Honoring Christ in Male/Female Roles (1)

In this part of the sermon: He proposes to address the two major building blocks for clear Christian ethical thinking, starting with 'The Nature of Scripture.' He illustrates this with an analogy of a…

Martin uses the analogy of a long, deep plank on a blackboard to represent the foundational building block of 'The Nature of Scripture' in all Christian ethical thinking, visually emphasizing its importance.

about a foot deep, and if the blackboard were six feet across, I'd take it all the way across from edge to edge, so if you can imagine in your mind's eye, in fact I'll use what I have here, if you will liken this plank that is about, oh, I'd say about seven inches wide and approximately six feet long, liken that to the foundational building block in any accurate thinking in Christian ethics. And on that building block, I would have you print the words, the nature of Scripture. The nature of Scripture. The moment we take up any question of ethics, immediately our view of the Scriptures is broug...

6:27 - 7:53 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He proposes to address the two major building blocks for clear Christian ethical thinking, starting with 'The Nature of Scripture.' He illustrates this with an analogy of a…

He cites an example of an evangelical seminary professor who claims Paul sometimes writes under rabbinic prejudice, not gospel influence, to show how a defective view of Scripture leads to flawed ethical conclusions about male/female roles.

in some places, writes on these subjects as a man whose mind is under the influence of the liberating truth of the Gospel, his mind is under the influence of Christ's Spirit and the blessings of the New Covenant. However, in other places, Paul writes out of the matrix of a mind and a spirit still buried under the rubble of rabbinic tradition, and male chauvinistic prejudice. And yet he claims to be an evangelical. Now you see his ethical conclusions about male and female roles and relationships reflect his defective view of the word of the living God. He has a Bible in which a so-called inspir...

7:53 - 9:14 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He proposes to address the two major building blocks for clear Christian ethical thinking, starting with 'The Nature of Scripture.' He illustrates this with an analogy of a…

He mentions a couple who wrote a book challenging traditional evangelical views on male/female relationships, arguing their conclusions stem from a 'radically defective' understanding of Scripture's nature.

in some places, writes on these subjects as a man whose mind is under the influence of the liberating truth of the Gospel, his mind is under the influence of Christ's Spirit and the blessings of the New Covenant. However, in other places, Paul writes out of the matrix of a mind and a spirit still buried under the rubble of rabbinic tradition, and male chauvinistic prejudice. And yet he claims to be an evangelical. Now you see his ethical conclusions about male and female roles and relationships reflect his defective view of the word of the living God. He has a Bible in which a so-called inspir...

7:53 - 9:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Is God God enough to take man the creature and so work upon him and in him and through him as to make him the instrument of giving us an inerrant and infallible revelation of his mind and his will?

The metaphor of 'all the mist is blown away' from debates about infallibility and inerrancy is used to clarify that the core issue is God's ability to give an infallible revelation through man.

Men spoke. Yes, but men spoke not as they were carried along by their individual insights, not as they were carried along and influenced by native short-sightedness, innate prejudice or misconception. No. Men spoke, but they spoke as those who were borne along, who were carried, who were under the superintendence of the Holy Spirit in such a way as to make what they wrote to be the very words of the living God, so that what Scripture says, God says, and whatever God says reflects His very nature. And of that God it is said, God who cannot lie. And when all of the mist is blown away from all of...

14:27 - 15:55 Read in full sermon

The point: If you in your arrogance and pride withhold unquestioned confidence in the word of God, you need to be crucified at the point of your creaturely arrogance.

He uses the humorous metaphor of being 'Mrs. Thatcher' to emphasize that a nebulous concept of Jesus is not saving faith; true faith embraces the Christ of biblical revelation.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh. This book tells me that the Savior whom I embrace is very God of very God, as much God as though He were never man, and yet as much man as though He were never God. That He took to Himself a true humanity, a true human soul, a true human body. And in the great mystery of the incarnation, we have what the theologians call the theanthropic person, the God-man, the two natures in the one person forever. Now, to be a Christian is not simply to, quote, trust some Jesus concerning whom we have ...

18:19 - 19:34 Read in full sermon

The point: If you in your arrogance and pride withhold unquestioned confidence in the word of God, you need to be crucified at the point of your creaturely arrogance.

He uses the graphic image of Christ 'clutching the Bible' to convey that one cannot separate Christ from His view of Scripture; to have Him is to have Him with His view of His Word.

All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him. And the Christ of biblical revelation comes to us, if I may state it in graphic pictorial language, he comes to us clutching the Bible. And he says, if you want me, you'll have me with my view of Scripture or you'll not have me at all. If you attempt to separate me from my view of Scripture, you end up with a Christ who is not the Christ of biblical revelation.

