Dragons Abounding The Great Errors Confronting the Church

Well, good evening. It is not often that I come to a missions conference and am assigned a topic that relates to slaying dragons. When I'm excited to deal with this topic and these issues, these dragons that we face, these errors that we face, and what I wanna do is I want to focus on a passage of scripture that really puts all of this in one place. There are a number of errors facing the church, and when we talk about missions and the threat to our mission, a lot of these errors sort of culminate in errors about manhood, womanhood, marriage, and the family. So many of them center so that in mind, open your Bibles with me. Tophetis Chapter five, and we want to look at some familiar passages of scripture, but look at them perhaps through a different lens, look at them through the lens of the errors and the attacks that are focused right here, and the answers that we have for those errors and those attacks right here. Always also, I think it's very important for us to look at this in terms of missions, because oftentimes when we talk about missions, when we talk about the establishment of the Lord's Church, when we talk about advancing the Lord's Church, especially when we talk about breaking new ground with the Lord's Church. One of the things that we often fail to keep in mind is that when the Gospel breaks forth in cultures, not only are we're dealing with people coming to faith in Christ and perhaps leaving, you know, other religions and finding Christianity, but inevitably we talk about dealing with family structures in the midst of broken, sinful pagan cultures that find this as foreign as the Gospel. And so this is important ground to cover as we go through here, we look at these places where the wars and the errors are found. We'll begin in verse twenty two. Wives submit to your own husbands. We can just stop there, We stop right there. We're already at war. We're already at war with our culture. Right. I didn't even finish the whole verse, and we're already at war with our culture. Wives submit to your own husbands. Let me just point out right, let me just make my point here number one, this verse. Obviously, when we read this we think about feminism, right, and feminism's war with the Gospel, of feminism's war with marriage. Great, but do we also consider the fact that in the modern neo Marxist culture, where everything is seen through the lens of power relations and this oppressor, oppressed paradigm that to the modern to the neo Marxist, marriage is part of this oppressive paradigm. It is essentially the oppression of women, if you will. So there we have this issue of feminism, we have this issue of Marxism. But then we also have this issue of same sex marriage right here because we have we have wives submit to your own husbands. Wives and husbands. A marriage is made up of wives and husband. A marriage is made up of a wife and a husband. Are you smelling what I'm stepping in? Here's another battleground. A husband is only a husband if the husband has a wife, and a wife is only a wife if the wife has a So a wife can't have a wife a husband. Watch this, can't have a husband? And them's fighting words today. They absolutely are. So we haven't even finished the first verse, and we see here that we're at war. But dare we forget that we're also dealing with the idea of wives as women and husbands as men, which means that we actually believe that there is something ontologically unique about manhood and about womanhood, and that God who made them made them male and female in his image. Again another battleground. Okay, before we even get out of verse one, wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. There's the ultimate battleground. For the husband is the head of the wife. Even as Christ is ahead of the church, his body and as himself it's savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their own husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Now we're entering into another area of conflict, and this area of conflict is any idea that people need to be made holy in anything that posits the idea that there could possibly be any sort of sinfulness or imperfection in any person other than a white male, heterosexual, cisgendered, able bodied, native born, but dot dot dot all the way down to Christian right, that there could possibly be a need for salvation, sanctification, correction. A movement away from unrighteousness toward righteousness. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the Church, because we are members of His body. Therefore, man shall leave his father and mother while there are those binary terms again, and hold fast to his wife. Here's what's interesting. Again, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife. Men have wives, women don't, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the Church. Here's why this battleground matters. This battleground of biblical manhood, womanhood, and marriage matters because it's referring to Christ and the Church. It's a profound mystery that points us to the reality of Christ and the Church points us to the reality of the redemption that we find in the Gospel. So we cannot abandon this ground. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and that the wife see that she respect her husband. So there it is, and what I want to do in the time that I have allotted is to address these battles and to demonstrate how this text beautifully and clearly and unequivocally addresses these battles and why they're so incredibly important. Let's look at the first one. Wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. It's clear here that the Bible teaches us that there is order within the context of marriage, that there is headship and submission within the context and the confines of marriage, and wives are called to submit themselves to their own husbands as to the Lord. This is not something that we ought ever to back away from, although many have backed away from it, and so we have a two front war on this issue. Number one, we have a war with the culture at large that hates the patriarchy, not patriarchy, the