Specific Directives to the Men

Introduction: The Battle for Biblical Roles and the Context of 1 Timothy 2

0:08 This sermon was preached on Sunday evening, March 15th, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, Missouri.

0:26 As Pastor Nichols announced this morning, we are continuing this evening a series of studies in 1 Timothy, Chapter 2, verses 8 through 15.

0:40 I hope you will retain much more than the words of the text, but if nothing else, I trust that the frequent reference to this passage and the reading of it will forever embed the language of the text in your minds and hearts as the people of God. Follow then, please, as I read 1 Timothy, Chapter 2, verses 8 through 15. I desire, therefore, that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands without wrath and disputing. In like manner, and as I shall demonstrate next week, linguistically and grammatically, the verb to be supplied is the verb I will.

1:24 In like manner, I will that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly raiment, but, which becometh women professing godliness, through good works. Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection, but I permit not a woman to be a woman of godliness, but I permit not a woman to be a woman of godliness, but I permit not a woman to be a woman of godliness, but I permit not a woman of godliness, but I permit not a woman of godliness, 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 utterly beguiled hath fallen into transgression.

2:09 But she shall be saved through her childbearing, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety.

2:22 It was Martin Luther who said that where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is put to the test. And I could not help but reflect, as Pastor Nichols read Judges chapter 5, that perhaps Luther's mind was not influenced from that curse that was pronounced upon Mirov. For you will note in Judges 5.23 that the curse upon Mirov came not because of what we would call any strictly negative thing that Mirov did as far as undermining subversively the armies of Israel, but Mirov's curse simply because they did not come to the help of Jehovah. They did not come to the help of Jehovah against the mighty. Where the battle raged, there they were absent. And a curse was pronounced upon them for their absence from the point of conflict at that period in the history of redemption.

3:31 Well, there is a battle raging in our day, both within and, I'm sorry, without and sad to say, within the Christian church with respect to the issue of the teaching of the Word of God as it touches upon male and female roles and functions, particularly within the church and within the family. And in order to provide a framework within which our minds may be brought into direct contact with one of the most pivotal passages in the Scriptures explicitly addressing itself to this issue, I'm directing your thinking to the passage in Timothy for these few Lord's Day evenings. In approaching the passage, I have used the analogy of a target and have set before you for two Lord's Day evenings and now tonight, just by way of briefness, we view that if we are to understand the passage read in your hearing, we must do so in the light of other related matters. And so, with a proper understanding of the passage as the bullseye in which we're trying to plant the arrow of understanding, I have suggested that we should view the bullseye as surrounded by four concentric circles, all of which comprise the target as a whole. And that has been the subject of our study, over the past two Lord's Day evenings. And I set before you the outer ring

4:57 as the unique and perpetual authority of this letter in all of its parts. It is the letter of an apostle by the commandment of Jesus Christ. So when we read in verse 8, I desire, or better translated, I will that the men pray, and when we read, but I permit not a woman to teach, this is no ordinary man writing, this is no man, no man writing under the pressure and influence of rabbinic prejudice or current social mores. He is a man writing by the inspiration and authority of Jesus Christ, the head of the church.

5:37 The second ring in our target is the specific teaching of Scripture with regard to the fundamental equality between men and women. As to creation, fall, and redemption, men and women are equal in terms of the dignity of their lives, their creaturehood as image-bearers, the tragedy of their involvement in the fall, and in the privileges of redemption. In Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female. And then the third circle, coming closer to the bull's eye, is what I call the pressing apostolic burden which produced this letter.

6:17 It was Paul's great concern, as expressed in chapter 3, verses 14, 15, and 16, that precipitated the passage under consideration. His concern is behavior in the house of God. And he's concerned about behavior in the house of God because of the identity of the church. It is God's house, and because of the function of the church, it is pillar and ground of the truth.

6:44 And then finally, in the circle nearest the bull's eye, we considered last Lord's Day evening the immediate contextual pressure and the children will remember the illustration of the sandwich. And you have the top piece of bread pressing down from above, verses 1 to 7, in which we have the primacy, the comprehensiveness, and the concerns and theological basis for the church's prayers. And then, coming up from beneath, the bottom slice of bread, is chapter 3, verses 1 to 13, the requirements for the official office bearers in the church who, teach, lead, and serve in those offices. And that is the pressure which the context exerts upon verses 8 to 15 of chapter 2. It should not surprise us then that verse 8 looks upward to the slice of bread above it, and we have a word concerning prayer. That's the context of verses 1 to 7, the subject of the church at prayer when it gathers as the church. And so verse 8, it addresses itself to that context above, and because Paul is going to treat the subject of the official office bearers in the church, from which offices women are precluded, he is dealing then in verses 9 through 15 with the specific role of women in the church.

8:11 If they are not envisioned as functioning in the offices of elder and deacon, although they are envisioned as a service arm of the diaconate, in verse, verse 11, that is my present understanding of that verse, in general they are excluded from the offices themselves. And Paul anticipating the question, well if women are excluded from those official offices, pray tell what is their place and function in the church. You've told us how the church is to pray, the things for which it is to pray, who's to take the lead in prayer, and he's about to tell us who should take official office or leadership in the church as elders and deacons, and it's obvious from the requirements that women are excluded from those offices, what then is the place and role assigned to women. And so there is a much fuller treatment of the place and role of women as such in the passage we are considering because the context demands it if there is to be a comprehensive statement with respect to conduct within the church of Christ. Well, that in about eight minutes is a summary of what it's taken us about three hours to open up, sorry, yes, three hours, or two hours, two hours in the previous Two Lords Day evening. Now tonight we come to the bullseye and I trust in dependence upon the Holy Spirit and in honesty with the words

Structure of 1 Timothy 2:8-15: Directives to Men and Women

9:40 and grammar of Scripture, allowing Scripture to be its own infallible interpreter that God will lead us to strike the bullseye dead center in Christ. In terms of an understanding of His mind as it is revealed in this portion of the Word of God. Now the breakdown of verses 8 to 15 is very simple. In one sense it is a pastor's paradise homiletically because you have two very neat divisions as far as the overall structure is concerned.

