-
My topic over the next five days will be
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revolving around biblical manhood
-
and biblical womanhood.
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Marriage, singleness, manhood,
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womanhood, raising children.
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And I thought before I began
to think about those subjects
-
that I might tell you
a little bit about me.
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Not to put the focus on me,
-
but because really I think the
Lord commands us to do this.
-
He tells us to remember
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that we were once dead
in trespasses and sins,
-
and now we've been made alive.
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And He actually commands in Ephesians 2
-
that we remember that we were once
-
alienated from God,
-
and how we have been brought near.
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And then Paul models that for us
-
in 1 Timothy 1,
-
and he actually spells
out his own testimony
-
of how he was even
a persecutor of the church,
-
and though he was once
a persecutor of the church,
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God gave him mercy,
-
so that he might become saved
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and a minister of the Gospel.
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And so, I can't help but think
-
it's a total miracle that I'm here.
-
I am a total product of the
early 1970's in which I was born.
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Some of you are like,
ok, I can't listen anymore.
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But, I was born and my parents
-
were both studying
psychology at university,
-
and so I called my parents Pam and Tim
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when I was first born.
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And then I got a fever
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and I began to have hallucinations,
-
and I began to call for my mom.
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And she came to me.
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I have a deeply maternal mom.
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She's a wonderful woman,
-
but she came to me and
began to care for me
-
and I said,
-
"Well, you're not my mom. You're Pam."
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And that ended right there.
-
That was the last time she
ever had me call her Pam.
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Again, so you see, how these lies
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that pervert biblical
manhood and womanhood
-
get rid of gender roles:
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mom, dad - just be Pam and Tim.
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The truth always though
bursts out from it, right?
-
Every mom doesn't want her child
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calling her Pam when he's got a fever.
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As I grew up, first of all,
I went on like that,
-
but then was just a product of the culture
-
that really leaves children alone,
-
and was involved in sexual experimentation
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when I was 8 or 9 years old
-
because there was no one watching;
-
no one looking.
-
I can't remember a time when I wasn't
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exposed to pornography
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from just the earliest of ages -
-
really from before I had hit puberty,
-
pornography was a reality,
-
and I'm that generation
that just missed the Internet
-
being part of my teen years
-
and college years.
-
And it's even a harder battle
-
for many who are here today.
-
But I don't remember a time
-
not being exposed to some sort
-
of sexual perversion.
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My parents are divorced.
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Multiple adulteries
-
is part of the cause of that.
-
And so the breakdown of manhood
-
and womanhood affected me there again.
-
I dropped out of high school
-
when I was 16 or 17 years old.
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I left home when I was 17
-
and moved in with my best friend's mom
-
and her partner -
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these lesbian witches who
were into white magic
-
which seemed harmless to me.
-
And that's where I spent my time
-
when I was 17, 18 years old.
-
I was immersed into promiscuity
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and all kinds of sexual immorality.
-
I eventually left these smaller cities
-
of Western Canada where I grew up
-
and went to the big city of Vancouver.
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And it was really, for
me, a prodigal son year.
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And I became involved in
all kinds of debauchery
-
to the point where I was basically
-
living under a porch -
-
renting the underneath of a porch -
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to live on.
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And just absolutely depressed.
-
I would walk 100 blocks a day.
-
I felt more normal on drugs
-
than I did sober.
-
I remember putting my name in the paper
-
as a kid to support homosexual rights.
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And you name it in terms of the effects
-
of sexual perversion,
-
they've affected my life.
-
And they've affected your life as well.
-
Maybe not in some of those ways,
-
but it's just simply
not possible to escape
-
what I'm describing at some level,
-
whether it's a cousin who's into this
-
or my son who was exposed to that.
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The sexual dementia
-
that has really affected this culture
-
touches everyone.
-
Anyway, what I was trying to get at though
-
is that then when I turned 21,
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I moved to a small town
-
and my step-mom started witnessing to me,
-
and I said there's no absolute truth,
-
and she said are you
absolutely right about that?
-
And then I said there's
no right and wrong.
-
And she said do you think
you're right about that?
-
And I began to read
the book of Ecclesiastes.
-
I knew the Bible.
-
I have three uncles who are ministers
-
I grew up a little bit in church.
-
I knew the Bible a little bit.
-
I found the book of the
Bible I didn't know the most.
-
It was the book of Ecclesiastes.
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And there sexuality had a part there too.
-
Solomon was saying he had had women,
-
but vanity, vanity, all is vanity.
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And I thought, that's me.
-
All was vanity.
-
I've had all those pleasures
-
and it's all meaningless, meaningless.
-
All is meaningless and
searching after wind.
-
And then I read the Proverbs.
-
I was not convinced the Bible was true.
-
And as I read the book of Proverbs,
-
and it began to warn against
the immoral woman.
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Here's sexuality again.
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It began to warn against
the immoral woman.
-
I thought to myself, the Jews were wise.
-
So I didn't think the Bible was true,
-
but the Jews now were up there
-
with the Buddhists and
the Hindus in my mind,
-
in terms of being a wise ancient religion.
-
And then I began to
read the minor prophets,
-
and hear them rail against sin
-
and this idea that the Bible
is the opioid of the masses
-
just didn't square
-
with what I was actually
reading in the Scriptures.
-
And then I began to read
the Sermon on the Mount.
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And what did Jesus say?
-
He said if you even lust after a woman -
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there is sexuality
-
and biblical manhood and womanhood again -
-
if you even lust for a woman,
-
you've committed adultery.
-
And all of a sudden, it wasn't just about
-
the Jews being wise,
-
but it was about my sin.
