All right, one clarification about the 21st of November. Sunday school teachers, you will have to sort of organize your classroom to work on posters for Pastor Appreciation Month. So it'll be up to you guys to do that. You've got some time to do that, so you can start soon. Yeah, even the adult classes should probably try to do something with that, so keep that in mind. One other thing to mention, Pastor Randall will be at the outreach tonight, so make sure you come out. I know he'll be glad to see you out there evangelizing, sharing the gospel with people, and it'd be good just to fellowship with him. So, alright, 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 9 and 10. Surprisingly, our church sign did not get blown up overnight. It's still there. And the title of the sermon is, The Proper Behavior of Women. And yeah, it's still there. The role of men and women in the church has been battled over for, as I said last week, for at least the last 50 years, probably longer than that. And by the word, Baptist Church, it's no secret that we seek to live by the word. We don't do it perfectly. As the reformers used to say, semper reformanda, we're always reforming, always trying to understand how we can do better and reform where we are. If the roles of men and women have been fought in the church, then the idea of what constitutes the proper behavior of women and men has been fought in the culture even more so. The mom who stays at home, serves her husband and family, is pitted against the mom who pays for daycare and has her career. In our culture, the confusion about what constitutes how women should act becomes a political tool for women on both sides of the aisle, whether you're Republican or Democrat. There's very definite political battles that are fought over this. Now the context I want to be clear in 1 Timothy 2 is public worship. There's more to say about what's happening in the culture when we get to verses 11 to 15. Today we're looking at verses 9 and 10. But for today we're asking the question, how should women act in the church? In 1 Timothy 2, 9 and 10, there are two behaviors that the Apostle commands. These are going to be a little bit redundant as we go through the verses today, because both of these behaviors are repeated all through 9 and 10. So I'm trying to outline it to overview what's in it, but there's going to be some repetition between points, just so that you're aware of that. There are two behaviors that the Apostle commands. The first behavior is that godly women come to church with an appropriate attitude. And the second behavior is that godly women come to church with an appropriate adornment. So we're talking about both attitude and adornment, what you wear and what you're thinking, what's outward and what's inward. We're talking about both of those things. And I would say to you that back there in verse 8 last week, we were talking about how men lead in prayer. Both outward and inward were also addressed at the end of verse 8. So if you go back there to 1 Timothy 2, verse 8, at the very end, it says, Or as we said last week, inward quarreling. Alright? Both inward sort of turmoil and outward anger. That shouldn't be part of how a man leads in prayer. The same thing is really being done here in verses 9 and 10. Both inward and outward display of what we are. So first we'll start with the behavior, at least in the outline. Godly women come to church. with an appropriate attitude. I want to make four observations here about attitude in the first part of verse 9. This is just 9a. 9a says, Likewise, also, that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel. Alright, so four observations from this half of the sentence, or this part of the sentence. The first observation is, again, that public worship is the context that we're talking about here in verses 9 and 10. We're talking about public worship, how that's done. Public prayer has been dealt with in verse 8. How do women come to church? Public worship is the context. We know that from the first word in verse 8. Likewise. Likewise, it's continuing on the same discussion that was began in verse 8 with the men leading in public prayer. And so it's that word likewise that points to that, and it's the whole context of what's been said from verse 1, all the way back from verse 1. So that's how we know it's talking about that. The second observation is that this attitude is the attitude that women have in public worship, because it says women. Like last week, you've got to define these things. We're talking about a biological female, not a man who identifies as a woman. Okay? If you have that, you've got other issues, we need to talk. All right? And share the gospel with you or something. But this is the attitude in public worship is that women have a role. We're not... Back there in verse 8, I don't want you to get the idea that because the men lead that the women don't have anything to do. Remember last week we talked about, in 1 Corinthians 11, women can pray in a service that's led by men. In the context in 1 Corinthians 11 and in the book of