Episode Transcript
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Well, let's turn now to Ephesians
chapter five and continue where we left off
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in this book effusions Chapter Five.
I'm focusing tonight on the instructions that are
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given two wives, instruction, House
household instructions, sometimes our household codes,
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or rules, these are sometimes called. That's in verses twenty through through twenty
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four, but I would like to
begin reading in Verse Fifteen and read all
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the way through thirty three, since
we will be spending them some time over
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the next few weeks on this passage. So if Usians five, Verse Fifteen,
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nine hundred and seventy eight in this
Bible, look carefully, then how
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you walk, not as unwise but
as wise making the best use of time,
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because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but
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understand what the will of the Lord
is. Do not get drunk with wine,
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for that is debauchery, but be
filled with the spirit, addressing one
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another in psalms hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord
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with your heart, giving thanks always
and for everything to God, the father,
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in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, submitting to one another out
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of reverence for Christ, wives submit
to your own husband's as to the Lord,
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for the husband is the head of
the wife, even as Christ is
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the head of the church, his
body, and is himself its savior.
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Now as the Church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything
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to their husband's husband's love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave
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himself up for her that he might
sanctify her, having cleansed her by the
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washing of water with the word,
so that he might present the church to
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himself and splendor, without spot or
wrinkle or any such thing, that she
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might be holy and without blemish.
In the same way, husband should love
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their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself,
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for no one ever hated his own
flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it,
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just as Christ does the church,
because we are all members of his body.
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Therefore, a man shall leave his
father and mother and hold fast to
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his wife, and the two shall
become one flesh. This mystery is profound,
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and I am saying that it refers
to Christ in the church. However,
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let each one of you love his
wife as himself, and let the
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wife see that she respects her husband. Says God's Word May he bless it
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to us, he may be seated
well's. We come to this past sage,
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we come to a section in Paul's
letter here to the Ephesians where he
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gives instructions to various Christians in their
various circumstances, focusing particularly on our homes,
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the ways in which we ought to
live in our homes and in our
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relationships with one another in our homes. That's important to know that this passage
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doesn't come out of thin air,
nor is it just lifted out from one
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of the great philosophers or or some
other source from Paul is giving us here
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the words and the will of God, as it corresponds and connects with what
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he has said before this. Were
these words about look carefully how you walk,
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or wives submitting to their husband's or
huzzy husband's loving their wives, and
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further instructions that will receive. They
come on the heels of a much discussion
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and much explanation about what it means
to be in Christ, about who we
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are in him and who we are
for one another in a Christian household,
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particularly in one where both the husband
and the wife are Christians, who are
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both who are made on being remade
in the image of God and the image
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of their savior. Both who belong
to this wonderful and eternal kingdom and who's
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God, whoever received God's blessings pouring
out on them, have this amazing dignity
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and and amazing worth that is to
be respected and shown and demonstrated in our
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lives together as Christians, but within
the home as well. That these verses
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here to wives in particular, and
verses twenty two through twenty four are connected
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with the previous verses is evident for
all kinds of reasons. One very easy
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one, which doesn't show up so
clearly in our English translations, is that
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verses Twenty One and twenty two,
though most of our bibles have a little
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division there, and for good reason. It is a new section, they
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are connected. So, for Verse
Twenty One it says submitting to one another
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out of reverence for Christ, and
Verse Twenty Two really does in a in
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Greek it doesn't really have a verb. It just says wives to your husband's
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as to the Lord. Well,
what our wives to their husbands supposed to
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do? Well, it's borrowing the
verb that came just before that, namely
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the verb submitting right, and that's
the reason it's supplied here in our English
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translations. We are called to submit
to one another out of reverence. And
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now, in that context, Paul
wants to think about other kinds of submission
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that happen in our lives, and
these passages are connected and worthy and and
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therefore ought to be reflected on together. So, in this verse, previous
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to our passage, Paul says that
we ought to be submitting to one another
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in Christ. This is a rule
for a king as much as it is
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for a beggar. A king ought
to submit to a beggar or one of
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his subjects, if in Christ,
just as much as the beggar submits to
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the king different ways, in different
aspects, but nevertheless the same. Our
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distinctions, as we see in these
household colds, don't go away. Wives
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don't cease to be wives, husbands
don't cease to be husbands, men don't
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cease to be men, women don't
cease to be women in Christ. But
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there is a kind of unity that
we have in one and with with and
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I suppose he in in a sense
in Christ, in with one another,
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and that must be respected. This
is why partiality in the church on the
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is often condemned. Raising up the
wealthy, for example, on two seats
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of prominence or giving them special respect
is not right. No, we submission
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to one another. Why? Out
of reverence for Christ. But, as
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I say, that doesn't, and
Paul says more importantly, that doesn't mean
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all order, all distinctions go out
the window. Why is that? Well,
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yes, God has established a new
covenant in Christ, but that has
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not abrogated the no way covenant,
in which God's covenant of Common Grace Continues
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and instructions which began even in creation
will continue to the end. God has
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instituted government and justice and marriage for
good reasons. These are institutions ordained by
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him and in this world. And
though there will be no marriage in heaven,
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we are not yet in heaven.
