Motherhood — the Crowning Encouragement

Introduction and Review of 1 Timothy 2:8-14

0:04 This sermon was preached on Sunday evening, May 17, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:16 And now let me urge you again to turn to the first epistle of Paul to Timothy, to the book of 1 Timothy and chapter 2, and for the last time, no doubt for some time to come, this portion will be read in your hearing, 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 8 through 15.

0:39 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 8 through 15. With all subjection, but I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness. For Adam was first formed, then Eve.

1:24 And Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being utterly beguiled hath fallen into transgression. But she shall be saved through the childbearing, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification forever. With sobriety. We come this evening to the eighth and final exposition of this very crucial passage of the Word of God, obviously dealing with the relative roles of men and women, particularly as those roles and functions come to expression in the house of God.

2:05 In our previous studies, I have emphasized again and again that a proper understanding and response to this passage is in great measure dependent upon our approach to it in the light of four major related matters. We must first of all always keep before us the unique and perpetual authority which breathes through this portion of the Word of God. The I will of verse 8 and the I permit not of verse 12 are not the words of the Word of God. The I will of verse 8 and the I permit not of verse 12 are not the words of the Word of God.

2:42 The I will of verse 8 and the I permit not of verse 12 are not the words of the Word of God. The I will of verse 8 and the I permit not of verse 12 are not the words of the Word of God. The I will of verse 8 and the I permit not of verse 12 are not the words of an ordinary Christian or of someone advanced greatly in knowledge and understanding, but they are the words of the One who describes Himself in chapter 1 and verse 1 as an Apostle of Christ Jesus. He speaks as one who has the unique authority of apostolic direction, apostolic inspiration.

3:10 The I will of verse 8 and the I permit not of verse 12 are not the words of the Word of God. The I will of verse 8 and the I permit not of verse 12 are not the words of the Word of God. The I will of verse 8 and the I permit not of verse 12 are not the words of the Word of God. And then secondly, we must always come to a passage of this nature, keeping in mind the general teaching of the Bible with respect to those areas in which men and women are declared to be absolutely equal.

3:27 And the word of God is plain that male and female share equally in the dignity of creation, in the tragedy of the fall, and in the privileges of redemption. And then in this particular passage, we must always keep in mind, in the third place, the pressing apostolic burden which precipitated this letter. According to chapter 3 and verse 15, the apostle is concerned with regulating the behavior of the people of God in the house of God. And so this passage is addressing itself primarily, though not exclusively, to the behavior of men and women in the visible,

4:09 community of the people of God, the church of the living God. And then we must always keep in mind the pressure of the immediate context. In the first seven verses, directions have been given for the corporate prayers of God's people, therefore making it naturally in verse 8 for the apostle to answer the question, who should implement those directions in the house of God? And since he's going to be dealing with the official leaders and servants of the church, in chapter 3, verses 1 to 13, and in those directives makes it plain that the office of elder and deacon is open only to males,

4:50 it is natural then that he should answer the question, what then is the precise function of the woman in the house of God? And therefore the paragraph that we've been considering says much more concerning the function and role of women than it does of the function and role of men. Well, in our previous studies, we have noted the very natural structure of the passage. In verse 8, we have a word of direction to the men, I will therefore that the men pray in every place.

5:23 And then from verse 9 to 14, words of direction to the women. And those words of direction, first of all, impinge upon the outward appearance of the women in the house of God, verses 9 and 10. And then verses 11, and following, we have a word concerning their conduct in the house of God. Positively, verse 11, a woman is to learn in quietness with all submission.

5:51 Negatively, she is not to teach nor to exercise authority over the man. And then in verses 13 and 14, we have the two great pillars upon which these directives rest. When the apostle brings forward the reasons for these assigned roles in the house of God, he states them in terms of the truths revealed in the opening chapters of Genesis. Pillar number one is the priority of Adam in the creation, for Adam was first formed, then Eve, and according to verse 14, the priority of the woman in the fall.

6:36 Well, Adam was not deceived. But the woman being utterly deceived hath fallen into transgression. Well, in a matter of some five minutes, we've covered some six or seven hours of exposition. For any who were not present for those previous expositions, they are available on cassette from the Trinity pulpit.

