Motherhood/Homemaking & Redemption (d)

Introduction and Contextual Reading

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, August 18, 2002, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I invite you to turn with me to two portions of the Word of God. First of all, 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy and chapter 5. And in order to help us to be familiar with the context of one text in this section that we will be examining more closely this morning, I shall read verses 1 through 16. 1 Timothy 5, verses 1 through 16.

0:46 Paul, writing to Timothy with reference to details of the behavior that is to be worked out among the churches, writes, Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, the younger men as brothers, the older women as mothers, the younger as sisters in all purity. Honor widows that are widows indeed. But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them learn first to show piety toward their own family, and to requite their parents. For this, this is acceptable in the sight of God.

1:29 Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, has her hopes set on God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But she that gives herself to pleasure, a better rendering, she that luxuriates, the idea of sexual or sensual abandonment is not inherent in the Word. Perhaps a much better rendering, but she that, luxuriates, is dead while she lives. These things also command that they may be without reproach.

2:05 But if any provides not for his own, and specially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Let none be enrolled as a widow under sixty years of age, having been the wife of one man, well reported up for good works, if she has brought up children, if she has used, hospitality to strangers, if she has washed the saint's feet, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work. But younger widows refuse, for when they have waxed wanton against Christ, they desire to marry, having condemnation because they've rejected their first pledge or first faith. And with all, they learn also to be idle, going about from house to house, and not only idle, but tattlers also in busy bodies, speaking things which they ought not. I desire therefore that the younger widows marry, their children rule the household, give no occasion to the adversary for reviling, for already some are turned aside after Satan. If any woman that believes has widows, let her relieve them, and let not the church be burned,

3:26 that it may relieve them that are widows indeed. And now Titus chapter 2, Titus chapter 2, verses 1 through 5. Titus 2. But speak the things that befit the healthy or sound doctrine, that the aged men be temperate, brave, sober-minded, sound in faith, in love, in patience, that the aged women likewise, be wise, be reverent in demeanor, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of what is good, that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sober-minded, chaste or pure, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, in order that the word of God be not blasphemed. I want you to imagine with me that you and I have been authorized to go out and conduct a poll among girls ages 5 to 15 throughout public schools in various parts of our country.

The Prevailing Secular Mindset Against Motherhood and Homemaking

4:50 Those who have organized and commissioned us to conduct this poll have made sure that there would be a cross-section in our survey of country schools, suburban schools, inner-city schools, so that we would get an accurate readout of what 5 to 15-year-old girls in America think about who are under the overriding influence of the public school system and the secular perspectives that govern in that system. We've been commissioned to go to these various schools in this cross-section of the country with one question. We are to ask these girls, this question, what do you hope to be and to do when you grow up? Now, I'm willing to play prophet and tell you what the results of our poll would show. And I would be prepared to say that most likely we would not find one in a hundred of girls ages 5 to 15 in the broadest cross-section of our country influenced by the prevailing secular mindset who would say, when I grow up, I want to get married, be a mother, and keep a home. Not one in a hundred.

6:19 I've said on a previous occasion in all the various news clips that I've seen over the years in which in various settings girls in this age bracket are asked this question, not once have I heard a girl with starry eyes look up at the reporter or the one taking the survey and say with enthusiasm, I can't wait to grow up and be a wife and a mama and a homemaker. And this is so because for the last 40 to 45 years there has been a constant, vicious, relentless attack upon the desirability, dignity, and nobility of a woman's role and function as wife, as mother, and as homemaker. And we now have two generations of little girls who have been reared, brainwashed into thinking, if I'm to be true to who and what I am as a woman, I must become my person without any reference to marriage, motherhood, and homemaking. The whole notion that who and what I am and who and what I desire to be should in any way be influenced by that is simply something that needs to be shed.

Series Context and Qualifying Principles

7:44 And in the light of that prevailing climate, I have been constrained to take up this subject with you. We come this morning to the 15th message in this series of studies that I've entitled In Praise and Defense of Marriage of Motherhood and Homemaking. I began the series by setting out two major reasons as to why I felt it was vital to address the subject. And then I set before you two qualifying principles that must always be kept in mind as the series unfolds and we open up the various strands of it.