There are still there is still marriage,
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there is still family structures, there
are still governments that we owe a
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submission to. So, though marriage
is not a part of the new creation,
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new creature, new creatures living in
the world, ought to respect it
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and live in it because of the
Lord. We do not have a right
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to overthrow the no way a covenant
because God has established it and promises to
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keep it. In effect until the
very end. And so we come to
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this passage tonight, which I'm going
to spend at least a couple weeks on.
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Verses Twenty three, two to twenty
four. Let me read just this
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narrow passage against that we might have
it in our minds. Lives, submit
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to your own husband's, as to
the Lord, for the husband is the
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head of the wife, even as
Christ is the head of the body,
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or's the head of the church,
his body and is himself as savior.
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Now as the Church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their
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husband's in everything. I'm sorry,
should submit in everything to their husband's.
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I want to deal with a few
different questions over the course of the next
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couple or maybe even three weeks.
The first question is the one will deal
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with tonight, which is should we
be embarrassed or afraid about this passage?
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Is it a misguided or culturally irrelevant
passage? Is it even a dangerous passage?
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That's the question we'll deal with tonight. How do we how do we
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think about what this is saying?
How do we approach it? I then,
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in a second sermon, I'm going
to deal with some of the specifics
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what does it mean? What does
it mean to submit, and how can
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we grow in wisdom and those commands? Paul says in Verse Fifteen, look
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carefully how you walk, not as
unwise but as wise. What are some
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specific ways we can think about doing
that? How do we think about these
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commands and do them in light of
Christ? So, as I said,
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the first question I want to deal
with, the question for tonight, is
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how do we approach this passage in
particular? Should we be embarrassed about it
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or afraid of it? Now,
some of you will hear that question and
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go huh, why in the world
would I be embarrassed about a passage in
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the Bible? Why would I be
afraid of it? I'm perhaps that question
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seems strange to you because you are
a child and blessed to live in a
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home that is godly and well ordered
and beautiful, though you know for beyond
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the shadow of a doubt that neither
of your parents are perfect and that they
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struggle, nevertheless, you see God's
commands being fulfilled in order on the right
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path, and you there is nothing
about this passage that seems odd or strange,
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just the opposite. It's something you
aspire to and desire for yourselves and
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all that, I say keep on
keeping on. It's a great and wonderful
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thing. The Lord has given us
every passage of scripture not only to know
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and grow in, but to delight
in and rejoice and this is very clearly
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law, law that is given to
us by our king, to us and
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how we ought to live as citizens
of his kingdom. When David talks about
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the law, he says it's sweeter
to him than the drippings of a honeycomb.
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If this is a Christian way of
talking about the law of the Lord,
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and if we are Christians as those
who no longer fear the condemnation of
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the law, if we are those
who have been justified in Christ know that
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we have peace with him through the
blood on the cross, we have the
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great blessing and liberty of approaching the
law of God in a healthy way,
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in a happy way, in a
way that sees its goodness, it's beauty,
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it's order, it's reflectioned of God
himself and his will for us.
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So to those of you who understand
it in this way, it is good
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and right. But I know that
is not all of us. In fact,
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maybe not even many of us.
Perhaps for you, being embarrassed or
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afraid of this passage makes a lot
of sense, because that's exactly how you
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feel about it. You may even
agree in principle with it and say,
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okay, because of I know who
God because of what I know of God
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and who he is, because of
what I know about him and his words,
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I'm committed to the fact that this
should be delightful. I'm committed to
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the fact that this should be right
and holy and good. But honestly,
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I have bad feelings about it.
I struggle towards a passage like this.
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That's what I want to deal with
tonight. How do we approach it?
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How do we think about it?
