The Nature of Women and Their Role

Transcript

GR 1261
12/21/2003
The Nature of Women and Their Roles
1 Timothy 2:14,15
Gil Rugh


We have been going through 1 Timothy 2. And I want you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 2 and then I want to look at a couple of passages with you before we get into the passage. Jesus Christ did come to earth to be a Savior and not just a Savior but the Savior. And He not only saves us from the penalty of sin He saves us from the power of sin. And that's why salvation in Jesus Christ is such a life-transforming event. We are set free. Jesus said, "If the Son will make you free, you will be free indeed." "If any person be in Christ, they are a new creature [a new creation]. The old things pass away. New things come." A remarkable change occurs.

Paul wrote about this. Just listen as I read you Ephesians 2 verse 8 and following. "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And that salvation is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not as a result of works so that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." So you see we cannot be saved by our best efforts and our works, being religious, whatever. But when we are saved by God's grace through believing in His Son, our lives are so changed that now we live different lives. We are now His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. Not saved by good works but saved for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Turn back a page or so in 1 Timothy to chapter 1. And in 1 Timothy 1 Paul talks about his glorious salvation, a man who had been trying his hardest and doing his best to be saved by being as religious as he could be and he was brought to the realization that he was lost and without hope in the world. And he says in verse 15, "It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost of all." God saved me to demonstrate the greatest of sinners can be saved so anyone can be saved. What he is doing in 1 Timothy then is unfolding the life and lifestyle of the people of God who have experienced the glorious salvation of God and it changes and transforms our lives in all areas. We are not the same as we used to be. We are now sons of the living God. We have become partakers of the divine nature, Peter wrote, and so the beautiful character of God is now produced in our lives and we live as God would have us live as His children.

So in chapter 3 verse 15 of 1 Timothy we are told that the Church is the household of God. The church of the living God is the family of God. Now remember you don't get into the family of God by joining a church. You get into the family of God by believing in His Son alone as your Savior and you are born into God's family. By virtue of being part of God's family, you are part of the Body of Christ, the Church. And so Paul is talking about how the Church is to function, how the people of God are to live. In chapter 2 he is talking about the role of women and their responsibility as godly women. Verse 9 he talked about the way they are to conduct themselves with their clothing and their conduct, their adornment. The end of verse 10, this is the way that is proper for a woman making a claim to godliness. So we are talking about what God wants for a woman who belongs to Him. What He intends for her and for her to be as His servant.

Verse 11 a woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. "I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man but to remain quiet." So the realm of the woman is not the realm of teaching and the realm of leading or being in authority. We were looking at the reasons Paul gives why the woman is not to be the teacher of the Word of God. We are to be providing leadership and authority over men. And the first reason Paul gave was in verse 13, "For it was Adam who was first created, then Eve." Foundational is the order of creation. Some people take this passage written by Paul and say well, it was cultural. It was part of the thinking and practice of the day. Women were uneducated. Women were not given freedom to operate on their own. So Paul is simply saying we have to live within the framework of the culture in which we find ourselves. But when he gives the reason why women are not to be the teachers of the Word of God or have authority over men he says we have to go back and understand the purposes of the Creator when he created a man and he created a woman. And we noted in our consideration of particularly Genesis 2 while both the man and woman were created in the image of God, they were not created in the same way nor were they created at the same time. Genesis 2 told us that the man, the male, was created first after the dust of the earth and then later God took a rib out of the sight of Adam and created a woman from the man. So the woman was created after the man. The same Spirit of God who hovered over the earth in the beginning of creation in Genesis 1, the same Spirit of God who directed the writing of those chapters in Genesis, now directs Paul in his writing here.
And it's made very clear God created the male and the female differently because he had different roles and different purposes for them to fulfill.

