Good morning. God commanded His love And that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us So great was His love for mankind That He offered up His Son to take the place of us What a cost, such a price Nothing more is required How deep, how wide, how long, how high To know the love in which He loves us How deep, how wide, how long, how high To know the love which He loves us. Be strengthened with God's power. Through the Word of His truth you can do anything. Looking on to Christ, The author, the creator, the sustainer To know the love of Christ The love who is our very life How deep, how wide, how long, how high To know the love In which He loves us How deep, how wide, how long, how high To know the love In which He loves us How deep, how wide, how long, how high To know the love In which He loves us How deep, how wide, how long, how high To know the love in which He loves us Indeed, that's so. It's a wonderful thing, isn't it? Thank you, Vicki. Morning, everybody. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have placed and put order in humanity, in the church, in the world. It's an ordered world. And the first order of business is Christ. who is prototakos, the firstborn over all creation, that is, the one who is responsible for all of it, the source of life and all that exists in the material creation. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And all things were created by Him. In Colossians 1.15, through Him and for Him. It's all about Christ. So Father, we gather together today. In honor of Jesus Christ, who is the guest of honor in this place, where two or three are gathered together, in his name, welcome, Lord Jesus. May the words of our hearts, the meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength. And our divine Redeemer, we pray in his matchless name, amen. I've entitled the message this morning, Order in the Church, Order in the Church, Order in the Court, Sunday, February 23rd, 2020. First, we'll start by taking a look in the mirror this morning to see if you recognize the person that you see in a particular passage, Psalm 63. You can turn there if you'd like, because I think you'll want to mark this down. This might have possibilities for a refrigerator portion. Great possibilities. Psalm 63-1, a psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. Oh God, you are my God. Early in the morning will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land, where there is no water, to see your power and your glory. So as I have seen you in the sanctuary, because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name. My soul shall be satisfied with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise you with joyful lips. when I remember you upon my bed and meditate on you in the night watches, because you have been my help. Therefore, in the shadow of your wings will I rejoice. My soul follows hard after thee. Your right hand upholds me." That's Psalm 63, 1 to 9. So if we hope to be, as David was, a man after God's own heart, There'll be a number of changes required, wouldn't you say? Wouldn't you admit that? I admit it. So, that is to, as to where we spend our time and with whom we spend it. David is so focused on Christ. The man after God's own heart is focused upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He's everything. Sunday, February 23rd, 2020, 1 Timothy 2. Turn there, please. Paul's calling Timothy to this kind of devotion. Paul himself has it. He is a man after God's own heart, the Apostle Paul is. And so is Timothy. There's no one like Timmy, nobody like Timmy, who's devoted to the Lord. His name means he that honors God, Timotheus, Timay, and Theos, he that honors God, and Timothy certainly resembles his name. 1 Timothy 2.1, first of all then, First of all, first things first, I told you God is a God of order, order in a church. First of all, therefore, I urge you to make deis, deis, deis, d-e-h-s-e-i-s, deis, which are pleas or entreaties, prayers, petitions, but they're pleas or entreaties to the Lord. You could say supplication. And then we have Proseuche, which is prayers of praise. So we have petitions, prayers of praise, and then we have Entusias, which is intercessory prayer. So we have prayers, we have petitions or supplications, prayers of praise, and intercessory prayers. And, of course, we're told by the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23, pray without ceasing. So that helps with all of these types of prayers, that we would pray without ceasing. And then he says, and eucharistias, which are prayers of thanksgiving, finally prayers of thanksgiving, remembering to give thanks in all things. 1 Thessalonians 5.18, hearkening back to the previous epistles of Paul. Then he says, Huper, which is for, and then he says, Pantone, Anthropone, prayers of thanksgiving for all men. All of these categories of prayer for all men. Pray about everything, he's telling us. Pray for everyone you meet. I started doing this in part whenever I remember to do so, especially when I'm on the treadmill, walking on the treadmill, doing my two and a half miles in the morning, praying that I'll make it, feeling sick, getting really hungry. Pray for everybody in the place. I did, I went right down the line and go, Lord, for that guy right there, whatever it is he needs, for this lady, for that, salvation, help, healing, whatever it is. Do what you need to do. Do what you can only, only you can do for them. Pray about everything. Pray for everyone you meet, greet. So who should you pray for according to this passage? Who? Everybody. Wow, that's a tall order, isn't it? And what should you pray for? Everything. Everybody and everything. When should you pray? All the time. We're to stay engaged all the time with