Basic Truths from Genesis: He Made them Male and Female

Good morning, if you do have a Bible turn to Genesis 127 and we're going to be reading

Genesis 127 and continuing our study on basic truths from the opening chapters of the

Bible Today we're going to be discussing the basic truth that he made them male and female

So if you do have your Bible open go ahead and stand for the reading of God's Word today

Genesis 127 So God created man in his own image in the image of God.

He created him male and female. He created them This is the

Word of God. Let's pray Well, we thank you for the opportunity that we have to think about the truths and your word today.

We know that we Are desperately dependent on you in order to understand ourself and what you've made us to do

Pray here that you bless our time here today and you would give us much insight into your scriptures so that we may know you

Better be more faithful to your purposes your son's name. I pray. Amen you know, honestly, it's

Pretty strange. It's pretty strange to be living in the kind of time that we're living in today

Where so many people in our society seem to be so confused about so many different basic things

I mean, I can't believe that I'm standing here today Trying to explain to you what it means when

God says he made them male and female Knowing that we're living in a world that is actively hostile to all of these things

So we're so confused as a society that we we don't even know the difference between man and woman anymore and That different.

I mean those differences are just lost to us in so many different ways I mean, I don't know if you watched

Matt Walsh's documentary What is a woman? But it was a very interesting documentary in the sense that now you have

Matt Walsh with his Deadpan sense of humor who is essentially going around and asking

Liberals basically he's asking them. What is a woman over and over again? And it's amazing to see how triggered our society is by a question just like that You know that you can you can be living in a world right now that is so confused at these fundamental points

But you know the premise of the documentary is he's going around. He's asking people. What is a woman? No one has an answer to the question throughout the documentary except his wife at the very end

And I don't know if you were paying attention at that point if you did see it, but the answer that was given Was an answer that in many ways is just woefully

Unsatisfactory So the answer that was given at the end was you know, what is a woman was an adult human female?

Whatever the whatever that kind of answer is it's just a tautology essentially It's just it's it's it's a definition that basically is using the word

Woman in the definition itself, right? So one of the basic things you learn in school is that you don't use the word that you're trying to define in the definition

Well in in that way when you say what is a woman a woman is a adult human female Why that's unhelpful is what you're supposed to do then is ask well what is a female right and now the point of the bio at the point of the the documentary is to say that female

Is a word that's tied to biology So the best here's the point the best we we have in our world right now in terms of a push back

On the gender revolution that's happening before our eyes is some sort of appeal to biology essentially.

Does that make sense? So you say hey, what is a woman? Well, the answer is well Let's let's appeal to chromosomes and and that's a that's about the best we have as a society but then

When you think about what God's definition of a man and a woman is it's much more than just two biologically distinct

Types of creatures. Okay. So a lot of our a lot of the confusion we have as a society is

Related to this basic and foundational point So the Bible Bible opens up with these words that God created man in his own image in the image of God He created him male and female.

He created them our society the the answer we have to the confusion is basically to try to persuade people to not identify as A woman if you're a man, right?

So that's that's essentially what the conservatives are trying to do trying to keep people from like if you're a man

You need to identify as a man But then our problems that you know with this basic point are so much more significant than that because we don't even know what a man is and we don't even know what a

Woman is and we don't know what they were designed for and what what is their purpose and what God? Intend to them to do.

Okay, and in and I'm afraid that the church really isn't All that helpful and in trying to tell us what these things mean

What the answer to these things actually are okay So meaning There's a generation of young men today who have no idea what it means to be a man

You really have no idea what it means to be a man And you have a generation of women who have no idea what it means to be a woman

And if you look at them and you say hey, the answer is related to biology like chromosome differences

Therefore You know the action plan here is You need to make sure that you identify with these particular set of chromosomes

That may be an answer that's helpful in some sense, right? I guess helpful in some sense and in terms of it keeps you from Identifying with the wrong set of chromosomes

But what I'm trying to say is it's an entirely Unhelpful answer in telling you anything about the nature of what masculinity is and what nature of what femininity is

And if you ask church leaders, what is the difference between men and women You know about all that they're gonna give

You know about all that you're gonna get from church leaders today is yeah, they'll point to biology and then they'll point to roles but then

That says nothing about the nature of what it means to be a man that says nothing about the nature of what it means

To be a woman There's no foundation given for these roles other than God just seemed to arbitrarily decide to Give man certain roles and give certain

Woman roles and we don't really even know why right? So if you if you ask the standard

Christian today who believes who even believes in gender roles. What does it mean to be a man?

They're basically going to tell you that what it means to be a man is just generic Christian faithfulness

So think about that for a second. What does it mean to be a man just generic Christian faithfulness?

That's the answer you're gonna get and what does it mean mean to be a woman? Well, just generic Christian faithfulness

That's the answer they're going to get. All right, so and then yeah, I mean you have roles

We don't know why God made those roles there. I mean, that's that's kind of the What what people are going to tell you

God's given there are roles. We don't know why God has given those roles But we know that he has given us his role so maybe we should try to be faithful and a lot of this is just related to General problems with what

I would describe as the complementarian movement. Now, I'm gonna use some big words today. I'm yeah, I I Want to express my

Acknowledgement that maybe not everyone's familiar with these words I'm gonna try to define them But I do want to set a little bit of the lay of the land where a lot of a confusion about this basic point

Lies within the church today. So there's different movements within the church Egalitarianism is a movement in society that basically asserts that men and women are essentially equal, right?

