Sunday Sermon: Adam was Formed First, Then Eve (1 Timothy 2:11-15)

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If you'll remember, I kind of broke this down into three pieces. We only were able to cover parts one and two last week.

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We get to the second part today, which breaks down into three more pieces, because I'm a good Baptist, so we have a three -point sermon.

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This is 1 Timothy chapter 2, beginning in verse 8. In honor of God's word, would you please stand?

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1 Timothy 2, beginning in verse 8, the Apostle Paul writing to his servant Timothy as he was pastoring there in Ephesus, hear the word of the

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Lord. 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 and 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. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.

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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.

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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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You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly Father, as we come back to this passage again today, the word that was given from Christ to his apostle, to a pastor serving in Ephesus at that time.

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I pray that we see what the relevance is to us now, 2 ,000 years later, still acting as the church of God in Jesus Christ, filled with your

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Holy Spirit, knowing that your word that goes out from your mouth will not return to you void, but it will accomplish the purpose that you have sent for it to accomplish.

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We know, as Jesus has said, that heaven and earth will pass away, but his word will not pass away,

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Mark 13 31. And so here, as we continue to read this word, so many centuries later, yet we know through your

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Holy Spirit it has relevance and application to us now. There is an instruction that was given to this church at this time, and an instruction that's given to this church at this time.

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And so I pray that we would continue to comb your word and seek your truth and remain obedient to those things that you have commanded in your spirit by your apostle through Christ our

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Savior. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So to kind of remind you of the outline that we had looked at last week, we're looking at this whole passage verses 8 to 14, or 8 to 15, rather.

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I had mentioned to you, number one, that the men should pray. Number two, that the women should be modest.

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And then number three, verses 11 to 15, that women should be quiet. I wasn't trying to be overbearing with that instruction in any way, just coming to the simple understanding of the instruction that's given in verses 11 to 15, since as the passage reads, that is the instruction.

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Let a woman learn quietly, and I don't permit a woman to teach, but she is to remain quiet, that we have there in verses 11 and 12.

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However, it was reported to me by my nine -year -old daughter last week that after playing on the playground after church, one of the boys said to her, hey, you have to be quiet, cuz that's what your dad said during church.

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And then there was a mother that reported to me that her son said, in the van ride home, mom, you have to be quiet, because that's what

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Pastor Gabe said. So I realized that I need to establish some clear context here. When I say women be quiet, and not just laying that out there and letting your sons glean that wisdom and now imposing it upon their mothers at home.

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That's certainly not the intention. Of how we are to summarize an understanding of verses 11 to 15.

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You'll notice that in the sermon title, that I had said that this particular sermon was gonna be titled

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Adam was formed first, then Eve. That's the title of the sermon. Because it is in going back to the created order that Paul establishes what he means here, and the context in which this instruction is given.

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Remember that we started chapter two with instructions for the whole church. And the very first instruction that Paul gave to the church, was that the church should pray.

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Then as he breaks this down into instructions specifically for men and then instructions specifically for women.

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The first instruction for the men is that they should be the ones leading in prayer. I desire then in every place that men should pray lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

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What instructions are given for the women? But the women are to have a more submissive attitude in the congregational body.

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Verse nine says, likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self control.

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In other words, even by the way that they dress, they're not supposed to be loud and flamboyantly announcing themselves.

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But rather what they should desire to profess, what they should want others to see about them is their godly character.

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May they profess what is proper for women, who profess godliness. The end of verse ten, their good works.

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So we're seeing a call upon the men to action, and we're seeing a call upon the women to be more submissive.

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And this speaks against our very natures, for it is a natural tendency in men, a natural sinful tendency

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I should say, to be lazy. And it is probably a natural sinful tendency in women to want to be loud.

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In fact, as I quoted from the Proverbs last week, the woman folly is loud and boisterous.

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And so in acting against our sinful natures, but in accordance with the instruction of God, men are to lead and women to submit.

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And this becomes even a picture of the way that we all should be in the church, which I'll explain coming up a little bit later on.

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We are coming into instructions for elders, that's the next passage.

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That's what we get to in chapter three. Qualifications for elders, the saying is trustworthy.

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If anyone desires to be in the office of overseer, he desires a noble task, a worthy task.

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But before we get there, Paul gives this instruction with regard to the women, that she is to learn quietly with all submissiveness, and then goes on to explain why in verses 12 to 15.

