So tonight I'm going to be preaching on the subject of female preachers, female preachers.
Now even just a casual reading of 1st Timothy chapter 2 should already just completely settle
this issue of female pastors.
But yet today, for some bizarre reason, this is controversial.
In fact, just in the last couple of weeks, the Southern Baptist Convention has been wrestling
with this issue, and they had this big vote, and it was really controversial about whether
or not they should kick out the churches in the Southern Baptist Convention that have
women as pastors.
And ultimately, they decided not to kick them out of the Southern Baptist Convention.
And this kind of boggles my mind, because I grew up as a Baptist, and the way that I
was raised was to go to the Bible to learn what truth is.
And even as a little kid, I was taught that I could understand the Bible.
You know, I'm so glad that when I was growing up as a little kid, I didn't have people tell
me, "Oh, you can't understand the Bible."
Hey, be careful, little Stephen, with that Bible, because, you know, you might get hurt.
You don't know what you're doing there.
You know, I was never taught to be wary of the Bible or that I needed a bunch of help
to understand the Bible, or that I couldn't figure out the Bible.
No, you know, I was taught that God wanted to speak to me and that He was going to speak
to me through the Bible, and that God had something to say to me, and that as a saved
Christian, I was qualified to pick up the Bible and read it.
And I was just always encouraged to just believe it, just read it, believe it.
And you know what?
Let me tell you something.
The Bible is written to you, the Bible's written to me, the Bible's written to all
of us.
It's not written just for specialists or experts or scholars or academics.
The Bible is written to be read by the common man and understood.
Now obviously there are advanced things in the Bible which is great because that way
no matter how smart you get, or no matter how smart you think you get, you will always
find an intellectual challenge in the Bible because there are some things in the Bible
that are difficult or high level.
But in general, the Bible is designed to where everybody can enjoy it, everybody can read
it, everybody can learn from it.
The Bible is for you, it's for me, and it's how God speaks to us.
And so I grew up as a kid just letting God speak to me through the Bible.
And so, you know, as a kid I really gravitated toward the books of 1st and 2nd Timothy just
because they were so relevant and they just seemed so powerful and hard-hitting and easy
to understand, and they seemed like they were geared toward young men.
And so as a child, as a teenager, I gravitated toward these books especially.
And I mean, just reading 1st Timothy chapter 2, the thought never entered my mind, "I wonder
if God wants women to be pastors of churches."
Because that thought never would enter anyone's mind just reading this chapter.
But yet today there are those who will rest the scriptures.
They will twist the scriptures because they go into the Bible with a preconceived idea
of what they want to believe.
And then they push that interpretation into the Bible instead of just taking the Bible
for what it says.
Now, if you look down at your Bible there in 1st Timothy chapter 2, it says in verse
11, "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
That I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in
silence."
He says, "Look, women need to learn in silence with all subjection.
I don't allow them to teach.
I don't allow them to usurp authority over the man.
They are to be in silence."
And of course, we have another passage over in 1st Corinthians chapter 14 that says, "Let
your women keep silence in the churches.
It's not permitted under them to speak."
I mean, these are so clear in what they say, but yet people won't accept it.
So what does the other side have to say about this?
You know, what's the argument when the Bible is just so clear and straightforward?
You know, recently I saw someone post this scripture because the scripture just speaks
for itself.
They just posted it without commentary.
They just posted these two verses because they said, "Dear Southern Baptist Convention,"
and just these two verses, you know, "Sincerely," whatever, "The Apostle Paul."
Here, let me just fix everything.
You know, if only there were a book that would somehow tell the Southern Baptist Convention
whether or not women should be pastors.
And then the response was, "Well, that's out of context.
It's out of context."
Okay, so let's talk about this for a minute, okay?
What does context mean?
Well, even just the word itself kind of defines itself.
It's a self-explanatory term because the context, con, is a prefix that means with, like together,
right?
I mean, in Spanish, it's literally what the word cone means, right, with.
So the context is the text that is with what you're reading.
The text that is with it is its context, the other text that it's there with.
Does anybody have any questions?
Pretty simple, right?
So let's let's look and see if there's anything in the context that would somehow negate the
straightforward reading of this text.
It says in let's go all the way back to verse one.
I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, giving of thanks be
made for all men, for kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet
and peaceable life and all godliness and honesty for this is good and acceptable in the sight
of God our savior who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of
the truth for this one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus
who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time.
Now so far I'm not seeing any feminism here, I'm not seeing any women's rights, I am woman,
hear me roar, suffragettes, you know I'm just reading about how God wants everyone to be
saved and how Jesus Christ died for everybody.
Whereunto I'm ordained a preacher and an apostle, I speak the truth in Christ and lie not a
teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.
I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.
So verses one through seven, the apostle Paul is just speaking universally about mankind.
You know when the Bible says that he'll have all men to be saved it's just talking about
mankind, you know not respective of gender, right?
It's men in the sense of just humans, but then when we get to verse eight we're specifically
talking about the male gender here, you know.
I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.
And then in verse nine we get the flip side of that and we talk about the women.
In like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shame, facelessness
and sobriety, not with broided hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but which becomeeth
women professing godliness with good works.