8:25 Never forget these two qualifying principles. Don't forget them this morning as we come to our subject as well. That the Bible is abundantly clear in its teaching that there is legitimacy, dignity and great usefulness for women in many areas of life and service outside the sphere of marriage, motherhood and homemaking. And secondly, the Bible is clear in its teaching that some women may deliberately choose or be providentially consigned to a life of singleness and thereby render greater undistracted service to Christ, His people and His kingdom.

Theological Framework: Creation, Fall, and Redemption

9:07 And also as a parenthesis, some who have chosen marriage are by divine providence kept in a state of childlessness. When we began to consider this subject in praise and in defense of marriage, motherhood and homemaking, I said that as with so many things, if we are to think as we ought, and right thinking is the mother of right acting, that we must place these concerns within the biblical grid of the doctrine of creation, of the fall and of redemption. That is, we must think of marriage, motherhood and homemaking as they came from the hand of our Creator God in Eden. Then we must think what happened to them after the tragedy of the defection from God in the fall of our first parents, and then what does God intend them to become in the orbit of His redemptive grace, His scheme of rescuing men from sin and its consequences. And in the process of opening up these things in the light of creation, fall and redemption, we have come now to isolate the matter of motherhood and homemaking in the light of redemption. And I have set before you three principles.

10:28 We come to take up the fourth this morning. Principle number one, motherhood will have a strategic place in the activity of God's redemptive grace. The initial gospel promise says, motherhood is going to be incorporated in God's commitment to crush the head of the serpent. Furthermore, it was in conjunction with motherhood that God made the promise, behold, the virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son, Isaiah 7, 14.

11:01 Second principle, motherhood will be a mingled experience of joy and sorrow in the present experience of redemptive grace. In sorrow, God said to Eve, you will bring forth children. And in the life of Mary, mother of our Lord, we see joy and sorrow mingled in that one who was the human instrument to bring the Son of God into the world. Third principle, motherhood and homemaking will ordinarily be the sphere of a woman's persevering faith in the application of redemptive grace.

11:38 And there I labor to open up to you that mysterious text, 1 Timothy 2 and verse 15. Nevertheless, she shall be saved in the way of the childbearing if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety. Thus, Father, we offer our review. Now we come this morning to the fourth principle which I trust will help us to think biblically about marriage, but particularly motherhood and homemaking in the light of redemption.

Principle 4: Spiritual Safety and Usefulness in Gospel Validation

12:11 What does God intend His redemptive grace to do in our thinking and in our acting with respect to these realities? And here's the principle. Marriage, motherhood and homemaking are ordinarily the sphere of a woman's greatest spiritual safety and greatest usefulness in validating the truth and power of the gospel. Marriage, motherhood and homemaking are ordinarily the sphere of a woman's greatest spiritual safety and greatest usefulness in validating the truth and power of the gospel. Now, to demonstrate that this principle is in my judgment a fair and accurate distillation of the truth of Scripture, we're going to examine two pivotal texts, 1 Timothy 5, 14 and then Titus 2, 4 and 5. So let's turn first of all then to 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 14. Now remember, we're considering the text to see if indeed it sets forth anything that looks like this principle.

Exposition of 1 Timothy 5:14 - Younger Widows

13:30 Marriage, motherhood and homemaking are ordinarily the sphere of a woman's greatest spiritual safety and greatest usefulness in validating the truth and power of the gospel. 1 Timothy 5, verse 14 where the apostle tells us with respect to the younger widows, I desire therefore that the younger widows marry, bear children, rule the household, give no occasion to the adversary for reviling, for already some are turned aside after Satan. Now as always, a text wrenched out of its context is a pretext. So let's spend a few moments to get a sense for the general context of these words. Paul's directives to Timothy regarding behavior in God's house, chapter 3, verse 15, now focus on the matter of the care of widows within the church. From verse 3 to 16, the care of widows is the central focus of what the apostle writes to Timothy.

14:42 In verses 3 to 8, you have what I'm calling general directives concerning the duty to honor and care for true widows. The general directives concerning the duty to honor and care for real widows. Now what that means in its particulars is not our concern. That's the thrust of verses 3 to 8.

15:05 Now verses 9 and 10 are specific directives concerning the widows list. Look at verse 9. Let none be enrolled as a widow. Now what this widows list is, the commentators are all over the place, and I'm not going to take you all over the place to see where they go with it.

