Sermons of Redeeming Life Church

“God’s Design Is Divine” (1 Timothy 2:8-15)

What is the role of women in the church? Does our appearance and the clothing we wear matter when it comes to worshiping God? How do we decipher the difference between cultural relevance and timeless principles when it comes to studying God’s word? In his sermon, “God’s Design is Divine,” centered on 1 Timothy 2:8-15, Pastor Josiah addresses these questions as he examines the instructions from Paul to Timothy regarding how Godly women are to function both within and outside the church In his message, Pastor Josiah shared that when we carefully survey God’s word, we can clearly see that God has a divine design for both men and women that is honors Him and compliments one another. There are timeless principles found in creation that still apply to our lives today. When it comes to determining how we should live our lives and determine the things that God has called us to do, we must always allow God’s Word to be the voice that speaks into our world rather than letting the culture around us speak into God’s Word.

Duration:: 29m
Broadcast on:: 14 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

You're listening to a sermon preached at Redeeming Life Church. Alright Church, if you have your Bibles with you, I'd like to invite you to join me in 1 Timothy. We're going to be continuing our study on Be the Church, as we examine God's Word and walk through the book of 1 Timothy together. Today we're going to be on chapter 2 starting in verse 8. If you're using one of those red church Bibles, we're going to be on page 1051 1051. Once we continue Paul's letter, the young Timothy here this morning. Also if you're using an electronic device, all the verses are on you version as well. So as you're making your way over there, I want to let you know that God is a God of purpose and order. God's a God of purpose and order. He's not a God of chaos. He's not a God of confusion. Throughout Scripture, we find He is a perfect plan or a divine design for all mankind. That's what I want us to see from God's Word this morning. Looking at God's Word, 1 Timothy chapter 2 starting in verse 8, Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, says, "Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument. So the women are to dress themselves in modest clothing with decency and good sense. Not with elaborate hairstyles, gold, pearls, or expensive apparel, but with good works as is proper for women who profess to worship God. A woman is to learn quietly with full submission. I do not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man. Instead, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed, but she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with good sense." Dear Lord, I thank You so much for the opportunity we have today to gather together, to open Your Word, Lord, to hear from Your voice this morning. I pray that You would open our minds in the ears to hear Your voice, to see what You would have for us today. I pray that Your Holy Spirit would fill me up and speak through me this morning. We would leave here changed not because of what Pastor Josiah has to say, but because of what Your Word says, what You have for us this morning, and Your Holy and precious name, Lord. We pray. Amen. Well, Church, we're in the thick of it now. I feel like Paul's letter just keeps getting spicier and spicier. I took one look at our text this morning, and I had one thought, "Joe, you should have started with summer in the Psalms." These seven verses that we just read are some of the most contested verses within all of the pastoral epistles. It's out of these verses that we see entire denominations depart from the gospel. These verses are what cause people to pick apart their Bibles and determine the bits and the pieces that they want to choose to follow and honor and agree with. It's verses like these that have caused people to say things like, "Well, Paul said that. Not God." It doesn't really apply to me when these people go on to deconstruct their faith and walk away from God completely. That being said, as we come to this section of Paul's letter to Timothy, I'm reminded of what I was in elementary school. Me along with our classmates would go on imaginary bear hunts. If you grew up in a similar situation as I did, then you might remember the jungle. We're going on a bear hunt. And then the song would progress and we'd get to a place and then say we'd say we can't go over it, and we can't go under it, and we can't go around it. So I guess we're just going to have to go through it. The same is true with God's word. As your pastor, it is my aim to preach the entire counsel of God, and that includes preaching portions of Scripture that are difficult or uncomfortable. I'm never going to skip or neglect part of God's word because it's uncomfortable to talk about or divisive to the world that we live in. God has given us His word for a reason. And Paul has written this letter for a purpose. God's word is a blessing from God to lead us, to guide us, to give us direction on how the church is to function. So if we're going to be the church that God has called us to be, then we have to be a church that's led by the Word of God alone. So with that being said, let's dive in. As we unpack this text together this morning, we are going to first look at the disruption that's going on here in Ephesus. Then