So he says that he does not want the women to be dressed in such a way or to be adorned
in such a way where they're screaming for attention, "Hey, look at me, I'm all glittery
and shiny and, you know, I'm trying to show off my body."
No, it's saying that they should be in modest apparel with shame-facedness, sobriety.
They should be dressed in a way that's serious.
They should be serious about doing good works and not just trying to just say, "Hey, look
at me, I'm here in a flashy outfit."
Okay?
That's the context because now we're into the relevant verse.
"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection, but I suffer not a woman to teach, nor do
the usurp authority over the man to be in silence, for Adam was first formed, then Eve."
Period.
Well, that's a short little punchy verse.
"Adam was formed first, then Eve."
You know, well, why though?
You know, why do men get to be the pastors?
Why are men leading the church?
Why are men doing the preaching in the house of God?
Why don't we have the women preaching and the women pastoring and so forth?
Well, because Adam was formed first, then Eve.
Well, what kind of an argument is that?
God's argument.
The Bible's argument.
The Apostle Paul's argument.
As far as I'm concerned, it's a case closed.
Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression, notwithstanding
she shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness
with sobriety.
And then just when he finishes saying women should not teach or usurp authority over the
man they should learn in silence, then he gets into the qualifications for the bishop,
who is obviously supposed to be a man, which is why he's supposed to be the husband of
one wife.
And God just finished telling us that the woman should learn in silence, okay, here's
the man that should be running things, the bishop.
He is going to be blameless.
Verse two of chapter three, the husband of one wife, that's the context.
There you go.
It's in.
Did we put it in context or what?
We read the entire chapter.
We even spilled into chapter three.
We understand the context, but you have to understand that when the libtards of this
world tell you, well, you're taking that out of context, they don't mean what I just showed
you.
Like what I just showed you, I mean, I think that's what context means, right?
Like if someone took a quote of mine out of context, it would mean they didn't give the
entire speech that I made or they didn't give the entire thought and they just took one
little statement or one little sentence out of context instead of giving the surrounding
like 10 minutes or 5 minutes or 20 minutes, right?
To provide context.
But no, no, no, that's not what they mean when they say context.
Here's what they mean when they say context.
They mean the historical context, the cultural context.
Now here's the problem with this idea of putting the Bible in its proper historical and cultural
context.
Here's the problem with that, number one, the Bible transcends history and transcends
culture.
The Bible is not limited to just a certain time and a certain place and a certain mentality.
This book was not intended for Timothy to read it and then he's just self-destructs
when he's done reading it.
You know, when you're a Timothy, if you choose to accept your mission of pastoring, then
you know, this is going to self-destruct in 10 seconds.
You know, my friend, this book is written for us.
It didn't have an expiration date.
It wasn't just for back then, that history, that culture.
It transcends culture and history.
The Bible is timeless.
Okay, that's number one.
But here's an even bigger reason why this context argument doesn't hold any water is
that we know almost nothing about the culture at the time that this book was written.
See, that's the elephant in the room that people aren't going to talk about is that
we know extremely little about the culture of even when this book was written, which
is the late first century AD, right?
Late first century.
So you know, 1900 some years ago or whatever.
But what's funny is that these same people will try to tell you about the culture even
at the time of Abraham, 4000 years ago, you know, they'll try to tell you about the culture
at the time of King David, 3500 years ago or something, or excuse me, 3000 years ago.
Moses 3500 years ago.
You know, there is virtually no evidence for these things that they're telling you when
they tell you, well, let, you know, let me give you the culture of the first century.
If you actually ask them to give you first hand sources and give you actually primary
sources for that information, you'll find that there's very little to go on.
You know, you got a few Roman dudes laying around in togas, writing a bunch of queer
bait poetry, and you got a bunch of, you know, just little scraps here, a letter here, an
essay there, and it's written by only very small segments of the population.
You know, Joe Plummer, Joe Sixpack, he wasn't writing in the first century AD anything that
you can read today.
You don't know how normal people lived.
You don't know how the common man lived because you have some letters from some senator.
You got a few historians here and a few poets there and a few ethnographies here and there.
Folks, there is so little evidence it will blow your mind.
When it comes to the Old Testament, there's not little evidence.
There's just no evidence.
There is literally no evidence about the culture of ancient Israel other than the Bible.
I'm serious.
It's not like, well, here's some magazines that were popular around the time of Abraham
and Sarah.
You know, here's some magazines that the children of Israel would have read while they were
in Egypt or something.
There's nothing.
There's not even a single scrap.
There's not even anything about ancient Israel except the Bible.
So if you want to know about the culture of the ancient Israelites, you have to read it
in the Bible.
And then, sure, when you get to the time of Christ, you have a little bit more.
You've got, you know, some Greco-Roman stuff, like I said.
You've got some Greco-Roman literature.
But again, 99.9% of the evidence is lost, 99% of the evidence is missing, 99% of the
data isn't there.
You know, you can't really make judgments about what the culture was like at the time
of Christ because there's not enough evidence.
And especially if you're going to turn around and say, "Well, I know the Bible just flat
out says this, but here, let me take this tiny little shred of evidence to just turn
it on its head because we've got to put this in the context of the culture."
