[0:00] Bibles again, and this time turn to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 5, just a little before 1 Thessalonians.
[0:16] We've been studying about what God has to say about submission. Let's listen to his instructions and obey his word.
[0:31] Ephesians 5, I'll begin reading at verse 21 to the end of the chapter. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
[0:48] Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
[1:04] Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
[1:42] In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church.
[2:02] For we are members of his body. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.
[2:16] This is a profound mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
[2:39] Submit yourselves then to God. James 4, 7. We come this morning to something of a transition in our study on the duty of submission.
[2:53] So far, we've seen just how far-reaching this duty is. Indeed, it's the whole Christian life, really. We saw in the first place, being creatures of God, we're called to submit ourselves to God's laws.
[3:09] We are the clay. He's the potter. And being sinful creatures, we're also called to submit to his gospel, to his way of righteousness, his way of saving us.
[3:22] Not by our own righteousness, but through the righteousness of Jesus. And Romans speaks of that as submission, bowing to his way of righteousness.
[3:32] Last week, we saw two more. We saw that we are to submit our minds to his word, not only its commands, but to its teachings, its truth claims, and to accept everything it says just because he says it.
[3:50] And then we saw as well that we are to submit to his providential governing of circumstances in our lives. We are to submit to our Father in the trials that he sends to us, and so to live.
[4:05] Now, this duty of submission then reaches into every single day that we live. But there's more. There's more than this. So far, the submission we give has been directly to God himself, submitting, putting ourselves under his laws, his gospel, his teachings, his providence.
[4:31] All of those requiring me to put myself directly under him. But now we come to those scriptures that require us to submit to other people that he has placed in authority over us.
[4:47] So the teaching of scripture is that God himself has established authority structures, institutions in society, and he delegates to these institutions some of his own authority and requires us to submit to them.
[5:05] He's established the institution of the family, for instance. And so he commands within that family, wives to submit themselves to their husbands, children to submit themselves to their parents, and slaves, for they too were a part of the household, to submit themselves to their masters.
[5:26] God has established churches, and he commands church members to submit themselves to the elders of the church. God has established nations and civil governments of those nations, and he requires citizens to submit to their leaders, kings, presidents, governors, policemen, and tax collectors.
[5:50] Now, this gets a whole lot more difficult, doesn't it? And requires a whole new level of humility. Because it's one thing to submit to a good and gracious God, whose laws are always good, good for us, beneficial, whose gospel is gracious, whose teachings are true, whose providential control of circumstances is always wise and for our good.
[6:22] But it's another thing to submit to a stubborn husband, to a strict parent, to a harsh master, to a popish pastor, or to foolish national leaders.
[6:40] But hear me, even in our submission to these lesser and imperfect authorities, our submission is still to God himself.
[6:52] who has established those authorities, and has put them over us, and commanded us to put ourselves under them, in submission to them.
[7:08] So, Billy's playing out in the backyard, and his bossy little sister sent out to call him in for supper, and she opens the door and comes out, Billy, Billy, you need to come in for supper, and mom says, now, you better come now, and she turns and goes back into the house.
[7:30] Now, none of you boys have snotty sisters like that, but Billy does. Billy needs more motivation to submit to that order than he'll ever find in his bossy little sister.
[7:43] He needs to find motivation to submit to that order outside of her. So, he needs to, yes, see his sister, but to look behind her to the authority that authorized her to go and call him in.
[7:59] In other words, he needs to see his mother, that legitimate authority that he's called to bow to, and to submit, yes, even to the command, though it's come through sister, because of the authority vested in her.
[8:17] This idea of delegated authority from God is clearly taught in Scripture. When Jesus sent out 72 disciples, he authorized them to go and to perform miracles, to cast out demons, to teach and preach the gospel.
[8:35] He gave them that authority, and they went out and did just that in his name. And Jesus tells them in Luke 10, 16, he who hears you, hears me.
[8:52] He who rejects you, rejects me. And he who rejects me, rejects the one who sent me. You see the clear order of authority.
[9:05] There's the 72. People were to hear and heed what they said. If they rejected them, they're rejecting the one that sent them, Christ.
