Objections to Sexual Identity, Part 4

Driving home: What we have in these passages is Paul, the imperfectly sanctified saint...expressing a view of male and female roles and relationships that had been, as it were, pummeled into him in his rabbinical training.

Martin uses a blackboard diagram to illustrate how first-century Christians understood apostolic directives on male headship, and how modern evangelicals, like Jewett, acknowledge this understanding but deny its authority for themselves or for us.

Now here's the Word of God and here's the Word of God. Here are two Christians, a male and a female, and think of them as multiplied into a congregation in the first century. These are first century Christians. And these evangelicals would say that first century Christians receiving apostolic directives and apostolic epistles would indeed come to the understanding that this structure of male headship subordination, the headship of the male and female subordination was the teaching of the apostolic documents. So that when we pick up those same documents in the 20th century and open our Bibles o...

11:32 - 13:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Immediately recognize arguments that selectively accept or reject biblical authority as a blatant, arrogant insubordination to the Word of God.

Martin uses the analogy of an 'overly enthusiastic man' reacting against prejudice to show how one could arbitrarily dismiss Galatians 3:28 as rhetorical overstatement, demonstrating the slippery slope of Jewett's approach to biblical authority.

In his reaction against the horrible prejudice with which he was brought up, against the Gentiles and against women and against slaves and people of a lower class, having discovered the great truth of our oneness in Christ and having been given a unique ministry to articulate that truth, that in Christ Jesus the middle wall has been broken down. What we have in Galatians 3.28 is the overreaction of an overly enthusiastic man who is so desirous of throwing away the baggage of his previous prejudice that he's indulging in rhetorical overstatement as though all these distinctions are utterly blur...

18:31 - 20:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Immediately recognize arguments that selectively accept or reject biblical authority as a blatant, arrogant insubordination to the Word of God.

Martin compares the subjective interpretation of Scripture by a professor like Jewett to the papacy, arguing that if one needs an infallible interpreter, he would prefer a traditional Pope over a modern seminary professor.

drive us back to what horrible system that claims to have a final arbiter as to what the Bible says. The papacy. That's right. Where you've got an infallible interpreter, the Pope, and when he meets in the council of his official leaders and makes a pronouncement, that is the Well, if I'm going to have a Pope, I'd rather have one that's been around for a while and at least has some of the dignity of the tradition of 15 to 1600 years than some professor who comes out of Fuller Seminary and assumes that role.

20:00 - 20:39 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second internal objection acknowledges the authority of male headship in the first century but denies its timeless relevance, arguing it represents 'seed principles' that lead…

The second objection uses the New Testament's treatment of slavery as a parallel to gender roles, arguing that just as the New Testament sowed 'seed principles' that led to the abolition of slavery, so too will its directives on gender roles lead to their eventual dismantling.

the concept that the woman not only could learn but should learn he was taking a tremendous leap from the present climate of societal thinking and elevating the woman in the church to the position of an intelligent learner in other words he was nudging women into their ultimate flair by these documents however just as with the case of slavery the New Testament writers did not want to be the occasion of tremendous sociological foment in revolution they did not want to be so radical in their application of the principles that they caused a disintegration of the social order so and this is always...

28:40 - 30:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not allow the church to be left without a sufficient and adequate revelation of God's will, subject to the tyranny of experts or societal pressures.

Martin uses the analogy of a surfer looking for the perfect wave to illustrate how the 'seed principle' argument leaves the church without a clear guide, subject to the tyranny of experts and societal pressures, rather than the timeless Word of God.

the movement that began in the New Testament but which now must be completed well in the three minutes that remain what do we say to this argument and here again I must in the interest of time though I'd love to draw it out of you first of all this is a frontal attack upon the nature of scripture is scripture a time for Christians or is it the time less sufficient revelation of the will of God for the church in all ages until the coming of Christ all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching reproof correction instruction and righteousness that the man of God in a...

40:33 - 42:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not allow the church to be left without a sufficient and adequate revelation of God's will, subject to the tyranny of experts or societal pressures.

Martin uses the command to 'greet one another with a holy kiss' to illustrate the proper understanding of cultural adaptation in Scripture, explaining that the underlying principle of Christian love is timeless, while its expression can vary culturally.

directives to slaves and masters and kings and subjects and the directives to husbands and wives and the place of women in the church and those distinctions are very clear and then thirdly the article fails to come to grips with what I would call the true nature of cultural adaptation of the word of God we do believe that there are cultural adaptations of the timeless word of God let me illustrate if you were to ask me pastor do you believe the command repeated five times in the New Testament four times greet or salute warmly greet one another with a holy kiss Peter says greet one another with...

43:31 - 45:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not allow the church to be left without a sufficient and adequate revelation of God's will, subject to the tyranny of experts or societal pressures.

Martin uses the example of a widow 'washing the saints' feet' to further illustrate proper cultural adaptation, explaining that the principle is a servant's heart, expressed through culturally appropriate acts of service.

make it the holy kiss as an expression of Christian love and affection and apparently many in the New Testament community without express written apostolic warrant what they may have said that is not recorded we do not know would even add to that a greeting a key word let's conjecture that the word maranatha even so come may have been one of the words with which Christians greeted or said goodbye to one another so they may have had peculiar ways of expressing it but you see here was a peculiar cultural adaptation of the inner principle which is that Christians are sold to maintain a relationsh...

45:00 - 46:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Pray for immunization against diseased thoughts and false teachings, so that exposure to error builds immunity rather than causing germination in the heart.

Martin uses the metaphor of inoculation to pray that hearing about these errors will build immunity in the listeners against such diseased thoughts.

I esteem all your precepts concerning all things to be right therefore I every false way Lord we hate the false ways of Dr. Brunt bring them to naught blow upon the may the enemy of our souls not take advantage of even this much exposure of those thoughts ever to cause them to germinate in the heart of anyone in this place Lord as we subject our bodies to a mild dose of a disease that we might build up an immunity so may what we've heard today act like a good successful inoculation against all of these diseased thoughts of men we ask in Jesus name Amen

47:59 - 48:49 Read in full sermon