Motherhood/Homemaking & Redemption (b)

Introduction: Pastoral Responsibility and Sermon Series Context

0:00 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, June 30, 2002, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey, by Pastor Albert N. Martin. Pastor Martin, reflecting upon this sermon after it was preached, decided that there were some areas which needed some clarification. These areas will be addressed in a subsequent message.

0:30 Now I encourage you to turn with me in your own Bibles to 1 Timothy and chapter 2.

0:40 1 Timothy and chapter 2. And I shall read this entire chapter, relatively brief chapter, and then two verses from chapter 3, verses 13 and 14. 1 Timothy then chapter 2 and verse 1 Paul writing to Timothy his son in the faith and an apostolic representative whom Paul has exhorted to tarry in the city of Ephesus in order to continue the work of apostolic guidance in the emerging church or churches at Ephesus and writing to Timothy in that setting, he says,

1:27 I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all that are in high place, that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior Who would have all men to be saved And come to the knowledge of the truth For there is one God One mediator also between God and men Himself a man Christ Jesus Who gave himself a ransom for all The testimony to be born in its own time

2:12 Whereunto I was appointed a preacher and an apostle, I speak the truth, I lie not, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I desire, therefore, that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands without wrath and disputing. In like manner, that is, in like manner I desire, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with, and this shame fastness in the old 1901 is a word that communicates nothing or very little to us and we'll come to what is at least an attempt to translate it and sobriety not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly raiment

3:03 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 teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not beguiled.

3:28 But the woman, being utterly beguiled, hath fallen into transgression. but she shall be saved through her childbearing if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety. Verse 14 of chapter 3 These things write I unto you, hoping to come unto you shortly but if I tarry long that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

4:10 Now one of the clearly defined tasks of a pastor is given to us in the requirements for elders in Titus chapter 1 and verse 9. Those who assume the office of an elder are to be men who will be able in the language of Titus 1.9 to exhort in the sound or healthy doctrine and to convict the gainsayers that is those who speak against the sound or the healthy doctrine. And here are the two prongs of pastoral responsibility in the ministry of the word.

4:51 The positive to exhort in the realm of sound or healthy teaching, and the negative to convict, to bring to the test and expose as false those who speak against the truth of healthy doctrine. And this is precisely what I'm seeking to do as we come to message number 13 in this series, entitled In Praise and Defense of Marriage, Motherhood, and Homemaking. Against the backdrop of two compelling biblical reasons for addressing the subject and within the framework of two vital biblical qualifications which surround the subject,

5:38 we're considering marriage, motherhood, and homemaking in the light of the biblical doctrines of creation, of fall and of redemption. With Ephesians 5, 22-33 as our focus for two Lord's Days, we considered God's directives for a redeemed marriage. This morning we began to take up motherhood and homemaking in the light of redemption. And as we did, I set before you two major principles rooted primarily in the biblical data of Genesis 3 and 4 and highlighted in the life and experience of Mary, the mother of our Lord.

Motherhood: A Mingled Experience of Joy and Sorrow

6:22 And those two principles were these, that motherhood will have a strategic place in the activity of redemptive grace, and secondly, that motherhood will be a mingled experience of joy and sorrow in the present experience of redemptive grace. and as I indicated this morning I ran out of time and I was not able to give all of the material that I had hoped to give with respect to this second principle that motherhood in this overlapping of the ages where we are yet in the kingdom has come but is not yet in its final manifestation and configuration suffering will be one of the constant accompaniments

7:08 of all the people of God in general and also of motherhood in particular. And I had hoped to look at a number of those passages that illustrate the sorrow attendant upon motherhood and perhaps among all of the sorrows none is more repeatedly highlighted particularly in the book of Proverbs than the sorrow that comes to a mother when that mother has what the scriptures call a foolish son. One such text is Proverbs 10.1.

7:44 A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. And we have similar statements in Proverbs 15.20, 12.25, 30.11, and 30.17.

8:02 And there is another sorrow that comes not to mothers, but to those who would be mothers. It's the sorrow and the grief of a barren womb, to use scriptural terminology, the cause of which may be known to be a problem in the mother's reproductive faculties, in the father's reproductive capacities, but in either case, barrenness is very painful to many a married woman, even to some married women sitting here. and as I've sat at my desk and sought to empathize with that pain that some of you know for I saw my wife endure that pain for over four years of our marriage

8:49 it almost makes me reluctant to speak on the subject of motherhood because I know I rip open the wound but I want you to know I don't rip it open willfully or insensitively but I must expound the biblical teaching with respect to this subject of motherhood and homemaking because it is under such constant attack. And I want you who do bear the constant grief and pain of a barren womb to know I'm not insensitive to that pain and I am not willfully rubbing salt into your open wound. Well, then we come tonight to a third major principle as we try to think biblically concerning motherhood in the light of redemption.

