1145. Biblical Womanhood

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

The school was founded in 1927 by the evangelist Dr. Bob Jones Sr. His intent was to make a school where Christ would be the center of everything so he established daily chapel services. Today that tradition continues with fervent biblical preaching from The University Chapel platform. Today on The Daily Platform, we're continuing a study series entitled Divine Design, which is a study of biblical manhood and biblical womanhood.

Today's message will be preached by BGU President Steve Pettit. I'd like to invite your attention this morning please to the book of Genesis chapter 2. As we have been studying God's divine design, biblical manhood and womanhood, we are coming today to the theme of biblical womanhood. I've had a number of ladies very kindly say that they are very excited about today's message. I'm probably more nervous about this message than the one last week, which is on Be a Man. I didn't like the title, Be a Woman, so I wanted to be a little more sensitive there. But my concern is not so much the ladies of our student body, though I respect and love you in the Lord, but it's actually that I have to go home.

And I have two daughters and a daughter-in-law and a mother and a mother-in-law and in particular a wife who will judge me far stronger on what I say than what you'll say. So I'm going to do my best today to speak in a manner that I hope that will be both honorable and respectful and at the same time challenge us with the biblical viewpoint of what it means to be a woman. Elizabeth Elliott was married to Jim Elliott.

Many of you have heard of Jim Elliott, the famous missionary, who along with four other co-laborers were killed in South America as they were trying to reach the primitive Alka Indian tribe. Elizabeth later went back into after the death of her husband to the same tribe who had killed her husband and reached them with the gospel. In her later years she became very well known for her prolific writings, especially on the subject of being a woman. In the article she wrote, The Essence of Femininity, A Personal Perspective, she said these words. In the past couple of decades, earnest and high sounding efforts have been made in the name of decency, equality, and fairness at least to avoid and whenever possible to deny femininity. That is the reality of God's design and God's making, his gift to every woman, and in a very different way his gift to men as well. If we really understand what femininity is all about, perhaps the question of roles would take care of itself. And then she made a statement that I believe is enduring when she said these words. The power of a woman does not lie in being equal with men, but in being a woman.

That is, her influence is in her being what God designed her to be. We have to start with a premise. Either we believe in creation or in evolution.

God has spoken to us and revealed to us his purpose and plan, or everything else is just sort of happening by circumstance. So this morning as we continue our series on biblical manhood and womanhood, we have tried to be proactive in just simply establishing what does the Bible say? Obviously we can't answer all questions in 25 minutes. And so that's why we're having question and answer and trying to do other Q&A time and then maybe towards the end of the semester we'll do more specific question and answers as we move along. But we want to proactively lay a solid foundation. Last week we studied the theme on be a man. We learned what a man is and what a man does according to God's design. And this week we will focus on biblical womanhood. And I'd like us to see two very important aspects of womanhood as it's revealed in Genesis chapter 2. In this text God created the first woman. He assigned to her a specific, indispensable role that would require a particular response from her in order for God's design to function in optimal ways. So our study this morning is really on two key areas. Number one, her role.

And number two, her response. So let's go back this morning and look in Genesis 2 as we see God's original intent in the creative design of the first woman. We're reading verse 18. And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone.

I will make him a help meet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he could call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field.

But for Adam there was not found a help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh.

So let's this morning follow the biblical storyline as we seek to understand this first woman's role. Seven times in the first chapter of the Bible, God said that everything he made was good. And when he finished the chapter, he declared everything that he made was very good. But we come to chapter two and we see something unusual. That is God announces for the first and the only time that something was not good.

What was that? Verse 18, it is not good that man should be alone. I should get an amen on that one, but you are a little slow this morning. One writer says the not good is strong language. It indicates not only the absence of something good, but a substantial deficiency. Gentlemen, what would this world be with just men alone?

It would be horrible. So how did Adam come to know that he was alone? I mean, how did he know that? He didn't even know another human being.

