Woman Fear The Lord, Men Find And Lead Such A Woman

Proverbs 31 and Titus 2 on Sound Doctrine for Men and Women

Please stand for the reading of God's Word. The Old Testament reading today is Proverbs 31, 10, and 26 through 30.

New Testament reading this morning is found in Titus chapter 2 verses 1 through 6. It asks for you to teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith and love, and in steadfastness.

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the Word of God may not be reviled.

Likewise, urge the younger men.

To be self-controlled. You may be seated. Open your Bibles to Proverbs 31, please.

The Beauty of Womanhood as God's Good Creation

Proverbs 31. Last Lord's Day, when I realized that this Lord's Day would be Mother's Day, I whispered, because I had to be quiet because the service was going on, and I said, should I do a sermon on mothers next week?

And she told me yes, so here I am. I really wanted to continue on in Psalms, but it's a good idea to celebrate mothers, and I did my best to that end. And it's gonna end up being more about women than mothers, which I hope you forgive me for that, but it'll kind of have a mixture of everything going on.

The Lord, our God, tells us in Psalm 34 8 to taste and see that the Lord is good. We are to taste and see that the Lord is good, and it is our great pleasure in all of life to do that one act, to look for the different ways that our Lord is good, and to taste of it, and to worship Him in light of it.

And I think one of the greatest ways that the Lord shows himself to be good is whenever he made Adam and he detected something that needed to be done, and that something was that man, it was not good for him to be alone.

And he went and then created the most beautiful thing that he could have created in light of that problem in the woman. I don't mean to be a wet blanket, but I hate the old, you know, rivalry that we like to put in Genesis.

It's a beautiful thing that God located that there was a problem, and he created the most beautiful of solutions in Eve, in the woman, in the helper, in the server. The woman and her role is the most beautiful of roles to serve men.

It's precious in the eyes of God, and it should be precious to us. It should be a solemn, beautiful thing that we celebrate each day, and especially here on Mother's Day. It is a good thing what God has done.

And it is so good, and it is so important to the family, the woman, that I think Satan has set his sights in trying to destroy the family and destroying the role of the woman. Of course, Satan wants to destroy both roles of men and women, and he sets his sights on the role of the woman to destroy.

It's so important that he has created a tempting world philosophy that will give you women a different purpose than what God has ordained at the very beginning. Women was created to solve the problem of men being alone, and to be a helper for him.

And this worldly philosophy tells us that such a purpose is degrading and, quite honestly, embarrassing to hold to. Its engine, this philosophy, is fueled by selfish desire instead of selfless, beautiful service that the woman is created for.

It is an engine fueled by selfish desire instead of selfless service. So I think it's vital that we constantly examine Scripture to ground us against the attack of worldly philosophies meant to steal this pristine, beautiful reality away from us.

That is, the creation of man and woman and the complement, how they complement one another, how one serves the other and the other serves the other in a beautiful tapestry of God's creation. It's beautiful, and of course so beautiful that Satan tries to ruin it, but we need to ground ourself.

And one of the things that I find quite interesting is that the worldly philosophies, and I'll call it for what it is, this modern feminism, what it argues is that whenever a woman looks to Scripture to see what it means to be a woman and how that is supposed to play itself out, the philosophy, or what you are told, is that when you do this you will lack praise, you will lack value, you will lack strength, and you are told to be unintelligent in Scriptures when you give yourself to this meaning that God has for you.

This is how the world philosophy works. You will be without praise because you're just a degraded servant, you're without intelligence because all you are is a servant, you're without strength, you're weak.

This is what we are told. I want you to keep that false, worldly, demonic understanding in mind as we read once more Proverbs 31 to see how the Bible says the very opposite about the godly woman. It says in verse 10 on in Proverbs 31, an excellent wife who can find.

She is far more precious than jewels. Now I'm jumping ahead, but I'm not, I don't think he's saying no one can find a godly wife. What he's saying is it is so valuable to have a godly wife. This writer is exemplifying the value of a godly woman, far from not being valuable.

