage structured?

What is revealed by the structure?

What doctrines are being taught?

So we'll do the hermeneutical work, and then we're going to do some apologetic work.

We're going to answer some common objectives, objections, issues that people have with this text.

And third, we're going to then apply the text.

Once the text has been exposed through the hermeneutical, exegetical work, we're going to exposit the text.

We're going to get a picture of it, expose it, we're going to answer some issues, and then we're going to apply it.

What does this really mean for our church?

What does it reveal about the role of men and women?

What does it reveal about our relationship with the Bible?

Okay, so first, our hermeneutical and exegetical work.

Nothing makes you sound more kind of smart than big words, right?

Stick with me on this.

Hermeneutics, if you've never heard of this term or maybe you've heard it, but you're not really sure, it's the overall approach that one takes toward a text.

It's the overarching philosophy and conviction that one brings to the text.

For example, do we think the message of the Bible is primarily literal?

Or is it primarily allegorical?

Or is the Bible primarily just moral?

Just coming in as good ethics and morals.

Or is it anagogical?

Is it just kind of a mystical kind of application that we have to think through?

And it's kind of mystical for us.

So an example just to kind of prove this point of how important it is that we have a good hermeneutic coming into the text is Exodus chapter 20, verse 2, which says, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Exodus 20:2

Is this literal?

Did this really happen?

Did a literal God bring literal descendants of Abraham out of a literal Egypt in which they were literally slaves?

Is it literal?

Or is Exodus 20, verse 2 allegorical?

Exodus 20:2

There's oppressors, and there's those who are being oppressed.

And those who are being oppressed need to be liberated or delivered from the oppressor by some higher power.

Or is this just a moral kind of thing?

You know what I'm saying?

Like, behave, and you won't be slaves.

And if you are slaves, well, do your best to not be slaves anymore.

Or is there a deeper mystical meaning that we must understand somehow through divination or through through kind of life experience, and we just kind of bring our own meaning to the text.

A biblical hermeneutical approach is a literal approach.

It's a literal interpretation of the text.

We believe God's word is literal.

So what it says, it means.

Therefore, we are careful and diligent with how we handle God's word.

But because we're literal in our hermeneutics, that means there's guess what?

There's more work that we have to do.

But because it's literal, we have to continue on and do more work.

The first thing is that we have to understand the text historically.

Where is this text in the course of the Bible?

Is this in the Old Testament?

Has the law been revealed?

Has it not been revealed?

Have the prophets, what have the prophets said?

Have they revealed these prophecies?

Is it in the New Testament?

Is this in the church age?

Or is this in the Gospels?

Where are we at in the Bible, chronologically or historically, and where are we at in history of time among people?

So we place the text in its historical place?

We interpret the text grammatically, following the rules of grammar and the nuance of the original languages.

What's the syntax?

How's the structure?

How's it being put together?

Because guess what?

We believe the authors inspired by God knew what they were doing when they wrote this word and not that word.

They weren't just kind of throwing some thoughts on paper.

This is God's word.

So we do this, the grammatical work to understand the passage.

And then we interpret the passage contextually.

What is the context of the passage?

What's going on?

Who is the author addressing?

And why?

What's kind of the bigger context?

Context, as we say often, is key.

We must understand the context.

So to have a biblical hermeneutical approach to scripture, we have to have a literal approach.

We have to understand the passage in its historical setting, its grammatical setting, and its contextual setting.

Then we interpret Scripture with Scripture.

We use the clear parts of Scripture to look at and assess parts of Scripture that are not as clear.

Now I understand this far in the sermon, it sounds more like a lecture than a sermon.

But I want you to understand how it is that we are to handle God's word.

Because you get into a text that's difficult, technically difficult, and it has immense cultural ramifications.

So we must be careful with the text.

So the hermeneutical approach we're taking, we have that.

We have our hermeneutics.

Then when you take that approach, those tools, that philosophy, and then you apply it to a text, which is what we're going to do, that's the exegesis of a passage.

Exegesis is taking that passage and applying the tools of hermeneutics.

Exegesis is E-X-E-G-E-S-I-S.

So it's not exegesus.

Okay?

Just so we're clear on that.

We're exegeting the passage together.

Because what do we want to do with this passage?

We want to expose it.

What is it saying to us?

Expositional preaching is exposing a passage.

What's it saying to us?

So it's the work of getting to what does the text really say?