10:13 You have in verse 8 a specific word of directive to the men of the church. I desire therefore that the men pray. And then in a parallel structure verse 9 in like manner you have an adverb without a verb. The verb is assumed and I'll give you more of the technical proof of that next week.

10:33 I will that the women adorn themselves. And so in this passage you have a specific word of direction to the men of the church verse 8 and then a specific word of direction to the women of the church verses 9 through 15. Now it is my purpose tonight to open up that specific word of direction to the men. Since God puts the men first in this passage we must be honest and be sensitive to the reasons for which God has given us this relationship between the directives.

Defining 'Men' in 1 Timothy 2:8

11:14 So we consider tonight verse 8 a specific word of direction to the men of the church. The first thing I wish to do in opening up the text is to establish the fact that men here means members of the male gender who have come to years of maturity and not mankind in general. If you have an authorized version it reads I desire therefore that men pray. And if you have the New International Version you have a similar treatment.

11:48 It speaks of men praying without the definite article. But in the original you have Paul saying I desire therefore the connective linking it up to verses 1 to 7 I desire therefore to pray the men in every place. But now someone says pastor does not the word men sometimes in scripture simply mean mankind in general in distinction from beasts and flowers and birds and angels. Well the word translated in our English Bible men sometimes does many times bears that significance. But whenever the biblical writers are concerned to convey the concept of mankind in general in distinction from birds flowers and angels there is a word that the biblical writers use. It is the word from which we get our English word and anthropology the study of man anthropos. And it is precisely that word which the apostle has already used in the first seven verses.

13:02 Look at your Bibles with me. When he says I exhort therefore first of all that supplications prayers intercession thanksgiving be made for all men he uses the word which could legitimately be translated for all mankind. In other words he is not saying that prayers may be made only for those of the male gender. And then he goes on to say because that would be tragic if that carried through this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who will have all human beings of the male gender to be saved for there is one God and one mediator between God and those of the male gender.

13:44 No. He uses consistently in that context the word anthropos which in many contexts does mean mankind in general of the male and female gender it is man as a species distinct from other creatures. Now that's not its exclusivity. Sometimes anthropos does mean someone of the male gender.

14:09 It's the word used in Matthew 19.5 with regard to a man and his wife Ephesians 5.31 in a similar context and 1 Corinthians 7.1 it is good for a man not to touch a woman.

14:23 It's not talking about mankind generically but he's talking about a man that is someone of the male gender. So the word anthropos is a broad word many times it means mankind in general or those who are of the species of mankind it's not everyone in particular he's not referring to angels he's not referring to beasts he's not referring to flowers. Now it's very obvious in this context that the general word for man in the first seven verses has reference to mankind in that broad manner in which I've described. But now in verse 8 Paul uses a different word and when we read I desire therefore that the men pray you see in your English Bibles you would not know that there was any difference between the men for whom we are to pray in verse 1 the men for whom Christ is the savior in the subsequent verses and the men of verse 8 but in the language in which Paul wrote he used a different word the word on air and it is that word which means not mankind in general but it means mankind with specific reference to those of the male gender and that word on air is used again in verse 12 when Paul is speaking of the relative relationship

15:53 of men and women in the church I permit not a woman to teach nor to have dominion over not an anthropos but an on air not to have dominion over a man and so in this entire context you have two uses of that distinctive word for man those of the male gender and four uses of the specific word for females those of the female gender the word for women in this passage refer specifically to those who are female in gender now without burdening you with a lengthy word study I'm fully conscious that the word on air many times means husband and I wonder if perhaps the terminology where people refer women they refer to their husbands as their man doesn't perhaps ultimately come from this for that's the word most generally used for husband in the New Testament but whenever the biblical writers wanted to contrast and bring into close proximity males and females by way of instruction or exhortation or contrast the words they use are precisely the words in this context when Paul is writing in 1 Corinthians 9-11 speaking of the man not being of the woman but the woman being of the man and the man by the woman he uses this same technically clear language that by

Directive 1: Men to Take Leadership in Corporate Prayer

17:22 no stretch of the imagination can blur or obliterate sexual distinction so I trust I have established from the scriptures that men in this passage means members of the male gender who have come to years of maturity and not mankind in general now having established that male members are in view in the exhortation of verse 8 now then let us examine that specific word of direction to these men these members of the house of God who are of the male gender and again this is a preacher's paradise homiletically because the direction breaks very naturally into three lines of thought first of all the men are to take the leadership in prayer in the house of God look at the language I will therefore that the men pray now remember the context that preceded Paul has given this direction concerning the primacy the comprehensiveness the subject matter and the theological basis the rationale for the church's prayers when it gathers as the church and I want to keep emphasizing

18:52 that this is not an exhaustive treatment of the subject of prayer but it has reference to prayer as behavior in the house of God it has reference to prayer in the midst of the church in its manifestation as pillar and ground of the truth and having given these directions concerning the manner the comprehensiveness the subject matter the theological basis for prayer it is though Paul anticipates the question now Paul you've told us what to do in the house of God with respect to our praying but who is going to do it and he says in the light of this instruction the therefore finding verse 8 up to the first 7 verses I will therefore that the men pray now is he saying that only those of the male gender are to be praying people of course not this would contradict the entire teaching of the word of God that all of the people of God are a praying people that men that is all of the people of God ought always to pray and not to think pray without ceasing that injunction comes to all of the people of God but remember this is an injunction concerning behavior in the house of God

