Marriage, Before the Fall (b)

Review of Previous Studies: Foundations of Marriage, Motherhood, and Homemaking

0:03 Well, we come this evening to our third study in a series which I've entitled, In Praise and Defense of Marriage, Motherhood, and Homemaking. And in the first study, I set before you two compelling biblical reasons as to why this subject needs to be addressed. And those two compelling biblical reasons rest down upon the fundamental content of Titus chapter 2 and the essential teaching of Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. Then I set before you two vital qualifications which must always be kept in mind when considering the issues of marriage, motherhood, and homemaking. And those qualifications deal essentially with what the Bible, the Bible reveals concerning the fact that women, that is, those of the female gender, may, in the will of God, find spheres of service within and without the church totally unrelated to marriage, to motherhood, and to homemaking. So whatever we discover from the Word of God in praise and in defense of marriage, motherhood, and homemaking, it is not to infer.

1:25 It is to infer that within those relationships alone, a woman may glorify God and carry out her divine calling. Then in the second message, ministry this morning, we began to look at this subject in the light of the biblical doctrine of creation. I asserted that with these matters, as with all matters, we must view them through the grid of the biblical doctrines of creation, of fall, and of redemption. And so we began this morning to look at the subject of marriage, motherhood, and homemaking, first of all seeking to, as it were, come into a fresh awareness of what God has revealed concerning these matters in the opening chapters of Genesis. And what I asserted is that when we come to these chapters, we must look at them through the grid of the biblical doctrine of creation, must hold with a death grip the perspective that nothing revealed in Genesis 1 is to be held in such a way as to blur, to dilute, or to negate what is revealed in Genesis chapter 2 and vice versa. Nothing revealed in Genesis chapter 2 is to be understood or applied

2:49 in such a way as to blur, to dilute, or to negate the clear teaching of Genesis chapter 1. Then we'll return to Genesis chapter 1 in what I call the panoramic view of the six days of creation within which we have God's account of His work on the sixth day of the creation of man in His image and after His likeness. The teaching, the teaching of the account of creation in Genesis chapter 1 sets before us the fact that the male and the female are alike created in the image of God. That they bear the image of God equally. Verse 27, God created man in His own image. In the image of God created He Him. Male and female created He them.

3:48 And here in this point, in this portion of the word of God, we see that man and man alone is created in God's image and likeness. It is His foundational distinguishing characteristic as man that He is image of God. Secondly, that God created in two distinct sexual identities. He created male and female.

4:15 He did not create innocuous persons. He created, He created a male and He created a female. And in so doing, He conferred upon both the dignity of being image of God and growing out of that, there are five equals clearly revealed in the passage. Equally possessing the identity as image of God, they are equally blessed by God.

4:44 Verse 28, God blessed them. They have equal capacity, to receive communications from God. God said to them, they have equal charge in the procreation mandate. He says to them, be fruitful and multiply.

5:03 And equal charge in the dominion mandate. Subdue the earth. And they equally share in God's promised blessing of provision for their lives and for the life of all creation around them. Verse 29 and 30.

5:21 So that if we were to view male and female simply in the light of the panoramic account of the creation here in Genesis chapter 1, we would come away essentially with an egalitarian view of the man and the woman. And we would extrapolate out of that, that if they enter into the marriage union, then fundamentally the marriage relationship, ought to be an egalitarian partnership. Equal partners of necessity, certain tasks and certain functions, born primarily by the woman, such as conceiving and nurturing a child in her womb, a function men have not yet found a way to substitute with the woman, to nurse the child. There were no formulas and there were no bottles in Eden. Eve would have nursed the little one, at her breast, and the man would have, in virtue of other factors, had found some predisposition to labor with his hands, with his broader shoulders, his stronger back, etc. But there is no clear delineation of these roles and responsibilities in this panoramic view of the creation in chapter 1.

The 'Zoom Lens' of Genesis 2: Distinct Roles and Creation Order

6:43 However, when we turn to chapter 2, what I've called the zoom, lens of God's creation of the man and the woman, we discovered five things in these selected portions in chapter 2. That the man, the male, was created first in order out of the dust of the earth, verse 7. The Lord formed of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. Secondly, the man was immediately placed by God in his basic sphere of stewardship and assigned calling, verses 8 and 15. The Lord God planted a garden eastward and there He put the man whom He had formed. And why did He put him there? Verse 15.