-
And the Lord began to convict me.
-
And I got ahold of a book of apologetics.
-
I began to read through it.
-
On the back of this apologetics book,
-
there was this testimony
-
saying within 40 minutes
of reading this book,
-
I became a Christian,
-
and I actually cursed and said
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I know that's exactly what's
going to happen to me.
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And so I read for 20 minutes
-
and went outside and
gave my life to the Lord.
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I'm married. I have four kids.
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And I'm a Baptist pastor.
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I don't know how this happened.
-
God intervenes.
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He comes in and He changes lives.
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We think, oh, the culture's so hard.
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My friends are so hard.
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They don't seem affected by their sin.
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They don't care about biblical manhood.
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That can't ever work in this generation.
-
All of that - we need to sing that hymn:
-
we stand against the devil's lies.
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That's all lies. That's all lies.
-
The Word of God is living
-
and active and powerful,
-
and it's absolutely able to break through
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into any human heart -
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the most sheltered, secluded,
-
home-schooled, cared for heart,
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and the most debauched and debased
-
and out on the streets
-
and exposed to everything hearts
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are equally dead before they're born again
-
and equally made alive
-
when the grace of God comes home
-
through the cross of Jesus Christ.
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And He changes people.
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And so when we talk about
biblical manhood and womanhood,
-
what we're talking about
-
is we're talking about
the idol of this culture.
-
Ok? We could get up and give a
scholarly lecture this evening
-
on Buddhism, and that would
be valuable to some degree.
-
Or, a scholarly lecture on
Hinduism to some degree.
-
And there's increasing numbers of
Buddhists and Hindus in North America.
-
But if you want to know the real
idolatrous religion of this culture,
-
it is not Buddhism; it is not Hinduism;
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it is a constant lustful craving
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after sexual immorality,
-
that people are willing
to kill 50 million babies
-
to support their sexual
immorality since 1973.
-
They are willing to
slaughter their marriages
-
to have adulterous relationships.
-
They are willing to get online
-
and just run their credit card bills up
-
to engage in sexual immorality online.
-
They are willing to abuse children.
-
Fathers in this country and others
-
are willing to leave their
daughters unprotected
-
so they wind up in the sex trade
-
all over the world.
-
We were in Moldova this year
-
and listening to this:
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More women and men have been sold
-
into sex trafficking in Moldova
-
than people died in the Afghan War.
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All of that revolves around what?
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The sin of sexual immorality.
-
The sin of not understanding
what a godly man is
-
and not what a godly woman is.
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The breakdown of the family.
-
You could spend all night
-
thinking about these things.
-
It's my belief that when
we preach the Gospel,
-
and we think about the Gospel,
-
we have to think about it
-
as it relates not to sin in general -
-
that's important -
-
but to sin as it touches our lives.
-
To the sins that we are locked in.
-
Listen to John the Baptist in Luke 3.
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How did he preach?
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Did he walk around saying,
-
there's sin in general.
-
We need to repent of sin in general.
-
No, he went right for
the jugular of his day,
-
which was - you who are
hoarding, quit hoarding.
-
He said you who are
extorting, quit extorting.
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And you who are collecting
too much taxes, quit that.
-
He went right for what
was happening in this day
-
and what was happening were those things.
-
What's happening in our day
-
is a complete abandonment
-
of God's call on our lives
-
to be men like Jesus,
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to be women with the character of Jesus
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who reflect the church,
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and to be people who
reflect the glory of God
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in every area of our lives
-
instead of pursuing whatever lust
-
strikes our fancy at that moment.
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And so I want to speak to you about
-
biblical manhood and womanhood
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in these days.
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These things all affect us.
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All of us have uncles and bosses
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and husbands and fathers,
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and these men affect us as men.
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And each of us have sisters
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and mothers and grandmothers
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and aunts and wives
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and these women affect us as women.
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And learning how to live out
-
what God has called us to
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in our roles that God has given us
-
is vital to reflecting the Gospel
-
in our lives.
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So where do you start?
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Where on earth do you start?
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Do you start with singleness?
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That's where we start when we're born.
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We start single.
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Or do you start with marriage?
-
That's where many of us
wind up is married.
-
Do we start with
teaching on child raising?
-
That's how you get at kids the earliest
-
and get to do some
preventative maintenance,
-
Lord willing.
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Do you start with manhood?
-
We know men are to lead.
-
Do you start with womanhood?
-
Each of us started from a woman Paul says.
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Where do you start?
-
Someone said creation -
that's exactly right.
-
We need to start with creation.
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Right answer.
-
What I want to do is back right up to:
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who are we?
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Before you get into the details,
-
the question is who are we?
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Just as people made in the image of God
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and made with genders;
-
made as male and made as female -
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who are we?
-
So I just want to make
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four simple points this evening.
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We were created by God male and female.
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Second point is going to be:
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We were created different
as male and female
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with different roles.
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Third, we fell into sin and were cursed
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as male and female
-
in our original roles.
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And lastly, in Jesus,
we are being recreated
-
into those original roles and better.
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Let me begin by reading
to you from Genesis 1.
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And maybe if you have
a copy of the Scriptures,
-
you can open there.
-
Genesis 1:24-28.
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This is the account of how
God made the world.
-
And on the sixth day, He made man.
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We read this, v. 24.
-
"And God said,
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Let the earth bring forth living creatures
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according to their kinds,
-
livestock and creeping things
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and beasts of the earth
-
according to their kinds,'
-
and it was so.
