Male & Female Domestic Roles

Welcome and Class Explanation

0:02 This adult Sunday school class was held on June 5th, 1988 at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:12 Now we do extend a cordial welcome to those who are visiting with us. It is always a delight to have visitors coming to study the word of God and to worship our great God in our midst. And we do welcome you in Christ's name. And for your sake especially, just a word of explanation is in order about two things.

0:36 The nature of this class and then the subject matter that we are presently studying. This is an adult Sunday school class and the format partakes more of the classroom than of the sanctuary in the sense that though at times the teaching emerges into preaching and it's hard to distinguish between. Between the two, the basic desire and intention, at least when I am leading the class, is to conduct it more after the pattern of the classroom in which I seek to solicit from you responses, locating passages or answering questions, seeking to collate biblical materials. But we do appreciate it if when it comes time to make contributions that only the members raise their hands and that for two very simple reasons. I know the names of all the members. And I can call them by name. And then secondly, we avoid the embarrassment we have from time to time and have visitors whose whole orientation to the scriptures has been so radically different from our own that their answers have put me in an embarrassing situation.

1:45 They were so far off the mark that to leave them uncriticized put me in the position of seeming to be totally undiscerning before the sheep that I am responsible to lead along with my fellow elders or the sheep that I am responsible to lead along with my fellow elders. And I can call them by name. And that is the core of embarrassing a visitor. Now that's being caught between a rock and a hard place.

2:04 So to avoid that, we occasionally make that word of explanation. And it is no demeaning of our visitors. We have cordially and sincerely welcomed you. But we would appreciate it if the contributions be made by the members only.

Introduction to Crucial Concerns: Male-Female Roles

2:19 Now then, what are we studying together in the class? Well, we have come to our eleventh study in the very broad area that we have entitled Crucial Concerns. Crucial Concerns Facing the People of God And the first of those crucial concerns is the whole matter of male-female roles, relationships, male and female identity and function. And after setting a broad biblical framework for our study of this subject in which we sought to see from the scriptures some of the fundamental realities embedded in God's creative design some of the fundamental realities embedded in God's creative design and action as they mark out male and female roles and relationships.

3:05 We then looked at the tragic disruption of those roles by the fall and then something of God's glorious design and the dynamics of redemption and the activity of grace in the restoration of God's original intention. Well, then we began to move on last week to open up this very fundamental principle that grows out of a consideration of the biblical materials relative to male and female roles and relationships and male and female identity and function. And that principle is this, that neither the tragedy of the fall nor the privileges of grace are to blur distinctive masculinity and femininity in any of the roles and relationships that we have. In any biblically defined area of existence. Neither the tragedy of the fall nor the privileges of grace are to blur distinctive masculinity and femininity in any biblically defined area of existence. And we're going to look at four subheadings under that principle and we've started with the first and I've called it Ingenuity.

Review: General Relationships and Male Headship (1 Corinthians 11)

4:29 General Relationships and Functions. In general relationships and functions God clearly establishes and we're looking primarily at New Testament passages and that for a number of reasons and if I were to ask you what is the pivotal passage, the watershed passage in the New Testament establishing that neither the fall nor redemption are intended by God to blur basic masculine-feminine relationships and roles and identity what passage would you say is that pivotal passage establishing the biblical concept of a God-ordained hierarchy with reference to male and female roles and relationships? Anyone? Sense? I don't have the answer but is there mine, do you think?

5:27 No. Thankfully, we got rid of that mic. Can everyone hear me? All right, yes.

5:35 That little clip-on mic, that's gone kaput. In fact, Bill and I have a standing joke. I don't like the thing. It picks up my voice on the tapes with all kinds of hisses constantly like I was talking this way and it's very insulting to hear yourself talking.

5:55 No, that's really... Any of you heard the tapes?

5:58 The hisses are something terrible. I can't stand to listen to myself. For five minutes. So Bill and I kid about that and so this morning when he told me it had gone kaput he then said, are you praying prayers of imprecation against my microphone?

6:11 So, no. So everything's being picked up here. So we're all right. Thank you for the concern, though, sense.

6:16 It wasn't a matter of forgetting it. It's gone kaput. All right, the passage. Pivotal passage that teaches that God has established a hierarchical structure in male and female roles and relationships in general.

6:31 Anyone here last week?

6:34 All right, what is the passage? Someone tell me, please. All right, Gabe? All right, 1 Corinthians chapter 11.

