Introductory Principles

Introduction to the Pivotal Passage and Current Challenges

0:06 This sermon was preached on Sunday evening, March 1st, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Rockville, New Jersey.

0:26 Will you turn with me, please, to the first of those letters commonly called the Pastoral Epistles, that is, the two letters to Timothy and then to Titus.

0:40 And tonight, and God willing, for probably at least two, possibly three subsequent Lord's Day evenings, our attention will be directed to a very pivotal passage in the first of these letters, 1 Timothy 2, verses 8-15.

1:03 Will you follow, please, as I read this portion of the Word of the Living God? I desire, therefore, that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands without wrath and displeasure, disputing in like manner that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefastness and sobriety, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly raiment, but, which becometh women professing godliness, through good works. Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection.

1:48 But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have a woman to teach, nor to have a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being beguiled or utterly beguiled has fallen into transgression. But she shall be saved through her childbearing, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety.

2:22 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,

3:04 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,

3:44 there will be a sheet with a list of all of the male members in good standing and a word of direction to the members of the nominating committee. To go through that list prayerfully in the light of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 to assess whether or not there ought to be other men placed in nomination for the office of elder or deacon.

4:12 Now, many in our day would find what has gone on in the past seven or eight weeks, and in particular the assumption undergirding that instruction, quite offensive. Right. Every thought that teaching would go on in the 20th century, particularly in the day of enlightenment as to women's rights, which would exclude a woman from the office of an elder or deacon, I say, is most offensive to many. Furthermore, the function of the nominating committee would be considered the height of injustice by many.

4:52 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

5:31 as far as being the major means of conveying news in the form of a magazine, the theme for that particular edition was women at the helm sorting out the issues. And one of the articles in which we are being sorted out is by a man who is pastor of the Central Evangelical Free Church, in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. And the Evangelical Free denomination is one of the better known evangelical denominations in the North American continent. And the article by the author, Austin H. Stauffer,

6:12 is the ordination of women, and then in large, bold print, yes. And the reasons are spelled out. They are equal in creation, equal in the fall, equal in Christ, equal at Pentecost, equal in society, equal in ministry, equal in the diaconate, equal in ruling.

6:36 And in this article, there is a very clever and at times subtle form of sophistry. And sophistry is specious reasoning that has the semblance of weight and logic on its side, and there will no doubt be thousands of evangelicals who will welcome Mr. Stauffer's article as the word by which the church is to be liberated from its bondage to this tragic situation in which women are cruelly kept out of church office. Now, I'm not so naive as to think that we have been left utterly immune

7:21 from these current infectious viruses, radical feminisms, guising themselves in the form of an honest attempt to be true to the Word of God with respect to the equality of men and women. I am not so naive as to think that every woman who is a member of Trinity Church is really convinced that she and her fellow women are barred from official office by the Word of God. Nor am I so unrealistic in my assessment of the congregation to think that all of you

8:02 who may embrace our practice from the heart, and you find it answering to your deepest spiritual instincts, could give a solid and biblical reason for the practice that we as God's people in this place seek to implement in this critical area. Well, it is obvious. It is obvious that the passage which I have read in your hearing addresses itself explicitly to the issue of male-female responsibilities in conjunction with the Church's official teaching and ruling function.

Sermon Goals: Healing, Immunization, and Equipping

8:44 It's speaking of whether or not women should take the lead in the teaching and ruling offices and functions of the Church. Yes. Yes. Yes.

8:57 Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

8:57 Because this is a critical issue, because we are in that place in our Church life where once again we are contemplating Church officers, and because of a kind providence that forced me to do a detailed study of this passage in the past couple of weeks, I believe in the providence of God it is His will that we should concentrate upon its teaching for the next few Lord's Day evenings. Now, I have three simple goals in meeting you in this study. First of all, I believe that we should concentrate on the teaching of the next few Lord's Day evenings. Second of all, I hope, by the grace of God, to kill some of those infectious viruses which may have invaded and taken hold in some of you.

9:38 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.

