WWUTT 593 God Made Men and Women Different?

The Responsibility of Men and Women in the Church

Would you have been able to predict, even 10 years ago, that it would be offensive to stand in front of people and say that men and women are different? And yet in obedience with the Word of God, it is necessary for us to recognize those differences when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's Word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 8 -15 is where I am again today. With the Apostle Paul writing to his servant Timothy, I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness, with good works.

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. So as I mentioned yesterday, the responsibility in the church to lead the teaching is given for a man to fill that role.

The position of pastor is for a man. A woman is not to fill that role. Rather she is to learn quietly, with all submissiveness. Now as we talk about these things this week, I'm mostly going to be addressing the women and their role within the church.

Men, Women, and Church Leadership

But that's not to say that I'm picking on women, because our address to men and their responsibility is certainly coming. In 1 Timothy chapter 5, Paul says, do not rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father.

Younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters in all purity. So one of the statements I made yesterday is that the men in the church, especially the older men, have the responsibility of setting the example in godliness for the rest of the church.

Now the pastor is going to be the example of a mature Christian. And he is going to set the tone for the teaching for the entire church. That which is proclaimed from the pulpit, preached from the word of God.

But as far as examples of godliness go, when you're talking about the structure of mentorship that happens in the church, older men are mentoring the younger men, but are also examples to older women and younger women.

And then you have older women that are mentoring the younger women. So even here when we get to chapter 5 in 1 Timothy, you have that same order that's given. With Paul saying, don't rebuke an older man, but encourage him as you would a father.

Younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters in all purity. So you have that order that's given there as well. The first that are mentioned are the older men in the church, because they are the maturest of the believers.

And they're the ones setting a good example for the rest of the believers in love and purity and in the pursuit of holiness. We actually had an incident in my church a couple of years ago where there was an older man who rebuked me and somebody who is practically a legend in our church congregation.

And yet his rebuke was wrong. It was incorrect. And he was misusing and misapplying scripture in his rebuke of me. And there were some people that were disappointed that I did not respond to him publicly the same way that he was addressing me.

But I knew because of this passage, because of this instruction that Paul gives in 1 Timothy 5 .1, I couldn't respond to him the same way that he was talking to me. Rather, I waited until we were in private and I addressed him about those things.

And he said he was sorry. He said he wouldn't do it again. And he hasn't. He has been true to his word. But that's just to say that those who are more experienced and have been more faithful for so many years, we would rebuke them differently than if you rebuke a younger man who is not as experienced based on that instruction there in 1 Timothy 5 .1.

You go down a little bit further in verse eight, and it says, if anyone does not provide for his relatives, especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

So trust me, the pressure on men is coming in just a little bit. But for right now, where we are in 1 Timothy chapter two, I'm going to be addressing mostly the women. And this is not to pick on women.

It is certainly not to belittle anybody. But again, as I mentioned yesterday, teaching from Titus chapter two, that women would follow the instructions in God's word so that the word of God may not be maligned.

This is not based on what you want according to your flesh. But what you want in your heart is to worship and honor and please God. And so you do all things to his glory and his praise. And it is a delight for you to fill the role that is designated for you as a woman in the.

Church.

The Church as a Body with Different Gifts

Now, the responsibility upon a woman is very important. It is actually no less than the responsibility that has been placed upon a man in terms of its importance. If you were to have a church that was all men, you would have a dysfunctional church for the church is supposed to be different people, both men and women with different gifts and abilities, working together, complementing one another in our strengths and weaknesses so that we become a functioning body of Christ.

So the men in the church need the women as much as the women of the church need the men. It is essential in order to have a functioning church. These instructions that we have here in first Timothy two don't exist in a vacuum.

They go with instructions on being the body of Christ, according to Romans twelve or first Corinthians twelve or Ephesians chapter four, all of these instructions as to how we are to work together as a functioning body.

All of these apply. So it's not just that first Timothy two twelve exists on its own, causing its own little strain of controversy. And if we would just get rid of that passage, maybe we wouldn't be so at odds with one another about whether women can be pastors or not.

That verse is not what's causing all the problems. What is causing problems is a restless heart that is unsatisfied with the instructions of God. And instead, a person wants to do their own thing. They want to put their desires ahead of other people.

And yet Paul explicitly stated in Philippians two that we are to consider others needs ahead of our own. And Paul said in Romans twelve, this is also that same chapter where we have an instruction regarding gifts of the spirit and functioning as the body of Christ.

Paul said in Romans twelve, for by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment. And this reference to Paul reference to himself as one who has been given grace to say to everyone that is calling attention to his authority as an apostle, because it goes with a statement that he made in Romans chapter one about the grace of God that has been given to him as an apostle of Jesus Christ.

