Praying Men, Godly Women, and the Creation Order

Alright, I invite you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy. We'll be continuing in our study of 1 Timothy chapter 2. It says, And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Yet she will be saved through childbearing, and if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control. Please be seated. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you in the name of your Son and we thank you for the apostle Paul. We thank you for his apostolic authority that he gives us through his word that we can study it and know it and that we can conform ourselves to the will of God. We ask that you would give us open ears and hearts this evening, that we would hear your word and receive it with humility and with joy. We ask that you would continue to encourage the men and the women in the church as we continue to serve you and honor you, honoring you with a heart of love and a heart of faith. So let me pray.

Amen. I thank you because it's Mother's Day and I knew the passage that I had to preach this evening and I thought, did someone put me up to this, that I would have to preach on verse 11 and 12 on Mother's Day of all things, but I was there when they handed out the passages and as I began to study this passage the passage is very positive for men and for women. But I heard this passage preached from Dr. David Hall at Midway Presbyterian Church in Powder Springs, Georgia when I joined the PCA back in 2012. I had come out of the Methodist Church and I had always, always had a female pastor, whether it was an associate pastor or a senior pastor. I had always had a female in leadership, in ordained leadership. But he read the passage and he explained from creation the passage that we have before us.

I remember I was sitting next to a girl that was in Reform University Fellowship, our denomination's college ministry and she had been raised in the PCA and I wrote on the bulletin, do you believe this? And she said, let's talk afterwards. After the benediction she said, not only do I believe it, but I would never go to a church with a female pastor. Because this text is clear that God created male leadership within the church as a God-ordained role in the church. It was a shock.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I had always benefited from women in the church. I was raised in the church from birth and there was always, I've always had good women in the church taking care of me in the nursery, teaching me as a young man.

I've always benefited from, these women raised me in the church. And so now I'm sitting under the preaching here in this church service and I'm hearing for the first time not an interchangeability between men and women, but a distinct gender role between men and women that has been ordained from the beginning. And as I go into it, I have to admit that men and women are distinct.

We are equal before the Lord, but there is a distinctiveness between men and women. There are some things that men can do that women cannot. There's yet to be a woman in the NFL. There's yet to be a woman in the Navy Seals. There are things that women can do that men cannot. I'm now a father and to see Rachel give birth to a son is incredible, but that is a thing that we men simply cannot do. Some things that men can do, women can't and vice versa. Women can do certain things that men cannot. And that is because God has made us in a very distinct way based on biology.

Even that's scandalous today thinking about the current political climate. If I was to say God made male and female, some would say that's a political statement. I'd say no, that's a biblical statement.

That's the world pushing up against us. And I'm happy to push back and just read God's word where God says that He created them male and female. And so the culture can lose their mind if they want to, but we'll just plant our feet and we will stand on God's word and stand with the apostle Paul. And what I want to show you tonight from this passage, and I think this is the accurate teaching of the text, that Paul prescribes male authoritative leadership by his apostolic authority and this is the model to be seen in the local church. We just finished up verses 1-7 and Paul is talking about continuing life within the church and he's organizing the structure of the church and they're praying for all men, that is all mankind. The word there in the Greek is anthropos meaning mankind generally. It's where we get the word anthropology, the study of man, the study of mankind. But now in verse 8 there is a shift in the Greek and the word is aner or andros meaning a man or a husband.

This is distinct from a general term for mankind. And now he is addressing in verse 8 that there is infighting within the church. I desire that in every place that men should pray lifting holy hands without anger and quarreling. For the women in the church there is a concern about immodesty.

And at the time apparently there was a problem among some of the congregations where there was infighting among the men and there was immodesty among the women. And so now Paul is saying that we're to lift holy hands without anger and without quarreling. There should be peace within the local congregation. Thinking back to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said if you were offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift and there before the altar and go, first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Worship is to be marked by peace and unity among the body of Christ.

If we have issues with one another we must address them with one another. And then the example here is that he is saying that he lifts holy hands. So this is an example where Paul is saying that we are to lift holy hands in the house of God.

