From a number of people, including Orrin Martin, who Orrin and Cindy are just dear friends of ours, it's a wonderful thing to say about your own student, right? When I think of Orrin, I think first and foremost of friend, and only secondly, as student. He still has to pass, though. The friendship has it has a line of demarcation here you know. But anyway but others as well. Many people have have have told us about this wonderful church here. Tom Schreiner and I have been down a number of times to two founders Baptist north of here up in spring. And and I think some of your folks here have gone up for that conference from time to time. So we've had these connections. But it is a delight to be here with you. and thank you for your warm hospitality. We already feel loved, so thank you so much for your warm reception. Just a quick word, Tom and Diane Schreiner wanted to send their greetings to you. They know a number of people here have been praying for Diane. Most of you know that Diane had a bicycle accident right at the beginning of the new school term in August. It was a very serious accident and you know honestly we didn't know if number one if she would live number two if she would recover and by God's grace she has recovered really well. She still is recovering. So you know people ask is she going to you know be 100 percent. And we don't know the answer to that at this point. It takes a long time for for the brain to heal. And for just the process of therapy to go on, but she's doing great. I mean, she and Jodi are spending time together and doing walks together. She can walk and talk, you know, and this is a great thing. Her personality is largely back again. The stubbornness as well as the humor, you know, it's all there, so it's wonderful to see that Diane is doing well. So they wanted to send their greetings and thank you so much for your prayers for that family. You know another thing I'll just make this comment Tom Schreiner. He has exhibited just an amazing devotion to his wife as a husband. to his wife undergoing this you know ordeal. I mean the hours and hours days weeks months that he spent by her side of the hospital. It was really precious to behold a very committed devoted loyal husband. And so many of us looking at this have been very encouraged and edified just by seeing Tom's love for his wife which is inappropriate to comment to make in light of our conference isn't it. Thinking of marriages and boy there is there is that commitment in marriage that when it's real it is a beautiful thing and may God help us to those of us who are married to have that kind of commitment. Well, we're going to be looking at a number of wonderful things together that relate to marriage and parenting, kind of kind of doing a twofer, as it were, you know, together. And we're starting tonight with a biblical and theological foundation for marriage. And you might want to get that outline out. It's right at the very beginning of your of your packet there. And. You know when when most Christian people think about a biblical theological foundation for marriage if they know their Bibles generally they go right to Ephesians 5 which is very appropriate and we're going to go to Ephesians 5 but we're not going to go to there to that place first. I think there is another foundation for marriage that actually precedes in the in the very creative design of God precedes the Ephesians five reality of picturing Christ in the church that we will talk about. And it really has to do with who God is as a social unity. He is one God who is three persons. And there is something about who he is as the triune God that is reflected in the human relationships that he made as husbands and wives and children. So we're going to look at both of these together this evening both the doctrine of the Trinity as a pattern for a marriage relationship and Christ in the church as a pattern for a marriage relationship both in different ways contribute to our understanding of what a marriage should be. And my goodness we live in an age where this is so important for us to get this from the Bible because the culture simply does not want us to think biblically. It's no news to you. You know this already. We've been through a lot in the past few months as a country and marriage, sexuality, gender relationships. These are front burner issues for us in this culture. And isn't it so evident that Satan hates? Is that too strong? Hates God's design for human sexuality and God's design for marriage. and you can just feel the the the venom in our culture against the good wise design that God has put in place. And I think when you see what we're going to look at tonight you'll understand better why Satan hates this so much because what does marriage picture. It pictures two glorious realities that honestly you can hardly imagine anything being more important to God himself. One of those realities is the very Trinitarian structure of the three persons who together share the life of God. That Trinitarian structure is reflected in marriage and marriage reflects nothing less than Christ and his love for the church and the church's submission to him the head of the church and both the loving leadership of the head and the submission of the bride to the groom. Both of those are despised in our culture. So Satan is very much at work in undermining what we're building here tonight. And may God give us strength of conviction to see and to embrace the design that he has put before us for marriage. Well let's start then a Roman numeral to the pattern for created male female relationships from the Trinity. It's amazing what you think about how God is. the one God that he is and yet three persons and the doctrine of the Trinity is is a doctrine that has survived as it were two thousand years of church history. I suppose that's a little bit generous because it actually was developed in and codified as it were in the fourth century but at least for sixteen hundred years we as a church have held the doctrine of the Trinity and yet it is a doctrine that is difficult to understand. Number one and difficult to support from scripture. And yet to say that it's difficult is not to say that one shouldn't do it because every generation of Christians has come to see if you're going