Approaching the Mysterious Verse: 1 Timothy 2:15

6:58 Now we come tonight to this mysterious verse with which the paragraph is concluded. Verse 15. Verse 15. Verse 15.

7:07 Verse 15. Verse 15. Verse 15. Verse 15.

7:07 Verse 15. Verse 15. Verse 15. Verse 15.

7:07 Verse 15. Verse 15. Verse 15. Verse 15.

7:08 Verse 15. Verse 15. Verse 15. Verse 15.

7:10 Verse 15. Verse 15. Verse 15. Verse 15.

7:11 If they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety. And as I approach the exposition of this passage, I've entitled it, The Crowning Encouragement to Women. The Crowning Encouragement to Women. Paul has in some great detail, or I should say in general outline, form, not great detail, but in general outline form with some specifics, made it plain that the woman is to learn in quietness and submissiveness. He has made it equally plain by apostolic

7:54 authority that she is not to teach nor to exercise authority over the man. Having brought forward the two fundamental reasons for those directions from Genesis chapters 2 and 3, he now crowns this entire statement with a wonderful word of encouragement to women. In the light of the things that they are to do and not to do in the house of God, how are they to view their distinctive role? If their distinctive role is not to be the

8:32 that of the official teachers or leaders of the church, what is their distinctive role? If they are not to make a dominant contribution to the advancement of the kingdom of Christ by means of teaching or government in the house of God, what channel is open to them through which they may make a significant and dominant contribution? And it is verse 15 which answers that question. She shall be saved through the childbearing.

9:10 Now I am fully aware, as I have spent many hours in preparation for our study tonight, that this is a difficult text. Furthermore, I am very conscious that it is a text which has had many and varied interpretations. placed upon it. But proceeding with the fundamental assumption that Scripture is its own infallible interpreter and that the meaning of Scripture is Scripture, we need not be afraid of such a passage as this.

9:44 Coming at the end of this paragraph, there must be some very tremendous significance in the words of the Apostle. And it is not all that. Difficult to arrive at at least an understanding of the passage that will enable us to grasp the major thrust of its tremendous encouragement to women with respect to their God-assigned role. Well, with that introduction behind us, let us then seek to ascertain the meaning of the words of the text.

10:22 The meaning of the words of the text. She shall be saved. She shall be saved through the childbearing. If they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety.

What 1 Timothy 2:15 Does NOT Mean

10:39 Now whenever we come to a difficult text of Scripture, it is often helpful to seek to come down on the true meaning by clearing away what obviously cannot be the true meaning. And so I want to begin by stating what the text does not. And I have two things to say. It can't mean anything.

11:04 Or it can mean nothing. It can be stated either way. Which in any way undermines the universal testimony of Scripture concerning the way of a sinner's pardon and acceptance with God. Whatever the text says and whatever it means, it can mean nothing which in any way, undermines the universal testimony of Scripture concerning the way of a sinner's pardon and acceptance with God.

11:39 On the surface of things, it would appear that the text is saying, women at least, since they are the only ones who can bear children, women can find pardon and acceptance with God if they'll have babies. Isn't that what the Bible says? She shall be saved. She shall be saved through the bearing of children.

12:02 Now the Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it. You want to go to heaven?

12:07 Have a baby.

12:10 Well, we laugh, don't we? But isn't that what the Bible says? She shall be saved. Saved means to find pardon and acceptance with God through, that means by the instrumentality of childbearing.

12:25 Why? The text says something very plain and its meaning is obvious. And yet I'm standing here saying, whatever it says and whatever it means, it can't mean that, though it says that. And why do we take that position?

12:39 For the simple reason that the Bible would not contradict itself with regard to its fundamental message, which elsewhere is made abundantly clear. When we as sinners ask the question, how can we find pardon and acceptance before a holy God? The answer of the Bible is, the Bible is unequivocally clear. The way of pardon and acceptance is to be found in Christ alone and received by faith alone.

13:13 Now that's the universal testimony of Scripture. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. The testimony of the angel was this.

13:26 Thou shalt call his name Jesus. For he it is. Thou shalt save his people from their sins. Or the apostolic testimony in Acts 4.12.

