 And our sermon title this morning is Fit for Godliness, Fit for Godliness. And we are studying 1 Timothy chapter 2 and now we come to verses 8 through 15. We've been looking at verses 1 through 7 and the exhortation there from Paul to Timothy to pray. And so now we're moving on, moving through this practical exhortation in 1 Timothy chapter 2 and we come to verses 8 through 15 today. Now, this is the purpose of 1 Timothy, the purpose for Paul's writing to Timothy because he says in chapter 3 is so that we ought to know, so that we can know how we are to conduct ourselves in the house of God, which is the church of God, the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. This letter began in chapter 1 with a charge to Timothy. Deal with the false teachers, deal with the false teaching, charge some that they don't teach any divergent doctrines. In other words, clean up what's going on in Ephesus. False teachers and false teaching in Ephesus were having such an impact that life and doctrine in Ephesus were under attack, they were under assault. And we'd already seen in chapter 1 how many had suffered shipwreck of their faith, how we lost Hymenaeus and Alexander and certainly many of their followers had found themselves cast on the rocks apart from Christ as a result of following after this false doctrine. And so this is a serious charge and in a sense understanding that and understanding this concept, this context, the letter to Timothy from Paul here is a polemic. In other words, it's an argument, it's a heated argument against false teaching and error in Ephesus. It's Paul's correction, if you will, of wrong thinking and wrong behavior. Now if we think about it that way, if you think about Paul in his letter to Timothy, correcting wrong behavior, correcting wrong thinking, that in looking at Paul's exhortations, we can reconstruct, if you will, what is going on in Ephesus at this time. That's a good way to approach Bible study. You look at the context and you can determine what's happening contextually in their situation at their time. We also have plenty of historical information to help us. We're going to look at that as well. Now, very important to understand that as we move into verses 8 through 15 here. We need to know from the context how these verses applied to those who were in Ephesus so that we can have a good and firm and solid understanding of how these verses apply in our context today. Many, many, many will take verses 8 through 15, especially 9 through 15 and completely disregard these verses as culturally irrelevant or out of date. They're just an anachronism of a bygone age and have no application for us today. Now, the Bible says that all of Scripture is breathed out by God and is given and is profitable for instruction. All Scripture is profitable, well, except for 9 through 15, right? Enough. All Scripture is profitable. Here there is application from verses 9 to 15 that will specifically apply to our context today. And the reason that we want to take time to walk through this is that there is a powerful tide of cultural influence that not only swept through Ephesus at this time, swept through the known world at this time, but also there's a powerful cultural tide that sweeps through our context today. And we need, if we're going to stand confidently in God's Word, if we're going to stand against that tide and stem that tide, we've got to be able to be confident in our understanding of what these passages, what these verses are saying to us so that we can obey the Lord, so that we can be faithful to Him in what we find here. There are many of those that would discredit or discount what is being said, and they use that as an excuse to disobey God. And they do that to their own destruction. There are valuable, valuable lessons to be learned, lest we think that's for ladies only in verses 9 to 15. Men, that's also for you. There are valuable principles that you can apply from this text here and we want to be faithful to God in this. Now, the very heart of this passage as we get into these verses, we find a, it's a treasure trove of truth from God's Word. There's a lot packed, as we found with many of these passages, there's a lot packed in here. There's a lot of truth to look through. It is very clear. It's very straightforward. For the most part, it's very easy to understand. You can read the text and pretty obviously see for yourself what it's talking about. But this text, especially verses 9 to 15, are at the same time wrapped in controversy, wrapped in conflict, in confusion. And who is the author of confusion? Satan is the author of confusion. He's wrapped in confusion. Even as it was when this letter would have first arrived in Ephesus in the first century. They would have had difficulty with this also. This is a passage that may not be hard to understand, but as Peter says in 2 Peter 3 16, it's one of those that many who are untaught and unstable will twist to their own destruction as they do the rest of the scriptures. You might say to yourself, that's a strong statement. We're talking about modesty, basically, in verses 9 to 15. And we can twist these passages, these verses, to our own destruction. Absolutely you can. Absolutely you can. At the end of the day, this passage is about submission to authority. It's about submission. Specifically, the authority that God has ordained from creation for our good and God's glory. It is about submission, submission to His Word. Submission to Him, to Christ, to God, and submission to His Word so fully that it impacts how you dress, how you conduct yourself, how you interact with the members of the opposite sex, how you express what is inwardly in your heart. It has everything to do, everything to do with denying yourself, taking up your cross daily and following Him, which is a call to salvation, a call to discipleship, a call to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The reason that this passage, these verses are often twisted because of our flesh because our hearts are deceitful, because of our self-will, our self-indulgence, our pride. At the root of it all, it's submission to authority. It's submission for both men and women. It's submission. And it's at the heart of whether or not we will submit to and live for Him. If you claim to be a Christian, you've said, I've submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. If you're not submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and as a fruit of genuine saving faith, you are obeying Him, you're not a Christian. When the Lord saves, the Lord gives a man a new heart, and as a fruit of that new heart, as a fruit of that new nature, that new creation in Christ then obeys the Lord, submits to His Lordship. He treasures His Word and he seeks hard in following after Christ, taking up His cross and denying Himself. Wicked men would rather twist the words of Almighty God, rather than submit to them, rather than to humble themselves to them and joyfully obey them. Think