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Let's all stand together. Good morning. It's good to see everybody this morning at Sovereign Grace Family Church. I want to invite you to be seated as Brother Andy comes to begin our reading today from Romans chapter 7.
So as we continue to read through the scriptures, especially as we come through the 7th chapter of Romans, I know there are probably some that have one interpretation of Romans 7 and some that have the other.
And so to you to have one way, God bless you. And to you to have the other way of understanding it, God bless you. But let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind, so let us listen to the Word of God.
Romans 7. So then if while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she married another man.
Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sin which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
Amen. Let's stand together.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. It was grace that taught my heart to fear. How precious did that grace appear. My chains are gone, I've been set free.
My God, my Savior, has ransomed me. His mercy reigns, unending love. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. My God, my Savior, has ransomed me.
His mercy reigns, unending love.
Brother Andy will come back and continue with the reading of Romans 7.
What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, You shall not covet.
But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law, sin was dead. And I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
And the commandment which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me. Therefore, the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
Let's stand. Is the God who was slain. A new song sits on heaven's mercy. Holy, holy, holy Is the Lord God Almighty Who was, and is, and is to come. I sing praise to you On my knees of lightning Rolls of thunder Blessing and honor Strength and glory And power be To the only wise king.
Is the Lord God Almighty Who was, and is, and is to come. I sing praise to the King of kings You are my At the mention of Jesus Your name is power Coming water. Such a marvelous mystery. Holy, holy Is the Lord God Almighty All creation I sing Praise to the King of kings You are my everything And I will adore you.
Is the Lord God Almighty Who was, and is, and is to come All creation I sing Praise to the King of kings You are my everything And I will adore you. And you may be seated.
Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not. But sin, that it might appear sin, Was producing death in me through what is good,. So that sin through the commandment Might become exceedingly sinful.
For I know that the law is spiritual, But I am carnal, sold unto sin. For what I am doing I do not understand, For what I will to do, that I do not practice, For what I hate, that I do. If then I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
But now it is no longer I who do it, But sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, Nothing good dwells. For to will is present with me, But how to perform what is good I do not find.
For the good that I will to do, I do not do, But the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, It is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, The one who wills to do good.
For I delight in the law of God, According to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, Warring against the law of my mind, And bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, Which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am, Who will deliver me from this body of death, I thank God. Through Jesus Christ the Lord. Still then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, But with the flesh the law of sin.
Amen.
I'm forgiven, Because you were forsaken. I'm accepted, You were condemned. I'm alive and well, Your spirit is within me, Because you died for me. Amazing love, How my king would die for me. Amazing love, I joy to honor forsaken.
I'm alive, it's within me. Amazing love, Would die for me. Amazing love, I possess you. Amazing love,.
Now it's true. You may be seated. The servers may come forward as we prepare to receive the offering. Each of you should give what you've decided in your heart to give, Not reluctantly or under compulsion.
For God loves a cheerful giver.
That is not only to praise Him, but to pray to Him. Let us as His people bow our heads, silence our minds, And open our hearts to the living and the true God. Let us pray. Our Father in God, again, we come to you in what we have just sung.
You are our king. You are the king of kings. And the Lord of lords. That you are the creator. You are the alpha and the omega. That you are the one who sent your only beloved son into this world To die for sinners like us.
Amazing love, how can it be, Lord, That you should die for such a sinner as me? Holy Spirit, we pray that you would open our hearts now as your people To lift our voice in thanksgiving and petition And offering to you, for you are worthy.
You are worthy above all others. There is no other one who is worthy of our praise, of our worship, of our lives. You alone, Lord Jesus. You are the one who created us. You are the one who sustains us.
And you are the one who laid down your life that we might have a life. What a truth, Lord, even from the cross, Even as you were being nailed to a cross, As you hung there as a substitute for sinners, As you were so mistreated and so cruelly handled, That you would say, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
How can it be, O Lord, that you would save sinners like us? Those that have raised their fists to you And said that we would be our own God, And yet in mercy you came to us And made us willing in the day of your power.
You took us out of the deadness of our sins And the stoneness of our hearts, And you gave us new hearts and new minds. O God, I thank you. Thank you so much, O Lord, That you saved sinners. That you did not come to call the righteous, But the sinners, the lost, the lame, the halt, The blind, the deaf, and the dumb.
