Distinctive Sexual Identity, Part 2

Recommended Resources for Studying Male and Female Identity

0:03 This adult Sunday school class was held on April 17, 1988 at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. This might be the best time for me to say a word about three books that I will be referring to quite frequently in the course of our studies together in this first major, major section of our present consideration in the adult class. And the three books are one that is definitely a biblical and theological study, not so heavyweight, though, with technical matters that the average intelligent Christian, man or woman, could not greatly profit from it.

0:47 It's called Man and Woman in Biblical Perspective by James B. Hurley. Now, in endorsing the book, I am not endorsing every particular position that Mr. Hurley takes on some of the topics that I'm going to be talking about.

1:00 I'm going to be talking about some of the controverted passages, but this has some very, very helpful material. It's the book I quoted from last week when showing the significance of Adam naming all of the animals as well as naming Eve. And I believe, Rob, we carry this in our bookstore, do we not? We don't. All right.

1:20 But we can.

1:24 Then two that I know we do carry when they're in print are by Elizabeth Elliot, one called Let Me Be a Woman. Now, these are letters that she wrote to her daughter, Valerie, her only daughter. As many of you know, her husband, Jim Elliot, was killed by the Alka Indians back in the mid-50s. And before the Lord took him, the fruit of the relationship with he and with him and with Elizabeth Elliot was this one daughter.

1:54 And she's writing letters to her daughter concerning this whole matter of what it is to be a woman. Her daughter was engaged, and as she was anticipating, marriage, her mother was desirous to make sure that her thinking was biblical, especially as her daughter was exposed to so much of the current thinking on this matter that is anti-God and anti-biblical. My own daughters read this through I don't know how many times. I don't know how many times I've read sections of it through and found it very, very helpful, though I have no desire to be a woman.

2:28 I do have desires to promote, to promote godly womanhood. And then, by the same authoress, the mark of a man. And I think it's one of God's judgments upon our own emasculated generation that God has to use a woman to tell men what they ought to be. But I don't know a finer book that sets forth some of the biblical perspectives on godly masculinity than this book by Elizabeth Elliot, written not to her son, since she had no son, but written to her nephew, who is pictured on the back.

3:03 And he was not engaged, but at that stage in his life where he would be thinking seriously about lifetime relationships. And she has, in the same way, set forth some very, very helpful perspectives on the whole subject of Christian manhood, a biblical perspective on marriage, how men are different from women, how they are to relate to women, some of the chapter headings, equal in being created, equal in, equal in image, equal in moral responsibility. You heard some of those terms? Then the inequalities.

3:38 Where are they different? The maker of these distinctions. And then I'll be quoting later today from the chapter number 10 called The Ancient Story. So I do heartily recommend these books and trust that you will find them helpful in collateral reading on these matters that we are taking up.

Recap: Biblical Foundation for Christian Duty and Equality of the Sexes

3:57 Well, we do welcome those who are visiting among us, and for your sake, I should mention that what we are doing in the adult class at present is taking up a very extensive subject called Biblical Perspectives and Directives on Crucial Issues. And it is our intention to address some of the very crucial issues that we as the people of God face in seeking to live out a life of consistent discipleship against the backdrop of the mindset and the overall climate of our present generation. And thus far, we've examined in some detail the Biblical foundation and framework for Christian duty since our perspectives

4:41 and our responsibilities as Christians do not come to us hanging on a sky hook, but they come to us embedded in a very distinct framework that constitutes the basis and the conditioning atmosphere of our obedience. We took a number of weeks to consider the Biblical foundation and to consider that framework as we looked at Romans 12, 1 and 2, and then at the three very simple statements that we must always think of ourselves in this way, I am created by the will of God, I am dependent upon the word of God, and I am dependent upon the grace and power of God.

