We come now again to the exposition of God's Holy Word. And congregation, if you would please, let's take our Bibles out at this time. And we want to turn back to Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5, as we are considering what God would have us to do and to be in the promotion of godly homes. And we want to read again the text of scripture in chapter 5, verses 22 through 24. Of course, the larger context, as Paul is addressing various members of the family, and he begins with speaking to the wives related to marriage. And in Ephesians 5 and verse 22, the scripture says, wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is head of the wife. as also Christ is head of the body, or of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Let's now join together before the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we bow before you now as again we open up your word. We pray, Father, that as we consider your word and your will, that we as a people would be ready to receive it and believe it, and by your grace obey what it says. Help us, Father, in these days where we see increasingly a turning away of basic foundational teaching, that we would reaffirm the teaching of the Word of God, that we would be committed to its teaching and its regulative authority over our lives, our homes, the Church, and yes, all of society. We thank you, O God, that your word is true. It is infallible and inerrant. It is all sufficient and authoritative. Father, may we be found as those who receive it aright for your honor and for your glory. And Lord, those who do not know you, may through the work of your spirit and by the sovereign pleasure of your sovereign will, You draw them to your Son that they might believe and trust in Jesus Christ, that they might be delivered from their sin and find salvation in Him. Father, this we pray all in Jesus' name, amen. We are continuing to consider several basic and foundational teachings as it relates to God's original creation in preparation for our specific instructions found in Ephesians chapter 5. We find Paul addressing the issue of the family, godly homes, But there is a lot that Paul is assuming when you come to the text of Ephesians 5. All of the teaching in Genesis related to creation, related to men and women, these things are a part of Paul's worldview, his assumption, and that is the basis of what he says in our chapter. And yet we, of course, recognize that we live in a world that doesn't necessarily understand these things. We live in a world, sadly, where we debate what is a woman or what is a man. And so at the very basic level, nothing can be assumed in our Christless culture. We have been talking over the last few weeks by way of introduction about the issue of God's creation of men and women. We have said that men and women are equal in value and dignity in the sight of God. We all affirm that. We have said that they are created in the image of God. The Bible affirms that. We have said that if a man or a woman is saved, they're both joint heirs in the grace of God. 1 Peter declares that in 1 Peter 3. And yet we also affirm that they are different and they are distinct by their very natures from creation. Male hierarchy, headship, authority, and rule is found in all three spheres of our existence. as it relates to the home, that's the smallest sphere, then to the church and to all of society. This idea of headship, this idea of mal-hierarchy and authority is manifest in all three spheres. We said briefly last week, talking about the civil sphere, that is that most outward sphere of our existence, that if male hierarchy is indeed rooted in creation and nature, and we noted that it was according to the scriptures, then we said that nature does not change from one sphere to another. This is in contrast to those who would say, well, yes, there is male headship or hierarchy in the home or in the church, but that has nothing to do with the civil sphere. We said, no, it does have something to do with the civil sphere because the nature of men and women do not change when you move from one sphere to the other. They're the same creatures by God's design. We looked at some illustrations of this reality in the Word of God last week. We said, as it relates to the civil sphere, society, that the civil authority is to be masculine. That is, the political or civil offices are found to be male in the Bible. We looked at the biblical requirements for civil magistrates, and we see that in Scripture, clearly, it was male. We said that in Isaiah 3 and verse 12, God mocks weak rulers by calling them women and acting like women. To be a man acting like a woman in a civil place or authority is a shameful thing. It didn't even conscience the idea of a woman being in that office. It was addressing men acting like women in that office. And God says that's a shameful thing to see manifest. We said, secondly, that there is this other illustration of male hierarchy in the civil realm as it relates to military service. And we noted that in military service, it was male. It was masculine. We looked at the Old Testament scriptures. We noted there that whenever God calls his people to that place of forming a