patriarchy. That's how the educated people refer to it. They hate the patriarchy because the patriarchy is evil. And so we have the world out there, we have the culture out there that hates the patriarchy, and so we have you know, women for example, who decide that you know, because they hate the patriarchy, when they get married, they're not going to take their husband's name right I'm an independent woman. I don't take the name of that man. I'll keep my father's name instead. So that's and so so there's that, there's that battleground, and and we need to deal with that, and we need to address that, and we will. But there's another battle ground, and that's the battleground within our own camp of the people who've now decided that because the culture out there is at war with the patriarchy, what we'll do is we'll say no, no, no, no, no, no no. That whole patriarchy thing, that's a misreading of the text. That's not Biblical Christianity. That's that's fundamentalism, right, that's that's that's those people over there who who hate women and you know who who who want to dominate women. That that's not the way we see it in the Bible. They argue that basically this is a or male headship. The concept of male headship is a product of the fall, and because it's a product of the fall, that when we find ourselves in Christ, we no longer experience this kind of headship. Listen to the evangelical feminist view, and that's what they call themselves, not mean the evangelical feminist view of Genesis three sixteen. Genesis three sixteen, by the way to the woman, he said, I would surely multiply your pain and child bearing. In pain, you shall bring forth children. Your desires shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you. Listen to this from Ada Spencer and beyond the curse. Her curse now was to be ruled perversely, to long for her husband and he to rule over her. She would want to be dominated by her husband, and he would submit to this desire. Hey, I don't write the mail, I just deliver it right. She would want to be dominated by her husband, and he would submit to this desire. God does not command Adam to rule or govern his wife. Rather, the curse is Eve's. The ruling is a consequence of Eve's longing after the fall. Okay, same phrase is used in the next chapter, Genesis chapter four, verses five through seven. So Cain was very angry and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you. But you must rule over it. So, according to Ada Spencer, what's happening is Sin is longing to be dominated by Cain, and Cain has to submit to Sin's desire. The Council on Biblical Equality sounds like a good thing, right. Listen to their statement here point number one, Scripture is our authoritative guide for faith, life and practice. Amen, hallelujah, praise to the Lord. And I want to get my amen there because it's downhill from here. Two patriarchy and then in parenthesis male dominance. Right, so that they have to redefine patriarchy. Right, Patriarchy means male leadership, male headship, patriarchy, patriarchal cultures. Right, men are the heads of their family. You define people's lineage through that male lineage, that male headship. That that's patriarchy. They say patriarchy, male dominance in princes is not a biblical ideal, but a result of sin. Patriarchy is not a biblical ideal but a result of sin. And again, if defining patriarchy as male dominance, patriarchy is an abuse of power, taking from females what God has given them, their dignity and freedom, their leadership, and even their lives. About that listening to this from the United Nations, the family is an institution that has historically been a stronghold of patriarchy and embodied men's social power and domination over women. Patriarchy and its wider definition means the manifestation and institutionalization of male dominance over women and children in the family and the extension of male dominance over women in society in general. That's how they're defining patriarchy. And so evangelical feminists are are right along with you know, the yuhan and liberal you know institutions and everyone else in redefining this idea of patriarchy, redefining this idea of male headship as this sinful thing. And their argument is that that headship is something that comes as the result of the fall, and now that we are in Christ, that curse has been reversed. That's that's the argument, right again, That's what I've read, and I just want to make sure that you understand that, because I got questions because if you remember, the first part of the curse for Eve was pain in child buried. So if they're right and the curse has been reversed, why why a y'all acting like it hurts Christian ladies. We should be able to find out who's really saying in the maternity ward right. It's absolutely ridiculous not going to mention the fact that you have Adam's headship before the fall. The man was made before the woman headship. The woman was made for the man male headship. I will make him a helper suitable for him, male headship. The woman was brought to the man male headship. The woman was named by the man twice male headship. And in case that's not enough, in Romans chapter five, Paul makes it very clear that Sin entered the world through one, not couple, but one man, even though she ate first. Sin entered the world through Adam. Why male headship also known as patriarchy. Please use the word, people, Please use the word. Don't run from the word, embrace the word. If for no other reason then that it just messes with him so much. There's another way to people to try to get around it. The evangelical feminists also try to make a more sophisticated argument here from the text and go to something like this. You know, in the Greek New Testament you have the verb in twenty two borrowed from twenty one, and so in twenty two you just read wives to your own husband's right. The submission is inferred from verse twenty one. And that's really important because in verse twenty one of Ephesians five, it says submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. So their argument is that based on that that what you have is mutual submission in the New Testament