We return to 1 Timothy chapter 2. Again, we will read this evening verses 8 through 15. 1 Timothy 2.8. Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension, Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair in gold or pearls or costly garments, but rather by means of good works as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint. Lord, thank you that you've given us this word. Thank you that you have shown us your will, your design for your creation, your will for our conduct in your church. Lord, I pray that we'll hear you. I pray that this word will be read, heard, and believed, and trusted in, and followed in all the churches for your kingdom and for your glory. In Christ's name, amen. There are some key statements that Paul makes in the course of this letter. One is in chapter 4, which we'll look at later on. And the other we've mentioned at the beginning of each of the first two sessions we've spent looking at this passage. That's found in 1 Timothy 3.14, where Paul tells us that he wrote these things. He said, I write these things to you, Timothy, so you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God. which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. And beginning in chapter 2, verse 8, and continuing through the end of chapter 3, Paul is focused specifically on God's design for the roles of men and women in his church. And again, it's his church. It's not our church. He's called us into it. And now we are the church, but we belong to him. And it's critical to our understanding that we recognize that God has a design for the roles of men and women. It flows from his creation. He has a design for the roles of men and women in the home and in the church, and some would say in the society at large. But that He's clearly expressed His will in these matters here in Scripture. And not just here, but also, of course, in 1 Corinthians. and in the creation passages in Genesis and elsewhere. So, verse 8, God commits, and it is God writing and speaking here, commits to men the duty to lead the congregation in prayer. Verses 9 and 10, God commands Christian women to adorn themselves in a manner that's consistent with their profession of faith. And this is so both in the home and in the church and when a woman is in the world, in the daily lives of Christian women. Verse 11, God commands women to quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. The words are not unclear. Words are very plain. Paul writes, I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. Paul shows in verse 13, this command is based in the very order of creation. Clearly, God has assigned different roles to men and women. God created the woman, as he tells us in Genesis chapter 2, to be a helper of the man. And though the godless world has certainly changed and turned away from God's design, God has not changed. God does not change. He's made no alteration in His will or in His creation design. Things are, from God's perspective, as they were the day He made Adam and the day He created Eve from Adam. And now, as we've seen, after more than 1900 years of what was, for the most part, a church that was in obedience to God's command in this regard, Now since the year 1960 there's been an explosion of women entering into pulpits which God has reserved to men. Women in pulpits teaching men exercising authority in the church over men. Now all this is plainly contrary to God's commands and to God's will and to God's design. Women in pulpits, and we've looked at this briefly, coincided with and is the result of a movement for women's emancipation in the secular culture. And the movement of women in the church into pulpits and positions of authority followed right along with that movement in the secular culture. So churches with women preachers are plainly following the godless culture of the fallen world. And remember, that's a culture that denies the lordship of Jesus Christ. And it's a culture that denies and refuses to follow the teachings of the Word of God. Now, this is obviously wrong to refuse to follow the Word of God. We, as the Church of Christ, must never adapt ourselves to the ways of the world. It should be the opposite. We are called here to influence the world, to call people to Christ, to faith, and to repentance. Now, verse 14, Paul gave further scriptural basis for what he's teaching here. First, this is God's design and creation, but second, He reminds us Adam was not the one who was deceived. It was the woman who was deceived and who fell into transgression. And Paul shows here that the fall demonstrates the dire consequences when the roles that God has designed for men and women are reversed. Eve fell when she ignored her divinely ordained position as a helper of Adam. Adam fell when he, who was called by God to lead his wife, failed to lead her. And so Eve was deceived by Satan, and Eve led Adam into ruin, and the ruin of the whole human progeny fell with them. Now, as a result, Genesis 3.16, God said to the woman, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain, you will bring forth children. So clearly, there's a penalty, a punishment that's come upon all women because of what Eve did here. But on top of that, God said to Eve, your desire will be for your husband, meaning to rule over your husband, but he will rule over you. So verse 15 then, women will be preserved through the bearing of children. Now clearly this relates to verse 14. If they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint. So clearly salvation is by faith in Christ, by grace. This verse isn't saying a woman is saved unto eternal life through the