along with our low humidity front with
thoughts of cooler weather. I think it would
probably be
a safe bet that there's not too many other
churches in Baton Rouge this Sunday morning
who have sung a song filled with the fury and
wrath of God to the hymn of a Christmas hymn.
That's us! That's how we roll when it's
fantastic. If you have your Bibles turned with
me to Ephesians,
chapter 5 and verse 21, this is where we left
off last time we were in Ephesians,
but today, let me be a little bit different.
This is going to be a foundation laying sermon
to prepare you for the whole next section of
verses that we're going to have that deal with
the subject of the family. So this won't be an
exact exposition. We did a little bit of exp
osition
specifically of verse 21, and it will be in
some regard, but it's going to be broader than
that,
because in today's world that we live in,
subjects like wives submit to your own
husbands seem like
something out of the handmaid's tale. If you
're familiar with that show that's streaming,
it's these ladies in red dresses and white bon
nets, and it really mocks the Christian faith
and how
men are domineering over the Christian ladies.
But no matter whether you've watched that or
not,
you know what I'm speaking of. Even in
conservative churches, the influence of our
culture has made
a mark on so many believers that this idea of
wives submitting to your husband seems like
something that's outdated, or at least maybe
we ought to skip over that part and just kind
of move
along. But I'm going to try to demonstrate to
you today that nothing could be further from
the truth
on this whole section about the family that we
're fixing to look at, and I really want to
take some
time explaining what I mean by that. We may
even take two sermons to do this. I'm going to
determine
that next week. My goal, as you know, is
always to help us all understand these texts
in Scripture
verse by verse. That's the subject matter of
our sermons, not a topic, but a text. And as
you know,
this book is literally God Breathe, inspired,
and therefore what it requires from us is
careful
study and thorough exposition. And God's ways
are the best ways. And when it comes to the
family,
I do not trust the culture to tell me how
things should work in the family. I only trust
the Lord
and His Word, no matter how contrary His Word
may be to the culture.
But I understand, again, how all of us have
been affected by the world's way of thinking
about
verses like why I submit to your husbands. And
so I want to make sure I explain God's way as
best as I
can so that you can see that it is the best
way. It should be plain and easy to see that
for quite
a while now, we have been watching the death
of the family, the traditional family here in
our
nation. A lot of our problems today here in
our country can be traced back to the sexual
revolution
of the 1960s. You can really go back to the
Enlightenment, but really the 60s out of all
of
that time period came an ever-increasing
divorce rate. For example, the divorce rate in
the early
1960s for first-time marriages was around 20%.
20% of first-time marriages ended in divorce,
but by the end of the 1960s, it had grown to
25%. Today, on average, and there's a lot of
different
factors, but this is just a general average,
41% of first-time marriages in divorce in the
United
States of America, and second marriages, 60 to
70% of second marriages in America end in
divorce.
Also, out of the 1960s, the women's liberation
movement, the leftist feminism that we see
so prevalent today really began to ramp up in
the 60s. Also, what we know as the LGBT
movement
started to kick in gear in the 1960s, as well
as an ever-increasing rate of abortion and the
rise
of the pro-choice movement. Now, before the 60
s, there were abortions, but you didn't hear
about
them. Nobody talked about that even. It was
something that was kept quiet. And then don't
forget about the influence of Marxism in our
colleges, which started back then but now has
fully taken over many of our major
universities. Marxism has also infiltrated our
politics and
it's even made its way into the church. Think
cultural Marxism, critical race theory, DEI,
all things woke have infiltrated so many of
our evangelical churches. All of these things
and
more that I could list have one major thing in
common together, and that is they are all
anti-traditional family. Every one of those
things. John MacArthur said, "We are watching
the formation
of the rope that strangles the family to death
." In a book named The Death of the Family, a
British
doctor suggests this, quote, "Doing away with
the family completely because he says it is a
primary
conditioning device for a Western imperial
istic worldview." That's the kind of people
that are
teaching your kids and colleges these days
with those types of opinions. Feminist Kate
Millette
in her book Sexual Politics wrote this, "The
family must go because it oppresses and ensl
aves
women." Boy, I bet she's nice, huh? "The
people who hold these perspectives are
aggressive, intelligent
and find their most fertile ground for pushing
their viewpoints in our nation's universities
,"
as I said, and that is where they literally re
educate the young people when they get there.