15:25 I just want you to get a feel for the flow of thought that when we come to verse 14, you'll know I haven't pulled a quick one on you. So Paul is giving generic directives to true widows, widows who are widows indeed, verses 3 to 8. Then specific directives for the widows list, whatever it is, whatever it was, whatever it involved, he's given specific directives who should be on it. Then in verse 11, through 15, he's giving specific directives concerning the younger widows, starting out with how they should be regarded in relationship to those widows, widows list, whatever that was, and then moves on to more specific guidance with respect to younger widows.

16:09 Verse 11, but younger widows, that's his subject matter, all the way down to verse 15, and then he concludes in verse 16 with a concluding directives concerning the support of widows within the church family. If any woman that believes has widows, that is relatives who are widows, let her relieve them, that the church be not burdened, that it may relieve them that are widows indeed. So we have verses 14 and 15 tucked in the middle of all of this varied directive concerning the care of widows. That's the general context.

16:45 Now the text itself. After prohibiting the younger widows from being engaged and included in the widows list, whatever that was, Paul expresses his mind concerning the will of God for younger widows. Verse 14, I desire. Now when the apostle writes in this kind of a setting, I desire, we must not regard this as Paul's individual wish that can or cannot be respected.

17:15 It's the very verb used in chapter 2 and verse 8 regarding the ordering of the public worship of God's people. I desire, therefore, that the men pray in every place. His desire is the desire of an apostle given unique responsibility and authority in governing the life and worship and order of the churches of Christ. So that Paul's desire in the beginning of this text is the revelation of the will of God for the younger widows within the church.

17:49 And he says, I desire, therefore. And what is it that he desires? Look at the text. That the younger widows marry, bear children, rule the household.

18:02 What's that sound like? To me that sounds like marriage, motherhood, and homemaking. Doesn't it sound like to you? Doesn't it sound like to me?

18:12 Marry, bear children. And it's a very interesting word. It means be a house descendant. It means be a house despot.

18:22 Our word for a despot is a transliteration of the Greek stem of this, despotes. She's to be a house despot. In other words, she's to be a hands-on governor in her home. Not independent of and isolated from or in competition with her husband.

18:41 That would destroy the analogy of Scripture. But within the sphere of her delegated responsibilities, she's to be a hands-on sanctified dictator. She's to rule the household. She's to be a housekeeper.

18:57 That is, every facet of that home is to be the focal point of her concern. He says, I will that the younger widows marry, bear children, rule the household. That is, that the younger widows see their divinely assigned role as the role of marriage, motherhood, and home-making. Now, what are his reasons?

19:26 Paul feels so strongly about this for two specific reasons. Reason number one, marriage, motherhood, and home-making will prevent these young widows from falling into sins to which they are peculiarly vulnerable as young widows. Look at verse 6 when he's giving generic descriptions of widows, and the general honor and care of widows. He says, Now make sure this honor and care of the widows terminates upon widows that are truly widows.

20:02 That is, they are destitute, godly women. Verse 5, Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, has her hopes set on God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But she that luxuriates is dead while she lives. Here's a young widow who by some means or other has money at her disposal, and so with that money she luxuriates.

20:29 She lives the life of the merry widow. She has no responsibilities, no commitments to a husband, apparently at this juncture, has no minor children, so she luxuriates. She is peculiarly tempted to the sins of idleness and self-indulgence as a widow. Paul underscores that.

20:52 He's a realist. He recognizes that temptation. And then furthermore, he says in verse 13, And withal, with respect to these younger widows, withal they learn to be idle, going about from house to house, and not only idle, but tattlers in busy bodies, speaking things that they ought not. I desire therefore, because of their vulnerability to these peculiar sins, this is their sin.

21:19 This is my sanctified, God-inspired wish for the younger widows that they marry, that they bear children, that they govern the household. So Paul as a realist says that I want them to give themselves to the role of wife, mother, and homemaker to prevent these young widows from falling into sins to which they are peculiarly vulnerable. Now see, my principle, marriage, motherhood, and homemaking are ordinarily the sphere of a woman's greatest spiritual safety. That's where I got the notion, right out of Paul's realism in this passage.

22:02 But furthermore, in this passage we read at the end of verse 14, Give no occasion to the adversary for reviling. Here's the second reason that Paul says, I will that they be in this role to be useful in validating the truth and power of the gospel. I am concerned that the younger widows with all the church be a constant validation of the truth and power of the gospel. And if these widows do not embrace the role of wife and mother and homemaker, they will give occasion to the adversary for reviling. Now who is the adversary? Some would say the devil. Well, the verb that is used here, and it is a verb, is not used generally to describe the devil.