bearing of children. No man or woman could be saved from sin or eternal damnation by any work of their own, only by the grace of God through faith in Christ. But in the context here, Paul was saying that a woman is preserved in the role for which God has created her, serving God in her role as helper of her husband. We have to understand something. When we do as God commands us, when He tells us to serve another, then we're serving Him by serving that other person because it's obedience that God is looking for in His people. So the woman is preserved in her role for which God created her as a nurturer of the family, by bringing children into the world, by raising them. And I said this last week, I believe, nothing's a more vivid reminder that a woman is a woman than the bringing of a child into the world. I mean, clearly men don't do this. There is a difference between men and women, despite the fact that the culture is trying to obliterate those differences. It's the ability to conceive and to give birth to new life that has for all of human history marked the distinction between women and men. Not only can men not do that, but it's the very nature of a woman to be a nurturer and a teacher of her children. In short, God created women not to be men, but to be women. Not to do the things that God has assigned to men, but to do the things that God has assigned to women. So, to teach or to preach to men, and in so doing to exercise authority over men, is contrary to God's clear word here. Paul says women are preserved if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint. So if a woman comes to faith and abides in faith, in love, in sanctification, and lives in obedience to God's Word, she gives evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit indwelling her. And she will find her joy and her salvation in serving God in the role that He has designed for her. in all the duties, all the delights of Christian womanhood and Christian motherhood. That's what it is to continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint. So last week we looked at some Old Testament examples which demonstrated God's extreme displeasure with those who approach Him worship Him in a manner that is contrary to His express command. Remember, Uzzah touching the ark when he thought it might fall to the ground from a cart. Nadab and Abihu burning strange fire before the Lord and God struck them all dead. Numbers chapter 3, God assigned the duties of the priesthood exclusively to Aaron and to his sons. And he assigned the duties of the tabernacle to the Levites, also descendants of Levi, exclusively to the Levites. And he said in Numbers 3.10, So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons that they may keep their priesthood, but the layman who comes near acting as a priest, shall be put to death. This isn't new with God. God chooses who He wants to lead His congregation, to lead His people in the worship of Him. And we looked at Saul of the tribe of Benjamin, who became king in Israel. But he was not of the tribe of Levi, so he was not authorized by God to offer sacrifice. This is a direct parallel to the idea of women preaching. But in his disobedience to God, and when Samuel didn't show up when he thought he would in order to offer the sacrifices that Samuel was authorized to offer, Saul went ahead and offered the sacrifice himself. And God tore the kingdom from him. So, if you've been persuaded that it doesn't matter to the Lord how we worship Him, And who serves Him? In what capacities in His church? Please go back and read Leviticus 10. And read Numbers chapter 3. And read 1 Samuel 13 and 1 Samuel 15. And there you'll find how God looks upon being worshiped in a manner contrary to that which He has commanded. How God looks upon worship being led by those whom He has not commanded to lead. So the question is this, how can the worship of God in a manner that is directly opposed to the manner He has decreed and that is directly contrary to His order and creation, how can such a manner of worship be pleasing to Him? God says a woman must receive instruction quietly, with entire submissiveness. A woman is not to teach a man or exercise authority over a man, but is to remain quiet. Now, how do you suppose God, in view of what He did in the cases of Uzzah and Nadab and Abihu and Saul, how is He going to look upon this time of women now usurping the role God has assigned to men? Well last week we began to look at some of the ways that people attempt to justify acting in a manner that's contrary to this clear command of God. And some cite women in scripture who served God in mighty ways. Deborah, Olga, Hannah. But we saw nowhere does Jesus or Paul or any New Testament writer ever even hint that those examples should be read to cancel out God's instruction here in 1 Timothy chapter 2. Some claim that Paul's teaching here is limited to 1st century Ephesus because, some say, they believe that some women were being disruptive in Ephesus. Therefore, the Holy Spirit had to drop the hammer on them here. But there's nothing in this passage or anywhere else in Scripture which would support the idea that this command of God was given because of unruly behavior on the part of some women in 1st century Ephesus. And there's certainly no indication in Scripture that this command of God was intended to be limited, either to a particular time or to a particular place. There are some times, and maybe it happens frequently in Scripture, where particular circumstances give rise to the declaration of a particular doctrine of God. But that doesn't mean that that doctrine of God is