10:00 They're not pleasant, but they're for our good. And I hope the passage will not only be used of God in a therapeutic way to heal any of you who may be crippled in your spirit and in your thinking, having imbibed some of the current thinking, but that you may be immunized. And then thirdly, I hope it will make competent, what should we say, paramedics out of all of you, so that you'll know how to administer a good shot. And thirdly, I hope it will be useful to anyone else that you happen to meet who needs it, either in a therapeutic or in a preventive manner.

Methodology: Concentric Circles of Contextual Understanding

10:33 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

11:18 on occasion in one of the local parks when there's an archer who's practicing with his bow and arrow, and you've all seen those big targets. Well, at the center, you have what's called the bullseye. And then, in a circle a bit larger, you have one just outside the bullseye, then another, then another, then another. Well, for our purposes, we want to have the bullseye, which is 1 Timothy 2, 8-15.

11:43 And the bullseye is understanding the meaning and the implications of 1 Timothy 2, 8-15. Now, with the arrow of a proper exposition of the Word of God, we want to draw on that. We want to hit the bullseye. We desire, by the help of the Spirit, to understand the meaning and the implications of this passage.

12:04 But if we're to hit the bullseye, we've got to land an arrow in each of the other four circles first. So we're going to start with the outermost circle, and we're going to try to land an arrow there. And if we do, then we'll proceed to the second, to the third, and the fourth. And if we planted an arrow in each one of those, an arrow of understanding, then we'll be in a position to hit the bullseye.

12:25 Now, this is a very important passage. We're going to hit the bullseye with regard to the passage itself. All right? Let's aim, then, and shoot at the outer ring on our target.

First Circle: The Unique and Perpetual Authority of Apostolic Writing

12:35 And it's what I am calling the unique and perpetual authority of this letter in all of its parts. The unique and perpetual authority of this letter in all of its parts. You will notice that the passage in question, our bullseye passage, is the same as the passage in question, our bullseye passage, begins with the words,otext 2008 I desire therefore I desire therefore. Better translated, I am willing therefore.

13:09 Furthermore, we read in verse 12, But I do not permit a woman to teach. I will therefore. So here is a man saying, I will therefore that the men pray, and then he goes on to say, let's pray? ча 볼륶건 방 쓰면 라 십!

13:25 . Let's look at verse three, let's look at verse four left to right. That's what we're talking about. I do not permit a woman to teach, and someone may well ask the question, who in the world are you to impose your will and your desires and your prohibitions upon the church?

13:45 Well, that's a very good question, and it demands an answer. And the answer is to be found in Paul's self-conscious identity as an apostle of Jesus Christ. Notice how he begins the letter, verse 1 of chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, notice now, not according to the consensus of my fellow men,

14:15 not according to the pride and ambition of my own heart, no, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the commandment of God our Savior. The apostle Paul was very conscious of his unique authority as an apostle with a capital uppercase A, an apostle. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ. In the book of Galatians, he establishes very clearly that he received this apostleship directly from Jesus Christ, the Lord.

14:59 Now, in the light of the teaching of Holy Scripture, particularly in a passage such as Ephesians 2, and beginning with verse 20, we must never come to the writing of an apostle with any opposition. There is no other posture than one which recognizes both the unique and the perpetual authority which attaches itself to the apostolic writing. In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul, describing the church that is built on the grounds of the redemptive work of Christ, describes it in this language. Ephesians 2, verse 20.

15:43 Now, being built upon the foundation... Notice.

15:48 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...

16:17 The dimensions of this building, they were fixed. They poured the footings, and on the footings they raised up the foundation, and on the foundation they put the superstructure. But this building, the true church of Jesus Christ, not an earthly structure, but that spiritual structure, is a holy temple in which God himself dwells. It is a temple that is in a constant process of expansion and integration.

16:47 It is a living, growing, organic temple, but notice, its foundation remains fixed. Its superstructure grows and expands. There is constant integration and development as the church increases, but the foundation remains fixed. This growing, expanding, maturing organism never moves from its constituted foundation.

