Fundamental Duties of Wives, Part 1

Introduction and Context: Peter's Call to Submission

0:03 Now let us turn together to 1 Peter, 1 Peter, and as we turn to it I want publicly to say how thankful I am for God's goodness in providing us with good fare in the three Lord's days that I was forced by divine providence to step aside from this privileged place of ministry, and I am thankful for God's servants who ministered the word of God to us, and I trust each of us continues to feed upon and walk in the light of the truths that God brought before us. Now I would ask you to follow as I read 1 Peter chapter 2, just several verses from chapter 2 and then the first paragraph of chapter 3. 1 Peter 2, 11 through 14. Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your behavior good or honorable among the Gentiles, that wherein they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works which they behold glorify God in the day of visitation.

1:25 Be subject to every ordinance. Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or unto governors as sent by him for vengeance on evildoers and for praise to them that do well. Verse 18. Servants, be in subjection to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.

1:53 Chapter 3 and verse 1. In like manner. You wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that even if any obey not the word, they may, without a word, be gained by the behavior of their wives, beholding your chaste behavior coupled with fear. Whose adorning, let it not be the outward adorning of braiding of hair and of wearing jewels of gold or of putting on apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart.

2:28 In the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. For, after this manner aforetime, the holy women also who hoped in God adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands. As Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. Whose children you now are.

2:57 If. You do well. And are not put in fear. By any.

3:04 Terror. Now let us again pray and ask God by his spirit to guide us in our study of his word this morning. Our father, we are so thankful for that truth of which we were reminded in the previous hour. That you have lovingly and wisely committed to writing your mind and will for men.

3:31 We thank you for the holy scriptures. Thank you for this portion that we are about to study this morning. And we pray that your spirit would attend the teaching and the preaching of the word with power. Illuminating power upon the mind of the hearer.

3:48 Unction upon the preacher. Oh Lord, come to us and speak, we plead, in Jesus name, amen. Amen. Amen.

4:04 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

4:05 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

4:05 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

4:05 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

4:06 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

4:07 Amen. We do well to remind ourselves of who it is that wrote the letter and the capacity in which he wrote it. That takes us right back to chapter one in verse one. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

4:28 Peter is reminding those Christians in the various assemblies in Asia Minor to whom this letter originally came. that everything that they read in this letter comes from a man named Peter. But a man named Peter who is not giving them his insights or his perspectives or his opinions concerning the matters he addresses in the letter, but he speaks to them, he writes to them as Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. That is, a uniquely qualified and uniquely authorized representative of Jesus Christ the Lord. So that what he writes, he writes as one sovereignly chosen by Christ to authoritatively represent the mind of Christ. And therefore this epistle is part of the very foundation story of the church described in Ephesians 2.20 as built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself the chief cornerstone.

5:48 Hence, when this letter first came to the churches in Asia Minor and was read to gatherings of God's people, it was nothing less than Christ himself standing in the midst of his gathered people in the midst of his gathered people, in the midst of his gathered people, in His promised presence, revealing His mind to those who profess to have embraced Him as prophet, priest, and king. And when we, almost 2,000 years later, open up this epistle, and it is read in our hearing, and to the extent that it is responsibly expounded and applied, consistent with the overall teaching of Scripture, you and I are not dealing with the preacher before us, nor are we merely dealing with Peter 2,000 years ago. It is Christ Himself addressing us in His Word and by His Spirit through that Word. Now, as we take up this new section in the epistle, let me remind you, let me remind you briefly of the general setting. We have this motif of the grand indicatives of grace, that is, statements of what we are and have in Christ,

7:15 followed by a string of the imperatives of grace, the things we are to be and to do because of what we are and have. And I hope you don't weary of my using that terminology. I hope when I die, a few of you will remember it and it will be something you carry through your life because it is the very heart and soul of the Biblical teaching with regard to the Christian's way of living. He lives the way he lives because he has become what grace has made him.

7:50 And following the second series of indicatives, that is, wonderful statements of what we are and have in Christ, Peter begins, Peter continues his narrative. Peter adds, Peter added to this, Peter continues to specify, in chapter 20 and in verse 11, another string of imperatives. How we are to live, in the light of what God in grace has given us and has made us. And he gives this general appeal with the negative to abstain from fleshly lust that war against the soul.

8:25 And positively, to cultivate a lifestyle that commends the gospel- And after giving that general summons, Peter then focuses on a specific area in which God's people are so to walk that men beholding their good works will glorify God in the day of visitation. And the first area that he focuses upon is the area of the believer's obligation to be submissive to authority. Submissive to authority wherever that authority legitimately touches them in the providence of God. And then he specifies three distinct areas of that authority. Verse 13, he addresses the generic responsibility. Be subject to every ordinance of the man for the Lord's sake. Then he gets specific.