13:38 There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. So whatever the text means, it cannot mean anything which undermines that universal testimony of Scripture that Christ alone saves from sin and that it is by faith alone that we embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says, Jesus and the salvation that is in him. When the jailer asked, What must I do to be saved?

14:08 The answer was, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. And right here in this epistle, Paul would have more sense than to contradict himself. He had written in the first chapter in verse 15, Faithful is the saying, and God is the saying.

14:30 Worthy of all acceptance. This was a common saying that was circulating among the apostolic churches. One of these faithful sayings, and here it is, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. So whatever these words mean, she shall be saved through her childbearing, they cannot mean that there is another way of deliverance from sin.

14:59 That there is another way of deliverance from sin's penalty, its curse, and its power. That there is another way of pardon and acceptance other than Christ alone received by faith alone. But then there is a second thing the text cannot mean. It cannot mean anything which cancels the conditions attached to this salvation in the text itself.

15:25 Look at the text. This salvation promised in verse 15. This salvation promised in verse 15. This salvation promised in verse 15.

15:29 Verse 15 has conditions. She shall be saved, a future tense of the verb is used, through her childbearing, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety. So whatever this being saved through childbearing is, it must never be detached from the if. From the conditions that are set forward.

16:01 It is a salvation which comes not through childbearing in isolation, but whatever the saved through childbearing is, it is only in conjunction with faith, love, sanctification, and sobriety. Do you see that in the text itself? So when we come to the text and ask the question, what does it mean, we can clear the field by saying what it doesn't mean. Now.

Ascertaining the Meaning of 'Saved' and 'Childbearing'

16:29 When we ascertain what it does not mean, what then does it mean? And as we approach that serious question, may I commend to you an excellent treatment of this passage by Pastor Chantry in a very heartwarming and encouraging sermon called The High Calling of Motherhood. It's available in our tape library if you don't have it. I urge you to get hold of it.

16:52 I listened to it again this afternoon just to get my own mind and spirit charged up afresh with these wonderful insights. What does the text mean? Well obviously the key to a proper understanding is to be found in understanding the words saved and childbearing. They are the key words.

17:17 Now the text says, nevertheless or but, in spite of the fact that the woman took a prior place in the event of the fall, left the proper headship of Adam. She came into this direct dialogue with the serpent and was thereby deceived, but she shall be saved through her childbearing. Now the word used for saved is that general word found in the New Testament, which is the word used in the texts I've already quoted. When the biblical writers want to describe deliverance from the guilt and bondage of

18:00 sin unto the privileges of life and forgiveness in Christ, this is the word that they use. Acts 16.31, Matthew 1.21, Luke 19.10, the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that

18:15 which is lost. But there is also a widespread use of this word in the New Testament that is broader than that narrow concept of salvation. The word for healing, translated healing, is often this word. When people cry to be healed, or when it is said, by faith hath healed thee, sometimes it's translated, by faith hath saved thee, and yet the thing in question was a physical healing.

18:45 It is used of deliverance from danger. You remember the incident in the book of Acts in which Paul and his companions are involved in a violent storm, and Paul says, except you abide in the ship, you cannot be, this is the word, saved. You cannot be rescued or delivered from these impending dangers. In Mark's Gospel, chapter 3 and verse 4, it is used as the opposite of destroying light.

19:14 It means, obviously, in the context, to preserve light. Mark chapter 3 and verse 4, and he said unto them, Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good or do harm? Here's the word. To save a life or to kill.

19:31 Now there, it obviously does not mean to grant pardon and acceptance with God, but to preserve a life intact, or to kill, that is, violently to take away that life. And so it is not improper at all, in terms of the general usage of the word saved, to render it in this manner. She shall be saved. That is, the woman shall find her true life.

19:58 Her true liberation, her true blessedness, her true deliverance, so that we must not think of the word saved in this context, in that more narrow technical sense, but in that broader general sense. It is in that very sense that in this very epistle, God is called the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. 1 Timothy 4 and verse 10, to this end we both labor and strive, because we've set our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men.

20:38 Now he is not the one who brings all men out of their state of guilt and into a condition of pardon and acceptance. There is no such universalism taught in the Bible. But God is indeed the preserver and the upholder of all men. In him we live and move.