23:04 It most likely is speaking collectively of those who oppose the gospel and are looking for occasions to speak ill of the gospel. Reviling is to speak negatively of something. And so Paul says, rather than give just grounds for anyone to speak negatively of the truth of God and of the gospel, let the younger widows marry, bear children, rule the household. He is jealous that the younger widows, along with all the members of the church, give no unnecessary prejudice to the truth and the power of the gospel.

23:45 And how does he envision that being done? Does he write and say, I will that the younger widows be organized into a guild of apostolic associates and companions in ministry? Start the first nunnery. No.

24:07 The apostle didn't do that. He recognized the significant place of women in gospel endeavors. In Philippians chapter 4, he speaks of women as his fellow workers. In Romans 16, he says, I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the churches and whatever work she's come to do, a sister.

24:27 You see, Paul did not have this notion that women have no significance in specific gospel and missionary endeavors. But he does not envision the place of greatest usefulness for these widows forming a guild of widows who are apostolic support groups. He says, I will that the younger women marry, have kids, and rule a household. Why?

24:53 That we don't give the adversary any occasion to revile. It is in the sphere appointed to them as wife and mother and homemaker that they are not only most safe from their peculiar temptations, they are most useful in validating the truth and the power of the gospel. And that's Paul's great concern. Do you all see that from the passage?

25:20 That's why I stayed the principle the way I did, just trying to distill the teaching of the passage. Marriage, motherhood, and homemaking are ordinarily the sphere of a woman's greatest spiritual safety and greatest usefulness in validating the truth and the power of the gospel. Now remember, as I've already hinted, these words came from a man who had great appreciation of women and their usefulness, here's the man who wrote, In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female. This is the man who wrote, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church.

26:03 This is the man who in his demeanor and his writings obviously was no misogynist. You know what a misogynist is? That's a woman-hater. And Paul is called a misogynist, a woman-hater, by those who hate his determination to demonstrate and here's what's critical, that God in redemption does not make the woman to be something which he never created her to be.

26:31 Redemption does not smash creation. Redemption liberates the created thing from the influence of sin into the liberty of being what God intended it should be when he first made it. And that's why Paul says, the woman's spiritual safety, these young widows, women, is not found in some super-spiritual widow's guild to promote the gospel, but in marrying, bearing children, ruling the household. Well, let's look at our second text, Titus chapter 2.

Exposition of Titus 2:4-5 - Older Women Training Younger Women

27:11 I hope you enjoy studying your Bible. You could see me at times sitting at my desk studying these things. I get shouting happy and I say, Lord, I can't believe I'm getting paid to do this. See how relevant our Bibles are.

27:25 All right, here in Titus chapter 2, verses 4 and 5 are our text. That they may train the young women to love their husbands, love their children, sober-minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Again, just a word about the general context. Paul is isolating distinct age groups within the churches at Crete and telling Titus what he is to do in teaching them how to live in such a way that their lives answer to the doctrine they believe.

28:00 Look at verse 1 of chapter 2. Speak the things that befit. Speak the things that are consistent with, congruent with, commensurate with. Speak the things that befit the sound doctrine.

28:14 Timothy, I want you to speak the things that match up with the healthy doctrine of the gospel that you've preached, that these people believe, and that they confess. And he said, now I'm going to get very specific. He didn't say, and I'll leave to your judgment what that involves. I believe in the Holy Ghost.

28:33 Titus, he'll tell you, and he'll tell the people. No. He said, no. Here's the generic directive.

28:39 Now he gets specific. And look at it. That the aged or older men, here's a word for us old fellows, be temperate, grave, serious, sober-minded, in touch with reality, sound in faith, in love, in patience. And then if you can get any of the women to admit they fit this category, Titus, there are some older women among you.

29:01 Now here's something you say to the older women. They are to be reverent in demeanor, not slanderers, not enslaved to much wine, teachers of what is good, that they may train the younger women. He said, now here's my word for the older men, verse 2. Then the older women, verses 3 to 5.

29:18 Then he takes up the younger men in verse 6. The younger men. And then he focuses on Titus. In verses 7 and 8.