They're equal There's no Differences to men and women essentially so men and women are basically the same

They're basically the same that if you want to understand what egalitarianism is is men and women are basically the same they can do

Everything the same, right? So they're not does not like they're not independent like they're not two different creatures

Created by God who are designed for different purposes who have different strengths and weaknesses and who have been given different roles

That's not what he got egalitarians believe what egalitarians believe is that? You know you have men and women the differences are basically superficial a woman can do anything a man can do and probably better, right?

That's that's like you live in a society that believes that that a woman Basically is interchangeable apart with men she can do basically everything a man can do

This is basically the premise in almost every movie that you're going to watch Like the guy is kind of the incompetent buffoon

The woman like excels at her job and but then she also excels at the man's job. She's basically

Omnicompetent, right? That's that's the nature of the shows and TV shows and the movies that you're gonna watch the guy's kind of a buffoon

We don't know why he's here. So a woman basically do anything a man can do better And she also has the added advantage of being able to grow babies inside of a room if she wants to right if she wants to like you don't want to I Conclude that there's any

Responsibility she has to do that because that would reduce her to a baby maker and we don't want to do that But I mean like egalitarianism like that's the idea is egalitarianism tries to diminish the differences between men and women

Asserting that they're basically the same and then if you look around the world right like you look around the world you say hey

It seems like men are gravitating towards STEM fields Women aren't in the same way

But it can't be because they're created different with different strengths and weaknesses It must be because like oppression right so like there's a different outcome you observe you observe a different outcome

And you're trying to explain. Why is that outcome there? Well, obviously like patriarchy is bad We got to kill the patriarchy smash patriarchy like it so that we can get those outcomes, right?

Because they're both basically the same so egalitarianism is that right that's the egalitarianism

And that's the basic premise that our society believes in contradictory ways now within the church

There's what's described as a complementarian movement right now the complementarian movement is trying to reach over the past few years it was a way of branding

Like a position that's in between what you might describe as patriarchy and egalitarianism right

So yeah, egalitarianism. It's all different. There's no different roles man and woman are basically interchangeable parts

Ladies you just happen to also be able to make a baby who knows why right and then on the other end you have like Patriarchy which is bad.

I don't know like no one knows that is really it's just bad I guess the bad thing so we don't want to do that right like that's scary.

That's bad. That sounds like you know Petra's father right that's

That's not very egalitarian sound that's bad so complementarianism was a movement in between Right this basically trying to say hey, we're a middle ground in between these two things right so patriarchy

There's I mean there's some crazy men out there who abuse women. We're not like them That's that's that's the basic impulse

And so we believe that men and women are equal and then but then there are complements to each other right?

So but then part of the problem with the complementarian movement in general is

That it is basically kind of a halfway house between What like a biblically faithful view and egalitarianism so a biblical complementarian say basically affirm

That there are gender role differences particularly within the home and The church okay, so all of your main

Biblical complementarian movements that you I mean in organizations like the Council of biblical manhood and womanhood

John Piper is a major complementarian figure Wayne Grudem is a major Complementarian figure he wrote you know the book recovering biblical manhood womanhood and all that so you think all your major complementarian figures

They're gonna basically say there are roles God has designed roles for men and women in the church and in the home specifically

Beyond that in the world. They're pretty Who knows what they're gonna say on that right? But but but like the idea is there are roles

But then over and over again the point that complementarians are trying to make is we have no idea why

God made these rules Do you understand? There are role differences meaning

God like man has appointed as leader in home and Only qualified males can be pastors in church

We don't know why and this is the point that they're laboring to make In they labor to make it in such a way that like these roles are just kind of arbitrarily designed like assigned

Okay, do you understand what I'm saying? They're arbitrarily assigned. We don't know why so here's some quotes

Here's one from John Piper the limitation of eldership in the teaching office to men is

Not because men are more competent But because this is God's order in creation

Right so think about that God made men The gay gave them a teaching office not because they're more competent than women right and so this is the point

Complementarians are laboring to make over and over again not because they're more competent It's just because God decided to make them to create man first and therefore put him in that role

Okay, we don't know why right? We don't know why it's not and it's not tied to ontology That's just a big word that means being like it's not tied to like their makeup the way that they're made

There's no they have no inherent strengths That would make them more suitable for that role.

God just decided to do it right that way here's Wayne Grudem From evangelical feminism and biblical truth the issue is not competence but a manner but a matter of God's design and what he means by that is

God's Just stated intention for humanity not anything tied to their being right so if the issue is not competence

But a matter of God's design gone. God could have made women Women the heads of the homes and the leaders of the church, but he did not right

The fact that God has given men the responsibility to lead does not imply that men are more intelligent more spiritual and more capable of leadership

So you know there's a lot of things in there that are all Inserted together right like in terms of like man doesn't have any unique advantages in the leadership department certainly not any

Advantages in the intelligent department or competence departments. God just decided to make men a leader for some reason

We don't know why right so that's Wayne Grudem. Here's DA Carson. There's nothing about The complementarian view that says men are inherently better teachers preachers or leaders and women

The distinction is rooted in God's design not in any difference of ability right so here's

Alistair Begg from a sermon on First Timothy 2 the restriction of certain roles to men is not because women are incapable or inferior

It's simply that God has ordained different roles for men and women right there's no reason given right God Just decided to do it.