we're going to see how God's word calls us to function in order to avoid disruptions like this. Then we're going to see how these commands from Paul are actually rooted in the divine design of God's creation. But before we jump into all that and look at the direction that Paul gives for how men and women are to function in the church, let's take a moment and recognize that Paul is simply continuing his thought that he began in the opening verses of chapter 2. Everything that Paul is saying here in our text this morning is in relation to the salvation of others that we discussed last week. Paul begins verse 8 with the word "therefore." Paul says, "Therefore, in light of what I've already shared with you in verses 1 through 7, that God's desire is for all men to be saved, we are to pray, lifting holy hands up to God." I'm going to unpack verse 8 a little more here in just a minute. But before I do, I want to share this. When we examine portions of Scripture like we see today, there are two dangerous extremes on both sides of the equation that we can easily lose ourselves in. On the one side, you have a literalism view. This view dictates a belief that we follow every word specifically as it was written with no adjustments and no exceptions. On the other side, you have a liberalism view that states that everything Paul said in these verses was specifically for that culture and the various issues going on here in Ephesus and thus at the time it was just for this letter and these people. So as a result, you can dismiss everything that he said completely and really do what feels right for you and what's based on our culture and the world we live in today. Between these two polar opposites is what some Bible scholars call cultural transposition. Cultural transposition, this is where we pause for a minute to discern God's word, to look at Scripture and examine what God meant and what is essential revelation, meaning the parts that are always the same throughout all of time and the part that is cultural expression or the parts that were specific to that time and that place within the context of what was written. So with that in mind, understanding the road that we're on, let's look at the easy example and I'll show you what I mean. Look at verse 8 again with me. Paul says, "Therefore I want the man in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument. Also the women are to dress themselves in modest clothing with decency and good sense." How about the elaborate hairstyles, gold pearls or expensive apparel? What was good works as is proper for women who profess to worship God? And if you've been with us in this study this last few weeks, then you're already aware of the fact that there have been some serious disturbances and disruptions to the orderly function of worship going on here in Ephesus. Paul has spent an entire chapter calling out the men who are contributing to these issues, including but not limited to false teachers like Alexander Hymanaeus. And here in verse 8 Paul deals first with a couple more issues that are going to problems in the church and before turning his attention to how men and women are to function, including the office of pastor and overseer and office of deacon. Paul begins by stating that the men are to pray with holy hands lifted high, in which case does that mean we're supposed to raise our hands every time we pray? Are the men in the church the only ones allowed to pray? If we hold to a literalism view that I mentioned earlier, this is exactly how you would interpret this text. Only men are allowed to pray and when the men do pray, we have to lift our hands up in the air. Obviously, this is not the point that Paul is making. Part of what he's referring to is cultural behavior. For instance, when I pray with our Ukrainian brothers and sisters, I will often stand with them in prayer because they stand when they pray. That's their custom of how they pray. When we pray together corporately here in worship, we often bow our heads and close our eyes in prayer because that's our custom. What we need to extract from this text is the principle behind what Paul is saying. Rather than focusing on the act alone, what is the principle? The important piece that Paul is reminding the church to do is to pray. We talked about that last week. We're supposed to pray. It's important that we spend time together praying. We don't always have to pray standing up or with our arms lifted high. We don't always have to pray with our eyes closed and our heads bowed. Sometimes I pray with my eyes all open. Often when I'm driving, which the other people on the road really appreciate. The reminder that Paul is making to the church is to ensure that we are coming to the Lord's table or raising up our hands in worship with holy hands, not with hatred, not with bitterness in our hearts for our brothers or sisters. It's important that we worship the Lord and come to Him with clean hands and a pure heart. First John 4.20 says, "How can we love God if we hate our brother? How can we have peace with God if we don't have peace with others?" That's the problem that's occurring here in Ephesus. He's been a quarreling with one another. They're fighting. They're arguing with one another. There was anger in their hearts, most of which probably centered around the disturbances in the frustrations with the false teachers and the drama going on. How many of you love drama? No, thank