20:21 and with respect to that behavior the apostle says in plenary apostolic authority and under the inspiration of the spirit I will that the men pray now it is precisely because such prayer is an act of public leadership in the house of God that men are to take the lead in prayer and not the women the very terminology we use reflexively brother so and so will you please lead us in prayer for when one stands in the assembly to reflect the perspectives of verses one to seven in first Timothy two in subjection to the word of God to draw near to the throne of God that individual becomes the mouthpiece towards God on behalf of the entire congregation he becomes the leader of the congregation in its approach to the living God just as surely as the official teachers and preachers with their faith toward men lead the thinking of God's people into the word of God so those who become the official mouthpieces of the congregation lead the congregation into the presence of God

21:51 as they intercede on their behalf as they intercede as they do now it is not a matter that we are spectators when he says I will that the men pray the whole biblical doctrine of prayer is that when one leads us we are praying with that person so that the apostles that the Luke can describe the praying of the early church of the great multitude as trying to God with one voice as well as with one soul and this is why we add our amen because when we at the conclusion of a prayer say our amen we are affirming that those sentiments and desires and aspirations those praises intercessions and supplications expressed in the prayer have indeed been the expression of our own hearts and we add to it the word of consent amen so be it indeed Lord those are the expressions of my own heart now I'm fully aware that there are some difficulties in reconciling this teaching with some statements of first Corinthians chapter 11 and it's not my intention to open up those difficulties nor to go into them at present suffice it to say I'm aware of the difficulties but I'm also aware that there is great

23:20 ambiguity over certain pivotal issues with respect to the first Corinthians 11 passage or that there are great difficulties and ambiguities I believe I used the plural there there are difficulties there is ambiguity there are difficulties but with respect to this passage the whole context the whole flow of thought is as clear as anything can be made clear he's writing about behavior in the house of God he has taken up the subject of the church at prayer when it is gathered as church and with respect to that he says I will that the men pray so there is no question with respect to the overall thrust of this directive and it is that the men are to take the leadership in prayer in the house of God and the second thing that is in our text in this word of directive is this the men are to take the leadership in prayer and the men in every house of God note the language I will therefore that the men pray in those places where you have men who are more spiritual than the women well I don't read my Bible that way I will therefore that the men pray in those places

Directive 2: Men to Lead Prayer in Every Place

24:49 where the men are of a mind to pray and the women are of a mind to let them pray I don't read that either well I don't read what I do read is this I will therefore that the men pray in every place now again this is not a parallel to the injunction pray without ceasing that is wherever men go they should be sure to pray what is the context behavior in the house of God to whom is Paul writing to Timothy and what is Timothy's function he is the apostolic representative to implement apostolic direction in the churches there in Ephesus and the immediate area where do we learn that we learn it from this very epistle Paul says in chapter 1 and verse 3 I exhorted thee to tarry at Ephesus when I was going into Macedonia and there the man Timothy under the direction of Paul is left the best word perhaps we can use is sort of a district superintendent now people who believe in the office of a bishop that is a a clergyman a cleric who is above his other clerics they love to look to Timothy as sort of the seed bed of a bishopric where you've got to be pretty desperate for exegetical grounds to establish the idea of a bishopric when you've got to pluck at poor Timothy and make him the first bishop no he was not a bishop he was an apostolic

26:17 representative as a superintendent over the churches and what Paul is doing is that which he did in every place he is articulating the apostolic pattern and tradition not only with regard to doctrine but to practice and you remember in the parallel passage in Corinthians he makes reference to this at least twice dealing with some of these things in the earlier part of chapter 11 he says we have no such custom nor any of the churches and then in 1 Corinthians 14 33 he says as in all the churches of the faith let the women keep silence the apostles remember were the inspired uniquely endowed foundation builders of the church when John envisioned saw the new Jerusalem he saw that it was built upon the twelve apostles of the land its foundation was comprised of the twelve apostles and so when the apostle speaks in this way it is evident that he is establishing apostolic tradition which is a synonym for the abiding will of God for the church in every place in every age and in every set of circumstances the men are to take the leadership in prayer in every house of God now I know

Directive 3: Men to Pray with Godliness ('Holy Hands, Without Wrath and Disputing')

27:46 you can conjure up all kinds of questions and anticipate exceptions what if they are only women in the church what if only the women are spiritual what if the men won't pray well I'm sure Timothy could have thought up all those questions plus twenty more but it doesn't change the language of the text you say aren't you going to address yourself to those questions my answer is no I'm concerned with the found text and the text is clear that this specific directed to the men not only directs the men to take the leadership in prayer in the house of God but they are to take the leadership in prayer in every place in the house of God and the third part of the directive is bound up in these words lifting up holy hands without wrath and disputing the men who take the leadership in prayer in every house of God are to do so in conjunction with a life of godliness the men who take the leadership in prayer in every house of God are to do so in prayer in conjunction with a life of godliness is every man at any time in every church

