1 Corinthians: "Shame"

Now, just a little change from maybe what we've been doing. I'm gonna ask you to turn to the Old Testament for one or two verses. There is another book in the Bible besides 1st Corinthians.

We'll turn to Genesis. Genesis and chapter 2. Just read the very last verse of Genesis chapter 2 together, referring of course to Adam and his wife. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Now, keeping that in mind, look in the book of Exodus and chapter 32. You are all familiar with the story. The children of Israel have made a calf and have bowed down and worshipped it.

And Moses is up upon the mountain with God and Moses is told to descend. And just for one verse, verse 25, And when Moses saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies. Now, I've just read those two verses to underline what is going to help us understand what Paul is going to be dealing with in his epistle.

Prior to sin coming into the world, there was no shame. Shame did not exist prior to sin. And what we find then as we compare the absence of shame in Genesis with the presence of shame in Exodus, we find this that shame is the result of exposure.

Now, if you think of that, that is a fairly obvious thing. When are you embarrassed? When do you feel shame? It's when something you've done is exposed. Of course, here the context especially is the exposure of their flesh and literal exposure of flesh.

But I think what we will learn as we look at how Paul uses this word shame in his epistle, we will see that it highlights on each occasion the exposure of the flesh as it was being displayed. Not the literal flesh, but the principle of flesh at work, the sinful nature of man at work in the church at Corinth and all of its effects upon the testimony there. So turn now to 1 Corinthians again, and we'll begin at chapter 4. They have been accusing Paul and criticizing him and trying to humiliate him.

And in verse 14 of chapter 4, he says, I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons, I warn you. For though ye have ten thousand instructors or teachers in Christ, yet have you not many fathers? For in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel. Wherefore, I beseech you, be followers of me.

Look at chapter 6. Brother is going to law against brother. And in verse 5, Paul says, I speak to your shame. Is it that there is not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren.

But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before unbelievers. Now, therefore, there is utterly, or altogether, or already a fault among you, because you go to law one with another. Chapter 11 and verse number 6. For if a woman be not covered, let her also be shorn.

But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. Look down the chapter. Verse number 22.

What, have you not houses to eat and drink in, or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. Chapter 14 and verse number 34. Read verse number 33.

God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. Let your women keep silence in the churches. It is not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.

And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is a shame for a woman to speak in church. What, came the word of God out from you, or came it unto you only? If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.

But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. Chapter 15, for one final verse here in Corinthians and verse number 33. Be not deceived.

Evil communications, that was the false, the wrong teaching they were getting. Evil communications corrupt good manners. In other words, what they taught was eventually going to affect how they lived.

Awake to righteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. Now, in keeping with what will be the majority of our ministry, turn to Paul's letter to Timothy, 1st epistle to Timothy in chapter 2. 1st Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 1, I exhort therefore that first of all, 1st Timothy chapter 2 verse number 1, I exhort therefore that first of all supplication, prayers, intercessions, giving of thanks be made for all men.

For kings, for all that are in authority that may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Verse 8, I will therefore that men, the males pray everywhere, and that phrase everywhere is every assembly, and I can show that if you wish, as time permits, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. And like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shame-facedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works.

Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the male, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. Now, I'm sure that God will add his rich blessing to the reading of these very familiar portions of the Word of God. Now, first of all, maybe just a little confession, if it's a confession.

I have tried to outline in these meetings the frequent recurring expressions that Paul uses, and when we come to this word shame, in all honesty, Paul is using different words in the original language. So if you were to get out your vines or get out your strongs and begin looking up these words, you would find that there are different shades of meaning in the original language as compared to what we think of when we think of shame in our English language and what we have written here in our authorized version. But I still think it is going to convey to us in each of these occasions that Paul is going to expose something about the principle of flesh as it works and as it is allowed to work in the lives of believers.

Let me just give you again some brief headings and then, as time permits, we'll look at two or three of them, hopefully to profit. In chapter 4, there is the shame of ingratitude. The man that brought them the gospel, the man that saw them saved, the man that saw the assembly planted, the man that labored literally at the great risk of his life, there was the shame of ingratitude.

They didn't appreciate Paul. When we come to chapter 6, it's not the shame of ingratitude so much as the shame of inadequacy. He says, is there not a wise man? With all your gift, with all of your professed knowledge, with all that you claim about yourselves, isn't there a wise man there that could settle this matter? Is there something lacking in the assembly? The shame of their inadequacy.