again and this era is it's airwere you get not everywhere, airwhere, that's beyond everywhere. Okay, it's airwere Yeah, verse twenty one you got mutual submission. So God calls us to mutual submission. Several problems with that. Problem. Number one is the verb that's used there, the verb that's used that it's a military term. It's a military term for submission. And here's a news flash. I don't know if you've ever been in the you don't even have to be in the military to know this fact that I'm about to tell you. In the military, submission works in only one direction. Amen, it works in only one direction. There's another issue, and that is Verse twenty one is the end of a paragraph. Verse twenty two starts a new paragraph. It's the end of a sentence and the end of a paragraph. And I don't care what language you speak. You can have a language that goes from left to right or right to left, but you do not have languages that go from back to front. You don't start at the end of a paragraph. You have to start at the beginning of a paragraph, which means that if we're going to understand verse twenty one, we have to go all the way back to verse fifteen. And this is important because it's going to incorporate a whole lot of these other errors that we're dealing with. So when you go back to verse fifteen, an amazing thing happens in beginning at verse fifteen. It's gonna open up like a telescope. You have three contrasts. On the third contrast, you have three commands, and on the third command you have three contexts. Okay, three contrasts on the third contrast, three commands. On the third command, you have three contexts. All right, just won't hurt let's look. But it's really important because it's gonna open up even more of these errors that we deal with verse fifteen. Look carefully, then, how you walk not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. That's a contrast, not this but that right now, looking verse seventeen, Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the word of the Lord is right, Not this but that. That's a contrast. Let's contrast number two. Here's contrast number three, verse eighteen. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit. There's the third contrast, right we following, Okay, there's a third country. On the third contrast, you get three commands, and they're related to the third contrast. Look at verse nineteen. So he says, be filled with the spirit. What does that look like? Addressing one another in psalms, hymn, spiritual songs, singing, making melody to the Lord with all your heart. This is a This is an evidence of the spirit filled life. Verse twenty giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Worshipful, prayerfully, thankful. This is this is this is spirit filled life. And then thirdly, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. This is evidence your your submission to the authority that God puts in your life. Is evidence that you are yielding to the spirit of God. Now, on the third contrast, we got three commands. On the third command, we get three contexts. Watch this five twenty two. Wives, submit to your own husband's ask to the Lord. Six 's one. Children, obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Six'. Five, slaves obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling with a sincere, heart as you Would. Christ five point twenty one is not the umbrella for five twenty. Two it's the umbrella for five twenty two all the way down through sixty. Nine and that introduces another set of errors and. Controversies look at six 's, one, children to be your parents in The lord for this is. Right we hate children in our, culture we. Do we hate. Them we hate them so much we've murdered them in the Momb but we'll get back to. That let's go back to where we were in five point twenty. Two so we see that there's this. Error there's this two pronged. Error people are at war with. Us they're at war with us because they hate male. Headship they're war and they hate mail headship because they Hate god's. Headship they're at war and they hate mail headship because they're in rebellion against The. Lord they're in rebellion Against, christ and because they're desire is to blaspheme this glorious picture of the relationship Between christ and his bride the. Church but the text could not be. Clearer but let me also point this. Out whys submit to your own husband's ask to The? Lord The bible doesn't say all women submit to all. Men, amen, somebody The bible doesn't say all women submit to all. Men this is about order within the context of the marriage. Relationship my wife is called to submit to, me to me as her. Husband this is not about. Value it's about. Order anything with two heads as a, Monster. AMEN i always say if you if you find something with two, heads you either kill it or if you can catch it and put it behind, glass make people pay to come see. It. Right this is about, order not. Value, again since he uses this military, TERM i think it's appropriate to use a military. Illustration. Here you have if you have two people in a, unit in a military, unit in one of them is an enlisted, man he's a, sergeant he's been there for ten. Years but the other one is an. Officer, right you got a young lieutenant who's been there for ten, Months, well who's more. Valuable it's not a trick. Question it's the enlisted man who's been there for ten. Years, amen it. Is but in terms of, order who's superior the officer who's been there for ten months or ten weeks or. Whatever and for the sake of, order when the officer gives the, order what does the more valuable enlisted man do salute and? Execute and if he, doesn't everything breaks down because it's not a question of, value it's a question of women are not less valuable than. Men When adam Sees, eve he, says this is at last bone of my, bones flesh of my. Flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of. Man these are statements of her equal worth and value and standing Before. God it's incredibly ironic that cultures impacted By Biblical christianity are the places in the world with the, freest, safest most, protected and cherished women on. Earth also the