29:16 fit to take the leadership in prayer simply because he is a man no if he cannot pray in conjunction with a life of godliness let him be silent because his prayer will be a mockery to the living God now why do I say well I'm simply summarizing the significance of the language that I hope to open up in the next few minutes let's take it phrase by phrase first of all he says the men who take the lead in prayer are to do so lifting up holy hands now one of the postures in which the oriental prayed was the posture of uplifted hands when the hands are stretched out you're acknowledging knees when the palms are turned upward you're acknowledging destitution you're acknowledging you're in a posture of readiness to receive and there's something majestic and beautiful about the concept of lifting up hands to god in prayer you're allowing as it were your body to express the inward disposition and in a spirit of receptivity the same way bowing the head expresses something noble about the inward disposition

30:45 of the soul in the bowing of the head we're acknowledging that we are the creatures coming into the presence of the exalted creator when we close the eyes we're acknowledging that god is such a being as to be worthy of having every other thought excluded from our minds of this relationship of what we see triggering our thoughts we close our eyes to shut out all of the thoughts but the thoughts connected with approaching god you see all the various postures for prayer that are described in the bible and there are many all the way from lying prostrate to standing to kneeling to bowing lifting up eyes lifting up hands and no one of them in itself completely represents as it were externally the vast spectrum of the inward glory of the disposition of true prayer but apparently in the framework out of which these people came with their synagogue backgrounds no doubt some of them this posture was apparently and i can only say apparently and we can read in terms of what secular historians tell us but that's not all together trustworthy and so i'm using iffy language to show you that the the most important thing is to understand the the

32:14 the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the MERO they they I called me to eat strong fish meat a lot of food meat lives a life to question. Who can come into the presence of God and stand before Him with peace, with joy, with access? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. You see, the hand is the symbol of the outward patterns of the life. And if we would come into the presence of

33:35 God, we must come in conjunction with a holy life, as well as with a holy heart. Clean hands, pure heart. What happens when men approach God in prayer and their hands are not clean? Isaiah answers the question for us in the first chapter of his prophets. Isaiah chapter 1, where Judah and Jerusalem are being indicted for their sins. We read, beginning now in verse 12, of chapter 1 of Isaiah,

34:41 And when you spread forth your hands, hear a man lifting up hands to heaven in the posture of prayer, notice God's reaction. I will hide my eyes from you. Yea, when you make many prayers, keep your hands up until your shoulder muscles ache and until you feel that your arms are going to fall off. God says, I don't care. Keep on praying. I will not hear why.

35:11 Notice the indictment. I will not hear your hands are full of blood. They did not lift up holy hands. Their hands became, as it were, the deposits of all of the ungodliness of their lives. And God says, when you come, you're not coming with empty and holy hands.

35:33 You come with hands full of blood. You're guilty of sins of such a nature as to defile you in my presence. So when the apostle says that the men are to take the lead in prayer, they're to take the lead in every place. He does not mean men in any condition whatsoever, but they must do so in conjunction with the holy life, lifting up holy hands. But holiness involves not only the patterns of the life, but notice the additional words, without wrath and disputing. The word for wrath is the passion of anger in its sinful dimensions. The word for wrath is the one used of the pure holy wrath of God that will break upon the head of sinners. And that's its preponderant use in the new testament. And let me say by way of a word

36:31 of exhortation to any unconverted men or women, fellows or girls amongst us. If you have the notion that God is nothing but one big glob of sentiment that you call love. That he could not in any way express wrath to His creatures and cast them into hell. That God is a figment of your imagination. He's an idol. Because this word for wrath in its preponderant usage in the New Testament refers to the orgy, the wrath of Almighty God, and even the wrath of the Lamb. What a strange conjunction of concepts. Who shall hide us from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb? As surely as every other attribute of God has found its most glorious revelation in the person and work of Christ, His justice, His holiness, His love, so the wrath of God will find its most glorious and awesome expression in the Lamb. When Jesus Christ, sitting as judge, consigns

37:38 every impenitent, unbelieving, sin-loving, wondrous, ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, ungrateful, world-loving, flesh-loving sinner to the pit of eternal burdens. So this matter of wrath is a holy thing in God, but most often in us, it is a manifestation of a sinful passion. I didn't say always. I said most always in us. And therefore, in Colossians 3.8, when the Apostle encourages believers to put to death those remains of corruption within in. He singles out several things, and this is one of them. Do ye also put them all away? Anger, wrath, that's the same word. Put wrath away. And then notice its first and second

38:29 cousins. Anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth. All of those things are in the same family. That spirit and passion that has those sinful dimensions, that wishes ill to the object, that breaks out in railing and harsh and unkind words, that's the word that is used here. And so when men take the lead in prayer, they are to do so with holy hands and with a heart that is free of that sinful passion of anger. Towards one's fellow men. You remember what Jesus said in Mark 11, 25, when ye stand praying, if ye have ought against anyone, forgive. And the only appendix to the so-called Lord's prayer deals with this very subject. In the midst of the petitions, we have the words,

39:27 forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And then our Lord goes back and amplifies that one petition, for if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father. Forgive your trespasses. And so Paul is by using these words without wrath, emphasizing the inward disposition of the heart of the men who pray. It must be a heart in which there presently beats the disposition of the God of the first seven verses of 1 Timothy 2. What is that God like? He will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. He is the God who sent his Son to be the one mediator between God and the men. The God whose heart of love is emblazoned in the cross of his own dear Son. How can

40:15 I pray for the things that reflect the concerns of that God from a heart that is the antithesis of all that he is? So if I would lift up hands to this God and in true communion with him pray for the things that lie close to his heart, my heart must be a heart free of wrath. And what about this word disputings or reasonings? If you have the nightly prayer, you must pray for what? For what? For the present day? What is doubt? You once prayed about the night of the light. Here in this 1901 edition, you will notice that you have the marginal readings, doubting. The marginal reading is doubting. Well, it is difficult to translate this word and to say with any precision what it means. In some contexts, it does mean disputing.