Acts, you've got places to see that. But that's not all that they can do. When we talk about issues of modesty and how you dress, I think the idea is just so much focused on outward attire that we don't think about the attitude. And a big part of what you can actively do in the church is think about these issues. When we come to church, this isn't just something that we, I hope, it's not something that you have just tacked onto your schedule. Okay, it's Sunday I go to church, like Monday I go to work, right? It's not like that. We gather here for a purpose. We gather here to worship, all of us men and women. We gather here not for ourselves. This isn't for us to have a network. It's not for us to have a social club. It's to gather to pray, and to sing, and to read the Word, and to worship God. Right? And so it's not about us at all. It's all about Him. And so before we come to this place, we need to prepare ourselves to come. That idea is lost. done, gone in this culture, that you prepare to go to church. But that's why that last Sunday school lesson that we did in the summer, out there in the fellowship hall, was about how to listen to a sermon. We need to prepare ourselves to hear the sermon, but we need to prepare ourselves for the whole shebang, everything that's happening here. I think you're seeing some of this in the text. There's preparation involved. So there's an attitude of, we have to prepare our attitudes, All of us need to hear this, men and women. We need to prepare ourselves, like physically, when we come to church. There's got to be some thought to what we're wearing when we come to church. Now, I'm not talking about legalism. I'm not here to make rules today. That's not what I'm about. What I am about is preaching what the Word of God says. And what you're going to see in this text is that the Apostle Paul's language is extremely precise. It's extremely precise. The Greek words that he's using here in the text are only used in a couple of other places, and some of the words are not used anywhere else in the New Testament. So his language is being very precise, and he wants to precisely, like a surgeon, deal with the issue of our attitude and how we prepare ourselves for worship. Like a surgeon. So you've got to, if that's the case, then as you're preaching this, then you've got to slow down and be as precise. And so that's what I'm going to try to do here today by the grace of God. So you've got how we've dealt with the men in verse 8. Now we're clearly dealing with the women. Again, like the men, this is talking about adult women, probably marriageable age. This is what we're speaking of. How do they approach public worship? The next part of the verse says that they should be respectable. in verse 9. Also, women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel. This is a play on words in the Greek. These two words look almost identical, except for like one or two letters. So there's a play on words. He's trying to use that to emphasize the point. Bible scholars sometimes will translate it this way. They should adorn themselves in adorning attire. That's the closest we can get in English to what's going on here with that phrase. You need to adorn yourself. Arthur Way in his translation says, array themselves in decorous attire. How do you say that? Decorous or decorous? I don't know. In that sort of attire, right? In other words, it doesn't mean that you have to wear a used or an empty feed bag. That's not what we're saying. We're not saying you got to cut a hole in the top of a feed bag and then two holes on the side and wear a feed bag to church. That's not what we're saying. We're not even saying like what's been done in the homeschooling world where everybody wears a denim skirt. We're not saying that either. It's okay to have some fashion sense. In fact, it's actually recommended. here in the text. We're talking about decorous attire. Actually looking decent when you come. But not with the idea of being the attraction. Attractive without being the attraction. Does that make sense? So you want to look good. Why? Not because of us. Who cares about that? You are coming before God. You're coming before God. If you had an appointment With the Queen of England, how would you dress? That could go for all of us men and women in here. How would you dress if you approach the Queen of England? I guarantee you that most people would not be dressed like we dress on Sunday morning. There would be a lot more respect. There would be a lot more reverence coming before the Queen of England, who's just a person. She's going to die, right? They're all going to die. How do we approach God? I mean, honestly, this is common sense. This isn't really all that difficult. But that's the idea here in Decarus. You should dress to a certain standard. Now, I'm not going to set the standard. I'm not into that. But I think that we ought to at least throw the idea out there to consider. When you prepare to come to church on Sunday, think, I'm not going to see all these other people. I'm going to meet with God. R.C.H. Lenski says this, We'll