The Redemptive Quality of Motherhood

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles with me and turn to the book of 1 Timothy and go to chapter 2 and hold your place at verse 15.
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The title of today's message is The Redemptive Quality of Motherhood.
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For the past several months we have all gone through constant reminders of the importance of washing our hands well.
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Much to the joy of mothers and grandmothers everywhere, by the way.
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Videos on how to wash your hands properly have flooded the internet.
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Hand sanitizer has become a very hot commodity.
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Some facilities that produce alcohol to drink have converted their facilities to now produce alcohol for the cleansing of hands.
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But what's most interesting about that is that the cleaning of one's hands for the purpose of not spreading disease is a relatively recent discovery.
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It was not until the late 1800s that hand washing among physicians was recognized as needful and even then it was not universally accepted as necessary.
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It was Dr.
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Ignaz Simmelweis who first recognized that there was a connection between the increase of disease and the increase of death in patients where doctors were not washing their hands.
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And it's interesting that it was learned, it was recognized in a maternity ward.
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You see where Dr.
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Simmelweis worked was in Vienna and in the hospital that he was in they had two maternity wards.
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One of them was attended by physicians.
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The other was attended only by midwives.
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And the one that was attended by physicians had a much higher rate of death and disease than the one that was attended by midwives.
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And what Dr.
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Simmelweis recognized was what was happening was that the doctors were going to perform autopsies.
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And then they were going to deliver babies.
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And they were not washing their hands in between the participation in one and the participation in the other.
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And there was a high rate of fever, a high rate of disease, a high rate of sickness because of that unhygienic practice.
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Upon, again, if you think about it, it's amazing to consider that countless deaths and countless mothers and countless children were the purpose or what happened as a result of not recognizing what seems to be to us today a very basic reality.
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You should wash your hands.
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But since the fall of mankind, childbirth has always been a dangerous endeavor.
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We live in a time where, a time and a place where childbirth is relatively safe.
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But for much of human history and for many around the world, that's not always the case.
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Think for a moment about the centuries which preceded our own lifetime.
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Think about what it was like to give birth just 200 years ago.
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No painkillers.
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No cesarean sections.
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No antibiotics.
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No sutures.
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No hygiene.
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And often, no recovery.
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Countless women and children died.
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And that danger is still real and present in places where modern medical advances are not available today.
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Around the world, approximately 800 women die every day as a result of pregnancy-related issues.
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Still today.
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In the areas like Nigeria, a woman is 200 times more likely to die from pregnancy than a woman in Sweden where there's excellent medical care.
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Childbirth is an amazing and frightening event.
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It signifies the moment when a life springs forth from the womb.
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It's been growing for nine months and now it's introduced into the world.
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Yet that introduction comes not through a calm and serene passing from womb to womb, but rather the baby comes into this world accompanied by travail.
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Accompanied by screams of agony.
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Accompanied by immense pain.
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The mother engages in an embattled ordeal.
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Often lasting several hours.
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Sometimes even more than a day.
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With few moments of rest between incredible bouts of horrific suffering.
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Yet, at the same time, few mothers having held their babies after they were born were ever dissatisfied.
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They were happy.
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They were thankful.
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They say it's worth the pain once they get the baby into their arms.
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The touch of the baby's hand.
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The smell of its newborn skin.
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The look in its eyes.
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Ease the comfort of the recent pain.
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The reality of now being a new mother is a balm for what it took to become one.
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In our passage today, the Apostle Paul speaks about the subject of childbirth and motherhood.
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And I want to say before we read it, this passage is difficult.
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And I imagine some of you by the end of this sermon are going to be wondering, why did he pick this one for Mother's Day? Why did he pick this one which is so difficult? And it is.
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Well, I can't always tell you exactly why the Lord leads me in the directions that He does, but I do believe this is the passage He wants me to preach this morning.
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And I have spent many hours thinking through what I'm going to say, and I pray that it will be accurate to His truth.
