As Christians, we are obligated to uphold Scripture as the primary authority of determining our views of sex and gender. In evaluating the ongoing confusion in our culture on these topics we need to begin by examining God’s original Edenic intent and the beauty of the role distinctions and the divine creation order and consider how those distinctions are maintained through scripture and history. In the end, biblically minded Christians must seek a Christ-exalting, Gospel-centered path forward despite the confusion of our times.

If you have your Bibles, turn with me this morning to one of the least read passages of Scripture in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, Hardy Harr, And I'm a glutton for punishment, but we're going in. And my assignment this morning is to apply scripture or help you perhaps apply scripture to the gender confusion of our time. How many of you would agree with me that we're quite confused, at least as a culture? Amen. So we're going to work our way through it today.

I'm going to read a passage of scripture to you. Our focus will be found in verses 2 and 3 and 8 and 12. But as I said, I'm a glutton for punishment, so I'll read the whole thing since it's not read very often. So we'll look at verse two, we'll read down through verse 16, we'll pray and then we'll try to talk this through today in a way that honors the Lord. The Apostle Paul is writing to the church at Corinth, first of two letters, there may be a third that we don't have.

But he writes, now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonereth his head. But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonereth her head. For that is even all one as if she were shaven.

For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head forasmuch as he is the image and the glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. For if the man is not of the woman, or for the man is not of the woman rather, but the woman of the man, neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.

Nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, or the woman without the man, neither is the woman without the man in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, so even so is the man also by the woman, but all things are of God. Judging yourselves, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered, doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him. But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given her for covering. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God." Applying scripture to the gender confusion of our time.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning for Holy Scripture. We thank you Lord because you're so good and kind to us that you sent your son to do what we could not to die a terrible death on the cross to put us in position to know you and love you. We thank you for his sacrifice. We thank you for his blood that was poured out, we thank you for his rising from the dead, we thank you that even now he's making intercession for us.

And we look then to you to figure out what's going on in our culture and how we might walk according to your word in an attempt first of all to give you honor but then secondly to have an influence on the souls around us. So thank you in advance Lord for these few moments and we pray Lord that you're honored by what we do with your scripture and how we speak to your people. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen, well again, good morning, my name's Carlton. I have the honor and privilege to pastor a good church in Chesapeake, Virginia, and I've had also the honor to be at this conference several years and it is always nourishment to my soul.

Diving right into our text because our time is limited, we find ourselves today in some pretty interesting times. We are in the age of bold, unashamed homosexuality, where libraries are busily scheduling drag queens to come and read to our children, where men and boys are playing women's sports in dresses, where we can choose between three options when we go to the bathroom, where people are beginning slowly, but if the Lord tarries, I expect to see this go on a little further, where people are beginning to marry multiple people, animals, and even themselves. Our culture is in full-fledged rebellion against the order of God, his creation order, and in fact seems to be attempting to invent new ways to shake its collective fist at God. To that I say, Lord, help us. It is a devastating situation in which we find ourselves and we need the mercy of God more than ever.

In fact, as I was considering this text and this topic, The prayer of Daniel came to mind as an appropriate prayer to pray. Daniel chapter nine, verses five through eight, Daniel prays it like this. He says, we have sinned, as he prays on behalf of his nation. He says, we have sinned and we have committed iniquity. We've done wickedly.

We've rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments. Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants, the prophets which spake in thy name to our kings and our princes and our fathers and to all the people of the land. Daniel cries out, oh Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, a very appropriate term, as at this day to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and unto all Israel that are near and that are far off through all the countries whither thou hast driven them because of their trespasses that they have trespassed against thee. Verse 8 declares, O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face to our kings, to our princes, to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. And that's kind of where we find ourselves.

We find ourselves a nation that has greatly sinned against God in many ways, and in some ways many believe we're seeing the fruit of that rebellion manifest in this area of gender. Now there is good news in all of this. The good news is The answer to the gender confusion we're facing is the same answer to the family confusion that we're facing. And it's the same answer to the money confusion that we're facing, and the same answer to the church confusion that we're facing, and the same answer to the political and any other cultural confusion that we're facing. As Daniel declared clearly, we have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments.