you. As a result, Paul is commanding the men in the church to put their anger aside. Forgive one another and focus their attention on Christ. After calling the men to pray, Paul shifts his attention to the woman in the church and they're a tire. Now it's important to understand that the issue here in Ephesus is not that women were spending too much time styling their hair and getting ready unless causing their husbands to be late for church, but rather it was the motives behind what some of these women were doing. Their motives were wrong. Some of these women's behavior was just inappropriate. However sexual immorality was rampant in Ephesus. In this culture, it was common for women to take their hair, makeup and fashion over the top in an effort to attract attention to themselves, sometimes in even seductive or promiscuous ways. These women were looking to the culture to determine how they should look and drawing attention to themselves rather than to God. As a result, Paul calls these women out and tells them rather than look to the Roman culture around you, look to God and dress yourselves with decency in good sense. Forget the expense of apparel or the over to the top hairstyles and adoring yourselves with good works instead. Fast forward to today and the principle is the same. Christian women should have a different motivation and desire concerning their appearance and behavior than what the culture tells us they should. I'm not going to post ushers at the door and have them check to see which women are wearing pearls and gold necklaces, that's not the issue. The issue is we've come to worship God. We've gathered together to focus our attention and devotion to Him. There's a reason that we have a stained glass window with a cross and we're all pointed this way. Some of us would prefer to have tables in the room so we could take notes, but all our attention is directed on God and His Word. As a result, the question that we should be asking ourselves is we're preparing to come to church is what can I wear today that demonstrates a humble heart and a devoted soul to the worship of God. None of us should be coming to church dressed in an effort to draw attention to ourselves and how great we are. Our attention should be on God. Our worship and our lives, every aspect of our lives, should draw attention to Him and focus our praise on Him. This isn't just about modesty, it's about common sense. If I stood up here in a giant crown wig and a red nose that may noise when you squeeze it, how easy would it be to focus on the Word of God? How would you pay attention? I'll give you another example, it's a hundred degrees outside. Some of us might feel justified wearing our swimming suits to church. Talk about distraction. You might be one step closer to getting in the pool when you get at home, but how would that help us worship God? One of my favorite preachers, Martin Lloyd Jones, always wore a black robe as he stood in the pulpit because he did not want his attire, his appearance to detract from God's word. There are times where I want to do the same thing. Our focus on Sunday should be centered on God alone and His word alone. Nothing else. There was a behavior going on here in Ephesus that was distracting others and taking away the focus from God and the worship of Him and placing it on other things. From our text today, we can clearly see that God has a perfect design, both for men and for women, and how we are to function within the church. After dealing with the disruption that's being caused from these quarrelsome men and these worldly-focused women, Paul now turns his attention to how Christian women in the church are to function and behave, look again at verses 11 and 12 with me as we look at the function of women. Verse 11 says, "A woman is to learn quietly, with full submission, I did not allow a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, instead she used to remain quiet." Now, when Paul states that the woman is not permitted to teach or to have authority over a man, but to remain silent, what he is not saying here is that there's not a role or a purpose for women in the church. This could not be further from the church, from the truth. This could not be further from the truth. Godly women are essential to the health of a church. When Paul says he does not allow a woman to teach, what he is saying is that he does not allow a woman to function in the role of pastor or overseer or elder. Next week when we turn our attention to chapter 3, we're going to see that the elders of the church have two primary tasks. They lead and they teach. That's what elders do. In other words, they teach with authority to lead the congregation. And because, as we see from Scripture, that the office of elder and pastor is limited specifically to men, and only to specific men who have been called by God and ordained for this ministry, this means that women are prohibited from this role. So, when Paul says here in verse 12 that women are not to teach or exercise authority over men, he is specifically referring to two primary responsibilities of the elders. One Bible scholar summed up this biblical principle this way. He said, "A woman should listen attentively with a teachable spirit to the God-ordained leaders in the church when they are teaching the work. Throughout the New Testament and across multiple authors, we see various settings in the church as instructed