He could have done the opposite. We have no idea why he did he chose us right? Do you understand that's what they're saying in a variety of ways here's

Tim Keller from a talk on gender roles in the church Complementarian does not complementarianism does not imply that men are inherently better at leadership or preaching it simply affirms that God In his wisdom assigned these roles to men while equally valuing women's roles right so here's the thing you have egalitarianism

They there's there's no difference right men and women are designed uniquely They're not designed uniquely for anything when a woman just so happens to go to make a baby, but they're all the same right

So all these gender role stuff That's just social construct the fact that your daughter likes pink and the boy your boys like blue It's just like who knows why that's the case you just trained them like that.

You know like I Don't know why your boys are waving swords around and playing with cars and trucks and making loud noises and your

Daughters like to play with houses and home. It's just because you trained them to do that right. That's the egalitarianism

They're all the same. We're all the same You know you can do the opposite and if you trained them to the opposite they would and that's a big social experiment

They're running along Complementarianism is basically saying hey, there's these roles. There's these roles here right.

We don't know why they're there Do you understand it has nothing to do with how

God made men and women? It has nothing to do with that It's just he randomly arbitrarily decided and what we're gonna.

What we're gonna be talking about today is what I think is a biblical understanding About what it means when

God says God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him Male and female he created them, but I'm afraid that what we've been given as a church

Are some very unsatisfactory answers to what it means to be a man?

And what it means to be a woman? And as you read the Bible one of the things you're gonna realize is that men and women are not interchangeable parts

Okay, men and women are not interchangeable parts that could perform the other role Equally competent like God uniquely made one men and women and gave them very specific roles and purposes

Which he uniquely designed them for and we're going to talk about what that means today So as we're looking at Genesis 127 today as I said it opens with the words

God created men in his own image in the image of God. He created him male and female He created them

I'm not going to say everything that there is to say about this passage our subject matter is somewhat constrained today because I do want to I want this to I want to talk about what it means that God made them male and female

So this today is going to be a talk about Gender right it's gonna be talked about what it means like what is a man?

What is a woman? That's what we're gonna be talking about what and that's gonna give us some understanding of what we're talking about here

So I'm not gonna say everything there is to say about all these subject matter We're gonna try to visit them one topic at a time and talk about how the opening chapters of Genesis in particular and later revelation, which is shining upon those opening chapters of Genesis are

Commenting on these things but today our task here is just to understand what it means when

God says that man was created his own image and what it means when it says that God created them male and female you understand so the image of God basically it's a

There's a theological discussion here about what it means to be made in the image of God And this is a discussion that there's a lot of different views about this topic, which

I'm not going to cycle through okay The image of there's been no shortage of ink that's been spilled on this topic

But I think if you want to understand it in a very simple way There's a simple way to understand

What does it mean that man is created in God's image and it's this I think the image of God makes man

God's vice Regent on the earth that's what it means God is like the image of God make makes man

God's representative It's our job as men and women so notice how the text says in the image of God He created him male in a family.

Oh, he created them. It's our job to represent God on the earth That's what he's called us to do. We are his representatives

We are his vice regent God's vice regent. We are acting on his behalf on the earth so When you think about the nature of what

God has called us to do It says God bless them and he said be fruitful and multiply fill the earth and subdue it right you know have dominion over the

Animals of the land the fish of the sea like we are God's representatives on the earth That's what it means to be created in the image of God.

We are his vice regents. We are his representatives We are carrying out his purposes on the earth, and it's our job to fill the earth up full of people

Right and exercise dominion over the place. That's kind of what God has called us to do now What's very interesting here is when you?

When you think about what it means to be made in the image of God Because man is

God's representative, right? His life is sacred

This is what Genesis says because we like men and women are God's representatives on the earth our life is sacred

Therefore in Genesis 9 6 it says whoever sheds the blood of man My man shall his blood be shed for God made man in his own image

The fact that we're made in the image of God means that we're representing God an attack on us is

By extension and attack on God you understand so if a king sends a messenger to represent him you killed a messenger

Like the king takes that personally doesn't he you understand like that's the way it works So because that is his representative say you kill that person you're you're you're that attack on him is an attack on Who he's representing you understand, so that's the way it works, so we

God created man is on image What does that mean it means we represent him now both men and women are image bearers to text a now if that weren't the case

If that weren't the case then presumably it'd be okay to Like if only man was created in the image of God and not woman then presumably it would be okay to kill woman

Because she's not an image -bearing man is but that's not really what the text says whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his

Blood be shed for God made man in his own image Murder is equally wrong regardless of the gender of the person being murdered you understand

So the Bible is very clear on this both man and woman are image bearers Man is in a direct sense an image bearer the woman is in a derivative a sense a image bearer

This is the point that's being made in 1st Corinthians 11 7 for man ought not to cover his head since he is the image and Glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.

That's not saying that woman is not also Created in the image of God is saying she's an image bearer in a derivative sense does that make sense so both man?

And woman are image bearers are worthy of equal dignity and respect Can't just casually take their lives because they represent the king so like as image bearers men and women have a job to like Represent God in the world and carry out his purposes in the world does that make sense?

so both men and women are image bearers man in a direct sense woman in a Derivative sense what else do we see in the past as we see that man and woman?

