Redeemer Live - December 8th, 2024

Worshiping the Great God and Savior

Good to have you with us all worshiping our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. As we begin our time of worship, I want to just mention my name is Doug. I'm one of the brothers here who has the privilege of leading through the service today.

We've got this wonderful time, not only of reading of God's Word, the preaching of it, prayer, and song, but also at the end, and I'll mention it again, we've got a potluck, our monthly fellowship potluck, which you are all invited to attend.

No worries about whether you did or didn't bring anything. We always have more than enough. You know how it is at Church Potlucks. I don't think you ever run out of anything, do you? But you're more than welcome to stay, and we'd enjoy getting that extra time to visit with you and get to know you.

So with that in mind, we will begin our time of worship. God calls us to worship, and it's from His Word that we'll begin that today. I'll be reading from Psalm 84, verses 1 and 2, and if you have one of the red hardback Bibles that we give away, it's on page 518.

Psalm 84, verses 1 and 2. For the choir director, on the Giddeth, a psalm of the sons of Korah. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord of armies. I long and yearn for the courts of the Lord. My heart and flesh cry out.

For the living God. I'm actually going to give you a bonus verse with this too. One of my favorites in this psalm, it's verse 10, so drop down there with me if you will. Better a day in your courts than a thousand anywhere else.

I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than live in the tents of.

Wicked people.

Would you join me now in prayer? Gracious Creator Sovereign God, we are grateful and humbled that you are calling us to worship you, the one who deserves all worship. And we're humbled because while we are creatures and do owe you worship, our hearts are prone to want to worship other things.

And for that, we confess and ask for your forgiveness in that and ask for your strength to guide our hearts. This morning, as we come together to worship you around your word, in song, the Lord's table, and in prayer, we can see from your word that being in your courts, being in the fellowship of your people is much better than all of the attractions of this world.

May that be the call of our heart this morning as we come together at your throne. Thank you, dear God, for this time. We ask your blessing on us in Jesus name. Amen. Well, if you are able, please stand and we'll continue our time of worship in song.

God is the King of Kings. He's the one that we've come to worship now, so let's sing. You may be seated. As we continue our time of worship, just turn, if you've got your Bible, just turn a little bit to the left.

We'll be in Psalm 62, and it's on page 504, those red hardback Bibles that we've got here. Bibles that we give away. Psalm 62. Just a quick note about this psalm as I read the introduction, which is part of the inspired.

Scripture.

It mentions a word, jeduthin. That was actually an individual person who was part of the song ministry of the temple during the time of David. So while the words are attributed to David, whatever music was performed, and they did perform music as part of their worship, as do we, it was led by and possibly even composed by this individual, jeduthin.

So just, you know, a little background. Psalm 62 on page 504. For the choir director, according to jeduthin, a psalm of David, I am at rest in God alone. My salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold.

I will never be shaken. How long will you threaten a man? Will all of you attack as if he were a leaning wall or a tottering fence? They only plan to bring him down from his high position. They take pleasure in lying.

They bless with their mouths, but they curse inwardly. Selah. Rest in God alone, my soul. For my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold. I will not be shaken. My salvation and glory depend on God, my strong rock.

My refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, you people. Pour out your hearts before him. God is our refuge. Common people are only a vapor. Important people, an illusion. Together on a scale, they weigh less than a vapor.

Place no trust in oppression or false hope in robbery. If wealth increases, don't set your heart on it. God has spoken once. I have heard this twice. Strength belongs to God and faithful love belongs to you, O Lord.

For you repay each according to his words. Would you now join me in a prayer response? Almighty, sovereign creator God, you come before you both encouraged by these words, humbled by these words, warned by these words, and assured by these words.

You alone are our rock and our salvation. And because you are our rock and our salvation, as we trust you, we will never be shaken as we read in this song. And Lord, we are warned about placing our trust or hope in either ill-gotten gain or even in common people or even important people because they are both an illusion or a vapor.

