to Genesis chapter 1. And I know these messages are going to be on Sermon Audio, and I was thinking about when we were singing. That's a great song, Jeff. Thank you so much. I began preaching a series based upon the grand design just prior to COVID in 2020. And I got through about four or five of the sermons and then COVID hit and you know how things, you know how change things, you know how things have changed after COVID, amen. So those are also on Sermon Audio under our church's website, under Sermon Audio. If you're not familiar with Sermon Audio, you ought to be. And boy, I'll tell you, that's another resource. Now you can get everything you want on Sermon Audio. Yeah, messages available on CD. I mean, I just think of two. Well, three or four, but John MacArthur, wow, you need to pray for his health. We were at his conference in March. His health is so fragile. And I don't know where the next bold spokesman's gonna come from. But he's all over. You can just listen to anything you want to. Alistair Beggs. If you're not familiar with Alistair Beggs, you ought to become familiar with Alistair Beggs. Minnesota. Ohio, he's up in there and he is a great preacher. So let's get with it because I've got lots to say and I'm probably gonna go pretty fast. If you think it's worth listening to again, you can listen to it again. But I thank Monty for really introducing this well because the basic of my message is this this morning, we can no longer be silent. We can no longer do anything except get engaged. It's time, it's way past time. We've got to become bold, we've got to become brave, and we've got to engage culture where it's at. So male and female, he created them. This is complementarianism versus egalitarianism. And what's that look like in the church? Monty touched upon what it looks like in the home. I'm going to touch upon what it looks like in the church. And we must be living our lives and doing family and doing marriage doing raising kids and doing church exactly the way the Bible says to do it, whether it's politically correct or not, because we are in a time that people can see when we are living in radical obedience to his word. Genesis 1 and 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's what happened in the beginning. God created. For His glory, for His honor, He put it all together. Now let's go down to verse 26. Genesis 126, then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them. and God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion, there's that word again, over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. I haven't figured out yet in the scenario of the big picture about how we have so quickly embraced a godless ideology, but in the part that I don't know exactly how it fits with the rest of it is abortion. But I know that was the beginning of a terrible slide in America when we legalized the killing of the unborn. And now we are so grotesque in it that a baby that survives abortion If it happens to survive abortion, that they can leave it on the table till it expires and not even give it kindness care after it's aborted still alive. I don't know. But I know that once America started down that road, it's almost as if God took his hand off America and said, if you're going to practice child sacrifice, just what else do you want? So I haven't got all that figured out yet. Matter of fact, until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't know who our enemy was. I really didn't. You know, it used to be Russia. We'd like to think it's China. But let me tell you where we are in America today. I'll tell you who our enemy is. It's the powers of darkness. It's the principalities in the higher realms. It's the devil himself. I'm telling you, he is on a tear in America. He is our enemy. We just need to make sure we're not cooperating with him and that we're an enemy of him. So I wanna welcome you to the Sovereign Grace Fellowship. I think the next one's in July, and it's at our place in Nashville. And we'll have the topics that it will be some type of follow-up to this. But today, it's male and female, he created them, and complementarianism in the home and in the church. And Kayla gave me a testimony. She has decided to homeschool her children, to make that sacrifice, to give up that, that money and to homeschool her child. And she said, what an affirmation, Monty, that was to her. I've already told you that when we started this series a year or two ago, nobody would ever have thought that we were going to get to the place that we are today so quickly. Now look, I never watched one episode of Tucker Carlson, not one, okay? I knew who he was if you're at all know anything about conservative commentaries. TV people, you would know who he was. I did listen to his Heritage speech on Friday before he was canned on Monday, and here's what he said. They asked him at the end if you didn't know his first job was with the Heritage Foundation. If you didn't know, I didn't know, his second job was with the Arkansas Democrat Gazette as an editor back in the early 90s. I didn't know that at all. But at the end, they had just a few minutes and they asked him, they said, what do you think the biggest problem is in America? Without one hesitation, he said, a lack of information. He said, we have found that not a million, but hundreds of millions of people in America do not have a clue in what's going on. They don't have a clue that we are neutering and castrating young people for the sake of an ideology. You don't have a clue that's happening. You don't have a clue that we are having drag queen story hours in which two men as old as I am with beards