9:25 He deals with the subject in the kingdom and his responsibilities to the ruling powers. So you have the duty of submission on the part of the citizen to the governor or the constituted authority. Then as we saw in verse 18, he addresses these servants. These servants.

9:48 House slaves. And using the same Greek word, though a different verbal form, he tells them that they have a duty to be in subjection to their masters. Even the unjust and the unrighteous and the unreasonable masters. Now he comes in chapter 3 and verse 1 and in a construction strictly parallel to verse 18.

10:14 Using the same verb that is used in verse 13. He says, In like manner, you wives, be in subjection to your own husbands. And then he gives a parenthetical statement as though someone says, But Peter, worst case scenario, I have a husband who's not only ungodly and unconverted, but he has heard the word. He openly rejects the word.

10:43 He may even reject the word in its moral and ethical standards. As well as the gospel. Is this applicable to me as well? And Peter, in a parenthetical statement, says that even if any obey not the word.

10:59 Here's the general duty of all Christian wives. Be in subjection to your own husbands. Worst case scenario, still be in subjection to your own husbands. And having laid out the wife's duty, then the parenthetical statement, the rest of verse 1 and verse 2.

11:18 Then verses 3 to 6, he describes the wife's true beauty. So as we work our way through the passage eventually, we'll do so under those two major headings. The wife's fundamental duty. In like manner, you wives, be in subjection to your own husbands.

11:35 Parenthetical statement, then verses 3 to 6. Whose adorning let it not be, but let it be. The wife's fundamental duty is followed by a description of the wife's essential beauty. Now that gives you a little idea of the overall structure of the passage.

Clearing Rubble and Building Walls: Addressing Modern Objections

11:52 How we will eventually work through the passage. However, the very mention of the word submission in the context of our generation. A context in which from every direction we are being bombarded with popular propaganda. With heavy weight intellectual and at times even pseudo.

12:20 Theological arguments to bleed off the obvious meaning of such passages as these. I'm convinced from a pastoral standpoint that if I am responsibly to expound and apply. And then a reasonable hope that that exposition and application will be received. That we need to pause this morning on the threshold of our study of this passage.

12:45 And to do something that I would liken to two analogies. I would like us in the ministry of the word this morning. To clear away the rubble and the rubbish. And to build some protective walls around this passage.

13:02 First of all, I want to engage in an exercise that I hope will be something akin to what is being done. And many of us have seen with our eyes in television images. Over there in places where homes and businesses. And military complex have been bombed in Yugoslavia.

13:24 You will see pictures of people going in with shovels. Going in with bulldozers. To clear away the rubble before they can begin reconstruction. Where once a usable and in some cases beautiful edifice stood.

13:40 The bombs have done their dastardly work. And there's nothing but rubble. And before there can be any positive construction. Of usable facilities.

13:52 They must clear away the rubble and the rubbish. Well the bombs and missiles of feminist teaching. Domestic disruption. Social manipulation.

14:04 Have left in our nation at the present time a mass of rubble and rubbish. So that when we come to a passage like this. It is almost impossible to construct in people's minds. A thoroughly biblical perspective on what it means for wives to be in submission to their husbands.

14:27 Unless we take some time to bring in the bulldozer of God's word. To clear away the rubbish and the rubble. And then the second analogy. What I trust to accomplish this morning in our study of the word.

14:43 Is to build protective walls around this passage. If we can build protective walls. If we can build protective walls. We have constructed a worthwhile edifice.

14:52 In a community where there are those who would threaten the stability of that edifice. Who would seek to tear it down. It is wise for us to build protective walls. And it's my concern in the study of the word this morning.

15:10 To build again out of the stuff of scripture. Walls around this passage. That when we come to it. And I trust by God's grace.

15:20 Enter into an understanding of it. And a new measure of internalizing it. As the rule of our lives. Those walls will do two things.

15:30 They will keep us from running out in a hundred different directions. With implications that God never intended. And also protect us from the ongoing present and future onslaught. Of popular propaganda.

15:46 And pressure. That would move us away. From the beautiful edifice. Of biblically assigned roles and relationships.

15:55 Within the marriage institution. Well so much by way of that rather lengthy introduction. To tell you what we're doing and why. And what I want to do this morning.

Proposition 1: Submission Does Not Compromise Created Dignity

16:05 Is to lay before you three basic propositions. And then bring some pointed application at the conclusion. And here are the propositions. Proposition number one.

16:21 What the Bible clearly mandates. Concerning the wife's submission to her husband. What the Bible clearly mandates. Concerning the wife's submission to her husband.

16:36 In no way compromises her inherent equally shared created dignity. Now that's a lengthy mouthful I know. But there's not a spare word in it. What the Bible clearly mandates.

