Transcript

Apostle Paul is writing this letter to a younger pastor who’s now pastoring or overseeing the local church in Ephesus. He’s giving Timothy some, there’s two aspects going on here, he’s giving Timothy particular things that he knows need to be addressed in the local church at Ephesus but he’s also unfolding for us eternal truths for the church in all the ages, and in fact he’s saying, “Here’s how the bride of Christ, the local church, here’s how she should be fashioned and here’s how she should function.” So we call this beautifying the bride, her fashion, her structure and then her function. We are the bride of Christ. We are, we have taken his name. He is our head. He is our groom. We are his bride and we’re to be a statement, an expression of him to the world so we as a, now not just you individually, that’s true of you individually, it’s true of you in the world, it’s true of you in the home or the workplace, whatever it is, we always are to represent Christ but there’s a unique and glorious sense in which the corporate local church body shows the world Christ in a way nothing else can. It’s his primary means. For example, when we get into the eternal state, Jesus said there’ll be no husbands and wives and family structure as we know it as important as that is, but that’s limited to time. But the collected church will be there for time and then for eternity to manifest, reflect and show forth God’s great wisdom and God’s great glory.

So we’ve come to chapter 2 and we’re looking at verses 9 through 15 and this is actually a third part. If you want all of this, you’ll have to go back and get the other two sections. Paul has given some instruction to men about a particular aspect of their sphere and responsibility in the church, now he addresses women in the church and a particular aspect that’s concerning him about the church in Ephesus, and here’s what he says. 1 Timothy 2, beginning in verse 9.

9 Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, 10 but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. 11 A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. 12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. 13 For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. 14 And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. 15 But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.

Now we entitle this exposition “Church Ladies: The Most Powerful Women in the World.” You may be aware that, ah, in Baptist life and in evangelical life right now there’s a lot of press from progressives they call themselves, ah, to, ah, embrace much of what’s happening in the secular world with social justice and women’s empowerment and other issues, as if the Bible isn’t sufficient and wise, we need to listen to the unregenerate culture to learn how the church is to function which is absurd, utterly ridiculous, and one of the points they emphasize is we’ve got to empower women. Well, my point to them is you’re 2,000 years late. God has already given us his almighty sufficient word on the great power that he’s ordained for women to carry out and possess, but it’s carried out in his wisdom, not in the world’s wisdom. Matter of fact, it’s gonna be quite contrary to what the world or what natural logic might come up with. So we’re talking about the fact that, um, church ladies and I mean true, Spirit-bought, born-again, biblically wise church ladies.

Now we began by talking about how womanhood and motherhood is under such fierce attack in our day and I said to you that I don’t think there’s an arena of truth, an area of Christian truth that is under more unrelenting attack than the biblical understanding of womanhood and motherhood, and I gave you two women to consider and I challenged you to think in terms of all women lined up under the actions and the consequences of the actions of these two women: Eve in the garden of Eden who took upon herself to deal with Satan, who played headship apart from Adam who was to be her head, who debated with Satan about whether or not she should eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he seduced her, he took advantage of her, she took of the tree God commanded her not to eat and she sinned, and this brought sin and ruin into the world. Years later, now think about that, ladies, the result didn’t happen immediately. You may rebel and it looks like it’s working for a season. Years later when her sons were young adults, I assume they were young adults, Cain in a bitter jealous rage murders his brother Abel and thus we see the beginning of the multiplication of sin and ruin in the earth through childbirth. Eve bears children, they multiply sin. They bear children, they continue to multiply sin. But then we have a picture of another lady in Scripture, Mary. The virgin Mary, and she in submission to God’s will bears a son and he has no earthly father, the Holy Spirit conceived Christ in her womb, and she bears a son and through her childbirth, sin and ruin do not multiply, no, absolutely the reverse, through her offspring salvation and redemption come into the world. And so in God’s wisdom, all women will line up under one of the two. You will be in a type of Eve, at least in her actions of, of betrayal and rebellion who took things upon herself, rejected God’s wisdom, did her own thing and contributed to more sin and ruin in the world, or you’ll be a type of Mary who through your home, your offspring and your influence you will be an agent of bringing salvation and redemption into the world. One of the two, you’ll either be of the type of Eve, sin and ruin multiplied through you, or a type of Mary, salvation and redemption multiplied through you.