As we'll see as we move through our study further today, it's not just that a man and a woman have different physical characteristics. They are different on the inside as well as the outside. The fact that God created the man first and then the woman establishes the priority of the man. He is the leader. You understand if there had never been a fall into sin, the man would have been the leader in the relationship. That's what Paul is telling us here. Verse 13 of chapter 2. For it was Adam who was first created, then Eve. That explains why the woman is not to teach or be in authority over a man. She wasn't created for that role. That's as far back as you can go. What did the Creator intend and plan when He made a male and then He made a female? Well, the Spirit of God tells us. By making the man first and then the woman he established the priority of the man and he is the leader. It has nothing to do with culture or changing views of women at different times.

Now look at verse 14. He gives his second reason why the woman is not to be the teacher of the Word of God nor to be in authority over the man. It follows through. The instruction is given in verse 12 then the reason, verse 13, for and continuing with the second reason, verse 14, and it was not Adam who was deceived but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. The first reason the woman is not to be the teacher of the
Word of God or to be in authority over the man is the man was created first. That establishes his priority, his position of leadership. The second reason is the fact of the fall. The woman was deceived, not the man. In fact it says here, "It was not Adam who was deceived but the woman being fully deceived. It's a compound word, the second word deceived. It has a preposition on the front. And this close proximity seems to be laying emphasis on the fact the woman was the one deceived. She fell into the transgression.

Now we're not minimizing the fact that Adam sinned. And Adam's sin had the created impact on the human race for according to Romans 5 Adam was the head of the race.
The fall of the race did not occur until Adam sinned. So we are not minimizing Adam's sin or saying Adam was less sinful than Eve. But they did not sin in the same way.
Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived. This is not new information. Eve admitted this in Genesis 3.

Turn back to Genesis 3. You are aware of the account of the craftiness of the Serpent.
He comes and talks to the woman and asks if she can eat of all the trees in the garden and the woman says no, we can't eat of the tree of knowledge and good and evil. And if we eat of it or touch it we'll die. In verse 4 the Serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die. For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil." The woman said, "Hum. That's right, eh? So it won't be bad. It will be OK. It will be good." So she took it and ate it. Gave it to her husband and he ate. Later God comes and confronts Adam and Eve regarding their sin. And note what Eve says in verse 13. "Then the Lord God said to the woman what is this you have done? The woman said the Serpent deceived me and I ate." So her statement. He told me a lie and I believed it. I was deceived. I thought what he told me would be true. Adam was not deceived when Adam took of that fruit and ate. He wasn't deceived into thinking that maybe what the Serpent had said was true. He just decided he'd give it a try. You know we see that in our kids, don't we? Sometimes your kids know they are not supposed to do something. You've told them not to do it, but one of their friends "talks" them into it. Maybe deceives them. They say your parents won't find out and this will work out good. And when you find out and call them on account, they say well, he deceived me. He tricked me. I thought it was going to be OK. In fact we are constantly warning our children about not being deceived by strangers and so on. But sometimes there are occasions where you tell your kids not to do something and what do the kids do? They just decide they are going to give it a try. Well, both are rebellious acts but one was a result of deception. One was not.

That's the way it was with Adam and Eve. Eve was deceived. The man was not. All right. Come back to the New Testament to 2 Corinthians 11. Paul is writing to the Corinthians and expressing his concern for them that they might not be deceived by false teachers. And note what he says in verse 3 of 2 Corinthians 11, "But I am afraid that as the Serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so you too might be deceived." You note here he goes back to what happened to Eve, that the Serpent will work and deceive you like he deceived Eve. No doubt or question that Eve was deceived. Now the Bible is very clear on this. What Genesis 3 says, what 2 Corinthians 11 says, what Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2. But in spite of the clarity of the Word of God on this issue some people have a hard time seeing it. Let me read you what John Stot writes on this passage, John Stot being a leading evangelical. "It is more probable . . . " And he's writing on 1 Timothy 2 that it was not Adam who was deceived but the woman being deceived. "It is more probable therefore that the essence of Eve's part in the fall was not that she was deceived but that she took an improper initiative, usurped out of authority and thus reversed their respective roles." The only problem with this is the Scripture says it was not Adam who was deceived but the woman being deceived, or fully deceived, fell into transgression. Then I read this comment: "It is more probable that the essence of Eve's part in the fall was that she was not deceived." Now who do I believe? I say this because some people say there must be more to the text here. Why do so many people reject it? Why so many people reject it is they just don't like what it says. I mean is it confusing? It was not Adam being deceived but the woman being deceived. Now when I read someone who is an evangelical who said it more probable that the essence of Eve's part in the fall was not that she was deceived, is Paul right or is Stot right? Well for me it's settled. I take it she was deceived and Stot is confused. Maybe he's deceived. I don't know. There's no reason to reject the Scripture. Now I know why he rejects it. He goes on to say there's no reason why a woman can't be a teacher today, that a woman can't be in authority today because the real problem was cultural here. We have to set aside the cultural things.
They don't apply to us today. But you have to set aside Scripture and the clear teaching of Scripture if you are going to do that.