And so the good news in all of this chaos where evil is being called good and good is being called evil, the answer is the same answer across the board. It's a return to Christ and a very fervent and passionate return to the word of the living God. It's just that simple, but also just that hard. We have chosen as a culture man's word over God's word, man's sinful inclinations over God's righteous judgments, and man's lusts, quite frankly, over the Lord. And so what's required if we're going to apply scripture to the gender confusion of our times is repentance and a running back to that very scripture.

And in a room like this, that might sound pretty self-explanatory and pretty easy, but for the church at large, This is a very difficult thing. I don't know if you've noticed, but even in the body of Christ, when people say, when certain scriptures are read, I just read one, but when certain scriptures are read, or when this whole issue of gender comes up, or when headship, or submission, or modesty, or anything that suggests gender roles and gender distinctions are read, it is normally either quickly moved away from or followed by so many caveats that it totally erases what was just said. And so we are, as a culture, sadly even as a Christian culture, somewhat ashamed of what the Bible actually says about men and their roles and women and their roles. And so, yes, It's self-explanatory and yes, it's not that hard to intellectualize, to understand what we need to do, but beloved, it apparently is extremely difficult to move back to the Bible as it relates to gender. And so if you've noticed, once we let it go, it just went rolling downhill.

Once we said, hey, you know, men don't really have to and women don't really have to, well, a generation later, we end up with this nightmare that we're in, And we look to the church to see the beauty of these roles. And sadly, they're under dispute as well, even in the church. So I'd like to suggest in our time together a threefold path forward for families dealing with gender confusion, for you parents who are trying to equip your children, I'm one, trying to equip your children to deal with this issue, I'd like to suggest a threefold path forward for you. The first, we must raise our children to be confident versus ashamed in the sufficiency of scripture as it relates to God's plan, God's creation order, and God's precepts concerning men and women. We must raise our children to be confident in those things, to glory in those things.

Number two, we must then search out that same word, God's word, and apply it to our own hearts and lives with love and passion. That is to say, we want to raise them to love the word, but we also want to raise them to obey the word. And so we must search out God's word and then apply it. Now, again, that sounds pretty simple. But my experience here is there's always a reason why certain verses don't apply to me.

And there's always a reason why certain verses don't apply. You don't understand my situation. So there's always a reason for that, and if enough of us do that, then we find ourselves again in rebellion against the thing, against the Lord's precepts in a widespread way. And so number one was we have to raise our children to be confident in God's Word and the sufficiency of Scripture as it relates to gender. Two, we must search out that same Word and apply it to our own hearts and our own lives with love and passion.

And then three, as it relates to the culture at large, we must obey the Great Commission, which means sharing the gospel, but also means teaching all nations to observe all things whatsoever He has commanded us. And so we forget that little nuance there that's also in the Great Commission. We must communicate the gospel, and as we communicate the gospel, the offshoot of that is we're also communicating all the things that God has commanded us and that does include gender. So one, two, three, and that'll kind of frame our discussion. You still with me so far?

Okay. So this word gender is an interesting word. It comes from a root word that means to give birth, actually. And it's associated in history with the Latin word genus and an old French word genre. Its earliest meanings meant a kind of a thing or a sort of a thing, but by the 15th century it kind of developed into the meaning that we have today, meaning male or female, or at least we used to have today.

Forget where I am, okay, it's 2019. But it came to mean male and female But however in clear signs of the times and some of you probably aware of this in 2014 one of the largest social media entities in the world if not the largest Facebook Reoriented their their signup process to include the changing gender dynamics in our world. And there were some 58 options. Agender androgyny, androgynous, bigender, cisgender, cisfemale, cismale, cisman, ciswoman, cisgender female. It's so many gender fluid, gender variant, gender queer, intersex, neither, I can't even pronounce this, neutrois, what is that?