And light of those concerns, the first
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thing I want you to I want
you to know and I want to say
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is that if you have a bad
feelings about a passage, you are committed
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to as being good. I understand. It's happened to me plenty of times
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and in fact it happens to us
all. Not a single one of us
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ever comes to any passage of scripture
with complete understanding, perfect interpretation and a
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hundred percent faith and joy and love
in the Lord Jesus. All of us
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struggle, for different reasons and in
different ways with different passages of scripture.
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Why? Because there's ignorance, misunderstanding, the flesh is still in us and
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the temptations of the devil and all
kinds of other reasons. We struggle with
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God's word and for the same reason
we struggle with God's will and God himself,
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even though we belong to him,
even though we're his children. It's
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part of the process of sanctification to
recognize this fact and to trust in the
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Lord to help us to grow.
That being said, I don't want to
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just end there and say well,
let's move on, because I know that
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the problem goes deeper than that.
In fact, I'd like tonight to deal
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with some of those challenges and concerns
and bad feelings that we have head on
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and think about them in a way
that recognizes the things Paul has been saying
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in Ephesians about who we are in
Christ and who he is as our savior.
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And so it's in that spirit,
or rather in the spirit, that
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we ought to have some honesty about
why we struggle with a passage like this,
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in which God commands wives to submit
to their husband's and then to think
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about those struggles in light of Christ. Well, the first one I want
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to talk about, the first,
I think, reason for bad feeling,
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bad feelings, reasons for concern,
is a very big one, and it
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is abuse. Some of you struggle
with this command in the scriptures to submit
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wives, to submit to their husband's
because you've seen this passage and others like
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it abused. And sadly that's not
not all because of the because the abuse
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of the text is often done is
justification for abuse of a person, which
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is never okay. Take this person, for example, Lady of Ruth Tucker,
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who has recent recently written a memoir
in which she describes her nineteen year
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marriage to a pastor who screamed and
beat her while quoting Bible verses like Ephesians
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Five, twenty two through twenty four, or this horrific quote from page Patterson,
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former president of the Southern Baptist Association
and Pastor. I had a woman,
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he says, who was in a
church that I served and she was
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being subject to some abuse and I
told her, I said, all right,
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what you want to do is every
evening I want you to get down
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by your bed just when he goes
to sleep, get down by the bed
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and when you think he's just about
to sleep, you just pray and ask
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God to intervene, not out loud, quietly, but I said you just
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pray there, and I said get
ready, because he may get a little
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more violent, you know, when
he discovers this. And sure enough he
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did. She came to church one
morning with both eyes black and she was
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angry at me and at God in
the world for that matter, and she
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said, I hope you're happy,
and I said yes, ma'am, I
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am, and I said I'm sorry
about that, but I am very happy.
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Why was he happy? Well,
because later that man came forward at
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an altar call. Well, assuming
that her husband's conversion was generous, then
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yes, of course we rejoice at
his salvation along with all of the angels
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in heaven. But there's nothing about
this scenario that is okay, nothing about
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it that is happy. This story
should be in embarrassment and a shame,
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an extreme low point in pastoral ministry, not something to be proud of and
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share publicly. Suffering is a part
of our lives, of course it is
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in a world marked by sin,
but that, my friends, doesn't make
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suffering a good thing. It's something
that Jesus went to the cross to overcome.
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It's something that he went to the
Cross and suffered so that he could
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finally end suffering. And when he
comes again, he promises to take every
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unrepentant abuser and cast them into hell
forever, including Satan, the greatest abuser
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of them all. Why? So
that we can be completely free of and
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finally free of evil and oppression and
abuse forever. This is why he is
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our king to free us, to
liberate us, to save us, to
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heal us. Now, a theology
of suffering is worth examining and thinking very
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carefully about, and there's much too
much to say. But let me just
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be clear about this. If you
are being physically abused, emotionally abused,
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mentally abused, Ifhesians Five, twenty
two through twenty four does not require you
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to submit to it, you are
not required to put your life in danger
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because of this passage. God does
not require it. How do we know
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this? Justin Holcomb, in his
book, Good Book, book. Is
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it my fault, points this out. One of the most compelling reasons and
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the ways in which we which we
see the right that we have to preserve
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our lives and the lives of others
is Jesus himself. I find this very
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compelling. Yes, Jesus came into
the world to suffer and to die,
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but again, this was not because
suffering was good, it was to overcome
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suffering. The second thing to notice
is that throughout his life, Jesus continually
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escaped suffering at many times and in
many ways. It started even when he
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was a baby. His parents were
warned by an angel that he was about
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to be killed and they fled to
Egypt. And Matthew Two and as an
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adult, many times we read that
Jesus got out of the way of danger
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in order to save his life,
Matthew Twelve, fourteen through sixteen says,
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but the Pharisees went out and plotted
how they might kill Jesus. Aware of
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this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Jesus didn't say, well, if
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it's suffering, I must endure it. No, he knew it and he
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withdrew. and Jesus, of course, is righteous and holy and everything that
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he does and they were the example
for us to follow. John Fifty eight
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through fifty nine. At this they
picked up stones to stone him, but
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Jesus hid himself slipping away from the
Temple Ground John Thirty nine. Again,
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his Jewish opponents picked up stones to
stone him. Again they tried to seize
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him, but he escaped their grasp. To preserve your life and to preserve
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the lives of others, it's okay
to not submit. It's okay to flee,
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to run, to preserve your health
and the health of others. Jesus
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doesn't just do this for himself,
but he tells his disciples to do this.
