General Male Headship Established

The point: Never get accustomed to what God is saying to us in the world around us, nor become hardened to what he's saying in special revelation.

Martin describes admiring a single flower with five petals, one spattered with blood in the center, to illustrate God's intricate handiwork and wisdom in creation, leading to praise.

This adult Sunday school class was held on May 29, 1988, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. While others are finding their places, I do think I should speak, I'm sure, for many of you who noticed how lovely the grounds around the church looked this morning and say a hearty thank you for all who obviously must have put in many hours yesterday to get the grass cut and dig around the shrubs and pull weeds. And we do commend you for your labor of love, whoever you are, because the orderliness and the neatness bespeaks our God, who is a God of order. And as I was admiring the g...

0:04 - 1:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Never get accustomed to what God is saying to us in the world around us, nor become hardened to what he's saying in special revelation.

He expresses a wish for the 'immense faith of an evolutionist' to believe that complex creation 'just happened,' highlighting the greater faith required for naturalism compared to seeing God's handiwork.

beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that has been made just as we know from the scriptures the revelation of the love and condescension of our Lord so he witnesses to us of his wisdom and power in his handiwork I have often said I wish I could have the immense faith of an evolutionist in order to exercise it as a Christian to believe that that just happened I don't have that kind of faith I wish I did the evolutionist has this tremendous faith to believe that time plus space plus chance produces...

1:33 - 2:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He introduces the current adult class series on 'Crucial Issues Facing the People of God,' focusing on male and female roles. He reviews previous studies on creation, the Fall…

Martin mentions that by qualifying his recommendation of a book and noting a problematic chapter, he knows everyone will now want to read that specific chapter due to the 'fascination of the forbidden.'

alas it is out of print now we're doing our best to track down any copies and we assure you that we will and we'll put some pressure by way of perhaps letters to the publishers to see if they would consider the book and we'll put some pressure on them and we'll put some pressure on them and reprinting it and I do want to also mention that in rereading the book I thought if I highly recommended it I ought to go back and reread at least the most crucial sections I do want to give a qualification her chapter chapter 21 singles and the church contains some tentative perspectives and some questions...

5:38 - 7:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Then you get a created Christ. Then you upset historic biblical Christology, all in the efforts to defend the incursions of feminism into the Church of Jesus Christ. That's the price some people are willing to pay, in or…

He draws a simple sketch of a woman with a skirt and veil to visually represent the concept of the woman's headship by the man, making the abstract concept more concrete.

No, the sense of kephale here is exactly what the people of God have assumed it to be for centuries. I would have you to know that the head, the one who stands in the relationship of authority and direction over the man, is Christ, and the head of the woman, so we've got the woman here with her skirt and a current, and her veil.

25:51 - 26:18 Read in full sermon

Driving home: There is no place or circumstance in which she can cast off in her heart or in her external appearance her place of subordination to the man in the will and purpose of God, even when God is laying hold of her and making …

Martin uses a man's private prayer life as the 'most certain indication of where he is spiritually,' comparing it to the apex of spiritual privilege and the most accurate index of the soul's state.

It's overthrowing masculine or feminine identity. Now, why do we say that? Well, notice verse 5. Here Paul envisions a woman praying or prophesying. Now, of all the ordinary spiritual exercises, I think we would agree in saying that prayer is probably the most elevated privilege given to the sons of men. In prayer, we have a level of direct access and communion with God that is the apex of spiritual privilege. That's why a man's private prayer life is the most certain indication of where he is spiritually. You think about that for a moment.

42:51 - 43:39 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin fields questions, particularly regarding the application of male headship outside the church context, such as in government or the workplace. He expresses ambivalence on…

He humorously mentions being afraid someone would ask about Mrs. Thatcher (Margaret Thatcher, then Prime Minister of the UK) in relation to female headship in government, highlighting the difficulty of applying the principle to secular roles.

I'm not sure somebody's going to ask, what about Mrs. Thatcher? When I got through the hour without Maggie, I said...

51:54 - 52:00 Read in full sermon