And this is not the only way to worship God. There are many examples in the Bible of men standing or sitting or kneeling. A lot of our Episcopalian and Anglican friends would kneel. They would have kneelers built into the pews within the church. A friend of mine was ordained as an Anglican priest and he laid prostrate that is face down on the ground in the shape of a cross. There are many ways to pray.

When men fall on their faces before God in the Bible this is lying down prostrate that is with their nose to the ground. And the point is that we have reverence. That we are expressing physically what our heart is pointed to God. That we are loving God with reverence, with honor and that we love the Lord. And so prayer is seen here in the local congregation led by men. And they are raising hands that are described as having holy hands. There is no fighting.

There is no hypocrisy. There are hands that are washed clean by the grace of God. They are coming to the Lord in faith. David talks about this in Psalm 24 verse 4 to 6. He who has clean hands and a pure heart does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. These hands are expressing this sort of holiness that God gives to us by faith and we are to pray to God with a clear conscience. Likewise women are to adorn themselves in respectable attire with modesty, self-control and not braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire. Peter chapter 3 has a parallel passage of this. Do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair and the putting of gold, jewelry but the clothing you wear.

But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which in God's sight is very precious. I grew up with a brother. I never had a sister.

I had a cousin. But I've never watched a mother talk to a daughter about modesty. But in a sense I think that generally common sense prevails and again if men are to lead their homes I think that men need their wives to support them in this but men need to teach clearly, not abdicate their responsibility and neglect their daughters but they need to teach them what modesty is. And again it's common sense.

Let me help you with a short list here. For women is it too short? Is it low cut? Is it too revealing? I would say for both men and women is it form fitting to the point that it draws unnecessary attention and cause others to stumble? And I would say generally you know immodesty when you see it.

And as Titus 2 tells that older women are to disciple younger women I think that women can definitely encourage younger women in their modesty. At the time it was braided hair, gold, pearls, costly attire. So it was about showing how much wealth you have. Men I think can be just as immodest with a $5,000 suit and a Ferrari. I think there's a way to communicate in a flashy way that draws attention to yourself and draws attention away from God. And so there's a couple of different looks at this. This modesty is in a sense it's about extravagance.

But I'm not suggesting that we look particularly drab. I think that if someone was to sort of dress in tattered clothing and that too would be the same issue. It's drawing unnecessary attention on the same issue but on the opposite side. Young women read this passage it's more about modesty in sort of a sensual way. And I think of our young men it might be pushing the limits. It might be wearing an edgy t-shirt with a various phrase on it that's offensive or perhaps a Jack Daniels logo or something that might alarm the congregation as to why are they wearing that.

Why are they needlessly knocking against the goads, challenging authority. And what it expresses is there is a heart issue beneath that. Paul is telling us to dress to communicate an internal reality that we are serious about worship, that we love the Lord.

What this immodesty can communicate though is that we're wanting others to look at us as opposed to the Lord. I had lunch with Eric Schwinn this week and we were talking about his time teaching at Cabarrus County High School and he told me that when he goes in he wants to encourage the students to be serious about their education so he wears a coat and tie. And he asked a student what do you think I'm trying to communicate where I wear a coat and I wear a tie. And one of the students said I think you're serious. I think you're really serious about what we're doing here.

And he said that's exactly it. There's an example that teachers are to set leading by example and communicating to the students that this is serious. Take your education seriously. And part of this going into worship with respectable apparel is to say that we are taking worship very seriously. Just the same way an officer in Officer Candidate School polishes his belt buckle and presses his shirt in a very specific way.

This is to express a seriousness about his work as a military officer. And Paul is pointing out these specific examples and how disunity and sin can manifest itself in the local congregation. So I want to encourage you as we're approaching worship not only do we prepare our physical appearance in the morning, my hope is that we also prepare our hearts and that our clothing would reflect a heart of sincere love for Christ. But then verse 10 tells us that women who profess godliness they are to adorn themselves and they adorn themselves with good works. Women are called to adorn themselves with good works and Scripture is very clear that we have all that we need. 2 Timothy 3.16, All Scripture is breathed out by God, profitable for teaching, for approved for correction, training in righteousness, that the man or woman may be complete, equipped for every good work. We have in God's Word not only examples but everything that we need to understand what is good works before God. Paul is going to commend the widows in 1 Timothy 5, having a reputation for good works if she has brought up children, shown hospitality, washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work.