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In Matthew Twenty three says when you
are persecuted in one place, that's
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even for his name. He says
flee to another place that is and we
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see the Apostle Paul doing exactly that
a number of times. He fled from
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abusive civil and religious authorities, as
wholcombe points out, and acts twenty two,
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twenty five through twenty nine. At
one point Paul would have had the
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opportunity to endure an unjust and illegal
beating in the name of Christ, an
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opportunity right, to endure this for
the sake of Jesus, but instead he
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makes use of the Roman law to
avoid it. And there's nothing in scripture
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that is there to indicate that Paul
sinned in this matter, or that Jesus
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sinned or that, is suppot other
disciples and apostles sinned. We confess this
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in our own catechism and confessions as
well concerning the sixth commandment. But the
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duty, one of the duties,
that is required in the sixth commandment,
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is to pres deserve our own life
and the lives of others. Now,
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this doesn't mean, of course,
that we will be able to avoid every
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moment of suffering. It's simply not
going to happen. Didn't happen for Jesus,
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it didn't happen for Paul. Sometimes
we find ourselves and situations where there's
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simply no fleeing and nothing is left
but perhaps even to die. But just
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because you will get thorns in this
life doesn't mean that God requires you but
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to live in a thorn Bush.
It doesn't mean that you must do that.
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Just the opposite, as we confess
about the sixth commandment, as God,
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the Lord, our husband in heaven, has himself commanded, we are
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to preserve our lives and the lives
of others. Wives are called to submit
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to their husband's as to the Lord. But these two authorities, my friends,
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are not equal. You might have
two kings, but that doesn't necessarily
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mean they have equal authority. Your
husband is important, but more important this
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passage and the whole of scripture teaches
us, is your husband who is in
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heaven. Of course, your husband
who is in heaven tells you that to
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submit to the authorities under which he
has placed you, to civil authorities,
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religious authorities, to our authorities in
our homes, but he also calls us
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to preserve our lives and the lives
of others. Remember Jonathan, how he
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refused to bring David to his father, who was a king multiple levels.
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Jonathan was required to submit, was
required to submit in all things to his
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father and his king, but Jonathan, in a holy and rightful way,
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refused this. Refuse this. Why? Because he knew that he was required
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to obey his heavenly father and he's
eternal king, even more than Saul,
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and so in doing so, he
preserved the life of David. Now I
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realize that this doesn't tell you what
you need to do in every single instance
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of life. There's no possible wake
we could possibly cover that in one sermon
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or even inten sermons. In difficult
situations there are choices to be made.
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What to do in the short term, what to do in the long term,
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what action should be taken now,
what actions should simply be prepared for?
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We can't deal with all of these
tonight, but we can lay down
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principles. The Lord tells us to
be wise and how we walk. A
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lot of times, how we walk
is according to principles, according to the
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paths that he has been laid down. So let us be clear. This
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passage, nor any other passage in
scriptures, teaches that abuse of a person
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is okay in the context of a
marriage or any other situation. It is
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a sin against the Lord, and
in the context of marriage it breaks the
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marriage covenant. Those who abuse their
wives lose the privilege of having wives,
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just as a man who abuses his
body no longer has the privilege of using
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his body. If you hurt yourself, if you harm yourself, if you
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cut off your leg, then you
don't get a leg anymore. It's similarly
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true with our wives. And if
you are facing a situation where you are
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being told otherwise, where a passage
like this is being used as a sake
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to normalize something that is not normal, I'm to make okay. Something that
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is not okay, then you are
right to report it. You should report
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it to let your shepherds, both
civil and religious, know that you are
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in trouble and are in danger and
that you need help. And it is
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my commitment and the commitment of the
elders of this church to be there for
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you and to watch over you and
protect you, as the Lord has called
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us to do. And if you
are an abuser, know that the Lord
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will not stand for it. There
is repentance and salvation for you in Christ.