The heart of her husband trusts in her and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not harm all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax and works with willing hands. She is like the ships of the merchants.

She brings her food from afar. She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens. She considers, she thinks, she ponders, her intelligence is at play here.

She considers a field and she buys it and with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.

Her lamp does not go out at night. She puts her hands to the distaff and her hands hold the spindle. She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow. For her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet.

She makes bed coverings for herself. Her clothing is fine linen and purple. She is, her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them.

She delivers that sashes to the merchant. Strength and dignity are her clothing and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children rise up and they call her blessed. Her husband also and he praises her. Many women, he says, has done excellently but you surpass them all. Charm is deceitful. Beauty is vain. But a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her works praise her in the gates. God in heaven, I pray that you would help us in this time that your word is declared. Your word is rich. Your truth is beautiful.

It teaches us truth and it shows us the truth in light of a world full of lies and Lord we can be so quick to be influenced by these lies even if it's just a little bit and it steals our worship away.

It steals our awe of you. It takes it away. So Lord let us be able to locate and have discernment to where we have been influenced by the lies of the world and may we combat it with truth and celebrate this truth the light of it and may it amount into this beautiful praise for what you have done that you have seen man needed women and you have given man as a gift, the gift of woman.

It's a beautiful gift and we praise you for that. So let us celebrate that today. In Jesus name, amen. I hope you saw in those verses just as a looking at it, broadly speaking, that far from a woman being unintelligent, without strength, without praise, with all these things that these modern world philosophies tells us when a woman acts in a biblical way, we see that the very opposite is truth.

There's great praise for the woman, that there is great strength attributed to the godly woman, that great intelligence is attributed to her. It's the very opposite of the lie that we have been told in this very culture that we breathe in.

And so if there's one thing, this whole sermon, I want to point out of what I think the purpose of what Proverbs 31 10 and on is saying is that woman you are to celebrate. You are to celebrate what the world says that you should be ashamed of.

And it's through that, what they think you should be ashamed of, to be a wonderful servant. It is through that you are addressed with intelligence and strength and honor and praise. So don't believe the lies of the world in which it is backwards and it is so centuries old to be such things, but rather look at the things that the world says you ought to be ashamed of and say that my glory is found in that.

And there's another aspect of this in which I want to speak to men too. What did we see, broadly speaking, and just reading this, what should men, what should be our desire as we look upon the woman, what should be within our heart?

That we would praise women. That we would not be able to get enough of the gift that God has given us in her. That we would outdo ourselves over and over again of looking upon the beauties of the woman and celebrating God, worshipping God for her.

And of course we think of the marriage relationship, but truly the woman is to be a server in all capacities of her life. Whether it be at church, in the family, in the marriage, wherever it may be, a woman has a celebrated role of being a servant.

And the man is to celebrate that God has given us such a servant in the woman. This is what we are told to do in Proverbs 31. This is what's going on. And it's so important as we look at this that we get an understanding of the context of the situation around us as we look at this.

What is the purpose of a woman? What is going on with her very origins? And how does that play out here where we're at in Proverbs 31? We can see, biblically speaking, and I've already said it so I'll spend just a few moments on it now, is that God was being good and giving us women.

In Genesis 2 .18, the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. Then God made a masterpiece in the woman for this need. And it sends Adam into a joyful, I think a song, it's a poem.

And I can imagine Adam being so joyful when he sees this woman for him, right? Because he goes and he names all the other creatures and here's this woman that fits everything that he needed. And it's from God.

And I think it sends him into a joyful song or a poetic expression of his joy in which he says in Genesis 2 .23, and to the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

Then the man said, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. I think that's Adam poetically, joyfully expressing his thankfulness to God that he has given him such a gift in woman.

And that is a same echoing that we are to do as men today, is we are to marvel at who, what God has given us in the woman. We're to marvel at her actions and her functions and what she is to be in light of Scripture.