Temporary, transient is this life. On Earth. And with that, it reminds us, by contrast, that you are eternal. And all who hope in you have an eternity with you in your presence. God, thank you that during this sojourning time on this temporary life that we have on Earth, that you are our rock in Christ.

And because of that hope and that assurance. Our time on this Earth can be one where we praise you, trust you in the ups and downs and look forward to what you have for us in Christ in eternity. Thank you for this time that we can gather again to continue our worship.

And we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Again, if you're able to stand, please join us again as we continue in song. Faithfully, but he's also our great shepherd who guides us along the path of peace.

So let's sing about that great shepherd.

Welcome, Announcements, and Bible College Update

Well, please go ahead and be seated. Well, I add my welcome to that of dogs, especially if you're visiting with us this morning. I am Kofi, have the privilege of serving the Lord here as the pastor at Redeemer Bible Fellowship.

It is a joy to have you with us this morning. Kids, you are dismissed to our kids. They have a great time as you get to hear God's word there. A couple of very quick announcements and we will get straight into the ministry of God's word because I have a lot to cover this morning.

It's quite a big text.

As we get started, first things first. Hopefully on the way in, you saw we have invite cards ready for our Christmas outreach service on December the 21st. That's a Saturday evening. The time is I think 6 .30.

I think it's why I wrote on the thing. Oh, seven. Okay, seven o 'clock. So seven o 'clock on the 21st and it will be in this building. So we will be here. We'll worship on Saturday night and then come together and do it all over again on Sunday morning.

So December the 21st. Thank you to the folks who've volunteered to read. We still need a few more folks to do some of the readings in the service. So if you are interested and available, come see me. I can get you plugged in on that.

Just on a personal note, I want to say thank you for your prayers for my week away. Those of you who are visiting, I spent the last week up in Cannon Beach at Ecola Bible College teaching a class on hermeneutics.

They told me they had a fun time, so I'm going to believe them. I had a great time. It was a really wonderful time of just getting to think about how to better read and understand.

God's Word.

I brought a couple of pictures just to show you what happened. So that was Wednesday night? No, Tuesday night. Tuesday night, because we were thinking about applications. So I had them actually... We worked through a passage and then I had them think about how you properly apply that.

Passage.

So that was Tuesday night. So the way it works is they have two classes per week or two courses, I guess. So I taught one and then a missionary from Slovenia, Sean Weidenbor, he taught the other one. And so we just kind of... I get done, well, he would teach first, and then I'd come in and teach the second class.

So he taught on missions, I taught on how to study the Bible. So this was because we had one in the morning and then we'd have another class in the evening. So both classes went well, which I'm thankful for.

So that was Tuesday night. And then this was Friday morning. You can see me in the back there. This was Friday morning. They had survived the class. A few of them had to leave early because they had long trips home.

But it was a wonderful time up there. Be praying for those young people, 70. Some of them had gone home, but there were 70 people that week from all over the place. As far as Alaska, and as close as there were some folks from Medford in the class.

So that was kind of fun. And they were a good bunch. I enjoyed the Southern Oregon contingent in the room. So quite a spread of folks, Alaska, Montana, mostly Oregon, some Washington, and some folks from Northern California as well.

So pray for them. They're on their Christmas break for the next month. So pray for them as they return home and re-engage with life. It's a very intensive program that they're doing. And again, great young people.

Just on a personal note, it's easy to get discouraged about the state of the church sometimes, especially when you see ridiculous things happen in the church. But if these young people are any indication, at least the ones I got to spend time with and chat with, I'm a little more encouraged about the future of the church.

And I'll say more on Wednesday. I'll tell some specific stories of conversations I had and things I saw. But overall, wonderful time, but also glad to be back here. Well, doing really what I was teaching them, which is digging into God's Word.

The Mission of 1 Timothy and the Church's Worshiping Order

And so with that in mind, let's come back to the sermon series that we've been in. We are working our way through the book of 1 Timothy. That's our habit here at Redeemer. We work our way book by book through sections of God's Word.

Well, passage by passage, I say, through books in God's Word. And this morning we come to 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy in chapter number 2. 1 Timothy chapter 2, and we're going to be in verses 8 through to 15.

