Turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 11 through 15. Pastor Randall's gonna begin a series on Wednesday nights on Philemon. I think he's already begun it. And he's going to do that until he's finished in January. And then in January, I'm gonna pick up in chapter three of 1 Timothy and just begin preaching through the rest of 1 Timothy on Wednesday nights. That's the plan at that point. He'll be teaching through Galatians on Sunday nights coming up. Praise the Lord for that, looking forward to hearing that. And just want to let you know what's happening with the preaching schedule. Today we're talking about, this is really part two of the sermon that I preached in 1 Timothy 2, 9 and 10. That sermon was called The Proper Behavior of Women. This is part two of that sermon. But there is a main idea that we put out on the church sign out by the highway, and that is that women of God, or godly women, learn in church. Godly women learn in church. That's in contrast to what a lot of churches teach, that women can lead in church. So, in contrast to leadership in church, what we're saying is, godly women can be content to learn in church, and that's not a bad thing. That's a positive thing, and I want to try to encourage you in that direction today. As we do that, we're going to do a little bit of contrast here in the introduction. Beth Moore, a popular speaker and author, left the Southern Baptist Convention earlier this year because of the stance that SBC churches take, or most of them take anyway, against having women preach. In the Baptist News Global Edition, it was announced on May 10th of 2021 that the largest or second largest church in the SBC ordained three women as pastors. That's Saddleback Community Church, the church that Rick Warren planted and is currently the pastor of. I think he's getting ready to retire here pretty soon. But nevertheless, they did that. When that issue of their decision to do that was brought before the national meeting in Nashville, In June, it was decided to place that issue before the Credentials Committee. What the Credentials Committee does is review whether or not a church is still really SBC. This has happened before with other churches. There was a church right here in Fort Worth called Broadway Baptist, ironically. Broadway Baptist was a church that actually was allowing homosexuals to become members and be in the church directory. That church ended up getting voted out by that committee, credentials committee, but it took them five years to figure that out. So all I'm saying is, don't hold your breath when it comes to what the Credentials Committee will do with Rick Warren's church. It will probably die there. The same messengers in that convention voted Ed Litton, president of the convention in June in Nashville. And he's a pastor who allows his wife to preach with him. at his church. So now he's the president of the SBC. So in August, we voted as a church to leave the Southern Baptist Convention and change the church's name so we could be very clear that we are not SBC. The reason why we changed the church from First Baptist Church of Brier to, by the word, Baptist Church, is because when you roll into town and you see First Baptist Church, at least in the South, What you expect is a Southern Baptist Church. And so we want to be really clear. We don't have anything to do with that. We're done with that. And this reason is one of the primary reasons. You all got that 10-page paper that Pastor Randall and I put together. It was in there that this is one of the reasons. It's not the only reason. but it's a major reason as to why we did leave the SBC. The role of women, and here's the thing, once you do that, once you compromise on what this text says, about leadership and preaching and that sort of thing, it's not long before you start questioning the scriptures in a lot of other areas. And it's not long before you start denying the scriptures and even denying the gospel. And if you don't believe that, all you have to do is look at the history of the United Methodist Church. who's done the same thing. You can look at the history of the Presbyterian Church USA, PCUSA, and what they've done. You can, right now in the PCA, the Presbyterian Churches of America, they're dealing with some of the same stuff right now in the PCA, and it's just consistent. It's a battle that keeps coming up. And the question is whether or not this is the Word of God. Whether or not 1 Timothy 2, 11 to 15, is the Word of God. So it's been controversial for a long time. As Christians, we only have one concern. What does the Bible teach? What does it say? It's not silent on this issue. And in this text, we learn that godly women learn in the church assembly. In these verses, there are really only two main points that I want to bring out. The first is godly women will embrace their role as learners. They won't fight against that. They won't hedge against that. But they'll embrace that. And then the second point is that godly women embrace the reasons why this is true. Because the text doesn't just give a command, but it gives a command with reasons. And godly women will embrace those reasons as well as the command. See what I'm saying? So, let's start with the first point. Godly