40:57 Luke 9.46, Philippians 2.14. In one or two other context, it means doubting. Luke 24.38 is an example. Well, what does it mean here? Is it the picture of someone who looks in every way? Who does he look in every way? Who does he look in every way? What is the picture? What is the picture? It is the picture of someone who looks in every way. If you want lifts up his hands to pray, and though he may not at that moment have this sinful passion of anger that wishes ill to someone, there is a burr in his relationship with some of his fellow men. He has unresolved disputations. You see, that's not quite as fierce and violent as wrath. Or is it referring to someone who, when he draws near to God, has inward disputations between faith and unbelief? Well, it's hard to say which it is. If it's the former, then it simply amplifies this whole matter of the man who would pray must not only have a general life of godliness, but he must have a relationship of harmony with his brethren in whose midst he stands to pray. How can he be the mouthpiece of his brothers or sisters if he has ill will

42:05 towards them? It's a mockery. And if it's referring...

42:11 To the absence of inward disputings or doubtings, perhaps it brings us into the orbit of James 1, though a different word is used. He that doubts, he who does not come believing that God hears him, he who doubts is like the wave of the sea, risen and tossed. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. If that's the significance, then you have another dimension. His general lifestyle must be one of godliness. His relationship to his fellowmen must be one of harmony, and his relationship to his promises of God must be one of faith. Well, you take your pick. But in any case it is not just the men who are to take leadership in prayer in the house of God.

42:59 The men who are to take leadership in prayer in every house of God, but men who take the leadership of prayer in every house of God are to do so in conjunction with a life of protest.

Application: Encouragement to the Men of the Congregation

43:12 of godliness. Now, having opened up the text, I want to draw out several lines of application from it. This has been the teaching. I've paused here and there along the way to shoot an arrow or two, but it's been mainly teaching. Now, what does this say to us? At this point in our own life, history as a congregation, well, the first thing I want to do is to bring a word of direct encouragement to the men of this congregation. I bless God and I say this without any tongue-in-cheek, fully conscious of the warnings about the flatterer. I bless God for the privilege of being an overseer in a congregation where, by and large, I don't think I know of any exceptions. I'd be foolish to think there may not be some incipient exceptions, but I don't know of any outspoken exceptions to this. A congregation in which the women

44:09 gladly wait for the leadership of their men. And I thank God for that. Whatever burdens we bring into our elders meetings week by week, thank God we don't bring the burden of having to pray over and agonize over and wonder how we're going to deal with a spirit of insubordination to the male leadership in this assembly. And I thank God for that. We who are men in this assembly, recognizing that should face the tremendous responsibility that that lays upon us. To do what this text says, I will therefore that the men pray, so that when we come together as the people of God, and are constituted in that sense the visible expression of His household, and in that sense we are pillar and ground of the truth in a unique way in our gathered manifestation. One of the things that greatly disturbs us, why the pauses so often in our

45:15 prayer meetings? Well, the Bible says, love thinketh no evil. Love believeth all things, love hopes all things. Love delights to put the best possible construction that sanity will allow upon any situation. Now, if a man came through that door tonight with a wild look in his eyes, and his hair going every which way, and his shirt going every which way, and his shirt going every which way, and his shirt going every which way, and his shirt torn open, holding a Magnum 44, and pointing at me, and I could tell from the look of the steel it was the real thing, saying, get out of that poker or I'm going to blow your head off. Now, there's nothing love can do realistically to put any other construction other than, I've got to get out of here and get out of here quick. I mean, move, man, move. Now, you see, love, love never plays games with reality. True love is realistic,

46:10 realistic. Remember that, you kids. Infatuation isn't. Infatuation lives in its dream world.

46:15 No, it won't work out all right. No, it won't. I don't care what kind of feelings you've got, whether in the auricle, the ventricle, or all four of sections. It won't work. Love is realistic. So I'm saying all of that, not because I lost my track, but because I want to emphasize that, you see, love believes all things, and putting the best construction upon it, I believe what's happening. And I believe what's happening. And I believe what's happening is this. The officers in the church lay back generally from taking the lead in the prayer. Why? Because they feel they have enough place of prominence and leadership in the total life of the church, and they don't want to be seen as monopolizing that place. So when we gather on Wednesdays, you have officers who've been recognized for their stature as men of God, though we don't know their hearts. We believe them to be holy men

47:14 whose hearts have been recognized for their stature as men of God. And we believe them to have in measure been suffused with the love of Christ. And that's why they've been recognized as officers, along with their proven abilities to serve, to teach, to rule, and whatever the demand of that particular office is. But in spite of that, because they are gracious men, they don't want the people to feel that they've got a niche on the leadership everywhere you turn. And so they lay back, waiting for non-office-bearing men to lead in prayer. And then the non-office-bearing men lay back, saying, Well, I'm in the presence of proven men of high character and of gift. And so they're waiting for the officers to take the lead, lest it should appear like men of lesser or less proven or less manifested grace should appear to be jumping beyond the men of proven grace. So they lay back, waiting for the officers. And then there are the older men, and they

48:10 say, Well, by virtue of age, I've had my day, as it were, of leadership and the rest, and we long to see the young men of God. And they say, Well, I'm in the presence of proven men of grace for many, and so is the group of young men taking leadership and developing their strengths and their gifts and their abilities. And so the older men lay back, waiting for the younger men. And the younger men say the wrapped things you young to be something to the elderly and all of you because with humility, they're laying back waiting for the older men to lead me. And I'm convinced that, by and large, that is the answer to the causes in our prayer speech. Does that make sense? I refuse to put a vicious construction on it, because now it's the time for our prayer meetings, for no good chosen men to lead us where they've been before. It's about the attitude we're you're living in the service of the pastor. And I want to follow you in your fellowship.