6:43 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And this will just be a brief review.

6:51 And after about ten different answers as to the major subject dealt with in verses 2 through 16, I think we all came to the agreement that the subject being dealt with was the subject of head coverings in the church or among the people of God in Corinth, and that Paul used that particular local and in many senses cultural problem to articulate the basic principle of God's establishment of a hierarchical structure that is never to be violated, at least this side of the consummation of redemption. And that key text is verse 3. I would have you to know that the head of every man is Christ. Christ stands as head over every man. That answers some of the questions some of you raised afterwards. Does this apply just within the church or just to Christians?

7:58 There is something very broad and generic in these statements that give us groundwork to believe that the principles are broader certainly than marriage and even broader than what is to obtain among the people of God and within the church, but certainly it must refer at least to that lesser circle and includes a wider circle. That the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God. So that in the economy of redemption, that is in the outworking of the salvation of sinners, Jesus Christ, without any relinquishment of inherent deity, inherent equality of dignity in sharing the divine essence with the Father, nonetheless, he is subject to God the Father. I do always the things that please my Father. This is my beloved Son. In him I am well pleased.

9:09 Behold my servant, my elect, who shall do all my pleasure, scripture after scripture, which clearly establishes that in the economy of redemption, the Father and the Son did not have an egalitarian relationship. The Father was the servant of Jehovah. He was subject to his Father, not mine, but mine be done. Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.

9:39 You say, Pastor, why are you quoting passage after passage? Well, to show that Paul is summarizing the whole teaching of the Word of God with relationship to this matter of Christ, the anointed incarnate Son of God as Messiah in his messianic identity and function is subject to the Father, that the head of Christ, is God. And while that relationship in no way undermines the dignity or demeans Christ, so likewise, the head of the man is the woman, and this in no way demeans the function, the place, the identity of the woman, as we could put into these brackets all of the areas in which the Father and the Son are equal. So we can put in this bracket all of the areas, in which man and woman as image-bearers of God are equal, as morally accountable creatures are equal, as those who have intelligence and affection and will in their basic constitution are equal. And yet, none of these things in any way undermines this fixed hierarchical structure established by the living God. And so this passage, is the passage which is the pivotal passage

11:07 to my judgment in all of the Word of God in articulating this inviolable hierarchical structure. And anyone who attempts to say that men and women should seek a relationship of complete equality as to authority, as to headship, as to directive, is overturning the clearly revealed order of God. Now let me say something here that's very crucial. It's one thing for someone through the influence of the world to be ignorant of this reality and to be woolly in his or her thinking about this hierarchical structure.

11:50 However, once the Word of God has impinged upon a person's judgment and understanding and they see that that is the teaching of Scripture, refusal to embrace that is the mark of an unregenerate heart. And there will be people who will go to hell for their resolute refusal to embrace the hierarchical structure imposed by God just as surely as there will be people who go to hell who refuse not to worship other gods, who refuse to obey the commandment, not to commit adultery and not to steal. This is not a matter of emphasis. This is a matter of life and death.

12:36 And we need to understand that. And in our day, the conversion of men and women oft times will be manifested as to its reality or non-reality at precisely this point because it is in this area that so much of man's innate hostility to God is manifesting itself so blatantly and so much of man's hostility and so much of man's hostility and so pervasively. Well, we sought to establish then last week that in general roles and relationships or in general relationships God has established a hierarchy of male headship. Now, a number of you asked questions.

13:20 What about singles? Well, the reference here is not primarily to a wife. Though when we get further down and he establishes this on the basis of the doctrine of creation, God made a wife. For Adam.

13:33 So there are certain aspects that are exclusive to the husband-wife relationship. There are certain that do not fit in singleness. Those are all secondary questions that hopefully we'll take up further down. But what I want us to do in these opening studies is to grasp the broad basic principles and concepts.

13:53 Then we will have a framework within which to relate the particulars and some of the problems. All right? So much then for that review. Now we come to our main second heading.

Domestic Relationships and Functions: Introduction to Key Passages

14:05 Neither the tragedy of the fall nor the privileges of grace are to blur distinctive masculinity and femininity in any biblically defined area of existence. We've looked at the first major category, general relationships and functions. Now we come this morning to the second, domestic relationships and functions. General relationships and functions, 1 Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 3, the pivotal passage.

