Marriage and Redemption (c)

Introduction: The Series and Prerequisites for a Redeemed Marriage

0:04 Now let us turn again to Paul's letter to the Ephesians, and follow, if you will, please, as I read in chapter 5, beginning in verse 15, reading through to verse 23, and then dropping down to verse 33. Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 15. Look, therefore, carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ.

1:20 Wise, be subject to your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife. As Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the Savior of the body. But, as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in every thing.

1:51 Verse 33. Nevertheless, do you also severally love each one his own wife? Even as himself. And let the wife see that she fear her husband.

2:08 Five Lord's Days ago, on the day designated in our national calendar as Mother's Day, I began what I thought at the time would be a brief series of three or four messages on the theme in praise and defense of marriage, motherhood, and homemaking. Amen. Here we are, and we're still concerned with speaking in praise and defense of marriage, motherhood, and homemaking.

2:43 I introduce the subject by setting forth two compelling biblical reasons for addressing it at this time, and then giving two important biblical qualifications which must always be kept before our minds when dealing with these themes. I then asserted that if we are to think as we ought, and right thinking lies at the heart of right action, that if we are to think as we ought concerning these matters, we must think of them within the biblical grid of the doctrines of creation, the fall, and redemption. And having examined marriage, motherhood, and homemaking in the light of creation and the fall, we began, last Lord's Day to consider them in the light of redemption, using the term redemption as the broad term to cover all that God does in His rescue and restoration activity from sin and its consequences, a rescue operation procured by the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and applied by the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. And I stated

4:02 that we would examine these matters one after another in the light of redemption. That is, we would consider marriage as a separate entity in the light of redemption, motherhood in the light of redemption, and then homemaking in the light of redemption. We then proceeded to focus our attention on Ephesians chapter 5, verse 7. Ephesians 5, verses 22 to 33, which I entitled, God's Directives for a Redeemed Marriage.

4:34 What does a marriage look like that has come under the power of God's redemptive grace? It will look like the marriage described in Ephesians 5, 22 to 33. And as we began to take up this passage, my deep concern was to underscore that the marriage that God has that when Paul wrote these words to wives and to husbands, he was writing them with the assumption that the prerequisites for this redeemed marriage were present in their hearts and in their lives. And so I spent the entire day expounding what I called the prerequisites for a redeemed marriage. And I did so under two headings. First of all, we looked at the foundational prerequisites. The foundational prerequisite for a redeemed marriage is a real life-transforming participation in the salvation described in Ephesians chapters 1 and 2. And we looked at seven aspects of

5:48 that glorious salvation. And when Paul writes to these wives and to these husbands, he is assuming that that salvation has been operative in their lives. And then we looked at what I called the superstructural prerequisites for a redeemed marriage, a vital integration into the life and ministry of a biblically ordered church, chapter 4, verses 1 to 16. Secondly, a serious commitment to the pursuit of a universally radical alternative Christian lifestyle, chapter 4, verses 17 and following. And thirdly, an attitude of continuous appropriation of the enabling grace and power of the Holy Spirit, chapter 5 and verse 18. Now in taking the time to lay out these prerequisites for a redeemed marriage as described in Ephesians 5, I was highlighting and underscoring two of the most vital principles of the Christian life. As taught in the New Testament, you may not have realized that I was doing it, but I did and I want to identify

Two Vital Principles of the Christian Life

7:03 those two principles. They are absolutely crucial. And the first is this. The indicatives of grace precede, undergird, and envelop the imperatives of grace. Have you got it? The indicatives of grace precede, that is, they go before. Undergird, that is, they support, and they envelop, they ooze through the imperatives of grace. In other words, the indicatives of grace, that is, the things that God has done for us in Christ, the things that are true of us because we are in Christ, what we are and have by grace, forms the

7:56 preceding, undergirding, and enveloping context of the things we are responsible to do as the recipients of grace. And we cannot emphasize enough that great principle. We'll see it when I come this morning to expound the specific directives to wives as wives who would have a redeemed marriage. The apostle is assuming that all of the indicatives of grace are in place, that what God has done in Christ, what they are in Christ, goes before, undergirds, and envelops their responsibilities and obligations to Christ. And then the second principle is that the generic obligations of the Christian life precede, undergird, and envelop the specific obligations of the Christian life. And then the second principle is that the generic obligations of the Christian life precede, undergird, and envelop the specific. That's what we saw when we looked at these prerequisites. Paul does not identify any specific class of Christians, any particular group of Christians, until

9:16 chapter 5 and verse 22. Up until then, all of the directives are generic to all believers as believers, not specifically as wives who are believers, or husbands who are believers, or servants, or masters, or children, or fathers, but simply Christians as Christians. And Paul is assuming, when he comes to the specifics of wives and of husbands, that they are seriously committed to the generics of what they are to be as Christians. And this is why I say again, as I say, that the generic obligations of the Christian life precede, undergird, and envelop the specific obligations of the Christian life precede, undergird, and envelop the specific obligations of the Christian life precede, undergird, I have little sympathy for the idea that couples can go off on a marriage enrichment weekend with no solid understanding of the great indicatives of the Christian faith, with very little concern as to whether or not they have experienced the indicatives, and think that in a weekend of concentrated study, one can come away with a redeemed marriage. It is not the case.