We heard about Rahab this morning. She was commended for hiding the spies. We heard about Ruth the Moabite woman who served her mother-in-law faithfully. Then she would later marry Boaz and would be the great grandmother of King David. We have Dorcas that is also known as Tabitha in Acts 9. She was full of good works in Acts of charity. Lydia of Thyatira, one of the early church mothers in the book of Acts, she and her entire household were baptized. She was a successful businesswoman, pivotal for spreading the gospel in the book of Acts. These women were active members in the first century church.

They were serving the Lord, loving their families. But what Paul teaches here in 1 Timothy 2 is that there is specifically a divinely appointed leadership within the church which consists of preaching and teaching with authority in the public worship of God. He is telling women that they are to benefit from the labor of the elders in the local church who teach and exercise authority in that church. This is scandalous to hear, but they are to learn quietly in submission to the elders of the local congregation. Especially today, this is the most controversial passage I've had to address.

Funny enough, there is no controversy prior to the 1960s. To read this plainly and to believe it is to stand with 99.9% of the history of the church. We're talking about 2,000 years of New Testament history and 3,000 years of church history going back to the patriarchs.

We see that there is a consistent testimony throughout history, believing that men are to lead within the local church. To simply read the text plainly, a woman is to learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or have exercised authority over a man. She must be silent.

The Greek word is gune, which means woman or wife. He is not permitting women or wives in the church to exercise authority in the public worship of word and sacrament. I have to address the many misunderstandings of this passage.

There are already objections in the hearts and minds, perhaps even in this room, but certainly in our culture. Some would just say that Paul is simply wrong. They don't like Genesis. They don't like Paul.

He's got a problem with women, so they're just going to throw him out. He comes from this Pharisaical background. He's got these rabbinical hang-ups that he learned back in his Judaism, and so they just don't like Paul.

So they just reject the verse simply. Second would be that Ephesus is this source of religious, feminist worship. There was a temple for the goddess Diana.

She was the Roman goddess of fertility. So Paul might be here being reactionary to all this pagan worship at the time. But it was not a bastion of feminism in Ephesus. There was a regular civil magistrate that was led by men. There was a church that was led by men.

That's simply not true. A third attempt to address this is to say it's not that women aren't to have authority. They're not to have abusive authority. The Greek word here is athonteo, which is the only existence of this word in the Bible.

So that does give us pause. Where else can we see this word in Greek antiquity to find out exactly what is the dictionary definition of athonteo? As we have done our research, George Knight goes in as a commentator and says the common use of this word is to have authority. It's not to have abusive authority. It's just not to have authority.

Again, it's the plain reading of the text. A fourth attempt is that Paul is using this in the present tense. It's a temporary arrangement. It's only for Ephesus. They have all these problems in Ephesus, and so he's only doing this for a temporary time. But then Paul uses the same present tense in Romans chapter 12 where he says, Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. I think that present tense used there can be a long-standing truth in the Christian faith. Finally, I think this is one of the takes that the Methodist Church has taken. I want to address Galatians chapter 3 verse 28. This is pointing to a radical equality that men and women have in our salvation in Christ.

I agree. Men and women are equal before the Lord. Women, like men, have value and dignity and worth. And verse 28 of Galatians 3 says that there is neither Jew nor Greek. God has no preference for Jewish ethnic Israel.

God loves the Gentiles as well. There is neither slave nor free. That is, there is a quality between slave and a free person.

There is no male nor female. Again, there is a quality between men and women. For you are all one in Christ. We are equal in the eyes of God. Yes and amen. Praise the Lord. And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Yes, this is a good teaching. But again, this equality in our salvation does not negate distinctive roles within the church. Yes, God makes both men and women in His own image. But that does not erase the fact that clearly in Scripture we are equal before the Lord and given distinctive roles within the church. So as we go in now this passage, a woman should learn in quietness in full submission. What it is prohibiting is preaching as in the teaching elder role of authoritative preaching and teaching in the public worship and the gathering of God's people in the church. This exercising of authority has been given by God to elders within the church. Teaching and ruling elders are used in the New Testament to describe the careful and authoritative transmission of the biblical truth. This text is very clear that even there is an attitude that needs to be addressed where women are to learn quietly and in full submission.