16:58 Concerning the wife's submission to her husband. When we come to 1 Peter 3.1. And I open up the language.

17:05 The meaning of the words. And the grammar. It is abundantly clear what God is saying. There isn't one woman.

17:11 There in the churches of Asia Minor. Who when one of the elders said. Oh we're going to read the latest letter from the apostle Peter. And he would have read it.

17:20 And he would have read these words. In their language. In that setting. Words we translate in like manner.

17:26 Your wives be in subjection to your own husbands. There wouldn't have been a one of them that said. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute Mr. Elder.

17:33 Peter used five, six words. I don't understand that. No it would have been abundantly clear. The same way it's abundantly clear when Paul wrote.

17:41 To the churches in the area of Ephesus. And said as the church is subject to Christ. So let the wives be to their husbands. Be to their husbands in everything.

17:53 That ain't complicated. You don't need to be a PhD in sociology to understand that. So my proposition is. What the Bible clearly mandates.

18:06 Concerning the wife's submission to her husband. In no way compromises her inherent equally shared created dignity. That is. It in no way erodes.

18:20 Cast aspersions upon. Denigrates the inherent equally shared created dignity. That is the dignity. That the woman shares.

18:33 By virtue of creation. With her husband. Now in each of these propositions. Having stated them.

18:41 Briefly explained what I mean by them. We're going to look at the issue. That I'm addressing. And then demonstrate the error.

18:48 That lies behind that perspective. And then make some application. What is the issue. That I'm addressing under this heading.

18:56 Bound up in the opposition to the plain meaning of passages. Such as first Peter three one. Parallel passages in Ephesians and in Colossians. And in the pastoral epistles.

19:11 Is this false assumption. That submission of one human being to another. Necessarily involves inferiority. Of personhood.

19:23 Now let that sink in. When you cut through all the smoke. When you turn over all the rubble. What you find is this assumption.

19:35 That if one human being. Is in submission to another human being. Someone is in the posture of taking directives. From another who is giving directives.

19:49 You must of necessity have inferiority. Of personhood. On the part of the one submitting. And superiority of personhood.

19:59 On the part of the one to whom they submit. That is the heart. The nexus. The nub.

20:07 Of the great outcry. That comes from every direction. No. If women have the same inherent dignity as men.

20:17 Then why should a woman be in subjection to a man. And you've got to understand that. If you're going to be able to see through. The popular propaganda.

20:30 In your family magazines. The more sophisticated propaganda. That comes out in feminist literature. It is this assumption.

20:39 Submission equals inferiority. Now I want to demonstrate the error. Of that thinking. And in so doing I do what Jesus did.

20:48 When people came to him. With a question about marriage and divorce. In Matthew 19. He said.

20:54 He who never read. He who made them in the beginning. Made them. Male and female.

21:00 He says go back to Genesis. And read it. And ponder it. And there you will find the answer.

21:05 To the question. Well I want us to turn to Genesis chapter 1. And do that very thing this morning. What is our answer to those who say.

21:14 That submission of necessity involves inferiority. Genesis chapter 1. The only one who was there when it happened. Has told us.

21:28 How it happened. That is God himself. And when we come to the sixth day of creation. We read in verse 26 of Genesis 1.

21:38 And God said. Let us make man in our image. And it is interesting. It doesn't say let us make humanity.

21:49 As some newer translations render this. Linguistically it is untenable. Let us make man in our image. After our likeness.

21:58 And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea. And over the birds of the heaven. And over the cattle. And over all the earth.

22:07 And over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. And God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. Singular.

22:19 Male and female created he them. Plural. And God blessed them. And God said to them.

22:27 Be fruitful and multiply. Etc. So here in the first account. Of how did we get here in the first place.

22:38 God is very careful to underscore a number of things. Not the least of which. When he lets us in as it were. To the very inner councils of the triune God.

22:49 God says within himself. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Let us make man. Let us make man in our image.

22:59 And after our likeness. And in the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. They are both image of God.

23:15 They share an equally dignified status as image of God. Then when we come to Genesis 2. The zoom lens on some of the details of precisely how. Did he create them male and female.

23:37 Genesis 1 does not tell us. It is a succinct summarized statement. That in his creative purpose. To have image in the creature whom he makes.

23:49 He creates them male and female. But precisely how did he do that. Genesis 2 gives us the zoom lens. And we read in chapter 2 in verse 7.

24:00 And out of the ground. The Lord God made to grow every tree. That is pleasant to the sight. I am sorry that is verse 9.

24:07 I want verse 7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became living soul.

24:21 Now God who was there tells us what he did. He took dust of the ground. And whatever the significance of that. Surely God is showing us.