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So the way that our passage, as we look at verses 11 to 15 today, the way that this breaks down is that first of all, a woman is prohibited from being a pastor.

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And that's in verses 11 and 12. But then Paul gives the reason why and states why this is a fundamental issue.

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And that's in verses 13 to 14. And then finally, this statement that has caused much confusion, even among purely

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Orthodox churches. The statement that we have in verse 15, that she will be saved through child bearing, and I'll come to explain that here in a moment as well.

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That will be point three in verse 15. So once again, verses 11 and 12, women are prohibited from pastoring.

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Verses 13 and 14, why this is a fundamental issue. And then number three, she will be saved through child bearing.

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And we'll look at the passage in that order this morning. Becky and I went to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in New Orleans this past June, where the leading issue at the convention was women pastors.

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The number one story that kind of came out of that particular convention you had probably read about was concerning Saddleback Church, founded and pastored by the best -selling author

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Rick Warren. That church was disfellowshipped from the Southern Baptist Convention because Saddleback decided that they were going to start ordaining women pastors.

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And indeed, they had. Rick Warren had an opportunity to come to the microphone and state his case.

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Al Mohler came to another microphone. He's the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and stated a case in opposition.

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The membership voted, and really, the outcome was quite overwhelming. It was 85 % for disfellowshipping

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Saddleback and 15 % against. Now, while that seems to be a great achievement in terms of a biblical polity and understanding what scripture instructs concerning who can be a pastor and who cannot be, at the same time, there still remains many

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Southern Baptist churches with women pastors. So one got picked on because it was in the news, but there are still many

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Southern Baptist churches that remain with women in the pastoral position. Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, with Ed and Lisa Young as pastors.

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Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, with Stephen and Holly Furtick as pastors. But that church disfellowshipped themselves from the

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Southern Baptist Convention after that decision was made. Nonetheless, it remains that some of the largest

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Southern Baptist churches still have women pastors at the helm. The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest fellowship of Protestant churches.

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Since every Southern Baptist church is autonomous, it's not technically a denomination, but it would be considered a fellowship, the largest fellowship of Protestant churches.

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So what happens in the Southern Baptist Convention is pretty reflective of what's happening in evangelicalism at large.

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But we shouldn't think of this as being just a Southern Baptist problem, as I'm sure you know. Last week, one of the deans at Duke Divinity School proudly announced that Beth Moore was preaching at their church that morning.

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He was taking out of context a verse from the Psalms to say that women are called to be pastors too.

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I don't know how he gets that out of the Psalms, but that was his case. You may have seen in the news recently that the president of Harvard, Claudine Gay, was in a congressional hearing in which she could not condemn anti -Semitism on the campus at Harvard.

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If anyone called for the genocide of the Jewish people at Harvard, it's not considered hate speech unless such speech actually inspires someone to try to exterminate the

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Jewish people, then it would be wrong. But simply saying it, according to Claudine Gay, was not wrong.

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I bring that up because earlier this year, Gay approved Asa Griggs Chandler as the dean of Harvard Divinity School.

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So you have a woman president of Harvard appointing a woman to oversee the training up of pastors and theologians at a historic institution that used to boast

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Puritan theologians as their pastors. Men like Increase Mather and Samuel Willard, who used to be the presidents of Harvard.

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This is a huge doctrinal issue that covers the entire evangelical landscape.

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And it is more fundamental to the church than many understand. Now when

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I use that word fundamental, oftentimes we hear that word and we think if it's fundamental, if it's a fundamentalism thing, then it must mean something that has to do with salvation.

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Cuz the fundamentals have to do with salvation, right? If it's a salvation doctrine, it's a fundamental doctrine.

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But really we can understand fundamental a little bit more broadly. If scripture explicitly prohibits it, if God says no, it's a fundamental issue.

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And so that's the context in which we see this instruction given here in 1 Timothy 2.

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Before coming right back to our text, I kind of teased out a little bit chapter three already.

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So let's consider that briefly. We're gonna get to that in a couple of weeks. Next week I'm actually gonna do something a little more

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Christmas oriented, since we might have some guests expecting a Christmas themed sermon for Sunday, since it'll be

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Christmas Eve. So I'm gonna do something a little bit more Christmas directed. But then the next week, which will actually be on New Year's Eve, will come into these qualifications for overseers in the church.

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And so let me tease that out a little bit so we keep that in context with these instructions here in chapter two.