by the elders, where women are tasked with the responsibility to teach." In Titus 2, 3, there's a command that older women teach the younger women. In 2 Timothy, we see Timothy himself received instructions and guidance, both from his mother and from his grandmother. In Acts 18, we see how Apollos receives instruction and teaching, both from Priscilla, and her husband Aquila. The New Testament also has generic instructions, both for men and for women. In Matthew 28 and 19, Jesus calls all Christians to make disciples. In Colossians 3, 16, Paul told the entire church, both men and women, to be teaching and admonishing one another as the word of Christ dwelt in them reachly. Women who have been blessed with the gift of teaching are encouraged to use their gifts to lift up and build up the body of Christ and bless the church. There are lots of ways that this can be done outside of the role of Elder Shepherd. Just this morning, we had ladies leading a group Bible study for both men and women through the Book of John. When we read through the New Testament, we see multiple occasions where women are teaching, helping, serving, equipping, and spreading the good news of the gospel. Throughout church history, we find incredible stories of faithful women who devoted their lives to serving the Lord in ways that are in accordance with Scripture. Praise God for missionaries like Lottie Moon, Amy Carmichael, and Elizabeth Elliot who helped advance the gospel around the globe. When men and women invite God's word to speak into their lives and conform their behavior to His design, they are able to thrive in the plans and purpose that He has preordained for them before time began, from the very beginning of time. In the start of God's creation, we see a purpose and a plan both for men and for women. Paul turns to creation as evidence for the argument that he is making here in 1 Timothy. Look again at verses 13 and 14. Paul says Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed. Notice the apostle Paul has grounded his argument on authority in the church within God's creation and the order that God designed for mankind. When we look at creation and we see God's design for mankind, we quickly discover that both men and women were created with equal dignity before God and with complementary roles. Many Christians want to dismiss these commands by Paul as specific to this culture and irrelevant to our world today. These people claim that Paul is sharing his opinion rather than God's will, however these arguments are faulty and the result of poor exegesis. I love this quote by John Stott. John Stott says all attempts to get rid of Paul's teaching on headship on the grounds that it's mistaken, confusing, culture-bound, or culture-specific must be pronounced unsuccessful. It remains stubbornly there. It is rooted in divine revelation, not human opinion, and in divine creation, not human culture. In essence, therefore, it must be preserved as having permanent and universal authority. We cannot let the culture speak into God's word. Quite the opposite. We need to let God's word speak into our culture. Paul's teaching about the roles of men and women cannot be dismissed as purely cultural because the reasonings behind the argument are embedded in creation. These verses in First Timothy have nothing to do with the value of men and women, rather than they are specifically about the roles of men and women. God created men and women with complementary roles. Man was created with a role that compliments women, and vice versa. Woman has been created with a role that compliments men. The best part in all of this is this was all by God's divine design. We clearly see in the opening verses of Genesis 2 how God saw that it was not good for men to be alone, so he made a helper corresponding to him. We see God's divine design played out in the home when the husband and the wife relate to each other with love in their complementary roles. In Ephesians 5, God's word tells us that wives are to submit to their husbands as to the Lord, and the husbands are commanded to love their wives. Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Sometimes, we as men want to stress the importance of how our wives are to submit to their husbands, but first and foremost, we must remember the command from God for us to love our wives, to die to ourselves, and love our wives just as we love our own flesh and our own bodies. Men of God, if we are not willing to devote ourselves sacrificially loving our wives as Christ has commanded us to, how can we possibly expect our wives to submit to our leadership? Within God's creation, there is a divine order of things. God gave authority to man to lead and care for his wife. This is a command that hadn't fell miserably yet. Satan distorted the order of God's creation, and man relinquished his authority to the woman. If you think Eve sinned simply because she was more gullible than Adam, you've completely missed the point of verse 14. Eve sinned to not stem from a place of ignorance, but rather it was a willful attempt to overthrow the order of creation and usurp her husband's authority. When we read about creation, we find that God made Adam. Then he made Eve to be Adam's helper. Both of them together were to roll over all of creation. However, because of Eve's rebellion, a created being the snake, the serpent, Satan, began to rule her because she obeyed him. If that wasn't