Feminine Christianity

Introduction

I certainly want to join in what’s already been said in expressing our appreciation for you being here and especially this morning being on time. After the time change, I suggested to Dennis that he might lead a song entitled How Late Thou Art. But I noticed he didn’t.

Dennis asked me what my topic was going to be this morning, and I told him that I was going to preach about women. And he selected all songs about getting to work. So I want to tell Sharon that Greg and I offer marriage counseling if you need some help there, but that’s on him, not me. So you may remember a couple Sundays ago, before our gospel meeting in the 9 o’clock hour, we talked about men in a lesson that we entitled Masculine Christianity. And I promised then that we would follow it up today with a lesson, its counterpart, entitled Feminine Christianity. And the goal of these lessons has been to look more broadly or generally at the roles of men and women. Not looking specifically at the roles of husbands and wives, mothers and fathers specifically, but just at the idea that men and women are different.

1. God Made Male and Female

And we’ll emphasize that point as we go throughout this lesson, I think, to gospel preachers of maybe as soon as 20 years ago, but certainly 1500 years ago, that in 2019, that we would have to be clearly and demonstrably stating that men and women are different, but our society has thrust that need upon us that we emphasize the differences, and not necessarily just for a biological experiment, but that we emphasize the differences as God has laid them out. And that’s been the intent of these lessons, and I hope there’ll be some benefit to you as we’ve looked at the idea of the role of men and women in the plan of God. The first thing, again, that we want to emphasize is that, yes, God made male and female.

Turn with me, if you will. I want us to actually read some text that you’re going to be familiar with the language of them in Genesis chapter 5. And the reason I want us to turn to these texts is because we’re going to be coming back to them and we get later in the lesson to make a greater point. But let’s just begin here, which to the child of God, any Bible student, should be obvious that God created male and female. And before we read there in Genesis chapter 5 and its New Testament counterpart, I want us to understand that when God does something, it carries with it great significance. Two points need to be made about God. Number one is He does nothing by accident.

Everything that God does, and certainly everything that’s recorded in Scripture that God has done, he did so on purpose and for a will and an intent. And secondly, whatever he does has ramifications. We certainly learn, and the greater part of our learning is about things that God said. But we can also learn from things that God did. We learn from his actions as well. And that’s certainly true in this context. Look again, as I said, in Genesis chapter 5. Let’s begin in verse 1. It says, this is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them, male and female, and blessed them. The new King James says, and called them mankind in the day they were created.

We start with this very basic yet foundational point that God made male and female. He made them different. And he made them different for a purpose. Matthew chapter 19, when Jesus was asked the question about the marriage relationship between men and women and the longevity of that relationship and the responsibilities in it, Jesus referenced this concept. Matthew chapter 19. Look this time in verse 4, and he, speaking of our Lord, he answered and said to them. Now let’s pause there before we read what he said. When asked about marriage and divorce, when asked about the family unit, Jesus quoted Scripture. And he quoted this basic foundational principle. Have you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female? Again, Jesus is telling us about something God did to teach us a lesson about what God wants.

2. Men and Women Are Different

And again, he did this for a reason. He did this for a purpose, and it has ramifications. Men women are different. They’re different physically. They’re different biologically. They have different chromosomes. They have different brains, different bodies. That’s a biblical foundational point, but it’s one that true science backs up. I don’t quote a whole lot from science, but I want us to notice three articles, and you could find many more.

Entitled Six Ways. Men and Women Are Different. Now she would point out in the article there are not only six ways, but she was pointing out six ways, six psychological ways in which men and women were different. I found a 2017 article by a man by the name of Bruce Golden. He is a science writer for Stanford Medical School, and he writes in Stanford Medicine publication an article that he entitled Two Minds, The Cognitive Differences Between Men and Women. And every married person, male and female, is saying, I didn’t need an article. I knew we were different. Found another article entitled, Are Male and Female Brains Different by Lisa Cawlier Cool. And I want to read some of this, and I know reading sometimes is tedious in a setting such as this, but I think I felt it was worthy of our attention.