[9:16] And if they reject Christ, they're rejecting the one who sent him, God the Father. That's the way delegated authority works. And God has delegated his authority to the institutions of family, church, and state.
[9:33] Now we need to be clear on this because this is precisely what is under attack in our world today more than any other time in my lifetime. It's part of that critical race theory that we here discuss to view all institutions of authority as being man-made and made by man in order for the stronger to oppress the weaker.
[9:57] Therefore, we need to dismantle and destroy all such institutions since they're rotten at the core. At their very existence, they are oppressive.
[10:09] And freedom requires that they must be overthrown. Now, no Christian will deny that human sin has warped and brought oppression into these institutions to one degree or another.
[10:25] Sin always does that. It always spoils, doesn't it? And it has spoiled these institutions. But that is not the point they're making. The claim that they're making is that the very institutions of authority themselves are the problem.
[10:47] That they are themselves oppressive in their very existence and therefore not to be tolerated anymore. And that, friends, is a frontal attack on the authority of Almighty God for He has established these authorities.
[11:02] In the world that He's created, He set them up, family, church, and state, each their separate sphere, and gave them authority for the good of this world.
[11:18] The good order, the blessing of mankind, all mankind, male and female, rich and poor, young and old, powerful and weak alike. Therefore, the failure to submit to God's authority structures is not only wicked rebellion, but pure arrogance for man to think that they know better than God how to structure society.
[11:43] And if we do not repent as a nation and reverse course, we will reap the harvest of such, the harvest of anarchy, with every man doing what is right in his own eyes, a so-called freedom, which is really the worst sort of bondage of all, and the total breakdown of community, of law and order, peace and quiet.
[12:07] That's our world. Even so, come Lord Jesus, and take us out of this world, and rescue us from those who would destroy it. To some extent, we would expect this from the world.
[12:21] The world is under the power of the devil. The greatest, proud refusal of submission to God himself. He would not submit to the place God gave him.
[12:32] He wanted a higher place, and his pride brought him down. And that's the one who is running things in this world. Yes, he's under God, but the world is in his lap.
[12:45] And I say, we shouldn't be surprised then to find this in the world, but the truth is, it's flooding into the professing churches of Christ as well. So we need to be clear from God's word.
[12:58] What does it say about these authority structures? So, we start with the family. And why the family? Because that's where God started.
[13:10] That was the first institution that he established. Before the sixth day of creation was over, God performed the first wedding ceremony and joined Adam and Eve in marriage, holy matrimony.
[13:26] And in doing so, he established the family as the most basic institution, the foundational building block of society, so that as the family goes, so goes the church, and so goes the nation.
[13:42] So, we start with the family. Turn to Ephesians 5, if you're not already there. And what we're reading here is the very wisdom of God in designing the family for the good of the family, for the good of the church, for the good of the state.
[14:01] And verse 21 is a transitional verse between what goes before and what follows after. And so, Bible producers have trouble knowing where to put it.
[14:15] Do we connect it to what goes before or do we connect it to what goes after? I think it looks both ways. The verses, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
[14:27] And that submission is part of the Spirit-filled life, which is what goes before. But it also introduces this whole new section on the family that follows.
[14:41] And in doing so, it spells out in those family relationships, which one owes submission to the other. Submit yourselves to one another in the fear of the Lord.
[14:53] But who's to submit and in what ways? And in this following section, we see that that is spelled out. And he always starts with the one owing submission to the other.
[15:07] Wives submit to the husband. Children submit to the parent. Slaves to the master. So we come at last to you, wives. Now, I trust by now you see that submission is not a word that you have a monopoly on.
[15:21] It applies to every single one of us. But it does belong to you in a special way in the marriage relationship. So, verses 22 to 24.
[15:34] Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, his body of which he is the Savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
[15:56] Let's break it down into smaller bites and applications. I think I have seven. Number one, God commands you, wives, to submit to your husbands.
[16:08] Remember the basic meaning of hupotasso. Submit. To put yourself under your husband. The command is not to submit to all husbands.
[16:21] Did you see that? It's to your own husband. One. Relief. One's enough to submit to, right? That's all you're responsible to. Notice as well, this is not a suggestion.