With good hermeneutics guiding us in the text, let us look at our passage.

Let a woman learn quietly with full submission and all submission.

All submissiveness.

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, rather, she is to remain quiet.

For Adam was formed first and then Eve.

And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control.

There is some debate around this passage as to what is the primary point of the passage.

So here's the question.

Looking at the text, what do you think is the primary point of this text?

Is it about who is allowed to have authority in the church and teach in the church?

Is the primary point of this text how women are saved?

Or is it how women are to mature and grow in the faith?

Now we know the passage addresses all three of those things, right?

But what is the overarching emphasis of Paul's writing here?

What's he trying to tell Timothy?

I believe the main point is that women are to learn.

Timothy and the church at Ephesus are to let the women learn.

It's his job as an elder to oversee and to aid this work.

Now, how did I arrive at this point?

Where I believe the primary point of the text is women are to learn.

By taking good hermeneutical principles and exegeting the passage.

So here we go.

Let a woman learn with all submissiveness.

So Paul's making a declarative statement that in the Greek, it's an imperative, it's a third-person singular imperative, which means it's a directive that we have to obey.

This isn't a passing comment.

Hey, by the way, let women learn.

The word let learn in the Greek is one word.

It's the imperative.

Let learn women, so they're to be quiet and submissive in this.

So verse 11 tells us what women are permitted to do and encouraged to do in the gathered, assembled church.

Verse 12 tells us what women are not permitted to do, to teach or have authority.

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.

Rather, she is to remain quiet.

As one commentator put it, the call in this is not for verbal silence from a woman, but for them to exhibit peaceful and gentle attitudes in the sake of their learning.

For the sake of their learning.

The Greek isn't shut up, women, be silent.

It's rather to show reverence and respect.

Silence is a part of that, but silence is not the main objective.

The main objective is to let learn.

Is learning.

Paul's telling Timothy that women needs to, she needs to be quiet and respectful that she might learn.

Okay, so the instructions were given there.

Let women learn.

This is what they're permitted to do.

This is what they're not permitted to do.

And then why?

Why is it that the instruction to a woman is to learn, but not to have authority and to teach, to exercise authority and to teach.

Paul then grounds his argument for this in verses 13 and 14.

In creation.

For Adam was formed first, then Eve.

And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

It's good to remember, nothing in Scripture is there by accident.

Okay?

Nothing in Scripture is there by accident.

So ink and paper were very costly in the world this time.

So here, similar to earlier in verse chapter 1, Paul is writing Timothy something Timothy would have known very, very well.

Timothy would have been very familiar with the creation account.

So why is it that Paul feels he needs to spend all this effort and money in telling Timothy, just so you know, Adam was formed first and then Eve.

And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Just it feels out of place.

It feels odd.

And then this idea that Adam didn't sin, that Adam was not deceived?

What's he mean by that?

Now before we jump back and start to speculate that Paul didn't know what he was talking about, he's off his rocker, or he had never read Genesis before.

Paul is, or that he's trying to blame women for the downfall of the world.

Okay?

It's not what he's trying to do.

But let's stick close to the text and see what might be revealed.

God created Adam and Eve.

Right?

We know from our Hermeneunics that's a literal Adam, a literal Eve, a literal creation, and it's a literal, intentional order.

It did not just happen that Adam was formed first and then Eve.

As if God were to run the creation process back several times, and maybe Eve would come first.

So it's very intentional.

No accident was happening happened here.

Adam was formed first and then Eve.

Again, there's a significance in this order.

Again, the second thing that we see if we stick close to the text, Eve was deceived first.

Paul obviously is familiar with the creation account because he knows that the serpent, that Satan deceived Eve first.

Why was Eve deceived first?

Genesis 3:3 tells us that Eve knew the instructions that God had given Adam.

Genesis 3:3

Adam had told Eve, but Eve subverted Adam's leadership.

And she listened to the serpent rather than Adam.

Adam also failed in his leadership because he was right there when all this happened.

So I just want to be careful.

I'll take a pause here to say, if we're working through this text, and what you're sensing or you're feeling is it's like, well, it's this person's fault, or it's that person's fault, or it's this thing, or it's that thing.

I want to caution you against that.

Let God's word say what it says, don't add to it.

Okay?

So what it says in God's created order, when it was very good, he declared, he made Adam first.

His created order.

Then he brought, he made Eve.

It says Eve was from Adam to serve as a helper, not to subvert or to rule over Adam.