to be faithful to the whole of the teaching of the Bible. We've got to affirm two things about God. Number one is there is one God. True enough right. There is one and only one God. And in number two, we have to hold that the father is God. Do you want to give that one up? Oh, no, and not be biblical. The son is God. I and the father are one before Abraham was I am and the Holy Spirit is God. Remember, Peter to Ananias. Why have you lied to the Holy Spirit? It acts five. You've not lied to men, but to God. So one God. But the father is God. The son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. Each of them is the one God. I mean, the grammar here is difficult, isn't it? And how to talk about this. But one thing has been very clear, then, in the history of the doctrine of the Trinity, and that is that the Trinity, the doctrine of the Trinity, is founded upon what you might think of as two pillars, two pillars that hold up this glorious block doctrine of the Trinity. One of those pillars is the equality pillar. Equality and the father and son and spirit have to be equally God or you end up with some version of theism that is not monotheism is not the monotheism of the Bible where you have lesser gods. No, they have to be equal. So the father is equal to the son and the son is equal to the spirit in who they are as God. So equality is one of the pillars that holds up the doctrine of the Trinity. But the other one is distinction that the father, even though the father is God and the son is God and the Holy Spirit is God, the father is not the son and the son is not the spirit. So there is a distinction among those members of the Trinity. So when you realize both of those things, equality and distinction, that really is there are the two pillars that hold up Trinitarian distinction monotheism. equality. So both of those are necessary then for the doctrine of the Trinity. Now, think with me for a moment about each of these just a tiny bit more, because this plays right into how this relates then to God designing the man and the woman in the ways that he did. First of all, equality in essence, the equality that exists among the Trinitarian persons is the strongest kind of equality that there is. Did you know there were different kinds of equality? Well, there are. Let me explain to you a couple different kinds of equality, both of which are true of the Trinitarian persons. But there's another one that is even more important. All right. So here here is one. There is what you might call inequality of proportionality. Right. That they're the same proportion. You might you might think of a circle divided into three even pieces. Like three pieces of pie, a pie divided into three even parts. So each piece of the pie is equal to the other. Why? Because each is the same proportion, right? Each is one third of the pie. That's that's an equality of proportionality. Now, it so happens that the that inequality of proportionality is true among the Trinitarian persons. They each are the same proportion of deity. And guess what that proportion is. 100 percent. So it is not the case that the father is one third God. The son is one third God and the Holy Spirit is one third God. Oh no. The father is 100 percent God. The son is 100 percent God and the Holy Spirit is 100 percent God. So yes indeed they do have an equality of proportionality but it's not the most important kind of equality that they have. Here's a second example. You might call this an equality of same kind, an equality of same kind. You and I are equal because we are both what? Human beings. You have a human nature. I have a human nature. We are the same kind of things. Two dogs are equal to each other because they're both dogs. Two cats because they're both cats. Two mosquitoes because they're both mosquitoes. That is, different things are equal if the other has the same kind of nature they have. Notice, though, that your nature is a different nature than mine, even though it's the same kind of nature. So if something were to happen to me later this evening, you live on. Even if I pass away, you live on. So your nature is distinct from mine. And yet you are equal to me and I am equal to you because we have the same kind of nature and equality of same kind. Now, there's a sense in which the Trinitarian persons also have an equality of same kind. The father has the same kind of nature as the son. What kind of nature is that? Divine. Divine nature. And the sun has the same kind of nature as the spirit. What kind of nature is that? Divine nature. So they do have an equality of same kind, but the equality in the Trinity surpasses even that. Well, what is the equality that is superior among the Trinitarian persons? Well, it is an equality of identity. An equality of identity. Which means that the nature that the father has is not merely the same proportion as the nature of the son, namely 100 percent. It's not merely the same kind of nature as the nature of the son has. It is the identically same nature that the son has the one nature of God. There is only one God and hence one nature of God. That one nature of God is the full possession of the father. That identically same nature is the full possession of the sun. That identically same nature is the full possession of the spirit. One nature of God, fully possessed, eternally possessed, and shared by all three of the members of the Trinity. one nature that is the nature of the father and the nature of the son and the nature of the spirit. They each possess the identically same nature. Now I can remember in in days When our girls were young and I spent some time with them at their bedsides in the evenings going through systematic theology which ended up then years later I wrote these these things up in the book Victories for Young Hearts that Shannon mentioned earlier. But in those days when I was teaching theology to my girls as they were growing I mean they were young. I think maybe we started with this when Rachel was about four or five and Bethany was seven or eight years old. And and I just took my time you know we would look at a passage briefly and talk about a few things and then and then pick up there the next night you know just kind of move through and took years to go through. But I remember when we