Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. Today we're going to begin hearing
about the true order of things. This is not the order of the
world. It's not the order of popular
opinion. But this is the true order of
God. This is the order God ordained.
And we're going to start today with the wife. We're looking
at the wife. Ephesians 5.22. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands as unto the Lord. For, because the husband
is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the
church, and Christ is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the
church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their
own husbands in everything. Now the Scripture says to the
believer, Thy maker, thy maker is thy husband. Thy maker is
thy husband. So in the garden, whenever God,
whenever Christ Himself was making the husband and the wife, when
He made the man and the woman, made them husband and wife, He was making them after the
pattern of Christ our husband and his bride. That's what he
was doing in the garden. He was making it after the pattern,
after the godly pattern. of Christ and His bride. You
know, we saw this this morning, everything true and everything
godly, we learn it from looking to Christ. Now, so the wife only
has to look to Christ and how that Christ brings His bride,
His church into submission to Him. And there's where you learn
how to submit to your husband by looking at Christ, looking
at the church, how he has his church, his bride in submission
to him. So knowing that, we know this
won't only be for the wives. is to be for everybody that's
a member of Christ's body. Everybody that's a bride. Remember
that bride. Because we're seeing here the
subjection of the bride to Christ. His bride. And that's how the
earthly wives learn in subjection to her earthly husband. First
of all, let's look at a few words, say a few words about this exhortation
that we're given here generally at first. He says, wives, submit
yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. Now, a wife
may have an unbelieving husband. She might be a believer and her
husband might be an unbeliever. Maybe they got married and they
were unbelievers and the Lord saved her and didn't save him.
Maybe she made a mistake and married somebody who she thought
knew the Lord and it turned out he didn't. Well, or maybe there's
a husband who is a believer who acts like he's not a believer.
Sometimes us believing husbands can be more of a headache than
a head. But what do you do with a headache?
You tender to a headache. You tender to it. You treat it
carefully. And that's what you do to an unbelieving husband
or to a believing husband who's being a headache rather than
a head. But look, this is what makes
it easy. This is not easy, but this is
what makes you understand it and makes it more clear to you
is these last four words, as unto the Lord. As unto the Lord. That means that this is not simply
done out of a matter of human love. You're not doing this simply
because you love your husband. This is not to be done merely
for your husband. This is not merely a matter of
morality, because it's the moral thing to do. As believers, we
do everything we do. We're to do all things unto the
Lord Jesus, as unto the Lord Jesus. Everything we do. Constrained
by His love for us, that's why we do it. We're to do it trusting
His care. We're to do it submitting to
Christ's government. We're to do it knowing that Christ
is ruling over all things. including my wife, including
my husband, including my boss, including my son, my daughter,
my father, my mother. He's ruling everybody and everything. Faith finds strength not in our
strength, it finds strength in Christ. So when he's saying here,
you may have to have some strength to submit to your husband. If
he's an unbeliever, where are you going to get that strength?
It's from the Lord, from the Lord. Wisdom, finds wisdom not
in leaning to our understanding, in looking to Christ our wisdom.
And the more we come to Christ, submitting to Christ, submitting
to Christ, it may be through submitting to our husband. but
submitting to Christ. That's where you're going to
find Christ is faithful and loving and caring and providing and
an all-wise husband. The more you submit to Him, the
more you're going to see that. And that's just true now. That's
just how it is. Now notice He says this too. He says, Submit yourselves unto
your own husbands as unto the Lord. I looked at that for a
while. Submit yourself to your own husband
as unto the Lord. Christ is continually reminding
His child that you're His chosen, particular, distinguished, child,
that you're His own bride. That's what He's continually
reminding us of. You're Christ's own bride. You who know Him and
trust Him, you're Christ's own bride. And Christ is your own husband. And so, it's like what Hosea
said to Gomer. You remember, he said, Thou shalt
abide for me many days. Thou shalt not play the harlot.
Thou shalt not be for another man. So will I also be for thee. And that's what he's saying here.
You be in submission to your heavenly husband. Your own husband. You be in submission to him.