24:31 That man with all his uniqueness. Only man made in God's image. Only man has this unique identity as image of God. Yet he has an affinity with the earth around him.

24:45 He is made of the very earth. God takes of the dust of the ground. And forms man. Breathed into his nostrils breath of life.

24:56 And man becomes living soul. Well did he make woman at that time. No. Because we read on in verse 15.

25:04 And the Lord God took the man. And put him singular into the garden of Eden. To dress it and to keep it. He creates the man.

25:13 The male of the species. In his image yes. Remember everything said in Genesis 1. Must be imported into what we think.

25:22 When we read the zoom lens account. In Genesis chapter 2. He forms of the ground. Breathes into him breath of life.

25:30 He becomes living soul. And then God places him. In this beautiful place. The garden of Eden.

25:38 With a task to accomplish. To dress it and to keep it. There was such a profuseness of life. No weeds yet.

25:47 Not an unyielding earth. Or an earth that yields thorns and weeds. But is so redolent. And profuse with life.

25:55 That Adam had a task. To dress it and to keep it. But the scripture tells us further. In verse 18.

26:04 The Lord God said it is not good. That the man should be alone. Up till now he is alone. The only thing in his creation.

26:12 Over which God says not good. That the man should be alone. I will make a help. Meet or answering to him.

26:20 And then we have the account. The woman. Verse 21. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep.

26:28 To fall upon the man. And he slept. He didn't take another pile of dirt. And formed the woman.

26:37 Could he have done it? Yes. God could have taken a chunk off a star. Or an asteroid.

26:48 God can do all his holy will. But he anesthetizes Adam. Puts him to sleep. Takes one of his ribs.

26:59 And the man who was taken from the man. Made him a woman. And brought her unto the man. You see.

27:07 Her origins as to the heart. Are radically different from Adam's. As to the heart. But Adam is image of God.

27:16 The woman is image of God. Both are image of God. How did they come into being? God gives us the account.

27:25 Of how he brought the man into being. How he brought the woman. And the man said. This is one of those passages.

27:34 I've read it many times. I've read it out loud. How did Adam actually say this? Imagine.

27:42 You've looked at all those animals passing by. And you thought. And with an unsinning mind. Untainted.

27:50 And untwisted by sin. Naming meant. You were identifying their unique significance. And their place in God's world.

27:58 To analyze. And to assess their place. And to name them. To assign as it were.

28:06 As part of his dominion. What their place was in God's creation. By naming them. Yet in all of that.

28:15 The scripture says. There's no helper answering to his name. As he sees the animals. Admires the handiwork of God.

28:24 The strength of the ox. The beauty of the peacock. Something of the majesty of the eagle. The fire with its wings.

28:32 But there's nothing that answers to him. Nothing in the eyes of which. He sees an answer of his own soul. Nothing with which.

28:40 He can communicate. As he is able to speak to his God. There's none of his kind. God says.

28:48 Son we're going to have a nap. Adam goes to sleep. And when he wakes up. What does he see in front of him?

28:58 Look at it. And the man said. Bone of my bones. Flesh of my flesh.

29:07 Here's one of my kind. But now notice. Bone of my bone. Flesh of my flesh.

29:15 Not something beneath me. Something qualitatively so different from me. That I cannot relate to it. Bone of my bones.

29:23 Flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman. Because she was taken out of man. Therefore.

29:31 Adam spoke the words of verses 24 and 25. We know God. They're in God's word. But whether Adam spoke them.

29:39 Whether this is a comment by Moses. It's inconsequential. The truth is. That therefore shall a man leave his father and mother.

29:47 Cleave to his wife. And they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked. The man and his wife.

29:56 And were not ashamed. Is this just myth? No. This is a fact.

30:02 He who made them in the beginning. Made them male and female. And said. And he quotes from this very passage.

30:10 Now what's the significance of all of this? The significance is. That the man and the woman. There in the blissful state of Eden.

30:18 Share. Have an equally shared. Created dignity. They are both image of God.

30:26 But in the uniqueness. Of their sexual identity. The woman has been given. A capacity.

30:35 To reflect God's image. More profoundly. In some ways. Than the man can reflect his image.

30:43 Even as the man. Is given the capacity. To reflect in certain areas. More profoundly.

30:51 The image of God. So that between both of them. In their composite relationship. They reflect.

30:59 God's image. As he purposed. And so Paul picks up on that. In 1 Corinthians 11.

31:07 And he says in one sense. The man images God. In his place of authority. In the way that the woman does not.

31:15 The woman is the glory of the man. But the man is the glory of God. He's speaking about a specific aspect of that. But scripture teaches in other ways.

31:23 There are dimensions of God's attributes. And characters. More beautifully. His character more beautifully expressed.

