First Timothy lesson 12
1 Timothy · Mike Doyle · Oct 13, 2024
1 Timothy, No. 35
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261936538002

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, does everybody have Lesson 12? Titus what? There should be First Timothy Lesson 12. Do you have one? Everybody else have one? Okay. I'll wait a minute until... So, Mike, do they say... What are the questions? What are the verses? No, that's not right. It's 1 Timothy lesson 12, verses 9 and 10. Okay. Donna's gonna run and get some copies. But that's, we can start because we're really talking, we're in the vein of, let's see if I can get up. Just for grins, see how well you, Remember, what is 2 Timothy all about? 2 Timothy chapter 2, what's it about? I'm sorry? I'm sorry, 1 Timothy chapter 2, what's the chapter about so far? It's largely been about prayer, prayer for all men. We covered a lot of what it means to pray for those that are in power, leaders. We're moving towards a section now that has a lot to do with the various roles of men and women. And you're going to help us understand what that means.

Sure. So that actually was my first question in your handout, was what does the phrase or the word in verse nine when it says, likewise or in like matter, matter, manner, tell us about the context we have been in. So what it really means is that in continuing my same discussion, but now I'm going to bring in a new element. And the new element, he's still running along on the same plane. And it has to do with, one commenter said, it has to do with a public assembly of worship and how how people should, believers should conduct themselves in such a manner.

And he's talked about men and leaders up to this point, but now he's gonna change. This is Courtney's favorite verses. He said to me the other night, I'm really glad you're teaching this, because I would have a tough time coming out of the brethren group. This was a big issue in the brethren. Yeah. So, verse nine says, likewise, That's in like manner.

I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly and not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments. Now, it's interesting because I think this is one of those areas where society dictates how we dress and depending on where you move in society will determine what you think is okay clothing-wise or not. So what I thought about doing was going through a series of pictures from a burka on one side to the way high school kids dress today on the other side. and somewhere in between. And the farther you go from a burka to high school kids, the less clothes there are. It's just amazing. So the first thing I want to talk about is the word adorn. All of your translations say, I want women to adorn themselves. What's the word adorn mean? Really interesting word.

It's cosmeo, which we get the word cosmos from. And what's the word cosmos mean? The world system. But cosmeo, what's the antithesis of cosmos? Adornment basically means an ordered system an apt or harmonious arrangement or constitution or order. Okay, so when we read, and this word is all through Paul's epistles, when we read about the cosmos, we're talking about the world system. And sometimes I think that we don't realize how organized, how well organized it is in an assault against us. It's very well organized.

So what would you think was the antithesis, which means the opposite of cosmos, or of, in this case, an ordered system? The antithesis is chaos. The antithesis of an ordered system is a system in absolute chaos, kind of like our government is today. It's chaos. So one of the guys I was listening to said, well, it's like a woman getting up in the morning and looking in the mirror. All she sees is chaos. And so she's got to get it in order. Cosmos.

Well, and the Greek writers use this word for ornaments and decoration or adornment. The verb means to put in order or to arrange or to make ready. So it's interesting that Paul uses this word when he says, I want women to, let's transliterate it, to put an order or arrange or make ready with proper clothing. Yeah. Because he's assuming that if they don't, then they're in chaotic clothing. Okay. So far so good.

So It's interesting that when you look at the New Testament, the Greeks always thought that the original creation was cosmos. It was in order. But as time went on, it became chaotic because all of these gods couldn't get their act together. So they view the world from the beginning as being in an order or in a manner in which there was order. And from a biblical standpoint, the Garden of Eden before the fall was totally in order. Everything was cosmos, right? Nothing was out of sync. But when Adam sinned, what happened? Chaos. Everything just got jumbled, okay? No order, nothing. I mean, when you look at the, just look at Genesis and how careful God had the order there. And then when Adam sins, everything just turns.

Yeah, sure is. Sure is. Now, what's interesting is the Bible looks at the When we talk about the order of this world or the cosmos of this world, if Satan has dominion, you would think that his program would be chaotic, but it's not. It's very organized and it's in order. When you're seduced by the world system, it's orderly, it's not chaotic. you may be in chaos, but that system that attacks us isn't.

Put these words together, it's evilly in order. So the problem is that once that system, as we look around, though, in the world, I think the world's probably been, or the earth has probably been in existence for maybe 7,000 years. Every society ends up in a chaos. Nothing lasts. Everything is moving towards dying, except Satan, and he's got an agenda, and it's orderly. Then comes the Lord Jesus.