And he's providing for you as his own bride. and not be for
another. You just imagine if your husband
came home and he said, honey, I think I've given you this illustration
before, but if he came home and he said, honey, I love you, you're
my bride, I love you, and I love every other woman just like I
love you. You'd say, why are you even telling
me about your love then? Your love don't mean squat. If
you love me the same way you love every other woman, why even
speak about your love? You see, true love, God's love,
is a particular love. It's to His particular people,
to His bride, and it's a saving, providing, protecting, Love. It's a love that does what love
does. Gets the job done. Saves his
people. Loves his people. And so he says
to you, wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do
unto your own husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's your own husband. Now, here's why. Here's why. The earthly husband, the earthly
husband was made after the pattern of the church's heavenly husband. That's why. That earthly husband,
that office that he held, was patterned, it was made and ordained
and patterned after the pattern of the church's earthly husband,
heavenly husband. Look now at verse 23. He says,
For, this is why, this is because. This is why. For the husband
is the head of the wife. even as Christ is the head of
the church, and Christ is the Savior of the body. The husband's
the Savior of the body, just like he's the head, but he's
the Savior of the body because Christ is the Savior of the body.
He's made, patterned after Christ, our heavenly husband. God made
man in the garden first, didn't he? He made Adam first. Why'd
he do that? Who came first? Christ or his
bride? Christ did. Christ came first. So God made man first. He made
man first. And then our maker, our husband,
created a bride for Adam. He said, the Lord God said it's
not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a help
meet for him, fit for him. This was patterned after Christ
and His bride. Just like Christ came before, He's the eternal
God, He's the Son of God, so He made Adam first. And then,
just like God chose a bride, His elect people, each individual
elect person, and espoused that bride to the Lord Jesus Christ
from eternity. Well then, secondly, He made
a woman. He made Eve in the garden. And
now this is what Scripture says. Listen to this. It says man is
the image and glory of God. Man is the image and glory of
God. And the woman is the glory of
the man. Why did God do it that way? Well,
He made it after the pattern. The God-man. The God-man, Christ
Jesus, is the express image and glory of God. We saw it this
morning. The fullness of God-head dwells
in him in a body. He's the express image of God. And the woman, the church, each
believer in particular, is the glory of the God-man, Christ
our husband. And so he says, man's the image
and glory of God, and the woman's the glory of the man. God made
that between man and woman after the pattern of Christ, who's
the image and glory of God, and His bride, the woman, being the
glory of Christ, created in His image. Scripture says, for the
man's not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Who came out
of who? Eve came out of Adam. Neither
was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. Christ
was before the church. He was before the church. Now,
He came into this earth through the church. He came into this
earth through Mary, the seed of woman. That's how he came
into the earth. But Christ was before the church.
He was before, and the church is of Christ. The church came
out of His side. He was put into a sleep like
Adam was on the cross. And the church came out of His
wounded side like as God took the rib out of Adam and made
woman. And Christ wasn't, He wasn't sent forth for the church. But the church was created for
Christ. You understand that? That's what
this world's got upside down. They act like Christ and the
gospel and everything Christ did is just all for me. It's
all for me. That's not how it is. Everything
that we're hearing about and that God's done, he's done it
for his son. The church is for his son. What
he say about him, that's not good for him to be alone. I'm
going to make a help meet for him. And God made a bride. for his son, through his son.
So God's order of man and woman in this earth is patterned after
Christ our husband and his bride to church. That's God's order
and that's God's pattern. God's order of the husband and
the wife and of the wife being in submission to the husband,
that's God's order. Patterned after Christ our husband
and his bride to church who's in submission to Christ. Now,
whether the unregenerate world knows it or not, whether they're
conscious of this or not, I don't know. Some are, but some may
not know this. But because that is patterned
after Christ and His elect bride, whether they know it or not,
that's the number one reason that the carnal mind hates this
order. That's the number one reason
that they hate this order. The number one reason. It's because
God's order glorifies Christ and gives Him all the preeminence.
and declares him to be the savior. And man's wanting to turn that
upside down any way he can, even if it means making a woman usurp
authority over a man. Nevertheless, he is the head
of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. It don't matter what the world's
doing. They're serving His purpose to give Him all preeminence.