31:33 In the woman. God likens himself. To a nursing mother. And says can a nursing mother.

31:42 Forget her child. Neither can I forget you. There is something with God's tender love. And compassion mirrored.

31:52 In a nursing mother. That's not mirrored in the most sweet. Tender loving compassionate. Husband or father.

32:00 And you find this all the way through scripture. So that any concept. Of rivalry. Is foreign.

32:08 To the original purpose in creation. Any nonsense. Of finding some middle ground. In which the man is no longer.

32:16 Distinctively masculine. And the woman is no longer distinctively feminine. We find some middle ground. Of unisex.

32:24 Amorphous. Nothing. It is a slappity image of God. And therefore.

32:34 Any concept. That when God says wives. Be in submission to your own husbands. This means necessarily.

32:42 That the woman. Has in some way. Been compromised. As to her inherent.

32:50 Created dignity. Is utterly contrary. To the word of God. If submission means.

32:58 A compromise of dignity. Then Jesus Christ. Is the biggest offender. For my bible says.

33:07 That he who created all things. And for whom all things are created. Are not equal. To God.

33:15 He is the greatest. Obeyed. For the sake of God. He is the greatest.

33:27 And for whom all things are created. Is utterly contrary. To the word of God. He is the greatest.

33:36 For whom all things are created. And for whom all things are created. Is utterly contrary. To the word of God.

33:44 And verse 28, so that this whole notion that lies at the heart of so much of the focused opposition against any embrace of the biblical concept of wifely submission has utterly no foundation in the Word of God. What the Bible clearly mandates concerning the wife's submission to her husband in no way compromises her inherent, equally shared, created dignity. Now, dear wives, I trust you hear what I've been attempting to say. You women who are not wives, you girls who hopefully one day will become wives, pray in this fundamental biblical concept. Don't believe the devil's lie that the only way to attain your true dignity is to throw off any notion of submission. That is not your dignity, it is your shame.

34:45 It is your shame. And your misery. Your mother Eve, she shouldn't have been talking to the devil. If she had any questions about the tree and what to do with it, she should have been talking to her head, her husband.

35:03 Dear girls, don't buy this garbage. It batters and destroys and effaces the beauty and the glory of what God made you to be. He made you to image Him as a female, not something halfway between a female and a male. And essential to your identity, your identity as a female is the position in the divinely instituted hierarchy of God.

35:34 Are you saying that because you're a man? No, I'm saying that because Almighty God says it in His Word.

35:45 And at the end of the day, that's the issue.

Proposition 2: Submission Does Not Exaggerate Moral Depravity

35:49 But I must hasten to my second proposition.

35:55 What the Bible clearly mandates concerning the wife's submission to her husband, here's my second proposition now, in no way exaggerates her inherited moral depravity. What the Bible clearly teaches concerning the wife's submission to her husband in no way exaggerates her inherited moral depravity. Now again, let me explain the issue and then demonstrate the error. Some have wrongly interpreted Genesis 3.17 to mean that the woman's submission was part of the punishment of the fall. And therefore, in redemption, which is meant to cancel the effects of the fall, we must redemptively throw off the punishment of the fall. We must redemptively throw over any concept of submission. Genesis 3.17,

36:43 Unto Adam he said, Because you've hearkened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for your sake, etc. Sorry, verse 16. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your pain in your conception.

36:59 In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be to your husband. He shall rule over you. They say, see?

37:07 The concept of a man ruling, ruling over the woman is post-fall. Therefore, since it is a punishment coming out of the sin and rebellion of our first parents, in Christ and in redemption, we ought to neutralize it and have what is called an egalitarian marriage, where there is no concept of rule, authority, submission, but just mutual complementary cooperation.

37:34 Others have said that, well, it must be that because I'm a woman, and Eve is my mother, we are somehow perpetually consigned to the role of submission because of our solidarity with Eve, and that's just something I've got to bear, one of the hardships of life and of being a woman. Well, I want to state very clearly from the Scriptures that the wife's submission to her husband in no way exaggerates her inherited moral depravity. How do we know this? Well, while the circumstances of the fall of man is recorded, in Genesis 3, do have some long-term distinct consequences for men and women together, and particularly some for men and some for women. Men don't have multiplied conception and pain in their childbirth. That was something peculiar to Eve. And generally speaking, it's the man who is there working the ground, and in the sweat of his brow, he brings forth that which he needs to support, his family.

38:42 Yes, there are some focused, heightened effects of the fall upon the man and some upon the woman, but the overarching teaching of the Bible is that the fall of mankind in Adam has resulted in a race of equally depraved men and women, boys and girls. For example, Romans 5.12, Wherefore, as through one man, sin entered into the world, and death passed upon all, for that all sinned. That is a genderless statement of profound significance.