And I think he came to know it two ways. Number one, intrinsically, Adam was made in the image of God. Therefore, like the Trinity lived in relationship and fellowship with one another, let us make man in our image. So God created Adam to have a relationship. He's made like God to enjoy fellowship with other human beings. One author noted man will not live until he loves, giving himself away to another on his own level. In other words, Adam was innately hungry for relationships and there was no one that could satisfy that hunger.

But then secondly, not only did he come to know it intrinsically, but he came to know it experientially. Adam was the first divine zookeeper. God had Adam exercise authority over the animals and the birds by doing what? By giving them names. And so God marches them by in pairs. Mr. and Mrs. Hippopotamus, Mr. and Mrs. Ostrich, Mr. and Mrs.

Skunk, and all the little stinkers. And they came walking by. And by this exercise, man observed something was missing. And Adam gave names to all the beasts of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a help meet for him. I mean, after about two or three thousand couples walking by, it's kind of like, you know, men are kind of slow.

Duh! Something's missing. And Adam began to sense this. And two things converged on him all at once.

Number one, a sense of aloneness, inadequacy, and a sense of desire, a longing. Adam longed for companionship with a being like, that is like him, but there was no being like him. He was looking for the perfect match.

And e-harmony had not been started at that time. And so God stepped in. God stepped in to meet that inadequacy and to fulfill that desire. And how did he do that? He became the first anesthesiologist. He put Adam into a deep sleep.

And this deep sleep contained both a mystery and a surprise. God took a rib from Adam's side and from that rib, he created Eve. Obviously, that's a mystery. How did that happen?

I don't know. God did it. Woman was taken from man's side to show that she was made of the same stuff as Adam, same bones, same flesh.

That's what he said, same DNA. It also underscores the unity of the human race as having one source, for we are made from one blood, beginning with Adam. And it also underscores the equality of the human race as we all, all of us here share in the image of God.

I think it's also true that the rib indicates the love side of it because it is the rib that functions to protect the heart. And so the Puritan Matthew Henry quaintly coined it when he said, she was made not out of his head to top him, not out of his feet to be trampled upon him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved. God made the first woman and brought her to Adam. She was made from him and she was made for him.

And perhaps the best way to describe it is that it is God's greatest gift to mankind. When I became a Christian at the age of 19 years old, one of my great desires that I didn't know would be ever fulfilled was to marry a godly girl. I met my wife in church.

It's a great place to meet your wife. Fact is it was in Sunday school. That's at least one good reason why you should go to Sunday school. When I first saw her, she was actually singing in Sunday school. She looked like an angel and she sounded like one. I thought, man, I'd love to marry a girl like that. After Sunday school, she walked up to me in the lobby of the church and she said, are you Steve Pettit?

I went, uh-huh. Little did I know that she would be God's gift to me and I can't believe I got her. I remember the second date I had with her here at Bob Jones University. Our first date was here on campus and we went to the alumni field for soccer matches and the second date was to go to the Wilds on an outing and I remember seeing her and I thought, she is like beautiful. I can't, I mean, would she marry me? I mean, every guy ought to feel like he marries up because he is. The fact that she would love you is amazing.

I said to both my sons about both girls that were interested in them, when both girls said that they liked my sons, I said marry them as fast as possible before they changed their minds. Eve's creation was a mystery. I mean, God did it. But as we follow the story, we also see a great surprise. She greeted Adam when he awoke from a deep sleep.

Can you imagine that? What a surprise. Adam didn't know she was coming. And when he saw her, she was stunning. Every aspect of her was perfect. She was perfect in body, perfect in soul.

She was perfectly sinless. And when he saw her for the first time, Adam did two things, the Bible tells us. Number one, he spoke. Verse 23 is the first or the first recorded words of mankind and what comes out of his mouth? A poem. He was a poet and didn't even know it. And then secondly, he shouted. Adam has said in the Hebrew, it's the idea that he actually had a rapturous cry, a shout of ecstasy, an explosive astonishment. Wow. She's like me.