Now the beautiful and glorious thing is you don’t have a choice in this until you’re converted, but once you’re saved, once you’re born-again and God has changed you on the inside, then you have the word of God to inform you and you can begin to walk in his wisdom and by his power and be indeed like Mary and produce the kinds of households and the kinds of offspring and the kinds of consequential influence in the earth that is for good, that is for salvation, that is for redemption, and that’s where Paul is getting to here. So I want you to notice as we review again the heart, the hairdos and the hemlines.

In verse 9, he tells the women in, in Ephesus, “Don’t be like the Ephesian women of your day.” The Ephesian women are godless. They do not know God and they live for this world and it shows in their dress. They’re so excessive and they’re so extravagant, Paul says here, with braids and jewels and pearls in their hair. Oh, they would just make it up in the most elaborate showy ways and his point was not that women can’t wear any kind of attractive clothing or jewelry, he’s just saying they put so much emphasis there because that’s all they have. They’re all surface and no substance. So he says to the ladies at Ephesus, “Come out of that viewpoint and the most important part of this is your heart attitude.”

He goes on to the second point there. Well, not only does he just say your dress ought to be different and your dress ought to make a different statement about you and about who your God is in the world, but your primary statement, your important statement is your good works. So we looked at II, good works and godly women. He says there in verse 10 of our text, ” but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness.” So now he says what you wear on the outside, yes, it’s important, it ought to be modest, it ought to say something about this holy and pure God whom you honor and love with your life, but above and beyond that, make sure your good works are your primary adornment. Make sure your family and make sure your church family and make sure your community would say, “Well, she’s a beautiful woman but the most beautiful part is her heart and the works I see coming out of her life.” That’s what Paul tells the ladies at Ephesus in this local church to be putting their emphasis upon.

All the women in the church here at Ephesus claimed to be godly women but evidently there was some leaning over or stretching out to embrace some of the world’s ideas and it seems that the Apostle Paul is trying to combat that and bring that back in balance. Now let’s continue now with new material, III, where we talk about divine roles and denied rebels. Divine roles and denied rebels.

First of all, we look at verse 11 and he comes off of the dress of a woman and the good works being an adornment to actually how a woman is to conduct herself and what her role is primarily in the public worship of the local church. So he says in verse 11, “A woman must entirely receive instruction with entire submissiveness.” Now again, this has a primary application to the local church and I think the local church worship service. Be careful in taking this general rule and applying it to other areas of life or making hard and fast legalistic rules. He does, though, the Bible does reiterate this because in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 he has the same basic instruction, “The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are subject, or to rather subject themselves, just as the Law also says.” So he says this has been God’s role even before under the Old Testament law and it’s to be the proper practice even under the new covenant of grace at least in the public worship of the church. “If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church.” Now this verse, ladies, far from being an oppressive injunction, is actually a statement of glorious liberation because you have to understand the context. In the ancient Greek world or the ancient Jewish world, both cultures were active, of course, in this day, women were not included with men in public assemblies and they were certainly not included with men in instructional areas. Matter of fact, some of the ancient Jewish rabbis would not allow women to even be present. They just would say, “Well, they have their place, it’s in the home, and the men are the ones who are to be educated and to be instructed.” Paul actually the Greek construct here would show us that Paul is commanding, he’s requiring the women be elevated out of that oppressive position to sit in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in an equal setting with the men, which was a radical liberation for women in this very day. Women, you see, are co-equal beings. Women are co-image bearers with men and Paul says they must be allowed to sit under the faithful preaching and the teaching of God’s word.

And just for a, a, a brief history lesson here, I, I, I get so irritated hearing the liberals of our day talk about Christianity oppressing women and I’m not saying there hasn’t been some abuse there and some wickedness, ah, false teachers and false Christians, that has happened but if you take world history, it’s overwhelmingly clear that Christianity and the Gospel has been the greatest liberator of oppressed women that’s ever influenced the world. Period. Just in my own experience, take the entire Islamic world. The entire Islamic world, and you have untold millions and millions and millions from little girls to teenagers to young ladies to any age in life, living under horrible abuse and oppression and how these secular liberals of our day keep warming up to Islam, I do not understand. It’s the most vicious and awful treatment of women that you have on the earth today yet you show, show me a person who comes out of that culture and embraces the Gospel and you will see women begin to be treated with equality and respect. Christianity is the great liberator of women.