14:35 Now, B, we come to domestic relationships and functions. Now our point is that neither sin nor the privileges of redemption blur or overturn, much less reverse, the God-instituted order of male headship and female subordination. And I'm going to keep using, in those terms, until all that is knee-jerking and all that is pejorative about them, I hope, is bled from our psyche so we can hear the words hierarchy and subordination and feel as comfortable as though we were drinking a glass of cold water on a hot day. All right?

15:20 Now, with respect to domestic relationships and functions, from the New Testament, I want you to give me 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, what I would consider the five key passages which clearly, unequivocally teach the doctrine of male headship and female subordination to that headship. Most of them speaking, of course, to the marital relationship and all we're concerned about now is in the domestic relationship. All right? Everyone immediately thinks of what passage?

Ephesians 5:22-33: The Pattern of Christ and the Church

16:01 All right? Excuse me. Excuse me.

16:05 Nate? Ephesians 4.22.

16:10 Ephesians? 4.22. 4.22?

16:13 5.22. 5.22.

16:15 Good. I thought you just had slipped it by a number. All right? Ephesians 5.22 and following.

16:24 And while we're turning to that, may I say for any of you who may have encountered this teaching that the word kephale, which is the Greek word for head in the word key word used in the 1 Corinthians 11 passage. You may have encountered the teaching that kephale doesn't mean head in the sense of rule and authority but it means source or origin. I recommend this book by George Knight. It's in our bookstore, The Role Relationship of Men and Women.

16:52 And he has a marvelous treatment of this section in a positive way on pages I wrote the pages down in my notes. Pages 20 and following. And then at the end his first appendix is the summary of a study done by a man named Wayne Grudem. Does kephale, head, mean source or authority over in Greek literature?

17:22 A survey of 2,336 examples. And then by the use of computers what Mr. Grudem has done is to categorize all of these uses of kephale and here you see the tabulation. You can't see it but I'll tell you what's here.

17:42 From the 8th century back to the 4th century A.D. He takes the number the author in which the word kephale is used in Greek writing the number of instances checked and then he tabulates the meaning. What are the various meanings of kephale and when he comes to the matter of source or origin of person or thing from which something else is derived or obtained zero, zero, zero in a total of 2,336 usages there is not one instance in which kephale means source.

18:22 It has many other usages but never once that. And yet under the name of Christian scholarship there is a husband-wife team who have put out material that is inundated evangelically to try to demonstrate that kephale means source. Well see what that does to your Christology if nothing else. If Jesus Christ is derived from the Father then what do we do to the classic doctrine of the Trinity and to the essential eternal undiluted deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

19:01 And then if you just take another book that I'm going to mention later and use it as a study guide you'll see how absolutely foolish and unfounded that conclusion is. Alright, so much for that. I meant to give it in my review. Now we come to Ephesians chapter 5.

19:17 Very key passage beginning with verse 22.

19:22 Having given the general directive to all believers to subject themselves one to another in the fear of Christ in verse 21 Paul goes on to say wives and then be in subjection is in italics in any good formal translation to let you know that the verb is not in the original wives unto your own husbands. Wives what unto your own husbands? Well wives in particular subjecting yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord for the husband is the kephale. The husband is the source of the wife.

20:01 Isn't that nonsense? I'm not my wife's source. She had an independent existence that even started a little while before mine did. I am in no way my wife's source.

20:14 Never was never shall be. But I hope I am her head. She acknowledges me as such. Her life indicates that she recognizes me as such.

20:25 I am the divinely instituted authority set over her in the marriage relationship. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the ruling authority of the church being himself the savior of the body. Now there is the statement of what is with reference to the husband in the place of authority over the wife. Now here's the exhortation to the wife.

20:59 But as the church is subject to Christ so let the wives be to their husbands in everything. And then the rest of the passage amplifies very interestingly the husband's responsibility is the major expansion until we come back to verse 33. Nevertheless do you each severally love each one his own wife as himself and let the wife see that she fear or reverence her husband. Now notice what the pattern of the husband-wife relationship is.

21:39 It is the pattern of the husband-wife relationship. It is the pattern of the husband-wife relationship. Of the relationship of Christ to the church. Now in this imagery who bears the masculine and who bears the feminine identity?

21:53 Anyone?

21:57 Jerry? Christ is the masculine and the church is? All right. Before we even go into the words of the thing what does that immediately tell us if we think of the whole framework of redemption?

22:10 Who is the initiator in the work of redemption? The church or Christ?

22:20 Anyone? You're all so bashful. Who was the initiator in your redemption, Nate? Christ.