Non-binary, pangender, trans, trans female, trans male, transgender man, two-spirit, I mean, I don't know, I saw something last year where somebody was believing that they were another, they were aliens from another planet. So we're doing a whole other species now, we're so confused, right? Non-conforming, I mean it's really an amazing environment that we're in. But even back then, it didn't take too long where that wasn't good enough, because people complained to Facebook that those options were too limiting. So they eventually chose, Because those options were predefined, they eventually added a custom option where users could essentially write in their gender and of course their preferred pronouns.

We're in a world now where when you introduce yourself, hi, my name's Carlton, I like he and him. That's the world we're in now. We're having to tell people our pronouns and we're offended when people don't use our preferred pronouns. And so please understand refreshingly, however, that scripture does not use the word gender. It's very instructive.

When referring to gender, scripture uses the term man in a general sense to apply to mankind, and the simple but very powerful words male and female, and man and woman to refer to the different sexes. And beloved, I suggest that's what we use as well, even though you'll probably offend some people when you do so, but we'll get to that when we look at our last point as we prepare to close a little bit later. But also we read words like mother and father, brother and sister. Who would have thought that we'd arrive at a place where those words were actually controversial? What do you mean calling me father?

Can't you see that I may not be a father? Well, you look like a man to me. Well, you assume that. Well, you have a beard, sir. Okay, what world are we living in?

All right? But the Bible is very clear. Genesis chapter 1 verses 26 through 27 declares this. And God says, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And so God created man in his own image, that broad term there, man in his own image, in the image of God he created him male and female created he them.

And as simple as it sounds, it must be stated again and again. There are only two quote unquote genders, male and female, male and female, And that's it, okay? When answering a question about divorce, our Lord said in Matthew chapter 19 verses four and five, and he answered and said unto them, have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. And that's it. That's it.

We just have to hold to that and we have to promote that and we have to tell people that and we have to declare lovingly there's only two genders male and female. There's only two male and female. Well I'm cis bi, no no no, you're a female. How do you know? Because I'm looking at you and I see XX, you're a female, right?

You're a female. And I'm a male. And that's the way it's been since since God put Adam and Eve in the garden and for whatever reason we struggle to do that We're struggling to communicate these things, but if we're forced to use the word gender, let's define it biblically gender refers to the two sexes God made, period, in the story, and you have to teach your children that, and you have to help them hold to that, and when all of these other terms come, you have to root that into them, get that down into their hearts, no son, no daughter, there is male and there is female. And that is it. That's what God, that's who God created.

Our authority for determining this, and indeed our ideas about gender in general, must come from the word of God. For example, we'll go back to our text now that we read initially, 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Our text unashamedly declares the distinctions between the two sexes that God created, and does so at least historically using the very time honored symbol of the head covering. Now we're not going to get into that because I don't want you all to throw me out of here, but from the founding of the church to the 1950s or 60s or so, there was this reinforcement in the Church of God of what a man was and what a woman was by the symbol that is laid out there in that text. Sadly, this text isn't often read because of that, and of course there's all the debates around that, and the fussing and fighting over that, and so forth.

But in this text, I see beauty. That's all I see is beauty. This particular text has the tendency to be distasteful for people, but tucked in these verses is an extremely beautiful picture. For example, If you let your eyes fall down to verse number three, but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and that the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God. The Lord through the Apostle Paul reaffirms for us in the church the headship order, that there's the Father, and there's the Son, and there's the man, and there's the woman.

And there's this distinction, again, between male and female. This beautiful order that we see laid out for us in Genesis is also affirmed for us again and again throughout the Scriptures that there's male and that there's female and that they're distinct and they have a distinct role. And in the providence of God, this role is actually quite beautiful. Secondly, the apostle reminds Corinth that woman was originally created for man, coming out of his body, coming out of his side, if you will. In verses eight and nine, it says, for The man is not of the woman, but the woman is of the man.

Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. Now them's fighting words in our day, right? I had a sister in my church recently ask me, is that still true? Or In her words, she said, you know, I see in Genesis that Eve was created to be a helper unto Adam, but maybe she was called a help just for a season. That was the words that she used, just for a little time for Adam to get himself together, and then she can go on and be this independent woman.