-
And God made the beasts of the earth
-
according to their kinds
-
and the livestock according to their kinds
-
and everything that creeps on the ground
-
according to its kind
-
and God sawthat it was good.
-
Then God said, 'Let us
make man in our image,
-
after our likeness, and
let them have dominion
-
over the fish of the sea,
-
and over the birds of the heavens
-
and over the livestock
-
and over all the earth
-
and over every creeping thing
-
that creeps on the earth.'
-
So God created man in His own image;
-
in the image of God, He created him;
-
male and female He created them,
-
and God blessed them
-
and God said to them,
-
'Be fruitful and multiply
and fill the earth
-
and subdue it and have dominion
-
over the fish of the sea,
-
and over the birds of the heavens,
-
and over every living thing that moves
-
on the earth.'"
-
Now I want you to look, if you would,
-
at Genesis 2 where the biblical story
-
now zooms in and focuses in
-
on that creation of that first couple.
-
We get a broad panorama in Genesis 1,
-
but now we zoom in and we focus in
-
on the creation of the first man
-
and the first woman in Genesis 2.
-
And I'll begin reading in v. 15.
-
"The Lord God took the man
-
and put him in the garden of Eden
-
to work it and keep it,
-
and the Lord God commanded the man,
-
saying, 'You may surely eat
-
of every tree of the garden,
-
but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil
-
you shall not eat,
-
for in the day that you eat of it,
-
you shall surely die.'
-
Then the Lord God said,
-
'It is not good that man should be alone.
-
I will make him a helper fit for him.'
-
Now out of the ground, the Lord God
-
had formed every beast of the field
-
and every bird of the heavens,
-
and brought them to the man
-
to see what he would call them,
-
and whatever the man
called every living creature,
-
that was its name.
-
The man gave names to all livestock
-
and to the birds of the heavens
-
and every beast of the field,
-
but for Adam there was not found
-
a helper fit for him.
-
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep
-
to fall upon the man,
-
and while he slept, took one of his ribs,
-
and closed up its place with flesh,
-
and the rib that the Lord God
-
had taken from the man,
-
He made into a woman
-
and brought her to the man.
-
Then the man said, 'This at last,
-
is bone of my bones
-
and flesh of my flesh.
-
She shall be called woman,
-
because she was taken out of man.
-
Therefore a man shall leave his father
-
and his mother and hold fast to his wife
-
and they shall become one flesh.'
-
And the man and his wife were both naked
-
and were not ashamed."
-
And so we've seen in Genesis 1,
-
the creation of man and woman.
-
They were made to have
dominion over the earth.
-
They were made in God's image.
-
Now, in Genesis 2, we focus in
-
and see that it's not good
for man to be alone.
-
But Eve is made as a helper for him.
-
And now I want you to look if you will
-
at Genesis 3 where their marriage
-
and all humanity along with them
-
fall into sin and misery.
-
And I want to read to you
-
from beginning at the cursing
-
of the woman.
-
"To the woman he said,
-
'I will surely multiply your pain
-
in childbearing.
-
In pain you shall bring forth children.
-
Your desire shall be for your husband
-
and he shall rule over you.'
-
And to Adam, He said,
-
'Because you have listened to the voice
-
of your wife and have eaten of the tree
-
of which I commanded you,
-
you shall not eat of it,
-
cursed is the ground because of you.
-
In pain, you shall eat of it
-
all the days of your life.
-
Thorns and thistles it shall
bring forth for you,
-
and you shall eat the
plants of the field.
-
By the sweat of your face,
you shall eat bread
-
till you return to the ground.
-
For out of it you were taken.
-
For you are dust and to
dust you shall return."
-
The first point I want
to make this evening
-
is that we were created by God
-
male and female.
-
And I want you to notice my first point
-
is not Christians believe we were made
-
male and female.
-
It's not that Christians believe it.
-
It's that it's true.
-
Every perversion we're going to notice
-
over these coming days
-
is not a perversion from
the Christian worldview.
-
It's rebellion against God who is there.
-
It's that you can't live in another world
-
other than God's world.
-
And so when you rebel in God's world,
-
it always twists what He made good.
-
And we were created by God
-
male and female.
-
Genesis 1 gives us the most amazing view
-
of humanity that you can ever have.
-
It shows us that we were created by God.
-
And not only were we created by God,
-
but we were personally created by God.
-
Notice in v. 24 that the animals
-
come up out of the ground.
-
And God said, "Let the earth bring forth
-
living creatures according to their kind."
-
Some of you have read C. S. Lewis'
-
"The Magician's Nephew,"
-
and seen the animals burrowing up
-
out of the ground.
-
And of course, Lewis got
the idea from Genesis.
-
But notice that the creation
of man and woman
-
is different than the
creation of the animals.
-
We don't just pop up out of the ground.
-
We are personally made by God.
-
He says in v. 24 let the earth do that.
-
In v. 26 He says, "Let us
make man in our image."
-
Listen to this, every single human being
-
who has ever lived was
God's personal handiwork.
-
Psalm 139:14 says that each person
-
is fearfully and wonderfully made,
-
knitted together in their mother's womb.
-
In my family, we have lots of blankets.
-
We never have any shortage of blankets.
-
We have a chest full of blankets.
-
It's always wrecking the hinges
-
because the blankets push the lid open.
-
There's lots of blankets.
-
But there's only a few
that my mom quilted.
-
And those ones are the
most special in the house.
-
Because my mother made them
-
for each of her grandchildren.
-
And you, even if you
don't like your body type,
-
even if you wish you had your
body type from 10 years ago,
-
you were knitted just the way you are
-
by a personal God
-
who was personally active
in the formation of you
-
in the womb.