women embrace their role as learners. This comes from verses 11 and 12. And there are some truths about this point that I want to bring out. The first truth is that it's a wonderful duty. This is a duty that's a wonderful thing, to be a learner in the house of God. It's a good thing to come into the house of God and to hear the Word of God preached and taught and to learn. And not just the women, but everyone here can attest to that. We're blessed to have a faithful pastor who spends enormous time in studying the Word of God week in and week out, day in and day out. And it's a blessing to be able to hear that. You don't get this everywhere. This doesn't happen in a lot of churches. I'll go so far as to say it doesn't happen in most churches. And so if you have that, that's a wonderful thing. Look at verse 11, 1 Timothy 2 verse 11. Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I mean, I guess it could have been something if the Apostle Paul said women can just learn at home from their husbands and not even come to church. He doesn't say that because that's not right. It's not biblical. But he's saying, look, you get the privilege. You can be allowed to hear the Word of God with the men. You can have that happen. That's a wonderful duty. It is wonderful to study the Word of God. I'll take it one step further, ladies. There's nothing wrong with you studying the Word of God. for yourself, right? To build up a library of biblical references and resources, and to study the Word. When I was in Bible college, I was in an independent Baptist Bible college, and they used to say in that Bible college, well, you know, theology's more of a man's thing, and the women, they really just don't like theology very much, and so they tend not to do well in theology classes. They said this out loud, okay, that's what they said. And so I went to this theology class, and I was the second best student in the class. You know who was first best? A woman, my friend Renee, I'm still friends with her and her husband. I could never get close to her grades. They could say all that stuff, but I was always consistently two to five points shallow wherever she was at. I was behind by two to five points. I could never catch her. when it came to that. Why? It's good for women to study the Word, right? And what a blessing it would be for the entire church if that's the way that it is. It's a blessing to the church. It's a blessing to your families. We're going to see more of what your responsibilities are here positively in a moment in regards to teaching. But when it comes to teaching in the public forum, when we gather together as a church, ladies, it's your job positively to learn of the Word of God. All of this involves a proper attitude because verse 11 says, I don't know if you remember this or not, but when I was going through verses 9 and 10, I said that Paul was being very specific with his language. He was being very precise. He was using words back there in 9 and 10 that are only used a couple of other times. He continues to do the same thing here in these verses. Some of these words are only used four times in the New Testament. Some are only used twice. And one is only used one time in the entire New Testament. He's being precise. He wants to make sure. He's being careful with his language. And he wants to make sure he's communicating properly. So he is saying here in verse 11 that women should learn quietly, or some translations have it in silence, and they should listen submissively. So silence and submission are the two words I'm using to describe the proper attitude. The New American Standard translates this, let a woman quietly receive instruction. The word silence or quietness or quietly, the word just basically is talking about a self-imposed silence. Self-imposed. This is not a thing where like if you were in a Catholic, have you ever been to a Catholic church when they're taking up the offering and the ushers have these baskets and they're on these long handles? Am I the only one that's ever been to a Catholic church? Anybody ever see that before? Okay, so they got those long handle baskets, right? This isn't a thing where like we're gonna get people with long broomsticks and go around if we see women talking in the congregation, we're just gonna give you a smack, you know, if you talk. That's not what we're talking about. This is talking about a self-imposed silence. Something that the women in the congregation would agree to, that they would acquiesce and say, yes, this is right, this is correct, and I want to learn in silence. I want to learn and have that attitude in a positive way. Submission is obviously, in our culture, is absolutely a controversial term, but it is a biblical term. It's another term here that's only used in four places total. It's used here in 1 Timothy, but it's also used in chapter 3, in verse 4, when we're talking about qualifications for elders. In verse 4, it says, So here's something for the men. The men are to lead their homes in such a way that their children are submissive to their leadership. So this is a term for men and women. Here in this context, back here in 1 Timothy 2.11, what it means is renouncing initiative and giving up leadership. That's from Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Renouncing the initiative and giving up leadership. What that means is, ladies, sometimes you look at what leadership's doing and you scratch your head, right? What is wrong with these boneheads? Why aren't they doing it differently? Right? And you might even be right. In fact, there's plenty of times that you are right, right? But what I'm saying is in that moment, what you do in that moment is you renounce the initiative. You renounce the initiative and you give up your idea that's probably right in favor of the boneheads who are going to have to answer to God for that. Keep that in mind. Pastor Randall, myself, and even the deacons to a degree here, are all gonna answer to God, not just for the church in general, but the text says in Hebrews 13, for every single person who's in the church. You can thank God you don't have that responsibility. And what you should do is pray for us, because literally, we're gonna answer to God for every person who's part of this congregation. That scares me. When I was younger and when I was starting out in ministry, and I wasn't even saved at that time starting out in ministry, I wanted a big church. After I got saved and I started reading the Bible, and I read Hebrews 13, and I realized I'd have to give an account for every single person that was in my care, I didn't care about having a big church anymore. I didn't care about that anymore. When I was younger, we had 200, 230 people coming to church. Our church was the biggest one in town. I strutted around like I was something. I was nothing. And one day, I didn't have to answer for that. So renouncing the initiative and giving up leadership, think of it in that context. And apparently there was a problem in Ephesus where Timothy was. There was a problem, specifically mentioned, with women in the church. There's actually a couple of problems. The first one I want to point out is 2 Timothy 3, verse 6. 2 Timothy 3, 6. talking about the influence of false prophets in the church at Ephesus. 2 Timothy 3, 6 says, So, In this case, there were some women in the congregation at Ephesus who were being deceived by false prophets, false teachers. And they thought they were learning. We were talking about learning just a moment ago. They think, well, yeah, we're learning. They want us to learn, right? But they're learning false doctrine. They're being led astray. And so Paul's addressing that here with Timothy and 2 Timothy. But if you go back to 1 Timothy 5, Verse 13, you see another problem that they were having with the women in the congregation at that time. In 1 Timothy 5.13, we'll go back to verse 11. This is talking about in the context of younger widows. It says, Besides that, They learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies saying what they should not. There are some people that look at the stuff that Paul says, and they say, look at this guy, he's a misogynist. He just hates women. No, he's dealing with a sin issue in the church. Gossip is a sin. And so he's dealing with that here. And so they had an issue, apparently, that was going on at the church at Ephesus. He's dealing with that, but he's starting here, back in chapter two, with this issue of learning. Just learn in the church, be silent, be submissive. And he says very clearly that he prohibits women from teaching in the public assembly or leading in any way. If you go back down to 1 Timothy 2, and you look at verse 12. There's the second use of that word quiet. out of four in the New Testament. Let me say that scripturally, speaking biblically, there are places where women may teach, but it's not in the public assembly of the church. Scriptures do point that out, that there are contexts where women are allowed to teach. The first one is they can teach each other. Go over to Titus chapter 2 for a second. So we're not saying, ladies, that we want you to learn, like we were talking about earlier, study the Bible for yourselves and then just don't do anything with it. No, there's a context where you can teach, but it's not here in this pulpit up here on Sunday morning, right? One of those is that you can teach each other. Titus chapter two, verse three, older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, So there is a command in verse three for older women to teach. Who are they teaching? Verse four. So train the young women to love their husbands and children. So the older women are to teach the younger women. That's why I love what the ladies have been doing with this women of excellence thing that they've been doing once a month, meeting in the fellowship hall. The last one was really well attended, I heard. And so, you know, the women are teaching them how to love their husband, the older women are teaching the younger how to love their husbands and their children. by just, you know, they're sharing, I guess they're sharing recipes and stuff in that group, and they have a Bible study time that they're doing. But that's really happening in this church, and I'm thankful for that, that that's happening right now. It should be happening in every church. So they may instruct elsewhere, we come to, go back to 1 Timothy again for a second, and you'll see that they're also to teach their children. Their own