Women's Role In Ministry Of God's Church (pt-1)

Tonight we're going to look at this issue of women's roles in ministry. What do women do in the local church?

How does God see men and how does God see women? I read

Elizabeth Elliott today a quote. She said, For years I have noted with growing disquiet the pollution of many

Christians' minds by the doctrine of feminism. I believe it is a far more dangerous pollution than most have realized, and I, with what seemed to me pitifully few others, have tried to sound the alarm in every way

I could. Elizabeth Elliott. She's exactly right. There's an all -out assault on three different things in America, in the world, and these are all three

God -ordained institutions. The government, the family, and the church.

And if those are the three institutions that God has to bring the gospel and or to restrain sin,

I would imagine that Satan would attack all three institutions. The government, the family, and the church. And so what we want to do tonight is look at this issue, women's roles in ministry.

What can a woman do in church? What can a woman not do? What can men do? What can men not do? Let me give you a few ground rules.

Ground rule number one, the only ground rule really, the scriptures will be our authority. The scriptures will be our authority.

I mean, I don't know what else to tell you. It's a Bible -teaching church. What does the Bible say? It happens to me all the time.

I know what the Bible says, but... Have you ever heard that? The second people say that, it's just like time to wash your hands.

I know what the Bible says, but... Translation, little halo thing that comes up. Translation, I don't like what the

Bible says. Even talking to Bruce today, someone was talking about women's roles, and the response was to you when you were starting to talk about the

Bible, the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

In other words, you take a Bible verse out of context and say, if I don't like what you're saying, the letter kills and the spirit gives life, and you're quoting the letter of the law, and I don't like it.

It is not what society says. It is not what history says. It is not what is best to me. It is not my opinion.

It is not the pastor's opinion. It is not polls. It is not the government. It is not what your parents believed.

It is not what your last church taught you. It is not what you feel. It is not your emotions. It is not your experiences.

Well, I had a really wonderful time with a woman pastor, but I really had a horrible time with a male pastor, therefore.

It is not any of those. Evangelical churches, we believe that the Bible is inerrant, without error.

We believe it is infallible. We believe it is inspired, but do we really believe it is, A, sufficient, and,

B, authoritative? And when someone says, I believe in the Bible, but I know they don't believe it is authoritative.

What does the Bible say? And be ready to pay the price, by the way, if you want to teach the

Bible or believe the Bible. Be ready, as we talked about today, to be labeled not only a dinosaur, but a troglodyte, a cave dweller, someone who has his head dug into the sand and doesn't understand anything.

It is not popular. It is not promoted. It is shocking to the world, and they don't like it. We are bigots.

We are women haters. Why? Because we believe what the Bible says. Listen to what the world teaches about women.

Sheila Cronin said, Since marriage constitutes slavery for women, it is clear that the women's movement must concentrate on attacking this institution.

Freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage. Vivian Gornick, author from the

University of Illinois, Being a housewife is an illegitimate profession. The choice to serve and be protected and planned towards being a family maker is a choice that shouldn't be.

The heart of radical feminism is to change that. And I would say, sad, but that's exactly the charge of radical feminism.

Declaration of Feminism, going way back, 30 years ago, and it's not gotten better. Quote, The end of the institution of marriage is necessary for the liberation of women.

Therefore, it is important for us to encourage women to leave their husbands and not live individually with men. All of history must be rewritten in terms of oppression of women.

We must go back to ancient female religions like witchcraft. Lori Gaylor, Ann Lori Gaylor.

Article was called Feminist Salvation, 1988. Let's forget about the mythical Jesus and look for encouragement, solace, and inspiration from real women.

Two thousand years of patriarchal rule under the shadow of the cross ought to be enough to turn women towards the feminist salvation of the world.

Mary Joan Bain, a feminist at Wesley College. In order to raise children with equality, we must take them away from families and communally raise them.

I thought about saying it, and then I thought not about saying it, but it takes a village, doesn't it? Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood.

I think she just stepped down, didn't she? She wrote an article called

Women in the New Race. Quote, The most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its infant members is to kill it.

Sheila Cronin also said, my last quote, before our stomachs turn inside out, the simple fact is every woman must be willing to be recognized as a lesbian to be fully feminine.

I mean, this goes deep. This is not just kind of a trivial thing. This is a satanic agenda.