and hair all over their bodies are dressed like women and people are bringing their children and babies there to be groomed to be perverts. If you don't know that's going on, you wouldn't have anything to motivate you to get involved. That's what's going on in America. I don't know how we got there. Mark Chansky says this in his book, A Manly Dominion. Monty touched on it. As fluoride is everywhere in the water today, along with aluminum, if you didn't know that, feminism is everywhere in the air today. Everything I saw just yesterday, I showed Jeannie, so here's a 11, 12, 13 year old girl and she's dressed like a young lady, maybe in a uniform. She had a skirt on and she was at school. She was up against the wall and this alphabet person, this LBGQT person was out here and they had one of these big, what's that big old musical instrument horn? Yeah, yeah. So they had the head of that tuba pressed upon her face and had her pinned to the wall. So you get the picture? Our young people are being bombarded with a lie. They are being bombarded with this lie that maybe God put them in the wrong body. and we're allowing it. And I hear very few people using the word predators and perverts. And it's only predators and perverts that would do that. Now the crazy thing is we let them get away with it. So I would tell you that feminism is causing more problems, even in the church, than we might realize. Children are confused about their sexuality. Men are being silenced and neutered. In response to biblical teaching on the roles of women in the home and church, Women have begun to wonder if there's anything meaningful for a woman to do in the church. That's what you begin to hear when there's male leadership in the church. Well, what am I to do? Well, I want to tell you the Bible answers that. As a matter of fact, it's what God created a woman to do. Often this comes from frustration and the feeling that the Bible puts women at a disadvantage if done the way God designed it. Let me tell you, doing womanhood in the home and the church by God's design never will put a woman at a disadvantage. It will always position her to be blessed and mildly used of God. So after the fall, there's always been this pushback against God's design. You know where Satan made his first attack? He made it at the point of God's design. He didn't go after the leader, he went after Eve, the helper. And ever since then, there's been this undercurrent of pushing back against God's design. Did you know everything that's going in the world today is an attack not upon our young people, not an attack upon a society, it's an attack upon God's Word. Ephesians 1 and 2 is under attack. The authority and the sufficiency of God's Word is under attack. It doesn't mean what it says. That's what they're after is the authority of this Word. There's this feeling that if everything's not exactly the same for you, you and you, it's unjust. So we have girls playing on the sports team. You remember 15 years ago? These girls decided they were good enough at baseball to play baseball. Or they were good enough at soccer to play soccer. Y'all remember that? It was pretty unusual, but you go to a little league baseball game, there'd be a girl playing, right? Well, we're on steroids now. Just this week, in the London Marathon, there were 14,000 women runners and a biological male won the race. You know the word you always hear, a person's rights. A person's rights. School bathrooms being open to the opposite sex of those who identifies transgender. Going, hey, today I think I'm a man. I'm gonna go in a man's bathroom. Or tomorrow a man thinks I'm a woman, I'm gonna go in a girl's restroom. That's happening in America. Pronouns that identify their perversion. That's just another place. You can't get off there. Call them what they are. And listen, if they dressed or appeared in such a way you made a mistake, don't apologize for it. I went in Walmart this week. I'm pretty sure now it was a guy. But I dressed her as ma'am. I'm not going to apologize for that. If you want to be called whatever, address in a way that there's no, no doubt. Walmart, Nashville, Arkansas. So first we blurred the lines between the sexes. We can do, a woman can do the same thing the guys do, right? Now those lines are gone. And the church cannot ignore this. It would, you know, it would be, you know, it'd be fine for Jeff to look at his demographics and think that's not where we are, we're just gonna ignore this. No. We can't ignore when the devil has attacked. And we've got to know where he's attacked, and we've got to array and amass the forces to take him on where he's attacking. The church needs to be developing Titus to women. We'll look at that scripture in a second. All the while prioritizing and teaching and developing leaders in the church that are men and that are elders. We are to own our own roles. Did you know sometimes just operating in your role or in your lane is difficult to do? That's what men and women do. I was thinking about when Monty was preaching. Oh, it's a great story. And am I telling you they're absolutely over the hump? I'm not gonna tell you this, but we have a young couple in the church right now, and oh, time travels pretty fast when you're 72, but a year or two ago, their marriage was in absolute trouble. But you know what, they finally decided They decided I'm going to do my part, and I'm going to let them or her do her part. And guess what? Their marriage is looking like today. A beautiful picture. Because she decided she'd do her part, he decided he'd do his part, and not try to fix the other one. But you know what? Doing your part and