If we are speaking, we are not learning. So what this passage is saying is that women are to be quiet so that they can hear, so that they can listen, they can learn, they can benefit from the teaching that is being administered by the elders. Two things this is not saying, this is not referring to women teaching outside of the church. Some apply this text to institutions outside of the church, women in law enforcement, women in government. Women are not to even be teachers, some might even get to the point to. They are not to run businesses. I think Proverbs 31 shows an industrious woman.

There's a debate there. What I'm addressing tonight is strictly within the confines of the church. Secondly, it does not say that any man within the church, by virtue of being a man, can exercise authority over any other woman within the church. A man cannot say, I'm a man, so therefore you're a woman.

Listen to me, submit to my leadership. Ephesians 5 talks very specifically about wives submitting to their husbands within the confines of marriage. Here women are to learn quietly and to submit to the elders within the church. That's not even to say that women can't teach, if anything you're commanded to teach. Titus chapter 2 verse 3 commands that older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, to train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Acts chapter 18 we see Priscilla alongside her husband Aquila teaching a man, instructing him privately within the home. Phoebe, this is one of the more common objections to the men only deacons. She is called a deacon in some translations for Romans chapter 16. Other translations might call her a servant. The Greek word is deikonos and this is a general sense, a servant. Men and women generally within the church can be a deikonos when they serve the church. But where there is a specific application of being a 1 Timothy 3 deikonos, that is a man of one wife, the office of a deacon, this is a distinct office different from a Phoebe serving the church. Phoebe cannot be a man of one wife.

She is a deikonos in the informal, generic sense. But then someone might say, what are women allowed to do in your church then? Are they allowed to do anything? Yes, actually women are commanded to do many things. Just like I said in Titus 2, they are commanded to teach younger women. In Matthew 6 they are commanded to pray. The Lord gives an example of how to pray. We confess our sin, men and women, together within the local church through a public, corporate confession of sin. Women are commanded in Hebrews 10 to stir one another up to love and good works. Women are commanded to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3. After that, the burden is laid on men to lead, to teach, to preach, and the command for women is to benefit, to learn, to be in the church.

It's funny enough, that would be the scandal back in Paul's day. What do you mean that women are learning? Where are they learning? In the church? With the Christians?

What do you mean? It was strange because there was a time where pagan cultures would not allow women to be educated. Historians are realizing that Christianity was one of the best things for women in the first and second century.

Women were being educated by being in the local congregation as a fellow brother and sister in Christ, equal before God. Another claim someone might say is that women are forced into marriage. They are like all those other ancient religions that force women into things. When they're submissive, it's abuse.

It's a form of abuse. The Bible says otherwise. Women are not forced into anything. We go back to Genesis, the first book of the Bible, where Rebekah is asked if she will marry Isaac.

The question is, will thou go with this man? There is a question of consent, and she agrees to marry him. Women are not demeaned by marriage. If anything, there is a mutual spiritual oneness in marriage. 1 Corinthians 7 verse 4 says that wives do not have authority over their own body, but the husband does. There it is.

The feminists are high-fiving. Women do not have authority over their own body, but their husband has that authority. Let's finish the text.

What does it say? Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. The man and the woman are united in marriage as one, and they are in mutual relationship, oneness, ownership of one another within the covenant of marriage.

There's a full equality. 1 Peter 3 verse 7 is far from viewing women with disrespect. We see verse 7, Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way. One commentator said, study your wives. Watch her. Understand her.

Understand what makes her upset. Understand what makes her smile. Examine her. Study her. Be an expert on your wife.

Know her. In doing so, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you for the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. Stumbled into another great verse. It says that women are the weaker vessel. There's been great debate on this, and I want to go ahead and address it, because here I am on this verse.

This is what it means simply. In a general sense, if you were to line up all the men, and if you were to line up all the women, you would see, generally, that men are physically dominant. Again, there are tall women and there are short men, but there is, in a general sense, when you look at men and you look at women, men tend to have a physical dominance over women. What can happen is that a husband in sin can use this physical dominance against a wife and sin against her. We are told here in this passage to show honor to women as the weaker vessel. Again, one of the many roles of the church, of the session, of the leadership of the church, of the officers. If there was to be this sort of abuse in the church, the leadership needs to know.