Are given a shared mission Now it's almost impossible to understand

Like masculinity and femininity like what does it mean to be a man? And what does it mean to be a woman it's almost impossible to understand these things if you don't understand the shared mission that God Has given to man and we're going to talk about this shared mission

To some length in the lessons that follow I'm introducing it today as a concept, but I won't be elaborating on it

Okay But I'm just trying to say that if you want to know what a man is you want to know what a woman is what does? It mean when the text says

God created a male and female you need to understand something about the nature of that mission Which takes

I mean honestly when you read the book of Genesis and you get to Genesis 128 one of the things you'll see is

If you're trying to answer basic worldview questions, who are we where we come from where are we going? Why are we here?

You this is a text that should be screaming at you. Why am I here God? I don't know what you want for me

You know people pass that over and over and over again particularly in counseling settings like I don't know why I'm here

I don't know what my purpose is it's like just read Genesis. They'll tell you right. It's right there So what does

God say to man after he creates man? He defines man's purpose what

God man is made for right there is so what does God God say in Genesis 128? It says God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful multiply

Fill the earth and subdue it have dominion over the fish of the sea over the birds of the heaven over every living thing that Moves on the earth like this verse is going to help us to interpret everything that we see in the opening chapters of Genesis This is man's mission essentially okay now one of the ways to understand

What's happening here is like in understand the Bible in general is I like to talk about? This as the

Great Commission of the Old Testament or something like that I mean God's God's essentially given two great missions to man, okay?

So you think about this? What is this mission like? What is this mission that God has given to man it says

God blessed him and he said be fruitful multiply fill the earth subdue it I have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of heaven over every living thing that creeps on the earth like this is

Essentially God is looking at man. He's saying fill this place up full of people right and Rule it

That's what he's saying Like the Great Commission if you want to put it in that language of the Old Testament is fill the place up full of people

Build a civilization, that's what God's saying right and rule the animals rule all of creation. That's what you're doing

What is the Great Commission of New Testament? Well? It's Make those people into disciples right isn't that it so the earth will be full of the knowledge of the

Lord like the dry lands Cover the seas so like you think about this in terms of two commissions filled I great

Commission one fill the fill the place up full of people right and rule it rule over it Great Commission two is

Fill this place up full of disciples essentially right, but so man and woman are given a shared mission. That's the point so God Created man his own image right both man and woman are created in the image of God and the man and woman are given a

Shared mission, but here's the thing that we really really we don't like that. I don't like the nature of that mission

We think well as the Old Testament or something and haven't we already done that and you know I don't Maybe I like certain parts of that I don't like other parts of that and they aren't animals real special to and you know everything else

We don't really like that, but then we really we don't like the idea that there are these different roles

Given in accomplishing these mission because we really don't understand the difference between men and woman

That's my point today that I'm hoping that you'll come away with after we get done with the sermon I hope you come away from with the sermon with the knowledge at the very least that God's given us a mission and We're rejecting it and we're fighting it because we don't understand how we're uniquely designed for it.

Do you understand what I'm saying okay? So men and women are given different roles in the mission so notice

Genesis 2 18 And I'm gonna be all around Genesis you might want to just be ready to turn

Genesis 2 18 it says the Lord God said it's not good that man should be alone. I will make a helper fit for him

Notice what it didn't say it didn't say that Adam was desperately lonely and Just a mess right like he was depressed mess

On antidepressants because he was all by himself you know all he had was these animals to look at and Didn't know what to do.

You know just say he's bored. You know that's not what it says. It says It's not good for him to be alone Not not it didn't say he was lonely.

It just he was In a world without sin he wasn't lonely. It's not good for him to be alone.

Why is it not good for him be alone? He's given a mission right how is he going to do the mission all by himself you understand?

I'm gonna make a helper fit for him. What is the helper designed to do? Help him carry out the mission right you understand

I'm saying So man's been given a mission

It's not good for me be alone. He needs someone to help him carry out the mission That's what said so he's gonna make a helper fit for him if you read down in verse 21

It says so God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and while he slept he took one of his ribs

He closes up in its place with flesh and the rib the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman and brought her to the man

Then the man said this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh She shall be called woman because she's taken out of man now you read that story you think hey

That's fairly innocuous isn't it. It's just So it's not good for man to be alone. God makes him go to sleep

I don't know why he did that and then he makes woman You know from his rib or from his side or whatever, and I don't know why that's there or whatever, but then there

He is she presents God presents woman to man and You know and then you make the preacher joke and Adam said whoa man right now like like that's that's so then that's what we do with that right and so he was

What a good gift, right? But what I don't think we do is we don't pay attention enough attention to the kind of things that are there

To understand the entailments of what we just read you understand this isn't like a

This isn't just Curiosity that God has done. He didn't just tell us this story in order to Give us a neat little cute story about how he made men and women or something like that for sentimental reasons

I mean what I'm trying to say is that story is profoundly theological And it has entailments do you understand like it has entailments or entailments to that story?

About the nature of what man and woman actually are and how they're designed you understand That are there and you may not see them

But the issue is when later scripture writers are commenting on this passage. They see them and they see what they mean

You understand? So like if you want to understand what it means to be a man and a woman and what marriage is and everything else

You when you look at the way the New Testament comments on these things Then like the

New Testament writers see a lot more there than you may see at the outset and what they're doing

Routinely is commenting on these created features and drawing conclusions from that the kind of conclusions that should be obvious to us but that aren't because we're living in a society that's so hostile to a

Biblical worldview and you understand so you may not see anything in there worthy of note other than like a cute little story

But that's not what it is okay So I'm bringing up this story to try to establish the point that men and women

Are given different roles in the mission you say how do you get that from that story right well look

What does Paul say in 1st Timothy 2? 11 Paul says let a woman learn quietly and with all submissiveness

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man Rather she is to remain quiet why?

