Honoring Christ in Male/Female Roles (2)

Driving home: at the end of the day all of our perspectives on the details of ethical issues are an extension of our theology or an expression of our building blocks of thought and perspective.

Martin expresses frustration with 'experts' who claim the younger generation cannot appreciate traditional hymns, contrasting it with the congregation's enthusiastic worship, suggesting experts often serve their own interests.

Peter, you may not put these first few remarks on the tape, but I can't resist saying that I would like to take all of the advocates of the silly notion that your generation is so infantile and spiritually ignorant that you cannot sing the, quote, old, stuffy, traditional hymns with intelligence and with enthusiasm. I'd like to park all the experts down here, tell them to just keep their mouths shut and their ears open and watch your countenances and listen to your voices as you've rendered to God what I believe has been worship in spirit and in truth. It's amazing how wrong the experts can be...

0:01 - 1:07 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section introduces the sermon's structure, which will examine male-female roles under three headings: God's creative design, the disruption of the fall, and the dynamics of…

Martin uses the analogy of flying at different altitudes (10,000 feet vs. 15 feet vs. 40,000 feet) to describe the level of detail in his overview of male-female roles, aiming for a broad but meaningful survey.

approach all ethical concerns within the framework of creation, fall, and of redemption. Now we come this morning to take up the subject, and I'm approaching it under this title, an overview of male-female roles. An overview, and by that I simply mean that we are cruising over some of the major passages of the word of God at about 10,000 feet, and we'll have little time to descend in a helicopter and hover over any one of them at about 15 feet. Now hopefully we're not cruising over at 40,000 feet, but somewhere around, you know, 8,000 to 10,000 as you would in a light single-engine aircraft go...

8:38 - 10:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Never demean one sex in the presence of another; recognize the dignity of all as image-bearers, moral agents, and stewards.

Martin critiques modern environmentalism, arguing it stems from a pantheistic worldview that values exotic birds over human babies, highlighting the hypocrisy of those who advocate for nature while supporting abortion.

And let me say by way of an aside in this day of fanatical environmentalism the modern environmentalist movement grows out of a pantheistic philosophy of reality. Beware of it. I hope I take second place to no responsible Christian in the sense that we must be good stewards of God's creation and we must not carelessly defile his creation. But beware of this obsession of modern environmentalism which regards all of God's creation including man as of equal worth. It is pantheistic to the core. And it's more concerned about preserving an exotic bird in Antarctica than preserving babies in the wom...

18:15 - 19:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin identifies four distinctive male functions from Genesis 2: Adam was created for his task, assigned the task of naming creatures and Eve, was the sole recipient of the…

Martin uses the analogy of an author not endorsing every 'jot and tittle' of his own book five years later to illustrate that no one should endorse every detail of another's work, emphasizing growth in grace.

the man was assigned the task of naming the creatures and also of naming Eve after she had been created and brought to the man verse twenty three and the man said this is now bone of my bones flesh of my flesh she shall be called she shall be named woman because she was taken out of man not very democratic either he didn't say now sweetie now sugar plum now pet God gave you to me but it be terribly chauvinistic of me to stick you with a name growing solely out of my assessment of who and what you are so let's negotiate a name for you the Bible does not say that the Bible tells us that Adam bef...

29:40 - 31:07 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin identifies four distinctive male functions from Genesis 2: Adam was created for his task, assigned the task of naming creatures and Eve, was the sole recipient of the…

Martin uses the analogy of a baseball curveball to explain what he hopes his teaching is not: a deceptive argument that twists at the last minute, assuring listeners his points are straightforward from the text.

of that revelation from God it was exclusively given to the man not the man and the woman but to the man the man was the sole recipient of that revelation and then fourthly the man was made the representative or federal head of all humanity and we learn that from a passage such as Romans 5 12 through 21 1 Corinthians 15 22 and following wherefore as through one man sin entered into the world as through the one man's disobedience and in all the feminist and in all the women of the world that he has originally been the head of the regard for the good as the representative head upon whose back th...

36:57 - 38:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section details the woman's distinctive identity and function: created for the man as companion, counterpart, helper, and follower. Martin emphasizes that Eve was brought to…

Martin humorously refers to God causing a deep sleep to fall upon Adam as the 'first case of anesthesia,' affirming the literal historical truth of the Genesis account of Eve's creation.

And so verse 21 tells us the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept. One has said the first case of anesthesia. Apparently God did something like that, so that Adam's nerve endings would not scream when God opened him up and took one of his ribs. You say, Mr. Martin, you really believe that this is straightforward history, don't you?

41:07 - 41:31 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section details the woman's distinctive identity and function: created for the man as companion, counterpart, helper, and follower. Martin emphasizes that Eve was brought to…

Martin dismisses the sneering of 'smart aleck professors' who deny the literal truth of Genesis, arguing they weren't present, unlike God and Adam, who were the only witnesses to creation.

Nothing in the text, nothing in subsequent biblical revelations, to come to any other conclusion. This is not saga, this is not myth, this is not extended allegory, this is telling it like it was. And since God and Adam were the only one there, I think God ought to know what he did.

41:36 - 41:58 Read in full sermon

Driving home: May I say it reverently, when God saw Adam and Eve tumbling in the grass in naked, erotic embrace in the purity of Eden, God smiled and said, That's good. And if you have any other view of human sexuality, you have a sub…

Martin wishes for a tape recorder in Eden to capture Adam's exclamation upon seeing Eve, emphasizing the beauty and significance of that moment.