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Charles Spurgeon once said, the pulpit is the thermopoly of Christendom. There the fight will be lost or won.

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Who stands in the pulpit and what is preached from the pulpit are of critical importance to the life and vitality of that church body.

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As goes the pulpit, so goes the church. Now I happen to see just by observance and by interviews that we did and by reading the statement of faith that this church is in a right spot concerning who should stand in the pulpit in obedience with the scriptures.

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So I don't have any concerns there with this body and where we stand right now concerning this particular instruction.

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But where this should concern us is what we see happening in the rest of evangelicalism, number one.

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But also number two, what's the practical application for this? I mean, as you go from this sermon out to the world this week, is there something in this instruction that you actually live out?

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Is reading this today and applying this to your life something sanctifying for you?

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And indeed it is, even though we're seeing instructions here that are given specifically for pastors, there's still a responsibility here for the whole church.

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And even to follow the example that's given in the pastor of somebody who is of a mature faith, who is growing in godliness that we all should aspire to.

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So even though these instructions are given as qualifications for pastors, you'll see that there's nothing outstanding about them in a certain sense that we all should aspire to this level of godliness in our

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Christian walk. So let's consider together in chapter three, if you'll look ahead a little bit to chapter three, beginning in verse one.

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Paul says, the saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.

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Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, meaning that he must be above blame.

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He is the husband of one wife. He is sober -minded, self -controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

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Are you seeing things there that you're going, I should be that too, right? So certainly the pastor should exhibit this, but it's something, it's behavior, it's characteristics that we all should aspire to as Christians in our

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Christian walk. Verse four, consider it is said of him that he must manage his own household well with all dignity, keeping his children submissive.

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For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?

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The one requirement that you see there for the overseer that he must have, that sets him apart from anybody else perhaps in the congregation or even from deacons, as the instructions follow for deacons coming up in the next section, this man must be able to teach.

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Not everybody has to have that ability, but this man must be able to teach.

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Everything else that's listed there about the pastor is behavioral.

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It's concerning a mature man in the faith. And you'll notice there that these instructions are specific to a man.

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This is very clearly not talking about a woman, nor do we see a separate set of instructions anywhere else regarding, okay, now as for overseers in the church who are women, here's what my directions are for her.

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We don't see that anywhere because it is given in these instructions that the man who would be the overseer of the church is to be a man.

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Now, that term overseer is synonymous with bishop, elder, or pastor. These are all the same office in the church, and this office is to be held by a qualified man.

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This is by the command of God, and it is a design that we see throughout Scripture.

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The elders of Israel in the Old Testament were only men.

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When Jesus sent out the 72, they were all men. The 12 apostles were only men.

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So the elders or the pastors in the church are also to be men.

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Now, this is not the only time that we're going to read these instructions or these qualifications for an elder. We come into this again when we get to Titus 1, verses 5 through 9.

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And it's there that Paul adds a pastor, quote, must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine and also rebuke those who contradict it, unquote.

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That is pastoring. It is feeding the flock of God, and it is fending off the wolves.

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John Calvin said that a pastor must have two voices. He must have one voice to call the sheep and another voice to fend off the wolves.

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And these churches today that are imposing upon the body of Christ, this acceptance or this tolerance of women pastors are actually bringing wolves into the flock.

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They are not following the instruction that is given in Scripture. It is crystal clear that only men are to be pastors.

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Not every man will be a pastor, but if a man aspires to the office of elder, overseer, bishop, pastor, he desires a noble task, and he must meet the qualifications that God has given.

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Again, there is not a separate list of qualifications for women, and there is not a single example of a woman as a pastor in the

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Bible. In fact, right before the qualifications of a pastor were given a direct prohibition against letting a woman perform even the function of pastor.

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So let's come back to that again. If you have your Bible open in front of you, let's look at 1 Timothy 2, verses 11 to 15, the section that we're focusing on today.

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And we read this, first of all, in verses 11 and 12. Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.

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I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.

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Rather, she is to remain quiet. So you have this instruction here.

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And as I said last week, as I highlighted in verse 11, let a woman learn. That's still a great thing.

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That is pretty awesome because this was not common for women to be allowed or permitted to be with the men learning at this particular time.

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Timothy is told to teach the women in the church to have self -control, which bookends these instructions.

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In verse 9, a woman is to adorn herself with modesty and self -control, wearing self -control as if it were a garment.