And I'm just wondering about what these ladies would say about a church that got up and said there are different roles in the church for leadership, for men and women.

I wonder what Oprah would say. But it doesn't matter what they say, because what the Bible teaches, we're going to believe, right?

We're going to stand on that. Number two, and then we're going to need our

Bibles for this, men and women are equal in God's eyes. Number one, the Bible is what we go by.

Number two, men and women are equal in God's eyes. And that hasn't always been the case, by the way.

Greek historians said that the woman's praise, highest praise, consisted in not being mentioned at all during the

Old Testament times. Josephus, the Jewish historian in the first century who wrote many wonderful things, said this, unfortunately.

In all things, a woman is inferior to the man. Rabbi Judah, who is a contemporary of Josephus, said, quote, a man must pronounce three blessings each day.

Blessed be the Lord who did not make me a heathen. Blessed be the Lord who did not make me a woman.

And blessed be the Lord who did not make me an uneducated person. Some old non -scriptural

Jewish literature says, from garments cometh the moth, and from a woman the iniquities of a man.

That same book says, better is the iniquity of a man than a woman doing a good turn. And in the old days, according to Rabbi Hillel, you could get a divorce as a man if your wife burned the food.

A real barn burner. What is wrong with all this low status of women?

It is not biblical, and therefore it is sinful. It's wrong. Let's turn to Galatians chapter 3, and this is really the magnum opus.

This is the Magna Carta of women and men being equal in the sight of the

Lord. There will be different functions that we'll get to, but the first thing we need to establish and make sure we look at is some very familiar verses.

And I would say to you that this is biblical women's liberation. The Roman time, the Greek time, the society during Scripture, and even afterwards, wasn't even close to biblical.

And here comes Paul, and here comes Jesus in the Old Testament even, to say women and men are equal.

We're going to camp on this for a while. My plan is to talk about this, to talk about different roles, to ask a lot of questions, and then to let you ask questions.

So it's going to be probably a two -week series, as we're known here at BBC, the church of the two -parter.

I can't help it. How can you say everything you want to say in 45 minutes to 50 minutes? You just can't do it.

Verse 36, excuse me, chapter 3, verse 26 of Galatians. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ.

He says, you know, this whole idea of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.

He says, no, that's not right. Unbelievers, actually, the

Bible talks about the father being Satan in John. Jesus said that in John 8, I believe. And God is really only a father to his children who trust in Christ Jesus.

Verse 27, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

And remember the root word baptism. What does it mean? When you see the word baptism, if you're not careful, you're going to think of water.

And water is fine, but it's not always water. And so it means to place under, to immerse, to put into.

Just like when Jesus saved us, he placed us into the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12.

He placed us, he immersed us into the body. He baptized us. And here, it's not talking about water baptism.

We are placed into Christ's body. And we've been clothed with Christ and his perfect righteousness.

That robe of righteousness we have union now with Christ because we're placed into the body. So what's the context?

The context here is in salvation. Standing before God, men and women. Utterly naked before God.

They have only the Christ's righteousness. And what is the context? It's that very thing. It's salvation context.

And verse 28 says, There is neither Jew nor Greek. I mean, that was enough right there.

That was a showstopper. There is neither slave nor free man. There is neither male nor female.

For you are all one in Christ Jesus. Spiritual equality.

Mom or dad, worker, employee. The context here is before Christ.

Not roles, not functions. You could even think about a body. What's better, your hand or your foot? We need everything.

Well, there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free man, nor male or female. So we are equal in Christ.

I'm not better than Kim. Kim's not better than I am. The elders aren't better than the nursery workers. And you say, when did this start?

Just in the New Testament? No, let me show you from the Old Testament. Let's turn to Exodus chapter 21.

The Old Testament teaches this as well. You know what? Let's go to Genesis chapter 1.

We might as well look up these verses. I like to go verse by verse. This is a little more topical tonight, but that's fine.

Genesis chapter 1 verse 27. I believe the Bible teaches very clearly that both men and women are made in the image and likeness of God.

The man does not have two portions of God's image, and the woman has one. Nor does the woman have only half of God's likeness, and man has double.

Before the fall, before sin entered, men and women were equal in standing before God.

Adam and Eve were both equal in standing. Genesis chapter 1 verse 27.

