Motherhood/Homemaking & Redemption (a)

Introduction: The Cultural Enmity Against God's Design for Marriage, Motherhood, and Homemaking

0:04 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, June 30, 2002, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now I invite you to turn with me to the opening chapters of Genesis this morning, in particular Genesis chapter 3. And I shall begin the reading at verse 9, and read through chapter 4 and verse 8, and then verses 25 and 26, the last two verses of chapter 4. Genesis chapter 3, at verse 9. Remember the setting, the man and the woman have sinned, and in the consciousness of guilt, which always creates aversion to God, they run, and they seek to hide. God comes in grace and in judgment, and we read in verse 9, And the Lord God called unto the man, and said unto him, Where are you? And he said, I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.

1:26 And he said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you? Have you eaten of the tree whereof I commanded you that you should not eat? And the man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

1:45 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that you have done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above every beast of the field. Upon your belly shall you go, and thus shall you eat all the days of your life.

2:16 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply your pain and your conception. In pain you shall bring forth children, and your desire shall be to your husband, and he shall rule over you.

2:45 And unto Adam he said, Because you have hearkened unto the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.

3:10 In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, till you return unto the ground. For out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and unto dust shall you return. And the man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins, and clothed them.

3:38 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us to know good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubim, and the flame of a sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.

4:11 And the man knew Eve his wife, and she conceived, and bore Cain, and said, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. And again she bore his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in the process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord.

4:38 And Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering. But unto Cain, and to his offering, he had not respect. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

4:57 And the Lord God said unto him, And the Lord said unto Cain, Why are you angry, and why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, shall it not be lifted up? And if you do not well, sin couches at the door, and unto you shall be its desire. But do you rule over it?

5:18 And Cain told Abel his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And now down to verses 25 and 26. And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son, and called his name Seth.

5:40 For, said she, God has appointed me another seed, instead of Abel, for Cain slew him. And to Seth, to him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enosh. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. Well, let us again pray and ask God that by the Holy Spirit we may be taught his truth from his word.

6:07 Our Father, we have bowed before you times without number, asking again and again that you would come to our aid when we open your word, that your servant may be given those special dimensions of the Spirit's ministry so vital if he is to teach and preach your word as he ought, and that you would grant those peculiar ministries of the Spirit to your people, that they may know aright your truth and may have grace to receive it. Lord, come to us, as together we confess our need for present and powerful workings of your Holy Spirit, as we take your word in our hands and set it before our eyes. Come to us, as together we plead for your help. In Jesus' name, Amen. You have heard me say many times from this pulpit that Romans 8 and verse 7 is one of the most vivid and succinct descriptions of the disposition of the unregenerate heart to be found anywhere in the Holy Scriptures.

7:32 In that text we are told the carnal mind, that is, the prevailing disposition of the unregenerate heart, is enmity against God. It is enmity itself against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. The native enmity of the human heart comes to expression in its refusal to be subject to the law of God. And if Romans 8, 7 is a classic statement of this fundamental disposition of the unregenerate human heart, then one of the most glaring and concrete manifestations of this disposition is seen in the present attitude of American culture with reference to the issues of marriage, motherhood, and homemaking. You follow where I'm going. The carnal mind is enmity against God, not subject to the law of God, and I am saying if that is indeed an accurate and succinct description of the underlying disposition of the unregenerate heart, then surely the prevailing attitude in American culture to marriage, motherhood, and homemaking is a very crass

9:00 and gross expression of that enmity against God and insubordination to the law of God. To take the time to cite statistics and describe the manifestations of this fact is as unnecessary as to take up your time to prove to an irrational being that ice is cold, water is wet, and that the sun shines. I hope you would feel insulted were I to try to demonstrate to you that water is wet, that the sun shines, and ice is cold. Just reach out your hand and touch them.

9:42 Open your eyes and see it. And so it is in our current cultural context. Hence, as a servant of Christ, I am seeking to preach to you from the word of God that which will counter that prevailing climate. And the subject of our studies together for these past weeks has been in praise and defense of marriage, motherhood, and homemaking.

Review: Marriage, Motherhood, and Homemaking in Creation and the Fall

10:12 We began with considering two compelling biblical reasons for addressing this subject, and then two vital qualifying principles that are vital whenever we consider the subject. And then we launched into the consideration of marriage, motherhood, and homemaking in the light of the biblical doctrines of creation, the fall, and redemption. And when I began to consider these matters in the light of redemption, I stated that we would take up each one of the three categories separately. Well, we did that with marriage, focusing our attention on Ephesians 5, 22 to 33.