And this resurrected life we have in Christ is totally orderly, because the life that's there is orderly and put together, and it's an ordered system. the resurrected life of Christ as an ordered system. Our problem is we have chaos living within us and an ordered system living within us, and sometimes we really like the chaos. And so, what Paul is talking about here has really, I'll get to that point in a minute. But the thing is, is that proper adornment should line up with the order of the resurrected life.

But it's the only place I know of in God's word where he kind of lays it out. And he specifically targets women. and how, but not from a standpoint of do this or die, because he'll talk about in a little bit what the motivation should be. But the point is, is that, well, put it this way, where does the word cosmetic come from?

Cosmos, to put in order, you know? This morning I was combing my hair and I think, man, I need several strokes to get the chaos out of my head. Any questions about that? Because this is kind of a lead in. I want women to adorn themselves. In other words, I want them orderly. Who determines, from a Christian standpoint, how a woman should dress? Okay, Christian woman. Yeah. Yeah, and we're going to—what Paul lays out here is what he expects.

Now, I can form a denomination that if you don't wear a burqa, you're somehow sinning. A burqa is a Muslim where the women hide everything but this little slit right here, you know? So, I never have figured out why they do that. You know, how do they ever find out, a man and a woman, how do they ever get together if all the women are walking around in tents?

Probably, probably. So there's another added meaning attached here, question three, can you see it? What was the question there, Mike? Sorry. The question was that there's another added meaning attached here. Can you see it? I just said that Paul's saying indicates that the adornment of a Christian woman should be one in which order is in order and not disorder. And this orderly must not extend merely to the relationship of various articles of wearing apparel to one another, but also to the relationship of that apparel to her Christian character and testimony. That's also here.

I was just reading from the Bible Knowledge Commentary a little bit here while you're speaking, and he says, these terms stress not so much the absence of sexual suggestiveness, though it is included, but rather an appearance that is simple, moderate, judicious and free from ostentation, meaning boastfulness, right? And they say that it's not that these things are wrong in and of themselves, meaning braided hair, gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but they become inappropriate when they indicate misplaced values. So when you are representing something that is a value to you and suggesting something through that dress and that approach, meaning how you clothe yourself, when your values are misplaced and you're indicating a representation of those values that are not aligned with the Christian values, then you're suggesting a chaos. I thought that was really good because the way a person dresses, well in this case the way a woman dresses, should demonstrate her faith and her character. Now, if I say you can't do that unless you wear brown shoes, I've just put something on there that's what I think my standard is rather than what the Word of God standard is.

Let's go to the other end of the spectrum. Let's say you're a woman that never takes care of herself, and you always wear dirty clothes, and they're wrinkled, and they're frumpy, and maybe you take a shower once in a while, and you look terrible. That's just, that's the other side of the same spectrum. What does someone who dresses like that, what kind of image do they project? They don't care. No discipline, no order.

See that? On the other side, we say, well, How about being overdressed? A woman overdresses because she wants to give the image that she's wealthy or that she's connected or influential or that she's studious or that she's projecting what her real intention is in her heart by her clothes. See that?

So if I went to church in Texas and didn't wear cowboy boots, I'd be out of place. But do the cowboy boots matter about your Christian behavior? Yes. Well, you're from Texas, you would think so. So did your son. I'm just kidding. But yeah, I think a lot of this has to do with the context of the church at that time, right?

There was a lot of prostitution in the presence of the temple. And so there was a specific style that those women would adorn themselves or unadorn themselves with to suggest the values that they were trying to portray, meaning just that. And so, Pagan culture today is different, but it's still similar in a lot of ways. And so there has to be an attention to that for Christian women in the same sense.

It doesn't mean that you can't wear your grandmother's pearls. Does it mean that you don't braid your hair? Well, that doesn't symbolize that same suggestiveness as it did in those days, but it did for them. And for Paul and for Timothy, that was the suggestive makeup of a woman in that time.

So we might have to say different things that are very similar, but it really goes to that emphasis of what the external is saying versus what the internal value of that woman is. It would make sense to us that what our internal values are would determine how we'd look, right? Or not.

If I'm unkept all the time, it says something about my character. It says something about, why do you think the military has everybody dressed the same? Because they want to project an image of discipline to a boarding high school, right? In the first two years there, we all had to wear khaki pants, a buttoned shirt, a white shirt, and sometimes a blazer, a jacket.