military, it is male only in nature. And then we noted in several places in the scriptures that to mock male soldiers is to call them women, or acting like women. Now again, this is similar to what we saw in the idea of the civil sphere. That's found in Jeremiah 50 verse 37, Jeremiah 51 verse 30, and then in Nahum chapter 3 and verse 13. So male hierarchy, headship, rule, and authority is in all three spheres. Now, today we want to consider this and we would say that if the Bible affirms male hierarchy in all three spheres, the home, the church, and society, and if this was universally accepted in Christianity and in Western civilization until relatively recently, we want to ask ourselves today the question, what has happened in the present day? Well, what has happened is the satanically inspired movement, which we call feminism, the feminist movement. Listen to the words of Rachel Wilson. She writes in her book, Occult Feminism, The Secret History of Women's Liberation, these words, quote, feminism in the United States and the Western world today is widely regarded as a completely positive, necessary, and logical struggle for equality and justice between the sexes. Feminist ideology and its resulting political movements have been responsible for the most broad, sweeping, and fundamental social changes in human history in a very short span of only about 100 years. It is astonishing to reflect upon the fact that the overall structure and organization of human families, governments, and society at large that were consistent across many thousands of years of civilization all around the world were completely dismantled in less than a century. It is stunning and fascinating as a phenomenon when you stop and think about this. There is no other revolutionary social change that compares to the rise of modern feminism and the infinite impact it has had on the way people think, live, and organize society. Feminist ideology truly changed the framework of how human beings perceive themselves and each other. It has revolutionized everything about human life, redefining what it means to be a man, a woman, a mother, a father. It changed what comes to our minds when we think of leadership, authority, and power. Feminism has indeed transformed our reality in every aspect and dimension you can think, from daily care of our homes and children to how we operate in the workplace, our schools, You can see its influence heavily on all aspects of pop culture and entertainment today. And this, of course, is stating the obvious, isn't it? This has been a profound reality. Overturning society is the very impact of feminism. Now, what I want to do today is I want to give something of a survey of the history of feminism. And I'm going to be following, not exclusively, but primarily, the treatment that Pastor Zach Garris, in his book, gives. He divides, and many others would divide up, feminism into three different phases, or three different waves. Now, some writers on the subject divide things up just a little bit differently, but many divide it up into this way. There is, first of all, what could be called first-wave feminism. The dates here that Pastor Garris gives is the 1830s until 1920. Actually, some of these elements go all the way back to the ancient pagan societies that worshipped women and matriarchal societies. But in terms of American history, those are good dates, 1830s to 1920. Second wave feminism was from the 1960s until the 1990s. Most of us, we were alive during this time, so we can identify with this second wave. And then the third wave of feminism was from approximately the 1990s until the present. So I wanted to survey the history of these three phases and point out what was the emphasis and the goals of these phases. First of all, first wave feminism. Whenever we talk about first wave feminism from the 1830s to 1920, we would say that the goal of this phase was to make women equal to men. Equal to men economically, equal to men politically, and equal to men socially. Now, whenever we talk about equality, we should always distinguish between equality of value and functional equality. Men and women are of equal value spiritually. Amen? Absolutely. They're created in the image of God. And yet we have already said they have different natures and they have different designs, even though they are of equal value. But this idea of functional equality is egalitarianism. It is this idea of sameness. It is this minimizing of the differences between men and women. And certainly, what was started in first wave feminism, we've seen the fruition of it in our day to day, where we don't even know what a man or a woman is. Well, that was the ultimate outcome. There isn't man, there isn't woman, we're just individuals. First Wave Feminism sought to make women more like men. Robert Louis Dabney, who lived during the beginnings of first wave feminism, said that the goals and claims of first wave feminism was to completely disregard the natural and divinely designed differences between men and women. He said, secondly, the goal was to release women from marital subordination. So those are the two primary emphasis. The term feminism itself was coined in the 1880s in