10:56 We had one Lord's Day, two messages, on the picture of a redeemed marriage from the standpoint of the wife, and then a Lord's Day, two messages, on the picture of a redeemed marriage from the standpoint of the husband. However, as I began to wrestle with how to present the matters of motherhood and homemaking in the light of redemption as separate issues, I soon became convinced that it would be artificial to attempt to place these things in separate categories. In many of the key texts, they are so intertwined and interpenetrating that any responsible exposition of those key passages would be impossible while attempting to separate them. So then, the focus of our study today, both this morning and again this evening, God willing, will be motherhood and homemaking in the light of God's redemptive grace. And in order to place the subject in its overall biblical context, I want to take just a few moments to remind you of what we saw in our study in the early chapters of Genesis some weeks ago when we considered marriage, motherhood, and homemaking in the light of creation and in the light of the Fall. When we turn to the creation accounts in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, we came to this conclusion

12:25 that when God created the man and the woman, placed them in the Garden of Eden, that for Eve, motherhood, marriage, and homemaking would have been Eve's natural, joyful, painless, and satisfying sphere of fulfilling her role as helper to and partner with Adam in obeying the procreative and cultural mandates in a context of so ravishing communion with God and in perfect harmony with Adam and with the entire created order. You say, wouldn't that be wonderful? Yes, it was wonderful. And would it continue to be wonderful that for Eve, had she not sinned, had Adam not sinned, for that couple placed in Eden, Eve's experience of marriage, motherhood, and homemaking would have been a natural, joyful, painless, and fully satisfying sphere in which she fulfilled her mandate with Adam as partner and helper to replenish the earth and to subdue it, and she would have done this in a context of soul-ravishing communion with God,

13:53 perfect harmony with her husband Adam, and in perfect harmony, symbiosis with the entire created order. That was marriage, motherhood, homemaking in the original creation. No pain in childbirth, no disappointment and frustration in her domestic labor, no tensions with Adam, no coldness to God, no fear from any animal, no trembling at the thought of an impending earthquake or typhoon. That was marriage, motherhood, homemaking in its pristine glory in God's creative design and action as described in Genesis 1 and 2. However, when they sinned and God comes to deal with Adam and Eve in judgment and in mercy, God touched them with special judgment in their special sphere of assigned roles. You'll remember, the man who was made to till the ground, to dress the garden and to keep it. God says, cursed is the ground for your sake.

15:10 He is to be the primary laborer and provider and God says, yes, you will do so now. With a resistant earth you will eat, in the sweat of your brow. The ground will bring forth thorns and thistles. And when he speaks to the woman, he speaks to her in terms of her specific and special sphere of assigned role.

15:33 He says to the woman, I will greatly multiply your pain in your conception. In pain you shall bring forth children, your desire shall be to your husband and he shall rule over you. And so with the tragedy of the fall, there is this disruption of the beautiful order and symmetry that God had brought to pass in his creative wisdom and power. Now that's a brief review of what we saw concerning marriage, motherhood and homemaking in the light of creation and in the light of the fall.

Principle 1: Motherhood's Strategic Place in Redemptive Grace (Genesis 3:15)

16:13 Now then, we come to take up these realities in the light of redemption, particularly now concerned with motherhood and homemaking. I remind you that when I use the term redemption, I'm using it in its most broad and inclusive sense of the entirety of God's sovereign and gracious rescue and restoration project. A redemption procured by the person and work of the Lord Jesus and applied by God. And applied with power by the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit.

16:51 Now as we begin to examine what the scriptures teach us concerning motherhood and homemaking in the light of redemptive grace, we go back to these early chapters of Genesis to see some of the seminal insights given to us in this portion of the word of God. And God willing, if we meet again tonight, that I accomplish what I hope to accomplish, by the end of the day we will have seen three very vital principles in which the heart of the biblical teaching on motherhood and homemaking in the light of redemption will be captured. So that's my very, I hope, realistic ambition. We're going to look at two of the principles this morning and God willing tonight the third in a more extensive way. The first principle is this. When we consider motherhood and homemaking in the light of redemption, we must first of all see from these early chapters of Genesis that motherhood will have a strategic place in the activity of God's redemptive grace. Motherhood will have a strategic place in the activity of God's redemptive grace.

18:14 Here I ask you to look with me again at Genesis 3 and verse 15. God is speaking to the serpent, the serpent who tempted Eve, the serpent who lied about God, the serpent who was the instrument of the devil in order to cause this apostasy in our first parents. And when God is speaking to the serpent, he pronounces a curse upon him in verse 14, and then in verse 15 he says this, And I, that is God, will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. In these words addressed to the serpent, God announces his intention to break up this sinful alignment between the woman and the serpent. To put enmity means there is presently enmity.

19:27 You can't put enmity where there is already enmity. And God is assuming that by the woman's sin she has aligned herself with the serpent's lie. God now comes and says, I will not only curse you, the serpent, cause you to go on your belly and eat of dust, but I'm going to break up this alignment which you've affected by your lie. I'm going to put enmity between you and the woman.

20:00 And the ultimate result of that enmity is that though you will be able to do damage to her seed, her seed will utterly obliterate you. Your head will be crushed. But now when we ask the question, who will do the crushing? The text is clear.

20:21 The one that will do the crushing is described as the seed of the woman. That is the offspring of the woman. Now obviously not the offspring of the woman without the man. God had given the capacity of procreation to the man and to the woman.

20:46 But God focuses here upon the offspring of the woman. And he says that offspring, a male child, will utterly crush the head of the serpent. Now what does that tell us? In this very first inkling that this horrible disruption of loyalty in which Adam and Eve created for God and by God to glorify and obey God, who've aligned themselves with the devil, God in grace and mercy says, I'll break up that alignment.