Motherhood as the Sphere of Persevering Faith (1 Timothy 2:15)

9:36 Having seen that it will have a strategic place in the activity of redemptive grace, that it will be a mingled experience of joy and sorrow in the present experience of redemptive grace, we see thirdly that motherhood will ordinarily become the sphere of a woman's persevering faith in the application of redemptive grace. Motherhood will ordinarily become the sphere of a woman's persevering faith In the application of redemptive grace Now note carefully what I'm asserting in stating this principle I've said that motherhood will ordinarily become the sphere of a woman's persevering faith

10:27 I am not saying that motherhood will necessarily be the sphere of a woman's persevering faith, or that motherhood will always become the sphere of a woman's persevering faith. Either of those statements would be utterly, totally unbiblical. What I am saying is that according to the scriptures, motherhood will ordinarily become the sphere of a woman's persevering faith in the application of redemptive grace. And in stating this principle, I'm only seeking to put into my words the essence of the teaching of 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 15, in which the apostle says these very often disputed and misunderstood words,

11:21 words, but she, that is the woman, shall be saved through or in the midst or by her childbearing if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety. Now if we're to grasp the teaching of this crucial portion of the word of God, we're going to have to think together through this chapter. And so tonight, I'm going to be doing a work, I hope, of clear, simple, well-structured exposition. I've sought to do my work in the study, but I can't do your work for you in the pew.

12:04 You've got to do your own. And I trust, sitting with an open Bible, you will think your way through to verse 15. We can't just sit down on it and give it a responsible exposition. It's not like a proverb.

The Specific Focus: Behavior in the House of God (1 Timothy 2:1-7)

12:18 stuck almost anywhere and can be picked out and responsibly expounded within the framework of Hebrew parallelism as an individual verse, but it must be understood as the climactic statement in the whole drift of the Apostle's argument. First of all, then note with me the specific focus of concern in this section of Paul's letter to Timothy. In this section, beginning especially in chapter 2 and verse 1, where Paul has a first. I exhort therefore first of all, first in order, first in importance, but there's a firstness about this exhortation, and as Paul goes on to open up this exhortation,

13:04 goes on into giving directives about the recognition of qualified men for the offices of elder and of deacon, he is very conscious of his very focused concern, verses 14 and 15 of chapter 3. These things, the things I've written unto you, particularly starting with chapter 2 and verse 1, first of all, the things I've written concerning those who would desire the office of overseership, those who would serve as deacons, these things write I unto you, hoping to come unto you shortly, but if I tarry long that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God,

13:51 which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Paul very clearly states to Timothy that he's been writing with respect to behavior in the house of God. He's been writing concerning matters that pertain to household directives within the church. And therefore in my various headings when I come to open up the particulars of the passage, I will be using the term the gathered church simply to underscore that we must remember the focus of the apostles concern.

14:29 Now with respect to this concern, behavior in the house of God, verses 1 to 7 of chapter 2, underscore the centrality of comprehensive gospel-oriented prayers within the church. They underscore the centrality of comprehensive gospel-oriented prayers within the church. I exhort first of all that prayers, and then he uses all of the standard words in his Greek vocabulary for prayers, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgiving be made for all men, comprehensive kings and those in high places, that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity, gospel oriented.

Directives for Men in the Gathered Church (1 Timothy 2:8)

15:24 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who would have all men to be saved. In these first seven verses the apostle is setting forth the centrality of comprehensive gospel prayers in the church I trust you see that I trust you persuaded that that the thrust of the opening part of the chapter Then in verse 8, he gives a specific word to the male members, directing them to take the lead in these comprehensive, gospel-oriented prayers within the gathered church. Look at verse 8. I desire, therefore, in the light of my first of all directive,

16:15 that all kinds of prayers be made for all kinds of men, with reference to the progress of the gospel, I desire, therefore, that the men, And in the original it is not men, anthropoi, generically men and women, just human beings, but I desire that tus andros, that is the men, the definite article and then the word aner in its plural form which means those males, those of the male gender. In the light of my directive for the centrality of comprehensive gospel-oriented prayers in the church, Paul says, I now give a specific word to the male members to take the leadership in such prayers.

