WWUTT 596 For Women Who Profess Godliness?

You've heard the saying, beauty is only skin deep, right? But it can be a reflection of who we are on the inside.

And a woman who professes godliness shouldn't be known by gold and jewels and costly attire, but by her good works when we understand the text.

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Here's Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of 1 Timothy 2, verses 8 -15, with the

Apostle Paul writing to his servant Timothy, I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self -control.

Not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness, with good works.

Let a woman learn quietly, with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.

Rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Yet she will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self -control.

Remember, Paul is giving instructions to Timothy to take to the church in Ephesus and lead that congregation there.

His first instruction at the start of the letter was to teach sound doctrine, the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

Then in chapter 2, Paul tells Timothy what godly living should look like, when a person loves the gospel, when their faith is built on the sound words of Christ.

How should that look on the outside? What does godly living then look like? And the first instruction that he gives is to pray.

And that's for all people. Men and women in Christ Jesus should be people of prayer, that we are lifting up our voices to the

Lord. We speak to God. He communicates to us through the Bible. We talk to him through prayer.

We hear from God through the word of God, the scriptures, as we are considering today.

This is not just the opinion of the apostle Paul as he is writing to Timothy, but we are reading the very word of God led by the

Holy Spirit to his apostle in these instructions that have been given. And so, once we get midway through chapter 2, the instructions of godliness start to get specific pertaining to the sexes.

The first instruction is that in every place, the men should pray. So we're talking about godliness.

We're talking about prayer. Let men be the ones who set the example for how that godliness is supposed to look, not just in a corporate setting, not just in church, but also in the world, which is why

Paul says in every place, the men should pray. So these instructions specifically pertain to the corporate worship setting.

But the ways that we handle, conduct ourselves, present ourselves in worship should be the same way that we conduct ourselves in the world as well.

Men are supposed to be peaceful, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling. And not only are we to be getting along with our brothers and sisters in Christ in church, but we should also conduct ourselves this way in the world, not being a person who is known to be angry or quarreling with others.

Rather, we correct opponents with gentleness. We love and are affectionate.

We are self -controlled. We entrust ourselves to him who judges justly, as Peter said that Christ did.

And so we must do the same. Following the example of our Lord and Savior, we entrust ourselves to God.

And when we are reviled, we do not revile in return. And this is an example that the men primarily should be setting for the entire church.

If you have a church where men are quarrelsome and they are not kind and compassionate, they're not self -controlled, they fly off the handle.

They do that with one another in the church. Well, you're going to see them doing that in the world. And furthermore, you're going to see the entire church behaving that way.

If the men are like that, who should be setting the standard, who should be the primary examples within a church, the entire church is going to follow suit.

You will have men who are quarrelsome and you will have women who are gossips and slanderers. This general spirit of unrest that would plague a congregation, which was the problem in the

Corinthian church. It was one of the problems there. And I imagine was even an issue in the church in Ephesus, because we're going to have instructions a little bit later on concerning women controlling their tongues.

This is an important instruction that will come up later on in chapter five. So here in the meantime,

Paul says that men need to set a good example for being holy, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

Likewise, also the women. That's what he gets to in verse nine. So they also are supposed to be examples of holiness and godliness.

It's not like a woman's purpose or the instructions that are given to her are any less than a man's.

But the first instructions are given to the men since they are the primary examples within the church. We talked about that a little more structurally last week using other scriptures to back up that point.

So then verse nine again, likewise, also women should behave in godliness.

And what's the instruction that Paul gives to the women as it would apply first to the corporate setting and then also the way that they should present themselves in the world.

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

Now this is not Paul saying that a woman can't look nice, that she can't wear makeup or nice clothes, but that the church gathering is not a place in which you are dressing up as though to go to an elegant ball.

So you're not showing up at church in your best duds in the sense that you're showing up to gain the attention and the awe of other people around you.

Oh, look how beautiful and gorgeous she looks today. That's not the purpose of dressing up for church.

Now my wife looks very beautiful on a Sunday morning. I think she looks gorgeous. And what she is wearing is a little bit more than casual to show, hey, church is an important occasion for me and I'm going to dress up for it.

But it's not flashy attire that draws attention to herself. She looks like church is important, but also not so much as to make it look like I'm the one that's important.

Do you get what I'm saying? So everybody look at me. That's not the way that she dresses, but with self -control, with modesty in respectable apparel.

This is the way that we should present ourselves in the corporate setting, and it is likewise the way that we should we should conduct ourselves in the world as well.