the Lord in prayer. When you know what to do, pray and thank God for the knowledge and wisdom that you have, clear direction in your life, and when you don't know what to do, pray and ask for wisdom, and God will grant it. every time. He always does. According to James 1.5, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all generously. Gives what? Wisdom to all generously, abundantly, and without reproach, without finding fault. And it will be given to him. Next, he says, pray all of these prayers for kings. Also, that's basiluo, basiluan for kings, plural, and all those in huperoque, which is rulership positions, for kings and for all of those in rulership positions, positions of authority. That is, so that you may live a life that we might live a life of quiet, quietness, and calmness in all godliness. which is being devoted to the Lord, to the glory of God by grace, that's godliness, usabae, and honor or dignity. We have semnotes, which is honor or dignity. Our prayers for government officials are key to having a peaceful environment so that we might learn and live out the Word of God, to ensure freedom and justice, tolerance and access to all, for the free reign of the Good News, both at home and abroad, throughout the world, without government interference. Not by political activism, trying to change things by political activism. That never works. It only invites opposition and persecution. But by prayer, an answer to which God makes it happen, always. It says here, do it, and God will make it work. God will make it happen. You can't. He will. He can't. He alone can't. Verse 3 says then, he says, this is good. kalon, the general word for good, good in the sight of God and the sight of man, and it is apodectos, which is acceptable in the sight of Our Savior, God our Savior, he uses the term here in the title, God our Savior, the God and Savior of us. This is what he wants us to know and to do as we seek him. We're not seeking people, not finding our solutions with men, or human solutions, which aren't solutions at all, but divine solutions, which are the only true solutions. That is to take heed to the Word of God and to derive wisdom. Not the wisdom of man, the wisdom from beneath, but the wisdom that is from above. And James 2.15 following. And trusting in God's promises, not trusting in the empty promises, prospects of human agencies or institutions. We don't trust in man. Cursed is the man who trusts in man, makes flesh his arm. You can't even trust yourself. not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He, that's Christ, and He will make your path straight. Next it says, who desires all men, it's a well-known verse, has so much in it. It's one of those summary verses, and one that is a maxim of the Christian spiritual life, an important principle of spiritual life. God desires, the desired will of God is in view here, all men to be saved. He desires all men to be saved. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to a change of thinking, a decision regarding Christ. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He desires all men to be saved, and then after salvation to come to epinosis aletheia. That means a full spiritual and comprehensive full spiritual knowledge of useful workable knowledge, skilled application and knowledge of the truth of the Word of God, that is, apprehended, assimilated, and applied. That's triple A, the triple A of the word. Appropriated, apprehended, assimilated, applied the Word of God so that you might have a growing inventory of faith filling and spilling into hope filling and spilling into love from the well of faith to the tributaries of hope into the raging river of love faith hope and love these three abide faith hope and love There's nothing else, nothing more important, nothing more summary than faith, hope, and love. These three abide. Nothing else abides. Nothing else remains. Nothing else continues but faith, hope, and love. Faith is the apprehension of the Word of God. Hope is the metabolization or assimilation of the Word of God. And love is the application of God's Word. Faith, hope, and love. It's all about the Word. And who's the Word? Christ is the Word. Spend time with the Word. That's what he's telling you. Spend time with the Word. Not in it, with it. With Him. Spend time with the Word. Spend time with Christ. Your life will be so good if you do, and it will lack something. You'll be missing something so key, essential, if you don't. You say, well, how do you do that? He's not even around. Though we do not see him. Yet, we love Him, and though we do not see Him now, in believing in Him, we rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. Is that your experience? Every day? All day long? Be honest. It's not God. It's you. And so you admit it. Confess it. You forsake it. Do what's right in the sight of God. Every single day, get in the Word. You say, some days I just don't feel like it. I never feel like it, do you? Not when I get up. I don't feel like doing that. Who feels like doing that? But you do it, and guess what? Just a matter of minutes, soon as the caffeine gets into the bloodstream a little bit and starts turning and then all of a sudden you get interested in something and you go from this passage to another one, you go, oh, then you look up and an hour's gone. Or two or three or whatever it is, whatever time you've allotted. It's a wonderful way to live. and you're spending time with the Word. He's first in your schedule. He desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Who? God? Yes. All men desires to save That is, and unto full knowledge, that's what it says in the original Greek, full knowledge of truth to come. You want you to come to a full knowledge of the truth. This