[16:33] It's not mere advice. It's a command. As much a command from God as any other command in the Bible. And, since it's the command of a good God, it's a good command.
[16:49] That's the only kind he gives. All of his laws are holy, righteous, and good. That means it's not some chauvinistic idea of the Apostle Paul.
[17:03] And sadly, there are even writers in the professing church of Christ that would write it off as that. No, Paul is only a messenger. He's a messenger boy.
[17:15] And he speaks God-breathed words that were given to him. He's just passing on what he received. This is a command of God. And it's a one-word summary of your duty to your husbands found three times in the Scripture.
[17:31] When the Bible would sum up, wives, what you owe to your husband, three times it uses this one word, hupotasso, submit. Put yourself under him.
[17:44] And it's not some, due to some unique cultural situation in Ephesus. Paul says the same when he writes to the churches in Colossae. Colossians 3, verse 18, wives, submit to your husbands.
[17:59] There's the one summary statement. As is fitting in the Lord. And it's not just Paul, it's Peter also. When he wrote to the people of God that were scattered all throughout Asia Minor.
[18:16] In 1 Peter 3, 1, after addressing civil government and masters, he says, wives, in the same way, be submissive to your husbands.
[18:27] So it's a command of God and it's an important command since it is the summary statement of the responsibility to husband and since it is repeated so often in Scripture.
[18:38] Number two, wives, your submission is grounded in the fact that your husband is your head. The command is built upon the truth that your husband is your head.
[18:50] You see it in verse 22 and 23. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord for, because, the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.
[19:05] It's amazing the way many Christian writers would bleed authority right out of this word head and say it has nothing to do with authority.
[19:19] Now, it's true that the word here for head can also refer to a source like the head waters of a river are the source of the river.
[19:31] And there are places in the Bible where that may be the emphasis. But that is never the emphasis in these submission passages that are found in Scripture.
[19:45] This is also underscored in the comparison to Christ's headship because He no sooner tells you wives to submit to your husbands because they're the head.
[19:57] Then He says for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body. What is Christ to His body, the church?
[20:10] Is there any question as to who is the authority between Christ and the church? Who leads and who follows? It's Christ who's the head.
[20:21] and it's God who chose Him to be the head, to be the king, to be the ruler, to be the shepherd, to be the head, the leader, the authority over the church.
[20:39] Well, in the same way, it is God who chose the husband to be the head of the wife. So we ask the question, well, why is it? Why is the husband the head and not the wife?
[20:52] Well, it's not because He beat her in a wrestling match or outscored her in an IQ test. And it's not because men wanted to oppress women and so set it up this way.
[21:03] No, man didn't set it up. God set it up from the beginning. It's His design from creation. And that's the reason that the male is the head. It's because God has established him and made him to be the head of the marriage relationship.
[21:22] It's not, ladies, because you're inferior to men. It's not because you're more sinful than your husband.
[21:33] You are as much image of God as He is. For God created you in His own image. Male and female He created them. In the image of God He created them.
[21:45] So you share equality with your husband in created image of God. You share equally with your husband in the fall into sin.
[21:56] You're a sinner and He's a sinner. You share that in equality. And you share, if you're in Christ, you share in equality and redemption. You're as much in Christ as He is in Christ.
[22:12] So wives, submit to your husbands because He who made Christ the head of the church is also the one who made the husband the head of the wife.
[22:27] So it's a command. Your submission is built on the fact that God made Him your head. Third, we see it in verse 22 very clearly.
[22:38] you are to submit to your husbands as to the Lord. As to the Lord. Now this point is more important than perhaps you have realized.
[22:50] And it can be a real help to you ladies. It's because your husband is the Lord's authorized head over you in the marriage that your submission to Him is to be done as to the Lord.
[23:03] Again, we're speaking of that chain of command, that authority that has put the husband in authority over you.
[23:14] So, work out that submission as to the Lord. And submit to Him as you do to the Lord.
[23:27] We've been studying about this direct submission to the Lord in all that He says and commands and does in our life. We submit to Him. Now submit to your husband as you submit to the Lord.
[23:42] You see, this is Billy looking beyond his little sister to the one who authorized her to come and command him. So you, in that disagreement between you and your husband, your submission to Him is to be directed to the Lord and done as to the Lord for His sake, for His honor, for His glory.
