Feminism's Fallacy - [1 Corinthians 11:3-4]

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Feminism has made inroads all over the world, including the church. Sarah McGarth wrote a letter to the
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Bergen County Record regarding school crossing signs. It was later reported in the
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National Review. The letter said, I'd like to call your attention to the subliminally sexist message of one of our most common roadside signs, the school crossing sign that appears in almost every neighborhood in the country.
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This sign features a picture of two children, a boy and a girl, crossing the street together. The boy is much taller than the girl, portraying the part of the older brother, while the girl's role is that of the dependent younger sister.
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The boy seems to have his hand gripping the little girl's elbow as if he were guiding her. All these details suggest that the boy is dominant and the girl is weaker.
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I suggest that half of our school crossing signs be changed to show a taller girl and a smaller boy.
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A small change like this could give American children a much better sense of the full range of the possible relationships between males and females.
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The gender police are also at your National Natural History Museum. The Smithsonian, a label next to the
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American Heart of Beast exhibit, warns because the males are sleeping and the females are standing.
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Female animals here are being portrayed in a way that makes them appear deviant or substandard to male animals.
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When I was a kid growing up, I had a friend and his dad sold cigarettes, so he would usually steal the free little samples of the four -pack.
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And I sold a lot of cigarettes in my life, but I never sold a pack of Virginia Slims because I had not come a long way, baby.
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Anybody who laughs is over 45. Some are saying that the words man and woman are fictional caricatures demeaning females.
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Male and females are different, some say, because they're just cultural constructs. Helen Reddy, in 1972, as she accepted the
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Grammy Award for I Am Strong, I Am Invincible, I Am Invincible, I Am Woman, said,
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I'd like to thank God because she made everything possible. I understand the world and I understand what they do, but what about the church?
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What about the evangelical church? What about the liberal church? Wall Street Journal said of the first congregational church in Long Beach, California, quoted
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Pastor Mary Ellen Kilsby, May the God who mothers us all bear us on the breath of dawn and make us to shine like the sun and hold us in the palm of her hand.
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Feminists don't want Father, Son, and Spirit to be determining how we talk about the Godhead.
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They'd rather have Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, or Creator, Redeemer, Comforter.
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One lady said, I don't want to call God He anymore. I want to call
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God the He -She. I thought she probably just should have said the She, but the
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He -She kind of sounds like, kind of a little funky to me. The He -She. The Eternal He -She.
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Modified reading of the Lord's Prayer says, Our Mother, who is everywhere, holy be
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Your names. May Your new age come. May Your will be done in this and in every time and place.
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Meet our needs each day and forgive us our failure to love as we forgive the same failure in others.
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Save us in hard times and lead us into the ways of Your love. For Yours is the wholeness and the power and the loving forever.
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Amen. I don't know how you respond, but they respond that if God is a male, then male is
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God. That's a fallacy. I call God what He calls
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Himself. And when God calls Himself, or if He were to call Himself Father -Mother, then I would call Him Father -Mother.
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Here's the problem. Feminism says that if you have different roles, someone must be inferior.
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That's the whole catch. That if I have a different role, and I'm the one on the bottom of the functional rank, then
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I'm inferior. And so the Bible teaches that subordination is good.
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The Bible teaches subordination is actually godly. The Bible teaches that if you have two people, and they both are the same before God as image bearers, but one is in charge of the other, they're still equal in the sight of God.
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And I can prove this in a lot of ways. One, if you're a parent, do you think you're better than your children?
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Do you think you have inherently more worth as an image bearer, made in the likeness and image of God, versus your children?
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And the answer should be, no, I'm functionally over them. They are subordinated under my authority, but we're equal.
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We're both created in the image and likeness of God. If you're an employer, I hope you don't say, those people working underneath me, since they are subordinate to me, therefore they're lesser.
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Friends, the Bible teaches clearly that function, although different, does not imply inferiority.
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And if you take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, we're going to see that very thing this morning.
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1 Corinthians chapter 11. Men and women's roles are not perfectly symmetrical.
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There are different roles at home, and at the church, and in the workforce, and at school, and because they're different, no one is better.
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Galatians chapter 3 verse 28 says it clearly, In Christ Jesus there is no male or female.
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You may be under my authority since I'm your pastor and elder, but I'm not better than anyone here. The church is taking her cue from the world, and 1
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Corinthians 11 is a good corrective. We're just going through the Bible verse by verse, and now we come to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and it will help us solve the problem of feminism.
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Now we could have horror stories of how bad men have treated women. That's not my point to talk about that today.
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That's true, but the Bible never says anything like that. And my question really this morning is, does your view of gender color your view of the
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Trinity? Or does your view of the Trinity color your view of gender? Are you taking your cue from gender, or are you taking your cue from the
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Godhead? And this morning we'll see that it's all about the triune God. It's going to be abstract thinking this morning.
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For those of you that want a lot of practical application, you need to be at the class on Thursday nights because we'll have all kinds of practical application.