And went, no, sis, actually throughout all of scripture, we see that the woman's role, she was designed to be a helper for man. And we see that confirmed again and again and again. And quite frankly, I'm glad about that because I need help. Hallelujah, my wife's here. Thank you, Jesus.

Right? But she was originally created for man. There's a distinction between the male and the female. The male called to lead and the female called to come alongside then and help. The apostle uses this truth to teach that women should have a symbol of authority on her head, presumably when she prays and prophesies, whereas a man should have no such symbol.

It's interesting, I'll just jump in here and jump out, but it's interesting that we enforce that very firmly on men still to this day, very firmly on men. But historically, there was this symbol that a woman wore that broke her apart from men. It was very obvious to know who she was, particularly in a day where long hair is rampant in both sexes. And so we knew there was this beauty that was laid out there for us. So the apostle uses that truth to teach this to us in verse number 10, whereas men would have no such symbol on their head.

Again, there's a distinction between male and female, and a beautiful one at that. And although distinct, Paul reminds his hearers, lest any person get gender distinctions confused with ontological equality before God, that men and women are of each other. They are dependent upon one another. Female was made for man, but every man comes from woman. And so he wants to make sure that no one gets that confused, that we're all equal before the Lord.

And from these verses, we can gather a few observations that might help us As we begin to try to navigate all of these cultural things going on, number one, a couple of observations from our text. Gender distinctions are rooted in God's creation order. Gender distinctions are rooted in God's creation order, and as a result, they are trans-cultural. They are trans-cultural. Satan works to mar and to disfigure the beautiful things that God has created and we have to train our children to hold to the beautiful things that God has created.

These distinctions are rooted in how God designed men and women in the garden and how he designed a family. Number two, the church and family are supposed to model and indeed glory in these distinctions. People should be able to enter our homes and enter our churches and see two very distinct but very complimentary sexes going about God's business. And the more men begin to look, sound, and act like women, and the more women begin to look, sound, and act like men, the more these distinctions are blurred. And people wonder.

I told our church this several years ago, went over like a brick, but I told them, people are supposed to come in our church and see God's design They're supposed to go into our families and see God's design you walk into a home and you see a strong loving dad You walk into that home and you see the boys and the girls looking like boys and girls. Any of you catch the case in Texas recently? Did y'all see that? Where the mother of a seven-year-old boy had him playing with a guest girl toy since he was three or four and wanted to transition him in the father wanted to transition him to a girl and the father fought and initially went to court and the court ruled with the mother that she could just kind of unilaterally transition his boy to a girl and the governor actually stepped in and said a few things. That's the world we're living in.

The church is supposed to model something totally different from that. We're supposed to model the beauty of God's design. And so Paul lays this out for us. He shows very clearly here in this text two very distinct and very complementary roles. Number three, neither gender is held above another.

That's very important as we walk through the cultural chaos. The bad rap on Christians is that we're misogynistic and we're against women somehow. And the truth, beloved, is nothing could be further from the truth. The fact remains that in scripture has an extremely high view of all of the sisters. And in fact, for a long time, Christianity was the only faith, true faith, but the only faith that lifted women up out of where they were as basically chattel across the world.

And so the truth is, in the Christian worldview, men and women stand side by side before God. They just have different roles on this planet. And so neither gender is held above another. And We need to teach our children to glory in that. Now again, maybe in this room that sounds okay, but in the culture, those again are fighting words.

Pastor Dome and I were joking because I had this message and one on race this afternoon. So Scott's given me all the fun topics and he has one on keeping the home. And I'm like, man, they're going to carry all of us out here and put us away when all this is said and done. But it's because of the cultural pressure that we all feel when we're dealing with the beauty of Scripture, but the way that beauty is viewed by those who are enemies of God. Our text says in verse number 10 that even the angels, in some way that we don't fully understand, even the angels observe and are affected by our understanding of gender.

For this calls out the woman to have power on her head because of the angels. Oh my goodness, so now we're not we're no longer dealing, we talk about trans-cultural, we're no longer dealing with you know with the, or we can't say that we're dealing with something unique to Corinth when we're dealing with the angels. This is something that's going on in the spiritual world. And so even the angels. And that's one of the points that I wanted to make.