48:49 Ask your fellow pastors who you think are all well-off, but to nicer, and I'll tell you how palabras Because, for the most part, I know the pattern of life manifested by the men who are there at prayer meetings. Many of whom come hardly having time to wash down anything that even resembles a supper after a full day in the shop, at the school, in the place of business, driving through the crazy metropolitan traffic to come. They're not doing this for show.

49:12 And I've wrestled with this, Lord, why? Why? And I'll be honest, there are times some Wednesday nights that it's only the grace of self-control that's kept me from just jumping out of my seat and saying, men, men, men, why don't you pray? Aren't you here to pray?

49:30 This is a prayer meeting. I will, little men, pray. But I haven't done it.

49:37 And I don't intend to do it tonight. This is a direct encouragement. It's not a scolding. It's not in that sense, hortatory in a negative sense.

49:48 It's an entreaty. It's an entreaty to you officers to have a realistic recognition of this fact that if this congregation has seen in you the development of grace and gift to the place where they have gladly acknowledged you and recognized all of these things and cast their vote, as it were, acknowledging what Christ has done, you must recognize that that place is a demand upon you and even though, an excessive grace of humility may cause you to lay back. Don't do it. Take the lead.

50:27 I will that the men pray. And of all men, the officers ought to take the lead. Now, I am not saying, listen carefully, that in every prayer meeting, every elder and every deacon ought to pray and in that order. I am not saying that you all ought to wait until every deacon and every elder prays.

50:46 You don't know if they're all there. You might wait till midnight.

50:51 But what I am saying is if in the first half of the prayer meeting the officers present don't ordinarily pray, then they are not fulfilling the stewardship of trust invested in them by the congregation. Invested in them by the congregation. Do you see it?

51:10 Now, some of you, see, put an entirely different connotation on those pauses. This place is dead. The Holy Ghost ain't here.

51:18 Spirits grieved in this place. No spirit of prayer. How do you know? Some of the men who are most revered, reticent to pray in public, I pray with them privately.

51:28 Your assessment falls to the ground. I know differently. I've been witness to their pleadings, to their tears, to their wrestling with God. You haven't been.

51:41 And why were you willing to put a negative connotation? It's because your heart is not suffused with the love that believes all things.

51:50 Love thinks no evil.

51:55 So I give that word of encouragement to the office bearers. I give a word of encouragement to you older men. Now, you see, usually you can get, men who are a little older, to admit it quicker than women to admit that they fit that category. I've often said when I read Titus 2, exhort the older women, if you can get some people who admit they fit in that category, to train the younger women.

52:16 Well, you've got all kinds of people who want to fit the category of the younger women. But generally speaking, a man who would be classified as an older or aged man is a little more ready to acknowledge that he's in that category. Now, the Bible doesn't say that you reach that at such an age. And I've done my homework, and I know what the thought patterns were in that day with respect to the fact that a man was not a man until he was 30, and he was an old man when he hit 60, and some of the other figures that are thrown around.

52:44 But surely under the new covenant, in the liberty and blessedness of the indwelling of the Spirit, God doesn't need to give us categories with numbers, does He? He says, I will that the men pray. And when He says, as He does in the passage in Peter that we alluded to this morning, ye younger, be subject to the elder, you older men. You have younger men who have the spirit of that, and they want to defer to you in the prayer meeting.

53:11 Don't frustrate them. And set up this tension within them. I will that the men pray. And they say, I'm a man, and I ought to pray.

53:19 But the same Bible says, ye younger, be subject to the elder. And I want to do that. And so they are torn. You older men, don't put them in that agony.

53:29 As a pattern, the older men should take the lead. Not only that, allow the pause. Now that is not to say that a younger man can't pray in the first third of a prayer meeting. You keep looking down, you watch.

53:39 Say, oh, has my time come to pray yet? Poor old man. What kind of a legalistic mentality? We're not talking about that.

53:46 We're talking about overall principles. And what do I say to you younger men? Keep up the good work. Hang in there.

53:54 Be patient. It's the excessive grace in some of your older brothers that causes them to lay back. I hope you have as much grace when you're their age. You emulate them.

54:05 You pray for grace that will make necessary this kind of an exhortation from your pastor, whoever he may be, when you get to be an old man like some of the rest of us.

54:15 Now I give that direct word of encouragement to the men of this congregation.

Application: Pointed Exhortation to the Men

54:20 And I trust that when I say with the apostle, I have confidence that you will do what we've encouraged you and entreated you to do. I can't wait till Wednesday night. Now then, secondly, by way of application, I want to give a word of pointed exhortation. To the men of this congregation.

54:39 I've given this direct word of encouragement. Now I want to give a pointed word of exhortation. And the exhortation is this. If you take upon you the solemn and awesome responsibility of being the mouthpiece of the congregation in prayer, don't play games with God.

54:59 Make sure you pray with clean hands and with a pure heart. That you draw near on behalf of the people of God with no conscious controversy with God. If you've had sharp words with your wife even before you came to prayer to me, make sure they've been confessed to God and to your wife so that when she hears you pray, she doesn't have to secretly slip her fingers up and stuff her ears until that hypocrite is done with his play act.

55:33 And if you've been insensitive and sharp and callous with your children, and God has brought that to your awareness by His Word and Spirit, make sure that you draw near having had that issue resolved with God and with your children so that they will not become sour and cynical when you lead in prayer. Oh, dear men of this congregation, an awesome responsibility is upon you. And I would give you that pointed word of exhortation. Don't play games when you pray.