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As we saying earlier, Christ is
a savior here and he can save
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even the vilest of sinners. Paul
himself was an abuser, not that we
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know, against his wife, but
against the very church of God. Christ
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forgives, Christ saves. And if
you recognize that in your heart you have
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been sinning against those whom you have
been called to love, that you've been
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sinning against the Lord. If you
feel the prick and your conscience and you
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feel the concern and worry for your
soul, do not cover it up,
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but repent. Come and speak to
me or one of the elders of this
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church and we will guide you and
help you. But know also that just
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as Christ is savior of those who
come to in faith, he's also savior
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and protector of his children, and
he will not be mocked. The Lord
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Jesus says, vengeance is mine and
I will repay. Are we clear?
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I hope we're clear on this.
If you're not, that's okay. I
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know that there are a lot of
difficult and challenging things surrounding these issues.
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Come and talk to me, come
and talk to one of your elders.
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Now, why have I said all
this in light of this passage? For
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this reason, to Vind Kate the
honor of Christ and to bring clarity,
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as were, to his word.
Where evil men and people, I've sought
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to smear him and poison the things
of that are good. It is absolutely
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true that people have abused this text
as a pretense for personal abuse, but
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it is also true that people use
the fact of personal abuse as a pretense
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for abusing this text. It works
both ways. You don't let me put
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it another way, because this scripture
does not teach the evil. Are Sorry,
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because this scripture does not teach the
evil that is sometimes attributed to it,
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it is wrong for us to reject
it on that basis. The abuse
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of scripture for sinful friend sinful ends
is an old trick of the devil and
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ought to be called one. Those
devils who take the things of God's word
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and Trist the twist them for their
own sins are not only disobedient to the
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will of God, they are blasphemers, they are tricksters and they hurt those
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who are under their control. Teaching
the scriptures in this way means they ought
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to have a millstone tied around their
neck and drowned in the sea, or
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worse, to use the words of
Jesus. So those who wish to use
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this passage in this way away with
them. Do not mistake they're beastly lusts
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for the holy will of God.
That's what I have to say about abuse.
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The second reason, I think sometimes
in this is perhaps a toning down
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a little bit. Second reason we
have concerns about passages like this have to
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deal with complications and challenging situations,
and I'll spend much less time on this.
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Some of US struggled because you are
in very challenging situations. You struggle
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to know how such a commandment can
be filled in such and such a situation,
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and I, as I mentioned earlier, don't want to ignore these challenges
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or just walk away from them,
but we do recognize, but we have
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to recognize that success in that to
have success in the difficult things, we
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need to start from clear principles.
To put it another way, just because
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certain applications of the law are difficult
doesn't make a law invalid. Think about
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it. Is there a single law
that you can think of, any law
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at all, of let's say the
Ten Commandments, on which are very plain
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and clear? Can you pick any
one of them and find that any one
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of them is free of any ethically
complicated aspects or challenging situations to navigate?
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Not a single one. Pick up
any commentary on the Ten Commandments, go
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through those sections and you will find
that there are very challenging and difficult questions
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with all of them. This is
true even of physical laws. What if,
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every time you saw a balloon rise
up into the air, you throw
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up your hands and said, well, I give up, this gravity thing
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must not be real. Right.
We don't act that way. This is
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what we don't nullify a perfectly clear
law by exceptions and difficult situations, things
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that are hard to understand. This
is a good principle of wisdom, by
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the way, for dealing with any
aspect of God's law. One thing to
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add to that something that's very remarkable
about this passage. It's remarkable in its
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unremarkableness. Let me put it this
way. The context in which the letter
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to the Ephesian Church was written was
extremely different from our own in many ways.
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Typical age for I'm going to put
this in quotes for those of are
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listening online or something. Women got
married was about fourteen years old average,
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sometimes as early as twelve, sometimes
as late as eighteen. That's from girls,
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young girls, young women got married, and those who married them were
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typically not that much older, but
somewhat older, and sometimes a fair amount.
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Very common occurrence would be to have, in eighteen, nineteen, twenty
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year old young man marrying a fourteen
year old, a girl. Lots of
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other difficulties and differences as well.
In the ancient world, in Paul's time,
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you had about a fifty percent chance
of living past six years old.