Here's how, you know, and by the way, it's the same thing with the passage in Ephesians
5 about wives obeying their husbands or submitting to their husbands.
Well, you know, you've got to put that in its proper historical and cultural context.
Okay, here's what's funny is that we think that we know something about how husbands
and wives interacted back then or something like that.
But here's my question, you know, how many female authors have survived from the first
century AD?
There's virtually nothing written by women.
You know, I mean, look, I studied a lot of Latin poetry in the original language, and
it was like, at one point it was like, this is the one female Latin author we have.
I think it was like, I don't know, less than 20 lines of poetry.
This is the only Latin female author that we have from the first century AD.
So it sounds like we're getting a really limited perspective here if we're not hearing from
any women at all, virtually, OK?
How many famous female Greek authors are there?
You know, how many slaves are we hearing from?
You know, how many just Joe Blow kind of working class type people?
No, we're just hearing from a few rich, toga clad, partying weirdo Romans.
And then we're going to know, you know, what the culture is or whatever.
I mean, come on.
I mean, that'd be like if one TV show survived or something from 2024 and you're just going
to claim like this is the culture of America or something, you know?
And it's like, well, it would depend on what show it was or whatever.
How weird it is, you know?
But no matter what show it was, it wouldn't be accurate because there's not enough of
a picture.
And so don't let anyone snow you with this garbage of, oh, well, you know, the culture
back then was this.
And by the way, they'll tell you this, oh, well, you know, the synagogue culture.
But again, what are they basing their information about the synagogue culture?
They're basing it on stuff from like 500 years after Christ, a thousand years after Christ,
1500 years after Christ, or sometimes even 20th century synagogue culture.
And then they're going to tell you, well, you know, what you have to understand about
the women being silent is that the synagogue culture, blah, blah, blah.
No, why don't we just shut up and believe what the Bible says?
The Bible flat out says, I suffer not a woman to teach nor do you serve authority over the
man.
But to me it's silence.
They say, what was the relationship between husbands and wives like back then?
Probably pretty much the same way it is now because there's no new thing under the sun.
People are people.
And so they're always husbands and wives.
And you know, what were the gender dynamics like in the church?
Probably pretty much just like they are now.
Why would it be different?
Folks, this book was not written on another planet.
It's the same human nature.
And by the way, Peter, in first Peter chapter three, he talks about Sarah obeying Abraham
and calling him Lord.
He's talking about people who lived 2,000 years earlier.
He doesn't say, "Well, you know, Sarah called him Lord, but, you know, this is a different
culture."
He just says, "Hey, that's what she did."
And 2,000 years later, I'm using this as an illustration.
And then we're 2,000 years removed from Peter.
So if Peter can talk about something 2,000 years ago and not even give a single breath
to the historical or cultural context, he just says, "No, man, this is how it was with
Abraham and Sarah.
Go and do likewise."
And then we're saying, "Well, here's what Peter says.
It's God's word.
Do it."
End of story.
Don't let these people fool you and make you think that they know something that you don't
know.
It is all just the emperor with no clothes on, and they claim they know so much about
the culture.
It's all speculation.
You know what it's like?
It's like these scientists where they find like one little bone of a dinosaur, but they
know it's purple, and his name is Barney.
You know what I mean?
Like, how do you know what color it was?
You know, oh, you know, the Tyrannosaurus can only see you when you're moving.
So you could tell that from looking at a bone?
You know, if you stand still, Tyrannosaurus can't see you, because I got this bone from
his kneecap.
Like, what is that?
But that's what people believe, don't they?
They just trust experts all the time.
Let me tell you something.
Most experts are all just kind of a lot of hype.
You know, and at the end of the day, any time somebody's going to tell you about the culture
of the Bible, unless they're quoting from the Bible to tell you about that culture,
it is 99% going to be bull crap.
And the 1% of the time that it's not bull crap, well, we could probably just live without
it and just go to the grave without it.
You know, the 99% bull crap is not worth it to get that 1% little nugget about the culture.
Who cares?
Folks, the things that the Lord taught me in my bedroom with the Bible, reading the
Bible as a child in my room as a kid are the same things that I believe today because they
came from God.
They came from the Holy Spirit.
They came from reading the word of God and all of this academic and cultural and historical
research doesn't change flat out truth of what God's word says right there on the surface.
It couldn't be any clearer, my friend.
The Bible says, "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection, but I suffer not a woman
to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."
I mean, I've sat around and thought, if I were writing the Bible, how could I make this
clearer?
And I'm just like, I can't.
It's like he's approaching it from every angle.
He's like, I don't want them teaching.
Just make sure, or to usurp authority over the man, or to teach, or to usurp authority.
Oh, and by the way, that means silence.
Why?
Is it because men are better?
Is it because they're smarter?
No, it's because I said so, because Adam was first formed, then Eve, which is pretty
much as good as just saying, because I said so.
Okay.
Now, another argument that I've heard, because, you know, the big argument that I heard was
number one, like, hey, that's out of context.
And again, they don't mean what normal people mean by context.
What do normal people mean by context?
The surrounding text.