France. And yet, when we talk about this movement, even though it didn't go by that name, I mean, the early movement was called the women's movement, the women's rights movement, the suffrage movement, the women's liberation movement. Really, even though it didn't use the term feminism, it was feminism by its very outcome and its very definition from the very beginning. First Wave Feminism took up several social causes, and what is interesting about this is that they did not all have to do with women's rights or the concerns of women. For example, it took up the abolitionist movement. It took up the temperance movement. Whenever you think about the temperance movement, which of course led to the 18th Amendment in 1920, women were a big part of the temperance movement. It also, of course, took up the women's suffrage movement that led to the 19th Amendment in 1920. Now, the reason we point out these various not even related social causes that the early feminist movement was involved in, is to show that their movement was more than just about women's issues. It shows us that it wasn't just a movement about the right to vote or the concerns of women. It was a revolutionary movement with much broader goals. It was a part of what is called by historians the progressive area or era of American history. And it was a revolutionary movement from its very beginning. It was seeking to undermine the very order of society. And that is the critical thing that has to be understood. It is very much like, how many of you remember the Black Lives Movement, BLM? How can we forget it? We think about that just a few years ago. Well, early on in that movement, they had a website, BLM website, and you could go to that website, now they took it down, but you could go to that website and you could find all of these various causes that they were concerned about. And it's interesting that the BLM movement was not just concerned about issues related to African-Americans. They were pushing concerns about homosexuality, transgenderism, and all of these other things in addition to BLM. Why is that the case? Because it was another revolutionary movement. It was a movement seeking societal change on a very broad scale. Well, that is very much like first-wave feminism. It viewed the individual as central, detached from the family unit. It was the individual in first-wave feminism rather than the family that was the basic unit of society. Listen to what B.B. Warfield wrote. How many of you are familiar with the name B.B. Warfield, the great Princetonian theologian? He, again, was of this era, first wave feminism. He writes, quote, the difference in conclusions between the Apostle Paul and the feminist movement of today is rooted in a fundamental difference in their points of view relative to the constitution of the human race. To Paul, the human race is made up of families. To the feminist movement, the human race is made up of individuals. A woman is just another individual by the side of the man, and it can see no reason for any differences dealing with the two. So, B.B. Warfield points out what was at the heart of this first wave feminism. It was all about moving the understanding of society from families to individuals. And, of course, this has led in our society today to absolute individualism in its most profound and incredible way. Before the feminist movement, the family was that first government of our existence. You had the family, the church, and then society. The head of the household, that would be the husband and the man, he voted. in society because it was the man's vote that was representing the vote of his entire family. And he was the head of his family and he voted as the head of his family. And his vote represented his wife and all of his children. And so you see the difference between these two types of understanding. The original Constitution of the United States, the founders of America, and really up until 1920, the idea of our society was that it was the family that was the basic bedrock of society, not the individual. Well, first wave feminism changed all of that. It said that it's not the family that's the primary thing, it's the individual that's the primary thing. First wave feminism, of course, was marked by these anti-Christian notions of individualism and egalitarianism, redefining the very structures of society The congregation, you need to understand, it was also marked by occultism and Satanism. You've heard me already perhaps say that the feminist movement was a satanically inspired movement, and you've probably thought to yourself, well, that's just the pastor kind of speaking in exaggeration. Well, let me just share with you some of the prominent members in first wave feminism. Many of us would be familiar with the name Elizabeth Caddy Stanton, who lived from 1815 to 1902. Elizabeth Caddy Stanton was a key leader in the movement. She was the first president of the National Women's Suffrage Association. She wrote the Women's Bible in 1895, attacking male headship. She practiced spiritism. She engaged in seances and she went to mediums. She went to what they called spirit tables where they would communicate with the dead. She is reported to