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But again, I want to say it's a difficult passage.
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And there are some confusing elements to it.
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And I hope that by the end of the day, we'll be able to better understand it.
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So let's stand together and let's read the Word of God.
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And we're going to read just verse 15, because this is the passage that we are studying today.
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But the focus, actually the context, begins all the way back at verse 8.
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We'll read that in a few moments.
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Verse 15 says this, Yet she will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control.
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Father in Heaven, I thank You for Your Word.
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And Father, as now I begin to preach the Word, I thank You that my brother has already prayed that I would preach with boldness and with power.
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And I pray the same.
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And I pray also, Lord, that You would please keep me from error.
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For Lord, I am a fallible man, and I am capable of preaching error.
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And I don't want to do that.
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For the sake of Your people, for the sake of Your name, and for the sake of my conscience, I pray that You would lead me, Lord, by the power of Your Holy Spirit.
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And I pray that the Holy Spirit would be the teacher today.
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And Lord, where I speak truth, I pray the truth would be applied to the heart.
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And Lord, if I err, I pray that it would be erased from the mind.
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Lord, that Your truth may be proclaimed and that Your truth may go out from this place and lead us into a better and wiser walk with You.
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We thank You, Lord, for this time.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.
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As I already mentioned, this passage is difficult.
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It's difficult first because of what it says.
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It proposes a truth that's difficult to understand.
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But it's also difficult because of the current situation in which we now live.
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Our culture today is at the height of the equality movement.
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The push to level the ground between the sexes and remove not only any inequalities and opportunity, but to remove any distinctions between the sexes.
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Therefore, this passage and this entire section of Paul's writing to Timothy is often maligned as an example of Paul's misogyny.
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Over the years, I've heard it said many times, Well, Paul just didn't like women.
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Paul didn't like women in the church.
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He didn't like women in the ministry.
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We don't need to listen to Paul when it comes to the subject of women.
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There's nothing further from the truth.
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The Apostle Paul is speaking.
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He is writing.
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The words that are on this page are from the mouth of God Himself.
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The Bible says, All scripture is theopneustos.
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It means it is God-breathed.
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Therefore, when the Apostle Paul writes, and we have what he has written, we need not take that and say, Well, this is just one man's opinion, and a man to say the least.
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No.
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This is what God has said, and therefore we need to take it as such.
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But at the same time, when we come to a passage like this, we have to recognize that sometimes there are passages in scripture that are difficult to understand.
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There was a principle during the Reformation called the principle of perspicuity, and that simply means the principle of clarity.
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It means that the Bible is relatively clear in what it says about salvation.
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It's relatively clear in what it says about how to be saved.
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And so the Reformers said we need to look at the clarity of scripture and know that it's clear in what it says.
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But even the Reformers would say it's not always equally clear.
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There are some passages that are not as perspicuous as others.
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There are some passages that require us to dig a little deeper to find what they are really trying to say.
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So what I'd like to share with you today, and this is sort of going to maybe seem a little odd to you, I want to share with you how we can try to arrive at the right understanding when we come to a difficult passage.
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As a Bible teacher at heart, my favorite thing to do is to teach people the Bible and to teach people how to study the Bible.
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And so what I want to share with you today are three, a process of three steps that you can take when you come to a difficult passage to help you rightly understand what that passage means.
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I'm going to put them up on the screen.
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These are the three things that we're going to do today.
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First, we're going to examine the context of the passage.
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What do the other verses around it say? Then we're going to eliminate the unreasonable, meaning we're going to look at what it says and we're going to say, okay, what can it not mean? Based upon the rest of scripture and based upon simple reasoning, what does it not mean? And we're going to eliminate the nots, the unreasonables.
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And then we're going to examine the possibilities.
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What could it mean? And then hopefully we're going to come to a proper and better understanding of the text.
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I will say this.