about it for a moment. In our context today, in our culture, in our society, why does the idea of submission draw such a vitriolic or hostile response from most people? What does that say about us? What does that say about your flesh? When you hear the word submission and you bristle against it, what does that say about you? It speaks volumes about you. Even as a genuine Christian, we can sometimes have difficulty submitting ourselves to authority. Our flesh just wants to rail against it. Our flesh wants to question it. Our flesh wants to deny it. Our flesh wants to run the opposite direction. We know that from childhood, right? In rejecting the authority of our parents. Throughout Scripture, Scripture is replete. Throughout Scripture, there's the call of God for all of us, men, women, children, all of us to submit to authority. We are all under authority. And authority is God's gift to us on this planet while we're here on this side of eternity so that we can learn how we submit to our ultimate authority, who is God. All authority is given by God. This submission from the heart is a mark of genuine saving faith. If you are unsubmissive in heart, your ultimate unsubmissiveness is against God himself. This whole passage is really with respect to submission. At the end of our study in chapter 2 verses 8 through 15, we pray that the only question that will remain will be whether or not you will joyfully submit to the Word of God, or if you will join those who twist it and rebel against it to their own destruction. You've got to ask yourself that question. This today will be an introduction of sorts. We're going to take a look beginning in chapter 2 verse 8 and give you an introduction of sorts to what will hopefully be several sermons on this issue to help both ladies and men in our church learn the truths that God has contained in this passage for our good and for his glory. And so let's dig in together and let's begin looking at chapter 2 here. At this time in Ephesus, Paul and Timothy were faced with cultural pressures that began to influence behavior in the church. That's not new. There are always cultural pressures that influence the church. Always. From that time until now, and there will always be cultural pressures that influence the church and influence behavior in the church. The primary concern of this passage in response to these pressures was the behavior specifically of women and their role, their biblical role in the church. This crops up or gets attested to in a couple of different ways. One, this mainly had to do with their attitudes, with their dress and their conduct in public, specifically public worship and under public teaching. But now two, because Christian lifestyles are always under scrutiny by an outside eye, right? By the outside world. Paul also has in mind here the perceptions of believing outsiders as well. One, this influence in the church with respect to attitudes, dress, their conduct in public worship. But also we have in concern here the testimony of the Christian to a lost and dying world. For those who profess godliness as it says in verse 10, your life is to be a testimony. You are to be, as the verse says, fit for godliness. In Ezekiel 36, verse 23, God doesn't set you apart or sanctify you for your sake, he says there. It's something important for us to understand. He doesn't save you necessarily in that sense. He doesn't sanctify you, make you holy, conform you into the image of Christ, give you that heart holiness that is in association or in concord or in cord with godliness in order for your sake, in order for you personally, for your own good necessarily in that sense. The Lord sanctifies you as it says in Ezekiel 36 for his name's sake, for his sake, for his honor, for his glory. And he says there that the nations will know that he is the Lord when he is hallowed in you before their eyes. The Lord God is to be hallowed in you before the eyes of a lost world. They are to see the effects. God's mighty work in you of conversion, they're to see that in your life. You're to be a testimony to God. In that sense, you are set apart from sin. You're set apart from the world. If you're here today, you claim the name of Christ, you are set apart from sin. If you're here today, you claim the name of Christ and you're not set apart from sin, you're not a Christian. When the Lord God saves, he sets you apart from the world. He separates you from sin. He takes you out of that wickedness, cleans you off and makes you a trophy of his grace. You're to be that testimony to Christ that we know from history and from experience. There will always be cultural pressures that will assault that testimony. There always will be. For the church as a whole, for us as a body, there are cultural pressures that assault the church. But for you individually, if you claim the name of Christ, you're going to have to stand against the fiery darts of the wicked one. There will be cultural pressure attacking and assaulting you. We have to stand against that. The enemy is going to make sure of that. We're not ignorant of his schemes, but it's how you respond to that pressure that makes all the difference. And if we respond to that pressure with submissiveness to God's word, with care, with how we apply God's word, then we can be safe if we depend on God for that. It makes all the difference how you respond to it. In Scripture, we see several examples of this cultural oppression. There was the culturally oppressed church here in Ephesus, very obvious. There was the culturally oppressed church in Corinth. We look in Revelation. We see the compromising church in Pergamus, the corrupt church in Thyatira. The dead church in Sardis. The lukewarm church in Laodicea and so on. What amazes me is not the cultural oppression against the churches, but the fact that the professing church so easily caves into the pressure. The professing church is caving in all the time. You have pressure today to ordain women in roles of pastoral leadership in the church. Listen, a church with a woman pastor has no pastor. The word of God is very clear on this. It goes beyond that. Today, there's great pressure in the body of Christ to ordain homosexuals in the ministry. There's constant pressure from the culture to be tolerant, to be ecumenical, to give up doctrine for the sake of peace, to give up that which we are to contend earnestly for so that we can have some false sham unity that is abominable in the eyes of God. There's constant pressure from the culture around us to deny the faith. And we see churches capitulating to this pressure all the time. Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. No one comes to the Father except through me, Christ said. We see cultural pressure constantly to be perceived as loving and gracious. And so churches abandon the word of God and they start preaching to felt needs. They exalt the need of man over the glory of God and forsake the preaching against sin. Forsake preaching against hell, against judgment, against justice, against wrath. The very things that we need to know in order to be right with God. They forsake the preaching of God's attributes in that sense for the sake of tickling someone's ears or giving the people what they want to hear. No repentance. There's certainly under pressure from the culture, the professing Christian is, to fall into sin and deceit. To live a sinful life despite your profession. There always will always be pressure from the world that stands in opposition to God's people. Our heartfelt commitment here, our vow to the Lord here, if you're a member of this church, is to stand in opposition to that oppression. To stand, vow to the Lord that by his grace we will hold fast to his word and that we will not compromise with the trappings of this wicked world, but that we will stand strong against that cultural pressure and stand for him. We will not compromise with the spirit of the age. We're going to preach his word and be faithful to him. This is what churches need to do. This is what individuals need to do. If you're a Christian, you must do that. Churches and Christians, professing Christians all the time, cave in so easily to the pressure. Just a little bit of persecution, a little bit of name calling, and you're caving into the pressure. We're not to cave in. The cultural pressure and emphasis here led the women there to rebel basically in one of two primary ways. One through external dress, which is an expression of internal attitudes. External dress, which is an expression of internal attitudes. Now listen, God is concerned with a heart. God is concerned with a heart, but it's the fruit of that heart that is visible oftentimes in the way that we dress, in the way that we conduct ourselves. In deportment is the old word, talking of behavior in manners, in the way that we live. External dress is an expression of internal attitudes. But two, they rebelled through abandoning the God-given role of women in the church. Let me ask you, are these issues, issues that we see even in the church today? Amen. We see these in the church. Do we from time to time even see these issues in our church? Yes. So is this teaching here from verses 8 to 15, is this teaching culturally relevant in our context today? Yeah, you better believe it is. It's very relevant. We have a lot to learn from this. We see these even today. There's nothing new under the sun, right? Such as this common demand, same problems they were facing. It's just repackaged. We have the same problems today. We need to hit this head-on and obey the Lord in these areas. And these verses have much to teach us. Men, they have much to teach you as well, so don't check out. So with this in mind, what is a godly pastor then to do? Paul is exhorting Timothy. What is Timothy to do in Ephesus? What's Paul to do? Well, Paul, as he is supposed to do in faithfulness to the Lord, begins to set forth expectations governing the behavior of women in Ephesus. And in doing so, Paul incurs the wrath of women for all the ages. He's been assaulted for centuries over this. George Bernard Shaw said that Paul is the eternal enemy of women. Is that true here? No. This is for your good, ladies, and for God's glory. And men, again, there's a lot here for you to apply. You need to apply these passages also. This is for our good and the Lord's glory. Do you cave into this pressure? No. You preach, thus saith the Lord, and you keep pressing forward. If, as it will, you can just see it. Can't you just see inexorably? We're just leading to this complete lack of tolerance, this complete hatred of Christianity, and everything that Christianity stands for. Can't you see it that at some point, preaching roles in the church, preaching modesty is going to be hate speech, right? We're going to run us out of town on a spit. We don't cave into that pressure. You preach, thus saith the Lord. The Bible's clear that sodomy is abominable in the eyes of God, and you preach that, whether others consider it to be hate speech or not. As this is the word of God, and we're to submit to the word of God. At the end of this passage, with the Lord's help, we're going to have a very clear understanding, and again, this is just a, what a gift from God, these verses. We're going to have a clear understanding of modesty, a clear understanding of biblical attitudes about sexual purity, sexual immorality, biblical attitudes toward authority, biblical attitudes with how we're to conduct ourselves as members of the opposite sex, our attitudes toward the roles that God has given us. This is intensely practical and intensely clear, and so we're going to reap a lot as we sow through this passage. Men, again, there's a lot here that you can apply. Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your soul. Engage with these verses, and allow the spirit of God to convict you of sin, to apply these truths to your heart, that you can live by them, and allow the Lord to sanctify you through it. This has everything to do with our sanctification. Allow the Lord to work and pray that he does. All right? Well, let's begin. Let's look at verse 8. We'll begin here in verse 8, and again, this will take us a couple of weeks, but let's begin here with Paul's brief instruction in one verse here to men. Verse 8, I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath, without doubting. Now, this here, he begins, I desire. That the desire there is linked to the previous passage. In the previous passage, we looked at Paul's exhortation to Timothy that we should pray for all men, because in verse 4, God desires that all men be saved. Here we see this exhortation continued with Paul's desiring to Timothy that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. This word for desire is the word bulimai. In verse 4, God says, I desire, fellow, I wish that all men be saved. It's a wish, a want, a desire on the part of God that all men be saved. This is important for us to understand here in verse 8 that bulimai is a desire. I desire or I want here for men to pray, but that's a want. That's a desire with intention, with an annotated thought, with a determined resolve. In other words, bulimai here is to be viewed as a command. It's to be viewed as a command. It's not the idea that he wishes, it's the idea that he commands that all men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. That everywhere, so we understand, refers back to in a sense the six alls that we saw in the last passage. There's a universal or an all-encompassing to this command. We're to pray everywhere. Men are to pray in every church. This is specifically talking about public prayer and the prayer that goes on in worship. But we're to pray everywhere. And everywhere that there's a church and everywhere that we are to pray publicly, all men everywhere to pray. We're to pray in this way. Now he says, lifting up holy hands. As we saw before, this was a common posture for prayer. Men stood while they prayed. People often lifted