39:18 When we read in Romans 3, 10 and following, Paul's summary indictment of the whole human race, there is none righteous, no, not one, none that understands, none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is no gender intrusion into those passages.

39:38 Men and women, boys and girls, equally depraved, when God looks down upon humanity prior to the flood, it says He saw that the imaginations of the thoughts of the heart were only evil continually. No peculiar focus upon men or women. And the flood came and swept them all away. It was in that sense a genderless deluge.

40:02 And so any notion that the wife's submission is something mandated because she has some exaggerated, exaggerated experience or condition of greater inherited moral depravity is without any foundation in the Word of God. Are there sins to which women are more susceptible than men because they are women? Yes. And the Bible addresses those.

40:33 Are there sins to which men are more susceptible and more natively inclined because of their maleness? Yes. Yes. The Bible does not in any way, excuse me, bypass or overlook those realities.

40:48 But dear wives, dear women, dear girls, don't allow the devil to accuse God in your thoughts as though submission is the result of an unfair exaggeration of your inherited depravity. It's simply not true. And dear husbands, men and boys, don't allow the devil to deceive you into thinking that the woman's duty to submit is a call for you to submit. To treat her as though she is more depraved than you are.

41:18 To do that is simply to show that you are acting more depraved than she.

Proposition 3: Submission Does Not Undermine Redemptive Standing

41:24 So we've got to come to grips with those solid, foundational, biblical realities, not only of creation, but also of the implications of the fall. And then thirdly, this third proposition brings us to the heart of redemption. And I state it this way. What the Bible clearly mandates concerning the wife's submission to her husband, in, in no way, undermines her imparted, redemptive, standing, and privilege.

41:54 What the Bible says concerning the wife's duty to submit, in no way, in no way, is undermining her imparted, redemptive, standing, and privilege. And what do I mean by that? Simply this. When people say, and this is what they say, because we have, equal, redemptive privilege in Christ.

42:21 Women are equally justified in Christ. Women are equally adopted in Christ. Women have equal endowment. They receive the spirit of adoption.

42:32 They are brought into the possession of all of the privileges that Christ has purchased by His own death upon the cross. Furthermore, they say, the scripture says, in Christ there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, therefore, any relationships based upon mere gender are obliterated because of redemptive standing and privilege. And the only way to prove that you really believe that women have equal standing and privilege in Christ is to do away with anything that would put males here and women here in any hierarchical structure of submission and obedience. Not only in the home, but so-called evangelical feminists are saying that must be true in the church until you're ready to have women elders and women pastors you really don't believe that women have equal status in Christ. And they're aggressive. And they're not dope. Some of them have earned doctorates from prestigious universities and they will use Greek and Hebrew and they will use church history and historical theology to bend the Bible to the spirit of the world.

43:48 I have been absolutely, absolutely appalled as I've waded through some of their literature. But we need to understand that what the Bible clearly mandates concerning the wife's submission to her husband in no way undermines her imparted redemptive standing and privilege. Now let me expose the error of that thinking. It is obvious when we turn to the pages of Scripture that these issues were not contradictory in the minds of the biblical writers.

44:20 Go back to 1 Peter. The same Peter who writes in like manner you wives be in subjection to your husbands has already written in the opening chapters no gender assignment of all of those blessings described in chapter 1 verses 3 through 12. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His great mercy begot us unto a living hope by the resurrection of Christ. There is no indication that women in Christ do not have every blessing that Peter identifies.

44:57 And all the way through the epistle. Furthermore, in this very section when he comes to address men look at verse 7. You husbands in like manner dwell with your wives according to knowledge giving honor unto the woman as unto the weaker vessel. Now notice as being also this is what you are joint heirs a compound word in the Greek that is well-known well-rendered joint heirs equal heirs of the grace of life.

45:28 You both have equal redemptive standing and privilege. So Peter found no disconnect in his brain or in his soul to speak of all of these blessings in the opening chapters as belonging to men and women equally and saying at the end of this section when he addresses men you need to look upon your wife as a joint heir of the grace of life. And yet he says wives be in subjection to your own husbands. Why?

46:01 Because in the mind of the biblical writers who reflect the mind of God there is no undermining of the woman's redemptive standing and privilege by assigning her a distinctive role in the marital relationship. Same thing with the apostle Paul. He can write that marvelous epistle that we know as the book of Ephesians and speaks in genderless terms of all of the blessings that are ours in Christ in the first three chapters and yet when he comes to chapter five wives be submissive to your own husbands as the church is subject to Christ so let the wives be to their husbands in everything.

46:45 You see the reason for this is simply this. Redemptive standing and privilege were never intended to overturn God's creative design and purpose. Get hold of that. Whatever God has purposed in redemption whatever He does in redemption is never calculated to overturn what He purposed and designed in creation.