The Bible says it was the woman who was deceived. Now what is his point? Remember he's giving reasons why in verse 12. Verse 11 and 12 a woman receives instruction quietly: she's not allowed to be the teacher; she's not allowed to be in the position of authority because Adam was created first and because Eve was deceived, not Adam.
Now if that only relates to Eve what's the point for the women at Ephesus? What's the point for the women today? The whole point is in the context and this will become clear in the next verse, verse 15. It reveals something of her very nature and character as God created her. You know we get all kinds of conflicting views being given today. Some want to say in the feminist movement that there's really no difference between a man and a woman except their physical construction. But you get past the physical veneer and a man and a woman are the same thing. That's basically why we are not allowed to make any distinctions between men and women. The women had to be free to do everything the man can do. Now we send them to war. Let them get killed like the men do because men and women are exactly the same except for the internal physical parts. There are others who say and try to hold the feminist view and sometimes it’s the same people--we need women in these positions because we have to have a woman's perspective. Well, if men and women aren't any different apart from the physical, what's the difference between a woman and a man's perspective? Why do we need a woman's insight into this? How will it be different than a man's insight except she brings a woman's body to the table instead of a man's body? But if the differences are only physical, then the argument well we need women in these positions so we have a woman's perspective is nonsense. There is no such thing as a woman's perspective because a woman is just a man in a different body. Does this make sense to you? I hope not.

The biblical view is God created a man and a woman differently. He created the man first then He created the woman to be a helper to the man, his complement, to complete the man. It is not good for the man to be alone, remember. Man is not what he is to be until the woman, the female, is created. Then the male and female together complete God's purpose in the creation of a man and a woman. God created a man different and differently, to be different, have a different role than a woman. And a woman to have a different role then a man. Then we would expect that He created them not only externally but internally different. And there is more acknowledgment of this even among feminists today. Here's a quote from a book, "Secular social scientists have increasingly explored gender differences in the last two decades. They've performed sophisticated analysis of the male tendency toward competition, conflict and disputation and the female tendency toward relatively more cooperation and affiliation. And here traditionalists and feminists at least partially converge and recognize that the women tend to want to, you know, resolve conflict, work it out, talk about it. What's a wife want to do? Can't we talk about it? Well, what do we have to talk about? What do men do? We'll fight about it. Let's settle it. There are differences. Women are the nurturers. They bring the warmth. They bring everybody . . . You know, every kid would rather what? Now I'm talking about the norm. Now we can go way out here and find the macho, macho man. Not every one can be like me. We have the other side and we find the feminine, feminine, feminine girl but the differences are clearly there. You are in a family, usually the kids would rather negotiate with the mother than the father, why? Mom will understand. Mom will give in. And what's the worst thing? When Mom says go talk to your dad. Why? Because Dad's going to look at . . . just analyze it. What did I tell you yesterday? What's changed today? Then do what I told you yesterday and don't bother me. The game's on. Then you go back to Mom. What did Dad say? He said I have to do what he told me. Uh, honey, that's too bad. I was hoping he'd change his mind. What? Men and women are different. It's just . . . You know, the world, you know, says yes they are so, we need a woman's perspective in every area of life and on every governing board and so on. At the same time they are saying there's no difference. And the sad thing is, Christians get confused.