And that you came and you set the prisoners free. O God, take hold of us, O Lord. May we see the height and the breadth And the depth and the length of the love of God which is in Christ. We confess, O God, that we need you.
We need you moment by moment. We need you breath by breath. We need you to carry us along, To bring us until that day when you return Or when you take us to yourself. We shall be forever with you. We shall learn of your marvelousness and your greatness.
And even in this world, Lord, We see, even as Job said, But the mere fringes of your ways. Who can comprehend the incomprehensible God? Who can understand even from the very beginning, Even as Brother Keith has been bringing to us of Adam and Eve, And O Lord, how we have, even in that, perverted it.
You're taking what you have made in the very beginning And we've twisted it, Lord. We're not even sure what a man is or a woman is anymore. O God, be graceful to this nation. Be graceful, O God. Be merciful to this nation of evildoers.
That those that rule over us might see the truth And that they might govern according to truth. That those that oppose you would bow their knee to you, O God. That many in our day, Not only in this land, but all over the earth, Might come to know the Savior, the Redeemer.
Their minds might be renewed. That they may be able to comprehend and to know What you have done and that what you have done is very good. We pray, Our Father, for those that are sick. We pray continually for Sharon and Adam and Noah and their families.
We thank you that Sharon is progressing. We thank you that she is working her way through it. O Lord, that you will hold her hand all the way. We pray for the Rogers, Walter and his family and his needs.
And Sister Mary and so many more, Lord. There's so much amongst us that needs mercy and grace. But, O Lord, we pray above it all That you would open our hearts to trust you. To believe you. To know that you're able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think.
O God, open our hearts wide. O God, open our lives, transform us, make us more like the Son of God. That we would walk like Jesus and talk like Jesus. And that we would think God's thoughts after him.
Now, O Father, as we come to your word, We know that your word is that which you have sent, your revelation. And that when your word goes out, it accomplishes what you have sent it to do. So we pray as Brother Keith comes, that your words would be his words.
And your thoughts would be put into his mind. And that we would hear the word of God. And that if we've never believed it before, O God, that we would believe it now. You have said today is the day of salvation.
May your word cut us to the heart and then may it heal us. May it tear us down and may it build us up. May we leave this place knowing that we know the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. To that end now, we ask this not only in the name of the Father, but in the Son and in the Spirit.
We pray it for our own eternal good and ultimately for your eternal glory.
I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter 1. Find your place at verse 27. Christianity in its most basic and truest sense has always been counter-cultural. Because the culture follows the direction of the world.
And Jesus said that if we follow him, we will love not the world, neither the things therein. This morning's message is one that would easily be identified as counter-cultural. Things that are going to be said may be and would be offensive were it said in any other context.
And yet they need to be said not for the sake of offense, but for the sake of truth. We have been parked at Genesis 1 and 27 for the last four weeks. We've been going verse by verse through Genesis since September of last year.
So we've parked at a few places. But this one in particular because we have examined at length the idea of what it means to be made in the image of God. We have compared the biblical record of man's creation with the cultural perspective of man's evolution.
We have compared Darwin with Moses and found Darwin to be wanting. We have found that neither the Bible nor even science truly supports man as an evolved creature. Well today we are going to look one more time at Genesis 1 and 27.
And we're going to examine one final essential truth regarding the image of God. And that is on the subject of man and woman. And I have titled today's message as it is quoted in the King James Bible even though we read from the ESV, Male and Female, Created He Then.
So with that in mind I'd like for you to stand. We're going to read, we'll read verse 26 and 27. But we're going to focus on the third clause of Genesis 1 and 27. Then God said, So God created man in His own image.
In the image of God He created him. Male and female He created them. Father in heaven I thank you for your word and now as I seek to preach it I pray that you would keep me from error. I pray that you would open the hearts of your people to the truth.
I pray that you would save those who do not know Christ and for those who do know Christ that this message would be to them a call to repentance, a call to good works, a call to righteousness and a call to a recognition that we as believers in Christ are not called to go with the flow of culture but to stand on the foundation of truth and your word is truth.
