Wanted women who are modest gentle and quiet. We're gonna see it comes from the scriptures It's actually what the scriptures say. It's what God wants. It's what God desires It's what God tells us we should be and the truth of the matter is these are not just characteristics that are for women only These are Christian characteristics that all of us are to have men and women this is for Christians and so first Peter chapter 3 and Let's just read verses 1 through 6 together. 1 Peter chapter 3. Likewise, you wives be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they without a word may be won by the conduct of their wives when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. Do not let your beauty be that outward adorning of arranging the hair or wearing of gold or of putting on fine apparel. But let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible ornament of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters you are, if you do good, and are not afraid with any terror. Well, last week we spent our time talking about unequally yoked wives, and we were talking about the challenges they face, God's purposes for them. We also tried to exhort the ladies that are not married to make sure they don't get involved in an unequally yoked situation. We tried to exhort with all of our passion we could towards that. But in God's providence, it often happens that God saves the woman first. And there certainly isn't any sin there. In fact, there's great hope that if God has saved the wife, that he will save the husband. It's not a guarantee, but there ought to be great hope for any woman who the Lord saves and her husband is still lost, that she can follow the dictates of scripture and trust God for the results, whatever they happen to be. And we've seen even here at this small church that we have, we've seen people that you would never ever would suspect or think that would be saved. come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's a great testimony. And this happens everywhere. It happens everywhere where the gospel is preached. It's many times unlikely candidates to the human mind that end up coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's by His sovereignty. That's by His prerogative. Now, let's just take a look at the grammatical construction that we have here in verses two through six. I just want to highlight some of the verbs for you, and then we'll be spending the majority of the rest of the sermon on some of the nouns and some of the adjectives as we talk about what's in here. But if you just look at verse number two, this is where we get the idea of modesty from, when they observe your chaste conduct. The whole idea has to do with purity, has to do with cleanliness, has to do with not stained by ugliness and not stained by sin. It's chase conduct. That's where we get the idea of modesty from, because the sermon is entitled, Women Who Are Modest, Gentle, and Quiet. Three character traits that we pull from these six verses. Now, there's also a theme that runs through verse two. And you see it again in verse number four and again in verse number six. As you look at verse two, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. And then in verse four, at the end, it says, which is very precious in the sight of God, which is obviously talking about the fear of God. And then in verse number six, it takes a different turn as he says, if you do good and are not afraid with any terror. And those three ideas do go together because we live our lives in the sight of God, which is the fear of God. And really it's only the fear of God that we should have. If you fear God, you have nothing else to fear. So why should you be afraid? Even if you're in, and he's writing these first six verses are primarily to unequally yoked wives. Although once he gets down to verse two, he branches it off and it becomes more applicable in a broader sense. But basically, if you want to sum it back up again, what Peter's thought is, he basically is telling the unequally yoked wives, you need not be afraid. There's no reason for you to be afraid because you have a sovereign God that you're living your life in his sight. Fear God, you'll have nothing else to fear. And you can trust him no matter how adverse your circumstances are. This is a theme throughout first Peter. Anyway, he's always telling us. We're strangers. We're pilgrims. We're sojourners we're living in a land that is hostile to us and We find many times wives that have lost husbands are living in a home. That's hostile to the things they believe God can work even in a situation like that and that's what he's talking about here. There's no reason for you to be afraid now verse 3 talks about do not let your dormant. And that's an imperative and it's about as a strong imperative as you could possibly have. He uses the strongest negation that there is and he uses the imperative sense. And so this is a command. We need to know the difference between what we are and what we're commanded to be. And this is one thing that we're commanded to be. Do not let your beauty be, and then he talks about three things, that it's not to be. And we'll talk about that in just a moment. But we need to understand that verse three is what we should not be. Verse four is what we are to be. And in verse four, it puts it this way, but, or rather, let it be the hidden person of the heart. Now, as you look at that, You notice that let it be is in italics there. And that's