17:18 which is what? The apostles and prophets, Christ, Jesus, the chief cornerstone. Now the apostles and prophets are there as the foundation, not in their persons, but in their instruction, in their teaching. It is the apostolic and prophetic instruction which constitutes the immovable and changeless foundation of the church of Christ. Now why is it so important, before we aim at the bullseye, the precise meaning of 1 Timothy 2, 8-15, to establish this fact?

17:58 Well, for the simple reason that there are people telling us, Mr. Souser included, that the church has grown beyond the apostolic. What is the apostolic instruction? The apostolic instructions were so conditioned by the cultural framework within which they came, that having advanced sociologically, the church is no longer bound by those dimensions of how she is to conduct her life in the apostolic writing.

18:31 My friend, any church which professes to grow beyond the boundaries... ...of the foundation of apostles and prophets has not grown in the Christian faith. It has, in measure, departed from the Christian faith.

18:49 Now it's very interesting to me that the most explicit statement, to my knowledge, found anywhere in all of the apostolic writing, indicating that the apostle Paul was self-consciously equating his words... ...with the very word of God.

19:10 The words of Christ are to be found in a parallel passage dealing with the very same subject of church order and the relative roles and responsibilities of men and women. Turn to 1 Corinthians 14. Now, remember what we're seeking to do. Hit the outer ring. The unique and perpetual authority which attaches itself to this entire first epistle of Paul to Timothy.

19:40 The apostle Paul has given some very clear... ...same directions to the church at Corinth, having indicated that those directions are precisely the same directions which he has given in all of the churches.

19:56 Verse 34, the latter part of verse 33. As in all the churches of the saints, let the women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak, but to let them be in subjection is also set the law. If they would learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is shameful for a woman to speak. In the church, what? Was it from you that the word of God went forth, or came it unto you alone?

20:24 If any man thinketh himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him take knowledge that the things which I write unto you, that they are the commandment of the Lord. Now, notice the context. It is not a context in which he is opened up. Some profound doctrines of the mysteries of the Christian faith.

20:55 He has been dealing with the specifics of church order, and in particular, the relative roles of men and women in the public function of life and worship in the church. And he says, if any man claims to have the Spirit, it will be the Spirit that answers to the Spirit speaking in me. And I speak the very commandments of the Lord. And the mark of spirituality is not saying that we have grown beyond the limitations and the prejudices of apostolic instruction,

21:32 but rather that we gladly and willingly submit our minds and hearts and regulate our practice by apostolic instruction, which to us is nothing less than the commandment of the Lord.

21:51 So when we turn... Turn to 1 Timothy 2, 8-15, in which the Apostle says, I will therefore that the men pray in every place, but I permit not a woman to teach, but to learn in silence.

22:08 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.

22:35 No, he speaks under the pressure of the inspiration of the Spirit of God, and what he speaks are the words of God. What we confront in this passage are not the pronouncements of a male chauvinist pig dized as some super-jew, super-duper spiritual leader in the churches. What we read is not a distillation of current social consensus and the mores that exist in society. No, no, dear people of God, do you see this?

23:10 The epistle begins with the words, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God. And when he says, I will therefore, and I permit not...

23:23 And God speaks. Let every mouth be silent in his presence. No exposition or application of this passage is worthy of consideration, which does not begin with the unique and perpetual authority of the apostleship attached to the letter in every part. All right, now let's put another arrow in our bow, and let's aim for the second ring in our target.

Second Circle: Fundamental Equality of Men and Women

23:56 Having planted, I trust, the arrow in the outer. The ring, the unique, the perpetual authority that attaches itself to the epistle in all of its parts. Now, secondly, we need to remind ourselves, or if necessary for the first time, inform ourselves of the specific teaching of Scripture relative to the fundamental equality which does exist between men and women in the plan and purpose of God. The specific teaching of Scripture...

24:29 Relative to the fundamental equality which exists between men and women. You see, the moment we come to a passage such as this, particularly in our day, and there is any specific assignment of roles to men and women, people are so conditioned to think diversity of roles, fixation of roles, equals, inferiority, superiority. Superiority. And that mentality has so attached itself to our...