their eyes and prayed out loud, and they prayed by lifting hands. Let me ask you, knowing what we know from Scripture, is God concerned with the posture of your prayer? No. God is concerned with the heart. Here, if you look at this, this command, bulamai, I desire, I command therefore that men pray everywhere lifting up the emphasis on holy hands. The holiness. Is God concerned with the hands? No, God's concerned with the quality of those hands. The internal, if you will, nature of those hands that are expressed in this posture that we see. God is concerned with the inward reality. God is concerned with the heart. This is heart holiness. It's seen heart holiness in one sense in the fact that it is devoid of wrath and doubting, devoid of anger. It was possible at this time in Ephesus. There was so much contention going on with these false teachers that strife erupted in the church. This church was an assaulted church. It was in chaos. It was having difficulty. So there was strife going on. The word doubting there comes from chapter one. It literally means contention. They were to pray without this anger, without this strife, without this contention, without this disturbance in our hearts. We're to lift up holy hands. That is a pure heart. That is holy living. That is heart holiness. Again, God is concerned with the heart. The fruit of that is clean hands. The fruit of that is righteous living. These are clean hands versus bloody hands or dirty hands. And we know that that also expresses inward reality, don't we? As Ezekiel 3 talks about bloody hands when you fail to witness to the loss. We also know that dirty hands or unclean hands were an expression of uncleanness inwardly. These are to be clean hands and a pure heart. God is concerned with the quality of the hands, with the cleanness of the heart, not hear the posture. That is always the case. If you have claimed the name of Christ you've said I've turned for my sin. You've said I've left a life lived for myself and I have turned in faith alone to Christ. And you've left, you've abandoned your life of sin. Here, now think about it, in exhorting the men to pray lifting up holy hands what God is saying through this passage is that the prayer of men with dirty hands is unacceptable. The prayer of the wicked isn't heard by God the Bible says that we are to live in accord with our profession. When you profess the name of Christ you turn from your sin. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners but he came to save them from their sin, not in their sin. Worship from an impure heart. Worship from a heart that has not been transformed by Christ. Worship from a haughty, unrepentant heart is an abomination to God. The sacrifices of God are a broken heart and a contrite spirit. We are to repent before the Lord. We are to have holy hands. Now let me ask you, can you make your own hands holy? No. You have no righteousness of your own. You can't just clean your life up and expect that your worship is acceptable. I need to get back to reading my Bible. I just need to get back to church. I need to get back to doing this, that or the other thing. I need to quit drinking or I need to quit cussing chewing and going with the girls who are doing. I need to clean my life up. You can't clean your life up. You need Christ. You need a new life. You need a new heart. You need to be transformed by God and then worship from that transformed heart. If the Lord gives you a new heart, you will be clean, as he said to the disciples, indeed. You'll be clean. You'll be new. And that will inevitably lead to clean conduct, clean living, clean hands. That's the pure heart, the clean hands that God is talking about there. Worship of God in is simply unacceptably Him. That's why baptism, why the Lord's Supper, why self-examination is so important. We're to examine ourselves. We're to be pure. Live a holy life before Him. We need Christ. That's verse 8. Now in verse 9 here Paul begins to exhort Timothy with respect to the ladies in Ephesus. And in verses 9 through 15 looking at this passage verses 9 to 15, 6 verses here are just a beautifully arranged table. A beautifully arranged table. And you have place settings all over the table. Place settings of modesty. Place settings of self-control. Place settings of submission. Of humility. Of roles in the church. These beautiful place settings around the table. And you have a glorious centerpiece right in the middle of the table. And that's verse 10. I want you to look at that with me. Verse 10. Here Paul says to Timothy proper for women professing godliness with good works. Here's this beautifully set table. And we've got modesty and self-control and adornment and apparel and submission and humility and roles and authority. All these place settings around with this beautiful centerpiece which is fitting which is proper for women professing godliness with good works. Here this becomes a basis if you will for self-examination through this passage. This verse 10 this centerpiece is a challenge on the part of the apostle Paul to the ladies in Ephesus and to us to self-examine ourselves with respect to the things that are being taught here. It speaks of that which is proper or fitting for women professing godliness. It's where we get the title of the sermon from. Fit for godliness. The word here for proper means fitting or fit. Here's the test ladies. If we're going to view this as our centerpiece this is the challenge from Paul then here's the test. If a woman is making a claim to godliness or a profession of faith saying you're Christian then your whole life must be brought under the reality of that claim. Men the same applies to you doesn't it. If a man is making a claim to godliness making a profession of faith saying that you're in Christ claiming to be a Christian then your whole life men will be brought under the reality of that claim. That means the way that you dress here. We're going to see that. The way that you conduct yourself the way that you interact with those of the opposite sex. Your attitudes about intimacy or sexual immorality. Your attitudes about authority and submission your attitudes about the role that God has placed you into if you're here today and you're lost you have never come to Christ. You're still living in your sin. This is a challenge to you as well. If you are going to make a claim to Christ if you're going to make a claim to godliness then you must turn from your sin abandon that life of sin despise it reject it do away with it. Can't you feel the weight of it right aren't you sick and tired of living in sin. The way the transgressor the Bible says is hard. Pleasure in sin is fleeting pleasure and then the guilt comes. The condemnation comes and eventually the judgment comes. Turn from your sin abandon that life to make a claim for godliness you put your faith and trust in Christ alone to save you. You have no works that are going to commend you to God you can't do enough good you can't help enough old ladies