It was not God's created design.

Wasn't his design in creation, it wasn't his design when things were perfect and good, and it's not his design now.

And we'll talk about this in a minute, but if if that rubs you the wrong way, I just want to push on you and say, the issue probably isn't what this text is saying.

The issue you're feeling is more of you have an issue with God's word.

You have an issue with God's created order that you need to, that we need to address and submit all things to his word.

So he grounds this argument for the role of women in the church in creation.

Eve was deceived first.

She became a transgressor first.

We didn't know Adam was deceived, but he also became a transgressor.

This idea that a woman is to learn.

Let learn.

Not because they failed and men have not failed.

But they are to be learners because this is what God's word says.

This is God's created order before the fall when things were good.

So let her learn that they may not subvert authority, that they might learn submission, that they might learn to follow the Lord.

So we have this not seeking to be teachers or have authority over men, which is what Eve was seeking to do.

Yet, here comes verse 15, possibly the most confusing so far, yet she will be saved through childbearing.

If they continue in the faith, love, and holiness.

So he's talking specifically, yet she, singular, will be saved through childbearing.

Then he gets plural, if they, the daughters of Eve, continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control.

What could Paul possibly be saying when he says that she'll be saved through childbearing?

Well, again, clear part of Scripture, apply it to the unclear part.

Is Paul saying that she will be, she will earn salvation or salvation will be brought to her through childbearing?

No.

We know that's not.

Galatians, Paul's letter to the churches in Galatians, he just destroys any kind of argument where a woman might, or someone might say, I can be saved through some kind of works.

Doing something is going to be.

To bring salvation.

So we know Paul's not saying that she has to have children in order to go to heaven, in order to not go to hell and be saved.

That's not what he's saying.

But what is he saying?

Right?

What do they mean by this verse?

Well, there again, there's some disagreement around this.

Some people think Paul means that through a woman, the Messiah will come, and he will bring salvation.

Now, this is a good view.

It's held by many biblical scholars who are brilliant and much wiser than I am.

And I really do respect this view, but I personally hold a little bit of a different view.

See, Eve's sin brought a curse.

Part of that curse is that childbearing will be extremely painful, extremely difficult.

Her sin brought this curse.

Yet, God will sustain her through that, as she passes through that trial, if you will.

He will preserve.

That she is not forsaken or forgotten with God.

That she not only is not forsaken, forgotten, but that God has given her a unique ability to bring forth life.

And accepting and believing accepting and embracing her role in what God's created order, and accepting that there is great joy and satisfaction in that.

But regarding the curse that sin brought, God will deliver her out.

Now, does that mean that nothing bad ever happens when women have children?

No, that's not the case.

We all know that to be true.

Just as the curse was given to Adam that he was to toil and work the land, while we're in this world, while we are still in the broken world, we have to endure the curses that are on us.

But God will deliver us if we follow Him.

If we're faithful to Him, if we trust Him for our salvation and walk with Him, He will deliver us through the curses that sin has brought.

Now, two reasons I think this is the correct interpretation of verse 15, and again I hold that view with a lot of humility.

It just seems like a big stretch that Paul is talking about Mary here, the mother of Jesus.

And he has her in mind as he's talking through that.

Some people say that this is what he means.

I just, it feels like a stretch to me.

And I find it that as I look, just go looking through Scripture for a similar phrase of passing through, it comes in 1 Corinthians 3.15, which says, if anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss.

Though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

Now just a little context around 1 Corinthians 3.15, Paul's talking about our work as Christians, that what we do for the kingdom here on earth, that our work will be tested.

And even if someone's work is burned up, it's empty, it's meaningless.

And there is a massive loss there.

Yet through that testing, or in spite of that hardship, he will endure, God will bring him through that testing.

Paul is saying that, yes, Eve was deceived.

Her and Adam fell into sin, bringing the consequences to all humans.

Yet there is hope when it seems like there's no hope.

Yet, in a situation, a curse that feels so daunting and overwhelming, there is hope.

God will deliver, He will bring relief.

If she's a follower of Jesus.

She lives like a Christian.

There's faith in her life, there's love in her life, there's holiness in her life, and she's self-controlled.

Again, these aren't things that she has to then go do to be saved, but these are what people who are saved do.

You understand what I'm saying?

Have you ever heard the fruit and the root?

Our fruit as Christians is good works.

Not our root.