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This is one of the passages that, honestly, every time I've ever been in a Q&A where Bible verses was the subject and people got to ask about difficult Bible verses, this was one of them.
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Somebody inevitably would say, hey, what does that mean when it says women are saved through childbearing? So that's what we're going to talk about today.
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First, let's look at the context.
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The context of this book actually begins back in the first chapter, of course.
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The Apostle Paul is urging Timothy to wage the good warfare of faith with a good conscience.
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That's the call.
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He's urging Timothy to continue the fight.
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Paul knows that he is getting close to the end of his life and he's got this young man, Timothy, and he's charging him to move forward and to be a pastor of the church and to be a good pastor.
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And throughout the book of 1 Timothy, there are all of these stipulations for how the church ought to operate.
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How should elders be chosen? How should deacons be chosen? What are the qualifications for such men? How should husbands treat their wives and wives treat their husbands? And all of these things are found within the books of 1 and 2 Timothy.
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We call these the pastoral letters along with Titus because they're written to show us how the church ought to function.
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Well, then we get to chapter 2 and Paul begins to call the church to prayer.
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He calls the church to pray for leaders, for kings, for those in authority.
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He calls us to pray for those over us and to pray for their salvation.
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Then in chapter 2 verse 8, Paul begins to make a distinction between men and women in the church.
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Let's begin reading at verse 8.
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I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.
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Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works.
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Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
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I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, rather she is to remain quiet.
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For Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
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Yet she will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control.
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The context here is the distinction between men and women.
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He says that men ought to use their hands, not for quarreling, but for praying.
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Why do you think he would say that? Could it be that men have a problem with how they use their hands? Could it be that men are known for throwing hands with one another and lifting their hands in ways that they shouldn't? So Paul says, let us not use our hands for quarreling, but let us use our hands for raising them in prayer.
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And then he turns to the women.
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And he says, women, you ought to adorn yourself with godliness rather than godliness.
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Why do you think he would say that? Could it be that there was a problem, and maybe still is a problem, where we concern ourselves too much with the exterior beauty and not enough with the interior beauty? And so Paul addresses that issue.
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Then he makes an observation about the authority in the church, and the teaching within the assembly.
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And he says that the teaching is to be, and as I said already, very controversially, to be men only.
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Boy, that's a hard thing to say in 2020.
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It's a hard thing for people to accept.
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And many people have just absolutely repudiated these passages.
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I mean, we look around our land and we see women in the pulpit.
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And as I said a few weeks ago, if there's one thing we learn from 1 and 2 Timothy, it is this, there are people in the pulpits all around that should not be.
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It's not always just women, but women should not be.
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And again, if that offends you, please know that I am not making this up out of whole cloth.
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This is the Apostle Paul speaking on behalf of Almighty God.
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All I'm doing is repeating what he has said.
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And to undergird this, because oftentimes people will say this, people will say, well, see, Paul was a product of his culture.
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And the culture of the day was that women were a second-class citizenship and that women were not allowed to teach.
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And therefore, Paul is just expressing the culture of his day.
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Well, there's a couple of problems with that.
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One, it's not exactly true that the culture of his day would suppress women.
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There was a lot of situations in Paul's day where women were exalted.
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There were goddesses that were exalted, that were worshipped.
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There were women who taught in various situations and even women business owners, as we see with Lydia in Acts chapter 16 and various places.
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So the idea that women were absolutely not given any type of position in society is actually not the case.
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But even more so, notice that Paul does not use culture as his reasoning.
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Paul doesn't say that women ought not to teach men or have authority in the assembly.
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And he goes back not to culture but to creation.
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And he says, see, look at the way God created the world.
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He created Adam first and then Eve.
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And by creating Adam first, he gave Adam a position of authority in the kingdom.
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He gave Adam a position of authority in the garden.
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When I get back to preaching Genesis in a few weeks and I look forward to it, I'm actually going to begin preaching about the creation of Adam because we're going to be in Genesis 2.