5:25 And then we have begun to take up our first major area of concern, namely male and female, identity, roles, and functions. And we are addressing such burning questions as these. Beyond the fact of our obvious, differing primary sexual organs, are there God-ordained differences between men and women which make such concepts as distinct masculinity and femininity a necessary application and expression of the teaching of the Bible? There are many in our day, both within and without

6:09 the professing Church of Christ, who are asserting very, very dogmatically that the only God-ordained difference between men and women is to be found in the difference of their primary sexual organs. And I need not give you a lesson in anatomy to know what it is that is being referred to in terms of primary sexual organs. And any concept of masculinity and femininity is purely culturally conditioned, or worse than this, imposed by the horrible, male-dominated society and culture in which we live.

6:53 But our concern is to ascertain if there are God-assigned distinctions, and with those distinctions, God-assigned roles which are distinct and non-reversible and non-interchangeable.

7:13 Unless you're totally out of touch with the mindset of our generation, you know how vital these questions are. And last week, we discovered together in our study of the Scriptures that when our Lord and the Apostles related to such issues, they went back again and again to the original Bible. To the original creation of man as recorded in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. And therefore, following that pattern, we have turned to those chapters in order to seek to ascertain two things.

7:48 Number one, the fundamental issues embedded in God's creative design and activity. And then, sorry, two headings under that. Number one, the major aspects of equality or parallel identity between men and women. And secondly, major aspects of diversity or disparate identity.

8:12 And so in our study of Genesis chapters 1 and 2, we came to several conclusions as we studied these verses together two weeks ago. We noted that there were at least three major aspects of equality or parallel identity in the opening chapters of Genesis, particularly, in chapter 1. Can you remember what those three fundamental aspects of equality or parallel identity were? Class, raise your hand, please.

8:46 And we prefer if just members contribute, then I can call you by name and I don't have to be disrespectful and just nod and say you or you. All right. What's the first very obvious area of equality or parallel identity between men and women?

9:04 Yes. All right. That's one of those. The mandate to be fruitful and to multiply.

9:11 That's one of the distinctive aspects of one of these three things. Can you remember the terminology we used? And I'm not saying the terminology is sacred, but I think it will help to fix it in our minds. Cliff?

9:22 All right. There is equality of dignity as image bearers of God. And this is seen, of course, in Genesis 1, verses 26 and 27, in which man, that is, mankind, created, as male and female, are created in the image of God. And this is buttressed again in a passage such as Genesis 9 and verse 6.

9:52 After the fall and even after the intrusion of sin and the blotting out of what is called the antediluvian race, those before the flood, God still describes his creatures, male and female, as those who are created in his image. All right. Another area of equality or parallel identity.

10:16 All right, George? Is equality of what I called accountability to God as moral agents. God blesses them both. God charges them to do the will of God.

10:32 God makes them equally culpable if they do not obey God. So there is not only equality of dignity as image bearers, there is equality of accountability to God as moral agents. And then thirdly, this brings in the thing that Vince was giving one of the particulars. Yes, Rob, equality of responsibility as stewards before God.

11:02 The mandate to procreate, to subjugate the earth was given to the man and to the woman. Now in the outworking of that responsibility, that stewardship, obviously, there would not be identity of role and function for only the woman was made with a womb to carry and to give birth to the child. Only the male was made with the capacity to impregnate the woman. And in the subjugation of the world, we use the illustration that if there were in the task of dressing the garden and keeping it a large boulder, it's obvious that Adam was not going to ask Eve

11:46 with her more delicate feminine frame to move a boulder which demanded the breadth of his shoulders and the density and mass of his muscularity. It became evident to Adam and Eve without looking at one gray's anatomy chart to know that God had made them in such a way physiologically that in this stewardship of subjecting the earth, there would be a diversity of function and of role. So, anything we say concerning the matter, of diversity between males and females is overlaid upon these aspects of equality or parallel identity

12:31 so that the God who made the man and the woman equally image bearers, but then, as we'll see later on, assigns distinctive tasks and roles and even a hierarchical relationship, that God is not negating by the assignment of diversity and distinct roles and functions anything that he previously established in his initial creation of the man and the woman. And don't let anyone throw a curve at you in this area and say, well, if you say that by divine design men are to lead in the marriage relationship and women are to submit,