simply because when you have something in italics, it means that it's not expressly given in the original. Italics can be a good thing. Italics can sometimes be a deceiving thing. But the purpose of italics is to try to help you understand what the sense of the original language is. And so we always should note that. When we see something in italics, let's do realize. And here's a little trick you can do. You don't have to know Greek or anything to be able to do this. But it's something that I think it's helpful to do. When you see words in italics, go ahead and read it in italics. But go ahead and read it without the italics, too. And you'll get the sense of it. You know, you can read it that way. And that's what happens here, too. Doesn't make the best English sense, but you'll always get the sense of the word usually when you do that. Or putting on, finds an italics there, so putting on apparel, but the hidden person of the heart. Notice we didn't change the meaning there. Now let me make one little comment about a word that is in italics there that does bug me. I'm going to be honest about this. I don't care for the fact that fine was put in there in verse number three. In the translation I'm using, it says fine apparel. And the Greek doesn't say that. Now, you could argue that it implies it. You could argue that it implies it. I would be inclined somewhat to argue differently. I think we've broken up the sense of the meaning by putting fine in there. And here's what I'm trying to say. Here's what I'm talking about there. Follow the argument. If you can back to verse three, do not let your beauty be that outward adorning of arranging the hair or wearing gold or putting on fine apparel. What happened very early in the history of the church and still happens to this day is some people use this verse to try to prove that it's simple to wear jewelry and it's simple to wear nice clothes. And that it's sinful to have any kind of ornamentation of the hair, that these things are worldly. These things are sinful and that these things are wrong. And I don't think that's what Peter's trying to say at all. That is not his sense. And if you take fine out of there, I think you get a better idea of it because it says, don't let your outward be beauty, be simply those things of the hair or gold or clothing. It's not just an express purpose here against nice clothing or fine clothing. It's actually against clothing. And the reason that's important to me is this. Take the flip side of the argument, okay? And if it's sinful to wear any jewelry, and if it's sinful to wear any gold, and if it's sinful to wear your hair in a nice way, the same argument would be it's sinful to wear clothes too. Ah, now no one's gonna argue that, right? But I think we get a little bit of a misconstrued idea when we throw the word fine in there. So that's just my opinion. I don't like it. And we can talk to other people about that, and other people have different opinions, but that's mine. And it's because of that argumentation that way. I really think it takes away a powerful argument against this idea of a total ban of jewelry, a total ban of hair ornamentation. But there is another interesting word in here. This word adorned, as it's used, is a word that you've heard before. And you know this word. It's the word cosmos. Cosmos is often translated world, or it's sometimes translated universe, if you're Carl Sagan. And you know, cosmos is an interesting word. And it also has other ideas attendant with it, too. Peter isn't trying to say, because some people go, aha. That means these things are worldly, and worldly means evil, and so these things are sinful. And that's where a little bit of Greek will be a dangerous thing, because that's not what Peter's trying to say either by using cosmos. In fact, cosmos is where we get the roots like cosmetics and cosmetology. My daughter's in cosmetology school, and that's where it comes from, is the whole idea of cosmos. And it doesn't mean that it's evil. It doesn't mean that it's worldly, like we as Christians use the term worldly. But I think what we can do is we can see the sense of what he's doing. He's comparing the outward with the inward. And who would not understand, who would not know if we realize, if we keep it simple, he's comparing the outward to the inward. Who would not know that the inward is what God cares about, the inward is what's important, but we're going to talk about the outward too. Because the outward is often a manifestation of what is inside. They say, you can't judge a book by its cover. To some extent, you can. Actually, you can. I know there are books that you just go to Barnes & Noble or Borders, and there's books that the covers would warn you that you ought not to read that book. You can judge a book by its cover in some extent. Well, let's finish up a little bit more of the grammatical construction here, and then we'll get down to to the next point, is you get down to verse number five. There's an interesting word here. For in the manner of former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves being submissive to their own husbands. Now, there's a middle voice used here. We don't even have the middle voice in the English. We use a reflexive. A reflexive talks about ourselves and themselves. These women were voluntarily and purposely submitting themselves. It's what they were doing. They were purposely doing it. They did it on purpose and they did it with a purpose. They