children. In 1 Timothy 1, we have an example of this. Where's the 2 Timothy 1? I think I messed up with this. I'm trying to do this one from memory, not from my notes. Yeah, 2 Timothy 1, verse 5. Paul says to Timothy, I'm reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well. So he's saying, look Timothy, I'm glad that your grandmother and your mother taught you. We don't know what is going on with his father at this point, but we know for sure that his grandmother and mother, maybe he wasn't even saved. But his grandmother and his mother took time to teach him the scriptures. That is not a small thing. Ladies, that is not a small thing for you to do in your home with your children. You know, whether you're homeschooling or not. Take time each day to do that. Now we know from Deuteronomy 6, it's also the job of the dad to lead his family in that. But part of good leadership by the father will be to encourage his wife to teach the children as well. Because you need as much of that as you can get, right? Not just what you get here in church on Sunday morning. But it should be happening in the home from both, especially from the father, but the father and the mother as well. They should be teaching the Word of God to the children. Now there's another example where they may instruct elsewhere, and that's in private instruction. Private instruction. Go to Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18, verses 25 and 26. We have this example of Priscilla and Aquila. Acts 18, 25 and 26. I'll go back to 24. Now, a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. Being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. Apparently they were talking to him probably about this issue of baptism, that the baptism of John was something different than normal Christian baptism. It was a baptism of repentance, it was preparing the way of the Lord, preparing the way for Jesus himself. And so even though this guy was competent in the scriptures, the text says, and that he was even teaching himself publicly, you have a man and a wife pulling the guy aside and saying, wait a minute, there's some things you're not getting quite right. So there's an example privately where there could be instruction as well. So I want to be very clear and give you the whole counsel of God on this. When we're talking about teaching in the church, that's a position of authority, and Paul makes it very clear in 1 Timothy 2 verse 12 that the women do not have authority within the church. Verse 12, not only does he not permit a woman to teach, that he doesn't allow her to exercise authority over a man either. Some people think that when Paul said this, he was just talking about his own opinion, because it says, I do not permit. And so they'll look at that and say, well, that was just Paul's opinion. He wasn't really speaking under inspiration at that moment. He was just sort of giving his opinion. This is how they get around stuff. Well, look at 1 Corinthians 14 for a second. You go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 14, the same issue is addressed of women in leadership. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, he's talking about orderly worship in that context. He says in verse 33, If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. What he means is if there's a question, let them ask that question at home, but not publicly in the church. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church in that way. Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? And then listen to verse 37. If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I'm writing to you are a command of the Lord. He's saying, it's not my opinion. I did not take a public opinion poll or have a focus group to try to figure this out. He's saying this is a command from the Lord. So, I reject that. Wherever you run into that, in the evangelical world it seems to be everywhere. Reject it, because it's a command from the Lord. 1 Corinthians 14, 37 makes that really, really plain for us. Now, at this point, you'll get people that will say, wait a minute, weren't there prophetesses in the Old Testament? And in some cases, in the New Testament. Weren't there women that God raised up to be prophetess? So if it's true, then, that there are these prophetesses, then how can you say what you're saying? Well, I agree with John Calvin on this. The exceptions in the scripture only prove the rule. Those were exceptions. The exceptions don't make the rule. They actually prove that the rule exists because, after all, they're minority cases and they're exceptions. It means that the normal course of things is that it's not allowed. So Calvin points out only five women in the Old Testament were prophetesses. One of those five was a false prophetess, so you're down to four, right? So here's what he says. You don't take the extraordinary thing and make that the rule. The minority thing that only happens a few times and say, that's the way it should be in all the churches. But that's exactly what people who advocate for women in leadership are doing. They're trying to take the exception and make that the rule. Now let me say something about the exceptions. I'll use the example. Just on Wednesday night, we were looking at King Josiah. Godly