We also have this statement made in Romans chapter 15. We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up.

For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. And we have the instruction that's given to us in Ephesians chapter five, that we are to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Submitting to one another means we recognize that there is a person in the congregation who's been given a specific gift and an opportunity to use that gift. And we need to let them do that even if we think we could do the job better.

But it's not for you to fill that role. God has designated the time and place for them to be able to fill that role. You have a different gift and a different purpose to use that gift. So do so faithfully and to God's glory.

When we say that the position in a church is for a man to fill the role as pastor and not for a woman, that does not mean that women can't be preachers in the sense that they're unable to preach. Only men have the ability to do that, but women can't possibly do that.

On the contrary, I think I've known some pastors whose wives could probably preach better than they can, but that doesn't mean that they should. There are women who are great teachers and they use that gift in the right context, in the appropriate way, according to the instruction that God has given.

Not as a pastor filling that role in the pulpit, but maybe their gift of teaching is used in the home with their children. Maybe it is used in the church to teach other children. Maybe it's used in the church to teach other women.

Maybe it's even used in the workplace to teach other women, but it's not to fill the pulpit. That's not to say that a woman doesn't have an ability to be a great preacher. It's just not according to the way that God has set the standard for his church, the way that he has designated his church is supposed to function.

This is not about worshiping God the way that we think worship should be done or the way that worship feels right and feels good to us. We worship God according to what he has said, how he has specifically commanded he is to be worshiped.

And if you love God, you will obey his commandments and you delight to obey in those commandments. So it should be the joy of a woman to learn quietly with all submissiveness. Ladies, rejoice that the pressure is not upon you to fill the role as a pastor and therefore face judgment as a teacher.

For it says in James 3 .1, not all of you should aspire to be teachers, my brothers, for you know that teachers will be judged with greater strictness. And if a woman doesn't have the responsibility on her to fill that role, particularly in the pulpit and and preaching with authority from the word of God, then she doesn't she doesn't have to be concerned with with facing judgment in filling that particular role.

So that's one area, ladies, in which you can rejoice. But you rejoice to learn quietly with all submissiveness, knowing that that is a role that is essential for the church. It is essential for women to be a picture of submission.

And in this case, we're talking about all women, like whenever we're talking about the instructions related to a wife submitting to her husband, which I talked about that a little bit more yesterday in Ephesians, chapter five, Colossians, three other places where that is mentioned.

That is, in context, just an instruction that is for a wife. A wife is supposed to submit to her husband. All women are not supposed to submit to all men. That's not the way that instruction is given.

But when it comes to corporate worship within the church, it is quite true that all women should submit to that role of pastor or overseer and whoever is filling that role, not trying on their own to fill that role or to assert that role or think that they know better than whoever the person is in that role.

But rather, they are to learn quietly with all submissiveness. This is the way that every woman in the church practices submission. In First Peter, chapter five, Peter gives instructions to the elders, and I'll probably be reading that passage when we get to First Timothy, chapter three, and we talk about the qualifications for an overseer or an elder.

But then in the at the end of that instruction, he says this, you who are younger, be subject to the elders, clothe yourselves, all of you with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

So everyone in the church should be submitting to the teaching authority in the church. But it is for women especially to be the picture of that submission. See a woman can do submission better than a man can, because there are times and places in which men are going to have to step up and lead, and God has appointed for them to do so.

Women, however, learn quietly with all submissiveness as a picture of the way the whole church is supposed to be in submission to the command of the word of God. That is a role that a woman does better than a man.

And so she should rejoice in doing so. It is her pleasure to serve God in this way, filling the role that he has designated for a woman to fill. And like I said, it has nothing to do with whether or not a man can do it better or a woman can do it better.

There are some jobs that women can do better, and there are other jobs that men do better. God has created men and women differently. It's crazy that in our culture today, this feminist agenda that exists within our culture, that you actually have to say that there are differences between men and women.

That statement has become offensive, and that statement's become offensive even in the amount of time that I've been a pastor. I've been a pastor for seven years, and when I started this, I never would have imagined that I could stand in the pulpit and say there are differences between men and women.

God designed them different. He designed men a certain way, even anatomically, and he designed women a certain way. I never imagined that preaching such a thing would become such an offensive statement in our culture today.

But it is, especially when we have this culture that is trying to erase the lines of demarcation between genders, that there is no longer differences between men and women, but a man can be a woman if he wants to, or a woman can become a man.

Absolutely absurd. The level of depravity that our society is delving into, even denying the God who made them and the way that he made us. And so I pray for repentance, especially in our churches, because there are churches that are giving into this stuff.

I was just having a conversation with a guy on Twitter yesterday about this, who didn't see that there was anything sinful about that mindset whatsoever, that it is perfectly fine for a man to believe that he could be a woman.