21:25 And in breaking it up I will eventually have the very head of the serpent crushed. God says it will be the seed, the offspring of the woman. Not an angel. Whom I created before I created the world.

21:44 Who sang with joy when they beheld my creative wisdom and power. Who stood breathless with wonder when I created you, Eve, out of the rib of Adam. And stood with wonder, Adam, when I took the dust of the earth and made you and breathed into you the breath of life and made you living. So no, it will not be an angel, any old angel, Michael the Archangel, or any great group of powerful angels, no.

22:18 God says the instrument to crush the head of the serpent will be offspring of the woman. Which means a woman's womb will be the conduit of the crushing of the serpent's head. Can God make it any more plain that motherhood will have a strategic place in the activity of redemptive grace? God stamps it on the first inkling that he's going to deal in redemptive grace.

Adam's Grasp of Motherhood's Strategic Place (Genesis 3:20)

22:57 And he says, I will incorporate into my gracious work a woman's womb. It will be seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent. Now, I want us to see that there are some indications in the very Genesis passage that both Adam and Eve grasped perhaps a lot more than we've given them credit for. I confess that it was only in preparation for today's ministry that I came to what I would call a mild tentative persuasion of what I'm going to lay before you.

23:40 This is not a conviction I'm ready to die for. But it is one I'm ready to at least lay out for your consideration in conjunction with the words of the text. Let's spend a few moments and see what Adam grasped of this reality that God's going to use motherhood to effect the work of crushing the serpent's head. What are the indications of this?

24:07 Well, with your Bibles open, look at the train of thought. God deals with the serpent starting in verse 14 all the way through to verse 15. Then he deals with the woman in verses 16 and 17. Then, I'm sorry, verse 16, then he deals with the man starting in verse 17.

24:27 Unto Adam he said, because you have hearkened and God pronounces the disciplines and the judgments that will come upon Adam. And when God is all done, now think of what he's done, and Adam's listening to all of this. Adam's listening to all of this. He hears God curse the serpent.

24:44 He hears God say to the serpent, I'm going to put enmity between you and the woman, between her offspring and your offspring. And then he turns to the woman and said, I'll greatly multiply your pain and your conception. Your desire will be to your husband, but he will rule over you. And then he turns to the man and says, cursed is the ground for your sake.

25:07 There's going to be sweat. There's going to be difficulty. There's going to be an unyielding earth. And after all of that, what does Adam do?

25:14 Look at verse 20. The first thing Adam does after hearing all of this, he doesn't fall on his face and say, oh God, have mercy on me for my sin. He doesn't run off and say, man, I got more than I deserved in self-pity. What does he do?

25:32 And the man called his wife's name, Eve. Living. Life is what it means in the Hebrew. Because she was the mother of all living.

25:46 Now, doesn't that seem to be a strange thing? Let's strike you a stranger. Am I the only one that computes that way? After all this, he looks at his wife.

25:58 He says, I'm no longer, when I call you, going to say, Esha, come look what I did out in the garden today. I'm going to say, Eve, come look what I did in the garden today. No longer am I going to come home and wrap my arms around you and say, oh Esha, what a wonderful time I had communing with God while I was digging up the turnips today. When I come home, I'm going to wrap my arms around you and say, Eve, what a wonderful day I had digging up the turnips.

26:28 Are you feeling the strangeness? Are you with me? Are you feeling the strangeness of it? He turns and says, no, Esha is what I named her when God said, when God formed her from my rib, brought her to me, and I saw my counterpart, what I didn't find in all the animals.

26:51 When I was naming all the animals, there was no helper answering to me. A dumb cow looked at me with its big eyes but didn't say anything. I patted its head and all it did was go, moo. And I pulled a donkey's ears and it brayed, but it didn't talk to me.

27:10 Didn't talk to me. Nothing answering to my need.

27:15 I see the doves cooing and their necks rubbing and I have no dove with whom to coo and to rub my neck. And God brings his dove. God brings Eve and he says, this is now bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Esha.

27:34 I'm Esh. She's Esha. She's my counterpart as my wife. But now, when God introduces the concept of motherhood, seed of the woman will do what?

27:50 Crush the serpent. Who introduced what? Death. In the day that thou eatest, dying thou shall die.

28:01 And Adam and Eve know something of what that death is in its spiritual dimensions. Where once life was inseparable from soul-ravishing communion and intimacy with God, death is the separation of the soul from God. They run to hide. And they know that all of this has come because they hearken to the voice of the serpent.

28:30 They align themselves with his lie. And God says, I'm breaking up the alignment and I will eventually take the offspring of the woman and crush the serpent's head. Now when Adam looks at Eve after all of this, he says, no, I've got to give her a new name. He looks at Esha.

28:53 She's got to be Eve, living. Why? And whether this was Adam's comment or Moses, the commentators differ. We know it's the word of God.

29:04 Eve, the word means living or life. She shall be called Eve. Why? Because she was the mother of all living.