It's hard to overestimate how important this subject is. Honestly, other than the gospel, I'm really struggling to to come up with something more important than the church holding on to its truths as it relates to male and female. I'm really struggling because so much flows from that. This issue is so important. Feminism and the abdication of men has wrecked the home and church.

The God-created distinctions of the sexes is so fundamental to everything happening around us that its disruption sends ungodly ripples through every area of life, and that's what we're seeing. We're seeing marital rates fall. We're seeing birth rates fall. We're seeing men, you know, feminism had the, was waving, it's been waving the flag for a long time, but now we're seeing a counter movement called MGTOW over with men and young men saying, okay, fine then, if you need men Like fish need a bicycle, then you can have that, we'll go over here, we refuse to marry, we're seeing a generation of men coming up now saying, all right then ladies, if that's what you want, then that's what you get, right? And that's what, and we're starting, and that movement sadly is actually growing, It's growing.

And so we're seeing the sexes not move close together, but move further apart. It's tearing up our society. It's tearing it up. Marriage, child rearing, church growth, economics, government, education, propriety, entertainment, you name it, and misunderstanding God's roles on gender and what a man should do and what a woman should do and the propriety and the beauty thereof affects just about everything around us. This is a huge, huge, huge subject.

And so we must lovingly apply scripture to the gender confusion of our times. So number one, I want to go back to that outline that I gave you about just those three points after we take a quick look at the passage of scripture. Didn't want to do much there. Just wanted to show you the beauty of it, hopefully. And if you have any questions about that, we can talk about it after, if we have a moment.

But I want you to remember to teach your children to be confident in the sufficiency of Scripture as it relates to gender, and this is a big one. I have two daughters. My oldest is 14, and so I'm right in here right now, where she's getting pressure from outside and different places, and I'm going, and I'm pointing, and I'm pointing, and I'm pointing, and sometimes even while I'm pointing, I'm going, wow, That does look in kind of old-fashioned there doesn't it this isn't Little House on the Prairie anymore is it? And I'm going and I wait a minute. Okay, hold it.

Hold it scripture sufficient. It's efficient So even me, I mean I'm sitting there do it I find my some of you might understand what I'm talking about there, where I, you know, there are all these opportunities and all these things and all of these ideas and all these things, and pointing to scripture sometimes seems a little out of touch and outdated. And you go, well, maybe it really doesn't mean that. Okay, well, maybe God's moved on, right? But the Bible says the law of the Lord is perfect, Converting the soul.

Testimony of the Lord is sure, making the wise simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. And the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean. Enduring forever, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them, as thy servant warned, and in keeping them, there is great reward. The Bible says all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine and for reproof and for correction and for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Scripture declares for the commandment is a lamp and the law, a light, and the reproves of instruction are a way of life. And that's what we ought to be doing.

We ought to be teaching our children that God's precepts, as it relates to gender, they're a way of life. They're a way of life. The word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 12. The Bible tells us in 2 Peter chapter 1 that we also have a more sure word of prophecy.

Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, listen, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and to the day star rise in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Friends, we can trust God's Word, and we can trust God's Word as it relates to gender. God meant exactly what he said, and it's difficult in our age, so I want to encourage you. I want to encourage you to go to the scriptures to figure out, hey, what should my daughter be doing? Hey, what should my son be doing?

Because the Bible is sufficient. And what does the scripture actually say? If we look at number two, the first one was, again, to go and grab the word, right, to teach it to your children, to not be ashamed of it. But what does it actually say as we attempt to apply it to our hearts? Well, again, it says that there are only two genders, right, two sexes, male and female.

It's reaffirmed again and again. Here's one we haven't read yet, Genesis chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him. Male and female created he them and blessed them and called their name Adam.

I love that. Called their name Adam in the day when they were created. And so throughout Scripture we see this male and female creation order and we see beautiful distinctions that are meant to reinforce that order and create a beautiful home and a beautiful church. In Genesis, God created Adam and gave him headship. He created Eve to be Adam's helper, as we said.