17:10 The male members are to take the lead in every place, wherever there may be house churches in Ephesus, this directive is to apply, whether you have a large gathering or a small gathering. In every place where the church gathers as the house of God, as pillar and ground of the truth, I will, with my apostolic authority, Paul says, that the male members of the church take the lead in these comprehensive gospel-oriented prayers to be offered unto God in the context of the gathered church. and they are to do so as holy men with a holy disposition.

17:59 They are to do this and then he assumes that they would assume the ordinary posture of prayer that was common in the Jewish synagogues in which the one who prayed would lift up his hands to heaven. The physical posture would reflect that we have nothing to bring. We stand in need of all things. And he assumes that they would take that posture and assuming it without mandating it, when they do pray, he says, and they do lift up their hands, they must be holy hands connected to hearts that are devoid of wrath and disputing.

18:38 Now the word disputing in the original could speak of internal doubts and be pointing to faith, or it could mean they are not to have wrath and anger, they are not to have unresolved differences with their brethren. But whatever it is, he is saying that the male members are to take the lead in this comprehensive gospel-oriented prayer life of the church, and it is to be done in the context of a holy life and a holy heart. Now, have I carried your judgment thus far that that's where the apostle is going? All right, then in verse 9, he begins a much lengthier word of directive to the women.

Directives for Women: Adornment and Attitude (1 Timothy 2:9-11)

19:22 In like manner, the verb I desire being assumed, and the structure in the original with the previous verse having an infinitive central to its unfolding and an infinitive here, it is evident that in like manner, the assumed verb is, I desire in like manner, that the women, that is the female members, in the same gatherings in every place, Wherever the church meets as church of the living God, pillar and ground of the truth, I have a word of directive for the female members. I have told the male members what they are to do.

20:08 I will now give directives concerning behavior of the female members within the house of God. And what does he set before them? Well, first of all, he gives a word concerning their outward adornment in the gathered church. Don't leave out the last three words.

20:30 Or in the gathered church. Four words. Their adornment in the gathered church. He's not talking about how they adorn themselves when they go out in the backyard to work in the garden.

20:40 He's not talking about how they adorn themselves when the kids have been shipped out for the night and a wife wants to greet her husband in the door in a very fetching outfit. I'm not talking about that Don't make the Bible ridiculous He's talking about women's adornment In the house of God And what does he say? He goes positive, negative, positive Look at the structure The NIV has a good rendering I want the women to dress modestly With decency and propriety That's the positive directive I want the women to adorn themselves in adorning manner. There's a play on the words in the original, so perhaps the NIV translation is the one that registers most with us.

21:30 I want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety. And most commentators point out that the modesty, the adorning adornment is the external, and it must be joined to an internal disposition. A woman who comes or prepares herself to come to the house of God should condition her conscience with these words. Am I coming to the gathered place of the people of God?

22:01 By the grace of God with a conscience at rest that I'm dressing modestly with a disposition of decency and propriety. That's the positive. Now the negative. Not.

22:15 Wherever you find a not, that's negative. And we're going to find some nots here. Positive and negative. Not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or coarsely raiment.

22:27 Alright? So all you women who've got a braid in your hair, get out of here. You're out of order. That's what it says.

22:34 Not with braided hair. Can't come to church with braids. Bible says it. I believe it.

22:40 You elders ought to have the guts to enforce it.

22:46 No. What's he talking about? Not with braided hair and gold.

22:53 I ain't a woman, but I got some gold on.

22:57 You got some gold on? He said, don't come to church with your gold. That's what it says.

23:02 That's what it says, isn't it? My Bible says. Not with gold. Or pearls.

23:07 Got any pearls? Leave them at the door. deacons will give them to you back after the service or if you've got a dress that costs more than 35 bucks it's costly raiment we elders decree any dress more than 35 bucks bought at the thrift shop is costly raiment now what do we do if we get rid of that at the door we've got problems now I'm using humor why? because I want you to see whatever it means it doesn't mean that what's it mean?

23:36 it's contrasted with the positive. I want the women to dress modestly with decency and propriety. That is not in a way that is obviously ostentatious and showy or bizarre. A kind of adornment that either has as its motive to show up other people with how much I can pile on my head and on my wrist and in my nose and on my ears in order to draw attention to myself, or to have other women see how finely I'm dressed and to provoke them to envy, or to do it in such a way that I will attract illicit gazes from men.

24:25 In other words, what the apostle is doing is giving a concrete expression of something that would have registered immediately in the thinking of the men and the women at Ephesus. Of how women would dress when they were committed to using their dress and their ornaments and their physical adornments for something other than a modest, attractive, becoming external appearance. And that's what the apostle is forbidding. And then he comes back to the positive, but, not but.