conforms to rather than opposes optimal wish or desired will of God, who seeks our cooperation, non-interference with that which He alone can bring about. That is, unless we resist Him. Because you can resist Him, you know. Or unless you interfere. Let other things interfere, like those mobile devices. It's called, I listened to a message yesterday called, The Idolatry of, I'm trying to think of what it's called, The Idolatry of Distraction. Wow, it's a good one. You can look it up on Sermon Audio. Write it down. The idolatry, this guy's good. He nailed it. How much time how many touches those things get. I'm not talking about if you use it for business. I'm talking about just in the everyday life, the idolatry of being totally distracted by technology. Oh, it's so wrong. I want to pitch that thing as far away from me as I can. I'm thankful for it, in one sense, because it does connect you to things and, you know, and there are features of safety and security with them and other things in communication when you want to communicate with somebody. It's very convenient. There's so many negative things, too, that tend and are used by the God of this world to carry people, to sweep people away from the Lord and from His Word. Especially if you're under, like, the age of 30. Now it's even gone way beyond that. It's up to the age of 50, probably. In the 70s, you still have a flip phone. Right, Dan? My son has a flip phone. He won't get one. He's smarter than us. You want a smartphone? An iPhone? iPhone. So you can worship your God, the Trinity. Me, myself, and I on the iPhone. Be distracted. Worship the idols of distraction. Anyway, that's enough of that. But that's true. Think about it. How our lives have changed in the last 10 years, especially. Yikes. 10 to 12 years, whenever iPhones came in. Androids and iPhones. The Blackberries weren't even that bad, but these are. The iPhones and the Androids are bad with regard to those things. So anyway, God cannot and will not override man's decisions. You know that, don't you? Though he can certainly change man's mind and apply pressure and influence, and turn him around in ways that only he can. If that were not true, we would all go our own way and be destroyed. But thanks be to God that he turned us. Jeremiah 17, 13, O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away on earth will be written down. because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the Lord. Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed. Save me, O Lord, and I will be saved, for you are my praise. Turn me, and I shall indeed be turned. Look, they keep saying to me, where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now. But as for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after you, nor have I longed for the woeful day. You yourself know that the utterance of my lips was in your presence. Do not be a terror to me. You are my refuge in the day of disaster. Let those who persecute me be put to shame. But as for me, let me not be put to shame. Let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed. Bring on them a day of disaster, and crush them with twofold destruction. Thus the Lord said to me, that's physical and spiritual destruction, go and stand in the public gate through which the kings of Judah come in and out, as well as in all the gates of Jerusalem, and say to them, listen to the word of the Lord, kings of Judah. and all Judah and all inhabitants of Jerusalem who come in through these gates. Thus says the Lord, take heed for yourselves and do not carry any load. on the Sabbath day or bring anything through the gates of Jerusalem. What he's talking about is devote yourself to the Lord and not to all the enterprise of your everyday life. And he goes on to say many more things about it. He says, I will kindle, as a result, the fire in its gates. It will devour the palaces of Jerusalem and will not be quenched. And that's what happened in the days of Jeremiah. Now back to our passage in verse 5. He says, "...for God desires all men to be saved, and after salvation to come to a full understanding and knowledge of the truth, to go from faith to hope, from hope to love, faith, hope, and love. These three abide." He says then, "...one, for there's one God." One God! I told you, there's only one God! I hope you have been catching on to this to some degree. I've been spoon-feeding, or feeding with an eyedropper, the concept that when you see Jesus, He's 100% God, Father, Son, and Spirit. When you see the Holy Spirit, He's 100% God, Father, Son, and Spirit. When you see God the Father, He's 100% Father, Son, and Spirit. Not one-third, 100%. So there's only one God. manifest or subsisting in three distinct persons for the purpose of revealing himself to our humanity, the weakness of our humanity. That's why, that's the only reason. It will not be that way for eternity. You will see God, one God, for indeed He is one God, in three persons. Can you get it? One. He's not a three-leaf clover, where you have the Father, Son, and Spirit, and you remove one, and there's two leaves, just the Father and the Spirit, or just one, just the Father, or just the Spirit, or just the Son. No. All three, and every time that they're in view is all three, the Father, Son, and Spirit in fullness. He's God. Jesus is God. The Spirit is God. The Father is God. So, there's one God. and one Mediator. This confirms those truths entirely. One God and one Mediator. He's one God, but he's also, there's also one Mediator between God and man. He's Messiotis, Messites, he's Mediator, Jesus is Mediator, equal to both parties in the Mediation, mediating a settlement between God and man. and reconciling God and man, stretching out his arms upon the cross, taking man by one hand and God by the other, and bringing them together, crying out, Eloi, God. Eloi, God, why have you forsaken me? Eloi, God, God, God, God, why have you forsaken me? For the sake of man, to reconcile God and man. Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, my God, my God, my God, the Father, my God, the Spirit, why have you forsaken me, God, the Son? What a scene, it's hard to even look upon it and not die. See God, not die. For we have died, and our life is it with Christ in God. Isn't it good to be dead? In that way, crucified to the world, by looking at the cross, crucified to the world, and the world being crucified to us. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life I live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Since then you've been raised with Christ. Set your mind on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, not upon things that are on the earth. For you died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. You think that's true? God said it must be. Now go and learn what that means. Jesus said that often. You have to go and learn what it means. Somebody can't tell you what it means. It won't mean anything to you unless you go and learn what it means. He'll show you what it means. He'll take you on this journey, this amazing journey, adventure, and show you what it means. Have you been on the adventure? Have you been on the tour? I hope so. More than once. So anyway, one God, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Follow Him carefully. This is what we're to do. Follow Christ carefully, talk to Christ continually, listen to Him attentively, and trust Him implicitly. I'll say it again. follow him carefully talk to him continually listen to him attentively and trust him implicitly there's a refrigerator saying for you I'm sure I put that on my I wrote this down for myself and I'll put it on I'm gonna put it on my refrigerator Susie remind me to put it on the refrigerator okay follow him carefully talk to him continually listen to him attentively and trust him implicitly Christ is God and man in every way, fully both. That's what it means that he's mediator between God and men. You can't understand anybody. I mean, you can't understand Christ in the flesh. That is with the fleshly mind. You can only understand him by the Word of God and through the Spirit of God. He knows both sides equally as well. fully experienced as God, fully experienced as man. He knows what God requires, what man desires, and he's the only one that could get it done. And he did it. He finished the work of redemption for us. He became a curse for us. This stands written, cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree. Verse six, and it says, who gave himself as an offering, a sacrifice, or a ransom." It's anti-Lutron, which means all of those. An offering, a sacrifice, or a ransom. Then it says, "'Huper'," he sent the Uber to get you. That is, above all. A ransom above all, for all. That is called the Marturion, or the testimony. of the same time, that is, given at the proper time, literally, but it actually means it's idios, which is the same, or the testimony, marturion, kairos, to the time, and then idios, which is same, to the same time, or at the proper time, given at the proper time, the time, place, And the revelation of God in this era that we live in, the finished work side of human history, after Christ had offered himself on the cross, laid down his life for the sheep, and God raised him from the dead by the power and glory of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans 1, 3, and 4. and now is seated at the right hand of the Father, and we are seated together with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In Ephesians 1, 6 and 2, 6. The time, the place, the payment has been made, and the work is finished. He paid the price, bore the burden, carried the load, bore in his body our sins to the wood. the tree in 1st Peter 2 24 he's done it all verse 7 for this Paul says this message for this message I was chosen I was appointed a preacher and an apostle that is a to speak the truth, and I lie not," he said, I'm not lying, a teacher of the nations, that is the Gentiles, in faith and in truth. He uses the word aletheia again, as he did in verse 4. He said, pistis, piste, pistis aletheia, faith in the truth. I could preach it all day and all night, never tire of the task. The message of God's great love and mercy carried out by Jesus, our loving Lord and Savior. That's what Paul's saying. I say the same thing. So listen up and take heed to the Word of the Lord. Change your mind. If necessary, repent in sackcloth and ashes. Drop your knees, fall on your face, weep and mourn for yourself and for your loved ones, lest you be swept away with the wicked. Humble yourself beneath the mighty hand of God. In James 4, 6, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble believer. Submit, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he'll draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Aren't you supposed to be giddy all the time? No. This is serious business. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and He will raise you up, exalt you. Then he goes next, he says, therefore, he goes back to the theme of praying for everybody all the time and for everything, not for something sometimes, but for everything all the time. Your mind is an open book before the Lord and you just pour everything out to him in prayer and communication, verbal and nonverbal. That is, in your words and in no words. The Spirit's words. Who makes intercession for us according to the will of God. In groanings that can't be uttered. In Romans 8, 26. Therefore I want men in every place to pray. Lifting up holy hands. You can do that, you know. Lift up holy hands. Not when you're in church, in public, talking about in private. when you go into your bedroom and you open the door of the closet and you get inside and you sit on the floor to pray. That's where real praying happens. You know, Jesus said that. He said, it's not the prayers where the Pharisees go on the street corners and lift up their hands and their voices and give these flowery prayers. Those aren't prayers. Prayers occur in your cupboard, your closet. privately in your bedroom where nobody else is around set aside a little bit of time or wherever else you can go that's very private set aside a little bit of time to pray you won't be sorry you did you'll be glad you did because it'll be wonderful and productive for the fervent effectual prayers of a righteous man avail much We're learning that all the time, more and more, aren't we? Those of us who pray on Tuesday night are seeing things happen, seeing things happen. Some of you are here today and have continued here, and some of you are well today instead of sick in the hospital. Why? Because we prayed for you and the Lord intervened in your life. You don't think it's true? Of course it is. That's probably why I'm here, why I still have something to say after all these years. Because I'll tell you what, you can shoot your wad in this place and position and have nothing left. But God gives you some things, even in your diminished and i'm serious your diminished capacity because as you get older your capacity is diminished it is diminished my capacity has become diminished so now all i have is to lean and trust in the lord and then i'll be fine i think you'll tell me when it's not and some of you probably are ready to do that but you have diminished capacity with age. In these bodies, we're good at groaning, but as far as our ability to grow and learn, it is slowed to some degree. And so we have to depend on God more than we ever have before in our old age, which we'll do, which we fully intend to do. So, he gives grace to the humble, and he exalts the humble believer. So, here he says, therefore, verse 8, Where's Timothy 2.8? Therefore I want the men in every place to pray. He does use the men here. He said the men pray, women pray, tend to pray more than men do, I guess. So he says I want the men to pray. In every place, every church, I want the men to pray. So men, come on, pray! Come to our prayer meeting and pray with us. Does that mean that you have to pray in corporate prayer? No, but you can, and it'll help, and you should, and we wish you would come and pray. We'd always have the same three guys and the same three girls. three guys three girls we want to have all the men we want to have men in our prayer meetings not only women but men see let's see how many men do we have in our church here today more men than women you know that's unusual in any church to have more men than women wonder why that is because Christ the man Christ Jesus is the right man for every man he's a man's man and he's the right man for every woman that's why We're all drawn to Him. Maybe in a little different way for a little different reason, but He is everything that we need and everything we need Him to be as men and women. Here He says, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, with wrath, without wrath, not with wrath, without wrath, and dissension. He wants men to pray individually and together. Those who pray together do not contend ever. That's a principle. Those who pray together stay together. They used to say the family that prays together stays together. That's not what I'm saying. But I'm saying those who pray together don't contend with one another. They don't fuss or fume. They don't say, put them up in contending or struggling or competing with other men. Rather, they lift them up to God, empty as they are, and present themselves empty before God so that he might fill them. Psalm 134.2, lift up your hands to the sanctuary bless the Lord. Proverbs 15, 8, the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight. Don't you want to be delight? Don't you want the Lord to delight in you? James 4, 8, draw near to God, he'll draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, purify your hearts. Verse 9, 1 Timothy 2, 9, likewise That was for men. He wants men to pray. Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with pink purses, purple Bible covers, fancy jewelry. I'm kidding. That's not the spirit of these things. He says, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing. modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly garments." So in the church he wants men to pray and women to dress right. The church is not a palladium, a business center, a boardroom, or a gymnasium. Neither is it a beauty pageant for ladies. In other words, it's not for contest between men, and it's not for beauty pageants for ladies, so that one might outdress another, or that ladies would dress. outdress each other or one another. This evidently was happening in the early church, even as it does in some churches today. You go to some churches, you won't even believe it. Man, they're decked out. Really decked out. Some ladies need to dress down a bit. where outward apparel is concerned, and dress up a bit inwardly with good deeds, which he talks about next, done for others from inner beauty, which is conferred, and virtue conferred by the Holy Spirit. You know the verse for this. What verse would that be? Oh, Proverbs 31, yeah. I love Proverbs 31. It's lovely. He says, Many are beautiful, excel beautiful, but an excellent wife who can find. Her worth is far above jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her and he will have no lack of gain. I'm so privileged to