[24:12] Since He's the one who's established this authority over you. You say, oh, I never thought of it that way. Well, begin to think of it that way because that's how God thinks of it.
[24:24] That he who rejects the lesser authority rejects Him. So, so do your submitting unto your husband as to the Lord for indeed that is the submission you are rendering Him.
[24:48] I want to show you how that can work for you and help you. There are times when you will need more motivation to submit to your husband than what you can find in your husband. Right?
[24:59] Amen? Ladies, you know that. We may not be, your husband may not be loving you as he ought. He might just be selfish and stubborn in ways that are sinful.
[25:14] You need more motivation than what you're finding in him that day. Where will you find that motivation? Well, you see behind him to the Lord.
[25:26] and you do it to please him. And you can always find motivation to submit in the Lord Jesus and in his love for you.
[25:41] I wonder if you've noticed this same note. It was struck in verse 21 that introduces this whole passage on submission in the family of wives to husbands, children to parents, and slaves to master.
[25:52] That introductory verse, verse 21, notice it, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. There it is again. He's there.
[26:04] He's ever there in this matter of submission. It's not just the lesser authority, but there's Christ. There's the Lord. And so it's to be done out of reverence.
[26:16] You're to submit to your husband out of reverence for Christ. The word there is for fear. This is just another chapter in our Sunday school class, the joy of fearing God.
[26:27] What does it mean to fear God? Well, for one thing, wives, it means submitting to your husband out of fear, reverence for God. Whose authority it is in the home.
[26:43] Well, that's number three, submission unto the Lord out of reverence for him. Number four, the church's submission to Christ is the pattern of the wife's submission to her husbands.
[26:57] Verse 24. These are all very evident, I trust, in the scriptures. As the church submits to Christ, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
[27:13] So the question that's begged is how does the church submit to Christ? There is that in the actual grammar of the word submit.
[27:23] It's in the middle voice, which means it's something that they are to do themselves. They're not being forced into submission. They are to willingly submit to their husbands voluntarily.
[27:37] And that is the church's way of submitting to Christ, isn't it? It's a voluntary submission. How did we come into the world? At enmity with God, and we refused to submit to His laws.
[27:52] And then we got a new heart. And in the new heart, we wanted to submit to His ways. And we didn't used to like some of the things in the Bible, and we said, oh, I'll take that and I'll not take that.
[28:05] But now we put ourselves under His word, and we accept all that He says because He says it. Command, teaching, providence, gospel, whatever. You see, we've been made willing in the day of His power.
[28:21] And so the church submits voluntarily to the Lord. And even so, the wife is to willingly submit to her husband, not grudgingly, not with the silent treatment, not with the cold shoulder, but sweetly to comply, to voluntarily place herself under His lead.
[28:47] How else does the church submit to Christ? Not only voluntarily, but it's universal. It's in everything, the text says.
[29:02] What is the church? Well, the church is made up of those who have repented of their rebellion. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. We've turned each one to his own way. We said, forget you and your laws, God.
[29:13] And the church is made up of those who have repented of going their own way and are putting themselves under God's authority. That's who makes up the church.
[29:24] That's who you are. That's who I am in Christ. We have voluntarily placed ourselves under Him and we have received Him as Lord, Colossians 2.
[29:37] 6. We've received Him as our master, our authority. And now we're being taught to obey everything that He has commanded. Matthew 28 and verse 19.
[29:53] We are being taught to obey everything that He has commanded. We are learning to submit to everything. And folks, if that's not you, you're not a part of the church.
[30:06] You could be a member of this church, but you're not a true member of Christ's church. That's a mark of everyone who belongs to Christ. Their hearts have been conquered, changed, made new, and they now submit to the Lord in everything.
[30:20] We fail and we confess it and we repent, but in everything is what we are marking, our submission. The church doesn't get to pick and choose what to obey, when to submit.
[30:34] So also, wives should submit to their husbands in everything. The command is not submit to your husbands if you agree with him. Because if you agree with him, there's really no need for you to place yourself under him.