Why That seems mean That's chauvinistic misogynistic

How dare you right I mean? I know we just get all the scandal out of you that you feel you know just let it out

You know because you're told you need to let these things out, or you're gonna go postal one day So I mean I guess this is the appropriate moment for that now, but get it all out of your system

But why why why is that the case? That's what you're supposed to ask. Why is a woman not permitted to teach, but he's commanded to learn in silence.

Why? For Adam was formed first it said What is he commenting on he's commenting on the order of creation here right do you understand what

I'm saying? He's commenting on the order of creation God made man first And then he says it's not good for a man to be alone, so he makes a helper fit for him.

Do you understand? and Then it says then Eve For Adam was first formed then

Eve and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith love and holiness, so he's pointing to the created order

That's the one thing he's doing to establish these role differences And the next thing he's doing and this is the thing that we hate even more than the first Is he's pointing to the to the reality that woman was deceived and Adam wasn't

Therefore she's not suited for that role. Do you understand? That's the point that's being made and that's the point that you can't really say you can't you can't say

Yeah, none of the complementarian authors that I just quoted want to say this But this is what

Paul is saying you understand like you can't say that man is designed to be a teacher because woman was deceived and fell into transgression

You can't draw the inference from that that women are more easily deceived therefore They're not as suited to that role as men do you understand?

But that's the inference that Paul is drawing from the narrative itself so Why what how do we know that man woman are given different roles because man is made first we see that in the text

You should see that it's a primary feature of the way the creation narrative actually goes But then you also see that just as man names the animals

So also he names the woman right what happened before like what happened before it says it's not good to man be alone

So I'm gonna make a helper fit for him Lord parades all these animals in front of the man to see what he's going to Name him at the end of that it says, but there was no helper found for man among the animals

So man exercises authority by naming all the animals then God presents woman as a gift to man

He didn't even ask her permission Can you imagine? How dare he right

But but man names woman just as he names the animal as an exercise of authority over her do you understand?

Do you see what I mean? It's right there. It's right. It's right there Further what do you see in the passage that relates to roles?

Well that you see that woman is made for man But not that man was made for a woman, right?

So woman is made from man and for man Man is not made from woman and for woman you understand

Now you say hey, where do you see that well It's it's right there. It's right there

But if you don't believe me, this is what Paul says in 1st Corinthians 11 7 through 9, right? He says for man ought not to cover his head since he is the image and glory of God but woman is the glory of man for Man was not made from woman, but woman

From man neither was man created for woman, but woman was created for man, right?

now I Shouldn't have to tell you that you're I just heard something this obviously deeply problematic

Due to the nature of how we encourage women today as strong and powerful independent and courageous and everything else, right?

Thank you. You're living in a society that does not see woman as being created for man. She's an independent create

Creation who has like we don't even know why she's here, right? She's here to like pursue self -fulfillment and You know live her best life and don't let anything get in the way of that whether that's marriage or children or whatever, right?

So but like here's the issue Men and women are giving different roles in the mission as evidenced by the fact that man is made first Just as man names the animal soul

So he names a woman and woman is made from man and for man man is not made from woman and for woman, okay so So what have we seen so far?

We've seen that Man and woman are created in mission God, right? They're both given a shared mission

They're both given different roles in that myth in the carrying out of that mission. You've seen that too, right? And here's the point that I think we need to understand and it's the point that so under attack in the world and in the church

We don't have good answers to this for the church But here's the point that we need to understand if we're gonna understand anything about what it means to be a man, right?

If you're a man here today and you're saying hey, I don't know what it means to be a man then pay attention I'm gonna tell you I'm gonna tell you The essence of what it means to be a man and the essence of what it means to be a man is not just generic

Christian Faithfulness, okay There's something specific God had in mind

Related to masculinity if you're a woman here to say and say I don't know what it means to be a woman I'm gonna I want to answer your question today.

I don't want you to come I don't want you to leave this room thinking I've never heard an answer to that question today

I'm not gonna leave you like Matt Walsh left you by appealing to a tautology. This is essentially unhelpful

I want to actually tell you what it means Okay And I think the Bible says this in painstaking detail over and over again

Despite the fact that you may be tempted to be offended by everything I say. Okay, so and that's fine just I won't be offended if you're offended, but I will tell you you need to repent and get get over it

You know, all right. So here's the thing Men and women are uniquely designed for their roles in the mission.

Okay So what is man? What is man? Man is a strong creation.

Here's the point man is a strong creation who is designed to Strengthen the world through his roles.

Okay So if you want to know what is the essence of masculinity the essence of masculinity is strength, that's what it is

If you don't believe me, don't worry. I will tell you why that's the truth. Okay, just go with it for a minute

Man is a strong creation who's designed to strengthen the world through his roles. What are his roles leadership protection provision, right?

I'm not gonna give an exhaustive list, but just I'm trying to talk about some of the main ones leadership protection Provision so man is a strong like what is man is strong creation.

How do I know that? How do I know that? What does Paul say? He says act like men be strong.

That's what he says like Over and over again as you read the

Bible what you're gonna see is that the nature the essence of masculinity is meant to be Strength.

Okay, I'm gonna give you a bunch of verses. Don't worry about it Take my word for it for now, but this is gonna carry out in these roles leadership protection and provision.