have this in my life, my wife. She does him good. Make me weep. She does him good and not evil. All the days of her life. She looks for wool and flax and works with her hands in delight. She's like a merchant ship. She brings her food from afar. She arises also while it's still night, gives food to her household, portions to her maidens. She considers a field. and buys it from the earnings, and from her earnings, her own earnings, she plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength. We're going to get down on women in a minute, but we're going to build them up first. And makes her arms strong. Sweeper muscles, we call them. She senses that her gain is good. Her lamp does not go out at night. She stretches out her hands to the dista, and her hands grasp the spindle. She's going to spin weave material, fabric. She extends her hand to the poor. She stretches out her hands to the needy. She's not afraid of the snow for her household. For all her household are clothed with scarlet. She makes coverings for herself. Her clothing is fine linen and purple. I think of my kids when they were little, how my wife took care of them and dressed them. how they always looked so sweet, so nice, and so clean. And then I think of people like Astrid Buckley with her girls when they were growing up, their kids, you know, having five kids, and they were all so just beautiful. And these are virtuous women that do these things. And I don't know the rest of you. I never saw the rest of your kids. I don't have any idea what you did. Maybe they're filthy. But they're full of the Word of God, so that's good. Inside not. That's not just the outward, that's for sure. That's just a symptom of a much deeper truth of reality. So, it says then that she makes coverings for herself. Her clothing is fine linen. Doesn't mean she doesn't wear nice clothing, because she does. Fine linen and purple. She's for royalty. Her husband is known in the gates. When he sits among the elders of the land, she makes linen garments and sells them and supplies belts to the tradesmen. Strength and dignity are her clothing. That's a good one. Strength and dignity are her clothing. And she smiles at the future. She opens her mouth in wisdom. And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her husband does, but she doesn't. He's like Paul Kettle. Ma does all the work, he sits on the porch. We can resemble, some of us resemble those remarks, don't we? It says that her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also, and he praises her saying, many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all. charm is deceitful beauty is vain but a woman who fears the Lord she shall be praised give her the product of her hands and let her works praise her in the gates so that's ladies I got y'all build up now to the church concern consisting of men and women boys and girls old and young alike This is the code of conduct becoming the glorious gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as instruction to pastors and teachers, to Timothy, the prototype pastor-teacher, and to all pastors and teachers over the course of the age of the Spirit, the age of grace, the age of the Church. which is the hidden valley between the two mountain peaks of prophecy and the Mystery Age, not seen or known before, hidden from men and angels from ages and generations past, revealed to Paul in the third heaven, and placed into 13 letters, personal letters or epistles, to all believers for the remainder of church history. He's telling us to let the church, make the church a place of honor and dignity in every way. Then he says in verse 10, but rather, by means of good works, as is proper for women, making a claim to godliness. And he says, a woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. Now this is getting into some detailed stuff here and what happens and why these things are said, which are very important for all of us to understand. He's not subjugating women in any way. He says that a woman must receive instruction with entire submissiveness. Submissiveness here is the word, esuchia, which means quietness, like one who stays busy at home, that's what it refers to, minding the affairs of their own home and life and not busybodying or getting involved in the lives of other people as such. Not putting your nose where it doesn't belong. Where learning the word is concerned, she must apply it to herself. not in judging or critiquing others, lest she become a hindrance or an obstacle to others in the local assembly." She's to learn in all submissiveness, which is hupotage or hupotasso. She's to be under the authority of the Lord, and as a married woman, under the authority of her husband. Then he says this. He says, "'But to teach a woman I do not permit, or to rule a man, rather to be in, once again, quietness, which is a sukhya. And that is because, and I'll explain it to you briefly, and we'll touch on it again later, women are natural teachers. You know that, right? They teach children. They're geared and equipped, women are, to teach. They're compassionate and very nurturing. They're very good students. I remember how smart the girls were when I was in high school and how dumb we were. They were really smart, good students. They all got A's, and we got B's, C's, D's, and F's. In school, they didn't. They were good students. And they excelled in academics. and in many cases were very, very good speakers or articulate communicators. Mothers teach children, both boys and girls, almost everything they learn and know. Fathers are often too busy earning a living or evading their parental role or responsibility, gladly handing off the ball to their wives. That happens very frequently, quite frequently, too frequently. There are far