Many of those young people go on to fall into
the category of political and business leaders
in our society, especially the upper crust
elite Ivy League schools. This has been going
on
for quite some time. This is what produces
politicians like Alexandria Ocasio Cotes,
better known as AOC, if you know who I'm
talking about. If you listen to some of her
views,
you will see the product of Marxism in our
colleges. This T. Grace Atkinson of the
National
Organization for Women once expressed her
desire to eliminate all sex, all marriage, all
motherhood
and all love. Now what a home run for a
civilization that would come to an end is what
it would do.
She said this, "Marriage is legalized serv
itude and family relations are the basis for
all human
oppression." Now, this line of thinking,
besides being warped, insane and sad,
is literally a religion for these people. That
's why they're so hostile when you encounter
them.
Church, let me tell you something. If the
family cannot function,
then who will raise and socialize and moralize
the next generation? Sadly, though many do not
hold
to these viewpoints of these extreme leftists
that I've quoted today, the power and the
infiltration
of them into our society filtered down, even
into the church, as I said, in a way that
makes many
consider a wife submitting to her husband as
the head of the household as old, archaic, opp
ressive,
outdated, and certainly not a view to be held
by modern, intelligent people. Over 30 years
ago,
Dr. Arman Nikolai of Harvard Medical School
cited some reasons and some startling
predictions
about the devastating trend to destroy the
family in America. He wrote about the
dominance of television
in American culture, the chaos and moral
confusion in our society, the lack of
communication in
families, the increasing rate of divorce and
its devastating effects upon children. Listen
to this
that he wrote over 30 years ago. These trends
will incapacitate the family, destroy its
integrity,
and cause its members to suffer such crippling
emotional conflicts that they will become an
intolerable burden to society. What about the
future? So here he's going to make some
predictions.
First, the quality of family life will
continue to deteriorate, producing a society
with a higher
incidence of mental illness than ever before.
Ding, ding, ding. He got that one right.
He says 95% of our hospital beds may be taken
up by mentally ill paces. Now thank God that
didn't
work out, but there's a much higher rate now.
Ask my daughter who works on the psych unit at
the Baton Rouge General than there were 30
years ago in our mental illness psych units.
Listen to
this one. We can expect the assassination of
people in authority to be frequent occurrences
.
The first thing I thought of was the math club
shooter that we know nothing about that shot
Donald Trump. Crimes of violence will increase
even those within the family. The suicide rate
will
rise. Guess what I checked? The suicide rate
in America has ribboned over 35% in the last
30 years.
35% increase and sexuality becomes more and
more unlimited and separated from emotional
and family
commitment. The degrading effect will cause
more bizarre experimentation and widespread
perversion. That is a home run if I ever heard
one of a prediction and consider this.
That last part right there was written before
there ever was an internet. Think about that.
Easy free access to pornography has exploded
since the invention of the smartphone and this
has
produced alarming statistics. Listen to this
one. Just since 2020 there has been a 62.5
increase
in federal convictions for child sexual abuse.
62.5%. That's convictions folks. That is from
being
arrested to being tried to going before a
judge. That's just the last five years.
And that's just federal convictions. That's
not state convictions. Add to that that it's
actually only estimated that 4% of actual
abuse cases wind up with convictions because
so many
are not reported. I'm telling you America
doesn't realize there is an epidemic
of staggering proportions that we've never
seen before in this country. It is out of
control
and without getting into all the details of
the reasons there is a direct correlation
between the massive increase in these kinds of
crimes and pornography. They go hand in hand.
This Harvard doctor was predicting this rise
in perversion as a result of the breakdown of
the
family without even being able to conceive of
an internet at the time that he wrote that.
He couldn't have even thought of the internet.
So there really is no question
about the fact that the family is under major
assault and when you consider
how the people in our day want to redefine the
family in absolutely any way that they want.
Think about the trend that we see of late with
two married men adopting a baby. Have you seen
that?
It's growing. That's child abuse. That's mill
stone around the neck territory right there.
1000%.