Ah, when we’ve done our work in India, I did a little research on this and, ah, you’ll find that in the caste systems of India, you know, you’re born into a certain caste and you’re just stuck there for life. If you’re in the lower caste, you’re just considered just about like a dog in India, but they will tell you that the lowest of the lowest is women in India. They are in the caste by themselves, treated almost like property in many ways and are not given the dignity and the respect as co-image bearers of God the way the Christian teaching does. But I have ministered in India to groups who have found Christ and embraced Christ, and you do not see the ladies treated this way. They’re raised out of that oppression by the Christian Gospel and by Christian truth.

In our work in Africa among the tribal peoples, horrible oppression and injustice and unfairness to the ladies in the culture. They’re treated like concubines almost. It’s, it’s, it’s horrible and abusive. But in the Christian circles where the Gospel has penetrated, they are taught they can’t treat women like that any longer. They are liberated.

And we can talk about, for example, the American Indian culture before Christianity influenced their culture. In some American Indian tribes, they viewed their wives and daughters as prostitutes. They were used in whatever way they wanted to use them. Terrible oppression, and yet when the Christian Gospel reached them, this all began to change.

Folks, this is 100% undeniable world history. Christianity, true Christianity is the greatest liberation of oppressed women that has ever influenced the earth. But you know what? If Satan can’t get us on one side of the ditch, he’ll get us to get off on the other side and but Satan has come in now under the idea of liberating women and gone beyond biblical roles and given women a role that is just as dangerous and destructive but they cloak it in a new wave of liberation.

Now what we need to remind ourselves is that the equality Christianity gives to women does not do away with the divinely ordained structure and order that God has decreed for the home and for the church. Did you hear that? The divinely decreed order God’s ordained for men in the church and the divinely decreed order and role God has ordained for women is not to be lost in the liberation God has given to women from the oppression that the world has put upon them.

Just a real quick run-through of the Old Testament and the New Testament and how, now look, if you study the religions of antiquity, you’ll find no other religion did this for women like Judaism and later Christianity did. For example, in the Old Testament the statuses of men and women are considered equal before God. That wasn’t true in the pagan religions of that day. Go study the ancient Egyptians how they would literally kill women and put them in the, the tombs with the Pharaoh so he would have women in the afterlife with him. Why? Because she was just his property. Christianity would condemn that or rather old Judaism would condemn that because men and women were equal before God.

For example in Deuteronomy 1, the law is given to all men and women. That would have been radical in that day. Ah, men and women were to teach both responsible rather to teach their children. Not common in the other religions of that day, Deuteronomy 6. The protections of the law were to be applied equally for men and for women. One was not considered superior to the other before the Old Testament law. Women had inheritance rights, Numbers 36, um, another thing that would’ve been rare in the other religions of the day. Both participated in the religious festivals and the religious feasts. Women were involved in spiritual service and God often dealt directly with women in the Old Testament.

So we see ancient Judaism or the old law greatly elevated the women of the cultures of that day and then we come over into the New Testament. For example, um, well, no, let me say this first about the limitations to women’s roles within the culture of Israel. For example, in Israel there were no ruling queens. In Israel no women were allowed to serve as priests. In Israel no women filled the ongoing office of prophet. No woman filled the ongoing office as preacher or teacher. Now there was a prophetess or two and there was a teacher or two but not an office of teaching within the, the, the, the economy of the Old Testament.

Now let’s go over to the New Testament for a moment and we find in the New Testament the same idea again. Galatians 3:28 is a powerful and important verse, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither free man or slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Now what he’s talking about here as far as your importance to God and your standing before God, a slave is as much God’s child as his master is God’s child. A, a, a, a, a Greek can be as much a child of God as a Jew can be a child of God. A radical thought in that day. Jews thought everybody else were Gentile dogs but Christianity radically reverses that and men are no more before God righteous and holy than a redeemed woman can be righteous and holy in the eyes of God. This is all talking about our standing of salvation before God, not about our roles and our service unto God. Get that down. Our standing before God is equal but our roles and service for, before God is differing for men and for women.