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That's it. And Eighty two,
eighty five percent of people in the ancient
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world were subsistence farmers. They lived
hand to mouth, eating and living off
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of what they grew, and if
they couldn't make that happen, then you're
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lost. Malnutrition was an immensely big
problem and for women in particular, iron
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deficiencies were where a problem and caused
all kinds of health problems, and during
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menstruation and pregnancy at these things were
only only got worse. All this to
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say that family life in the ancient
world is very different than family life today,
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and I won't do this now,
but I would encourage you to take
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these facts that I've given to you
and just set yourself in that situation.
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Imagine the kinds of decisions that you
would make or not make, a knowing
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that this was just how your life
was. Many men, for example,
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most people didn't live past thirty,
but if you were in your s as
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a man, this would be unusual
and you would have had two or three
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lives by this time, because they
would have died. This is just life
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in the ancient world. It was
very, very different, and yet at
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the same time this passage, though
given to the EPHESIAN church at this time,
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has been a healthfully applied and useful
for generation after generation after generation of
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God's people, even to today.
What's one thing that's remarkable about this passage
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is how little it says. That
very fact that you might find frustrating.
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Why don't you say more? You
can get more if you go other places,
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go to theological commentators, go to
aristotle and others, and they'll go
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on and on and on about all
the various ways in which this is played
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out. God lays down these very
simple in a way, principles and we
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are called to find wisdom to apply
them. Yes, that means there are
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difficult challenges and situations, but they
are written in a way that they apply
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cross culturally in every time and in
every situation, and it's our job to
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figure out how that works. This
is one of the blessings of God's word
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and one of the ways in which
Christ is ruling over us. The final
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thing I'll mention is that we struggle
with is the world. Some of US
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struggle with this passage because the culture
that we live in is so set against
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it at this particular moment. But, if I can be frank again,
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do you really want to take your
cues from the world? Is that the
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place you want to go to for
wisdom and guidance on what is good and
405
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what is not? The world is
not a stable place. It's wisdom is
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constantly changing and moving the world,
and right now, I think in particular,
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is all topsy turvy, perhaps arguably
even more than musical usual. Many
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Americans especially, and perhaps the ones
we hear from the most, simply don't
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know their right hand from their left. They say up as down and dawn
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is up. They claim foolish things
for enlightened things, things like there are
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no such thing as men or women, that we can live forever, but
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there's no limit to what we can
accomplish, and on and on and on
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and on it goes. Friends.
Yes, the world will be raving mad
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with you if you affirm this truth. Your neighbors, people in the grocery
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store, folks that TV will roll
their eyes accuse you of things, all
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kinds of things, for living your
life according to the simple rules of the
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word. And I'll tell you it's
not fun, but you can't let it
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bother you and you don't need to
fix the madness in the world's mind before
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being settled in your own. They
will mock us, but you know what,
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they're also going to be blessed by
us. When stable families, the
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Christians, produce and loving homes and
good, dutiful children. These things end
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up redounding to the glory of God, Yes, but also to the state,
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and there are benefits the society reaps
from stable, healthy, happy families.
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Does that sound unfair, to be
mocked and then to return blessing back?
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Well, yeah, it is.
Is it full of grace? Absolutely
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so. Let's have at it.
I hope you find these things, I'm
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useful, useful place to start as
we think about our lives and submission to
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Christ. We don't come at these
laws that he gives us in some kind
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of arbitrary way. We don't come
at them in a prideful way, we
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don't come at them through the abuses
of sinful people. We come at them
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through the goodness that he is doing
in our lives, the things that he
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has promised in this world. Doesn't
always make it easy. Sometimes it's very,
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very difficult. But what Paul has
been telling us throughout this letter and
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even as he speaks to wives and
grounds that serve the grounds their submission,
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in the fact that it is as
unto the Lord and is it example even
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of of his leadership in the Church
and the church is submission to him.
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These wonderfully good things. We are
reminded that the the lives in which we
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live as Christians are grounded in the
salvation that he brought to us through his
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life. When you think about your
duties as a wife, as a husband,
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as a child, as a worker, as a subject of a citizen
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of our state, let's learn to
think about them in Christian ways, through
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the eyes of Christ, who has
gone before us, who is our king,
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who is seated in the heavenly places, and let us live our lives
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as citizens of that kingdom, walking
in wisdom, using our time wisely,
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desiring to live according to his will
and his word, with confidence in him.
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He knows how to trust, knows
how to take care of us,
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protect us, forgive us. Let
us pray