10:25 It is not possible. The indicatives of grace precede, they are the undergirding and the enveloping context of the imperatives of grace, and the generic obligations of the Christian life precede, undergird, and envelop the specifics of the Christian life. And if you want a redeemed marriage, and are not serious about being a redeemed man or woman in the totality of life, forget it! And if you want a redeemed marriage, and are not serious about being a redeemed man or woman in the totality of life, forget it!

10:58 And we as pastors, when we're trying to help some of you in your marriages, you may be frustrated that we go to matters of, are you keeping short accounts with God in your walk before Him? Are you seeking to be consistent in all the other areas of your Christian experience? You simply cannot get God in a hammerlock to give you a nice, wonderful, redeemed marriage, if you're not serious about His redemptive grace touching all of your lives. As a Christian.

God's Redemptive Directive to Christian Wives: The Essence

11:28 Well, so much for review and highlighting those particular principles. Now, this morning, we come to take up God's redemptive directive to Christian wives. We're going to look at these both this morning, and again this evening. God's redemptive directive to Christian wives.

11:49 This morning, we're going to look at the essence of the redemptive directive to Christian wives. And then tonight, the qualifying aspects of the Redemptive Directive to Christian Wives. That will take us through verses 22 to 24 and down to verse 33. So this morning, the essence of the Redemptive Directive to Christian Wives.

12:19 And before we even get into the passage, and I tell you how I will attempt and within what framework to open it up, I want you to notice this very simple truth. Look at verse 22. What does it say? It begins with the words, Wives.

12:37 Paul is writing to wives. When this letter came, he expected every wife who was there in the church at Ephesus and in the surrounding area, as this was a circular letter, that the wives would immediately perk up their ears and say, God is saying something to us. Now it's vital to remember that simple little principle. There are some of you husbands that wish it were written this way.

13:04 Say, husbands, this is what you are to seek to make your wives to be. But no, he's not talking to you. He's talking to wives. Assuming that the dynamics of grace are operative in wives, so that when wives...

13:20 hear what the will of the Lord for them is, be not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, verse 17, that the wives will cheerfully, voluntarily embrace the will of the Lord for them. What God says to wives is not fuel for husbands to preach to their wives, to seek to impose upon their wives. It is God's word. It is God's word to wives and to would-be wives.

13:55 When he speaks to husbands, he's not telling wives, this is material for you to preach at your husband. This is material by which to measure your husband and show him what a bum he is. No, it is written to husbands, assuming that these Christian husbands will want to know what the will of the Lord is. So you men and you husbands, you may listen in this morning, but this ain't for you.

14:21 We're going to consider God's redemptive directive to Christian wives. And this morning, as I've indicated, the essence of that redemptive directive is in verse 22. Wives, be subject to your own husbands as unto the Lord. Now, isn't that an amazingly complex directive?

14:55 I mean, you've got to be a theologian. You have got to be knowledgeable in original languages. You have got to be astute in a thousand different disciplines. I mean, isn't that a profoundly complex statement?

15:11 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as unto the Lord.

15:22 That's rather straightforward, isn't it? Rather plain on the surface. Are you a wife? Yes.

15:28 What are you to do? You're supposed to submit yourself. To whom? To your own husband.

15:32 With what great concern? As unto the Lord. Very simple. Very straightforward.

Refuting Evangelical Feminism: The Complexity of 'Simple' Truths

15:39 It seems so clear. It seems so straightforward, so uncomplicated, that for me to say I'm going to take the rest of the time this morning to expound just verse 22 seems like really beating things thin at the edges. But I want to inform you. That things are not so simple as they may appear to be.

16:02 And in a very real sense, those of you who are members here of Trinity Church, you live in a kind of insulated ghetto in terms of what's going on in the ordinary, run-of-the-mill evangelical world. And sooner or later, you will confront those streams of thought and influence that are flowing out there. And no little bit. part of my task as an elder, according to Titus 1.9, is not only to exhort in the sound or healthy doctrine, but to refute the gainsayers. I hold in my hand a rather thick book. It has 565 pages, entitled Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, jointly edited by Dr. John Piper and Dr. Wayne Grudem. You know what the subtitle is? A Response to Evangelical

17:01 Feminism. Back in 1991, these men, along with many others, felt such a passion that someone needed to answer the spate of literature coming out from people who claim to be evangelicals. That is, they claim to believe in the Christ of Scripture. To trust in that Christ for their salvation, they claim to believe in the absolute authority of the Word of God written, and yet, they are churning out book after book, holding conference after conference, essentially saying that the way biblical Christians have read and understood and implemented the passages in Scripture addressing male and female roles in the world, is not just a matter of faith. It is a matter of faith. It is a matter of faith. It is a matter of faith. It is a matter of faith. It is a matter of faith. It is a matter

17:55 of faith. It has been argued within the Church, in the family, in the world, has been all skewed that the passages do not really say what poor, unthinking, unenlightened people for centuries have thought that they said, and they needed the enlightenment of this more recent scholarship. And this book was written, and an organization was begun called The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, in order to refute, not only blatant secular feminism of the world, but evangelical feminism. And I will not weary you with naming the authors and the books that have been written. Suffice it to say that I feel a tremendous burden, though it's going to mean you've got to work this morning. I've worked to prepare. I'm working to deliver it. You're going to have to work to grasp what I'm going to seek to deliver. You're not going to be carried along by the thrill