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Who's here on Thursday night? Was it practical? I hope it was. This morning it's not.
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Today at the apex it's not practical, but as you understand the truth, then it becomes practical.
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Does our view of gender color the view of the Trinity, or vice versa? Now Unitarians say the
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Father created the Son. That's the wrong view of the Trinity. The Father created the
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Son. There was a time when the Son wasn't existing. The Son, S -O -N. Tritheism says there are three separate gods.
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We're not monotheistic, we're tritheistic. That's what they say. There's another faulty view of God that it's really kind of dumb, but I like to say the word just like I like to say sacerdotal and propitiation.
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It's just fun to say. When do you ever get to say these words? I guarantee you on the subway you'd never get to say this word.
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Swedenborgianism. God bless you. Swedenborgianism, if you want to make it correct with the
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W pronounced as a V. I have a body, soul, and spirit. So God has a body, soul, and spirit, except you call that body, soul, and spirit
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Father, Son, and Spirit. That's wrong. Sabellianism, our modalism, our
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T .D. Jakesism we could call it today, is that there was one God, the Father, in eternity past, then on earth
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He became the Son, and then now He's the Spirit. Not one God, three persons, but one
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God manifesting Himself three different ways. That would be an error as well. And evangelical feminism has this problem with the
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Trinity. They think that although they would agree that there's equal membership in the triune
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Godhead, the Father is not greater than the Son, and the Son is not greater than the Spirit, and the Spirit is not greater than the
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Father, they agree with essential equality, but they don't want the
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Son to ever be subordinate to the Father. Not in eternity past, not in the incarnation, and not in eternity future.
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So that's the stuff we're going to be thinking about today, because if you understand the Trinity, you'll get how men and women relate.
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You'll realize that it's not me, Tarzan, you, Jane. You'll figure out that in the church, because this is 1
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Corinthians 11 now, in the church Paul is going to say there are differences, there are different roles.
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The husband at home isn't better than the wife, the wife isn't better than the husband, the parents aren't better than the children, but there are different roles.
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And function in the military doesn't mean inequality, nor does it mean that in the church, nor does it mean that at home.
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And the way the feminists want to think in evangelicalism is, if there's a difference, there has to be inferiority.
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If somebody's under someone's authority, they must be worse off. Dr. Bartlett said,
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The doctrine of the Trinity lies at the very heart of the Christian truth. It is the center from which all other tenets of our faith radiate.
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Listen, if we entertain wrong views of the nature of God, our entire theology is imperiled, including gender roles.
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Who's on first? Who's better? Who's worse? Those answers can be given as we study the
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Trinity. I wonder if I did a conference and said, We're going to have a conference on the Trinity, how many would show up?
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Edward says, God, Jonathan Edwards, God appeared glorious to me on account of the Trinity. God would be so great, one
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God, three persons. He said, that's glorious. It has made me have exalting thoughts of God, that He subsists in three persons, the
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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When you understand the Trinity, it will enrich. It won't diminish your view.
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Now let's think 1 Corinthians. Paul has been talking to the church of Corinth. And it's a carnal church.
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Some things they do well, not very many things. And Paul has been telling us in chapter 8, 9, and 10, that we're free in Christ, we can't be more forgiven, less forgiven, and we should think about our liberty as we interact with other people.
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Now in chapter 11, 12, 13, 14, he comes to a different subject, and it's an important subject of worship.
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Your worship matters. Precision in worship, because we serve a precise God. It's just not, well, however
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I feel, I'll worship. And they did this whole paradigm, the Corinthians did, we just do what we want, and Paul says, that's not what you do at all.
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He addresses worship in 11, 12, 14, and then in the middle of all that, love in the middle of worship.
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Ask Nadab and Abihu how important worship is, precise worship. In chapter 11, he really talks about two things in corporate worship.
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Men and women's roles, and then the Lord's Supper. So today, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 2 through 16, we're going to talk about how men and women are different in a worship service, and how does it play itself out.
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For those of you that want to know should you wear a veil or a head covering or a hat or something like that if you're a wife, we're not going to get to that today.
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We're going to look at some other things that will set the stage. Look at verse 31 of chapter 10.
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He said earlier in the context, to tie these two together, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
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Eating or drinking in the context of Christian liberty, bring glory to God. Now we move into chapter 11, how you worship it should bring glory to God.
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Honor and shame paradigm is true in liberty, and it's true in worship. And so Paul wants us to give the maximum glory and praise to God as we worship.
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There is propriety in worship, and there is subordination in worship. Let's think about this culturally for a second.
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Pagan place Corinth. I find this fascinating. I've been to Corinth, and I've seen the hill where the thousand prostitutes come down and engage in quote -unquote worship with people who are going to pagan temples.
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It's a horrible place. Now, these ladies who lived in Corinth, who were married, wore some kind of shawl, and they put it up over their head, or they had a little veil, some kind of head covering, because that was to show, just like in Muslim countries today, that the wife is subordinate to the husband.