across the street. You can't do it you must be wrapped in the righteousness of Christ you must have another's righteousness he has to clean your hands he has to clean your heart. But if you're going to make a claim to godliness if you're going to claim to be a Christian you've got to turn from your sin and put all of your hope all of your trust in Christ alone to save you. Anyone making that claim to godliness is going to submit everything that they are to him it's a submission of everything you are to a submission to all that he is. Now there are those things here if you're going to make that claim if we're going to use this as a test verse 10 then there are clearly those things in scripture which are proper that we'll discuss and that necessitates that there are those things which are improper and we'll tie those to these issues the way that you dress the way that you conduct yourself the way that you interact with members of the opposite sex your attitudes about intimacy sexual immorality authority submission roles there are those things which are proper and obviously there are those things which are not attitudes which are not proper conduct which is not proper dress which is not proper the Lord in this challenge in verse 10 the Lord in this centerpiece is calling professing Christians specifically here professing Christian women to give proof or to give evidence of their claim to godliness in these things to give evidence to give proof it's very interesting in verse 10 there the word for professing means literally promising you are when you come to Christ you are promising to be fit for godliness you're making a promise you're making a covenant with God like Job said I made a covenant with my eyes when you come to Christ you're making a covenant with your life to submit all things to be fit for godliness the Lord is concerned with His name and you're a testimony of His name you're to be fit for godliness that word means promising and you're making a promise to be godly in these areas as we look through these verses and going through this series we're going to take this centerpiece and we're going to look at each of those areas that the passage specifically addresses as we go through the series so we'll cover these points together you may want to jot these down one today we'll begin looking at outwardly fit for godliness remember the title of the sermon is fit for godliness one is outwardly fit for godliness two from these passages these verses here we're going to look at what it looks like to be inwardly fit for godliness outwardly fit for godliness and inwardly fit for godliness go so closely together you're going to see that as we walk through this verses very closely tied together but once outwardly fit for godliness for godliness, you'll be effectively fit for godliness. We'll see that, effectively fit for godliness. We see from God's word, and it's specifically here in these verses, that the Lord has deliberately fit you for godliness. Deliberately fit you for godliness. And then especially with respect to the role of women, the Lord has gloriously, ladies, has gloriously fit you for godliness. So outwardly fit for godliness, inwardly fit for godliness. Effectively fit, deliberately fit, and gloriously fit. As we go through each one of these points, each of those areas will build on the issues or the areas that have come before, and we'll inform our understanding of those. And this should, I'm praying, please be in prayer with me. This will have a dramatic impact on how we view these things. We'll have dramatic fruit in our church. Ultimately, dramatic fruit for the glory of God and for the conversion of souls. This is, these verses are God's gift to you. Just in a cursory hearing of these verses, are these verses oppressive, repressive? No, these verses, ladies, are liberating. These verses are God's good for you. They are glorious. And I want you to see that as we walk through here. Let's take a look at point one. Outwardly fit for godliness. Let's look at verse nine together. Here, after the exhortation of men, Paul says to Timothy in the church, in 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, all right? Good principle in Bible study. As you get into the word of God, you move on from milk to solid food, you're gonna study intently the word of God. First principle here is to study your context, to learn your context. From the position that Paul is taking here, we can reconstruct the problems going on in Ephesus and the problems specifically with respect to sexual impurity in this church. In chapter five, verse two, we see the women exhorted to maintain purity. In chapter five, verse six, the Bible says she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives. That word for pleasure there means to live self-indulgently. You're living for your own self-will. In chapter five, verse 11, there are younger widows in this church at Ephesus who have grown wanton against Christ. Already you can see even with that that there's a wantonness tied in here, a sexual immorality tied to this sin. In second Timothy, chapter three, verse six, there are gullible women in the church who are led away by various lusts. Again, an issue of sexual impurity. And then here, in first Timothy, chapter two, verse nine, there's an issue here of sexual purity and beginning specifically with the way that the women in the church display themselves. They're displaying themselves sensually and they are acting and dressing immodestly. Now, there's possibly two answers for this in terms of reconstructing the context at the time. One is that as we see in chapter five, they have those gullible women who are being led away by various lusts, potentially under the influence of false teachers in Ephesus and false teaching that is going on and these women are being led away by false teachers in false teaching within the church at Ephesus. That's a possibility. I think more likely is the emergence of an outside cultural influence on the church at Ephesus, not unlike the outside cultural influence that we have on the church today. This came in the form of what commentators call the Roman woman. We know from experience, from history, a recent experience, recent history, the impact of feminism on the church, the impact of the sexual revolution on the ways that people think, the ways that people act, the ways that people look at and interpret the word of God. We see those influences in our day and age. In this time, in the first entry in Ephesus, when this letter was written, there was this emerging cultural influence from outside the church called the Roman woman. What commentators today are calling the Roman woman and basically it's just a repackaged sexual revolution, a repackaged feminism, that there was this intent on the part of basically lost women, pagan women, in culture at the time to reject normal conceptions of modesty or normal conceptions of the way that women were to be. They were rejecting those and pushing forward