The role of the session is to confront this type of sin. We do not put women out in front of a physical altercation involving violence. Men are to step up.

They are to lead. They are to protect women. And they are to intervene in this sort of situation, calling men to repentance. And then, if need be, based on the severity of the situation, calling the police, reporting this to the civil magistrate and for her safety.

Women do not need to confront men, especially abusive men. What we are called to do as men is to protect women from such circumstances. I heard this example when I was a new Christian. Someone said, when someone tries to break into your house, you don't send out your wife in the name of equality and say, I got the last intruder.

Now it's your turn. And that's only funny because we understand exactly what it means that men are called to lead and they are called to lay down their lives. Wives are to submit to their husbands, but husbands are to lay down their lives for their wives like Christ laid down his life for the church. Elders are called to shepherd the flock. They are called to protect the congregation from spiritual danger. That is false teaching.

They must also protect them from physical danger as well. But God establishes these roles throughout history. This is not Paul in his own context. In Ephesus, throughout the history of the world, you see the Bible telling us about the men that lead the church. Going back to the temple worship, there were priests that were assisted by the Levites. This is a God-ordained task to lead worship. God placed this authority into the hands of men. You have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses leading Israel out of Egypt.

And you have Joshua, his successor. Again, consistently throughout the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, there are men leading in the church. And even when women did need to step up, Deborah in Judges is an example where there were no men that were willing to lead. Men abdicated their responsibility.

They neglected their role. And she was an exception and stepped forward and had to lead when no men were willing to lead in Israel. Isaiah 3 says, talking about judgment on Judah and Jerusalem, my people, infants are their oppressors and women rule over them. It's a mark of judgment against God when men will not step up and lead in their homes, in their churches, and in their nations. And so God has chosen these prophets, these priests, these kings, all these men to lead in the church. And going into the New Testament, Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist. He appoints 12 apostles to follow him. In Acts 6, we have seven deacons that are chosen in the early church. In Acts 20, Paul is preaching at the local church in Troas. What we see now coming up next month, I'll be able to address in 1 Timothy 3, the qualifications of elders within the church.

The first thing that a man must be is a man of one wife above reproach. And so Paul is teaching this and he is going back to the garden of Eden to teach it. For Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became the transgressor.

Paul's basis for the roles within the church, again, are not his opinion, but it's going back to the created order. Back in Genesis 1, we see that God is creating. He's creating day and night, the sky and the ocean, earth, sea and vegetation, the sun, moon and stars. He creates male and female. This is all very good. That is God's quote after each day of creation.

It is good. What we see in Genesis 2 is that he retells the story and he creates Adam in verse 15 and he is alone. He is alone in the garden by himself. And for the first time in the Bible, God says it is not good. Adam is alone and it is not good. And so what does God do? God says I will make him a helper fit for him. God created man, the word ish, and then he created Eve, the word ishah. Eve came from the rib of Adam. She was created to work alongside Adam to subdue the earth, to tend the garden, and to be fruitful and multiply through childbearing. Adam needs Eve for this work. I hear these stupid quotes like women need men like a fish needs a bicycle.

It's kind of a common feminism line. No, I think men need women and vice versa. They need for men to have a companion, to have one that works alongside them. And the goal here is the cultural mandate which is Genesis 1 verse 28. Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. But soon after what we see, after it is good, and Adam and Eve are together, and he is thrilled, what we see is the fall of mankind. In Genesis chapter 3 verse 6 he says the tree is good for food.

It was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was to be desired to make one wise. She took of the fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Eve initiated the fall, but again it was Adam who stood by idly.

It was his passive nature, it was his unwillingness to lead. Yes, she first sinned, but Adam was quick to follow her. We fell in our first parents.