The Bible is clear. God made the man differently to function differently. He made the woman differently to function differently. The woman is more susceptible to deception. Her strength also becomes her weakness. It's like the man's strength can be his weakness in a different context. The woman brings that mother's love and care and nurture to the home, the family, that newborn baby and so on. They give it to the father and he says what do I do with this? It's not that way with the mother. It's just different. It's not so complicated. The woman was deceived. It's not her nature to take the lead and when she does, she's vulnerable. That's demonstrated in Eve but it's not just limited to Eve. We go through all kind of contortions because we don't want to be found to say women are more susceptible to deception than men, but they are. It's part of their makeup. That doesn't mean every single women is more susceptible than every single man. But it is the way that we have been credited and fits the roles. God didn't intend the woman to be out front making the decision. When she did and the man followed there was trouble. The woman is not to be the teacher. When the woman takes the leadership in the Church and is deciding doctrine, it gets decided and worked and massaged with friendship and relationships and don't see why we've got to take a stand and divide over this issue. I mean we ought to be able to work it out and we can make adjustments. That's a strength. She brings that to the man but it is not the quality we are looking at in the leader. And the one who is responsible to teach and stand and protect the Word of God. So the woman was deceived, not the man.

And we'll go on. I don't want to read you all the secular social scientists, but they talk about the individual differences between the men and the women. They get into everything from the voice of the man and his competitiveness and what do we do? It used to be that you went and watched the men and they went out there and fought each other. Now we have lady boxers and they go in there and pummel each other and one of them died here in one of their battles and now they want to sue because somebody should have stopped them. What? Somebody should have had the good sense to say women aren't to be boxers. And then we send our women out to do the same things the men do. Go get them. Be aggressive. Stomp 'em. And then we say 1 Peter 3 says the Lord loves a gentle and quiet spirit in a woman. Well, after you stomp them be gentle with them.
We just need to be, you know, understand what the roles are, what the differences are.
It's a beautiful thing. People say oh, you are putting down the women. No! No more than we are putting down the men when we say God didn't create them to have babies, be the nurturer of those babies and give them life and sustenance and so on the way the woman does. It's a beautiful balance. A compliment that is brought.

All right maybe we ought to go to 1 Corinthians 11 to bring in another passage here. I was going to skip this but I've had some questions on it. We've been in 1 Corinthians 11, so I will just remind you. Paul does the same thing in addressing the matter of the roles of men and women in writing to the Corinthians. He says you have to go back and understand what God did at creation. And all these things become an issue of rejecting God as the Creator and thus rejecting His purposes and intentions for His creation. The issue here becomes authority. That's always been a battleground. Verse 3. But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, the man is the head of the woman and God is the head of Christ. There is order established. That does not mean that the woman is an inferior being because the end of verse 3 says God is the head of Christ and Christ never ceased being God and thus in his being he has always been equal to God.

My understanding, and I acknowledge there is not a lot of material on this, but my understanding is there would have been order in the Godhead before the incarnation. In the Old Testament we find the Spirit going and doing the will of God. I take it God the Son, I believe in the eternal sonship of Christ, eternally had that role. As the Father is referred to as the Father through the Old Testament. To say that there are three persons comprising the one God and they are equal and of the same nature and being does not mean that there is not order. And that's why in 1 Corinthians 15 when you get to the end of the thousand-year millennium Christ will turn the kingdom in its completed purified state over to the Father that the Father may be all in all. Through eternity there will be order even in the Godhead. There always has been and always will be. That does not imply inferiority of being.