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And then in verse 15, look down at the end of this particular section where it said that women are, once again, to be self -controlled.

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So notice that that bookends these instructions. A woman is to be self -controlled. But then let a woman learn is a blessing for women and something countercultural at that time.

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Among the Jews, women were often illiterate. First century Rabbi Eliezer said, if anyone teaches his daughter

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Torah, he is teaching her promiscuity. That's how the

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Jews felt about teaching women. Among the Greeks, women were not invited to the schools of the philosophers.

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The church is and always has been inclusive of men and women.

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When you see that first church gathering in the upper room in Acts chapter 1, they are made up of men and women.

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Women are fellow heirs of eternal life by faith in Christ. The very passage out of Galatians that Brother Allen just read for us.

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But a woman was to enter as a picture of humility, quietly with all submissiveness, as we read about here.

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Women are prohibited from teaching or exercising authority over a man. Preaching the word of God to the people of God and giving exhortation is an exercise that is inherently authoritative.

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Paul told Timothy, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season.

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Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. That's 2 Timothy 2 .4.

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And then to Titus, he said, Titus 2 .15, declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority.

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So this exercise is inherently authoritative. Now, some will argue that Paul's prohibition against women preaching is strictly limited to the

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Greco -Roman culture of his day, or that he was only addressing a problem Timothy had dealing with strong -willed women in Ephesus.

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In a commentary on 1 Timothy 2 .11 -15, the late Scottish minister, William Barclay, wrote, the early church did not lay down these regulations as in any sense permanent, but as things which were necessary in the situation in which it found itself.

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So in other words, Barclay is saying these instructions were just for that church at that time. It's not for the church today.

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However, it is quite plain from the text of Scripture that this instruction applies to all churches in all cultures at all times.

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How do we know that? Well, let me give you two reasons. First of all, remember that last week in verse 8, we read that Paul says,

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I desire then in every place. And I had said to you that that is often taken as when

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Paul says men should pray, he means they should pray everywhere. No matter where men should pray.

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And yeah, that's good. No matter where we go, may there be examples of men who are standing up and praying.

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I think that would be a wonderful thing. But that's not really the context of the instruction. As Paul is giving

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Timothy instructions for how things are to be ordered in the church, it's understood he's saying that in every church.

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This is the same instruction that he gives to every one of the churches. I desire then in every place that the men should pray.

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In 1 Corinthians 14, where he gives the same instruction there about women to be quiet, for it is given to the men to hold those pastoral and teaching positions in the church.

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He says there, this is my instruction in all of the churches.

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So it's not something that, here we have it in two places. We have it Ephesus and Corinth. And in both places,

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Paul's saying that he instructs these things to be carried out in every place, in every church.

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There's a second reason, a second evidence that we have that Paul gives here for why this is applicable everywhere.

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And it's because of what is said in the very next verse. Verse 13, for Adam was formed first, and then

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Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

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So it is quite plain that from what Paul is instructing here, he goes back to the created order to establish the point.

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It was from the way God created things in the very beginning. That's why they should continue even in the church in this order, because of the created order.

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So because Adam was the first one formed, and the woman was the first one deceived, a woman is prohibited from functioning as a pastor in the church.

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Notice the function of pastor is what Paul mentioned in 1 Timothy 2 .12. He did not simply say,

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I forbid a woman from being a pastor or an overseer. He said,

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I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. So he's not just simply prohibiting her from the office, he's even prohibiting that a woman should fulfill the function of that office.

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Dr. Tom Schreiner, professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the following.

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When we read 1 Timothy 2 .12, it doesn't directly speak to the issue of office.

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It addresses the matter of function, prohibiting women from teaching and exercising authority over a man.

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It is interesting, therefore, that many seem to turn the verse around by allowing the functions, but denying the office.

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So in some churches that try to get around this, they'll put women in teaching positions, but we just won't give her the title of pastor.

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And she might even be preaching a sermon on a Sunday morning, like Beth Moore did at Duke Divinity School.

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As long as she's not called a pastor, then we're being obedient to the scripture. But they overlook the fact that Paul is actually prohibiting the function here, not just the office itself.

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More than the office of pastor being off limits to women, she cannot teach an assembly of men and women together.

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Mother's Day is not a day that women get to preach. Nor should she lead teaching in a mixed class of men and women.

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These are pastoral functions, and this is not complicated. But a people not content with the

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Bible's clear commands will try to reorder God's order, just like Adam and Eve did.