Look over to Ephesians 1.22 one more time. I've done gone too
many messages without reading from this verse, so we got to
go look at it again. Ephesians 1.22, God has put all
things under His feet and gave Him to be the head over all things
to the church. He's the head. which is his body,
the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Now, here's the next
thing. Let's go back over there to our
text, Ephesians 5. Now, why is it so important that
the church be in subjection to Christ our husband? Why is this
so important? And then, consequently, that
the wife be in subjection to her husband? Why is this so important?
Well, the bride of Christ is the weaker vessel. You and I,
as members of Christ's body, His church, His bride, we're
the weaker vessel. Just like the wife, the woman,
is the weaker vessel compared to the man. Now, Satan's method,
you remember his method in the garden? Satan's method in the
garden was not to go to Adam. That wasn't his method. Satan's
method in the garden was to go to the woman. the weaker vessel,
because his desire is to turn this order upside down. That's
his desire. Satan came to Eve first. He didn't
come to Adam, and he beguiled her. He tricked Eve. He tricked
her. Eve ate that fruit, and then
she took it to Adam, and she gave it to her husband. He's
our representative. She gave it to him. Now turn
to Genesis 3. I want you to see something.
Genesis 3. Adam wasn't deceived. Now we
know that. He's a picture of Christ in that,
that he He loved his bride. He's fulfilling his marriage
covenant to his bride. He laid down his life literally
for his bride. That's a picture of what Christ
did. He gave himself willingly, literally for his bride. But
here's what I want you to see about how Satan turned this order
upside down. Watch this now. Eve must have
usurped authority over Adam. She usurped authority over Adam.
I know she did. I'll show you. And Adam, she
came to Adam and told him to eat. And he ate it. Now watch
this. Listen to what God said after
they had eaten and fallen. Listen to this. Genesis 3, 17.
And unto Adam God said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the
voice of your wife, You hearken to the voice of your
wife, and has eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying,
Thou shalt not eat of it. Who was Adam's head? Christ was. He's the one that gave him the
command, You don't eat this tree. But who did Adam obey? Eve usurped authority over Adam,
and Adam obeyed Eve instead of obeying the Lord. And he said,
Cursed is the ground for thy sake, and sorrow shalt thou eat
of it all the days of thy life. But now watch this, in Genesis
3, back up in Genesis 3.15, even in giving the sentence to Eve,
God shows us a pattern here, how that Christ's bride would
be saved by Christ her husband. He's even bringing glory to himself
in the fall, and he's showing that the only way the woman's
going to be saved, the only way the bride is going to be saved,
is through Christ her husband, by Christ her husband. God said
to the devil in Genesis 3.15, I will put enmity between thee,
Satan, the devil, and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed. between thy seed and her seed. Who's the woman? The woman is
the church. The woman is the bride of Christ
through whom this seed is going to come. It's going to start
Eve's the first one God called and then she had Adam and I mean Abel and you just go on down
the line all down through the lineage until Mary and Christ
came. That's the woman. That's the
bride. I'm talking about the elect of God. Christ is coming
through this woman. And so there's going to be enmity
now between Satan and that woman. That bride. Because there's enmity
between Satan and her seed. The woman's seed. Christ himself
who's coming. Now watch this. Read on. He says,
And Christ shall bruise your head, and you're going to bruise
his heel. Now, Christ was before the woman,
the church, but he's going to be born through the woman, through
the church, he's coming through, he's the seed of woman, he's
coming through her. So now read on, read verse 16. Now you try to understand. Yes,
he's speaking to Eve, but he's really telling this. This is
going to be so of the woman, the bride, Christ's bride. The
whole church is going to be true of her. Watch this. Unto the
woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth
children. The spiritual lesson is this.
Satan is going to cause this woman, the bride, he's going
to cause her much sorrow And she's giving birth. And she's
having children. Because Satan is trying to prevent
Christ, the promised seed, from coming into this earth. Because
when he comes into this earth, he's going to bruise Satan's
head. And he's trying to prevent that.
You had cases like Pharaoh who ordered all the male Israelite
children to be killed. You had Haman, he sought to destroy
all the Jews. You had Herod, as soon as he
heard Christ was coming, he had all the children in Bethlehem
and up and down the coast killed from two years old and under.