7:39 The Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it, to be a gardener, to use his God-given faculties as image of God, to subdue the profuseness of life in the garden and to order it to his own pleasure and to his own needs and ultimately to the glory of God. Thirdly, the man in this condition is incomplete without a creature answering to him, that is, a suitable counterpart. God knows it, God declares it, and God says what He's going to do about it. Verse 18.

8:20 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a help answering to him. Then God's going to make the man feel very keenly that he is not complete without the woman. And so He gives him the task described in verses 19 and 20 of naming the animals and He gives him this task with this specific end in view that the man would know what God has already declared that he is not complete without his counterpart.

8:55 For the conclusion of that process in verse 20 is this. Yet for the man there was not found a help meet answering to him. So God declares man is incomplete without the woman. God says that He will make a help that he will make a helper answering to the man's need.

9:18 God then brings Adam to an acute awareness of his need and then we have the wonderful account of how God then creates the woman out of the man for her role as helper to the man. That's the fourth principle we see in these verses that the woman was created out of the man for the man in order to be a helper to the man. Verses 218b I will make a help answering to him. Verse 20b There was not found a helper answering to him commensurate with his need. And then verses 21 and 22a The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and he slept took one of his ribs closed up the flesh and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man made he a woman and brought her unto the man. So clearly then the woman is made out of the man for the man in order to be a helper to the man. And then the fifth thing revealed in the passage is that the woman is brought to the man who receives her with rapturous delight and immediately recognizes two realities about her.

10:43 And here the record is found in verse 23. And the man said this is now bone of my bones flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. God brings the woman whom he has made to the man. He does not put her in the garden to dress and to keep it.

11:06 He brings her to the man to be the helper answering to his needs and Adam immediately recognizes and then expresses that recognition in words that here is his counterpart his divinely designed created and given helper answering to his need. He beholds in Eve that which he did not behold in any of the animals which he had named. As he analyzed their structure and function and what their place in God's creation would be insubordination to him he did not find a helper answering to him. He did not find one of his own kind. But he immediately recognizes in Eve that she is just that one of his own kind bone of his bone flesh of his flesh expressing the sense of the equality of dignity as created by God and yet he immediately then without God telling him as God did with respect to the naming of the animals the Lord God had directed Adam that he should name the animals. God gives no direction to Adam but Adam unilaterally takes upon himself the responsibility of naming this creature brought to him.

12:34 She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. And God doesn't slap him on the mouth and say Adam who in the world told you to take over? I've designed the woman. I've made the woman.

12:47 I've brought the woman. Now you hush and I'll tell you what she shall be called reflective of her function. No, when Adam takes the initiative to name her he immediately takes on the role and responsibility of her loving leader and head and he defines her by the name that he gives to her. And then I suggested that it was probably at this point that what is recorded in chapter 1 verse 27 and following I'm sorry verse 28 and following God said to them and God blessed them and said to them.

13:27 He couldn't bless them and say to them until them was there. And them was not there until he had made the woman and brought her to the man. And so in these two chapters we have a marvelous complimentary view of God's design and purpose in the created order. Well that's a brief review condensing an hour and somehow preaching into about eight minutes nine minutes something like that.

Moses' Editorial Comment and Christ's Validation of Marriage

13:57 Well then we come having looked at the creation of man in the record of Genesis 1 26 to 30 you note takers that was Roman numeral 1 Roman numeral 2 was the creation of the man and the woman in Genesis chapter 2. Now Roman numeral 3 is the editorial comment of Moses in verses 24 and 25 of Genesis chapter 2. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh and they were both naked the man and his wife and were not ashamed. Now I've called this the editorial comment of Moses and I've done that because I am of the persuasion shared by the majority of Bible lovers who study this passage and write upon it that these words therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh these were not Adam's words. If Adam were to have spoken these words it would mean that Adam had been given immediately a profound insight into the rationale for marriage and a prophetic announcement concerning the impact of marriage upon fathers and mothers and their sons. Circumstances that did not yet exist and while we do not limit

15:27 what God can give to a man to speak a word of prophecy it's not a matter of concern to us what God could have done to make it a reality. We don't want to make anything supernatural just because we like the supernatural if there is an explanation that is suitable to the plain sense of the passage then we should accept that plain sense unless it contradicts what God has said about that subject in another passage that is more clear and more plain. And so I regard this with the majority of the commentators I've consulted as an editorial comment by Moses as he has been given inspiration from God as to how God did his work of creation Moses reflecting upon what God did Moses says in the light of all of this all of these details in the zoom lens picture of the creation of the man and the woman therefore on this basis of what God did and how he did it a man shall leave his father and mother shall cleave to his wife and they shall be one flesh. Now while this is most likely an editorial comment of Moses I ask you to turn to Matthew chapter 19 that we might see