In Christ's name, Amen. In the declaration regarding the image of God we have three distinct statements given by Moses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. These come to us in verse 27. The first two statements are in a sense repetitious and synonymous It says in verse 27 in the first line, So God created man in His own image.
And then the next line says, In the image of God He created him. Now this is not Moses having a lisp. This is not Moses simply repeating for the sense of the need for repetition. But what we have here is we have the reminder that in the Hebrew way of speaking when something is important it is often repeated.
And often times what we see if we go through the Psalms or through the Proverbs we have something called the parallelism. A parallelism is when something is stated and then it's stated again in a slightly different way but to make the same point a second time.
You all know that when you read through the Psalms. You see a statement then the next statement sounds just like the one before it but it's slightly different. And that's what we have here in Genesis 1 .27.
We have the parallelism. It's intended to emphasize something. And when we want to emphasize something in the Hebrew language we do it by repeating it. But when we want to emphasize something to the nth degree, when we want to give something a superlative emphasis we state it three times.
Think about God seated on His throne in Isaiah chapter 6. What was said by the seraphim that surrounded the throne when God was seated on His throne? Holy, holy, holy. It's the only time God has ever given three times in any of His attributes God has never called love, love, love.
He's never called mercy, mercy, mercy. He's never called justice, justice, justice. But He is called holy, holy, holy. Because it is in that attribute that defines all of His attributes. His love is a holy love.
His mercy is a holy mercy. His justice a holy justice. So when we see something that is to the third degree we know this is a sense in which this is an emphasis in the superlative. So we come to Genesis 1 and 27 and we see three times the same statement about the image of God.
But in the third clause there is an insertion and a clarification. It says, So God created man in His own image. In the image of God He created him, male and female. He created them. Not only is Adam created in the image of God but Adam and Eve, man and woman, male and female are both created in the image of God.
One commentator recognized that what we have in here in a sense is two stages in man's creation. The general fact being stated in this first clause is the triumphal song and the two particulars. First is His relationship to God.
He's made in the image of God. And then it's His relationship to the woman. So is she made in the image of God. So there is two-fold relationship for the man. From God He is in His image. And to the woman she also is in the image of God.
Luther stated this in his commentary on Genesis 1 and 27. He says that what we have here is the intimation that the woman was also created by God and made a partaker of the divine image and of the dominion over all.
Now, several weeks ago when we were looking at the image of God we noted something. We said that in the ancient world it wasn't common that everyone would be understood as being made in the image of God but only the king.
The pharaoh was the image of God. He was the divine representative of the gods in the world. Only the pharaoh was considered to have that divine imprint. But when Moses comes along he says, No, all men are made in the image of God.
But he doesn't stop there. He doesn't stop and say it's only men that are made in the image of God and then women not so much. But he says it's male and female who are both created in the image of God.
And what I want to show today, my threefold outline as I often have, is I want to show three inferences which are drawn from that statement. Male and female created he them. I want to show three things that we learn from this.
If not by explicit statement, we learn it by what is known as the necessary inference. You see, not everything in the Bible is explicitly stated. Some things are taught to us by what we call the inference.
Things that we infer from the text because it has to be that way because this is what the text is saying. And so today we're going to look at three necessary inferences that are drawn from Genesis 1. And if you want to make it very specific, Genesis 1 .27c because there's three clauses in Genesis 1 .27 and this is the third clause.
So we're not even looking at a whole verse today. We're looking at one third of this verse, the last part. Male and female created he them and I want us to see three inferences that are drawn from the text.
I'll give you the first one. I don't know if you're taking notes, but if you are, this is number one. The distinction between male and female was created, or excuse me, rather was formed at creation. The distinction between male and female was formed at creation.
It is a sad reality, yet really an overwhelming reality that we have come to a place in our culture where stating that there are differences between men and women that are real and are recognizable has become so far out of the mainstream that if I were to say that on a news program, I'd be shouted down as a bigot.
To simply state that there are differences between men and women that are recognizable and quantifiable, we have reached a place in our culture where we don't recognize the simple truth that we can all see with our eyes.
Imagine, if you will, just a generation ago. Some of you are a little older than me. Imagine in your youth, would you have ever believed that you would see biological males dominating female sports simply because they identify themselves as female?