25:02 And then it's parenthetical, but the adornment which becomes a woman professing godliness, that is, let her come all dressed up with her good works. In other words, when she comes into the gathered assembly, There is nothing in her external appearance that would legitimately draw attention to herself as someone thirsty for the attention of others, thirsty to provoke people to jealousy or to wanton looks at her, but rather the way in which she appears in the gathered assembly is just another indication that she's a woman that wants to be dressed to the hilt with works that glorify God.

25:50 She comes dressed with her good works. Alright? That's the word concerning the outward adornment of the women in the gathered church. Now then, he gives secondly, with regard to the women, a word concerning their attitude toward the recognized teachers within the gathered church.

26:13 So he starts with their clothes, and now he deals with their attitude to the recognized teachers. Verse 11. Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection. When she contemplates coming to the gathering of God's people, she is to come with this disposition.

26:35 God has blessed our part of his house. Our part of his living temple scattered throughout the earth. He has blessed us with godly, proven, competent instructors in the truth. And when I come and gather with the people of God, I come to learn.

26:57 I come to learn in a context of quietness. The opposite of agitating, intrusive desire to be the corrector of those who teach. To challenge those who teach. You have something of this in 1 Corinthians 14.

27:15 And with all subjection. And here we have our family of words, hupotasso. Here it is, hupotage. With a disposition of ranging herself under those whom God has given to the church to be its recognized teachers.

27:33 So when you ladies prepare to come to church, you not only think of what you wear, You think of the disposition you have with respect to those recognized teachers in the gathered church. It's just the opposite of a mouthy, headstrong spirit. Few things are more ugly than a mouthy, headstrong woman who names the name of Christ. Isn't that right?

27:58 The number of you women that find it ugly. Few things more ugly than a mouthy, headstrong woman. It is such a negation of godly femininity. And they must have had it in Paul's day because he addresses it.

Prohibition on Teaching and Ruling, and its Rationale (1 Timothy 2:12-14)

28:12 Then thirdly, he gives a word of prohibition regarding the teaching and ruling functions in the gathered church. Verse 12, but I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness. Now would you believe Would you believe That if I had all the books that have been written To try to persuade us That those words don't mean what they obviously mean I don't think this pulpit could hold them all By people who claim to be evangelicals And love their Bibles With no prejudice With no case to prove Any reasonably accurate translation of the original is clear

28:57 The apostolic regulation is I do not permit a woman to teach. Where? In the house of God. Where men are present to lead in prayer.

29:10 Where other men are present to teach and preach the word of God. And to govern and lead. It's not talking about the home. It's not talking about the office.

29:20 It's not talking about the classroom in the school. Don't force the Bible out of its intended meaning. It's talking about the gathered church. and the apostle is saying to women in the gathered church this is to be your disposition with regard to the matter of ruling and teaching functions in the gathered church the explicit prohibition in verse 12 I do not permit a woman to teach nor to have dominion over a man but to be in quietness not to agitate against the established male leadership in the instruction and government of the church.

30:04 And then he gives in verses 13 and 14 the timeless supracultural rationale for that prohibition. The timeless supra above differing cultures. People try to explain this away. There was something in the Ephesian culture and they go to secular authorities to try to prove it.

30:29 There was something in first century Greco-Roman culture, but notice Paul roots the directive in that which is supracultural and timeless. Two things, the order of creation, four. Why am I not permitting a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness in the context of the gathered church? The order of creation, for Adam was first formed, then Eve.

30:57 And secondly, the circumstances attached to the fall. And Adam was not beguiled or deceived, but the woman being, and then there's a compound word for beguiled, truly beguiled or utterly deceived, hath fallen into the transgression. Now my purpose is not to expound the significance of those things but just to point them out to you so that you can think down through the passage with me So this third word is the prohibition regarding the teaching and ruling functions of the gathered church, the explicit prohibition, the timeless supracultural rationale, the order of creation, the circumstances of the fall. And as one commentator has reminded us,

31:42 the positions assigned by creation are not altered or negated by redemption, but they are sanctified within the dynamics of God's redemptive grace. But then we have in the fourth place, and now we come down to verse 15. In the flow of the apostles' thought, we had a word of positive direction to persevere in a woman's calling of motherhood. but though I have prohibited the teaching ruling office and for these reasons I am not putting women into a place of non-importance with regard to the purposes of God but she shall be saved by way

Interpreting 'Saved Through Childbearing' (1 Timothy 2:15)