limited in every case just to that particular situation. The fact that a passage in Scripture has particular application to a custom or a situation existing in the first century doesn't give us a license to take any passage that we don't like and disregard it and just claim that God was just speaking only to that audience. That is a very slippery slope. Because that establishes a biblical hermeneutic that opens the door for people to take any command of Scripture that maybe is inconvenient for us and say, well, that was only for them. This is precisely what the homosexual lobby has done. They've tried to take the position, well, that was for that culture. God says we must love everybody. God wants us to love everybody. And these are simply ways of evading the truth of Scripture and of evading God's commands. And more to the point, when you look at verse 13, You can see that plainly the Holy Spirit is not basing this command on any unruly behavior in Ephesus. He's basing it on God's design and creation. He's basing this command that men alone are to teach and preach and be an authority in the church on the creation order. And he even cites the fall as a result of Eve departing from God's design. This is all about God's creation design, not about some loud women in Ephesus, whether or not they existed. This was God's command for all the churches, for all of time, until Christ returns, not just for first century Ephesus. And then there's the very unbiblical idea that is everywhere today that says if it works, it must be okay. If it's bringing people into the church to hear the band, it must be okay. Give us a chance to preach the gospel to them. It must be okay if it works regardless of what God says in His Word. They say God wouldn't bless that which He disapproves. Well, they're correct about that. Some would say, I've seen too much good come out of this woman's ministry or that woman's ministry. I've seen too much fruit come out of this ministry to think it's something we shouldn't do. Well, first of all, what do they mean when they say, it works, it's working? What does that mean? You know, in the days of Charles Finney, the heretical revival preacher of the 1800s, hundreds, sometimes thousands would come forward and declare their faith, respond with an emotional response to his emotional proclamations. And they say that within a matter of weeks, 90% of them were gone and completely absent from any fellowship in the church. This is frequently true in the case of altercals that are not based on the gospel, that are based on emotion and emotional responses. So when people use words like it works or bears fruit, they're talking about what they see. They're speaking about what they've seen, what they've experienced. But we don't toss aside the Word of God because of our experience. They see people who are coming to church gatherings. They see people even serving in some capacities in the church. They see people singing along with the band, smiles on their faces, some with tears rolling down their cheeks. This is pragmatism. It's a dangerous school of thought that has come into the church in a significant way over the last 40 or 50 years. It works. It works. We don't know who's born again and who's not. We do know that the only way someone is born again is by the preaching and hearing and believing of the gospel. Not by any of these dramas or skits or not by hearing any band. The premise is, People of the world don't like Christ. They don't like His Word. They don't like His church. So we must make the church more appealing to them. Make the church more like the world. This was Rick Warren's approach, and many have followed it today. And we have John MacArthur to thank for really loudly pointing all of this out and what the damage has been done by this approach to ministry. The approach says, look, people don't want to hear long sermons, so let's stop putting so much emphasis when we gather on the preaching of the Word. Let's make the church more entertaining. Let's make the unbelievers feel more comfortable here. Let's change our services. to have less of what they see as dry preaching of the Word. Instead, let's add more drama. Let's add more skits. Let's add some comedy. And let's see if we can get a really good band and some really good singers up here. Let's be more like the world is what this amounts to. And when we do this, those who are of the world will feel comfortable here in the church, and then we can try to sneak in the gospel. That's the approach. And this isn't even me categorizing their approach. This is what they say is their approach. This is a strategy that has caused an increase in church attendances in places like where Joel Osteen is, in places where Rick Warren was, and a number of others. This is a strategy that gets people in the doors. Sometimes there are great increases of number of people attending these Sunday programs. But none of these things are the means that God uses to cause a spiritually dead sinner to be born again of the Spirit, thereby to be saved from everlasting hell and to inherit eternal life. When an unbeliever, think about this, when an unbeliever comes into one of these church buildings, and sees all this, and sees a woman in the pulpit, and then opens up the Bible and reads 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Timothy 3. And they see that a woman is to remain silent, but there's a woman in the pulpit, that an elder must be a husband of one wife, but they see a woman in the pulpit. What does he then think of the commands of the Bible as are being taught in that church? What's he supposed to think? He's