Titus2Titus2 The True Woman The Beauty and Strength of a Godly Woman What is a true woman? She is...

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The True WomanThe Beauty and Strength of a Godly Woman

What is a true woman?• She is one who lives in the awareness of God’s presence and

whose character is being shaped and driven by God’s Word and the Holy Spirit.

• She is opposed to those concepts espoused by our culture today – she is counter-cultural.

• Romans 12:1-2: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His good, pleasing and perfect will."

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What are we as women designed to do?

• We do what we be, according to Susan Hunt. Our actions reflect who we are – “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life” – Proverbs 4:23.

• “We are to praise God with all our heart, and glorify His name forevermore” – Psalm 86:12. This is first and foremost. Then we are to love our husbands and children according to the Titus 2 admonition in verse 4. After this, we are to serve Him in our local church body according to Ephesians Chapter 4. We can have a profound impact, one woman at a time, way beyond what we may think or imagine.

• It takes a true woman to do what we have been designed to do.

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• The true woman is “virtuous and is a conservator of her nation’s welfare” according to Female Piety, a book written by John Angell James, a 19th-century preacher.

• The French philosopher, Alexis de Tocqueville, said in his classic work Democracy in America, written about 1831, “no free communities ever existed without morals, and …morals are the work of woman. Consequently, whatever affects the condition of women, their habits and their opinions, has great political importance in my eyes.”

• Even prior to this, our founding fathers stated that our Constitution would only work in a society that placed a high value on moral character.

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• John Angell James was also aware of woman’s position as the heart of the culture: “The greatest influence on earth, whether for good or evil, is possessed by woman. Let us study the history of by-gone ages, the state of barbarism and civilization; of the east and west, of Paganism and Christianity; of antiquity and the middle ages; of the medieval and modern times; and we shall find that there is nothing which more decidedly separates them than the condition of woman.”

The true woman is the real thing:

• Why? Because God has set eternity in her heart and is conforming her to His image. There are no short-cuts. Living in God’s presence involves consistent Bible study, daily praying for His power, forgiveness and grace, and regular worship and fellowship with other believers.

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• There is consistency in her outward behavior because it is dictated by the reality of her inner life – this reality is her redemption.

• The true woman is the reflection of her redemption. Our culture tries to deflect us from our goal and tarnish our reflection of our redemption.

– Since the fall of Adam, and until Christ returns, there cannot be a thoroughly true reflection of His image. Sin brings confusion, pandemonium, and death to the soul, and its remnants haunt us even after we are born again. But the radical entrance of grace into the heart brings life, order, and sanity. By the transforming power of the Gospel, the Christian woman is empowered by the Holy Spirit to give an increasingly true reflection of her Savior and, thus, to be a true woman.

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• True womanhood was the accepted and expected concept of womanhood up until late in 19th-century America. Four cardinal virtues were expressed in women’s books and magazines: piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity. Ladies, these are biblical virtues that we have sadly strayed from in our post-Christian era.

Then and now:

• Imagine living in mid-19th-century culture where you would be out of sync if you opposed this standard. Here are 4 examples:

1. Imagine sitting in your doctor’s office scanning your favorite magazine, The Lady at Home, and reading

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“Even if we cannot reform the world in a moment, we can begin the work by reforming ourselves and our households – it is woman’s mission. Let her not look away from her own little family circle for the means of producing moral and social reforms, but begin at home.”

2. Imagine sitting by the fire with a cup of tea and a new book by a favorite male author and reading: “Every woman, whether rich or poor, married or single, has a circle of influence, within which, according to her character, she is exerting a certain amount of power for good or harm. Every woman, by her virtue or her vice; by her folly or her wisdom; by her levity or her dignity, is adding something to our national elevation or degradation.”

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3. Imagine your daughter perusing a catalog from Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary and being “promised an education that would render women handmaidens to the Gospel and provide them with tools they could use in the great task of renovating the world.”

4. Imagine getting a copy of the much-talked-about Democracy in America and reading: “if I were asked, now that I am drawing to the close of this work, in which I have spoken of so many important things done by the Americans, to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of that people ought to mainly be attributed, I should reply: to the superiority of their women.”

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• I don’t know about you, but I’ve often thought how well I would have done living in Victorian times. But, this is when God placed us on the planet – and He doesn’t make mistakes. Acts 17:26-28 says, “And He has made from one blood every nation on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring.”

• Let’s fast forward to today – I’ll cite 2 examples:

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1. A Re-imagining Conference billed as A Global Conference by Women; for Women and Men, where conference participants reportedly explored ways to re-imagine God in nontraditional ways. One speaker told the group, “I don’t think we need a theory of atonement at all. I think Jesus came for life and to show us something about life… I don’t think we need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff…” Participants worshipped the divine in each other by marking red dots on their foreheads to signify their divinity and then bowing to each other in an act of reverence. They sang songs to the goddess Sophia, the source of their divinity, the creator who dwells within them and unleashes within them their divine power.

