God's Good Design

Good morning. We're the second sermon in a new kind of series, not what we typically do. We typically want to walk through books of the Bible and exposit them in a way where we're consuming the entirety of the text. We've started last week a series we called a foundational series through Genesis 1 through 11. the core foundational truth of what we have been given by God, what we've been given for our good, are really all found there in Genesis 1 through 11. Well said by another commentator, it's the seedbed for all the great themes of Scripture. Last week we looked at the greatness, the glory of God who provides everything for We focus on God and the key aspect there is our first commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart. He is the greatest being who is our creator. This morning we're gonna turn over to Genesis 2, where we're gonna focus in on humanity. God is still at the forefront, God is still center stage as the one who's doing almost all the action. Consider just the things we just heard. The Lord God formed man, breathed life into him, planted a garden, put man in the garden, made every tree, took man, put him in the garden, commanded him to work and keep, told him his boundaries, promised him a helper, made him a helper, brought her to him. God is the actor. God is the primary agent of all this action as the one creator, but we're gonna focus in on man, who we are, what God called us to do, who we're supposed to do it with, This was designed before we knew anything about the Albemarle County School Board meeting this week, but it really gives us a perfect context to realize how important it is to receive God's word for what he says. As a concerned citizen and pastor of teachers in the county schools and a pastor of children in the county schools, I listened in. There's two primary debated issues, as Alan just prayed, critical race theory, and transgender policy. The primary debate was on the transgender policy, and I kind of want to start with the two sides. There are parents concerned over their children's purity, protection in bathrooms, and then parents' rights. Parents need to know things, and the schools shouldn't try to keep things from their children. That's one side. The other side was parents voicing a concern about the struggles, LGBTQ+, I don't know how many letters we add to that anymore, but parents concerned over the struggles. Because of suicide and bullying, which are real concerns and problems. Let me be clear, this is not a political sermon. We're not getting involved in political things proper. We're getting into things that are really just at the foundation, theological. God has spoken to these things. He's given us clarity on where we should be standing, what we should be believing, and how we should be proclaiming God's goodness with the hope that society will be better. This morning we're looking at Genesis 2 to consider humanity. It's important we looked at God first, then man. John Calvin opens his Institutes. True wisdom consists of knowledge of God and then man. We cannot know who we are without knowing who he is. He designed us. He spoke us into creation. He breathed life into us. He gave us a job. We will know ourselves truly when we know God. If you're a note taker, bless you. Three points. Worth, work, women. Worth, work, women. God gave us worth, God gave us work, God gave us woman. Our first point, God gives us worth. Genesis 2, I'll read five through seven. When no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field was yet sprung up, and for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land, and was watering the whole face of the ground, then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. and the man became a living creature. We saw last week, Genesis 1, 27, that great declaration, God created us all in his image and his likeness, male and female. Genesis 1 is a grand declaration, a praise, a prose of praise, a hymn-like order of God's creation to show his goodness, his order, and to show that humanity is the end, climactic goal. of his creation, and then he rested. Genesis 2 is really double-clicking on Genesis or the day six. What we're seeing here, more detail and in more order in how God is creating and giving and providing man. Notice how intimate and personal this is. We're made from the dust. He formed us from the dust. And we could say, well, he did that with all the animals. Well, God is very personal and desires to be very connected to this earth that he does not depend upon. Then he does something that he only does for humans. He breathes his own life into that. He shares his life with us. I think there's two ways in which God has this creation, two steps. And I think there's two things it teaches us about ourselves. We're tied and bound to this earth because we have a job here. We're commanded to rule and exercise dominion. He bounds us up to this earth being formed from the very dust because we're connected intimately to this earth. We're designed for it. We have a special responsibility towards it. It's called a stewardship. There's a responsibility we have towards this earth, towards and for this land. The second aspect, it shows how unique we are. How close and personal God has made us to be with him. He makes us alive by giving us his own breath, his own life. And notice how close and personal that is. He's breathing it into our own nostrils. There's a real personal, intimate way in which God creates us, and I believe this is tied to us being image bearers. Humans are unique among the creation. We were the end of creation in Genesis 1. Here we're the most intimate, and the whole thing's designed around us. Notice he plants a garden for man. He put him in that garden, and then he gave him everything he could ever want. Trees that were attractive and full of fruit. Let's go back to Genesis 127. We're gonna go back and forth from that text in Genesis 2. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Being in the image of God has three aspects, I think. Position, power, purpose. I just can't help myself with alliteration sometimes. Position. power, and purpose. The worth is tied to that position. It points to the unique dignity and worth that every single human being has. Every human being, everyone who is part of the one human race, male and female, have the same dignity, the same worth. There are many things that are lost because of sin regarding the image of God. That position, that worth, is not one of them. How do we know that? Because God, in Genesis 9, 6, declares, no, there shall be no murder, because we're made in the image of God, and he repeats the same language from Genesis 1, 27. This is the position that God has given everyone. It is a worth he has declared upon us. And if you think about the second great commandment, it's the whole grounding of it. Hear the commandment, love your neighbor, your human being next to you, as yourself. We are to think about our neighbor who's made in the same image, who has the same worth, and love them as we love ourselves. But what about when that neighbor's annoying? What about when we disagree with that neighbor? What about when that neighbor becomes our enemy? Jesus makes it very clear. Love your enemy. There's no path. There's no getting around that whoever that person is, no matter how vulgar they are, they do not lose that position of dignity and worth. What I find odd, encouraging but confusing, is our culture has adopted the second great command, love your neighbor as yourself. They borrowed that capital from Christianity. But this is where it gets confusing. I'm not gonna apologize for offering a logical syllogism here, but I want to walk through this for you. Premise one that we teach here in our culture, that's assumed now in our culture. You're nothing but a mass of material. You've evolved from some primal species. You're just a material body, there's no soul, there's no design. That's premise one. Premise two, natural selection, survival of the fittest, we exist through strength. And then the logical conclusion is supposed to be love your neighbor as yourself. It does not follow. We've been teaching an understanding of being, who we are, that does not match in any way an ethic that says love your neighbor as yourself. You can't borrow that ethic and place it on top of that doctrine of being. The logical conclusion of what we as a culture embrace as an understanding of who we are is love me because no one else is going to. or worse, my neighbor must love me as I love myself. That's the ethic if we really embrace naturalistic atheism. But notice the logic of God's creation. God created every human in his image with the same dignity and worth. Your neighbor is a human, therefore love him as yourself. That's the foundation, that's the basis for a true understanding of what it means to love your neighbor. You have to recognize true wisdom begins with reverence for the Lord. The wise life reveres him. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your understanding. In all your ways submit to him and he will make your path straight. Another way of looking at this, Christians, Our reverence for God is revealed in how we treat our neighbors. Do we look at ourselves as under God in his image, and we do look at our neighbors as he's declared under God and his neighbors, and do we then act accordingly? Being kind to our neighbors is not evangelism, but it is declaring the truth that we are all created in God's image. It's an important message. I fear too often, as James warns us in James 3.10, we bless God and curse man with the same tongue. There's one God in whom we all live and move and have our being. As we're considering the worth of life and the protection of life, I want to highlight one great evil against human life. It's what we call abortion, but really it's the murder of the most innocent, helpless, in the womb, human lives. By one account, there were 856,000 abortions in America in 2017. It's terrifying. That is a systemic sin. There are people and organizations who are attacking human life. And we, according to God's will and God's purpose, are called to protect human life. I praise God for our ministry to protect human life in this way. If you're interested in being involved in that, participating, I highly encourage you. Talk to me afterwards, I'd love to point you to the right people. Another way, an application here, God has breathed life into us. He gives us this life, and as we're going to see next week, He is the judge for what we do with this life. This is where we need to emphasize, there's a stewardship. There's a preciousness to life. He gives us