25:00 And that mentality has so attached itself to our day, and infected the church, that people can't think straight.

25:04 So we've got to start with that second, that inner ring in our target, a clear understanding of the specific teaching of the word of God relative to those areas of fundamental equality between men and women. And what are those areas? Well, let me suggest very quickly, they are three. Number one, the dignity of image bearers.

25:31 The dignity derived from being image bearers of God. In Genesis chapter 1, the issue is forever settled in this summary statement, and then further expanded in the word of God, that man and woman alike, or the male and the female alike, are image bearers of God, and all the dignity that attaches itself to that wonderful and glorious, and all the dignity that attaches itself to that wonderful and glorious, distinction is shared between them. Now, I'm fully aware that there is a dimension of dignity shared by the man in his function as leader that Paul picks up in 1 Corinthians 11. I'm not ignorant of that passage.

26:17 But I'm addressing myself to another issue. Now, notice Genesis 1 and verse 26. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God created man.

26:43 We would say in our day, God created mankind. God created man, generically, in his own image, in the image of God, created he him. Now, notice, male and female created him. He then.

27:01 And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion, etc. Now, here on the very face of the passage, it is evident that when man came from the hand of his creator God as male and female, the male and the female shared equally in the dignity of being created in the image of God. And therefore, to the man and the woman together were given the blessing of God, and the mandate of God to replenish, to subdue the earth, and all that follows in this passage.

27:43 So that whatever 1 Timothy 2, 8-15 teaches, when it says, I will therefore that the men, and I permit not a woman, it has nothing with the inherent dignity and worth, of males or females. They share equally in the dignity of being created in the image of God. But furthermore, they are absolutely equal when it comes to sharing in the tragic result of the fall. The scriptures tell us in 1 Corinthians 16, 22,

28:26 As in Adam, all die. Male, female, and male. Male, female, and male. Male, female, and male.

28:32 Male, female, and male. Male, female, and male. No distinction. All mankind fell in Adam.

28:38 And when you read those descriptions of the results of the fall, whether you read that classic description in the Old Testament, Genesis chapter 6, the Lord saw, verse 5, the wickedness of man, that it was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord. That he made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart. Here you see a description of mankind sharing equally in the tragic results of the fall, and coming right on through into the New Testament, into such classic summary statements as Romans 3, 10 through 18.

29:21 There is no sexual distinction. As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. They are all gone out of the way.

29:30 They are together become unpopular. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. There is no fear of God before their life.

29:38 In the tragic results of the fall, men and women share equally in that tragedy. Now, I know it will be hard to convince some of you women that that's true, because you're convinced there is something a little more perverse in men. And likewise, some of you men, some of you boys, you're convinced there's something not quite right with your sisters. They're just a little bit meaner.

30:01 And you are a little bit more unreasonable. And some of you girls, no doubt, think the same about your brothers. But the Bible teaches that we all share equally in the tragedy of the fall. So we share equally in the dignity of being created as image bearers of God.

30:18 We share equally in the tragedy of the fall. And thirdly, we share equally in the privileges of redemption. When the Bible speaks of the people of God being in Christ, the status in Christ is such that no earthly distinction of any kind enters. Galatians 3 and verse 28 is the classic New Testament statement of this fact.

30:46 Galatians 3 and verse 28. There can be neither Jew nor Greek. There can be neither bond nor free. There can be no male or female.

31:01 For ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Paul takes the three most distinct categories existent in his day. The vast difference between Jew and pagan Greek. That wall of partition that existed for centuries in the purpose and will of God to keep his people as separate people.

31:27 He says in Christ that distinction is non-existent. There is a free man with all the liberties of a free man. And there is a bond slave who is if not the property of another, his master has ownership in his labor. What a contrast between a free man and a bond man.

31:46 But in Christ, he says that contrast is obliterated. And then the vast differences between male and female. And they go far beyond the mere possession of a difference of primary sexual. That's one of the rottenest, foulest, and I can't use strong enough language heresies to be floated in our day that the only fundamental distinction of maleness and femaleness is the distinction of primary sexual organs.