Our root, the root of our salvation is in Christ.

The fruit of that is good works.

Not the other way around.

It's not that our root is in good works, and fruit is now that we have faith.

God grants us faith.

The fruit of that is good works.

Faith, love, holiness, and self-control.

Okay, so we've looked at the passage.

We've taken our hermeneutical approach, we've kind of laid it on here, we've picked apart the Greek and what's the structure of the sentence and what Paul's saying, the primary emphasis is, and that he undergirds that or he anchors that in creation, the fall of creation, creation, the fall of sin.

And then he finishes it with hope.

That there is yet hope.

Yet she will be saved.

If she follows Christ, if she submits her life to the design and order that God has given, there is hope.

There is salvation.

So, to the second movement, into answering objectives.

Objections.

This is where we kind of begin to kind of put our apologetic glasses on and say, okay, what are the objections that people have to this passage?

And as you would imagine, there are a lot of objections.

There are some technical objections because people are really wrestling through this.

They're trying to figure out what do I believe and what do I think.

There's also a lot of objections because people are not coming to the Word of God saying, this is the final authority.

They're coming saying, well, I have an agenda and a worldview, and I want to lay it onto the scriptures.

And so the scriptures need to move and to shape and mold as I see them, as I need them to be moved and shaped.

So some objections.

One, the most common is context specific.

Meaning, Paul's instructions here, they're just for the church in Ephesus.

They had a lot going on in that situation.

He's talking about the women in Ephesus in 60 AD.

This isn't for us today.

It's context specific.

The second objection surrounds mostly verse 12 in the words for permit, I do not permit, the Greek word there, hypetripo, and the word for authority.

The Greek word there for authority, athentio.

I'm not fluent in Greek, but there you go.

There you have it.

These two words people squabble about.

Well, it doesn't really mean that because somewhere else it's used a little differently, or we really don't know what the word uh authority really meant.

But I'm just gonna be really quick and brief with my addressing those objectives.

I just don't think they hold water.

Paul uses this word for permit, epetropo, many times in his letters to mean authoritative, declarative.

It does not change with seasons, not just context-specific.

And for the word for authority, he uses this word elsewhere to mean just that, authority.

So the objections that people have over those words, I can see where they're coming from.

I just don't think they're valid.

I think they just they don't uh hold water.

But the main objective, objection, I keep saying objective, objection, excuse me, is context.

Was this instruction given to address a specific church issue?

Well, yes and no.

Yes, there were things going on in the church at Ephesus that Paul was addressing and telling Timothy, you need to put this in order.

But was that specific just to that context?

Well, again, context is really key.

We do know that in Ephesus, this there's a temple to the Greek goddess Armitis, Armitis, also known as Diana, and this was a cult, a female cult, and they believed that women were just far superior to men, and that they should rule over men.

Now, so these women are being saved, some of them, and probably coming into the church, and they're, you know, they're bringing with them their worldview, just like we all do coming in as Christians.

But the reality is pagan worship was not new to Paul.

Pagan worship was not unique to the church at Ephesus.

This wasn't unique to him to have to deal with these things.

Paul's argument isn't grounded in you have a specific problem, Ephesus, probably because you have a temple there where the women are coming in and they're just abusing their authority.

He's saying, no, listen.

I have made men the way I've made men, and I've made women the way I've made women, and I've structured the church the way I've structured the church for a reason grounded in creation order.

I mean, we see this in chapter 2, verse 8 of 1 Timothy.

I desire that in every place men should pray.

They should do these things, they should live this way.

Everywhere.

He's giving universal instruction to the churches here.

This is how the church is to function.

Similar instruction is given to the church in Corinth.

Chapter 14, verse 33.

As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission.

Again, he's not saying they can't talk or have like conversations.

It's not what he's saying.

Or be silent or shut up, or you have no place here.

That is not what he's saying.

People will bring those things up and they'll say that in an accusatory way.

It's not what he's saying at all.

Just keep in mind, the last two Sundays we preached two passages, two sermons out of Matthew 28, where Jesus reveals himself, the resurrected Christ, to two women.

He's not saying, be silent, you have no place here.

He's saying, I have a structure and an order in which I put the church together, and in which I've created the world.

Understand that and submit to that and enjoy the blessings that come with that.

So he grounds again his argument in creation.

God's created order.

These objections that come, they feel sophisticated and daunting to address.