adorned themselves by submitting themselves. They willingly submitted themselves. And that's the emphasis that we have here. And I find it very interesting as we read this passage and Peter would use it that way. And then verse six, he talks about Sarah obeyed Abraham. And it's in a tense that sometimes people say, well, it's a one-time act. And so they say, where's the one-time act that she did this? Well, Grudem, Wayne Grudem, he's a scholar. He makes a point here. I think that's exactly excellent as we finish the grammar here. Sarah obeyed Abraham, but I don't think we should be looking for a one-time act here because she's calling him Lord. Calling is in the present continuous sense. And so I'm not sure that Peter has, and you'll find different commentators that do think that Peter has one specific time in mind that Sarah called Abraham Lord and that she obeyed him. But I think really what Peter's just trying to say is, look, Sarah did, she followed her husband. She did what she was supposed to do. And she lived her life that way, calling him Lord. You know, her life was lived in sin. Now, was she perfect? Of course not. We could go to the scriptures and prove very easily that Sarah had a heart of sin and had a lot of sin in her. But we could do the same thing with Abraham. We could do the same thing with David. We could do the same thing with just about anybody, right? I mean, but she's a good example. And she's a role model that Peter chooses. And we talk about all of us as Christians being children of Abraham, and that's a good thing. And he specifically talking to the women, he says, daughters of Sarah. which is really kind of the same thing as saying children of Abraham. And that's the point that he's trying to make here. So basically, that's what we have as we look at the grammar construction. Actually, I'll tell you the truth, it's very complex. It's a very complex idea as it comes across in the Greek. Some of the scholars that don't believe in the Word of God use this particular passage, 1 through 6, to prove that Peter did not write the Gospel of 1 Peter. They said, how in the world would he possibly know Greek that well? And how could he write Greek that well? Because it's really, really packed with good stuff. That's why the last two messages we spent extra time talking about the grammar. It's packed with good stuff. It's packed with very subtle things that just come out and open up to you as you read it carefully. Now, verse number three, what is it that a Christian woman ought not to wear? What is it that a Christian woman ought not to wear? I want to give a warning as we go into this particular passage, because we're talking about modesty, but Satan is so deceptive. Satan is absolutely deceptive. I've seen him do it many, many times in churches. There's a trap on the other side of this whole idea of modesty. Because, let me illustrate it. There are Christian groups that we're pretty sympathetic with who see offensive things on TV. And they will alert everybody about how offensive something is and how you should boycott maybe this particular product because of what they're doing. Or they'll give you the idea of the kind of filth that's going on here, the kind of filth that's going on over there. And oftentimes, what ends up happening in their desire to be modest and to bring good standards, they end up being purveyors of the filth themselves. I've been on some Christian websites that you look at what they are fighting against and say, well, thanks. You just showed me it all. You just put it right out there for me. I never would have even seen it or known. And so we need to be careful as we talk about this idea of modesty that we modestly talk about it. That we don't end up defiling ourselves and defiling other people even as we talk about these particular issues. And it's an easy thing to happen and it's very easy to become preoccupied with modesty to such an extent that we're actually overly preoccupied and causing our own minds problems. That we would be better off not to be dwelling on and thinking about. I'm speaking as a man in that respect. There's a trap on the other side of this that we just need to be careful about. I'm speaking very practically here. So we are going to talk about modesty, but let's be careful about that. And we also know that modesty is one of the most controversial subjects you could possibly talk about in Christian circles, because what standards are we to follow and whose standards are we to follow and who decides what's modest and who decides what's immodest? And does the Bible tell us how long a woman's dress is to be, for instance, and And what verse do we go to to see that it needs to be knee length, or two inches above the knee, or two inches below the knee, or at her ankle, or whatever it happens to be? Every one of you thought about these kinds of issues, if you've thought very seriously at all about modesty. We'll answer it this way. First of all, is jewelry and ornamentation like that prohibited by the scriptures? And we already talked about the aspect of, a cosmos and cosmetology and fine apparel and all of that? I think the answer is no. It's not absolutely prohibited, but it ought not to be the dominant thing. A woman's beauty does not come from her outward adorning. It just doesn't. It comes from the inside. Now, being well-kempt is a good thing. Being well-groomed is a good thing, and being modestly clothed is a good thing. But our, let me put