1147. The Case for Biblical Complementarianism pt. 2

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville South Carolina were continuing a study series entitled divine design today is a second message exploring the concept of complementarity and is him.

This position affirms that men and women are created equally but have distinct roles in marriage and in the church.

Dr. Sam Horn will bring today's message asking to take your Bible this morning to the book of Ephesians chapter 5 and I'm to ask you while I'm sort of getting us to the place where we are are needing to be to start into this passages let your eyes sort of go down beginning in verse 21 and making their way all the way to the end of the chapter. So while I'm talking up here. I think you can multitask a little and let your I just go down that passage today as we are continuing our study on the roles and the differences that God assigned to Christian men and women especially into vital areas that are relational in nature, our marriages and in the church which is the household of God. Last week we made the case that the plain normative reading of the Scripture establishes a strong case for the position known as biblical complementarity and is just by way of reminder biblical complementarity does and contends that the Scriptures speak clearly repeatedly and compellingly about two important truths number one men and women are created equal in value and standing before God, and that's very important to to keep in mind number two God in his providence has assigned primary responsibility is spiritual authority a lead in marriage to the husband and he is done the same in the area of teaching and the spiritual governance of the church has been entrusted to spiritually qualified men who serve as the official pastor elders teachers of the household of God. In other words, we can say this way the Bible presents complementarity and is him as the authoritative teaching the consistent practice of Jesus and the apostles and the implied trajectory of the entire compendium of Scripture from before the fall in Eden to the new creation in the new Jerusalem. This issue speaks to the authority of Scripture. It speaks to the integrity of the apostles and it speaks to the intent of Jesus and his role as the head of the church.

This is why I believe that rejecting biblical complementarity and is it is not just a minor difference of opinion between believers who see hermeneutic differences in these texts. I actually believe it to be a serious error.

Now I realize were covering a lot of ground in two sermons I I've received a lot of feedback from you. Many of you told me after last week that you would prayed for me.

I appreciate that. I thank you for that.

He gave great feedback. Some of you had some great questions that you asked me via email or that you submitted and I'm sure that there will be more and I want to do everything I can to try to be a good help and and try to answer some of those questions.

So if you reach out to me today after today's message and you want a fuller copy of what you're getting here in chapel. I would be very happy to send you the manuscript of this message.

There's also a question and answer time today at 6 o'clock in Levinson Chapel. By the way, that question answer times every Monday and it and it corresponds to the message in the Biblical manhood and womanhood series that is preached on that day and so today at 6 o'clock if you want to come to Levinson Chapel. If you have questions. I would be very happy to interact with you and to do everything I can to give you answers to questions that that you might have. And there is also some video interaction and interviews on the same topic that happens every Monday. It's on today. BJ you.edu and you can go there if you want to see a few of the interviews that have happened between the speakers in this series so we want to do everything we can to give you resources and help answer some of the questions that come up in a series like this. So one of the questions as you been making your way down. Ephesians chapter 5. Is this why is it that biblical complementarity and is him has been a struggle for believers who genuinely want to honor God and obey the Scripture.

Why is it been such a struggle really for all believers.

In general, but specifically for our sisters in Christ, and I think there are some reasons for that and I want to just articulate them as we start this morning.

I think that one of the reasons it's been hard is because it hasn't been clearly and accurately taught in the church and that's one of the things were trying to do in this series. Secondly, I it has not always been graciously practiced biblically or graciously by men. It has been experienced in ways that it is been experienced by our sisters in Christ, in ways that God did not intend, or that the gospel did not condone and that do not afford to women the highest regard and the respect that is shown to them by Christ and to his apostles even say this way in a world where many women have been repressed and oppressed, and all you have to do is look at the globe and you'll see that that's true, this position may initially appear to some as seeming to condone an un-biblical and unchristian approach to women in general and especially to those who are our sisters in Christ. And finally, I think one of the reasons that it is been difficult even for people who understand the Scriptures do seem to be laying the case for biblical complementarity is him is that in its application. Some have restricted women from roles and ministries that the Scripture does not restrict them from and I think it's very important that that we restrict what the Scriptures restrict and we know restrict what the Scriptures permit and I think that that has happened, when it comes to the case. The biblical complementarity does and so what I'd like to do today is I would like to make the case for a Christ honoring practice of biblical conflict. Complementarity is and in a number of areas and I want to start with the home because that's actually the first time that you encounter this content. Our concept in the Scripture you encounter it in the relationship in the covenant relationship between Adam and Eve that God established in the garden and so as you think about that relationship. There is a mandate about that relationship that shows in three different places in your New Testament. Paul talks about it three different times. He talks about it in the passage you're looking at in Ephesians chapter 5. He looks at it in Colossians chapter 3 verses 18 through 20.