-
You were made by God.
-
And unbelievably, we are the pinnacle
-
of God's creation.
-
In Genesis 1, God creates the light,
-
the greater light, the lesser light,
-
the plants, the stars, the fish,
-
the birds, the animals of the ground,
-
and of all of it, He says it's good.
-
It's good. It's good.
-
But when He makes man, He says,
-
it's very good now.
-
The pinnacle of creation
-
is now on the scene.
-
People go to see whales in Sea World.
-
They go to see mountains.
-
But the most glorious thing on the planet
-
is right in front of me in the dozens.
-
People.
-
One preacher pointed out,
-
no engineer could design these things,
-
that have a coiling motion
-
and a grasping strength,
-
and a coordination.
-
And you have one on the end of each arm.
-
That's amazing!
-
That's God's good gift to you.
-
You are God's good gift to you.
-
And really ultimately to Himself.
-
We are by virtue of creation;
-
by virtue of what God did,
-
the pinnacle of creation.
-
And we are the creation -
-
this is important -
-
we are the creation of
a Triune relational God.
-
It says in Genesis 1:26,
-
"Let us make man in our image."
-
Now, someone would say
-
that's not a reference to the Trinity.
-
God's just speaking to the angels.
-
Well, let me tell you this,
when God looks at the angels,
-
he doesn't see ones that
were made in His image.
-
So He can't say to the angels,
-
"Let us make man in our image."
-
The only person - the only people -
-
in all eternity that God can say that to
-
is God the Father can say
that to God the Son
-
and God the Holy Spirit,
-
so we have here even a hinting
-
of what will become abundantly
clear in the New Testament,
-
that God is a triune God.
-
Why can't Allah be true?
-
Because Allah is not a relational being.
-
Allah is alone and lonely
-
and the best he can do is offer you
-
celestial virgins in paradise.
-
That's the best he can do.
-
It's all he's got.
-
He doesn't have anything -
he's just a demon.
-
He's false. Fake.
-
But the lie of Allah never
would account for this world.
-
Because if there was an alone god -
-
all alone forever -
-
he wouldn't make
relational beings like you.
-
You were made in the
image of a relational being.
-
Why do you like people so much?
-
Or why do you struggle
with people so much?
-
It's either because you're
embracing what God loves
-
or rejecting it.
-
But you can't avoid it.
-
You were made in the image of a God
-
who has never known a millisecond
-
outside the context of a relationship.
-
He has always been one
God in three Persons:
-
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
-
And we are made in His image.
-
Now, you think about that.
-
And people in our day and age would say
-
that sounds like mythology -
-
just some god saying let there be light
-
and there was light.
-
We need something much more rational
-
like there was a ball of matter
-
all compressed and alone in the universe.
-
And then suddenly it blew up
-
and it splattered out all across
-
the infinite whatever,
-
and one of those places
had a really good puddle,
-
really condusive to lightning striking it,
-
and life coming out of it,
-
and then you know the
amoebas came out of the water,
-
and then from them the fish,
and then they grew legs,
-
and then you've got the
monkeys, and here we are.
-
Made in the image of?
-
Nothing. An accident.
-
Made in the image of an accident.
-
You better treat me with respect.
-
The world wants dignity.
-
The world wants esteem.
-
The world wants meaning.
-
And they've embraced a lie
-
for a worldview that will give them
-
no foundation for the very thing
-
they know they need,
-
which is what it is to be lost.
-
To be lost is to know
there's somewhere to go
-
and to know that you're not there.
-
And the world is lost.
-
Getting little glimmers of truth
-
and covering them up
-
with all kinds of lies.
-
But we as believers,
-
and those of you that are believers,
-
there ought to be a dignity about you.
-
There ought to be a dignity about me,
-
just from this one fact.
-
That we were made in the image of God.
-
It's amazing how quickly this can change.
-
Before I was a Christian,
-
I always walked around like this.
-
And my hair was usually
hanging in front of my face.
-
And one time, just a few weeks after
-
I became a believer,
-
my dad said, "Stand up. You
were made in the image of God."
-
Isn't that amazing?
-
Just one truth.
-
Just stand up.
-
You're not a worthless descendent.
-
You're not a bag of chemicals
just bouncing around on each other;
-
just having chemical reactions
-
that make you depressed one
day and happy the next.
-
You are made in the image of God.
-
But notice this,
-
male and female, He created them.
-
The image of God was not portrayed
-
in one sex.
-
Male and female, He created them.
-
So look at that. V. 27.
-
So God created man (singular)
-
in His own image.
-
In the image of God, He created him.
-
Male and female, He created them.
-
The world has always struggled
-
with what to do with women.
-
Always.
-
And the world either paints women
-
as these pure angels,
-
or it paints women
-
as immoral and ungodly.
-
Or, it devalues women.
-
One person said recently,
-
the most dangerous words
in the world right now are:
-
it's a girl.
-
Because as soon as
they find out it's a girl,
-
you're way more likely to be aborted
-
in China, in India.
-
The world devalues women.
-
Devalues them utterly.
-
It says you can be the
CEO of a major company
-
as long as you don't mind
that we strip you half-naked
-
and put you on the front of a magazine
-
to rape with our eyes.
-
Just degrades women everywhere.
-
And the Bible alone comes along
-
and says utter equal value.
-
And not just equal to man,
-
in the image of God.
-
That's what a woman is.
-
There's no greater foundation.
-
And sisters are constantly struggling
-
with perceptions of themselves
-
and depression over themselves
-
and self-hatred and self-
loathing over themselves.