22:28 Yeah, he was. Anyone here like to suggest that you conceived of the notion of redemption and that you implemented the scheme? Anyone here so utterly ignorant of the biblical doctrine?

22:43 Anyone bold enough to claim that distinction? Of course not. The whole concept of what we might call the holy aggression of redemptive love is bound up in Christ's relationship to the church. He loved the church.

23:00 He gave himself to the church. He is the head and the savior of the body to change the imagery as the great shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. He takes the initiative in loving the sheep, dying for the sheep. He's the good shepherd who leaves the ninety and nine and feeds the sheep.

23:19 You see, bound up in the whole concept of Christ's redemptive activity in this masculine gender framework is the concept of initiator along with savior, protector, nourisher, provider. All of those things are bound up, some of them explicitly referred to in this very passage. Verse 29, No man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it even as Christ also the church. And the church is the receptor.

23:57 The church is the one that receives the love of Christ, that embraces the saving headship of Christ. The church is subject to Christ in the whole scheme of redemption. Now this is vital. No one ever comes within the orbit of the saving, working work of Christ without coming within the orbit of the governing authority of Christ.

24:28 He is the head and the savior of the body. Look at that in verse 23. As Christ is the head of the church, himself being the savior of the body. Now what vital practical thing does that tell us about our doctrine of conversion?

24:47 I'm not forgetting where we're going, but I want us to see how deeply embedded this. What does this tell us? If Christ is savior, only where people come under his governing authority, what does that tell us about our doctrine of conversion?

25:05 Yes, Doug? He's Lord as well as savior. Yeah. And if he is not our governing authority, do we have any grounds to claim he is this?

25:14 No. There's not a shred of evidence in the Bible that people can snatch at his saving grace while refusing, his governing authority. What you would then have is someone who is in the church, but who was not subject to Christ. But the text said, as the church is subject to Christ.

25:36 It doesn't say as the church ought to be. As some of the church is, as all of the church one day shall be at the consummation. No. The given is, if you are truly in the church, you are under the governing authority, the authority of Jesus Christ.

25:56 And so this whole business of taking Christ as savior now and Lord later, become a believer now and disciple later, it overturns the fundamental framework of the scheme of redemption, even in a practical passage dealing with husband-wife relationships. And maybe that's part of the problem, that it's a defective doctrine of conversion that's left the field wide open for all of this nonsense about egalitarian marriage. And maybe one of the fundamental reasons why we've got so many women who will not be subject to their husbands is they've never understood subjection to Jesus Christ. And maybe the reason we've got so many men who won't take a loving, suckering, nurturing headship over their wives is they've never bowed to the loving, nurturing, suckering headship of Jesus Christ over their own hearts. And I'm personally convinced the only way this rampant so-called Christian feminism could spread like a scourge over evangelicalism is the soil was conditioned by easy believism and a wrong doctrine of conversion. Now that's my thesis, and I think it could be proven. And when we come back to a biblical concept of conversion, then no matter how much a woman has been schooled to be her own woman, have your own identity, make your own mark, don't have any sense that your identity is bound up with a man.

27:23 Your significance, your significance is all in yourself. No matter how much she's been brainwashed and pummeled and conditioned by that, if she comes under the governing authority of Jesus Christ in a radical Holy Ghost rock conversion, when she reads Ephesians 5, she may go into spiritual fits for three months, but she'll stay in those fits until she comes out the other side embracing her husband's headship. Because she says, I've got no choice. Jesus Christ is now my governing authority, and he has told me that my relationship to my husband is to be reflective of my relationship to him.

28:02 So you see how the things are bound together? And in a church where there is the constant preaching of a wholesome biblical doctrine of conversion, where there is not this calling for cheap and quick decisions, but pleading with God to do a deep saving work in the heart, generally speaking, you don't have a major problem with women being the ones unwilling to take their proper place and men being unwilling to take their proper place because the root of the matter of submission to Christ's authority has already been established. And now as an application of that authority, when they come to a passage like Ephesians 5, they don't try to stand it on its head. They don't try to say, well, whatever the rest of the passage says, verse 21 says, subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ. So why? Wives be subject to husbands. Husbands be subject to wives.

28:57 You say, Pastor, reasonable people. Listen, people with PhDs teach that. And then they are praised as great champions of the new insights to the word of God that we 20th century mortals have received. Well, you see how absolutely foolish it is.