But as we just kind of keep taking our Hermann Hendrix and applying it to the text, the truth bears out.

Keep looking to God's word.

What's it saying?

Keep putting it together and understanding.

I just want to say a note of humility here.

There are brothers and sisters in Christ who love the Lord.

They love his church and they love his word.

And they are striving to be faithful to God.

But they have a different take on this.

I'm not saying that they're not Christians.

I'm not saying that they don't love the Lord.

I'm not saying those things.

I just humbly am saying, I think they're wrong.

I think the text is abundantly clear in this passage, in 1 Corinthians, in Ephesians, in the creation account, how God has designed men and women to be different and to serve different functions.

And the thing is, if you just look at creation, it reveals this.

Now we live in a very unique time.

Pillions of people have lived on the earth and never faced what we're facing.

And we live in a day and age where people are trying to change God's created order.

You want to be a woman, you can be a woman.

You want to be a man, you can be a man.

That is not natural.

The only way you can even get the facade of it is through medical procedures.

It's just so unnatural.

So even the natural order is saying God has made men, and He's made women distinct and unique.

He's glorified them.

And they're a function equally, equally valuable, but in unique, distinct roles.

So again, we've been charitable and warm and Christ-like to those who disagree with us on this.

We hold fast to God's word.

So we've gotten a clear view of the text, the passage.

Women are to be to let learn, to be learners, anchored in creation.

They're not to be having authority to teach and have oversight.

God has provided for them salvation despite their sin, in the midst of their curse.

So what does really 1 Timothy 2, 11 through 15 mean for us?

As one theologian put it, man and women are equal in ontological standing before God, but not identical or interchangeable as to what God expects of them relative to their creative sexual giftedness.

There's simultaneously, there's unity and diversity are stressed.

God created man, sorry, God created mankind in his own image.

In the image of God, he created them.

Unity.

Male and female, he created them.

Diversity.

Genesis 1, 27.

You must understand and submit to God's word.

So to the women, I say, do not be deceived.

Do not be deceived.

That God He does love you, He cares for you, He's called you to serve the church in certain capacities, even to lead and to teach, as Titus tells us.

Do not be deceived.

Don't let people deceive you into thinking that you are missing out.

Or that you're being held down somehow in God's infinite wisdom.

He missed the mark, and now women are subjected to a harsher or difficult life because of that.

Do not be deceived that God's word, into thinking that God's word is outdated or chauvinistic, or it needs just some help to be more palatable or less offensive to our culture.

Do not be deceived by the lies of other people, men and women, who would tell you that your rightful place, until you are equal in authority with a man, you're not as equal.

Until you have the same responsibilities as a man, you're not equal.

One, that's not what God's word says.

It's not what creation says.

You women are equal because God has made you equal.

Do you understand that?

But He's given you distinct roles and responsibilities.

Again, nature reveals this.

Men cannot have children.

It's a universal fact.

If anyone's questioning that, it's universal.

They can't do it.

Women can.

God has given them a unique role to fill.

Is that women's only role?

No.

Don't hear me say that, okay?

But it is it the thing that is it something that God has given to women exclusively?

Yes.

Yes, it is.

So do not be deceived by those who want to make arguments for how women are oppressed by men.

Universally.

Are women oppressed by men?

Yes, of course.

Universally, this is God's created order and it's good.

Also, do not be deceived into thinking that this is man's idea.

This is God's design.

In the fall, look around.

Ladies, I don't have to remind you of this.

Just look around.

You want to know what man's ideas are?

It's abdication.

It's to neglect responsibility.

It's a man's idea to let the wife be the real leader, to let her wear the pants in the family, to let her be the primary discipler of the children, the primary disciplinarian in the home.

Man in his fallen nature is bent on self-gratification and not leading well.

That's man's fallen idea.

So don't think that, man, the men, this is their fault.

This is men are fallen.

Women are fallen.

And in our brokenness, guess what we want to do?

This is what the curse says.

This is what Genesis says.

The woman will long to be over her husband, and she will be under her husband.

In our broken, sinful, curse-filled state, because we inherited the sin of Adam and Eve, women desire to be over their husband.

To be the ruler.

I don't know what movie it's from, but it's this famous quote: the husband's ahead, but the wife's the one that turns the neck.

Not God's design.

It's not God's design that as a woman you kind of play this game where he thinks he's in charge, but I'm actually the one calling the shots around here.