were talking about the Trinity with with my girls I was racking my brain trying to think of an analogy for the Trinity realizing that the analogies that I knew of already for the Trinity were actually very good analogies of one heresy or another. That is, there just are not good analogies for the Trinity. And I couldn't I couldn't come up with one, but I wanted badly to try to give them something that would help them. Oh, I get that. I see that, you know, but I couldn't come up with anything. Well, one night I remember. After struggling with this, went to bed later and woke up at about 3 a.m. with this idea in my mind. I got up, wrote it down, and I've used it ever since. So I don't know if the Lord gave it to me or just, you know, the creative juices were flowing or what. I don't want to blame God if it isn't a good analogy. So anyway, I want to be careful there. But in any case, here's an analogy that I think helps. Imagine if I had a whiteboard behind me and I took a blue marker and I drew on the whiteboard a large blue circle. So you have on the board one circle that is encompassed by one line, which is a blue line. Okay, can you picture that? Okay, now I take a green marker and with that green marker I overlap exactly the blue circle that is on the board. So over that blue line I write now a green line exactly over the blue line. Notice that you still have on the board one circle. But that one circle is encompassed equally by a blue line and a green line so that the green circle is the blue circle. But the green line is not the blue line. So two distinct lines, each of which encompasses the identically same circle. Or take then a red marker, right? And overlap exactly the blue and the green. So now we have on the board, how many circles? Just one. One circle that is encompassed by three distinct lines. The red line is not the green line. The green line is not the blue line. But the red circle is the blue circle. The blue circle is the green circle. So one essence of God, one nature of God, that is the full possession of the father that identically same nature is the full possession of the son that identically same nature is the is the full full expression of the spirit. So one nature that is possessed fully by each of the three persons of the Godhead. All right. So equality of identity is the kind of equality that you find in the Trinity. Now, what about distinction? Think with me for that about that just for a moment. If you ask the question, what is it that unifies the Trinitarian persons? What is it that they have in common? What is it that establishes the equality of the Trinitarian persons? Well, you know the answer to that now, right? the one nature of God that is the complete possession of each of the three persons of the Trinity. That is what unifies them. That is what constitutes their equality. Now you ask the question, what constitutes the distinction of the three persons? How is the father distinct from the son, the son distinct from the spirit? Like those three circle, those three lines on the board. They're distinguished from each other by color. Right. There's a green marker in a blue marker in a red marker. And so they're distinct colors. And yet they encompass one one in the same circle. What is it about the father and son and spirit that distinguish them from each other. Well as you look through the Bible it looks pretty clear that what distinguishes father son and spirit can be captured into our words. They both begin with R. The first one is relationship. Think especially about the names father and son. This doesn't work as well with spirit. But father and son, it's very clear that this is a relationship. The father is the eternal father of the son. The son is the eternal son of the father. And hence, they're distinct from each other in that the father is the father, not the son. The son is the son, not the father. And this distinguishes them in their relationship to one another. But that relationship as father son then has an expression in things that they do. So the other our word is role role. What distinguishes the father and the son of the spirit are the relationships that exist among them and the roles that are true of how they function in the things that they carry out. And this is much bigger than I can go into at this point. So you'll just have to take my word for it. But if you know your Bibles, this will ring true right away. You realize when you look at the roles of the father, son and the spirit, that there is a uniformity to what you see throughout the Bible that the father is always the one who as the father by the way father of the son right father who sends the son father who who who brings the spirit to us from whom the spirit proceeds. The father then is the one who has the role within the Trinity of having the highest authority. He's the one who is the grand architect. the wise designer of everything that takes place in creation and redemption. I think creation for a moment. How does creation happen? Well, in Genesis one. We just read, you know, by the way, God's pedagogy, his method of teaching us. It's very clear that he first of all wanted us to get the point. There is one God. That's the Old Testament. Essentially, this is a bit simplistic, but essentially that's the Old Testament. There is one God. And once we have gotten that down very clearly, then he wants us to see, ah, there are three who are the one God. the father the son and the spirit. So baptize them in the name. Matthew 28 19 name singular the one nature of God baptize them in the name of the father and of the son and of the spirit. So the one God is three. OK. So when you go back to Genesis 1 how did God create. Well it's God who created the heavens and the earth. Well, as we move to the New Testament, what do we find out about this God who creates? Well, it is the father who creates through his son, right? Think, for example, of 1 Corinthians 8, 6. For us, Paul says, there is but one God. Now listen to the to the prepositions here. Prepositions. For us, there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we exist through him. Do you hear it from the father through the son. Now go back to Genesis 1. How did the one God create in Genesis 1. What did he do. He spoke right. So the father creates by his word. Hence John one in the beginning was the word. The word was with God distinction. Do you hear that one with another and the word was God. Equality. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by him by whom. by the word. So the word then is the express agent of the father's will and plan. The father creates through what the son does. So the father has the highest point of authority within the Godhead within the Trinity. He does everything that he does through the son and through the spirit. The son then does everything that he does to carry out the will of the father. But the son himself sends the spirit. The son himself will say John 16 when the spirit comes, he will not speak on his own initiative. Whatever he hears from me, that's what he will say. He will glorify me. So the spirit understands that he is in the role of advancing the work of Christ. of carrying forward the message of Christ of accomplishing everything that the sun sends the spirit to do. So what you see in the Trinity is this a very clear picture of an authority structure within the Trinity father in the highest place of authority. The sun under the father always carrying out the will of the father. By the way, if you wonder about that, just ask yourself this question. Do you ever find in the Bible the son sending the father or the son commanding and the father obeying? Do you know the passage? I don't. What you do find many many passages right. The father sends and the son goes. The father commands and the son obeys over and over and over. So you have this this authority structure within the Trinity father who sends the son who uses the son as his agent of carrying out his work and then father and son together send the spirit. Isn't that amazing? OK, so here's the structure of the Trinity. All this is prelude for marriage. Here's the structure of the Trinity, one God in which the one essence of God is equally shared by the Father, the Son and the Spirit. With the strongest kind of equality that there is an equality of identity, you can't have a stronger equality than that. An equality of identity where the father's nature is the identically same nature as the nature of the son. The son's nature is the identically same nature as the spirit. So at the level of their natures, there is complete equality. There is no subordination of the son to the father in nature. You see that this is very important. One of the heresies of the early church was called subordination ism. Some of you probably know the heretic, although he didn't pronounce himself as a heretic. You know, I've often thought it would be helpful if those people out there who are heretics would just let us know that right off the bat, you know? But they tend not to do that for some reason. But anyway, Arius, who was alive in the turn of the third to the, I'm sorry, the fourth to the fifth century. No, no, no. Third to the fourth century, I had it right the first time. held the view that the son was a created being. So his nature was inferior to the nature of the father. Areas was famous for the phrase in regard to the son. There was a time when he was not what you would never say of the father because he existed eternally. So no, this isn't. So there is no subordination of nature among the Trinitarian persons because each of them possesses the identically same eternal nature. OK, but there is a subordination of. Function of role where the father has authority over the son, the father and son together, authority over the spirit, and you see this this pattern just clearly articulated throughout the scriptures. Well, what does this have to do with marriage? Listen to the language of Genesis 126. Then God said. Let us. Make man in our image. Where did that come from? You don't find that plural language anywhere earlier in Genesis one. Where did that come from? Well, it's reserved for this creative act of God on the second half of the sixth day of creation. Let us make man in our image. Turn, if you would, in your Bibles to Genesis 1 and look with me at verses 26 to 28. Just so you can see this in your own Bibles. Verse 26, then God said, let let let us make man. in our image according to our likeness and let them notice even in the the singular and plural pronouns that are used also of the human beings. Because you know it's because you see both in the divine plural plural and singular. You see that. But you also see of the human plural and singular that are used. So in verse 26 first of all he says let us make man in our image singular Right. According to our likeness and let them rule. So he understands that there is a singularity to what he is creating that is plural. Who is God a singularity who is plural. Isn't that amazing. So here's the one God who says let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Verse 27 God created man singular man in his singular his. You see that in his own image in the image of God. He created him male and female, he created them. So my friends, you realize, as you think about the Trinity, that there is an intention of God in his creating of us to mirror the equality and distinction that marks the Trinity. I mean, it is just astonishing to see this, that God put his imprint, his image on us Not that this is all of the image of God. By no means, it is not. But it is part of the image of God that he put his imprint upon us in which he created us distinctly male and female, but male and female who are one man, one human. We are equally human. So there is an equality and a distinction that needs to be held together. Let's think about the equality for a moment. of creating man in his own image. Look again, verse 27 of Genesis one, God created man in his own image. Now, when he says man, he's not referring there specifically to the male of the two, that is to Adam and not to Eve. He's using mad man as the corporate concept for both of them. The word we usually use is human. He created the human here as man. But notice it is man and not human. And that's significant. You know why? Well, just think for a moment. How did the woman come about? How did she come into existence? She came from him. You know I've often thought I'll mention this again on Sunday. This is part of the sermon that I have for Sunday morning. I've often