talk more about that in a minute. Extravagant dress is generally worn for mere display with a secret desire to produce envy. That's the other thing. Ask yourself your motive while you're preparing to come. Am I doing this to be attractive? It's okay to be attractive. Am I doing this to try to gain attraction? Am I doing this to try to create envy in other people for what I have? You don't want to do that. In Hendrickson's and Kistemacher's commentary on 1 Timothy, they say they do not have to balk at fashion unless a particular fashion happens to be immoral or indecent. It must ever be borne in mind that a proud heart is sometimes concealed behind a mask of pretended modesty. That too is sin. So if you say, well, man, you take the sackcloth approach, or you take the denim approach, or some approach from the 1800s or something, you say, well, now I am being holy. Nobody else dresses like me. This is how holy I am. You've missed the spirit of 1 Timothy 2, completely, by a mile. It's the same issue, just in a different way. So I'm trying to be precise. There's pits on both sides of this fine line that we're walking down. We can't fall into either one of them. But what helps us with this is that attitude is implied throughout verses nine and 10. Attitude is king in these verses. Because when we go back and we look at the word respectable here in verse nine, respectable apparel at the end of 9a, that word respectable is only used twice in the New Testament. The other time is also here in 1 Timothy. It's chapter 3, verse 2. We're talking about the qualifications for an elder. Only two times that Greek word appears in the New Testament. right here in two and three, right? And so respectable has to do with a disciplined life. So it's part of respectable as you're putting on this apparel that we're gonna talk about in just a minute what that means. You are approaching it from a disciplined standpoint, a disciplined frame of mind. This means that getting dressed doesn't start on Sunday morning. This means that preparing yourself to appear in the house of God is something that you're disciplining yourself to think about long before then, like when you're buying the clothes. When you're buying the clothes, and you think to yourself in a disciplined way, I will buy this, I will not buy that. This thing is fashionable, it looks good, but it's not anything that's gonna make me a spectacle in the house of God. It's being disciplined in the way that you approach that. But then when you come to the next term, apparel, now obviously we think of clothing. But there's a, in the Greek, there's a sense in here, it's talking about bearing or outward just deportment in general. Not just clothing, but how you carry yourself in general. So you have a disciplined way of carrying yourself. This has more to do than clothing. This has to do with how you come into the house of God to worship, that you're coming, and we're gonna see in a minute, about reverently. Reverently. And that will include dress, but it's a lot more than dress. That's where we get hung up in this text, is on that we read modesty in English, and we go, yeah, I know what that means. You know, bread sack or whatever. No, we're talking about A balancing act here. And the emphasis is actually on how you carry yourself reverently. We need to think about how we come to the house of God. Not just what we wear, but what we're thinking as we approach. Are you thinking about yourself? How are people in the church going to see me? This applies to men and women. How are we carrying ourself? Are we carrying ourself in such a way as if we really are meeting God? So that's what that has to do with. And it's parallel to the end of the men's command in verse 8. This inner condition. The fourth observation is that their clothing and attitude should be reverent. I've already referred to it, but here it is in the text in verse 9. With modesty. The word modesty, we have it in the English. We think we understand this. But this is the only time that this word appears in the New Testament, in the Greek. And what it means is, Colin Brown's Dictionary of New Testament Theology defines it this way, Arthur Wade translates it, harmonizing with their modesty and self-control, It's the only reliable occurrence that we have in the New Testament. There's another place in Hebrews where it's translated this way, but that one's questionable. In the classical, it meant to be reserved in the presence of higher authorities. Modesty means to be reserved, being modest in that way. If you went before the Queen of England, you wouldn't be going in there strutting your stuff and trying to draw attention to yourself. You're in the presence of the Queen of England. So you curtsy or bow or whatever it is that you do, and everything's about the Queen of England. The idea here is not that you're reverent because there's men present. The idea is that you're reverent because God is there. That's the idea here of this word modesty. Reverent because you are meeting in the presence of God. So that should affect everything, by the way, that we do in