You didn't even, nobody even conceived of
something like that even just 20 years ago,
but we see it all over the place now. Also,
now well into this internet age we have young
people.
No social skills at all. Why? They're not
leaving the house.
They're staying home and they're only
interactions they have. They don't come to
church. They don't
go anywhere. They just interact with other
people online, sometimes even robots. That's
serious. That's their only friends. Listen to
this statistic right here. Women married
by the age of 30 fell from 91% in 1976. By the
age of 30, 91% of young ladies in America were
married by the age of 30. It fell from 91% in
1976 to 33% in 2019. And it went from 81% to
25%
for men in 2019. And both are certainly even
lower now in 2025. Per capita murder rates,
go search that through the roof. Baton Rouge
top 15 right now in the country for murder. I
mean,
I can keep going here, but I think you get the
picture and nothing that they are doing from
the
world's point of view seems to be slowing down
this process of the disintegration of the
relationship
at the very core of life itself, which is the
family. You can tamper with society in a lot
of
ways, but if you destroy the family, you
destroy society. You need to understand that.
So what's
the answer? Man-centered psychology? That hadn
't helped so far, has it? Got a lot of therapy
out
there, don't we? How's that working out? Even
in the church, last 30 years especially, we've
seen
loads of books and seminars and conferences on
the family, unfortunately mixed with man-
centered
psychology with some Bible verses thrown in.
Let me tell you something. There is a divine
pattern
for the family and for marriage that we find
laid out for us very clearly in the Word of
God.
And it's really not that complicated. It's not
the world's way, which, as I've tried to
demonstrate
to you today, is clearly not working and only
getting worse. I'm telling you, we don't need
therapists and psychiatrists and experts to
instruct us about marriage and the family.
We have in our hands the manufacturer's hand
book to teach us about God's way to operate in
the
family, which is always the best way. And I
want to start here by getting to you to think
about
about what we've studied so far in Ephesians 5
leading up to verse 21. Remember back real
quick
that Paul made a contrast in verse 18 between
getting drunk with wine and being filled with
the
Spirit. If you haven't listened to those
messages, go back on our Facebook page and
listen or watch
those messages. Remember, that's a command.
That's something we're to be filled with the
Spirit,
controlled by the Spirit, guided by the Spirit
. Remember, carried along by the Spirit. And
then
he goes on, he gives us examples. Okay, here's
some characteristics of the Spirit-filled
believer.
Verse 19, "We will speak to one another in p
salms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and
making
melody with your heart to the Lord." We just
got finished doing that in our worship service
,
but basically overall, we have a new nature.
We have a new song. Remember that? We went
over that
when we're filled with the Spirit. And then
verse 20, "Always giving thanks for some
things." No,
all things in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ to God, even the Father. Remember, that
's all the time
giving thanks for all things, even the bad
things. Why the bad things? Well, think back.
Remember,
because all things good and bad are being used
by God to bring us along in spiritual maturity
and to conform us to the image of Christ. In
result, he gets all the glory. That's why we
go
through hard circumstances. They are purposed
by God for our growth and for His glory. And
so,
the thrust of what we have learned so far here
in Ephesians 5 is that whatever we are going
to do
in terms of our Christian life, whether it's
in marriage, whether it's in our family,
it has to flow out of a life controlled by the
Holy Spirit. And folks, that's why
unbelieving society really has no hope here.
That's why things are the way they are,
because they don't know God. They make fun of
verses like, "Why submit to your husbands?"
Because that's spiritually appraised right
there. The natural man cannot comprehend that,
so what does he do? He mocks it. He makes fun
of us. And I'm here to tell you that one of
the greatest
earthly benefits of being a Christian is that
the only right kind of marriage relationship
and family is built upon a redeemed life
powered and energized by the Holy Spirit in
obedience to
the Word of God. So back to what we just read
in verses 19 and 20. Think about it. Put it
together.
A person who is filled with the Spirit is a
thankful person, a joyful person, not a
perfect
person. Did I say that? No, I never say that.