13:17 that is demeaning of the woman who says, the fact that someone says it is doesn't make it so. Almighty God has not demeaned the woman who is an equal image bearer by assigning to her a different role from the man in the marriage relationship and likewise in the leadership and functions within the church. There is clearly a male hierarchical structure, as we shall see, established, in the church of Christ. But that does not in any way mean that there is superiority of spiritual privilege,

Recap: Distinctive Male Identity and Function from Genesis 2

14:02 of dignity as image bearers, of moral accountability, or in the area of responsibility as stewards before God. All right, then we looked or began to look at some of the major aspects of essential diversity and here we simply turn to Genesis, particularly Genesis chapter 2, and we see that Genesis 2 we noted certain things that were distinctively done to and with and said to the man prior to the creation of the woman. And for the interest of time, though I'm sure we could go back over it and draw it out of you, let me just mention them. First of all, we saw that the man was created for his task

14:46 of dressing the garden and keeping it, or was created and given his task of dressing the garden and keeping it. Genesis 2, 2-7 and 15-17. Secondly, the man was assigned the task of naming the creatures 2, 19 and 20 and then also of naming Eve. And we referred to the significance of the naming on pages 2, 10 and 11 of Mr. Hurley's book.

15:17 Then thirdly, we saw that the man was the sole recipient of the direct relationship and revelation concerning the terms that surrounded that tree of life. God spoke directly to the man in verses 16 and 17 and indicated to the man the significance of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And then fourthly, we learn from other scriptures, particularly Romans 5, 12-21, that the man, Adam alone, was made the representative or federal head of humanity. Wherefore, Adam alone as to one man sin entered into the world as in Adam died.

16:01 And though Eve was involved in the whole sad complex of events which led to the fall of man, Eve did not share an equal place in the purpose of God. We didn't have two federal representative heads of the human race. We had one. Adam was the divinely assigned representative or federal head of humanity.

16:25 And as I indicated tongue-in-cheek, I've never read any feminist literature which says it's a horrible, terrible, ungodly, male-dominant theology that assigns to Adam that role we women would like it assigned to us. It's very, very interesting. In all the objections I have read from so-called evangelical and Christian feminists about the Bible's doctrine of male dominance, I've yet to read a one that complains that Adam's gets the bum-rap when it comes to being the primary instrument of responsibility with regard to the fall of man. And then we also saw finally that man was made incomplete without his counterpart

17:10 in the woman. Genesis 2 and verse 18 the only thing in all of God's creation that was not good was man without woman. For everything else the scripture tells us God saw and behold it was good it was good it was good but when he came to Adam without his counterpart God said not good not good for the man to be alone and God then takes the initiative and says I will make an helper answering to his need. Now then we come to consider distinctive female identity and function.

Distinctive Female Identity and Function: Created for Man

17:51 We come to consider now distinctive female identity and function. And we learn from Genesis 2 18 20 B and 21 and 22 this very simple but obvious fact that the woman was created for the man as companion counterpart helper and follower.

18:20 Look at the text and the Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone I will make him a help meet or answering to him. So the very first formal introduction we are given with reference to the rationale for the creation of the woman has distinct reference to her identity as companion counterpart and helper to the man. If the word of God teaches anything clearly it teaches that in these words I will make not

19:04 an equal and competing creature to sit next to him. That isn't what he said. He said I will make and help answering him. 20 and verse B 20 and part B and the man gave names to all the cattle the birds of the heaven and every beast of the field but for man there was not found a help meet or answering to his there was not found a helper for Adam and so God then puts Adam to sleep as you know and then taking one of his

19:49 ribs he makes of her makes of that rib a woman and notice what he does verse 22 and brought her unto the man God presents the woman to the man and then the man beholding what God has brought to him says this is now bone of my bones flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man I think it was here that we broke off in the middle of a sentence two weeks ago one could wish that somehow God had made long before they were invented a high tech tape recorder and had recorded