it this way, another illustration. Have you ever met somebody that, and please don't think of any individual, or if you do, think of me, okay, when I say that. You ever met somebody that just wasn't very attractive? They just weren't really good looking, they just were not very good looking. And that's the first thing you thought of when you saw them, is like, hmm, you know? But then you got to know them and you realize this is a good person, this is a great person to be around, an enjoyable person to be around. What you'll find happens is that you don't think of them that way anymore. You think of them with good thoughts and happy thoughts and you're glad to be around them and you're glad to see them. And that's the way it ought to be. We don't look at the facial structures alone. Now, there's some people that are just naturally beautiful. That's just the way it is. They're strikingly beautiful. When you see them, that's the first thought is, oh my, you know, movie star beauty. That happens. That also fades with age too, doesn't it? You know, that fades with age and goes away, you know? Well, at any rate, It's not the outward that we want to emphasize. Now, there are some factors to consider in how to dress modestly. Let me give you just some practical directives. Factors to consider in how to dress modestly, because let's face the facts here. We'll never get all Christians to agree on what is modest and what is appropriate. And we'll probably never even accomplish the goal in our own local church of getting everybody to agree. But there are some principles I think we can agree on. And if we apply these, it'll help tremendously. First of all, consider the culture in which you live. Consider the culture in which you live because the truth of the matter is, like it or not, different ages do see things differently. And not only that, but different cultures see things differently. And what might be absolutely scandalous in one culture might be absolutely acceptable in another culture. Now, I think there's some things that we should never accept. There are some things that we should, even if our culture accepts it, we ought not to accept it and we need to stand against it. But there is a cultural aspect that we do have to understand. I mean, there have been times in history that for a woman to show her ankle was considered extremely immodest and it meant something in her culture, even to the form of prostitution and such. Then you don't show your ankle, right? And you can argue all day long, but I have Christian liberty and I have the right to do that. Well, you also are on display. And you're also being seen. And you have to be sensitive to your culture, like it or not. That's where God has you. It's where he's placed you. And so we do have to consider the culture in which we live, and we have to consider the appropriateness of our dress, the appropriateness of our situation. Some things may be appropriate in one place, and they simply aren't appropriate in another. Now, let me just give an illustration here of something that happened when I was in the, when I was going to high school. The late 60s, early 70s, I was in high school. And it was the Vietnam War era. And there was just turmoil and unrest everywhere. And there were protests on my high school campus about that. But not too many people got involved in it. But there were some protests on our campus. And there were also protests against the dress code. Our school had a pretty stringent dress code. And there were protests. And a sit-in was staged to abolish the dress code. And they did. The administration, for whatever reason, decided to abolish the dress code there in the, like in 1970, maybe it was 71, forget the exact year. And so, next thing you know, the announcement came out, there is no longer a dress code. Basically, you can wear whatever you want, you know? The very next day, a girl came to school in a two-piece bathing suit. She really did. And here she was walking down the halls of Cattling High School in basically a bikini. Now, everybody was staring, and everybody was looking, and even those that had wanted the dress code abolished were jaw-dropped, you know. It was obviously not appropriate. And the administration called her in and told her, you can't do that, you're going home. But there's no dress code. Okay, okay. Why did she do that? She didn't do that because she felt like she had an inherent right to wear a bathing suit to school. She did that to shock. She did that to surprise. She did that to basically be provocative. But it wasn't appropriate. And even the world knew it wasn't appropriate and could easily say that it wasn't. But a third thing I'd want to bring out about that, not just the culture and the appropriateness, but remember it's not just what you wear, but how you wear it. It's not just what you wear, but it's how you wear it. Now we have a very contemporary situation going on right this very moment on TV that has made the big time news. And being the skeptic that I am, the reason I think it's made the big time news is because it's sweeps month and all the news stations want to get extra ratings and something like this draws the ratings. Carl's Jr. has come up with a new commercial. A lot of people have seen that commercial. It's a disgusting commercial. Really, it's just disgusting. First time I saw it, I was absolutely shocked. Really, I mean, I just couldn't believe what I was, I looked at my clicker, what channel am I