[30:48] No, the real test for submission is when your wills collide, and then what? Well, then you need to put yourself under him. There were two billy goats, and they met on a mountain pass, and on either side was this precipice, and it was so narrow, it was single file, and the two billy goats are way out over the edge in this precipice, and they meet head to head.
[31:17] They just stand there with butt heads. It's a picture of Mary, by the way, not two billy goats, a she goat and a billy goat, but there they are, they're butting heads. What happened?
[31:29] They can't back up, they have no reverse gear. They can't go beside each other, it's too narrow. Well, eventually one goat got down and let the other walk over the top, and then it got up and they both went on merrily.
[31:46] When there's the butting of heads, that's the real test of submission. Will you put yourself under or not? So wives submit to their husbands in everything.
[32:02] Now, the exception, the exception, and there's just one. And it's not just for wives, it's for everybody under any human authority structure. And it's this, whether it's family, church, or state, we are to submit in everything unless they command us to sin.
[32:21] Unless they command us to sin. Acts 5, the apostles have been told by the Lord Jesus, go and preach my gospel to every creature. They've been hauled in by the authorities, the Jewish religious authorities, and told not to speak or teach anymore in Jesus' name.
[32:40] But they continued to do so. And so they were hauled in again. And we gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet you filled Jerusalem with your teaching.
[32:52] And you remember Peter and the other apostles replied, we must obey God rather than man. man. That's the one exception. When God appointed authorities command us to do what God himself has forbidden, or when God appointed authorities command us not to do what God has commanded us to do, why we must obey God rather than man.
[33:17] The higher authority trumps the lesser. But it's not on something that, well, I think it ought to be done this way, I think it ought to be done that way. No, no, that's not the exception.
[33:28] The exception is if they command you to sin, to do evil, then you obey the higher authority. So, wives, there's your exception, but otherwise you're to submit in everything.
[33:43] And so your submission, wives, is not conditioned on whether your husband is loving you as he ought. I don't know that any husband has ever loved his wife as he ought.
[34:00] As we'll see in a moment. At least not like Jesus loved his church. But whatever he's doing, if it's not commanding you to sin, you see it.
[34:15] So it's not conditioned on his loving you and it's not even conditioned on him being a believer. You see that in 1 Peter 3, 1 and 2, wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives when they see the purity and reverence in your lives, which includes your submission to them.
[34:40] It's meant to be used by the Spirit to woo them over to Christ. So submission to even the best of men will challenge you at times.
[34:51] times. But do it unto the Lord. Do it out of reverence for the Lord as an assignment from the Lord in your marriage and find joy in pleasing Him.
[35:03] Question, does submission mean you cannot have a contrary opinion than your husband? Does submission mean you cannot share a contrary opinion with your husband?
[35:18] Not at all. it's precisely because your husband needs your opinion that God made you his wife. You remember Genesis 2 18 where God says it's not good for the man to be alone.
[35:37] And as God looked at your husband, he said he needs help and I'm bringing you to be his helper. Now help it. He's only considered the issue with the mind of a man.
[35:52] So give him a piece of your mind. Not in that attitude. But give him your perspective. He needs it. He hasn't thought of it from that perspective.
[36:06] Help him. And do it in the right place, not in front of others. Do it in the right way. The sweet spirit that's ready to submit.
[36:19] At the end of the day, a wise husband won't refuse to listen and make use of the helper that God knows he needs and has given him.
[36:32] Number five, I've just called this point assorted admissions, admonitions assorted because they go to assorted people. First of all, husbands.
[36:43] A word to the husband. Now this is a series on submission, so we have zeroed in on the wife for that reason. But there is a word here for you in Ephesians 5, and it's not submit to your wives, as some would like to say it is.
[37:01] Submit to one another, that there's just equal submission here. That's not the word to the husband. It's not submit to your wife, but neither is it force your wife to submit. That's not the word to you.
[37:13] No, the word to you is love your wife. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. And how did he love his bride?
[37:26] The church. Well, it was self-initiated love, wasn't it? Jesus didn't wait till you submitted to his laws before he loved you, did he? Then don't hold your love back from your wife just because she's not in a submissive mood yet.
[37:41] No, this love required of your husbands is to go out to your wife, whatever she's doing. If it's to be Christ-like love for the church, and then it's to be self-sacrificing love.