Why? Why is this happening? If you
want to hold your place in Genesis 3 and turn over to Revelation
12, Here's the Lord telling us what's
happening. What was happening all that time?
Revelation 12, 1. There appeared a great wonder
in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her
feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And she, being
with child, cried, travailing in birth and pain to be delivered. This woman is the church. This
woman is the bride of Christ. She's having a child. Now look
at verse 3. It says, And there appeared another
wonder in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon, having seven
heads, and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his head. And it
says, The dragon stood... Look down there in the middle
part of the fourth verse. The dragon stood before the woman,
which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon
as it was born. That's what Herod was trying
to do. That's what Satan tried to do with Pharaoh. That's what
he tried to do with Haman. That's what he was trying to
do with Herod. But watch what happened. And she brought forth
a man-child who was to rule all nations with
a rod of iron. And her child was called up unto
God to his throne. You know who that child is? That's
the seed of woman. That's Christ. So Satan didn't
prevent what he was trying to prevent. But the woman had a
lot of sorrow. Now go back to Genesis 3. Now
because of that enmity between Satan and Christ, Satan is trying
to destroy every elect child that's born of God. He's trying
to prevent Christ coming into this earth. So in the garden,
God preaches the gospel to the bride. He preaches the gospel
to the church and he tells her how she's going to be saved.
Watch this now. This is what he preaches to her.
Verse 16. Genesis 3, 16. He says this. Now, he said, I'm going to multiply
your sorrow and your conception, and sorrow you're going to bring
forth children. And thy desire shall be to thy husband, and
he shall rule over thee. From Eve down the line to Mary,
and all men Men too, all the way down through. We're talking
about the elect of God all the way through. Those that are truly
His people. They were saved by their desire being toward Christ
their husband. the desire of all nations. That's
how they were saved, with their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
trust in Him. And it was only by Christ ruling
over this bride, only by Christ ruling over His elect people,
by her being in subjection to His rule, that she was saved
and that dragon didn't destroy that man-child, he came forth
into the earth. She's saved spiritually from
her sin, from her rebellion, and she's saved so as to bring
forth that man-child. So Christ came into the world,
the seed of woman, and he saved his bride, and it's only by our
subjection to Christ as our husband that we continue to be saved
and that we continue to bring forth elect children as his bride.
It's only by the woman being in subjection to Christ. Learn
of 1 Timothy 2.11. Hold your place in Genesis 3
in case you want to look back, but just 1 Timothy 2.11. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will
use Paul or Peter or John and He'll give us a commentary or
like what Brother Ravi read while ago. He showed us there. This is how God provided himself
a lamb. All right. Here is the Holy Spirit
using Paul to declare what God said to Eve in Genesis 3 16. All right. Go here with me. First
Timothy 2 11. He said I'm going to get to it. Just stay with
me. First Timothy 2 11. Let the woman learn in silence
with all subjection. That's not only to the man, although
it is, but this is, let the bride, Christ the bride, learn in silence
from Christ our husband, being in subjection to him. All right,
watch. But I suffer not a woman to teach,
nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. Why
is that? Because Adam was first formed,
then Eve. There's the first reason. And
I showed you the picture of that. The glory of God is Christ and
the glory of Christ is the woman, his church, his bride. He made
the man first, he made Eve second. There's the first reason, but
look at this second reason. Adam was not deceived. He wasn't
the one that Satan came to and beguiled. But the woman being
deceived was in the transgression. That doesn't mean that when she
sinned, that made us fall. Adam was the representative man.
What does it mean when it says she was in the transgression?
She usurped authority over Adam and she told him to eat. You
remember the Lord said, you hearken to the voice of your wife. That
was her transgression. She, instead of being silent
about this thing and watching Adam do whatever Adam would do,
she went to Adam and said, eat this. Nothing happened to me.
Eat this. It'll be good. I don't feel like
cooking tonight. Eat this. And look what happened. And now here's Genesis 3.16.
This is what the Lord told Eve. I think Paul here is just speaking
under the Spirit of God. He's just telling us what Genesis
3.16 meant when the Lord said, Your desire shall be to your
husband and he'll rule over thee. This is what the Lord was saying.