on? You know, this is incredible. You know, it was unbelievable. But then as you think about it, you realize it's not unusual to see girls in bathing suits on TV. It's not even unusual in commercials. But it was how she was wearing it and what she was doing. that made it absolutely inappropriate. Now, they asked men on the street, some people, oh, I really like that commercial. Other people were appalled by it. There's Christian groups that are talking about boycotting Carl's Jr. and such like that about it. Well, you know, it's not just what you wear. It's how you wear it. And that's a good example of that. Now, I can give you as a pastor, as a father, and as a dad, Oh, well, that's father and dad are the same thing, I think. It's a pastor, a husband, and a dad. Some practical advice of how you can make sure, ladies, that you're not immodestly dressed. But you're probably not going to like the advice. Probably not going to make you really happy. But I'll be honest with you, if you follow this advice, you will not be immodestly dressed. You will be dressed modestly if you'll follow this advice. You have a built-in friend, ladies, that can help you in this area of dress. And if you really want to know if you dress modestly, then ask your husband or ask your father if what you're wearing is appropriate or not. What usually happens instead is like, ah, you know. Oh, I don't think you ought to go out in that. That's, you know. The horrible reaction comes next. But if you really want to be modest, and I'm not talking about being prudish. I'm not talking about making sure that you dress in fashions that's at least 50 years old. I'm talking about that. I'm talking about modesty. Who better to ask than a man who knows how men think? See, men know how men think. And this can be tremendous help. There you go, throw it out there. And if you'll use it, you can use it to your advantage. And I guarantee you will not be dressed immodestly. If you don't have a Christian husband or a Christian father, then a male mentor that you trust. You can use this and it can be helpful to you. You can be stylish without being faddish. You can be discreet But you know, there's nothing wrong with having a little bit of fun with your hair. Nothing wrong with having some jewelry to wear. That's not sinful. It's not wrong. But there's a point that it becomes wrong. And that's where we need to be careful. Now, there is a surprising fact concerning modesty. To me, it was somewhat surprising. Maybe I'd never considered it before, why it was surprising to me. But, you know, we just mentioned a few minutes ago, people say, When our culture is very, very, very familiar for people to say, well, don't judge me by the way I dress. But you know what? That's such a ridiculous thing to say. Because the way we dress is our choice more than anything else that you can think of. It's what you put on to show other people. So that other people, it's the first thing people see about you is the way that you look and the clothes that you're wearing. Don't judge me by my dress. I mean, it's ridiculous. You got someone, okay, let's just put it this way. Let's suppose somebody were to dye their hair green or to dye their hair purple. Those are not colors that are found in nature. Okay. Dye your hair green, dye your hair purple. Whatever you might think about that, it would be absolutely ridiculous for somebody to dye their hair green or dye their hair purple and then get mad at someone that stares at them. because it's unusual. The truth of the matter is you do something like that to get a reaction. That's why it's done. And then to get mad at the person that reacts, well, it's ludicrous if you think about it at its very base and at its very root. If we're going to dress in a way that is culturally outlandish, then expect a reaction. And to some extent, We identify ourselves of who we are and how we think and what groups we're a part of by the way we dress. The schools do this all the time in high school. There's the cowboy group. There's the goth group. There's this group. There's that group. How do you identify them? You look the way they dress. And people have a tendency to naturally hang together. That's not accidental. Gang affiliations. These things are not accidental. Why do we put uniforms on policemen? See, there's all kinds of things that we can say that way. And so it's a ridiculous thing that's come into our culture to say, don't judge me by my dress. It may be true that that's not the only way we should judge somebody, but it is a way. And we judge people by the way they look and the things they say, because we can't judge their heart. As we get to know them better, then we can be a better judge of who they really are. And yeah, sometimes we are surprised. Sometimes we're very surprised by someone and they weren't what we thought at first. But let's make sure that we don't give people the wrong idea at first about who we are. And we can simply do that by being modest and by being careful and asking for even other people's opinions and getting a little bit of help sometimes. I was looking at some pictures of myself from a couple of years ago, and I'm thinking, why didn't somebody help me? I never like looking at pictures of the way that I look, especially a while ago. But that's a different story, too. Anyway, here's seven directives for modesty. I got them on your outline. Follow along with them. Let me go over them very quickly. Seven directives for