That's the, that's, look, when I talk about context, when we as pastors talk about context,
that's what we're talking about.
We're talking about like the surrounding chapter, because look, we want to understand the Bible.
If we have a scripture, we want to understand it in the context of its chapter, in the
context of its book, and its greater context of the entire New Testament.
It's a greater context of the entire Bible.
But that's not what they mean.
They mean the historical cultural context, which they make up, which they get from speculating,
which they get from reading some queerbait author, some literal pedophile or something,
you know, writing poetry, and they're like, "Well, this tells us the culture."
Folks, if you knew, and I don't know how else to explain this or get this across, if you
knew how little we know about the world 2,000 years ago, you'd be shocked, okay, as far
as like how scant the data is, how little it's, I mean, you can get major, major works
of literature from 2,000 years ago, and if you read those, there'll be big chunks missing,
saying this part's missing, and it's like one of the most popular books of all time
or something, and it's just, chunks of it are missing.
Folks, things don't survive that long, and if you want to talk about history that's actually
reliable or that we can be pretty sure of, here's the thing.
It's pretty much the last 500 years.
Before that, things are kind of sketchy, and the further you go back, the sketchier it
gets, okay?
The time of Christ is pretty decent, but not to tell you everything about the culture.
Okay, and before 500 BC, just forget it.
Forget anything being accurate before 500 BC, because nobody knows, okay?
That's just the reality of it, and you know what?
Experts in these fields would say, "Yeah, that's true, actually," because they're actually
looking at primary sources.
They're not just going to the store and buying a book called Life in Bible Times.
Oh, oh, okay, wow, oh, you know, the needle of the eye gate, isn't that a kick, you know?
Oh, okay.
Just taking it all as gospel, even though there are no actual footnotes that lead anywhere.
They lead in a circle.
But then besides this so-called context argument, another argument that I'll hear is this, "Oh,
yeah?
Well, you don't know what verse 15 means.
So, so, so what now?"
First of all, I know exactly what verse 15 means.
I've been preaching verse 15 ever since I started pastoring.
I've never had an issue with verse 15.
I don't, I don't have any, I don't think verse 15 is that hard to understand.
I've preached at my home ministry, but, but let's pretend for a second, let's pretend
for a second that verse 15 were super hard and confusing, even though it's not.
Let's pretend for a second that it were.
That doesn't make the verses that we just looked at hard or confusing.
Okay?
Obviously the Bible is a mix of things that are easy and things that are hard.
So this attitude that says, "Oh, there's a hard verse?
Well that means we just can't understand anything."
You know, and it's sort of like Pastor Mejia was preaching last night about Roman Catholicism,
about how they can debunk your interpretation of "call no man father," but they can't actually
give you a valid interpretation of it.
Because what they end up doing is making void the word of God.
What they do is they take a big stamp, just void the word of God, and just say, "This
isn't what he meant.
He didn't mean this."
And then it's like, "Well, what did he mean?"
They can't really produce anything meaningful about what it means to call no man father
upon this earth because one is our Father which is in heaven.
You know, it's the same thing with this.
To sit there and say, "Well, you know, when the Bible says that women should be in silence,
when it says that he does not allow them to teach, he doesn't allow them to usurp authority
over the man, they need to learn in silence, they need to be in subjection, they are not
running things, they are not in charge, they are not the bosses, they are not the ones
publicly preaching.
Oh yeah?
Well, what about this other verse?
Where does that leave us with these scriptures that are staring us in the face?
And they say well, you know, is salvation by child bearing or is it by believing in
Jesus?
Now here's the thing about this is that obviously salvation means different things in different
contexts.
You're not going to believe this, but when Peter is drowning and he yells Lord save me,
he's not asking Jesus to come into his heart.
What he's saying is pull me out of the water.
I think it's pretty clear from the context, that's a different kind of salvation.
Okay.
Well, this is clearly not saying if you want to go to heaven, you have to have babies.
We're not Mormons.
We're not talking about populating some planet that's revolving around the star colob here.
Okay.
Again, context.
What's the context?
Verse 14 says Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Notwithstanding, notwithstanding is a conjunction, okay, connecting what's about to be said with
what was just said.
So he says, look, the woman was deceived, but we could just say, but I mean, notwithstanding
is a cooler word, but we could just say, you know, the woman was deceived and she was in
the transgression, but notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing.
Saved from what?
Saved from being deceived by the devil.
Now keep your finger here and let me just show you how this fits within the context
of the book.
Chapter five of the same book, my friend.
All right, look at chapter five and the Bible, you know, talking about some of the pitfalls
that women could fall into, it says in verse 13, "With all they learn to be idle, wandering
about from house to house, not only idle, but toddlers also and busybodies, speaking
things which they ought not."
So it's warning about women who have too much time on their hands, they could get to where
they're just gossiping and they're busybodies and they're sitting around and they're getting
involved in drama and so forth.
And so he says, "I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide
the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully."
You see, what he's saying is you're not going to be idle if you're married and having children.
You know, women here today that are married with children, they're not idle.
If they are idle, then the kids are tearing the place apart, and their house is a mess,
and the kids are misbehaved because, let's face it, if you do parenting right as a mother,
it's a difficult, time-consuming job.
