Now I would need to ask if you would to pass
your registration slips to the end of the aisle.
Some of you were rushing to try to get that done
before the offering plates were passed and didn't
quite make it. And if you haven't even started
yet, please take a moment right now, whether
regular attender or a guest this morning, would
you please complete for us the registration form?
We have ushers who will pick those up from you
at the end of the rows. We'll give you a few
seconds to get the job done. It was my privilege
to hear Gary Chapman this last summer at Winona
Lake, Indiana, at the Bible conference there.
And I'm really looking forward to his being here
this weekend. And I hope all of you will plan
to be here Friday night and Saturday to gain
the insights of this man of God with relationship
to our families. I can guarantee you that you
will find the registration cost well returned
to you. in practical understanding of what God
has to say to us about how to function as husbands
and wives, as parents and children. All right,
now if you'll pass those, please, to the aisles.
The ushers will come and receive them from you.
As all of us turn together in our Bibles to Ephesians
chapter 5, beginning in verse 22. I'm going to
read about the three first verses of our text
today because we will be focusing on those three
and then picking up there next week. Wives, be
subject to your own husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ
also is the head of the church, he himself being
the Savior of the body. But as the church is
subject to Christ, So also the wives ought to
be to their husbands in everything. Well, I think
you can see this is going to be an interesting
text. Let's bow together, please, in prayer.
And now, Father, as we come to your Holy Word,
we acknowledge it as your final authority in
our lives. And we understand that as we obey
this Word and the power of the Holy Spirit, The
Lordship of our Savior is being experienced,
and may that be the experience of each of us.
May we who have decided to follow the Savior
do so wholeheartedly and in truth. Sing with
me, would you? I have decided to follow Jesus.
I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided
to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning
back. Amen. Our text today, through chapter 6
and verse 9, flows directly from the fountain
of chapter 5 and verse 18. When the Holy Spirit
is allowed to dominate and thus empower one's
life, there is no area that will be left the
same. The Holy Spirit will convict and cleanse,
expose and correct, instruct and enable that
the life and conduct of God's child might be
a worthy one. No part of our lives or our society
is under greater pressure than our homes. The
traditional family is in the minority today.
The traditional roles of men and women husbands
and wives, parents and children, are being dramatically
challenged and altered by the thinking, writing,
legislation, and social movements in our late
20th century pagan culture. No longer does the
Judeo -Christian view of the family receive universal
respect. In fact, it is viciously attacked by
some while being ignored and forsaken by many.
From school classrooms to the cubicles of abortion
clinics, from courthouses to the halls of seminaries,
from pages of magazines to media talk shows,
and from popular television sitcoms to the outlets
of pornography, What God has said regarding the
home and the sacred roles of men and women is
being mocked, argued, and redefined. In the place
of divine revelation is being substituted human
speculation, and the result is certain ruination
in our society. And I think we need not expect
a significant return to the past value systems
and role understanding apart from a divine intervention
and spiritual awakening unparalleled except perhaps
in the days of ancient Nineveh. What is a concerned
Christian to do? How can we who love God and
trust Jesus Christ who believe the Bible to be
God's inerrant revelation, who desire to obey
God rather than men, and who bring our lives
into conformity to Christ's lordship? How can
we cope with the pressure of the rural system
in the 1980s? The answer is simple. Only by experiencing
consistently the power of the Holy Spirit in
our lives. That is the only way that you and
I can face and cope with the pressure that is
being placed upon us by our world system. Either
we will be transformers in our society because
the Holy Spirit is dominating us, or we will
be conformers to the world system. The Holy Spirit
is God's resident power source in our lives.
It is He who will produce the kind of home and
relationships therein which will honor Christ
and be worthy of the name Christian. The Spirit
-filled home will be known by relationships and
roles conforming to the God -given pattern of
Ephesians 5, 22 through chapter 6 and verse 9.
Wives, be subject to your husbands. Husbands,
love your wives. Children, obey your parents.
Parents, nourish your children. wives be subject
to your husbands. Let's think first about what
this command means. I want to point out first
of all that this is not a command given to all
women with relationship to all men at all times.
The command dealing with subjection is to wives
with respect to their husbands. You will notice
there is no verb in verse 22, that's why it's
in italics, but clearly it is to be drawn from
verse 21, where this spirit of mutual submission
and subjection is expected of all of us in our
relationships to one another, and that in the
context of the fear or the reverence of Christ.