King Josiah. And at one point, after he hears the law of God read, he tells his men, we need to inquire of the Lord to see what he would have us do with this. Well, in that text, you've got Huldah, the prophetess. She's a prophetess. And they go there and they seek from her, what does God want us to do? So it looks like a position of authority at that point. But let me remind you of something. Remember the context of 2 Kings 22 and 23. They were under judgment. The temple had been closed for so long it was in disarray. The law of God had been lost. There was no... They didn't even know where it was, so they went in to fix the temple. Then they find it. They stumble across it. Oh, I should read this to Josiah, right? And then he repents. The Passover hadn't been done in years. This is not a normal situation. And the fact that there was a prophetess in place indicated that they were under judgment. And I will go so far as to say wherever you see that in the Old Testament, you're looking at a judgment situation. When you've got women that are in leadership, it's a sign that judgment has come. They don't like to hear that. They didn't ask me about that on Fox and Friends. Not that that was even a subject, but they never would. They don't want to hear about that stuff. Exceptions in the Scriptures only prove the rule. So, having said all that, ladies, embrace that rule. Just embrace that rule and be thankful that you can be in a church where you're hearing the Word of God and you're getting fed. Embrace studying the Scriptures for yourself. Embrace teaching. You know, looking forward to that time if you're a younger woman. Looking forward to learning from the older women. And looking forward to that time when you get older that you can teach the younger women. And take advantage of the opportunities that you have now to teach your own children. Right? And even maybe with your husband, go and teach somebody who's lacking something doctrinally. But that does not make you less than. That doesn't make you unimportant. That doesn't make you anything other than fulfilling the role that God has given to you. And isn't that what you want? Isn't that what all of us should want, man or woman? Not everybody is called to be the pastor either. amongst the men. There's qualifications there. And so all of us have to be happy serving where God has placed us. They used to say, bloom where you are planted, right? Bloom in that environment. Rather than looking at what you can't do, look at all that you can do, is what I'm saying. Having said all that, so we come to the second point. Godly women Embrace the reasons why this is true. Why is he saying all this? Well, the reasons are in verses 13 through 15. The first reason is very simple. It's the creation order. Creation order. The order of the creation of humanity. Adam was formed first, and then Eve. He uses this as the foundation. That's what he says. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. The creation order establishes that. To emphasize what I just said a moment ago, this is from the complete biblical library, this quote. Eve was not inferior flesh. Both were formed. Both were God's work. Submission is based on order. It's not based on inferiority or superiority. The word formed here in verse 13 is used only twice in the New Testament. It's one of those very precise words he's using. The New English Bible just translates this. Adam was created first. for the word formed. And if you go back to 1 Corinthians again, to chapter 11, verse 8, 1 Corinthians 11, verse 8, the same principle is there. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Adam was created in the Genesis account, in Genesis chapter 2, verse 7. Eve was not created until chapter 2, verses 21 and 22. We don't even know how much time has elapsed between those two things. But obviously, Adam was created first. And so the reasoning is creation order. So men, don't act as if you're better than your wife because you were created first. It's not that. It just happens to be the way that God ordained it, and that's really it. You know, we're not as special as we think we are sometimes, guys. We're not necessarily God's gift to everybody. And so, we gotta recognize that this is just a matter of created order. So, there's that. If you ignore that, if you ignore this creation order, what's gonna be the result? Well, the result is verse 14. And the result is chaos. Chaos ensues when you ignore the created order. Because verse 14 says, It's not saying that Adam didn't sin. He did sin, but his sin was not the same as Eve's. Eve's sin was that she was deceived. So what was Adam's sin? His sin was that he didn't lead. He didn't lead. And whenever you have that, chaos is bound to ensue. Anywhere you have that, chaos is bound to ensue. So let me say, if you have a Christian home, and the woman is leading the home, you're gonna have chaos. If it happens in the church, you're gonna have chaos. If you have it, it's gonna be chaos. That's what you're gonna get. You reap what you sow. And men, you are to lead with humility and great love for your wife, cherishing her, washing her in the word, loving her as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. That's how you are to lead. But if you aren't leading