Could you have imagined a generation ago that you would see males dressing in flamboyant dress reading to children in public libraries? Would you have imagined a generation ago a man would be running for president who is legally married to another man and the two of them were kissing on public television?
And yet none of these things I am mentioning are exaggerations. In fact, if anything, I'm being somewhat reserved in how I'm describing the situation. We live in a culture that has gone absolutely mad.
And when it comes to the recognition of men and women, we have truly lost our minds. And what's interesting is this is one of the times and places where the Bible and science do not contradict. I've said over the last few months there are times where science and the Bible, modern science, tend to disagree because modern scientists are looking at things through the lens of naturalism and the Bible is looking through a lens of supernaturalism.
And so sometimes there's competition even though I don't believe there's ever any real true time where there's contradiction. I do think there are times when it can appear to contradict. But on this particular issue, science and the Bible both agree because science has shown that not only are men and women different in relation to our reproductive organs, but we are also different in an array of other areas.
Did you know that when archaeologists go and find skeletons in the ground that are thousands of years old and they unearth those skeletons that they can tell just by the skeleton whether it's a man or a woman.
They can tell by the structure of the upper body and torso. They can tell by the shape of the hips. Even the orbital ridge around the eyes and the shape of the face, they can tell that this is a man. Or there's no flesh, no muscles, no organs, no reproductive parts have survived their bones and dust and yet we can tell even from the very structure of the bones this is a man and that is a woman.
We see so many differences that are easy for us to recognize. Men and women look different, praise God. Women are beautiful and men, well, are utilitarian. They're made with a purpose. Men are hairier, except on the head.
Men produce more, well, hey, some of you guys. Men produce more testosterone in general. Women produce more estrogen. This is a chemical thing that doesn't change just because someone identifies themselves differently.
So they have to overcome that chemical difference with drugs and medication and surgery. Even our brains function differently. Psychology Today says this in one of its articles on the brain. It says male brains utilize nearly seven times more gray matter for activity than female brains.
And they say, wait a minute, does that mean men are smarter? No, because women utilize more of what's called the white matter. White matter is the networking grid that connects the brain's gray matter and the other processing centers to one another.
This profound brain processing difference is one of the reasons why girls tend to be more able to quickly transition between tasks than boys are and why boys tend to be more task-focused. Now, this is not always, but in general, their brains are different.
And, again, does it make one greater than the other? There are certainly brilliant women and brilliant men, but they function differently. I want to read you an article. This is from the Wall Street Journal.
In a powerful commentary in the February 3rd edition of the Wall Street Journal, biologists Colin Wright and Emma Hilton explain that scientifically there are only two sexes, male and female, and there is no sex spectrum.
They also stress that biologists and medical professionals must stop being politically correct and stand up for the empirical reality of biological sex. Did you ever think you'd have to hear someone write such an inane sentence in print?
Because you understand what's being said, right? You understand what the statement is. The statement is there are only two sexes and biologists and medical professionals have to accept that. Up until just a few years ago, I think everybody accepted that.
This was a pretty serious article that went across the Wall Street Journal. It received a lot of negative backlash because it's saying that science actually agrees with the fact that there is male and female and not a spectrum from which to choose.
But that's what cultural warriors have done. They have fought for the differences to the point now that there has been a blurring of the lines and to keep themselves away from having to deal with the science, they've quit using the word sex.
You know, we talk about sex male, sex female. You're a male by sex or you're a female by sex. They've stopped using the word sex and they've started using the word gender because they'll say sex is based on your organs but gender is based on your feelings.
Therefore, you can be cisgender. Cisgender means if you were born a man sexually and you feel like a man sexually, then you are cisgender. If you were born a woman sexually and you feel like a woman sexually, then you are cisgender.
Basically, you are what you are. But then there's something called transgender. Transgender is you were born with the sex organs of a man but you feel like a woman or you were born with the sex organs of a woman and you feel like a man.
But then there's also gender fluid. The one who says, well, I feel like a man but I may eventually feel like a woman and it's going to change because gender is an ever-changing spectrum and thus I can flow through one to the other.
There are also things like non-binary, intersex and over and over it just continues to change and the motto is anatomy doesn't determine gender. Beloved, anatomy is exactly what determines your gender.