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Not lesser, not inferior, but subordinate. Her head, her authority is the husband.
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And so the Jews did that back in those days, the Gentiles did that in those days. And then the pagans, who had their head covered in society, would go to the house of Diana worship, to the house of any other kind of pagan god in worship, and they'd say, no husbands over me when
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I worship. Only goddesses over me, and I'll throw off any kind of head covering. I'll take my shawl and not put it on.
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Now you've got the people at Corinth, the ladies at Corinth, saying, well, we're Christians now. In public,
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Jew and Gentile, we have our heads covered if we're married. But now we go to the house of worship. What do we do?
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There's only God over us, not husbands. And they were taking off their shawl or their head coverings too. And by the way, it was super hard too, because sometimes
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I say to the kids, I have to go to church today, and what do I mean? I'm going to all your houses today? That'd be a good mileage expense report.
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No, what does it mean? It means I'm going to this building. We know we are the church and this is the building. How about back in this day?
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No church buildings. You'd go to somebody's house. So now you can imagine how complicated it could be.
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Okay, in public, I'm married, I have the shawl up over my head, and then when
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I go to pagan worship, I take it off. When I go to worship now as a
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Christian, I don't think I'm supposed to take it off, but I'm not going to the church to put it on. I'm at my own house.
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I wake up at church because my house is the big house. I invite people over. Do I have to put on my shawl and my head covering at my own house?
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So see how complicated this can all be. And so what does Paul do? Paul is going to say in 1
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Corinthians 11 verses 2 through 16 that the sexual differences between men and women are part of God's purposes and differences in function do not mean inequality.
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If you say, Mike, you think you're in charge and therefore somehow you're better than me, you've made the wrong feministic jump of logic.
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And I will prove today from the Trinity that the Father is God, the Son is God, the
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Spirit is God, yet the Father's not greater than the Son, the Son's not greater than the Spirit, and the Spirit's not greater than the
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Father. There can be functional subordination in the Trinity without one being better than the other.
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Behavior of men and women in a local church service matters. Let's look at verse 2.
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Paul gives a rare word of commendation. He's thanked God for them in chapter 1 and now he does something he hardly ever does.
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He commends them. Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I have delivered them to you.
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Good job, Corinth! You remember me! He was there for 18 months and he's remembered.
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People thought fondly of Paul, the Corinth folks, even though they did a lot of dopey things, they thought fondly of Paul, and Paul said,
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I praise you for that. Not just that you remember me, but what does the text say? And maintain the traditions, or guard the traditions just as I have delivered them to you.
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You keep on remembering me, which is good, and then when I receive from Jesus, Galatians 1,
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Christian doctrine, I delivered it to you, I passed it on to you, and you accepted it.
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And you guarded it. You didn't do a lot of the stuff, but you held it to be true. True or false?
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When you see the word tradition in the Bible, it's most often a negative thing. You hold the traditions of men versus the traditions of God.
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Most people think tradition is mainly wrong. Man -made traditions that go above God's word or are equal with it are always wrong, but this isn't the bad word tradition.
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This is something taught about God, a historical fact and the doctrine drawn from it, just like 2
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Thessalonians. In a culture that everything was passed down by word, you've kept these traditions.
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There are good traditions and there are bad traditions. Very positive comment about traditions here.
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I commend you. And then he says in verses 3 and 4,
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I need to correct you. So let me give you the outline for the next several weeks. The outline is five reasons the
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Corinthian women who pray or prophesy should have their head covered. Five reasons that are not cultural at all, that the
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Corinthian women who pray or prophesy should have their heads covered. You say, well, that kind of sounds kind of weaselly to me.
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I want to know, should we? Well, we'll get there. I will tell you once we get through it, but I want you to see this first.
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Whatever you do, don't do this. That's cultural. They did that, it's cultural. It's cultural, so we don't have to do it.
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And it's just the easy way out. It's the wiggle room to get out of culture. You know what's cultural as well?
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How about blood atonement? Blood atonement was cultural. It was not our culture.
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Does America say blood atonement? Oh, yeah. Wages of sin is death. If somebody sins, they've got to die.
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Cut the neck of something else, an animal. When we see blood atonement, we're like, this is weird. So Paul doesn't use any cultural arguments.
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He uses arguments that transcend culture to make sure the
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Corinthians know that gender still matters in a worship service when you worship Jesus Christ.
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Five reasons why the Corinthian women who pray and prophesy should have their head covered.
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And here's the good news, congregation. We will look at should we wear head coverings or not in our church.
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Not next week, because Steve Nichols will be here. Not the week after that, because it'll be Resurrection Sunday.
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Not the week after that, because I'll be in Kansas doing a No Compromise conference. But the week after that.
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So you've got plenty of time to study. Plenty of time either to buy a doily or to put your doily away, depending on your view.