And brought her to the man. Now this is beautiful. Oh, if ever I wish tape recorders had been invented earlier, I wish one had been embedded somewhere in a bush in Eden.

42:49 - 42:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of the teaching that responsible, prayerful, procreative stewardship involving planning and spacing children is carnal or under God's frown, as this is Roman Catholic, not biblical, teaching.

Martin reverently states that God 'smiled' at Adam and Eve's 'naked, erotic embrace in the purity of Eden,' challenging sub-biblical views of human sexuality.

He beheld everything he made, and it was good. May I say it reverently, when God saw Adam and Eve tumbling in the grass in naked, erotic embrace in the purity of Eden, God smiled and said, That's good. And if you have any other view of human sexuality, you have a sub-biblical view.

44:29 - 44:57 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of the teaching that responsible, prayerful, procreative stewardship involving planning and spacing children is carnal or under God's frown, as this is Roman Catholic, not biblical, teaching.

Martin contrasts the feminist idea of women as rivals to men, seeking to prove 'anything you can do I can do better,' with the biblical concept of a helper and companion.

God did not say it's not good for the man to be alone. He'll never produce up to his optimum unless he has a rival. I will make a rival to spur him on. That's the claptrap of feminism.

45:37 - 45:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Beware of the teaching that responsible, prayerful, procreative stewardship involving planning and spacing children is carnal or under God's frown, as this is Roman Catholic, not biblical, teaching.

Martin critiques the Roman Catholic doctrine that the primary purpose of sexual union is solely procreation, calling it heresy and warning evangelicals against similar views that condemn family planning.

I'll make a helper answering to his needs. She was created for the man as companion, not just baby maker. That's the heresy of Rome. God made women basically as a utilitarian necessity so she could be a baby maker.

46:05 - 46:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not blur, obliterate, or merge distinct femininity into unisex nonsense or 'personhood' nonsense.

Martin describes unisex clothing and haircuts not as innocent fads, but as a 'quenched fist at the God of creation,' blurring distinct male and female identities.

You see how relevant it is. Do you think that unisex clothing and haircuts are an innocent fad? They're not an innocent fad. They are a quenched fist at the God of creation saying let Adam who is ish now look at Eve and say ish and ish can look at ish and neither knows who ish is.

47:34 - 47:57 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not let men make you feel inferior by saying you are not capable of or properly assigned a role of equal leadership; submission is not inferiority.

Martin uses Christ's submission to the Father to argue that submission does not imply inferiority, warning that equating headship with inferiority leads to an Arian Christology, denying Christ's deity.

And what we find in Genesis 2 is regulative for all times even in the context of the coming of Christ and the outpouring of the Spirit and all of the liberating power of new covenant, the privilege and spiritual reality. The woman was named by the man thereby demonstrating according to the analogy of Scripture that she takes a place of submission. And if you think immediately submission means inferiority, then you are in big bad trouble with your Christology. Because it's in this passage that he says that the head of Christ is God. And if the Messiah's position in voluntary joyful submission t...

56:47 - 58:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Husbands, dwell with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor to them as the weaker vessel, using her femininity as a catalyst to honor her.

Martin imagines Adam and Eve moving a rock in the garden to illustrate Adam's immediate discovery of Eve's physical 'weaker vessel' status, which God intends as a catalyst for honor.

So that the distinctive female identity is that of being joyfully received and lovingly nurtured and cared for by a man who cuts his apron springs with his mama and his daddy and who's prepared if necessary to be dead-ended in his career if the price he must pay to pursue his career is to treat his wife as a thing and ignore her needs and not give sufficient time to nourish her and to cherish her as Christ nourishes and cherishes the church. It's beautiful how Peter brings the two together in 1 Peter 3, 7. He said, You husbands, dwell with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor unto t...

61:20 - 62:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Husbands, dwell with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor to them as the weaker vessel, using her femininity as a catalyst to honor her.

Martin shares his personal experience of weariness from leadership in church and home, humorously wishing to switch roles with his wife for a week, to illustrate the burden of male headship.

There are times I wish God made me a woman. I get weary of having the buck stop with me. I get weary of the burden of leadership. There are times when leadership in the church and leadership in the home, leadership wherever I turn, I get weary of it and I say to my wife, Honey, can we switch roles for just a week?

63:03 - 63:22 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God says, I made you the weaker vessel and now I make your Adam to give you honor because of it. Demeaning?

Martin praises Elizabeth Elliot's book title, 'Let Me Be a Woman,' as a powerful statement against Christian feminism, advocating for embracing God-given femininity.

I'm going to say something about it this afternoon. Elizabeth Elliot's masterful work, Let Me Be a Woman. Letters to her daughter, Valerie. I love the title, Let Me Be a Woman.

63:45 - 63:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Have the spiritual fortitude to bathe your souls in Genesis 1 and 2 until the glory of what God has revealed about your identity as a man and a woman becomes precious to you.

In response to Virginia Mollenkot's suggestion that Christ might have possessed both sexual organs, Martin humorously retorts that there would have been a 'bug-eyed rabbi' at his circumcision, highlighting the absurdity of the claim.

She should have just taken an Englishman's Greek concordance and she'd realize that her scholarship was very thin. And now I quote her. She said, For all we know, Christ may have possessed both sets of primary sexual organs. My rejoinder is there would have been one bug-eyed rabbi when he was taken up to the temple to be circumcised on the eighth day.

71:17 - 71:46 Read in full sermon