commands to obey. He gives us everything we need. If you're not a Christian, as we look forward to the story, not forward, as we look ahead in the story, there's one thing God said don't do, don't eat of one tree. He provided everything man could have ever wanted, but then he couldn't resist. He took that from that one tree, and from that point, we've all, instead of being under God's blessing, have been under God's curse. We've all been born in sin. We've all now sinned, and we'll have to face the one, holy, true creator, God. And if we show up in our own sin, he must punish us. He must give us what he told Adam, death, judgment. But God also gave a promise in Genesis three. I will crush Satan, sin, and death. I will reverse this curse that you brought on the creation that you were supposed to be responsible for. I will send my son, He will become like you in every way. And when He dies on that cross, He is taking your death. He is taking your judgment. He is taking the punishment of sin. And He welcomes you to believe in Him and receive forgiveness. That is the only way we can stand before a holy God who created us and not suffer judgment. I met a Christian this morning. God has given you great worth, but the greatest thing He's given you is a Savior who will redeem you with His own blood. Believe in Him. If you're a Christian, I welcome you this afternoon. Look at the end of John, chapter 20, the Gospel of John. After Christ has risen, He breathes the Holy Spirit on the disciples. clearly echoing what God has done here for Adam as an image bearer. And in some way John 1 echoes Genesis 1. Here Jesus is going to echo and declare there's new life, there's new breath. We now have new life because of what Christ has accomplished and now he's given us his spirit. How are we using that new life? Will we hear, as we heard read earlier in the service, well done good and faithful servant? Are we redeeming the time God has given us as stewards of this new life? Are we still playing around in sin? God has given us all worth. We now have a new worth because we're all made in the image of God and now we've been redeemed, if you're a believer, by the precious blood of Christ. Second point, God gives us work. Here we see the power and the purpose of the image of God coming together. There's a power to do work and then there's a purpose. Look at Genesis 2, 15 to 17. The Lord God took man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of the tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day of that you eat of it, you shall surely die. There's purpose. We saw last week there were five commandments. Be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue, rule. We now see there's proper declaration, work and keep it. These two words are interrelated. And what's amazing, like I said earlier, Genesis 1 through 11 is the seedbed. I believe here we start seeing what we're gonna know more properly as what we call a temple. You see, the priests in the temple were given two commands. Anybody wanna guess what they were? Work and keep. The Garden of Eden is a temple. It has boundaries. Sin's not welcome there. Man meets God there. We work it, we keep it. God has already pre-designed that temple, structure, there in the garden, without sin, while man is good, because God designed us to know him and speak with him, love him, be loved by him. It promotes the holiness of God. We were to steward it and, well, we had to be cast out of it because we introduced sin. Our purpose is to love God, glorify God, enjoy Him. That this working keep shows how important it was for us to be the image bearers who exercise His dominion in His garden, which is His temple. What a kind God. He calls us to participate in His work. to work the garden, to bless his garden, to fill the garden. We are designed for work. Now that's a little confusing today because of part of the curse. Work is toilsome. Work is not as fruitful as we would like it to be. Probably about right now, everyone's garden's a little dry and they got thorns and thistles and bugs all over everything. Work is difficult. But man, humans, we're called to work. It's good. We have a lot of young folks, I wanna just give some helpful advice to think about how you should think about work, vocation, with God and under God, because he says a lot about work. Here's some questions to ask when considering what kind of work you should do. Here's the first question. Can I do this job unto the Lord? That's the command in the New Testament, work as unto the Lord. Can I love God by doing this work? There are some jobs that are available today that you cannot do to the glory of God, and there are many that you can. Can I do this job unto the Lord? The second question, can I provide for those dependent upon me? God has designed you to work to provide for others. Is this the kind of work that's going to help me provide? And that means financially, but it also means it's not going to demand so much of your time that you don't have time to provide for your family. And third, does it contribute to the good of society according to God's design? Am I blessing my neighbor? Can I love God with my job? Can I love my family? with my job? Can I love my neighbor with my job? Notice what I left off. Can I be completely satisfied and joyful and happy all the time every time