modesty. I want you to listen to them carefully, and then I'm going to tell you where they came from. And I'm doing this for a reason. These are not from the Bible, by the way. But these are seven directives for modesty. Number one, clothing must cover the entire body. Number two, the material must not be so thin that you can see through it. Number three, the clothing must hang loose so that the shape of the body is not apparent. Number four, female clothing must not resemble men's clothing. Number five, the design of the clothing must not resemble the clothing of the non-believing woman. Number six, the design must not consist of bold designs which attract attention. And number seven, Clothing must not be worn for the sole purpose of gaining reputation or increasing one's status in society. And the commentary that, I got that off a website, and the commentary that followed it said this, the reason for this strictness is so that the woman is protected from the lustful gaze of men, she should not attract attention to herself in any way, And then the next sentence gives it all away of where this comes from. Islam protects women. And that's why they put the woman in the burqa, cover her from head to foot. And this particular website was arguing for the fact that it's an internal Islamic debate, but they were arguing for the fact that it is okay, according to the Quran, for a woman to show her face. She doesn't have to have her face totally veiled because the most strict Muslims will veil the entire face. They're trying to say, no, no, no. This is enough. We can let the face be unveiled. Well, it's quite surprising. It's kind of shocking. It's a surprising fact concerning modesty that, as I looked on the internet, and I'd encourage you to do the same if you'd like. The Google search that I did basically was, I think, modest dress for women. Put it in a Google search. and got hundreds and hundreds of hits on the thing and looked at a lot of them. And I was very surprised. The majority of the articles were by Muslims. Roman Catholics, that surprised me. But there's a lot of writing on Roman Catholics about this. Jewish rabbis, a lot of Jewish Orthodox rabbis writing on the subject, and Mormons. And as I thought about that and tried to think what this all meant, and did a lot of study, I realized that pagan cultures, we have a tendency to think of them as being sexually immoral, and many of them were horrendously sexually immoral. But they also, it's not unusual in a pagan culture to have strict modesty standards. Even in the New Testament era, such was the case. And the point that I'm trying to make is simply this. I'm certainly not trying to say that being immodest is a good thing, because it's not. Being immodest is wrong, and being immodest is bad. There's no certain sense, no two ways about it. But we need to understand that more is involved here than just the way we look outwardly. There's something that God's looking for inward. And the outward isn't enough. And it isn't good enough. And just to look a certain way isn't good enough, and that's what verse 3 is trying to tell us. That's a Christian edict here. Modesty is a Christian edict, but it's also a Christian edict to realize that these things are not important. We have a Christian view of women's dress when we have verse 4 included. But let it be the hidden person of the heart with the incorruptible ornament of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. You don't really have a Christian doctrine of dress by simply saying what you can't wear. You have to talk about what you should wear and the way that we are to be and fundamentally the change that's taken place inside of our hearts. You know, everything we put on is perishable. And we put it on a perishable body that God will remake one day into an incorruptible body. But it's a perishable body that's dying daily. But how do you see the invisible hidden person of the heart? How do you see that? By their actions, right? It's the actions. It's the conduct that tells us that. And then he goes on to talk about some practical ways. Gentle. Gentle and quiet. Now, we're rapidly running out of time here, so I'm going to not go into all of the scriptures that are there. You can read them later. But gentle only appears three times in the New Testament as an adjective, like it's used here in 1 Peter. But it's fairly common as a noun. And it's not just a feminine virtue. It's for all Christians. Just look at 316, 1 Peter 316, and you'll see the word come up there in a different form. Having a good conscience that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. Well, I shouldn't have read that because I don't see the word there. It's in 1 Peter. It's in Peter somewhere, and I thought it was 316. Maybe I looked at a different translation and such. But at any rate, meekness is what we're looking for, meekness. And it's said in Matthew 5, 5, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. And Christ calls himself, I'm meek and lowly in heart. And so it's often translated meekness. But there's gentleness to whether it is verse 15. There it is. I just didn't look in the wrong wrote down the wrong place here to everyone. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. There it is. So it was there. I just had the wrong verse, but gentle, meek. Characteristic of the Lord Jesus Christ, a characteristic that all Christians ought to have, and a characteristic that Christian women ought to have. And quiet. Quiet. That's the same for all Christians too. 1 Timothy 2.2, that we may live quiet and peaceable lives before the Lord. Look at 1 Thessalonians 4.11, just for a second. Flip there. 