And we are to celebrate that each day as we joyfully give praises to him for being so kind to us. And it starts here at the very beginning when man first laid his eyes on a woman. Now we see that an issue happened in the garden.

That's no secret. We talk about it often. It's a very bad thing happened in the garden. And I say that it is Eve becoming a feminist. And it's when she no longer wanted to serve God and what she was created to do, to be a servant to Adam, to keep the garden.

But instead she wanted to go her own desires in her own way. And we see that that's exactly how it is understood in the account in Genesis 3, 1 through 7, in which Eve had her desires upon the fruit. And even though she knows that Adam told her and led her in the fact that she was not supposed to eat of it, but her desires take root and she goes after her desires instead.

And then we see the fall happen. She followed her own desires instead of submitting them to help Adam in his work. And this is the same lie that women and men believe. And we see manifest over and over again.

The modern feministic movement, right? That it is degrading to lower yourself, so to speak, to be a servant to your husband or servant to men. It's the same kind of lie that women should rather follow their desires, follow their own inclinations.

It's the same lie that we see from the very beginning. It is nothing new. They're making nothing new up. We see that it is a ignoring of the original purpose of woman in which it's celebrated, should be celebrated, and it should flourish.

Instead it is a follow your own way. And this is the same lie women believe today, men can believe today, in the worldly philosophies. And the curse is then, if you ever notice, given. In Genesis 3 .16, you see Genesis 3 .16, to the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing.

And a lot of times we focus on that because that is a very true statement. I've never experienced it myself, but I've seen it and it looks awful. And you shall bring, and in pain you shall bring forth your children.

But this sentence here is very interesting. Your desires shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you. I remember being a very new Christian and reading that and just being like, man, that is so countercultural right there.

I was amazed by it, right? Because I was just told my whole life of this modern feminism stuff, that this idea that there'd be any kind of ruleship or anything like that is absolutely ludicrous. But we see here that what's being said here is that because of the curse of sin, no longer will women naturally find it desirable to submit to men.

No longer will that be such a beautiful thing naturally, that the woman was made to serve man. Instead, what that will become is deeply offensive to the woman. In fact, she will work against it and we see here that dynamics will be that the husband will have to rule over you.

And so we see that this modern feminism of having a distaste towards being a servant to husbands or men in general, in the church or whatever you have, this distaste for it, it's nothing new but it comes forth from the very beginnings of sin.

In other words, it runs in the sinful nature to strive against this service, this beautiful service that God has given to the women to be a helpmate for men. And now it runs contrary to their desires.

We can see that when it's so beautiful of itself, when it's done, and yet now it's very much against the grain, we can see the tragedy there. We can see the tragedy there. And so modern feminism is an outgrowth of this tragic fall here.

They hate God's role for you women and they claim for a woman to be a server is degrading and makes you without praise or honor. If you're just going to be a server, you will have no praise. They say it makes you valueless.

There's no value there. They say it makes you weak. They say it makes you dumb. And it's so important for us to see that, acknowledge it, and to call it hogwash. To see in truth, where does Scripture say is the very origins of me being a woman?

And where does it say my honor is found? It's very much tied up in this origins. To be able to locate and discern it and to rather than celebrate in light of the truth that we have in God's Word. And I see what's ironic in the book of Proverbs, which is where we're at, that list of characteristic, you know, without praise or honor, valueless, weak, and dumb, that list right there of characteristics is reserved for the godless woman.

And the opposite of that list is shown in the woman who fears God. You see what I'm saying there? Is that in the book of Proverbs, we see here that the godly woman who fears the Lord is with praise and honor, who is, she's valuable, she is strong, and she's intelligent.

And what the worldly philosophy tells you, because it's lying, is it says when you do the opposite of that, then you'll find all those good characteristics. But the truth is, is whenever a woman denies that fundamental original role that she has, that's when she'll run into all these negative characteristics.