Anatomy is exactly what determines whether you're a man or a woman. When a person has a baby, the doctor doesn't hold it up and say, it's a baby. They look down. If they haven't already looked on the sonogram, they look down and they see what's there and they say, mommy, it's a boy.
Or mommy, it's a girl. For now, that's true. There are those who are saying you should not identify your children at birth but you should wait until they have the mental capacity to identify for themselves and what we have seen in parts of even our own land are people who are seeking to find transgender behavior in children as young as kindergarten.
We have gone absolutely mad. Go back to creation. Male and female created he them. The distinction between man and woman, the distinction between male and female is formed at creation. Adam looked like a man, the perfect man.
And Eve, the perfect woman. And when I say they looked like a man and looked like a woman, that's countercultural because someone would say, well, what do you mean by that? Up until a few years ago, everybody knew what I meant by that.
What do you mean? What do I mean? It shouldn't be part of the conversation, but it is. The Bible clearly says, male and female created he them. It is not for us to change. Number two, we've seen the distinction between male and female was formed at creation.
Number two goes deeper than that. The complementary relationship between male and female was formed at creation. Now, when I say complementary, I don't mean, Dale, that's a nice shirt. That's a complement with an I.
The word complementary, in the way I'm using it, is actually spelled with an E. Complement, not compliment. And that's a slight difference. But a complementary relationship is a relationship where one completes the other and the two both bring into the relationship two different sides where the two can become one and complete the other one.
The first human pair were created to complete one another. In fact, this is what Dr. James White says in regard to the issue of homosexuality. He says the reason why homosexuality is such a problem is because a loving, a person is not loving the complement to them.
They're loving the mirror image. They're not loving what God designed to complement them as a person and make one whole. But rather, they're loving something that's the same. They're loving someone that is the same.
And in a sense, it becomes a form of sexual narcissism. I don't want what God created to complement me. I want one just like me. The complementary relationship between male and female establishes a distinction upon which all future social behavior would be based.
Notice this. When Adam and Eve are created, there's no society. When Adam and Eve are created, there is no culture. Adam and Eve are created and they create the society and they create the culture. And what is the foundation for society that all society would be based on?
The relationship between man and woman. It's the most foundational relationship in the world. Everything else grows out of that because out of the two comes the family. Out of the family comes the society.
Out of the society comes the culture. Out of the culture comes the grander metaculture and the world system. But it begins with man and woman complementing one another. The Bible describes three spheres of authority in the world.
Did you know that? The Bible only describes three spheres of authority. The first one is the home. Your home, men, women, your home is a small government where you function as king and queen over your subjects which are your little kids.
And that's your government. And that functions, for good or for bad, how you rule your home, right? And God established that. He established that sphere of power and that sphere of authority. We know this.
You read the Bible. Husbands love your wives, wives respect your husbands, children obey your parents and the Lord. There's a governmental structure there. And how it's supposed to function, the father is to lead benevolently, the wife is to serve, and the children are to obey.
There's two other spheres of influence that I don't have time to get into. One is the church, or not influence, authority. The church does have a sphere of authority with elders and deacons and the membership and how it functions.
There's a sphere of authority that the Bible gives and there's a sphere of authority given to the government. The government does not bear the sword in vain. So there's three spheres of authority that God gives but the first and most foundational is the family.
And what do we see in our world? We see the attempt to destroy the family, especially in our nation. One of the one men who are running for president right now said his goal is to get children into school as early as two years old.
Why? Because as soon as we can take them away from their parents and put them in a place where we can teach them to be good little citizens, they will be the citizens we want them to be. Take them out as quickly as we can.
And I heard this recently, I believe it. If schools started teaching children how to walk within one generation, we would believe that they couldn't learn to walk unless they went to school. You see, we have a problem when we get away from the most foundational aspect of our culture and our most foundational aspect of society and that's the man and woman relationship.
We see families destroyed by divorce. Men and women who are sexually promiscuous and there are families that are several different parents on either side and children never are with just mom and dad. And the structure that God creates is damaged.
Now I'm not saying you can't be a good parent if you have a mixed family. I came from a household of step parents and I love my step parents and I appreciate what they did for me. So don't take away from this that I'm challenging the concept of step parents and their value in the lives of children.