And he looks at again in first Peter chapter 3 verses one through seven. So you have Ephesians 5 open.

I want you as you're looking at that text to hear what Paul told the Colossians in chapter 3, and I'm gonna reference some of these verses in the ESV today for the sake of clarity, even though we normal our normal practice is to user. King James Bible, here's here's what the text says wives submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them want you to really think about that phrase children obey your parents and everything for this pleases the Lord and so the mandate could be summarized like this man, particularly husbands are to lovingly serve and lead their wives and their families. This means they are to bear primary responsibility for the spiritual and physical well-being of their families and they are to do so in a way that does not demean or diminish their wives and that does not provoke sinful anger in their children and I would suggest to all of us who are men and who are husbands, that when God gave us the gracious gift of our wife proverb says he who find of the wife find something that is good and enters into a relationship that is good when God gave us a wife. He did not give us a made he did not give us a junior partner in the relationship, not a personal assistant.

But someone who is a full image bearer of equal worth and standing who is absolutely necessary to the mission that God is given the two of us to go out and do as a couple and when God established that role for us in that mission for us. He also established the roles and Paul is going to make the case in Ephesians and that is going to go all the way back to Eden and he's gonna argue that these roles reflect the roles that God himself has said in the Trinity and in the church so men are to lovingly serve and lead their wives women wives are to graciously support and follow the leadership of their own husband. They are to nurture and preserve an atmosphere in their homes that points children to Christ they are to develop and appropriately use the gifts and abilities that God has entrusted to them for his glory. And if you want to see what this actually looks like.

Proverbs 31 is an easy portrait of a biblical portrait of a wife and a godly woman. Husbands are not to damage, disparage or discourage their wives from following Christ and from serving him wholeheartedly and wives are not to discourage their husbands from leading them spiritually. They are not to absolve their husbands from leading them spiritually or from the spiritual responsibility that God is entrusted to them by me think about how many homes in the churches where you and I 10 where the real spiritual energy in the real spiritual force in that home is mom. She's the one who sorta leads the children in spiritual worship. She's the one who labors to keep church in front of them and keep them active and dad sometimes is checked out and that is really really different from the model that Paul is putting here before you in Ephesians chapter 5 now want to say something very clearly to all of us, but especially to our sisters in the Lord God does not command, nor does he expect a woman to submit to sinful behavior or to remain under abusive behavior of any sort, physical or sexual or to put herself or her children in physical or moral danger, and that needs to be really clear to us. This is we look at a text like this, so if that's the mandate. What does the model actually look like in Ephesians chapter 5. Beginning in verse 23, but actually beginning in verses 25 to 32 for the husband pauses, it should look like this manner to leave their wives like Jesus liens his church lovingly sacrificially using the word of God to grow and shape what that looks like they are to serve their families by leading them graciously to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and there to do this, even as young man Titus says that that young man are to be sober minded in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works in doctrine showing on correctness, gravity and sincerity sound speech that cannot be condemned that he that is on the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say.

In other words, in this particular area. As a husband is a young man was going be a husband or even someone who's not as young who who is to be a husband. We are to do so in a way that does not cause other people who are contrary to this view to actually have a legitimate evil thing to say about the way we lead our lives. Women are to support their own husband is a church follows and supports Christ willingly, joyfully, gracefully, they are to work with their husbands in partnership with his leadership to create a home and a family where the gospel can flourish and that will give credibility to the word in the eyes of the world. Titus chapter 2 basically says the same thing to women that they may teach young women to be sober, to love their husbands to love their children to be discreet chased keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be lasting. This kind of a partnership in this kind of a life will require deep desire to love and obey Jesus who gave these commands a deep commitment to the well-being of each other, and a dependence on the Holy Spirit and a desire to be conformed to follow the word of Christ and his apostles, and if you want to know what it feels like with the manifestation of this. Looks like first Peter three talks about husbands needing to dwell with their wives according to knowledge, giving honor unto them as unto the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life. In other words, husband well with your wives in an understanding way that shows honor to your wife and wives live with your husband is in a respectful way that's marked by pure conduct in a gentle spirit.