18:56 of the manner of delivery this morning. You're going to have to put on your thinking cap, tighten your seatbelt, and determine to gird up the loins of your mind, and let's work together that we might understand clearly and, furthermore, listen now, be competent to stand our ground against the sophistry and the subtle way that people would act. I'm just going to twist what seems very clear to us when we look at the essence of the redemptive

19:29 directive to Christian wives. Namely, wives, be subject to your own husbands as unto the

The Context of the Redemptive Directive: Spirit-Filled Submission

19:40 Lord. The Lord listen, he who hath both the actual pattern and the actual Почему looked at all things which are bad can die without repentance. The Lord looks with upscale替a the foreignevents the Electric Good divineviabilitya. Pra veto all things whiskey,Where to dragged uphe married, wives. Then we're going to seek to grasp the meaning of the key word in this redemptive directive to Christian wives. And then thirdly, we're going to look at the profound significance of the final phrase in this redemptive directive to Christian wives. First of all, then, the context of this redemptive directive to Christian wives. And here, I trust you have your Bibles open in front of you. I don't care if we lose eye contact much of the time this morning.

20:28 I want you to see things with your own Bible, with your own eyes. I want you to be able to sit down with your Bible with someone else and work through these issues and to give a reason of the position that you take on this crucial issue. What is the context of these words? Wives, be subject unto your own husbands as...

20:51 Well, the climax of the apostles' many generic directives concerning how believers are to live out their radically new Christian lifestyle, the climax of those directives is given in verse 18 of chapter 5. And do not be drunk with wine wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit. Possibly alluding to the horrible religious festivals of the pagan lifestyle from which many of them were taken, in which drunkenness and absorbing the Spirit of the gods and all of the immorality that went with it would have been part and parcel of their religious past. And Paul says, no, you are no longer to be drunk with wine wherein is riot, but you are to continually be filled with the Spirit. Be being filled with the Spirit. And then there follows five participles in which the apostle indicates how being filled with the Spirit will manifest itself in practical ways.

22:08 I like to think of it this way. Being filled with the Spirit is like a pool. The human heart of the Spirit-filled believer is a pool. It is fed by Him.

22:21 The hidden subterranean springs of the Spirit's influence within that heart. But as that heart is being filled and the pool is filled, then out of that pool flow five streams. And here the apostle identifies the streams that flow out of the pool of a Spirit-filled heart. And what are they? Look at the text. Be being filled with the Spirit, speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. Giving thanks always for all things. And then the fifth stream, flowing out of this pool of the Spirit-filled heart, fed by the invisible subterranean springs of the Spirit's influence, subjecting or submitting yourselves.

23:20 Subjecting or submitting yourselves. Subjecting or submitting yourselves. Subjecting or submitting yourselves. Subjecting or submitting yourselves. Subjecting or submitting yourselves. Ones to another in the fear of Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands. You see, it is Paul's emphasis in this fifth participle. All five of them have what the exegetes would call an imperatival flavor. They have the flavor and the pressure of imperatives. IIiu are being filled with the Spirit, you will be saved by His power. be speaking one to another, singing, making melody, giving thanks, submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ. In other words, the apostle is clearly indicating that when someone is filled with the Spirit, one of the manifestations will be that he will take the posture, she will take the posture of submitting himself or herself to some one another, whoever they may be, in the fear of Christ. That is, out of regard to the will of Christ, our accountability to Christ,

24:32 and the fact that we shall in the last days stand before Christ to give an account of the deeds done in the body. The apostle introduces the concept of submitting ourselves to one another indirectly. A connection with one of those five streams that flows out of a Spirit-filled heart and life. But now the question is, what did Paul mean when he said, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ?

25:06 And there are three interpretations given. The first one, as far as I'm concerned, is a wretched, horrible, twisting of the Word of God in order to bleed verse 22 of what you all agreed with me. It's a very simple, straightforward statement. Wives, be subject to your own husbands as unto the Lord.

25:30 What's the big deal? Why would there be any debate? Well, let me tell you why. There are some who take the position that verse 21 is a call to obliterate all hierarchical structures among the people of God, both in the family, and in the church.

25:48 Look at the text. If you're filled with the Spirit, here's one of the manifestations of that, you will subject yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ. And giving to that word, subjecting, it's full vigor. That is, ranging yourself under another.

26:08 They press the reflexive pronoun, one another, to be universally applicable. That is, every believer, in all relationships, in all places, and in all circumstances, will take the posture of submitting himself to his fellow believers. Therefore, in so facto, how could a wife be subject to her husband when the husband has just been told he is to submit himself to his fellow believers? Isn't she part of the one another?

26:39 Well, we are to submit ourselves one to another. You say, surely, Pastor, no responsible, intelligent person claiming to believe his Bible would teach that. Oh, is that so? You listen as I quote.

26:55 This view, it is claimed, does justice to the reciprocal pronouns submitting to one another. Gilbert Balzickian, for example, recognizes that the natural meaning of the verb submit, wherever it appears in the New Testament, is, quote, make yourselves subordinate to the authority of a higher power, the authority of a higher power. This man, who is, quote, an evangelical feminist, says the word submit obviously means, universally means in the New Testament, make yourselves subordinate to the authority of a higher power, to yield to rulership. However, the addition of the reciprocal pronoun to each other changes its meaning entirely.