She says the scientists have been exploring the nerve pathways that link the brain structures, like a highway system for the brain’s traffic. She says our studies are finding significant differences in the brain circuitry of men and women, even when they’re doing the same thing.

Says Regina Verma, PhD associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Her team, speaking of Miss Verma, her team has looked at nearly 2,000 healthy people, including kids, teens, and young adults, who took various tests of their mental skills. Differences in their brain roadmaps can explain why males outperform females on certain tests of mental skills, while females have the edge in others. Women, she goes on to say, women have more connections going left to right across the two halves of the brain. This could give them an advantage in pulling together information from different sources and drawing conclusions. The left hand half of the brain handles logical thinking. The right is associated with intuition. Whereas men’s brains have more connections from front to back, which may heighten their perception.

They may be more attuned to what’s going on around them so that they can take action. Men have stronger connection between brain areas for motor and spatial skills. That means males tend to do a better job at task that need hand-eye coordination and understanding where objects are in space, such as throwing a ball or hammering a nail. I got my hopes up here for a minute. She says, on average, male brains are 10% larger than female brains. However, Daniel Amman, MD, said bigger doesn’t mean smarter. He studied more than 45,000 brain scans, and no differences have been found in men and women’s IQs, regardless of brain size. MRI showed the biggest gaps between the sexes were the larger amount of gray matter that women had in their hippocampus, a structure that plays a role in memory.

And the left caudate, which is thought to control communication skills. Verma, Dr. Verma, found that in female brains there’s more wiring in regions linked to memory and social cognition. So is it surprising that women tend to be better at understanding how other people are feeling and knowing the right way to respond in social situations? Not only could recent findings show how scientists study the brain, but this research could have important health benefits like better treatments for disorders that affect one sex more than the other. Now we can make an argument between nature versus nurture, but scientists have found that at the earliest of ages that there is a difference. Again, insert shock and awe here, that there’s a difference between men and women.

3. Do Not Be Conformed to This World

By saying there are no differences and blurring those distinctions further by extending and saying there are more than two sexes or more than two genders, that there’s literally an infinite number of those. When again the scriptures say God made them male and female. And so what is our response to this? Turn with me to Romans chapter 12. Here is our response. Not just in this arena, but in every arena in which the world sets its own standards, and that should come as no surprise into any aware Christian that the world is going to set its own rules and its own standards. And many times, now let’s be fair, sometimes the world’s standards will line up with God’s standards. But many times they will not. And so what is to be the Christian’s response?

Romans 12, beginning in verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, in your mind at least underline that word. Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, underline those three words. Acceptable to who? To God, which is your reasonable service, and do not be conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The child of God, notice that the inspired writer here used both the words body and mind. The child of God will submit his and her body and mind to the will of God. And so though we read some scientists that back up what the scriptures say God made them male and female to the child of God all we need is a scripture that says, here’s how God made you.

And here’s what God wants you to do. And here’s who God wants you to be. And the Christian will humbly submit both body and mind to be acceptable to God. Blurring in the attempts to blur the distinction between men and women, and therefore the roles of men and women, does not just go against the will of God. If we’re honest with ourselves, it goes against our own innate nature. A few years ago, had a conversation with a lady who lost her husband at a young age. Her husband died, leaving her with three young children. Through no fault of her own. She was a single parent. She told me that at that time many people told her, and she herself believed that now I have to be both mother and father to these children.

And she said, and for a few years I tried that. But she said, finally it came to me one day, I can’t. I can’t be a father to these children. I can just be a mother. And she said, when that light bulb went off in my head, it changed everything about who I was as a parent, my relationship with our children. And she says, though it wasn’t ideal from then forward, she said it was much better when I realized I can’t, as a woman, she said, I can’t be a father and a mother. I can only be a mother. And that her children would have to live without a father, again, through no fault of her own. But she realized that she could not do both.