32:31 is a better rendering rather than through she shall be saved by way of childbearing if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety. Now I must acknowledge as a responsible expositor of the word, there are good and godly men, many of whom know the original language far better than I, who do not understand the passage the way I'm going to expound it. they would put the emphasis on the fact that when the text says she shall be saved through her childbearing saved there is not to be understood in its ordinary sense of salvation from sin and its consequences

33:18 but the word saved somewhere in the New Testament means delivered from danger and from evil that what God is saying if women will take their proper place God will give them special protective grace in the role of motherhood so that they will be preserved in the midst of their childbearing. So that this is a special promise of God's preserving grace being given. The problem is, it puts a meaning on saved in this context that forces the meaning of the word out of its natural usage here in this very letter. For when Paul uses the word saved in this letter, He uses it in its full soteric sense, its full gospel sense.

34:05 Chapter 1 and verse 15, faithful is the saying worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, not just to preserve them, but to deliver them from sin and its consequences. Likewise, earlier in chapter 2, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, verse 3, who would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. That's saved in its fullest, excuse me, gospel sense.

34:35 Chapter 4 and verse 10. He is the, to this end we labor and strive, we have our hopes set on the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially of them that believe. Verse 16. Continuing these things, in doing this you will save both yourself and them that hear you.

34:54 So in the very context of this letter, we'd have to have very compelling reasons to put a different meaning on the word saved. And others, they say, well, the text says she should be saved through the childbearing. There's a definite article before the word childbearing. And that's pointing to the fact that though women are not to have the teaching ruling office in the church, They will nonetheless know the full salvation brought by the childbearing, that is, Mary's son, through the fulfillment of the promise of Genesis 3.16. And they see Genesis 3.16 in here, that the woman nonetheless will enjoy the full benefits of the salvation brought by the childbearing, that is, through the incarnate Redeemer, the Lord Jesus.

35:47 Now the problem with that is it's good theology, but I think it's really pressing the language of the text. And I want to suggest, and I'm not alone in this, that what Paul is essentially saying is this. He envisions the church there at Ephesus in its various house manifestations, for there was probably not one central gathering, but various gatherings around Ephesus. And that's why he says, I will that the men pray in every place.

36:16 Timothy, wherever you go to give instruction, hey, Timothy, what Paul's telling us to do, he's telling you men, in every single place, you're to pray. You're to lift up your hands without wrath and without doubting, and there to be holy hands. And in every place, let the women learn, in a disposition of quietness with all subjection. Let no woman seek to usurp a ruling teaching office in the church.

36:42 And assure these women, for most of them, as Paul envisions these various groupings, would have been women of marriageable age who would have been married, for whom the bearing of children would be an essential outgrowth of their marital experience. and what Paul is saying, look, you women who may be chomping at the bit, thinking there is some fulfillment to be had in breaking the traces of your God-assigned place, you may resent the fact that I've directed the men to lead in prayer in every place, which, by the way, is the basis of our practice in our public prayer meetings.

37:29 We believe this passage compels us to such a practice. We don't judge others. But we must stand under the judgment of the word of God. That the apostolic directed is, I will that the men, and perhaps thinking that some women might feel a resentment, and then they are told to learn in quietness with all subjection, and they are not to seek the ruling and teaching office in the house of God.

37:52 Paul says, but look you women, you will experience in the application of God's salvation, You will experience the fullness of that salvation as your faith manifests itself in giving yourself to your God-given calling, which is not to preach and to lead in the church, but to bear children and all that's associated with it as he expands it in a passage such as Titus chapter 2, and as we'll see, God willing, before we close tonight in 1 Timothy chapter 5. So this is why I've stated the principle this way, that in this whole matter of motherhood in the light of redemption, motherhood will ordinarily become the sphere of a woman's persevering faith in the application of redemptive grace.

38:48 And now to try to make that case a little more clearly and convincingly, I want you to look closely at the passage. When Paul identifies this specific dimension of a godly, married, mothering Christian woman at Ephesus, he says she shall be saved by way of childbearing. there's a specific isolated aspect of her life of obedient faith, but he then sets it in the larger context of those graces that are part and parcel of the persevering faith of every true child of God, male or female, of any age.

39:35 Look at the text. She shall be saved by way of childbearing if, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety. In other words, whatever they will experience of this manifestation of persevering faith, embracing their God-assigned role as mothers, is not in itself their salvation, but it is a subset of their perseverance in the way of every true child of God, which is perseverance in faith, in love, in sanctification,

40:22 with a mind that is sober, that is, that is thinking accurately about God and His will and His purposes for His people. Listen to the comments of one servant of God. When Paul writes, If they remain in faith and love and sanctification together with sobriety, This is comprehensive. These four do not stand in the same relation to salvation. Faith apprehends salvation. Love to God and to man is the invariable fruit of faith, and sanctification is the result, which is here to be understood in the narrow sense of having the life sanctified or set apart unto God.