When we come to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, where he is referring to the principle of headship in the assembly, the covered head of the woman and the uncovered head of the man, it is the shame of inconsistency. If you are a woman, here is how you should look. And to look in some other way, to act in some other way, is totally inconsistent with the place God has given you in his assembly.

The shame of inconsistency. You come down that chapter and read of the disorder, the chaos that was present at the Lord's Supper, it changes now to the shame of inconsiderateness. They were despising those that have not.

The have-nots. The haves and the have-nots. The rich and the poor, the well-to-do and the commoner.

And they were despising, they were looking down their noses and shaming them that did not have. The shame of their inconsideration. When you come to chapter 14 and the place of the sister in her silent subjection in the assembly, the shame of indecency.

Doth-not. He says, if it be a shame, it is a shame for a woman to speak, to take the wrong place. The shame of indecency.

And when you come to chapter 15, relative to the wrong teaching of the resurrection, the shame of their ignorance. Now let me just go back over those for a moment and just highlight for you what I see in each case. When I think of the shame of their ingratitude, I am struck with this, the baseness of the flesh.

How base we can be. That we can show ingratitude towards those who have labored, sacrificed, risk their lives, known tremendous loss to bring us blessing. Whether you want to think of those that have come with the gospel, whether you want to think of those who have shepherded God's assembly, whether you want to think of those who are your parents who have sacrificed.

In human flesh, in human nature, there is this tendency, the baseness of the flesh, to show ingratitude. Believers should never be marked by that. They should be marked by thankful spirits, thankful for parents, thankful for shepherds, thankful for evangelists, thankful for teachers, thankful for those who have left us a rich heritage of divine truth to enjoy and to live in the good of.

The baseness of their ingratitude. When I come to chapter 6, it's not now the baseness of the flesh, but it's the barrenness of the flesh. That the flesh could not produce spiritual wisdom.

There were men there that were educated, men there that were wise in human things, men there that were great as far as human standing was concerned, men there that were clever, men there that were gifted. But when all is said and done, human flesh, human nature could not produce a man with wisdom to meet the need of the people of God. So not now the baseness, but the barrenness of human flesh.

When I come to chapter 11 and the inconsistency there of the sister being out of her place, I'm reminded of how bankrupt the human flesh can be, human nature can be in its ways. And when I think of the rich despising the poor and shaming them, putting them to shame, I'm reminded of the bitterness of the flesh, how bitter it can be and how it treats another believer. How tragic that sometimes, sometimes believers can be so cruel one to another.

And we sometimes do it, claiming that it's being spiritual. The bitterness of human flesh and how it can sometimes treat others. When we come to chapter 14, the truth there is the blight of the flesh that is exposed that there is within the human breast.

And that was one of the great problems at Corinth, rivalry, rivalry of gifted men with each other, rivalry of leaders with each other, rivalry of women against men. There was this blight of the human flesh that he's exposing, that competitive spirit that wants to be on top, that wants to be ahead, that wants to be recognized. And he exposes it there in chapter 14.

And when you come to chapter 15, finally, and their ignorance relative to resurrection, it is the blindness of the human flesh that cannot appreciate spiritual things. Now, let me just come then in the moments we have. And I want to talk to you first of all, from chapter 6, about the shame of their inadequacy.

Is there not a wise man among you? Here was an assembly. If we went back to chapter 1, and you can look at it yourself, Paul says in chapter 1 as he introduces his message to the church, he says, you come behind in no thing. He says, you are enriched in all wisdom and utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.

They were full of gift. Talk about an assembly with gifted men. Talk about an assembly of men who could, you know, they could roll out of bed and preach.

They had no difficulty. They were gifted men. They were able to speak, and they were able to preach away.

And they had all types of gifts. So, if you just read chapter 1, you think, boy, this is an assembly that lacks nothing. Come to chapter 6, you find it's an assembly that was lacking desperately.

So, there was a tremendous lack. I want you to notice what was lacking, first of all. The first thing that was lacking was light.