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But here's what happens. We come to this passage and we automatically default to, does my wife have to wear a head covering or not?
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And I want to go slow down. Slow down. There are reasons for things. And if you understand the reasons, then it'll all be much clearer to you versus just tell me what to do.
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No, I want to tell you why you should do what you do or don't do. That's the key. The first reason,
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Paul says, that at least the church of Corinth, we know more people should do this as well.
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Look at verse 16 of chapter 11. If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no other, should be the translation, practice.
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Nor do the churches of God. The other churches in the area around Corinth and Athens and Mediterranean, they do the same thing.
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So it's just not Corinth, it's churches back then. But at least for them, maybe us too, but at least for them, five reasons that women who pray and prophesy should have their head covering.
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The first one is the divine order. Because of the Trinity, found in verses 3 to 6. That's where we're going to camp today.
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Verses 3 to 6. Let's read just verse 3 for now. And Paul is going to try to show us that there's a well -ordered chain of command.
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Men aren't better, women aren't better, but we have different functions. But I want you to understand,
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Paul says. By the way, that's a nice way to say it. What has Paul said over and over in 1 Corinthians? Do you not know?
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Do you not know? Do you not know? It's like Jesus in Matthew 21. Answer me the question. Do you not know?
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You should know this. But Paul says, I just want you to know. I want you to know this.
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I don't want you to be ignorant, brethren. Who has a translation that says ignorant, brethren? I don't want you to be ignorant, brethren.
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Nobody has it. Nobody here has the King James Version? Oh, one does. Does yours say ignorant, brethren,
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Bob? No. Okay. Same thing that he says here.
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I want you to understand. I want you to get it. This is positive. This is kind of Paul.
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I want you to realize this. And then he uses one word three times, which is the key to unlock the meaning.
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Head. That the head of every man is Christ? We'd all go, hoorah. Yes, that's true.
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Jesus is our captain. He's our head. He's one who has authority over us. The head of the wife is her husband.
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And you can imagine people in our society today, and even the Corinthian ladies, just kind of gulping at that.
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And then, to ease the pain, to make us think that difference doesn't mean inferiority, that subordination does not mean inequality,
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Paul says, and the head of Christ is God. Now, if I were going to argue this, I'd say, let's start from God and work our way to man.
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The head of Christ is God. The head of man is Christ. The head of a wife is her husband.
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That's not how Paul argues it, because he's trying to help them understand. Now, the word head means authority.
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I want you to understand that the authority of every man is Christ. That seems right. The head of every wife is her husband.
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He's trying to help the Corinthians understand gender differences. And the head of Christ is God. Now, feminists didn't like the word head, meaning authority.
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It's used over 2 ,000 times in classical Greek, and in Greek during this time period, called
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Koine Greek. So they've substituted a new meaning, and that new meaning is source. So, let's read that with the word source.
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And this is the feministic approach. Head means source of life. It doesn't mean authority, because they can't understand you can be different, yet equal.
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But I want you to understand that the source of every man is Christ. Well, that would be true, that the source of a wife is her husband.
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Maybe you go back to Adam to figure that one out. And the source of Christ is God. That doesn't work, because now
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I'm a Jehovah's Witness. Now there's a time that Jesus didn't exist. He's not the eternal
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Son, and now I'm all mixed up. A simple reading of the text, a contextual reading of the text, a cultural reading of the text, a
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Greek reading of the text is authority. It's simple, that's what the Bible says. The head of a wife is her husband. He's not better, a different function, but the feministic agenda is desperate to make that word something besides authority.
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Or the other default of the feminists is, what? Man wrote that book. That's the classic way to get out of anything.
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Well, a man wrote that book. But the text says authority. Christ has authority over man, man has authority over woman, and God has authority over Christ.
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Turn to Ephesians chapter 1. I want you to see how this word is used for authority. Just one other spot in the triune thinking,
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Ephesians chapter 1, verses 22 and 23. You say, well, I just want to know, do
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I have to wear a head covering or not? This will help you. You have to have your thinking caps on when it comes to the abstract concept of the
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Trinity, but I think you'll be encouraged. Ephesians 1, 22. Trinitarian thinking,
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Trinitarian language, and we see the word head, and it means authority. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, the
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Father did to the Son, and gave Him, the Son, as source over all things to the church?
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Absolutely not. As authority or head over all things to the church, which is
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His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. It does not mean origin.
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It doesn't fit the context. The Corinthians were usurping the authority of God's Word, acting like they were men, doing things that men should do and they shouldn't.
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And God wants the difference to remain in the worship service. We are equal in Christ, but there are differences.
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Who does what? I have a question to ask you.
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Is Jesus equal to the Father? Is the Father equal to the
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Son? Is the Spirit equal to the Son? Yet Jesus could say in full equality,
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My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and accomplish His work. Is Jesus worse because He's sent by the
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Father to do the work of God? Absolutely not. You say, well,
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I can't really get the Trinity. Amen. Welcome. If you deny the
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Trinity, I'm not sure you can be saved. But if you think you can fully grasp it with a finite, sin -tainted mind, how can there be three in one?