What is leadership? You know when I was in When I went to master's college,

I had a teacher named dr. Wong and He was as Asian as you as you can imagine okay, and he kind of took me on as a mentor a mentor to me and You know, there's a time where he said

Tim walk with me, right? I was like, I don't know what's about to happen here This is like a karate kid kind of thing

That's kind of what I thought, you know because it I'm just not used to that as a mechanism or whatever But he said Tim walk with me

So I walked with him we walked, you know and he was talking with me about what it means to be a man as we were walking right and You know, he looked at me and I'll never forget it.

But I mean he looked at me He said, you know Tim leadership is burden -bearing. That's what he said Leadership is burden -bearing and you know what as I looked at the nature of my life and the roles that God has put me and God's put me in a lot of different leadership roles in my life and You know what leadership is

It's burden -bearing, isn't it? What is it? What is required to bear burdens? What do you think is required to bear burdens?

Strength right? That's what it is. Like that's what it means. Like that's what it means to be a leader You have to be strong. Why do you have to be strong to be a leader?

Because you're the one who's responsible for everything that happens, right? So you're living in a world that hates the idea of leadership that thinks of leadership as some kind of oppressive tyrannical concept

But if you've been a leader of anything before one of the things, you know You know about being a leader is that everything that happens is your fault in some way, right?

That doesn't mean everything is like you're to blame for everything but you're responsible for it like everything that happens like the buck stops here and You know what?

It means to be a leader. It means you're gonna have to do hard things That people don't like that's what it means to be a leader that you're often doing difficult things.

You're bearing responsibility for everything that happens You know what?

It's easy to be a passive man It's easy to be one of those passive servant leader kind of guys who just goes up to your wife and says hey

What do you want to do, honey? Because that means you don't have to make any decisions because making decisions is hard Because the one who makes the decisions is responsible for the outcome of those decisions you understand

Like being a leader is hard. Like that's that's the point like this. It's And and if you think

I'm fussing about like how hard it is or something you're misunderstanding what's happening I'm not fussing right now

I'm just saying leadership is hard It's a heavy responsibility that is put upon someone to know that you're primarily responsible

I mean you think about this as it relates to any other period of history When things go bad who gets their head chopped off right the leader?

That's the point like if you lead poorly Everyone's starving to death you're dead like that's the way it works like you bear the responsibility for what's happening

So what I'm just trying to say leadership is Burden bear it's about this about what do you need to bear burdens you need strength, right?

Often you need physical strength. So I mean you think about like natural leadership in the world Most of the leaders throughout history were the strong guys who were leading people into battle, right?

And that Christianity is not like an utter rejection of physical strength or something like that Strength I mean

David David was so strong that his hands could bend a bow of bronze couldn't they right? so the the

Bible's perspective of leadership is not just to Reject nature or something like that But it also is mental strength

What do you think courage is courage is mental strength? Here's a passage in the

Bible that's deeply problematic as it relates to this point Isaiah 19 16 says in that day the

Egyptians will be like women and Tremble with fear before the hand of the

Lord shakes over them. What did God just do there? Was he allowed to say that?

Now I mean think about it think about what he just said He said he just he just said that his judgment against the

Egyptians Would be that they would have the same level of courage as women typically have

What does that tell you about the nature of what courage is is unevenly distributed within the sexes

Do you want to know if that's true? Just go watch a YouTube video What do you see men doing?

You see you see an excess of courage that's being directed towards a bunch of questionable outcomes, right?

A bunch of questionable projects. That's what you see Like what is Matt men have are naturally endowed by by God with an excess of courage that that borders on Recklessness right that needs to be constrained.

That's what it needs to be doing on the other hand What what what is what are women endowed with and natural excess and caution, right?

You put a woman in a man together. What is happening in your marriage? You see that a man is trying to get everyone to be strong and tough right don't cry

It's just a flesh wound. Let me get the duct tape out and we'll tape it up. You know, it'll be fine Is it still attached?

Yes, it's still attached, isn't it? What's the problem right so I mean that's the nature of what like what men are trying to do

I mean that's somewhat of a caricature But I'm sure that you understand what I'm what I'm trying to say what are what is the lady's natural response

Oh poor, baby. Come here. Let me kiss it and make it better, right? What does the man do? He looks at her as something immoral is happening.

It's like I don't want him to what are you doing? You know like he needs to toughen up Why are you cuddling him?

What is the man? I don't want him like When we get overrun by the Russians or whatever, right?

I don't want him to be crying in a corner or something and looking for you to Cuddle him in those moments.

He needs to toughen up because there's dangers in the world. There's there's difficult things out there, right? So now

I mean these are common things that have I'm maybe slightly engaging in hyperbole.

He's a slight. It's light But the point is like what is man trying to do man is trying to Encourage his son, right?

What does encourage mean lend strength to he's trying to get him to toughen up Because why because he like we used to know what men were designed to do

They were designed for things that required strength. That's what we knew, right? What is woman trying to do, right?

She's she's made with the abundance of course. She's trying to keep him from blowing himself up, you know I guess what she's trying to do.

No, but she wants him to be sensitive She wants him to be compassionate because that's what she's designed to do. She's designed to care for children, right?