They really did not know as much as they thought they knew. He says, don't you know that you're going to judge angels someday? Don't you know that God is preparing you for places of administration in his kingdom someday? Now, he says, if you're going to do that, if God is going to place you in places of administration in a coming day of glory, he says, you mean this little thing you can't solve, you can't deal with? So, they really didn't know as much as they thought they knew. And the truth is, we don't know as much as we think we know.

So, there was a lack of light. But as well, there was a lack of learned men. Is there not a learned man, a wise man among you? One that shall be able to judge between his brethren? So, this is not a lack in terms of education.

This is not a lack in terms even of gift. This is a lack of spiritual knowledge. Do you ever have a phone call from somebody? Would you ever meet a friend at a conference or maybe somebody take you aside at the meeting? And this refers to, this is young people as well because your friends will come to you rather than someone old.

Anyone ever come to you, call you, want to talk to you and they've got a problem? And it's tremendous. You know, they're just overwhelmed with it. And they ask you, what do you think I ought to do? You know, can you give me some help? I just don't know what to do with this situation.

And you don't have a clue where to take them in the word of God. Totally clueless. Now, let me tell you, we've all been there.

We've all experienced it. Some broken heart. Some crushed hopes of someone.

Some shattered dreams, some broken home, whatever it may be. Someone comes with a burden. Someone comes in tears.

And their question is, what do you think God's trying to tell me? What do you think God wants me to do? What can you do to help me? And you don't know where to turn. And I don't know where to turn to give an answer. You know what the problem is? We don't know God.

Oh, I know we know him as savior. We know him as our father, but we don't know God as we ought to. Years ago in a, I guess the closest place to heaven is Northern Ireland, they'd say.

And so this occurred in Northern Ireland at a Bible reading with all the big learned men there, all the giants. And someone asked a question. And one of the giants said, well, I'm not quite sure what to tell you about that question because there really is nothing in the Scriptures which deals with it.

And another man said, would you just allow me to rephrase what you said? He says, what really is the case is we don't know what there is in the Scripture that deals with that issue. You see, this book is absolutely adequate for everything. This book is absolutely sufficient for everything.

If we knew God, there is no condition, no situation, no emergency, no crisis, no difficulty that we would face, that we would not be able to come to this book and find what we need. Now, I don't mean if someone has, like Job, lost their wife and family and children, you just pop in with a verse and that answers it. No.

Obviously, you don't just give one-line answers to life's great tragedies. But if we know God, we'll be able to come to this book and be able to meet whatever need there is. Why was it now? Just think for a moment.

Why was it that that Samaritan, as he journeyed, do you think that it was by accident he happened to have oil and wine on the Jericho road? Do you think that, you know, he just by coincidence that morning happened to pack some oil and wine for his journey down that Jericho road? Isn't it possible that he knew this is a place where I am likely to find someone in need? This is a place I am likely to find someone who may need what I can bring him. And so he had what was needed for the moment. He was thinking ahead that there may be people who have needs.

Do you ever think that there may be some that have needs? Someone gone to assembly that have needs? And now, I don't mean that we should be reading our Bibles and studying our Bibles just for the purpose of getting a verse for someone else or just for the purpose of comforting someone. Paul tells us in the second epistle that we can comfort to the measure we have learned God comforting us. But still, he was a man that was prepared.

Even the perfect servant, when you go to Isaiah chapter 50, he knew how to speak a word in season to him that was weary. Where did he get it? It says, his ear was opened morning by morning to hear as the instructed that he might know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. I want you just to think of what's contained in that little expression.

A word that he might know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. Now, you just, you know, dissect apart the sentence. That he might know how, the manner in which he spoke.

He might know how to speak a word in season. It is what he spoke. And he might know to whom to speak it, to him that is weary.

And he might know when to say it in season. So, you see, there's four things that are critical. It is what I say, it is how I say it, it is to who I say it, and it is when I say it.

Now, you mess up on any one of those four items and you may not have a ministry that is being effective. Oh, you might have the right verse, but you say it in the wrong way. Or like Job's comforters, you say it to the wrong person.

But much of what Job's friends said, if you take it apart and look at it, it's tremendous. There's tremendous truth in what they say. We use it many times in the gospel and we use it in other ways as well.

Much of what Job's friends said was correct. The problem was, it had nothing to do with Job. They were saying it to the wrong person.