There's only one perfect person. He's reigning
and ruling the whole universe right now. But
the best kind of a person to go through life
with
in a marriage relationship is a spirit-filled
person. A person who knows that the purpose
of life above all things is not how much money
we can make, not how great a retirement we can
have,
but a person that is spirit-filled knows that
the purpose and meaning of life is to bring
glory to
God. Let me tell you, that's a different kind
of person than most people. And then, when you
have
two people like this that are married, again,
not perfect, but it's the best that marriage
can be,
because it's two people striving to live life
in obedience to the Word of God as one. That's
the
best it can be. It's pretty hard to fight with
somebody when they're filled with the Spirit
because they're just too joyful. They're just
too thankful. They're just too operating
at that moment an eternal perspective. Now,
walking in the flesh, all bets are off,
right, even for the Christian. All bets are
off when one or more are walking in the flesh.
Now, next, there's another element of being
filled with the Spirit we touched on last time
,
and this is what I want you to get today, more
than anything. This right here really sets up
the
whole next set of verses that we're fixing to
study here in Ephesians 5. Look next at verse
21,
"And be subject to one another in the fear of
Christ." Now, real quick, of course, that
doesn't
mean you're afraid of Jesus. That's biblical
fear. That's reverential awe. But look next at
that phrase,
"Be subject to one another." That means in
this verse, to everybody. This is not talking
about
wives to husband. This is not talking about
children to parents. In this context, this is
talking about everybody in the family of God.
"Be subject to one another." This right here
is the
groundwork. This is the foundation. You get
this going straight in your life, and this is
what makes
for a meaningful marriage. And the word here
in verse 21, look at it, "subject." It's also
translated "submit." I like that word better.
It's the Greek word, "hupotos." It means to
rank
under. It's a military term. We are called on
to place ourselves under each other, submit to
one
another. Here in this verse, again, it's a
generic submission. It's not talking about the
specific
relationships within a family. We're fixing to
get to that. This is for everybody in God's
family.
This is what makes for truly Christian
meaningful relationships when a person is
controlled by
the Spirit of God, filled with joy and thanks
giving for everything in life, striving to live
obediently
to the Word of God and for the glory of God,
and they willfully submit to other people as
more
important than their selves. That's what this
is talking about. Now, side note, you've got
to have
your own house in order before you can do this
with others. This takes spiritual maturity.
And in case you think that this idea is only
found once in this particular verse,
let me show you how dominant this idea is in
the Bible, in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians
16-16,
that you also be in subjection to such men and
to everyone who helps in the works
and the labors. And he's talking about within
the context of the church there,
in the church. Hebrews 3, 13, Hebrews 13, 17
says this, "Obey your leaders and what?
Submit to them." 1 Peter 2, 13, "Submit
yourselves for the Lord's sake
to every human institution, whether to a king
as one in authority." That's the laws of the
land and the leaders of the land, unless they
are trying to get you something to do
something
that's against the Word of God and that point
you don't. 1 Peter 5, "You younger men
likewise,
be subject to your elders and all of you, cl
othe yourselves with humility toward one
another."
The only way you can submit yourself to one
another is through humility. And then again,
here in Ephesians 5, 21, "And be subject to
one another, us across the board, other
Christians."
Now listen, no believer is inherently superior
to any other believer. In our standing before
God,
we are all equal in every way. That's why we
know salvation is not by works, it's by Christ
's work
on our behalf, right? This is the supreme idea
of true humility, no better illustrated than
when
Jesus washed the disciples' feet. He said to
them, "I want you to love each other in the
same way
that I have loved you." And how did he love
them? Enough to get down on the ground and
humble himself,
though he was God incarnate and washed the
dirty, filthy feet of a bunch of proud, self-
centered
disciples who were at that time arguing about
who was going to be the greatest in the
kingdom
while he was on the brink of giving his life
for them. That's what this means. That's the
idea.
We also find it in Philippians 2 verses 3 to 4
. Look at this. "Do nothing from selfishness,
or empty conceit, but with humility of mind,
regard one another as more important than
yourselves.
Do not merely look out for your own personal
interests, but also for the interests of
others."
That's what we're talking about here. And Paul
goes on to tell us that that is precisely the
attitude of Jesus who didn't hold on to the
idea and the reality of being equal with God,
but humbled himself for our sake and became
obedient unto death, even the death of a cross
.