This establishes the distinction of role that we see throughout scripture. After the fall, Adam was given a primary function to work and to provide. Eve was to bear children and be subject to her husband. And we see this play out again and again throughout scripture. These gender distinctions are fleshed out in great detail throughout the Bible, but here's just a couple for us to consider.

Men are commanded to be heads of their households. That's, again, pretty difficult today in the day in which we live, but men are, in Ephesians chapter five, are called to be heads. In other places in Scripture, they're called to love their wives as Christ loves the church, which means that they're called to give themselves up and sacrifice for their families. They're called to teach their wives in 1 Corinthians chapter 14, where if a question needs to be asked, The wives are commanded to ask their husbands at home, which kind of presupposes that he's willing and available to answer those questions. And he's also commanded in Ephesians 5 to wash his wife with the word of God.

He's commanded to disciple his children. He's told very clearly in Deuteronomy 6, but also in Ephesians 6, 4, that he's responsible to make sure his children are brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. He's called to lead out in prayer in 1 Timothy 2 and to lead in church in 1 Timothy 2 and 3 in Titus chapter 1. He's called to dwell with his wife with knowledge and understanding and give honor to her as unto the weaker vessel in 1 Peter chapter three. He's called to work and provide for his own household and if he refuses to do so, not unable, but if he refuses to do so, he's called worse than an infidel in 1st Timothy chapter 5 verse 8 Yeah, he all he's also called to have a little bit shorter hair to throw that in there When he prays and prophesies and to have his head uncovered as well All right, but we also see a beautiful commands for women that Again, we have to we have to run to and hold to if we're going to navigate the cultural chaos.

We can't give in to the cultural hermeneutic, or as one brother called it, sola subjectiva. We can't give in to that. Women are commanded to submit to their own husbands in Ephesians chapter 5, to reverence or respect their husbands and love them too. They're called to receive their husband's teaching as we talked about in 1 Corinthians 14, and to love their children in Titus 2, to be silent in the church in 1 Corinthians 14, to possess the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is pretty much the antithesis of the modern feminist woman, who is anything but meek and quiet in 1 Peter chapter 3. To be modest in 1 Timothy chapter 2.

To keep their homes in Titus 2, 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 14. Yes, to wear their hair longer and to cover their heads when they pray and prophesy, whatever you feel that means, in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And so it's very clear from scripture that there are these beautiful distinctions that play out in the home and church. The husband who goes out and wins some bread and provides and protects his family, the wife who is submitted to a godly man and loves him and reverences him and is on board with his vision and raises up children, helps him raise up children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. It's actually quite a beautiful vision.

It just sounds to the modern ear. It just sounds so terrible to the modern ear, because that's how far we've fallen. And that's the culture in which we live. That's why this conference is being put on. You and I are supposed to, with love and mercy and grace and patience intact, we're supposed to be teaching our children and to the best of our ability, living out these precepts.

We're not, this isn't judgment, right? This is beauty. This is beauty. And so it's clear from scripture that men and women are not only biologically different, God calls them the different roles into different functions. And oh, by the way, if you have any doubt or you think that I'm preaching these things because I have it all down or my church has it all down?

No. Much of what I just said, I mean, they're fighting. These are fighting words everywhere. In conservative churches, in the matter what you're Presbyterian or non-denominational or wherever you are, this whole issue of men and women has permeated everything. And to move back to God's word here in any sort of way doesn't necessarily win you friends and influences people very well.

It just so happens to be the word of God, amen, saints? It's just the word of God, right? And so this is, if we think about the alternative, if we don't train our sons to be heads of houses and to love their wives and children and to work hard and provide and have a vision for the household and take that takes the household somewhere, then what are we training him? What is he going to do? Who's he going to be?

If we don't train our young women, if we don't train our daughters to be able to submit to a man one day, a flawed man one day, and follow his vision, then what's going to happen in that marriage? There's going to be bumping heads, if there's marriage at all. And then how are those children going to be raised? What example will he see from his dad and what example will he see from his mom? What happens when we let the scriptures go and don't believe in their sufficiency to govern our roles as men and women?