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I don't have time to do it now, but there are about 50 different ways to try to prove the Trinity that all prove false. See, here's the egg.
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You've got the shell. You've got the yellow yolk. You've got the white albumen. See, one, three.
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All those things mess it up. Ice, water, steam. Let me teach you quickly three points about the
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Trinity that if you remember, I'd suggest you don't write it in your margin. I suggest you write it in the front of your
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Bible or in the back of your Bible. So if a Jehovah's Witness comes or someone else who denies the Trinity, these are the three things that you need to remember about the
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Trinity before we get back into the passage about headship. Three reviews for many of you to understand the doctrine of the
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Trinity, at least from what's been revealed. We can't even understand the real nature of electricity in the world today, let alone our triune
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God. But God has accommodated himself in the language of Scripture and what Scripture says we ought to believe.
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Number one, if you'd like to understand the Trinity, you must believe there's only one God, eternal, immutable.
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His being is one, indivisible. Here, O Israel, the Lord our
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God is one. Actually, that word one in Deuteronomy 6 doesn't mean one in isolation, but one in unity.
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No one's like God, there's one God. Isaiah 43, Before me there was no
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God formed, there will be none after me. 1 Corinthians 8, 4, There is no
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God but one. That's why all other gods are false idols, aren't true, because there's only one
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God. The fundamental truth of Christianity is there's one God, we are monotheists. That's point one.
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Point two, if you'd like to understand the Trinity, you must remember that there are three eternal persons described in Scripture.
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Three eternal persons. The Father, the Son, the Spirit. And they are never identified with each other.
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The Father's never called the Son, the Son's never called the Spirit, the Spirit's never called the Father. Distinct persons, yet one
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God. Turn to Matthew 28. I love Matthew 28 for lots of reasons. We call this the Great Commission.
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So let's go to Matthew 28 and see how can there be three persons in the
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Godhead. Father, Son, and Spirit. I always think of Holy, Holy, Holy, the song, God in three persons, blessed what?
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Trinity. Matthew chapter 28. Because man can't grasp something doesn't mean it's not true.
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God, I can't completely understand you. It seems like it's transcendent logic, supralogic, it seems illogical.
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It's not illogical, but we can't get our mind wrapped around it. That should not be cause for you to go, okay, it can't be true.
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Because you can't understand the mind of God, therefore it must not be true, that would be the wrong way to go about it. But here in Matthew 28, in this
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Great Commission, the Great Commission was Jesus getting sent by the Son and the Son willingly going.
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But here we have the small g Great Commission, Matthew 28, 18. You know what's so great about preaching two sermons?
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I love this passage so much I get to preach it again right now. This is great. Normally I preach a sermon,
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I don't go preach it again for another 15 years. I preached a sermon this morning, and now Matthew 28 again.
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Here it goes. The precision of the language. No wonder God took
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Alexander the Great by the nose and yanked him up into Palestine and said we need this language because Hebrew is very picturesque, but not very precise, and we need an engineering like language that is super precise because this
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God we serve is precise and without precision you can't understand the Trinity. Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth, still equal with God in essence, but subordinate.
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Now he says to the men and all those who would follow, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name.
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Stop there. In the singular name. What if verse 19 said, baptizing them in the names of the
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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? You'd have three gods.
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There's only one God, but it's singular name. What if Jesus said, baptizing them in the name of the
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Father and in the name of the Son and in the name of the Holy Spirit? You'd have three separate beings.
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But it doesn't say that. What if Jesus said, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, Spirit?
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I'm a dad, I'm a father, I'm a worker. One God described three different ways, but he doesn't do that.
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What does he do to make sure it's as precise as you can get? Three in one. One God, three persons. Baptizing them in the singular name of the
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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The unity of the three, all under the bounds of a single name.
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Friends, did Jesus say, I am the Father? He said, I and the Father are one.
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But did He say, I am the Father? No. Did Jesus say, I'll send another Comforter, me?
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Did Jesus Himself in the form of a dove descend upon Himself? No. I can put it this way if you're a kid and we're just trying to get your attention a little bit.
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Did Jesus throw His voice when He was getting baptized? This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased.
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I always thought that was interesting when I'd watch Ed Sullivan as a kid. How does that person throw his voice? It's an interesting thing.
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When the Father sent the Spirit, was He really sending Himself? Is the
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Spirit who intercedes before the Father's throne now in Romans 8 really the Father talking to Himself?
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Trinity. One God. Trinity. Eternal Son, Eternal Father, Eternal Spirit.