Now the Apostle brings that truth down into the
home specifically, and he applies it to wives
with respect to their husbands. The verb, as
I pointed out last week, is from the military
of that day. It means to line up under the authority
of another. It refers to subordination to a recognized
leader and authority in one's life. The command
that God gives here to wives does not imply that
the one who is in submission is inferior. There
is no inequality that is intended or connoted
by what is said here. It does not imply that
the one in submission is, or rather loses, identity
either. It does not mean that the wife's personhood,
her individuality, her uniqueness is somehow
submerged and lost in her husband's identity.
It does not mean that. But what it does mean
is that God, our Creator, has placed the wife
under the leadership of her husband. This is
elaborated upon in verse 33, where he says, Let
each individual among you also love his own wife
even as himself, and let the wife see to it that
she respect her husband. And so the term respect
is used, or the term is also translated reverence.
In fact, this is a term that is used in other
places of our reverence for God. It does not
mean that the wife is to be subject to her husband
with terror or with fright of him, but rather
as we are in the fear of the Lord, in reverence
of him, therefore desiring to please him, so
he is saying here that the wife should desire
to please her husband. And notice that in verse
24 this principle is said to apply in everything.
As the church is subject to Christ, so the wives
to their husbands in everything. Now does that
mean absolutely everything? The answer to that
is no, it does not. If a husband, for example,
commands of his wife some immoral act, or some
deed that is illegal, The wife is under no constraint
from God to obey her husband in that matter.
A higher principle comes into play at that point
which says we ought to obey God rather than man.
So it does not mean absolutely everything. But
in the normal course of the carrying out of the
home in its government, in its decisions, in
its growth and maturation. The wife is said by
God to be expected to be subject to him, to her
husband, in everything. Now why is this command
given by God? Our text tells us that God has
placed the husband as the head of the wife, just
as God also has placed Christ as the head. Now
because that is the rationale for the command,
which cannot be misunderstood, there is a vigorous
attempt these days to attack the rationale that
the husband is the head of the wife. There is
an attempt in certain circles, even of evangelicalism,
to show that this word head means something less
than authority over. Such writers as Paul K.
Jewett, Berkeley and Alvara Michelson, Letha
Scanzoni, Nancy Hardesty, Margaret Howe, Virginia
Mollenkot, and even such a distinguished Bible
scholar as F .F. Bruce all argue for this point.
that this word head in the Greek language does
not mean authority over. Now, of course, if that
can be proven, it undermines, they think, what
is said in the command, wives be subject to your
husbands. The Greek word here is kephale. Their
argument is that this word head, or kephale,
actually means source or origin. In other words,
the husband is the source or the origin of the
wife, they say. The Michelsons, in their writings,
say that the word head is used here in the sense
of, quote, the head of the Mississippi River,
close quote. In other words, its source or its
origin. They point out that man, or rather that
woman, was derived from man, but that there is
no authority here that is intended, they say.
And in their writings, they use phrases like,
such an understanding of kephale was, quote,
commonly understood, close quote, in New Testament
days. Or they say, quote, there is careful documentation,
close quote, which supports this redefinition
of kephale. Now, do you know the interesting
thing about this? That is absolutely false. That
was not a common understanding in that day of
the Greek word kephale. Nor is there careful
documentation available to scholars to prove
otherwise. If this is a matter of concern to
you, and to some of you it is, I would like to
recommend to you a book by George W. Knight III.
That's K -N -I -G -H -T. who is the professor
of New Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary
in St. Louis. He has written a book published
by Moody Press called The Rural Relationship
of Men and Women. In this brief but thorough
book, Dr. Knight exposes the superficial and
fallacious claims of such writings as I've mentioned.
In fact, he includes as an appendix in the book
a survey that was done by Dr. Wayne Grudem, who
is the assistant or associate, rather, professor
of New Testament at Trinity Seminary in Chicago,
in which he thoroughly surveys the Greek literature,
examining over 2 ,300 examples of the use of
kephale in ancient Greek. The result of his survey
embarrasses the scholarship of those who attempt
to redefine the word. To redefine head as being
source or origin is a new meaning previously
unrecognized by standard New Testament lexicons.
Even in classical Greek language, that possible
definition of kephale is found only two times.