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Some try to argue that women can be associate pastor so long as she's not the senior pastor. Or she can preach as long as she's under the authority of the elders.

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Or she can be a minister over men as long as you don't call her a pastor. Stop looking for loopholes.

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A woman is not to teach or have authority over a man, period. Now let me clarify something here with regards to these instructions.

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This is not about women praying in prayer meetings. This is not saying that a woman can't have a career.

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For in Proverbs chapter 31, the Proverbs 31 woman that's described there even gives instructions to the servants.

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So you gotta expect some of those servants are probably men. It's not saying that a woman can't function in that capacity.

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It's not saying that a woman can't hold public office. I have opinions about this, but that's not in this particular passage.

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That's not what this passage is about. This is specifically about the ordering of the church. And when

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Paul says that there are positions of leadership in the church, yes my friends, there is a hierarchy in the church.

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So a woman is not to fulfill those positions that God has specifically designated for men to fill.

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The New Testament puts no distinction between the office and the function of a pastor.

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As I've heard it said, the office is the function and the function is the office. The pastor is the one who pastors.

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The preacher is the one who preaches. Whoever stands in the pulpit steers the direction of the church.

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So having a good episcopology, which is a biblical understanding of what it means to be a pastor, this is of fundamental importance to the church.

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Now I had said to you earlier, this is a fundamental issue. So how do we draw that conclusion that this is something fundamental?

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And that's part two. So number one, a woman is not permitted to have authority over men.

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That's what we just considered in verses 11 and 12. Number two, we consider why this is a fundamental issue, and that's as we come here to verses 12 to 14.

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Though the scripture says, Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

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This does not mean Eve is most to blame for the fall. Romans 5 .12

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says, sin came into the world through one man. Who is who? That's Adam.

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As descendants of Adam, we all inherit the sin nature of Adam. Now, when we read here also that Adam was formed first and then

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Eve. Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. This does not mean that women are more easily deceived than men.

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I do think that there are ways that women are more easily deceived than men. Ways that they're more easily deceived than men.

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There are ways that men are more easily deceived than women. But overall, we would not say that women in general are more easily deceived than men.

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The vast majority of false teachers in the history of the church have been men. Paul rebuked the whole church in Corinth for listening to false teachers as Eve did.

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This is 2 Corinthians 11 .3. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

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So he's rebuking a whole church who would be going after the same way that Eve did, being deceived by the serpent.

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The woman was the first to be directly deceived by the serpent, and then became an agent of Satan to tempt the man to sin.

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And when you read this in context in Genesis chapter 3, you see that Adam and Eve were there together.

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The husband was with her. I just yesterday heard a message from a woman preaching, because that's part of my research into this sermon.

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I listened to bad examples as well as good examples. But I was listening to one woman preach who had said that the serpent got her alone in the garden.

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And when we're alone, we're the most vulnerable. That was the point that she was trying to make with this illustration.

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But that isn't the picture at all. Adam and Eve were together. The serpent may have addressed

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Eve, but Adam was right there. And I've always wondered, what in the world was that dude doing? Look at the birds.

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I named those. While the serpent is right there tempting

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Eve to eat the fruit that God told them not to eat, Satan tempted the woman who brought the man into this sin when she should have listened to her husband, who was the authority over her.

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But she upset the created order and listened to the creature. And then Adam continues the upset of the created order by listening to his wife.

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When you look at the curse as it was given to Adam, what's the first thing that God says?

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Because you listened to your wife. When it should have been the wife listening to her husband.

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That was the order in which God created these things. And the serpent, the woman, the man upset the created order.

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Paul reminds Timothy of the created order so that he may teach the women of the church to remain humble, to recognize her low estate, and to submit to God's order in which he has placed her.

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The traditional term for this is patriarchy. I know that's like a curse word in our culture today.

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But patriarchy is not a wicked thing. It was created by God. There are people that pervert that order of patriarchy, certainly.

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But biblical patriarchy is God's intention. Simply the understanding that the husband, father, or eldest male is the head of a family.

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More recently, the debate over women preachers has been turned complementarianism versus egalitarianism.

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But those are muddy waters. I'm not wading into them today. Patriarchy is by the design of God who formed the man first and gave him headship over his household.

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As said in 1 Corinthians 11 .3 and Ephesians 5 .23, the head of the wife is her husband.