Now whenever we use this word modesty in today's culture, we tend to think of modesty as a woman who is dressing, covering up her flesh.

You get what I'm saying? So she's not showing too much skin. That's what we would consider modest.

But a woman could be dressed from her neck down to her ankles and still be dressed immodestly.

The clothing could be very flashy, trying to call attention to herself. She has a lot of gold and jewelry in her hair, the way that Paul is describing it here.

Jewelry on her hands, maybe wearing a lot of makeup. So what are we talking about when we use this word modest?

What would be a good definition of the word? When I was looking up a definition, I found this when I really liked it.

Modesty is having or showing a moderate or humble estimate of one's merits.

It is being free from vanity or having an ego, a lot of pride in oneself, boastfulness or great pretensions about oneself.

To be immodest, then, would be to present oneself in a very prideful way, to be vain and have a big ego.

You want everybody's attention to be on you and whatever you would have to be wearing in order to call that attention to yourself.

That might differ from one culture to the next. What one culture considers to be modest, another one might call immodest.

But so we're really talking about a matter of the heart and what a person is wearing on the outside is a reflection of who they are on the inside.

If a woman is going to dress in such a way to call everybody's attention to herself and trying to set others opinions of her based on the way she looks on the outside, well, she's presenting a very false image.

It's also dishonest because she it's kind of like she's trying to control everybody's thoughts about her.

I'm dressing this way, trying to get everybody to see me this way and see me as somebody important.

Everybody's attention to be on me, which becomes very vain and egotistical. It's a reflection of the heart that she has as she's all about herself and receiving glory for herself rather than giving the glory to God.

The apostle Paul is saying that if she's going to be known for anything on the outside, if somebody is going to see something about her on the outside as a reflection of the heart that she has on the inside, it should be the good works that she does.

So again, Paul is not saying that a woman shouldn't. It's not appropriate for a woman to ever dress up and look nice.

That's not what he's saying. But if she's going to be known by anything, it should be the good works that she does because the good works that we do are not supposed to give or we're not supposed to take credit for.

Rather, they're supposed to point toward the God that we worship. Peter says, first, Peter two, twelve, keep your conduct among the

Gentiles, among the pagans, among the people that you live with in this world, keep your conduct among them honorable so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify

God on the day of visitation. So people that hate us for the faith that we have, the things that we believe in, even when it comes to this section of scripture,

I mean, we're talking about something that's very controversial in the world today to say that only a man can fill that role as a pastor and a woman can't fill that role.

Hugely controversial. So there are people that are going to speak evil of us because we follow what it is that God says in his word when they speak evil of us.

And then others in the world examine us based on the comments that are being made about us for what it is that we believe.

What are they going to see? Are they going to see a person who lashes out or who is trying to call attention to themselves even by the faith that they have or the arguments that they wish to raise?

Or is what they're going to see in the people that are being spoken evil of? Are they going to see good deeds?

And then their opinion becomes, well, you know what, what you're saying about that person, I simply don't see. I see a person who loves

God and loves others. And so let them see your good deeds and glorify

God on the day of visitation, the day when Christ returns. Those who will see your conduct as being honorable are going to see that what you live out is exactly the faith that you have in your heart.

They're going to recognize that there is something different about you in the way that you conduct yourself in this world apart from the way people of the world act.

So do not be do not be in despair when you are reviled and do not revile back when they revile you, but rather do as Christ did in trusting yourself to him who judges justly.

And when they see that with your whole life, you entrust yourself to Christ, that is going to be a testament of the faith that you proclaim from your own heart.

When you say one thing and you live out the thing that you say, there's a consistency in your message.

But if you say one thing and you do the exact opposite of what it is that you say for other people to do, then there's an inconsistency and people are not going to believe you when you share the good news of the message of Christ.

Works are very important in the Christian life for those of us who are reformed or those of us who believe the doctrine of justification by faith and not of works, which is really the true gospel.

Anybody believes anything different, they believe in a different gospel. The true gospel is that we are justified by faith in Christ, not by our works, not by anything that we have done, but because we've placed our faith in Jesus.

That's the gospel. So those who believe that about the gospel, sometimes we tend to speak very negatively about works.

We'll say works are not important. Works do not save you. Works are are not the thing that justifies you before God.

And there's elements of those statements that are true and elements of those statements that are not. For James himself said that faith without works is a dead faith in James chapter two.

You can you can say that you believe God, but if you do not show in your life with the good works that you do an obedience to the commands of Christ, then what it is that you say is is bukkish.