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And in Genesis chapter 2, Adam is expressed as being created and made vice-regent with God.
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He's given an authority over the garden.
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And part of the reason for the heinous nature of the sin of Adam was that Adam allowed sin into the garden.
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Adam was supposed to be managing that garden.
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He was supposed to have authority over that garden.
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And he allowed it in.
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There was a serpent in the garden and Adam was unaware or at least unwilling to deal with it.
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So the serpent was allowed to tempt and to deceive his wife.
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And Adam's wife was deceived.
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Verse 14, it says, Adam was not deceived.
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And you might think that that's Paul's saying Adam was better.
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No, that's worse.
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Mike and I had a conversation about that this week.
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It's actually worse because Adam was rebellious.
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He knew not to do it.
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Eve was deceived.
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She was tricked.
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Adam was not tricked.
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Adam did what he did in rebellion.
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But the point of it is, in this situation, Paul is using the example of Adam being created first, then Eve.
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And Eve being deceived as his argument as to why women are not to be teaching and having authority within the body of Christ.
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And by the way, just a side note.
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This is one of those times where the Bible is clearly assuming that Adam and Eve are real people.
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Because a lot of people believe Adam and Eve are fictional, mythological characters.
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But Paul's not using them as fictional or mythological.
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Paul is saying, look at Adam and Eve as the example.
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He's not using them as a myth.
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He's using them as a historical example.
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So that's the context.
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Paul is discussing the distinction between men and women.
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He's using Adam and Eve as the example.
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And what happened as a result of the fall? What happened as a result of sin? Man and woman were both cursed.
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What was the curse of man? That his work, which up until that time had been a joy.
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Don't think that Adam didn't work before the fall.
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He did work before the fall.
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But his work was a joy.
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He didn't work and toil.
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He didn't work with thorns and thistles.
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He didn't work by the sweat of his brow.
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He worked to the constant enjoyment of the kingdom.
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And then when he sinned, his work became displeasurable.
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And he hated it.
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And now it's tiresome.
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It's burdensome.
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And he hurts.
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And he hunches.
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And it doesn't feel good.
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That's the curse.
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Work is not the curse.
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The curse is the displeasure of work.
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The same way with the woman.
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The woman receives a curse.
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But it's not childbearing.
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It's the pain in childbearing.
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You understand? The curse is not that she would bear children.
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That's the blessing.
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Just like work is a blessing.
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But what is accompanying work? Pain and suffering and toil and back pains and ripped fingernails and all those things that we hate.
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What's the difficulty of childbirth? Nine months of morning sickness and stomach pains.
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Nine months of growing to a point of discomfort where your hips hurt and your back hurts.
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And then when it does come time, it's absolutely horrific.
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I've been there three times.
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And she did not look happy.
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Of course, there's other things that happen.
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The possibility of death.
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The possibility of miscarriages.
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All of those things are products of the fault.
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So, that's the context.
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Paul is addressing Adam and Eve.
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He's addressing men and women.
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He uses Adam and Eve as the example.
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And he says there's a distinction between men and women.
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And then he says, and women will be saved through childbearing.
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So, that's the context.
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So, based upon the context, we can now begin to try to arrive at a meaning when he says in the next verse, yet she will be saved through childbearing.
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Well, there's two unreasonable understandings that I'd like...
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Now we're at part two.
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There's two unreasonable understandings that I'd like to at least get out of the way.
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The first unreasonable interpretation would be this.
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All women who have had babies are saved from their sins by having babies.
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Anybody believe that? No, you shouldn't.
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Because that is not the gospel.
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It's not as if you can be saved by grace through faith or childbearing.
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That would be a heck of a way to go around and share the gospel.
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You can either believe in Jesus or you can go have a baby.
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Certainly, that's not the proper understanding of the text.
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That's not what Paul is saying.