29:15 This passage clearly establishes male hierarchy, not male tyranny, but male tyranny. But male tyranny, but male hierarchy in the marriage relationship. All right? Now turn, what's the second passage?

Colossians 3:18: Fitting Submission in the Lord

29:32 I said I'm going to ask you for the passage. Let's see if you come up. What is a brief mini-treatment of this in a parallel passage? Jerry?

29:42 No, that's not a mini-treatment. That's a big one. And that applies in the case where you've got an unconverted spouse. So can we hold off on that one?

29:51 That'll prove that neither the fall nor redemption cancel it. But this is a mini-treatment in a parallel passage. Dan? That's it.

29:59 That's the one I was fishing for. Colossians 3.18. Colossians 3 and verse 18.

30:07 All right? Dan, you want to read that out loud for us? Wives, be subject to your husband as it is fitting in the Lord. All right.

30:16 Wives, be subject or be in subjection to your husbands as it is fitting in the Lord. Now you see, so-called Christian feminism would say, wives, rid yourself of any sense of subjection for only then do you honor the salvation given to you by the Lord. Since in Christ there is neither male nor female, then the proof that you have come to the full acceptance and enjoyment of your redemptive privilege is to be rid of any concept of male dominance and divinely instituted hierarchical relationships. Well, not so the apostles.

Word Study: 'Hupotasso' (Be in Subjection)

30:57 Wives, be in subjection to your husbands as it is fitting in the Lord. Now I want us to do a little word study. This word, be in subjection, put it in an English equivalent,

31:15 hupo taso. It's a combined word. Hupo under taso to be ranged. This is the word you would use if you're talking about an army came together in proper rank and ranged itself together.

31:31 So it means to range oneself under another. And hence is translated, be in subjection. Now what will be helpful to you, and I was speaking to Pastor Nichols this morning about this, and he was in hearty agreement. We would like you to, wherever you can, realize that you don't need to have a lot of technical knowledge to use some of the more technical aids to accurate Bible study.

32:00 And you can see that this particular book has been well used over the years. It's dog-eared on all four corners. The spine's been repaired. I've repaired it on the inside and it needs another repair.

32:12 I didn't have the fancy materials they now have downstairs in the library with which to do it. And it's called The Englishman's Greek Concordance of the New Testament, which means English readers can use it. You don't need to know Greek in order to use this. So what you would do when you come to the word subjection, you would turn to the back where English words are listed alphabetically and you would say, all right, subject, subjection, subborn, here we are, now we've got the word subject.

32:45 All right? And under subject, if I can find it here, yeah, here we are. Subject to, it says page 262, and then it says subject to, see ordinance, subject to like passions, then it has, page 780, subjection, hupotage, subjection, bring into, and then it gives another word which means to make a servant, subjection, put in, subjection to, subjection under, hupotaso, 780. And you say, well, which word is used?

33:19 Well, you look up the various words where subject is until you find your text. And you say, oh, on page 780, I find this reference to Colossians, chapter 3, and verse 18. So I'm just going through the steps with you to encourage you to do this. All right?

33:38 So on page 780, here's what you find. You find, all right, hupotaso. On 780, where is it? Luke, Romans, Corinthians, oh, there it is, Colossians 3, 18.

33:51 Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands. Now, what do you have then? You have every place in the New Testament where the Holy Spirit has used this verb. How?

34:02 Let the Holy Spirit use it. So what you do is you just sit there and some of you have a knowledge of your English Bible, won't even need to turn to the passages because there's a little phrase of where the word occurs, a phrase immediately before or after, sometimes a little bit of both. So what do you read? Luke 2, 51.

34:21 And was subject unto them. You say, oh, that's talking about Jesus. He went down unto Nazareth and was subject to them. Now, what does that mean?

34:30 Jesus put himself under the name of Jesus. He put himself under the leadership and parental headship of Joseph and Mary. That's obvious. Next verse, Luke 10, 17.

34:41 And even the devils are subject unto us. And you go back and look at the passage and you say, that's when the 70 came back and they were rejoicing and said, Lord, even the demons, when we command them to come out in your name, they obey us. They are subject unto us. And then, Romans 8 and verse 7.

35:01 The carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God. The carnal mind will not place itself in obedience to God's holy law. Obvious what the word means.

35:15 Romans 8, 20. For the creation was made subject to vanity. You say, well, I'm not quite sure what that means. I'll skip that one over.