16:54 that our Lord Jesus puts his full unqualified imprimatur upon these words as being the words of God in fact what our Lord does in the Matthew 19 passage is he validates the actions of God in Genesis 2 as well as the word of Moses as being the word of God and so the Son of God puts his imprimatur upon the divine authority of this entire section that we've been studying today and if anyone has a controversy with Genesis chapter 2 and its obvious teaching that person has a controversy with Jesus Christ and he who has controversies with Christ is no disciple of Christ now I know that sounds right angled because it is right angled and we need desperately the right angles of truth in the day in which everyone wants to round off the angles because it may be offensive to this group or that group listen to the words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew 19 verse 3 there came unto him Pharisees trying him that is putting him to the test and saying is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause and he answered and said have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female and said the one who makes

18:23 is the one who said for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and then our Lord quotes from the Greek version of the Old Testament scriptures in which you do not have as the Hebrew does and they shall be one flesh but the translators of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek 200 years or so before Christ in what is called the Septuagint they translated it and the two shall be one flesh and Jesus quotes the Septuagint putting his imprimatur upon that slight verbal change and the two not the three not the four not the six what is inferred in the original text in Hebrew in the Hebrew of Genesis 2 is further augmented by not just and they shall be one flesh but the two one flesh and our Lord puts his imprimatur upon that nuance and says this is the word of God for this cause a man shall leave his father and mother cleave to his wife and the two shall become flesh one flesh so that they are no more two but one flesh he amplifies the significance of that statement with his own word so they are no more two

19:51 but one flesh and then he adds an entirely new capstone statement what therefore God joins together let not man put asunder so that our Lord Jesus without embarrassment without qualification in responding to a naughty question from the Pharisees responds to them and says go back to your Bibles go back to Genesis 2 stick your nose in Genesis 2 see what God did he made them male and female and the one who made them male and female has said through the editorial comment of Moses the God who made is the God who has said Moses was the human instrument with his editorial comment God is the author of that word and what did God say he says that for this cause in the very nature in which God made the male and the female and brought the woman to the man and the man receives her with joy seeing in her his counterpart and then receiving her as God's gift and identifying her by name for this cause in the light of all that God has done

Principle 1: God Establishes Covenantal Marriage for Life

21:17 a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife and they too shall become one flesh so they are no more two but one flesh what therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder now pulling all of that together what are we to learn with respect to marriage motherhood and home making what can be said in praise and in defense of marriage motherhood and home making in the light of the things we have gleaned out of Genesis chapter one and Genesis chapter two well the first is very obvious and it's this it is God himself who conceives and establishes the covenantal union of one man and one woman in marriage for life it is God himself who conceives and establishes the covenantal union of one man and one woman for life I use the words for life because Jesus said what therefore God hath joined together what God has established in bringing the woman

22:47 to the man and in the man recognizing his counterpart and in the man naming her for this cause Moses by the inspiration of the spirit his insight validated as the very word of God by Jesus says for this very cause now looking back we can see the significance a man shall leave father and mother what's that mean all his life he has been under the nurture and the guidance and the government of his own mom and his own pop and it's been right that it should be that way he shall now radically leave them not despise them not spit on them not turn away from them and disregard their counsel their insights their encouragement no but he is to leave them that is he is to come out from under the sphere of mom and pop as the primary sphere of government guidance and provision and what is he to do he is to cleave to this person he is to cleave to this wife he is to enter into a covenantal commitment to her whole person as she is formed and given to him by God he is to commit himself to her in such a radical relationship that he is leaving father and mother and is cleaving to his wife assumed in that

24:16 is that the woman is consenting that she shall be taken into this new relationship of authority of direction of power of protection of provision of counsel and of guidance though it does not speak of her leaving her father and mother it is certainly implicit and from other passages in the word of God it is made explicit a man gives his wife in marriage they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage there is the consent of this other circle of provision of guidance of authority of counsel and here are two rational adults recognizing God's purpose in his creative design enter into a covenantal commitment for life one man with one woman for life he is willing to leave father and mother she is willing to leave father and mother he is prepared to take on the responsibilities of his Isha in naming her taking the role of head and guide and leader and definer he is prepared under God to establish this new sphere of protection provision