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2. A United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, where, according to Dr. James Dobson: “the delegates from the United States, Canada and the European Union lived up to expectations. They focused on redesigning the family, reordering the way males and females interrelate, promoting reproductive rights for women, distributing condoms and safe-sex nonsense to kids, propagating homosexual and lesbian rights, weakening parental authority, undermining patriarchal religious teachings and spreading feminist ideology to every nation on earth. Workshops at the conference included Lesbian Flirtation Techniques Workshop and How Religious Fundamentalism Helps the Spread of AIDS.”

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Our time:

• Cultural chaos is nothing new. Since Adam and Eve plunged humanity into sin, there have been two kingdoms warring over territorial rights. The territory is man’s heart, and the issue is – who will rule. There is no demilitarized zone. The enemy of our souls is ruthless, deceptive, and dazzling. He cunningly adapts to each generation and location. But in God’s providence, this is the time in history and the place on the globe that He has placed us. This is the time and place that we are to reflect our redemption.

• What characterizes our time?

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1. We are not content – Peggy Noonan

2. Rise of evangelicalism – Peggy Noonan

Our opportunity:

This is our time – our opportunity. There is a vacuum of moral leadership. There is decadence and despair. There is a shallowness of theology that has produced a superficial lifestyle among Christians. But woman is the keeper of the moral atmosphere. She sets the moral compass. But not just any woman. The author of Female Piety understood this:

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• “Man is neither safe in himself, nor profitable to others, when he lives dissociated from that benign influence which is to be found in woman’s presence and character… But it is not woman, gay, frivolous, and unbelieving, or woman separated from those divine teachings which make all hearts wise, that can lay claim to the exercise of such an influence. But when she adds to the traits of sympathy, forbearance, and warm affection, which characterize her, the strength and wisdom of a well-cultivated intellect, and the still higher attributes of religious faith and holy love, it is not easy to limit the good she may do in all situations, and in all periods of life.”

• We must know our time, but not be controlled or manipulated by it. Our time begs for women of biblical faith who can exert a reforming influence on our families, friends, and perhaps, even on

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• our culture. Can we do this in our own strength? Of course not. We know it takes the power of the Holy Spirit making His Word real to us in all the living we do. We can react to all of this by wanting to surrender or retreat, or, we can rise to the occasion and be a true woman. Think of Abigail, Nabal’s wife; Rahab, the harlot who’s in the lineage of Jesus; and Queen Esther, who lived for “such a time as this.”

• Placing a high premium on each woman’s character is mandatory for a group of women to stay on course. It is godly character that will persevere and finish well regardless of the opposition or obstacles. In Hebrews 12:1 Paul says, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and

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• let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” In 2 Timothy 2:7 Paul says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

• We must train women to serve Christ Jesus through His church because of who He is – the King of glory; and we must continually remind them who they are – His redeemed daughters.

A close encounter:

• God will not be an absentee father. He will live among us. We will be His people and live in His presence. Leviticus 26:11-12 says, “I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor

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• you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.”

Keep this promise in mind as we look at the scene at Mt. Sinai from Exodus 19:16-19. Try to form a mental picture of this amazing episode. The thunder and lightning, the thick cloud over the mountain, the loud trumpet and blast, smoke billowing up as though from a furnace, the mountain trembling violently, the trumpet getting louder and louder – this goes beyond awesome. But while Moses is on the mountain receiving God’s law, the people make and worship a golden calf. In response to this flagrant disobedience, God strikes the people with a plague and says to Moses, “Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people

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• and I might destroy you on the way.” – Exodus 33:3.

• God was threatening to withdraw His presence, which was worse than the plague by far. Moses could not deny that the people were rebellious, he could only plead God’s covenant faithfulness to be their God and to live among them. So he cried, “Remember that this nation is your people.” – Exodus 33:13.

1. The Lord replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

2. Then Moses said to Him, “If your Presence does not go with

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• us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” – Exodus 33:14-16.**Comment

The essence of the true woman:

Regardless of the time in history in which she lives, she is one who lives in the presence of glory. Her redeemed character is shaped and driven by God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. Because she is the very dwelling place of the Lord God, her reflection of Him is manifested in every relationship and circumstance of life. The distinguishing characteristic of her life is His presence in her radiating out to all who see her. The true woman’s life is not segmented into sacred and secular. All of life is sacred because

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• it is lived in His presence. The true woman is a true reflection of God’s glory.

The Valley of Vision, A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions – Page 1:

Lord, High and Holy, Meek and Lowly,

Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,

Where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;

Hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.

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Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up,

that to be low is to be high,

that the broken heart is the healed heart,

that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,

that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,

that to have nothing is to possess all,

that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,

that to give is to receive,

that the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine;

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Let me find Thy light in my darkness.

Thy life in my death,

Thy joy in my sorrow,

Thy grace in my sin,

Thy riches in my poverty,

Thy glory in my valley.

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