29:15 Now think with me for a minute. You think he was simply saying, oh, we're not going to be blotted out, maybe dead dead. Therefore, anyone that lives will say that Eve was my mama, my grandmother, my great grandmother, my great great grandmother. No.

29:31 To give her a new name based on that obvious truism that anyone who would have life in the human race would trace it back to Eve doesn't make any sense at all. That's obvious. That was bound up in the initial procreative mandate when God said to both of them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. What is he saying when he says, no, no, no longer Esau, but Eve, living, mother of the living.

29:58 Could it be, could it be that Adam, by faith, internalized the promise that the serpent's head would be crushed and with the crushing of the head of the serpent, death would be dealt, a death blow. And how would the head of the serpent be crushed? Through the seed of the woman, through the woman's seed, death to the serpent, life to the sinner. Could it be?

30:32 I said I'm not ready to die for it as a conviction, but I can't pass over it like it isn't there and act like it isn't there where it is. Can you give me a better explanation as to why it's there? Now that's not some wacko opinion of mine. They're good, responsible, commentators who take that position.

30:54 I'm not going to go as far as Jonathan Edwards and some of the others who see even far more, but I do believe God is telling us in this passage that when he makes it known that motherhood will have a strategic place in his redemptive activity, that Adam grasps that and he gives to Eve, gives to Esau, his Esau, this new name of Eve. Life will come in the promised redemption and in the promised redeemer. Let me read a paragraph from Leupold, the Lutheran commentator, as a very helpful two-volume commentary on Genesis that I turn to again and again whenever I'm in Genesis. He writes, We do justice to this word living, Eve, if we see in it the conclusion on man's part that since all living beings shall come forth from her, therefore also life itself in that fullness of sense in which it is often used in Scripture will come through her. Consequently, by the significant nature of the name employed as well as by the significant way in which the matter is reported at this important juncture, it is clear to understand

32:22 that Adam refers to the things implied in the promise of the victory over the devil. In other words, here Adam gives evidence not only of believing that God spoke the truth, but evidence of belief in the salvation which God had promised. This then was on Adam's part, as far as was possible under the circumstances, a true and living faith in the promised Christ. This faith of his surely could not have all the clearness that marks the faith of the New Testament believer, but the essentials of faith were in evidence.

32:57 And since faith cannot come into being unless true repentance attends it, we are justified in saying that indirectly the repentance of Adam is here taught. Again, everything has been done in perfect harmony with the rule that God follows of begetting faith by the means of grace. The words of the sentence spoken had prominent elements of the law in them and were calculated to work repentance. Equally prominent were the elements of gospel which were calculated to work faith in the hearts of these first hearers.

33:30 So the question is answered whether after the fall Adam repented and believed. Leupold is firmly persuaded that this is Adam's confession of faith in the promised seed. And while the faith content is much more limited, and restricted than what we have, this side of the prophets and the Psalms, this side of the gospels, this side of the epistles, nonetheless, when he looks at Eve in terms of the promise of Genesis 3.15, he said, this is mother of all living, because through her will come the promised seed who will crush the head of the serpent.

34:12 Then are there indications that Eve grasped this? Well, I think there are. And here I ask you, look carefully with me at chapter 4 and verse 1. After all of this, when they're banished from Eden, we read in the man knew a beautiful chaste euphemism for sexual intercourse.

Eve's Grasp of Motherhood's Strategic Place (Genesis 4:1)

34:38 And here I want to pause and say, euphemisms are not an indication of prudishness. They're an indication of culture. We live in a day that says euphemisms are prudish. No, not necessarily.

34:54 Often they indicate refinement and a sensitivity that some things are better spoken of in terms of euphemisms. But furthermore, not only is it a euphemism for sexual intercourse, and the Bible does have words for sexual intercourse, so and so lay with so and so, very crass, very blunt, but there's a profound significance in the word new. There is more than copulation like animals. There is self-disclosure and mutual knowledge in the biblical concept of sexual intimacy that cannot be captured by merely describing physiologically what happens when two bodies come together and copulate. The man knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain. Cain, which means gotten. She bore gotten, gotten and said, I have gotten a man-child with Jehovah.

36:06 And an amazing thing. Now, set your wheels of imagination at work. Adam and Eve, no doubt, have seen the birth of animals. They've seen that they're born males and females.

36:21 They've seen suckling animals with their mothers. But now, Cain comes as Eve is drawing near her nine months. And she thinks, I will greatly multiply that pain. Is this what God meant?

36:46 Hmm? Put yourself there. She didn't have a mama to say, now sweetheart, in spite of what they tell you at the Lamaze class, that it's just contractions, it's pain, baby. Mama's telling you.

37:00 She had no mama to tell her. She had no community of people who had birthed children. To help her prepare for it. Remember that.

37:08 First time. Is this what God meant? And then they go from three minutes to two minutes. Okay?

37:19 You mamas know? You're reliving it? I'm sorry. You're reliving it.

37:24 And then she comes to those final contractions. And whatever she did, expressing the pain, outbursts this little one. And she sees, for the first time, a human being born. Now, many of you can relive that exquisite indescribable moment when you first held that firstborn in your arm.