It's dead. Doesn't mean anything because the faith that you have has not produced a change in the person.

You were once a person of the world. You were once following the course of this world.

The prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience is described in Ephesians chapter two verses one through three.

That's who we all were before we came to Christ. When you follow Christ, you cannot live that way anymore.

You cannot be like the rest of the world. You must be set apart, which is what holiness is.

It is being set apart from the rest of the world. And so in our conduct, there should be a change.

We don't live in sin. We don't pursue the works of the flesh described in Galatians five.

Rather, we're producing the fruit of the spirit and the two are not in fellowship with one another. The fruit of the spirit is contrary to the works of the flesh, which which

Paul was very deliberate about discussing in Galatians chapter five. And so this is the way that we should be living.

And this is for men and it is for women. There are particular instructions for men and there are particular instructions for women.

But we're talking about overall the pursuit of godliness. In Romans 12, one and two,

Paul said, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Christ gave up his body for us broken on the cross. His blood spilled for our sins.

He did that for us so that we would not have to experience the wrath of God. Jesus drank every last drop of the cup of God's wrath when he hung there on the cross for all those who are in Christ Jesus.

And so because God was merciful to us in this way, giving his son as a sacrifice for our sins, we need to present our bodies, not as not as a sacrifice unto death, you know, that our blood would be spilled for a sacrifice for we cannot atone for our own sins that way.

Christ did that for us. So therefore, we need to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

And this is worship, the way that we live, the way that we conduct ourselves is very the very thing that Paul is talking about here in First Timothy two.

This is how it should look in worship, in corporate worship within the church, and it's how it should look in the world as well.

Present in your lives an evidence of the change that has happened in Christ Jesus by doing good works, by doing the works of Christ himself.

We read in First John two, verse four, whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.

But whoever keeps his word in him, truly the love of God is perfected by this.

We may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which

Jesus walked. Jesus said the following in Matthew five, 16, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.

We read in John three, 21, Jesus saying again, whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.

And so Paul is giving instructions here in First Timothy two. He will come back again to this in First Timothy five that we need to be known by good works.

He addresses this also concerning the rich in First Timothy chapter six toward the end of the letter.

He says, as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life, storing up their treasure in heaven rather than here on earth.

And even that instruction there in First Timothy six concerning the rich can apply to men and women in any class.

Do not be haughty or to set your hope on the uncertainty of something material or physical.

So a woman might dress immodestly in such a way to show a lot of flesh and get attention that way.

But she is setting her hope on something that frankly isn't going to last. Your looks will fade.

You're not always going to look glamorous and gorgeous or have certain body parts that attract the attention of men.

You're placing your faith and your hope in something that simply is not going to endure and most certainly cannot save you.

It is contrary to the holiness that God has called us to live. So what it is that we should be showing, whether we get credit for it or not, should be the good works that we do, that we are doing what is obedient unto the

Lord to give him the glory to direct others to him and not to us, that they would give glory to God on the day of visitation.

As Peter put it, not glory to you, but glory to the Lord who made us, who saved us from our sins, who has then adopted us into his family.

We have become fellow heirs of the kingdom of God and we will reign together with him in glory.

This is what the Lord has done for us. And so to him belongs all of the glory.

Humble yourselves before the Lord and at the proper time he will exalt you. That's something James shared.

We also get that from Peter in 1 Peter 5. Let us conclude with prayer. Our Lord God, I pray that the desire of our heart would be to do what you have asked us to do, what is in obedience to the

Lord, not thinking about how we can use this faith or this Christianity that we have to help to make us more successful or to attract the attention and the popularity of others, but rather Christ gave himself for us to cleanse us from our sins.

So how can we then show our love for Christ when he showed his love for us in this way?

You have asked us that we would obey your commandments. And so let that be the thing that shows that we love

God, that we would obey what it says in your word, even when it's unpopular to believe it or follow it, that we would do it because we love

God. We're not trying to define the word in our own way or trying to make it mean the thing that we want it to mean, but we desire to know the word of God according to what the

Holy Spirit has communicated. And we tremble at your word. As it says in Isaiah 66 too, this is the one to whom

I will look, he who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at my word.

And may that be the desire of our hearts, not trying to draw attention to ourselves, but being humble before the

Lord and desiring to know you according to how you have revealed yourself through your prophets and apostles in the

Bible. Let this be the message that we hold fast to and teach others in that they may know all your ways and glorify

God. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. For more about our ministry, visit us online at www .tt