20:34 a tape recorder in whatever language it would be the exclamation of Adam when he first beheld Eve and saw not his replica but his counterpart he saw something that was objective to him and in some senses different from him and things always differ from one thing to another different from him to him this is now he saw something that had objected independent existence and yet so much answering to him so much like him so much a compliment this is now bone

21:19 of my bones and flesh involved in that was more than the apparent recognition of what the Lord had done when he put him to sleep implicit in that certainly seems to be some understanding on Adam's part that she was indeed taken from him this is now bone of my bones God has taken a portion of my bone and my flesh and this is what he has made and is now presenting to me objective to me in some respects different from me and yet perfectly answering to all that I am and all that I need in a companion

22:02 this is now bone of my bone flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of my body and she was taken out of man here reflecting again Adam's understanding that she was taken out of the man so in the very initial statement of the creation of the woman in the details of Genesis 2 is this very clear principle that she was created for the man as companion counterpart helper and by implication follower she was brought to the man and she was the man the man had already been brought to his task but in the accomplishment of his task

Paul's Argument for Creation Order and its Challenge to Feminism

22:47 there was found no helper answering to his needs and you say why do you press that issue well for the simple reason that in two pivotal passages in the New Testament the apostle by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit argues that this very fact lies at the foundation of the role assigned to the man assigned to women by God 1 Corinthians chapter 11 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 8 for the man is not the woman

23:30 make a woman and then take a rib from the woman or an ear or a toe or a graceful finger and out of that make a man to do her bidding the man is not of the woman but the woman of the man for neither was the man created for the woman but the woman for the man now dear people if you don't know it this is what cuts at the very nerve center of feminism for the fundamental tenet of feminism is this we as women identity we have dignity we have

24:15 purpose we have all that we need to have without reference to men what so heavy to see being behind all of this drive to have your own career to have your own independent existence is this horrible anti-God conviction of the feminist that woman can never understand what she is as woman until she views herself to be dissociated from men now you must understand that that's what's at the heart of it and feminism cries out and said no

24:58 a plague on your male dominated religion that says we women only have significance and identity in terms of something that relates to men that's demeaning to us we say no the wise loving gracious creator whose heart was just as full of love and gracious designs for the woman as for the man instituted this arrangement not to do with the man not to demean the woman but to give her a unique glory in that position that is not given to the man just as the man has a unique glory in his position we read on for neither was the man

25:42 created for the woman but the woman for the man and then he goes on to an application of this we're not going to go into what that means except to say for this cause ought the woman to have a sign of authority on her head in other words because this is so whatever the man is or the cultural applications are the woman must manifest that she accepts that God ordained created relationship in which the male was made to be in the position of authority and leadership and she was made to be in the position of submission and of following that leadership that's the point Paul is making giving a cultural application nevertheless

26:25 less men then see get cocky neither is the woman without the man nor the man without the woman in the Lord for as the woman is of the man so also is the man by the woman you see no man can go around and abuse this if he stops to think wait a minute I wouldn't be around here to strut like a peacock unless I was first of all in a woman's womb 15 20 30 40 60 years ago so by a beautiful stroke of just the basic facts of life he says alright in the original creation yes the man was not made for the woman nor was the man made out of the woman

27:10 no the woman was made for the man made out of the man the basic structure has been established but less men abuse this he said remember now there's not a man of you there at Corinth who didn't become a man by way of a mother's womb by way of the woman and in the lordship of Christ and under his rule so we can find our God given roles embrace them from the heart and seek to manifest right down to our physical appearance that we gladly embrace our God assigned roles so you see how Paul this is chapter 2

Woman Named by Man: An Exercise of Gracious Authority

27:53 see that just as Adam named the animals and that this naming was an exercise of authority as well as women of intelligence in which Adam discerned their various differences and their functions and gave them a name that was more than just a verbal symbol just some vocables by which to tell the difference between a striped four-legged animal with a tail and two ears called a zebra and a blotted or spotted four-footed beast with two ears and a tail and an udder called a cow now in naming there was putting upon the animal something that