47:13 Redemption goes after that which sin has intruded into the human experience.

47:21 In creation God ordained a relationship between the man and the woman that involved a hierarchical structure. That's why Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 where he is dealing with this subject in one of its aspects of the male-female relationship in relationship to authority he can go right back to the very passage that we read this morning from Genesis and say in the way God actually created the man and the woman is a relationship is a reflection of this hierarchical structure. Look at it in 1 Corinthians 11. I want you to see it with your own eyes.

48:07 After stating in verse 3 I would have you to know that the head of every man is Christ the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God. Then he makes a specific application to a current situation he was addressing and in the midst of it now notice what he says in verse 7. For a man indeed ought not to have his head veiled for his life as much as he is the image and glory of God but the woman is the glory of man. Is he saying the woman is not made in the image of God?

48:37 No. As I pointed out earlier what he is saying here is there is one way in which the man more particularly in a more heightened sense reflects the glory of God the image of God in his capacity as head in relationship to the woman. For the man is not of the woman. Adam was not made from Eve's rib but the woman of the man.

49:05 She was made of the stuff of the man for neither was the man created and you want a text that will send every feminist into orbit. Here it is. Here it is. Here it is.

49:18 For neither was the man created for the woman but the woman for the man. You want to start a war with any feminist. You just quit that text. You mean my identity is inseparably bound up with a man?

49:37 No way. One of the driving passions of an articulate feminist is the conviction that I can know who I am what I am how I should function with absolutely no reference point in the male gender. That's why lesbianism is so celebrated and auto-eroticism among articulate feminists. Because they want to assert that their sexual identity and fulfillment has nothing to do with men.

50:08 That's not an accident. It is a philosophical and theological conviction.

50:16 Now do you see the point? What does God do in redemption? Paul is writing to a Christian assembly sorting out problems that have unique applications of that particular cultural setting and as a wise pastor he's seeking to unravel the thing not in a cosmetic way but get down to the deep issue and he says you've got to understand that these peculiar problems of the head covering and whatever's involved in that and length of hair it all has to do with something profoundly deep and theological that has its tap roots all the way back in creation and nothing that God is doing in redemptive grace and power there at Corinth is meant to overturn what God embedded in the very created order.

51:03 And that's what we've got to come to grips with. Embedded in the very created order is this relationship of the wife's submission to her husband. Yes, the fall has introduced a factor that makes women fight against the rule of their husbands and seek to domineer them. Your desire shall be to your husband.

51:26 Sin has made men tyrannical and domineering in the wrong sense and they in response to the woman's unwillingness to take her role will seek to domineer her and they will be guilty of a carnal wretched God dishonoring machoism. Yes, sin has fractured this relationship but God's purpose for it has not been overturned. And in redemptive grace God wants to bring it back to the original purpose and therefore when we turn to the scriptures we do understand that our redemptive privilege and standing in Christ does not in any way undermine and it does not in any way warrant an overturning of the wife's submission to her husband. Dear wives women and girls you're being told be all you can be in the army.

52:27 God says be all you're meant to be in Christ.

52:31 Be all you're meant to be. All the provisions of grace are available in Christ not to raise you above distinct feminine roles and relationships but to give you grace to embrace them with grace and dignity. That's what God does in Christ to make you in that sense the full woman the fulfilled woman not something other than a woman. The same way God's grace in Christ to a man is meant to make him all that he was intended to be as a man not as something that's half woman and half man.

Application: Embracing God's Design for Marriage

53:17 Well I've laid before you these three propositions that have brought us into contact with the great biblical doctrines of creation fall and redemption. I've asserted that what the Bible clearly mandates concerning the wife's submission to her husband number one in no way compromises her inherent equally shared created dignity in no way exaggerates her inherited moral depravity in no way undermines her imparted redemptive standing and privilege. So as we come to first Peter we must understand that embracing from the heart and that's the issue embracing from the heart God's directives first of all to wives and there'll be six verses just one verse to the men but don't be fooled by the length of the directives. There's a sense in which to be faithful to the text it would take far longer to give anything approaching an exhaustive exposition of verse seven than it would of verses one to six but as we come to these passages and we're going to confront what Christ your professed Lord and Master is saying to you in the scriptures then we're going to have dealings with God and his word on two fronts and here's my final observation and application we're going to have dealings with God as a sovereign loving