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God told Adam, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

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According to Scripture, this command in Genesis 2 .17 was given before Eve was made.

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So Adam was to lead his wife and she was to submit to her husband.

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And this order was rebelled against when Eve listened to the serpent instead of her husband and Adam listened to his wife instead of leading her.

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In the curse, again, God said, because you've listened to the voice of your wife and you've eaten of the tree of which

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I commanded you, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of you.

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Now, notice there, he doesn't say to Adam, curse is the ground because of your wife, because of you.

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You had your orders and you did not follow them. And so he said, in pain, you shall eat of the ground all of the rest of your life.

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And we're still feeling the effects of that today. Far as the curse is found, as we sing about in joy to the world,

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Christ is undoing that curse. A day is coming in which we will enter into glory and we will be with him forever where there will no longer be this pain, this curse, this struggle that we have against the elements, against our circumstances, against this fallen world.

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But for now, we endure these things and we know they exist in the world the way that they do because man sinned against God.

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And just as we can't blame the woman for this sin, we also can't blame Adam for this sin. All of us are willing participants in Adam's sin.

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Every single one of us have gone astray. As said in Isaiah 53, we all like sheep have gone astray.

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Every one of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has laid upon him, the

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Lamb, Christ, the iniquity of us all. So that in the giving of Christ, in his sacrifice, the curse is being undone, and our sins are forgiven.

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And we must recognize that there is an order in which God has established things from the very beginning.

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In worship to God, which we're able to offer up to him in a right manner to be received by God, we must obey his instructions.

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And this one given by an apostle of Jesus Christ. The sin of the

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Garden of Eden is repeated when a woman assumes the function of a pastor, which

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God has designated for a man to do. The prohibition against women preaching to the whole church is not merely a secondary or tertiary issue, and you will hear that said.

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Well, this is a secondary thing. So our church can do this. Your church can do whatever you want.

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We can just agree to disagree. This is not a difference of doctrinal opinion that separates denominations.

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Women preaching over men has its origins in the first sin. It is a deception of Satan.

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When the serpent tempted Eve, his first words were these. Did God really say?

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The words of Satan resound in the debate over women pastors. Did God actually say that women can't preach in the church?

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Nah, that was just a cultural thing. That was just Paul. That was then, and this is now.

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Why would the spirit call a woman to preach and then tell her she can't? The spirit wouldn't call a woman to preach.

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He would not contradict his word. On this subject, the scriptures are clear.

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Those who defy what the Bible says are listening to the tempter rather than listening to God.

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Did God actually say? Yes, he did. God actually said. The role of a pastor is to be filled by a man.

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This is a fundamental doctrinal issue because it is clearly framed to be of great importance in the stewardship of God's church.

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That is not the same thing as saying it is essential for salvation and if you get this wrong, you are not saved.

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Nonetheless, women preaching to the corporate body of the church is a sin.

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It is sin for the woman preaching and the men who put her there.

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And it's also sin for the rest of the church who is sitting under that teaching because you would be sitting here rebelling against what

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God has ordered in creation and for his church. This is also a very telling sin.

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And I'm going to come back to that point in just a moment. I'll kind of wrap up with that. But there's one more verse in this passage that we must consider.

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So far, in verses 11 and 12, we had considered that a woman must learn quietly in all submissiveness.

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In verses 13 and 14, we have considered that Adam was formed first and then

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Eve. So grounding it in the created order that God had established from the beginning. So now we come to number three and it's that last verse there that has been a source of confusion for many people.

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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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So what is this saying? The command that a woman is not to teach or exercise authority over a man is not confusing.

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It's a straightforward instruction. The explanation is also not confusing. For Adam was formed first and then

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Eve, and Adam was not deceived but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. But after that comes this verse.

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And again, these instructions to women end as they began. We have this call to self -control.

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But what is this part about her being saved through childbearing? Now, many take this to mean that a woman is sanctified through having children.

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Now, there is certainly something that women get the enjoyment of that a man will never, ever experience.

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I don't care that the culture is out there saying that men can get pregnant. They're liars. That's stupid.

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And everybody knows that's stupid. The people who are saying it know it's stupid. But they are doing as Romans 1, 18 says, they are suppressing the truth with their unrighteousness.

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Men can't get pregnant. That is a biological function exclusive to women.