37:53 Brought it to your breast. No poet can reproduce it. No eloquent preacher, speaker can describe it. But this is the first time it ever happened.

38:05 And what's the first thing Eve does? Now we don't know whether Adam was there and said, we're going to name him, gotten. Or whether this was Eve's instinctive response, we don't know. But this much is clear.

38:19 Eve says, I've gotten a man, et Yahweh. I have gotten a man with Jehovah. Now some Hebrew students and exegetes say, what she was saying is, I have gotten incarnate Jehovah. And they would have Eve know the truth of the incarnation.

38:42 I think they go far too far. I'm glad that they want to give Eve credit for a tremendous measure of faith and insight that far expanded the revelation given. But this much is clear. She sees in this firstborn the activity of Jehovah, God of covenant mercy and grace.

39:04 I have gotten a man child with the help, it's in italics in some of our Bibles, with the help of Jehovah. I've gotten a man child. I've gotten a man child. The God who said, I'll greatly multiply your pain.

39:23 He meant what He said. It was painful. But He said, I will give you a seed that will crush the head of the serpent. I've gotten the seed.

39:36 If He in my arms is the seed who will crush the serpent, now in my arms and at my breast. I don't know how you can make any other sense out of what Eve was saying. It could well be that in her faith in the promise of God, she thought it was being fulfilled in her first offspring. I've gotten a man child.

40:06 God has said to me, it will be my seed and He, it will be a man child who's going to crush the serpent's head. And as surely as God's word of judgment is true, I've brought forth in pain. Have I brought forth the seed that will crush the serpent's head? So confident was she that God would fulfill the promise that she may well have believed it was fulfilled in Cain.

40:43 Gotten. Gotten what God promised. Now is that far fetched to think that? I don't think so.

40:54 When we look at the text, and again I go to my friend Leupold, the significant part of her remark is that she got this son with Yahweh. The experience of birth with its travail having been successfully terminated, she ascribes what she acquired to Jehovah's help. In that phrase lie both thankfulness and praise. Thankfulness at deliverance from pain and danger.

41:24 Praise that Jehovah is manifesting His grace and faithfulness in giving a son. So the use of the name Yahweh, Jehovah, should be observed. Apparently then, since the name stresses His gracious faithfulness, Eve praises God that He who promised victory to the seed of the woman actually lets the seed of the woman be born. Nothing indicates whether Eve did or did not anticipate that this very seed, Cain, should presently crush the serpent's head, but in any case, she had a token of Jehovah's fidelity.

42:02 That she expresses it as she does affords proof that the mother of our race had not remained in her sin, but had come to repentance and faith in God's promises. Consequently, her utterance is also to be regarded as a word of faith. Well, I hope that stimulates you to think and reflect as it has me in pondering this passage. But one thing is clear.

42:33 Our first principle is unmistakably established from the text that redemptive grace is going to come to sinful man with motherhood having a strategic, strategic place in that grace. And what is established in these early chapters of Genesis, you trace it all the way through and as God accomplishes His redemptive purpose in real life history among nations and peoples in the real world again and again, you see His redemptive purpose flowing through a significant womb. Again and again, mothers are strategically placed in their capacity to bear children as the means by which God brings His redemptive purposes forward, sometimes with unusual strategic leaps and bounds. Think of Sarah and her dead womb. And yet Hebrews says, by faith, she received strength to conceive. And out of Sarah's dead womb comes Isaac.

44:00 And from Isaac, Jacob. And from Jacob, the twelve tribes of Israel. And the purposes of God move forward. And along the way, the nation is sunk into horrible apostasy.

44:16 And there's a barren womb and a woman that feels her barrenness so keenly. Her name is Hannah. And she prays and God gives her the desire of her heart. And out of her womb comes Samuel, who's God's instrument to turn aside the nation from apostasy.

Principle 2: Motherhood as a Mingled Experience of Joy and Sorrow

44:37 And he rules until the period of the judges. And you go right on through the Scriptures, and you see again and again and again how motherhood, has a strategic place in the activity of God in redemptive grace. Well then, I want to open up the second principle this morning, and that is this, that motherhood will be a mingled experience of joy and sorrow in this present period of redemptive grace. Motherhood will be a mingled experience of joy and sorrow in this present period of redemptive grace. Now let me try to explain the biblical roots to what I've articulated in that principle. The punishment of the woman is especially focused in her distinctive role as mother. Genesis 3.16

45:43 I will greatly multiply your pain and your conception. In pain you shall bring forth children. And while it is right to do all we can to mitigate and ease that pain as much as we do with the other results of the fall, degenerative diseases that sometime necessitate the surgeon's knife cutting out vital organs to spare the life, medications that are rough on the kidneys and other organs in order to go after things that would be worse than the damage they may do to those organs, it is right that everything should be done to mitigate, to ease the pain that has come in conjunction with motherhood. But, but, in addition to this reality I want you to note the further light of this pattern of mingled joy and sorrow that attaches itself to motherhood in this present period of redemptive grace. If we have grounds to believe that both Adam and Eve laid hold of God's promise and knew in terms of Old Testament experience what it was to be saved by the coming and promised Redeemer, yet motherhood for Eve was still an experience of mingled joy

47:12 and sorrow. Now let's look at it in the text. Chapter 4, again, verse 1. The man knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain and said, now, I want to ask you, when she said it how do you think she said it?