20:58 And have our very being, according to Acts chapter 17. So then, if we are to understand the text, we must properly understand the words saved. And then the next key phrase, of course, is saved through the childbearing. Now the preposition used is a preposition which has a use here that does not predominate in the New Testament.

21:26 But there are other instances of it. And it's called the usage in which the diah is the diah of attendant circumstances. In other words, if you want to describe something going on in the context of something else, you can use this preposition. It's used that way in Romans 8.15 and Romans 4 and verse 11.

21:51 So that we can translate, She shall be delivered. She shall find her true liberation. Liberation and blessedness in the context of childbearing.

22:07 And I suggest that the word childbearing is used to epitomize the domestic role and responsibility. Since the bearing of children is, as it were, the center of that activity by which a woman devotes herself to her domestic functions. And out of that grow all of those other functions, Paul can use the part for the whole. Now why do I assert that?

22:37 Well, again, letting scripture be its own interpreter, this word childbearing is not found anywhere else in the New Testament. But there is a verb form of this word found only once in the New Testament. And if you will turn with me, please, to the fifth chapter of this very letter, we'll see its usage. In giving directions for the widows, the apostle says in chapter 5 and verse 14, I desire therefore that the younger widows marry, now here's the verb form of the same

23:14 root word, bear children, rule the household, give no occasion to the adversary for reviling. Now here the bearing of children is set in the context of the, of privileges and responsibility of marriage, and of caring or ruling the household to the end that no occasion be given to the adversary for reviling. Now the apostle no doubt could have given the full treatment of this passage and said, she shall be delivered, she shall find her blessedness, she shall experience her true liberation in the full-orbed outworking of her domestic role.

The Flow of Thought and Confirming Witness

23:59 And he could have used the terms marriage, bearing of children, caring for the whole, caring for the home, but he uses the part for the whole. Now put it all together and what do we have? Well we have the flow of thought that brings us to this point and we must not forget it. Women are to learn in quietness and submission.

24:24 I do not permit, the apostle says, the woman to teach, nor to usurp, authority or exercise authority over a man, but to be in silence. Adam was first formed, then Eve. Adam was not deceived, but the woman being utterly deceived hath fallen into the transgression, but she shall find her true blessedness, not in seeking to roll back the strictures of creation, which are firmly embedded in her concreated nature, and in her God-assigned place, none of them.

25:04 She shall find her true blessedness in spite of the fall, in spite of her part in the fall. She shall find her true blessedness in embracing from the heart that role for which God has assigned her, and as a woman in union with Christ, a woman of faith, love, holiness with sobriety, let her give herself. Let her give herself to her God-given role and function of motherhood and all that attaches to it. And therein she shall find her true blessedness.

25:41 Therein she shall be a truly liberated woman. She shall be a woman who is saved through or in the context of her childbearing. Now that this is no bizarre interpretation, let me just bring the confirming witness. The witness of several recognized and responsible commentators, one summarizing the position taken by many on this, says that childbirth is selected here as characterizing her whole sphere in life, namely, the home in its privacy and sanctity,

26:22 rather than the public assembly in its utterances of worship and instruction. Notwithstanding her sin, she shall find salvation, yet not through using the functions and usurping the authority of man, but through abiding in the sphere and performing the functions God has appointed her. A holy married life with the bearing and training of children is, as a rule, and there are exceptions to the rule, we'll consider some of them, the appointed path for women, and it will end in their salvation, that is, their blessedness, their deliverance in spite of their original weakness,

27:06 if that path be humbly and faithfully pursued. Childbearing evidently denotes the sphere which properly belongs to the woman, and thus stands in opposition to the sphere of public teaching which she enters only by usurping it. And then a list of four or five of the recognized expositors, in past days, are quoted. And so this interpretation does justice to the meaning of words as they appear in the Scriptures, as they are used in the Scriptures, and satisfies the demands of the context.

27:47 Now, I'm fully aware that there are responsible commentators who have said, no, that's not the meaning. When Paul said she shall be saved through the childbearing, and the definite article is there in the original, he's referring back to the situation in Genesis, where the seed of the woman is promised as the one who will bruise the head of the serpent. What he's saying is that the woman will be saved through the childbearing, that is, the one who would come of woman, even our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that's a wonderful truth, but that has no real connection with the flow of thought in the context, for not only is the woman thus saved through the childbearing of the man Christ Jesus, but so is every man.