25:45 direction guidance instruction and that for life now then if that's so and I believe I'm giving a proper application and deduction from the text what's it tell us it tells us that all efforts to redefine and to legitimize the parties of marriage are blatant rebellion against almighty God all efforts to redefine the legitimate party parties of marriage are blatant rebellion against God almighty God the man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife he who made them in the beginning made them male and female and said unto them this whole matter of seeking that the term marriage can be applied to legitimize willful shameless perversion it's unthinkable that we would come to a state in our country where anyone would even debate whether or not this is legitimate and yet you know what the state of Vermont has done and as I've said on a previous occasion if all 48 states legitimize homosexual

27:14 and lesbian quote marriages we must be prepared to stand our ground and say it is no marriage it cannot by any stretch of the imagination be given the dignity of that term when we are thinking biblically furthermore all efforts to make marriage an adjustable social contract are blatantly are in are manifestations of blatant rebellion against God marriage is not an adjustable social contract that can be shaped and molded by the prevailing climate of any given society and any given period in its history no it is one man one woman in conscious deliberate covenantal commitment for life that's what God has established likewise bigamy one earth taking a second wife polygamy more than two wives are in is an obvious violation of the very concept of God bringing Eve one woman to Adam one man Jesus legitimizing that little change in the Septuagint and quoting it in saying God said the two shall be one flesh and so you and I must be prepared as antiquated as we may appear

Principle 2: Sexual Intimacy Reserved for Covenantal Marriage

28:43 as bullheaded as stubborn as inflexible as out of step as we may appear and say no he who made them in the beginning who made them designing the whole of marriage has defined it as a heterosexual covenantal life long commitment that's God's definition of marriage it is God himself who conceived and established the covenantal union of one man and one woman for life and in praise and in defense of the institution of marriage I trust that until Jesus comes until Jesus Christ returns none of us sitting in this place would ever waffle on that very clear extrapolation out of all that we've seen in these passages secondly it is only within the bounds of this covenantal union that a man and a woman are to experience sexual intimacy it is only within the bounds of this covenantal union that a man and a woman are to experience sexual intimacy now I deliberately

30:11 did not say to experience their sexuality no we both experience and manifest our sexuality in a thousand ways unrelated to sexual intimacy I am manifesting my sexuality and I do not stand up here and roar like a man and I do not patter and flop my wrist like a gentle woman but the manifestation of my masculinity that is my sexual identity as a man in preaching has nothing to do with sexual intimacy it is only within this passage it is only as Adam takes Eve bone of his bone flesh of his flesh and becomes her loving grateful providing and guiding head that he is warranted to become one flesh with her for this cause Moses says and Jesus said in saying it God is saying a man shall leave his father and mother cleave to his wife and they too shall be

31:41 one flesh it is only in the context of covenantal marriage with its leaving and cleaving that there is to be a one flesh relationship only as the Adams of this world are ready to their eaves you are bone of my bone flesh of my flesh and I am prepared to leave the previous sphere of guidance and government and provision and protection and all the rest and be joined to you as your Adam that is your loving head and provider and definer and protector only to you to become one flesh leave father mother cleave to wife they too in that relationship shall become one flesh and the flip side of that it is only as Eve is received by her Adam as bone of his bone flesh of his flesh to become her grateful loving providing and guiding intimacy he is not to take she is not to give outside the parameters of the mutual consent

33:10 intelligently undertaken to covenantal marriage now by application I say this reality dismantles the legitimacy of these non committed living relationships that are so popular in our day it is a sign of so called sexual maturity in our day for the woman pursuing her independent career but who nonetheless must acknowledge she has some urges sexual urges that she can't meet in auto eroticism she is not prepared to go into the perversion of lesbianism so men still have some place upon the horizon of her desires and her interests now I don't need to be crass folk but I read the literature that they write if you're not one who can be totally satisfied with auto eroticism and I will not go into details you're mature those who hear me and understand the term and you're not prepared to cross the boundaries into same sex erotic interaction then a man is somehow got to come into the picture if you're going to be something other than sexually frustrated but you see the whole idea of commitment to another person and the total orientation the man made for the man and the man taking me in that oh no that's out of bounds