So he says, "Look, women shouldn't be idle.
They need to get busy.
Hey, men shouldn't be idle.
Men need to go to work.
Stay busy, right?
It'll keep us out of trouble if we're out there doing stuff."
Women get busy by getting married, raising children.
This is going to keep them out of trouble, right?
They're not going to be these idle, tattling, busybodies.
They're going to get married.
They're going to bear children.
They're going to guide the house.
They're going to give non-occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully for -- some
are already turned aside after -- Satan.
So look, Satan's desire for women is to deceive them and to get them transgressing and sinning
and doing wrong.
That's right here in the context of 1 Timothy, and it's in chapter 5.
Well, chapter 2 is simply saying that, you know, the woman was deceived.
She was in the transgression.
But you know what?
She's going to be spared from that.
She's going to be saved from that.
She's going to be guarded from that through childbearing, right?
The same thing that's taught in chapter 5 is the same thing that's being taught in chapter
2.
But obviously, childbearing doesn't just automatically mean that they're not going to follow after
after, you know, the devil's plan for their lives to do stupid things and mess up their
lives.
You know, they also need to do what?
They need to continue in faith and charity and holiness and surprise.
I don't see what's so hard about this.
I mean, look, again, I'm going back to my little 9 year old, 10, 11 year old brain.
I remember reading this as a kid and saying, well, you know, when it says she shall be
saved in childbearing, there's no way that this means, oh, if she has kids, she'll go
to heaven.
And if she doesn't have kids, she won't go to heaven.
I'm like, common sense tells me that nah, that's not what this is about.
And so what I, you know, uh, I didn't understand it.
Like I just explained it to you right now, but I didn't walk away like, man, I don't
know.
Like, I don't know.
Is salvation by faith or is it through procreating?
Like I didn't have some, I didn't have some crisis of faith.
I was just like, well, Hey, this verse a little bit over my head, but I don't really care.
And so I'm going to go watch some cartoons now, but I didn't walk away and said, well,
you know, this is making me question everything about women preachers now.
Now I'm starting to think that maybe women should usurp authority over the man.
I don't know.
Maybe they should be teaching and preaching in the local church.
Maybe silence is not the answer for them.
Folks.
It's crazy.
It's maddening.
Like if you're going to read the Bible that way, what are you going to do with other passages?
Like do you really think that somebody who's going to twist a passage that hard is going
to just read the rest of the Bible and take it at face value?
Folks, they're going to be twisting every verse that they come to.
I promise you that there is not a female pastor on this planet who is doctrinally sound.
I promise you that.
Why?
Because if a woman actually cared about what God said, she wouldn't be a pastor.
She would just find another way to serve God.
And let me ask you something.
Who here is a man in this building who would say, "You know what?
Hey, I'm a Christian and I'm interested in serving God, but I'm never going to be a
pastor.
At least I don't think I'm ever going to be a pastor."
Put up your hand.
If you're a man in here, you want to serve God, but you're never going to be a pastor.
Yeah.
Look at all these hands.
Apparently, you can serve God without being a pastor.
So all you prospective women pastors out there, look around and be like these guys.
Look, what are you saying that can't serve God?
Are you saying that these guys can't serve God?
Folks, how many chiefs and how many Indians are there going to be?
I'm not talking about Pastor Shelly's beloved Indians, I'm talking about the other kind
of Indians.
Folks, we're not going to be all chiefs and no Indians.
You know, you only need a few pastors, right?
And then you need a lot of just foot soldiers for Christ.
Well, you know, and then let's flip over to 1 Corinthians 14 because we've, we've spent
a lot of time in 1 Timothy 2.
And you know what, you know what, I like to just hammer one passage though.
Why not just hammer that one passage?
I don't want to let anybody wriggle out of that passage, squirm out from under it.
No, no, that passage is enough.
Look at first Corinthians 14, just to support what is taught over in first
Timothy chapter two, first Corinthians chapter 14 verse 34,
let your women keep silence in the churches. Folks,
it's almost the same exact wording. It literally used the same word silence.
Again, let your women keep silence in the churches. God, I'm sorry.
I'm not sure what that means. Okay. Let me break it down to you.
It's not permitted under them to speak. It's like,
how many ways can you say the same thing? Oh, um, uh,
can we have them not talk? And can we also have them be quiet too? Oh,
I don't know what this means. Like in case you don't know what don't talk means,
it means be silent. And in case you don't know what being silent means,
it means don't talk. Let your women keep silence in the churches for,
it's not permitted under them to speak,
but they're commanded to be under obedience as also say at the law.
So the obedience here is the same as the submission that we saw over in first
Timothy chapter two, meaning that they're not the bosses.
They're not running the church. They're not in charge.
The leadership of the local church is male to what gives you the right to lead
as man is. Is it just because you have that different reproductive organ?
Yes. Says,
let your women keep silence in the churches for it is not permitted under them
to speak, but they're commanded to be under obedience as also say at the law.
And if they will learn and will here means want to, right?
It's the older language of the KJV. And if they will learn anything,
let them ask their husbands at home for it is a shame for women to speak in the
church saying, look, it's an embarrassment.