like that man, if you're letting her lead, chaos will come sooner or later, and probably sooner than later. Eve was deceived. Adam abdicated his responsibility to lead. This word for deception is one of those rare words for occurrences in the New Testament. Two of them are right here in verse 14. Remember that the purpose of Eve's creation was that she would be a helpmeet to her husband, Genesis chapter two, verse 18. And so that's what we're talking about here. This is the chaos that will ensue. Now what's beautiful about all this, you think back to Genesis, you think back to chapter three, and the curse that came on all humanity, Adam would have to work by the sweat of his brow. He'd have to fight against the weeds and all that stuff. And women would give birth, but it would be through a lot of pain. Childbirth, childbearing would come with pain. And even though it all started out in Genesis as a mess, even though it started with sin and all this, and you've got the curse that comes in Genesis 3, even in Genesis 3 there's hope. The Gospel is mentioned for the first time in the entire Bible right there in Genesis 3. Go back to Genesis 3.15 for a second. You didn't know that you're going to get a Christmas sermon out of 1 Timothy 2, but you're about to get a Christmas sermon. Genesis 3.15. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. He's talking to Satan at this point. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. God says to Satan, there's gonna be enmity between you and the woman, and one day, her offspring is gonna crush your head. And you're only going to bruise his heel. What's that talking about? That's the cross. Satan wanted to have Christ killed, right? He succeeded. Jesus died. But that was just like a bruised heel. Because he rose from the dead. You couldn't keep him in the grave. So he came up out of the grave. Now when you get to verse 15, everybody starts scratching their heads. Because it's just like, what in the world is this? So listen to verse 15. Now ladies, you're looking at that and you're going, I'm going to get saved if I have kids? I thought we were definitely not into works-based salvation around here. And if ever there was a work, it's childbirth. Right? A lot of pain, a lot of work. Nine months, right? There's a lot going on there, but you're not, we know we're not saved. It can't be that. What do you do with people who are infertile? They're lost. So what does this mean? The key to understanding this text is to go backwards. So who is the she in verse 15? Well, you go back to verse 14, who are we talking about? Eve. Let's go back further, verse 13. Who are we talking about in verse 13? It's a she in verse 13. Eve. So who is saved by childbearing? How did this happen? I'll tell you how it happened. It's in Genesis 3.15. Through the process of just millennia of her descendants, child after child, you go back to Matthew 1, right? Verses 1 through 18, you read the genealogy there. And in Matthew 1, there's even women mentioned in the genealogy. And those women, some of them you're scratching your head, you're going, why in the world are they in there? These are Gentile women that are known for their sin. Man, there's a lot going on in the gospel, isn't there? A lot going on in what they're looking forward to. And so this seed that she's going to have, this offspring that he's going to have, is going to save everybody. Not just women, not just Eve, this descendant is gonna save us all. We're all saved through childbearing in a sense, through the childbearing that took place in the genealogy, in the lineage, all the way down to Mary. And when you get to Mary, and she's ready to embrace this, she's ready to go forward with this, look at her attitude. Luke chapter one, verse 38. Most of you know that I hate the song, Mary, Did You Know? I'm going to write a spoof of it for the Catholics. I'm not mocking Mary. She was a woman of God. Here's an example in Luke 1, verse 38. Look at her attitude. Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. She was about to go through childbirth in a situation that none of you'd want to be in. Nobody'd want to be in that situation. But she was about to go through all the pain of childbirth and an additional humiliation because they hadn't formally, they were engaged, they were betrothed, but Joseph and Mary had not formally been married yet. This is off limits in most circumstances, but not in this one. And she embraced that. She submitted to the Word of God. And ladies, that's the attitude that I'm encouraging you to take. Follow Mary's example in this when it comes to these issues of leadership and all that. And now I've really got to move because I've got four minutes. So here we go to finish. I'm skipping a lot. So 1 Timothy 2 verse 15, you come to the end of it. This is not an extra burden placed on women. This is what happens with all Christians. This is what your life looks like if you're a believer. These things will be in your life. Faith, love, holiness, self-control. Evidence, fruit of the Spirit, whatever you wanna call this, it's evidence that true conversion has really happened. And that's what happened through childbearing, is that because Christ came this way, right, that we're all able to be saved, and we're