But here the point is the relationship of the man and the woman. And you note the reasons given. We can jump over some stuff here and then maybe tie it together with some comments. Verse 7 the man ought not to have his head covered since he is the image and glory of God. Talking about when prophesying or praying. The woman is to have her head covered if she prophesies or prays. Why? The man is the image and glory of God. Now Genesis 1 at the end of the chapter there the man and woman were created in the image of God. Here the man is the image and glory of God but the woman is the glory of the man. It doesn't say the woman is the image of the man because the woman was created in the image of God also. But she's the glory of the man. What do you mean? Well, the man does not originate from woman but woman from man. We're back to the same thing Paul dealt with in 1 Timothy 2, back to what is the order of creation in Genesis 2. God created Adam first, then He created Eve. How did he create Eve? Well, He created Adam directly out of the dust. Then He created Eve indirectly. He took a human being He had already brought into existence and took part of that human being and created another human being. So the woman comes out of the man. In that sense she is the glory of the man, reflection of the man, because she's not the direct creation of God the Father. She's the indirect creation. Adam was directly created, not from another human being but from dust. God made a human being from nothing, no human being. But with the woman He created her out of the man.

Again, Paul says you have to understand this reveals God's purposes for the sexes. In verse 9, "For indeed man was not created for the woman's sake but woman for the man's sake." What did God say in Genesis 2? It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. The woman was made for the man to compliment and complete him. The man was not made for the woman. Paul says that establishes order and proper roles and functioning for the sexes. The woman does not lead. The man does. The woman's not the teacher. The man is.

He'll even mention nature regarding hair length. Verse 14, "Does not even nature teach you that if a man has long hair it's a dishonor to him. If a woman has long hair, it's a glory to her." From the beginning God intended women to have longer hair than men. There ought to be a distinction in our hairstyles. Man ought not to be wearing long hair like a woman. A woman ought not to be wearing her hair cut like a man. It's what he says. You say all these things are culture. I referred to him before. I was reading again this week a man who wrote 40 pages in his commentary on the first 16 verses of 1 Corinthians 11. I had a terrible time explaining it away. When he got all done you know what he said? Paul wasn't very passionate about this subject anyway so we ought to be careful about trying to impose it on people today. What's that mean . . . Paul wasn't very passionate about this? I mean the Spirit of God directed him to write. What we have is 16 verses. And you are telling me now it doesn’t matter. Paul really didn't have strong feelings about it. It didn't matter to him. This is another evangelical commentary. You just can't throw it out. Well, you can.

And interestingly enough, up until about 40 years ago, 35 years ago, there was no debate on that. People who accepted the Word of God understood it for what it said. Now there were always people who just denied it was the Word of God and so on. But it wasn't until about 1970 that evangelicals began to find ways to reinterpret these passages and hopefully make them say something other than they clearly say so that we could fit with the world's thinking. But we ought to be concerned about fitting with the Creator's thinking. That's the beautiful picture.

The conflict here at Corinth was women praying and prophesying. We say well wait. If women can prophesy, why can't they teach? Because God said they can't teach. Well, what's the difference between prophesying and teaching? Well, prophesying involves receiving direct revelation from God and speaking it forth. Well, why would God give direct revelation to women but not allow them to be teachers of revelation? I don't know. When you get to Glory ask Him. That's what He says. Now there's really no development of the women prophesying in the New Testament epistles. We have this reference. We are told in the book of Acts that Philip has four daughters who prophesied. The extent of that and what happened we are not told. But we are told here that when a woman prophesied in the group, she had to have her head covered. Why? Well, the one standing before the group was viewed as in a position of authority and there must be no mistake. The woman is not in a position of authority. So she has the sign of her submissiveness on her head.

Why does she do that? Well, verse 10, "The woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels." And we don't have time to go into passages. Ephesians 3:10, 1 Peter 1:12, Hebrews 1:14 on angels and their ministry and their looking into the Church to see the unfolding of God's work of redemption. But you know, things aren't tied to culture. A number of commentaries I read said, "Well, you know, the culture of the day meant any women who went out without her head covered was displaying that she was an immoral woman. You know the problem with that. You can read just as many commentaries that have been written recently to say you know we really don't know what the cultural practice of head coverings was in Corinth in the first century. So just because somebody writes it in a book doesn't make it authoritative. So a person writes, "It was the culture of the day that if a woman didn't have her head covered in public, she was an immoral woman. Well it's in his book. I could reference it. But who says? I read writers and they are saying you know, we don't know what the culture was. The culture is not the issue. The Word of God is.