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And women, yes, hallelujah, I am not complaining about that. Whenever my wife has been pregnant,

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I have been willing to do anything for her. And there has even been moments in her pregnancies that I have said to her, babe,

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I am so glad this is you and not me. What can I do for you?

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There is something that women get to enjoy in this a man will never get to experience. And Jesus even uses this as an illustration in the upper room discourse in the

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Gospel of John, where he says, when a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has come.

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But at the end of that hour, she is overjoyed and doesn't even remember the pain that she just went through because of this new life that's come into the world.

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And Jesus uses that example and says to his disciples, so it is for you. You are in anguish now.

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We are in trial and tribulation in the world even now. But a day is coming in which we will be with the

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Lord in glory and we won't even remember the difficult things that we went through, that we were being sanctified through, prepared for this, that we might be with the

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Lord forever. So, yes, there is a certain sanctification that women can get from that because they can give joy to the

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Lord even in the midst of carrying a baby and childbearing and birth and labor, and then rejoicing in that new child that is laid on the mother's breast when all of that is all done.

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But that is not really what Paul is talking about here because there are some women who are not blessed to have children.

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So does she not get to be sanctified? Is she not saved because she did not have this opportunity to experience childbearing?

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Follow Paul's train of thought here. He's telling the story of Genesis. We go from creation to the fall to the promise.

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And that's what we have here in verse 15. Creation, Adam was formed first and then Eve. The fall,

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Adam was not deceived but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. And now the promise, yet she will be saved through childbearing.

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In the curse upon the serpent, God said, Genesis 3 .15, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring.

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He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel because God is addressing the serpent, right?

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So he will crush the head of the serpent. Satan will have his moment, but he won't be able to defeat the snake crusher.

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He is coming to destroy Satan and the works of Satan, as said in 1 John, the reason the

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Son of Man came was to undo the works of the devil. This is called, as we read it in Genesis 3 .15,

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the Proto -Evangelium. It is the first declaration of the gospel foretelling the coming of the

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Messiah, Jesus Christ. The role of the woman is not in any way inferior to the man just because the man was made first and the woman was deceived first.

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Eve was integral to God's plan for redeeming mankind.

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Verse 15 again, yet she is in the singular. It's still talking about Eve, will be saved through childbearing.

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Now, that's what we have in the English Standard Version, but it's missing the definite article.

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The actual translation of this sentence is, she will be saved through the childbearing.

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I don't know why the ESV left that out. Most translations do. But if you look at it in the

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Greek, there's a definite article there. She will be saved through the childbearing. The Legacy Standard Version does insert the definite article.

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It is in reference to Christ, who would be born of woman when the fullness of time had come.

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Exactly the memory verse that we've been reciting from Galatians 4 .4. The promise of Christ is not just for one woman, but for every woman, which is why

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Paul switches then from the singular to the plural, if they continue in the faith.

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

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Both men and women need to have faith in the one who came through Eve down to Mary, and that is the

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Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus would not be sired by a man. He was conceived of the

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Holy Spirit and not under the headship of Adam, so that from his conception, he would be sinless.

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No man was involved in the birth of Christ. It is by the grace of God upon women.

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They share in this wonderful grace if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self -control.

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We need to fulfill the roles that God has designed each and every one of us for.

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There's a unique role for men, and there is a unique role for women.

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God is not pleased with passive men. He is not pleased with domineering men.

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He is also not pleased with loud, self -promoting women. God has a mission for the church, and he has ordered the church by his design.

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He has a specific purpose for men and a specific purpose for women.

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And women, lest you think to yourself, am I not allowed to teach at all? There's actually an imperative in the pastoral letters for women to teach.

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Titus 2, beginning in verse 3, older women likewise 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 so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self -controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

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So look there, women, there's an instruction for you to teach. And in fact, there are things that the older women in this church can teach the younger women that I think are more effective coming from an older woman than they are coming from me.

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Now, that's not to say that I don't have a responsibility as a pastor to teach every word of God.

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I should. But there are certain instructions, certain applications, certain life things that I think that come better from an older woman than come from a man.

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We'll talk about this again here in a few months when we get to Titus 2. But there are certain things a woman can teach a younger woman that can't come from a man.

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In fact, it's not even appropriate for a man to even discuss such things. There was one time after church, there was a young woman, a new mother in our congregation that was coming up to me and Becky.

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We were standing at the back door, just shaking hands as people were coming by. And she's coming up to me and she, you know, as a pastor, you just kind of get used to this.