56:04 Come in the manner directed. But then a second, second word of exhortation. Don't be oversensitive in this matter and say, well, I've sinned today and I'm not all I should be and not all I ought to be. Well, join the club, my friend.

56:18 None of us is. You remember Newton's classic words, I am not what I should be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I shall be.

56:33 But thank God I am not what I once was. And grace has worked in me the desire to walk before God in holiness and obedience. When Paul says lifting up holy hands, he doesn't say sinless hands. And when he says without wrath and doubting, he does not mean in such a way that you can draw your robes around you and say, I thank you, God, I'm not as other men know.

56:59 The man who was heard was the one who beat upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, the sick. And so you come with that attitude of no conscious controversy with God, one in which your face is turned away from your sins, whatever they may be. Beware of being oversensitive. And then beware of being overly subjective.

57:20 I've got to feel led to pray. Now, I don't want to despise, demean, or in any way give the impression of rejecting that mystical element of the Christian life. There is such a thing as an increased measure of the spirit of grace and supplication coming upon us when we pray. But my friend, my experience has been that most often it comes when in naked obedience I set out to pray with very little felt enablement.

57:51 And that very sense of weakness weans me from all confidence that I can conjure up acceptable prayers in my own mind. And when I have felt weakness and stumble and stutter, as it were, into the presence of God, it is then that the greatest seasons of enlargement have come. And the wind of heaven fills the sails of one who has set his rudder in dogged, naked obedience to the word of God apart from his feelings. You can't fill your sails, but you can set your rudder.

58:25 I will let the men pray! And you set the rudder and say, Lord, I'm going to pray! Oh, wind of heaven, come and fill my sails. Same way with preaching.

58:35 If I waited until I felt some conscious help of the spirit before I stood up to preach, you'd get pretty slim thickens. We'd have an awful lot of Quaker meetings. We'd have a whole bunch of Quaker meetings. We'd have a whole bunch of Quaker meetings.

58:42 We'd have a whole bunch of Quaker meetings. We'd have a whole bunch of Quaker meetings. We'd have a whole bunch of Quaker meetings. Where we'd be sitting around waiting for the inspiration.

58:48 That's the mystery in the true, sanctified romance of preaching. You never know what's going to happen. Most of the times, especially Sunday nights, you come feeling only the headache and the dullness of having spent your energies Lord's Day morning and through the afternoon hours seeking to get your mind and spirit prepared. And who knows what God will do, but in obedience to His command, preach the word!

59:14 Shepherd the flock of dogs! You just move ahead, setting the rudder of obedience by the chart of the word of God. And say, oh, wind of heaven, come and fill the sails. And that's what you men must do.

59:28 Beware of that crass kind of subjectivism that waits till you feel led. What more do you want than the word of God? I will that the men pray. So I've given the direct word of encouragement, the pointed exhortation.

Application: A Word to the Unconverted

59:43 Now, finally, a word to the iniquity. I've given the direct word of encouragement. The pointed exhortation. Now, finally, a word to the iniquity.

59:45 I've given the direct word of encouragement. The pointed exhortation. Now, finally, a word to the iniquity. to the unconverted men and women, boys and girls amongst us.

59:50 You know, it's amazing how shallow our views of prayer are when we're ignorant of God and of ourselves. Pray? Oh, anybody can pray. Say a prayer for me.

60:00 How many of us have heard that? People who don't know a thing about what prayer is. Oh, will you say a little prayer for me? As though you said a little prayer like you recited a nursery rhyme.

60:10 That you begin to understand who God is. That He is that infinitely holy being, sovereign of the universe, before whom all things are naked and open. The God who will bring into judgment the slightest deviation from His law amongst His creatures, whether in thought, in word or deed. You begin to understand who God is.

60:34 And then begin to understand what you are. One who was conceived in sin. The moment there was conception that resulted in the beginnings of you, it was a sinner. As soon as it was conceived, you begin to understand how deeply ingrained into every cell of your being is your sinnerhood.

60:55 You begin to understand how vast and extensive is your deflection, your departure, your roving from God's holy law. You begin to understand what you are as a sinner in your guilt and bondage. And the thought that you could talk with such a high, lofty, majestic and holy being becomes a terrible, terrible problem. How shall I, whose native sphere is dark, whose mind is dim, before the ineffable appear and on my naked spirit bear the uncreated being?

61:30 How shall I have dealings with that God? How can I pray? That's where the gospel comes in. There is a way for man to rise to that sublime abode, an offering and a sacrifice of Holy Spirit's energies, an advocate with God.

61:47 These prepare us for the sight of holiness above. The sons of ignorance and night may dwell with the eternal light through the eternal love. You see, until you have felt something of the reality of God's holiness in your own sinfulness and the impossibility of praying to such a God, you'll have no awareness of the glory of the gospel. And the gospel is that wonderful message of how the Lord, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one and the same.

62:16 and the gospel is that wonderful message of how the Lord, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one and the same. and the gospel is that wonderful message of how the Lord, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one and the same. of how the Lord, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one and the same. Jesus took our place.

62:19 Jesus took our place. In our place, He lived and carried out that life of obedience to death, even the death of the cross. Willingly, bearing in His own body our sins. And from one perspective, He became the blotter, soaking up all of the ocean of God's wrath against all who will trust Him.