She ain't like me at all. And then Adam did one other thing. He actually named her. You see, Adam's name for man is the Hebrew word ish.

And the woman's name is Isha. Adam restated his own name embedded in hers. The woman taken from his rib and next to his heart became his soulmate.

Adam would love her as he loved himself. So what does this amazing storyline then tell us about the role of a woman? And he tells us, her role is in her ability to do what man could not do. And her role is clearly unique to her. I will make him a help meet or a suitable helper. That's the role.

So what does that mean? The word helper there is the Hebrew word for azar. It means assistant, somebody who assists.

It's actually the name that describes God as the helper of Israel. The one who serves what the other one needs. The one who supplies that need. The one who has strength or the power to accomplish a task.

Not only a helper but a suitable helper, a help meet. The word suitable or meet means in front of him like in his face with a slight distance. The woman would be his corresponding counterpart. She is a fit for him, his complement, his completer, his helper. So the first woman was his matching opposite.

Supplying what was lacking in his life as his complement and under his headship. So can we look through the Bible and look at the women of the Bible and not see that they exemplify this? Think of the great women in the Bible. Sarah, Rebecca, Ruth, Hannah, Mary and many others. They reflected what it meant to be a woman. They modeled this in the Bible so many different ways with so many different amazing qualities. Qualities like responsiveness, compassion, empathy, enduring, gentle, warm, tender, hospitable, receptive, diplomatic, considerate, polite, supportive, intuitive, wise, perceptive, sensitive, spiritual, sincere, vulnerable in the sense of being emotionally open, obedient, trusting, graceful, sweet, expressive, charming, delicate, quiet, sexually receptive, faithful, pure, just to name a few.

These women avoided the negative traits of things like being wishy-washy and seductive and flirtatious and vain and gossipy, naive, moody, petty, prudish, manipulative, complaining, nagging, pouty, smothering, and spiteful. Biblical womanhood affirms God's divine design by embracing the role established for her by God. She accepts the strength of a respectful, caring, and upright servant leader. As a wife, she accepts her role and she submits to the divine calling to honor and to affirm her husband's leadership and to help carry it through according to her gifts.

You say, okay, I get that. I understand that for a wife, but I'm not a wife. And I have no guarantee I'm going to be a wife. So what about being single?

What about a woman being single? What about a woman in leadership positions? Should a woman ever be a leader over men?

Well, let me be frankly honest with you. It's impossible for women not to be in various roles of leadership over men. I mean, consider the subordinate roles that men will often have to women like a US Senator and her counselors, a principal and the teachers of her school, a college teacher and her students, a bus driver and her passengers, a bookstore manager and her clerks, a staff doctor and her interns, a lawyer and her aides, a judge and the court personnel. You ever heard of Judge Judy?

Police officers and citizens in her precinct, a legislator and her assistants, a TV newscaster and her editors, a counselor and her clients. In our world we're living in, obviously women will be in roles of leadership over men. And I think the issue is not if a woman has a position of leadership over men, but what is her disposition?

What is her attitude? A mature Christian woman will seek to express being a helper in appropriate ways, not like in marriage, but she will affirm and nurture the strength and the leadership of the men that are around her in an appropriate way in all of her relationships with other men. The power of a woman, as Elizabeth Elliot says, does not lie in being equal with men, but in being a woman.

So that brings me to the second truth and that is her response, her attitude, her disposition. And I think one of the most beautiful statements in the Bible concerning the proper response of a woman is found in Luke chapter 1 verse 38. When the angel of God comes to Mary and tells her she's going to give birth to the Son of God, she asks the question, how's this going to happen?

I'm a virgin. And the angel says that it will be done by the power of God because nothing will be impossible with God. And listen to her response. And Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. I am God's servant according to your word, O Lord, let it be. What was her response to God?

