God has laid out His standards.
They're not negotiable. And I'll tell you this, if the church doesn't wake up soon and obey the Word of God, all is lost. We don't need to fall victim to this stuff. You don't need a master's degree to figure out what it means to love your husband, love your children, and work at home?
How hard is that? Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. It's no secret that the differences between men's and women's roles, and even the definitions of men and women themselves, have become increasingly blurred and confused in our culture. So what about that? Just how different are the differences between men and women, and do those differences matter that much? Well today, John MacArthur is going to look at what Scripture says about God's distinct design for the two sexes, showing you that when believers apply God's Word to their relationships and their families, the result is revolutionary. The title of John's study, Revolutionary Living in a Dark Culture.
If you have your Bible handy, turn to Titus chapter 2, as John begins today's lesson. One of the most devastating and debilitating and destructive movements in our day is the feminist movement. It is changing not only the world, but sadly it is changing the church.
And as a result, the Word of God is being dishonored, opponents are having plenty bad to say about us, and God our Savior is being dishonored and shamed. Radical feminism has brainwashed our culture. It has brainwashed our culture to the degree that even the church has fallen victim to this. Church leaders, theologians, professors of theology who are supposed to be profound in the Scripture, as well as lay people in the church, have bought the feminist lies. Feminism with all of its assorted features and its unique companionship with homosexuality is an old, old heresy that is meant to destroy God's design.
It really started in the garden when Eve, the original feminist, stepped out from under Adam's authority and thought she would act independently and led the whole race into sin, and thus the first act in Satan's feminist agenda was successful. But let's just go back, say, to the time of the New Testament. We won't go all the way back into ancient, ancient times.
We can learn enough by going back into New Testament times. When we get back into the time of the New Testament, before the New Testament, running through the New Testament and after, we have a religion that is generally known as Gnosticism...G-n-o-s...Gnosticism. And it comes from a Greek word gnosis, which means to know. Gnosticism was the religion, the mystical religion of superior knowledge. You could experience mystical, intuitive, spiritual knowledge which was higher than the Bible.
That was the whole point of it. It was an anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-biblical religion designed by Satan to lure people away from Scripture. Gnosticism is the blasphemy of satanic distortion of God's truth. The Bible says God is a good God and He is the sovereign God. The Gnostics denied it and blasphemed His name.
The Bible says Christ is the living God incarnate in flesh. The Gnostics blasted it, blasphemed His name. The Bible says the snake was a tempter.
They say the snake is wisdom personified who is the instructor. The Bible says Jesus died on the cross for your sins. The Gnostics say that Jesus that died on the cross was a joke. Obviously, this is Satan's lying heresy to confound God's truth, this blasphemous stuff the Apostle Paul wrote against even in his epistles in the New Testament. It is the doctrine of demons from seducing spirits.
This was invented in the pits of hell millennia ago. Now to the very central element in this and that's the issue of feminism. What role did feminism play in Gnosticism?
Well, it played a very, very important role. As I told you already, Eve was the Savior of Adam and furthermore, the spiritual or heavenly Eve was the personification of wisdom in the serpent who became the instructor and by thus his instruction sets out to save men. But let's take a look at some other things. In the Gnostic system, Eve dominates Adam and sexual roles are totally altered.
And you can understand this because, you see, Satan wants to totally tear up God's created order. They wrote, the early Gnostics did, that the divine revealer was feminine. The divine revealer says, let me quote, I am androgynous. I am both mother and father since I copulate with myself. I copulate with myself and with those who love me and it is through me alone that the all stands firm. I am the womb that gives shape to the all by giving birth to the light that shines in splendor.
I am the aeon to come. I am the fulfillment of the all. That is the glory of the mother. Now all that double talk is the talk of the androgyny of Gnosticism.