And so, a word in season to him that is weary that I might know how to do it. Now, where do you learn that? Where would a learned man arise in the assembly at Corinth? How could a learned person arise in the assembly at Waterloo or the assembly at Stout or Heightsville or all of the assemblies around? How can I be someone to whom God can turn to and say, there's a wise man? Now, this isn't for the sake of, you know, here's a badge, I am a wise man. I hardly can think of a person who I would consider a wise man, to whom I would go for advice, who would come forward to me and say, look, I'm your man, ask me.

Most men would shy away from having to even give advice if they could. But how do we become what we ought to be for God? How do I become a man able to give a word in season? How do I become a Samaritan with the appropriate oil and wine to pour into a wound? How does that come about? Well, the first thing is to get from the word of God, that which is so vital, to learn from the word of God, divine truth. Not just verses that are taken out of context or verses that, you know, are just nice, warm, fuzzy things that you can read when you're feeling down, but to actually learn the word of God.

But then there's something more than learning the word of God. There is the learning of the God of the word. Learning the God of the word.

Now, how do I do that? It's when I take that word of God I have learned and put it into practice in my life and use it in the experiences of life, so that those verses I have learned that are lovely and wonderful, when suddenly I am in a trial, what was theoretical and doctrinal now becomes real. And the word of God, as it's applied to my life day by day, it begins to teach me the God of the word. That's what we need.

Young believers, middle-aged believers, older believers, we all need to be able to come to the word of God and, as a result of being in the word of God, learning the God of the word. Because that's really what we minister one to another. We minister God to one another.

That's why when Paul is in 2 Corinthians, he speaks about the God of all comfort and all consolation. Where did he learn that? He said, the God that comforts me, comforts us in all of our trials. So as Paul learned comfort from God, he learned that God was the God of comfort.

And you can trace those themes throughout the word of God, especially in Paul's epistles, as he reveals that to us. So there was a lack of light. There was a lack of learning.

Tragically, there was a lack of love. There was a lack of love. Brother going to law against brother, and that before unbelievers.

And we see that there was great loss as well. Now, he says in verse 7, already, already there's a default. In other words, listen, before ever the case is decided, before ever the judge brings down his verdict, you're both losers.

That's what he's saying. You are both losers. You have put yourself into a no-win situation by going that direction.

And he says, love would willingly suffer loss for the sake of the testimony of God and for the welfare of another brother. So chapter 6, the shame of their inadequacy. May the Lord preserve us as assemblies from this tremendous exposure of the barrenness of our flesh.

Yes, it can produce nothing of this kind of wisdom. This wisdom comes from knowing God in the experiences of everyday life and learning God day by day in school, university, the dorm, the workplace, the home. God can be learned in every experience of life.

I want you to come to chapter 14, and I want to consider with you the shame of their indecency. Now, it might be helpful just to turn back to chapter 12 for just a minute, since we're close to it. I just want you to read verse number 1 of chapter 12.

Now, concerning spiritual gifts or concerning spirituals, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Now, come back to chapter 14, because I think this will help to put it in focus. Look at verse number 38, chapter 14.

But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant still. Okay? So he begins this section, chapters 12 to 14, with this point. He says, now, I don't want you ignorant.

And now he gives them instruction, doesn't he? Chapters 12, chapter 13, chapter 14. Instruction as to the functioning of gift. Instruction as to the order of an assembly.

If we've had time, looking at chapter 14. Instruction as to how a meeting should be carried out. Chapter 14, who should take part, who should not take part, the place of the women in the assembly, and all that.

He's given all of that instruction relative to spiritual things in the assembly. And now he comes to the end and says, well, now, if you want to reject everything I've said, if you just want to categorically put it aside and say, you know, look, we know the word of God better than you do, Paul. He said, if a person chooses ignorance, then let him be ignorant still.

In other words, here is truth I have given you with a view of you're not being ignorant of what God wants, and if you reject it, then you've chosen to stay in a state of ignorance. So what he's giving here in this section, chapters 12, 13, and 14, bracketed by these two mentions of the dispelling of ignorance and the decision to remain ignorant, he's giving us church truth. He's giving us principles, teaching as to the order of a local assembly, how it functions, how it carries on, and the relative places of the genders in that functioning of an assembly.

So now come then to what we have in verse number 34 of our chapter, and the place of sisters in God's assembly. Let your women keep silence. Now let me first of all just say this, because to our thinking, when we use the word let, we're kind of saying, I'm gonna make a suggestion.