their new desire to exert influence or to take authority for themselves. We see that in our day and age, right? See that all the time against the word of God. But that's what happened. That was what was happening at this time as well. This is, in either way, regardless of whether it came from within or without, these are the things that are not fitting here in Ephesus, not fitting for women who are professing godliness. And remember, as we go through, this was in the context, if you will, of public worship, of public prayer and affects their public testimony. Now at the beginning of verse nine, Paul begins with in like manner also. That's why I said that that word bulimai in verse eight is so important because the in like manner also points back to that command on the part of Paul. It picks up the force of that command. And so now ladies and men too, everything that we see in verses nine through 15 is going to come to us not in the form of a wish, not in the form of a preference or of an opinion on the part of Paul, as many would like to say, but in the form of a command by the Holy Spirit through the pen of Paul to us. It is a command from God that we are to obey. And it says here in like manner also that the women are to adorn themselves in modest apparel. This adorning themselves, interesting word. It's a Greek word, cosmene, meaning to adorn. It comes from the same root word that we get the word cosmos, world in Greek from. The word world literally meant an ordered system or an ordered arrangement. And so in this sense, cosmene for adorn yourselves, adorn yourself or to put yourself in good order. It's to put you in a well order, to put things in proper order. It's where we get our word cosmetic from. You're to arrange yourself properly, to put yourself in good order, good or proper order. Now the reference here specifically is to outward clothing or apparel. Your outward clothing is to be well ordered or in proper order. The opposite to this word is chaos. And which is out of order. It is confused. It's to become chaotic. Now in that sense, you've got instruction, right? In both directions. One is you don't want to go to church chaotic. Again, we're talking about public worship. You're not to go and this is internal and external. We're not to arrange ourselves chaotically. And don't we see that? I mean, sometimes you just got to walk through the mall to see some chaos going on with the way people arrange or order themselves today. We're not to be chaotic in our appearance. We're to be well ordered. You're to arrange yourself. In other words, that has the connotation doesn't it of care, of taking care with how you arrange yourself, how you order yourself, how you adorn yourself. These women were to adorn themselves. We're to adorn ourselves in modest apparel. We're to take care with that. Now it says here, modest apparel. That word apparel we want to take a look at for a moment. Dress, outer dress, outer clothing, at this time would basically communicate one of two ideas, right? Basically it was there to communicate one of two ideas. The first idea that apparel clothing would communicate was modesty or dignity. This was common, so you know, at the time. Unlike today, we would say today culturally that most of our apparel that we see is immodest, is undignified, right? That's the cultural trend. However, at this time, at this point in time, the cultural trend was, the cultural pressure was modest. Was to be dignified in your dress, right? And it communicated that for most women and especially wives, this was the common approach to dress. It was to communicate modesty and to communicate dignity, especially to communicate respect to your husband, respect to your mother, respect to your father. The acceptable garment at this time was called a stola. It's a robe, all right? It had a lot of material to it. It was designed to conceal the body. It was designed to cover the body, not designed to reveal. And again, this wearing of the stola, this robe-like garment was for the respect of a husband, of the respect of others that you would come in contact with. Respect to your brothers and sisters in the church. Again, speaking of worship here, respect to the Lord. It was designed to, and this is important, designed to conceal the body, all right? So that's one idea that dress, outward dress would communicate. The second idea that dress would communicate was promiscuous availability. Promiscuous availability or an overt subversion, a disrespect of authority. When we say promiscuous, we're talking about sexual impurity, sexual immorality. You made yourself, by your dress, sexually or sensually available to someone else. It communicated promiscuous availability. Now, that was becoming very common at the time for the Roman woman. The article of clothing that communicated this was not the stola, but the toga. The toga was a colorful garment, far less material, and it was designed, designed for the purpose of revealing the body, not concealing the body, all right? You see motive there, don't you? You see intent. In one, the motive, the intent is to conceal. In the other, the motive or the intent is to reveal. This clothing was common for prostitute. At that time, day and age, that clothing, that revealing clothing, was considered a shameful form of advertising. It was advertising, advertising a very specific thing. At the end of verse nine, Paul gives some specifics here with this clothing. He says, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing. We have at the beginning of verse nine here, this inference of revealing the body versus concealing the body. All of this together, you have to understand, in the context of the first century, communicated. If you dress this way, you are communicating your internal attitudes about sexual purity. That's what you were communicating. You're communicating availability, such that juvenile. It's a guy that wrote here. I found this quote, thought it was very interesting. There is nothing, he says, that a woman will not permit herself to do, and he's writing at this time, at the time that the letter from Paul to Timothy was written. There's nothing that a woman will not permit herself to do, nothing that she deems shameful when she encircles her neck with green emeralds and fastens huge pearls to her elongated ears. So now what's being communicated there? Is it wrong to have a set of pearl earrings? Okay, no, we're gonna talk about that. Is it wrong to get a gold ring or a gold necklace as a gift though? But now at this time, what adorning yourself extravagantly in that way, or what adorning yourself in revealing fashion communicated was there's nothing too shameful for you. Nothing that you would deem shameful, nothing that you would restrict yourself from doing, such that you were sexually or sensually available. It was the dress that communicated that heart. And that's very important to understand here. That was the two ideas that dress communicated. Now, in other words, for you