I'm not. But I am saying the blessing of one man and one woman for life, that complementary relationship, that is how all of society finds its nucleus. It's in that relationship, that complementary relationship between men and women.
Now, that's the second thing. The complementary relationship that was formed at creation. And by the way, let me just, one more thing on this point. The complementary relationship is formed at creation.
It's not caused by the fall. A lot of people think that the fall is what created the positional relationship between man and woman. It didn't. It existed before the fall. Man and woman were in a relationship prior to the fall.
Man had a position of authority before the fall. There was a position of relationship and complement prior to the fall. That is not the result of the fall. Now, did some things change with the fall? Yeah.
Was sin introduced? Yeah. Does that make relationships harder? Yeah. Is 20 years of marriage tough? Yeah. 40 years? Yeah. 60? How many years was it this week, Jack? 64 years of marriage. 64 years. Was it tough, Shirley?
Yeah. Amen. It's a complementary relationship. You complete one another. And without one another, you don't feel whole. Right? It's a complementary relationship based on the way God designed it in the beginning.
All right. Third and last. We've seen the distinction between man and woman was formed at creation. The complementary relationship between man and woman formed at creation. And third and finally, the spiritual equality between man and woman was formed at creation.
Say it again. The spiritual equality between man and woman was formed at creation. Now, I want to say something. And if you don't know me well, then this might not matter much to you. But most of you know me pretty well.
And most everyone who knows me and has heard me preach knows that I believe that the Bible clearly teaches that men and women are to have different roles in the home and in the church. I believe the Father has a particular type of headship in the home.
And it's not just authority. Guys, I believe you have responsibility. If your family isn't eating, I'm not coming to your wife and talking to her. I'm coming to you. If your family isn't having its bills paid and you're not working, I'm not going to talk to your wife.
I'm going to talk to you. Because your position of authority comes with a position of responsibility. Paul says that if he doesn't work, he doesn't eat. And it's a he. I believe it particularly meant for the men.
And if he doesn't take care of his own, he's worse than an unbeliever. That's a very important passage. So there's authority that's bound up in being the man, the authority, the head of the home. There is also responsibility.
I believe the Bible also provides a certain sphere of authority within the church that belongs also only to men. I do not believe the Bible allows for women to serve in certain offices of the church, particularly the office of pastor or elder.
Now that's countercultural even in churches. Because there's a lot of people that would disagree. Right now, the Southern Baptist Convention is having a huge problem. Because those who stand on the tradition that the position of elder and pastor is only to be held by men, is being challenged.
And by those who are challenging it, are challenging it in the most aggressive way that I have seen in 30 years. Since Al Mohler went to Southern and made a huge uproar at Southern Seminary. He went to Southern, I believe, in 1993.
And one of the things that he did not believe is that women could be pastors. And when he went there, there were women in school to be pastors. And he literally had death threats and all kinds of things.
In a Christian school. Because of his position. The reason why I bring this up is because in the past, I've been called a sexist, I've been called bigoted. I've got letters. Hate mail. And if you ever want to have just a really interesting evening, go to our YouTube page and just read the comments.
But probably shouldn't. There's a lot of ugly words. But I want to say this. I believe there is a positional difference between men and women that God has established. But, there is a spiritual equality between men and women that God has also established.
Because you are a woman, does not make you any less in Christ than a man. Now you say, why should you have to say that? Because I want you to understand my heart on this. Simply because I believe God sets up spheres of positional authority does not mean that I believe that women are any lesser in any way when we stand at the foot of the cross.
I explain it like this. I say, you know what? I have children. One of my children is a believer, my daughter. My daughter is a believer, but she lives in my house. Therefore, she does not have the same positional authority in my house that I do.
So if I were to tell her, honey, you need to do X, Y, and Z, and she says, hey, Paul says there's neither male or female. I would say, yeah, but in my house there's daddy and daughter. Paul's statement about male and female does not erase the distinction between parent and child, and it does not erase the distinction between husband and wife.
We must understand this. Because just because we say a woman can't do a certain thing or a man has the position of authority in this thing does not mean that we are saying that women are inferior spiritually, intellectually, or in any other sense.