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But there is another that I would say is equally unreasonable.
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And that is this.
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Someone who says that what this is talking about is physical healing and therefore a woman who is a believer will never suffer death in childbirth.
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That she'll be saved from death in childbirth.
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I don't think that's right either.
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In fact, I would say it's absolutely wrong because there have been faithful women of God who have died in childbirth.
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There have been faithful women of God who have suffered horribly and had bad pregnancies and the children have died and the women have died.
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So we can't say that it's saving from sin, childbirth.
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And we can't say that it's saving from the physical dangers of pregnancy.
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So neither one of those, I think, would be a proper understanding.
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I think both of those would fit into the category of the unreasonable.
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Unreasonable from Scripture and unreasonable from experience.
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So now we begin to examine the possibilities.
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And the possibilities are numerous and if you look up this passage in commentaries you're liable to find more than what I'm going to give you today but I want to give you three possibilities as to what this passage might mean and then I want to help you understand why I think I believe what it means is correct.
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But again, I want to say this from the outset.
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I am in no way being dogmatic today.
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I'm trying to help you learn how to study.
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And sometimes as a pastor when I study a passage sometimes I have to arrive at a conclusion where I say I think this is the best way to understand it but I could be wrong.
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And if we don't have the humility to say that then there's something wrong with us.
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If we don't have the humility to say I could be wrong about this then I think we've got a problem.
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Because there are some passages that are difficult.
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So I'm going to give you the three possibilities and then explain to you why I think the one that I think is correct.
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First, the first possibility is this.
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That the child birth in reference here is the birth of Jesus.
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Okay? This is a very popular understanding that Jesus is the one being born.
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And so if we read it that way it would say this.
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In verse 15 it said, Yet she, being Eve, will be saved through the birth of the child.
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And if you read it in the Greek there is a definite article there.
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It doesn't say childbearing.
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It says the childbirth or the childbearing.
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And therefore some people would say this is the birth of Jesus.
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Because it has a distinct article referring to a birth, a specific birth.
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And so this would go back to Genesis 3.15.
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Do you remember in Genesis 3.15 what the promise was given to Eve? It was during the curse of the serpent.
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God curses the serpent and he says there will be a seed of the woman and the seed of the woman will crush your head.
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You will bruise his heel but he will crush your head.
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We call that the proto-evangelium or the first reference to the gospel.
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Because it's a reference to Satan's work being destroyed by the seed of the woman.
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And therefore some people would say that's what Paul is saying here.
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Women, even though they're dealing with childbirth and the pain of childbirth they can know that a Savior is coming.
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And this of course would be looking forward to the Savior.
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Now we can say a Savior has come.
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And so in that regard the childbirth here would be Jesus.
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So that's the first of a possible interpretation.
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However, I want to simply say it's not without difficulty.
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If you take that position there are two things that need to be considered.
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Number one, this would be a unique way of phrasing how we are saved.
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Because the Bible does not normally express salvation through the birth of Christ but rather through the death of Christ.
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And so the fact that it says saved through childbirth would be unique, to say the least.
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But also, somebody might say well, but in Genesis 3.15 it does talk about the coming of the seed so that could be the answer to that.
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But moreover, the thing that I think is important is that this is speaking specifically to women.
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Notice again, it says, yet she will be saved through childbearing.
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And therefore, if it's referring to the birth of Christ which is not limited to women but would be for all then I think that this would have, again, a difficulty in saying why is it making a distinction between men and women and why is it focusing on the woman and then yet saying that the childbirth will save her and save them, referring to women.
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So again, can it mean the birth of Jesus? Yes, that is one possibility.
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It's not the position that I take but it is a possibility.
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Number two is a little bit more difficult.
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Number two takes the position that we should not focus on the word childbirth but that we should focus on the word through.
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Read the text again with me.
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She will be saved through childbearing.
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And so the word through there would be translated basically like this.