-
And you need to know this:
-
No matter how far you sink in sin,
-
you cannot erase this about you.
-
You were made in the image of God.
-
It's amazing.
-
In the image of God, He created them.
-
Now in the ancient Near East,
-
where the book of Genesis was written,
-
the way you marked off your land
-
was you put a statue of you in your land,
-
so think sphinx in Egypt.
-
How do you know Pharaoh's in charge?
-
He puts a sphinx there
-
and says this here is mine.
-
You want a more modern example?
-
Saddam Hussein.
-
What was all over Iraq?
-
Big statues of Saddam Hussein.
-
They say Saddam's in charge here.
-
Well, what was God doing
-
putting people in His image
-
and saying cover the planet?
-
Saying "this is Mine."
-
Which means that what you are,
-
at the very fabric of your being,
-
is you are the best medium,
-
the best canvas possible to display
-
the glory of God.
-
I don't know about you,
I don't go to art galleries a lot,
-
but when I do go to art galleries,
what I notice is that there's
-
those little white tags under the picture,
-
and that's your only hope of making
sense of what's on the wall.
-
And so you read that
-
and it says there,
-
"fire."
-
"Mixed medium."
-
"Pottery."
-
"Bronze."
-
"Oil on canvas."
-
"Pastels on paper."
-
It tells you what the artist used
-
to display the idea
that was in their soul.
-
Well, when God wanted to stretch out
-
the perfect canvas to display His glory,
-
He did not use pastels;
-
He did not use paint;
-
He did not use a canvas at all.
-
He said I want five fingers
-
and I want five toes
-
and I want two ears and I want two eyes.
-
I want a mind.
-
I want a chest.
-
I want legs.
-
That's where I'm going to
paint a picture of Me.
-
You say, wait a second!
-
Can my person really be the best place
-
to display the glory of God?
-
You bet it is and that's why
Jesus came as a man.
-
And He is the image of the invisible God.
-
The exact - the exact representation
-
of His nature.
-
To be a person is to be the kind of being
-
it would take to display the glory of God.
-
What does that mean?
-
What does that mean to be
made in the image of God?
-
Are you beginning to get a little bit
-
of a taste of what it is to be human?
-
Sometimes we go through life
-
assuming the basics.
-
We say we want to see people saved,
-
and we never think: what is a people?
-
We want to see men saved. What are men?
-
We want to see souls saved. What's a soul?
-
And as soon as you start to think about
-
what a soul is, then you even more
-
want to say I want to see people saved.
-
These people made in the image of God.
-
What is the image of God?
-
Well, it's what we do
-
and it's how we're made.
-
It's two things.
-
It's what we do - that's our function.
-
And it's how we're made -
-
that's our structure.
-
Both of those are key to understanding
-
what it is to be made in the image of God.
-
What do I mean by that?
-
Well, think about the way you're made.
-
You're made with a mind.
-
Which is why God can say to you,
-
"Come, let us reason together."
-
He has a mind and you have a mind.
-
You're made in His image.
-
There's a correspondence
between you and Him.
-
He can make moral distinctions.
-
He says it is good, it is good,
-
it is very good.
-
He says some things are not good.
-
And you walk through
life just involuntarily
-
making those kind of
distinctions all the time.
-
We're able to make
these moral distinctions.
-
It's what it is to be made
in the image of God
-
is to notice what's good
-
and what's not good.
-
And to notice what's
right and what's wrong.
-
To be made in the image of God
-
is to be able to act.
-
There's a big difference here.
-
He gets to act without hands.
-
He says "Red Sea part," and it parts.
-
We have to build Hoover Dam.
-
But nonetheless, in doing so,
-
we are displaying the image of God.
-
I was flying above
Missouri in a Cessna today.
-
It was just a great gift
-
to be able to fly at a low altitude
-
and just to be able to look out
-
over God's creation.
-
God is able to be in
all places at all times,
-
but He's given us the ability to walk
-
and to run and to build cars
-
and to build airplanes and to move.
-
He's the God who acts
-
and we are people who act.
-
Being in the image of God
-
is right into our structure.
-
It's how we're made.
-
But it's not just how we're made.
-
It's what we're called to do.
-
What does He call Adam and Eve to do?
-
Go have dominion and subdue the earth.
-
So what does it take to subdue the earth?
-
You've got to have a mind.
-
You've got to know what's right.
-
And you've got to be able to act.
-
And so He makes man and woman
-
equally able to reflect Him
-
and to be a display of His glory.
-
Second point.
-
We were both created in the image of God,
-
male and female.
-
The second point is we were both
created in the image of God,
-
male and female with different roles.
-
Now this is a mystery.
-
We were both made totally equal
-
in the image of God for
something different.
-
And if you want to unravel the mystery
-
of how you can be equal
and for something different
-
you need go no further than the Trinity.
-
That's where we get the unity
of the one and the many.
-
That's how we can understand how
-
someone can be utterly equal
-
and yet in a different place.
-
The Son - totally equal with the Father.
-
Totally willing to submit to the Father.
-
The Holy Spirit - totally
equal to the Son.
-
Wants nothing more
than to glorify the Son.
-
And we are totally
equal - male and female,
-
brothers and sisters in creation
-
and for those who are Christians,
-
in the Lord.
-
And yet with different roles.
-
Now in Genesis 2, we see this,
-
but we have to be careful that we know
-
how to read Genesis 2.
-
Because Genesis 2 does
not talk like Romans.
-
People like Romans because Romans
-
just comes out and says it.
-
Romans will say:
-
"All have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God."