staying out of the other lane is difficult. Amen? You know what? Sometimes it doesn't seem fair, does it? Sometimes it just doesn't seem fair that she's got, this one in particular, a household of three, third grader, kindergarten, and a two-year-old. Well, you know where she's all day long? She's at home. She's wrestling kids. Guess what she's doing when the husband comes home? She's wrestling three kids and taking care of him. Guess who's up at night? It just doesn't seem fair. But that's what God created her to do, to nurture their children. Elizabeth Elliot has said, to accept limitation takes maturity. Did you hear that? To accept limitation takes maturity. A child wants everything they want when they want it. Happiness, blessings, almost always means saying no to yourself. That's not my role. That's not for me to do. Eve did not accept her limitations in the garden, while Adam abdicated his responsibilities. The first role reversal. So these comments apply to men and women. So in the household of God, which the scripture we're going to look at today, that's how the church is described, the household of God, the church, men and women have to operate in their gender-specific roles. Surely that's the way it's got to happen today because we've got to be a testimony and a witness to the destruction, against the destruction of God's design. Men are to lead and protect. Women are to support, nurture, and bring order. So what does this mean at the practical level in the home and the church? Well, here's what it means. A woman has her roles and a man has his roles. That's what it basically means. So why don't we celebrate the equality Why don't we celebrate the equality? We are equal in God's eyes. Spiritually speaking, we are of equal value and equal importance. Why can't we celebrate that equality and yet appreciate that we've got different roles to do? Why can't we do that? Because that's not what feminism has abdicated for. Complementarianism I will define it. It's an idea rooted in scriptures that God created men and women as image bearers and equal in value and personhood, but that have specific characteristics, distinct roles, responsibilities, and boundaries that are visible in creation and redemption and are manifested in society and in the local church for God's glory. It's the belief that the husband should be the spiritual head of the family and that husband and wife will have different and complementary roles in their marriage and that men and women have different and complementary roles in the church and in society. While egalitarianism is a belief that there's no separate gender roles in marriage and that the husband and wife will share equally in leading the family and in the church. So in this preparation and in discussions with people about what's going on in America, you know, and if you're not familiar with Jason Whitlock, other than an occasional word that I wouldn't be comfortable using, or Delano Squires is another one, or Owen Strand. If you're not familiar with those people, you ought to be, because what has really happened in America, just think about it for a second, beginning in World War II, we have ceased being a patriarchal society, and we have quickly become a matriarchal society. Y'all know what I'm talking about? One is male-led, the other is female-led. Now let me just ask you from what few things you may know about the Bible, is the home, is the church, is society to be patriarchal or matriarchal? Just for your thinking. So quickly, what about church order? I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on church order. I'm talking to the choir. I'm talking to a sovereign grace, probably slightly reformed. fundamental church. So I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time about church order, because none of the scriptures that I read, nothing that I'm gonna say is going to surprise you. But what I wanna do is touch on this briefly, and then I wanna touch upon what Monty really began to speak about is, how do we engage society in such a way to turn this around? How do we do that? Turning your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 3. And let me just say this up front, what I might say a little bit longer, a little bit later, and I, you know, Monty could have gone to that Ephesians chapter 5 verses 22 through 33 scripture before he started preaching on that. If people are going to walk out of John MacArthur's messages, Okay? Then you'd think, wonder what scripture he preached on. Well, when he preached on Ephesians chapter 5, verses 22 through 33 in his church, there were some that walked out. But I just will remind you that I'm going to be reading God's Word. These are not my words. These are God's Word. Amen? So what about church order? 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 14. I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God. How is one to operate and behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth? Now listen, I have not time to preach on this. But there is no absolute truth in America anymore. I promise you, I had a guy tell me yesterday, this is a 30-year retired football coach, very informed. He told me this Thursday. He told me this, did you know since COVID, a child in public school cannot be given a failing grade? He said, if you didn't know that, that's the rule. We got to pass them all. So with truth, okay, so this is what brought this up. Listen, I bet we're already there, these kids that are smart enough to do it. Listen, two plus two anymore does not necessarily make four. Because truth is whatever the person defines truth to be. So I can see somebody