That means the wiping out of all sexual distinction. There are Gnostic texts where God the Creator is castigated by a higher feminine power, and that's that heavenly Eve called Sophia, Dame Wisdom. And God the Creator, the Gnostics said, God that sub-god Demiurge who stupidly created everything finally learned the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. In other words, he learned to fear the feminine Sophia so that the God of the Bible is now in fear of the feminine god Sophia. The feminization then of this higher god Wisdom led directly to the ordination of women. The ordination of women flows out of the feminization of deity. The early Gnostic well-known to church history students named Marcion was excommunicated from the church in A.D. 150. He then established his own church in which he appointed women as bishops and priests in the Valentinian Gnosticism. Women functioned as teachers, evangelists, healers, priests, perhaps as bishops.
This movement in the church to put women into roles of spiritual leadership is simply reflective of this same kind of religious attitude. In Psalm, Gnosticism then rejects the Creator God of Scripture as blind and envious and malicious, not hesitating to commit the most heinous blasphemy of all. The Gnostics even called the God of the Bible the true devil. For the true Gnostic, the real God, whoever this force was, was unknowable, impersonal, untouchable, some kind of unified sum of separated parts, a sort of pantheistic force. But they said this, the divine being, because he is all in all impersonal, untouchable, just this big force is best expressed by androgyny that is the erasure of male and female distinctions. The ideal for the Gnostic was to become sexless, the radical refusal of sexual differentiation and a complete confusion of sexual identity in God's intended role. See, this is how Satan has always tried to tear up God's moral order in the world. And attacking the family, of course, does the greatest damage. The diabolical reversal of everything is Satan's approach.
Destroy God's created order, destroy the integrity of Scripture, destroy the character of God, destroy the name of Christ. And beloved, I'm telling you, this is what is behind today's feminist movement. This is not some whimsical deal that popped up in the 20th century by a few women who wanted to take off the apron and buy a briefcase.
This is not that. This is not something that was invented by women who wanted to abort their babies and get into the corporate halls and the executive washrooms. This New Age thinking, that's what it's called today, is nothing but Gnosticism. New Age is a new way of talking about age-old Gnosticism. And the heart of it is that female power is the key to salvation. The goddess cult is back. Radical feminism today is being moved along by the idea that women must be liberated and they can redeem humanity, they can save humanity.
These are the philosophers that are driving the movement, the religionists. The Creator God of Genesis, the foolish sub-god has to go. He is male, tyrannical. He denies basic human liberties.
He demands total obedience. He threatens punishment for evil deeds. Consequently, original sin is not to be found in man, they said, but in God. And we've got to get rid of this sinning God. Feminist liberation releases us from God and from all His evil male values like marriage, fidelity, family, authority, morality. The serpent Eve wants to set us free. The God of the Bible is a jealous tyrant who wants to stand in her way.
And as with ancient Gnosticism, the New Age movement today, the goal of liberation is total reversal of all God-ordained values. That's why it's so unthinkable that Christians would get sucked into this. I found God in myself and I loved her fiercely, said Roman Catholic theologian, Carol Christ. I found God in myself and I loved her fiercely.
There you have in one simple statement the whole deal. Where is God? In myself. What is God? Feminine.
And I am one with God. And she found God in herself with liberation from all biblical constraint. The path to the New Age involves destroying the biblical male-female differentiation. That's New Age feminism. Take, for example, New Age author Charlene Spretnak's book, The Politics of Women's Spirituality, published by Doubleday. This book, The Politics of Women's Spirituality, is a book that calls for an end to Judeo-Christian religion. And the call is that we will end Judeo-Christian religion by a feminist movement nourished on goddess worship paganism and witchcraft that succeeds in overthrowing the global rule of men. Feminism wants revenge. They want blood. Their real ideological goal, because it's Satan's goal, is to absolutely erase any recollection of creational structure and biblical morality.