41:11 Meta, the preposition with, makes soberness the accompaniment of sanctification. That is, it is a sanctification with sobriety, with a mind that is tutored and instructed by the word of God and lives in the light of that word. All four apply to all men and thus also to women. Theirs is no particular way to salvation.

41:36 The repetition of soberness from verse 9 and its attachment by means of metah, with, are pointed for the specific purpose here in hand, namely that women keep their proper place in the services. Christian sensibleness and balance will easily achieve that and will readily accompany faith, love, and sanctification, for they are really a product of the latter. so that when a woman is pursuing a life of faith and love and sanctification with sobriety, she embraces her God-given identity and her God-given role and she seeks to persevere in obedient faith within that framework

Reaffirming the Principle and Qualifying Statements

42:24 and not one dictated by the world or made out of the stuff of her own notions. and that to me is the teaching of the passage that fits with the flow of thought it fits with an honest handling of the language of the passage and it underscores this third principle that I've been isolating and seeking to expound tonight as surely as contemplation of motherhood in the light of redemption going back to the early chapters of Genesis convinces us that motherhood will have a central place in the activity of God in redemptive grace. When we search the scriptures, we come to the second principle. Motherhood will be a mingled experience of both joy and sorrow

43:13 in the present experience of redemptive grace. From this passage, I trust we become persuaded that motherhood is not the only or the inevitable or the necessary, but motherhood will ordinarily become the sphere of a woman's persevering faith in the application of redemptive grace. This is why I said the two qualifying principles must surround us at every point in this study. Remember what they were? Remember what they were?

43:48 The two biblically qualifying principles were these. Marriage, motherhood, and homemaking are not the only spheres in which a woman may serve and glorify God. The second qualifying principle was that marriage and motherhood and homemaking are sometimes voluntarily chosen, are voluntarily relinquished or sovereignly imposed. And a woman's usefulness and identity is found in Christ and in the sphere of her providential assignment in the will of God.

44:25 So for you who are neither married nor mothers, I am not laying upon you any false guilt. What I am saying is that according to this passage, and that's what I must try to do, is responsibly expound the word of God, motherhood will ordinarily become the sphere of a woman's persevering faith in the application of redemptive grace. Now, in the light of this, do you see, dear young ladies, why we tried to persuade you that you were made to be mothers? I didn't say you were made to be a chattel and a baby factory.

45:11 That's what women have become in societies where the gospel has not done its leavening work. Women are chattels, the property of their husbands and baby factories. It's a horrible denigration of the sanctity of womanhood. What I'm saying is, you need to internalize your identity as a woman in terms of God's ordinary will and purpose, that as a woman, you would eventually become a mother.

45:43 You are made physically, emotionally, psychologically to be a mother From puberty to menopause Every month a weeping womb is a reminder You were made to be a mother And the only time your womb doesn't weep From puberty to menopause is when it's nourishing a baby.

46:16 Anyone want to argue with the facts of life? And say, preacher, you're all wet. You want to argue with those facts? No. Why?

46:25 It is the constant reminder to you as a woman, I'm made for my unique role as a mother. Now remember the qualifying principles. I can fulfill the will of God and be perfectly fulfilled in Christ in the will of God if I'm never married and I'm never a mother. I'm not denying that.

46:47 Don't forget that. Don't anyone go out and say, oh, Pastor Martin said it. I didn't say that. But what I am saying is face the reality that as a woman, you are made for motherhood I didn say you are only made for motherhood but you are made for motherhood And all that you are is a woman And whatever God intended should be the satisfaction and the intimacy of a husband relationship in Proverbs 5 and other passages and the Song of Solomon, celebrate the delight in every part of a woman's body in the presence of the sacred bonds of marriage.

47:24 But nonetheless, those mammary glands God gave you are not just for the satisfaction of your husband. They're given to nurse a little one. That the same body fit to nourish that life in the womb then has the unspeakable privilege of nourishing it at the breast. These are undeniable physiological facts, but they are more than physiological.