Notwithstanding, She shall be saved in childbearing, in bearing
Christ the seed of woman, if they, that is the church, all
the elect from Eve down to Christ's day, if they continue in faith
and charity and holiness with sobriety. You see there he's
saying, if her desire continue to be toward Christ her husband,
being in subjection, learning from, trusting Christ to rule
over her and to protect her, she gonna be saved. And that's
how we're going to be saved, by being in subjection to Christ,
by our desire toward our husband, Him ruling over us, Him protecting
us, Him providing all for us. That's how we'll be saved. And
we'll keep burying children. It's going to be painful because
we got Satan constantly trying to prevent it from happening.
He can't do anything what God allows him to do, but he tries
to do things. And it's painful to us, though.
But God uses that to teach us our desires must beat our husband.
We must be in submission to Christ because that's the only way these
children are going to be born and brought up and kept. is by
Him, just like it's been from the garden on. And so Christ
is the Savior of the body. That's what He said. He's the
head and He's the Savior of the body. We must be in subjection
to Him. So He came and He bruised Satan's
head on the cross. And He redeemed His people when
He did it. We're called in Acts 20, 28,
we're called the Church of God, which He hath purchased with
His own blood. That's who this body is. That's
how He's the Savior of the body. 1 Thessalonians 1.10 says, Now
we wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead,
even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. He delivered
us from the wrath to come. He saved the body. Revelation
5.9 says, And they sung a new song. That's the church. That's
His body. We sing a new song, saying, Thou
art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof.
For thou was slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation. And so when
He calls us, you know what He does? When He calls us, it's
sort of like It's sort of like when a husband is courting his
wife. He calls us, and when he draws
us to himself, and he makes us to know who he is, that he's
our husband, and what he's done for us. When he does that, he
regenerates us. We enter into a marriage covenant
with Christ. But the thing about this covenant
is, when we're I'm using figurative language, but when we're saying
our vows, when we follow Him in baptism and we're professing
that we believe Christ and trust Christ and we're married to Christ,
the only thing you and I are vowing to do is submit to Him
and obey Him. That's it. That's all we're vowing
to do. The everlasting covenant of marriage
He makes with us is, baby, I'm going to do it all for you. You
don't have to do a thing. I've done it all and I'll do
it all. I'll do it all. That's why I
remember when Jonah was vomited out there on the shore and he
said, I'll pay that I vowed. Salvation's of the Lord. He said,
I'm going to submit to Him because He's the one fulfilling the covenant,
not me. That's our vow. Now you today couples get married
and the woman say all I know is I don't want to say I'm going
to submit to him. I'm not going to submit to him.
She don't even know why she's getting married much less why
she don't want to say I'm not going to submit to him. She's
in submission to Satan and she don't even know it. Her heart
dark and black and she don't have a clue what's going on. I hope you understand why it
is that when you get married to your husband, your earthly
husband, you say, I submit to him, I'll obey him, because it's
a picture, it's showing, it's made after the pattern. Yeah,
I submit to Christ, my rule is, my desire is to him, and he has
the rule over me, and I don't want it any other way, because
I'll perish if it's any other way. And then when He calls us
to faith, He gives us a new name. You know, when you marry your
husband and he marries you, you've got a new name now. You've got
a new name. And, you know, Genesis 5-2. Look there real quick. I just
want you to see this. Genesis 5-2. And the Lord did
this after the heavenly pattern too. Watch this. Genesis 5-2.
It says, male and female created he them and blessed them and
called their name Adam. Is that a typo? Didn't he mean
he called his name Adam and he called her Eve? No, he called
their name Adam. They just had one name. Just
one name. And I don't want to turn there
now, but you're familiar with it. But in Genesis, I mean, Jeremiah
23, 6 and Jeremiah 33, 16, one of those passages says, this
is the name wherewith she shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. And it says, and the other one
said, this is the name wherewith he shall be called the Lord our
righteousness. We just got one name, the Lord
our righteousness. We've taken his name. You know
over there in Revelation when he said, he that overcomes, I'm
going to give him a white stone. And under that white stone is
going to be a name. And nobody knows. Nobody else
knows it but you and him. Well that white stone is a diamond. It's a pearl is what it is really.
