The Virtuous Woman (Proverbs 31)

Opening Prayer and Context for the Sermon Series

0:03 This adult Sunday school class was held on December 25, 1988, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:17 Realizing that the relative thinness of our ranks is due, I am sure, in the greater number of instances, not to people being delinquent in attending upon the means of grace today, but I know of several that I tried to contact yesterday for one reason or another, and they obviously have gone away for the weekend, and I think it would be well for us, as we begin our class, to remember them in our prayers, that as many of them may be in situations today that leave much to be desired in terms of the availability of sound ministry, that God will minister to their hearts, and that God will enable them to be a witness to loved ones, particularly those whose visit away on the Lord's Day is only unquestionable, under the constraint of the fifth commandment, and in seeking to honor father and mother and other relatives have gone away, and let us pray that as they have done so, the Lord will give them a full witness to these loved ones. Let us pray.

1:26 Our Father, since you have constituted us a body of Christ, we are conscious of the absence of not a few of the members of this particular body, and their absence does not... leave us indifferent to them, nor unconcerned for them.

1:45 For as all of the members of the body share an equal concern for one another, so we, as your people, would share this concern for our brothers and sisters. We think especially, O Lord, of those who, out of a sense of duty, have gone for the weekend to spend time with loved ones and relatives, who would much rather...

2:10 be found amongst their true and eternal brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers, even those who hear and keep the word of God. But as they have sought in obedience to you to spend this time with blood relatives, we pray, O God, that you would minister to them, that they may have a good testimony before them, that their lives may consistently radiate the reality of their faith, in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray that they may be winsomely bold in seizing opportunities to speak of the gospel of Christ. O Lord, we ask that they would not be bold at the expense of winsomeness, nor winsome at the expense of boldness. But will you not grant them that rare combination of both tact and boldness, both sensitivity and, yet, a constraint of the love of Christ and a dread of their eternal state, that there may be many who will hear the word of God as a result of their absence from us today. And that we ask you, O Lord, to grant them journeying mercies as they are traveling by various means. May none of them be involved in accidents upon the way,

3:35 but may they be returned safely to us with a good conscience, and with a testimony of your goodness in answering their prayers and ours. And that our fathers should any be absent from us because of either careless or willful misplaced priorities. We pray that even now their consciences will be smitten, that they may feel the smart of Holy Ghost conviction, that they may feel a sense of shame, that they would in any way, disrupt your claims over them on this day for the sake of the passing trifles of this present world. O Lord, if any be in that state, have dealings with them, we pray, and may they yet be found among us with a conscience freshly purged in the blood of Christ. Hear then our cry and bless us in our study of the word of God together, we ask through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now as most of you know in March of this year, that will be the last time we can say that on the Lord's day concerning 1988, we began a series of studies which I entitled

5:01 Crucial Issues Facing the People of God. And after laying a foundation for addressing these issues, a foundation embedded in the perspectives of Romans 12 verses 1 and 2, we then began to concern ourselves with this first area of crucial issues facing God's people, namely the matter of male and female identity, roles, and relationships. And today we come to what will be our final installment in this category of our study, and that is a consideration of the major principles relative to the virtuous woman as described in Proverbs 12 verses 1 and 2. Proverbs 12 verses 1 and 2. careers in the community before leading up to the Jim and Rcomed I began to fulfill a promise with women that we would address the question of how women could train younger women in the teaching of Titus 2. And what bearing does Proverbs 31 have upon all that we have discovered from the Scriptures concerning the神-woman's own role and judgement? 1.

Setting the Scene for Proverbs 31: Cultural and Poetic Considerations

6:13 Women shall not have слово which hath been 할�ē, さствен Spark as seeing the Β ПомКА momentos comprise in theÉ which, under normal circumstances, is to find her identified and wholly involved in the domestic sphere. And we turn to Proverbs 31, and we began by seeking to consider the setting of this particular description of the virtuous woman. And we said there is a very real possibility that verses 10 through the end of the chapter, 10 through 31, may be the words that King Lemuel's mother taught him. If so, they are the description of the kind of virtuous woman that he as a prince should seek as he anticipates his responsibilities as a king. And therefore, there will be circumstantial factors relative to the description of the virtuous woman that will not have a one-to-one parallel. In the context in which most of you women find yourselves in 1988, not as queens or as princesses, but as ordinary housewives and homemakers married to very ordinary-looking, ordinary attainment men, rather than to kings and to princes.