32:18 Everything else is programmed in by society and tradition. That's ridiculous. It's heretical in the light of the word of God. God has created femininity.

32:32 God has created man. God has created masculinity. But in terms of privilege in Christ, the distinction doesn't exist. In Christ, all that is the possession of every believing sinner is equally the possession of men and of women.

32:51 There is no gender which gives the male or the female one gram of greater spiritual privilege in Jesus Christ the Lord. Now that teaching is the teaching of Genesis to Revelation. And therefore, whatever the Apostle says by the inspiration of the Spirit, fully conscious of his unique and perpetual authority as an Apostle, does not contradict any of the teaching of the Bible with regard to the fundamental equality that does exist. Equality in created dignity, in the tragedy of the fall, and in redemptive privilege.

33:35 Now the moment you say, if there is a difference between male and female, it is because you are a Christian. If there is any assigned role that involves one leading and another following, one taking the head and another submitting, that automatically means loss of dignity, inequality, then you end up with Christological heresy. Because 1 Corinthians 11 says that God is the head of Christ. And if that means inferiority, then we must all be Aryans who teach that Jesus Christ is a lesser God and does not partake of the divine essence in the same way as does the Father.

Third Circle: Paul's Pressing Apostolic Burden for Church Order

34:17 Well then, let's aim an arrow at the third circle. All right? You see what we are doing now? We want to eventually hit the bull's eye.

34:24 But we have started on the outer circle. The unique and the perpetual authority of an Apostle who speaks under inspiration. Secondly, the overarching teaching of the whole Bible of those areas in which male and female are absolutely equal. Now, thirdly, we must consider the pressing apostolic burden which precipitated or moved the Apostle to write this letter.

34:54 Why did he write a letter including the passage under consideration? Well, there was a pressing concern upon his heart. And he tells us what that concern is in the very letter itself. Notice, please, in chapter 3 and verse 15, what he says, or what he writes.

35:16 These things write I unto you, hoping to come unto you shortly. But if I tarry long, that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Now, try to relive. The circumstances in which Paul wrote.

35:45 He left Timothy behind at Ephesus as he went on to Macedonia. Chapter 1, verse 3. I exhorted thee to tarry at Ephesus when I was going into Macedonia. Here the Apostle leaves Timothy behind in the place where he himself had labored for over three years.

36:06 He leaves him behind because he has basically a two-fold burden which, if he could have stayed, he would have discharged himself. But because he had to move on to Macedonia, he leaves Timothy behind to represent him, to carry out that two-pronged burden of his heart. The first prong of that burden is given in chapter 1 and verse 3. I left you behind, why?

36:34 That you might charge certain men not to teach a different doctrine. There was a great concern because of the emergence of false doctrine at Ephesus, even as Paul predicted when he met with the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20. And because of the presence of some of these false teachers, he leaves Timothy behind to sort out these doctrinal matters. And that theme emerges again in chapter 4 and verse 6, and then again in chapter 6 and verse 3.

37:07 If any man teaches a different doctrine, and does not consent to sound words, even if he is to teach a different doctrine. And that theme emerges again in chapter 4 and verse 6, and then again in chapter 6 and verse 7. He leaves Timothy behind to sort out these doctrinal matters. If any man teaches a different doctrine, why?

37:14 Because of the presence of false teachers, he leaves Timothy behind to sort out these doctrinal issues, and does not consent to sound words, even to the words of the Lord Jesus. So Timothy is left behind, first of all, to maintain and secure doctrinal purity. But then there was a second great burden. And this is the burden that Paul articulates in chapter 3 verses 14 and 15.