-
Genesis 2 will just tell you stories
-
about really sinful people.
-
Or, Romans 6 will say,
-
the wages of sin is death.
-
Genesis 5 will just tell you:
-
"and he died, and he died, and he died..."
-
So the book of Genesis
and the book of Romans
-
are both written by God;
-
both inspired by the Holy Spirit;
-
and yet, one makes its teachings
-
in a teaching way, a didactic way;
-
the other teaches in a narrative way
-
through story.
-
And you've got to learn how to read story.
-
And when you learn how to read story,
-
the points of different roles
-
begin to come out real easily.
-
The first way that we see role in Genesis
-
is that men were created first.
-
Men were created first.
-
How do you know men have a different role?
-
How do you know they're called to lead?
-
It's because they were created first.
-
Genesis 2:15
-
"The Lord God took the man
-
and put him in the garden of Eden
-
to work it and keep it,
-
and the Lord commanded the man
-
saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree
-
of the garden, but of
the tree of the knowledge
-
of good and evil, you shall not eat,
-
for in the day that you eat of it,
-
you shall surely die.'"
-
Adam is all alone and
he has a place to be.
-
He has a place to work and keep.
-
He has the Word of God.
-
He has the promise of God.
-
All when he's utterly alone.
-
And the fact that he
comes on the scene first
-
means that he is called to lead.
-
You say, wait a second,
you're reading into the text.
-
Well, I'm not reading into the text,
because it's just what Paul says
-
in 1 Timothy 2:13.
-
1 Timothy 2:13
-
In 1 Timothy 2:13, Paul speaking about
-
the context of the church says,
-
"I do not (v. 12) permit a woman to teach
-
or exercise authority over a man.
-
Rather she is to remain quiet."
-
Why? Why? Why this order?
-
Well, because of the culture in Ephesus.
-
It just demanded that.
-
That's the argument for why you would
-
ignore this verse.
-
But that's not the reason Paul gives.
-
What Paul says is,
-
"For Adam was formed first, then Eve."
-
This order of leadership
-
is not because he's smarter.
-
It's not because of the
culture in Ephesus.
-
It's because of the order of creation.
-
That he was formed first.
-
And Paul understood that to mean
-
he was called to lead.
-
Now, it goes on and makes
this in more ways too.
-
In the ancient Near East,
-
and really in our own day today,
-
to name someone was a sign of authority.
-
I mean, when my firstborn
daughter was named,
-
I named her Jordana.
-
I didn't wait till she was 10 and say,
-
well, what do you want?
-
And if she came to me and said at 15,
-
and told me she wanted a different name,
-
I would tell her she wasn't
getting another name,
-
because I gave her her name.
-
I'm her father and I
have authority over her.
-
For her to reject the name I gave her
-
would be a rejection of authority.
-
And in the book of Genesis,
what do we find?
-
We find Adam naming the animals.
-
He determines what their names will be.
-
And then twice it's pointed out to us
-
that he names Eve.
-
Specifically we can see
that in Genesis 3:20.
-
"The man called his wife's name Eve
-
because she was the mother of all living."
-
So he was created first,
-
and then he is also given
the ability to name,
-
and he names his wife,
-
which was a sign of authority.
-
And then also, when the serpent
-
deceived Eve, where did God go?
-
He went to the man.
-
The book of Genesis -
-
fascinating is too light a word -
-
but it's really quite amazing.
-
The order of creation was to be
-
God, man, woman, animals.
-
And in the fall, the
animal leads the woman
-
over the man over God.
-
But they might have
invented their own world,
-
but they were still in God's world,
-
and when they sinned, He came for the man.
-
Do you see what I was saying earlier?
-
You can be in rebellion
against God's world,
-
but you're still in God's world
-
while you're in your rebellion.
-
And He came for man.
-
He came to talk to Adam
-
when Eve fell into sin.
-
And Adam blame-shifted and said,
-
"This woman You gave me."
-
But God didn't take that.
-
Adam is a leader because
he was created first.
-
He's a leader because he was
-
given authority to name.
-
And he was given
accountability (Genesis 3:9).
-
When sin came into the world,
-
Adam was held accountable.
-
He should lead.
-
What we see about Eve -
-
now this is key -
-
she is actually created to be a helper.
-
She's created to be a helper.
-
Genesis 2:18
-
"It is not good that
a man should be alone.
-
I will make a helper fit for him."
-
Now, this is amazing.
-
Listen to those words.
-
We hear the word "helper,"
-
and it demeans women in our eyes.
-
Helper?
-
It's like "junior varsity."
-
This is demeaning.
-
But we don't listen.
-
A helper fit for him.
-
Who's he? He is made in the image of God.
-
He is the ultimate creation on the planet.
-
And it's going to take somebody special
-
to help him.
-
It's not a position of being demeaned.
-
If someone called you -
-
and forget the current president
and your feelings about him -
-
but if someone called you and said
-
you are going to be the
helper to the president,
-
you would not feel demeaned.
-
Right?
-
I didn't think so.
-
And God proves this
by parading every animal
-
on earth in front of Adam
-
and none of them are good enough.
-
"Now out of the ground the Lord God
had formed every beast of the field
-
and every bird of the heavens
and brought them to the man
-
to see what he would call them.
-
And whatever the man
called every living creature,
-
that was its name.
-
The man gave names to all livestock
-
and to the birds of the heavens
and to every beast of the field,
-
but for Adam there was not found
-
(here's those three words again)
-
a helper fit for him."
-
There's no helper fit for him.
-
You can take a dog for a walk.
-
You can ride a horse at a gallop.