7:37 Now, if you want to call him your king and prince in moments of romantic flight and fancy, that's your liberty. But reality is, he ain't no king, he ain't no prince. And you ain't no queen, and you ain't no princess. So, we must recognize that the description of the virtuous woman may well take to itself certain factors that will not be transferred one-to-one over to the virtuous woman here.

8:05 On the other hand, if verses 10 through 31 are not the words of Lemuel's mother, but rather a poem celebrating a virtuous woman, and it is that, in an acrostic, it has one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet at the beginning of each of the verses, and the author unknown to us, it is certainly clear that this virtuous woman is a woman married to a man of some means, a man of some station in the community. He sits with the elders in the gate of the city. She makes...

8:43 She makes things of tapestry. She makes things of purple, which could either be double-dipped, referring to substantial cloth, or it could refer to luxurious cloth. But in any case, we must not look for a one-to-one equivalent, because there are not only cultural differences in the outworking of her virtues, but it may well be that there are radical differences in her standing and station of life. And each one of us is to fulfill his role, as a woman or a man, in terms of the station in which God has placed us.

9:19 Just as it would be wicked for a woman who was placed in a lowly situation to be discontent that she could not dress like a queen, or attempt to dress like a queen, it would be evil for a virtuous queen to dress as though she were a peasant. This would bring reproach upon her calling in life. And the Bible loves to describe virtues, virtue in the concrete. Rarely does God describe virtues in the abstract.

9:48 It describes virtue and vice in the concrete. Jesus does not say, cultivate the virtue of a non-retaliatory spirit. What he says is, he did strike you on one cheek, turn the other also. There's the concreteness of the virtue of a non-retaliatory spirit.

The Foundational Virtue: The Fear of the Lord

10:08 And the Bible does that continually in both the Old and the New Testaments. Now, with that understanding, shaping, our handling of the materials, we ran out of time, and I left you with some questions, and now we're going to take up those questions one by one, and then if I see time is running out, I may just ask them and answer them, so that this will indeed be the winding down of this section of our study. Now, as we begin to address these questions, I want to whet your appetite if you do not yet have Charles Bridges' commentary on prophecy. As a household companion, you've heard it referred to many times.

10:49 Listen to the wonderful way that Charles Bridges sets the field for the study of this section. Commenting on verse 10, we come now to the principal part of the chapter. The wise mother of Lemuel had warned her royal son against the seduction of evil women and its attendant temptations, and given him wholesome rules for government. She now sets before him the full-length portrait of a virtuous woman, that choicest gift which is emphatically said to be from the Lord.

11:25 Proverbs 19.14 It is an elegant poem of 22 verses, like the 119th Psalm, artificially constructed, each verse beginning with one of the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It describes a wife, a mistress, and a mother. All mothers and mistresses should teach the female pupils under their care to read and to learn it by heart.

11:53 And this was quoted from a Bishop Horne's sermon on female character. The more deeply it is studied, provided only it be practically studied, the more will its beauty be understood and felt. Genuine, simple fact without coloring or pretensions commends the character. To our warmest interest.

12:17 And then he goes on to take up the subject verse by verse, and it's just full of most helpful and instructive material, and this is not an exception to the rest of the book. So I say again, if this is not a household companion, we would urge you to make it such pronto. All right? Now then, question number one that I left with you.

12:41 According to Proverbs, 31 verses 10 through 31, what is the foundational virtue of this virtuous woman? What is the foundational virtue of this virtuous woman? Whatever other virtues she has and are described in this passage, there is one that is the foundation that supports all of the rest, without which they would not be extolled as true virtues. All right, Nate?

13:19 30, be deceitful, and beauty is vain. That is, it is a fleeting thing, in spite of cosmetics, in spite of plastic surgeons. It's still vain and empty and a fleeting thing. But a woman that fears the Lord shall be praised.

13:46 And I believe Nate has rightly identified the foundational virtue of this. It is a virtuous woman, which is the fear of the Lord. And it is that fear of the Lord which both supports, gives birth to others of the other virtues. Now that leads us then to a very natural question.