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And they're not the same. Three eternal
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Persons. And then the final thing that you should remember when it comes to the Trinity, not just that there's one
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God, not just that there are three Persons, but that the Father, Son, and Spirit are all fully God. Father, Son, and Spirit are all fully
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God. Deity of Christ, Deity of the Spirit, Deity of the Father. So if you get these three posts down,
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Post 1, there's one God. Post 2, there's three Persons. None of them are the same and they're all
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God. You'll understand what you should understand about the Trinity. Jesus is called what
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Yahweh is called in the Old Testament. The first and the last. Jesus is called what Yahweh is called in the
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Old Testament. Savior, Shepherd, Rock. Jesus does what Yahweh does in the
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Old Testament because He is Yahweh. He creates. He saves. He forgives. You say, no, no, no,
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He's just the Son of God. God the Father is God and Jesus is the Son. Lesser of essence.
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What does Son mean? I'll tell you what Son means. I have a son sitting right over here. He should be sitting over there. Where is he?
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Where are you sitting? Son means that that person possesses the nature of his father.
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That's what that means. So what's the point? The Father and the
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Son are equal, but they have different roles. Husband, since that's true. Men, since that's true.
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You aren't superior to women. You have a different role. At work? Maybe.
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Maybe not. At home, yes. And in the church, yes. And wives? My husband has a different role and he has headship in the home.
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Well, you don't have to get all crazy about it to think somehow you're inferior or you're not equal to him because you are equal in Christ.
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Now, back to chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians. Let's talk about this a little bit more. See, I said you're going to have to have your thinking caps on, but this is
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Paul's argument. How do you figure out gender roles in the church? Answer? Well, this is what culture did.
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This is a patriarchal language. This is the talk of the day. See how bad men were to women throughout all these years.
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That's not what Paul does at all. Paul says you want to understand men and women's roles, you've got to understand the Trinity or you don't get it.
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Oh, Mike, but you don't understand. No, the Corinthians didn't understand. And if they did, they would have the right roles.
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See the three there? The head of every man is Christ. The head of her wife is her husband. And the head of Christ is God. Let's talk about that for a minute.
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The head of Christ is God. Because if you get that one down, then you can get the other one down regarding men and women.
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Ready? Some of you look ready. Some of you look like the
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Trinity. I actually want your mind to be short -circuited when you think of the Trinity.
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I hope you're going to go home and go, I've got to go home and listen to that sermon again. I don't know what he's talking about, but if he wants to grow the church and get a lot of money and a lot of people, that's the wrong kind of sermon.
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I don't want a lot of money and a lot of people based on how I preach. I just want to be faithful.
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And if God brings the people, fine. If He doesn't bring the people, fine. The Father, the
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Son, and the Spirit are all equally God. Does the Son have more or less attributes of God than the
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Father? Is the Son more wise than the Father? Is the Father more gracious than the
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Son? Is the Holy Spirit more powerful than the Father? What's the answer to all these questions?
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The Father is fully God, the Son is equally fully God, and the Holy Spirit is equally full of God. So what can it mean
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Christ reports to the head God? It has nothing to do with equality.
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It has to do with subordination. It has to do with function. It has to do with a captain and a sergeant.
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It has to do with a husband and a wife. They are equal, yet they are different. How many times have
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I said that today? Do you know what this sermon is about today? Subordination does not mean inequality.
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And there has to be subordination at home, but the passage is there has to be subordination in the church. And the
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Corinthians were insubordinate. Come one, come all. We are all equal in Christ. And they made the feminist fallacy true in what they did.
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We are equal in Christ? True. Therefore we have equal functions. False. The Godhead is equal in nature and essence, yet they have different functions.
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The Son is subordinate. But I want you to know even though the Son is subordinate, there is not a single attribute that the
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Father has that the Son does not have. There is not a single attribute that the Father has that the Son doesn't have to the same degree.
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R .C. Sproul said when we speak of subordination of Christ, we must do so with great care. Our culture equates subordination with inequality.
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But in the Trinity all members are equal in nature, in honor, and in glory. And all three members are eternal, self -existent.
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They partake of all aspects and attributes of deity. If you'd like to thrill your friends with theological jargon, you could say the
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New Testament in the Trinity teaches ontological equality, but functional subordination. Boy, I just kind of got goose bumps down my back when
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I said that. Ontological or essence, equality, yet functional subordination.
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Man, that was good. People say I put my hands up when we sing because that just epitomizes my praise and worship to God.
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People don't do that when I preach, though. I thought when God speaks through a sinful preacher, that's supposed to be the epitome.
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One time I was in Africa, and I told that story to some of the men there who were pastors. And we were having a good time, and we took a lunch break, and they all got lined up and set in their seats and everything ready, and their books open,
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Bibles in their notebooks. And then I came in as a speaker, and I started to preach, and every single man raised their hand.
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It's like, oh, the Word of God. Equality, yet in subordination.
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Now, let me ask you this. This is really cool. When was the Son subordinate to the
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Father? You go, incarnation, true. How about in eternity past?
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Because the feminists say this, in the incarnation, subordinate yet equal. But in eternity past, equal but not subordinate.