have heard spirit raps in her home. These would be visitation of spirit beings that would knock on the walls and you would hear these knockings. And she claimed she was getting communications from spirits. That's Elizabeth Cady Stanton. What about Susan B. Anthony, who lived from 1820 until 1906? She was another key leader in the movement. We're all familiar with her name. We actually made a coin with her as a way of honoring her. She was born into a Quaker family committed to societal equality. She was rumored to be a lesbian. She attended, in her adulthood, Unitarian churches. While she always claimed to be of Quaker origin, During adulthood, she attended Unitarian churches. Now, what is a Unitarian church? Basically, a heretical church. They deny the deity of Jesus Christ, and they deny the Trinity. So, not true Christianity. She attempted unsuccessfully to start her own church in 1859, which would be, quote, a free church where no doctrine should be preached and all should be welcomed. Now, how about a church like that, where no doctrines are preached? Doesn't sound like much of a church. That's what Susan B. Anthony desired. She frequented throughout her career a place called the Lillydale Assembly in New York. The Lillydale Assembly, if you're not familiar with this place, it's still in existence, was a spiritualist retreat camp. And this is where people would go and they would have prayers and meditations and divine healings. And they would practice seances and they would speak to the dead and speak to demonic spirits. And Susan B. Anthony went to this place, and she was invited and gladly accepted the invitation, and spoke there on several occasions throughout her career. Now, interestingly, talking about her religious bent, Elizabeth Cady Stanton said of Susan B. Anthony, she of course knew her, she said, she's actually an agnostic. To her, work is worship, and she is not orthodox in belief, but she is religious." End of quote. So when you think about Susan B. Anthony, whether or not she engaged full-blown in a cult activity, she had no problem frequenting that crowd and speaking to those people. And they were her people, as they were very receptive to this open thinking about women's issues. Another individual in the first wave feminism is Victoria Woodhull. You may not be as familiar with that name. She lived from 1838 to 1927, another feminist leader. She was a practitioner of the occult. She was a spirit medium, which is what the Bible calls a witch. She practiced fortune-telling and clairvoyance, that is, the psychic ability to perceive information beyond the normal senses. She, during demonic trances, would call for free love in society. Incidentally, in 2001, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. Then there is Matilda Jocelyn Gage, who lived from 1826 to 1898, another feminist leader. In 1893, she published a book called Women, the Church, and the State, in which she argued that the church was responsible for the repression of women. It's all the church's fault. Very anti-Christian. She also was a practitioner in spiritualism, worshiping goddesses, communicating with the dead, reincarnation, and the occult. Then there was Elizabeth Beecher Hooker. You may be familiar with that name. She lived from 1822 to 1907, a feminist and social activist. She's actually the daughter of New School Presbyterian Lyman Beecher. She claimed that spirits guided her work through seances. She practiced necromancy, that is, communicating with the dead. She condemned scripture as not being relevant. These are the kind of demonic undercurrents that are found in the leaders of first-wave feminism. So congregation, it is not an exaggeration to say that the founding and the primary leaders in first wave feminism were heavily involved in satanic activities. It's not an exaggeration, it's a reality. As they all jointly worked together to overturn society as it was. Well, what about second-wave feminism? Just quickly giving a brief history here, you move from first-wave feminism to second-wave feminism. Second-wave feminism was from the 1960s until the 1990s. Listen to what Pastor Garris says describing this second wave. He says, quote, second wave feminism came several generations later in the 1960s, with a focus on women's legal and social equality. This wave fought for a women's right to initiate divorce proceedings, no-fault divorce, a woman's right to abortion, and equitable wages. The seeds of the 1960s feminism had been planted in the first wave of the women's movement. But this second wave was even more radical. This movement was ultimately an all-out attack on marriage. What about some of the leaders in Second Wave Feminism? Well, interestingly, Jewish women led a prominent role in Second Wave Feminism. I'm not trying to be anti-Semitic. Just Google the words, Jewish women in Second Wave Feminism. And what you will discover is that Jewish women played a vital role in this movement. Let me share with you some of the people. There was the Jewish-American Betty Friedan. Some of you are familiar with this name. She wrote the book, The Feminist Mystique, 1963. This book, The Feminist Mystique, called on women to trade home life for