I go to work? Not on my list. Christian. One of the things that we too often get confused by is works. We're not speaking here of vocational, we're talking about Christian works. Some of the greatest errors and confusions in the history of the church have related to faith, grace, work. Christian, to be very clear, we are in no way saved by anything we have ever done. We are saved because of what God has done in his grace to do everything. Jesus Christ came, he died, he rose, he ascended, and because we still needed more help, he sent his Holy Spirit. We believe. We say amen, Lord. That's what it means to be saved. We recognize that God has done everything, and we simply say amen, let it be so. That's faith. We are saved by faith alone, and we are saved now for good works. Remember Jesus' commandments. This is a command I gave to him, where he actually says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. The Great Commission ends, teach them to obey all that I've commanded. Galatians says, do not grow weary in doing good. Ephesians declares, God has prepared now works for you that you are not saved by, but now that you do. Dead works are the ones that we think I'm going to earn salvation. Dead faith is one that says I don't need to do anything after I've been saved. glorify God with work. We're not owners of our gifts, our talents, our time, our energy, our money. We're stewards. How are we stewarding what God has given us? We have power to use for others' good. God has given us strength, ability, to bless others. Let me just walk through a few examples to make it clear how precise and unique you have abilities that no one else has that are meant to be used for someone else for God's glory. First, husband. Only you have the power to be a faithful husband to your wife. Only you can love her according to God's will and design. Only you can care for her and provide for her in the way that God has called another human being to do so. There'll be lots of false impersonators. Husbands, are you initiating and taking full responsibility according to the pattern of Christ's command? Wives, only you have the power to love your husband and to help him, to rejoice with him in the one flesh covenant God has given you. There's lots of false impersonators. But only you have the power to love and respect him in the way that God has called only you. Parents. Children only have one father and mother. Kids are gonna look for outside influence. But imagine, think about it. How, what little time we have with him to invest in them with love, care, praying with him. laughing with them, loving them, leading them to the Lord. Don't waste that precious time when they're young. And as many of my older saints are gonna tell me, you also never stop parenting. Church member. If Ephesians 4.16 is right, every member, when they do their work, the whole body grows up together in Christ. And by implication, I believe that means everyone has a work that they're supposed to be contributing. And if you're not contributing, the whole body is lacking. How has God equipped you? How is God leading you? How do you get involved? And our dear brother Alex, who I've already highlighted, is a deacon. Let me just use him as an example. He just showed up to everything, and then stuck around where God was using him, which was a lot of places. Show up, be present, be active. Ask God, how can I be you? Finally, believer, you might be the only Christian your neighbor knows, your coworker knows, your family member knows. Are you being a faithful witness? Those are all good works. Finally, God gives us woman. This is day six. If you go to Genesis 1, day six is the end emphasis to show how important man is. There's heightened language to show how important how we are made in his image. And now we come to the end of Genesis 2, highlighting day six, to show us that the highlight of humanity is woman. The end stress. The heightened language. The same principles that show us man is the crown of creation I think point us to see that woman is the crown of man. The crown of humanity. We're not good until woman is made, and then it's very good. God gives us woman, and by us I mean man, humanity, and earth. We're gonna walk through this a little slower. Notice how odd verse 18 is. Then the Lord God said, It is not good. What's weird about that? For five days, the angels have been hearing God say it's good. Can you imagine what the angels are thinking right now? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you say not? God is intentionally creating a problem in his good creation. It's not good? It's not good that man be alone. He needs help. He, in other words, declared helper. Well, what kind of help would he need? The most obvious reference is back to work and keep it. Logically, I don't think God has told Adam and Eve, man and woman, that they need to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, because he doesn't say that until they're both there. But to Adam, after he said work and keep, he then says you need help with the work, with the keeping. and is a unique kind of helper, fit for Him, one that works with Him, one that unites with Him. God then makes this even a longer story. He declares the problem, it's not good, and then He creates what kind of appears like an unnecessary process. He wants to parade