thought if God wanted to indicate that the relationship between a man and a woman were there to they are two equals in terms of their positions of authority. Right. So there's mutual submission in the home and there's no sense in which a woman because she's a woman should submit to a man because he's a man. There's no sense in which that's the case. If that was God's view it would have been a lot clearer if he had created the man separately and the woman separately. So they stood on their own as it were. But he didn't do that. He created the woman from the man, indicating she owes her existence to him. Even more importantly, she is in her nature what he is. And in fact, even in the Hebrew and the and the English words, we can hear this in Genesis two. When God creates the woman and brings her to the man, he says she is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, she shall be called Isha because she was taken from each. Now English is a pretty close parallel to that. She shall be called woman because she's taken from man. So the point is she has his nature and yet she is a she and not a he. Right. So there is distinction and yet equality that is there. So the equality is that she is she and he are both man. OK, back to verse 27. God created man. The both of them are man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him the him. That's both of them are the him. All right. And how do we know that? Look at the end of the verse. Male and female. He created them. So she with him is fully image of God. She with him is fully human. She with him is fully accorded all of the dignity and the rightful treatment that is appropriate to a full human person in the image of God. So, you know, boy, husbands, we have got to realize this and men generally, we have got to realize this. that it is sinful and wrong and belittling of the creative work that God has done to think of women or speak of women or speak to women in ways that think of them, speak of them, speak to them as if they are lesser. To belittle them as inferior to who we are as men is sinful. I hate wife jokes, by the way. Don't tell me one when I'm here. I don't want to hear it. You know, so often what they what they do is they just belittle women in certain ways. And you know, we have got to come to terms with this, that that submission in the Bible does not mean we're better than our wives, that men have superiority over women. Not true. By the way, this gets off the subject a bit from Genesis, but This is also true in our redemption in Christ, right? This is what Paul means in Galatians 328. There's no distinction between slave or free, Jew or Gentile, male or female. Now, he is not indicating there that there are no longer any role differences between the two. No way does he mean that. But what he does mean is a woman and a man in Christ are completely equal. and we dare not think of women as lesser Christians or or or or inferior in the faith or inferior in their position in Christ. It is wrong and sinful to think that way. Here's another passage that indicates this. First Peter three seven. You know the first six verses of First Peter three. Peter has emphasized the role of the wife in submitting to her husband. You know as Abraham as Sarah called Abraham Lord you know and obeyed him. I mean the language is very very strong which is especially notable given that the the wife is in all likelihood married to an unbeliever. and yet called to submit to him called to call to win him over by her gentle and quiet spirit and the like. OK. So six verses devoted to a wife's submission to her husband even if even if he's an unbeliever. And then verse 7 he says to husbands to live with their wives in an understanding way as with a weaker vessel. Indeed God made her weaker in many many ways and you should not use your stronger position physically and otherwise to take advantage of that but rather be sensitive in how you live with her as with a weaker vessel. Now listen to the last part of the verse. So live with your wives in an understanding way as with a weaker vessel and grant her honor. as a fellow heir of the grace of life or your prayers will not be heard. This is how much God tests the belittling of women. because they are created in the image of God equal with men. They are redeemed in Christ, full co-heirs of all of the riches of Christ, equal with Christian men. So the first thing that God establishes when he creates the man and the woman, and this comes right into the marriage relationship, is complete equality of nature. image of God, full personhood, full human dignity that is true of her. Now, that's not the only thing, though, that we see when he creates her image of God, indeed, but. distinct in role and function. And, of course, I'm going to unpack this much more Sunday morning, so I won't do it now. But isn't it so interesting when you come to the New Testament and questions come up about roles of women in ministry in First Timothy 2 and First Corinthians 11. What does Paul go back to to indicate that a woman, by virtue of her being a woman, should not do certain things within the church. She should not teach or exercise authority over a man. She should not be an elder in the church. As a wife, she should be submissive to her husband. What does he go back to to support these things? the created order for it was the man who was created first and the woman. The woman came from the man not the man from the woman and a number of things that will look at more Sunday morning. But the point is this that when God created the man and the woman and he created them equal in essence and distinct in roles as she embraces her role as serving her husband. I will make a help me suitable for you. So her role as a wife is to serve her husband to help her husband carry out the divine calling that God has given to him. She is to be his number one supporter, encourager, and assistant in carrying out the calling that God has given to him. He on his part is to exercise loving caring leadership in that relationship to train her to help her to grow and so on. So this authority that the husband has and the submission that the wife has is a mirror reflection of the father and the son. Isn't that amazing. Now Let me suggest to you that it goes one step further. It's