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There's a look on a person's face, you know they're about to ask a question. So I think she's coming to me to ask a question about something that I preached that day, but she doesn't come to me, she goes to my wife.

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And she says to my wife, can you teach me how to breastfeed my baby? And I thought,

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I am so glad she didn't ask me that question. It's not even any of my business to enter into that realm.

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But there are such wonderful things that the older women can teach the younger women that it's better coming from an older woman.

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Last week, when I talked about modesty, it can be kind of inappropriate for a man to approach a woman in the congregation and say, you're dressing a modest.

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It should be the older women stepping up and helping to guide the younger women in what it means to live modestly.

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And that's an instruction that would therefore apply to every one of the women in the church.

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We all have roles to play. And if you have been made a man, you have a specific role to fill.

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If you've been made a woman, you have a specific function that you are to fill.

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And we need to be looking for ways that we can therefore apply these things to behave as Christian men and women in this world.

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By simply being a godly man or a godly woman, you are doing something otherworldly.

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It is not at all like the ways of this world that are trying to blur the lines between men and women.

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We're trying to say that there is no such thing as a man and there is no such thing as a woman. Trying to say that there's no binary, it's just whatever you decide, whatever you feel like.

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I heard a joke last night that was just great. Did you hear about the non -binary prospector, why he went west looking for gold?

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He was looking for gold in them there hills. That'll sink in with some of you later,

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I think we're gonna end. Anyway, all that to say the culture is trying to say, we don't have a he and a her, we're them and there and we decide our gender which is fluid and can change at any moment's notice.

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You're seeing the way that the culture is behaving this way. They're even trying to indoctrinate students with it in public schools and universities and other institutions.

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And just simply knowing that we've been made male and female and that God designated certain things for men and certain things for women.

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We are following God, we are behaving in such a way that is not at all like the ways of this world.

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We are to be holy, which means to be set apart, which means we don't follow after the pattern of this world.

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Romans 12, 1 and 2, in view of God's mercy, present your bodies as living sacrifices unto the

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Lord, holy and acceptable to him. This is your spiritual act of worship.

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Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may see

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God's will for you, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

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Women, you are not being oppressed because God has certain assignments for a woman.

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And men, you are not being burdened with the instructions that God has for you.

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But if we're gonna find application in these instructions that we see today, it's simply to understand this.

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Men, you are being called to step up and lead. And we need more godly men on the front lines, demonstrating and exhibiting holiness to the church.

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And women, believe it or not, even though we've had instructions here with regards to women being silent and not having authority over a man, there is still even an instruction here for you to lead.

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There's an example by which you lead, that you exhibit self -control.

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And even the humility and the submissiveness that you are to demonstrate is an example for the entire church.

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The apostle Paul talks about this in Ephesians chapter 5, that a wife is to submit to her husband as the church submits to Christ.

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So the wife becomes a picture for everybody in the church as to how we are to be submissive to the

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Lord. You have been bought with a price. Paul says in 1

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Corinthians 6, so honor God with your bodies. If he made you male, how do you honor

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God as a male? If he made you female, how am I to honor God as a female?

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He didn't make mistakes when he made you male or female. He didn't make mistakes when he put you in the place that you were in.

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You have been called to this place and appointed to this time for a reason.

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All of us are called to holiness. None of us are exhibited or exhibited.

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None of us are exempt. Thank you. Lost my vocabulary.

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None of us are exempt from following that instruction. You must be holy.

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You must obey God. And while we see the rest of the world rebelling, it is our joy and delight to worship the one who saved us.

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Amen. His love rests as the ocean, loving kindness as the flood.

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And the prince of life, our ransomed, shed for us his precious blood.

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♪ Through His blood He seeks to sing

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His praise ♪ ♪ Even death on a crucifixion ♪ ♪

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Fountains of blessed and gracious tide ♪ ♪

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Grace and love, peace and perfect justice ♪ ♪

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Is God built and slain by hateful men ♪ ♪

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And can never be undone ♪ ♪

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Radiant Son of heav 'n He stands ♪ ♪ Calling home

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His Father's children ♪ ♪ Holding forth His wounded hands ♪ ♪

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Radiant Son of heav 'n He stands ♪ ♪ Calling home

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His Father's children ♪ ♪ Holding forth

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His wounded hands ♪ This is

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When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours.

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But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family. Find a good, Gospel -teaching,

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Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend, and join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study