I just found a couple of things, ah, perusing some, some writings on the difference in men and women. Is it not insane that a preacher has to get in the pulpit and explain that men and women are different? Have you got eyes? For example, I read in the Military Times an article from September of last year that since they’ve opened combat duty to women, that very few women have signed up for combat duty and of those who have, very very few have qualified to be in a combat unit. Why when they opened it up do men still over, percentage-wise overwhelmingly are men the ones who sign up for these most dangerous of jobs? I’ll tell you why: God made men and women differently. Naturally speaking, women are more prone to take the caretaker role and the nurturing role. Men are more likely to be daring and give me the dangerous role. There are exceptions but that’s the general rule. Why? Because God made men to be men and God made women to be women and men are immeasurably superior to women at being men, and women are immeasurably superior to or women are immeasurably superior to men at being women. It’s always been that way. They’re different.

A Time Magazine article and this is very recent, spoke of how men are much more likely to die doing dangerous jobs than women are. Well, there’s a reason for that. Women don’t try to get employed in the most dangerous jobs not near the percentage men do because God made them different. They’re made differently. They’re made of a different material, if you will.

Now, so natural common sense would lead any person of any culture even if they did not have the Bible, even if they’re pagans, to know men are different than women. You can, if you studied cultural anthropology, I had a class or two on that in college, you’ll find that no matter the culture, no matter the time period, the civilizations, the societies realized men are different than women. It’s always been that way because God did make them different but here’s what happens, without Christian truth, these pagan or non- Christian cultures of antiquity and even in our day, would see the difference between the two and decide that, well, women therefore are inferior naturally. No, they’re not inferior, they’re given a different role. God reverses that. God obliterates that oppressive viewpoint and God says, “No, just because I’m giving them more of a nurturing and caretaking role does not diminish their value in My work and in My kingdom. They are equal before Me but with differing roles than men.” And that’s why God made them and that’s why we need Christian truth, it gets this stuff straightened back out. But you, you, I’ll challenge you, you go to all the non-Christian cultures on the earth and see how they take the fact that men are stronger physically to mean that men are greater or superior to women. That is a lie. They have a different role, they’re designed to do different things, but they are not greater in the eyes of God. It takes Christianity to balance that out.

For example, notice how Peter says it in 1 Peter 3:7, “You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way,” live, live understanding, men, that she’s made of different material than men are. She ain’t one of the guys down at the shop. She’s different. Live understanding the difference, he’s saying. He says, “as with someone weaker,” literally it means she’s made of a different material than men are. I don’t know about you, I like women being women. I like that the way they dress, the way they appear feminine, the way that the sweetness and all of this stuff today about, about, well, men can stay home and they can be the caregivers, I’m gonna tell you, if you polled the children, it ain’t gonna happen that way. Matter of fact, they did that one time, they polled children, “Who do you want to stay at the home with you if you’re sick, mom or dad?” Mom got about 98% of the vote. And that’s me. I know what dad would do, he’d give you an aspirin, he’d go up off and do something else. Mom will sit there and pet you and care for you and cuddle you and stroke you all that other… Do you know why? God made women different and long live the difference.

She’s made of a different material since she’s a woman but notice this, notice the balance here, 1 Peter 3:7, “and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.” Just because she has differing gifts and made different by God and a different role than you men have, you’re not to deem her as less valuable in the eyes of God. Matter of fact, men, we ought to be right the opposite. Our ladies deserve our protection, our provision and our respect. Matter of fact, I’ll just go ahead and say it, we’re dealing with a couple of guys right now who better start supporting their wives or their children or they’re gonna come before this church. Are you hearing me? “Well, it’s tough.” Well, if it gets tough, then you take two jobs but you take care of your wife and you take care of your children and that’s the accountability churches should have or you wouldn’t have this abusive warping of these roles where men get away with taking their stronger natural, ah, ah, ah, capacities and taking advantage of the women in their lives.

Now we’re talking about the New Testament now and how the New Testament teaches this equality but differing roles. Now let’s go to verse 11. So Paul continues and he says, “A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.” Now again, the context is in the public assembly of the church, that when women are present even though they are co-equal before God as the image bearers of God with men, they are not given the role of taking authority in the church or doing the preaching and the teaching in the church but they are required to listen and learn in a spirit of submission. The word “submission” in verse 11 means as in rank. It’s the exact same term that would be used in a military description. Ah, the corporal is above the private in rank but they’re both equally valuable soldiers. That’s the picture that Paul is writing for us here.