It's a pearl. And it's like a wedding ring
is what he's talking about. And under it's going to be a
name. Under it's going to be a name. I've got a name under
my ring. She's got a name under her ring.
I know it. Y'all don't know it. It's just
between us. Just between us. That's Christ and His bride,
though. When He marries you, you know, I am the Lord, my righteousness. I have His name. I'm one with
Him, and He's one with me. The world don't know it, though.
They don't know it. But us, His bride, and Him know
it. We know it. All right, here's
the next thing. Look at this. Now, therefore
the church is in subjection to Christ. This is why we're in
subjection to him. Verse 24, Ephesians 5, 24. Therefore
the church is subject to Christ. Now, let me say this before I
go further. There's a false bride. There is a false bride, a false
church in the world. And this order is upside down
with that church. Just think about it. Her husband
can only save her if she lets him save her. This false church, where this
order's upside down, the bride has authority over her husband. They say, he don't have any hands
but your hands, and he can't do anything if he wants to save
you, if you'll let him save you, and all those things. That bride
has the authority, and her husband can't do a thing but what she
lets him do. She can, he can't exercise his
will unless she lets him do it. And that bride usurps authority
over that husband in every way. And so does the women in that
church. They preach, they teach, they usurp authority over the
men. Their, their, their husband is henpecked and their men are
henpecked. They can't do nothing but what the wife says to do.
Because it's upside down. It's upside down. And also, they're
not keepers of the house for their husband. Because that bride,
you know who she's arranging the whole house around? The children. Whatever they want to hear preached,
whatever they want to do, whatever entertains them, that church,
that bride, that calls herself the bride of Christ, the whole
house is arranged around the children. If one of them starts
fronting off rebellious child, oh come back, come back, you
didn't like what we preached, we'll change it, we'll preach
something else for you. We'll preach whatever you want
us to preach. The whole house is arranged around
the child. But that's not so of the true
church. Now wives listen closely because this is how you learn
how to submit to your husband right here. And church, listen
to this too, because this is how we learn how to submit to
our husband. Ephesians 5.24, Therefore as the church is subject
unto Christ, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the
wives be to their own husbands in everything. A true bond, a
true church, submits to Christ our husband, depending on him
for everything. I just narrowed it down to about
four or five things. Number one, we submit to him
to save us by redemption. Now, I've said to you already,
He's redeemed us from the curse of the law. He's redeemed us
in that manner already. There's another redemption, though,
that we're depending on Him to redeem us. Listen to this. We ourselves, who have the firstfruits
of the Spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, waiting
for the adoption to wit, the redemption of our body. One day
we're going to be redeemed from this heaven and this earth into
into God's presence in heaven and earth. We're going to be
redeemed brought there fully. And we're depending on him to
do that. We can't do that anymore. We can redeem ourselves from
the curse of the law. Why submit to your husbands to take all
your debts and pay them all. And husband, this is what we're
supposed to do. We're going to be talking about husbands next
week. But this is what the wife does. Submit to your husband
to pay all the debts. That's his job. That's his responsibility. Pay all the debts. Assume all
the debts. Pay all your debts. Because that's what Christ did
for us. That's what he did for us. We fail at this, don't we? We don't want to look at this
and say, well, I've earned a righteousness by this, so I can come to God
by this, because we don't. We fail at this miserably. But
that's how it ought to be, because that's what Christ did for us.
And then, submit to Christ our husband to save us by protecting
us in the world. Christ is the one who we submit
to. He hedges us about and protects us through this whole world.
We're kept by the power of God, and Christ is the power of God.
And He keeps us. He protects us. And He does it
through faith. What's faith? Submission to Christ. That's what faith is. Submission
to Christ. Trusting Him to do the whole thing. That's what
we do. So ladies, submit to your own
husbands to protect you even as you submit to the Lord to
protect you. And then the church submits to
Christ to save us by providing for us. By providing for us. Christ provides us all spiritual
blessings and all temporal blessings. We don't earn our living. We
don't even have life until Christ showed up. He's our life and
He gives us strength to earn our living. He gives us the job
that we call our living and He keeps it all in order for us
so we can have it. Really our living is Christ.