What did she look like? What do small children need? Well, they don't like They don't necessarily be need to go to boot camp, right

Something along those lines, huh? So here's the thing man's a strong creature He's a strong creation designed to strengthen the world through leadership through protection

Like we don't even think about that as a job anymore because we you know, you have deadbolts and you have the police, right? You don't really think that hey, it's my job to take care of my wife

You know, you can watch videos right now of women walking down the street who are getting punched by random men in the face as a common phenomenon

That is happening So like you've been sheltered from the reality of the nature of what the world actually is, but you can look at videos like that happening

What is a man designed to do? He's designed to protect her from those idiots, right? Like that's what he's designed to do and as a man you should see yours like my job is to protect my family

Not just spiritually but actually physically protect my family like that's why I'm here You know the more that our society decays

Into anarchy Assuming that's what happens the more you'll see that Like as a woman, you're not gonna think oh man.

I'm a strong powerful and courageous independent It's like I need a man to help me protect me from all this mess, right?

like that's what you and that so we're living in a soft time that has its own particular forms of Delusions, what about provision?

It's managed world to provide we're gonna talk about this in a minute, but The role of provision, what does it require it requires strength

I Can an agro in an agrarian society? What did Adam do? He would have to work the ground.

You know, I saw a Ridiculous image on the internet of a Amish man who had two of his wives

I presume hooked up to a plow or something like that I mean it was just ridiculous But I mean like obviously a woman is not designed to plow a field in the same way that a man

I can look at What look at a man look at a woman you say one is designed for heavy and hard labor The other isn't

I mean you look at oil rigs and you see oh man, like I See why they're getting paid more

Right because they're designed to do work that other people aren't just like that women are not designed to do So the point here is to say that provision in the

Bible in an agrarian society. That was tough That was long hours. That was hard work You think about the nature of the fall it's made everything difficult

How are the curses their curses are unevenly distributed? Woman's job is made more difficult in childbearing

Cursed is the ground on account of man Right by the sweat of his brow. It's going to yield forth its strength because he was designed to Be the one doing the heavy physical labor

Obviously just open your eyes. Okay and look and see what's obvious. Do you understand? What does the

Bible say First Peter 3 7 likewise husbands live with your wives an understanding way showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel

What does that mean? It's not complicated. You know what it means You know what it means quit pretending like you don't know what it means.

You know what it means Woman is physically weaker than man Man is not supposed to run roughshod over his wife

He's not supposed to treat her like a mule treat her like a workhorse right like that's not what

There there are ways in which a man can be Completely and totally insensitive to the reality that he's dealing with someone who does not have the same upper body strength than he has right

Yeah, men on average have two and a half times the upper body strength as woman If you don't think that that's true, then just like I don't know just take a high school gym class and you'll see right

That's the way it works Here's the point Live with your wife an understanding way showing honor the woman's a weaker vessel

Proverbs 20 29 The glory of the young man is their strength, right? Do you understand how that's saying everything that I've been saying this whole time?

What is the glory of a young man? What is the thing he excel sells at what's the thing that he is known for?

What is that thing that characterizes him? Do you understand what I'm saying? What have I been talking about the glory of a young man is their strength?

But the splendor of the old man is their gray hair What is Paul say be watchful stand firm in the faith act like a man he says be strong What is the be strong part meant to do and it is meant to tell you what it means to act?

What does it mean to act like a man? It means to act like a man is to be strong, right? That's what it means some translations translate the

Greek word for act like a man as courage because courage is Definitional to masculinity in a way that you may not understand.

Okay God's God's created man as a strong just creation. All right, think about his roles.

They're not arbitrarily designed They're not arbitrarily designed. Do you understand? God did not design women for leadership because he did not give them the same strength both physically and mentally he did not

If you've been married for any length of time you should be able to figure it out is It despite the fact that the your inner egalitarian is screaming at you telling you you're not allowed to notice

You should notice okay. I am much more mentally stable than my wife is okay

I'm not saying she's unstable. I'm saying Like I don't have biological temptations that tempt me towards in this stability.

You understand like that's the way it works. God's given me Mental stability that I'm supposed to lend to my entire family.

That's what I'm supposed to do And throughout history one of the things you'll see is that when the men are strong Everyone is strong and when the men are weak everyone's weak, but if you don't know that right

Like you're not going to step into those roles With the kind of confidence that you should be stepping into those roles

Because you don't understand why God made you a leader you get it You don't understand why

God made you a leader what you're meant to do what what any of this even means So like you just become a token figurehead kind of person who doesn't know what you're doing or why do you understand?

So man is the strongest creation designed to strengthen the world through leadership protection provision on the other hand

Man, we've gone on This clock was supposed to help me

Woman is a beautiful creation. We're gonna get we're gonna finish this point and we'll leave the rest of this will be a part, too

Woman is a beautiful creation so beauty and its cognates is an adjective which is

Overwhelmingly used to describe women in the Bible you know that woman a beauty and its cognates are overwhelmingly used

Often beautiful is the sole adjective Right used to describe women and Repeatedly mentioned in stories about them.

I would challenge you read the Bible through With this in your brain and see how often it happens because you're living in a society.

That's not allowed to say it Okay, so here's an example so Sarah Rachel in contrast to Leah Right because beauty is not relative

Rachel was the pretty one right Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance unlike Leah right

Bathsheba Abishad the Shunammite Queen Vashti and Esther are all introduced as beautiful Absalom sister

Tamar is introduced as beautiful and later as a beautiful woman right Abigail was introduced with two adjectives, so she was discerning and beautiful right the

Bible painstakingly Describes female beauty as a desirable traits so the Egyptians they saw

Sarah's beauty And what did they do they took her from they desire to take her from Abraham? God expected like here's the thing that that's just not just what happens but like God himself expected the

Israelites would look for beautiful women to marry among the people they conquered and Deuteronomy 21 1 so what does it say if you see a beautiful woman among the captives and you desire to marry her

God's not Rejecting that do you understand? like that's how he made men to Want to be pleased by bit like female beauty

He made women to desire to be beautiful, and he made them Beautiful in contrast to men if you don't like understand that just like look at the difference.