54:46 wise creator who instituted marriage as a social institution he made them male and female he said it was God's idea that the man was not good being alone God put him to sleep God designed the woman God brought her to the man and all of those circumstances that we briefly considered from Genesis and upon which our Lord comments in Matthew 19 and Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 all of that underscores that , that God's sovereign loving wise design for marriage as a social institution is an expression of his creative rights and will therefore when we come to 1 Peter 3 1 and we read the simple words wives be in subjection to your own husbands and when we look at the parallel passages in Colossians and in Ephesians you see what you're dealing with every woman here married married I'm married hopefully someday married you are dealing with God your creator that's who you're dealing with God who designed you to be a woman and designed you with a specific role in mind in the marriage institution now I ask can anyone be a Christian

56:15 who knowingly willfully resolutely refuses to embrace the will of God her creator what's your answer can anyone be a Christian who knowingly chosen my words carefully knowingly willfully resolutely refuses to embrace God in his creative rights furthermore God's sovereign loving wise design for marriage was also that it should be a redemptive type God designed that it would be a redemptive type it would be a foreshadowing of his greatest work when did redemption get launched in the mind and heart of God after the fall or before the fall my Bible says we were chosen in Christ before what before the foundation of the world Paul speaks of his purpose in grace which were given us in Christ before times eternal redemption is no afterthought in the mind of God redemption was in the mind of God when he created and when he created the male and female

57:42 and when he assigned the role of head and leader to Adam and submissive follower and helper answering to his need in Eve God had something grander and more glorious than a social institution in which he would get glory he had redemption in mind a redemption in which according to Ephesians 5 the relationship of Christ incarnate God to those whom he would rescue is the relationship of husband to wife of bridegroom to bride as the church is subject unto Christ so let the wives be to their husbands and everything husbands love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for it now I ask can someone knowingly willfully resolutely misrepresent redemption and be a Christian can someone knowingly willfully resolutely refuse to reflect those blessed redemptive realities and be a Christian can you as a wife deliberately blur

59:11 the reality of Christ redemption and call yourself a Christian you see for some of you women when we get into 1 Peter 3 1 your profession is going to be brought to an acid test and it may be that some of you are going to make the horrible discovery that though you have not flaunted the seventh commandment and been unfaithful to your husband yes when it says thou shalt not commit adultery you've kept your marriage bed pure and though your tongue may not engage in false witness and you may not be a gossip and a slanderer when almighty God says wives be subject to your husbands you say no I'll never my friend my dear woman friend I beg you face the implications of your knowing willful resolute refusal to do the will of not everyone who says unto me Lord Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he that does the will of my father who is in heaven and the will of God for you as a wife is clear that from the heart you embrace the will of God which is wise be in submission to your husbands and the same thing will be true when we come to verse 7

60:39 and I seek to open up for you men what does it mean to dwell with your wives according to knowledge laying the burden on you not to get irritated because they think differently and react differently and their emotions are constructed differently and just blow off your wife with denigrating words and attitudes dwell with her according to knowledge and whatever it means she's the weaker vessel it's not to be the occasion of you despising her but giving her honor giving honor as unto the weaker vessel and it will count if you're a Christian to know that failure to do this will hinder your prayers if you're a real Christian nothing , nothing scares the wits out of you more than to think you'd go on your knees and heaven will be closed to you and for some of you men this may be the uncovering of the shoddy pseudo experience of your professed Christianity it's serious business folks and I say on a more positive note I bless God that in meditating upon these things in recent weeks and seeking to prepare for the exposition of this section I bless God for the many of you dear women who manifest a hearty embrace as far as I can discern God alone knows your heart but you manifest not only to me but if you heard some of the things

62:08 some of your husbands say to me about you you'd be embarrassed things that indicate you've embraced from the heart your noble place in the will of God and there are others of you not married that everything about you bespeaks that you've internalized the principles that will make it relatively easy for you to slide into your biblical roles as husbands and as wives but if after the opening up of these things you choose to say no I like what the world is telling me I've got to be my own person no man is going to take a place of authority over me I'll carve my own path I'll construct my own notion of what it is to be a woman and a wife I just remind you of the scripture that says the carnal mind is enmity against God it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be so than they that are in the flesh cannot please God may God be pleased to use these studies perhaps to show some of you that this is the point of your real controversy with God and showing you that that is the point of controversy may it be at that point that you stack arms and flee to Christ and find true liberty in the Lord Jesus let's pray together

63:30 our Father we're so thankful that your word may be so a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway that amidst the din and the cacophony of the voices raised to tell women who they are and what they are and what they should and should not do we thank you you've given us a word which though heaven and earth pass away will never pass away we thank you that we who are husbands need not look to the experts we have your word to tell us how we are to love and dwell with our wives and how we plead with you that this portion of your word will be continually opened up to us impressed upon us and that grace will be given to walk in the light of it oh Lord help us that we will be a company of those who form a true counterculture that our relationships to one another as men and women will reflect the norms of scripture that we may be light and salt in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation seal then your word to our hearts and continue with us in this your day we ask in Jesus name Amen