[37:56] He gave himself up for you. Do the same for her. Not for her salvation. Only Jesus can do that for anyone. But there are dozens of ways that you can sacrifice your preferences.
[38:11] sacrifice your desires for hers and serve her interests in love. A self-sacrificing love like Jesus. And so when the Holy Spirit would inspire Paul here to put in one word your duty to your wife as her one word is submitted, the one word to you is love.
[38:35] love. And that means every bit of authority that is invested in you as head is to be oozing with love. Everything you do as a head, as a leader in the home, is to be oozing with love, characterized, motivated, directed by self-sacrificing love.
[38:58] So use your authority to nurture and bless her and to make her better off for having you as her husband. That's why Christ made you her husband.
[39:10] He sent you on an errand to do her good. And was it not Christ's love in giving himself for you, husbands? Wasn't it his love for you that melted your heart and won your submission to him?
[39:25] Then so love your wife as Christ loved you with a self-sacrificing love. such that your wife will count it a privilege to submit to you.
[39:38] You have to admit, man, she's got a difficult assignment to submit to the likes of you. But you can make it easier for her by your love overflowing and your appreciation for her.
[39:55] How will you do that this week? That's a word to the husbands. A caution, a cautionary word to single young ladies. I would not encourage a young lady to marry a man who has not submitted himself to the authorities in his life.
[40:13] Now, he's to come into the marriage and he will exercise the position of headship and authority and require, and you will be required by God himself to submit to him.
[40:24] But I would not encourage you to marry any man that has not learned submission to the authorities in his life. let him learn first to humbly put himself under his parents, under the oversight of the local church elders, under the leaders at work, submitting to the laws of government, that he might appreciate what a difficult job it is to be in the subordinate position.
[40:48] that you may be in one day. Men who have not learned to humbly submit to God-given authorities in their life, rarely, rarely have I seen exercise authority in marriage with humility and self-sacrificing love.
[41:06] Don't be surprised if you find him to be authoritarian, overbearing, selfish, harsh, oppressive in his headship, instead of using his headship to build you up in love and enrich you.
[41:21] Well, a word to the wise is sufficient. And one more word to you young men looking for a wife, and that should be every one of you young men, unless God has told you otherwise.
[41:37] This is his pattern, his general pattern. And the question ought to be burning in your mind, how does she submit to the God-appointed authorities in her life, like her parents?
[41:51] That's probably how you'll find her dealing with your authority, once she's your wife. Now, grace can change all of that, but don't presume upon it. Wait for it first.
[42:06] Now, we're coming down the stretch. Six, wives, consider the goodness of God in designing marriage this way. He has established this authority structure for the good of the husband, of the wife, of the children, of the church, of the state.
[42:22] It's for the order and peace, the harmony and efficiency of the home. You know God is a God of order. You see it in creation. It's also in redemption. It's also in the way he establishes these institutions of authority.
[42:36] Satan is the God, small g, of chaos and confusion and disorder. And that's why he's laboring with all of his might and main in this day to attack God's authority structures and to shatter these institutions with a vengeance.
[42:53] Imagine two armies going to war against each other. Army number one built on an authority structure, a clear-cut chain of command that's been drilled into the soldiers from day one.
[43:03] Everybody in this army knows exactly who's above them and who's below them in the authority structure. And they've been taught to keep in line with that chain of command.
[43:16] So everything they do, they do in harmony. What one does is all fitting in, you see, to the whole movement and the whole plan from the top.
[43:28] That's army number one. Army number two is a woke army. We're not going to oppress anyone in this army with structures of authority that bind your freedom.
[43:39] We're not requiring you to submit to another, to put yourself under someone's command. No, far be it from us to victimize anyone. In this army, you're free to do your own thing, unhindered by the will of another.
[43:56] Now, what army do you want defending your life? According to God, a clear-cut authority structure is no less needed and a blessing for the right ordering of the home.
[44:11] You know, I would think that there are as many decisions that need to be made in a family as there are in a war. And there needs to be this structure of chain of command for its harmony, its blessing, its order.
[44:27] Oh, see the heart of God in that as you submit to your husband as unto the Lord. What a gracious and good God we serve.