27:39 By definition, mutual submission rules out hierarchical differences, that is, any structure in which you have someone above another in authority. That's what a hierarchical structure is. When someone is above you in authority, that's a hierarchical structure, whether it's the state, whether it's dad, mom, husband, whatever. Now, this man goes on to say, he rejects any thought of obedience to authority in verses 21 to 24, claiming instead it's appropriate to speak of, quote, mutual subjection, and this suggests horizontal lines of interaction among equals.

28:19 Verse 21 then must control our understanding of chapter 5, verses 22 to 6, 9. Mutual submission requires that all Christians, regardless of status, function, sex, or rank, are to serve one another in love. All become subordinate to one another. There remains no justification for distinction among them of ruler and subordinate.

28:49 That's a quote. This man claims to believe his Bible, and this is how he twists the Scriptures, by reading into verse 21 an idea that's utterly foreign to the text and utterly overturns the total witness of Holy Scripture. They do with verse 21 what the feminists do with Galatians 3.28.

29:15 In Christ, there is neither what? Male nor female, Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, you are all one in Christ. Therefore, there should be no gender distinctions in leadership in the home, leadership in the church. Why? We're all one in Christ.

29:35 Gender distinctions are kaput. Therefore, an intelligent, brilliant people write books defending this, and tens of thousands of people claim to believe their Bibles are swallowing at the hook, line, and sink. Well, I hope you see that that's not what verse 21 teaches. Now, there are two other interpretations, both of which are true to the overall teaching of Scripture.

30:07 I prefer one to the other, but let me give you one that at least is sensitive to the overall teaching of the Bible. They regard it as a call to all believers to act in a loving, considerate, self-giving way in their interactions to one another. Such would be a parallel to passages like Philippians 2, 3, and 4. Look not all of each of you on his own things, but each of you on the things of others.

30:38 Or Galatians 5.13, where we are told to, in love, become servants one to another, or 1 Peter 5.5, a similar emphasis in the text of Scripture. Lenski, the Lutheran commentator, whom I quote periodically from this pulpit, he takes this position.

30:59 Listen to how he describes it in a very beautiful way. It is the wisdom of this world to dominate others, to stoop below others only when one is compelled to stoop. This paragraph is written regarding wisdom, regarding understanding the Lord's will, and thus, in spirit, singing our happy gratitude to God our Father. This we are to do in happy harmony.

31:23 No rivalry, no self-exaltation, no divisive pride is to interfere. Rich and poor, learned and simple, high and low are one. And that is accomplished by subjecting themselves to each other in Christ Jesus. Not in false humility.

31:41 None is to subject another. Each is to subject himself voluntarily, freely. This is to be neutral, reciprocal, all around. And then he quotes Philippians 2.3 and 1 Peter 5.5. What a wise thing, and how fine, when none lords it over another, when each serves the other. Matthew 20.27.28, the songs that arise to God from such hearts will be sweet. In other words, they take the verb submitting yourselves one to another and give it a sense it does not have in the rest of Scripture, but a sense which is consistent with other teaching of Scripture. You follow what I'm saying? Turning subjecting yourselves one to another into deferring to one another in selfless love.

32:33 So that when that is given as the interpretation of verse 21, though I do not believe it is being fair to the language of the text, it is not a position which overturns the remainder of the teaching of Scripture. And then Lenski and others who hold this position would go on to show, though there is a generic mutual subjection, there is a specific and well-defined submission of the wife to her husband, and they handle verses 22 to 24 in verse 33, with integrity. However, I reject that interpretation and this is my understanding shared by many others responsible exegetes of the Word, that verse 21 is a call to each believer to submit to those people who have a position of legitimate authority over them. If I'm filled with the Spirit, one of the manifestations of being filled with the Spirit is that I will voluntarily, cheerfully submit to those people who have a position of legitimate authority over me. And why do I say that I believe that's the understanding? Because, first of all, as we'll see under our second major heading, the verb hupotasso, rendered submitting

33:59 or subject or be subject, never, never has the connotation of being sensitive and loving and self-giving with another. It always has, in its 40 uses in the New Testament, the meaning of one who is inferior in rank submitting himself to one who is superior in rank. Therefore, when the text says, submitting yourselves one to another, the reflexive pronoun one to another does not mean does not need to be each one submitting to every other one. There are clear instances, and I will not weary you with the examples from the New Testament, where that reflexive pronoun is limited to the issue at hand when we are told to bear one another's burdens. It doesn't mean that everyone at the same time is bearing the burden of another. But when there is someone with a burden that I am able to enter in and assist in it, it is a limited use of that reflexive pronoun. Therefore, what is Paul saying in verse 21?

35:09 This is what I believe he is saying. Be filled with the Spirit. And if you are filled with the Spirit, in the grace and power and enablement of the Spirit, you will not only be found speaking one to another in an edifying way, singing and making melody and giving thanks, but embracing every single relationship in which God has providentially put you in the position of the inferior. And you will embrace from the heart that submissiveness consistent with that relationship to your superior.

35:51 Therefore, he goes right on into verse 22. Look at it. Wives, and if you have an old 1901, and I think the King James, you'll find the words be in subjection or submit in italics. Why?