Now verse 12 Paul says, “But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.” Now again, I think this is clearly implying in the assembly of the church, the regular meetings of the church, God has not given women the role of taking the Scriptures and leading with authority. Look, if you teach the Scriptures, you’re exercising authority. If you have the office of pastor/teacher or elder, you have the office of authority. Either one is what Paul is talking about here.

Now I know there’s some scuttle about, ah, Beth Moore today and Beth Moore’s been pushing the envelope. She bragged the other day that she was actually preaching on Sunday morning in some Baptist churches and she was kinda making light of that and kinda poking at some folks about that. Well, she can make light of it all she wants, she can poke all she wants, that’s beyond the ordained role for the local church assembly for women. God has a role and a reason for the role he’s given men and women in his work.

Now, again, this is, this is a, um, a strong statement where Paul says, “I do not allow.” I think the point probably here is that some of these Ephesian ladies have been converted, they’ve enjoyed the great new level of esteem and respect and honor Christianity has given them, but like all of us they easily got out of balance and some of them stepped over into demanding dominance and authority in the church, and so Paul says, “Time out. The equality God’s given you does not change the divinely ordained role God has for you in his church and in his work.”

I think what we see here is, is the Apostle Paul’s wisdom to grasp the domino effect of allowing these forceful domineering women to continue to take root in the local churches. And ladies, here’s what I would say to you again that I mentioned earlier, Eve rebelled, Eve sinned, but she didn’t see tangibly outside of herself the sin consequence so much until many years later. So don’t argue on the basis of, “Well, it’s working. Well, it’s better. Look how this works.” No, no, no, you’ve gotta wait for the dominoes to fall before you know the consequence of violating God’s ordained wisdom for his church.

One caution I would give to all people today, and since we, by the way, we live in the most effeminate, whiny, emotion-led culture you can imagine. We have become so less manly in our culture and so much more effeminate where emotions drive about everything. And by the way, the, one of the great problems with emotions driving everything is that emotions change a lot so you never know really which way you’re going, but what happens to a lot of people at this point, they’ll say, “This does not feel right. This does not feel fair.” And they bring emotions into their hermeneutic or how they interpret Scripture, but if you bring in how you feel regularly into the way you understand Scripture, you will unleash an unending plunge into perversion of doctrine and practice into your life and into the church. Human emotions change all the time, the word of God stands forever.

Now let me give you an extreme example on the other side. Paul says, “I do not allow a woman to take the position of authority as the office of pastor or preacher/teacher in the church assembly.” Well, that was actually happening in a church, the New Testament records about it, has a recording about it. Revelation 2:20. God says to this church, “But I have this against you, church, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel,” this is the church at Thyatira, “you tolerate the woman Jezebel.” Now it’s not the literal Jezebel of the Old Testament, Ahab’s wife, the queen who was so wicked, he’s just saying she’s of the same spirit of Jezebel and here’s what she does, she “calls herself a prophetess.” “God called me to preach. God gave me these gifts. You have to listen to me.” That’s what she said. She felt that deeply. “And she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray.” She’s very effective, very convincing, looks solid, if you will, “so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.” Ultimately she led them into sin. So Paul says to the church at Ephesus through Timothy, “I don’t allow a woman to exercise authority and teach and preach.” Now this church in Thyatira is being judged primarily for allowing a woman to take that position of authority and teach and preach in the church.

There’s a powerful insight for us in 1 Corinthians 11:3. 1 Corinthians 11:3 tells us, “But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man,” and that’s in the church, he’s the head of all but in a more direct and, and, and familial way he’s the head of every man, “the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.” He says, “Don’t you understand, for the purposes of God building His church and glorifying Himself, He has roles that He’s ordained and we ought to function in those roles.” First of all, God the Father is the head and authority over God the Son, Jesus Christ. Now wait a minute, God the Son could start a liberation movement. “Whoa, time out! I am co-equal to God the Father. I am as much God as God the Father is, even though I’m God the Son.” That is true but in the Godhead they ordained for the purpose of the good of the church and glorifying God, God the Father would rule as authority and head over God the Son. How many times did Jesus say during his earthly ministry, “I’m not doing what I will but My Father’s will. I’m yielding what I would naturally think as maybe a human being would be right, but I’m yielding that to the will of My heavenly Father.”