Wipe it out and thereafter. You wonder, don't you, two generations from now whether anybody will know what biblical morality is. Well, they might be able to read the ancient Bible and see what it looked like, but they certainly are going to have a hard time looking around town to find it. And here, witless Christians jump on this feminist bandwagon as if it was some harmless thing. Well, we have a right to work and we shouldn't be confined at home and I have a right to express fully myself and silly women who fall prey and silly men who do as well. George Gilder is a prominent writer. He makes no claim to be a Christian, but he does understand the agenda. He was once a feminist thinker, but since 1973, he has realized what their agenda is and he's written about it.
This is what he says. The revolutionary members of the women's movement say that our sexual relationships are fundamental to all our other institutions and activities. If one could profoundly change the relations between the sexes, they contend, one could radically and unrecognizably transform the society, end quote.
Dead right. The satanic agenda is to destroy human society, to just rip the family to shreds and destroy marriage so that God has no means to pass righteousness from one generation to the next, right, which was always the role of the family. There's no moral order maintained in society.
There are no ethical values left. And the way you do that is sexually. You just shred all standard norms sexually.
So nobody knows how anybody's supposed to be related to anybody, but everybody's free to do whatever they want to do and that's how they become divine. Gilder rightly affirms that, quote, sexuality is not simply a matter of games people play, it is one of the few matters truly of life and death to society. He warns that if the feminist agenda, even its most moderate version, is carried through, quote, our society is doomed to years of demoralization and anarchy, possibly ending in a police state, end quote. Our society is doing exactly what I told you in Romans 1, happens to a society when God gives them over. What does it say God gave them over and what did they do, women with women doing things that aren't even imaginable and men with men doing things that aren't imaginable? That's what happens to a society under God's wrath. God lets them go and they're going the way of the satanic lies. Playing right into the hands of satanic lies is our own government. Working hard, aren't they?
What are they working hard? Our government, the United States, state of California, city of Los Angeles are doing everything they can do to eliminate all gender differences. That is not an issue of constitutional liberty, that is an issue of satanic religion.
Homosexuality is the companion of feminism because of androgyny. Society running rampant, no society can survive that, the Roman Empire didn't survive it. This entire system is going right into the pit, tearing up God's order sexually, tearing up families, tearing up marriage, blaspheming God, blaspheming Christ, exalting the serpent. I read one book this week where a man suggested the Antichrist might be a woman if we keep going the way we're going. Satan's very successful with this. Al Gore has written a book called Earth and the Balance, Ecology and the Human Spirit.
Peter Jones writes about that book, Gore's involvement in ecology is an expression of his belief in the connectedness of all things in the great value of all religious faiths and in his hope that ancient pagan goddess worship will help bring us planetary and personal salvation. Undiscerning Christians falling victim to these hellish heresies, the destruction is not restrained by the church, the church has joined it. There is no doubt about what a woman's role is, there's no doubt what a man's role is. Look at our text again. What is God designed for a woman? Verse 4, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands that the Word of God may not be dishonored. That's very clear. You can get in a lot of trouble by suggesting that kind of stuff.
Try standing up in this culture and saying, women, you're commanded to love your husband and to love your children and to work at home and to be subject to your husband. You'll get screamed down. I mean, you could be in deep trouble just reading that, let alone commenting on it. It's been amazing since people knew I was approaching this text, they've been telling me, what are you going to say about this? This is going to be very controversial.
Boy, we can't wait till these tapes come out. What's going to happen then? Well, just to mitigate that a little bit, I've said what I've said so that if you get upset, you know whose side you're on. God has laid out His standards.
They're not negotiable. And I'll tell you this, if the church doesn't wake up soon and obey the Word of God, all is lost. We don't need to fall victim to this stuff. You don't need a master's degree to figure out what it means to love your husband, love your children, and work at home.
How hard is that? By the way, there are no qualifiers there, no caveats, no footnotes. It's just what it says. Go home, submit to your husband, have children, raise them in godliness, take care of your house. And that's what older women are to teach younger women. They're to teach it not only with their mouth, they're to teach it with their life. We are living in Romans 1, aren't we? What's wrong with America? God's wrath is wrong with America. God's let us go. And we're plunging down the path and the evidence of it is this reversal of sexual roles that Paul talked about in Romans chapter 1 verse 26.