Why don't you let him stay home, or why don't you let that happen, or why don't you let him say that? We use it kind of as a suggestion or as a possibility. In these verses that are before us, Paul uses that word 13 times, let, let, let, let. Every time he uses it, it is a command, not a suggestion.

Those of you who know grammar know it's simply the imperative, rather than the subjunctive, meaning this is what has to be. I am not making suggestions. I am giving the commandments of the Lord.

Let your women keep silence. Let the person who has, who is not able to speak with a known language, speak to himself and not to God and so on. You can trace it through this section, so that on these 13 occasions, Paul is legislating, not suggesting.

So please banish from your mind that Paul is giving us some type of male chauvinistic opinion about the place of women in God's assembly. He is giving us the commandments of the Lord. Let your women keep silence.

Now again, I have to backtrack for a moment, because there are those who would tell us that this word really means that women shouldn't chatter. Now I don't know why it's just women who shouldn't chatter and not men shouldn't chatter. But it's the idea that you shouldn't be whispering to each other and you shouldn't be talking to each other while the meeting is going on.

That it really has nothing to do with women not taking part. It's got to do with women not chattering and gossiping and all the rest. The only difficulty is that if you look back up the chapter in verse number 28, he says, if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence, same word.

And when you come to verse 30, if anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let him keep silence, same word, hold his peace, same word, keep silence. So three times over here, he is enjoining silence upon different people. Silence upon a man who speaks with a tongue that no one understands.

Silence to a man who's speaking and it becomes obvious that someone else has the message from God and not him. He needs to be silent. Silence as well for the women.

So you will then see what we are looking at is neither a matter of opinion or suggestion, and what we are looking at is not a matter of simply suppressing natural tendencies to chatter and gossip. What we are seeing is Paul is giving us divine order for God's assembly. So he begins then with removing this challenge, this challenge to the leadership of the male.

Let me just bring together several things here, if I can. Bear with me as I say this and I'll fill in the blanks as we go along. So just be patient.

I'm kind of coming to a conclusion and then going back to the reasons. One of the great things we are learning as we look at Paul's letter to Corinthians is that a local assembly should be in its functioning, revealing something about God himself. Now, chapter 14, as you read it, and you'll have to read it in its entirety because I have not had time to do that, brings three great things about God before us.

First thing is, does God speak? Now, he begins in chapter 12, bear with me, look at it at your leisure. He begins in chapter 12, he says, once you were Gentiles, carried away unto dumb idols. Now, that doesn't mean stupid idols.

It means idols that couldn't communicate, couldn't talk. They weren't able to say anything. There was absolutely nothing of profit coming from them.

Now, keep that in mind, okay? Dumb idols, idols that could not communicate. Come with me in your thinking now to Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus, 1 Timothy chapter 1. Paul says to the Ephesians there, writing through Timothy, he says, you are church of the living God, pillar and ground of truth. Okay, background of Ephesus, remember the book of Acts? Remember when the gospel came to Ephesus? Remember what happened? Great is, our authorized version says, great is Diana of the Ephesians.

Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. They were a people, and if you were to go to Ephesus, they were absolutely fanatical about their goddess, Diana or Artemis of the Ephesians. So, it's interesting that when Paul is writing to them, he says, you belong to the church of the living God.

Now, if you were to go back to the Old Testament, and you were to start, get your Bible concordance program out, write in, search phrase, the living God. You'll find that the prophets used it always as a challenge to idolatry. It is God in contrast to idols.

And so, when Paul told the Ephesians, you are church of the living God, church of the living God, what he had in mind was this. There was another goddess who was absolutely dumb. She did not speak to the people.

There was no profit from her mouth. You have a God who was a living God, a true God. Now, Paul says here, you were once followers of dumb, silent, profitless idols.

Now, he comes in these chapters 12, 13, and 14. And the great truth is this, we have a God who communicates. How does he do it? You can read chapter 14.

You can read chapter 14 and notice that Paul says at the beginning of that chapter, that unless a man speaks and he is able to give, in this particular case, knowledge, prophesying, revelation doctrine, he says, let him just should be quiet. Because God is interested. God is in the business of communicating truth to his people.

Okay. So, an assembly is responsible for this, to show that God does speak. Now, that puts a tremendous burden upon the men that rise with the Word of God in their hands.