And God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him. Male and female He created them.

The context is the image and likeness of God is on both the man and the woman. Furthermore, women in the

Old Testament, true or false, had responsibilities to worship God. Equal responsibilities to worship

God. They were to worship Yahweh, true or false. Absolutely. To obey the law, to teach the law, true or false.

Women were included in the Passover. Women, you all have to leave the house as we put the blood over.

Were they included? Yes, they were to worship God. Women were included with their heart, soul, mind, and strength to worship

God, to love Him. Furthermore, they had the same protection as men. Let's go to Exodus 21 now.

You say, well, you know, if women are lesser, if somebody hurts a woman and hurts a man, then there's going to be a greater punishment if the man is hurt versus the woman.

But that's not the case. Exodus 21 says they have the same protection. And if you committed a crime against a woman or a man, the same penalty would be exacted.

And man is valued, woman is valued. Exodus 21, 28.

And if an ox gores a man, or a what? Woman, to death the ox shall be surely stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten.

But the owner of the ox shall not go unpunished. It even says down in verse 31, whether it gores a son or a daughter, it shall be done to him according to the same rule.

Even with a slavery issue, verse 32, if the ox gores a male or female slave, here's what the owner shall do.

How about if you go back up to verse 15 of the same chapter? Exodus 21, verse 15. He who strikes his father, or his what?

Mother, shall surely be put to death. I can tell you stories in the airport where I just see kids hitting their parents and I just want to go into shock.

One time, by the way, I heard, I was in an airport, it must have been about seven years ago, ten years ago, and I couldn't stand it anymore.

I was sitting there and I was trying to be patient and I was sitting right next to this family and finally

I said to them, would you control your children? And it was like three weeks later and I was listening to Chuck Swindoll on the radio and he said, one time

I was in an airport and I actually heard a man say to a family, would you please control your children? At first I thought, where is

Chuck Swindoll when I need him? I wouldn't have to rebuke someone if Chuck was in town because I'd be sitting there in Nashville at Starbucks with Chuck Swindoll.

At least I'm not the only one who said to a parent, would you please control your children? You know, eight -year -olds walking up and hitting their parents.

But here, in the context for tonight, it's father or mother down at verse 17. And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

Men and women both have the same likeness and image of God. Before the fall and after, although tainted, both men and women have it.

God requires men and women to both worship Him. And God requires punishment exacted on both those that would affect or hit the mother or the father.

Let's turn to Numbers chapter 6. Do you know men and women could both take spiritual vows?

Spiritual vows. A -E -I -O -U. Spiritual vows. That is hard to say at night, isn't it?

The Nazirite vow. They were allowed to take that. Of course, men and women are equal in God's eyes.

There's separation from the world and devotion to God. Verse 2 of Numbers 6, Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them,

When a man or woman makes a special vow, This is amazing terminology for these days.

The vow of a Nazirite, to dedicate himself to the Lord Yahweh. He shall abstain from wine and strong drink, drink no vinegar, whether made from wine or strong drink, neither shall he drink any grape juice, nor eat any fresh or dried grapes.

Furthermore, women could pray to God, couldn't they? When you think of Hannah, does Hannah have access to God?

Sarah, and the list goes on. Matter of fact, a whole chapter in the Old Testament is written to praise women.

Can you think of that chapter? A whole chapter, just about praising a godly woman who fears

God. Proverbs 31, let's go there. A whole proverb on the virtuous woman.

And remember, Proverbs 31, well, we don't have time to look at all the details, but Proverbs 31, the writer learned from his mother.

Proverbs 31, 28, you know these verses, but we're just setting everything up. Her children rise up and bless her, her husband also, and he praises her saying, you are my footstool.

No, it doesn't say that, does it? The wrong version.

Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all. You are the best of the best.

You're the cream of the crop when it comes to women. You are praiseworthy. And he's not hiding this so the other men in society don't notice.

He is inspired by the Spirit of God. Charm is deceitful, beauty is vain, but a woman who fears

Yahweh, she shall be praised. And that's what he's doing, he's praising her. Give her the product of her hands and let her works praise her in the cellar.