before man a bunch of unfit helpers, He's building up attention. Adam names all the animals, he sees each one formed from the earth just like he was, not breathed life into, and each one of them is unfit for him. He just keeps seeing all different animals go away, husband and wife happy. And he's sitting there lonely. So he takes a nap. Actually, God gives him a nap. This is extra drama. God is causing extra drama. That nap is actually kind of unique. This word for sleep occurs in Genesis 15. It's there where God tells Abraham, cut up animals in half, half on this side, half on that side, and that's the way a covenant was made. And then typically, two people would walk between those dead animals and say, whatever promises we're making, may we be as those animals if we do not keep it. After Abraham cuts up all the animals, God puts them into the same deep sleep. and he alone walks through and makes the covenant. This is covenant sleep. Man has nothing to do with it. God is creating it. God is initiating it. God is making it. The covenant here is marriage. There was no helper fit for him, so he put him in a deep sleep. Then when he woke up, God had taken a rib, so she's like him, but fit for him. And he brings her to man. The care, the purpose, the long story to make it so clear, woman is not yet good, and then it's also very good, and then the climactic ending isn't over. Look at verse 23. The first recorded words of man, At last, she's fit. Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. At last, God has done it. He created the problem, God did. He promised a solution. He calls this long waiting, and then he brings to man, woman. It's a grand celebration of woman. That's the design of Genesis 2. And then there's the grand celebration of marriage because they didn't have a father and mother to leave. This is declared, verse 24, as a pattern for us as we move forward. Back up to Genesis 127. We've thought about husband and wife. We need to go back to male, female. This declaration makes it all the more clear that every human being has equal dignity and value, male and female. the third line in Hebrew parallelism, emphasizes male and female. Gender or sex is not something we feel, we self-determine, or we change. Going back to the Albemarle County School Board meeting, what is pressing in on us as a people right now, the transgender concern. I'll be clear, this is one of the ways sin twists us. There is ever-present confusion throughout the history of man regarding images. We're supposed to be God's image bearers, but we decided to make a bunch of images. Confusion over sex. There's perversion running about throughout the history of humanity. gender, there's been either using and abusing other genders, or denying that it doesn't exist. And we just think about, this is the beginning of the Bible. These are the core foundational distinctions. God and man. Well, man wants to become God. Male and female. Let's either abuse that and say one's not fully men in the image, or let's just say that distinction doesn't exist. God's goodness and order has distinctions that we must hold firm to. God has given this good order, this good design, and Satan has attacked it. Our sinful flesh attacks it. I want to be clear. The different disorders, I'm gonna call them that because they're against God's order of LBGT+, Believer, I don't think these are necessarily a choice someone makes. We need to be careful here. Same-sex attraction, attraction to someone else's spouse, or desiring a different gender, or coveting something different in life, those are all sins that come from our own heart. Jesus tells us what defiles us comes from inside. When we look at others that have sins that we don't understand, we don't just say, oh, they must be choosing that. No, we gotta recognize, we all have sinful temptation that just bursts from within. This is the problem we all have. We choose to entertain sin, but we don't choose what kind of temptations burst from this sinful, twisted heart. We all have different disorders. We're all called to believe in the God who brings us back to order and to help each other be well-ordered. There's no sin that makes someone less human. There's no sin that makes someone not your neighbor. I'm gonna say that because the concern over bullying, suicide, that should burden us, for anybody. Our neighbors, our fellow image bearers. The gospel makes it very clear, we all have disorders from sin. God said there's one tree, don't do it, and of course, that's what we did. Christian, we know God. We submit to his good word. We come underneath it, we receive it, and we don't look at others and think, how come they don't get it? No, we proclaim the gospel that brings them back to the goodness of his word. It calls for sympathy. It calls for clarity. It calls for us to hold our conviction. The solution to the confusion of a disordered life is not normalizing it. We cannot condone disorder. God created male and female. That's very clear from his word. God designed male and female to enter into a covenant of marriage, husband and wife, and he designed husband and wife to then multiply image bearers. That is the fabric of society. That is how God's good order is designed. and we've messed it up at every possible layer. As we think about the pressure and problems we feel outside, we're