36:05 There's no verb in verse 22. A literal rendering of the Greek text is wives unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. That's the literal rendering of the Greek text. Wives what unto your husbands?

36:20 Paul is assuming we would carry down the verb submit from verse 21. Submitting yourselves one to another, that is specifically wives to your husbands. And then he goes on in chapter 6, children to your parents and servants to your masters. So that the introduction of what is called in first century Greek literature family tables is introduced by verse 21 underscoring that the spirit-filled believer is that believer who in any and every situation where God has placed him in a hierarchical order where he ought to render submission, he joyfully renders that submission as a personal act of obedience unto Christ himself. Well, I hope I haven't helplessly confused you. I prayed God help me then. But I don't know how to bypass this, folks, because you're going to confront somebody sooner or later that's going to twist this.

The Meaning of the Key Word: 'Hupotasso' (Submission)

37:31 I hope you'll be able to sit down with them and say, no, that can't be what it's talking about. So then, we've looked at the context. Now, secondly, the meaning of the key word in this redemptive directive to Christian wives. As I've already indicated, the verb is carried over from verse 21.

37:52 It's not there in the text. Submitting or subject yourselves is to be carried into verse 22, again, with imperative force. That's why most of your translations will render it, wives, be subject or be in subjection to your own husbands. Now, the verb hupotasot, used in verse 21, assumed to be carried on in verse 21.

38:18 There's verse 22. There's no question that's the verb found in verse 24. But as the church is hupotasot, as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their husbands in everything. Now, follow as I give this very simple reinforcement.

38:39 In every explicit passage dealing with a wife's duty as a Christian, the verb hupotasot is central to that directive. Now, I believe the case can be airtight from this passage alone. But when God says, the same thing in every explicit directive to wives in the New Testament, it seems to me that one has to be filled with willful arrogance and perversity to bleed away the simple directive, wives, be subject to your own husbands. And what are those passages? I give them to you. You ought to know where they are.

39:32 Colossians chapter 3 and verse 18. In this very condensed family table of directives, Colossians 3 verses 18 through chapter 4 and verse 1, Paul addresses wives, husbands, masters, servants, masters, parents, same structure, but much more condensed than in Ephesians. Notice Colossians 3, 18. Wives, no verb carried down from the preceding context.

40:03 In an imperative, middle use of this verb. The middle voice meaning reflexively. Wives, submit yourselves. It's an imperative, a present imperative.

40:18 Submit now. Continually submit. It is a personal act. It can't be forced upon me.

40:23 It can't be pressured from outside. Wives, be in subjection or perhaps better rendered, subject yourselves to your own husbands as it is fitting in the Lord. Hupotasso, central to the revelation of God's will for wives. Titus chapter 2.

40:44 The older women are to help return the younger women to sobriety. The verb for teach, rendered teach, is a very difficult one to translate. It's not any of the standard words for teach. It literally means return to sobriety of thought.

41:01 Older women, by example, and precept and influence, are to help younger women to have biblically sober thoughts about who they are and their role as younger women, as younger married women. Notice what is said in Titus chapter 2 verse 3. That the aged women likewise be reverent in demeanor, not slanderers, nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good, that they may train, that they may return to sober thinking, the young women, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sober-minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection, a present middle participle of hupotasso, being hupotassoed to their own husbands. And then in 1 Peter chapter 3, the final passage where wives are explicitly addressed in the New Testament, Peter has given the general direction in chapter 2 and verse 13, be subject, hupotasso, to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. Then he gets specific to various groupings within the church. Verse 18 of chapter 2, servants, a present participle, in subjection to your masters.

42:26 Then chapter 3 verse 1, in like manner you wives, a present participle, in subjection to your own husbands, hupotassoed again. And then in verse 5 of the same context, for after this manner aforetime the holy women also who hoped in God adorned themselves, being hupotassoed to their own husbands. Now dear people, could God speak any more clearly? Yeah, I know, this is elementary stuff.

42:58 I want you to be furnished with the Word of God. That's what I'm supposed to do. We read this morning in Ephesians 4. He gives pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints unto works of service.

43:07 And one of your works of service is to be able, when this issue is raised, and as you contemplate your role as a wife, as you contemplate what your role will be, you younger men and you younger women, as you men contemplate what kind of a woman shall I seek to court and win and woo and eventually marry, your thinking must be anchored to these clear steps. These are the statements of the Word of God. Now then, what is the essential meaning of that word hupotasso? I've alluded to it.

43:40 I've made several quotes. Now let me give you a sampling of its 40 uses. That's all. Just a sampling.

43:47 And you'll catch the flavor of its significance. And here I quote from one of the endnotes in this marvelous Bible on these issues. Although many people have claimed the word hupotasso can be thoughtful and considerate, act in love to one another, it's doubtful whether any first century Greek-speaking person would ever put that meaning upon that word. It always implies a relationship of submission to an authority.

44:18 Let me give some examples. Remember Luke 2.51 when Jesus goes back from His time in the temple? He goes back to Nazareth and He was hupotassoed to them.

44:29 He was subdued and subject to them. Jesus placed Himself under the authority of Joseph and of Mary in perfect obedience to the fifth commandment. Luke 2 and verse 51. When the disciples come back after their first missionary tour in Luke 10.17, they rejoice that the demons were what? Hupotassoed. The demons were subject to them. The demons recognized their authority.