28:30 And so, you see, the problem with that interpretation, though the language would warrant that, is that it does not fit the flow of context. And so we must seek to settle upon an understanding of the words that does no injustice, does not torture the words, and fits the overall drift of the Apostle's thought as he is guided by the Spirit. Well, I've spent considerable time in seeking to arrive at what is, I trust to your minds, a reasonable understanding of the meaning of the words of the text. Having done that, now we come to what I'm calling the burning message of the text, and no other word would come to my mind.

Burning Message 1: A Frontal Attack on Prevailing Climate

29:15 The burning message of the text. If that's its meaning, what's its message? And as time permits, I want to lay before you four or five strands of its burning message into the context of our own present situation. First of all, this text constitutes a frontal attack upon the increasingly prevailing climate of our day.

29:45 This text constitutes a frontal attack upon the increasingly prevailing climate of our day. Now, you know what a frontal attack is. A frontal attack is which someone, is an attack in which someone comes to you straight on, eyeball to eyeball, you see him coming and he says I'm out to get you. A sneak attack is where you're looking one way and your enemy comes up behind you.

30:09 Well, this text out into the increasingly prevailing climate of this generation comes at that climate head on and smacks it right between the eyes. To change the analogy, it sticks a saber right into the heart of the prevailing climate of this day. Now, why do I say that? Well, follow me closely.

30:38 Ours is a sinful world. A sinful world in which sinful men, and by men I mean those of the male gender, have sinfully abused their headship over equally sinful women who in sinful pride have often fought against their role of submissiveness. Now, you see what I've said? Ours is a sinful world, a sinful world in which sinful men sinfully exert a sinful authority over sinful women who often sinfully reject

31:20 their God-given place of submission. Now, like it or not, that's the reality in which we live. Now, in such a situation, women are being told the following. Now, there's only one way out of this wretched state in which you find yourself.

31:37 The path to liberation and blessedness, the path of salvation, to use the word in the sense of our text, is to press for total equality with men in every single level of human interaction with them. And until women attain to a posture of total equality with men, they will always be in the position of vulnerability to their sinful dominance. Now, to carry out that general directive into specifics, women are being told that motherhood

32:20 must no longer be viewed as the position of supreme significance for a woman. The inward is personhood, and true personhood can only be realized in a context of individual identity.

32:41 A woman must wrench herself loose from anything she is in relationship to her children as a mother, anything she is with respect to her relationship to her husband as a wife, and she has no true personhood until she can draw a circle around herself and say, I am what I am in my person, independent of and totally distinct from what I am as a mother and what I am as a wife. Now, I'm not caricaturing. I am giving you a distillation of that philosophy which is being aggressively pressed upon the feminine mind and the masculine as well in our generation.

33:26 Therefore, now you see where it goes, if you are to really find your identity, you must get out of the bondage of that domestic sphere. Motherhood is the most demeaning, low-down, personhood-squashing context imaginable. Now, if you want to have a baby for some perverse reason or other, have it, but as soon as you can, stick it in the day center and get on with your career so you can find your personhood. That's what we're being told.

34:04 Furthermore, your husband's got a career, why shouldn't you have one? Why should you not have economic independence? Why should you not have since you have equal amount of gray matter? Why should you not have all that he has in terms of the liberties, in terms of the freedoms, in terms of the prerogatives of the business world?

34:28 Well, if you're to attain to personhood, you will only find it if you rid yourself of this antiquated notion that your true identity as a woman is bound up in the domestic sphere and function. I say this text comes out of this text. I say this text comes out of this text. I say this text comes out of this text.

34:45 It comes with a frontal look upon that mentality. So is the woman to find her true blessedness, her deliverance, her salvation in a sinful world, married to sinful men, interacting with sinful men. She shall be saved in the context of childbearing. She shall find her blessedness in embracing from the heart her noble role and function as a mother, in the framing and molding and development of the character of her children.

35:23 This, then, is her great and her noble function. And anything other than that, apart from some of the exceptions we shall mention, is not a step down and away from her salvation. She shall be saved in childbearing. And I plead with any of you who have allowed your minds in any way to be influenced by the radical thought of our day to sit down before the living God with this text and pray it in until the glory of it breaks upon your own soul.