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And in eternity future, equal but not subordinate. So now with the time I have left, here's what we're going to do.
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I'm going to show you three places where Jesus is subordinate to the Father, yet equal. Eternity past, incarnation, and eternity future.
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Ready? Number one, let's start with the incarnation, the one in time.
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Jesus submitted as a Son on the earth. Not much controversy there.
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Now, if you misunderstand the Trinity, you'll go to a verse like this one, the one that the
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Jehovah's Witnesses tell you at your door, and you can kind of get bamboozled. Listen to this verse.
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Now that you know subordination does not mean inequality, and Jesus on the earth subordinated
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Himself under the authority of the Father, when you read this verse, it makes all the sense in the world. John 14, 28.
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You heard Me say to you, I'm going away, Jesus said. I will come to you. If you love Me, you would have rejoiced because I'm going to the
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Father, for the Father is greater than I. The Father has more attributes than the
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Son? No. The Father is more merciful than the Son? No. The Father did more in creation than the
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Son? No. But how is the Son having not as much authority as the
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Father? How can the Father be greater than I? Quoting Jesus. Answer?
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By function. In the incarnation, Jesus said, Father, You sent
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Me, you just read John sometime, You sent Me, You sent Me, You sent Me to do Your will. There is functional subordination.
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The Father sends. By the way, that's what Father means, doesn't it? I'm a
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Father and I should be given reverence. People should rely on Me and I'm in authority.
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Those are three things that a Father does. Why is God called Father? For many reasons. Not because He's male, like we think of male, but He is to be relied upon.
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He is to be revered. And He's the head. No wonder
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Jesus said in John 6, For I've come down from heaven not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent
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Me. So Jesus is lesser of a God, right? Lesser of a person in the Godhead. No. Sproul goes on to say,
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The Son obediently comes to the earth to do the will of the Father. We must be careful to note, however, that there is no sense of begrudging obedience.
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In other words, we have one God, and so we can't think that the Father says,
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Son, go redeem the elect. Those sinful people, go redeem them. And the Son's like, okay, whatever,
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I guess I go. No, because there's one God. The one God's mind says, Father, Son, and Spirit together, we will redeem the elect and make them look like Christ to the praise of the glory of our grace.
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And we will be exalted. And so the Father says, I have a plan. Son, go. The Son says, yes, I'm in on that plan.
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I planned it with you. I will gladly go. I will eagerly go. But Him eagerly going to do the will of the
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Father makes Him unequal to the Father? No, it makes Him subordinate to the Father.
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Jesus is in no way inferior to the Father. I and my Father are what? One. Does that talk about ontological essence or does that talk about functional subordination?
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You guys are smart. You guys are smart. I had a friend who said, every time I hear a word from the pulpit
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I don't understand, I go home and look it up and just write it down. Then I got it. By essence equal, by function subordinate.
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I and the Father are one. Talking about what? By essence. The Father's greater than I.
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Right. By subordination. But you know the really neat thing? It's not just on the earth when
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Jesus subordinated Himself to the Father, but in eternity past. Maybe one of my all -time favorite topics is the talk about God before Genesis 1 -1.
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It's mind -blowing. Jesus submitted Himself to the Father on earth, number one.
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Number two, in eternity past. I have a question for you.
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Hang in there. We're about done. Famous last words of the preacher. Just translate in your mind.
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Twenty minutes. We're done. No, less than that. When did the commissioning take place for the
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Son to come to the earth? In eternity past. Jesus is the eternal
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Son. He didn't become Son when He cloaked Himself with humanity. He was always
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Son. He was the eternal Son. Eternal obedience of the Son. Eternal subordination of the
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Son. Yet equal, of course. God had planned and predicted long before the incarnation that Jesus would live, and He would die, and He would be raised from the dead, and He would ascend to heaven.
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Acts 2, this man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge. It was all planned.
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No wonder Jesus said in Hebrews 10, or it's said of Jesus, when Christ came into the world,
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He said, Behold, I have come to do your will. What were the first words out of baby
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Jesus' mouth? I don't think Jesus said this with His mouth as a baby. But can you imagine, before Jesus was born,
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He talked. The eternal Son. What did you say before you were born? No, I didn't say,
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What did you say when you were born? I knew what you said. I knew what you screamed. By the way, everybody hates spanking these days, but don't doctors, isn't that the first thing they almost do now is spank the kid?
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Maybe that's why people are so messed up. Here's the point. Before time began, the council of the
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Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit had a plan. And even back then, when the plan was made, and the plan was agreed, the
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Son said, I'll gladly do it, and I'm under your authority, Father. You send me, I'll go. Not just on earth.
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Father, You're greater than I am. Father, I don't know these particular facts, as I'm setting aside my access to all my privileges of deity.
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But in eternity past, the same thing happened. An eternal relationship of the
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Father and the Son. And then lastly, submission in glory.
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Jesus Christ is subordinate to the Father functionally in glory, although by essence equal.