34:39 that's demeaning degrading that is constricting I will never attain my true personhood so here she has her own career track but conscious of those urges and needs and the channel in which she wants them fulfilled she finds over here this guy a grown up kid who's not ready for any commitments of guidance of provision of nurture and caring and living with the consequences of sexual intimacy that is pregnancy and motherhood and fatherhood so they come to terms that they will quote live together split up the rent split up the domestic duties make it obvious that this is totally open ended any time you want out you're out any time I want out I'm out and there are people by the thousands in this metropolitan area who live on those terms what does this passage say about that the principles that we've seen together that only within the pounds of this covenantal union that a man and a woman are to experience sexual intimacy it dismantles the legitimacy of this non committed living relationship I haven't even addressed the fact that it's a violation of the seventh commandment it is to indulge in fornication and the bible says fornicators

36:08 shall be cast into hell if they are impenitent about their fornication but it's totally off the charts with respect to the biblical norm any woman willing to live with a man who won't commit himself to covenantal marriage you know what that woman does she puts off this man's coming to maturity as a man she lets him go on being an irresponsible boy and you've got twenty eight and thirty and thirty five year old boys who go from one live in relationship to another who never grow up and become men ready to commit to nurture to providing to protecting why because they can get their cookies with their live in relationship and that woman wonders why she feels so insecure and uncertain it's because she's giving her sexuality outside the boundaries in which God has protected it and I tell you my heart grieves as I think of the sophisticated apparently got it all together crowd that go in and out of New York City everyday on the subways and the buses and sit in our corporate offices who are the tragic result

37:38 of being sold this bill of goods that you can have it all in pursuing your independent identity and your independent career and you can have your live in relationship and have your sexual frustrations satisfied and you can likewise continue in your self centered independent little boy way with no coming to grips with who you are as one of God's atoms to be able to take an Eve under your wing in loving protective providing headship is it no wonder that guys like this don't want to go to war and defend their country self centered thumb sucking little boys with a corporate title and driving their Mercedes and their SUV's but they're not men furthermore this biblical principle exposes the tragedy of the alarming legitimacy I read the other day that the latest statistics are that fifty percent of first time births in America are now births out of wedlock fifty percent

39:05 what's that mean that means that girls and women are missing that first period and wrestling shall I kill it shall I carry it shall I kill it keep my girlish figure or shall I kill it those that come out of much of the backwater of the whole ghetto experience for them it's a no brainer having the baby gives them a sense of identity they'll go on welfare and there'll be provision for it mama did it and I made it I'll be the mama and my kid will make it and so they feel the first fluttering of life no husband to share the joy the tummy begins to swell to get out of shape begin to look like an inverted pear not inverted pear but a pear no husband to hold him and say you'll never look more beautiful put his hand on that tummy and feel the kicking of the little one and say I can't wait left vulnerable exposed and the guys that were jumping around and got in bed with her and made her pregnant

40:35 they don't want her when she's walking around eight months is taking care the love the nurture the shared expectation of an Adam I hoped it would make she weep you see we come back to this very fundamental Biblical Principle if every woman is fixed in her mind no one has a right to my body know do I have a right to give my body to anyone but my Adam of his bones, flesh of his flesh, leave father and mother, take on the full responsibility of a loving, caring, providing, guiding head to me. And when he wants me in that package, then I joyfully let him open up the secret chambers of my sexual capacities. You see, you take your sexual capacities outside of that wonderful, protected cocoon of covenantal

A Challenge to Young Men: Become a Noble Adam

41:52 marriage, and you turn it into something self-destructive and tyrannical, all in the name of sexual liberation within solar billiards. But I trust none of you sitting here will buy into it. Your sexuality is a jewel. In a box called covenantal marriage. And when somebody's ready to take the box and you're ready to give the box, then it's time to open the box and take out the jewel and not till then. It's only within the bounds of this covenantal union that a man and a woman are to experience sexual intimacy. I want to say a word to you guys. I had one of the girls go out this morning, and I've known her when she was just a blister on her mommy's tummy, so we've got a good relationship.

42:49 Pastor, when are you going to go after the guys? She didn't say it like that. She said it like a woman. She said it very sweetly, nice smile, chirpy little eyes. Pastor, maybe you couldn't say something about the guys. I'm just giving it back to you through the male grit. Pastor, when are you going to zap the bozos? I said, in due course. In due course.

43:16 Now, all kidding aside, you young men, listen to me. You know why it's time? You took seriously what it is to be a young man. You spent less time messing around with your computer games and the other diversions not sinful in themselves. Here's why. Your sexual engines are already worrying. They come to their peak. You come into your late teens and your early twenties. God has said in 1 Corinthians 7 that the normal way to keep those engines from leading you to ruin is to have them in your computer games. You have them channeled into a marriage relationship. To avoid fornication, let each man have his own wife. Let each wife have her own husband. Let them render to one another sexual dues.