35:23 All right? So you don't need to know everyone. So you don't need to be an exegete. You say, well, that's the highs and the lows.

35:30 We'll put that out like the marks on diving and gymnastics or other things. Not gymnastics, diving. But now it says in Romans 10, 3, they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Oh, that's clear.

35:44 God offers a righteousness in Christ and in the gospel commands us to repent and believe and thereby submit to that righteousness. They will not. They resist that. You get a feeling for the word.

35:57 Then Romans 13, 1. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. And you say, oh, that's the submission of a citizen to the state. Oh, now I'm getting a real feel for the word.

36:08 Romans 13, 5. Wherefore you must needs be subject. Then 1 Corinthians 14, 32. And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.

36:19 Paul is saying no need for frenzy or anyone saying, oh, I just couldn't help that the Holy Ghost came on me and I couldn't hold back. He said, no, no. The spirit of the prophets are under the control. Under the harnessed restraint of the prophets.

36:36 And then you go down through, he hath put all things under his feet. 1 Corinthians 15. Ephesians 1, 22. Has put all things under his feet.

36:48 And you go right through every use of the word until you say, look, there's a couple I can't quite understand. A couple here, not clear. But then you get an impression of the overall weight and you say, no way that this word submit can mean anything other than what God's people have understood it to mean when they've read their Bibles through the centuries. You see, now you don't need to know a word of Greek, but you have a sense of safety that this is the word the Holy Spirit used.

37:16 He doesn't want me to be in confusion. And what he's telling me is that neither the fall nor the privileges of redemption cancel God's hierarchical structure. And as the church is subject to Christ, so a wife is to be in subjection to her husband. Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands as it is fitting in the Lord.

1 Peter 3:1-7: Submission to Unconverted Husbands

37:41 You see that? All right, now, our third passage. Jerry, the passage you gave us was 1 Peter chapter 3. Now, what's significant in this passage is that it buttresses my fundamental principle.

37:58 Namely, we're trying to demonstrate that neither the tragedy of the fall nor the privileges of grace are to blur distinctive masculinity and femininity in any biblically defined area or realm of relationship. Now, here in 1 Peter chapter 3, notice, in like manner, you wives, here's our word again, be in subjection to your own husbands that, even if any obey not the word, they may without the word be gained by the behavior of their wives beholding your chaste behavior coupled with fear whose adorning, let it not be the outward adorning of the braiding of hair, the wearing of jewels of gold or of the putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and a quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price, for after this manner of foretime the holy women also who hoped in God adorned themselves being in subjection to their own husbands as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord, whose children you now are if you do well and are not put in fear by any terror.

39:27 Now, you see, the very vital principle of this passage is first, first of all, its overall context and then its specific sphere of reference. Now, what's the overall context? Well, if you go back to verse 18 of chapter 2, notice what he's doing. Servants, be in, I'm sorry, let's go back to verse 13, I'm sorry, be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake.

39:57 Here he introduces the whole theme of the Christian's subjection to various people and institutions. He starts with being subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or unto governors as sent by him for vengeance on evil and for the praise of them that do well. A parallel passage to Romans 13. Now, there's the first category in which all Christians are to render submission to the powers that be, the ordinances of men, for the Lord's sake.

40:34 Second category, verse 18. Servants, be in subjection to your masters with all fear. Now, he calls upon bond servants to render obedience to their masters, not only to the sweet and the good and the reasonable ones, but even to the nasty ones. He says, for if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

41:02 Now, verse 1 of chapter 3, in like manner. You see, there's an overall context. As all believers have been called to be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, as servants in particular are called upon to be in subjection to their masters in like manner, in the same category of one who has authority from God and one who is to submit to that authority in the same category you wives be in subjection to your own husbands. Now, notice the specific point before us.

41:41 Even if any obey not the word. You have an unconverted husband. He is not seeking to love his wife as Christ loved the church. A Christian husband is exercising a headship in which he is seeking to combine to combine by the grace of God and the power of the Spirit a gracious authority, a loving authority, a sensitive authority, a nurturing, succoring, sharing authority, and at best no husband ever comes up to that standard but he constantly presses after it and by the power of the Spirit he can attain in great measure a kind of rule and authority over his wife. That will cause people to know something of what it is with respect to Christ's love to his church. But now, here's a wife and she's been converted after marriage or perhaps one of the many tragically who thought they would convert the husband before marriage who played head games on themselves and convinced themselves I'm the great exception I'll be able to win then I'll marry her.