37:29 He said now, I do hope to come to you Timothy. I long to come, I am planning to come, but I am not sure, I have no direct revelation that I will come or when I will come. in case I tarry long, if God in His providence keeps me from coming back as soon as I desire to, I'm not only burdened, Timothy, that you remained at Ephesus in order to secure and maintain purity of doctrine, but I'm concerned that you maintain and implement further purity of church order. And from chapter 2 and verse 1 where he says, I exhort therefore first

38:12 of all, and at least through the end or through verse 13 of chapter 3, and quite possibly whole sections of chapters 5 and 6, his burden is not only the maintenance of pure doctrine, but the implementation, the augmentation, the preservation of pure church order. So he talks in chapter 2 about the public prayers of the people of God. He talks in chapter 3 about the public prayers of the people of God. He talks in chapter 3 about the public prayers of the people of God. He talks in chapter 3 about the recognition of elders

38:44 and of deacons. Further on he talks about the care of the widows in chapter 5. In chapter 6 he speaks about the relationship of the rich and the poor and masters to servants. He is tremendously concerned about the matter of how the people of God conduct themselves in the house of God. Now notice, that concern is not just the concern of what we would call

39:12 a general Christian lifestyle. He is concerned about the nitty gritty of church order and church practice. What they pray for when they gather for their public meetings. Who does the leading in the prayer? Who does the leading and the governing in the assembly? What kind

39:33 of character is recognized? What kind of gift is demanded? He is concerned deeply and passionately about proper church order. Now why? Why? Well, the answer lies right in the text. Chapter 3 and verse 15. It's

39:52 because of the identity of the church and the function of the church that the apostle has this great burden for church order. Look at the language. But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God. The pillar and the ground of the truth. Paul is passionately concerned about church order

40:25 because of the identity of the church on the one hand, and the function of the church on the other hand. What is the identity of the church? He says it is God's church, and not just any old God. It is the church of the one true and living God.

40:45 The church of the living God. Timothy, it's not your church. You have no right to go into your drawing room and sit at the drawing board and take out your compass and your rulers and your pen and your pencil and design the structure and order of the church according to your own pragmatic notion, according to your own aesthetic bent. Well, let's have a little liturgy here and a little liturgical adjustment here, and let's have a little prerogative here, and let's have a little pragmatic adjustment. No, no, Timothy, Timothy, it's not your church. It's God's church.

41:26 And Timothy, it's not my church. It's God's church. And Timothy, it's not the church of the Ephesian members. You don't go around with a pad and a paper and say, now how would you like the church to be run next year? What new things would you like? And what little

41:43 innovation would you like? And what would please you? And what would please you? Let's have, no, no, Timothy, Timothy, look at the language.

41:51 And in the original, that word ought means how it is necessary for men to behave. It is that particle of inescapable necessity because it is God's church. And remember, it was the church not in the abstract, but in the concreteness of specific congregations at Ephesus. That's what is called God's church. That's why he's concerned about church

42:20 order. It's God's church, the identity of the church. And secondly, because of the function of the church. And what is its function? Look at

42:29 the language. It is the pillar and the ground of the truth. Better translated for our understanding, it is the support and the foundation of the truth. It is the appointed instrument for the maintenance, manifestation, and proclamation of the truth of God there at Ephesus. Now,

42:57 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.

43:15 When in reality there is another truth in the Word of God that it is God's truth that gives birth to the Church. It is the truth by which the Church is sanctified, by which the Church is regulated. But here, with reference to the preservation, the proclamation, the manifestation of truth, it is the local Church ordered by the priest that is the ordained instrument, you see, both to hold and to support the truth. That's why there's this passionate concern.

43:51 Where is that truth to be found within the pages of this book? Now follow closely.

43:57 Does this book teach that there is, is a distinct maleness and femaleness ordained of God with specific roles assigned to each? If so, where should you expect that truth to be more visibly evident?

44:21 And there is many an evangelical Church today that is preaching an orthodox gospel from its pulpit within a framework of heresy.

44:33 They have opened the ruling and teaching office to women contrary to the teaching of the Word, to the teaching of the Word of God, and by sowing the Church in its light, is proclaiming a lie. It is saying it's a lie, nothing less than a blatant lie. And the great concern of the Apostle is that the Church be the pillar and the ground of the truth. I want to read from what to me is an eloquent statement concerning this very principle

45:17 from the pen of B.B. Warfield, the great Princeton theologian who was also a great saint. And a lover of Christ's Church.