And if you think that, I've been told that you don't like women. Well, I like women better than most because my wife's the best person I know, and I'd rather spend an hour with her than a whole day with anyone else.
That's my wife. And she's the best Christian I know, and she's the best person I know. And I say that not to any of your diminishing, but she's my favorite person in the world, and she's a woman. And I love her, and I would die for her.
And Peter tells me I should defer to her as the weaker vessel. Somebody says, oh, if she's weaker, that means that she's not as smart. No, that's not what it means. It means that in the role of responsibility, I have the responsibility to protect her because she's more valuable than I am.
If I have a Ming vase and I have a steel vase, which one, if you drop, is it going to break? The Ming vase. But which one's more valuable? I'm the steel. It's my job to protect her, to stand in front of her, to be the wall of defense, to be the hedge of protection, to be the one who stands between her and the world and says, if you're going to throw an arrow, you let it hit me and not her.
You see, the relationship there is one of protection, provision, and pastoring. I have those three roles with my wife. I am called to protect her spiritually, physically, emotionally. I'm called to provide for her spiritually, physically, and emotionally.
And I'm called to pastor her. Men, are you doing that for your wives? Are you protecting them? Not just physically, oh, I'm tough. I'm too old to be tough anymore. But I can still protect her. I can stand up for her.
I can stand with her. If I see something in her life that's harming her, I can help her to alleviate that. I can provide for her and I can pastor her. All of you are not ordained ministers of the gospel, but you are all ordained.
If you are a husband, you are ordained pastor of your home. You are called to lead your wife and lead your children in the way of the Lord. Many people call Paul a sexist. I remember in this very room, years and years ago, when we were having an issue regarding the subject of female eldership, and it was an issue for many years here, I remember standing right about where you're sitting and I was talking to a person.
And they said, you know, pastor, the problem is Paul didn't like women. And I said, no, the problem is you think the issues relating to men and women come from the authority of Paul and not of God. No.
Paul writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. And you know what I've often found the most ironic about that conversation? It's the same person who told me that Paul doesn't like women was the same person who quoted every time we had the conversation, Galatians 3, where Paul says in Christ there is neither slave nor free.
There is neither male nor female. I said, why do you quote Paul if Paul didn't like women? But as we discuss the subject of spiritual equality, I want to begin to draw to a close by making this point.
We are equal spiritually, and therefore, as men and women, we are all equally responsible for our sin and in need of a Savior. No one goes to heaven just because they're a man, and no one gets to heaven just because they're a woman.
I've heard a lot of people say, I know she's in heaven. She was a sweet old lady. Being a sweet old lady don't get you to heaven. Being a kindly old man don't get you to heaven. Because the Bible says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Every person in the world, whether they're a sweet old man, or a lovely old lady, has fallen short of the glory of God. They have sinned against God. They have broken His law, and they stand condemned in the court of God.
And they are without hope if they are without Christ. Because there is only one salvation, and that is the salvation that comes through Christ. And there is only one mediator between man and God, and that is the man Christ Jesus, who came born of a woman, born under the law, that He can redeem those who are under the law, and give us the adoption as sons.
And now, if we believe on Him, and repent of our sins, we can know that we are saved. But only through Him. Not through what we've done. Certainly not through our gender. And not through being a kind old man, woman, or a sweet young man or woman.
The only way we can know that we are saved is if we have trusted in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So I would encourage you, as we draw to a close, to ask yourself that question. Man, yes, are there practical things from today's service?
Yes. Man, are you protecting your family? Man, are you providing for your family? Man, are you pastoring your family? Those are all things, but let me tell you this. You can do those things and still not be saved.
Woman, are you loving your husband? Nurturing your children? Serving in your home? You can do those things and still not be saved. Because the Bible says we're not saved by the good works that we do, but by the good works that He did.
What are you trusting in today? You say, well, I tell you what, Pastor, I am saved, but those things you were talking about, I don't feel like I'm doing those things perfectly. You're not doing them perfectly.
But the Bible says that when you come together to spur one another on to good works. So this is my spur to you. If you're a man, love your wife. If you're a wife, respect your husband. And whether you're a man or a woman, child, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Let us pray. Father, I am so grateful for the opportunity to talk about the truths of Your Word in the midst of Your people.