saying, well, Ms. Crabtree, today I think two plus two is five. This is God's truth. Male and female he made them. No truth in America. If marriage is not between a man and a woman, There's no truth. If a child is not born male or female and God didn't make any mistake, there's no truth. They have gone after the authority and the sufficiency of God's scripture. And they started right in the beginning. So in this very clear and easy to understand passage, Paul described the church as a family, the household of God. So however the family is run, when our kids, grandkids, or great-grandkids, and Monty's right, I wanna tell you, we only raised two, but now we're watching two sets of parents raise nine, it's easy to raise your own. Wow, you that's got them at home, you got it made. All you can do is just wring your hands and pray for them when they're not yours. It's a difficult task to watch in the day and time that we're in. So, however kids see it done at home, if it's done biblically, they ought to go to church and it ought to look the same way there. Because the church is an extension of the family. So as, I should have brought my apple cider vinegar. You know that little thing that catches in your throat? Just for a second. James, would you get me a little cup of water? Jeannie is. James, would you bring it to me? Thank you. So as in the home, there rose an order. I don't think so. Thank you. In the church, there's roles and order, just as there is in the home. In the church, male elders exercise authority and oversight, just as the husband exercises authority and oversight in the home. Now let's look at 1 Timothy 3.2. Thank you, James. 1 Timothy 3.2, therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach. An overseer, an elder, a pastor does not have to be married, but if he is married, he's got to be faithful to his wife. And then we're going to come to this next scripture. So I'm just laying out the point that it will be a man, and I want to I wanna, thank you Jenny. I'm gonna bring up a point that I think disqualifies most elders, most pastors. It would be the first thing I would ask a prospective pastor-in-coming, the first thing I would look at, at a man that you might consider to be an elder, is this next verse. And I think it's absolutely the most clear of all the qualifications for a deacon or elder, and because nobody's doing it, I think it's ignored. 1 Timothy 3, 4. He must manage his own household well and with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. So the first thing you'd look for in a man that you might consider to be an elder is how's he doing with his own home? How's he doing with his own family? Is he being the leader and the protector? Is he allowing the wife to be the supporter and the nurturer in the home, the submitter in the home? And is he raising his children to know the Lord? If you're not concerned about your own children knowing the Lord, I wouldn't have any confidence you're concerned about anybody else knowing the Lord. Genesis 18, 19 says, For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him. Let me give you the Shema, Deuteronomy 6, 4-9. Here O Israel, love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. These commandments I'm giving you today will be upon your heart. Impress them upon your children. It is a man's first responsibility to impress the things of the Lord upon his wife and the children before he's got any business doing it in the church. I think it disqualifies a man. It takes a man to do such things. It takes a godly, masculine man to lead his family. It takes a godly, masculine man to fight the fight and lead the church. 1 Timothy 2.12, I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather, she is to remain quiet. This speaks clearly of the responsibility of men to teach and exercise authority in the church. This is not just the position of pastor or elder. This is the function of teaching and oversight that's given to men. Women cannot teach a mixed group in the church. She has no authority to stand in the pulpit and exercise teaching. There's no teaching without authority to exercise teaching to a mixed group. I'm just reading the scripture. 1 Timothy 2.13, you're right there, you can read it as I, follow along as I read it. For Adam was formed first, and then Eve. You see in creation what the order was? The man, and then who? The woman. Women are not to teach men. They are instructed to place themselves under the authority of men in the house and the church. It is the order of creation. It is the order of the first man and the woman. It's then explained further in the fact that Eve was the one who was deceived by the serpent, 1 Timothy 2.14. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Now, these teachings are not a temporary command, are a culturally conditioned command. Surely, women have more education today than they did when these words were written. But just because they are more educated than they were then doesn't supersede the commands of God. This had nothing to do with culture. It's all grounded in God's plan from the beginning. This is the way that it will be in the family. This is the way that it will be in the church. Listen, what the family needs and what the church needs is male and clearly masculine leadership. The last thing the home needs or the church needs is a weak-wristed, limp, I'll quit there, man. We need a take-charge man, a man that will fight the battle, the man that will do the work that God's called him to do. I'm glad that Monty covered the Scripture, Genesis 2, 15 through 25. Let me just give you, if you want to go there, you can, Genesis chapter 2. We'll just look