62:41 And from another standpoint, He was most active as He was both priest and offering. He was offerer and offering. And the scripture says he offered himself without thought unto God. And he carried his obedience not only up to his cross, but through to his triumphant cry, Tethelestai, it has been accomplished. And that's why he could say, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. But he also said, him that comes to me, I will in no wise cast out. Oh, dear children, men and women who are yet unconverted, you can't pray in a sense one true prayer until you've come to Jesus and found in Jesus forgiveness and life and salvation. You say, Pastor, does

63:36 that mean I shouldn't pray? No. No, it's a terrible thing not to pray. It's a sin not to pray. Well, you say, if my prayers aren't true prayers, why pray? It would be a double sin not to pray. But oh, there's something better than either the sinfulness of your present prayers that are uncleansed or the double sin of not praying. And that's to come through the Lord Jesus to God and have your prayers heard and have communion with God in the fellowship of his dear Son. And we urge, we invite, we command you in the name of Christ to repent and to believe the Gospel. And then you will will know, as the saints of God know, that there is perhaps nothing which brings us closer to the reality of the communion of heaven than the peculiar communion with God in true prayer. Christ is never more near. The sense of our unworthiness never more acute. Our

Summary of Directives and Transition to Next Sermon

64:41 appreciation of the grace of God never more profound. Well, we've gone through verse 8 tonight. God's specific word of directive to the men. I will that the men pray. Men are to be the leaders in prayer in the house of God. Now, please apply this to the family, to the school, to the classroom, to others. This is the house of God. We're talking about the church and its corporate identity. We're not talking about family devotion. We're not talking about a husband and wife praying together. We're not talking about a classroom. We're not talking about a church. We're not talking about a family. We're not talking about a family. We're not talking about a family. We're not talking about a family. We're not We're not talking about the Sunday school. No, no. We're talking about that which is envisioned in the context. The church and its behavior as church. I will that the men pray. The men are to take the leadership in prayer. They're to take the leadership in every house of God. They're to take the leadership in conjunction with a life of genuine godliness.

65:41 Now then, God willing, next week we'll take up verses 9 to 15. I doubt we'll get through them all. In like manner, with the verb, I will, understood. What are the women to do? Not to take the lead in prayer. Not to take the lead in teaching. Not in the house of God. In other places. Ah, yes. Titus 2. They're to take the lead in teaching in some circumstances. Oh, yes. But in the house of God.

66:08 No, no. The women have another responsibility. The function assigned by God, not imposed by tight-fisted, narrow-hearted men who want to batter women into a place of non-entity. No, no. But by the loving God who made them for a role that is most glorious as well as most distinct. And we'll consider that, God willing, in our study next week. Let us pray together.

Pastoral Prayer

66:36 Our Father, we have reflected on the mystery of what it is to commune. We have communed with you. And we confess that there are many things about the privilege, the duty, the exercise of prayer that baffle us. And yet we bless you, those of us who are your people, that we have known, we have tasted inwardly by the Spirit, that blessedness of communion with you that is ours when we pray, that has made us thirsty for more, and that causes us to cry with you.

67:20 Your disciples of old, Lord, teach us to pray. And we ask that in this day when there is such a blurring of the relative responsibilities of men and women in the church, that you will write upon our hearts this word we have studied tonight. Help the men of this congregation. We thank you for them.

67:42 We even thank you for that excess of the grace of humility and desire to wait upon one another in our prayers. We pray that you will help us to adjust that grace in its operation to these other responsibilities that have been outlined to us from the word of God. Keep us from legalistic bondage. Keep us from a wooden externalizing of these things.

68:07 O Holy Spirit, help us. Help us that we may take the principles and under the impulse and guidance of your own presence and power, see them worked. In harmony and in spiritual vitality and power in our seasons of congregational prayer. Then we thank you for the women of this congregation, for their willingness to embrace their assigned roles with joy.

68:37 O bless them in their obedience. And as they are bombarded from every side with the propaganda that would try to convince them that their present course is either demeaning or, is standing in the way of the realization of their true personhood and selfhood. Help them to turn away from all such error, all such erroneous thoughts that are spawned in the pit itself. And oh, may they not be conformed to the spirit of this age, but to your holy word.

69:12 We pray for the dear young men and young women amongst us, the boys and the girls. Oh God, help them we pray. That as they are living in a society in which these issues are all topsy-turvy. May they see in this congregation a true pillar and ground of the truth.

69:32 May they see the various roles embraced and worked out in such a way as to become beautiful in their eyes. And that they may hunger and thirst to have in their hearts and lives and in their experience that which they see in us, your peace. Oh Lord, what an obligation and responsibility has been laid upon us. Help us, help us we pray.

69:59 And then have mercy upon those that are yet in their sins. May the words of entreaty and exhortation prove effectual in drawing them to the knowledge of your beloved Son. Receive our praise for your presence with us this day. We thank you again for this building.

70:17 We thank you for each other. We thank you for your word. We thank you for our civil liberties. We thank you for every blessing that we've received from your hand this day.

70:29 And we pray for your people scattered across the face of the earth. As many of them will still meet in their evening hour of worship. Come upon them, meet with them, and make it to be a glorious day to the praise of Christ and to the blessing of your people. Oh God, be with us as we leave this place.

70:50 As we must go forth many into circumstances that are so blatantly opposed to every principle of righteousness and truth. Oh God, help your people to be light and salt and so to live in communion with your Son as to be used of you in turning many to righteousness. Hear our prayer and lift up the light of your countenance upon us. For the sake of your beloved Son.

Closing

71:20 We pray. Amen. This sermon was preached on Sunday evening, March 15th, 1981 at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

72:05 Be with your Son as to be used of you in turning many to righteousness. Hear our prayer and lift up the light of your countenance upon us. For the sake of your beloved Son. We pray.

72:19 Amen.