47:29 I have born a man child with the help of the Lord. Anyone want to say that's the way she said it? No, she didn't say it like that. How did she say it?

47:46 Well, I'm not sure how a woman who's just come through the ordeal of childbirth and I don't know how long her labor was, how difficult or all of that, I don't know. But one thing is clear, whatever strength she had left when she said, I've gotten a man child with the help of the Lord. This was suffused with inexplicable joy. You agree with me?

48:11 However she expressed it. Now, I don't think most women get off the birthing table and dance a jig around and say, whoopee, I got a baby from the Lord. So I'm being realistic. But whatever she did with her hands or her feet, or her spirit, there was inexplicable joy.

48:28 The pains were behind her. She holds the little one and as we've seen, quite possibly sees in Cain what she perceives to be the promised seed that would crush the head of the serpent and cause her to come into her own with her new name, mother of all the living. I've borne the seed that will deal with the author of death. So there was joy.

Eve as the Prototype of Mingled Joy and Sorrow (Genesis 4)

48:57 But in long, for that joy dips down into a deep valley of sorrow. She bears another son. Very interesting. You know what Abel means?

49:07 Abel means vapor. Vanity. Vanishing. Were Adam and Eve prophets at this point?

49:13 Was there something that God revealed to them that the life of this one would be cut short? Why did they call him Abel? You can understand why they named Cain Abel. Why did they call him Abel?

49:28 Why did they call him Abel? Because he became begotten. Obtained. Given.

49:34 Yes, he's the given promised seed. But why did they name the second one vanity? Vapor. Vanishing.

49:42 I don't know. But they did. And they soon found out why. It isn't long when the boys grow up.

49:49 You know the story. I read it to you. And with envy burning in his breast, the firstborn son of our parents commits fratricide. He kills his own brother.

50:03 Kills him. Now how did Eve become aware of it? Did Adam break the news? Did the Lord reveal it?

50:15 Did she? I don't know. But can you imagine what it meant? The one you held in your arms thinking, could this be the promised seed?

50:27 He becomes the perfect image bearer of his spiritual father, the devil, who was a murderer from the beginning. And that's the very thread that John picks up in 1 John. What she thought was the promised seed and deliverer shows that he's very much aligned with the serpent. Jesus said, you are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father you will do.

50:55 He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth. He is a liar and the father of it. And Eve comes into a valley of indescribable grief and anguish that her firstborn is a cold blooded murderer. And with that she must think back.

51:23 This is what God meant when He gave the warning. In the day that you eat dying you will die. By degrees Adam and Eve begin to understand the implications of the word death. But now their understanding takes quantum leap.

51:42 Death enters their own circle of family intimacy. Cain kills Abel. How much did she cling to the promise then? How much did she feel like Eve then, mother of all the living?

52:03 I'm mother of a murderer. I'm born a perpetrator of death, sorrow, grief, indescribable pain. But then you see, God brings her out of that deep valley again into a place of joy. And that's why I read verse 25.

52:27 Adam knew his wife again and she bore a name, bore a son and called his name Seth. Called his name Seth. Which means appointed. And she sees in Seth an appointed replacement of Abel.

52:52 For, she said, God has appointed me another seed instead of Abel. For Cain slew him and there the joy and the sorrow are brought into the closest juxtaposition. You see it? Seth appointed God's been merciful to give a son who was killed by Cain.

53:23 And then she lived long enough to see Seth bear a son and call his name Enosh. And men began to call upon the name of the Lord. She lives long enough to see Cain become the head of an utterly sophisticated but pagan nation. The appointed one.

53:52 The replacement become the head of the line of a godly people. Mingled joy and sorrow in the experience of motherhood. And I believe God's given us that record to set Eve as the first great prototype of motherhood in its life. The redemption in which there will be neither marrying nor giving in marriage and motherhood will be a thing no more.

Mary as the New Testament Paradigm of Mingled Joy and Sorrow (Luke 1-2, John 19, Acts 1)

54:34 Motherhood will be a mingled experience of joy and sorrow in this present experience of redemptive grace. And if Eve is the great Old Testament prototype you know that she will be the mother of God and the mother of Nazareth. And I want you to see with me briefly from a couple of New Testament passages how in Mary of Nazareth this pattern of the mingling of joy and of sorrow is so graphically portrayed. This one who would come up as the handmaiden of the Lord willing to bear the reproach of carrying an illegitimate child and all the inconveniences that she bore. But notice how it begins in the context of obvious joy in Luke chapter 1. And though there is nothing in Scripture to which we can say any other concern, it is not the power

56:04 of the Spirit that can be in our hearts but the power of the Spirit that is in us by our heart. And shall conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. And he shall be great and be called Son of the Most High. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.

56:36 He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end. And Mary's response is, how's this going to be? I have not known a man. I'm still a virgin.