-
A monkey can get your
bananas out of the tree,
-
if you're in Eden,
-
but a monkey doesn't have
a mind to fellowship with.
-
Can't make the same moral judgments:
-
good, very good, not good.
-
Can't act and do with the same dexterity
-
and the same mental control
-
as a man.
-
There's only one creature on the planet
-
that can fellowship with a man,
-
and that's a woman.
-
There's only one creature
that can help a man,
-
and that is a woman.
-
We'll probably get into
this more tomorrow,
-
but this idea that
helper is demeaning,
-
we need to do away
with this completely.
-
In the Bible, God is called a Helper.
-
The Holy Spirit is called a Helper.
-
And the Lord Jesus
Christ is called a Helper.
-
None of them are feeling demeaned.
-
But at the same time, we don't
want to get rid of this idea.
-
She really is called to help.
-
They tease me at the church I pastor
-
because I've had every
job there is to have.
-
I was a carpenter's helper,
-
an electrician's helper.
-
I've been a welder's helper.
-
And just helped everybody.
-
And when I helped them,
-
it was very clear they were to lead,
-
and I was to follow.
-
They couldn't do their work without me,
-
but my work was not to do their work.
-
They were called to lead.
-
I was called to follow.
-
Now some of us get
scared of this teaching.
-
Man's called to lead.
Woman's called to be a helper.
-
It all sounds good in the church,
-
but when you go talk about it out there,
-
it makes people a little more nervous.
-
But you need to be careful.
-
If this teaching that
man is called to lead
-
and a woman is called to help
-
does not attract you or seems foolish
-
to the eyes of the world,
-
let me ask you this.
-
What else seems foolish
to the eyes of the world?
-
Jesus Christ died to save sinners
seems foolish to the world.
-
You don't go to the world for your ideas
-
of what is foolish.
-
They'd get rid of your Savior too.
-
Not just get rid of the
Bible's gender roles.
-
Third point.
-
We fell into sin and were
cursed as male and female
-
in our original roles.
-
Now this is key.
-
This helped my wife and I in marriage
-
a great deal.
-
It's helped me at least.
-
Lots of other things have helped her.
-
I didn't mean it like that. Sorry, honey.
-
It's helped me immensely in marriage
-
to notice that the curse
-
put on Adam and Eve for their sin
-
is not a generic curse.
-
It's not just like you're
generally cursed.
-
Life's going to be hard.
-
It's a specific curse that touches
-
their gender roles.
-
So Genesis 3:16,
-
"To the woman He said,
-
'I will surely multiply
your pain in childbearing.
-
In pain you shall bring forth children.'"
-
So, it's not just pain in general.
-
It's pain as related to her role
-
of being the mother of all living.
-
And then in Genesis 3:18,
-
it's not just difficulty in general,
-
it's that Adam will have difficulty
-
with work and providing.
-
Halfway through v. 17,
-
"Cursed is the ground because of you.
-
In pain you shall eat of it
-
all the days of your life.
-
Thorns and thistles
-
it shall bring forth for you,
-
and you shall eat the
plants of the field."
-
So, very specific curses.
-
But I want you to notice
one part of the curse
-
that specifically touches
-
the way we relate to one another
-
as male and female.
-
Notice v. 16.
-
God says to the woman,
-
"Your desire shall be for your husband."
-
Now this is a curse, so what is the curse?
-
Is it: "I curse you and you will
really, really want your husband?"
-
I don't think that's
what is being said here.
-
If you look at Genesis 4:7,
we get the same word:
-
desire.
-
Now we're in the context of Cain and Abel
-
and the first murder in the world.
-
And God says to Cain,
-
"If you do well, will you not be accepted?
-
And if you do not do well,
-
sin is crouching at the door.
-
It's (same word) desire is for you,
-
but you must rule over it."
-
Sin's desire is to rule over you, Cain.
-
It wants to rule over you.
-
What's it saying in
Genesis 3:16 of the woman?
-
"Your desire shall be for your husband."
-
No longer will you be
content being a helper.
-
No longer will you be content submitting.
-
Why is it so hard for me to submit?
-
It's because I was born
in this feminist culture.
-
No, it's not. It goes
way deeper than that.
-
The reason it's so hard to submit
-
is because we were cursed
with an unsubmissive spirit -
-
women specifically.
-
We're cursed with a desire to be in charge
-
where they were once called to submit.
-
But then you go on and it says,
-
"And he shall rule over you."
-
And this word "rule"
according to Wayne Grudem
-
is not a shepherding, a loving rule;
-
it's that he's going to be a harsh ruler.
-
So you've got the battles of the sexes
-
born in Genesis 3.
-
She's going to want to rule,
and he's not going to rule
-
in a loving shepherding Christ-like way.
-
They both want to be in charge.
-
She's not supposed to be in charge.
-
And he's not supposed
to in charge like that.
-
But he's in charge like that,
-
and she's trying to be in charge,
-
and they can't get along.
-
And they get divorced,
-
and he starts looking at pornography,
-
and she starts reading romance novels.
-
And it goes downhill from there.
-
That's the way we've been cursed.
-
You need to know that if you can't
-
overcome a harshness towards your wife,
-
it's because you are in Adam
-
and you need to be born again.
-
You're under a curse.
-
And you need to know
that if you're a Christian
-
and it's a struggle to be kind,
-
to be loving,
-
it's because the flesh is strong.
-
You need to grow in the Spirit.
-
And you need to know
-
that if you're a woman
that has trouble submitting,
-
trouble coming up under,
-
and you can never do it -
-
you can never bring
yourself to submit at all -
-
you need to be born again.