And careful research shows that it's doubtful
as a definition even those two times in all the
ancient classical Greek language available to
us today. But suppose, just for a moment, that
it were a legitimate optional reading. Would
it necessarily be the preferred meaning of the
word kephale in the text in Ephesians chapter
5? I think as one examines the text and what
it says, the answer is strongly no. There is
no scholarly basis for a redefinition of this
word from its traditional historical understanding.
The scholarly work that is being done by conservative
evangelical authors absolutely devastates the
theological arguments of the Christian feminist
movement, so -called. The word head does mean
authority over. lexicon that we have is Bower,
Arndt, Gingrich, and Dankers. And in the case
of that particular book, they say, quote, in
the case of living beings, this word means to
denote superior rank. Close quote. In verse 23,
we see that the husband's headship, his authority,
is compared to Christ's. Not that it's a perfect
parallel by any means. But he says, just as Jesus
Christ has been appointed head of the church,
does that mean that he is only the source of
the church? Does that mean that he is the origin
of the church only? Absolutely not. In the context
of the whole book of Ephesians, his authority
as head of the church, which is his body, is
the theme. And he says, just as Jesus Christ
is the head of his church, so is the husband
the head of the wife. Now the Apostle Paul elaborates
upon this in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We do
not have time to look thoroughly at the whole
context here, but I would invite you to look
there with me quickly at an overview of what
Paul is saying. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and
verse 3, He says, I want you to understand that
Christ is the head of every man. In other words,
every Christian man. And the man is the head
of a woman. And God is the head of Christ. Notice
he says that God is the head of Christ. Does
that detract? from the person of Jesus Christ
as incarnate deity? When it says God is the head
of Christ, does that suggest that he is inferior
or that he is less than equal to God the Father
in his person? Of course it does not. It says
Christ is the head of every man. So notice that
the Christian man, likewise, is under authority
of Jesus Christ. And he says, coming to completely
or purely human relationships, he says the man
is the head of a woman. Paul applies that in
a specific way, but I want to skip down to verses
8 and 9 where he comes to the reason for this.
What is the basis for him making that statement?
He says, man does not originate from the woman,
but woman from man. Of course, that is true.
Eve was created out of Adam. And he says, for
indeed, man was not created for the woman's sake,
but woman for the man's sake. So the basis for
his statement that man is the head of the woman
does not go back to Genesis chapter 3 and the
fall of man into sin. Now, if that were the case,
some would argue that the redemption of Jesus
Christ nullifies that and cancels it. But he
goes back to Genesis chapter 2, to the created
order before there was sin involved. And he says
that is the basis for God's order in the home
of the man over the woman, the husband, authority
over the wife. Now lest some man should run off
in a direction he should not, he goes on in the
later statements here to show that there is an
interdependence of the man and woman. Notice
that he says in verse 11, However in the Lord,
neither is the woman independent of the man,
nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman
originates from the man, so also the man has
his birth through the woman. and all things originate
from God. And so, lest a man somehow think that
he is a dictator, or that he may somehow oppress
his wife with his headship, the Apostle Paul
goes on quickly to remind both man and woman
that each is dependent upon the other. There
is an interdependence that is involved here.
The headship of the man, or the husband, is not
dictatorship. It is not independence. But it
is responsibility and accountability for the
governing, the decision -making, the leadership
of the home. It does not mean that the wife has
no place to express an opinion or even to disagree.
because she has that absolute right. But ultimately,
headship means responsibility, and God holds
the husband responsible for the home. Dr. Hendrickson,
in his commentary, says that the husband is the
head as, quote, one vitally interested in her,
the wife's, welfare, close quote. Notice that
Jesus Christ is the head of his church in our
text. He is the Savior of the body. Not the dictator
of the body, it says, but the Savior of the body.
As head of the church, he is the one who is interested
in redemption of the body, the saving of the
body. And so the husband, as head of the wife,
is one vitally interested in her welfare. Not
domineering her, but protecting her and providing
for her. Now there are a number of arguments,
of course, from those who disagree with this.
For example, in Galatians chapter 3, verse 28,
and I would invite you to turn there, there's
a marvelous statement. It says, there is neither
Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free
man. Notice, there is neither male nor female.