56:48 I've not had normal, ordinary sexual relations with any man. How can this be? And the angel responds and says, by the supernatural, singular operation of the Holy Spirit, this thing will come to pass. Now, put yourself in Mary's place.

57:07 You've been brought up a pious Israelite. And all of your life from the dawning of your consciousness, you have been told that there is a Messiah promised to Israel. The deliverer of his people. Who will come as David's son and sit upon the throne of David and deliver Israel from all of his enemies, all of her enemies.

57:34 And one day an angel comes to you and says, you are going to be the vessel through whom all of those promises are going to be fulfilled. If ever, if ever the human heart would have broken under the sheer expansive weight of mingled, joy and awe and wonder, it would have been the heart of young Mary.

58:02 The first appearance of the angel, she's fearful. The angel quiets her fears. The angel announces why he's there. He answers her question.

58:11 And now this young woman is filled with this wonderment and joy and ecstasy. I will be Messiah's mother.

58:25 Who can begin to enter in? To what that young woman must have felt.

58:36 Look at verse 46. When she goes to the house of Elizabeth. Lest you think I'm reading in too much. Mary said, my soul does magnify the Lord.

58:47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. He's looked upon the lowest state of his handmaid. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. This woman is dead.

59:02 Dancing with holy joy at what God is going to do for her as a mother.

59:10 My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices. He's looked upon his handmaiden. I'll be called blessed for all future generations.

59:22 Then she births the baby. And in keeping with Jewish rituals, she brings him to the temple to be circumcised. Or to the synagogue. And then.

59:39 According to Jewish ritual, Levitical ritual. Her days of purification are ended. And she goes up to Jerusalem. To present him to the Lord.

59:50 And in that setting. There's a godly, devout man called Simeon. There in Jerusalem. And now notice what Simeon says in Luke chapter 2.

60:01 After Simeon validates that indeed he has seen the Lord's Christ. Verse 33. And his father and his mother were marveling. The things.

60:10 That were spoken concerning him. And Simeon blessed them and said. Unto Mary his mother. Behold.

60:17 This child is set for the falling and rising of many in Israel. And for a sign which is spoken against. Yes. And a sword.

60:26 Shall pierce through. Your own soul.

60:32 Mary. You've rejoiced in God your Savior. Your spirit has exalted in what God is doing. You've known the joy.

60:42 Of anticipation. You've known the sorrow. Of birth pangs there. In that shed outside the inn at Bethlehem.

60:52 You've known the joy. Of pressing this little one to your breast. And looking into its face. But now Mary.

61:01 There's a sword. That's going to cut through. Your very heart.

61:08 As high. As exquisite as your joys have been. Will be the depth. And the exquisiteness.

61:15 Exquisite measure. Of your pain.

61:20 And when you trace out. What the Bible tells us about Mary. And her relationship to her son. You see the sword as it were.

61:29 Touches the external folds of her heart. When. At age twelve. She's a bit wounded.

61:38 That Jesus seems to be irresponsible. And leaves them grieving for three days. While he's back at Jerusalem. In Jerusalem.

61:46 Sitting with the doctors of the law. Later on. She comes with an entourage of his siblings. And says.

61:54 Tell Jesus. Who's in that house teaching. His mother. And his brethren are outside.

61:59 And they ask for him. And the messenger goes back and says. You know what Jesus said? He looked around at all the people.

62:06 And said. Who is my mother? Who are my brothers and sisters? Those who hear the word of God.

62:12 And do it. The sword. Pricks into the folds of her heart. And then the time.

62:19 Comes when we read. In John chapter nineteen. When her son. Excuse me.

62:26 Is taken out. And impaled. In this horrible. Execution of crucifixion.

62:33 And John chapter nineteen. Has these words. That show that the sword now. Was plunged.

62:39 Into the very bowels of her heart. John chapter nineteen. And verse twenty five. But there was standing.

62:48 By the cross of Jesus. His mother. Now think of it.

62:55 There hangs. Your thirty three year old son. You hardly recognize his face. It's been so confused.

63:05 With the blows of the soldiers. Fist in the rods. You can barely see the features. It's so blood soaked.

63:11 From the crown of thorns. That opened up those surface capillaries. In the brow. And around the temples.

63:24 His back. One mass of shredded flesh.

63:28 And you think back. The angel said. He should be great. He should sit upon David's throne.

63:36 He's hanging on a cross. That's my son.

63:42 His only crown. His only homage. His martyrs who walk in front of him. Spit upon him and say.

63:54 You that built a temple. And tear it down. And build it again in three days. Come down from the cross.

64:01 We'll believe on you.

64:04 You think the words of Simeon. Came back to Mary's mind. A sword shall pierce thy known heart.

64:15 Mary understood.

64:17 Mary understood. But you see that's not the end of the story. From the joy of the announcement. That she would be the human vehicle.

64:28 Through which God would bring Messiah. To the depths of the sorrow. Culminating in the cross. Do you know where Mary goes off the pages of the New Testament?

64:38 Do you know?

64:41 How many of you know? Where Mary goes off the pages of the New Testament. How many of you know?