44:13 But that's not the only teaching. You're not prepared to have marriage as a divinely ordained outlet of sexual passion till you're ready to leave father, mother, cleave to your wife.

44:30 Not enough to come to a marriage relationship. You're not prepared to have a marriage relationship with a woman. You're against it. You're a sinner. You should at least try your best to be a man. But we've always grown into this world. And so, here's where you're gonna end up. We've always been left in the middle of a mess of questa in which life goes on and on and on...

44:59 You have the right to say, I appreciate the fact that you think I might be the instrument to keep you from fornicating, but my Bible tells me that if I commit myself to do, I me to be my designer and leader? Are you ready to do that? Well, not exactly. Well, then bug off.

45:14 I ain't your Eve. You hear me, girls? You hear me, guys? What are you doing to lay up a stock of real Adam-like qualities that some Eve will dance with joy when you say I would like to enter into covenant with you?

45:41 You lay up stock now. Now. Now!

45:48 You take your studies seriously. You take the disciplines that Mom and Dad are seeking to lay upon you about thoughtfulness and considerateness with your sisters.

46:02 Communication with your Mom and Dad. Don't perpetuate the mute dumb ox husband.

46:13 Well, I'm not naturally a communicator. Fine. I don't naturally love God either. But there's grace.

46:22 And some of you guys need to get your act together. Stop mumbling when you talk. You remember Fiddler on the Roof? I haven't watched it for a long time. But you remember when the tailor comes before Tevye and he wants to tell him I'm in love with your daughter. I'm about to marry her. And he's just sitting around mumbling. And he says talk. Talk to me. Talk like a man. You remember that? Talk like a man. I say to some of you guys, you've got a diaphragm.

46:56 You've got thicker vocal cords. You've got tongue and teeth. Stop your mumbling. Stop talking like men.

47:07 Use your God-given faculties. When God spoke to Adam, Adam didn't say hey God, run that by again. I didn't get that. He knew exactly what God said. And when Adam defines for Eve, she knows exactly what Adam says. Work on your communication skills.

47:29 Maybe pump a little less iron in the basement and read a few more books out loud in your bedroom.

47:37 Work on your faculties of communication. Sit down with your sister and say look I'm a guy. I don't understand you. Look sis, help me get inside the mind and the whole of you quirky creatures called women. Help me. Help me. Help me.

47:52 What do I need to understand? Work on it. What are you doing to become a noble Adam to some emerging beautiful noble Eve? How are you just going to drop one out of the sky, you know?

48:09 Because you think you're Mr. Cool, you know? Any Eve would be glad to have me. Well, don't be so sure. If you can't talk, if you can't think, if you can't work, if you've got nothing to provide for her, nothing to set before her to make her feel secure, that entering into covenantal relationship with you is in her highest interest to the glory of God. Now I won't look at the girl who got me at the door and said Pastor, when are you going to get the guys? But I'm thinking of you now and I hope you feel I got them. Alright? Now.

Principle 3: Woman's Distinct and Wonderful Role as Helper

48:48 Now we come seriously to the third principle that we want to see growing out of the passage. We have seen in our observation, deductions from this editorial comment of Moses and all that goes before and undergirds it that it's God himself who conceived and established the covenantal union of one man, one woman for life. Secondly, it is only within the bounds of this covenantal union that a man and a woman are to experience sexual intimacy. Thirdly, it is God who designed and created the woman for her distinct and wonderful role fulfilling the procreative and dominion mandates as a companion and helper to the man not a competitor with the man.

49:50 Let me give you that mouthful again.

49:54 It is God who designed and created the woman for her distinct and wonderful role fulfilling the procreative and dominion mandates. Remember, she got them along with Adam. She stands equally under those mandates as companion and helper for the man, not a competitor with the man. Nothing in chapter two negates chapter one.

50:27 Nothing in chapter two negates chapter one. Chapter one negates chapter two. Now let's think for a minute. God said to them both in chapter one, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.

50:41 Have dominion over the beast, over the earth itself. Now, what did God give a woman that she might enter into the procreative and assumed under that is the nurture and the development of those who are procreative and the dominion mandate? What did God give to the woman? Well, God gave to the woman a brain.