So then he comes to men and women on the earth in the church. This is only in God’s people. Look, this doesn’t work in a fallen world. They don’t have the capacity to embrace it. Only Christians who’ve had changed hearts can begin to see the wisdom in this. Just as God the Son willingly yields to the headship of God the Father, so within the church function and within the home, the women should honor the headship of men though they’re not lesser in any way, just like God the Son is not lesser than God the Father.

So we embrace and, ladies, my jewel would be is if in God’s enablement you embrace this wisdom of God and you say for the good of the home, for the good of the church and for the glory of God we embrace God’s wisdom for our sphere of responsibility and our roles. Now I know when you get out into the world, some of you ladies have jobs in the world, this does not line up like this and I wouldn’t put upon you a burden to make instructions given to Christian church services and to Christian homes. I, I don’t think you’re to carry that same burden in the world but I think you should be aware as you function in the world that God made you differently than men. And, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s just I, it’s so obvious and so true, um, how, how warped our culture is as they try to say there’s no real difference. Ah, Brother David and I went on a trip, ah, to Canada. We got to hunt with Brother Blake set us up on a hunting trip and we spent about 2 ½ days with him and worked on some things and on the way back, ah, the lady that picked us up to take our luggage to our car, ah, was about 68 years old, she was fairly short in stature and she had not seen a work-out gym in 70 years. Sweet lady. I mean, I loved her disposition, I loved her countenance but there’s no way on earth she was gonna be able to pick up those 50 pound luggage bags and put them in the back of that van, and there’s no way on earth I would have allowed her to do it.

So I loaded all of mine, I loaded all of Brother David’s [laughter] and of all things, there was a couple that came up and this guy’s riding his leg on one of them wheel things, and I loaded all of his and his wife’s on there. You know why? God made men different than women. She couldn’t do that. No way that dear little lady could do that all day and I thought, “Man, she’s probably raising grandkids, she’s doing the best she can.” I’m not bitter about it, I’m just saying men and women are different and let’s quit putting ladies in places men ought to be in. That’s not respect, that’s not honor, that’s not care, that’s actually oppression, I believe. That’s where the real abuse is. They’re just different and God has different roles.

Now women are certainly not inferior intellectually and in handling many things. Matter of fact, God gave women a capacity to multitask that very few men have so I’m not, it’s not the argument that women cannot do certain jobs as well or better than men, here’s the argument: nobody can raise babies and keep a home like a woman. She’s just made to do it. And what you lose there is far far greater than anything you gain out there.

Well, verse 12 again when he said, “I don’t allow this.” He’s saying, “I don’t allow that lady to take the office of pastor/teacher or preside over the regular assembly of the church,” thus the phrase at the end of verse 12, “to exercise authority in the church.” When a woman attempts to exercise authority over a man, especially within the church, she functions in incompatibility with her nature and outside of her role assigned by God.

IV. Our last one: reversing the curse, restoring the course. That’s exactly what Paul is alluding to here. Reversing the curse and restoring the course. First of all, Paul says, “I want you to understand something, before sin entered the world this was God’s order, this was God’s design.” Verse 13 of our text, “For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.”

Now so before the fall and some liberals like to say, “Well, we had this muddied up mess because in the fall of sin these roles got established.” Paul says, “No, they didn’t. This is God’s original design,” just like it was ordained from eternity past that God the Father would send co-equal God the Son to obey God the Father’s will to go to the cross for the good of the bride, the church. So before the fall, God designed men with one realm and sphere and women with another realm and sphere. The order of creation establishes the role of men and women. Adam created first, then Eve created for him. 1 Corinthians 11:8-9 is a great cross reference here to show you that Paul taught this regularly, “For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man; for indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake.” That’s very clear and that’s the powerful premise that Paul is making.

Now he moves on in verse 14 and says, “Now let’s take the fall and show how the fall into sin even more emphasizes this divine design of God.” “And it was not Adam who was deceived,” we’re in verse 14, “but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.” So what he’s saying here is in the fall you have the reversal of God’s divine design. In the fall you have a changing over. So first Paul said before the fall God ordained these roles, and through the fall it’s illustrated what happens if you deny and reverse these roles.