It's shameful to have women publicly speaking in the church,
you know, raising their hand and saying, Hey, pastor Anderson, you know,
what's going on with this that you're preaching or what's, you know,
what about this? What do you think? You know,
it's just not their place to be publicly piping up there to learn in silence.
And then it says they're commanded to be under obedience as also say it's the
law. And if they will learn anything,
let them ask their husbands at home for it is a shame for women to speak in the
church. Now here's what, uh, people will try to twist this. They'll say, well,
you know, the context, and again,
it has nothing to do with what's on the page in front of you. You know,
the context is when it says the law there, you know, it's the,
it was against the law back then, you know, like the secular law was like,
no women talking in churches. Really? Of course,
they can't ever produce a law like that.
They can't show any evidence that such a law ever existed.
What do you think the Bible's talking about when it's,
when, when the apostle Paul says, here's what the law says,
what about all the other times the apostle Paul talks about the law?
What is he typically talking about? What is it?
What about when he's talking about the law in, in, in books like Romans or Galatians,
what's he talking about? Is he talking about some statute of the Roman empire?
What's he talking about? Talking about God's law.
Talk about the Old Testament. He says they're commanded to be under obedience,
as also say at the law. Now let me ask you this.
Does the Old Testament law of God teach that men are to be in authority?
Okay. Last time I checked the Bible will often refer to the first five books of
the Bible as the law.
And sometimes it will even take a broader view and refer to the entire Old
Testament as the law or huge chunks of the Old Testament as the law. Right.
And right there in Genesis chapter three,
the Bible says in verse 16 that the husband will rule over his wife,
that the man rules over the woman. It's that simple.
And then we have the story about Sarah and Abraham right there in the law with
Sarah obeying Abraham, calling him Lord.
So yeah, that is what the law says. That is what the Bible says.
And by the way, let's just, again, because look,
I like to at least stop and think about what the other side has to say and,
and try to, you know why? Because the truth fears no investigation.
The truth can stand up to scrutiny. So let's, again,
let's have another fantasy where we pretend that Paul's like, Hey guys,
I really want women to be pastors, but there's this law, you know,
uh, that the Romans have and we don't want to offend them.
Is that really the way Paul ever operated? I know this is a weird fantasy,
but like, Hey, there's just, you know, there's, well, you know,
the Jews have this law.
Paul loved telling the Jews where they could go shove their stupid law.
Jesus Christ was constantly telling them where they could shove their stupid
laws, right? And telling them you're making void the word of God with your
tradition.
He didn't follow their laws about washing cups and plates and washing your hands
and everything. He didn't follow that stuff,
but let's just pretend for a second that there was such a law.
Look what the text says right in front of you. It says,
they're commanded to be under obedience as also say at the law.
Notice the word also in addition to what,
in addition to God saying it, in addition to me saying it right now,
the old Testament also says it, God saying it right now in the new Testament,
but the law also says it. It doesn't say, well,
we got to do it because the law it's like, nah,
do it. And also the law, that's just a little cherry on top.
And you know what? You can remove the cherry.
You still have this beautiful banana split called keep silence in the church.
Women, you got a scoop of vanilla called first Timothy chapter two.
You've got a scoop of chocolate called first Corinthians chapter 14.
Okay.
You've got a scoop of strawberry that is called Titus chapter two or first Peter
three or whatever you want to stick there for the strawberry. Okay.
Then you got the whipped cream, right? Of, you know,
the entire book of acts and then you have this little cherry on top of like,
well, you know, as also say the law and either way, you know,
it's going to be good. If you leave out any of the ingredients,
you'll still be satisfied. And so it says here,
as sayeth also the law. Now, here's the thing.
Another argument that people will come up with is they'll say, well, by the way,
does somebody know what time I started preaching? Somebody knows,
somebody knows. And I want them to tell me who, come on,
some teenagers looking at the clock and timing things.
That's what I thought. I was just checking. I don't know. And I just 7 40. Okay.
Thank you for your honesty. All right. So another argument that people will come
up with, with, with regard to this is they'll say, well,
I know the Bible just flat out says that in first Timothy two and just flat out
says that in first Corinthians 14, but they'll say,
what about all these examples in the Bible of all these female pastors?
First of all, let me give you a list of all the female pastors in the Bible.
I just did. Okay. There aren't any, there are no female pastors in the Bible.
Obviously you could find women who did stuff,
women who held certain positions or offices throughout history,
but you'll never find a female pastor in the Bible. It just doesn't exist.
And if so, I would like to know what her name is. Okay.
But what they mean by that is they'll say, well, you know,
what about Deborah the prophetess? Okay. Well, here's the thing. First of all,
when we say no female pastors and no women preaching or teaching in the house
of God,
we're not saying that women can't serve God and talk about the Bible and do
spiritual activities of winning souls, you know,
sharing scripture with their friends and loved ones and family.
Nobody's saying for women not to talk about the Bible.
We're just saying for them not to talk about the Bible during a church service.
That's what we're saying. Does everybody see the difference?
And so what's happening is the other side is basically creating a straw man.