gonna first now turn inside. We're gonna first look at what Christ has said and ask, are we doing all we should be doing to value the order as a church that confesses to be under the word of God? First question. Are we training men who see the value of order? Who want to order their lives according to God's goodness? I praise God for the amount of young men and older men that are coming and say, I wanna hear God's word and the teachability, but here we are, I wanna focus in. Are we training men who are godly men? Man's temptation, the male's temptation toward disorder is seeking freedom from responsibility. Young men, our culture says that as you grow older, you become more independent. The Bible says as you grow older, you become more dependable. Reject the lie that you are supposed to become more independent. Reject the irresponsibility. Believe God's goodness for your life that as you grow up in Christ, you're becoming more dependable. What does that look like? Here's a few rules for you. Be where you're supposed to be. Do what you're supposed to do. Do what you say you will do. Okay, let's think about, am I just pulling these out of thin air? I hope not. Be where you're supposed to be. If you're familiar at all with the story of David and Bathsheba, One of the most despicable, incredible stories in the Bible. A man who had great power and was given that great power to bless God's people. But what did he do? He looked at another man's woman, he took another man's woman, and then he killed the husband to cover it up. Do you know where that story begins? In the season when kings go to battle, David stayed home. He was not where he was supposed to be. If we do not go where we're supposed to be, if we go places that we're not supposed to be, we're going to put ourselves in great danger. Young men, men, be where you're supposed to be. Do what you're supposed to do. Ecclesiastes six. Fools fold their idle hands, leading them to ruin. If you're simply being lazy and not actually actively pursuing God, if you're coasting, you're going downhill. With great effort, practice the things of God. Do what you say you will do. That's simply from James. Let your yes be yes. Man, I wanna, the one word, responsibility. Be responsible, be dependable, initiate relationships where people depend upon you and you take responsibility for them. First question, are we training men who value the order God has given? And I believe that means men are taking responsibility, they're initiating that responsibility. Second one, are we training women to love their husbands and children? to be self-controlled and pure, be busy at home, to be kind, to be subject to their husbands. Now if you're wondering where I got that from, it's Titus 2.4. Those are literally the declarations that older women are supposed to be teaching younger women. To love their husbands and their children, these relationships are the first and foremost valuable thing God has given you. To be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, the home is a great place to be. to be kind, to be subject to their own husbands. Biblical womanhood rejoices with a call to modesty, respect, submission. The woman's temptation, the man's temptation is to be individualistic and shirk responsibility. The woman's temptation is going to be to reject leadership. These are commands according to God's word. If we're not going to uphold all of God's word, We're just choosing the parts we don't like. We're acting like we're God. God's Word is not a buffet. We don't go along and just choose the parts that we think might be most appetizing or satisfying. No, God's Word is a complete feast, the one God gives, and there's not supposed to be any leftovers. It's to be consumed with joy and obedience so that we are truly full. Satisfied. Now for the second controversial thing we're gonna talk about today. Maybe the third, fourth, I'm not quite sure where we are at the count. In light of this text, and because of our membership, I wanna think, is it good to be single? Should everyone expect to be married? For those who want a much thorough, helpful analysis of that question, we're gonna put Ben's sermon on this from a few weeks or months ago in the weekly newsletter. You'll want to listen to that. I want to be very clear, this passage exalts marriage. Marriage is a good gift. It is a covenant designed by God for the good of man. Marriage is to be honored. But it doesn't mean everyone today needs to be married. Let me be very clear, marriage isn't what makes you a complete human being. Jesus was a perfect human being and did not enter into this covenant of marriage. Marriage is good. It is something that is good to be desired. I wanna ask some probing questions. If you're single and you don't want to be married, is it because of a contentment in Christ and you wanna use your time and energy to serve his bride, the church? Or are you truly satisfied that Christ is sufficient for everything you need and you just desire to know him more? Well, that's a good desire to be married. I fear that some lack of desire of marriage, because we become so self-focused and self-loved A partner might be burdensome. That's not a good reason to desire singleness. I fear some have become so numb with the practice of pornography and what's so-called self-satisfaction that there's