worship. Not just what we wear, but every element of what happens up here behind the pulpit, up here where we're leading in worship. We have to think about that. That we're doing this before God. It is not a light thing. You expect Pastor Randall, you expect me to prepare and to pre, you know, to prepare, study the Word of God, and have something to say when we get up here in the pulpit. It's no less important for what's happening here on the platform, every aspect of it, and what happens out there in the pew. When you come, do you prepare that way? To come to church to hear as much as you expect us to prepare to preach. So there needs to be that sense of modesty and then this idea of self-control. This word is only used three times. The first time is Acts chapter 26, verse 25. Acts chapter 26, verse 25. And it says this. Paul's giving testimony about what's happened with him and his ministry, and he's being accused of all sorts of things. Verse 25, Paul said, but I am speaking true and rational words. That phrase, out of my mind, that's the Greek term. I'm not insane. The self-control idea means having some sanity as you think about these issues. The other occurrence is in 1 Timothy chapter 2. There's two occurrences in chapter 2. At the end, in verse 15, is the other occurrence. The other of the three. That self-control term is that same term. It gives the idea of sanity. When you dress to draw attention to yourself, that's insane. In the context of coming to worship a holy God. Who does that? A narcissist does that. Someone who's completely wrapped up in themselves. They say up until the Obama years that narcissism was listed as a mental illness in the physician's desk reference. It used to be insane in this country. You had a problem if you were a narcissist, but that went out of the next edition of the physician's desk reference, and now it's normal. Psychologists say it's now normal to be a narcissist in this country. Congratulations. Welcome, Facebook. Right? I mean, that's what we are. We're narcissists. And so, dressing to draw attention to yourself, that's just insanity. And that's what he's saying. He says, have some sanity about this. He says, don't seek that. You're coming to worship God. So that's the very first observation, wraps up the first, or not observation, the first behavior. Godly women come to church with an appropriate attitude. Godly men should too, by the way. And godly women, the second one, come to church with appropriate adornment. We've been dealing with this as we go. Like I said, there's some repetition. But I just want to point out a couple of guidelines. These aren't rules, but these are things to think about when you think about this issue. I've already said this, but I have to say it again because the text says it again. They do not seek to be the attraction in the last part of verse 9. It says there, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire. And right about now, ladies are looking around, did I braid my hair this morning? No, this is not a condemnation of just normally braided hair. Now it sounds like it when you read the text, but considering everything that's here in the text where it also mentions gold and pearls, there was a practice that was going on at this time regarding braided hair that was really over the top. So here's what happened. This comes from a book called The History of Costume by Blanche Payne. When I bought this book, I thought, I'll never use this thing. Well, now I'm using it. So here's the quote from the book. During the last half of the first century, the time that Paul's writing, a great change took place in the Roman Empire. From the simplest of hair arrangements, it veered to the most elaborate, a very high pompadour consisting of a front framework that supported a mass of short curls. The rest of the hair was braided and formed into a huge knot above the neck. This fashion held well into the second century. In fact, there's an example of this, historically, in the bust of Julia, who was the daughter of Emperor Titus. He reigned from 79 to 81 AD. If you go to a museum in Rome, you can see this thing. She's got this mass of curls just stacked on top of her head like that, right? And in the back, you've got the braid. Well, what was happening with the braid was that they were, wealthy women were paying their servants, their slaves, to weave golden threads, pure gold threads, throughout their hair in the braid. And not only that, but the massive curls on the front, they would have covered in a hairnet. And the hairnet was also made out of pure gold. Imagine that. Pure gold through your braid, pure gold hairnet, and then on top of that, you're adding gold and pearls into the braid. It's estimated that some of those hairstyles back then were worth more than a million dollars in their currency. Imagine what they'd be worth today, 2,000 years later. all this gold, all this stuff, and there'd be like little pins or little clasps and things like that also in the hair. And it's said that historically, when these women would walk down the street, you could hear them