4. Foundational to the Family and Society

And she couldn’t do both, and she realized the impossibility of that, not because she didn’t have enough time and enough effort and energy, it was because she could not do what God did not make her to do. Now remember, we started this lesson establishing the premise that God made male and female. I want us to go back to those two texts. Go back with me to Genesis chapter 5. This concept is not just some point in a sermon, not just a lesson in a Bible class, that would be enough reason for us to conform to the will of God. But I want us to understand that the idea of God making men and women and making them different and doing so for a specific purpose, is foundational.

It is foundational to the family unit and therefore to society as a whole.

In Genesis chapter 5, again, verse 1 says, This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. Let’s pause there. This is Adam’s family tree. It is from Adam that the entire human race will grow. This earth will be populated. Societies, cultures, countries, languages will be developed. In the day that God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created male and female and blessed them and called them mankind in the day that he were created. Did you see what he is saying? That the foundation, not just for the family of Adam and Eve, but for the foundation of society itself, we could argue that in this society, the world itself started with the premise, God made them male and female. Just from a scientific and biological standpoint, we would not have the earth’s population if God had not made them male and female.

God is saying this is the foundation of not just the family unit, but of society in a whole.

5. Embrace Who You Are

Jesus has asked the question about the family. Is it lawful, verse 3, for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason? In talking about the foundation of the family unit, Jesus quotes, have you not read that he who made them made them male and female? And from that he says, there are consequences to the creation of God. This concept, stated before the family of Adam, stated before the restatement of God’s marriage, God’s law on marriage and divorce, shows us that this concept is the foundation of everything God intended for the family and for society. And so we give this biblical advice to women, the same advice, by the way, that we gave to man two weeks ago. And that is embrace who you are.

To men, we challenge the men to accept the God-given role that has been placed upon you. And we say the same thing today. Embrace who you are. And in so doing, embrace the beautiful role that God has for you. Do you understand that God had a work to be done? A role to be fulfilled, both physically and spiritually, and so he created woman. He made you. Turn back to Genesis chapter 2. The text from which our Lord quoted there in Matthew chapter 19. In Genesis chapter 2, we have an expansion or a magnification of the one day of the creation in Genesis chapter 1. And we have the creation of woman and the institution again of the family unit and the beginning of society as a whole.

He says in Genesis chapter 2, verse 18 in this familiar verse, and the Lord God said, It is not good that man shall be alone. I will make a helper comparable to him. Again, God saw a need, God saw a role to be performed, and he made woman. You’re special. You are unique. You were made for a God designed purpose. Why would you want to be anything else? You know, seeking to change who you are, who God made you to be.

God made women for a specific purpose to a specific role. And seeking to change who you are, who God made you to be accomplishing the exact opposite of what is often intended. Think about it. Out in the world, separate from God, a woman says, I am a second class citizen. I want to upgrade my status and become a first class citizen. And the way to do that is to become a man or to become more like a man. Do you see how that’s demeaning who you are? Rather than elevating your position as a woman, which is the intended purpose, you’re actually demeaning who you are. When we understand that that’s not God’s plan. God did not make you in making you different. God did not make you a second class citizen.

6. Christian Women Are Descendants of Sarah

God did not make man a first class citizen. So you seeking to elevate your status to become more like the other gender, the other sex is actually demeaning your own sex and gender. When God never did that. God made you special, God made you unique. And understand this, women, turn with me in the New Testament to Galatians chapter 4. Christian women are not only descendants of Eve. Christian women are descendants of Sarah. In Galatians chapter 4, in making a comparison between Isaac and Ishmael and Hagar and Sarah, he says of the child of God. Verse 30 of Galatians 4. Nevertheless, what does the scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman, so then, verse 31 of Galatians 4, so then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

We are children of Sarah. And so, women, you’re not just the descendants, if you’re a Christian, you’re not just a descendant of Eve, you’re a descendant of Sarah. And Sarah in the New Testament is set before you as a role model of faith and godly womanhood. Look over in 1 Peter chapter 3. In speaking to wives, in 1 Peter chapter 3, he says, the apostle, wives, 1 Peter 3, verse 1, wives be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they without a word may be won by the conduct of their wives. When they observe your chase conduct accompanied by fear.