Oh, women keep silence. So you're saying they can't sing the songs.
So you're saying they can't talk to one another in fellowship. Oh,
so you're saying that they can never, you know,
teach the Bible to their neighbor or their friend or their loved one,
or they can't go sold. No, no, that's not what we're saying at all.
The Bible defines itself. The Bible says that they are to learn in silence.
So when it's preaching time, it's learning time, right?
The pastor's up teaching the Bible and the people in the pews have their
Bibles open and they're learning. That's the time to learn in silence.
I don't even want to hear women say amen. I want to hear men say amen.
That's why it's amen. It's right there in the word.
It's a little reminder for you. Why? Because here's the thing,
because they're to learn in silence. Now look,
obviously all of God's people are going to sing the songs.
We're all going to talk about the Bible. And look, of course,
the Bible does document some wonderful women who did great works for God.
And look,
I even believe in women preaching the gospel to every creature door to door.
I believe in women preaching the gospel to the milkman,
preaching the gospel to the water delivery guy,
preaching the gospel to the gardener,
preaching the gospel to whatever person they come into contact with,
male or female. That's not what we're talking about, my friend.
We're talking about an authority structure within the local church.
Nobody's saying that women can't lead because I want every married woman to
lead her home while her husband's at work. Amen. Look,
you think I want to be micromanaging my wife all the time.
You think I want to be pulling up some ring doorbell camera,
trying to figure out what she's doing and like, Hey, hey, what are you doing?
Sitting down again. You know, I don't care. Here's the thing.
You know what I want my wife to do? I want my wife to run that house.
And you know what the Bible says about women?
It says they are to guide the house.
It doesn't just say that they're to do housework. It says guide the house.
They are to rule that house when the husband is away.
Obviously the husband is the head of the home. He's the ultimate authority.
Obviously he's not there for the majority of the time.
Vast majority of us are out working all day and our wife is the one actually
running things and that's biblical for our wives to run things at home.
I want my wife to run things. I want her to make decisions.
I want her to get things done. I want her to lead and guide, you know,
but you know what I don't want?
I don't want to go to church and the church is run by a woman or the preaching
and teachings being done by a woman because the Bible says that that is a
shameful thing and it's against God's word. And look, we could,
we could point to examples in the book of acts where the early church is there
with the women, 120 of them, they go out in public,
they go out into the streets of Jerusalem and they're all preaching the gospel.
Men and women are both preaching the gospel to the unsaved,
to the loss outside of the church out there amongst the unsaved.
They're all preaching because God says that he poured out his spirit upon the
servants and upon the handmaidens. You know,
the apostle Paul talked about women who labored with him in the gospel.
Paul said, Hey,
bless these women that have labored with me in the gospel.
There were women that followed Jesus.
There were women who were some of the first people to see Jesus after he rose
from the dead. And he told these women, go tell Peter, go tell the disciples,
go tell them that I've risen from the dead. So look,
it's not that women can't talk about the Bible. God told women,
go tell that guy about the Bible. Tell these people about the Bible.
The apostle Paul had women laboring with them in the gospel. Act chapter two,
day of Pentecost, women are winning souls to Christ. But you know what?
None of this negates what the Bible said that women
should keep silence in the church and that women should not lead or teach
or preach or rule in the house of God. Period. See,
here's the thing about the Bible, all of it's true.
And so you have to take all of what the Bible teaches and believe all of it.
So was Deborah a prophetess? Amen. But you know,
was Deborah a pastor of a New Testament church?
Was Deborah preaching in a New Testament church? In fact,
we don't even see any evidence of Deborah ever
preaching publicly to any crowd of people. Do we? If it is, where is it?
Cause you know, I'm pretty familiar with that story in judges chapter four.
We have her telling Barak, Hey,
God's called you to go do this. And she's telling him to go fight. And then he says,
well, I really want you to come with me. And he said, and she says, well,
I'll come with you, but it's kind of lame. This is, I'm paraphrasing,
but she's like, it's kind of lame that you need me to come with you.
And because you're doing this lameness someday,
there's going to be this faggity president named after you. You know,
and it's just like, no, that's not what she said. But what,
what she actually said was, she said, you know, some,
she said basically the victory is going to go into the hand of a woman.
Now he thinks that she's talking about herself, right? That she's saying like,
well, if I go with you,
then God's going to deliver the enemy into the hand of a woman. But no,
it's actually a totally different woman named JL. And of course,
JL puts the Ted spike through Cicero's head and so forth.
And then in chapter five, Barack and Deborah, they,
they compose a song together and they're singing a song together. You know,
it's like, it's like one of these wonderful couples duets, you know,
it's, it's the type of thing that like Pastor Jimenez as wife would sing,
you know, as a couple or something. But anyway, you know, basically they're,
you know, they're getting up and singing a song about God's deliverance.
But you know,
I don't see Deborah having some big public preaching ministry.
It's more like she's super smart, super wise.
God's spirit is upon her in a mighty way.
So people are coming to her for judgment. People are coming to her for advice.
People are coming to her to learn the word of God, uh, you know, uh,
with regard to how to handle different situations and things.