coming because their hair was jingling. We got Spurs in Texas that jingle, jangle, jingle, right? Their hairstyles, jingle, jangle, jingled. And the reason was to draw attention. Now, you see what's happening here in the text? Some people will take this text and abuse it. But what he's showing you here is that when you dress to show off your wealth, why are you doing that in the presence of God? You think you can brag about your wealth in the presence of God? He owns everything. He's got the cattle on a thousand hills, and he owns the hills. He owns it all. And you're going to make a big deal about what you own when you go to church. Now listen, I'm saying all this stuff, and some of you are going, I wonder if he's talking. I don't have anybody in mind with this. When I was preparing this sermon, I was thinking about, is there anybody here that I really think needs to hear this sermon? I thank God that for the most part we're doing fine in that, but we all need to hear the sermon. We all need to be reminded about our attitude when we come into the house of God. We all need to be reminded about how we prepare to come into the house of God. I do think we could do a better job on that. But there's nobody I'm condemning in my mind, except me. I'm not always right when I come into the house of God. So, drawing attention to self. Gold or pearls, the form of clips, that sort of thing. Costly attire is referring to very ostentatious clothing. Again, intended to draw attention to the wealth of the person. Go over to 1 Peter 3, verse 3 for a second. 1 Peter 3, verse 3. Peter is dealing with the same thing. It was such a problem, both Paul and Peter, who sometimes disagreed about things, agree on this. 1 Peter 3.3 Some Bible scholars think that 1 Peter 3.3 could be translated literally, gold-braided hair. So that's the issue that's going on here. It gets to the spirit of it. Don't seek to be the attraction. If God has blessed you with wealth, you don't have to show it off. What's been interesting to me in my life, I've been able to meet different people who are millionaires. And what's most interesting is most of them, the reason why they're millionaires is because they don't spend their money that way. The reason they're millionaires is they, one guy told me, it's not making the first million that's difficult, it's keeping it. So the idea is that, you know, these guys that I've met, they drive like used cars. The reason why they're still millionaires is because they're very careful with their money. You wouldn't even know, these are Christian men, you wouldn't even know that they're millionaires by the way they carry themselves. That's what we're looking for here. And by the way, if you're an American, you're rich. By the rest of this world's standards, if you've traveled at all, you know it's true. If you're an American, you're rich. Be careful. So they don't seek to be the attraction. And finally, on the positive side of this, In verse 10, they are known by their works. It does not say that they're known by their profession. In fact, the profession of faith is downplayed here in verse 10. It's what is real in their life that matters. Because in verse 10 it says, All right, so profess, the word profess, means loud proclamation. This isn't just saying, making a claim that they're Christians. This means they are broadcasting verbally their godliness. He says that loud broadcasting of your spirituality doesn't mean anything. And specifically, it says in the text, in verse 10, godliness. This is another one of those words here that's rare. It's the only occurrence in the New Testament. Another one of those words means fear of God. And in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it's only used twice there. So it's used in Genesis 20 verse 11. We're not going to look at that one. But look at Job chapter 1 verse 1. This is the other usage in the Old Testament. In Job chapter 1, verse 1, it says, That's the term that's translated by the same term in the Greek when they translated the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek. That's the same term that they used. One who fears God. Your loud proclamation of fearing God doesn't mean anything if it's not attended by good works. And that applies to men and women. That applies to men and women. And so what Paul's saying here in 1 Timothy, bringing it to the attention of the women, says what you really ought to care about, what you need to discipline yourself to think about, what you need to prepare yourself to come into worship with, You know, dress respectably. Don't seek to be an attraction. But care more about how your faith is working out in your life with the result of works. Good works for the glory of God. Adorn yourself in that. Make that the thing that you care about more than fashion, more than hairstyles, more than those things. That's the whole spirit here of the text. So if you look, oh by the way, it doesn't give proof of Christianity in verse 10, but this is proof of their profession of Christianity. Proof that their profession is real. So you go back to Titus chapter 