28:38 reflected its character its distinctiveness as the whole Hebrew concept of the name is very clearly embedded in scripture and as we read to you from Mr. Hurley last week well it's very significant that we read in verse 23 that when God brought the woman to the man the man said this is now bone of my bones flesh of my flesh and by the way what would you like to call your self it would be tragic my beloved whoever you will call yourself if I should give any impression I'm demeaning you as God's gift and surely for me to take the initiative

29:23 and give you something so personal as your name that could only be construed by you as an initial high-handed act of arrogance on my part that I'm prepared to make you my little chattel and therefore whatever your name will be wanting to demonstrate that I truly love you with selfless caring love I'm prepared to accept whatever you'd like to call yourself what would you like to call yourself now that is surely a rewritten text the scripture says very simply and she shall be called woman

30:04 you mean he named her it's involved in that as we have seen an exercise of authority but you see don't let the word authority bristle with negative connotations it's that who could not stand being just a creature in submission to God in his assigned role that is the first and most prejudicial and evil spirit against authority

30:48 Satan Lucifer son of the morning himself and I believe it is Lucifer who has sought to create in men's minds such a negative reaction to the very word authority in this case it was a gracious a wise a loving a God ordained to name the woman we see in the third place that the woman was joyfully received by man as God's gift and we've looked at the passage verse 23 this is now bone of my bones flesh of my flesh she was taken

Woman Joyfully Received as God's Gift and the Institution of Marriage

31:33 out of man therefore and here we have interpretive comment and Professor Murray has a discussion of this in his book Principles of Christian Conduct whether this comment was made by Adam himself as the organ of revelation or whether by Moses and he gives the pros and cons but we know it is the word of God Jesus himself it's quoted in the New Testament by the Apostle and by our Lord therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they shall be one flesh and so the man joyfully receives the woman as God's gift to her and very soon

32:18 at least we can say safely in the relationship it was recognized that this relationship established by God would demand a radical severing of certain dimensions of the most natural intimate ties that God established in the family the relationship between father and mother and child when a man is to be joined to the woman that is brought to him in the providence of God he is to cleave unto his wife he is to cleave to her whole person he is to accept her whole person as a gift from God and to be bonded to her whole person

33:02 and in that context and in that context alone the son of God the sexual union is both legitimate it finds its true fulfillment and in that context alone is it well pleasing unto God and they shall be one flesh and whatever that means in all of its extensiveness certainly the bottom line is it refers to the sexual union between a man and a woman because it's used even of the sexual union between a person and a harlot in 1 Corinthians 6 don't you know he says that the scripture says the two shall be one flesh he that is joined to the harlot is one flesh with that harlot and so we see that the woman

33:46 then is received as God's gift but in that very context there is no indication that this is to put her in some place of vulnerability to be abused to be taken advantage of but being the gift she is such a unique gift that God says that it warrants the man in that sense giving the whole of his affection and his attention all of his heart as well as his body to this gift of God a man shall leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife to a whole person and as we know from scripture implicit in this is not only monogamy not his wife's plural

Elizabeth Elliot's 'Local Vertical' and the Ancient Story of Creation

34:30 but permanence he shall cleave to his wife a commitment that in principle is a commitment even unto death Betty Elliot's Mark of a Man because after I had prepared these materials I first came across this book very brief chapters one of them that refers to the Genesis 2 account and the other terminology and I want to explain the terminology otherwise you won't understand this brief chapter that I want to read a couple of paragraphs out of it's called The Local Vertical

35:15 and she's saying in this chapter that recently at the time that she wrote five men who had spent 80 days in a space capsule and the thing they found so difficult was they had no local vertical they had nothing by which they could get their sphere of reference they could be on their side in their state of weightlessness and think that they were on their head or straight up and down when they'd go to turn a screw instead of the screw turning they'd turn around this way in the state of weightlessness total disorientation you've got to open a book and all the pages would flower open you see there's no gravity holding the majority of them this way and these this way and because they had no local vertical they were totally disoriented up was down down was up