45:02 Furthermore, when we read of our obligation to human government, Romans 13.1, be subject to the authorities for the powers that be or ordained of God, hupotasso, we're to be in submission to those authorities. Similar text, 1 Peter 2 and verse 13. The universe is subject to Christ, 1 Corinthians 15.27 and Ephesians 1 and verse 22. Christ is put in the hands of all principalities and powers beneath His feet, 1 Peter 3 and verse 22. And on and on we go. Every use of it has the concept of ranging oneself under the authority of another as a conscious volitional decision.

45:50 When it's used in the active voice, it is someone subjecting something to himself. In the passive, something is subjected in the middle which is most used in these directives to wives. It is submitting oneself. So then, to take this directive and to see in it anything other than God's clear word to wives.

46:19 Remember, there's not a verse in the Bible that says husbands, subject your wives. Not a verse. This is not a word telling you husbands what to do. Subject your wife.

46:36 You won't find such a verse in the Bible. It is wives, subject yourself. Some of you men never thought of that, did you? It was about time you did.

46:51 You won't find any verse that tells you to subject your wife to you. But you find all these verses that says to you, wives, subject yourself, submit yourself to your own husbands. As unto the Lord. Well, we've looked at the context, we've looked at the meaning of the key word.

The Profound Significance of 'As Unto the Lord'

47:13 Now we come to the profound significance of the final phrase of this redemptive directive to Christian wives. Look at it. Wives, submit yourselves, not to all men generically, no, it's talking about your own husbands. And you know, the word's translated your own.

47:37 It's close to idiot. It's idios. I couldn't help but snicker when I was sitting at my desk looking at my Greek test. You wives, submit to your idios husbands.

47:49 I said, well, we changed one letter in English in that and it doesn't sound too well. Submit to your idiot husbands. But it's your own husbands. It's not talking about women submitting to men generically.

48:02 It's talking about wives submitting to their own husbands. And I want you to consider with me now the profound significance of the final phrase of this directive. Look at it. As unto the Lord.

48:20 As unto the Lord. The submission to which God calls you as a wife is never to be detached from this profoundly significant phrase. Submit as unto the Lord. Now what does it mean?

48:41 Does it mean submit to your husbands as though he were the Lord? Absolutely not. That would be a call to idolatry. There's only one Lord who has absolute authority over any man, any Christian, man or woman, and that's Jesus.

49:03 And that's Jesus. So it doesn't mean submit to your own husbands as though he were the Lord. Whatever he says, you must do regardless of the morality of what he directs you to do. Rather, in subjecting yourself to your husband, you embrace the fact that it is the Lord who requires this of you.

49:28 And therefore, in submitting to your own husbands, you are rendering conscious submission, delightful submission, to him who in grace and mercy has become your Lord and as verse 23 says, your Savior. Look at the parallel with respect to the directives given to servants in chapter 6. Servants, verse 5, be obedient unto them that according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, and in the original, this is the perfect linguistic parallel, as unto Christ. Servants, you are to obey, a different word here, not submit, this is a different word for rendering obedience, a different nuance. Be obedient to them that according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ. You servants, when you look at your master in the morning, look beyond his shape and form and his voice and disposition and attitude, and when his orders are given, see above them and over them and through them the will of Christ, your Lord, whom you have embraced and whom you love, and whose smile means more to you than anything else in life.

50:56 Verse 7, be obedient unto them that according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, and in the original, this is the perfect linguistic verse 7, with good will doing service as unto the Lord. And here we have not the word Christ, but the exact word used in our Ephesians passage, as unto the Lord. Two times with the servants Paul reminds them the obedience that is required of you is obedience that is rooted in the will of Christ, in the will of your Lord. Now what is the profound significance of this perspective?

51:35 Well, let me try to unpack it. Wives, be subject unto your own husbands, this is the way some would read it, as unto a time-bound cultural convenience. That's the way some handle every passage that deals with a woman's submission to her husband. Well, in the culture of that time, to do anything other than to be submissive and to have a hierarchical structure in the marriage would be to bring unnecessary prejudice upon the Christian faith.

52:13 However, as people mature in Christ and learn more and more what it means to be mutually submissive one to another, the concept of a hierarchical structure will die its own death as surely, now follow how they go, as surely as the directions to masters and slaves and bring in the book of Philemon would eventually dismantle the hierarchical structure of servant and master. So people coming to further maturity in Christ and influencing culture by their Christian grace will dismantle the hierarchical structure of marriage that may have been a compatible perspective for first century believers but we have outgrown it. Yeah, sounds pretty persuasive. A lot of people have bought it. But the text says, Wives, be subject to your husbands not as unto a time bound shifting, maturing, cultural expedient as unto the Lord.

53:31 It is the Lord who instituted marriage and as we shall see in the unfolding exposition when God brought Eve to Adam in that first marriage way back then he had in his heart and mind his church and the bride of Christ and the original marriage was structured in order to reflect the church's cheerful, joyful submission to Christ or heavenly bridegroom. Wives, be subject to your own husbands as unto the Lord not as unto a time bound cultural expedient. Others would read it this way. Wives, be subject to your own husbands as long as a misogynist, hierarchical, patriarchal climate makes you do it. Some go so far as to say since all the biblical authors were males they were misogynists. You know what misogynist means? Woman-hater.