receiving an object lesson that we are free to ignore the commands of God. This is what happens when we try to make the church more like the world. Because what's actually happening is we are ignoring the commands of God. Imagine coming into a church where you've heard all your life that the Bible says homosexuality is a sin and you see a homosexual standing in the pulpit What is the unbeliever supposed to think? Is he supposed to now trust the Word of God or is that going to lead him from trusting the Word of God? What's happening in these places is that they, in their desire to draw more people, and I don't even question their motives, But their desire to draw more people inevitably makes that church become more and more like the world. It is impossible to avoid that result because instead of calling the lost to be faithful disciples of Christ and faithful followers of His Word, the church itself is becoming more like the world that they are supposed to be calling people out of. Faith doesn't come by a dance skit. It doesn't come in an emotional response to a song. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. We are gathered here for the preaching of the Word. That is our primary objective. Christ established His church as a place where the gospel is proclaimed. Because it's only by the gospel that people are saved. This is the gospel by which the Word of God, which changes people's hearts and converts them to become adopted children of God. We're not here to entertain people or to make people feel comfortable. We are here in the hope that as people hear the gospel, God will convert their souls and adopt them as His own children. It's a place where believers are discipled in the faith and where God is approached reverently and in obedience to the way He has commanded us. John MacArthur points out to us, pragmatism, on the other hand, is the notion that something's worth or value is determined by what results we see. It's much like utilitarianism, he tells us. The belief that the usefulness of something is the standard of what's good. We decide what's good not by what God commands, but by what seems to be useful and helpful. So to a pragmatist, if a course of action has the desired effect, then it must be good, regardless of whether it is in compliance with the Word of God. If it doesn't work, it must be wrong. Pragmatism is not based on any absolute truth. It's inherently relativistic. It simply goes wherever the effect is. If the effect is good, this is what we're going to do. It tends to reject notions of absolute right and wrong. It tends to reject absolute notions of good and evil, truth and error. For the pragmatist, what matters is not fidelity to the scriptural truth. For the pragmatist, what matters is what results. We look at the result. We look and see what's happening. Does it work? So now we've come to a place where people actually believe and say that the preaching of the gospel doesn't draw people. So let's try something else. Women, homosexuals, and transgender people in pulpits are part of this attempt. It's going to be an inevitable clash with scripture when you take this approach. Biblical truth is not determined by testing what works and what doesn't. Biblical truth is eternal. And so this approach of trying to appeal to worldly men by appearing to be more like the world inevitably leads the church to becoming more and more worldly. So the new methods, more drama, more entertainment, rock bands, are thought by some to be more effective because they draw a bigger crowd. And since the chief criterion to the pragmatist is, does it work? Is it growing the numbers in the church? Then whatever pulls in the most people is accepted without any further examination. Pragmatism is based on feelings, emotional responses, not on God's Word. And so theology, doctrine, the Word of God, God's commands, now take a back seat to the methodology. One author wrote, formerly a doctrinal statement represented the reason for a denomination or a church's existence. This is why we're here, because of these beliefs. Today, it's the way they do things, their methodology that holds the church together. Many believe this is a good thing, by the way, as we can see throughout the land. Look at what the apostles taught and did in their worship of God from the very earliest days of the church. And by the way, the world didn't receive them all that well. Every one of them was executed. Beaten to death, crucified, dragged through the streets by horses, stabbed to death, shot with arrows. men and women, who said, No, I'm going to stand for the Word of God. Well, Acts 2.41, Pentecost, very first day that Peter and the rest of the apostles go out and preach the gospel. So then those who had received His Word were baptized, and that day there were added about 3,000 souls. No drama, no skits, no rock band. They received the Word. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. That's the model we've tried to follow. It's the model we're going to continue to try to follow. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together, had all things in common. They began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need." This is the effect of the Holy Spirit falling on a people. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple, breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart. This is why we've always taken our meals together. Praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. We don't see any of today's modern methods here. And we don't see any women among the apostles. It's a sad thing that what we are taught in Scripture concerning God's will for the worship of Him has been discarded in many places in favor of what works. MacArthur, this new pragmatism sees preaching, particularly expository preaching, as passé. Plainly declaring the truth of God's Word is regarded as offensive and utterly ineffective We're now told we can get better results by first amusing people or giving them pop psychology and thus wooing them into the fold. Once they feel comfortable, they'll be ready to receive biblical truth in small, diluted doses. It's a pragmatism, that belief that what determines the worth of something is the results it gets, has done more, MacArthur says, to suck the truth out of teaching than anything Satan has devised to date. And I would say this, the fallen world now therefore looks at what calls itself the church of Jesus Christ and sees women and homosexuals and transgender people, people confused about their own gender. And the world sees confirmation from the church that disobedience to the commands of God and approval of what God calls sin is now okay. You know, the Episcopal Church has all three in places of authority and in pulpits today, women, homosexuals, and people confused about their gender. This is a major denomination. It's been around for 500 years in one form or another. But the thing is, God doesn't change. He said to Ezekiel around 600 B.C., Ezekiel writes, Then he said to me, Son of man, stand on your feet, that I may speak with you. And as he spoke to me, the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. And he said to me, Son of man, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day. I'm sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord." So we are not the first people to come with the Word of God to a people who don't want to hear it. But did God tell Ezekiel, I want you to change the way you're doing it. I want you to make what you're doing here more palatable to those who hate Me. No, God said, as for them, whether they listen or not, for they are a rebellious house, they will know that a prophet has been among them. And you, son of man, neither fear them nor fear their words, though thistles and thorns are with you, and you sit on scorpions. Neither fear their words nor be dismayed at their presence, for they are a rebellious house. And that's the world today. And yet God says to Ezekiel, but you shall speak my words to them, whether they listen or not. That's our calling. That's our responsibility as a church, not to entertain the world and hope that they'll come in and sit through. And maybe, maybe we can slide the gospel in. Some say, though, people are responding. But to what are they responding? Are they responding to the pure milk of the word? If they are, that's great. But if they're responding to some song or some entertainment that simply moves them or makes them feel better or causes an emotional response in them and makes them want to come back for more, what is that accomplishing? So all of these pragmatic ideas come into view now when we hear of women, contrary to God's Word, preaching to men and men and women responding in a positive way to this. People say, see, it works. It brought about a good result. God must be pleased. Do you think God's really pleased when He is disobeyed? God is not pleased by this. God is never pleased when we act in disobedience to Him. He tore the whole kingdom away from Saul for an act of disobedience, for an act of offering a sacrifice to God. Tore the kingdom away from him. He killed Uzzah for just trying to keep the cherished ark of the covenant from hitting the ground. He killed Nadab and Abihu, though they were offering, worshiping, but not in the way He had commanded. God's never pleased when we act in disobedience to Him. And He has repeatedly shown His displeasure when people approach Him in worship in a manner that's contrary to His commands. Our goal in worship is not to stir people to some emotional response. Our goal in worship is to give glory to God. And we do that, not by inventing our own ways of worshiping Him, but by obeying Him. That's what pleases God, obedience. Recall the case of Saul. God gave Saul victory in the battlefield, but he said, I'll give the Malachites into your hand, but you are to destroy everything, all of it. Well, Saul had a better idea. He thought he'd keep some of the choice animals. So 1st Samuel 1520, Samuel arrives, and of course Saul had offered the sacrifice in disobedience to God. And Saul said to Samuel, I did obey the voice of the Lord, and I went on the mission which the Lord sent me, and I brought back Agag, the king of Amalek, and I've utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people, they took some of the spoil, sheep, and oxen, the choicest of things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal." This wasn't God's command. And Samuel said to Saul, has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion, rebellion against the Word of God, is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. This is not some minor matter. Samuel continued, because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king. Jesus said, John 14, 15, if you love me, what? You will keep my commandments. Romans 6, 16, you're slaves of the one you obey. Either slaves of sin, which will lead to death, or you're slaves of obedience, which will lead to righteousness. So God showed us. throughout the Old Testament that we don't serve Him by devising our own ways of worshiping Him. We don't serve Him by doing that which appears to be effective in reaching people. We serve Him, how? By obeying Him. We truly worship Him when we come before