all able to manifest these characteristics. Faith, you know, ladies, just trust God. Say, man, I gotta trust God with Pastor John and Pastor Randall leading the church. That takes a lot of faith. I get it. But trust Him, okay? Love. Love for Christ first and foremost, right? Love Him enough to do what? To obey His commandments. Even the ones that don't sit right with us. And love for your husband, by the way. That verse we referenced in Titus 2, verse 4. What are the older women to teach the younger women? To love their husbands and their children. Right? That's what the text says. If you're a single mom, let me just say to you, love for Christ. That's it. That's what you've got. Love Him with everything that you've got. And then holiness. Holiness. Hebrews chapter 12. I have to go quick. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14. Part of holiness is striving for peace. Working for peace. And so on this issue, I would urge you to strive for peace within the church on that. Hebrews 13, 12. Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Sanctification, another word for holiness. Jesus is our sanctification. Pursue him. And finally, self-control. Self-control. It's a fruit of the Spirit, but 2 Timothy 2, verse 19. says to us there, God's firm foundation stands bearing this seal, the Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. And so, I know it'll take self-control to abide by 1 Timothy 2, but God has done amazing things through the way that he has set things up in his creation order. When you run into someone who is a woman, biological female, I guess you have to say these days, she's pastoring a church, there's a couple things you just have to know. I'm not saying you gotta say these things to her. Maybe in the right circumstances it would be totally legit to do that. But I am saying this is at least what you have to know. You have to know that when you run into a woman who is a pastor, you are running into a woman who is not a pastor. I don't care how much alphabet soup she has after her name. I don't care what the people in the church call her. I don't care if they call her the right reverend, you know, whatever. She's not a pastor. She's disqualified. And she's not only not a pastor, she's not a godly woman. No, she's not. She has decided to transgress or to rebel against the revealed word of God. That's not godliness. Now she may come across as very nice, she may seem on the outside like she's got a very religious attitude, but that's not godliness. There's a lot of people who are religious who know nothing of Christ. I'm talking about people that are even like Muslim and stuff. There's some Muslim women that you meet that come across as very godly. There's some Mormon women that you will meet that you think they walk on water. Right? But they don't. They're not godly. They're lost. I'm not saying everyone that is a woman pastor is necessarily lost, but they're not godly. And so, we need to know that at least. I remember one occasion where we were planting up in Syracuse. We had a a evangelism conference in a church. Turned out they had a woman as a pastor. The church wasn't bringing us there. They were getting ready to let her go, but she happened to be there. She was being fired from that job, and she stopped in at the conference towards the end of it, and she ran into one of the guys that I was training in street preaching. And my buddy just walked up to her and started talking. He says to her, well, who are you? And she says, well, I used to be the pastor of this church. And he said, no, you weren't. No, you weren't. You were never called to that. And he tried to encourage her never to try to seek it again. Well, that didn't happen. She's back in the pulpit. I would say that was a godly thing for him to do. He did it humbly. He did it with the right attitude. But he did do it. So there might be a time where it's right to confront that if the Lord gives that to you. But know at least in your heart and in your mind that that is not a pastor and that it's not a godly woman. I see a lot of godly women here. And I thank God for each one of you. All right, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the clarity you give us in your word. Lord, help us to understand that in this culture, they hate the Bible. There's no surprises there, but they hate the Bible. And we also should understand that in the church today, many false teachers have arisen. And there shouldn't be any surprises there either because your word warned about that. And so Lord, help us to hold firm on the foundation of the truth and to just stay there and be happy there, to be content with that. And Lord, we have to thank you because we see that even through the curse, you are doing your thing and you brought about the salvation of all mankind through women who were godly through Mary, who humbled herself underneath your commands and embraced them rather than rebelled against them. Lord, thank you for what this time of year represents for us in the incarnation. Thank you that Jesus saves, that he came and died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead so that ultimately the curse could be removed. We praise you, oh Lord Jesus, you are worthy of all of it. It's in your name we pray, amen.