The Natural Design for Motherhood and Feminist Rejection

47:52 They have to do with what it is to be feminine, what it is to be a woman, to have woven into the fabric of your whole inner texture the desire to birth a child, to nurture and cherish and care for a child. it's interesting when women reject this concept of motherhood they viciously reject male headship the two go together continually constantly and that's why in the so-called feminist movement as Danielle Crittenden a secular woman not a Christian in her most perceptive book entitled

48:37 What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us Listen to what she says on this very point. It's hard to appreciate this if you don't have children. She's talking now about the fact that all of the instincts of a woman are kicked in when they have a little one. And all that they've been taught in feminist circles that, well, this baby can just be squeezed into your career orientation and your patterns of progression in the company, etc., etc.

49:03 And suddenly these women have a baby. And the first day they have to drop it off. The daycare center, it's like ripping their guts out. And she's interviewed hundreds of them.

49:14 And they've been reluctant to admit it, but they have. And she says, it's hard to appreciate this fact if you don't have children, which may explain why so many of the proponents of radically egalitarian marriage have been childless and usually unmarried. From Virginia Woolf, married, no children. Du Bois Way, childless, never married.

49:37 Gloria Steinem, Germaine Greer, and Susan Faludi all at the time of writing their tones on women were unmarried and childless. The most prominent exception to the rule is Betty Friedan who has children but is divorced. And it's funny, if not disturbing, that these women talk about marriage as if it were some theoretical domestic labor arrangement in which the task connected to raising children can be lumped in with other household chores. It is as if these women believe that children are nothing more than a codicil to the arrangement, an add-on option to marriage, like a leather interior and digital compass in a new car, and not the fundamental reason why men and women join together for a lifetime.

50:26 That's a secular woman, just being honest with who she is when she looks in the mirror. And that's what she's saying to her fellow women, to her sisters in womanhood. She's saying throughout this book, and it's an amazing, amazing disclosure. She's saying, and she's saying it in circles where you and I would never get.

50:48 She's saying it on college campuses. She's saying it in a quarterly of which she is editor. She's saying it on talk shows. She's saying, women, stop stuffing your fingers in the ears of your own soul and listen to what your feminine soul is telling you.

51:04 You're made to be a mother. You're made to be a mother. And motherhood is not something that can be an add-on to another career, just an appendage to self-fulfillment. Motherhood means self-denial.

51:18 Motherhood means compromise and relinquishment of personal interest and many times personal goals and ambitions. as one of our ladies in the church who at my recommendation got the book and read it said similar words to this that she says too much and knows too much not to be a Christian but you see doth not nature itself teach you doth not nature itself teach you Paul says and you dear young ladies I trust that God will help you as you seek to have an emerging sense of who and what you are as a woman, to recognize that ordinarily, ordinarily, not without exception, not necessarily,

52:08 but ordinarily, the sphere in which you will carry out a life of persevering faith in the application of redemption will be within the sphere of motherhood. And therefore all that you are doing in this period of acquiring knowledge and learning skills and establishing relationships, and you ought to expand and pursue every facet of development and acquisition of knowledge you can legitimately acquire. But think of it all as funneling down into that sphere which will most likely be the sphere in which you will make your way to heaven. You will be saved by way of childbearing if you continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety.

53:02 You listening to me, girls? You're not going to get much out there to encourage you to think that way. Everything will say, don't think of yourself in terms of any role in relationship to a man or in relationship to motherhood. You must isolate your selfhood and have a sense of your personhood and your inherent worth totally detached from a man and from kids.

53:30 In other words, find out who you are by denying what God's made you. it's like telling a bird look in the mirror little birdie and understand who you are without your beak and without your wings I hope the little birdie would have sense enough to look him in and say mister you're nuts without my beak and my wings I ain't no bird sorry Mr. Dixon I am not a bird I am not a bird I'm not a bird and when anyone tells you dear young women get a sense of your identity with no relationship to marriage and motherhood and homemaking you look them in the eye and say you're telling me that I can know who I am while denying what God has made me to be

54:17 you see if God never has marriage for you and if God has marriage and not motherhood for you and in the providence of God God will channel your energies and your skills and your aptitudes into other areas of service. They will be consistent with who and what you are as a woman because you've never rejected your identity as a woman.

Application: Praying for Barren Women and Godly Marriages

54:47 Your sphere of service will be carried out with womanly grace and with a godly attractiveness of Christian femininity. Second thing I want to say by way of application is this. Let's plead with God for our dear married women, some of whom sit here, and I could name them by name, who long to be mothers.

55:16 Some who've been able to conceive but not carry a child, who chronically miscarry. Let's plead that God would be pleased to open their wounds. if there's a physiological problem they have or the husbands have. In driving here tonight, thinking of this, I thought of Abraham and Sarah.