14:13 What is the fear of the Lord? In practical, workable terms, when it says that this woman is what she is and does what she does and therefore elicits, this legitimate praise from her husband and her children, what is that fear of the Lord which constitutes her foundational virtue? Anyone want to venture a description, a workable definition of the fear of God or the fear of the Lord? Is that one of the fruit of God or is that the fear of God itself? I mean, one of the fruits, wouldn't it? But what is the fear of the Lord itself, Linda? I think that has a ring of familiarity.

15:21 I think a certain preacher around here, a number of years ago, in a series on the fear of God, described the fear of God as that constant regard of God to look upon His smite as our greatest delight and as our greatest dread. However we define the fear of God, these elements must be present. The consciousness that God is, circumstances and that whatever the fear of God, are fundamental ingredients. The person who is God, God is all. This is a very simple example. This is a very simple example.

16:08 This is a very simple example. This is a very simple example. who attempts to say in his heart there is no God, will fear God, gladly acknowledges God, and in the language of Hagar, thou God seest me, and live consciously and deliberately in the knowledge that the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good, Proverbs 16.3.

16:31 That is the fundamental building block of the fear of God, the acknowledgement that God is everywhere, presence. Now, that can lead to nothing but a cringing dread. If I hate that God, I don't want to please that God, I have no love for the law of that God, I can still acknowledge that He is, that He is in every place, that He sees me, I cannot escape from Him, and that can be a terrifying thought. That will be part of the horrible terror of hell, that men will not escape.

17:14 The frightening thought which lies at the heart of true and saving religion is, is that regard of Him that is coupled with a disposition that delights to please, and that regards His smile as my greatest delight, and as my greatest dread. That's why it can be said, the fear of man brings a snare, but whoso puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe. You see, the opposite of the fear of man is a fear of God that is trusting in Him, an affinity of the heart for Him and towards Him, and then, as an expression of the desire to please Him, now we come to Eli's description of that fruit of it, the fear of God will always be coupled with this desire, the will of God. Let's look at just a couple of texts that make this clear. Right here in the book of Proverbs, chapter 16 and verse 6.

Implications of the Fear of the Lord

18:31 Proverbs 16 and verse 6.

18:35 Here is the negative influence of the fear of God. By mercy and truth, with iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord, men depart that evil into God, and I will depart from evil. So as we look at this description of the virtuous woman, it's because she fears God that she departs the evils that are upon a woman in her particular station. She could have luxuriated in her wealth.

19:14 She could have had her servants cater to her laziness. But she departed from the evil of self-indulgence and laziness, which she could have very easily fallen into, given her particular station in life. But because she feared the Lord, she departed from all of those evils. She could have been self-indulgent with her wealth.

19:37 But we see her doing what? Distributing to the poor, to the needy. She could have been smug and proud in her position, looked down her nose at the needy, but instead she's looking out with compassion for the needy, not to look down her nose, but to stretch out her hand. Why?

19:53 She feared the Lord and departed from the particular evils to which she was especially prone in her position. But now the positive side of not only departing from evil, but seeking to walk in the way of good, look at verse 17.

20:12 Sorry, chapter 23 in verse 17. I'll give you the right chapter.

20:20 23-17 Let not your heart envy sinners, but be in the fear of the Lord all the day long. Here the fear of God will cause us to be preoccupied with the Lord, His fellowship, His presence, doing what is pleasing to Him, rather than being discontent with our lot and envying the lot of the ungodly. Or we could turn to a passage such as Jeremiah 32 in verse 40. This is not primarily a study in the fear of God, but we do have to address it enough in order to isolate this virtue.

21:00 And here in Jeremiah 32 and verse 40, one of the great promises concerning what God will do in the new covenant, I will make an everlasting covenant with them and I will not turn away from following them to do them good. I will put my fear in their hearts that fear of God is a pleading to the Lord. This covenant law from the Lord is to be guilty of spiritual harlotry, to have the heart fixed upon another object of affection and to plant one's feet in paths other than those of law description of the will of our covenant God. So, enough on the fear of God that we at least review what the essence of that fear of God is and the foundational virtue of this virtue is that the virtuous woman is that she fears the Lord. She is living in the fear of God.

22:19 That tells us two or three very vital things that it tells us about the virtuous woman and anyone who would be a virtuous woman in 1988 amidst all the complexity of our present society and all of the rest. What does it tell us? Several very vital things.

