with joy.
I'm looking back to the time probably when
they parted, and Timothy had broken down when
he said goodbye to Paul.
Nothing unmanly about that.
In fact, the truth is we need more
tears in our Christian life.
Somebody said, Lord, deliver me from the curse
of a dry-eyed Christianity.
Lord, deliver me from the curse of a
dry-eyed Christianity.
The gift of tears.
And then Paul says, when I call to
remembrance the genuine faith that is in you,
which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and
your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded in
you also.
I like this.
Lois and Eunice.
Was Paul a male chauvinist?
I wouldn't gather it as I read his
his letters.
And this reminds us of the tremendous value
of a godly Christian home, doesn't it?
Your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice.
And he said, I'm persuaded in you also.
He almost seems to speak a little more
definitely about Timothy's grandmother and mother.
I'm not sure that the women of Wellesley
would be too happy with his birth, because,
you know, they invited Mrs. Bush to come
and be their commencement speaker.
At least the college did, Wellesley College.
And there was a contingent that protested against
it.
What had she ever done?
All she had ever done was to be
a mother and a wife.
She had never carved out a career for
herself.
Such arrogance and such ignorance as well.
For women, the feminist movement which started off
ostensibly to elevate the status of women has
really accomplished the reverse as far as the
world is concerned.
How much we owe to godly Christian mothers.
I think it was John Wesley who said,
I learned more about Christianity from my mother
than I did from all the theologians of
Europe.
Good for you, John Wesley.
And as I thought about this today, I
went back to my own childhood and youth,
and I thought this.
Thank mom for being at home when we
got out of school.
Thank mom for being there to discipline us
when we really needed it.
Thank mom for wearing out your knees, praying
for the salvation of your boys.
And she did.
Thank mom for seeing that the house was
always well stocked with good Christian books.
Stocked, planted, with a purpose.
Thank mom for entertaining the Lord's servant.
It was a sanctifying influence in the home,
and we learned lessons of servanthood as well.
Thank lord for keep mom for teaching us
the value of hard work and of discipline.
Thank mom for taking in work in order
to pay for our education.
Thank mom for teaching us a love for
Christian poetry and Christian music.
And thank mom for encouraging us in the
ways of God and of holiness.
Never stood on a platform, never took public
part in a meeting, but I wouldn't be
here today apart from that.
And I get so weary, but what I'm
hearing today even in evangelical circles about the
whole matter of women and their ministry and
and so forth, I get so weary of
the way some alleged scholars twist and turn
the word of God on this subject.
So there isn't enough left to make soup
for a sick grasshopper.
I have a great encouragement to it also.
Simple, common, ordinary people aren't taken in by
these abstruse theological arguments.
They have something that protects them against such
folly, and that something is wisdom.
We want to go back to the bible.
What does the bible say about it?
Well, to put it very frankly, the bible
says that leadership in the church in the
new testament church is male.
That's what it says.
That has no aspersions on our sisters.
I don't know why the idea persists that
standing behind a platform and preaching is greater
than being a mother in a home.
Who ever invented that?
Actually, we say the hand that rocks the
cradle rules the world.
And I rather agree with that, don't you?
The hand that rocks the cradle rules the
world.
Ah, but they say Galatians chapter 3 verse
19 where we're all equal, you know, in
Christ Jesus neither bond nor free, male nor
female.
Of course it's true in Christ Jesus.
That means as far as our position before
God, male has no preference over female.
A person who has Christ is complete, needs
nothing else as far as fitness for heaven
is concerned.
You can't improve on that.
No one, no Christian is any more fitted
for heaven than another.
That's exactly what it means.
That has nothing to do with role in
life.
It has to do with our standing before
God.
Why wrench it out of the context and
make it something it was never intended to
say?
But if somebody will say to me, yes,
but aren't all believers priests?
Yes, all believers are priests.
Aren't all believers royal priests?
Yes, all believers are holy priests and royal
priests.
And aren't the sacrifices of God, of the
New Testament priesthood, a person's possessions, his praise,
his person, his prayers, and his certainty?
Yes, they're all that.
Doesn't that mean that a woman has equal
place as far as ministry in the church?
No, it doesn't mean that.
It means the same one who established all
believers as priests has a right to put
control on the public exercise of the priesthood.
That's what it means.
And that's exactly what you have in the
word of God.
Let me say that again.
The same one who established the New Testament
priesthood, God, by the Holy Spirit, has a
perfect right to put control on the public
exercise of the priest.
And that's what God has done.
But not satisfied with that, I'm going to
tell you this.
Well, isn't what Paul says just a matter
of the local culture at that time?
And my answer is emphatically not.