55:38 Here's Abraham that says his body is good as dead. That's just a lovely way of saying he was impotent sexually. And it says Sarah's womb was dead. It had ceased to be with her after the manner of women.

55:55 She no longer had a weeping womb. She had a dead womb. And then I did a little mathematics. I said you put a dead man next to a dead womb.

56:05 An impotent man next to an infertile woman equals what? Barrenness.

56:12 But if you put an impotent man next to an infertile woman. and you add God and the promise and faith what do you get? You got Isaac and you got a multitude of nations.

56:32 I may not get you excited but that got me excited. I almost drove the car off the road. God's mathematics and dear people that's the God whom we serve. The God who can bring life to Sarah's dead womb and can resurrect the potency of Abraham so he fathered other kids.

56:53 God can correct whatever it is that the doctors say are keeping you from conceiving a child. Or it could be that that natural barrenness may be God's way of nudging you in the direction of taking into your home in the most God-like act. Our salvation is an adoption.

57:17 Isn't it? isn't it? we are told in Ephesians 1 that in Christ God predestined us to the adoption as sons what's more God like than when a couple voluntarily choose to take a child that for one reason or another others don't want or can't care for and make them their own enter in to the experience of motherhood But let's pray more specifically. My own heart's been convicted.

57:51 I've not prayed as I ought for you who live with the pain of a barren womb. And it is painful. I thought of that text in Proverbs chapter 30 where in very graphic poetic imagery we read in verse 15, The horse leech, the vampire, has two daughters crying, Give! Give!

58:12 and there are three things that are never satisfied yea four that say not enough the grave never says enough constantly asking for more and the barren womb the earth is not satisfied with water and the fire that says not enough in the images we've seen of those forest fires out in the western part of our country God puts the burning of a disappointed womb in the same category. It's a painful thing. And as we seek to bear one another's burdens let's pray that God would be pleased to bless some of our barren women with children, some of our childless couples.

58:59 We've got a couple sitting here that went that route and it's like the Lord said now you've been like me and been willing to adopt now I'm going to open your womb and so Thompson and Irene got their quiver full over the space of a couple of years from childless I'll never forget the first time I saw them staggering in Thompson with one of the kids on his hip and Irene with one over the shoulder and diaper bags and all the rest and I said brother God's filled up your quiver quickly and me the Lord can do that the Lord is able let's pray that he might be pleased to do this let's pray for our single men and women, that God would give them godly ambitions to establish godly marriages, and that they might become childbearing saints

Conclusion: Grounded in Scripture and Call to Obedience

59:47 whose relationships are sanctified and blessed of God with redeemed marriages, into which context children will come with the blessing of God. Well, I'd hope to look at the 1 Timothy 5 passage as a supportive passage, and then the Titus 2, but that will have to wait for another time. I hope you have found this helpful. It's been primarily didactic.

60:12 I've tried to instruct your mind because this is an issue concerning which we as the Lord's people must be well grounded in the truth. And we must be able to give a defense of the perspectives that we believe are pleasing to God and rooted in the Holy Scriptures. And if you're sitting here tonight as someone who's not a Christian, And I hope if you've not gotten anything else, this has come through to you. If these people are what you call Christians, then they take this book seriously.

60:41 And they're ready to go wherever this book takes them. Now, if that's what you've gathered from what's happened here tonight, you're right on. That's true. Because a Christian is someone who, having come to put his soul trust in Jesus Christ as his Savior, has a heart committed to obey Him.

60:58 out of love and out of a desire to glorify the Christ who died for him. Let us pray.

61:12 Father, we're so thankful that we have the scriptures as a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. And we pray that as we have sought to bring our minds subject to the word of God, that you will help us. We pray especially for our dear women and our dear young ladies, our dear girls. Oh, God, help them.

61:36 When we think of all that will bombard their minds and the visual images and the subtle and not so subtle influences that would try to wrench them away from these biblical perspectives. Lord, we cry to you. Help them. Have mercy upon them.

61:54 Tether them to their Bibles. Lord we pray that they would be prepared to confess the Lord Jesus and his word of truth no matter how much they must stand alone thank you for this day in your courts thank you for one another thank you for the presence of your Holy Spirit we pray now that you would dismiss us with your blessing take us into a confused, aching, bleeding world and Lord help us to bring the message of light and life and liberation from all of the tyranny of men's theories about who and what we are and what we are to be that they might be brought into the glorious liberty

62:40 of submission to the Lord Jesus whose yoke is easy and his burden is light. Hear us we pray in his name. Amen.

62:54 Thank you.