bad enough, Eve exercised authority over her husband by leading him to do the very same thing. As a result, sin entered the world, and as we see the reversal of how creation was designed, both men and women are to function together. This leads us to the conclusion of our text today, and a somewhat confusing statement from Paul on where our salvation is found. Look again with me at verses 13 through 15. Paul says Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and transgressed. But she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with good sense. What does Paul mean when he says that she will be saved through childbearing? Is he talking about Eve? Is he talking about women as a whole? If salvation comes through childbearing, what does that mean for us men? I want to let you know I have good news for you today. Both for men and the women in the room, our salvation is not found in procreation. First, say through faith alone, in Christ alone. Paul's not telling the women that they're going to be saved through childbearing. If he were, he'd say, get married and do it fast so you could have kids yesterday. What Paul is speaking to is our sanctification and the salvation that we experience from the brokenness of the world around us. When we conform our lives to the culture and we listen to the voices of the world and do the things that they say will bring us happiness, and eventually all of these things lead to emptiness and dissatisfaction. There's no joy or salvation to be found in how the world tells us we should live our lives. However, when we pursue God's plan and his divine design for our lives, we can experience joy even during seasons of difficulties, times of trials, or even tribulations. Some people look at these words from Paul and contend that he has limited the freedoms of women in the church. However, the truth is that Paul's encouraging women who have been given inherent beauty and incredible giftings from God to pursue opportunities to utilize their talents for the kingdom as they live out their roles as wives, as mothers, and as women of God. Our salvation is not found in the things of this world or in our own works, but in Christ alone and the work that he has done for us. We're reminded of this in Romans 5, when Paul states that just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and this way death spread to all people because all sinned. But there's hope because Paul goes on to state that just as through one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so also through one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. Each one of us who believes on him will be saved through Christ's obedience, including his obedience to tie on the cross, pay the penalty for our sins. Christ died in order to make us the men and women of God that we were divinely designed to be. So, in line of all of this, after looking at everything that we've read and considering the principles listed by Paul in 1 Timothy this morning, what are our next steps moving forward? How do we apply these passages to our lives today? Passages like this one speak at the heart of manhood and womanhood, and the very core of who God is and his divine purpose for creation. While many in the world will look at these verses and scoff at what Paul says, the reality is, these words are essential to the church and to each of us. God's word is not outdated. To say that Jesus Christ was trapped and held hostage by the constraints of the culture of the time period in which he walked the earth, it's blasphemy. This is not a cultural issue. The creator of the universe has spoken, and he has done it through apostolic revelation. God's words are true, they are right, they are good. At the end of the day, it is us who should repent of our unbelief and confess our sins of arrogance for going our own way and ultimately submit to God's divine design. While these verses do come from a historical context, the instructions within for both men and women are timeless. God's words still applies to all people of all times. Even against God is never in style, regardless of what the culture around us tells us. God has a specific design for how men and women are to function, both inside and outside the church. As a result, we must look to God's word to determine his design and purpose for our lives, rather than linking to the world or the culture around us to help us determine the difference between right and wrong. We put, "God's design is divine, our lives are better when we conform to His plan for creation." Will you pray with me? Lord, I thank You for Your word, and I thank You for difficult texts that sometimes challenge our beliefs or our thinking, and really challenge society and the things the world would tell us is good and right. The Lord, we know that You are good, but You alone are righteous. So Lord, we seek to be a people in a church that You've called us to be. We seek to be a people that honor You with every aspect of our lifestyles. So Lord, I pray that everything we do, everything we wear, everything we say, everything we think would be honoring to You, that we would point others to You, Lord, that we would focus on Your will for our lives and serve You just as we see in Romans 12 as living sacrifices. We thank You, Lord, and we praise You, and Your holy and precious name, Lord, Amen. We'd love to have You as our guest. For more information, visit redeeminglifeutah.org.