Even though the devil claims that if you ignore the Bible and you don't do those things, you will receive those positive characteristics, really it's a lie. It's only whenever you acknowledge and embrace this role that God has for you will you have all these beautiful benefits come upon you.

And we see in Proverbs this play out. If you are there, go in the book of Proverbs, or just listen to me as we see. The book of Proverbs is a book written to young men about how to live a life of wisdom.

That's what the book of Proverbs is. It's a book written to young men, and of course it's beneficial for everyone, but it's written to young men of how can I live a life of wisdom. And we see a major aspect in that is the importance of desiring the godly woman and not wanting the forbidden woman.

We see a major, major aspect of the book of Proverbs is you are to desire the godly woman. And I would argue the woman who fulfills the Eve's original purpose is who you are to desire. In the book we have examples of both the godless woman and the godly woman.

And so we see a list of things. I'll read through it quickly. The godless, we can see, has those characteristics, right? They are without praise, they are valueless, they are weak, and they are dumb. We see in Proverbs 2, 16 through 19, so you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, who forsake the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

For her house sinks down to death. For her house sinks down to death. Notice in Proverbs 31 we're going to get to the fact that her house is very uplifted because of her service, but this godless woman, her house sinks to death.

And her paths to the departed, none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life. Proverbs 19, 13 says, a foolish son is ruined to his father, and a wife's quarreling is a continuing dripping of rain.

Proverbs 21, 9 says, it is better to live in a corner of the housetop rather than a house shared with a quarrelsome wife. And just in case if you didn't understand at that time, it says this again in 25, 24, it is better to live in a corner of the housetop than a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.

Proverbs 27, 15 through 16 says, a continuing dripping on a rainy day and a quarrelsome wife are alike. To restrain her is to restrain the wind or grass oil in one's right hand. And finally in Proverbs 41, the wisest of women builds her house, which is what we see in Proverbs 31, but folly with her own hands she tears it down.

So what's the major takeaway there with the godless woman of Proverbs? The major takeaway is the feminist accusation of a godly woman being without honor, valueless, weak, and dumb is actually realized in the godless woman of Proverbs.

That's the truth. And so we need to understand and see for women that if we want to have honor, if we want to be strong, if we want these positive characteristics, we do not listen to the lies of the world in which we must abandon what God has said in his word, but rather we must grab hold of those truths and celebrate it in every single way possible.

In fact, it's not so much of a you talk to a co-worker and they start talking about these things and you kind of say sheepishly, yeah, I believe that, you know, what God says about women is true, that they're created to be servants and serve, to say sheepishly.

But instead, as women, I encourage you to actually celebrate that, to look, how can I be a better server? How can I fully commit to this role that God has for me? Because it is in this I see that I have my honor, that I have my strength, that I have everything of the good characteristics that are waiting for me.

You see, not only are we to just to sheepishly admit that I believe what scriptures say about women, but we are to fully invest ourselves into it, to celebrate it, and say this is what I want for my life.

I want to give myself to service to my husband. I want to give myself to service to my church. I want to be a server because this is a good thing that God has for me. In fact, to do the opposite, we see, that's very much weakness.

That's very much lack of intelligence. That's very much, instead of building up, you tear down. Now, the book of Proverbs ends, which is where we'll spend the next few minutes, on one of the most, I think it's the most beautiful chapters of scripture, and that is the description of this godly woman that young men are supposed to pursue.

And we see in chapter 31, 10 through 31, it's a poem. It's a very beautiful poem at that. And this poem, it's acrostic. So that means that each line starts with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

And this was to help you memorize it. And so it goes in order of the Hebrew alphabet. And it's also a chiastic. It's a chiasm. And what that means is, and I want to try to explain this reasonably without getting too much into detail, but what a chiasm is, what a chiastic poem, and you will see it throughout scripture very often, is it's a poem and it starts off, and think about it, of going up a mountain, okay?