1 Thessalonians 4.11. This whole idea of quietness comes up twice to the Thessalonians. First Thessalonians 4.11, that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, to work with your own hands as we commanded you. Look at Second Thessalonians 3.12. Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread. The flip side of it is when Paul warns us about busy bodies that go around Scattering gossip and telling lies. That's the flip side of it. That's not being quiet but all Christians are exhorted to quietness and Christians women are exhorted to quietness, you know, so it's the same for all Christians Now I gave you a practical common-sense guideline to know if you address modestly Let me give you one to know if you're quiet if you have a quiet and a meek spirit This one's where the rubber meets the road. It's for men and for women too, but we are preaching to women primarily today. So ask your husband or ask your father or even ask your own children, how do I sound when I want something done around the house? How do I sound when a meal is ready to be served? How do I sound when I'm frustrated? How do I sound when I'm tired? How do I sound when I'm angry? You know, a lot of us would really not be very happy to have a tape recorder playing. There are things that I have said to my kids that it would be horrendous to have a tape of it and have it played back to me. I remember one time, I won't say who this happened to, but I was calling a pastor friend of mine, and he's not real technological. He was making a tape for the incoming call. You know, hello, this is so-and-so. And sometimes I say, hello, this is a song. What, what? Oh, shut up over there. Now you beep, leave your message. And I got a hold of him as quick as I could. I said, you've got to change your tape machine. You don't want people hearing that. We all do it, but we shouldn't. Saying we all do it doesn't make it right. We all sin, right? This is not self-control. It's not the way we're to be. The adornment of the saints who've gone on before. We'll just close with this. Literally what we have here really is the idea that we're children. Women can specifically look to Sarah as an example. And the example is given of her being a role model of doing good by her submission. And she lived a life of submission, but just think of one specific time in her life where she really showed unusual submission. God told Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldees. Ur of the Chaldees was their home. And he says, get up and leave this place and go to a land that I'll show you. Abraham had to go back to Sarah and say, you know what? We're leaving this place. But where are we going? Well, I don't know for sure. You mean you're asking me to leave my family and my friends and my home? Yeah, yeah, that's what we need to do, because God told us to leave. Well, leave for where? I don't know. I guess I'll know when I get there. Now, that's asking a lot, isn't it? That's a difficult thing. That's unusual circumstances, granted. But she was an example of submission. We think of Abraham and the great sacrifice that he made when he left Ur of the Chaldees. Sarah went with him, too. She went with him, and she submitted, calling him Lord. On this one aspect of not being afraid, let me just close with this. So she's an example of a role model by doing good by her submission. And there's other places we could look at too in the scriptures to prove that. She's also an example of being not afraid. Because who could blame Sarah if she was afraid under circumstances like that? Asked to leave her family and home, she didn't know where she was going. She asked her husband, it didn't help because he didn't know either. Yet she obeyed and she went. And she didn't let fear stop her. And she became an example of faith and a faithful woman. And you know, whose daughters you are, if you do good and are not afraid with any terror, because like I said, if you fear God, you have nothing else to fear. And that's not to say, that's not to backtrack on anything that I've said before, that wives are their husbands, good counselors. A man that doesn't listen to his wife's counsel is a fool. He really is. A man that makes major life decisions without consulting his wife is a fool. That's just put as bluntly as I can. But there is a head of the home. And sometimes things don't go the way we want. And it's not a direct command of God so that to obey our husbands and to follow our husbands would be a sin. When they're all said and done and the end of the day comes, submission. is the key, and submission is absolutely necessary. It's a Christian virtue. And like I said, the whole Epistle of Peter is directed to Christians living in a hostile world. We're strangers and pilgrims. We're sojourners in a land that's not ours. We live in hostile territory. And these Christian women with lost husbands can live as Christians, too. Even as Christians can live in a world that's hostile to Christ and still be Christians, these Christian women can live in a home that's hostile to Christ and still be Christians. modest, gentle, and quiet, living our lives under the conscious awareness of the presence of God, quorum Deo, doing good, not living in fear, but living a life of trusting God. Let's look to the Lord in prayer.