1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 8 to 15. 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 8 through 15. If you grabbed one of the red hardbacks that we give away, that's on page 1051. Page 1051, 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 8 through to 15.

If you're able to do so, can I invite you to stand with me as we read this portion of God's Word? We like to stand at this moment to symbolize our full submission to the Word of God, that we stand under its authority, not over it.

And so 1 Timothy chapter 2, beginning in verse 8. Brothers and sisters, these are God's words to us this morning. Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument.

Also, the women are to dress themselves in modest clothing, with decency and good sense, not with elaborate hairstyles, gold, pearls, or expensive apparel, but with good works, as is proper for women who profess to worship God.

A woman is to learn quietly, with full submission. I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man. Instead, she is to remain quiet. But Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was deceived, was not deceived, excuse me, but the woman was deceived and transgressed.

But she will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with good sense.

These are God's words to us.

Pray that He will bless the reading of them to us and grant us understanding as we read them. And I invite you to pray with me and ask for the Lord's help as we come to His word this morning. Well, Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of the Lord's Day, another opportunity to come together as your people to worship and to fellowship around your word.

And I pray that as we come to this section of your word, that it's not a straightforward one in some ways, it's quite challenging, both in what it says and also what it means. I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would help us that as we read your word, and as we seek to understand its message for us today, you would give us hearts that are open to hear and to receive all that you have for us.

Father, I'll take a moment to pray for the students I got to minister to this week at the Bible College up there in Cannon Beach. Thank you for the work that's happening there as they're taking a year out of their lives to immerse themselves in the word of God and in fellowship with one another and in service to you.

I pray for each and every one of the 70 students I met this week. Pray for those I met who are thinking about missions in other countries, those who are engaged in children's ministry and want to see young people come to know God's word.

Pray for those who are still figuring out what God's desire for them in their life is. Father, that age of 17, 18, 19 is such a difficult age, especially in a culture like ours. And so, Father, I pray two things.

I pray that you would watch over them and keep them, especially as they've all gone to their separate homes for the next month to spend time with family before they go back to study. Father, I also pray that you would protect them.

And I don't mean protect them physically. I pray that you would protect the zeal that they have. What a passionate group. What a fired up group. And Father, I know that where there is zeal, there is always an adversary who would do anything to quench that zeal.

So, Father, I pray that you would protect them. Keep the fire burning that is so clearly evident in them. Or bring people around them who will not squelch that fire, who won't say things to make them feel out of place and feel as though they're in the wrong for caring.

Father, bring people around them who will encourage them in the faith. May iron sharpen iron as they engage in fellowship with people who are like-minded and are pursuing the same goal. Pray for the staff there at E. Cola as they take a break after what's been a very busy term of 11 weeks.

Pray that they are able to rest and recharge and prepare for another term of pouring into these precious young people. Be with them wherever they are. Pray that you'd be with us now as we come to your word.

And I ask it in Jesus' name and for his sake.

Amen.

Please be seated. Our God is a God of order. Our God is a God of order. You see it in the design and the form of the created world around us. Cycles of time, even terrain is not. It may look random, but even terrain is not random.

The very fact that our solar system is arranged the way it is. I don't know if you've ever thought about this, that if we were off by even a few kilometers one way or another, our temperatures would not be able to sustain life.

Would either be too hot or too cold. The world is exactly ordered the way that it needs to be. You see order in the human body. So you see that in the uniqueness of the sexes. Yes, we live in a culture that wants to delete that uniqueness.

But the reality is even in the uniqueness of the sexes, male and female, you see order. When you look at the body and you see an interconnected set of systems and processes all working simultaneously to keep you alive at this very moment, you see order.

God doesn't just create things. He creates orderly things. And yes, sin introduced chaos and disorder into our world, into our homes, into our relationships. That much is true. So we live in a world where you don't always see order where you should.

Sin introduced chaos and disorder into our world. But God, the God who never changes. Have you ever thought about this? That He is not just one who creates order. He is the very vision of order. He is the vision of order and He creates order.