Used to be that if a man dressed up in women's clothing, he was called a pervert. But now they dress him up in a white dress and put him on ESPN and call him a hero. So this is the kind of culture in which we exist.

Created Male and Female in the Image of God

And it is necessary for us as Christians to be reminded that we have been created uniquely by God in his image for distinct purposes. You go back to the created order in Genesis chapter one, and it says in verse 27, so God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. They are created. Man and woman are both created in the image of God. Both of them are worthy of Christian dignity and respect. Both men and women are fellow heirs of the kingdom of God.

A woman is going to receive the kingdom of God just the same as a man is going to just God has designed us in this life and in this world with different gifts, functions, purposes, abilities. That doesn't mean that we're therefore going to inherit the kingdom in a different way.

It's not like men have all the power in the kingdom and women have to submit to all of the men in the kingdom of God. Now, if you're a Mormon, you believe that men get to have all the control as gods over their own planets that they will be given in the next life and their wives still have to do what they tell them to do.

That's that's the Mormon religion for you, which is none of that is true. But in in this world, people are marrying and given in marriage. But as Jesus addressed the Sadducees, that's not the way it's going to be in the kingdom.

All of us are fellow heirs together of the kingdom of God. And so, husbands, you should treat your wives as as not just your wife, but your sister in Christ, a person who is a fellow heir of the kingdom of God.

And that's something that Peter addressed. I read this verse earlier this week. First, Peter three, seven. Likewise, husbands live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life.

And so that is the way that we should treat one another, not just the way that husbands treat wives, but also the way that all men should treat all women with dignity and respect. So once again, coming back here to First Timothy two, verse nine, Paul says, Likewise, also.

So remember the instruction that he gave to men in verse eight. I desire then in every place that the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling. So the instruction here is to present yourself as a holy and pleasing sacrifice unto the.

Lord.

And this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans twelve, one. So then, likewise, women should be doing the same. Verse nine. And they should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire.

And see, that's where we are next in First Timothy two. And I didn't even get to that today. We're going to have to come back again to that next week. This is to show in verses eight and nine, whether we're talking to the men or we're talking to the women, both are supposed to be in submission to the Lord.

Both are supposed to present their bodies as living sacrifices unto God. Men are supposed to lift holy hands, not busying their hands with any sinful work, but lifting holy hands unto the Lord. And we had looked at a passage from Isaiah earlier this week, too, where it says that God will not receive the prayers of somebody whose hands are covered in sin, but rather we need to be holy in all of our conduct.

And likewise, women should be, too. That's the instruction we get in verses nine through 15. Be holy in conduct with good works. Women need to present themselves also as living sacrifices unto the Lord.

And that means in the way that they present themselves, women especially must do this with modesty and self-control, not calling attention to the exterior, but showing who they are inside, transformed by Christ.

And then the righteousness that is on their hearts will be manifested outwardly with the good works that they commit themselves to in honor of Jesus Christ, filling the roles, doing the things, exercising their gifts that God has given them for his glory according to his good purpose.

Boy, that is beautiful. And it's not just beautiful to me to say this of women, but it's a beautiful gift that God has given to each individual person in the church. We are supposed to be working together as the body of Christ.

I've said before that church is the most important act of worship that you can do in your earthly existence, because it is the one act of worship that is the most like the worship that we're going to be doing for all eternity.

When you go to Revelation, you see all of the saints rejoicing together around the throne. That's what we do or what we do in church most closely resembles that. Reading your Bible by yourself and praying, those things are important for you to do, but they're not as much like our eternal worship, what that's going to look like in heaven as when we are worshiping together with the people of God, the body of Christ in church.

So let us be submissive to what God has said the church is supposed to be. It's beautiful that he still gives individual instructions and gifts to individual people, but this is all for the purpose of glorifying him by working together in one spirit in one body.

Let us pray. Our Lord God, we pray that your spirit would be upon us, that your spirit would convict our hearts of our sin, of our selfishness, so that we would get ourselves out of the way, not trying to exalt ourselves or put us in the place that we think that we need to be, but rather that we would do all things to the service of our great God and King.

This is all for your glory, not for our own. And so let us do all things with submissiveness to the instruction of God, and especially submitting to those respective roles that you have given to us and the opportunities in which we are given to serve.

Let us consider the needs of others ahead of our own in whatever way brings Christ the most glory through his body, the church. Let us look for ways to serve one another. Let us look for the needs that need to be met in our church and go through the appropriate people that we need to talk to in order to see those needs being met, so that we're not working or acting on our own, but we are doing all things in one mind in Christ Jesus in one body through the one spirit that is within us all, serving the one God and Father of all, through our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.

Amen.