36:00 and it was total confusion so she's saying we need to have a local vertical in male and female relationships unless we're going to be totally confused and disoriented alright then she goes to the ancient story as she calls it regarding creation I visited a class in Texas of what are called exceptional children which in this case meant with learning disabilities the teacher had warned me that they were usually very shy when strangers were present but she promised to do her best to get them to talk to me she knew I'd love that tell the lady she said to the class what God made the first man out of shouted one small boy

36:43 fine said the teacher what did he do next he blowed some sense into him said another Betty Elliot writes a vivid translation the Lord God formed the man of the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life he made him out of dirt and then he blowed some sense into him now we might conclude from all we've learned so far about the two sexes that they are equal except in one she puts question mark minor detail of standard procreative equipment tongue in cheek of course

37:27 that had to be differentiated we can understand but only for function it had no other importance Abba did it better give some attention to the details in that second chapter they let us in on some facts that suggest a far deeper mystery in this business of sexuality than might have met the eye in chapter one of Genesis these facts point to what I call the vital equalities chapter one does everything God had made struck him as good or very good until he came to one thing he had made the man in his image put some sense into him and put him in a garden and gave him work to do provided him with food instructed him about one danger that existed and then

38:12 noticed if we may use the word one thing that was not good he needed a helper designed to fit and please Pete not a help mate that's a corruption of two perfectly good old words help and meet which means suited or especially appropriate to then out of the ground Pete is her name so she's writing a letter to the Lord formed all the animals and birds the chronology of this chapter is slightly different from the first but there are various scholarly explanations of this which you can look up if you want to and then brought them to the man to see what he would call them I love picturing God presenting them to Adam one by one eagerly waiting while Adam thought up a name

38:56 whatever he thought up was alright with God but in the whole zoo from aardvarks to zebras there wasn't a help anywhere that was really neat there was nothing that would fit the specifications of Adam's need so of course God made one he put Adam to sleep and took a rib out of his side sutured him up again and made the borrowed bone into a woman then there's another picture I love to ponder the presentation God brought this brand new creature to Adam and Adam recognized her at once as his own the story's very short much too short for my taste I'd love to have had a detailed description of exactly what they both looked like

39:40 how Eve approached Adam and how he looked at her what he was thinking and whether God said anything by way of introduction but we all know we all know what we need to know Adam named her he called her woman Isha in Hebrew because she was taken out of man Ish in that little story which takes up 17 verses men and women can find their local vertical four extremely important lessons illuminate where women stands where woman stands in relation to man I see in them who I am as a woman and what you Pete are as a man now listen to the four things number one

40:25 she was made for the man according to specifications she was designed to fit his needs exactly after number two she was made from the man quite literally constructed out of one of his own bones he was her reason for being her source which is one of the meanings of the New Testament word for head if you miss the point in Genesis 2 you can pick it up from 1 Corinthians 11 the man was not made from the woman but the woman from the man neither was man created for woman but woman for man oh well people have said to me

41:09 you're just interpreting things your way there are lots of other interpretations are there give me three examples she throws out the challenge lots of other interpretations give me three examples thirdly she was brought to the man God made a present of Eve to Adam not of Adam to Eve she was his it was brought to Adam it was Eve she was his fourthly she was named by the man the Old Testament authority to name was of immense importance it signified the acceptance of responsibility

41:52 he was taking charge that's the ancient story we see in that original account of creation these tremendous foundational building blocks in terms of distinctive male identity and function and the distinctive female identity and function and it's clear from the passage that these things are embedded in God's created design and activity and they have tremendous practical as well as theological implications now

The Horrible Implications of Denying God's Design: Evolution, Feminism, and Homosexuality

42:36 do you see teaching of evolution is done to the whole fabric of our society what is it done it is said that maleness and femininity and maleness are simply a what accident in this great evolutionary process the fact that there are males and females is just an accident of certain brute forces operating upon matter over a period of time under certain random circumstances therefore

43:21 the fact that you sit here today is a male woman or a female a man or a woman has no deep fundamental significance by it's simply an accident and therefore if it's simply an accident it was not designed by anyone with any distinct end or purpose in view then surely as the process goes on we're free to experiment with what it means to be male or female we're free to overturn today what was established yesterday