22:40 Yes, clear means of grace. All right, that if the fear of the Lord is going to be a virtue, it's going to continually be the conditioning baseline virtue that the fear of the Lord must be nurtured by the appointed means of grace so that an industriousness that's described never becomes an excuse to depart from the Lord. Rather, it is her communion with God that makes her so active and enables her to do far more in her waking hours than she would otherwise get done if she were carrying with her a heart that was estranged from God, a conscience that was bloodied with guilt, and all of the other things that attend upon neglecting the means of grace. All right, what else does it tell us about her? If that's her foundational virtue, the fear of the Lord, then she does what she must do in the use of the appointed means of grace to nurture and sustain and to increase this grace of the fear of God. What else does it tell us?

23:53 All right, Jerry?

24:05 All right. It's a simple but straightforward thing. This virtuous woman is a saved woman which underscores that no matter how much a woman may desire in God's common grace which works through what the Bible calls natural affection, no matter how much she tries to be a virtuous woman, ultimately she cannot because the scripture says they that are in the flesh cannot.

24:35 And if there is any woman here today who is not in saving union with Christ, you've not been given a new heart and had God place his fear within you, I say it lovingly, but I say it in faithfulness to your soul, you cannot be a virtuous woman. You say, what do you mean I'm not virtuous? I've never cheated on my husband. You may not have.

24:56 I don't debate that. My children don't debate that. But you have not been able to impart the most necessary thing to your household and that is a saving relationship to God through Jesus Christ. And whatever else you've taught, your children by precept or example, you have kept back the one thing needful because you yourself don't have it.

No Incongruity Between Godliness and Domesticity

25:25 So that's the second thing that's very clear from the passage. And I was thinking of at least one more. Now you may be thinking of five or six more, but I'd like to fish for this one more. Think of the overall description of that woman in this passage.

25:39 And what does it tell us then when it says her foundational virtue is the fear of God? All right, George?

25:48 All right, that she's accepted her position, as a woman, yes, but I'd like to carry it on from there. Someone else had a hand raised. All right, Rich? The virtue of doing her husband good all the day long is not done because she likes that, but because she does have obedience to God.

26:11 All right. All right, so that would be, again, one of the attendants of the fear of God. It enables us to overcome our natural inclination towards or against any given thing and to do what we do out of regard for God's will. I'm sure if I fished long enough, I'd get it, but in the interest of time, this is what I'm fishing for, that there is no incongruity between being thoroughly domesticated and busy from morning to night being a godly woman.

26:43 You don't need to take your head and go into a nunnery to be holy. Now, you see, one of the fundamental flaws of Roman Catholic theology is that the high heights of holiness and asceticism, as Sir Murray says, would make her nothing but a miserable witch. If she withheld herself from Joseph sexually after the birth of Jesus, she would have been a wicked woman.

27:24 But they say, no, no, what they must do is make her a symbol of perfected womanhood, which is marry and ever husband and children and domestic food. And then that's perpetuated, you see, in the whole concept of the life that is separated unto God. And if you're truly married to Christ, that's why the nuns wear the wedding band. They are married to Christ in such a way that they are above, you see, these mundane marriages.

27:57 Now, you've got to have marriages and so they make that a sacrament. Otherwise, how are you going to get more Catholics? Now, I don't mean to be unkind for anyone who's a Roman Catholic, but you see, Roman Catholic theology is not only full of heresies, but full of self-contradictions. And again, we don't want to get off on that, but it does underscore that the fear of the Lord, that is, the highest are not in any way inconsistent with the fear of the Lord.

Dominant Sphere of Activity: The Home and Family

28:22 They are not in any way the most practical, mundane life lived here upon the earth, fulfilling one's God-given duties. All right? But having then looked at her foundational virtue, we want to move to question number two. What is the dominant sphere or location of her activity and the focus of her energies?

28:46 And I've used my words carefully. I didn't say what is the exclusive sphere, but what is the dominant sphere or location of her activity and the focus of her energies?

29:03 If you venture an answer, start producing the verses to prove your answer.

29:09 Okay? Well, come on up to Howard. Where does it say that? Maybe she does that at the local millinery shop.