Can you consider others as more important than
yourself? Let me tell you, that takes
spiritual
maturity. As I've said many times, not easy,
but possible in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our marriages and our families are going to
fulfill, if they're going to fulfill the
divine
purpose. Folks, these are the issues at stake.
And what it really comes down to is a matter
of
spiritual commitment. You can look out at our
side to today in 2025, and you can see that
this
will not happen amongst the unbelieving.
Because what's the prevailing trend of today?
Self-centeredness. Self-centered pride. I will
stay with you as long as you give me what I
want,
and you meet my needs, and when you don't, I'm
out of there. That's a scenario played out
regularly
in those 41% of first-time marriages to end a
divorce and also doubly so in second marriages
.
Today's, what's the emphasis on everybody? Me.
Individual rights. My freedoms. My needs
being met. My self-esteem. And all of that
individualistic thinking is absolutely deadly
to any meaningful marriage relationship or
family relationship. If there's one thing,
if I had to pick out one number one thing of
all the couples that I've counseled with and
married
during my years in ministry, there is one word
that is the key above all words to a
successful
marriage that has to be true of both the
husband and the wife. And that one word is
this. Selfless.
Selfless. If both are not selfless, you're
going to run into problems.
If you want to live as disconnected people in
a boarding house, have one or more in the
marriage
relationship be more interested in their self-
fulfillment than giving to their spouse. Have
one
or more desiring material goods more than
their relationship. Have one or more longing
to be
independent rather than dependent. And I can
keep going on with those examples, but the
bottom line
here is if there is selfishness of one or more
in the relationship, the Bible is saying you
can kiss a meaningful relationship goodbye.
Solid families and marriages are essential
for the preservation of any society and are
only possible when you have unselfish
attitudes.
You simply, you cannot have a constant clash
of two selfish people and build any kind of
meaningful relationship. Here's what's
necessary is a battle of two people struggling
to humble
themselves, both of them. That is what is
essential right there. And the key to that and
all relationships
is to be spirit-filled with a new song being
thankful in all things and submitting to one
another. That's what I'm trying to tell you is
the foundation. That's where everything
has to start. There's no magic here. There's
no formula. You don't need some gimmick from a
self-help book. It's simply a question of this
, are you committed to the obedience of God's
Word
and God's Spirit? That's what it is. Am I
committed to the controlling influences of the
Word of God?
Am I going to live out this Christian life in
the way that God intends me to as laid out so
clearly in His Word? That has to be there for
all this to work. And if you don't start there
,
then the rest is just hopeless. Just look at
our unregenerate society. Even those who have
the most
money and power and fame. How often are their
lives just spilled out in the media and they
're
just dumpster fires? They have everything that
the world that they could desire in their
lives are
complete disaster zones. And again, listen to
me good now. I'm not saying that spirit-filled
marriages are perfect. When we walk in the
flesh, we lose every time. But when we're
walking in the
spirit, two people are walking in the spirit.
That's the best it can be. I go back to my
text,
look at verse 21 again. You may be thinking,
well, wait a minute. If everybody is
submitting to one
another, then nobody's in charge. If we're all
submitting to one another, not so. And let me
explain to you how. God has designed authority
and order in all of our relationships. In 1
Corinthians
11-3, a tremendous verse. Paul writes this, "
But I want you to understand that Christ is the
head
of every man, and the man is the head of a
woman, and God is the head of Christ." There
is God's
way. God has an order of things. There is an
authority in the family. There is an authority
at the father level. The man is the head of
the household. He is the protector. He is the
provider.
There is an authority over children at the
parent level. Both parents. There is, of
course,
as I've already illustrated to you, a general
submission to one another, husband and wife.
But at the same time, there are also God-ord
ained roles of authority. And the perfect
picture of
this, go back into that 1 Corinthians 11-3
that I just quoted, "Christ is the head of
every man,
and the man is the head of a woman, and God is
the head of Christ." Now, real quick,
parentheses, I need to make a serious
theological footnote right here. Is God
superior to Christ?
No. Why? Well, is God of a different essence
than Christ? No. Are God and Christ one? Yes.