29:25 In all things showing yourself. Titus, why are you telling others how their lives are to be fit the gospel? Titus, don't forget. Your life must be fit the gospel too.

29:34 In all things showing yourself. A pattern of good works, sound speech, etc. Then he turns to servants in verse 9 and 10. And then he shows the theological and biblical basis of it all in verses 11 through 14.

29:49 So that's the overall context. Now we're going to dip down and focus in upon what Titus is to tell the older women that befits the truth and the doctrine they profess to believe. And he does two things with the older women. First of all, says Titus, I want you to lay out before the older women what they are to be in Christian character.

30:11 And then secondly, what they are to do in their Christian influence upon the younger women. What they are to be. What they are to do. And that's always God's order.

30:21 We are to be in order that we may do. And being is before doing. Now we live in a pragmatic do, do, do age. And people ready to, they want to go to a how-to seminar on this.

30:31 No, God starts with what we be. What we are. And so he says, here is what the older women are to be. And assuming they be that, as a black preacher would say, assuming they be that, then we're going to tell them what they're supposed to do.

30:45 Isn't that right, Gus? That's it. That's good black preaching when they say what they to be. All right?

30:50 Then what they is to do. All right? So we're going to take them what they be, what they do. All right?

30:55 Look at the text. What are they to be? That the older women may be reverent in demeanor. This is a fascinating word.

31:02 The word has a root which takes us into the class of priestly service. And he's saying the older women are to have a bearing that you'd expect a woman to have who was a priestess in the temple of God. Isn't that a beautiful imagery? There'd be a beauty, there'd be a dignity, there'd be a grace, there'd be a sobriety, there'd be a godliness.

31:26 That's the nuance of the word that is used. This is what they are to be. They are to be reverent in demeanor, not slanderers. There's the negative, another negative, not enslaved to much wine.

31:42 They don't sit around addicted to the bottle. Teachers of that which is good. The word does not refer to formal instruction, but rather the advice and encouragement they can give privately, by word and example. Thus the definition of Reinecker and Rogers in what is considered one of the most helpful exegetical tools, the linguistic key to the Greek New Testament.

32:08 Now, since it's all the older women and not just those who have a specific gift of teaching, it's obvious that when he says that the older women should be teachers of that which is good, it's not speaking of formal teaching. You don't do that unless you've got a gift to teach. Nothing, nothing else and nothing worse than people who can't teach teaching. Nothing worse, more painful than to sit under someone that obviously doesn't have a gift to teach.

32:30 But all the old women, regardless of what their gift might be that would warrant some situation of more formal teaching in this or that field, in this setting, it's not talking about formal instruction. It's talking about all the older women, just as surely as all of them are to have this priestess-like reverent demeanor, all of them are to be moderate in their use of the bottle and their attachment to the bottle. All of them are to be governed in their use of the tongue, not slanderers, not addicted to much wine. All of them are to be teachers of that which is good.

33:08 And those are all those words to translate one big long Greek word. One Greek word, teachers of that which is good. That's all translated in one Greek word, compound word. Teachers of that which is good, by example, by influence, privately, one-on-one, in their interaction in the churches.

33:25 Now then, in that influence, what are they to teach? That they may train, and here again, you don't have a formal word for teaching or for preaching or exhorting, but it means that they may bring to sober thinking by their example and by their one-on-one influence and by their general interaction, they are to be instruments in God to see the younger women brought to the manifestation of these qualities. And then you have five adjectives. Now you would not know this in an English translation, but you have five adjectives.

34:00 They are to be blankety blankety blankety blankety blankety blank young women. So the adjectives are all strung up to describe the kind of women the younger women are to be. And what are they to be, adjectivally speaking? They are to be husband-lovers.

34:16 They are to train the younger women to be husband-lovers. Train to be lovers of their husband? Yeah. Whatever, whatever fuzzies you may have had that got the two of you together in the first place, and they sweet-talk you down an aisle, you ain't married long before you realize to love with biblical love is a learned and acquired pattern of behavior.

34:46 It don't come naturally. So he says, you teach them to be husband-lovers. Then he says, to be kid-lovers, to be children-lovers. Whatever you felt of the natural gush of overwhelming emotion when you held that little squawking newborn in your arms and didn't long before you realize if I'm going to love this creature, I'm going to learn to love him.