29:30 I mean, we doubt it, but again, we want to hear, does the text really hear of her primary activity, her dominant sphere or location of her energies? All right, what verses? They're there, Jerry. Listen, verse 21.

30:22 Household, twice mentioned. Verse 15, household. We're going to mention another, Howard. She looks well to the ways of her household.

30:36 The other verses that indicate that the domestic is the primary sphere. Yes, Bruce?

30:48 Okay. She says she does him good and not evil all the days of her life, wherein describing the virtuous woman, notice beginning with verse 10, a worthy woman who can find her price is far above rubies. There's a generic, a statement about her worth and about her virtues. Notice where the emphasis falls.

31:14 The heart of her husband trusts in her.

31:21 She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. Two verses.

31:34 Now, is not this the basic rub of modern feminism? Modern feminism has, as one of the fundamental tenets, one of its thanks in its credo, in its manifesto, the gut man doesn't change

33:15 who I am. Essentially, or she may have the hyphenated name and she'll call herself Ms. Jones-Jones.

33:25 And that's why they maintain the maiden family name and the married name. Now, that's not just an innocent change of form by which we address people. There is a wish.

33:44 I get a letter that says Nancy Smith,

33:55 I'm not going to let them be of that person's identity. God has already dictated. People, what's in a word?

34:08 More than we often read. And this virtuous woman, a pattern by the...

34:27 So appreciated her that she had no lack of gain either. He provided her with all necessary for her to have the full expression of all of her God-given capacities and talents and capabilities. But that fundamental sphere of orientation is that of her husband. He shall have no lack of gain.

34:57 She does him good and evil all the days. And then it's evident when the praises come forward in the...

35:08 Summary statement. You have verse 27. She looks well to the ways of her household, eats not the bread of idleness. Her children rise up, indicating that she did not regard children as an undesired intrusion into her independent career goals.

35:31 What lies in this business of deliberately not having children for the first 10, 15, 20 years of a marriage and then women almost demanding miracles of gynecology that they be able to conceive in their mid to late 30s and conceive a perfectly normal healthy child though they may have wracked their body with the abnormality of strong hormone birth control pills for 20 years. And though they may get torn up their wombs with a half a dozen abortions I don't know if I can get what's behind it.

36:15 Not as a heritage of the Lord and the means by which a woman finds true identity or in the language of 1 Timothy 2, 15. She works out her salvation in her role of motherhood but they're looked upon as an unwanted intrusion. That's what lies behind among other things the whole idea that it's my body. Sure I can get an abortion.

36:38 Why? I'm not going to pursue my career having to run to the ladies room five times a day in the first trimester.

36:48 Go wandering around and make a good impression looking like an inverted pair. I mean that stands in the way of my career. But to kill the baby I personhood.

37:11 You see dear people how evil this is. And when people take Proverbs 31 to justify that position you talk about twisting the word of God to their own destruction. She had children so gave herself to those children willing for morning sin. Let her know that he deeply appreciated that she accepted her God given role.

37:54 Some of you husbands make it difficult for your wives because you can't praise them. You've got some sick unmortified something in you. The words of praise get stuck in your throat. How long has it been since you took your wife sat her down looked her straight in the eye and said I want you to know I thank God I thank God for your willingness to be a mother.

38:16 Your willingness to go through morning sickness and the trauma of birth pangs and all of the inconvenience of being a nursing mother and all of the washing of my dirty underwear and my smelly socks and all the rest. You see this husband she's doing what she's doing to please him and though she fundamentally fears the Lord God has so made her that it's much easier to go on fearing the Lord and fulfilling his will if the husband gives that legitimate praise. Husband praises her saying many daughters have done worthily but you tell them all. It's obvious you see it doesn't say that her career partners and the vice presidents of the firms that she ran these sash firms real estate parties to praise her. There's no indication that her praise comes from any other fundamental source than that which was the primary and dominant location of her activity and focus of her energies namely her husband and now we have a third question. What are well does anyone want to add anything more to that answer to the second one? You brought forward the major verses

Major Characteristics: Diligence and Trustworthiness

39:42 was there any comment that anyone else wanted to make on that? I'm conscious of the pressure of time and we've got just fifteen minutes left and I do want to get on the third question. We've looked then at what is the foundational virtue of the virtuous woman and we saw that it was the fear of the Lord. Question two what is the dominant sphere or location of her activity and focus of her energies?