Okay? So, what God is the head of Christ means
is that in the makeup of the Trinity and in
the
economy of redemption, God the Son totally
equal in essence with God the Father, but in
His role
as the Son submitted Himself to the plans and
purposes of the Father. There is an order that
God has even within the actions and the
operations of the persons, the three persons
of the Trinity
in the drama of redemption. When Jesus
willingly submitted Himself to the plan of the
Father,
He was still equal in all ways with the rest
of the Trinity, but also at the same exact
time He was
submitting to the will of the Father. Now,
look, you're not going to get, with your human
reasoning,
the inner workings of the Trinity, one God,
three persons at the same time, but you can
get the
concept of that, right? Think of Jesus equal
and yet submissive and also Jesus willingly
submitted
Himself to the needs of man by becoming one of
us. And in submitting to the Father's plan,
He came and carried out the greatest act of un
selfish love ever, dying on the cross as a
substitute for sinners to satisfy the holy
justice of God, the Father. He was the King
that became a servant. He was the rich man
that became poor. He was the sinless one who
bore all
our sins. He was the author of life who went
through death for our sakes. And so this third
person, 1st Corinthians 11, is so profound.
Jesus was equal with God and yet at the same
time
He submitted in His role as the Son to the
Father. He was over man. He was Lord and He is
Lord in
every way and yet He submitted to man at the
point of the greatest need of man. Salvation.
Look at Romans 12-10. Beated, voted to one
another in brotherly love, give preference to
one another
in honor. The idea. And my major point here
today is this. Before we can get into talking
about the
role of the wife and the role of the husband
and the parents and the children, we have to
talk about
the role of everybody in the family of God
submitting to one another. Again, that's the
groundwork.
That's the foundation. Remember in Galatians 3
-28, for all believers there's neither Jew nor
Greek,
there's neither slave nor free man, there's
neither male nor female, for you are all one
in Jesus
Christ. Again, none of us is spiritually
superior to any other Christian. We're all one
. My wife
is a believer. My kids are believers. We are
all equal on a spiritual level. The ground is
level
at the foot of the cross. You've heard me say
that many times and many other preachers have
said it
too. And yet, at the same exact time, God has
designed a structure, an order, and an
authority
within the family. There's an authority given
to the Father. Again, an authority given to
the parents.
If all in the family are believers, that doesn
't cancel out spiritual equality.
It just says, God has a design, a design. He
has roles. He has duties for the different
members of a family to carry out. It's the
same thing in the church. Look at 1 Timothy 5-
17.
The elders who suggest well. Is that what it
says? The elders, pastors, synonymous, who
rule well
are to be considered worthy of double honor,
especially those who work hard at preaching
and
teaching. God has an order in the church. The
elders are the shepherds of the flock. The
Bible
says the elders rule well with the people in
the church and the people in the church are to
submit
to their elders, to their leadership, as the
elders have to give an account to God who is
over them
for their ministry. But that doesn't make the
elders, the pastors, spiritually superior to
the
believers in the flock. All that that means is
we have different roles to carry out. Even in
my role as your pastor, guess what? I have to
operate with an attitude of submission to you
as a fellow believer and at the same time have
authority over you in my God ordained role as
your pastor. Even within the plurality of
elders. I don't care if you got two like we
got, I don't
care if you got 20. The elders are equal in
authority in the church, but in every group of
elders
there has to be a head among equals. That's me
. You can give it whatever title you want,
senior pastor, lead pastor. Roger Dale is
equal in authority with me as my fellow elder
and yet
at the same time he's to submit to me as a
head among equals because God has designed
this order
of authority in the church, in the family.
That doesn't make me spiritually superior to
Roger
Dale. We just have different roles and guess
what? In my role I will be held the most
accountable for
this ministry when I die and stand before God
and Roger Dale, guess what? He will have more
accountability than you for his role that he's
played in the ministry of our church. The only
other office in the church, the decads, they
have roles. They will be held more accountable
than you when they stand before God for what
they did in their ministry. What I'm trying to
get you
to see is God has a design set of the way he
wants things to function amongst God's people
in the church and it's the same exact thing in
the family. You getting a picture?
This is the way things work in a marriage.
This is the way things work in the church.