2 for a second, and we've got an example of the kind of good works that Paul's interested in. In Titus chapter 2 verse 1, Paul addresses Titus and says, but as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. In verse two he deals with the men, but in verse three he deals with the women and says, older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good. And so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. So he says there very clearly in the text, he's saying, look, the older women in the church have a job. They have a role. And their role is to teach. Who? The younger women. how to be godly, and how to serve at home. That's why the women are doing this thing, this Women in Excellence thing. That's in the spirit of Titus 2. That the women would teach others. You've got to participate in it or you're going to miss that, ladies. There's a sign-up sheet with one name on it. It shouldn't be that way. All the younger women here should want to know what the older women have to say about godliness. Just like the younger men should care what the older men say about the same thing. We need to care about that. Proverbs 31 is another place to start. A close reading of Proverbs 31 will reveal much in that frame. But to both men and women, I'll say this in Titus 2, verse 11. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works. If you have received the grace of God, you say, oh, I'm so thankful for the grace of God. He saved me. Fantastic. That's great. Where are your works? We don't get saved by our works, but it's the natural fruit of salvation that there's some evidence in your life. Where's the evidence? If there's no evidence that whatever grace you've received is a fake, cheap, phony grace. It doesn't exist. The gospel is powerful. It changes people. Now, having said all that, as I conclude this, go to Isaiah chapter 3. In Isaiah chapter 3, God has something to say to the covenant women of God in Israel. Judgment was coming. God gives a warning to the covenant women who have strayed into pride and idolatry. And the main issue in Isaiah 3 is pride that comes with dress. Seeking to be the attraction. In Isaiah 3, you've got to look at this text when you talk about this subject because it's so pointed. Isaiah 3, verse 16. This is a warning to all of us about getting it wrong in this issue. About trying to seek attention for ourselves rather than seeking the glory of God. Isaiah 3, verse 16. The Lord said, with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet. Therefore, scab the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will lay bare their secret parts. So that will completely humiliate them. In that day, the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents, the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarves, the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets, the signet rings and nose rings, the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags, the mirrors, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils, Instead of perfume, there will be rottenness. And instead of a belt, a rope. And instead of well-set hair, baldness. And instead of a rich robe, a skirt of sackcloth. And branding instead of beauty. Your men shall fall by the sword and your mighty men in battle. God says the pride of the covenant women of God is so disdainful. He outlines it in detail very precisely, doesn't he? And then he says, I'm going to bring judgment and I will wipe out your men. and you'll have nothing left. So God takes it seriously. That's my whole point in bringing up Isaiah chapter 3, is that God takes this seriously. It's offensive to a holy God when we seek to draw attention to ourselves rather than exalting Him. If it's true of the women, it's also true of the men. Men, we have the opposite problem. We don't worry so much about dressing up. We just come to church like we're going to work or something. You know, or just sort of like hanging out with the guys or something like that. We're not just hanging out with the guys. This isn't just a stop on your route. You came here today to worship a holy God. If we would show more respect to the Queen of England, then we would show respect to God. We have a hyper-inflated view of the Queen of England. and too low of a view of God. All right, let's pray. Lord, we cry out to you today. We pray, Lord, that we know none of us is sufficient for this. Lord, that we must consider how we approach you. Lord, help us not to be lighthearted or foolish as we come into the house of God. Help us, Lord, not to come in dressed like we're going to a sporting event. Or, Lord, like we're there to be the attraction. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to repent where we need to repent. And Lord, I pray that we would have a higher view of who you are. Help us not to get into this idea because we can't see you that we think less of you. Lord, help us to have a higher view of you, not just in church, but in our day-to-day lives. Help us to have a disciplined thought life in regards to this. Help us to repent where we can, in Jesus' name, amen.