35:12 And when they get a bit older, hmm, they learn how to say no, stick out their bottom lip. And when they get a little older and think they know everything, and they're wiser than mom and dad, plus Solomon and his second cousin, you got to try to persuade them that maybe they ain't quite so wise as they think they are. It's a little harder. Got to learn to be children-lovers.

35:37 And the old women who got through that and they're still saved, they're to help the younger women say, hey, you'll make it too. It's how you do it. Husband-lovers. Children-lovers.

35:48 Thirdly, sensible. Women have their heads screwed on right. They need to be trained to be sensible, whatever the natural intellect may be. By nature, all of us have quirkiness in our thinking that takes us out of touch with a balanced view of reality and relationship to the reality.

36:07 And therefore, one of Paul's favorite words in the Pastoral Epistles is used here. And younger women, younger wives, need to be trained being husband-lovers, children-lovers, sensible, pure. Pure. That it's evident to her husband, to her children, to all who know her and have any interaction with her, that she's learned how to discipline her emotions.

36:34 That when she has had an emotional attraction to a man other than her husband, and godly, happily married women do, that she's not fed it. She has starved it by the grace and power and dynamics of the Gospel. So it's evident there's one man in her heart, in her eyes, in her bed, in her desires. Pure.

37:03 She's to be trained to be pure. Then she's to be trained to be a home-worker. Not a home-doddler. Not a home-idler.

37:14 But a home-worker. An oikos ergos ergos to work. ergo to work. Oikos house worker.

37:28 Her house is the place of her work. Not her dawdling. Not her spending hours on the telephone. Not idling away her time in front of the TV, watching videos.

37:41 She's in her home. There's always more work than she can do, but it's evident she's doing what she can. She's a house-worker. That's what the word means.

37:51 She's a worker in the house. And then she's kind. Now those are the five adjectives. Now that's the job description for you older ladies in your interaction with the younger ladies.

38:02 You're to seek under God to influence them to be husband-lovers, children-lovers, sensible, pure, home-working, kind. And then the one verb in the list, all of it subsumed under training that woman to voluntarily, cheerfully embrace the God-appointed headship of her husband over her. Look at the text. Being in subjection to their own husbands.

38:31 As we saw when we looked at the redeemed marriage, nowhere does the Bible say husbands subject them. Not a command in the Bible that says husbands are to subject their wives to them. They're to love them. They're to dwell with them according to knowledge.

38:45 All the commands go to the wife. Hupotasso. She is to voluntarily range herself under her husband's headship as appointed by Christ. What a job description for you older ladies in your interaction with the younger ones.

39:00 Here's your job description. You say, what am I to do? I'm an older...

39:04 Here's your job description. This is what? They're to train the younger women to be. Now, if we summarize it and say, can you give us a little distilled version?

39:15 What am I to do as an older woman in my influence of the younger women? Am I stretching it to say you're to help them to embrace with biblical standards their role as wife, mother, and homemaker? It's all there. It's all there in the passage.

39:35 What's involved in being a good mother? It's being a kid lover. It's loving your kids. It's being sober-minded.

39:44 What's involved in being a good mother? Being sensible. Being pure. What's involved in being a homemaker?

39:50 It's being a home worker. Now, I do not believe that that word in that context means that a woman is never to do anything outside the home. Read Proverbs 31. In the celebration of the virtuous woman, there's a lot that she does, she does outside the home.

40:08 She goes abroad like a merchant ship selling her wares. But all of her labors are home-oriented. They are not the pursuit of an independent career because she's got no sense of identity as wife and mother and homemaker. It is in that identity that she is sharing in part of the economic burden and the privilege of being a productive household that can stretch out its hand to the poor and to the needy and she's wealthy enough to have servants to take care of the household when she's abroad like a merchant selling her goods.

40:42 But it does put the emphasis upon the fact that in the home she's not to be a tattler and a gossip and a busybody like those unattached, footloose, fancy-free, merry widows of First Timothy who speak things they ought not who become gossip and tattlers. She's to be a worker within the framework of her home. She says, this is the place of my labor and she is to be kind. All of this within the framework of submission to her husband.

41:11 I say, distilled to its irreducible minimum, boil it down and you have Paul saying to Titus, Titus, tell the older women this is to be their task in their interaction with the younger ones. Teach them how. Teach them how to be good marriage partners, good mothers and good homemakers. Now, what's Paul's great concern in this matter?