here today, and to make quick application of this, and we'll make more application as the weeks go by, I'm not concerned with representing Christ here, so I'll dress however I wanna dress. I'm not concerned with being fit for godliness, and so I won't take any consideration to how I adorn myself, as the scripture says. The motivation behind this second form of clothing was to draw attention to yourself, was to draw attention away from everyone else, often it had the effect of drawing the attention of another woman's husband, and to draw attention to yourself. Today, it's not as much extravagance that does that, as it is revealing clothing. Revealing clothing draws attention to yourself, and there's an interesting contrast here. At this time in Ephesus, and we see this also in Corinth, the issue, if you will, were the women in the church rejecting cultural norms for dress and accepting this new Roman woman kind of approach to dress, all right? Today in our context, it's the opposite. It's the accepting of cultural norms for dress, and a rejecting of what would be considered biblical approach to that issue. In that day and age, clothing became a way that women would exalt themselves and subvert authority. In today's culture, we've completely changed, completely changed the idea of what beauty is, right? Today, beauty is synonymous with sensual. Beauty is synonymous with sexy. Beauty is synonymous with revealing the body, not concealing the body. It's no longer the hidden person of the heart. It is the revealed external body of a woman. Many times today, women just don't know the difference. Men, same issue, many men just don't know the difference, and we dress immodestly as defined by the scripture, all right? Talking about outward godliness here, outward fit, outwardly fit for godliness is first point. That notion, all right, is meaningless apart from the heart. Is God concerned with the article of clothing on your body? Only to the degree that he is concerned with how that expresses an inward reality, an inward attitude, an inward heart truth. The Lord is concerned with the heart, and it's interesting, go back to chapter two, look at verse nine, there's a word here that is used that the Holy Spirit chooses very specifically, and I love this, in like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel. That word there for apparel is the word katastale in Greek. Katastale literally means down, it's a compound word, down robe, it talks about this stola, this large robe, this robe that the women wore at the time. But it also carries the idea of an inward reality that goes along with that, and it's very interesting here. It means literally the idea of keeping something in check to be reserved or to operate with restraint. The word is an outward word expressing the clothing, but also has with it the inward reality, or the inward understanding of restraint or reserved, or keeping yourself in check, self-control. This word, or the dress here that we're talking about, this exhortation from Paul to Timothy, has carried with it throughout this verse, is going to carry with it a sexual or a sensual connotation, all right? Restraint in clothing is to be accompanied by a restraint in your attitude. In other words, restraint and attitude should impact what you wear. The issue in the heart should impact how you adorn yourself. Those two things have to go together. And the old word that we use for that is deportment, deportment or comportment. Deportment speaks to your behavior, your manners, the level to which you conduct yourself with respect. Again, it's carefully chosen by the Holy Spirit. Let me give you an example of where we see that word, that concept in scripture. Go to 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter three. 1 Peter chapter three. It reminds me of Proverbs 31, where Solomon says that strength and honor are her clothing. You have this concept of outward apparel matched with an inward reality. Here we see that in 1 Peter chapter three, verse three through six. Where here Peter says, do not let your adornment be merely outward, arranging the hair, wearing gold or putting on fine apparel. There's that word apparel. Rather, 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. For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror. In other words, if you've got a Christian woman who has a heart on fire for God, she's humble to the word of God, she loves the Lord. She is fervent for the Lord. She desires from the heart to live for him. She's bringing her thinking and her conduct under the authority of God's word. You don't have to worry about how she dresses because that dress is an outward expression of an inward reality that's already there. The dress is going to fall into place. Strengthen, honor her clothing, and she expresses that in the way that she outwardly adorns or apparels herself. Now that saying that, the Holy Spirit using this word to convey this meaning means that your clothing, ladies, because again, we're talking about outwardly fit for Godliness. We'll get on to inwardly fit here soon. Your clothing will reflect a deeper set of values. If you're a Christian, your clothing will reflect Christian values. If you claim to be a Christian and yet your clothing is not reflecting Christian values, there's a disconnect. Clothing is to reflect Christian values. It is to be rejecting of the popular culture. It's to stand opposed to the popular culture, opposed to that influence. And you gotta think about it. Who is dressing you? Are you being dressed in that sense, adorned by the word of God? Fit for Godliness or is Paris dressing you? Is Vogue dressing you? Is New York dressing you? Is the culture dressing you? Who's dressing you? You must have a valuation. In order for this to be understood and true in your life to have a good biblical understanding of this, as a Christian woman, and guys, you can apply this to yourself as a Christian man, you must have a different valuation of beauty than the world has. It has to be different. The world's valuation of beauty is so opposed to God's valuation of beauty. It must be different. If you think to yourself, well, I think this looks beautiful. Because of what you see in magazines or on TV or in the movies or what you see everybody wearing around the mall or wherever, listen, you're gonna be swept into that way of thinking. You're gonna be swept under that cultural tide of what is beautiful. You need to allow the word of God. You need to allow God to inform you of what is beautiful. And that is tied very closely to sexual immorality. Let's look at another example quickly together, Isaiah chapter three. I wanna give you a negative example of this. The Lord in the Old Testament rebuked Israel for it too. So, let's we think that this is only a New Testament issue? Lord rebuked Israel for it too. And we've got to see the negative example here as well so we can come to grips with this. This is so intensely close to, tied to sexual immorality. It's