Let’s go back to Genesis 3 in our thinking. Adam and Eve are in the garden. God has told Adam and Eve, “Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” But what happened? Eve played the master. Eve took the lead. Eve functioned independent of her headship, Adam. She took it upon herself to decide the decision. Satan comes and deceives her. She was duped. God calls Adam and Eve into account. First God speaks to Eve and said, “Eve, why have you done this? Why did you eat of this tree I told you not to eat?” She said, “The serpent deceived me and I ate,” Genesis 3:13. So she acknowledges her weakness and her folly of acting independently of her God-appointed head, Adam.

God calls Adam in. We’re not dealing with Adam much because our text doesn’t. I want you ladies to know Adam is very guilty and very responsible for the plunge of mankind into sin. God calls Adam in and God says, “Adam, why did you eat of this tree I told you not to eat of?” He said, “This woman You gave me, she gave me the tree and I ate.” But the point is this, the point Paul’s bringing out in illustrating this at this time is this: by simply inverting their positions, their callings or their roles, that is the woman took headship and the man, Adam, yielded to that governance and headship, the whole happy constitution of paradise was overthrown and everything degenerates into ruin and evil disorder all the way down to this day and Paul’s point to the ladies in the church is, “You now are born-again. You have a new heart and a new mind in Jesus Christ and now with the glorious liberty the Gospel has given you, don’t go too far and demand roles in the church that are beyond God’s wisdom for you and the healthy and right functioning of the church.” Again, the word here would be balance. Balance.

Now look at verse 15. What an interesting concept comes out here. Verse 15, “But women,” though they, in, in, in, in Eve womankind was represented and through womankind this fallenness came into the world, at least her initial choices, he says, “But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.” Interesting. A woman will be preserved through the bearing of children.

Now womankind is the mother of all the living. It’s the divine decree that put women in this high and holy and honored position. No wonder motherhood stays under unrelenting attack from Satan, does he not? Constantly demeaning, diminishing, have an abortion, do your own thing, but, put your career before your children. Just constant, constant constant attack. Why? Because this shows the wisdom and design of God and Satan hates that. He wants to undermine that.

But think about this concept of through child-bearing, through childbirth that he mentions here. You see, through child-bearing women now bring countless little sinners into the world and as those little sinners grow up to become adults, more sin and more ruin enters the world. Through childbirth, this glorious, honored, holy ordinance of God that women bear life, it has become a cause of sin and ruin in the world because these little sinners grow up to be big sinners. But also through childbirth a Savior came into the world and he reversed the course. He being born of the woman. Ladies, that’s an interesting statement on the nobility and the dignity and the holiness of motherhood and childbirth that God brought his Savior that way. Through Jesus, through Mary and her birthing of Jesus, salvation and redemption, not sin and ruin, are brought into the world.

Interesting how the Bible speaks of childbirth or being born of a woman. For example, in Job 25:4, “How then can a man be just with God? Or how can he be clean who is born of woman?” In other words, we’re all born with these sin natures. We’re all born little sinners and we continue with sin and ruin. We’re all guilty before God. But Galatians 4:4, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son,” not in the world, “born of a woman.” The salvation came the same way sin came and multiplied, through the birthing by a woman. So through bearing children, womankind participated greatly and mankind’s demise also through the bearing of a child women have contributed greatly in the salvation of the world, and in Christ they can continue to do so.

So Paul at the end of verse 15 says, “if they continue in,” now notice this, ladies, “faith, love, sanctity with self-restraint.” You know what that means? You’re gonna constantly being informing your heart and mind with the truth of the word of God and constantly be self-restrained to be a repenter, not to get out of the role God’s called you to be and God’s called you to do. Then if you stay in that role and honor God, then you will be an instrument for salvation and redemption in the world, not like Eve in her rebellious moment who was an instrument of sin and ruin in the world. It’s one of the two.

So do not diminish in unbelief the great and wondrous role of Christian motherhood, of being a faithful wife who honors her husband, and a faithful church lady that honors the elders of her church because millions and upon millions of women believe Satan’s lie over and over again as they step down from this high calling to eat of Satan’s new tree of feminism and liberation and it’s a lie just like the first lie he told Eve.

Now when he says here, let’s unpack this a little bit more and we’re done, “But women will be preserved.” “Pastor, what does that mean, women will be preserved through the bearing of children? Now does it mean that God will just banish all of them?” Here’s the point: the word “preserved” there means “saved” or it can be translated “cured.” Women, here’s what I’m convinced it means, women can participate in changing the course, reversing the curse and changing the course if they’ll do what God’s called them to do.