This means that husbands need to know the gifts and the strengths of their own. Why can celebrate the patient understand the wisdom that God is given to their wife and respect that they should understand the deep desires that God is given to your wife and strive to satisfy the fears and the weaknesses of their wife and protect them and wives are encouraged to make it easy for man to lead them spiritually. In other words, as a husband charged the lead and as a wife charged to work alongside in that leadership structure we are to work it out together so that we maximize our strengths and minimize the weaknesses and limitations of each partner in my own marriage. God has given me a wonderful wife who is very good at at details and keeping the finances of our home. So guess who keeps the finances.

Guess who oversees the financial affairs of the home of the Hornell it's my wife she's the one who does all of the sort of oversight of that and I get an allowance which I spent very quickly but seriously, there has to be a way in which every marriage works this out and so as you think about it in marriage. Paul then moves to the second arena and that's the arena of the church and and there are three primary passages that talk to how this structure is supposed to be set up in the church and one of those texts contains a very difficult statement in Salinas read the statement to you and ask you to just stop before you react and and let the whole idea sort of unfold the statement is found in first Corinthians 14, where Paul says God is not against the God of confusion, but of bees and then uses this as in all the churches of the saints. The women should keep silent in the church or churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission as the law also says if there is anything they desire to learn leather at let them ask their husbands at home and then, here's a very very strong statement for it is shameful for a woman to speak in church now this is a very clear statement and it's unambiguous.

Let the woman be silent in the church.

They are not to speak in it and it's grounded in the Old Testament pattern and I think Paul is referring there to the priesthood, but that brings up a really important question.

What does Paul mean when he says this, especially when in the second primary passage first Corinthians 11. He actually permits women to talk in church to pray in the prophesy is not as long as they do it in submission with proper decorum. So what is Paul talking about here in this difficult passage and I think the answer, the meaning to that is inferred first Timothy 211 through 15, and for time sake.

I'm knocking to read the entire passage but I think Paul actually takes that idea that he introduces in first Corinthians 14 and he clarifies in this text. What he means by by women not speaking in the church when he says this I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.

Now it's clear in the New Testament and really throughout the Scriptures that women pray and prophesy and serve with men and in the presence of man and even to men in certain contexts, so this cannot be a prohibition against women doing any kind of talking or having any kind of word ministry in the church because it's clear from first Corinthians 11 they can pray prophesy in first Corinthians 14 also seems to indicate that in certain contexts. They can pray. So what does it mean and I would suggest to you that Paul is prohibiting the talking or teaching in a way or from a position that exercise official recognize spiritual authority over men in the formal teaching office of the church. The pastor of the teacher and I think that is what Paul is talking about in this pastoral restriction. This is not teaching that women are more gullible than men or more naïve than men. And that's why you really can't trust them with the teaching side of things we think about it in your own life. Who is easier to deceive mom or dad is like your mom is on the competent and she is omniscient at times it dad who generally gets deceived.

So this isn't talking about. There's an innate reason why women sort of can't be trusted with the teaching, it's actually recognizing that God entrusted Adam with a word that he was to teach and to hold everything under him accountable to all of creation. All of the image bearers, and when Satan came to destroy this to take vengeance of God for giving the authority to rule over the earth and God said to somebody lower than him. He went right at the authority structure and God says to Adam through Paul. Paul makes clear what's going on here that that when Adam said he was not deceived. He actually made a willful choice to take the word of God that had been given to him and set it aside so that he could listen to the words of somebody else to the words of his wife and God is saying here through the apostle Paul that the formal responsibility and oversight of his church is through his word and like it had been given to Adam in the garden. It has been given to qualified spiritual man who sit in the officially recognized office of pastor teacher so that brings up this question so what are women with wonderful spiritual gifts and opportunities permitted to do in the church and I would suggest that there is a wide opportunity.

For example, images give you couple they can teach and they can instruct other women and children in have Bible studies. They can lead acquire, they can read Scripture they can pray they can sing, they can testify, they can write commentaries. I have a commentary in my library on first Peter that was written by a woman named Karen Jobes, probably the best commentary on first Peter, I have, they can serve as missionaries. They can do what Rosario Butterfield did last week in our court. They can stand with their Bible in front of a room full of men and explained to them what the Scripture has to say about a particular issue that is relevant to them and she did it with grace in the core of inner inner core conference. Actually the video where she was doing it in a room just like that they can share the gospel corporately and personally. They can teach courses at a university with man and them the clear prescription is the official teaching office of the church.