45:25 And in opening up this very passage that I'm working over now, 3, 14, and 15, Warfield says this, It is especially worth our while to observe two things here. First, in a preliminary way, why the Apostle is so strenuous in insisting here on the importance of the open secret of piety, the value and significance of the gospel, and secondly and more at large, because it is this that constitutes the burden of the text that what the Apostle conceived to be

46:08 this open secret of piety, that is to say, the gospel. And then he alludes to verse 16. A glance at the context is enough to inform us that the Apostle insists on the greatness of the gospel in order to impress Timothy with the importance of attending to the directions he has given him as to the proper ordering of the Church. Somewhat minute prescriptions have been laid down, especially as to the conduct of public worship and as to the organization of the Church.

46:45 In particular, the offices of the Church have been enumerated and the qualifications for their offices carefully described. At the close of these directions, the Apostle adds these pointed words, I'm writing these things hoping to come to you, the very words I've read. You see his appeal to the confessed greatness of the truth for the support and propagation of which in the world the Church exists is intended to impress Timothy with a sense of the importance of the proper ordering and right equipment of the Church for its high function. Then he goes on to say, many say, oh well, matters of Church government, matters of Church order, the important thing is,

47:28 preach the Gospel. Warfield says that was not the mentality of the Apostle Paul. Paul's point of view is precisely the opposite one. He takes his start from the inestimable importance of the Gospel.

47:41 Then he argues to the importance of the Church which has been established in the world as the organ of the Gospel, the pillar and buttress on which its purity and its completeness rests. Then again he argues to the proper organization and ordering of the Church that it may properly perform its high function. His position compressed into a nutshell is simply this. The function of the Church as guardian of the truth, that glorious truth which is the Gospel, is so high and important that it cannot be left to accident or human caprice how this Church should be organized and its work ordered.

48:26 Accordingly, he, the inspired Apostle, an Apostle of Christ Jesus, has prescribed in great detail, touching both organization and order, how it is necessary that men should conduct themselves in the household of God, which is nothing other than the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. In other words, it is God's Church, not man's. And God has created and now sustains it for a function, and he has not neglected to order it for the best performance of this function. Why is he so concerned?

49:09 What is the pressing apostolic burden which precipitated this section of the letter? And I tell you my heart is pained when I have to read some of the stuff I have read. When men who claim to be subject to the word of God say that Paul in essence was simply looking for a convenient opportunity either to give vent to his own remaining sinful rabbinical prejudices or to conform the Church to the existing feelings of society in a way that would not rock the boat. Well, what Apostle Paul is that that would do either of those things?

49:48 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?

50:04 I am ready not only to suffer but to die for the name of my Savior. It is unworthy of the character of this man to accuse him of those things. No. He understood the identity of the Church and the function of the Church.

The Church as Pillar and Ground of Truth

50:22 God willing, next week, that is enough for tonight, we will take up the last circle before we aim at the bull's-eye, the immediate contextual pressure upon the passage. In other words, how the passage receives pressure from the first seven verses of chapter 2 from above, and how it receives pressure from chapter 3 verses 1 through 13 from beneath. And when we study the passage in the light of the pressure coming down upon it from above and from beneath, then we should be prepared to aim our arrow right at the heart of the bull's-eye and by the help of the Spirit of God to hit it. Now you say, Pastor, you really didn't use much good sense in selecting your material

51:06 to prepare us for the Lord's table, did you? Well, I thought someone might think that thought. And I have an answer for you. And it's not an answer to appear clever.

51:18 It's the answer the Bible demands. When we come to this table to remember our dying Lord, we come to remember one who died for what purpose? Let Paul tell us in the language of Titus. He gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity.

51:38 The iniquitous thoughts of the generation of radical feminism. He came to deliver us from those iniquitous thoughts. They are iniquitous because they strike at the heart of the wisdom and goodness of God in His created purpose. They are iniquitous in that they strike at the heart of the clearest, most explicit norms of the Word of God.

52:03 They are iniquitous because they are iniquitous. He came to redeem us from all iniquity. The iniquity of the radical feminism that pervades our society like a plague. He came to redeem us from all iniquity and purify to Himself a people, His own distinct possession, zealous of good works.