Burning Message 2: A Powerful Incentive to Mothers

36:06 But then I must hasten on. The burning message of this text is not only found in that it constitutes a frontal attack upon the increasingly prevailing, climate of our day, but secondly, it constitutes a powerful incentive to every woman given to fulfilling the arduous demands of motherhood.

36:30 Notice how I've chosen my words carefully.

36:35 It is a word of powerful incentive, encouragement to every woman given to fulfilling the arduous demands of motherhood. There are times, when any mother, particularly a mother of little children, with all of the physical and emotional and mental demands, and then, as those demands lessen, the internal demands, the psychological and the emotional of teenagers, there are times when you feel, the childbearing shall be my death and my destruction and send me to my grave before I'm forty.

37:15 Oh, look at this text. She shall be saved. She shall find, she shall find her blessedness. She shall find her true liberation in the childbearing, that is, in embracing from the heart and giving herself to the arduous demands of her domestic role.

37:34 In that, she shall indeed find true blessedness. Ah, not blessedness apart from union with Christ. Not blessedness apart from the indwelling of the Spirit. Blessedness, blessedness, she continues in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety, yes, but pursuing a life of godliness amidst all the arduous demands of motherhood in the domestic sphere.

38:04 Here is a tremendous encouragement to you women. You're being bombarded on every hand to feel as though you're a second-class female citizen because you gladly, as it were, bury yourself in the hidden ministry, in the mysteries of your home. You are glad, as it were, to put away capital, investing it unseen by men in the molding of a life here and the other life there, the shaping of a character. You're content that all of the demands of your God-given wisdom, all of your tact and patience and organizational ability, all of your administrative savvy, creativity, perseverance, and a thousand other graces,

38:49 all of your administrative savvy, creativity, perseverance, and a thousand other graces, that any woman needs to be a true mother. You're prepared to let them go unnoticed by the world for a time. You're prepared to exercise those graces, cultivate those patterns of godly motherhood in the conviction that in the way of so doing, not only do you attain to true blessedness, but in giving to another generation of godly seed, true grace. So that every city and every town

39:33 that Aku has been able to carry Jesus' name, that every hand that's raised because you believe in Jesus, you put together all of your spiritual units that you put together are just as important to you on this world because you believe. That you're not removing God from your soul by saying, You make me a Church of the Your 오��� and not desiring or complaining and sanctification with level-headedness, sobriety, that mental disposition that keeps you in touch with spiritual reality, it is in the climate of those graces blossoming in your own heart and life that you will find true blessedness in your role as a mother.

40:13 So if you allow any of that garbage floating around in the women's magazines and in the talk shows to take residence in your heart, you'll begin to resent the demands of motherhood. And in place of faith, there will be unbelief. In place of love, there will be bitterness. In place of sanctification, there will be the outcroppings of things that are unlike Christ.

Burning Message 3: A Noble Goal for Young Women

40:39 Oh, dear mothers, giving yourself to the arduous demands of motherhood, take great encouragement from this text. But then thirdly, the burning message of this text is one in which we see, and I trust hear, a noble goal for every young woman with her life spread before her. This text constitutes a noble goal for every young woman with her life spread before her. Now, I'm fully aware, and I want you to listen carefully, that the Bible teaches that some men and women can serve God better

41:23 in a life of singleness than in the married state, 1 Corinthians 7. She that is unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord, how she may please the Lord. Some are eunuchs, male and female, for the kingdom of heaven's sake. And I'm also aware that some women who are married are made widows in the providence of God and do not experience motherhood.

41:50 Barrenness is imposed by the sovereign will of God. And you have that noble woman, Anna, who served God day and night in the temple with fastings and prayers. And from the human side, the coming of Messiah in her day was an event that came in answer to her prayers. I'm fully aware that marriage is not the will of God for some women, not through any choice of their own, but through the non-choice of some young men.

42:23 I'm fully conscious of all of that. But what I'm asserting, what I'm asserting is that this text sets before you young women a noble goal to which you should aspire and towards which you should move and prepare yourself and pray all the while with the attitude, not my will, but thine be done. In other words, as you young women, as you girls, think and dream of what you want to be, what have you set before you as the noblest, the highest, the greatest goal to which you would press if God would but give you the privilege you would count it your highest privilege in life. This text is the answer.