51:07 God gave to the woman equal brain power. Some recent studies want to assert that maybe gave her a little bit more actual gray matter. Whether that's so or not, it doesn't bother me. Equal image bearers of God, equally under the dominion mandate, the procreative mandate.

51:27 This is what, what did God give? What did He give her? What did He give her? He gave her this.

51:33 He gave her this beautiful blonde bimbo that when He was brought to her, He did His back flip and embraced her and then took her by the hand and said, let me show you the place where God took me and what I've been doing In the garden! And have her stand there and go, no sense of aesthetic response. No sense of beauty. No, no, God made a creature with aesthetic sensitivities.

52:02 I hope, Joss, you don't mind me talking about this. I'm talking about my granddaughter. I normally don't talk about my kids or my grandchildren if they're present without their permission, but I'm going to override Joss on this. We were traveling up to Ballston Lake a couple of months ago, and we listened to some classical music.

52:18 And while we were listening to it, I said, what pictures do you see, Joss? This is what I see. And we were talking about the pictures we saw listening to this beautiful music. And so then a little bit later, we were talking about what are the non-negotiables she's going to look for in her Adam.

52:35 And then what are some of the negotiables but desirables? And when we came to this matter, well, I want a man that appreciates good music. And I said this to her. I said, Joss, would you want to spend all your life with a man who could hear that kind of music and see no pictures?

52:51 Would you want to live with someone who's got such an area of deadness in his soul that he could live with that? Listen to that kind of music. And you're coming to him and saying, honey, isn't that wonderful? I said, isn't it?

53:03 He looks at you and says, what in the world has gone wacko with you, woman?

53:08 No, you see, God made the woman with all these capacities, with all of her faculties, with all of her engine, all of these things. So when God says to this woman, equal image bearer, equally under the mandate of creation and dominion, endowed with mental and aesthetic. And creative faculties. You are a helper to the man.

53:36 You are constructed in order to be the one who receives his seed, conceives his children, nurtures them in your womb, nourishes them at your breast, has the primary input with them while he's out in the field until they can join him in the field in labor that is commensurate with their future. Physical and mental and emotional development, et cetera. How is all this to be put together? Well, it's put together when we come to this conviction so contrary to the mindset of modern feminism that the role of wife and mother and homemaker is not restricted in any area of a woman's God-given faculties. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

54:29 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

54:29 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

54:31 In fact, just the opposite. She can find the fullest expression of every God-given endowment in the conduit of her role as helper answering to his need, as nurturer of his children, and keeper of his home. This is why. Well, let me read a marvelous quote.

54:57 I've been trying to do some parallel reading. in a number of books, one of them a wonderful book edited by John Piper and Wayne Gruden on the whole biblical concept of masculinity and femininity, a number of contributors, and this particular article called The High Calling of Wife and Mother in biblical perspective is written by a woman who after she was married, agreed with her husband and under his direction that they would both go to seminary she would learn Hebrew and Greek and systematic theology, she took the whole seminary course at a graduate level, and then after they finished at seminary, while she was at seminary she also I believe worked as a secretary and executive secretary and they had their children and she bailed out of any outside work, gave herself to the role of wife and of mother, brilliant woman well educated cultured, all the rest listen to what this woman says, homemaking if pursued with energy imagination and skills has as much challenge and opportunity success and failure growth and expansion perks and incentives as any corporation, plus something no other position offers working for people you love most and want to please the most

56:23 then she draws a contrast using all of the terminology that modern feminism uses to denigrate and to cast dark and ominous negative shadows over the role of the wife, the mother and the homemaker and she contrasted beautifully in this one paragraph homemaking, being a full time wife and mother is not a destructive drought of usefulness but an overflowing oasis of opportunity it is not a dreary cell to contain one's talents and skills but a brilliant catalyst to channel creativity and energies into meaningful work it is not a rope for binding one's productivity in the marketplace but reigns for guiding one's posterity in the home it is not oppressive restraint of intellectual prowess for the community but a release of wise instruction to your own household, it is not the bitter assignment of inferiority to your person but the bright assurance of the ingenuity of God's plan for complementarity of the sexes especially as worked out in God's plan for marriage it is neither limitation of gifts available nor stinginess

57:51 in distributing the benefits of those gifts but rather the multiplication of a mother's legacy to the generations to come and the generations to come and the generations to come and this is why I personally give every bit of encouragement to parents who are seeking to map out the educational track of their daughters. And if they show the capacity to do it, the purchasing power of their daughters, for studies beyond elementary and high school. I encourage them to guide their daughters into post-high school educational opportunities. Why?