54:40 Patriarchal. Men are in charge. You see, men were in charge and as long as men were in charge they're going to oppress women. And you must read these passages in the light of the fact that they are patriarchal and there is some misogyny and it's imposed and in Christ we're free.

55:00 I've got more respect for the person that says I can't hack the Bible's teaching on female submission and male headship. I'm going to throw it out and become a pagan. I'm sick and tired of people saying I believe in the authority of the Bible and then bleeding it of all of its authority under fancy sounding stuff such as that. No, it is the Lord who requires it.

55:27 Now think for a minute. You're sitting there at Ephesus. You're a wife. You've been brought through the first four chapters of Ephesians.

55:38 Then you hear these words read for the first time. Wives, be subject to your own husbands as unto the Lord. And you say, who is this Lord? And you go back to chapter one.

55:55 He is the Lord in whom I was chosen before the foundation of the world. He was the Lord in whom I was appointed unto adoption. He is the Lord in whom I have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of His sins, the cleansing of my sins. He is the Lord in whom I've been enriched with all heavenly wisdom in this dispensation of the fullness of the times.

56:24 He is the Lord in whom I have been sealed with the Spirit. He is the Lord in union with whom I've been raised from the dead, seated with Him in the heavenly places. You see, you don't detach this from all that precedes. And any Christian woman whose heart has been transformed and ravished with the sight of her Lord in redemptive grace and mercy says, O God, as hard as it may be to be subject to that man sitting next to me, it is You who require it.

57:03 Therefore, the requirement must be gracious, it must be wise, it must be loving, it must be consistent with all that I know You to be to me as my Savior and my Lord. You follow me? That's why this has profound significance. Wise, be submissive to your husbands as unto the Lord, this Lord of grace, this Lord who's made you part of His bride that He's going to present to Himself without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

57:45 And you see, this safeguards the submission. You don't need to bring up all of the questions. Well, what about if a husband requires this, requires that? If it's as unto the Lord, it's understood that at any point where a husband's directives would cause me to violate the clear directives of Him who is my sovereign, unrivaled Lord, I'm prepared graciously to disobey out of my supreme allegiance to the Lord Jesus.

Observations on Voluntary Submission

58:18 So, that's the essence, the distilled essence of God's redemptive directive to Christian wives. Wives, be subject to your own husbands as unto the Lord. Now in conclusion, let me just make several observations. It's been mostly painstaking exposition, had to be that way.

58:43 When we come tonight to the qualifying aspects, there'll be more opportunities for application. But I want you to note several things with me that are critical. Number one, voluntary submission to God-ordained authority does not imply inferiority of personal worth or dignity in the one who does the submitting. You follow me?

59:11 Voluntary submission to God-ordained authority does not imply inferiority of personal worth or dignity in the one submitting. If so, Jesus has less worth or dignity than Mary and Joseph. He went down unto Nazareth and was hypotassoed unto them. Not just to the Lord, but to them.

59:47 Mary's orders and Joseph's orders were God's orders to my Lord. He was subject to them. They have legitimate parental authority. Jesus relinquished none of his personal worth or dignity in rendering that submission.

60:06 It says that the Son himself shall be subject to the Father. The Father sends. The Son comes in obedience. The Son says, what my Father speaks, I speak.

60:19 What my Father bids me, I do. Does the Son have less inherent worth and dignity as the second person of the Godhead? Because he voluntarily takes the place of submission to the will of his Father. Not my will, but thine be done.

60:38 And if that automatically means inferiority of worth or dignity, then you no longer have a biblical doctrine of the Trinity in which all three persons are of equal dignity and worth and share in the divine essence. Voluntary submission to God-ordained authority does not imply inferiority of personal worth or dignity. You girls get that in your bloodstream. Because you're going to be pummeled with a contrary perspective.

61:08 The minute you submit to a man, you're saying he's better than you are. You're denigrating your personhood. No, you're not. You're embracing, embracing who you are.

61:24 If God makes you to fulfill a role in which submission to another is the way of his will, that's the way of blessedness and the way of true self-fulfillment. Furthermore, voluntary submission to God-ordained authority does not necessarily imply that you're yielding to tyranny in the one to whom submission is rendered. This is another false concept, that anyone who's willing to take authority is a tyrant, therefore resist him. You've got a husband that expects to be the head, he's a tyrant, resist him.

62:04 You've got elders that expect to lead and expect submission in the Lord, they're tyrants, resist them. That's the climate in which you're living, I'm living. You young people, that's the climate of the society into which you're going. Not only suspect authority, resist it.

62:22 Wherever you find it, resist it. Why? In its very nature, authority is tyrannical. It simply is not true in scripture, it's not true in experience.

Refusal to Submit: A Sign of an Unregenerate Heart

62:35 As the church is subject to Christ, is he a tyrant who loved us, gave himself for us, who nurtures us and cherishes us and is going to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy? Resist that thinking. Furthermore, refusal to render voluntary submission in obedience to the word of God may be indicative of an unregenerate heart. Refusal to render voluntary submission in obedience to the word of God may be indicative of an unregenerate heart. And why do I say that? In the light of Romans 8 and verse 7, the carnal mind, that is the prevailing disposition of one who is not indwelt by the Spirit, that's what carnal is in that context. The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject, it's not hupotassoed to the law of God.