This is the way things work in the family, in
my marriage. There is an equal submission
that Christy and I have to each other just
like we have with all of you as fellow
believers but
at the same time we got different roles and
look we're going to get into the details of
this in
the text or head but as the man I have the
role of the authority over my household, guess
what that
makes me? The most accountable to God for my
household. I'm the protector. I'm the provider
in my role. I have certain duties and
responsibilities to carry out just as she does
just as my children
do. Now that doesn't make me superior to
Christy in any way. I don't come home like
some kind of
monarch to be served and dominate Christy in
some oppressive way. Like my old boss that
Solomon
all used to say, "Oh, I run my house. I run
the vacuum. I run the broom." Come to my house
.
You got to come correct with Christy. We're
equally submitting but I'm wiping down the
countertops.
I'm sweeping up, right? That's how it works.
But the monarch, the domineering man, that's
how the
world perceives why submit to your husbands
when we say that, when we quote that out of
Scripture.
That's what they think we mean and it's not.
Let me give you one more example from the
church
and we're going to wrap this up today because
I could probably go on for a while here.
Any right here? This is a major problem in the
church in America and it used to not be,
not very long ago but it is now. 1 Timothy 2,
12 and 14, "But I do not allow a woman to
teach
or exercise authority over a man but to remain
quiet for it was Adam who was first created
and
then Eve and it was not Adam who was deceived
but the woman being deceived fell into trans
gression."
Now there's a lot going on in them three
verses right there but let me, I'm just going
to pull
two things out for right now, okay? From the
very beginning, from the very first day Adam
was created,
God had an order in place. God put Adam in
authority over Eve. They had equal submission
to one another just like me and Christy had,
just like we have with all of you but they had
different roles. Is that too hard to
understand? And guess what? Even though it's
clear in this
passage and in Genesis who it was that was
deceived in the garden, guess who was held
most accountable for the fall in the garden?
It wasn't Eve. It was Adam. He was held most
accountable. Why? Because of his role. That's
why. And this verse also makes it very clear
there are to be no women in the role of
authority over men in the church. Feminists
can lose their
minds. I don't care. This is God's way. This
is what God has ordained for men to be the
head
of the church. Any woman who is serving as a
pastor is operating in direct disobedience
to the God-ordained roles of authority in the
church. Bar none. It's not even debatable.
Now listen. That does not mean that men are
spiritually superior to women in the church.
That does not mean men are more intelligent,
more theologically knowledgeable, even more
capable to be a pastor or superior in any way
to women. What does it mean? It's simple.
God has ordained a structure of authority in
the church. He's given it clearly in His word
and the issue is are we going to follow it or
are we not going to follow it?
Are we going to follow the feminism of our
culture or are we going to follow the Bible?
It's that simple. At the same time, equal
submission at the same time between men and
women in the church. We all folks have our
different roles to carry out. And what we're
fixing to study in the days ahead is God's
design for order and for structure in
marriages
and in the family. And either we're going to
submit to what God's word says or we're going
to go the
world's way. Every year, I want you to think
about this. On average, there are a little
over
2 million first time marriages in the United
States of America. And again, I'll quote it,
of those 2 million marriages, 41% of them end
in divorce. Out of those who go on to marry
again,
as I said a second time, 60 to 70% of those
end in divorce. It's a tragic reality and a
major
contributor to the breakdown of the family in
our nation. So when we think about this whole
subject
of the family, again, there's God's way and
there's man's way. And we have to think about
the broader
spiritual issues before we can ever get to the
specifics that we're fixing to get into with
God's way or anything else. Anything else is a
battle for our own way. When we reject God's
way,
what we're saying is, no, close this. We don't
know that can't be right. We're going to go
our way.
And it's clear to see how that way is working
out in our nation. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you that you have so very
clearly laid out a way and a structure and an
order for the family, for our marriages, for
the church. Help us, Lord, to be humble.
We have to not go our own way, but to submit
to your way because your way is always best.
Well, I thank you for the unity and the love
that we have for one another here at our
church.
I thank you, Father, that it's only by
sovereign grace that we follow your order,
because left to ourselves, we would go our own
way. But it's your grace and your working in
our
lives that has steered us in the direction of
your Word's way of ordering and structuring
everything in our life. And for that, we give
you all the glory. In Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.
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