58:47 Because of this very principle, that the more they can develop and cultivate their minds, the more they can develop their awareness of the world into which their husbands will go to work and to labor and provide for them, their children will eventually go, hopefully, to be light and salt. The more they know, the more they are able to discerningly interact and pick apart and dissect the thought patterns of that world that are anti-God and anti-Christ. There is no faculty in any area cultured and developed and expanded in higher education that cannot be beautifully, wonderfully sublimated because of this very principle. To the manifold labors and opportunities of the wife, the mother, and the homemaker. I believe sitting here tonight are women that if they chose to do so, all other things being equal, and one of those would have to be tarring and feathering their husbands first, but all other things being equal, I could believe they could be corporation presidents and vice presidents, handle the job with ease. When I see the skill in handling their household, handling these creatures called their less-than-perfect Adams, because remember, we're outside of Genesis 3,

60:11 and the fact that they can live peacefully and cheerfully and with a sense of still-sun gleam in their eye when I see them standing with their husbands and interacting with them is a marvel of grace. And to see all that they do and all of the capacities, I greatly admire them as women of tremendous stature. And I've said that this series was calculated to try to both create and to nurture in you girls and in you young women and you not-so-young women of still marriageable age holy ambitions for that noble role of wife, of mother, and of homemaker. But remember, God did not give you your endowments and then tell you you are free to choose where they ought ordinarily, to find their fullest expression and outlet. No, Genesis 1 must be read in the light of Genesis 2. And the noble woman image-bearer of God with all of her faculties and capacities as image-bearer, with the mandates of procreation and dominion equally shared with her husband, with the promises of God surrounding her, she is yet helper answering to him.

Cultivating Daughters for Godly Roles and Kingdom Service

61:34 She is made for the man, not the man for the woman. And when those issues are settled in our minds, then we have a framework within which we can prayerfully seek to glorify God in our period of preparation for whatever God may have us to do in His world. And if it turns out that in the will of God one comes to the decision that for the sake of the kingdom, they will choose to remain single, all they've acquired in their further education and development will only make them more fit to serve Christ and His kingdom if they are providentially shut up to singleness. In our society, and I think there is an overall teaching of Scripture, it is just not kosher for us to have a Sadie Hawkins day and reverse the roles. Have the gals hide in the bush and go grab the man that seems desirable, and take him off to a justice of the peace and get married. So providentially, some of you will be shut up to extended singleness or possibly to a lifetime of singleness.

62:46 But all the skills and all the capacities that you develop and cultivate will make you that much more useful in the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. As I sat at my desk, I thought it wouldn't be a shame if we had young ladies who grew up in this church and didn't have a clue, how to fix the kind of a meal that will make a man really look forward when he's on the train coming back from his commute and say, I wonder what she's going to put on tonight. I know it'll be delicious. That'd be tragic.

63:18 We send our daughters out who don't have a clue how to put a good, tasteful, attractive meal together. But may I say it'd be just as tragic to have daughters who could come up with winners at the table every single night, week in, week out, month in, month out, but who were so dull and so utterly intellectually sterile that their husbands would have to seek intellectual companionship other where, some other place other than with their own wives. A helper answering to his need. It's not either or, it's both and.

63:59 And I trust that you parents have that vision and that you're seeking to train your daughters that they will be, good wives in the distinctive skills and disciplines within the home, but think of the broader context of what it really means to be a helper, answering to his need and all that God has made him as image bearer. Well, I hope I've stimulated your thinking from these portions of the Word of God and I trust that by the grace of God, these things will be so laid up in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that we will be able to resist all of the pressures that come to us from so many directions and may stand steadfast in the will of God. Let's pray together.

64:51 Our Father, we're so thankful that we have the Scriptures as a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. We pray that you will take these critical issues that we have considered today and write them upon the fleshy tables of all of our hearts and then give us grace to live out the implications of them. Bless our parents. Bless our young men and women. Oh God, preserve them. Preserve them, we pray. And may we, as we establish godly homes with biblically ordered roles and relationships, may we be light and salt to this poor, battered, disillusioned, bitter generation that's been sold a lie and now is living to reap the fruit of that lie. Oh God, have mercy, we pray.

65:42 Use us to rescue poor, confused people who have bought into the world's lie. Oh God, use us to rescue them and see them restructured in all of their lives. Hear us. Have mercy upon us, we pray.