And if that's the case, nowhere should that God of order, that God of structure, nowhere should He be better visible than in the body of Christ, than in the church that He has created. That's really the issue at the heart of the passage that we're studying this morning.

We're asking the question, what is God's order for the church? As you can see up on screen there, this is part one of this because Paul's going to have a lot to say about the order that exists in God's house.

We're in 1 Timothy this morning and you'll recall that I've said that when you come to 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy is a book really that's on a mission. It's a letter that's on a mission. Paul up to this point has been speaking to Timothy about some problems in the church of Ephesus that need to be put right.

So again, look back at chapter one with me for just a moment. 1 Timothy chapter one and verse three, it was as I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies.

These promote empty speculations rather than God's plan, which operates by faith. And so far in our study of the letter, we've seen two really big sections. We spent a number of weeks in chapter one and in really chapter one, the theme there is, well, how do we respond to false teachers?

There are people who had crept into the church, who were teaching things they shouldn't. And Paul essentially expects Timothy to identify these false teachers, but not just to identify them, but also to deal with them.

But the next section in the letter, which we started last week, deals not just with responding to false teachers, but it deals with what I've called restoring the church's mission. Because these false teachers had come in and they had gained a hearing, part of what had happened was there was now a confusion about what the church's mission was.

What was the church to be and what was the church to do? And Paul is dealing with that in this section that we're in. That starts in chapter two and it's going to work all the way through to verse 13 of chapter three.

That will finish in a few weeks, Lord willing. Now, in our last message, we were in chapter two, verses one through seven, where we thought about God's house for all nations. And in our last message, essentially you could boil it down to saying that we thought about the church as a witnessing people.

The church as a witnessing people. As the church, as the praying and the proclaiming vehicle of God's salvation for all people. That was what we thought about last time in verses one through seven. Well, this morning we're transitioning on from our thinking about the church, not just to think about the church as God's witnessing people, but also as his worshipping people.

And not just God's worshipping people in the general sense, but his worshipping people in keeping with the order that he has ordained in the church. Because the God who created the world around us with order and who creates our physical bodies with order is the same God who creates order in the house that he has built and is building.

He designed it, he built it, and he gave his only son for us to establish that house. And if he is concerned about how his house runs, and let's be clear, God is infinitely concerned about how his house runs.

If God is concerned about how his house runs, then might I suggest that maybe we should be just a little bit, not a whole lot, but just a little bit concerned about how his church runs. That's our thought this morning.

Because if the big idea we've set for this letter is true, that this letter is teaching us this central truth, that God's church conducts itself according to God's word when it proclaims God's and for our purposes especially this morning, lives out the truth.

Part of that living out the truth includes how the church is ordered, how the church is structured. And let me be clear, Paul is going to say some things in this text. Paul is going to say some things in this passage that, let's just be honest, as moderns, they don't sit well with us.

It's okay to say that. We are people of our time. I said this to the kids this week. All of us have a context. Just like texts have context, people have context. And part of the context that we live in makes words like what we just read from Paul sometimes a little hard to stomach.

But the reality is, if it's in God's word, we don't really get to argue. We may have to grapple with these truths and bring our hearts into line with what they say. But if God's word says it and we can prove that it says it, then we have to just learn to accept it.

Here's my big idea for this message. Every message, as you know, I try to give you a simple statement that summarizes what is the beating heart of the passage.

Here's the big idea.

If I can get to it, that would be great. God's house has a definite order. And the house flourishes when we embrace that order. Real simple. God's house has a definite order. I mean, that should make sense.

If creation has an order and if the human body has an order, I'd argue even the home has an order. If everything that God creates has order and form and structure to it, well, God's house is no different.

God's house has a definite order and the house flourishes when we embrace that order. That's the big idea I want us to see from this passage. That God's house has a definite order. Excuse me. And the house flourishes when we, the people of God, when we embrace that order.

It's not enough to just know it. That's the point I'm going to make a few times in this message. That it's not enough for us to just know what God's order is. We also have to learn to embrace that order.