quickly through this because I need to wrap this up. Genesis 2.15, the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Took who? The man, put him in the garden to work, keep it. Verse 18, then the Lord God said, and Eve wasn't around then. Then the Lord God said, verse 18, it's not good that the man should be alone. I'll make him a helper fit for him. It's pretty clear. Verse 19, the last part, and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the heavens, to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was found no help or fit for him. Monty covered this. Adam got the responsibility for naming all the creatures. Lo and behold, he gets through, and it's almost like he said, well, there's something missing here. And there was. Then he says, No help or fit for him. Verse 21, so the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. While he slept, he took one of his ribs, closed up the place with flesh. Verse 22, and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into woman and brought her to the man. Adam was the first. Adam was the leader. Eve was the helper. And I can just remind you that's another name for the Holy Spirit. There's no shame in taking on the position or the role of the helper. So the principle holds true in great and small things, whether it be women teaching teenage boys, or whether it might be a one-time event in the church in which the elders might give permission for a woman to speak to a mixed group. It's not permitted in the church of God. And this is another place you can confront culture. You're going to hear it this week about this woman preacher or this woman pastor. Just ask them one question. Where do you find that in God's Word? The function is what the text is referring to and not the office. So what can women do in the church? Turn your Bibles to Titus 3. And I want to tell you, I think men have been the problem in the church and society. Do y'all hear me? But I want to tell you, you women have got lots of work to do in the church with the younger women. Because the younger women didn't grow up in a godly home, didn't grow up in a godly home with a godly man. They don't know how to cook. They don't know how to knit. They don't know how to do nothing. And it's not for me to teach them. Titus 2, 3 through 5. Older women, likewise, are to be reverent in behavior. Not slanders or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good. Listen to this. And so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-control, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Have the women in the church got something to do? The answer is yes. Is there much work to be done? Yes. And I'll just be honest with you, I've been at the same church 30 years. There's a little pushback from the women to do that. I just don't see it happening. But I don't see men mentoring and making young men into godly men either. It's dirty, old, nasty, hard work. They have ample opportunity to teach, but they're not to teach men. The fall did not affect this pre-fall design of God. There's no way around this text. There's no other scripture that contradicts what I'm telling you. No other. Somebody tell you something, just say, show me in the scripture. Remember that we always prove our real trust in God when we bow to obey the texts that are difficult to obey. I'll give you one. I'll give you a couple. Love your neighbor and pray for your enemies. Huh? Forgive one another as God has forgiven you. Men, You've heard it said of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery, but I tell you, do not look at a woman lustfully. We always find out who we are when those difficult texts challenge us. Amen? Now, what happened at the fall? Both men and women were gullible, right? But the serpent knew who the leader was, but he purposely bypassed Adam and went to Eve. Adam was the head, the serpent went to the helper. Adam was passive. Men, every one of you, myself included, we have a little propensity to be passive and to not take the leadership role in the home and the church as we should. You know where Adam was? I ask this question all the time. Now this is the real manly answer to this. You know where Adam was? He's probably out working. You know the truth of God's word? He was right there with her because in Genesis 3, 6 or 8, it says, and she ate of the fruit and gave some to Adam who was with her. You talk about passive, there's the devil, all you got to do is snatch him out of the curry tree, crush his head, and be done with him, and he was passive. So we see that masculinity and femininity lie at the creation, lie in the creation, and the order set there. Right there in the beginning, he made them how? What's being destroyed? Where have we got to confront the lie? Right there. So masculinity and femininity was at the root of the fall. A reversal of the roles at the fall. From creation, it's clear that men are to lead. From the fall, it's clear that when that order is reversed, it is sinful and it puts men and women in danger. So there's been this, well, there's been pushes in all denominations for women to have more and more, more and more, greater and greater roles, even preaching the pulpit, right? Because, see, they think to get to do those things, they're liberated. But really, they are ushered into something that is contrary and sinful according to God's word, and sin is what really brings oppression. In the same way that the home and wife and children are protected by the husband and fathers from male leadership, the church's protection and thriving, listen men, the church's protecting and thriving depends on doing it God's way, and that means