more women schoolteachers than there are men, even to this day, far more schoolteachers that are women than are men. But where leadership and teaching authority in the church is concerned, the requirement is a spiritual appointment, a supernatural endowment, and a spiritual gift—not natural, but spiritual. which is given to men only for that purpose, for that very purpose, because they're not natural teachers, and given to men only who God chooses and uses despite their weakness, and by His grace to glorify Christ. There are some women who, if allowed to do so, will take over and run the show. And that's exactly what it'll be. It'll be a show. And because of her inherent weakness, which she denies having, she'll be led astray. That is, her inherent weakness to be deceived, or her propensity to be deceived, will be misled, and... also those who follow her or who listen or take heed to what she says. Otherwise, there are women, as there were in Corinth and some of the other churches, that would disrupt every teaching session with questions that they would ask out loud. They would interrupt the speaker. Paul tells them to be quiet and ask their questions to their husbands at home. And if a woman, for example, is contentious, as we're told about in Proverbs and elsewhere, as some are, she will insist on being heard, on giving her opinion, speaking her mind, making her objections known. Women are very smart and intuitive, but they are also oriented to the natural, the physical, and oftentimes the superficial, and are typically emotional and often hypersensitive which is detrimental to spiritual understanding and learning. Therefore, a woman must humble herself and learn in silence, and the Lord, without any gender bias, will exalt her as He does one and all who submit to Him." We already learned that earlier on. Therefore, a woman must humble herself and learn in silence, and the Lord, without any gender bias, will exalt her." He does every single time. Men have their weaknesses and deficiencies also, but they are not the same ones that are natural to a woman. Therefore, both men and women are called to a supernatural life of spiritual learning, for the complete renovation of the mind unto the eventual manifestation and magnification of one Christ. Christ is first. To this end, the Father predestinated one and all. We'll finish up with this in Romans 8.29. He says, Romans 8.29 says, for those whom he foreknew, that's all of us who are believers in Christ, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son. So that he would be, technical word, prototokos, firstborn. among many brethren." Prototokos means first, and ticto, that's prototokos. Ticto means born. It means born first. Jesus was the first spiritual man. You have to understand what it means. He was the prototype spiritual man, the theanthropic man, which means he was God-man in one person, to two essential portions of his humanity, fully human and fully divine at the same time. Likewise, God and man. Entirely God, and at the same time, entirely man. You say, how does that occur? We don't know. It's just told and declared by the Word of God. And therefore, we must come to understand and believe it spiritually. How could that be? Well, it's just as God says it is. So we accept that, and then we come to understand it over the course of time and through the Word of God, driving the truth deeply into our souls. and giving us a capacity to understand spiritual things and to know them as well as we know academic things or the things that we see and can touch, taste, smell, and hear. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Then, so that's Romans 8.29, be conformed into the image of God's Son. Jesus is the first spiritual man. He's the first one. And then everyone else is born again after or in his likeness, in his image and likeness. Then he says, back to our passage in verse 13, he says, for Adam was first. He was formed first, and then Eve. This is order in the church, order in humanity, order in the realm of mankind, but order in the church. First was Adam. He was formed first, and then Eve. Being first is a position of honor and a position of responsibility. God honors, always honors in the Scriptures, the firstborn, the firstfruits. The first one to open the womb is the Lord. It's dedicated to the Lord. And the firstborn is to lead, not to follow, and to represent the rest as an atonement for the rest, if needs be. and to teach the rest, to represent the rest, responsible for the rest, and to teach the rest, and to have control of, for example, the heritage or family fortune. Christ is called here the firstborn. As such, he is first the archetypal man. In other words, in his deity before he was humanity, he appeared. He was the only one that had an appearance. And that appearance is the image that man was created in, not the other way around. He didn't come into the image of man. Man was made in the image of Christ. And then Christ became a man. He laid aside the prerogatives of his deity and put on humanity, and came and submitted himself to God the Father as his equal, and did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but laid down his life. And God has highly exalted him and given him a name that's above every other name and royal title, so that the name of Jesus every knee will bow. He's first. Christ is called firstborn. As such, he's the archetypal man. Likewise, he's the first spiritual man. Has God indwelling him. The first one to have God indwelling him. Moreover, the one and only virgin-born man, as such the first sinless man, as God bypassed a human father in the transmission of spiritual death with its nature of sin for the humanity of Christ. Also, and most importantly, the firstborn prototachos