Instruction Regarding Church Life — 1 Timothy 2

0:02 Good morning. Good morning. We're gonna be looking at first Timothy chapter two today. But before we read it, I'd like to open in prayer. Our God and our father as we think of thy amazing love that we were singing about this morning.

0:26 A love that caused you to give your only son, your beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is perfect and sinless, yet he suffered at the cross of Calvary that we might have life everlasting through trusting him in a personal relationship as our savior. As we open thy word, father, we pray that the spirit of God would give help first to the speaker and then to those that listen that we might realize that it's the word of God that we're looking at. It's not man's word. It's that which is divinely inspired. We ask for thy help in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

1:17 Amen. First Timothy chapter two and verse one. Therefore I exhort, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. For kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our savior, who desires all men to be saved, to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1:58 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. For which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I'm speaking the truth in Christ and not lying, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. And like manner also that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing.

2:46 But which is proper for women professing godliness with good works? Let a woman learn in silence with all subject... Submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve.

3:06 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. Nevertheless, she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with self control. Now as we look at this chapter, chapters two and three are instruction regarding church life. And the first eight verses of this chapter is giving instruction for public praying by the men. Verses nine through 15, It's an instruction for women in the church.

4:21 I'm urging. This is the same word that's used in Romans twelve and one. I beseech you. I'm urging. First of all, this is priority.

4:37 This is important. That supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. Now that word men is a generic word for mankind. It means men and women, boys and girls. Supplication, prayer, intercession, giving of thanks.

5:05 What Paul is stressing to Timothy is the importance of the public prayer meeting for the church. He says, first of all, it's priority. And I guess the question that I have to ask myself and each of us should ask, If Paul stressed the assembly prayer meeting and its importance to be there and for the men to be praying there, how important is it in my life and yours? I'll leave that for each one of us to ponder. But Paul was one that prayed for all the assemblies and the people in it on a daily basis.

6:01 It's a rich study to go through the various epistles and to see the prayers of Paul for the assemblies that he's addressing. And he prayed fervently. In second Corinthians 11 when he talks about all the persecutions that he had endured, the beatings, the stoning, the shipwrecks, the hunger, the thirst. He says, and besides all this, the care of all the churches has come upon me daily. So in the priority of prayer, supplication, that's praying for specific needs.

6:47 And then the general description, prayer. And prayer is linked with supplication in several of the epistles. In Ephesians chapter six and verse 18, he writes, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. And then he says in the next verse and for me, Paul, pray for me. I'm praying for you, please pray for me.

7:27 In Philippians four and six in a very well known verse, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God. As we come to God, We come to him in prayer knowing that he knows our needs and he is the only one that can really meet our needs if we only understood how much we need him. And then intercession, which is usually praying for others. We have some tremendous examples of that in the old testament. We think of Abraham in Genesis 18.

8:47 But there wasn't even 10. We think of Moses as he is up on the mountain being given the law by God. And the people down below said, well, he's been gone. We don't know what's happened to him. So they take off all their gold ornaments and they give them to Aaron.

9:14 The fashions and engraved gold calf. And they said, these are thy gods that brought us out of Egypt. Their idolatry was so rampant. And the next day they were in a drunken orgy. God says to Moses, go down.

9:42 The people have corrupted themselves. And he goes down and Moses in all his anger at their idolatry takes the golden calf and crushes it. God says to Moses, stand back. I'm going to destroy this nation. I'm gonna make a great nation, Moses, out of your seed.

10:14 Moses says, Lord, no. The Egyptians will say that you brought us out of Egypt, but you couldn't bring us into the land, so you destroyed us. He says, Lord, remember your covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. This covenant that you promised to give them this land, Lord, relent. And as he entreated with God for the nation of Israel, God says, for your sake I will relent.

11:01 Another one that perhaps we're not quite as ready to associate with intercession is Samuel. The last of the prophets that ruled over Israel. And we find that the nation of Israel says, you know, we want a king. We want to be like everybody else. We want someone that we can look up to that we can see.

11:36 What they were basically saying, we don't want to be ruled by God anymore. We want an earthly king. So God tells Samuel, okay, they'll get a king. And Saul is chosen. And Samuel, as he addresses the nation in first Samuel chapter 12.

12:05 He says, you've got a king and he shows them Saul. He said, but you're going to regret it. You're going to have problems. But you want a king? God has provided a king.

12:22 But then in verses twenty three and twenty four, and I'm just going to quote them. He says, far it be from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. But I will teach you the good and right way, only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart, for consider what great things he hath done for you. It's interesting that Jeremiah, in Jeremiah fifteen and one, The Lord is saying to Jeremiah, the Lord said to me, even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, my mind would not be favorable toward this people. Mighty intercessors.