And yet I know, O Lord, that these truths are difficult, in some ways even impossible for some to receive because they are not yet in Christ. And the Bible says that if we don't have the Holy Spirit of God, we cannot receive the things of God.
So I pray, O God, right now, I pray first for the non-believers that are here, the ones who have not yet come to Christ. Maybe they, in their heart, think they're believers, but yet they have not truly bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And in their minds, they are constantly struggling because they love their sin and they don't love the Savior. I pray today that You would open their heart to believe and love Christ. Maybe there are those here today, Lord, who have never confessed the name of Jesus Christ.
Maybe they're children. Maybe they're old people. Maybe they're just not yet ready at that moment to turn their hearts over to You, Lord. But we know, Lord, that that has to be preceded by a work of You in the heart.
So, Lord, if there are those who are standing on the edge and are not yet ready to take the step, I pray, Lord, that You would, in Your loving kindness, draw them to Yourself. And Father, for the believers in this room, the men, I pray that they would be better lovers of their families.
And Lord, for the children, that they would be obedient, as unto the Lord. And to the wives, Lord, that they would love their husbands and respect them. Lord, that we would understand the role of male and female was given at creation, not as a burden, but as a blessing.
And Lord, for this world that seems to be so chaotic and so crazy, we pray for it as well. We pray, O God, that You would intervene in our land. And Lord, that beginning in the pulpits, that repentance of sin and faith in Christ would be preached throughout our land.
We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand together and sing as we prepare our hearts for communion.
We come now to the end of the service. And prior to the benediction, I'd like to just give.
A few quick announcements. However, the fact that I am bulletin-less makes it very difficult, so this will be easier. This is an important week, only in the sense of busyness. We are going to be having a church yard sale on Saturday.
Several reasons for this, but one of the primary reasons is we're doing some remodeling, and we just have a lot of things that we need to get rid of. And so we have some old pulpits and stuff that might go away.
We have some speakers that are going to be sold. But if you have things that you would like to donate to the yard sale, we would love to get them from you. You can bring them up this week. If you need to have me open the church for you and let you in, just put it in the fellowship hall, and we'll price it and get it ready.
But if you need me to come get it, me and Jerry are going to go, I think, Tuesday, right? Make a few stops and pick up some things. Some of you have already told me, I think we have a hutch that we're going to pick up and some other things.
So we're going to bring a trailer around and pick up some things. So if you have things that you've been sitting in your garage and you don't have any use for it and you'd like to donate it to the church to sell, we'd be glad to have it.
Like I said, we're just trying to spring clean, I guess, in the wintertime. Trying to get rid of some things and maybe meet some people in the community in the process. That's another thing that we're going to be doing next week is we're going to have the fishing hole.
That's our track booth set up outside. And even if you are not a person who is interested in participating in the yard sale, if you'd like to help out in the fishing hole, we'd really love to have you because we need people that are willing to engage with people as they come, hand tracks, have conversations, ask questions.
And if you're a church member, you are qualified. We just want you to come and participate. So let me know if you think you can be here. That'll be a big help. Other than that, our regular schedule is this week.
We have our karate tomorrow night, AHC Tuesday night, Bible study Wednesday night, and our seminary class is Thursday night. And I don't think there's anything extra on the list. Is there anything that I'm missing, elders or deacons or anyone else?
When's our next church fellowship, Andy? Do you know that? February? March. March, okay. What we've done this year, just to let you guys know, is we put on the calendar every three months we're going to have an after church meal, a fellowship meal.
And so we want to start putting that in your mind now because it's a real fun time and it's a great time to get to know each other. So we'll have that on the calendar as it gets closer to time. Rosanna, you had something?
Oh, well, I'm very grateful for all the hard work and everybody who's been participating in it. And we're not done. Next week, the baptistry's gonna look totally different. Lord willing, we'll have that finished and ready.
And there's going to be a new sign in the narthex. And we are doing some other things as well. So we're grateful for the, for what God has gifted us with to give us the opportunity to make some changes.
And we hope that they're all positive. All right, let's stand. Our Father and our God, we are so grateful to have this opportunity to worship together. May you lead us from this place, Lord, with a desire to stand upon the firm rock of the Word of God and that we might live for the He who is the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's in His name we pray.