from among the dead, the first deathless human. the primogenitor of a new spiritual species of humanity in 2nd Corinthians 5 17 by a new birth resulting in a new life one that is eternal it cannot be diminished in any way the gift of eternal life then it says in verse 14 well we might as well finish it we only got five minutes And it was not Adam who was deceived. He says, Adam was formed first, and then Eve. And it was not Adam that was deceived, but the woman, being deceived, fell into transgression. It says, and Adam was not apata'o. He was not deceived. But the woman, gune, having been quite deceived, it's ex-apata'o. It means having been hoodwinked, or fully deceived, or quite deceived, in her transgression. He says, became fully engaged, ginomai, or became a transgressor, fully engaged in her deception, having been quite deceived, ex apetato. Women are prone to deception, men to willfulness and rebellion. Let me say that again. Women are prone to deception, and men to willfulness and rebellion. Men are deceivers. Women get deceived. Generally speaking, there are some, of course, that push the envelope either way. But generally speaking, I never met a woman I couldn't deceive. Lie to you you believe me. I'm good at it. I'm good liar, and you're easy to deceive So go figure This is first seen in the garden and it passed along in a long line of sisterhood That goes all the way through womankind men lie to women and You know why? Because women are very hard to deal with and they're so easy to deceive. That's why they do. That's why we lie to you. Because you're hard to deal with and because you're easy to deceive. Women are always right in their own mind and almost never say they're sorry, although sometimes they do. It's precious when they do. Oh, this is going to only be men. Ladies, don't come anymore. We love you so, but learn in silence. I forbid anyone to speak to me, any woman to speak to me. No, I'm kidding. That's not what Paul said. That's all right. Do you think they liked Paul? No. They said, Paul, that's just not right. Anyway, they almost never say they're sorry because they never think they did or do or say anything wrong. when we know as men that almost everything we do is wrong, almost everything we say is wrong, and we come to admit it eventually to ourselves and even to others sometimes. But it's just a general profile of men and women. But women, he says next, this is hard too. He says women will be preserved, saved, which means preserved, through the bearing of children. if they continue in faith. It's the same for men, if they continue in faith. And love and sanctity with self-restraint. She'll be saved through the bearing of children. We have here, we have technogonia. Technogonia, which means the bearing of children. Then it says, if she, meno, continues in faith, that is in the word of God and love, and in holiness, along with modest living. But by marrying and bearing and raising children, A woman will find fulfillment, and along—that doesn't mean that's the only way you can find it, because some aren't meant to be married or will never find any satisfaction in marriage—or with a partner. But the Lord will be like the woman at the well. She had five husbands. And the sixth one she was living with was not her husband. She could not find fulfillment in a man. And apart from Christ, you don't find fulfillment in any man or woman. I told you, he's the right man for every woman and the right man for every man. He's a man's man and a woman's man. But by marrying, bearing, and raising children, she finds fulfillment along with the continual intake and digestion of the Word. In Romans 10, 17, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word, and love, 1 John 2, 5, she will escape the emptiness that drives a woman to bad behavior or promiscuity. When she meets Christ, as the woman at the well did on that fated day when he had to go through Samaria, she will never again need to stray or seek another for her fulfillment or happiness. That's just a fact, and the same for men. But until she does, she'll keep on looking for love in all the wrong places and all the wrong faces. Here, this salvation is preservation and stability with contentment, with holiness, that is, devotion to Christ, filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with Holy Scripture, and by the word, richly indwelling the heart, wise thinking, or modest living, godliness with contentment, which is great gain," in 1 Timothy 6. A woman without the Word, without a husband, without children, can be, apart from the Word and the Lord, a wild and terrifying beast, as can a man. One without restraints, with uncontrolled desires, can ruin the lives of many people. Proverbs has a lot to say about that. Can ruin marriages, families, churches, nations, like Jezebel in Israel, organizations, companies, even great music acts like the Beatles, like Yoko Ono did. We're done. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the Word of God. Thank you for these things, some things that are silly but memorable because they are, and other things that are very grave, very important. For men and for women, there's no difference. There's no distinction between men and women, male or female, slave or free. All of us the same thing, the same opportunity, equal opportunity, equal privilege and opportunity to get the Word in our soul and be filled with the Holy Spirit continuously. Let the word of Christ richly indwell our hearts unto all wisdom and knowledge and discernment. We thank you for the great privilege that is ours. If I could have Vicki please end. May I ask your father to bless the offering in Jesus' holy and precious name, in whose name we gather and give in Jesus' name, amen. We could all stand.