43:04 And what they did was merely win him to an empty profession and then the mask was pulled off after the honeymoon. And now they're stuck for life with an unconverted man. The fruit of their own headstrong rebellion against God in some cases in some cases the fruit of God's providential timing in their own conversion. God had them marked out as one of his elect but he let them go into a marriage before he affectionately drew them to himself.

43:31 Now what is this woman to do? She's married to a husband and she's married to a husband that does not have any desire to love her as Christ loved the church. He is selfish. He is exploitive.

43:44 He is self-centered. He is insensitive. He is non-communicative. Now he doesn't physically beat her in which case the sixth commandment may demand that she ought to leave him.

43:56 He is not pummeling her into insanity in which case the sixth commandment might demand that she separate from him. First Corinthians 11 allows for separation of the husband. Under certain instances so we're not calling upon submission and the maintenance of the marriage at the expense of every other biblical text. No.

44:14 We're not talking about that. But this man is selfish non-communicative insensitive but he doesn't beat her doesn't abuse her and doesn't abuse the children in terms of beating up on them or sexually molesting them. He meets what we would call the minimal requirements of dwelling with a wife. What is that wife to do?

44:36 He has no spiritual discernment he doesn't share her values doesn't share the things she loves what does Peter say? By the inspiration of the spirit in like manner you wives be in subjection to your own husbands. That's pretty straightforward isn't it? Be in subjection to your own husbands and manifest even to an unsaved husband the spirit of a Sarah who obeyed Abraham and called him Lord.

45:06 That's your duty. Now Peter tries to encourage wives in that state by saying it may be that without the word again that's a figure of speech an absolute for the relative no one can be saved without the word but the indication is he's heard enough of the word that he doesn't want it he's rejecting it now he says don't leave tracks under his pillow and tracks under his coffee cup and turn on WFME full blast so when he gets up in the morning he's listening to Omar and Deal or somebody else no no don't make a pest of yourself with the gospel just so live in submission to him in spite of his insensitivity in spite of his non-communicativeness in spite of his selfishness treat him like a king though he's living like a what? like a churlish man that the power of the gospel manifested in your day may be the very means God will use to soften his heart to cause him to see the reality of the salvation of Christ and win him to Christ but whether he is one is not the issue with respect to your duty now I hold it out Peter says as a hope and as an incentive and a motivation as Paul does in 1 Corinthians 7 when he says

46:34 wives don't leave your husbands if God has saved you who knoweth oh woman whether thou shalt save thy husband who knoweth oh man in other words this is an incentive of hope but the incentive of hope is not the basis of the duty it's an encouragement in performance of the duty but the duty rests upon the sheer naked authority of God wives be in subjection to your own husbands even if any obey not the word they may be one alright? very quickly what's another key passage that shows in domestic relationships and functions neither the fall nor redemption overturn God's hierarchical structure in male-female relationships Ephesians 5 parallel passage Colossians 3 the circumstance of an unconverted spouse 1 Peter chapter 3 now very quickly what are several of the other key passages Howard that brings us not into the domestic realm but into what realm?

Titus 2:1-5: Older Women Teaching Younger Women

47:45 that's the ecclesiasticism the ecclesiastical realm that's going to be our next major heading alright? so can we hold off on that? alright Ernest? there we are Titus chapter 2 and these are passages that every one of you ought to have at your fingertips and hopefully have in your hearts Titus chapter 2 verses 1 to 5 speak the things which befit the sound or healthy teaching and what are they?

48:18 that the aged men be temperate grave sober minded sound in faith in love in patience that the aged women if you can get any to admit they fit the category be reverent in demeanor not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine teachers of that which is good now what is it good for an older woman to teach younger women? well many older women in our day would say well I learned the hard way I buried my life for 30 years under the shadow of my husband and now I'm liberated I've found I didn't need to have identity simply with my husband and it's tragic to me to see middle aged women who are some of the most screeching ugly feminists in our day who feel that now they've really come to see how they wasted their lives burying them under the shadow of their husband and in the mountain of diapers and dishes and naughty little children but he says no older women this is what they are doing to teach that is good that they may train the young women to love their husbands to love their children to be sober minded chaste workers at home and we'll get into that in greater detail in another lesson kind being