Him in the manner He has prescribed. And when we don't, He has repeatedly and consistently shown us His displeasure. One woman says, well, Paul's not Jesus, and Jesus told me to preach. No, Jesus didn't send you to preach. Jesus sent Paul to tell all women, under his divine authority, to remain silent when the church gathers. That's what Jesus said to you. Paul wrote, as the apostle, once sent by the risen, ascended and exalted Christ, and under his authority, and with his words. Paul wasn't stating his will, but the will and the command of Christ who sent him. Here are the words of 2 Timothy 3.16. This would be for those who feel like they can disregard some portions of Scripture. All Scripture is inspired by God. All Scripture. All Scripture is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. I talk maybe more than most about Mary Magdalene because I believe she's revealed in the Gospels to be perhaps the most faithful of Christ's disciples. stayed with Him to the very end, supported Him during His ministry, stayed with Him on the way to the cross, stayed with Him as they put His body in the tomb, was the first one there when they came to the empty tomb on the third day. But she was not made an apostle. She was never placed by Christ in authority over any of the men, because that would have been contrary to God's design for His creation. It would have been contrary to His will. It doesn't make her any less a disciple of Christ than Peter or John or Andrew or any of them. It just means that she's a great example because she followed God's command and God's design and God's will. It's not coincidence that no book of the Bible was written by a woman. That no priest in Israel was a woman. No woman ever had an ongoing prophetic role. There were isolated instances, yes, but... Look, God could have said, women are to learn in silence, women are not to teach men or exercise authority over a man, unless they do, and it seems to be working really well. Is that what God said? He could have said that, but He didn't. He could have said, in cases and places where the women are being unruly, I hereby authorize the men who lead them to order them to be quiet. That's not what he said. He could have said, I had to raise up Deborah because Barak acted in a cowardly manner. Therefore, disregard everything I will later say regarding the respective roles of men and women. A thousand years later, when I established my church, Is that what God did? No. None of these arguments gives anyone the right to disregard what God has clearly commanded in His Word. God's commands regarding the woman's role in connection with public worship are based not on any temporary conditions, not on any conditions in any particular place. They're based on God's design and creation. We come to our conclusion where we began. The reason God commands women to be quiet is not that they're any less capable or any less smart or any of those things. It's because this is His creation order. And those who would disregard the command that He gave the Apostle here are rejecting not only this command of 1 Timothy 2, they're rejecting God's design for His creation and for the men and women He created. That's why this is so serious. So God calls His church to stand against this rebellion, against His design. We have no license to ignore God's Word or disobey God's Word because we think we're having an impact. A woman by the name of Michelle Hamilton wrote, God's Word here is not unclear. There's no question with what the Bible says. She asked, why are we even having this conversation? Great question, Michelle. This does not mean that women are prohibited from teaching other women or from teaching their children, including their sons in their home. Older women, Titus 2-3, are likewise to be reverent in their behavior, so that they may encourage young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure workers at home, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. Timothy was taught by his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. That's part of God's design, that the women in the home teach the children. And Paul isn't saying that outside the gathering of the whole assembly a woman may not speak to a man and help him to understand things pertaining to the Word of God. That's exactly what happened with Prisca and Aquila in the case of Apollos. Private conversation with Apollos, they explained the way of God more accurately as they had no doubt learned from Paul. Wayne Grudem, the contemporary theologian, observes that this departure from obedience to the Word of God presents great dangers to Christ's church. That female leadership, he says, often leads to an erosion of orthodoxy in churches, including misrepresentation of Scripture, and as we've said, a lack of trust in the Bible. People come into a church and see a church that is openly in disobedience to what God's saying. What else are they going to see as optional for them in Scripture? To truly worship God is to obey Him. That's the long and the short of it. We worship God in the manner He is prescribed and only in the manner He is prescribed. Not in the way we want to. Not in the way we think will work. Whatever does not result in the true worship of God, according to His Word, didn't work. He desires obedience, not sacrifice. Lord, thank You that You are clear in Your Word. Thank You that You have impressed upon our hearts that we are called by You to submit to Your every command. Not that we can earn Your favor by our own works. We know, Lord, You've called us by Your grace. We know that the Spirit that's now alive within us is