No, in the gates, in the public place where everyone is, she is to be praised. And if she's a second class citizen, then she's not going to be worthy of praise as she praises

God. Did you know the Talmud actually teaches that it is better to burn the

Torah than to teach it to a woman. And you think of our dear Savior, Lord and Christ Jesus, what did

He do with the woman at the well? He taught her, didn't He? John chapter 4.

You are not supposed to touch a woman. As a matter of fact, some Jews didn't even want to receive money into their hand because that money,

God forbid, our money these days, the cloth currency, 95 % of it has cocaine on it.

So some people are wary of it. But now we do that. In those days, you didn't want to touch the money if you were a Jew because someone else might have touched it and it might have been a sewer worker.

It might have been a woman. Let's look at Luke 13 and I want you to see that Jesus not only taught women, but He touched them as He healed them.

He would touch a woman. They are not second class citizens. They are not somehow less spiritual or not as good as a man.

Luke chapter 13 verse 10. Not only did He touch women, but He allowed Himself to be touched by women.

Remember that woman who had a bleeding issue for 12 years and she touched Him? He didn't rebuke her for touching

Him. Luke 13 .10, And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, and behold, there was a woman who for 18 years had a sickness caused by a spirit.

This is amazing. Some kind of demon possession for 18 years.

And what did this demon do to her body? And she was bent double and could not straighten up at all. Can you imagine just bending over and touching your toes with your hands, probably even farther than that, and walking like that for 18 years?

And to think it was a demon, a spirit. And when Jesus saw her, He put on His latex operating room gloves.

I mean, it is just ridiculous, but that's the culture. As I say, and I say it all the time and you may get sick of it, when you read the

Scriptures from the time they were written and the culture, it just opens everything up. I'm reading a great new biography on Jonathan Edwards.

It's called Jonathan Edwards, A Life by George Marsden. An excellent book. Read the Iain Murray one first.

That's more evangelical. But this whole first couple chapters in the Marsden book is trying to understand

New England in the 1700s. Because you can just figure out what's going on a lot better.

And what did Jesus do? Verse 12, I mean, what a wonderful Savior. And when Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her,

Woman, you are freed from your sickness. And He laid His hands upon her and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying

God. Jesus wasn't afraid to touch a lady. Furthermore, true or false, women are given spiritual gifts in the local church.

Absolutely. Women and men both have gifts. Turn to another passage, Romans 16. For those of us that don't like genealogies because we can't pronounce everything or somehow we deal with the passage and we're like, hey, what's going on?

Why are all these names there? Here's a great genealogy and I trust you'll never read this. It's the same again. Romans chapter 16.

Did you know there are at least seven ladies at the end of Romans that Paul says, you are to be commended.

I just love that. I love it for a lot of reasons. One, it's biblical. But two, I love my wife.

Three, I have three girls. And it would break my heart to think that they couldn't serve the

Lord and be commended by other brothers and sisters. Let's look at some of them. Romans 16. I commend to you our sister

Phoebe who is a servant of the church who is at Centuria. She worked her fingers to the bone to the point of exhaustion.

What a wonderful lady. Verse three. Greet Prisca, our Priscilla, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus.

And what do they do? Not only Aquila, but Priscilla, who risked for my life, risked their own necks.

Verse six. Greet Mary who has worked hard for you. Hard working women of God.

This is not a woman, but hey, you're going through Romans 16, you don't get to do that very often. Look down at verse nine. Greet Urbanus, that's a male name, our fellow worker in Christ.

And Stachys, my beloved. Anybody know what Stachys means? It means corn ear, our ear of corn.

Now you know why now I love the Nebraska Corn House, Chris, because it's biblical. But can you imagine?

This is Paul's dear friend. It must have been a nickname. Old Corn Ear. Old Ear of Corn. You just are great in the

Lord's work. It's not really a name. It's super uncommon. Old Corn Ear.

Verse 12. Trifenia, which means delicate. Trifosa, which means dainty.

Both female, both feminine. Same verse. Greet Persis, right from the country,

Persia. That's a feminine name. Verse 15. Julia and an unnamed woman and his sister,

Nereus and his sister, and Olympus and all the men who are with him. No, he just says, and all the saints.

At least seven people at the end of Romans where Paul gives his commendation, he says, you are great servers in the

Lord. Furthermore, let's go to 2

Timothy chapter 1 and let me show you what else women do in the New Testament. God uses them as mothers and grandmothers to turn the hearts of their children.