And what does that mean for the culture? Are we willing to endure literally the mocking, right, in order to set the example and to sow within the culture good and godly seed as it relates to men and women? Because that's what it feels like sometimes, quite frankly. It feels like mocking. Some of you sisters who grew up to be keepers of homes, and someone will ask you, and maybe some of you have already experienced it.

So what do you do? Well, I stay at home. Really, You're so smart. So if you can't be smart, staying at home, right? We need you to be smart, staying at home.

Or, again, some of you brothers, you know, so tell me a little bit about your family. Yeah, well, I work, my wife stays home, and we have 37 children. Okay, I guess we know what you guys do for fun, right? But we're in that age where much of, and again, I understand that we're all coming from different perspectives, but much of what we see here is really, even among believers, looked at with a bunch of exceptions rolling around in our head. And indeed, every once in a while there may be that.

I mean, there may be something extenuous. Your husband goes down with an injury, or wife who's older and doesn't have children, and maybe there's some things. And we get some of those things. But even the normative pattern bothers us for whatever reason. And that's what we're raising our children in.

There is hope for the family in navigating culture chaos in this area, but it's found in God's word. And the more we open it up and read a passage and go, well, it can't possibly mean that in our day and time, the worse this is going to become. And note that we don't say that in other areas. We go to 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the chapter of love, we all take that as written. Oh, just, we gotta love, bang, bang, bang.

We go to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, but just skip the controversial passages and go to the Lord's table. We line those things up exactly as they are, right? When we go to Ephesians 5, or we go to Titus 2, or 1 Peter 3, there's a bunch of hemming and hawing going on and as a result, Well, we find the church in quite the pickle, not too dissimilar from where the culture is. Alright, I have two minutes, so let me give you the third point. As the pressure mounts, remember and share the gospel.

Share the gospel and be involved in the Great Commission. As the world continues to rage against God's design, let us remember that much of this ungodly rhetoric does, in fact, come from unbelievers. So let us lift up the truth of the gospel to them, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and God the Son, that he came to this earth through the Virgin Mary and revealed the truths of God, that he lived the perfect life in our place, died on the cross to pay the penalty of sin, that we might be brought into relationship with God, that he rose again on the third day and gives eternal life to those that he has called who believe in him by grace and through faith. Those who reject him will spend an eternity apart from him in hell. At a future date he will come back to this earth to complete the restoration of the creation of God.

Let us be bold in that proclamation and as a result of that, when we communicate the gospel to people, let us also communicate as the Great Commission implies everything that the Lord has taught us, including gender. In other words, go ahead and on and be an evangelist for the gospel, first of all, that Jesus died for sin and rose again. But then when you're asked, either to explain yourself verbally or when you're looked upon and you can feel the eyes upon you. Proclaim the Great Commission, yeah, I'm modest because I love my Lord. Yeah, these are my children, all 18 of them because I love my Lord.

Yeah, I submit to my husband because I love my Lord and because his word declares that I am not ashamed of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ what is the power of God unto salvation and I'm also not ashamed of what God has said concerning gender there is male and there is female and they are complementary yet distinct and it's beautiful the Bible says this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous. Scripture says concerning the wisdom of God, her ways are the ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is everyone that retaineth her. Hold fast to God's word. This is what we need to navigate the culture of chaos as it relates to gender.

Don't be ashamed. Apply it to your own hearts and communicate it as you have opportunity. Let's pray. Father, thank you for these few moments. I pray that your people are encouraged.

I pray, Father, that if nothing else, They've looked back to you as it relates to this issue of gender, and they are willing, by your grace, to apply the scriptures to their own hearts, to the best of their ability, and will be willing in future days to stand boldly in the midst of such corruption, so that men and women will see the light of the gospel and the light of the Lord's Church. Oh Lord you called us to be lights in the midst of a dark culture. Help us to do that with love and grace and we'll be very careful to give you all the honor all the glory and all the praise In Jesus' name, Amen.