very important that we understand how these things fit together. In Isaiah chapter three, look at verse 16. Isaiah chapter three, verse 16. Here, moreover the Lord says, because the daughters of Zion are, what is that word? Hotty, prideful, self-willed, calling attention to themselves, wanting to draw attention to themselves, are prideful. Because the daughters of Zion are hotty and walked with outstretched necks, and here it is, wanton eyes, pointing to sexual immorality, the sensual reasons that we dress the way we do, walking and mincing as they go, making a jingling with their feet, they had anklets on their ankles. Verse 17, therefore the Lord will strike them with a scab. The crown of the head of the daughters of Zion and the Lord will uncover, and here it is again, this inference to sexual immorality, he'll uncover their secret parts. He'll bear their shame, so to speak. Verse 18, in that day, the Lord will take away the finery, the jingling anklets, the scarves and the crescents. By the way, who gave those things to them? The Lord God did. Remember, I think it's Ezekiel 16, when the baby struggling in its blood, the Lord cleaned the baby, washed the baby, cared for the baby, gave her a ring for her nose, right? Put bracelets on her wrists, anklets on her ankles. The Lord provided these, but these women in Israel at this time, used what the Lord gave as a blessing and turned it into a curse. They, for their own pride, for their own self-will, turned these things into something that is corrupt. Look at verse 19, the pendants, the bracelets and the veils, the headdresses, the leg ornaments and the headbands, the perfume boxes, the charms and the rings, the nose jewels, the festal apparel and the mantles, the outer garments, the purses, wow, man. The mirrors, the finelin and the turbines and the robes, right? And so it shall be, instead of a sweet smell, which it once may have been, there will be a stench. There'll be judgment here for doing this, instead of a sash, a rope. Again, is God concerned with the outward apparel? God's concerned with the outward apparel to the degree that it expresses an inward corruption, an inward wickedness. It's the heart that matters to God. Instead of well-set hair, baldness. Instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth and branding instead of beauty. Your men shall fall by the sword and you're mighty in the war. This is judgment of God. This is, again, a negative example. We must be careful to honor God in the outward expressions of our inner faith, our inner godliness. I saw this quote by John Chrysostom. I thought this was very appropriate and something to consider and please consider it carefully. Here's what Chrysostom said. You carry your snare everywhere and spread your nets in all places. Now he's talking specifically, ladies, here to you. Men can do this as well, right? You carry your snare. You have a snare that you carry everywhere, he says, and spread your nets in all places. You allege that you never invited others to sin. You did not, indeed, by your words, but you have done so by your dress and by your deportment. When you have made another sin in his heart, how can you be innocent? Tell me, whom does this world condemn? Whom do judges punish? Those who drink poison or those who prepare it and administer the fatal potion? You have prepared the abominable cup. You have given the death-dealing drink and you are more criminal than are those who poison the body. You murder not the body, but the soul and it is not to enemies you do this, nor are you urged on by any imaginary necessity nor provoked by injury, but out of foolish vanity and pride. This is a dangerous thing. This is something that was going on in Ephesus, but I would submit to you, this goes on all over the place in professing churches today. It's something that we must take to heart. Ultimately here, this is about coming well-ordered, well-arranged for worship. We must be fit for Godliness. Again, all of this depends on the heart. All of this depends on the heart. You can be outwardly modest and inwardly like a ravenous wolf. Again, it is the heart. It's not saying that you must come to church in a burlap sack or slovenly or indifferent, but properly with the right motive, with the right heart. It's not saying that everyone should come to church on a three-piece suit with a pocket watch or that you need to wear your prom dress. You have to dress nicely with the right heart, expressing that which is communicated from the heart. We know that 1 Samuel, right? 1 Samuel 16, 7 says that God does not look on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. God looks on the heart. How do I know that I'm dressed right? How do you know? How do you know if you're dressed right? Examine your heart. Check your heart. Labor to avoid sensual attention. Labor to avoid communicating something sensually. Show me a woman whose heart is fit for godliness and you don't have to worry about what she dresses. Examine your heart, examine your motives and the heart will dictate that outward expression. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, Lord God, I thank you Lord for this practical teaching, God, from your word. Just amazed at you, Lord, at the economy of words with which you teach us. Got amazed by the Holy Spirit at your choice of words and how carefully framed and how beautifully communicative they are in teaching us about these things. God, you are so genius for it. Brilliant, omnipotent, all wise. God, and we worship you and praise you for that. God, thank you for this. Thank you for your help in understanding these things. God, I pray for soft hearts in response to this. God, I pray for humility. I pray for great care. Lord, we want to be a sexually pure church. We don't want to allow Satan to have a foothold in our church with respect to sexual immorality. We want to be pure before you. God, set apart from sin, worshiping you, praising you. God, as your word that you be worshiped with a pure heart and with clean hands and by your spirit, according to your grace and mercy, God, help us to do this for your glory. Help us to do this, Lord, as a testimony to those who are outside. God, help us to stand steadfast, opposed to the torrent flow of this culture around us that is so wicked and so opposed to your word. We want to draw a line in the sand, God, a stake in the ground and fend off those fiery darts of the wicked one that we might be a genuine trophy, God, of your grace and mercy to us. This is for your namesake so that those nations will see you, God, hallowed in our eyes that we might be worthy of the calling with which you've called us. Thank you for this time. Thank you for these dear brothers and sisters. God, what a joy it is to serve alongside them. And I pray that you would bless them, bless the labor of their hands in your vineyard, God, and continue to bless and preserve this church to the salvation of souls and for your everlasting praise and worship. In Jesus' name, amen.