Think about the poem as going up a mountain, and it goes to its peak, and then it comes down the mountain, okay? And so on your way through the poem, you're on your way up the mountain, okay? And so at the very beginning, on verse 10, you have one point being made.

And now we're at the summit of the poem. We're at the summit. Oh, I'm getting confused here. We're at the very bottom of the mountain, okay? We're at the start of it. And we see that is point A. And that point A is the high value of a good wife.

And then we go to point B, further into the poem in verses 11 through 12, and that is, husband is benefited by his wife. And then we go up to the next point, C, which is 13 through 19, wife works hard.

She is a hard worker. And then we get to the next point in D, wife gives to poor. Out of the excess of the wife because of her hard work, she gives to the poor. And then we get to point E, going further up the mountain to verse 21, and she has no fear at all because of her hard work.

She has no fear of snow. And point F, children are clothed in scarlet, and that's 21B. And then we get to G, coverings for bed, wife wears linen. And then we get to the very highest point, the peak of the mountain.

That's the main point, the purpose of the poem. And that is H, and that's the public respect that the husband gathers. Now it's weird, if you think about the poem, it's all about the woman, right? It's all about that this is what the woman does, right?

This is what the godly woman, this is her works, this is what she does. And it's all about, we'll get to building up the home. But we see H, all of a sudden, the woman's not even mentioned, her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land.

It's very strange. It's all about the woman, but now all of a sudden we're just talking about the husband at the gates and the respect that he has. And I think the point of this poem is to show young men that your honor and respect is going to be tied in with your wife.

What's that old saying, which I completely agree with, behind every good man is a great wife? I think that's a hundred percent true, and I think that's what this poem is saying, is that if a man wants honor, respect in the public places, it is going to be intimately tied in to his godly wife.

So a wife is there to serve the respect and the honor of the husband, just like Eve was at the very beginning. I think Proverbs 31 here is showing us that this is what a successful Eve looks like. The very beginning of the purposes of the woman is found here in the fact that she serves her husband and serves his honor and respect in the public square.

And then we go down the mountain from there, from G all the way back down to A, and it repeats the same theme on the way down. I encourage you to look more at that. But the reason I pointed out that chiasm is because it gives us an understanding of what really the purpose of that poem is, and it's connected with the whole book of Proverbs, a book written to young men saying you need to find a godly wife.

And a godly wife is one who will serve you in serving the home, will serve you in creating this godly atmosphere in the home. And so we see that the very beginning of a woman, the role is to be a server.

And this is where she finds her honor. And so we can see, starting off with this poem as we go through it, I want you to notice verses 10 through 12, verses 10 through 12, just how much this godly woman is honored and respected and valued.

It says in verse 10, an excellent wife, who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. Again, we've already said, I don't think it's so much saying that you cannot find, it's not like it's saying who can actually find one of these women.

I think the point is that it's underlying just how valuable this woman is. If we want to talk about the value of women, we want to talk about the value that we should have of women, it is not found in the godless worldly philosophies of what a woman should be, but it's found right here tucked into the godly understanding of what a woman should be.

And so it's about to describe her works, and it's saying that this work that she does, who she is, is completely and utterly valuable. This is the highest value for the man. So this should encourage men here that we should highly honor the woman.

We should highly honor the role that she's been called into, and we should give her praises for that. We should not look down upon that, we should not limit that in any way, but to see that this was God's goodness coming to us, and it's found in the woman.

It's valuable. It says in verses 11 and 12, the heart of her husband trusts in her, the heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not harm all the days of her life.

So we can see that this godly woman is a fulfillment of being a help for man, being a helper for man, being highly valuable in that. So men should ask, do I place such value in my wife? Do I place such value in women of the church?

Do I place such value in the server that we have from men or from God? And we can see that now we go off from verses 14 or 13 all the way up to verse 25, 26, is all the works of this godly woman. All the works of this godly woman.