not even a desire that God has given you. These are completely out of order. They're both fully selfish. And I don't say go get married to fix these things. No, I say repent. Believe in the Lord your God. Start practicing the things that make you pure and whole and pray God will redeem you to make you a fit spouse. If you're single, that's not something to grumble about. It's not something, if you're married, it's not something you need to fix in them either. Married folks, we have to quit treating single people as if they're immature or incomplete or need fixing. If you desire to be married, Are you growing up in Christ and faithfulness? Are you pursuing the kind of faithfulness that makes you reliable? Are you showing others respect? Am I taking the responsibility for others in a way that would make me a fit spouse? Marriage doesn't make life complete. Christ makes life complete. Marriage is really taking on that responsibility for another. It's a gift for God, it's a gift from God. As we conclude, I want to promote what I believe and will call biblical patriarchy. We've sort of used the word complementarianism to not be egalitarian, that means the male and female, there's no distinction. We got away from biblical patriarchy back in the 80s, and I just wanna bring it back. Mainly because the word complementarianism has gotten so confused. And patriarchy, let's just make sure we understand what that word means. Father rules. And the qualifier is biblical. The biblical understanding of father rule or male headship or male leadership is that when God gives you strength and power, you don't use it to abuse someone. There's all kinds of examples of that kind of patriarchy. When we say biblical patriarchy, we look at Jesus Christ and we see he had all power and he used it all for our good. He washed his bride, he loved his bride, he gave his life for that bride. That's biblical patriarchy. And to make sure I didn't come up with something that's new, I'm gonna go all the way back to a pastor who died in 407 AD. This is what I believe is a perfect example of what I would promote as biblical patriarchy. It comes from John Chrysostom. Husbands, this is his advice for you. This is what he advises biblical patriarchy to look like. This will also be in the weekly newsletter. Whenever you give your wife advice, always begin by telling her how much you love her. Tell her that you love her more than your own life because this present life is nothing and what your only hope is that the two of you pass through this life in such a way that in the world to come, you will be united in perfect love. Show her that you value her company and prefer being at home to being out. Esteem her in the presence of your friends and children. Praise and show admiration for her good acts and if she ever does anything foolish, advise her patiently. Pray together at home and go to church. When you come back home, let each of you ask the other the meaning of the reading and the prayers. Remind one another that nothing in life is to be feared except offending God. Remove from her notions of mine and yours. Never call her by name alone, but with terms of endearment, honor, and love. If you honor her, she won't need honor from others. prefer her before all others, both for her beauty, discernment, and praise her. Teach her to fear God, and all other good things will flow from this one lesson. He makes two concluding remarks that are pretty fascinating. He says, if you do this, your perfection will rival that of the monks. And if you lived in the fourth century, you would think, wow, really? I realize that I might not really think much of monks. They were meant to be the holiest, the most perfect. And here he's saying in your own marriage, in your own relationship, in the monastery of your own home, you can be that holy. And then he asked a question. If we obeyed these things, what sort of person do you think the children of parents like this would be? I have one third observation. Imagine the witness that a church would be to a world that proclaims such goodness and order from our God. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you, your word's not confusing. It's just so good and clear. Forgive us for stuttering over it, for ignoring it, for somehow trying to protect people from it. Lord, it's good. It's from You. We confess we do not obey it as we ought. We confess we do not honor it as we want. We confess we don't appreciate the goodness of it as we ought. Lord, we confess we need your grace to do so. Lord, for anyone here who doesn't know you, I pray that you would overwhelm them with conviction that they need to confess their sin to Jesus and he will forgive them. Lord, for husbands and wives, may we confess our sins to one another and before you to to be the unions that proclaim the glory of Christ. For those who are not married and want to be married, I pray that you would help them, Lord, to see the great gift they have in time and energy and to wait well and to pursue holiness well. For the world. We pray for churches. Thank you, Lord, for the other many brothers the other many churches that are beachheads of God's goodness and order around our city. I pray for us to have boldness and courage and faithfulness to demonstrate your good order. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.