I guarantee you tonight, if Luke has a problem, or Matty, or Gracie, and they get up in the middle of the night and come running into bed, they will not come to my side of the bed even though my side is the closest to the door.

Why? Because I'll just tell them, build a bridge and get over it? Sometimes I do.

I don't think I'd say that if they were sick. Yeah, I want to say that. But I didn't learn Christ that way.

Because God has just given a tenderness to the woman. And she uses that for God's glory.

Look at 2 Timothy 1 .5. I mean, how great is this? The greatest occupation, as it were, of anyone's life, let alone a woman's, for I am mindful of sincere faith within you.

Paul is writing to Timothy, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.

And most people think rightfully so. Here, Paul says, Timothy, you are saved because your grandmother and your mama taught you.

John Angel James of the 1800s said, the greatest influence on earth, whether for good or for evil, is possessed by woman.

Let us study the history of bygone ages, the state of barbarism and civilization, of the east, of the west, of paganism and Christianity, of antiquity and the

Middle Ages, of the medieval and modern times, and we shall find that there is nothing more decidedly that separates them than the condition of woman.

He was a Puritan pastor who said that. Acts 18 .24.

Now a certain Jew named Apollos an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the

Scriptures. But what happened? He began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard them, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

He knew there was only one God, but he wasn't regenerate. He was a God -fearer. In other words, a God -fearer.

In other words, he understood about Yahweh, but he didn't know how to be right with Him. And so both Aquila and Priscilla come and explain the way.

They are evangelizing. So all that to say, men and women are equal in Christ Jesus.

True? I mean, you've got to believe that. No one's better. You say, well, that's the easy part, pastor.

Get to the tough part. Okay, number three. Although equal in Christ, men and women have different God -ordained roles.

Although equal in Christ, men and women have different God -ordained roles. How do I know that? Because that's what the

Bible teaches. And so you can either do it one of two ways. You can say, I believe the Bible, therefore I'll submit to that.

Or you can say, I want to make up my own religion. It's patchwork, and I believe some of the Bible, and I don't believe other parts of the

Bible. That's why I think Larry King so admires John MacArthur when he has him on, because here you have these other men from different religions, and they don't even care about their own book.

And at least John says, I believe what's in this book, and I believe everything in it. And Larry King says, well, what book is that?

What Bible? And John says, the Holy Bible. I thought that was so good. We have different roles.

Now, I'm not going to get into wacko feminism. I'm going to talk about within Orthodox churches. And there's two views.

One is egalitarianism, which means there are no differences in roles. Egalitarianism.

And the other view, which this church would teach and support, would be complementarianism. That men and women are different, and we complement each other.

It's okay that we're different. There's egalitarianism, not with standing of God, but in roles of the local church.

So if you hear in this debate, are you an egalitarian? Are you complementarian?

They're talking about women's and men's roles. By the way, I recommend in some of the books tonight, that whole website,

Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and that big, fat, thick book I should have recommended tonight. I'll do that in a couple weeks.

It's a great place to start. Excellent website, too. Type in on Google, Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and you'll get some neat articles about how men and women complement each other.

And as one man said, we can enjoy the differences. That's why

I always think it's so funny when dating couples come in, and they want to get married, and they just say, we are so compatible.

And I just go, time will tell. We love the same things.

We like the same movies, the same books, and there's some of that, but God made us different. Just like with the church.

I mean, we're going to turn Wes Boylston upside down with this crew. With this guy as the pastor.

Why? Because somebody is great? No, because all of us have strengths, and all of us have weaknesses, and when, as Dave Jeffrey says, we lock shields, we cover each other's weaknesses.

Let's set up some words here. Number one, the word helper. Let's go to Genesis 2, verse 18.

And as we try to work through this, I want to look at the word helper first and let you know that even though women, before the fall, were designed to help men, helper is not a bad word.

Helper is not a six -letter horrible word. It's a good word. As a matter of fact, it's even used of God, and we'll look up a couple of those verses.

But back before the fall, that's very big, because a lot of people say, well, after the curse, men did this and did that.

That's true, but this is even before the fall. There was submission. Pre -curse submission.

Help. Genesis 2, verse 18. Then the Lord God said, Yahweh Elohim said, it is not good for the man to be alone.