You think he thinks he's this, but I'm actually the one doing things.

Now, is that a reality?

Maybe so.

Because men in their fallen nature abdicate.

Hey, if she wants to lead, she's if you know if she's gonna put it, whatever, I'll let her make the decisions.

I'll let her pick what we're gonna do and how the family's gonna, what church we're gonna go to, and if we're gonna do Bible study or not, or what movies we're gonna watch, what we're gonna let the kids, how we're gonna let them behave.

We'll let her decide those things.

She has opinions on it, clearly, so let's let her take care of those things.

That's our natural bent is to abdicate, to pull back, to not lead, to not be the first person to serve, the primary leader in laying down our life for one another.

So women do not be deceived.

And men don't be deceived.

God has placed us in his design to function and live as he has called us to live.

There is great honor in caring for children.

Taking care of the home.

I'm not saying, I know I'm caveating everything this morning.

Hear me though, I'm not saying you have to have children.

If you don't, you're you're somehow you're you're just less than, or you can't work outside the home.

That's not what I'm saying.

What I am saying, though, is there's a created order, and in that is blessing.

Generally, as we follow God's word, follow his commands, there comes blessing and following and embracing his design for us.

So do not be deceived and learned.

Learn from a good heart.

Learn to be followers of Christ, faithful to him in all things.

Titus chapter 2, verses 3 and 4 says, older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanders or slaves to much wine.

Titus 2:3

They're to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children.

Learn.

Women, learn so that you can do these things, so that you can teach and instruct other women how to love their husbands and their children, how to honor the Lord with their obedience.

And if you feel jaded or you feel frustrated that the role of teacher and oversight or pastor is reserved for qualified men, and the women are given this task of, well, just learning.

I just want to encourage you.

God does not make mistakes.

He does not make mistakes.

He does not make mistakes when he gives these instructions to his people.

Trust God's word.

Submit your will to his, and you will find great joy in life in that.

Will it be easy?

No, I promise you.

I promise you it will not be easy.

But I promise you it will be good as you submit your life to his design.

Women, our church needs godly, mature women.

We need women who know how to study God's word.

Who everything everything I just did with the hermeneuks and all that jazz, they're right.

There with it.

They know God's word.

They're teaching others.

They know how to handle God's word.

Women who are not also abdicating their responsibility and just saying, listen, understanding the Bible, that's not the husband's job.

That's his job.

He takes care of the theology and the family.

No.

It's your job too.

God clearly believes, clearly believes that one of the most essential elements of accomplishing the Great Commission, making disciples of all the nations, is for women of the church to be learning and maturing in the faith.

To do this, we need godly women who are free, as verse 8 and 9 was telling us, from self-absorbed culture, who are free to instruct and teach and to lead all within the appropriate place and context.

So that, so that those who are lost might be found.

And those who are found might grow in their faith.

We're almost there.

Hang in here.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon, every time we open God's word, we bring our worldview to bear with it.

We bring our opinions, our thoughts, all of it onto that.

A passage like this, although it's just giving instruction to women, it really is a test for us all.

Will we submit to God's word?

Does his word have a final say in our lives?

How far are we willing to go to be faithful to God's word?

Be honest with yourself.

Be honest.

Are you willing to submit to God's design in God's word?

I also want to give a word of warning here.

Because knowing myself and knowing our church, we clearly find ourselves on one side of this debate.

We believe that the office of elder, pastor, overseer is reserved for qualified men.

And Lord willing, in a few weeks, when I come back, we'll be talking about that in chapter 3.

So it's easy for us to come in to this and I agree, amen, nodding our head to these things, but then neglecting other areas where we're not submitting to God's word.

We might say, well, we're submitting here, and it puffs up, but are we submitting to all of God's word?

Romans 2, verse 21-22.

Romans 2:21–22

Paul again is writing, he says, You then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?

While you preach against stealing, do you steal?

You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

Christ did not come and die for your sins and mine.

So that we can just follow him when it's convenient or easy.

We are called, church, to be people of the book.

We follow his word.

Our life is centered around him, what he tells us to do.

Cannot be followers of Jesus if we don't follow Jesus.

That's the most basic thing to say.

Examine your heart, examine your life.

We cannot be followers of Jesus if we do not follow Jesus.

So let's submit to God's ways.

Let's bear the responsibilities and the privileges of being God's people.

And let's enjoy the blessings that come when we obey God's word.

Church, let's pray.