Not just a matter of filling in time, there's 10 minutes, nobody else is, I'll get up and just... No, no. Do you have a message from God? Is this God's mind being revealed? If people are looking on, or angels are looking on, or the world is looking on, is it clear from what is happening in this assembly that God speaks, the voice of God is heard? So, chapter 14 tells us this, that an assembly should answer the question, does God speak? His mind is revealed. But then he says as well, the second thing an assembly should be revealing in its functioning is this, does God reside here? Does God reside here? And so, in chapter 14, he says, if an unbeliever comes in, or an unlearned person comes in, by the way you are functioning, by the way the assembly is carrying on its activities and worshiping God, they will fall down and admit God is in you of a truth.

This is where God is. God does reside. God not only speaks, God resides here.

But then he comes at the end of this chapter to something else. By sisters taking their place, by brethren taking their place, by everyone working together for the profit of all, he says, God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. And he says, God is a God marked by order.

Let all things be done decently and in order. And so, not only is the assembly revealing, does God speak? And does God reside? But what is God like? What is God like? Is God a God marked by disorder? By confusion? By rivalry? By mayhem? No, he is a God marked by order. He is a God marked by bringing peace to his saints.

He is a God marked by a lack of confusion. That's the kind of God we have. So even in the everyday functioning of a local church, we are giving testimony to these truths.

God speaks. God resides. What God is like.

Now, part of that, then, you can see is so intimately linked together with the position of sisters in God's assembly and the willing place she takes with intelligence, with humility, and with a willing subjective acceptance of what God has done. She takes her place in silence in the church of God. There are four main areas that deal with the place of sisters in God's assembly, or three main areas, four topics taken up.

In 1 Corinthians 11, the first section, it's the symbol and its significance. And we have already looked at that, the head covering, the symbol, and its significance. When we come to chapter 14, it is the silence and her spirituality.

When you come to 1 Timothy 2, it is her subjection and her salvation. And also in 1 Timothy 2, it is her shamefacedness and her sobriety. Now, what then is the place of a sister? What then is the value of a sister in God's assembly? Was Paul genuinely, and you know the word for woman hater, misogynist, was he really a woman hater? Was he prejudiced against women? Was he somehow reflecting a bias of his day? Is everything that Paul said about women somehow has to be understood in a historical, cultural context that the women of Corinth were wicked and sinful and couldn't be trusted and were ignorant and stupid and didn't know anything? Really? I find it interesting that when Paul moved into areas such as Macedonia, which was part of Greece, Corinth was in Achaia, another part of Greece, the people who seemed to be above the others were the women.

You trace it, the churches of Macedonia, women seemed to be more on the ball than the men. So certainly, it wasn't a matter of inferiority or cultural bias. You remember the first woman saved in Philippi, or the first person saved in Philippi was a businesswoman.

A businesswoman. Lydia. So, you know, we're not looking at people who somehow were, you know, stone age type people and all the women did was grunt when their men said, bring the meat or bring the food and, you know, those ideas have been inbred into our thinking in a wrong way.

Read the word of God. Forget what people tell you about the historical, cultural, interpretive way of looking at things. Read the word of God.

These were not ignorant women. Phoebe was a businesswoman. Phoebe was a woman of stature.

Lydia was a woman of stature. There were women of stature throughout the historical times in which we are reading. So Paul is not dealing with a necessity because of their weakness and their ignorance.

He's dealing with divine principles. That headship has been invested in the male. And a woman willingly takes her place.

So we have looked already at the symbol and its significance. We have looked here at the silence and her spirituality. Let me just mention something of the subjection and salvation that we see in 1 Timothy chapter 2. Let the males pray in every assembly, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.

Okay, no question. He doesn't use the word for general mankind there. The word he uses in 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 8 is a word that means specifically the males.

Instead of generic word for male and female, he uses the specific word males. Let the males pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. But then he says, in like manner also the women.

So what I am learning here from 1 Timothy chapter 2 is that a woman imparts strength to an assembly prayer meeting. The character of a woman imparts strength to an assembly prayer meeting. She's not a silent, unnecessary attendee.

Her character, and we'll show that in just a moment why that is so. Her character is either going to add to or take away from the prayer, the audible prayers of the brethren. So she is not an unnecessary appendage.