Now the gift of prophesy is no longer present so to that extent this is not an issue for us. What about praying? Well, two possibilities. One, some say that the praying is connected to the prophesying. And often when a person prophesied there would naturally be prayer as part of that. We connect the praying and the prophesying as part of the same activity. If that's not the case and praying is a separate activity here, it would mean if a woman would pray in the context of others and particularly maybe men would be present I guess that she'd have to have her head covered. Why? So there's no misunderstanding.
Normal practice would be the men would pray because 1 Timothy 2 said I want the men to pray in every place. But if there are occasions where the woman prays, and it's not connected to prophesying here, then they would have to have their head covered. I don't see it as a cultural thing. Why would she have to cover her head? Because she's in authority, under authority. But what I want you to note here is that you go back to creation basically. You go to transcultural things. The role is established by the Creator. Here's what a woman is to be. Here is what a man is to be. The Church needs to see today that all the unisex approaches are displays of rebellion against God and rejection of Him as the Creator and thus the One who has authority over His creation. These are serious matters and that's where Paul is going next.

Come back to 1 Timothy 2. So basically a woman is not allowed to be the teacher of the Word of God or to be in authority over a man because the order of creation establishes the leadership role of the man and the facts of the fall demonstrate that God has not created the woman to carry that responsibility. Since she has a vulnerability that makes her unsuited for that role.

"But women will be saved, preserved, through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self restraint." I take it they give you a summary and then we'll look at some of the details. I take it verse 15 tells us what the role and realm of the woman is. The role she's created for is the home and the family. That does not mean every single woman is going to get married and every single woman is going to have children. First Corinthians 7 tells us that God has called and gifted some women and some men to remain single, Paul being one of them. And he clarifies there the desireableness of having that gift and call of God. But he also says it's not for everyone and it's not for the majority. So here he's dealing with what will be the prime role and realm of women. It's the home. That what he means through the bearing of children.

Look over in chapter 5 of 1 Timothy verse 14, "Therefore I want younger widows to get married, bear children." A different form of the same word that we had translated bearing of children in chapter 2. It means having children, caring for the home, that domestic role. We talk about the homemaker. That's her role or realm.

Over in Titus 2. We looked at this where the older women are to teach the younger women but their realm is not Bible doctrine and biblical truth as such but the implementation of truth in their lives. Verse 4, "So that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, be workers at home, subject to their husbands so that the Word of God will not be dishonored." These are matters God created men and women to do, but it's imperative that the people of God not dishonor the Word of God. This is the woman's realm that God has created her for. She doesn't have her fulfillment, her role, in being the teacher, in giving the leadership. She has her role in taking care of the home, in supporting her husband, in nurturing the children and so on. This is not a popular view today. We are intent on creating a society that knows no differences between men and women. We are not allowed legally in so much of our society to discriminate on the basis of sex so we are saying what? Men and women have to be treated exactly the same, not equally, but the same. There is a difference. I may go down and meet one of the linemen from the football team. I'd like to be treated equally with him but I don't want to be treated as the same. I don't want another 300 pound lineman running into me. You say Gil, I thought you wanted to be treated the same? No, I wanted to be treated equal. We are both human beings, we're both men. I'm the coward. Equality is not sameness. So this is the women's realm. This is her domain.

In chapter 5 of 1 Timothy look at verse 9. The enrolling of widows at 60 years of age where they have no one else to support them, the Church can take on their support. Look at verse 10. What is required? Having a reputation for good works. If she has brought up children. Shown hospitality to strangers, washed the saints feet, assisted those in distress, devoted herself to every good work. You see, those things we associate with the woman's realm and domain - the caring of children and the providing of what is necessary is what is viewed as well as what the younger widows were instructed in verse 14.

Back in Genesis. What did God say when He created the man as male and female in Genesis 1 in that summary? Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. From the beginning it was God's intention that the woman bear children and nurture and care for those children. He created them physically for that. But He did more than create them physically for that--He created them emotionally for that. He shaped their innermost being for that, their individual roles.