13:17 And James tells us, James five and sixteen, and I'm going to take part of the verse and I'm going to take it out of its context, but the truth is there for a more general. Pray for one another. I should pray for you, you should pray for me, you should pray for everybody in the assembly. Pray for one another. You know as I was meditating upon this chapter, I thought of the time when we first started attending Westlake.

14:42 I think there was a greater fellowship perhaps because we were praying for one another publicly in the prayer meeting. I just wonder if we should get back to it. This past week, I've started taking the list of the assembly roster and praying for a page each day. You can get through the whole assembly in one week. And as we find that prayer, public prayer, is not only for the assembly and for others that we know, but public prayer should be expanded for the leaders of the world besides this country.

15:41 It should be expanded, and we're thankful that it often is on a Wednesday night for the persecuted church. It should be expanded for world missions, and we're thankful for the fact that this assembly does have an interest in missions, both the one to Mexico and the one to Ireland. But the world has such a need for the gospel. We got a letter this past weekend. It was about a need that could not really give too many details because of security.

16:34 But this is an organization that deals with translating the word of God into dialects that do not have any of the word of God yet. They were speaking about a country and they would not give the name but it obviously was a Muslim country where people were just begging the Christians for the word of God to have something to share with their neighbors in their own language. And so they have started a project where they've taken some men and women out of the country, hopefully in a safe haven. And these men and women are going to work with tablets with translation software. And in the next two months, the goal is to have 40 of these dialects with the word of God that they can...

17:40 They have instant printers where they can take the sum of the word of God back in and share it with others. 40 dialects. But in the next four and a half months, their goal is 400 dialects, 200 of which will be in the Muslim countries. You know when I read that, the thought came, how close can the rapture be? And the word of God is being expanded that quickly for dialects all through the world that people can hear the gospel.

18:25 And these people are saying, give us something we can take and we can share with our neighbors. Share at the cost of our life perhaps. The PS on that letter was four men working as translators have just been murdered. At the cost of their life. They're willing to work to get the word of God out.

18:57 We should be praying for these people publicly as well as privately. Pray for one another and then we all remember Andrew Bronson, a Turkish brother that was a pastor and falsely accused to make him a political prisoner. He spent almost a year and three quarters in prison. We're thankful that he's now under house arrest, at least with his family. But you know that it's only because of prayer.

19:39 Around the world, Prayer in this country, in this assembly, has been praying both privately and in the public prayer meeting for his release. It's certainly been publicized. Jenna partial has had repeated programs where she's mentioned about it. President Trump, vice president Pence, the Secretary of State Pompeo, they've all brought this forcibly to the attention of the Turkish government and ruler. Where it's going to end, the Lord knows.

20:28 But we need to be praying publicly. And I would give a strong exhortation to see more of the assembly at the public prayer meeting on Wednesday nights. It's important. It's important to pray privately. It's important to have family prayer.

20:54 It's important to have public assembly prayer. And our prayers should be fervent. They should be specific. If they're not specific, how do we know when they're answered? They should be concise, and they should be unselfish.

21:58 Tragic the way he destroyed and burned so many of the believers. But Paul says pray for those in authority. Pray for your protection, but certainly pray for his salvation. And this is what it's really saying that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. A quiet life, a peaceable life.

22:31 Quiet is our personal life. Peaceful is our life with the world, and all godliness and reverence. He says in verse three, for this is good. I would suggest that, well, it's not there. It really should have a comma there because these are two reasons, not one.

22:59 It's good to be praying for the unsaved and it's acceptable in the sight of God our savior who desires to have all men, and that's again the generic word for all mankind, to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. It's not a saint, It's not Mary. It's not a priest or a pastor or a rabbi. There is one mediator and only one.

23:46 The Lord Jesus could say, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes unto the father but through me. And we were listening this morning to Acts four and twelve was read and it was already quoted in there. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Verse six it says, he gave himself a ransom for all, and the word mankind is inferred there.

24:38 He gave himself a ransom for all mankind. In verse seven, Paul says, I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth. Verse eight, I desire therefore that men, and this word is a different word for men. This word means male. It's not the general mankind, but this, I desire therefore that the males pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.

26:01 It requires a holy life, holy in actions, holy in activities, holy in associations or fellowship. And we're to have to be friendly with the world. The Lord Jesus was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. But he was... Had a concern and he ate with sinners because he was preaching to them.

26:36 His life was an example, but we should never be dragged the way a corrupt society around us likes to enjoy themselves sometimes. Purity in the motives and the conduct are essential for prayer and worship. But without wrath and doubting, quarreling as the ESV gives it. He's talking about a state of the heart. So our conditions for praying, our faith in God, a holy life, and love towards mankind without anger, without quarreling.