For the rest of our time, I want to consider two ways that God's definite order works itself out in the church. In this passage, I'm going to argue that Paul gives us two ways that God's definite order works itself out in the church.

And the reason we want to know this is so that the church can flourish. If we want the church to be healthy, if we want the church to thrive, if we want the church to function as the church ought to function, that requires knowing how God's definite order works itself out.

And it's only when we understand that, that the church can truly flourish. So two ways that God's definite order works itself out in the church, so the church can flourish. So how can the people of God flourish under the order of God?

Well, they flourish when point number one, in God's house, godly men lead. In God's house, godly men lead. This passage starts with the therefore, which means it's connected to what he said previously.

So what did he talk about in verses one through seven? Well, he talks about the fact the church is, like I said, a witnessing people. That the church exists to pray for the lost and then to proclaim the gospel to the lost.

Well, if that is true, if the church is designed, as I said last week, and if you want to catch that, if you go to our website, you can catch all of our sermons on there. If the church is designed to be God's witness to the world, bringing men and women, boys and girls into God's worshiping house, if that's the case.

Well, look at verse eight. So verse eight, he says, therefore, in light of that reality, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument. The church's gospel call, the church's gospel witness can't be disconnected from the worship of the church.

Really excellent book on missions that was published a few years ago, Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper, has a classic one-liner that opens the book from Piper. Piper says that missions exist because worship doesn't.

That missions exist because worship doesn't. That God desires people from every nation to worship him. And since that doesn't happen, we go to the nations proclaiming the gospel message. I think Piper is simply just channeling what Paul says here.

That there is a connection between the witness of God's people and the worship of God's people. The call to be God's witness to the nations, catch this, leads to worship that is orderly and is led well.

And Paul is very specific in this passage about who leads. So again, look at the text. He says, therefore, I want the men in every place to pray. At the risk of pointing out the obvious, the word for man here or men here, excuse me, isn't the generic word.

There's two words really in the New Testament that are used for men. One carries sort of general sense like we would say in English, mankind. So as opposed to an animal, as opposed to a tree, as opposed to some other living thing.

So there is mankind, but that's not the word here. The word here is the specific word for a male or males. It's in the plural here. Paul's very clear about who should be leading in prayer. He says, therefore, I want the men in every place.

And every place is referring is to every place that the church gathers. Paul wants the men in every place to pray. Now, of course, it's very clear that Paul is not saying that women don't pray at all.

No, men and women pray. That's part of being a Christian. So clearly Paul is talking about, I think the context of the letter bears this out, that the context in which Paul is talking about is the church when it gathers.

Paul's point is not, okay, only men can pray privately and women, well, you're just kind of outlawed. Figure out some way to get your request to God, I suppose. That's not Paul's point. I think Paul is primarily talking about the gathered worship of God's people.

Paul wants the corporate worship of the church, beginning with its prayer, to be led by men. Now, of course, women can and should pray when the church gathers in worship. When we gather before the Lord, of course, women should pray.

It's not just sit there in stone-faced silence while the men do everything. But again, Paul is talking about leadership here. The church's gathered worship is to be led by men. You've got to be honest and say that male leadership is a very unpopular concept in our culture.

I mean, think about it, even in the church, the very idea that part, not the whole, but at least part of biblical manhood is leadership. That idea, whether we're talking about in the home and especially in the church, that can be a tough pill to swallow, especially in an age like ours, which teaches us that there really is no such thing as leadership.

Have you ever thought about that? Our society doesn't really believe in leadership. It just believes in someone to blame when things go wrong. And when you've grown up inside, again, it's the age-old question, does a fish know it's wet?

Think about that for a second.

Does a fish know it's wet? No, you need to know what dry is to know what wet is, right? And the point when we ask that question is to say that you don't know what you're not used to. And in a society like ours where we have been raised on a sort of radical equality, where there is no such thing as leadership, there's no such thing as headship, there's no such thing as somebody who actually has to take the lead and take charge, this can be a tough pill to swallow.

An example of this happened in 1987,.

Thinking about the church.

In 1987, a group of, as they said,.

Take them at their word,.