52:29 What good works? The good works of church life ordered in all of its details by the Word of God because it's God's church. It is pillar and ground of the truth and it is most appropriate that we should have a meditation upon a very practical theme in preparation for the Lord's table to remind us He did not die simply to make us irresponsibly happy that our sins are pardoned. He died to make us resolutely holy and to conform us to His Word no matter what the pressure of society may be at any point.

53:08 To have a people who say here we stand so help us we can do no other. My friends it's going to cost us to stand for these principles and to stand in such a way that when people come with all of their prejudice and say in a place like that where women can't be elders, women can't be deacons, I bet women go around and are treated like dirt. They ought to be amazed at how our women are treated with respect and dignity and how they are used for every function for which God has equipped them and for which His Word

53:52 gives full allowance of the exercise of gift and ability. And it ought to shock them into saying I can't figure all this out. I've been told if you don't break down all the distinctions and distinctions of roles it is only that you might batter a person into non-personhood. And by our conduct and attitude we need to make it evident that that is not the teaching of the Word of God.

54:23 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.

54:57 The loyalty is tested if he's willing to move a half a mile away where the dust is flying and the bullets are whizzing and blood is being shed and brethren the battle rages. If you don't believe it you take the February 20th edition 1981 read the glut of literature that's coming out by the evangelical presses in our country supporting the position that every office in the church is not only legitimately open but ought to be seized by men and women alike. And you realize the battle rages. Our loyalty will be tested.

Application to the Lord's Table and Christian Living

55:42 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.

56:21 She's fair game. Ask her. Ask her. We have women who've lived under the oversight of this church for many years.

56:29 Ask them if they are made to feel that they're second class citizens. That they have no dignity. That they have no worth. Ask them.

56:37 Ask them. Ask them. We have nothing to hide. And if we had the time I just might be cheeky enough to call upon some of you by name for an unprepared testimony and say Mrs. So-and-so

56:48 Ms. So-and-so stand and tell us out of the fullness of your heart. No, no. If we're conformed to the book in this area we'll be conformed in those other areas in which it calls us to thoroughly biblical attitudes and responses one to another which can only elevate the glory and the dignity not of this so-called innocuous personhood.

57:12 Personhood? What's that? I never met a person. Everyone I ever met was a male or a female.

57:20 Boy or a girl. Man or a woman. And we believe in the dignity of Christian manhood and the dignity and the glory and the privileges of Christian womanhood. Do you?

Prayer for Understanding and Obedience

57:30 May God grant that it will be so for His glory. Let us pray. Holy Father we are so grateful that we have not been left at the mercy of the consensus of each generation as it goes and comes and the passing fancies and whims of men. We thank you that we have a written message to give to those that we have a written and infallible changeless court of authority even the scriptures of the Old and the New Testament.

58:12 And we pray that as we seek in these coming weeks to understand your will as revealed in this portion of your word that we may rightly understand and joyfully obey and thoroughly comply with every precept and directive given to us in it. Lord our hearts are grieved we do not stand here we trust with a spirit of bitterness but one of brokenness. We believe Lord Jesus that you are being wounded in the house of your friends. Have mercy upon some whom we have every reason to believe are our brothers and our sisters in Christ

58:57 but who having fallen prey to the pressure of the world have twisted your words have taken away the clout Lord deal with them have mercy upon them lest the glory and presence and power of the spirit depart because you are grieved at such disobedience. Have mercy upon us holy fathers give us not only understanding of your ways but grace to pursue them at any cost. Give us the apostles view of church order may none of us regard it as to be fastidious about these matters of how we order

59:42 our corporate worship how we order our seasons of corporate prayer how we order the government and service and ministry of the church Lord may none of us may none of us who names your name have a spirit of indifference or irritation at these matters but give us such a love for your son his dwelling. O Lord give us such a love for truth that we will long that its pillar and foundation be that which you have said it should be. Seal then the word to our hearts bless us as we gather for those precious moments of remembrance meet with us and glorify your son

60:27 we pray in his worthy name Amen.