I will make him a helper suitable for him. Now, I found out just today that the word help can be used even of God.

How can this be a bad thing? Listen to Psalm 118 .7. The Lord is for me among those who help me.

Exodus 18, verse 2. Jethro, Moses' father -in -law, took Moses' wife, Zipporah, after he had sent her away.

And her two sons, of whom one was named Gershom, for he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.

The other was named Eliezer, for he said, the God of my father was my help. Did you get that?

It's not bad to be a helper. Let's look at another word. 1 Peter 3, please.

The word submission. Women are to be helpers, and like it or not, four or five times, the

Bible teaches that women are to submit. And this is about as far as we're going to go tonight. Not because I'm afraid of stuff being thrown at me, but we want to wrap things up.

We'll get to the rest of the passages soon. And we want to, in the future, as you're looking up 1 Peter 3, we'll ask questions like, at what age should women not teach other boys in Sunday school?

All kinds of hard questions, and you come up with your own too. 1 Peter 3, verse 1.

In the same way you wives, and he's going back to what was going on with other issues of submission. Not in the same way, submit like slaves, but in the same way, submit.

Be submissive to your own husbands, so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives.

So you've got women to be submissive, and you can change your husband's bad behavior, or you could just be exercising proper behavior.

Submissive means to be under authority. It means to rank under. It's a military word.

And certainly the lieutenant colonel is not better than the private, but he's ranked under.

Being under authority is what this means. An arrangement. And I read these two things today by Piper, and they were great.

Submission, Piper said, is a disposition to yield to the husband's authority, and an inclination to follow his leadership.

What a great definition. A disposition to yield to the husband's authority, and an inclination to follow his leadership.

Furthermore, and this is very convicting, and very wonderful,

I thought, Piper said, the woman who is submissive is, quote, glad when her husband is not passive.

That's right. Submission is not inferiority. Submission is not second -class citizen.

Submission is not squelched, cramped, never give input, no importance, no dignity, nor honor.

And how do I know that? Where in the Bible do you see submission between even equals? Let's go to 1

Corinthians chapter 11. As God is a helper, help doesn't mean bad.

As women are to submit to their husbands, submission isn't bad, because Christ submits to the

Father. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Maybe you know all this, but we're just trying to put together our case.

1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 2. Now, I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions.

1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 2. Sometimes traditions in the

Bible are bad. In this case, they're good. The things that I've taught you, just as I delivered them to you.

Verse 3. But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man. Any argument there? The man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ.

Can you imagine? There it is. Equal. Is the

Father somehow better than the Son? Is the Son somehow less than the Father? Inferior somehow in essence?

No way. So with that being said, let's go back to 1 Peter chapter 3 and pick up a little bit more on a verse that just shocks some people to death.

And let me shock you right now. Some of these verses that you read, 1

Peter chapter 3, is controversial because you just read it and it's controversial. Let me read you the vows that Sheila gave to Bill.

How many weeks, how many days ago? 22 days ago? Bill, you're not counting.

Was it three weeks ago and a day? All right. Right here. Can you imagine?

I said this out loud, and I have to admit that feminism has so influenced me that I could hardly keep a straight face when

I read them. You know, you get that whole thing. The people come in the office and they want to get married and everything, and you just know the woman's got that in the back of her mind, so you just say, are there any questions?

And she says, Sheila didn't say it, are you going to make me say, submit or obey?

And then my flesh says, yeah, two times. But it is so difficult.

I mean, listen. Beautiful vows, by the way. I, Sheila, take you, Bill, to be my wedded husband.

With deepest joy, I come into my new life with you. As you have pledged to me your life and love, so I too happily give you my life.

And in confidence, submit myself to your headship as to the Lord. As is the church in her relationship to Christ, so I will be to you,

Bill. Excuse me, so I will be to you. Bill, I will live first unto our God and then unto you. Loving you, obeying you, caring for you, and ever seeking to please you.

God has prepared me for you, and so I will ever strengthen, help, comfort, and encourage you. Therefore, throughout life, no matter what may be ahead of us,

I pledge to you my life as an obedient and faithful wife. Now, try saying that in another church.

Can you imagine? Now, look back at 1

Peter. I mean, it's not just made up. It's not by a bunch of patriarchal tyrants who want to throw their weight around.