40:05 It is her husband and her family not the exclusive but it is the dominance and the basis of any other sphere into which she moves. Question number three what is the dominant sphere and the basis what are the major characteristics of her life? And by major characteristics what I mean is this suppose I were to say of someone that person is characterized by silliness frivolity and laziness. I'm describing major characteristics.

40:35 Now then what are the major characteristics of this virtuous woman?

40:41 Let's just listen and then you'll be prepared to justify that characteristic from one of the passages or more than one of the passages as one who fears there's the fundamental virtue what are the other virtues or characteristics that flow how she conducts and her family and what makes you say diligence.

41:37 You get out of breath when you read this comfort you ladies remember when God is setting the standard he sets before us when he says Christ is to be our pattern he sets the perfect example before us knowing we shall never attain it but that we ought always to be making an honest effort to attain it. Well in the same way this virtuous woman remember it is a it is a poetic description not of a particular woman this is not a biography but this is in poetry a setting forth of a woman who would embody all virtues and there's no indication in scripture that any of one woman ever is virtuous perfectly. So you women don't be discouraged to read this and say man I need to read this to be six women all rolled up into one and then be given bionic arms and legs and all the rest before I could even begin to attain. Remember God sets the standard ought to be not in terms of what we in our present state may be able to attain. Here is the picture of the virtuous woman towards which you are to strive towards which you as husbands are to seek to nurture and cherish your wives.

42:57 So this is not just something for your wife to read. And Mike has said diligence is one of her primary virtues and we see it Mike has indicated because of the active verbs that are used all the way through. Verse 13 she seeks wool and flax works with her hands. Verse 14 brings her bread from afar.

43:20 Verse 15 rises while it is night gives food. Verse 16 considers a field. See she's not just a woman who works like a slave she's got a head on her shoulders. She knows a little bit about finances.

43:34 She knows a little bit about the real estate market. She's a woman whose intellectual faculties are active and developed.

43:44 Keeping stupid barefoot and pregnant and then I'll have the brains and I'll be out. Now that's a caricature of this a total caricature. And then you go right on through verse 19 she lays her hands to the distaff that is to the spinning wheel her hands hold the spindle stretches out her hands to the poor she lays her hands to the poor she lays her hands to the poor she makes linen garments delivers sashes to the merchants verse 24 so diligence is one of the marks of this virtuous woman. Now you see the relationship between this and the fear of God?

44:20 What is the fourth commandment? Six day shalt thou what? Labor. That includes in the home.

44:32 A woman is at all Sabbath she better have a cooperative husband who's going to make sure that instead of being her mother most burdensome day expecting a royal feast on the Lord's day that maybe you'll be willing to have soup and crackers and you'll go home and take the soup out of the fridge and heat it up and tell your wife to go in and just kick her feet up and look over her notes in the morning sermon. My wife and I had a good scheme when our kids were younger in 20 minutes we could get the Sunday meal on together. That was our standard time and we just went at it like a well-coordinated machine. We worked on a way to be able to do that to come up with a plan to come up with simple menus and ones in which we could have a cooperative effort so that her Lord's day could be something that was a true Lord's day. But you see the fourth commandment when people then ask me does your wife work I say of course she does if she didn't I wouldn't let her eat. Because the Bible says if any man will not work let him not eat. Oh yeah but what I mean is does she work out of the home?

45:35 I say no. The home is the sphere of her labor but she labored from morning till night and all she did often when I'm ready to go to bed she's still laboring in her ironing room. Honey you coming to bed? No I've got a few more shirts to do dear.

45:52 Laboring for me.

45:55 So diligence. Alright? Second outstanding virtue of this woman.

46:02 Yes.

46:13 The diligence is anything else that is Right? You see why I left that first one blank? It was for that very reason. Look at the text now.

46:33 What's the first one that is mentioned? Verse 11. The husband trusts in her and he shall have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life.

46:49 He's with the elders in the gate discussing the affairs of administration of the city. To see if she's producing.