64:48 There are a few of you. I hope after this morning you all know. You know where she goes off the pages? Acts chapter 1.

64:55 You talk about God bringing someone out of the depths. And back to the heights. This is what he does with Mary. For when Luke describes by the guidance of the Spirit.

65:07 Who was there in that upper room. Waiting for the promise of the coming of the Spirit. The crowning act of David's son. Upon David's throne.

65:20 When Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost. He says God raised up Jesus. Seated him in his right hand. He's made him Lord in Christ.

65:29 He's now on his throne. And from his throne his first royal act. Is to send the Holy Spirit. Upon his church.

65:37 And who's there? Mary's there. Acts chapter 1. Look at the language.

65:44 Very careful to show us. That the end of the story. Was not Mary standing by the cross. But here in Acts chapter 1.

65:54 Verse 14. These all with one accord. Continued steadfastly in prayer. With the women.

66:01 And Mary. The mother of Jesus.

66:07 And when the Holy Spirit comes in power. In Acts 2. And they're all filled with the Spirit. And they speak forth the mighty works of God.

66:16 Mary goes off the scene. Spirit. Speaking. Of the mighty works.

66:23 Of her son Jesus.

66:28 You talk about joy unspeakable and full of glory. And she lived out her days. Enjoying the salvation. Procured and now applied.

66:39 By the risen Christ. The Christ brought through her womb. I say Mary is the great paradigm in the New Testament. Of this tremendously vital principle.

Pastoral Application: Embracing Motherhood's Joys and Sorrows

66:52 That motherhood. In this present age.

66:58 Is a mingled experience. Of joy. And of sorrow. Now my time is gone.

67:07 I have a whole lot of other material. I wanted to demonstrate. Particularly out of Proverbs. But I'll just learn to find how I can patch it up.

67:14 And work it in tonight. But I hope if nothing else. You've captured this vital. Vital principle.

67:22 You who are mothers. You may be this morning. In the valley.

67:30 That goes with the turf.

67:33 That goes with the turf. As surely as suffering. Is an indispensable element. Of true Christian experience.

67:41 Nobody goes to heaven. With Jesus. Who doesn't suffer on earth. With Jesus.

67:48 That's the teaching of Romans 8. In verse 17. If your sons. Heirs of God.

67:54 Enjoyed heirs with Christ. If. So be. That we suffer with him.

67:59 That we may be glorified. Together. If. Then.

68:04 And for you as a mother. Much of your sharing. In the suffering of Christ. Will be directly related.

68:13 To motherhood.

68:17 That was Eve's experience. The great paradigm. In the Old Testament. It was Mary's experience.

68:24 The great paradigm of the new. And it will be yours. That's why many women. Don't want to have babies.

68:34 I don't want to lose my figure. And have irreversible. Stretch marks on my tummy. And spoil my girly like figure.

68:43 For what? For a little brat. That may turn around. Kick me in the shin.

68:47 Spit on me. And walk away. An ungrateful little wretch. Never.

68:55 Go ahead gal.

68:58 Have your big name. Have your office. Have your title.

69:03 But you'll never know. The fellowship. Of Eve and of Mary. Which is.

69:09 Ultimately. The fellowship of Christ.

69:13 He that would save his life. Shall what? Lose it. He that will lose his life.

69:20 For my sake. And the gospels. The same shall save it. In a very real sense.

69:26 A Christian woman. Who enters wide eyed. Into her role. As wife.

69:31 And mother. And homemaker. Is saying. I'm ready to lose.

69:34 My life. I'll take whatever joys. God gives me now. And by his grace.

69:41 I'll embrace the sorrows. As the fellows. Of the sufferings of Christ. But I'll have an eternity.

69:48 To share with Mary. The inescapable joy. Of being in the presence. Of the fruit of Mary's womb.

69:54 Called Jesus. Gotta get the long term perspective.

70:00 Gotta get beyond the current obsession. With now. Have it all now baby. Yes.

70:06 And then you'll be a bitter. Sour. Self-centered.

70:14 Forty year old woman. And the world is full of them. Full of them. Full of them.

70:21 Full of them.

70:23 Well. I gotta stop. Where I hadn't planned to stop. But may God help us.

70:29 Write upon our hearts. These things that are so crucial. And enable us by his grace. To think biblically.

70:37 About motherhood. In this present age.

70:43 Where the kingdom has broken in. And is here. But the kingdom is not yet. In its consummate glory.

70:52 And blessing. Let's pray.

Closing Prayer

70:59 Father. We thank you for your word. We thank you. For giving us a record.

71:05 Of your working. In real lives. In real human history. And we pray.

71:12 That you will take the things. We've considered this morning. And write them upon our hearts. And may they bear abundant fruit.

71:20 In all of our lives. Whatever our calling may be. Do dismiss us with your blessing. Help us to sanctify the remainder of this day.

71:30 To our profit. And to your praise. Bless those who will be leaving this afternoon. To make that long journey down to Dayton, Tennessee.

71:40 Protect them. Give them good fellowship. Oh Lord. May they know your sweet presence with them.

71:47 We ask in Jesus name. Amen.