God forbid if that's the case. But look at 1 Peter 3. Verse 5, For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, they're holy and they're hopers, used to adorn themselves being submissive to their own husbands.

They ranked themselves under. They were glad when he was a leader. And here's the word.

You want a holy woman? You want a commended woman? You want a woman who's in the hall of faith? In Hebrews 11.

The Sarah. I mean, it's just hard to even read it, isn't it? Obeyed her husband.

Obeyed Abraham. You want to really push it, try getting in a chat room and typing this.

Calling him Lord. The engaged couple back there are going,

Lord. And you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear.

In other words, don't be afraid of doing the right thing and acting just like Sarah and saying, you know, my husband's not as smart as I am.

My husband is not as godly as I am. I'm more mature in the Lord. I'm this, that, or the other. But I'm just going to trust

God and I'm not going to be frightened when I say, submission begins when I disagree with my husband and I've given input to my husband and he wants to do the opposite thing and so I'm not even going to be frightened by what other people think, even by what

I think. The ramifications are between God and my husband and so I'm not going to be frightened.

Let it ride. One man said, submissive women become children of Sarah when they submit, as she did to Abraham.

And this was not, Lord, like some kind of slavish, you know, I'm going to slap you with the back of my hand. But it wasn't a one -time deal.

The text says, with both the verb and the participle, both is ongoing.

She always called him that. I think, what did Spurgeon's wife call him, Dave? Do you remember? Tershath?

Tersasha or something? I'm not trying to get the women here to call their husbands

Lord. That's not the issue. The issue is the heart and submission.

We're laughing stock today if we believe this, but we do. We have to. Did you know women must submit to God because if they don't, they dishonor

His Word? Titus 2 .5 Being subject to their own husbands that the

Word of God may not be dishonored. You want to honor God's Word, ladies? Line yourself under your husband.

Secondly, you should submit to your husbands as you submit unto the Lord. Ephesians 5 .22

Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. You can say, I don't even really want to submit to my husband, but I'll submit to my

Lord and Savior Christ. Number three, submit in all things.

Ephesians 5 .24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be subject to their husbands in what?

Everything. And then fourthly, submit because it's proper. Colossians 3 .18

Wives, be subject to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Not because He deserves it, not because He's earned it, not because He's better.

Jesus, true or false, submitted Himself to His sinful parents.

He did. Now, if your husband says sin, you can say no. Verse 6 of 1

Peter 5 For those of you that struggle with this, God knows. Humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.

1 Peter 5 .7 Casting all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Helper is not bad.

Submitter is not bad. And next week we're going to look at leadership in the church and then we're going to ask and answer questions like,

What about women leaders in Israel with judges in Deborah? What about women bosses at work and submitting to them?

What about women in the government? What about women working outside the home? What if women work outside the home and they have children?

Can women be ushers? Can women serve communion? Can women teach Sunday school?

Can there be women pastors? Etc. etc. So that will be in two weeks. And please write your questions down because I want to answer those as well.

Alright, let's pray and wrap it up. Father, we do thank You tonight. And I confess

I'm a product of the culture, Father, and it just sounds strange when I think of the word submit and to obey women to their husbands.

Yet, Father, that's what You teach and therefore we want to do it and we know it's best and we get joy from obedience. And Father, I'd first pray for the husbands, including myself, that we would never lord it over our wives, that You would protect us from that, that You would let us be so godly and like Christ that our wives would be glad to submit to Jesus Christ any day.

Help us in that area. And Father, I pray for the ladies, as we've looked at just submission briefly tonight, that You would just give them a joy and a confidence and that You would remind them that You are the one who has given them their husband.

And Father, that they would seek to please You above all else. Would You just give them the joy of obedience as You give the men the joy of obedience as they take on the role of leader and protector.

And tonight, Father, we pray for the dear people here in the service, many backgrounds, and we want to make sure that we love one another, that the men love the women and the women love the men and vice versa and all the different categories.

We want to do the right thing. And we pray for the dear people out there who are real Christians, who are so confused about this issue when it's perfectly clear what to do.

And we'd ask that You'd just be our teacher and that this might be a church that proclaims the gospel, whether people want to hear it or whether they don't.

And Father, You would give us hearts of courage to stand on the truth and stand on the promises of God. In Christ's name we pray.