47:01 You see there's an element of trust and the husband has learned that she is a trustworthy woman. That is when you give her a sphere of responsibility that's a trust. A trust fund is money put in a fund that if you're made the advisor the administrator of that trust or the guardian of that trust then responsibility to show yourself trust which was put in your trust. And so this element of trustworthiness is set forward and in this excellent book that I highly recommend by Emmeline Spencer I don't endorse every single sentence and every single word in it like any book that is a human production there are things that we would change where we write but then someone else would change it after we had written it and that's true of all of us. But it's an excellent setting forth of the main virtues that are seen in this woman and an exposition of this particular chapter and she has an excellent chapter on this very virtue of trustworthiness that the heart of her husband safely trusts in her and then the subtitle trustworthiness. I highly commend this book to you men and to you women might be the kind of thing that husband and wife would want to use as a devotional project

48:29 to work through together so that the husband and wife agree on the outworking of these virtues in their own particular context and how the husband can help the wife to be more efficient. So trustworthiness in many ways we might call the front running virtue and all of the others are the indications of why his heart safely trusts in her. But we'll set them up in a linear form. Trustworthiness, diligence, another virtue that's evident in this woman.

Major Characteristics: Prudence, Generosity, and Dignity

49:03 All right? We've got two hands ready, two Wall Street guys. You guys want to, none of you is with Drexel and Burnham, are you? All right, Kevin and then we'll move over.

49:17 All right, Kevin?

49:30 Mm-hmm.

49:43 All right, practical wisdom, we could call her discreet. Would that be the word to use? She uses discretion, she's not running off, half-cocked on an issue, she's got what the Bible would call, this is what's bound up in that difficult to translate word, sophronia, translated sober-mindedness in the scriptures. It brings all of those elements together.

50:07 She's not a frizzy-headed, scatterbrained, dumb blonde, okay? She's obviously someone that's got her act together between her ears, okay? Her hands are not just busy having to do, undo tomorrow what she did today. Some women are very, very busy, but they spend half their time undoing what they did yesterday because upon reflection it was unwise.

50:32 She doesn't go out and buy a field and find out a week later that the thing's got four different legal claims on it and then she ends up in court for six months. She considers that field. She wants to see is it legally clear? Any liens against it?

50:46 Any indebtedness? She considers. You see, the whole concept, and that's what Kevin said, Kevin's trying to address. Someone want to help us?

50:53 You got a word that'll gather all that together past the nickels? Can you help us?

50:59 All right. Prudence or the biblical concept of sober-mindedness. See, we usually think of soberism, you know, somber, but sober-mindedness brings all of these elements together, right? So she's a prudent woman, okay?

51:12 Prudence. What's another version? Yes, okay.

51:17 She's generous. All right, where do we find that? Verse 20. She stretches out her hand to the pool.

51:26 She reaches forth her hands to the needy. This is a vital note to be sounded. There's some women that are very prudent. They're very prudent to their own, but there's an element of unmortified selfishness and indifference to anything beyond their own blood, their own flesh and blood.

51:50 But this woman, while having her husband and her own children rise up and call her blessed, she's got an eye and a hand and a heart to the poor and to the needy. She's a very generous, generous and compassionate woman. All right? Ernie, can you put generous and compassionate?

52:15 Yes, Paul.

52:25 All right, she's a woman with godly love. Without that love, if we give our bodies to be burned, so, yeah. So, even though it's not expressly mentioned, knowing, interpreting this passage in the light of 1 Corinthians, we could say that she is a loving woman and in a sense, these are some of the manifestations of that love. Are they not the generosity and the compassion and even the prudence?

52:53 She loves her husband too much to go by a field that he's going to have to spend six months getting out of litigation. She is trustworthy. So, in a sense, some of these can also be broken up into expressions of love. So, certainly that's an assumed and it's good that we remind ourselves of that.

53:12 All right? Several others. Quickly now. Time is running.

53:14 Pete? She's said the noble and dignified and say that she is done nobly. All right? She doesn't feel like, you know, I'm the nobody but she, in all her acts with her servants, with her children, with her husband, she is dignified.

53:40 And verse 25, a fascinating verse. Strength and dignity are her clothing and she laughs at the time to come. She's not a woman going around full of fears and insecurity. She knows she's got a place under God and in the heart of her husband and of her children that she feels secure.

54:02 Some of us would like to stop and preach an hour's sermon on that. Do you provide that she can laugh at the time to come? Say, I am secure under God in the loving and my children's commitment to my well-being. I can laugh at any anticipated collapse.