You know how we distinguish between what we thought a guy was cool in his clothing or not? By the shoes he wore. And there was a whole group of kids over here that they liked this guy's shoes, so the next semester they all had that same kind of shoe. And there was another group over here that liked another guy's kind of shoes, and they all had those kind of shoes.

So we really are creatures of habit, and we want to fit in. And so Paul is saying, this is not an issue of fitting in. This is an issue of what you believe and where you are. And you're an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ, and how would he have you present yourself to represent him? That's really where we are. That's what he's talking about here. And question, who teaches a 15-year-old how their daughters ought to dress. Who's responsible for that? Their moms. You ever notice how, if you have a good Christian family, that the girls all dress like their mom. You know, she's the one that sets the tone and sets the determination.

In a non-Christian home, the mom may dress appropriately, but their kids, I mean, you should come up to where I live and go into King Soopers, which is one block from Cherry Creek High School, when those kids are in the store. I mean, it's like, really? This is what you're not wearing? So it's not them, it's their moms, if they have a mom. So the point is that what you wear must be appropriate and fitting to and consistent with who you are as a child of God. How about them?

Well, they don't have any money to, and a lot of times their clothes are dirty. Okay. Um, that's the world system putting an effect on them. Yeah. I worked in a mission in Larimer street for two years and there were people down there that had no money. Some of them are homeless that lived under a bridge, but when they came to church, they were clean and their clothes were nice. Now, one of the things we did in the mission is hand out free clothes and shoes.

And very seldom would someone come into that place that was just filthy, dirty and, you know, and even the women. You know, there was something about the aura of the place where the Word of God was being taught that they just knew better somehow that they didn't come in there. If somebody came in there, you know, who had been drinking all morning, well, we hustled them out of there, you know. The point that I'm making is that if you want to, it'll happen.

The other thing, Mike, is this has nothing to do with salvation or your relationship with the Lord. This is organizational within the body. It has nothing to do with salvation. The homeless, the ultra-rich, It has nothing to do with salvation. This is in the meeting or the body, an operation of the body. And so the homeless question is null with the relationship to salvation.

You can be ultra-rich and be dressed to the hilts and do everything and come to know the Lord. This is more operational and organizational within the body. I agree with you about salvation, but I don't agree with you about the way you present yourself as a believer, you're closed. Paul wouldn't have it in here if it wasn't an issue. Let me give you another example.

Anybody know who Harold Hughes is? He was a senator from Iowa, and he was a Christian, and he was on the street as a young man. Well, every street person back in the 70s knew who he was. So he came to Denver, and we invited him down to the mission. Guess how he showed up? Mission clothes, old pants, old shirt. Remember him? But neat, you know? And he had one of those booming voices, you know, and he got up and talked. And everybody knew about him and paid really close attention to him, but because he used to be a street person, he understood and he didn't...

Oh, this guy lives in Florida, why would I answer? He understood. that just because you have to go to a mission a couple of times a week or you're on the street, it doesn't mean you can't present yourself as a Christian. Orderly, not necessarily new, not necessary, but clean and orderly because you don't want to present yourself with chaos.

It goes back to the question you went over, which, speaking from years of this, is who determines that? Well, that's the next question. I know. And that is the million-dollar question. Okay. Before I get to that, how would you describe the word modest? It just means well-arranged. That's all it means. It's seemly. Nobody's going to question why you're wearing what you're wearing.

But question five says, does Paul give a woman here freedom to choose their clothing? Yes or no? I do think yes. And the reason I do is because there is, in verse 10, there's a rather. And that rather points to what should be externally made known more than anything that you wear. And that is the deeds that you are involved in. Are they proper? Do they make that claim to godliness or do they not?

And that woman has to decide each and every one individually how those align with the the image of Christ that they're united in. You know, I'm of a mind here, I thought about this question a long time before I asked it. You know, what really determines, addressing other things in your life that determine you being an ambassador of the Lord Jesus? What does it determine, or how does a lot of that determine? I think it's determined by your intimacy with Christ.

If you have one, and he is precious to you, and you recognize that what it costs God to save you, and that you understand grace and you walk in that grace, then How you dress is just a minor thing. What you do and how you live your life speaks volumes to those around you, and you don't have to really say much. You know, you should be ready to give the gospel, but you should be prepared. But that doesn't necessarily mean that, you know, you're not walking around buttonholing people all the time, but people know who you are by what you do and where you go and where you don't go, you know. A lot of times it's where you don't go.

