Introductory Principles

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces 1 Timothy 2:8-15 as a pivotal passage for understanding male and female roles in the church, acknowledging the contemporary offense many take to the exclusion of…

The ongoing adult Bible class on the office of elder, which assumes male leadership, serves as a contemporary example of the church's practice that many find offensive, setting the stage for the sermon's topic.

Those of you who attend the adult Bible class on the Lord's Day morning are aware of the fact that for the past seven or eight Lord's Day mornings, under the leadership of Pastor Nichols, you have been wrestling with the biblical teaching concerning the office of an elder or a bishop, a pastor, a shepherd of God's people. Now, assumed in all of that wrestling, in all of that instruction given in this place, has been the fact that this office is open only to competent,

2:22 - 3:03 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces 1 Timothy 2:8-15 as a pivotal passage for understanding male and female roles in the church, acknowledging the contemporary offense many take to the exclusion of…

The church's nominating committee being instructed to consider only male members for elder/deacon roles is another current example of the practice under scrutiny, highlighting the practical implications of the sermon's theme.

proven male members of a congregation of God's people. Although a passing illusion was made to the rationale for this fact, there has been no formal treatment of the biblical reason for that fact. Furthermore, the church body met this past Wednesday evening and chose several of its members to serve with the elders as a nominating committee. And in the instructions which will be put in the hands of those members of the committee tonight, and I urge you to see Pastor Barker, please, for your materials,

3:04 - 3:43 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces 1 Timothy 2:8-15 as a pivotal passage for understanding male and female roles in the church, acknowledging the contemporary offense many take to the exclusion of…

Martin quotes from a 'Christianity Today' article titled 'Women at the Helm' by Austin H. Stauffer, 'The Ordination of Women, Yes,' to illustrate the widespread evangelical challenge to traditional church order.

And those many are not found only in the, in the ranks of what we would call humanistic and pagan outsiders, but from within the very ranks of the visible church of Christ, the evangelical church, there is going up an increasingly loud cry for justice to be done and to reverse this situation. In fact, in the February 20th edition of Christianity Today, which is to evangelical Christianity what time and news week are to the American populace

4:52 - 5:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Immunize yourselves against these viruses that are floating all over the place.

The analogy of 'Bible penicillin' and 'inoculation' is used to describe the sermon's therapeutic and preventive goals: healing those infected by false ideas and immunizing others against them.

I want to give you some Bible penicillin, and this passage, I hope, will provide just such medicine. For others of you, I hope to immunize you against these viruses that are floating all over the place. And they're floating around, and they go after people with a vengeance, and so we hope to give you an inoculation. Now, you kids know what inoculations are.

9:38 - 10:00 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He explains his expository method using the analogy of concentric circles, starting with the outermost ring of authority before aiming for the 'bullseye' of 1 Timothy 2:8-15…

The analogy of five concentric circles on an archer's target is used to explain the sermon's expository method, starting from the outermost contextual principles and moving inward to the central passage.

So we want to make paramedics out of all of you as well. Now that's a very ambitious goal to have, but I have no less a goal than that before me. Now then, as we come to the passage, it's essential that we do so by considering other related principles, both in the context of the passage, the larger context of the passage, and the paramedics. Now, if I had a blackboard behind me, I would draw on that blackboard five concentric circles, that is, five circles all having the same center, like the huge targets you may see

10:33 - 11:18 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It is the apostolic and prophetic instruction which constitutes the immovable and changeless foundation of the church of Christ.

The analogy of a church building with fixed dimensions and a growing superstructure is used to explain that the true church, while expanding, remains fixed on the foundation of apostolic and prophetic instruction.

Of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom each several building, fitly framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are builded together for inhabitation of God in the Spirit. Now, this is a church building, the likes of which you've never seen. Once CBA established...

15:48 - 16:17 Read in full sermon

The point: Let every mouth be silent in God's presence when He speaks through His apostles.

Martin quotes Paul K. Jewett's suggestion that Paul's words are 'the effusions of the remains of rabbinical prejudice' to highlight and condemn a common, blasphemous accusation against apostolic authority.

We are not reading the effusions of the remains of rabbinical prejudice in the heart and mind of the Apostle Paul. That is the blasphemous suggestion of Paul K. Jewett. In his book on this subject, he comes out right up front and says that Paul is speaking under the pressure of his rabbinical prejudice.

22:08 - 22:35 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And there is many an evangelical Church today that is preaching an orthodox gospel from its pulpit within a framework of heresy. They have opened the ruling and teaching office to women contrary to the teaching of the Wo…

Martin uses the example of a Romanist misinterpreting the church as the 'steward of the truth' to clarify that the church is the support of truth, not its originator, and that God's truth gives birth to the church.

That's a very dangerous imagery that the Apostle is willing to risk here. You see, a Romanist would love to seize on a passage like this and see, Aha! The Church, you see, is the great steward of the truth. It is the Church that gives birth to the truth and can regulate and pronounce what is truth.

42:57 - 43:15 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And there is many an evangelical Church today that is preaching an orthodox gospel from its pulpit within a framework of heresy. They have opened the ruling and teaching office to women contrary to the teaching of the Wo…

Martin quotes B.B. Warfield extensively on 1 Timothy 3:14-15, using Warfield's eloquent statement to underscore the profound importance Paul placed on proper church order as essential for the church's function as guardian of the Gospel.

from the pen of B.B. Warfield, the great Princeton theologian who was also a great saint. And a lover of Christ's Church.

45:17 - 45:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explores Paul's motivation for writing 1 Timothy, highlighting his deep concern for maintaining doctrinal purity and proper church order because the church is the 'house of…

Martin references Paul's actions in the book of Acts, where he 'rocked the boat' and was willing to 'sink it,' to refute the accusation that Paul compromised with societal norms or gave in to personal prejudices.

Certainly not the one I read about in the book of Acts. On more than one occasion, he not only rocked the boat, he sank it. And if necessary, he was willing to go down with it. He said, Why mean ye to reap and to break my heart?

49:48 - 50:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Be unmistakably clear in our thinking and practice at this point (biblical roles) where the battle rages, testing our loyalty.

The analogy of a soldier's loyalty being tested where the battle rages, not in comfort, is used to emphasize that believers' loyalty to Christ is proven by standing for biblical principles in controversial areas like church order.

You see that's what it means to be light and salt in a crooked and perverse generation. And if we are not unmistakably clear in our thinking and our practice at this point in the language of Luther where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is tested. There's a battle out there half a mile away. It's not the soldier sitting under a tree looking in a mirror polishing his brass and pulling up his trousers and aiming his rifle at the nearest crow and convincing himself he's a big hero.

54:23 - 54:57 Read in full sermon

The point: Strengthen our love for our blessed Savior and our determination to show that love by obedience to him at any cost.

Martin refers to his wife of 25 years and other women in the church, inviting listeners to ask them if they feel like 'second-class citizens,' to demonstrate that biblical distinctions in roles do not lead to demeaning treatment.

May our love to our blessed Savior be strengthened and with the strengthening of our love as we come to his table our determination to show that love by obedience to him at any cost. There may be a visitor amongst us tonight who for the first time has heard anything like this and you may be thinking phew what a terrible thing must be to live with a man like that. Well that's a possibility but seriously I have a wife here who will have been my wife in two short months for 25 years.

55:42 - 56:19 Read in full sermon