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Turn to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15, last verse of the day, last set of verses. Internal subordination.
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Now as you're turning there, I want you to think about the future. Will God in the future be known as the
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Father, the Son, and the Spirit? And if so, still using language of subordination and authority.
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Father having authority over the Son. Don't change His name when He gets into glory.
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Nor do we say to ourselves, let's see, 15 times in the New Testament, Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of God the
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Father. A secondary place of authority. God has the place of authority.
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He sits on the throne, as it were, figuratively. But at the figurative, metaphorical place, the right hand of the
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Father is a place of authority, but it is secondary authority. The eternal subordination of the
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Son in past, on earth, and in the future. And look at chapter 15 of 1
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Corinthians. It's so wonderful. Then, chapter 15, verse 24, comes the end when He delivers the kingdom to God the
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Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all
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His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under His feet.
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And when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that He has accepted who put all things in subjection under Him.
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When all things are subjected to Him, it's all at the foot of the cross, as it were. Then, this is future, then the
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Son Himself will also be inferior to Him. No.
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Subjected to the Father, who put all things in subjection under Him, that God might be all in all.
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How cool is that? That on earth, the Son was equal to the Father, I and the Father are one.
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Yet He said, I came to do Your will, and You're greater than I am. In eternity past, God's greater, the
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Father's greater in authority, but not by person, or essence, or quality, or attributes, or honor.
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And in the future, after everything's said and done, and everything's put under Jesus' feet, Jesus gives it to the Father and says,
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I'm under You. So if the Father has authority over the Son, and the Son's under the Father, and there's equality, and no one gripes about that, no one wigs out about that, no one's having some conniption fit about that, when you grasp that, then you should say to yourself, if God has placed me in authority at home or at the church,
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I'm not better, I just have a different function. And if you're on the underside of that, like a member of the church where the elders have authority over you, you say the elders aren't better,
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God has just decreed that role. And if you're a woman in the church, you say the men aren't better, but God has just decreed the role.
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And so show me a feminist, and I'll show you someone who has a low view of the Trinity. Four walkaways with,
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I'm gonna give them rapid fire, four takeaways. Number one, ladies and gentlemen, submission is not bad, it does not mean inferiority.
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I think I've said that all along today, haven't I? If you're taking notes, that's the sermon. Subordination does not mean you're a victim.
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Number two, whatever God calls himself in the Bible, you should call him.
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Oops, did I just say him? Sorry. You should call the he, she. No. What God calls himself.
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Jesus could have said, by the way, all that Old Testament prophet stuff and God the Father and all that patriarchal nonsense, this is who he should be called.
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No, he called him the Father. We're taught to pray our what? Father. Oh no,
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I got bad thoughts about men and patriarchal stuff. I got a bad father on earth.
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Friends, you think about if God, the greatest Father ever, should be revered, relied upon, and to be tucked underneath His authority, you can still say,
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God, you're my Father. So what the Bible says about calling him things, He's not called the
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Mother. He's not called he, she. He's not called the he, she. God is not called the
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Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Number three, rejoice in authority.
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Don't buckle against it. Don't go against it. Don't buckle under it either.
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The opposite of authority is chaos. Ask the government in Somalia.
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God has a well -ordered system at home and in the church, and we rejoice in that. Otherwise, we're saying,
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God, we don't like the way you do it, and we don't like you because you have a well -ordered, functional system, as it were, called the
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Trinity. And then number four, I've been waiting for this all day. Authority is
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God -like, and submission is
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God -like. People go, it's just authority, that's God -like.
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Because the husband's over the wife, and the elders are over the church, and that's like God the authority.
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What about the Son? The Son submitting, Philippians 2, even though He was
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God, He is God, He didn't grasp His exercise of His attributes,
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He cloaked Himself with humanity. And if the Son submits to the Father, it is godly to submit.
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It is God -like to submit. Isn't that good to know? It frees everything up. It gives me more time to figure out, do
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I need to buy a doily, or do I need to burn it? Right? The moral of the story today is, the truth that you need to remember is, the bottom line, at Corinth and at Bethlehem Bible Church, God is one,
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He exists in three persons, the Father, Son, and the Spirit, they are all God, and the Son gladly subordinates
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Himself to the Father, yet everyone's equal, and therefore the picture of God as the Trinity fleshes itself out in the church between men's roles and women's roles.
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Who can teach? Who can't teach? What men can do, what women can do, because everyone is a sinner saved by the grace of God who does what
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God, who made the universe, says to do. God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Let's pray.
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Thank you, Father, for this day. I pray for those who are struggling with the doctrine of the
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Trinity, that You would encourage them, that You would show Yourself by the ministry of the illumining power of the
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Spirit of God to be a great God in three persons,
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Father, Son, and Spirit. We praise You that You're a triune God, and we praise You that You've given us order.
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I pray that You'd encourage both the ladies and the men to live in light of who they are in Christ Jesus and the roles that You have decreed for them in Jesus' name.