49:46 in subjection to their own husbands that the word of God be not blasphemed where people claim to love the God of the Bible but fly in the face of one of the most clearly revealed duties of the Bible there you have a perfect setup for people to malign the word of God to speak ill of God and of his word and I say to you younger women as you are setting up unconsciously or consciously and you all do it we all do it you are setting up models in your mind among the women of the church who are your models do you naturally gravitate to the women who are the most fashionable and they become your models because of their external appearance and you say hmm I'd like to be like that when I'm a middle aged woman she's kept herself looking fairly decent it's obvious she has a sense of taste and you're drawn primarily because of the external is that what your model is is it you ask yourself younger women are you drawn to women in whom you see a feisty independence and say boy if I can get through these years

51:14 of raising kids and still keep that kind of feistiness that's what I want just enough submission to keep me from being suspect as being a feminist but sort of roasting a fire of self realization that you hope will break out when you get rid of the noose of your children are those your models who's your model ask yourself is it those women whose whole demeanor bespeaks a loving comfortable submission to their husbands now you're making taking models consciously or unconsciously and God says to you young women indirectly in this passage make your models those who like Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord make your models those older women who by their example and pattern as well as their precepts teach these God ordained categories of responsibility for younger women the culminating one being that of being in subjection to their own husbands all right very quick oh time is gone the other passages that I would mention just very quickly is the requirements for elders

Additional Passages and Warning Against Egalitarianism

52:44 in Titus 1 and in 1st Timothy chapter 3 that they rule well their own households indicating that God has assigned the rule of the household to the administrative oversight of the man though as we shall see in a subsequent passage in Titus by delegation much of the actual implementation of that rule excuse me is carried out by the woman and then there is the whole concept embedded in the fourth commandment we don't have time to go into it well let me just say in closing by way of application when these clear passages are bled of their meaning grave consequences fall if you can have a congregation that can read passages like these and then have some of them expound them in such a way that you do away with the obvious meaning of hupotasso and you end up with what's called an egalitarian marriage where you have completely reversible roles in terms of headship and submission etc then you see you can make the word of God say anything and it's my prediction that the congregations influenced by current so-called evangelical feminists that can manipulate the scriptures to prove their case are the harbingers of downright infidelity

54:12 and open liberalism another 10 to 15 years from now because if the word of God doesn't clearly teach what we said it teaches this morning then it teaches nothing with clarity and with certainty and may God grant that we will not cripple another generation by the horrible horrible patterns that have crippled this generation much of our pastoral work in dealing with marital problems and dealing with some of the deep embedded problems of our singles why some of our single men have admitted they're not married is that they are so uncertain of what a role of loving assertive godly headship is they're scared to death to take the plunge because they've not seen the model in their formative period what a tragedy don't pass on that cursed legacy to another generation and why do some of our wives have such a difficult time with submission because they had no models of it they saw a wife and a mother who was manipulative who was constantly seeking in open and in more subtle ways to overturn respect for the husband and father the implementation of his rules and they learned by absorption a demonic and cursed thing in terms of

Application: Rejecting Ungodly Legacies

55:42 how to be manipulative and to get their own way without ever rearing back on their hind legs and openly defying their husband's authority and their daughters have learned well there's the wife who every time her husband asserts himself she whines she complains she withdraws she doesn't communicate until to have peace in the house he bends and she's and the daughter growing up sees that and she learns the ungodly ways of her mother is that the legacy you're passing on to your daughters God help us dear people be not conformed to this age but be transformed by the renewing of your mind it is the will of God that in these relationships neither the reality of the fall nor the privileges of redemption should overturn God's order of male headship and of the woman and female subordination to that headship in general relationships 1 Corinthians chapter 11 in domestic we've looked at the key passages now God willing next week we'll look at in ecclesiastical or church relationships and functions and I want you to be prepared to suggest what are the pivotal two or three passages addressing church relations Howard's already let one of them out of the bag see if you can come with the others alright let's pray together

Prayer for Clarity and Obedience

57:09 Father we thank you for your word that it is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our path and how we plead oh God that as a congregation of your people professing subjection to Christ that we will not play loose with your word have mercy Lord upon those false teachers who in the name of enlightened scholarship are bringing a curse upon vast segments of the evangelical church Lord our hearts are grieved today to think of women and men who will never come to their biblical roles because they've been misled by false teachers and those who have handled the word of God deceitfully Lord will you not shut the mouths and dry up the pens of those who would confuse your people and help us by your grace to be so well established in these things and by your grace so to live them out that the beauty and the winsomeness of your ways will be seen and known among us we ask in Jesus name Amen