They have such power to impact the world for good if they’ll stay in the faith in sanctity, self-control as Paul said here in verse 15, and that’s the meaning here. They can be God’s agent for God’s purposes and God’s glory. They can be God’s influencers, God’s cures in the world unlike Eve who was duped and deceived and rebelled. If these church ladies in Ephesus and the church ladies at Grace Life of the Shoals and the church ladies of today will not be duped and will not be rebellious but instead will listen to the Holy Spirit, will follow the holy word, bear their children, honor their husbands, honor the elders of the church, and follow faithfully in God’s role, then they will be faithful used curers, savers, preservers of good in the world. Powerful impact. Not like Eve who brought sin and ruin but more like Mary who brought salvation and redemption.

You ask, “But pastor, the feminists, the worldly women, they seem to be having the greatest influence.” Don’t tune me out yet. But you don’t see as God sees. Their works are temporal. Your work for God is eternal. Their works will burn up. Your works will be blessed forever. But only Christian women, only church ladies who know God have the godly wisdom to see the error that is so prominent in today’s world and to repent from that error and order their lives so that they participate in reversing the curse and changing the course for the good of the home, the good of the church and the glory of God.

I’ll close with this illustration. Eliza Spurgeon. Eliza Spurgeon was Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s mother. Eliza Spurgeon was the primary teacher of her home because her husband, John, was a shopkeeper during the week and preached on the weekends and just wasn’t home very much. So Eliza Spurgeon knew that she had to pour truth and godliness and godly teaching into her children. You know, Charles when he grew up, her son when he grew up, he became literally world renowned. Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s books of sermons are still the most widely read in the history of Christianity of both the living or the dead. His influence is, is incalculable. I was in the bush of Africa, stayed in the home of a preacher and there on his shelf was a book by Spurgeon. I mean, the influence of Charles Haddon Spurgeon is hard, you can’t measure it, the influence for good.

At Spurgeon’s death, 60,000 people passed by his casket and 100,000 people lined the roads of London just to pay homage and honor because his preaching had so impacted that city. But Spurgeon himself gives the most credit for his life in ministry to his mom, Eliza Spurgeon. Charles said of his mom, “I cannot tell how much I owe to the solemn words of my good mother.” He says of his earliest childhood memories is his mother gathering him and his brothers and sisters around the table to read the Bible to them and plead with them to turn to Christ for salvation. Spurgeon said and I quote, “Some of the words of her prayers I will never forget even when I’m old and my hair is gray.” One specific prayer that Spurgeon remembers about his godly mother was his mother who prayed, “Now Lord, if my children go on in their sins, it will not be from ignorance that they perish, and my soul must bear swift witness against them at the day of judgment if they lay not hold of Christ.” He later said, “How can I ever forget her tear-filled eyes as she warned me to escape the wrath to come.” And he also said, “Never could it be possible for any man to estimate what he owes a godly mother.” What impact. What impact.

So, ladies, let the modern feminist cast herself into the world and strike her deepest mark there hoping for some lasting memorial to her own greatness, but you church ladies, true born-again, Spirit-wrought, biblically-wise church ladies, continue as Paul instructs here in faith, love, sanctity and self-restraint. Fulfill your God-appointed role and instead of trying to make some mark in the world, let God use you to change the world. That’s the difference. The feminist has one little mark on a perishing world. Little Eliza Spurgeon has marked the entire globe through her son Charles and marks that last for eternity. Who’s more powerful Betty Friedan or Eliza Spurgeon? Church ladies, true, true church ladies are the most powerful women in the world. No question about it.

One last verse, 1 Peter 3:6, “just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right,” here’s the key, “without being frightened by any fear.” “But I’m afraid to do that.” That’s why Paul says here, ladies, you’ve gotta keep the faith. You see, faith can’t function with fear. You’re afraid, you’ll be abused. You’re afraid, you’ll be left out. You’re afraid, you’ll miss something. And God says, “Don’t you understand? I’m trying to give you everything. I’m not trying to rob you of anything.” Because you possess, ladies, being the agents of God to bring life into the world, you possess the capacity to literally change the world. Church ladies, the most powerful women in the world.