play where the women complain the most about the, patriarchy in the words of that Theologian Forest, gump that's ALL i have to say about. That it's not about, value it's about, order and then it, says wifs submit to your own husbands as to The. Lord wives aren't called to submit to their husbands because their husbands deserve, it have earned, it or are worthy of. It but in spite of the fact that we'll never deserve, it will never earn, it and will never be worthy of. It because this is about submission to The. Lord because, remember there is this glorious imagery of the relationship Between christ and his, bride the church the husband's head of the, wife even As christ is the head of the, church his body and is himself as. Savior now is the church submits To. Christ so also wives should submit and everything to their. Husband so there's that, issue and we are confronting great error here on this, issue this issue of the biblical womanhood and the true worth and value of. Women AND i think what we're also seeing is we're seeing the monstrous results of a culture that no longer views women as the weaker vessel to be, protected which is why you have A Leah thomas who is able to swim for the men's team At penn for three, years, right and then declare that he's no longer a man with a woman and then all of a, sudden go from middle of the pack to a national champion and take the crown away from an actual, woman and, then to literally add insult to, injury be proclaimed by some as a woman of The year Or Fallen. Fox this is a while. Back Fallen fox was AN mma. Fighter yeah you know where this one's, going. Huh AN mma fighter who underwent a transition and got into the ring with a woman and fractured her. Skull or a young man In california who assaulted a woman some years back in a bathroom in a public. Bathroom later, on he goes to trial for this, assault and when he goes to trial for this, assault he decides that suddenly he's going to transition and he's going to identify as a. Woman why is this? Important because the assault happened when he was, Seventeen his conviction happened when he was twenty. Three because he was seventeen when the assault, happened he went into a juvenile. Facility and because he identified as a, woman this twenty three year old man went into a juvenile female. Facility this is what we do in the name of equality for. Women we brutalize them rather than protect them verse twenty five and in verse twenty, Five i'm Just i'm just, Gonna i'm, Gonna i'm gonna read. This the Reason i'm gonna read this JUST i just want you to hear. IT i just wanted to wash over you because our culture says that our perspective is wicked and it's evil and it's detrimental to. Women it says that our view is the. Problem and we've got we've Got christians who are now trying to back away from, patriarchy back away from from male headship because we're. Ashamed we're ashamed of. This husbands love your, Wives husbands love your. Wives we could we could stop right there say amen and singing him and already be better than the. World, amen because the world's not saying, that the world's not, saying you know, what men love your. Wives the world is, saying just take all you can from, women use. Them the text, says, husbands love your, wives love your, wives As christ loved the, truth and even it's even defining it right because we, don't we don't even we don't even know what that. Is, okay we we we we've succumbed to these Greco roman myths of even what love. Is so the text is gonna be going to clarify that husbands love your, wives Not he doesn't say you have to have you know these, whatever love your wives As christ loved The church and gave himself up for, her that he might sanctify, her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the, word so that he might present The church to himself in, splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such, thing that she might be holy and without. Blennish in the same way like, this this is how husbands should love their wives as their own. Bodies he who loves his wife loves. Himself she's not just, mine she's. Me for no one ever hated his own, flesh but nourishes and cherishes, it just As christ does The, church because we are members of his. Body that's what the world says is hatred toward, women offensive domination and abuse of. Women and if it, is then that Means christ is an abuser of his, bride the. Church that's what they're. Saying why AM i making that? Argument verse thirty. One, therefore imagine to leave his father and, mother how fast to his, wife and the two should come one. Flesh this mystery is, profound And i'm saying that it refers To christ and The. Church so if this is a picture of, evil wicked, patriarchy then The gospel is a picture of, wicked evil. Patriarchy and we have Blasphemed christ's love for his bride The. Church that's why we can't give this. Ground that's why this. Matters when we switch this around and change this up and it becomes a free for, all and you can define that any number of ways that you want, to then what we're doing is ultimately we're blaspheming this glorious and beautiful picture the love That christ has for his bride to. Church that's why this is so wicked and so. Sinister you can search the world over and you will not find anywhere a more glorious and, beautiful life giving picture of the relationship between men and. Women you're not going to find women more. Cherished and yet our culture is at war with this verse thirty. Three, however let each one of you love his wife is, himself and let the wife see that she respect her. Husband now let's go to six 's one and let's look at the other. Thing the other. Error children obey your parents and The, lord for this is. Right we've turned this on its. Head first of, all your children are not. Yours, children obey the state for this is. Right we've even moved from that children obey your feelings for this is. Right and then on top of that we, say, parents obey your children's, feelings for this is. Right so If johnny comes to you and says That johnny is now, soon it is your job not to Instruct johnny that he's Not, susie but to Instruct susie that