And the result of it would be that the work for Adam would be good, but it would be very difficult. And then for Eve, the curse for her was that your desire shall be contrary to your husband, and he shall rule over you. Again, it's a result of the fall, a woman's desire to rule over her husband and have authority over him. But he failed, and I understand where we as men make mistakes just like Adam, and I can understand a wife being irritated with our passivity and our neglect, but this reminds us that we are still called by God to lead our families, to lead our churches, and we are not to neglect our role of leadership. We confess our sins and we move on and lead as the head of the home. Verse 15, she will be saved through the childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness and self-control. There's again a lot of interpretations for this passage. Some would say that women are saved by having a baby in the church.

That's heresy. Some believe that Paul is suggesting that there's salvation by works, which is inconsistent with his consistent message of salvation by grace through faith in Christ. Others say that women caused the fall through Eve.

This is interesting. The way that she redeems himself is by having covenant children and adding to the children of God. Where she messed up, she redeems herself by having children that will be redeemed by faith and adding to the church of God. These are the last two interpretations and I think both of these have merit and good men believe in both of these.

Number one, they can mean that childbearing and bringing up children are important symbols for the role of women. Paul wants women to understand that they do not have to reject their homes and families in order to have worth in God's sight or enjoy all the benefits of redemption. Rather, they are to work out their salvation in fear and trembling as they fulfill their calling in the home. This is about having the right heart, having the right attitude, about faithfulness to God in a God-appointed role as a woman and as a mother in the church. It's about embracing the role, not fighting against God's God-appointed role, but again with submission, with humility, with love, obeying the Lord. Secondly, there's even a note in the Reformation Study Bible that says this is doubtful, but I think this is a very good interpretation of this passage. Technically in the Greek, she shall be saved through childbearing.

It actually is a definite article. It is the childbearing or the childbirth. So if a woman in the church is to be saved, how might she be saved? Through the birth. What is the birth in the Bible?

What childbearing is there that is in the front of our minds? It is the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. If she is to be saved, she has faith in the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. She is having salvation by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. She is believing in Genesis 3.15 that Christ will ultimately be victorious and that He will redeem His people, all those that believe in Him.

So finally, I want to encourage men here. Lead your homes. Protect your family from physical danger, of course, but as well as the spiritual danger of false teaching. We do not know. We study. We research. We understand God's Word. Men in the church are called to pray. We can lift holy hands. We can bow our heads. But what it is, is that we go to the Lord, not quarreling with one another.

Where there is a problem with relationships horizontally, it is a problem vertically as well. We have to be right with one another within the church, having unity with each other. And then we go to the Lord with no anger and no quarreling. To the women, I want to encourage you to learn in the church. Be here among us studying, knowing, loving Christ, figuring out what obedience to the Lord looks like.

Adorn yourself not with sensual clothing or extravagant clothing as to draw attention to yourself, but adorn yourself with a beautiful character and godliness that expresses good works. Learn quietly so that you may hear, that you may understand and benefit from the teaching and the preaching administered by the elders in the local church. If we are in false doctrine, come and speak to us.

If you think we have something wrong in our teaching, we are willing to hear. If we are teaching faithfully, we ask that you listen quietly as the word is proclaimed through preaching and teaching. As we think about the word submission, I want to remind you of this. Children submit to parents and wives submit to husbands.

Workers submit to their boss. The elders submit to the presbytery. The presbytery submits to the denomination as a whole. Every one of us, all the way up the line, submits to the Lord Jesus Christ, who from eternity past was part of the plan of God that the Son would submit to God the Father, and that He would come into the world, He would lay His life down willingly and bear our sins. In doing so, He gives us a perfect righteousness that is only in Christ. And because He submitted Himself to the Father, you and I can look to the Lord Jesus Christ and say, You are mine. You have redeemed me and I am crucified with Christ. Let us delight in this role and let us submit to God and to His word. To parallel this to marriage, wives submitting to their husbands are playing the role of Christ submitting to the will of the Father. So let us all personally grow in holiness and character and let us submit to the Lord in all humility.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do come to you in the name of your Son, who is our Lord, who is our Savior, who is our Redeemer. We ask that you would write this truth on our hearts. We ask that we would humbly submit to your word, that we would gladly submit to the Lord Jesus Christ as He knows our hearts, He knows our struggles, He knows where we fall short. And where we do, there is grace, there is mercy that is only found in Christ. Please guide us and direct us through your word that we might be a church that honors you wholly. And your sons and me pray. Amen.