54:32 This woman is not someone going around full of fears and insecurity and doubts about her dignity and her identity. How in the world we put that virtue in one word, I don't know. That's a lot of things. But whatever it is, it's different elements.

Major Characteristics: Wise Speech and Attractiveness for Her Husband

54:51 All right, very quickly now, what else? Yes. The use of her tongue, she is marked by the virtue of when the vice is underscored more than others in the pastoral epistles. In 1 Timothy 5 and in Titus chapter 2.

55:30 And so, in a peculiar way, God recognizes that women, while men, are more prone to indifference and insensitivity than the rest. And God underscores those potential vices in the past. In men, more than in women, God underscores this. And so, when he's highlighting her virtues, she opens her mouth with wisdom.

55:52 The law of kindness is on her. Time is gone. May I just ask you to contemplate what is underscored in verse 22. She makes for herself tapestry, and that's the very phrase used by the immoral woman in Proverbs 7 when she's seducing the naive young man.

56:18 Now, you think about that. I've got a sneaking suspicion what he's highlighting here is she knows how to keep herself and her bedroom attractive for her husband.

56:35 A knowledgeable and that is a fearing the Lord because 1 Corinthians 7 says that the husband is to render to the wife his to render to the husband his due. And when the wife does that, that doesn't mean here I am at least you can have me if you want me.

56:59 No, that's not husband is due. Well, if you want me, here I am.

57:13 I'm going to make my bed attractive with cushion and maybe when it says her clothing is fine linen and purple, it may be referring to her bedroom cloak.

57:27 But in any case, she keeps herself stylish. She doesn't go around dowdy saying, well, if I look attractive, men will lust at me so I'll get a gunny sack and make sure that I'm a virtuous woman.

57:40 And if she doesn't have such a sick active, the women look at her and their wives look attractive for fear other men will lust after them. Shame on me.

57:59 This woman fears God and fearing God, she knows how to keep herself and her bedroom attracted to her husband. So he didn't have to have eyes looking for someone else. She was ever.

58:17 Ezekiel's wife was to him as an older man the desire of his eye. Well, she was benevolent, stylish, discreet, diligent, well organized, efficient, industrious, trustworthy. That was a virtuous woman. But where did they come from?

Cultivating Virtue and Rejecting Feminism

58:33 Doesn't say she went to a finishing school.

58:39 And you women have the full revelation of completed canon of scripture and everything you need to know in principle to make you this kind of virtuous woman is here in the book. And if you need help in any of these areas of how can I be more diligent, I didn't have a mother to teach me how to have a pattern of cleaning house and getting the washing done, et cetera. I didn't have good models. I don't know how to fix my hair.

59:08 It's always frumpy. And the people willing to help you. And you husbands ought to be at the elbow of your wife encouraging her to get that help. These virtues, many of them, cannot be cultivated without the full cooperation of an understanding and a godly husband.

59:29 Well, ain't much here for the feminist to take, is there?

59:36 So anyone who tries to suburb 31 presents an entire concept of a virtuous woman. No, it doesn't. It simply flushes out many of the principles we've already seen. And though it does so in the context of a well-to-do woman, possibly in a royal setting, we see the abiding principles as that foundational virtue gives birth to all of these other virtues that are set before us.

Closing Prayer for Godly Women

60:04 Well, let's pray and ask God to grant a climate among us in which God will more and more produce such women for His glory. Let us pray.

60:15 Father, we're so thankful that we have the scriptures as a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. We're so grieved and you know, Lord, we inwardly wring our hands with a sense of despair as we see our whole society being swept down the tubes of the radical feminism that destroys women rather than liberates them, brings them into bondage, attempting to be something you never made them to be. Oh, may the liberating power of the gospel give us a generation of virtuous women after the pattern of Proverbs 31. Do it among us, O Lord, and work in us who are husbands that we may, by your grace, nurture and cherish our wives as they pursue this noble calling. We pray for the single women among us that in your way and time it would please you to give them godly husbands and while they must still carry out the primary sphere of their labors in the office and in their other appointed places of work, cultivate these graces in them, immunize them against the pressure, the overt and the subtle as well that would seek to conform them to this present evil age and give them godly femininity even in their singleness. Hear then our prayer

61:45 as we plead these mercies in Jesus' name. Amen.