-
You need a new heart within you.
-
One that loves what God loves.
-
But if you're a Christian
-
that struggles to submit,
-
you need to know you're not alone.
-
It's not some accident.
-
This is what it means to
be bent in the flesh.
-
And this really ought to
create a lot of compassion
-
towards married people in marriage right?
-
Why does my husband have
such a hard time being nice?
-
He's nice to everyone out in the world.
-
Why does he have such a hard time with me?
-
It ought to create compassion
owards your husband.
-
In Adam, he's under a curse.
-
And towards your wives -
-
there ought to be compassion
towards your wives.
-
Why is it such a struggle?
-
It is because she's so particularly bad?
-
No, it's because we're
all so particularly bad.
-
And there ought to be compassion
-
in marriage towards the struggles
-
that we all bear in the
infirmity of the flesh.
-
Now, here's my last point.
-
And I think it's glorious.
-
In Jesus, we are being recreated
-
into those original roles.
-
Every time I ask the women
of the congregation,
-
they all know.
-
What's the one thing Paul has to
say to you in the New Testament?
-
He just keeps saying it doesn't he?
-
Every chance he gets.
-
Ephesians 5,
-
Colossians 3,
-
1 Peter 3,
-
Titus 2.
-
Submit to your husband.
-
We look at that and we're like why?
-
Why not, "don't lie to your husband?"
-
Or, "be forgiving to your husband."
-
Why always submit?
-
Because in Jesus Christ,
the fall is being undone.
-
Paul knew his Bible.
-
Paul wasn't just picking
one random command.
-
Paul wasn't just jumping around.
-
He was like ok, listen,
-
when man fell into sin,
-
it touched women in a particular way.
-
It made them want to
rule over their husband,
-
and their desire was to conquer him.
-
And now in Jesus, they've been made new.
-
They've been given new hearts.
-
They've got the law
written on their heart.
-
They want to bow their knees to Jesus.
-
They have a submissive spirit in them.
-
And now he touches
where it's the most hard
-
and he says do it there.
-
Submit to your husbands
as is fitting in the Lord.
-
Why is it fitting in the Lord?
-
Because Jesus is making all things right.
-
Because Jesus is bringing all things
-
into union with Himself.
-
Which means He's taking all the ways
-
you're disjointed from Him,
-
and He's setting you straight with Him,
-
and that means restoring
that submissive spirit
-
that wants to affirm not
all male leadership,
-
but godly male leadership
-
and sometimes in a
suffering context (1 Peter 3)
-
ungodly male leadership.
-
But men, have you noticed?
-
He does the same thing with us.
-
It's always the same thing.
-
Husbands, love your wives.
-
I mean if only he had just said,
-
do your duty for your wives.
-
We'd all be fine, right?
-
But wives have got this sixth sense
-
that knows the difference
between duty and love
-
like nobody else, right?
-
Husbands, love your wives.
-
Colossians: Husbands love your wives
-
and do not be harsh with them.
-
1 Peter 3: Dwell with your wives
-
in an understanding way,
-
showing honor to the weaker vessel.
-
Why the same thing?
-
Because this is where men struggle.
-
Men are not naturally nice to their wives.
-
They're naturally nice to
the girls they're courting.
-
But then they get married to them,
-
and the battle with the
flesh begins in earnest.
-
And the Spirit of God is not interested
-
in sanctifying a people in general.
-
He does not sanctify a
people in the abstract.
-
He sanctifies a people in the particulars
-
of who they are;
-
in the particulars of their gender,
-
in the particulars of their sexuality,
-
and he says: "Let the Word of Christ
-
dwell in you richly."
-
Get the Gospel in you richly.
-
Let the Word of Christ
that says you're forgiven,
-
you are atoned for,
-
you are redeemed, you are loved,
-
you are a child of God,
-
you have His Holy Spirit -
-
let that dwell in you richly,
-
singing to one another in psalms
-
and hymns and spiritual songs.
-
Get that in you and then what?
-
Wives, submit to your husbands
-
as is fitting in the Lord.
-
And husbands, love your wives,
-
and do not be harsh with them.
-
The Spirit of God is redeeming us
-
through the blood of Jesus
-
in our genders
-
and in the relationships that
those genders bring us into.
-
Which means the church
is not for Sundays, is it?
-
It means that the Gospel
is for Monday and Tuesday
-
and when the baby's crying
at 4 in the morning
-
and you know you should get up, man,
-
to go take care of the baby,
-
but you just want to lay there
-
and let her do it again.
-
But the Spirit of God's touching there.
-
Do not be harsh. Go help out.
-
And it means that wives,
-
it's not just that you're to
submit to Jesus in general,
-
but there's also this guy.
-
And his ideas are never
quite as wise as Jesus'.
-
But Jesus doesn't want your submission
-
if it ignores him.
-
That's a false submission.
-
To think you're submitting to Jesus
-
while ignoring the one Jesus put over you.
-
May God help us all.
-
Let's pray.
-
Father, we praise You for Your tremendous
-
and mighty and glorious
work of redemption.
-
Lord, that though we were yet sinners -
-
first, made in the image of God;
-
first, made glorious, made to display You,
-
and then to sin in that,
-
to glorify lust and immorality
-
and all kinds of fantasy instead of You.
-
And then, Lord, to have You redeem us
-
and shed Your blood for us
-
and forgive us.
-
And then to call us back
-
to what Adam and Eve fell from.
-
And to give us Your Holy Spirit to do it.
-
Lord, I pray You'd do these
things in Jesus' name,
-
Amen.