She is not just there so we can say there were 25 people at prayer meeting tonight rather than just 12 men or 13 men. She's not there just to swell the numbers. She's bringing strength into the prayer meeting by her character.

But what about this business of Eve was deceived and not Adam and she led in the transgression. And so you mean to tell me then what God is doing is kind of punishing the women? You know, well, you know, Eve was a bad girl. Look what she did.

And because of what she did, now for the rest of history, you women are going to have to be silent. That is not what God is doing. Your place of subjection and silence in public gatherings is not a punishment from God.

It is an honor from God, far different. So what then does 1 Timothy 2 mean? Very simply this, that when a woman left her place and became leader, okay? When she became the leader, when Adam abdicated leadership to her and he followed her lead, disaster occurred. Sin came into the world.

Dominion was lost. Usefulness for God was lost. Now he says, if a woman will willingly accept the place God has given her, that will lead to blessing.

That will lead to salvation. Not salvation of your soul, but usefulness and blessing for God. So it is not a punishment.

He is simply drawing on this, that when leadership is reversed, it is totally out of the mind and purposes of God. Adam was to be her leader. He was to take the lead in decisions.

But when it came to the fall, she took the lead. She influenced Adam. She had Adam follow her and sin came into the world.

Now he says, in God's assembly, be sure that headship is in the right place. Be sure that leadership is in the right place. Belongs to the male.

And the woman takes her place willingly in subjection. And he says, in light of that, her sphere of maximal usefulness, her sphere of maximal usefulness is in the home with children, seeking to raise them for God and influence them for God. That's where her teaching, that's where her gift, that's where her ability shines the brightest.

Now that does not mean that it's wrong for a sister to work. And it doesn't mean that somehow if a sister either isn't married or doesn't have children, that somehow she's wasted. All of those things are under God's sovereign control.

And no one, no one will have a second-class experience as a Christian who is in the mind and will of God, whether single, married, fertile, or infertile, whatever it is, if you are in the mind and will of God, God will bring all of his purposes to pass for your life. I said somewhere else, every once in a while, because of a lot of frequent flyer miles, I can upgrade the first class. And it's great for a long trip.

If you got to go coast to coast or you're going to another country, first class or business class, it's great. It's so great that you hate to go back to cattle class and sit in those cramped seats with, usually I get in the middle and there's two huge people next to me and I'm sitting like this for four hours. You hate to go back to the cattle class.

Well, God has no cattle class Christians. Every Christian is first class. Every Christian rides to heaven first class.

Every need is met. All your usefulness is ensured by being in the mind of God. So she is adding strength to the prayer meeting.

She is willingly accepting her place of subjection, but I want you to look as well at her shamefacedness and sobriety. Now, what do I mean? There's nothing shameful about her. Nothing that is exposing of a flesh about her, of natural people.

Can you see how this begins to add character to a prayer meeting? Let me just explain it to you. What is he saying in that section when he is speaking about that the women adorn themselves, not with the outward, but with the inward? What a woman is doing when she puts the emphasis on the inward is that she is saying that the spiritual is really more important than the temporal and the external. Why is that important? Because what you're praying about are spiritual things.

What you're praying for is for spiritual things. The assembly is together praying for kings and all who are in authority for their salvation and that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty and so on. And if all we care about is the external, if that's the way we dress, if that's the way we look, if that's the way we act, I mean, it's like, you know, getting up and asking God, you know, save these people and bring spiritual blessing into their lives.

But as far as us, all we care about is the material, external, temporal, so totally inconsistent, a disconnect as they call it. But not only that, if you are praying for other people to submit to the word of God and salvation, how can you do that if you're not submitting to the word of God in your own appearance and in your own life? Now that cuts both ways for men as well as women. So you'll understand that I'm not just picking anyone out.

I am not suggesting that somehow that it's just our sisters. Thank God for godly sisters. What I am suggesting is that for all of us, it's actually in the context.

That's why he says that men lift up hands without wrath and without disputings. How can I pray for peace in the world if I can't be at peace with my brethren? If all I'm doing is fighting with my brethren and having what he calls doubtful disputations, if I'm at war with my brethren, how foolish to get up and pray in a prayer meeting that God would remember kings and all are in authority so that we can lead a quiet and peaceable life. Are you of our prayer? And so what he is coming to in this section is consistency that adds tremendous weight to the prayer of God's people.