The Gospel's Liberating Power for Women's Roles

41:35 Well, look at verse 5b, 2-5b, that to train them to do all of these things, why? In order that, you Greek students, you have a hena, clause of purpose. In order that, Paul says, here is my great passion, Titus, and I want you to pass it on to them. In order that, the word of God will not blaspheme.

42:01 Titus, the younger women being these things under the influence and tutelage of the older women is a matter of validating the truth and power of the gospel. I want these things implemented in order that the word of God will not be blasphemed. And what is that word of God? It is that word that has proclaimed salvation in Jesus Christ, that brings people into their God-appointed spheres of relationship with joy and with grace and dignity.

42:39 That word he identifies in verse 11 and following, the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to the intent that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Godly. It means that ordinarily she gives herself to her role of wife, of mother, and of home-making. She demonstrates that because of Christ's grace, she does not resent her role, she embraces it from the heart, and she discharges it in the grace and power that Christ himself gives her.

43:23 So the gospel has not come, and here I'm going to read what I've written. Because I don't want to miss a word of it. I don't often do that. I trust to the moment the framing of the words.

43:36 I write down the heads and the text, but I want you to get this. The gospel has not come to liberate women from their God-appointed sphere of spiritual safety and gospel validating activity of marriage, motherhood, and home-making. Rather, it liberates her from anything more than a chattel of her husband, a mere object of sexual passion, or a subsidized baby factory and domestic slave, to be a bride, loved as Christ loved the church, nurtured and cherished as his own flesh, dwelt with according to knowledge in self-giving love. That's what the gospel does. That's what the gospel does. We must not only understand from the scriptures that marriage, motherhood, and home-making have a strategic place in the activity of redemptive grace.

Application to Girls and Women Taught Otherwise

44:42 Marriage and motherhood will be a mingled experience of joy and sorrow in the experience of redemptive grace. Marriage, motherhood, and home-making will ordinarily be the sphere of a woman's greatest spiritual safety and greatest usefulness in validating and advancing the truth and power of the gospel. Now I come to application, and I want first of all to make an application to girls and women sitting here today who have been taught otherwise. Do you know that some of the things I preached this morning, if I were to teach them in the average university setting in a sociology course, I would be hooted and run off the stage as something out of the dark ages? I would be called immoral. Aggressive, consistent, self- conscious feminism has as its articulate and passionate goal to persuade every girl and every woman that until she's free from a man, from her womb, and from her home, she's never free. Some of you who've been acquainted with real current

46:12 family, am I resonating? You want to know who you are, girls? Until you know your identity totally separate from any concept of a relationship to a woman. Consistent feminists can't wait for the day when artificial wounds will totally liberate them from slavery to their own wounds.

46:46 That's not something spun out of my head. They unashamedly state it. And the whole idea, barefoot, pregnant, and standing behind the stove with a babushka on your back, is that freedom from a husband, from your womb, from your home. I said, Lord, help me to give some illustration that shows the folly of this.

47:25 And while I was praying, I was looking out my study window. Most of you who've been to my study know I have a lovely picture window. You can have the joy of looking down. This morning there were rabbits, squirrels, oh, sometimes as many as 20, 25 birds.

47:48 And it's been a real source of delight to my wife and me. And I was sitting there and saying, Lord, how do I illustrate this? Then I thought, imagine one of those birds down there. Every time I see you, you're split in the air with your wings.

48:14 You and the air have got a relationship here. You're in bondage to the air. And furthermore, I happen to know, one of them is a morning dove that built its nest in one of our window boxes. I happen to know that you're in the tree.

48:38 I mean, that's a very restrictive life. Air, nest, and tree? Don't you think you'd like to be free? Look at that rabbit down there.

48:53 He's in constant contact with the ground. He goes from picking up some of the seed that's been spilled over by the more aggressive ones. I'm going to have it all to myself. And so the rabbits are there.

49:13 And I know the rabbit goes across the yard and up and he's got a hole somewhere up in the bushes at the end of our yard. And say to that bird, look, you're never free until you're in constant contact with the ground, until you've got a hole to go to. I'm made for the air. I'm made for the nest.