43:07 She shall be saved in childbearing, being a mother, to the tasks and responsibilities of the home and all of the broad spectrum of what is involved in that. This should be your goal. And my heart is pained as I move in Christian circles and see more and more professing Christian teenage girls aspiring to be mothers, but aspiring to be this and that and the other in the so-called professional and career world.

43:42 It's a wonderful thing to earn the right to influence other people, but if we look at the Scripture's concept of this, it is never a novice who exercises the place of leadership. And there's that beautiful passage concerning the widows who are, to be put on special provision in the church for special ministry. And look how they're described with regard to their competence for that task in chapter 5. Notice it for a moment.

44:27 He's giving the requirements for those widows that are to be enrolled for this special provision and special task. Verse 9 of chapter 5. Let none be enrolled as a widow under 60 years. The wife of one man, now notice, well reported of, for her good works, if she has attained to the vice presidency of her company, if she has been active in all civic and community affairs, if she has had an elected post, no, no, listen to the list of those things which make her competent to influence and minister to others.

45:08 Here it is. Well reported of for good works, specifically if she hath brought up children. You can see, you can tell more about a woman's wisdom or more about her tact, administrative ability, psychological instincts and insights and a host of other things, far more from her having brought up children well than if she's vice president of a huge corporation.

45:42 If she hath brought up children, if she hath used hospitality to strangers, if she hath washed the saints' feet, if she hath, if she hath relieved the afflicted, if she hath diligently followed every good work. And then in Titus, when Paul desires to give instruction to Titus concerning the various age groups, he says in chapter 2 of Titus, these very significant words, verse 3, that the aged women are to be reverent in demeanor, not slanders, not enslaved to wine, teachers of that which is good, that they may train the young women to be courageous, career gals, to make an impact for Christ in the community.

46:27 No! No!

46:30 God have mercy on you as a Christian parent during your daughters and your sons with that perspective. The older women are to train the younger women to do what?

46:44 That they may train the young women to love their husband, to love their children, to be sober-minded, chaste workers at home, kind, being in subjection, to their own husbands. Why? That the word of God be not blasphemed. My friend, this is not a matter of personal opinion.

47:06 It is a matter of obedience to the word of God. And when people claim to be subservient to the word of God and do not aspire to this glorious privilege of the domestic role, it is blasphemous to some degree. At least occasion is given for people to, to blaspheme when those who profess to be obedient to the word of God find their highest aspirations in another direction. Now I am not saying it is wicked for a woman to be found in the business world.

47:42 If anyone listening to my voice says, that preacher is crazy, he is out of his tree, he said that. Don't you bear false witness. I didn't say that. I did not say it is wicked or sinful for a woman to be found in the business world.

47:55 I did not say that.

47:57 What I am doing, is trying to extract the burning message of this text. And when Paul has shown the things for which God has not suited the woman, she is not to teach, she is not to lead, she is to learn in submission. His crowning word of encouragement is, but she shall find her true liberation, her true deliverance, when she embraces from the heart that which is in ordinary cases her God-appointed sphere of influence. She influences the church, and the world, not from the top down, but from the bottom up.

48:34 From the time she holds that life in her womb, and nurses it at her breast, and then begins to mold that character. Oh, may God give a vision of this to you young girls. I will never forget one of my sisters, and I have enough of them. I have seven of them.

48:51 And only one was older than I. I am second oldest of a family of ten. And I can remember something of this vision being imparted. It obviously must have been well imparted, because my oldest sister, she has four.

49:04 The next sister down under me has four, and then the next one has six, and the next one six, and right down the line, I think there's some 40-odd grandchildren as of this stage of things. But be that as it may, I'll never forget one of my sisters when she was about the age of some of these girls here, and somebody said, what do you want to be when you grow up? She said, I want to be a big fat mama and have lots of kids.

49:29 Now my mother was not big and fat, because she had, she had a child every two years. She was often great with child. Now whether she had that association, I don't know. But I've looked back at that, and you know, that wasn't an accident.

49:44 That as a little girl, she thought the most glorious thing was to be a big fat mama and have lots of kids.