not just father, son, mirrored in husband, wife. But then there are the kids, right? And so in verse 28, we read back to Genesis 1, after he said male and female, he created them. Then God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. You know, that's referring to kids, right? These are the children. So here here is how to think of the Trinitarian structure. The father is the one in highest position who has authority over the son. He also has authority over the spirit, but he exercises that authority over the spirit through. The son, so you can talk about rightly talk about this, the spirit who is sent from the father and the son. Think, for example, in John 15, John 16, the Holy Spirit is sent from the father and the son. So father in highest position, the son under the father and then the spirit under the father and the son, family, husband in the highest position. He's authority over his wife and he's authority over the kids. But they together have authority over the children. It is the husband and wife. So so children obey your Parents honor your father and mother. Right. But then isn't it. This is Ephesians 6. Isn't it interesting. Then the next next thing he says in verse 3 is fathers do not exasperate your children but raise them up in the fear and the admonition of the Lord. He puts primary responsibility for the spiritual instruction in the home. Upon the father. Not upon the most natural thing for Paul to do after children of your parents honor your father and mother would be mom and dad. Raise your children in the fear. He doesn't do that. It is fathers. So we bear the highest responsibility for the whole of what happens very much as the father bears highest responsibility for the design and the administration of all that takes place that he carries out through the sun and through the spirit. So likewise, the husband and father has that highest position, his wife under his headship, but they together over the children. Isn't that amazing? So here you have it. Father, son and spirit in the Trinity reflected then in wife, in husband, wife, children in a home, in a family. And this is confirmed by first Corinthians 11 three, where Paul Paul gives this layout of headship relationships that mark our lives together but rooted in who God is. So first Corinthians 11 3 Paul says I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man. Man is the head of the woman. What is it that grounds both of those other ones. God is the head of Christ. God being understood as God the father is the head of Christ. So there is this Trinitarian reality of the headship that the father has over the son that is the basis for the headship of the husband over his wife of the man over the woman. I'm going to read just a short passage to you from a book that I'm reading on the Trinity that has just come out recently by Michael Reeves who is a Brit. He's in charge of the the theological training within the universities and college Christian fellowship UCCF in Great Britain. And I just want this is really beautifully written. I could just say it to you but he says it so well. I'm going to read you a paragraph here. He's talking here in this section in the book about the fact that the father is is noted over and over again. as one who loves the son. So he's thinking of this relationship with the father and son marked by the love of the father for the son. That's the context here. OK. Now listen to what he says. The father is the loving head of his son. That then means that in his love that is in the love of the father he will send and direct the son whereas the son never sends or directs the father. You see it. So the father in his love for the son is the one who directs the son sends the son everything that the son does. He carries out what the father tells him to do. But all of the father tells him to do is out of his great love for the son. I mean right there there's a tremendous principle isn't there that there's no conflict between loving relationship and authority and submission within that relationship. Don't buy the intuition of our culture that says the only way that there can be true love between two persons is if you eliminate authority and submission. That's the way our culture thinks. That's not the Bible. It isn't God. OK let me keep reading. This turns out to be highly significant as the apostle Paul observes in first Corinthians 11 3 and he quotes this verse. I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God. End of quote. In other words the shape of the father son relationship the headship begins a gracious cascade. And that a beautiful image a gracious cascade water flowing over rocks. Like a waterfall of love as the father is the lover and the head of the son. So the son goes out to be the lover and the head of the church. As the father has loved me so as so I have loved you Jesus since John 59. And therein lies the very goodness of the gospel as the father is the lover and the son is the beloved. So Christ becomes the lover and the church his beloved. But it doesn't stop here. He says this dynamic is also replicated in marriages husbands being the heads of their wives loving them as Christ loves the church. You see the cascade. So father loves for the love for father's love for the son the son's love for the church a husband's love for his wife. husbands being heads of their wives loving them as Christ is a head of his bride the church. He is the lover. She is the beloved like the church then wives are not left to earn the love of their husbands. They can enjoy it as something lavished upon them freely unconditionally maximally. For eternity, the father so loved the son that he excites the son's eternal love in response. Christ so loves the church that he excites our love in response. The husband so loves his wife that he excites her to love him back. Such is the spreading goodness that rolls out of the very being of this God. Isn't that an amazing vision? So here we have the Trinity giving us then the ultimate template, as it were, for a marriage relationship. We picture in our marriages equality of essence, distinction of roles. We picture the very Trinitarian structure of God. OK, what about I spent more time on the first one because it's less familiar. The second one you're more familiar with. What about the pattern of created marriage from Christ and the church? Well, this also is in Genesis. If you have Genesis one open, just go over to Genesis two. And we'll see here in these verses the the the creation of the woman through the man, as we talked about a moment ago. Let me read for you verses 18 to 25, 18 to 25. Then the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the name the man called a living creature that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle and birds of the sky and every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and he slept. Then he took one of the ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man and brought her to the man. And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman isha because she was taken out of man ish. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. So here we have this glorious picture of the formation of the woman out of the man to be a help meet for the man. And notice the very first thing he does upon receiving her is. He names her. I mean, the context here is just remarkable because he has just been naming the animals, right? Now think, what's the significance of naming? It's very much like the significance of how children are named today. That is, this significance has continued. It's one of the few things that you can see in our culture that matches what we see in the Bible. When you name someone, you do so because You the parents have jurisdiction over that one. You know we Jody and I are in a church in Louisville with lots of seminary families and and lots of births. I think your church is similar in having a lot a lot of children born and every now and then Jody and I will hear the name of a newborn. You know we'll get we'll get the messenger our church newsletter and it'll give the name and we'll go. Oh. That's an odd name, you know. But you know what? We look at each other and say, well, so what? We're not the parents. You know, we don't have the right to name that child. They do. Why? Because they're the parents. They have rightful jurisdiction, as indicated by naming the child. So here is God who creates the animals. They're his animals. God should be the one who names them. But what does he say to Adam? Whatever you call them, that will be its name. Why? Because I give you the right to subdue, to rule over the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, the cattle, the creeping things and so on. So whatever God, whatever Adam named them, that was its name. So the naming here indicates rightful jurisdiction over what's the very first thing that the man does when the woman is brought to her. She shall be called. He doesn't say God, what do you wish to call this creature? He names her. She shall be called in the name he gave her is just, you know. filled with the implications. She shall be called a shock one man because she's taken for a man. And that indicates then these two things I I mentioned them real quickly before. But let me just be clear that you see them here. It indicates two things when she names when he names her one man. It indicates man. She has his nature. She is human because she is from him. Hence, bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. Right. She is from me. So she has my nature. So what is one of the things that is communicated by the fact she comes from him? Equality, equality of nature. She has his nature. What's the second thing communicated? She is bone of my bones. Flesh of my flesh. She owes her existence to me. Her existence is derivative upon mine. So she is second. I am first. I am ultimate. She is. She is the one dependent upon me. So not only is equality established established when she's when he says she shall be called woman because she was taken from man equalities established same nature but distinction and a distinction in which it is clear she has a dependency relation upon him. She is under his authority in this relationship as he names her. So this is what Paul picks up on then in Ephesians 5 turn to Ephesians 5 and this I know is very familiar to I suspect everyone here. This glorious passage on wives and husbands relationships. So in verses verse 22 Paul Paul does. distinguishes the roles that are to be carried out in a marriage between wives and husbands. Verse 22, he begins with wives. Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He himself being the savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Now just think think about this with me for a moment. The parallel here between the wife and the bride the church that just as the bride the church is to submit to Christ and how much is the church to submit to Christ. 70 percent 80 percent. How about 100 percent. Is that not right. How much is the church to submit to Christ. All the time in every way. That's that's the model of church and Christ. I mean I think this accounts for why Paul ends verse 24 the way he does. Wives ought to submit to their husbands in everything. Why in everything. Because that's the submission that's the level of submission that the church has to Christ. Now No, Paul doesn't say this here, but you know this from other passages of scripture that this would not mean a wife submitting to her husband when she cut when he commands her to violate some moral absolute standard of God. Honey, I want you to go kill that person for me. OK, dear, I'll do what you say, dear. No, because no human authority ever trumps the authority of God. Right? No human authority. So there is a sense in which the church submitting to Christ has to be always absolute. Because Christ, as the perfect head of his church, always commands her to do what is right. And he does so as divine husband to us. So we must obey Christ absolutely without qualification, without question. But the mirror reflection of that is not quite the same. And so, yes, it is in everything. But you might put in parentheses after in everything what a word that is implied in everything lawful, right, in anything and everything that is morally permissible by God. So but nonetheless he just puts it in everything because he wants to make the point this is a mirror reflection of of the brides of the church's position before Christ himself submitting them to to the to the groom to Christ. This is this is