44:05 as to what masculinity is what femininity is and you see behind the whole climate that has created such fertile changing the imagery fertile soil for feminism to take root there is a direct relationship among many other things to the fact that we have a society that by and large has tried to buy the lie of evolution and it's a horrible horrible fruit of evolutionary ideas think of the the arrogance of the social manipulators if almighty God thought up the whole idea of maleness and femaleness and not only thought up the idea

44:49 but had a distinct plan in mind for what it meant to be a man what it meant to be a woman think of the both the arrogance and the cruelty of the social manipulators who would override God as though they are more wise and loving than God that's the pressure being brought to bear upon you women it's unloving to think of yourself in any fixed and anyone who would try to tell you there is a fixed role is being unloving well you see that's ultimately a slap at God's face it's God who designed the distinctions it's God who in the very creative process or the

45:33 by process I mean what we read there in Genesis in creating the man first and then the woman and the way he did and how he brought the woman to the man all of that that almighty God has set the basic framework for the social structure of a world in which males and females will function under his law and to his glory consider the horrible implications you see of the book of Romans when it says the men leaving the natural use of the woman doth not nature itself teach you when we look at one another in spite of our fallenness there is still that recognition

46:18 that we are not the same except in terms of our primary sexual organs we are different we think differently we approach things differently we respond differently we are fundamentally different in our basic physiology and psychology as men and women but the cruelty of this you see of denying even what nature teaches and then the whole so-called gay and lesbian proliferation in which people are told no look your sexual organs are your own to do with as you please and any thought that because you're a female that you must find sexual fulfillment

47:03 only with a male who says so your body is your own your preferences are your own and if you find the relationship with another woman meaningful both emotionally and psychologically and at the level of sexual contact and interaction who is anybody to tell you that's wrong well you see on any other basis but the biblical doctrine of creation nobody is nobody to tell you it's wrong but if almighty God designed the woman and designed the man and has said that it is in this male-female relationship that human sexuality is defined expression and so embedded that in our very physiology and psychology that to turn away

47:48 from it in the language of scripture is to do that which is even against nature let alone against the written law of God what horrible horrible tyranny and so dear people I trust that you are well grounded in the biblical account of creation as it applies to this whole question of male and female role and identity and that your prayer will be in the days to come Lord help me to understand what it is to be a man what it is to be a woman and all of my notions that I've been bribed from the world flush them out Lord scour them out of my psyche out of my thinking out of the patterns of my life and everything

Call to Embrace God's Design and Future Studies

48:33 that it means to be a biblical man and a biblical woman Lord work it in me by the power of your grace now what I'd like you to do is at least read through Genesis chapter 3 and verse I believe 8 verse 21 sometime during the week because that's going to be the chapter that we're going to root around in next week as we take up the tragic disruption of God's design for the male and the female as a result of the fall and try to see the different ways in which God's original design underwent horrible disruption as a result of the fall and then God willing we're going to take up

49:17 the glorious design and dynamics of restorative grace as they apply to male and female roles and relationships and then when we've set very firmly this biblical foundation of creation fall and redemption then we'll get down to some of the real nitty gritty of specifics even to opening up such passages as Titus chapter 2 where the older women are to train the younger women to do what? own independent career no train the young women to love their to be workers at home to be kind chaste subjection to their own husbands

50:01 that the word of God be not blasphemy failure to accept the God given details of your masculine and feminine role result in blaspheming the name pretty serious stuff isn't it? well let's pray the Lord will help us and his neighbors let's pray together our Father we do again thank you that we have your holy word as a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway our God we are so thankful that amidst the horrible din of the voices of the so-called

50:46 experts today's expert cancelling and negating and negating In contradicting yesterday's, we thank you that we have a timeless word. A word which though heaven and earth pass away, shall never pass away. Oh Lord, may we be well grounded in that word. May your spirit so work in us that we will know that your will is not oppressive, but it is good, acceptable.

51:18 Hear our prayer as we offer ourselves afresh to you through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.