49:47 I'm made for the limb on the tree. Aggressive feminism and telling two generations of women, you're in bondage. This whole idea that your ordinary sphere of usefulness, your ordinary sphere of knowing who and what you are meant to be as a woman and you've heard me quote her before, Danielle Crittenton, a non-Christian woman, has written a landmark book called What Our Mothers Never Told Us. And she with others has come to see how they've been sold a bill of goods by this notion of aggressive feminism. If I'm talking to any woman, who knows better where your highest fulfillment lies? God or some fellow women, most of whom were never married or if married never had children or if had children are divorced and sour on marriage. You name them.

51:10 Simone de Beauvoir never married, lived as a mistress godless philosopher. To keep him happy, he even lined up his other mistresses to cohabit with her. Gloria Simon, Betty Friedan was married, I think had a couple of kids but divorced. There are dozens of women sitting in this place today who are more fit to speak about marriage, motherhood and home making marriage.

51:54 I want to turn you off. Take your Bible and say, Oh God who made me, I want to know who I am as a woman. What is the ordinary sphere of my greatest spiritual safety? And in what sphere can I ordinarily bring the most glory to you and most powerfully to you?

Application to Women Embracing Their God-Given Roles

52:26 Who have embraced from the heart this principle. You've come to see yes, there are many things in life I wish I could do, I wish I had done, but in the providence of God. God has brought me into the marriage state. God has given me children, God has given me a home and I have children, I have a father I have children.

53:04 There are many things that God wants about me. I can do everything for God but I am not going to do anything for me. I don't want to be a burden to God. I want to Committed to your role of wife, mother, and homemaker.

53:31 Stick your fingers in your spiritual ears. Don't listen to any voice that would cause you to be anything less than in the right sense of the word. Proud with a humble, godly pride of your identity as wife, as mother, and as homemaker.

53:53 Never hang your head when people say, what's your occupation? Occupation, wife, mother, homemaker, to the glory of God. And say it in such a way that it will rock them back on their heels. And hopefully, they might just ask a reason.

54:12 You know, you really seem to be happy. Everyone else I hear complains, ah, the kids, they're a hassle. And my husband, what a jerk. You're able to say, Christ has made the difference.

54:23 I've had more opportunities when I've talked to people in the doctor's offices and tell them I've been married for 46 years. They look at you like you came from another planet or another galaxy. I mean, people just don't stay married for 46 years in this generation. And then I'm able to tell them, it's the grace of God.

54:40 It's Christ who is the glue of our relationship and the foundation of it. Dear women who are given to your God-given role, don't ever be ashamed of it. In the right sense, as Paul said, I magnify my ministry. You magnify your role as wife and mother and homemaker.

Application to the Unconverted

55:01 And you who are not converted, you who sit here today, strangers to the grace of God, what does all this have to say to you? Well, it brings you right back to the gospel. That's where Paul goes at the end of telling older men, younger men, servants, Titus, this is what you do. He said, this is all but an outgrowth of the gospel.

55:20 A gospel in which the great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, gave himself for our sins. To what end? That he might redeem us. From all iniquity, purify to himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works.

55:37 And my friend, you'll never know. You'll never know what it is to have, quote, the good life, biblically defined, until you come within the orbit of the saving mercy of this Jesus who died for sinners just like you. This Jesus who is able to take you out of the realm of sin and ungodliness and put you into the path of sobriety. Sobriety, righteousness, and godly living with the conviction, as Paul said, that the best is yet to come.

56:07 Looking for the blessed hope in the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Oh, my unconverted friend, you make pity on us in our poor, narrow, restricted lives. But down underneath, you really know we don't live a poor, narrow, restricted life.

56:28 God has given us all things richly to enjoy. We enjoy our wives. We enjoy our children, no matter how much pain they've brought to us. We enjoy our grandchildren.

56:39 We enjoy our homes. And all of this because of Christ. And Christ is accessible in the gospel to you, to you, to you. Go to him.

56:50 Go to him. Find in him the release from all of your sins and being planted in the way that is pleasing unto God. Well, may the Lord write upon our hearts these truths of his word. Let's pray.

Conclusion and Prayer

57:07 Our Father, we're so thankful that we have your word as a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. That in this age of horrible confusion and an aggressive battering at all of the pillars of biblical principles relative to marriage and childbearing and homemaking, we thank you that your word stands unscathed and unshaken. And we pray that that word will be implanted in all of our hearts. We pray that that word will be implanted in all of our hearts.

57:35 And that we may be prepared in the grace and power of Christ to live it out before an onlooking world. Seal then your word to our hearts for your glory and our good. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.