You need to know this because you need to understand what it is we're dealing with. This is part of the warning responsibility that the Shepherd has. Father, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies. We're not just fooling around with human philosophies. This stuff is doctrines of demons from seducing spirits coming through hypocritical liars. We must know that Satan is the arch blasphemer and that more than anything he wants to blaspheme you and blaspheme Christ and blaspheme Scripture.
And so we're not surprised to look at a philosophy that is the inversion of everything you are, everything Christ is, everything Scripture says. Father, help us not to become conformed to this world, pressed into the world's mold, locked into its heretical thinking. Help us, Lord, to obey You. Help the women of our church and the men to be all that You've designed them to be. Help us to preserve righteousness in godly marriages and godly families, to be a restraining influence in a culture plunging down the precipice to judgment.
And, Lord, we know that this is essential for the internal blessedness of the church and the external testimony as well. We shall not know joy and blessing and fulfillment if we don't live by Your standards, nor will we have a witness in the world. We must live as You've prescribed or we cannot honor Your Word.
We cannot silence the critics. We cannot adorn the teaching that God is a saving God. So, Lord, we ask that You would call Your church, not just this church, but Your church, back to a biblical meaning of the role of women, that we might be faithful. And, Lord, I pray for every dear woman who belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ that she might be in her own heart willing to bring everything as it were before Your throne and seek that You would make her the woman that she should be. For every man, I pray the same, that we might know the joy of obedience and that we might have the privilege of an effective witness. And forgive us, Lord, for our many failures to be the people You want us to be to display Your glory and Your power. In our Savior's name we ask, amen.
You're listening to Grace to You with John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. Today's lesson is part of John's current study from Titus 2 titled revolutionary living in a dark culture. John, we've looked at some challenging truths today in terms of God's plan for women. And, of course, out of fairness, we should point out that Scripture doesn't let men off the hook in terms of our responsibility. Hardly, the Word of God is very strong in what it reveals about the behavior of men.
And obviously, Christian men are the most important men in any society. That leads me to mention to you a book called Divine Design, a really important book, a book that assaults the terrible, devastating attacks of our culture on men, women, husbands, wives, and therefore families. Again, the title of the book is Divine Design and it explores God's special purpose for both men and women within the framework of marriage and obviously the church.
It chronicles the devastating effects of feminism, effects that have really reached inside and corrupted many churches. It offers a biblical perspective on the issue of wives in the workplace. It explains God's plan for the leadership role that men have in the home and in the church. And the book includes a study guide for home Bible study on this vital topic. This is something of a classic book for grace to you.
For decades, it has brought helpful clarity to many, many people. So if you're struggling to understand what God has designed for men and women and their roles, both in the family and in the church, this book will make a huge impact on your life. The title again, Divine Design, 270 pages available, reasonably priced from grace to you.
Thanks, John. Friend, this book thoughtfully digs into the unique God-designed roles for men and women in marriage and in the church. It's a great resource for husbands and wives to read together. The title again, Divine Design. Order your copy or order a few copies to give away to loved ones when you get in touch with us today. Call 800-55-GRACE or go to our website, gty.org. Divine Design clears away the cultural misconceptions around God's design for men and women and it shows you how following the biblical guidelines leads to blessing in your home and in your church. The cost for Divine Design is $10.50 and shipping is free.
Again, to order, call 800-55-GRACE or visit our website, gty.org. Keep in mind, John's current study is an excellent audio complement to the Divine Design book. To review the messages from Revolutionary Living in a Dark Culture, go to gty.org and download all six of the MP3s. Transcripts are also available. And of course, you can download any of John's sermons, more than 3600 messages, free of charge. The sermon archive and much more is available anytime at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and our staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for starting your week with us. For tomorrow, consider this question. When a godly mother's children are grown up and gone, what is left for her to do? Find out what Revolutionary Living means in the empty nest years when John returns with another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.