27:24 Now there's a number of other requirements and time doesn't give me time, I'm going to have to just skip that part, I'm sorry. But then he comes in verse nine to instructions for the women. And he says in like manner that the women adored themselves in modest apparel, not attracting attention to themselves with excessive ornaments and fine apparel. But which is proper for women professing godliness with good works? Godliness with good works.

28:15 It's been said that a woman's adornment is not in what she puts on, but in what she gives out in service. Christian character shows an appearance that goes beyond merely the external. Godliness and reverence, respect for God affects their dress and their deeds. But then as we go for this section, we think of first Peter three verses three and four. Do not let your adornment be merely outward, arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel.

29:09 Rather be it, let it be the hidden person of the heart with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God, very precious. Peter mentions several times in his epistle of things that are precious. The precious blood of Christ. He mentions a few times about how precious the Lord is, but when it comes to the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit in the sight of God, of a lady, he says it's very precious. The only time very precious is used in that epistle.

30:48 And they're to be in subjection to the scriptures. Now I want to say right now that women are not inferior to men. And there's many women that are in positions of authority over men in business and in government, and that's fine. It's in the assembly, and there's a reason for it. And we're going to be looking at that next.

31:21 Because this reason is God's picture to the believer of the difference of the church being in subjection as the bride to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the authority over us. In verses thirteen and fourteen, we have God's priority in the order of creation. And when Adam was first created by God in his own image and in his likeness, he was told to have dominion over the creatures and over the earth, to tend and to keep it. And the Lord said it's not good for a man to be alone. He needs a helper.

32:16 And he couldn't find one among all the animals, so he created Eve out of a rib of Adam. And Adam was given the headship of the family unit by God. But in Genesis three, Eve oversteps God's order of authority. Eve is having a conversation with the serpent, and she was deceived by Satan and the serpent. She overturns divine leadership, and she takes of the fruit.

33:05 And she gives some to Adam, Adam was not deceived. He took it willingly knowing the consequences, but he only knew part of the consequences. He knew that God had told him not to do it. But Adam, as he took the fruit, his sin was he was accepting Eve's leadership over him instead of exercising his leadership over her. It was far more than disobeying God and eating the fruit.

33:47 They both were distorting God's order. And when divine order is disobeyed, there's always a disaster. And if we could only remember that, and we come to verse 15. I have to tell you, I'm not sure what it means. It's a very very difficult person.

35:02 He says, well, the woman has no public ministry assigned to her in the assembly in teaching or exercising authority over the men. She has a very important ministry of raising children for the glory of God. We all say amen to that. And though women have never mounted a public platform to preach or teach, They're truly saved as far as their position and fruitfulness for God are concerned. And there's many other ministries committed to women that do not involve public teaching or having authority over men in the assembly.

35:58 But the last part of our verse, it switches from the singular to the plural. And it says if they continue in faith, love, holiness, with self control, and we all have to say that these are qualities that are very lovely to see in women. Now just for a minute I wanna try to recap. In the recap, I'm gonna have four points for the men and four points for the ladies. The first point for the men is the importance of the public assembly prayer meeting.

36:51 Again, it's not my exhortation, though I go along with it. It's Paul saying, this is important. The second point is to pray for one another, as we see in James. Pray for others in the assembly, the whole assembly. Expand our prayer to the leaders of the country, the persecuted church, the spread of the gospel in areas that do not have it.

37:31 The third point is our prayers should be fervent, specific, concise, and unselfish. The fourth point, to have our prayers be effective. The condition of our life has to be holy and without anger or quarreling. In other words, it's the state of our heart. May each of us search our hearts.

38:15 For the ladies, the first point is modest apparel. Not to be concerned just with their outward appearance, but the inward godliness. Giving out good works, having a quiet and gentle spirit. It's their dress and their deeds. The second point is they're required to be silent in the church not teaching or exercising authority over the men.

39:55 Ladies, I realize that it's difficult in today's culture, which is so opposite to what the word of God teaches in modesty. But I'm thankful for what we see, and I just encourage you to go on and to obey the word of God. And to the young man, I would say, as you get older and start thinking about a friendship to go beyond into marriage, It's not just the outward appearance. Search for a young lady that has a spiritual tone to her life and wants to serve the god. The outward appearance is fading.

40:53 The inward appearance is forever. And when you find her, or before you find her, treat the young ladies with purity. Shall we pray? Our father, we are so thankful that while we listen, it's not the words of the speaker. It's the word of God that searches the heart.

41:19 We pray that you'll search our hearts, that you'll affect and change our lives, that we might become men and women of prayer privately in the home and for the men at the assembly, that we might search our hearts as to our condition when we're praying, that we might search our heart as to the dress of the women in their obedience to bow to the word of God. It's not man's word. It's the word of God for their silence in the assembly because it represents a great picture of Christ and his church. As we separate, take us to our homes and take us with the word of God and the spirit of God speaking to us. For we ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.