23:50 - 24:27 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin establishes the 'basic clarity or perspicuity' of Scripture, noting that while some passages are difficult, God's Word is a lamp and light, giving understanding to the…

He recounts Peter finding Paul's writings 'hard to be understood' to comfort listeners who struggle with difficult passages, while still affirming Scripture's overall clarity.

the writings of another apostle hard to be understood so whenever I come across a passage that makes me scratch my head and say Lord what in the world was he saying I take great care of you I take great care of you I take great care of you I take great care of you and I take great care of you every single time and know. He was a pretty old man at this time, and whether he had much hair left on his head or whether he stroked his scraggly beard, he picked up some of Paul's epistles, and he read them, and he read them, and he read them, and read them, and scratched and read and prayed and scratch...

33:37 - 34:45 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Oh, Father, concerning the things that matter, Father, concerning the things that matter, Father, concerning the things that matter, Father, concerning the things that matter, sin has so clouded my understanding, warped …

He uses rhetorical questions about choosing one's intelligence before conception to humble those with intellectual pride, reminding them that their abilities are a gift from God.

Did you march up to the throne of God the night before you were conceived and say, Almighty God, make sure that when the sperm and the ovum join and I am conceived and in the whole gene pool under your superintendence a mysterious act of selectivity is undertaken, God, make sure that I get more than an average amount of gray matter. Did you do that?

37:05 - 37:33 Read in full sermon

The point: If you've not known what it is to be humbled before the God of the universe and his word, confess the shamefulness of your intellectual arrogance before God tonight.

He uses the beautiful imagery of David's prayer 'undress my eyes' to illustrate that sin veils our understanding, and we need divine intervention to see wondrous things in God's law.

That's why David prayed in Psalm 119 and verse 18, literally, undress my eyes. It's a beautiful imagery. He says, God, when I look at your truth, it's as though I look at it with eyes that have no truth. They have veils over them.

39:27 - 39:43 Read in full sermon

The point: If you've not known what it is to be humbled before the God of the universe and his word, confess the shamefulness of your intellectual arrogance before God tonight.

He uses the metaphor of being 'crucified in the place of a skull' to convey the radical self-denial and humility required to submit intellectual arrogance to God's Word.

The God who made you a male, the God who made you a female, the God who knew in his own infinite mind from eternity what he purposed in maleness, infidelity, femaleness, what he purposed in relative roles and relationships. And unless you are brought to the disposition of that beautiful psalm in which the psalmist said, my eyes are not haughty, my spirit is like the spirit of a weaned child. Oh, my dear younger man or woman, hear me, hear me. If you've not known what it is to be humbled before the God of the universe and his word, before you pillow your head tonight, get down before this God a...

41:04 - 42:30 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He introduces the second major building block for ethical thinking: the 'scriptural framework' of Creation, Fall, and Redemption. This framework provides the biblical context for…

He extends the plank analogy by adding a 'picture frame' on top, representing the 'scriptural framework' of Creation, Fall, and Redemption as the next building block for ethical thinking.

All right? If this plank is our fundamental building block, the nature of Scripture, I would like you to see sitting on it this picture. If we could only bring it down two and a half inches. All right?

43:13 - 43:25 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And to give you a little hint, it is this very fact of this very verse that underscores that those roles are not reversible unless you're prepared to get God in a hammerlock, take him back to the garden and say, God crea…

He uses the metaphor of God taking a 'zoom lens' in Genesis 2 to describe how God provides more specific details about the creation of male and female after the broader account in Genesis 1.

You see how central then is the doctrine of creation to man's, male and female roles and relationships. For they are forced upon us in the very doctrine of creation. And then in chapter 2, where we have God taking his zoom lens upon precisely how he differentiated in this creation of male and female. Genesis 1 would give the impression that they were perhaps created in the same way.

46:47 - 47:21 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And to give you a little hint, it is this very fact of this very verse that underscores that those roles are not reversible unless you're prepared to get God in a hammerlock, take him back to the garden and say, God crea…

He uses the vivid metaphor of getting 'God in a hammerlock' to illustrate the absurdity of trying to reverse the created roles of male and female, implying it would require God to recreate them differently.

And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man made he a woman and brought her unto the man. And in that very statement, as we shall see in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, God is telling us something very profound about male and female roles and relationships. And to give you a little hint, it is this very fact of this very verse that underscores that those roles are not reversible unless you're prepared to get God in a hammerlock, take him back to the garden and say, God create the man and the woman in a way different from ...

48:36 - 49:57 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And one thing we must always keep in mind, what God does in redemption only wars against what has happened in the fall, not what he instituted in creation.

He uses the strong terms 'gobbledygook and hogwash' and 'swill' to dismiss the idea that redemption negates created male/female roles, emphasizing that such arguments are worthless.

It is called a renewal unto the image of God. So when someone tells you, well, in Christ, neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, so all that baloney about specific roles and subjection, that's all buried in the cross and tomb of Jesus. No, it isn't, my friend. That's a lot of gobbledygook and hogwash is the term my southern friend views.

58:42 - 59:11 Read in full sermon