The moment you adopt the culture argument, you
can get rid of that tract of the
word of God.
You get rid of baptism, you get rid
of the Lord's Supper, you get rid of
anything that you don't like.
You get rid of all the teachings about
discipleship which cut us so very much.
It's a matter of the culture of that
day.
It's not a matter of the culture of
that day.
Paul, to enforce it, goes back to creation.
He goes back to the order of creation.
He goes back to the purpose of creation.
And that transcends culture, doesn't it?
And not only so, he uses expressions like,
because of the angels.
Are the angels just limited by the culture
of a particular time?
Don't be silly.
Come on, give me a break.
But the real clincher to me is what
the Apostle Paul says.
If any man among you think himself to
be spiritual, let him acknowledge the things I
write unto you are the commandments of the
Lord.
Isn't that what he says?
The commandments of the Lord.
I think that God has given, in some
way, the most exalted ministry to our sisters.
1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 50, Nevertheless she
will be saved in childbearing, if they continue
in faith, love, and holiness with self-control.
What does it mean?
It means the most wonderful privilege has been
given to Christian women of raising up a
godly seed, so to speak.
Given to a Susannah Wesley, to raise up
a John Wesley, and a Charles Wesley, and
17 other Wesleys.
Really marvelous when you start to think of
it.
It might seem from the preceding verses that
woman doesn't have an effective ministry.
She's to be silent, she's not to teach,
nor do you serve authority over the man.
Nevertheless, don't run away with the idea that
she's reduced to a non-person.
She shall be saved in childbearing.
What about all the sisters that aren't allowed
to, that aren't able to marry, or to
raise children?
Well, the Bible can't take every situation in
such broad principles, and this is the broad
principle.
I often think it's very interesting that right
after that verse, she shall be saved in
childbearing, the very next verse is, this is
a faithful saying, if a man desires overseership,
he desires the good work.
Raising up godly leadership for the church?
I don't think there's anything greater than that.
I really don't, and I pay my tribute
tonight to Christian sisters who have found fulfillment
in lives of obedience to the word of
God.
And so when I come to this verse,
my heart beats just a little faster when
Paul speaks about Eunice, Lois, and your mother
Eunice.
I'm persuaded in the also.
Then he says, therefore I remind you to
stir up the gift of God which is
in you through the laying on of my
hands.
Stir up the gift.
Just as things in the natural realm tend
to unwind, it's true in the spiritual realm
as well.
Here's a church that might at the very
beginning be a tremendous tribute to a great
moving of the spirit of God, but the
years go on and things go into a
dull routine, and the fire is gone.
It happens in individual lives, too.
We get older, you know, and you can
become cynical and dull, and life doesn't have
the same vigor for you.
We need to stir up the gift of
God which is in us.
Did you know that at the beginning of
the season, the cuckoo bird song is in
F sharp?
Did you know that?
There's a little lesson on music.
As the season progresses, it goes down to
F natural, and at the end of the
season it's F flat.
There's a spiritual lesson in that, isn't there?
F sharp, F natural, F flat.
Man, movement, machine, monument.
Got it?
Truth in the heart, truth in the head,
truth in the library.
Truth, where is it?
The history of Christian work, we've got to
guard against it.
That'd be a wonderful thing if we come
to this conference and get our spiritual batteries
recharged, huh?
Wonderful.
Maybe some of you are here, you're discouraged,
and years of service in the mission field,
and it seems that it's all reduced to
ashes.
Possible.
God is still on the throne.
Stir up the gift of God that is
in you through the laying on of my
hand.
Then Paul says, for God has not given
us a spirit of fear, but of power,
and of love, and of discipline.
Sounds fine.
Actually, we have in the provision of God,
in the word of God, and by the
spirit of God, everything that's necessary.
You wonder about that nowadays when you hear
that the necessity of all kinds of additional
things.
We want to get back to basics, and
as far as the scriptures are concerned, we
have in the word of God, and by
the ministry of the spirit of God, everything
that is necessary for serving the Lord effectively.
And then I like what Paul says here,
therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony
of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner.
Good, remember this was written from prison.
Do not be ashamed of the testimony of
our Lord, or of me his prisoner.
A Roman Catholic priest who, in many matters
theological, is very far removed from us, wrote
this.
Never be you ashamed of the blood of
Christ.
I know it's not the popular religion of
the day.
They will call it mediation, but you know
as well as possible, for the whole Bible,
from never you
be ashamed of the blood of Christ.
You are blood bought of the redeemed, of
all those on earth redeemed by his blood.
The uniform we wear is scarlet.
If you are ashamed of your uniform, for
goodness sakes man, leave the service.