Everything we have that where we earn a living is Christ. He
does it. He provides everything, spiritual
and temporal. He's the vine, we're the branches.
He said, without me, you can't do anything. So wives submit
to your husbands to provide, to provide. And then the church
submits to Christ to save us by giving us direction, by giving
us direction. That's what preaching is. Christ
is guiding us through the Holy Spirit, through the gospel, through
all his wise providence. He's exhorting us, approving
us, rebuking us, and comforting us all the time. In the gospel,
through the spirit, and in providence. That's what he's doing for us.
And so wives, submit to your own husbands to direct you, to
exhort you, rebuke you, comfort you. and obey and reverence him
as unto the Lord, because the Lord will rule everything. Our
earthly husband might be wrong or make a mistake, but our heavenly
husband won't, and he's ruling him, and he'll honor the submission,
even if it's wrong, and bring good out of it when it's all
said and done. Ask my wife. She can tell you
that. She's seen that happen a million times. And remember this, Christ's strength's
made perfect in our weakness. Ain't that what he said? The
way we see his strength to do all these things is by our utter
weakness. And I know this is so, and this
needs to be said in our day and time, and I know y'all won't
mind me saying it because you see the picture and you know
what this is about. But you know a wife who is self-willed
and running over her husband all the time and brawler with
her tongue and every way else. You know what she don't ever
get to experience? The strength of her husband. Just like a self-willed
rebellious sinner don't ever get to experience the strength
of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you experience that? By
being utterly weak. That's how. Lastly, this is important. Just like I said before, the
church submits to our husband by being keepers of the house.
Keepers of the house. You know what we do? What we're
doing right here? We're keeping the house. How
do you do that? We build our lives and this house
around Christ our husband. That's who we build the house
around. And the true bride of Christ doesn't arrange the house
around the children. arranges the house around Christ.
We want Christ to be the focus. We want Christ to be seen. We
want him to have the glory. We want him to be preached. And
we want to teach his children through the gospel to submit
to him and learn of him and hear him instruct us in the way to
go and all these things. That's our job as the bride of
Christ is to teach the children. Look to him. Focus on him. Submit
to him. Look to your father. Look to
your father. And so, for the wife, do the
same to your husbands as unto the Lord. Because one day, the
children will be gone. And it'll just be you and your
husband. And if you built the whole house around the children, it'd be built like false religion. You won't have anything. You
won't have anything. Therefore, as the church is subject
unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands and
everything. Now I got one last thing. 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. What if your husband's an unbeliever? And what if Well, so long as
he doesn't attempt to separate you from Christ, or the gospel,
or anything that your heavenly husband has said do, submit to
him. Look here, here's why. 1 Peter
3, 1, Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands,
that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word
be won by the conversation, the conduct of the wives. while they
behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear, whose adorning,
let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of
wearing of gold, and of putting on of apparel, He's not forbidding
a woman to dress nice. What he's saying is, don't let
it be that ostentatious, outward, adorning, like falsehood is. That's what falsehood's all about.
Gold earrings and, you know, that's what all the programs
and all the fancy music and all, that's what all that is. That's
gold earrings and the plaiting of the hair and all that stuff.
Don't let it be that. He says, let it be the hidden
man of the heart in that which is not corruptible, even the
ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight
of God of great price." He said, in your submission to him, show
him your submission to Christ. So that, not that he'll be won
without ever hearing the gospel, but so that he'll be won over
to come and hear the gospel and God save him through the truth. That's what he's talking about.
I was going to say something to the unbelieving husbands,
but I don't even think we've got any unbelieving husbands
here. I'll say it anyway in case they're
listening. To the unbelieving husbands, to the husbands who
love the message of the law and of works, I'll tell you what your believing
wife wants more than anything. She wants you to come hear the
preaching of the gospel that glorifies Christ alone. She wants
you to search the scriptures with her. She wants you to have
the comfort of knowing the warfare is accomplished. She wants your
marriage, your marriage, to be made sweeter by you both having
an interest in Christ. She wants that more than anything.
Oh, I got to go to work on Sunday. She'd rather have this riches
than those, I guarantee it. I guarantee it. All right, come
back next time and we're going to look at Christ the husband
and hear a word to the husband. All right, Eric.