Evangelical Christians here in the US decided to start a ministry. They called that ministry Christians for Biblical Equality, CBE. And when they started that ministry, this is the mission statement that they coined for it.

They started this ministry devoted to, and this is their words, go on their website, they still have them,.

To quote,.

Promote the biblical message that God calls women and men, please note the order they put that in, by the way, that God calls women and men of all cultures, races, and classes to share authority equally in service and leadership in the home, the church, and the world.

CBE's mission is to eliminate the power imbalance between men and women resulting from, I thought this phrase was interesting, theological patriarchy. They go on, same website, same page, part of their mission statement, they believe, is that Christ, catch this, Christ's redemptive work frees all people from patriarchy, calling women and men to share authority equally in service and leadership.

I have a problem with our modern culture. If you know me, you probably know what I'm about to say. One of my biggest problems, I have a lot of problems in modern culture, but one of my biggest is that we think words don't mean things, that words just mean what we feel they mean.

And if there is any word that has come to have such a negative connotation, even among Christians, it's the word patriarchy. I can get controversial for a moment. Every Christian believes in patriarchy.

If words mean things, why? Because what is patriarchy? Not the secular definition, which only actually came around in the 60s and 70s, that's a whole other conversation. No, biblical patriarchy, the word patriarchy is a Greek term, comes from two Greek words, pater, father, ahi, head.

It rhymes with the headship of fathers. Well, does the Bible say anything about men, fathers being the heads of their homes? Ephesians 5, Colossians 3, 1 Peter 3. There's a lot of places you can go. Is there a way to abuse patriarchy?

Of course there is. Just as there is to abuse anything in the Bible. But not the language that they use, that Christ's redemptive work frees all people from patriarchy. Well, hold on, words mean things.

Christ's redemptive work, the work that Christ does on the cross. So in other words, you're saying that patriarchy is a sin that we need to be liberated from. I don't know if they intended this or not, but you've just now made that issue a gospel issue.

Because if it's part of Christ's redemptive work, that's a gospel issue. Now they'll say, well, no, we don't mean that. Well, words mean things.

Let me carry on.

This organization, the CBE, they're still around to this day. They started a journal. In my Bible software, I pay a little extra every month, and I get access to every theological journal.

That's out there.

I'm a seminary student, so I need access to it. You can still read their journal. It's called the Priscilla Papers. Taking their name from Priscilla in the Book of Acts. Yeah, Priscilla and Aquila, yes.

So I got curious. I said, this was actually Friday. I was in the airport. And I said, let me read the first volume of the Priscilla Papers. I didn't have to go far. Page one. One of their writers, Carrie Malcolm, wrote this.

Quote, being real or set free. She's talking about the fact that Christian women need to be real. Being real or set free means looking beyond ourselves and our homes, first to the conservative women in our churches who are not real.

Oh, way to take shots at your brothers and sisters in Christ,.

But okay.

Our task is to provide, this is, she's talking about the task of the ministry. Our task is to provide friendship, forums for discussion on women's status, information and Bible studies, on women written from a conservative perspective.

They abandoned that very quickly, actually. But anyway, written from a conservative perspective about the freedom Christ has given us in the gospel. After penetrating evangelical churches with the liberating good news, we have to go beyond the church and beyond our shores to women of other cultures who continue to live in some sort of patriarchal bondage that makes them less than real human beings.

The author says this to conclude, as a missionary and as a biblical feminist, I'm just gonna keep reading. We haven't got time. As a missionary and as a biblical feminist, I have to agree with my friend, Rosemary from Sweden.

I am not free until every woman on earth is free. And she makes it very clear, freedom in that context is freedom from male headship. Now we can say, we can hear that. And honestly, here's my first thought when I read that.

I said, doing too much. Just, you're doing the most right now. You're doing too much. But then I had to think about this for a second. Because she might be, well granted, she identifies as a biblical feminist, whatever that means.

We might think she's doing too much, but I've been around the church long enough to know that while words like that may be a little bit on the dramatic side, there are also lots of people who might be tempted to think that she has a point.