You know like men are not beautiful Look The Bible does something that's in unthinkable to modern ears and distinguishes between different types of beauty and women

I got God turns his male gaze on the woman and evaluates them.

I know you're not really allowed to do that like I mean it's just think about how problematic that would be if we were allowed to be offended by everything that our society wants to be offended by so God distinguished between different types of beauty in women in other words beauty is not relative

God does not view all woman is equally beautiful in his eyes Rachel had a beautiful Face like she was lovely in form and appearance right in contrast to Leah who had weak eyes, right?

They didn't glow with the same Luster right so God guys not only commenting on Rachel's face

But it says he's beautiful of form and appearance. He's saying she had a beautiful body and a beautiful face.

That's what God says Bathsheba and Abishag, they're not just described the

Shunammite. They're not described as beautiful. They're described as very beautiful, right? That's it. That's an adjective very as an adjective that modifies beautiful, right?

I guess like a lot right so Like like Rachel Esther had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at that's a quote

It was chosen by the king among all the beautiful women in the kingdom to be a replacement It's taken as it says taking for granted that men will desire to marry a beautiful woman

If you don't want me 2111 and you see among the captives a beautiful woman you desire to take her as your wife

Judges 15 to her father said I really thought that you utterly hated her so I gave her to your companion

It's not her younger sister more beautiful than she Please take her and said you see that like beauty is like a desirable trait

Because beauty and women is such a desirable trait both men and women will go to great lengths to enhance the beauty of women

For example cosmetics are given to the king Hossie where is his harem 12 months of beauty regulations?

which includes six months of oil six months of spices and six months of Ointments are given to Esther to soften and perfume all their skin, right?

Then there's warnings in the Bible don't desire like the beauty of a Adulterous woman right and don't let her capture you with her eyelashes and Then first Peter tells women like what is what is first Peter Peter do?

When it's teaching women what it means to be women. It's not rejecting the fact that they Probably they have a desire to be beautiful and they're oriented towards beauty.

What does it do? It tells it tells women to cultivate the imperishable beauty of a gentle and a quiet spirit

God's side is very precious. That's that's not a rejection of Beauty you understand that's a redirection to something that will last for all eternity

So notice the kind of language that's being used there So woman here's the point woman is a man is a strong creation who's designed to accomplish his mission through his

Roles right related to strength woman is a beautiful creation who is designed to beautify the world to being man suitable helper

What is she doing she's bringing beauty to man, do you understand The glory of a young man is his strength woman is the glory of the man

She's bringing beauty to man What is Proverbs 5 19 says this is a lovely dear a graceful doe let her breasts a lovely dear

A great like what is woman a lovely dear a graceful doe let her breast satisfy you At all times with delight be intoxicated always in her love, right?

So Woman is designed to have a beautiful appearance as a gift to man like man's designed to enjoy that beautiful appearance

Woman is a beautiful gift to man right for him to enjoy. She's a helper suitable for him

She's like a beautiful gift to him. That's what she is. Okay, and She's supposed to have a beautiful disposition as a gracious gift man is not made to have a beautiful disposition, right?

Man is designed for different things woman's Disposition let your adorning be the hidden person person of the heart with an imperishable beauty of a gentle quiet spirit a man is not called to Relate to the world with the same

Kind of thing like a gentle quiet spirit that they're talking about there I'm not trying to say that there's no context in which a man should be gentle and there's no context what in which he should

Shut up. I'm not saying that I'm saying I'm just saying that A woman is to be a beautiful has a beautiful disposition.

She's a beautiful gift. She's created for man as as a Bringing beauty to him childbearing.

What is childbearing is bringing beauty in the world Homemaking, you know,

I won't elaborate on this very much homemaking. What is that bringing beauty in the home? All these things can be

I what I'm trying to say is all these roles can be understand through the lens of beauty If you don't understand what I'm saying here, just go look at a guy's dorm room.

Okay, I Just think about it Just think about it.

Okay, just for a few minutes Here's the point and we'll close on this

God God has in the beginning It says God made them male and female in the image of God. He created them male and female

He created them God made man and woman. He's given us different roles Those roles are grounded in the nature of how he made us.

Okay, and if we want to glorify God today Like if you want to glorify

God in your roles You need to understand why you're here and how he made you and what he's designed you to do okay, and my fear is the church has been held captive by a kind of teaching for many years which

Describes these roles as just completely irrational disconnected from biology disconnected from common sense disconnected from reason and If we if we're going to be

God's representatives in the world, we have to buy by his grace Look to his word again to tell us who we are

And I think that even when we do that, we'll find a lot of good answers there. Let's pray Lord, we thank you for your word

Which you've given us to help us to know you and to understand ourselves pray for our church

Lord I pray for our church that we're we will be a light in a dark place that we won't be

Confused at these same issues that our society is so confused by Lord I pray for us as society as a church that we will embrace these things with a whole heart and Be a contrast to a world

That is so so lost We know you can do that for us Lord We know that you can help us not just reluctantly fulfill

The tasks you called us to do but to do so with a whole heart trusting in you And a renewed mind and renewed understanding