49:52 That vision was imparted. That vision was imparted. And it was imparted because I bear witness to the praise of God that I had a mother whose vision and passion was to find her truth through liberation and usefulness and glory in her childbearing, in her role of being a mother. And whose constant prayer was, Lord, give me blinders to everything else.

50:20 Help me to see that I'm molding future men, future women, future husbands, future wives. If in your goodness you lay your hand upon my sons, future preachers, and two of the three are in the ministry today. Lord, give me wisdom for this task. Give me strength to build into them those character traits, those disciplines, those perspectives that will suit them to be what in time they will have to be.

50:50 That's what I'm talking about. I'm spoiled because I am the unworthy but blessed recipient of someone who had that vision and imparted it to her children.

Burning Message 4: A Sober Warning to Opposing Women

51:02 The text constitutes a noble goal for every young woman who has her life spread before her. But then, fourthly, it constitutes a sober warning, a sober warning to every woman who willfully opposes her God-given identity and role as a woman.

51:20 Do you hear me now? It constitutes a sober warning to every woman who willfully opposes her God-given identity and role as a woman. Now, it's one thing for a woman to embrace from the heart her identity and her role, and then in the providence of God, through a number of factors, never to realize the normal expression of that identity in motherhood and wifehood.

51:49 Now, the Bible recognizes that as no second-class citizenship. And that's why you'll never hear the term old maid in this congregation and from this pulpit.

52:01 We speak of our single women, our unmarried women, and we speak of them, I trust, with the dignity and respect due to them as Christian sisters. So we're not speaking, of a woman who from the heart has embraced what God says she is as a woman, and what normally would be the expression of the embracing of that identity and role. No, no. Speaking of a woman who, perhaps hearing my voice tonight in this auditorium or somewhere in her own home or in a car, is saying, I won't buy that business.

52:35 I can do anything a man can do if I choose to do it. My friend, listen. The Word of God says,

52:44 a carnal mind is enmity, against God it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. When you rear back on your hind legs and say, I will not embrace what the Bible says I am as a woman, what I am to do as a woman, your rebellion is against the God who made you not a person, but a woman.

53:11 God didn't make innocuous persons. In the beginning He made them male and female, created, see them.

53:23 My dear woman friend, listen. You'll go to hell in rebellion to God by rejecting God's identity or your identity as prescribed by God and your role as dictated by God as much as the person who says, I'll defy God when He says, thou shalt not steal and thou shalt not commit adultery. I don't care what God's law says. I'll be a law to myself.

53:49 And perhaps there's no clear indication that our generation, by and large, is going to hell at breakneck speed and that people like Gloria Steinem and her ilk can have the following they do. But then I have a final word and it is this. This text constitutes a serious call to the salvation of every single mother. Listen to the text.

Burning Message 5: A Serious Call to Salvation for Every Mother

54:17 She shall be saved. She shall find her true liberation and blessedness and deliverance in childbearing if if they continue in faith, love, holiness, with sobriety. You see, Paul does not envision a motherhood that is competent apart from the grace of God.

54:41 Now thank God there is common grace in which there are women who have been good mothers though they've been strangers to grace. Good in the sense that they have taught responsibility and uprightness and other things that have helped their children to cope with the real world in a manner that has at least made a positive contribution to society. I do not deny the doctrine of common grace. But oh my dear mother, your life will come to an end and those children will weep at your graveside and then you'll be somewhere forever.

55:14 And apart from faith in Jesus Christ and love which is the fruit of the Spirit and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord and that sobriety, that true perspective on reality, which is the gift of the Spirit to every believing soul without those things you will hear the same words that drunkards and harlots hear. Depart from me you cursed, I never knew you. Oh my friend, if you're not in Christ, flee to Him and find in Him the Savior of sinners who can then help you to be the mother He intended you should be for His glory and for the good of your children. May God write upon our hearts not only a proper understanding

55:58 of the meaning of the words of this text may it turn its way into our hearts and may we be a congregation who reflect our wholehearted embrace of this great capstone of encouragement but she shall be saved through the childbearing. Let us pray.

56:23 Our Father we pray that you will write your word upon our hearts and may it bear fruit in each of our lives even unto everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.