Now, I am not in favor of women looking totally out of order in terms of their appearance. What I mean by that is that there is no premium place based upon looking dated and looking frumpy and looking disheveled and nothing matching. And here I am, look at me, I'm not concerned with the external.

I've worn this dress for 20 years every day and it's the same dress. And I have one hat, it's a bit crumpled up, but actually the word he uses here is quite different. That the women adorn themselves need to be well-ordered.

So there is no question that God is saying that you cannot look attractive and you cannot dress appropriately. But he does give here guidelines relative to dress. Let me just give them to you very quickly and leave them with you because there are no rules.

There are no rules given as to dress. And while I have usually given these for women, let me apply them to men as well because things are changing, the times they are changing. And anyway, let me just look at what we have here and just make a couple of suggestions.

Let me just suggest that you ask yourself several questions. Number one, does my dress entice lust? Does my dress entice lust? Am I purposely dressing to arouse someone's emotions? Well, you may say, it's not my fault, it's their fault. It's your fault.

If you are purposely dressing for the purpose of enticing lust, then Paul says that's not being adorned with shamefacedness and modesty. Am I dressing purposely to entice lust? Number two, am I dressing to entice covetousness? Because women not only dress for men, they dress for other women. Am I dressing to entice covetousness? People, look at what I have.

Look at how good my clothes are. Eat your heart out and so on, okay? That's why I can never understand it, but it's a reality. You married men will know what I mean.

If you wife, you ever go to a conference and your wife shows up with the same new dress that somebody else is wearing, it's almost like you gotta go out to the closest store and get another dress right away. It's just a disaster. It's a catastrophe for the conference.

You know, two people with the same new outfit. It just can't be. But am I dressing just to entice covetousness in someone else? Look at what I have.

You don't have it. Question number three, does it encourage attention? Everybody's gonna look at me. Wow, doesn't she look great? Is it just dressing to encourage attention focused on me? Am I dressing in such a way as to emulate the world? Am I dressing just like the world? Is my dress erasing distinctions between male and female? You might say, well, now you're really getting cultural.

You know, that's just cultural, that's not biblical. Now, wait just a moment. Wait just a moment.

I think I have been to as many cultures, if not more than most here. There may be some that have traveled to more cultures than I have. I have yet to find a culture that does not have some distinguishing quality between men and women.

I have not found a culture between men and women in their dress. Every culture does. Something that distinguishes male and female in their dress.

Our Western hemisphere, our Western culture has its distinguishing feature. Some might say, no, it doesn't. There's no longer, oh, really? You go to an airport, you wanna know where the women's room is? It's a sign of someone with a dress on.

You wanna know where the men's room is? Someone in trousers. Even if you can't read words, you can look at a picture and know which is which. Still the distinguishing character in our society.

And so, my dress should be as much as possible. Now, I'm not laying down laws about whether women should wear slacks or not. That's not the issue.

The issue is this, that as much as possible and whenever possible, dress so as to not erase distinctions that God has introduced into society and into cultures. And finally, is my dress emphasizing the outward or the inward? Do I spend as much time getting ready for the Lord's Supper spiritually as I did this morning getting ready for it as far as how I dress and how I look and how my hair appears and everything else? Now, come on, be honest. Did you spend as much time this morning getting ready for the Lord's Supper spiritually as you did, combing your hair, dressing yourself and all that else that goes with it? Which took more time? Same thing applies to brethren, which took more time.

Preparing spiritually, emphasizing the inward, emphasizing the outward. These are just principles and Paul has outlined them for us and enabled us to appreciate then what he is moving for, what he is moving to. This tremendous blight of wanting our own way and our own place and yet the tremendous privilege we have, not again in any way a sense of punishment and not even a sense of uselessness, but a sister by her attire, by her willing submission, by her bowing to the word of God in God's assembly, she preaches.

And I wanna say she sometimes preaches far more effectively and far more eloquently than some of us that get up here to preach. Her message is unmistakable. Her teaching is clear and open to angels to view that she willingly bows to the headship of the man, willingly recognizing the headship of Christ and is willing to bow to the word of God in every detail of her life.

May the Lord encourage and help our sisters to appreciate the tremendous honor bestowed upon them to so honor God in the way which he has given in his word. Now, shall we pray?