And if we read it, and especially women read it, it can be quite intimidating, right? This woman seems to be superwoman. She seems to be very, very, she's not lazy at all. She's actually very active. She doesn't ever seem to sleep because she's so active.

She seems to be very much invested into her role as a server in the home. And really before we kind of go through it quickly, I want to see that it's all underlined with one basic principle that we need to hold on to.

You know, when we see all these works coming at us, it can be intimidating. How in the world can I do all these things? But if we kind of summarize it in one main way, one primary foundation, it can then give us something to grab hold of.

And what is the one way it gets summarized? Look at verse 30. And I think it's summarized there. In fact, if you have the ESV, I don't know if the other Bibles do it, but it actually says, as like, you know, kind of summarizing the whole section of verses here, it says, the woman who fears the Lord.

And we see in verse 30, I think it's an accurate summation. Because verse 30 says, charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain. But a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. And right there is countercultural, right?

How much is the beauty and the charm of women exemplified in culture? I remember growing up, and as kids growing up, that's all that we cared about was the looks of women. I can't imagine one of my friends saying, what does she fear the Lord?

It would be a laughingstock, right? Because this is what the world wants. They want a pretty woman who fills their desires within, their lusts within their hearts. But we see that a godly woman, the one who is truly to be praised, the one who's truly to be honored, the strong woman, she is the one who fears the Lord.

She is the one who fears the Lord. Now what does it mean to fear the Lord? What does it mean for a godly woman to be fearing the Lord and fulfilling her purposes right as a woman? Well, I think we see that in Proverbs 3.

In Proverbs 3, and we went over it already earlier today. Proverbs 3 verse 5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, in all your works, and all the things that you do, acknowledge God and he will make your straight, your paths.

Be not wise in your own understanding, but fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. So what does it mean to fear the Lord? It means to assume that your understanding is faulty and to assume the understanding of God is true.

And so when we hear the lies of Satan and his worldly philosophies, what are we to assume? That that is presuppositionally false because it is not in keeping with the word of truth. That although it entices my heart as a woman, if I was one, it entices my heart to be told that, no, you're not to submit.

You're not to have that kind of role that's so degrading. That's, you are to get what you want. You are to be whoever you want to be, right? That has a certain level of, wow, that looks nice. That has to be true.

It feels good to my senses. But whenever we fear the Lord, we see the Word of God says the very opposite is ready for me. It's the very opposite. And so therefore, I will disregard that, no matter how alluring it looks, no matter how much it appeals to my flesh, and I'll rather go towards the way of truth.

I will apply my way to truth. Even if I don't quite understand it all, I will submit my understanding to God. You see, but again, the devil works in a very opposite way. Do not submit your understanding to God, but do what feels right, what feels good, what's desirable.

And we see that if a woman follows that line of thinking, it will lead to certain death for her. And God has better things up for her. God has better things for you. But it's this woman who fears the Lord, who submits to Him in all her ways, even whenever it is difficult to do so.

It's not easy to submit. It's not easy to be a servant. But it's something that God has for you that is good. By the way, males, men, are to submit as well. Men are to be servants as well. It's just in a different role.

It's a different capacity. Our leadership is to be in submission to God, and it is to be in service to our wives or whatever leadership that we may have. But the woman has this beautiful role to be a servant, to serve in that way, to submit.

So that is what this woman is doing. This is a woman who, in Proverbs 31, fears the Lord, who submits to Him all her ways. And it's her desire to submit her understanding to His truth. And we can see, and even that can be overwhelming, because a woman who's trying to do what's right in this world, who tells them all the lies, it can be hard to say, well, I am to be in submission.

I am to do these works. I am to do this. And so before we get to them, I'll go through it quickly, let us see where we get this power from. And let's, for that, let's go to Titus 2, 11. Let's go to Titus 2, 11.

Titus 2 is where my mind goes to when it comes to the roles of men and women, because he, Paul, writes to Titus about this very thing. And after he gives instructions about it, in Titus 2, he gives the reason for it.