You are all one in Christ Jesus. And so feminists
tell us that this text shows that in Jesus Christ
and his redemption, there is no longer any headship
or any subjection. But we are all one and equal
in Jesus Christ, and of course that is true with
respect to the spiritual position we have. There
is absolute equality in that spiritual position
that man and woman, Jew and Gentile, slave and
master, we all have before God. But what is said
here does not nullify our maleness. Or our femaleness
does it? We are still male and female. Nor does
it nullify the role of each in the family under
God. Then there are those who argue that this
relationship of husband and wife as described
in Ephesians 5 is temporary. They say it's like
the slave and master commands later in this paragraph,
that it no longer applies since the social inequity
has been thrown off. One says, quote, to insist
on it also sanctions slavery and government by
kings since apostles also gave commands about
them, close quote. And therefore they say that
this command in Ephesians 5 is culturally relative.
As the culture changes, it's no longer true.
Dr. Knight has an interesting statement regarding
that. He says, quote, Notice carefully that the
unchanging word of God speaks authoritatively
to the culture of man that God allows to pass
away. In other words, slavery. To the culture
of man that God allows to change appropriately,
like civil government. and to the culture of
man that God requires man to maintain, the form
of authority and headship in marriage. It is
imperative, writes Dr. Knight, that we distinguish
the areas of man's culture and not confuse them,
as some have done in our doing. We must always
understand, believe, and apply God's unchanging
word in the way in which he directs us from within
the word itself. Only then does it continue to
be the authoritative word of God that stands
over man's changing culture. Dr. Paul Jewett
argues, quote, Paul's exegesis of Genesis 2 in
1 Corinthians 11 is inaccurate, close quote.
That is an amazing statement for a man to make
who claims to be an evangelical. For when he
says that Paul's exegesis in 1 Corinthians chapter
11 is inaccurate, he is saying that the word
of God is wrong. He is saying that God allowed
his apostles and the writers of scripture to
write in error, and yet they claimed to communicate
God's will to the church. If Jude is right, then
God has allowed the church to be in error for
20 centuries. How good of God to give us this
man to correct us at this late date, if that
be the case. You see, what happens is that the
authority of the word of God in our lives is
undermined if we take the position of these people.
God's revelation in brief regarding the home,
his design for it is that the husband is the
head, the wife is the helper. That is the language
used. God warns against abuse of power by the
husband, recognizing that sin corrodes relationships
and alienates men and women, as well as all of
us, from God. Therefore, God commands both the
husband and the wife to do what they are naturally
least likely to do. The wife to submit and the
husband to love. Now, I want to make it very
clear that this command in God's word to wives
does not authorize any type of physical, or psychological
or emotional abuse of the wife by the husband.
It does not make the wife a slave to the husband.
God views the husband and wife as co -regents,
as heirs together of the grace of life. But God
in his governing, of the human institution of
the home has established the husband as the head
with the final responsibility to him. Now, I
could only wish that we had time this morning
to talk to husbands, lest some of you go away
with an unbalanced picture of what God says.
But I can guarantee you this. If you come back
next Sunday, by God's will, you husbands, will
understand that you have the more difficult command
in Ephesians chapter 5. There is a beautiful
balance in the roles that God has established
for the husband and wife, but the spirit of such
a marriage where the wife submits herself to
her husband and the husband loves his wife, that
spirit can only be realized as the Spirit of
God dominates. both husband and wife, enforcing
the lordship of Jesus Christ. These commands
from the word of God fly in the face of our present
culture, but they are not harsh. Indeed, the
commands that are given to us in the word of
God when applied to our lives actually bring
peace to troubled hearts and healing. to fractured
homes. We never do wrong when we obey what God
tells us to do. What we need is a fresh filling
of God's Spirit. And for that fresh filling of
God's Spirit, we need to confess our sin. And
we need to desire the Spirit of God to empower
us. and to yield ourselves unreservedly to him.
May that be the attitude of our hearts today,
whether we are single or married, or the husband
or wife. May the cry of our hearts be that, oh,
God would fill us with his Holy Spirit and enable
us to experience the fullness of the blessing
that God has designed in the Christian marriage.
Let's pray together. Father in heaven, I pray
that you will give to us, all of us, an understanding
of your word. May we put aside our prejudice.
May we put aside our misunderstanding. And I
pray that the Holy Spirit will give us to comprehend
the beauty, the balance, and the need for His
infilling, that we may obey what you say here.
Father, thank you for designing marriage in the
home so that it not only works, but it works
to the glory of God and to the good of... all
of those in the home. Show us how to apply your
word and make us transformers in our society,
not conformers to it. In Jesus' name. Would you
stand with me, please, and let's sing just a
verse or two of the song that we sang earlier.