the workforce. That was the emphasis of the book. Then there was the Jewish American Gloria Steinem. Many of you have heard of that name, Gloria Steinem. She said once, and she was an active member of Second Wave Feminism, quote, a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle, end of quote. So that gives you some idea of her thinking about men. Then there was the Jewish American Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who we all are familiar with that name. She was an associate justice on the Supreme Court. Well, before she was an associate justice, she had a long legal career of activism, activism in the areas of gender equality and women's rights. Then there was the Jewish-American Bella Abzug. She actually was a U.S. House representative from the Bronx. and she was called Battling Bella, and she was a flaming feminist and a very vocal voice in second wave feminism. Interestingly, Battling Bella was one of the first U.S. congresspersons to openly advocate for homosexual rights. Do you see how these things all kind of fit together? This was the second wave feminism basically advocating a total social revolution, sexually speaking. It, of course, advocated the pill, no-fault divorce, free sex with no consequences, and, as we are all aware, abortion and the right for a woman to kill her unborn baby. Pastor Garris says, comparing first-wave feminism to second-wave feminism, he says, quote, first-wave feminism can be described as a women's desire to be independent from men, Whereas second wave can be described as a woman's desire to act like men. And so that basically is a good way to summarize the second wave. Most of us have lived through second wave feminism. So these things are not out of our experience. We've seen this, and it's been an ongoing issue in our day. What about third wave feminism? Well, third wave feminism really is just carrying on this societal revolution that began in the first wave. It runs from the 1990s until the present. And again, for the sake of time, let me just read to you the description that Pastor Garris gives in his book. He says, quote, third wave feminism, which began in the 1990s, was even more radical than the previous waves of the women's movement. While third wave feminism was not monolithic, it has largely been behind the push for homosexuality and the celebration of sexuality as a means of empowerment. The second wave feminism of the 1960s did have an element of homosexuality and a rejection of men, but many considered it too radical at the time and thought it would harm the movement. But the taboo of such radicalism slowly eroded over time and has continued to erode. Third wave feminism has certainly succeeded in accomplishing its goals. The U.S. Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states in 2015 in the case Obergefell v. Hodges, followed by the extension of anti-discrimination laws to homosexuality and transgenderism in the 1920 case Bastok v. Clayton County, both of which are, in the words of Pastor Garris, entirely lawless rulings. These later forms have shown just how anti-Christian feminism is, as it has explicitly attacked God's design for the family. Congregation in just over a hundred years, All of the foundations as it relates to the home as a building block of society has been obliterated and overturned in the culture at large. So when we think about these things, it's good for us to understand the movement. It's good for us to understand the satanic inspiration that were the undercurrents that moved it to the place that we are today. Because this revolution is continuing. It isn't static. It is continuing, and it is explicitly anti-Christian in its orientation. Some of us might ask the question, well, why discuss and deal with this thing and talk about the history of this movement? Well, I want you to turn with me in your Bibles back to 1 Chronicles chapter 12. Much of what I have said up to this point is really more of like a lecture in history. But this is important that we understand these things. It is important for three reasons, and I want to just real quickly state a couple of things as we conclude this morning. First of all, we are to discuss and deal with this movement and its history because we are called to understand the times in which we live. We are called to be discerning of our times. A good illustration of this is found in 1 Chronicles chapter 12 and look with me please at verse 32. Here we read of the people of God. David's army, and in verse 32 it says, of the sons of Issachar, who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their chiefs were two hundred, and all their brethren were at their command. Here we have these sons of Issachar described with this wonderful designation. They are those who had understanding of the times, the times in which they lived. Matthew Poole in his commentary says that they, quote, had the political prudence to discern the situation of their day. Congregation, we are called to that same thing today as God's people. We are called to have political prudence and understand and discern the times in which we live. We are not to be adherents of radical two-kingdom theology, which basically says, well, the