So what happens in the fall into sin in Genesis 3? God said to the woman in pain you will bear children. What did he say to the man? By the sweat of your brow you will labor and toil to provide for your family until you die. The man tended the garden before he fell into sin but now what comes with that work? Pain, hardship, suffering. The woman would have had children if there had never come sin into the world. What comes now with child birth? Pain, unpleasantness. But the roles are still the same. They now have negative things infused into them because of sin.

Turn over to 1 Peter 3. Here he's talking about husbands and wives and he focuses on the wives first and then the husbands. And even a woman who has an unbelieving, ungodly husband is to function as God intends her to function. He talks about their chaste and respectful behavior in verse 2, their proper adornment, and we looked at some of these things when we were studying it in 1 Timothy 2. Their adornment is to be, verse 4, the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit which is precious in the sight of God.
The hidden person of the heart, what you are now as a new person in Christ, that imperishable quality. It is not culturally related. This is what is precious in the sight of God, that gentle and quiet spirit. That's as God made the woman to be. We need to be careful of trying to build into our women more aggressiveness, more take charge. It's contrary to what is precious in the sight of God. It's what's valuable in the sight of the world, but we are desirous of pleasing our God. Man has his role and responsibility.
That would be the balance.

The example is godly women of the Old Testament. Sarah being an example. That's the way you are to function. God's view on this doesn't change with the culture. The culture of Abraham's day 2000 years before Christ doesn't mean well, now that 2000 years have gone by this is different. No, this goes back to what He created a man to be and what He created the woman to be. It's simply a matter of will we submit to the Creator or will we not.

And you are reminded in verse 7 that women are the fellow heirs of the grace of life. So the man is responsible to treat her properly, recognizing she's the weaker vessel because she doesn't have the physical strength of the man. I was watching a program and they were talking about some of the changes that were made in the military training because it just would never be possible for any women in any number to meet the strength requirements that were placed there for the men. So they reduced them for everyone so everyone has the same qualifications. She is the weaker vessel. That's beautiful. And if you've been here, I used the illustration of pots and pans and fine China. Why are people always trying to make the fine China a skillet. I mean the man is a skillet. The woman is the fine China. Do you think you go into someone's home and they proudly show you guess what we did? We succeeded in making all our fine China pots and pans, skillets. You say, Oh, you're wonderful. And in your heart you are saying what? What a fool!
But our world goes around trying to hold up examples of how we've made women like men. Aren't we wonderful? Fools. There is a difference. God created the difference Himself.

Come back to 1 Timothy 2. "They will be saved through the bearing of children." That word preserved is the word used in the pastoral epistles and used other ways in the New Testament for the salvation of a person, spiritual salvation. "They will be saved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint." So I take it what we have here is a woman demonstrates her salvation functioning as God intends her to function. Basically, she's walking in the good works which God ordained beforehand for her to walk in them as we read in Ephesians 2:10. It's not every woman who bears a child now gets saved. I don't think we are talking in verse 15 about the bearing of the Messiah. She'll be saved through the bearing of the child, referring to the Messiah. That would be pretty obtuse way to refer to the messianic birth. And besides he seems to be including more than just one woman here because it’s if they continue. It seems to me in the context rather than a woman's demonstrating her salvation by becoming a teacher and a leader among the people of God, she demonstrates her salvation by assuming and carrying out the role as given her. And that just doesn't mean well, you know, taking care of the home and the children. That does that in the context of what? Manifesting godly character.

"They continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint." That word translated self-restraint. It's the same word translated "discreet" up in verse 9. "I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly with self-restraint," with good judgment, sober thinking. A woman's submitting herself to her God and to the truth of His Word is a manifestation of her salvation. This is a serious matter. To talk about people living in obedience to the Word of God, we are in a very basic area here, a very foundational issue. The woman's role, verses 9 to 15, begins by an emphasis on sober thinking, sound judgment. Ends with that emphasis on sound judgment. We are talking about, verse 10, a woman making a claim to godliness. She demonstrates her genuine godliness by functioning in the role that the Creator that she loves and serves has ordained for her, and she does it as she manifests the beauty of His character being produced in her life. She's living her life by faith. She's demonstrating the work of the Spirit and the love that she shows. The holiness of her life with good judgment.