you affirm her As. Susie that's your. Job your job is to, obey to submit to what it is that your child says that he or she. Is sounds like the same twisted logic of the evangelical, feminists and it is, parents not only do you no longer have the duty and, obligation but it's being argued that you don't have the right to lead your children in this regard were in many. Others in, fact it is seen as an act of abuse to do. So verse, Two honor your father and. Mother this is the first commandment with a. Promise, again this is hugely problematic because the idea of children submitting obeying their, parents and children honoring their. Parents this idea reeks of. Patriarchy this idea reeks of hierarchy because it is. Patriarchy it is. Hierarchy but to the world that we're living, in this world gone, mad patriarchy and hierarchy are evil by. Definition that it may go well with, you and you may live long in the, land and then it gets. Worse look at verse. Four, fathers do not provoke your children to, anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of The. Lord now we've lost our ever loving. Minds teach your children what to, believe and teach your children how to. Behave, essentially that's what's said. Here, parents is your job to teach your children what to believe and teach your children how to. Behave and in the day and age in which we, live this is tantamount to child. Abuse and the day and age in which we, live our job is to listen to our children and follow their, instructions even if it leads them all the way to. Hell and the only thing that you can do to be condemned in this regard is to tell them that the hell that they're headed for is. Hell these are the. Battlegrounds these are the. Battlegrounds this is where the war is being. Fought these are errors that are actually creeping. In and we have people who name the name Of christ who are beginning to parrot these, things and who are beginning to condemn those who call it. Out who say that there's just two, sexes there's just two, genders who say that marriage is between one man and one. Woman a husband can't have a, husband a wife can't have a. Wife who say that one of the defining characteristics of marriage is the potential for the union to produce. Children, AGAIN i, mean this is this is this is this is crazy, talk and people try to make ridiculous. Arguments oh, well, yeah well you want to, argue you, know male female marriage because you know the potential for, reproduction but you know what about couples who are who are beyond? Reproduction, no, no, No what we're arguing is not that every marriage is going to produce produce. Children we know that that's not always the. Case but what we're arguing is that When god designed man And god designed, women he designed them in such a way that man and woman comprises a union that can reproduce and bring, life and therefore he instructs us as to what marriage is supposed to be comprised of those two pieces that come. Together and we know that the rightness of those two pieces coming, together because when they come, together by, definition they're the only union that can produce. Life that's what we're. Arguing and, again it's a war. Zone my children are my. Children it's a. Warzone my children are not wards of the. State it's a war. Zone my job is to instruct my, children not to take instruction from. Them it's a war. Zone If johnny tells me that He's, Susie i'm gonna Tell, johnny, no actually you're. Not You're. Johnny. LISTEN i have more, tolerance AND i. DO i do have some. TOLERANCE i just contrary to all the, rumors, RIGHT i do have. Tolerance AND i do want people to like. ME i get that one. Too i'm not a. SOCIOPATH i do want people to like. Me if they, don't it's, okay BUT i. DO i. DO i do want people like. Them BUT i have more. Tolerance If johnny comes to me and, Says I'm, Batman johnny comes to me and says, that and he goes you. Know i'm, like, Really i'm the, joker really this Bat. Man we can go, there, Right johnny comes to me and, Says I'm. Susie i'm going you might Be, batman but you're Not. Susie and it would be as ridiculous for me to follow through on The, johnny you're Really. Susie take this, drug have this, operation as it would be for me to follow up on The, Johnny you're Really. Batman let's alter your, Life let's alter your body, chemistry let's offer you let's alter your body, itself and then let's make everyone else around you be in on it or be. Condemned these are just some of the errors that we're, facing but they're, critical AND i want you to notice that they're all centering around the same, place This god ordained institution that has been given to us not only for the perpetuation of the, raith but also as a, living Breathing god Honoring, christ exalting picture of the relationship between Our Lord Jesus christ and the bride from whom he laid down his, life the bride for whom he lived a, perfect sinless life in her place and in her, stead The bride on whom he imputed his. Righteousness the bride whose sinfulness he took upon, himself whose penalty he took upon himself on the cross and, died was crucified and buried and raised again on the third day to vindicate. Her that's the picture that our culture is blaspheming and calling us to blaspheme along with. Them and Some christians have decided that they will oblige to bridge too. Far we have a, beautiful glorious. Truth let us proclaim it, faithfully let us live it, faithfully let us defend it. Faithfully for Our savior's sake and for the sake of generations to. Come let's. Pray, father we thank you in praise you for your goodness and your kindness and your mercy towards. Us we recognize that we are in the midst of a pitch, battle but this battle is essentially not. Ours the world is not at war with, us it's at war with, you and it is only because we're yours that they were against. Us grant by your graves that we might be. Faithful grant by your grace that we might be bold and. Courageous grant by your grace that we might be a, glorious, beautiful winsome, picture even in the midst of our great. Opposition for we pray these things and ask these things In christ's name and for his. Sake. Amen