63:53 Neither indeed can it be. The disposition of the human heart before the authority of God revealed in God's word is stuff it. That's it. Enmity itself.

64:11 Enmity itself. That's it. That's the disposition. It could be that there are some wives sitting here even a very uncomfortable woman in the whole exposition this morning.

64:29 Very uncomfortable. Your mind has been whirling a hundred miles an hour trying to find, well, I've got to find a loophole here, I've got to find a loophole there, rather than saying, oh, Lord Jesus, you love me. You died for me. What else can I do but lovingly embrace your will for me?

64:54 You've been sitting there saying, wherever this is going, I ain't going there. I say, refusal to render voluntary submission in obedience to the word of God may be indicative of an unregenerate heart. And I'm convinced there are women who will go to hell primarily because at this point their enmity to God came into the sharpest focus and they wouldn't repent and be submissive to their own husbands. As surely as there will be lectures and adulterers whose enmity to God comes to sharp focus with respect to sexual morality and they say, I will not restrain my passions by the standards of the word of God, that was the tangible, focused expression of Romans 8-7, a carnal mind, enmity to God, not subject to his law. And it could be there are some wives here. Could be. I'm not saying there are.

65:58 But there could well be, could well be, in some young women not married, that this is the point at which your native enmity to God comes into sharp focus. In which case, what do you need? You don't need to sort out being submissive to a husband. You need to sort out getting submissive to God.

Submission Independent of Husband's Performance

66:22 You need to repent of your willfulness, your proud, arrogant, independent spirit and come in brokenness to the feet of Christ crucified and lay hold of Him and the mercy offered in Him. And then fourthly and finally for this morning, voluntary submission to one's husband and this is where some of you wives, you're going to like me for this, I've got to say it, I love you enough to tell you the truth. Voluntary submission to one's husband is not to be determined by the husband's measure of commitment to his duty to love you as Christ loved the church. You're sitting there today saying, boy, I can't wait until pastor gets after that guy sitting next to me. Amy to be told, love me as Christ loved the church. Yeah, I'm going to tell him. I'm going after the bozos.

67:16 That's the term I used with someone the other night, generically after the service. He was thanking me for the message. One of the men, I said, well, let's see how you thank me after I go after the bozos. And he thought I was calling him a bozo.

67:29 And instead of getting mad at me, you know what he did? He left a message on my answering machine thanking me for being faithful to his soul. He said, I've been a bozo. Thanks for being faithful to me.

67:39 I said, Lord, give us a church full of people like that. Yes, I hope to be faithful. This faithful and painstaking and opening up all the words, three times as many spoken to the men, that you wives, your duty, your redemptive duty as a Christian woman is not predicated on your husband fulfilling his redemptive duty. You are to be submissive to him, Peter says, even if any obey not the word.

68:15 That's Bible. I didn't write it. I'm not some hard-hearted misogynist that has Bible. And that's the Bible you claim to be subject to in Christ.

Conclusion: Restoring the Divine Order

68:28 I conclude with this lovely, lovely statement of Lenski, my Lutheran friend, where he, at the end of this whole section, writes this. In the state of innocence, the husband was the head and the wife subjected herself to him as the head. God made marriage so ideal, lovely, blessed, perfect. Sin entered and disturbed this marriage.

68:55 Eve fell. Adam followed. God's order was subverted. In the state of sin, the divine and blessed order is disturbed in two directions.

69:05 Wives seek to rule their husbands and refuse loving self-subjection. Husbands tyrannize their wives often to the point of enslaving them. Endless woe results. Christianity restores the divine order with all its happiness.

69:21 Yet when Christianity came and elevated women in wifehood, from their pagan degradation and made male and female one in the church of Christ, there was a danger of an antinomian view regarding wifehood. Wives might have been inclined to refuse self-subjection because of a false view of emancipation and independence. For this reason, Paul ever speaks so clearly and shows both the original divine intention of the marital relation of husbands and wives and the sanctification of this relation in its glorious elevation because Christ, Christ made it the image of his own relation to the church, even as the Lord had done in the case of Israel in the old covenant. In our times, not a few Christian wives and husbands have tried to modify Paul's words, especially what they say regarding the self-subjection of Christian wives because it's claimed that this view is no longer up to date and befitting our advanced age. The more need is there that we understand just what Paul in the scriptures say on this subject, that we apprehend the inwardness of it all and the impossibility of our ever advancing beyond the true directions here laid down in the word of God. Well, may God help you dear wives. I'm going to speak by application tonight more to some of you single women.

70:46 You men, you've listened in. You boys, young men, you unmarried ones, but I trust above all else that you who are wives will hear the word of God and lay it to heart. Those of you already thoroughly committed to this divine directive for a redeemed marriage will pray that God will help you to abound yet more and more that you may accurately reflect the church's joyful, cheerful, universal submission to Christ, her loving head and Lord. Let's pray.

71:23 Father, we're so thankful that you've given us your word as a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway, and we pray that against all of the sophistry and all of the twisting of scripture going on in our day, you would help your people here to be firmly established and grounded in the word of truth that we've considered today. Seal that word to every heart, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.