What was her attitude? It was a disposition to yield to the Lord. What is the response of a godly woman in God's design? It is that they are understanding God's purpose and plan for their life. They are to yield to the Lord. They are to trust. It's an act of trust. It's an act of faith.

That is, you believe that God's design is the way that He designed it and you are freed in your spirit to be submissive to the plan of God. So submission is that idea of a disposition to yield. Biblical submission for a wife is the divine calling to honor and to affirm and to follow her husband's leadership and to help carry it through according to her gifts.

Now, this is not absolute submission. The husband doesn't replace Christ. A wife should never sin to obey her husband, but she should have the disposition to yield. And probably the best illustration I could give is what happens on the day when a woman gets married. I think we all, if we think about it, that that day is the biggest day of her life. She's the center of attention. Everybody focuses on her. Her dress, her grand entrance, her father giving her away, she's the focus. Where's the groom?

Who cares? He slips him by the side door, stands up front waiting for her appearance. And notice something very important. When she finally appears, what does the crowd do? They stand and they turn around and they look at her. They marvel at her beauty and the great mystery of how someone this beautiful can be marrying somebody this ugly. Everyone is crying.

Why? Because this fine piece of china is being given to this gorilla. It's the biggest day of her life. And it's also the greatest day of her surrender. She's surrendering her name, her independence, her future, her finances, her home, many of her rights, her desires, and many of her choices.

And here's my point. On the very day of her wedding, a woman experiences and displays a gracious and joyful disposition to yield to the man she is marrying. And this is an amazingly powerful thing that only she can do. And this is not only modeled in a wedding ceremony and celebration, but it is lived out more specifically in the women as they live out their life daily. And as I close this morning, let me close by saying that God has allowed me in His mercy to live around women who model this on a regular basis. And I want to say to you that the women in my life, I could never, I could never do what they do.

I have a daughter-in-law who's married my son. They have three little boys, three boys three and under. Think about that. I babysat them for one hour and I was done. Being the president of Bob Jones University is much easier.

My daughter-in-law does it all day long and all night long and still takes pictures and posts them on Instagram of how much she loves these boys. The power of a woman is not in being equal to a man. Why would anybody want to be equal to a man?

But it's in being a woman. I look at my sister who works a full-time job. She cares for a physically incapacitated husband. And at the same time, she cares for my mother who's 87 years old and has dementia. My mother was the smartest person I've ever known. And my mother today because of her dementia cannot even carry on a conversation. And my sister every single day, seven days a week, goes to be with my mother and she does it, is it a burden?

Of course it's a burden. But she does it joyfully and she serves. I could never be that. And then finally the most amazing woman I've ever met is my own wife. I look at my wife and what she's had to put up with. She gave birth and raised our four children. She cared for our home. My wife has lived with cancer and various infirmities since she was 27 years old and she's now 61 years old. She joyfully has served hundreds of people through her hospitality and care. For 29 years, we traveled in evangelism. She lived in church parking lots all over the United States. When our team traveled with us, she loved and served our team. The question was often asked, what is the team like without Terry? And everybody laughs.

And that's just their simple way of saying to live with Steve without Terry is pure misery. And even two weeks ago, my wife flew to Denver to care for her 80-year-old mother, to visit my 87-year-old mother, and to drive up to North Denver to sit down with a pastor's wife who has cancer and to minister to her. The power of a woman does not lie in being equal with men. It lies in being a woman. I honor every young lady here. You're God's gift and God has designed you for a specific purpose. May the Lord grant you the grace to live that purpose out. Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you that your way is always best. Lord, I realize we live in a world that puts pressure on us to conform to its image, an image that is without you. Lord, help us to believe and hold true to your word in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. You've been listening to a sermon preached by Bob Jones University President Steve Pettit. This sermon was part of the study series about biblical manhood and biblical womanhood entitled Divine Design. Join us again next week as we continue this series here on The Daily Platform.