He said, never be ashamed of Christ.
That is the song of the redeemed.
To him be glory and praise forever and
ever.
Amen.
Once years ago, when Dr. Barnhouse was in
Philadelphia, and they were having a great meeting,
and he was shoutly defending the great doctrines
of the Christian faith, another minister came to
him and said, the trouble with you is
you are a medieval obscurantist.
Dr. Barnhouse said, that meant more to me
than the Distinguished Service Medal.
I like that.
Because of his defense of the Christian faith,
he was labeled a medieval obscurantist.
He said, that meant more to me than
the Distinguished Service Medal.
Never be ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord, or of me, his prisoner.
Paul said, but share with me in the
suffering for the gospel according to the power
of God.
Now, some of you know more about suffering
for the gospel than the rest of us,
but Harold Tingen once said, there's no future
for any movement unless it can count on
people who are willing to suffer for it,
and we must know where we stand.
If we're able to trust him and one
another, we may expect times of costly blessings,
but if one member suffers, all the members
suffer with it.
And, you know that the New Testament envisages
every Christian suffering in some way for the
namesake of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christian young people in schools suffer for his
name, don't they?
They're ridiculed, they're called strange names because of
their faith and their stand in Christ.
Christians in the workplace, they suffer.
They're looked down on as odd creatures, and
those out on the gospel front lines suffer
as well.
Maybe there's nothing more than a sneer.
You know, what a wonderful thing it is
for us who've never reached up and felt
the warm blood, and brought our hand down,
and had the privilege of rejoicing that we
were counted worthy to suffer that for the
Lord.
You know, it is wonderful.
Instead of being abashed by the rebuke and
ridicule of the world for that strange God,
he's allowing me to suffer in that little
way, at least for his name's sake.
This will all be reckoned up in a
coming day.
Share with me in the suffering for the
gospel according to the power of God.
He didn't tell us it was all going
to be rosy, did he?
He didn't tell us it would all be
Gloria in excelsis, or a mountaintop experience of
suffering for the sake of the gospel.
Then he says finally, "...who has saved us
and called us with a holy calling, not
according to our work, but according to his
own purpose and grace which was given to
us in Christ Jesus, before time began."
I just want to mention verse 10.
"...but has now been revealed by the appearing
of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished
death and brought life and immortality to light
through the gospel."
What does that mean?
He has abolished death.
We see death around us all the time,
don't we?
Cemeteries, funeral parlors, morgues, how come he's abolished
death?
Well, perhaps we could explain it this way.
Here's an army contingent, and there's an officer
in charge, and he's really a tyrant.
He abuses his men and rules over them
with a rod of iron, as it were,
and they're in terror of him.
But one day, because of certain infractions in
his party, he's called back to headquarters, and
he's stripped of his authority, he's stripped of
his rank, and sent back to the contingent.
He's now a private.
He still exists, but he's been put out
of commission, and that's what happened to this
child of God through the work of the
Lord Jesus.
Let me think about it this way.
You do know that in the Old Testament,
believers had very dim and indistinct ideas about
life after death.
I think if you had said to the
average Jew in the Old Testament, a believing
Jew in the Old Testament, what happens when
you die?
I think he would have shrugged his shoulders
and said, Tiol.
And really, Tiol has more of indefiniteness about
it than it has of definiteness.
It really just means the indistinct body shape.
You never get famous for that, for answering
that.
You say, but I'm going to think of
something else.
You can think of a few verses in
the Old Testament that seem to be dreams
or streaks of light on the subject.
I know that my reading of them, I
celebrate with his likeness.
Two, I don't think you can think of
six figures, maybe, not many.
They had very dim and indistinct views of
life after death.
Now, think of our position today in Christ.
To die is to depart to the beam
of Christ, which is my son.
Our bodies go into the grave, our spirit
and soul go right back to the Lord
Jesus.
We're in the conscious enjoyment of his presence.
He's abolished that.
He's stripped death of its power.
It's no longer the feared soul, but the
messenger of God that brings our souls to
heaven, brought life and immortality to life by
the gospel.
How much we owe to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Some of us have known him since our
childhood, and it just seems so routine, but
it really should be listed as a holy
gasp for a promise all the time when
we think of the wonders that his grace
has brought.
Shall we pray?
Father, we stand in awe of thy words.
It is surely sweet to our taste, and
we relish in it.
We thank you that every word of God
is pure.
We thank you for the lessons you speak
to our hearts tonight through this portion, and
once again, we just want to thank you
for godly Christian sisters who have such a
desire to stay as close to the word
of God as possible, and to find fulfillment
within the confines of your sacred scriptures.
We give thanks in Jesus' name.
Amen.