[44:40] And then number seven, wives, submit to the authority of a husband over you and do not think it beneath your dignity as a woman made in the image of God.
[44:53] This does not lower you in worth and value. Your equality of worth and value is equal with your husband. But that does not require an equality of authority in the home.
[45:06] No, that's where people get it wrong. No, the worth and the value is equal, but the authority has been set up differently for the good of the home. Do you know that the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the Lord of glory, took the submissive role in being submitted to imperfect, imperfect human authorities that God had established over him?
[45:33] I'm talking about what we'll see the next time we come to this text of submission in Luke chapter 251 that Jesus as a 12-year-old, we hear it said of him that he was submissive to his parents.
[45:48] He put himself under. The perfect God puts himself under. Fallen, imperfect Mary and Joseph. He has taken your role of the submissive one.
[46:03] Being born under the law, he was also submitting to the government authorities of his day. Paying taxes to Caesar. Even paying the temple tax to the religious authorities.
[46:17] And of course, we think of his submission to his heavenly father who commanded him to come and to save his bride by laying down his life.
[46:30] And he humbled himself, didn't he? Oh, how he humbled himself and became obedient to his father, even to the death of the cross, the hellish cross.
[46:43] Now that's submission. Ladies, never think that if it was not beneath the dignity of God the Son to take the subordinate role that is somehow beneath your dignity, but rather learn from Jesus.
[47:03] And find joy in serving Jesus as you submit to him and to your husband as unto him.
[47:16] Well, there's your inspiration found in the Lord Jesus. And there's also your righteousness to cover all those times that you didn't submit to your husband as unto the Lord.
[47:27] It's found in Jesus. He submitted perfectly. So he has a perfect righteousness to give to every sinner that throws themselves upon Christ for salvation. If you're in Christ this morning, then there is a record in heaven of perfect submission that was worked out by Jesus Christ submitting for you.
[47:48] Let me just close by saying these are the happiest women I know on the earth. As I look around and think of my friends and the world around me, submissive wives are the happiest people I know.
[48:07] They have found their place. It's the way they were designed. It's the way they were created by God to work.
[48:18] So should we be surprised that, wow, when we line up with God's order, we find joy. That's the way it is. So don't fight it. Submit.
[48:30] And know that joy. These are the most beautiful women I know. Peter says in 1 Peter 3.3, this is not skin deep beauty that comes from outward adorning of hairdos and jewelry and clothes, but the beauty of an inner self, an unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.
[48:56] Not a boisterous, demanding, proud spirit that must have its way or else you'll pay. No, no. A meek and submissive spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.
[49:11] For this is the way the holy woman of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called her, called him her master.
[49:26] Those are the beauty treatments that make a woman truly beautiful through and through. That beauty of holiness found in the home is part of the adorning and attractiveness to the gospel.
[49:41] Where do you find that kind of beauty? You don't find it in the world. You don't find it growing on a tree of nature. No, you find it in Christ himself who humbled himself.
[49:53] And submitted. And so be that stage on which this world that scowls at anything patriarchal.
[50:07] Be a problem in their theory. That when they see you submitting willingly to your husband and happy in that role, will say, well, that doesn't fit this idea of oppression that I've been holding to.
[50:25] Be that witness to the Lord Jesus, to his honor, to his praise. Let's pray. Lord, we have never read in scripture of someone thinking they knew better than you that it ended up well for them.
[50:42] We have seen dozens and dozens of times over and over of those who thought themselves wiser than you and what it led to. And even use that in our lives to teach us true submission to those authorities in our lives that come not from man, but from you.
[51:01] And teach us what it is to do this is unto you, to please you, and to find our pleasure in pleasing you.
[51:12] We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, this is impossible. This is impossible without the spirit of God.
[51:23] So we're going to call on the Lord to come and help us and to give us that these kinds of homes that he creates by his almighty sovereign grace. Stand and sing with me.
[51:35] Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Wow.
[51:46] Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Hmm? Let's pray. Mohor.
[51:57] Do you know this? No. What do you think? Let's pray. Ma? Anya? Oh, good. jackets. Send andwear. Amen. Thank you. My god, man.