Remember Peter wrote, those who twist Paul's writings do so to their own destruction at the end of the second letter. This is a serious matter. The Church has been infiltrated by people who make a claim to being believers and now are trying to look like they are scholarly believers and that becomes an excuse to corrupt and twist and undermine the Scriptures. And the result is it brings confusion among the people of God. A truly saved woman, one who is making a profession of godliness, lives as God created her to be, accepts her God-ordained role, accepts the fact that her Savior came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Is willing to live her life humbly as we looked at in Philippians 2 where Christ humbled Himself. The world says you have to assert yourself, you have to exalt yourself. You have to get a job that makes you someone and something so you'll have more to talk about on an adult level than kids and home.
You are bringing in some of the green stuff. I want to be valued in the world's sight. All right, you can. But you cannot do that . . . you cannot be a friend of the world and a friend of God as James wrote. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. We need to understand in this most foundational area that when we reject God's Word on this, we are rejecting Him. We are saying I will not have it that way in my life.

Let me read you what Jesus said, John 8:31, "So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed in Him." There were a group of Jews around Him who had made a profession of believing in Him as their Messiah and Savior. "If you continue in My word, you are truly disciples of Mine." It's not those who profess to believe in Christ who are saved. It is those who place their faith in Christ alone for salvation and now live in obedience to His Word.

"If you continue in My Word, you are truly disciples of Mine." You know why we have so much trouble with teaching on the role of women in evangelical churches today? Our churches have been infiltrated and saturated with people who have made a profession of faith but have never submitted themselves to the living God. They have never experienced transforming salvation. And now we are constantly working to try to massage and alter the Word of God so that it fits more into the thinking of the world so we can be more like the world and still make a profession of faith. Comes to be a very basic area. It ought not to surprise us we have conflict with the world. The world's thinking is what? A sovereign God did not create a man from the dust of the earth. He did not create a woman from the side of a man. This evolved over time. We are the product of evolution, not creation. And then some Christians think they found a solution.
I believe in theistic evolution. It's not as Genesis said that God did start, but then it evolved.

"If you continue in My word, you are truly disciples of Mine." A true salvation causes you to be born again and brings with it a willingness to submit to the truth of God and live in obedience to it. It doesn't mean we perfectly do it all the time. But there is an attitude of heart there that I desire to submit to my God and live in obedience to Him and accept that His will for my life is all that I want, all that I desire, and as Paul said all that I had accomplished that was of human value put it on the dung heap, the rubbish heap. He gave his testimony in Philippians 3. There's something wrong with people who make a profession of faith but are doing everything they can to hold on to the things of the world and the thinking of the world.

So do you know the Savior? He's the One who came to earth to be the Savior. Has He transformed your life and made you new? You don't have to be afraid. His salvation is wonderful. To know I am clean before God. I belong to Him. I can serve Him. That He works all things together for my good and His glory. I don't want to fight against His will. I don't want to fight against His Word. I want to experience the fullness of His blessing in every area of my life. That's what He brings to you when you turn from your sin, turn from your own self-effort. Say, "God, I need Jesus Christ and Him alone. He is the only one who can save me and make me new." Let's pray together.

Thank you, Lord, that You are a great and awesome God. You created all things. All things are under Your power and Your authority because You made them for Yourself. Thank you for the account of the creation of man as male and female. Thank you for the beautiful difference that is there, externally and internally. Thank you for the beauty of lives lived in obedience to Your will. Thank you that You're not only the Creator but You are the Savior. You have sent Your Son from the realms of glory because we are hopelessly lost. You sent Him to this earth so that He could suffer and die and pay the terrible penalty for our sin so that we might be given the gift of eternal life through faith in Him. Lord, I pray for each and every person here today. I pray that as the Spirit searches our hearts and mind that any who do not know Jesus Christ might find this to be a day of salvation. We pray in His name, amen.