Bible applies to me individually, and it applies to my family, and it applies in the church, but we can't think in biblical terms or apply the Bible outside the spiritual realm. No, the Word of God applies in every area. Amen? The Word of God is relevant in every area of our existence. And we are to be discerning. We are to be those who understand, as we read here in verse 32, the times. It is the call of God's people that we be discerning, that we pay attention to current events and trends in our culture and in our society. God has placed us in the world so that we would have an impact in the world. He has not called Christians to huddle up in a little holy huddle outside of society and say, well, we have a private faith, but it doesn't apply anywhere else. No, he has called us to be salt and light in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. He has called us to have an impact. He has called us to say, thus saith the Lord. Wise leaders are called to see and biblically assess the times. That's what we see as it relates to the sons of Issachar. Pastors are to have this wisdom and they are to be discerning and they are to see and assess the times. But not just pastors. It is the calling of all of God's people to be discerning and to understand the times. Secondly, turn with me, if you will, back to Ephesians chapter 5. Not only are we called to understand the times, but we have, as New Testament Christians, under the authority and instruction of the Apostle Paul, we are called to expose all of the evil. We are called to expose all of the evil. Paul says this, and we've already looked at this in Ephesians 5 and verse 11. He says, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. It's not just that we avoid the feminist movement. It's not just that we say, well, we don't want to get involved with that. No, Paul says here that we're not only to not have fellowship with these works of darkness, these unfruitful deeds of darkness, but we are to be actively engaged on the offensive of exposing them and rebuking them. The very word there that is used by Paul, expose, eleko, means to expose and rebuke. We are not to remain politically quiet and try to be polite and keep our mouths shut as everything around us is literally being taken over by Satan. We are to be declaring the truth in the market square. Amen? We are to be declaring the Word of God. And we are to be exposing these things that are undermining biblical teaching. We need to understand the times. We need to be exposing and rebuking all of this falsehood. And then number three, we don't stop there. We need to be calling folks who are wrapped up in this to repent and turn to Jesus Christ. My friend, if you have been caught up in these movements, And I dare say, the thinking, the assumptions, the presuppositions of the feminist movement, it has been so baked into our culture for a hundred years. that it is without doubt, it has influenced the way we see things and the way we evaluate things. That we as God's people are called to deal with that, to see it for what it is, and to repudiate it, and to turn from that, realizing that it is wicked, godless, and satanic. We as God's people are to speak the truth, we are to embrace the truth, and you must come to Christ who is the very word of truth. The reason why so many people in our culture fall into these satanic movements It's because they do not have Christ as their Savior. They do not have Him as their Lord and Master. And so they're just easily tossed, in the words of the Apostle Paul, to and fro with every wind of doctrine. And all of these movements, they see them as being progressive and helpful and legitimate. And they're not able to discern that these things are evil and undermining and attacking the very Word of God. My friend, if you are not in Jesus Christ today, the Word of the Gospel to you is repent and turn to Jesus Christ. Find Jesus Christ who is the truth. And when you come to the truth, the truth will set you free. And the truth will liberate you, not in the kind of liberation of these satanic movements of our day, but truly liberate you to embrace what God has declared in his word for the home, for the family, and for all of society. Let's bow together in prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word today. We recognize that we live in a culture that is taken captive by our adversary. Help us that we would be discerning. Help us that we would assess biblically our world and expose these evils for what they are. That we would not think it our duty to just say nothing and try to get along and go along. But you have called us to be salt and light, to have that exposing and that illuminating influence in our world. And Lord, help us that we will call sinners to turn from their sin, turn from that darkness that they are in. and turn to Jesus Christ, who is the Savior and sin deliverer for sinners. Father, we thank you for that salvation. We pray all of this now in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand together now as we prepare to be dismissed. Again, with the words of Holy Scripture, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. And all of God's people said, Amen. Amen.