godly male leadership. Let me just tell you, biblical masculinity is not toxic. Jesus was a man's man. He was a carpenter's son. And I've about seen the last long-haired, feminine-looking Jesus that somebody's betrayed with a preacher. I'm about tired of looking at those pictures. And I'd love to see Jesus. I think when I look him in the face, I don't think I'll see any femininity at all. But you just look at most of the pictures that we see of Jesus. So a healthy church creates a culture of masculine, male, mentorship, and leadership. You know what that means? From birth, but as soon as maybe they don't wet and mess their pants, that little boy ought to be on his daddy's hip. Not on his mama's hip, on his daddy's hip. He ought to be going everywhere that daddy goes, that's including the church, and he ought to be watching his daddy be a godly man. So out of this male mentorship, Future men will become teachers and elders and preachers. Teaching little boys to be godly men. Mentoring men 101 to become godly men. Giving men leadership opportunities in which men can watch and find out what elders do. Raising up godly men from infancy to adulthood to be godly leaders in the church. I want to quickly tell you how we're to get engaged. So how do we battle for biblical order in this upside down world? Our governor's reply to the State of the Union address used the perfect word to describe where we're at. There's no other word to describe it. Crazy. It's absolute crazy. In their book, The Grand Design, which you've got back there on the table, Owen Strand and Gavin Peacock tell us that church culture, did y'all hear that now? Church culture is the only culture that will last. Listen to Revelation 21, 1 and 2. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. The church culture is the only culture that's going to transform or go into the new heaven and new earth. This other culture, this other craziness, gone. Burnt up, gone. Nevermore. So when godly men and women step into the culture, listen, y'all look at me and listen to me. I don't care if you're older than I am. When we step into culture, we must be compelling examples of a biblical man and a biblical woman. When we walk out the door in the morning, there should be no doubt in my actions, in my mannerism, in my dress, I'm a man. We have got to confront the craziness. And we confront it first of all with what people see in me and in you. Matthew 5.16 says, In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works, to give glory to your Father in heaven. In an age of blurred and confused sexuality, how do we do manhood and womanhood in the home and the church? We'll show the way of God's design to an upside-down and crazy world. We are to show the proper way in all that we do. There's a battle raging over the sufficiency of God's Word and His design. Did God really say? Remember what he said? Did God really say? Did God really mean that? Oh, He didn't mean that when He said that. Elizabeth Rundle Charles said this, It is the truth which is assailed in any age. The truth is being assailed, which tests our fidelity, our faithfulness. It is to confess we are called, not merely to profess. Confess we are called, not merely to profess. If I profess with the loudest and the clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely, listen to this now, that little point which the world and the devil at the moment attacking, I'm not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity. Do you know where the battle is right now? It's about biblical sexuality. It's about the authority of God's Word. That's where the devil is attacking. where the battle rages, the loyalty of a soldier is proved. And to be steady on all the battlefield, besides being steady, is mere flight and disgrace to him if he flinches at that one point." We can't flinch. We've got to confront the lies. And you're not too old to confront the lies. 2 Samuel 10, 7-11. And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the rest of the mighty men. Y'all remember the account. It's also in a Chronicles account. They were fighting. They were going back to do battle, and they were getting prepared. The Ammonites came and drew up in a battle array at the entrance of the gate, and the Syrians of Zobah and Rehob, and the men of Tob and Macca, were by themselves in the open country. And when Joab saw that the battle was set against him, both in the front and the rear, he chose some of the best men of Israel and arrayed them against the Assyrians. The rest of the men he put in charge of Abishai, his brother, and he arrayed them against the Ammonites. And he said, listen, if the Assyrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me. But if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will help you. He was saying, get ready. And where the strongest opposition is, that's where we're gonna put our forces. We've got to put our forces in combating that this is not the truth. We've got to put our forces in teaching that this is the truth and it is sufficient. And it's still true today. This lady is right. Biblical sexuality is where the battle for the authority of the Word of God is raging today. God's creational intent is under attack. The point of engagement is where the gospel challenges the culture. Listen, we have got to confront and challenge the craziness with the truth of God's Word. All the trendsing. How about God's Word? God created them male and female. Why don't we say that? Are we ashamed of God's Word? What do they have? Somebody's opinion? Somebody's ideology? Confront the lie with the truth of God's Word. The point of engagement is where the gospel challenges culture, states the truth, and calls for repentance. So the church must adhere to the design of God in detail. We must be different from the world. We must have a biblical plan and walk it out. Listen to Romans 12 too. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by the testing you may discern what is the will of God and what is good and acceptable and perfect. We must not be conformed by the world. We must live in such a way that we make an influence that the world might be changed. Whether we're married or single, we must be distinctly masculine and feminine. The world's got to see from Christian people there is a distinct difference. Christians are to show the world we're disciples by the way we act, how we love one another in the household of God, and how we carry out our God-given roles in the culture, home, and church. If that means going to work and saying, I'm not going to put pronouns on my email address or at the bottom of each email, so be it. Lose your job. God will give you another one. God-given roles in the culture, home, and church. We must reflect how a redeemed man or a woman is walk out their manhood and womanhood. That's what our young, listen ladies, that's what, and I look at some of you and I see it and I so appreciate it. In your walk, in your appearance, you're a mildly godly womanhood. That's what our young ladies need to see. And some of you men, that's what our young men need to see. They need to see a godly man walking it out for God's glory. This is an opportunity to be on mission and to live for God's glory. Being fully masculine and fully feminine in a messed up and crazy world. You think your light will shine brightly when you start really acting like a godly man and acting like a godly woman? Will you think people will see that? I promise you they will. Acts 20 and 7, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Biblical sexuality affects all areas of life. So we need to live out our God-given sexuality, biblically, for His honor and His glory. Listen, the church must speak loudly in this matter. We must speak loudly in this matter. We are not to be in a setting and hear a lie and not confront it. Listen, I'm going to tell you how just in a second. There's a little movement going on and still going on in churches and so the last things that were told to these people that were leaving, don't just leave. When you leave the church, leave loudly. In other words, tell everybody why you're leaving. That's a little movement going on, and if you want to know what I'm talking about, I'll be glad to tell you that. Well, listen to me. I'm telling you today, live out your sexuality loudly. Loudly. I don't care if you're older than me. Male or female. Be a man, be a woman, and act like it. Okay, I'm gonna tell you how. Not like that, Monty. Not like that, okay? I'm gonna tell you how. Men, everything you do must reflect your godly masculinity, manhood. Yes, what you wear, how you carry yourself, your handshake. Open door for women. Call them ma'am. Say yes ma'am and no ma'am. And if they get offended by it, say I'm so sorry, I'm just trying to treat you like you deserve to be treated. The church must not be silenced, but must speak the truth. Listen. Calmly. This is what God's Word says. In love. Speak slowly. Boldly. And just say, let me tell you again what God's Word says. That's all you're required to do. You're not required to change their mind. You're not required to convince them. Just a matter of fact, ask them to go get their book. For all this craziness. A man, two men married, transing, the alphabet mafia. Where's your authority for all that stuff? Just go tell them to get their book. Tell them you're waiting. Then when they bring you some back from the 40s and 50s about perversion, predators, taking advantage of young people and families back then, and all their documentation, and I can tell you the names, I don't have time now, it was all a lie. It was all a lie. I'm gonna finish up, my wife's getting a little nervous. So pastors need to equip people to do what I'm telling you to do. You need to equip yourself. People need to pray for, support, and encourage their pastor to exhort and to teach the truth with authority. Think sexuality and marriage are not big deals in the Bible? In the beginning, male and female, He created them. It's not good for a man to be alone. I will make him a helper. Listen, all the craziness is after Genesis 1 and 2. You don't have to know the last 1187 chapters. Just know the first two. Again, in the grand design, Owen Strand and Gavin Peacock says this, the Bible starts off with a marriage in Genesis 2. You know when the big marriage happens? You know that marriage supper of the Lamb? That's in Genesis chapter 19. You think marriage is important to God? You think it's any coincidence that He relates Christ and His church to the marriage? Marriage is a big deal to God. The battle's going to test us. In your family! In my family, what are we going to do when we have to confront the craziness? This will reveal what we think about the sufficiency and the authority of God's Word. But what an opportunity to be a bold witness for Christ, His church, and the Word. Listen, last comment. Our society and our children are being ravaged. and mutilated by perverts and predators sent by demonic forces, it's no time for the church to flinch. Embrace and live God's design for the sexes and speak boldly about it. Dear Lord, I pray that you would do with this feeble attempt what you see fit to do for your honor and your glory. For it's in Christ's name that we pray, amen. So Jeff's gonna come and tell us about lunch.