why my friends that the notion of mutual submission between a wife and a husband that has become so dominant in our evangelical subculture. So many people hold the view that the submission in a home should be mutual. That is a husband submitting to his wife just as much as the wife submits to her husband. The biggest problem with that exegetically is the analogy that marriage human marriage points to. The picture is of Christ and the church that we then model. Well we as the church always submit to Christ. He never follows our lead. So sort of like when does the son command and the father obey. Never. When does the church command and the son obey. Never. Now we follow his command. You do. according to what I tell you, you follow my ways, says Jesus over and over again. So wives submit to their husbands, even though they are equal with their husbands in nature, they submit to their husbands under his authority. And then husbands, verse 25, husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word that he might present to himself the church in all of her glory having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He loves his own wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ also does the church because we are members of his body. And then he goes back now to Genesis chapter two. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great, but I am speaking in reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, Each individual among you is to love his own wife even as himself and the wife must see to it that you respect her husband. And that last verse is helpful because it summarizes really the key emphasis on wife and husband respectively. Husband love your wife. Wife respect your husband. Respect him. Show him honor. Submit to him. Yield to his leadership. Husband, love your wife as Christ loved the church. Lead her into greater holiness. Work for her up building and growth. Love and respect are these two things. Now, just one more comment here on on the mystery that's mentioned in verse 32. This mystery is great. You all know this already. I bet you do, because you've got a good, good teaching pastor. So I bet you already know this, that whenever you come across the term mystery in Paul, it always means the same thing. You know what it is? It is not something difficult to figure out, like a mystery novel, whodunit, you know, sort of thing. That's not what mystery means for Paul. Paul always uses the term mystery to mean a truth that was formerly concealed, now revealed or formerly hidden, now made known. So here is the mystery, this truth that was hidden before, but now made known is that Can you believe it right from the very get go right from the very beginning in the garden. The very first marriage and every marriage since has been a picture has been supposed to be a picture of Christ and the church. How about that. So that we reflect then before a watching world the church who submits to Christ. Now what should that look like. A church that submits to Christ. Wouldn't that church submitting to Christ be a church that is glad to submit to her head. Glad, delighted to follow the pathway that Christ has put down for her. Indeed. So wives submit to your husbands. Glad, hearted, joyful, rejoicing submission to the husband. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church. What what what ways does Christ love the church? Oh my goodness laying his life down for Sacrificing for her building her up doing everything necessary for her to grow to be in the end pure and spotless wholly and blameless. That's the goal that Christ has for the church. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the church. As husbands and wives respectively carry out those roles, submitting as the church submits to Christ, loving as Christ loves the church, they reflect, can you believe it? The greatest marriage there is, the eternal marriage. You know, all of our marriages, those of us who are married, they're mere shadows, right? Of the reality that is yet to come. And by the way, if you're single and you have been bothered by the fact that I'm not married, can I just say this to you? You may miss out on the shadow. True enough. I mean, that may be God's will for you for life. I don't know. He may bring someone. He may not. At this point in your life if you're single you don't have this this partner this spouse for for your own life. So in fact you may miss out on the shadow. You will not if you belong to Christ miss out on the reality that far surpasses what we experience here in this finite sinful world. The greater reality is yet to come, and we all will be a part of that. And these marriages now have the opportunity of picturing to a watching world what that great marriage looks like. What a glorious thing. Well, here we have it then, my friends. Two, wow, huge, beautiful pictures of who God is. The Trinity. and Christ's relationship to the church, both of which are pictured in human relationships, particularly in marriage. May God help us to see the beauty of what he has designed and understand more more fully why it is Satan hates this so very much why he wants nothing but to destroy it and why we need to be all the more vigilant to live out the reality that will picture well what the Trinity is like that will picture well what the Church Christ relationship is like So the people can look at this and say, boy, what a glorious picture this is. What a glorious reality that is behind your marriage. May that be true of us in increasing ways. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for our time this evening to be able to look through these these marvelous doctrines of the Trinity and of Christ in the church. And Father, I pray for every one of us here who is married. that we would just renew even in our own minds and hearts right now a commitment to live out in clearer ways in more authentic ways how we can show that the relationship with the triune persons of authority and submission and yet full equality. and how we can picture better the relationship of Christ and the church. So Lord God do this. We pray that you would receive all the glory in everything that we do and all that we are but particularly Lord in our marriages. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.