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She will be saved even though she has to go through childbearing.
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So, here's how it would be understood.
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What's the curse of women as a result of the fall? They're going to suffer in childbearing yet they can still be saved.
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That curse does not rob them of the ability to be saved.
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Maybe a woman might look at her situation having to go through pregnancy and say, oh, God has cursed me because, look, I'm having to bear this pain.
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I'm having to bear this suffering.
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I'm having to bear this shock.
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And how could God love me? And the Apostle Paul could be saying, no, you can be saved even though you have to go through childbearing.
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You may think that's an odd interpretation.
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That's actually the interpretation John Piper gives.
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So, just to say, it's not so far out there that it's so weird that nobody takes that position but it's not the position that I take.
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But I wanted to express it because basically what he's saying is in 1 Corinthians 3.15 it says that there will be some who are saved yet as through fire.
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That word through there means having to go through the fire.
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And basically Piper says this, he says that word through is being used in the same way here.
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They'll be saved yet as having to go through childbirth.
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It's not exactly the position that I would take.
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I don't think it's necessarily unreasonable but it's not the position that I would take.
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But I wanted to share it.
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So, we have seen two positions.
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One, the childbirth refers to Jesus.
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Two, it's not about the childbirth but having gone through the childbirth and that's the position, the second position.
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Now I want to share what I think is the proper understanding with again the caveat of saying if you take one of those other positions or maybe you have one I've never heard of that at the end of today I would hope you would not want to break fellowship with me over a relatively obscure verse.
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But I want to again point you back to the context.
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The Apostle Paul has just discussed the distinction between men and women.
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And one of the most radical distinctions between men and women in the church is the difference of authority.
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Men alone are to teach within the assembly and women are to learn as the passage says with quiet submissiveness.
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And we know that in our day that kind of thinking can be labeled sexist.
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And that's not a new problem.
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Even in Paul's day there were arguments over authority.
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1 Corinthians 14 The Apostle Paul had to write to the church in Corinth May the women be silent in the churches.
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Why? Because there was an issue of argument over authority.
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Who's going to be able to speak up prophecy? Who's going to be able to stand and speak? And Paul says the women ought to be silent.
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People take issue with that but it's clearly there because there was a problem.
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And to prove his point regarding the distinction between men and women Paul points to creation.
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He notes the priority of Adam being created first then Eve.
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And he notes that Eve sinned first before Adam.
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And it is based on that reality and not on his culture that he distinguishes between the authoritative roles.
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Men alone are given the duty to govern and teach within the body of Christ.
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And one might ask the question this is the natural question to that.
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Where does that leave women? Do they serve no other purpose than to simply sit quietly and shut up? And I think Paul is answering that question in verse 15.
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And I think that he's using the word saved here in a way that he does not use it elsewhere.
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And this is what makes my interpretation difficult because I believe the word saved here is not in reference to salvation from sin.
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The word saved can be used in other passages to reference being delivered from some kind of problem or to be delivered from some kind of issue.
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And in this situation I think it's deliverance from shame.
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Because what has he just mentioned in the previous verse? That the woman endures a certain stigma or a certain shame having been the first one to sin and having herself been deceived.
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A woman may feel indignity because she cannot teach or have authority within the church.
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She may feel lesser or even stigmatized by the fact that she was the first to have sinned.
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But yet she has a gift which is unique to her.
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And that gift is a gift that men do not have.
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It is the gift of the ability to bear children.
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In the act of bearing children the woman shows herself not only as necessary but absolutely necessary and valuable absolutely valuable within the body of Christ.
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No one could ever look at a woman in the body of Christ and say you have no purpose here.
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Just sit down and shut up.
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You have no purpose here.
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All you need to do is sit down and be quiet.
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No, a woman does have a place.
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A woman does have a purpose.
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And the highest expression of the purpose is her purpose in bearing children.
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You see, she may not have an authority in the church but where does she have a great authority? In her home and with her children.