Rather, let it be the hidden person of the heart and the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands. As Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror. You see, you’re a daughter not just of Eve, but of Sarah. Who, along with Abraham, gave birth to a nation of people who were set apart for God’s own purposes. Now let me step out just a little bit and talk about a word that was used at least twice in that text. That’s the idea of submission.

If we can understand that submission has nothing to do with inferiority or superiority.

mean that they are superior and I am inferior. It means that God saw that functions need to be fulfilled in his spiritual body. Roles needed to be given and roles needed to be accepted. And so when I submit myself to the plan of God and submit to those who have the oversight over me in the local church, that’s not me saying, well, I guess you’re better than me. That’s me saying God has a plan that out of the chaos of the world to give some kind of order and direction and guidance to his people. And I’ll accept that role. Turn over to the book of Hebrews chapter 11 where we read further about Sarah. Hebrews 11 verses 11 and 12 says by faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed and she bore a child when she was past the age because she judged him faithful who had promised therefore from one man and him as good as dead were born as many as the stars of the sky in the multitude innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.

Do you see that God elevates the position of Sarah. And you, as a Christian woman, are a descendant of Sarah. Now, what does that mean? That means sometimes you, like Sarah, are going to fail. Sometimes you’re going to laugh at the plan of God. But ultimately, in faith, you’re going to submit to the will of God. Being not conformed to this world, but being transformed, you’re going to present both body and mind as acceptable to God. And that means, let’s close with this passage in Galatians chapter 3. That when we understand that God made male and female, he made them different, and he did so for a purpose. When we embrace the role that we have been given, both male and female.

Conclusion

For you are all one in Christ Jesus. Do not accept the label, the liable label that has been placed upon you by the world. That to be a Christian woman, you have to demean yourself. You have to see yourself as inferior. We’ve already established that we think that that’s exactly what the world is doing. That to be a Christian woman, you recognize that God is not demeaning and lowering you, that God is elevating you to the status to which you were created. You were given a role.

A rake or a shovel? And the answer to that question would be, it depends on what you want to do. If you want to dig a hole, could you dig a hole with a rake? I guess you could. But a shovel’s better. When it comes to gathering up leaves in your yard, can you do that with a shovel? Yeah, I guess you could. But a rake is better. And so if we dare ask the question, who’s better, men or women? We’d answer it the same way. That depends. As science has borne out, that depends. What are you trying to do? If you’re trying to do the job that man gave, God gave to man, then we would argue that men are better. But if you’re trying to do the job that God gave to women, we would again argue women are better.

And all are one in Christ Jesus. May God help us to conform ourselves not to this world and its ever-changing standards, but to conform ourselves to the pattern and the will of God. Will you pray with me, please? Dear God and Father, we’re so thankful that you’re our God. We bow before your wisdom. And Father, we pray that you’ll forgive us for our times of rebellion. The times when we, like Sarah, laughed at your plan. We pray, Father, that you’ll be patient and long-suffering to us that we might come to you in faith and to be the men and the women that you made us to be. Help us to see our purpose. Help the men of this congregation to be men in the true biblical sense in which you made us.

Help the women of this congregation to be the women, the daughters, not just of Eve, but of Sarah that you made them to be. And help us work together in this body, in this family, that we might glorify you. Help us, Father, to continue to be lights. Help us to be the salt. Help us to be your children. All these things we humbly pray through your Son and our Savior. Amen. We’ll now be dismissed to our