It is a lot of that, too. And if you think about yourself being a witness, being an ambassador, like you said, and communicating an intimacy with Christ, you're going to do certain things. You're going to order yourself in such a way that it will align with the message that you have. I really do believe that that is the heart and soul of what Paul is communicating to Timothy here. I want women to align themselves with who they are in Christ so that their good deeds and their good works as being understood by others who are not believers can align that message with the way that you present yourself physically.

If you have an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus, those of you who are married, you have an intimate relationship with your spouse, you really don't want to do anything that's unpleasant to them or that you would cause them consternation. So, if I have a relationship or you have a relationship, not just that you're saved, but there is an actual living relationship and intimacy with the Lord Jesus, then you're concerned that everything you do is representative of who your Savior is, and dress as part of that. You know, when I was first a Christian, I was used to cussing all the time. And I was, you know, challenged about it several times, and the Lord had to take it off of me. Not that I still don't cuss, I do once in a while. But the point is, is that it was not indicative of who I was now as a believer.

You know? I don't go to certain places that I used to go to all the time. I don't hang around with people. I have a tough time hanging around with non-believers. I don't know if that's just because I'm stubborn or what, but I really do. I can't carry on a conversation that long with a non-believer, because after they get done talking about themselves, what am I going to talk about? If I mention the Lord Jesus, well, they don't want to talk about that. So how do you communicate with a non-believer on an extended period of time? It's hard, I think, you know. Why do we come together on Sunday morning in a body of believers for fellowship? One of the reasons is that the world out there we have less and less association with it. It doesn't fulfill your needs. The Lord Jesus is the focus of what you do and you like being around other human beings that have the same attitude about that as you do.

Like last week when we were in Seattle, we went out of our way, we drove two and a half, or an hour and a half north to a small town to sit with a guy that I'd never met before that is a godly man. And I knew, I know him through a website that I have for Myles Stanford books. And we had a great time with that guy, sat in his backyard or a side yard, and we just talked about the Lord for two hours, he and his wife and Don and myself. It was a highlight of the trip in my mind.

Why? Because you're like-minded with somebody like that, you know? It's the same way with everything you do, the way you dress. Let's say you're really, really wealthy. If you go around flaunting your wealth as a wealthy believer, what does that tell someone in the world who you are? would like to influence for the Lord Jesus.

There isn't a whole lot of difference between you and them. God will allow people to get wealthy when he knows that wealth won't overtake them and be their idol. At the same time, there's nothing wrong with being poor, you know? because your value system is the Lord Jesus, not your bank account. And by the way, even with poor people who are believers, God meets their needs, all of them. you know, not your wants, your needs. There's a big difference. Donna's dad used to say, when your, how did he say it? When your wants become your needs, can chaos be far behind?

So, make it clear. God has very specifically said here, you women can, you know, you make the decision. That's your decision. But here's who you are, and here's what your Christian life is all about, so you make your decision based on that. You see the point? Okay. All right, we'll tackle some of the other words here. The word discreetly or decency or propriety adds more to the understanding And again, I asked, do you see it? Well, we better stop. I just noticed it's quarter till.

So I don't think that I'm, how do I say this? spending too much time on this subject, because I really think that how you present yourself, clothing or otherwise, to a world that you would, like previous verses, that God wishes that none should perish but all come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, if you're no different than the world, then what are you offering?

You know, because really, when you give someone the gospel, what are you asking them to do? I want you to leave where you are. and come to Christ. We have in Christendom today is kind of the mindset is I'm going to come in and I'm going to adjust myself in your environment and then when you're off guard, I'm probably going to be able to give you the message and you'll get saved. No, the message that goes out is walk out of sin and come to Christ. And it's not just adding salvation onto you, it's a new life. And that life, even to something as simple as how you dress, is part of the manifestation of that life to the world. That's close.

Father, how we thank you for your word. I think without your word, there's a lot of these things that we would be guessing about or just not really solid about. But we're thankful that you Number one, that You've saved us, but also that You intend to conform us to the Lord Jesus Christ, which is beyond understanding, really. What is that going to be like? But we're thankful that You're very orderly, extreme orderly, and that conformity to the Lord Jesus means exactly that, to be like Him. And we pray in His precious name. Amen.