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They say the first evangelist to the children is the mother.
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And the great mission field of the mother is in the home.
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And so there is something that though there was a shame though there was an indignity though there was a part of her history that is embarrassing that is no more to be considered that is no more to label her with a stigma because now she is able to show herself to have the greatest of all importance within the body of Christ because it is through her womb that the next generation will come.
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I want to give you a few quotes just to encourage you in this direction.
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The first one is from an author that I listen to and read.
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He says this.
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He says, The most likely interpretation that takes into account the immediate context is that rather than abandoning their intended roles by demanding teaching and authoritative positions in the church women will find true fulfillment through childbearing.
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Paul is saying God calls women to be faithful, helpful wives raising children to love and worship God and manage the household wisely.
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So that's one commentary that would agree with what I'm saying.
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Another one is Believer's Bible Commentary.
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This is the one that I've encouraged many of you to purchase.
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This is one single volume commentary that I use a lot and here's what it says.
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From what Paul has just said in this chapter the impression might arise in the minds of some that the women have no place in God's purposes or counsels.
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She's reduced to a non-entity.
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But Paul would dispute this claim although it is true that she has no public ministry in the church that is assigned to her she does have an important ministry.
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God has decreed that woman's place is in the home and more specifically in the ministry of raising children for the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So again, agreeing with what I've said.
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But I want to use one more and I know not everyone in here is the same agreement on how much they love John MacArthur but most of us appreciate John MacArthur and his ability to speak in regard to the Word and this is what he says about this passage.
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Paul is teaching that even though women bear the stigma of being the initial instrument who led the race into sin it is through childbearing that women may be preserved or freed from that stigma by raising a generation of godly children.
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See, when we compare this passage, 1 Timothy 2.15 to other passages that mention women and childbirth in Scripture it is obvious that there is something about childbirth there is something about motherhood that has great value within the kingdom.
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Titus 2.3, 4, and 5.
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Brother Adam knows this.
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You name the troop after that verse.
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Our American Heritage Girls troop.
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And here's what it says.
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It says, Older women are to be reverent in behavior not slanderers or slaves to much wine.
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They are to teach what is good and train the younger women to love their husbands and children to be self-controlled, pure, workers at home kind and submissive to their own husbands.
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That the word of God may not be reviled.
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Older women, by the way, that's your responsibility.
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To teach the younger women how you are to manage your home.
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That's why there should not be a disconnect between our older generation and our younger generation.
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There should not be the old ladies and the young ladies.
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There should be an interaction between the older and the younger.
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And there should be learning that takes place between the older and the younger.
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There should be ministry that happens because what you are doing is valuable.
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And you need to know what happens when you make a mistake.
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Who do you talk to? What happens when you need help? Who do you go to? Do you go to the GQ magazines? Not GQ, what is it? The Cosmopolitan? Whatever, GQ is Gentleman's Quarterly.
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You go to the magazines and you read the...
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No, you go to the women in the church who've been there.
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You're suffering a loss.
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You go to the women who've suffered loss.
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You're having trouble with your knuckle-headed husband.
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You go to the women who have knuckle-headed husbands.
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And you ask them, what do you do? And they'll say they don't know either.
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But the point is, there's great value in motherhood.
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And I believe there's a redemptive quality in motherhood.
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Not redemptive from sin or from hell, but redemptive in this sense.
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No mother who raises her children in faith and love and holiness and self-control, no woman who does that should ever feel in any way or in any situation that she is in some way inferior in the body of Christ.
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And that she is somehow unnecessary in the body of Christ.
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Because raising children in godliness is one of the most precious things that you can do in your life.
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Now I want to take a moment before I get to my conclusion and say this.
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You may be a woman who is not married and don't intend to be married.
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And you've been given the gift of singleness.
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The Apostle Paul says that's great.
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And you can do things that married women cannot do.