The pastor elder office of the church that brings up the third thing this morning. What does the Bible say a woman can do in the world, not not in the home that's clear what about in the church. That's clear what about in the world.

What can our sisters in Christ do in the world and and I'm to go back to first Timothy 29 in first Peter 32 and and and just review what the Scripture says women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearly pearls or costly attire and then let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious so what ways can a woman exercise her God-given gifts outside of the church to glorify God as a woman who celebrates the roles God is assigned to her in her home and I would suggest a woman can do that she can start and lead a company.

There's nothing in the Scriptures that would prohibit that she can be a Dean at a university with man answering to hurt. There is nothing in the Scriptures that prohibit set. She can be a Supreme Court justice.

She can be an ambassador to the UN.

There's one that complement hearings don't all agree on. She could be the President of the United States. She could be the queen of England. She just can't be the head of the Church of England. Okay that's that's a problem. So if you ever become the queen of England. You can't be the head of the Church of England, but as she does these things. What the Scripture says is she has to do so with the appropriate femininity that God has graciously granted to her role she must do so in ways that cherish her husband if she's married and that give attention to her home and her children and that meet the responsibilities that God is assigned for them. And women do this all the time. I think as we think about this I think is very important for us to make that observation and then finally let me talk to the to the last area and that is how does this all apply when I'm not married. How does this apply to me, as as a woman and and even as a man when when I'm not married in first grade. In chapter 7 verses 32 through 35 really talk about the fact that while you are in that single season of your life considered a great spiritual blessing because of what it allows you to do for the Lord. Here's what the Scriptures teach of the married women are commanded to submit to their own husbands not to all men in general. That's Titus 25 all believers women included must follow and obey their spiritual leaders who are the pastor's official pastor teachers elders of your church. He was 13, seven all believers are to submit to the temporal leaders.

God is placed over its governmental and judicial. Romans 13 talks about this in all young people are told to honor their parents when you leave your home and you moat move from road obedience to honoring your parents in high regarding their counsel holding their counsel in high regard. This is this is where most of you are today. This is evident, for example, in the Gospels where the appearance of a blind man are asked by the Pharisees to explain the miracle that Jesus had brought in his life on the Sabbath day and the parents have a very interesting answer. He said it to those Pharisees go ask him because he is of age so I believe the Scriptures talk about a time in your life and it may differ in any given culture where you become of age and you move from road obedience to your parents to honoring and respecting them in our culture that generally takes place in a process over time you leave home graduate from college or or the equivalent of that you are fully responsible for your own support. You are fully participating and entrusted with adult work and responsibility and at that point you become fully responsible to God and you become responsible respect and honor and value your parents.

My dad is 85 years old and has been an incredible humble gracious example of everything that I've talked to you about. I have had the wonderful privilege of growing up in a home where I had a dad model.

This, and when I think about my dad today. You know I don't really call my dad and and let them know that I probably plan to stay up late tonight. Can I have his permission I did that when I was in sixth grade and it generally didn't go well, but I do call my dad up regularly and say to my dad that here are things I'm thinking about and I respect your counsel and I value your wisdom.

What do you think about this, and to this day I do that because I respect and I honor that man and what God did in giving you, your family, it may surprise some of you I have never called my dad by his first name and 85 years did it in all of the years that I've known him. I've never addressed about his first names always been dad II have, to my knowledge, and before the Lord. I think I can say this. I've never spoken disrespectfully of my dad because I love my dad is not been hard for me to follow his leadership in my life and my goal it it it it, however imperfectly I accomplish it as as a husband and as a dad that would be the legacy I leave to my wife and my children, and men.

If you and I live that way it would be joy for women in the body of Christ to come alongside us and let us leave them for the glory of God the father thanking for the way that you lay this out in Scripture. I pray that you would use these words to solidify in us a commitment to model the kind of relationship that you model with your own son and that your son models with you.

We want to be pictures of that here on the earth in our marriages in our homes and in the world at large, so that the gospel would be advanced and your word would not be dishonored by those on the outside of it and will pray these things in Jesus name, amen. You've been listening to a sermon preached by Dr. Sam Horn join us again tomorrow as we continue the series here on The Daily Platform