People are looking to her as a spiritual person,
but that's totally different from being a pastor or a
female preacher in a church. So everybody see the difference?
And there's nothing wrong with, with, with some godly woman, you know, uh,
giving advice outside of the church, outside of the pulpit,
laying her wisdom on people. You know, my grandma laid all kinds of wisdom on me.
Amen. You know, that's great. Oh, these women that, that Jesus sent, you know,
yeah, go tell Peter. Nobody's saying women can't talk.
Nobody's saying women can't talk about the Bible.
Nobody's saying that women can't witness and get people saved. You know,
I guarantee you that this church is filled with women who go soul winning.
I know in faithful word,
we have a lot of ladies that go out and do a lot of great soul winning.
And I'm really thankful for that. And you know,
I don't like this idea that soul winning is just for men. You know,
I like to see the women out soul winning too. Obviously I understand.
It's difficult a lot of times for women to get out soul winning because of the,
you know, with the kids in this situation, everything. But man,
I would love to see women out soul winning.
I would love it if every woman would be a soul winner.
I would love it if every teenager would be a soul winner,
but are we going to make a teenager a pastor of the church? I mean,
they do know everything, you know, but, but no,
they're not going to be the pastor. So they'll say, you know, well, uh,
if we study the Bible,
we've got all of these women that God's using in a mighty way.
Of course God's using women in a mighty way. But what if I told you this,
what if I told you that there are a lot of men that are being used mightily by
God that are not pastors.
And what if I told you that there are a lot of men that are being used mightily
by God that never teach and preach in the church house? Folks,
there are some guys today that are hopping on airplanes,
flying to mission fields across the world and winning hundreds of people to
Christ.
Just having just throngs of young people crowding around them as they preach
the gospel to receptive young, just getting scores of people saved.
And folks,
those people are going to be way ahead in line of the judgment seat of Christ
of a lot of pastors, you know, you know, I, in fact,
I fully expect that even when I get to heaven that a whole bunch of laymen are
going to be ahead of me in line because I'm not the pastor of the church because
I'm the best Christian at faithful word, Baptist church pastor.
Amen.
This is not the pastor of Verity Baptist church because he's the best Christian
of Verity Baptist church and he's better than you. And, and, and, and, you know,
you just need to realize that he's better. And you did. And, and if you're,
if you're here, I know some of your visiting from Tempe,
some of my people here just realize I'm better. That's why I'm the pastor.
Do you believe that? No, I've never claimed to be. And you know,
sometimes people have this ad, you're like, you know,
well I'm a better Christian than, than pastor Anderson.
Maybe I should be the pastor. You know, I'm a better Christian than,
than pastor. Maybe I should be the pastor. Here's the thing. First of all,
if that's how you think you, you probably kind of suck as a Christian.
Cause you're so good because it's hard to believe that somebody that, that,
that's, that's filled with pride like that is a good Christian.
But let's just say you're right. That doesn't mean that you should be the pastor.
Because guess what? It's not a contest of, Hey,
let's see who's the best Christian and let's make him the pastor. No,
the pastor is someone who is biblically qualified to be the pastor.
And it's someone who's good at doing the job of being a pastor.
And here's the thing, you know,
I would love to say that I'm the best soul winner in the church,
but maybe I am and maybe I'm not because guess what?
Being the best soul winner isn't necessarily the same thing as being the best
pastor. You know, I know more about the Bible than, you know, yeah,
but are you apt to teach the Bible? Have you been called by God?
Have you been qualified according to the qualifications? You know,
the bottom line is nobody's claiming that pastors are better than layman.
At least we shouldn't be claiming that pastors are not better than layman.
My friend pastors are pastors.
They have a role to play in the body of Christ.
Everybody in the body of Christ is important. It's not just the,
the ear that's important or the eye or the nose.
Every part of the body of Christ is important. Every man, woman,
boy and girl has a role to play.
And I'm telling you that there are some men today who are not pastors
who are being greatly used by God.
There are women today that are being greatly used by God. There are women today.
We have women at our church that have,
that have won just hundreds and hundreds of people to Lord, you know,
possibly even thousands. I mean, we,
we have some women at our church that have done some great works for God over
the course of years or even decades. What about these women in the Bible?
Who did great works? What about the women at Verity Baptist Church that do great
things for God? What about the women at Faithful Word that do great things for
God? But you know what? They're not going to pastor because at the end of the
day, thus saith the Lord. And you know what?
If you're comfortable twisting first Timothy two that much,
and if you're comfortable twisting first Corinthians 14 that much,
then I am scared to death of how you're going to treat the rest of the Bible.
And I sure as hell don't want to hear anything that you have to say from
behind the pulpit. Let's bow our eyes and have a word of prayer. Father,
we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
Thank you for making it so clear that a child can understand Lord.
You know that I'm for education and intelligence and study,
but Lord God help all of us to become as little children and to just have that
childlike faith in what you have said in your word and Lord God help all of us
to submit ourselves to what the Bible clearly teaches on every subject and Lord
God may never be said of us or the churches that we're involved in,
that we have female pastors on staff. And in Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
All right. Well, thank you very much. Pastor Shelley, Pastor Anderson.
Thank you very much for the great sermons tonight.