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And I am not in any way downplaying your ability to minister within the church either.
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But today's not about you.
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Because that's not the passage.
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If I was in 1 Corinthians 7, I'd be talking about you.
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So just understanding, I'm not downplaying anyone who can't have babies.
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Or maybe your body won't let you have a baby.
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And you have to minister in another way.
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Maybe you'll minister as a foster parent or an adopted parent.
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Or maybe you won't be a parent, you'll be a missionary or something else in the church.
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Don't think for a second that what I'm saying is that you don't have value either.
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But because this is the passage, because this is the focus, I want to focus in on the value of motherhood.
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You see, the world teaches that motherhood is not enough.
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It demands that women abandon motherhood and family to find true success outside the home.
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And if you don't think that that is true, you have not been listening.
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You just go and ask a young lady, What do you want to do? And listen to how people respond to what she says.
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You go to a young lady and you say, What do you want to do? I want to be a business owner.
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Praise the Lord, that's great.
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I want to be an attorney.
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Praise the Lord, great.
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I want to be a journalist.
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Praise the Lord, great.
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I want to be a wife and mother.
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Well, what else do you want to do? And you think I'm lying.
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I've heard that come out of y'all's mouths.
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I'm not talking about, I've heard you guys say it.
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Not all of you, but I've heard it.
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I've heard people say to young women in this church, When they say, What do you want to be? I want to be a wife and a mother.
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What else? Why is that not enough? Why is that not the highest of aspirations? You see, the world doesn't understand any redemptive value in motherhood.
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The popular culture has labeled motherhood a prison and marriage slavery.
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But the Bible exalts marriage and motherhood as the highest of aspirations for women.
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The secular world wants to destroy the family and replace it with the community.
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But the Bible exalts the family.
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It exalts mothers.
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And it shows that nothing can replace the value of a godly set of parents in the home.
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Ladies, if you're a mother today, you are employed in the most important job that you could have.
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Do not let the world devalue what God has called you to do.
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And men, I encourage you this.
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To understand the value that is invested in your wives.
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And if you've treated her as anything less than the most valuable person in your life, I encourage you to repent and let her know the place that she should have in your home and in your heart.
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And if someone were to ask you, ladies, What do you do? Never be embarrassed to say, I manage my home and I take care of my children.
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Because I want to tell you this.
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If somebody asked you what you did and you said, I care for the children of the CEO of Bank of America.
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They'd go, Oh, wow.
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Or if you said, I care for the children of the President of Google or the President of Amazon.
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They would say, Wow.
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Or if you said, I take care of the children of the President of the United States.
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They would say, Wow.
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You must have a job that's really important and you must be really responsible.
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Are your children any less valuable than the ones of the President of Google or Amazon? Are your children any less valuable than Donald Trump's child? Not at all.
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You are caring for the children God has put in your home.
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And they are His.
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And therefore, you are a steward of God's children.
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Never let anyone question the value you have either in the church or in the home.
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Beloved, it's a gift from God.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for this opportunity to study it today.
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And I pray that there has been accuracy in what has been preached.
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And again, Lord, if I have erred, I pray that you would just wipe that from our minds.
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And Lord, the truth that has been spoken, Lord, I pray that you would just help our hearts to really invest an understanding of that truth.
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Lord, I pray especially for the moms among us who feel overwhelmed by life.
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And there are moms among us who are suffering, some who can't even be here today who are hurting.
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And Lord, they need ministry from you.
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They need to be reminded, Lord, that in Christ there is no shame and no need for shame.
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There is no embarrassment or need for embarrassment.
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For Lord God, He, our all in all, has come.
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And He has granted us a place in His kingdom.
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And Lord God, when we do what you've called us to do, even in the smallest of things, Lord, we are fulfilling the call of God in our life.
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Not as missionaries necessarily, not as pastors necessarily, but in whatever you call us to.
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Lord, let us do it all to the glory of God.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.