Men & Women in Christ

Lead Vocalist (Joel)

Welcome & Announcements (Bubba

Call to Worship (Psalm 99:1-3)

Prayer of Praise (Susan Thomas)

All My Boast is In Jesus

There is a Fountain

Prayer of Confession (Al Koth), Unbelief

Assurance of Pardon (John 6:37-40)

Crown Him

Ancient of Days

Scripture Reading (Galatians 3:23-29)

You can find it on page 1156 in the black Bibles

Pastoral Prayer (Bubba)

Prayer for PBC—PBC women

Prayer for sister church—Fox Hill Road Baptist Church (Nathan Cecil)

Prayer for US—President's cabinet

Prayer for the world—Philippines

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

START TIMER!!!

Not all sermons are created equal.

About 20 years ago I was asked to preach a New Year’s Eve sermon at the First Baptist Church of Tupelo, Mississippi. As a much younger man, I was highly idealistic and energetic and I was eager to knock people’s socks off with the type of sermon they had never heard before.

Most people in church have heard about the great rivalry between Jacob and Esau, but few people talked about their reunion in Genesis 33. So I preached from that text using Esau as an example of the importance of new beginnings.

Here was a man who was tricked and cheated by his brother, and yet in Genesis 33 it looked to me like he was forgiving Jacob, giving evidence that he was a true follower of God.

And so I encouraged the saints of FBC Tupelo to follow in the footsteps of this great man Esau, who was willing to turn over a new leaf and become a man of God.

I don’t know how much time passed before I came across Hebrews 12 in my Bible reading. It may have been months, it might have been years, it doesn’t really matter.

But eventually I was confronted with the New Testament verdict on the life of Esau:

Hebrews 12:15–17—See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

Prior to reading that passage I thought I had hit a grand slam with that sermon on New Year’s Eve. But God used His Word to show me I had struck out with the bases loaded.

From that experience I learned a crucial lesson: You better make sure you understand the whole Scriptures before you stand in the pulpit and say “thus says the Lord.”

We are in the midst of a six-week sermon series on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.

Last week I argued from Genesis 1-3 that men and women are equal and different.

Over the next few weeks I hope to show you how those differences are fleshed out in marriage, in the family, and in the church.

But before we do, we need to ask ourselves if we’ve misunderstood things from the beginning.

Just like the New Testament confronted my misunderstanding of the story of Esau in Genesis 33, some would use the New Testament to confront my sermon on the differences between men and women in Genesis 1-3.

In what is, perhaps, one of the most well-loved yet misunderstood passages in the New Testament, we find a statement from the Apostle Paul that threatens to derail everything I’ve already said and plan to say in the rest of this sermon series.

Listen again to these words from...

Galatians 3:28 (and it will help you immensely if you open up a Bible and follow along as we study God’s Word together):

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Is this another egg-faced Esau moment? Does this text undermine everything we believe about the differences between men and women?

I hope to convince you today that, rightly understood, this text doesn’t contradict anything we believe about how men and women are equal and different.

The point of this passage, and the Big idea I hope to explain this morning, is this: Despite our differences, men and women stand on level ground at the foot of the cross.

In order to demonstrate that, we need to consider what we believe in three areas:

What We Believe About the Bible,

What We Believe About Bible Interpretation, and

What We Believe About the Cross.

These three areas are not only crucial to understanding this passage, but the entire Bible.

So let’s begin by examining...

1) What We Believe About THE BIBLE:

Our statement of faith contains an entire paragraph devoted to what we believe about the Bible, so there’s a lot we could say here. But there are two beliefs that are especially important to rightly understanding Galatians 3:28.

A) We Believe the Bible is GOD’S WORD.

We believe this because that’s what the Bible says about itself.

2 Timothy 3:16–17—All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

2 Peter 1:20–21—knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

These are not merely the words of Apostles like Paul and Peter. Jesus Himself believed the Bible was the Word of God.

In a debate with the Pharisees about how they kept their traditions but ignored the Scripture, Jesus quotes the fifth commandment then says this...

Matthew 15:6—“. . . for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.”

Jesus clearly believed the Bible was the Word of God, and so should we.

Now what does this have to do with Galatians 3:28?

If the Bible is not the Word of God, then it really doesn’t matter what Paul says in Galatians. We don’t need help from 2000 years ago to understand how to think about manhood and womanhood unless this is the Word of God.

But if the Bible is the Word of God than all of us—both men and women—must submit to everything it teaches about masculinity and femininity.

But there’s another important belief about Scripture we need to consider...

B) We Believe the Bible is WITHOUT ERROR.

This doctrine, called the inerrancy of Scripture, is defined by Joel Beeke like this: “The Bible does not declare anything contrary to what is true and real, and all that it does declare is faithful and accurate, because it is the Word of God.” [1]

Again, we believe this because this is what the Bible teaches about itself.

Psalm 12:6—The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.

Proverbs 30:5—Every word of God proves true; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.

Jesus too believed the Bible was without error.

Matthew 5:17–18—“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”

In John 10:35, Jesus again calls the Bible “the Word of God,” then says “… Scripture cannot be broken”

So what does this have to do with Galatians 3:28?

If the Bible contains errors, once again it really doesn’t matter what Paul says in Galatians.

Because if the Bible contains errors, how do we know where the errors are? And who’s to say if Galatians 3:28 contains errors? Or Genesis 1-3?

Believing the Bible contains errors effectively turns the Bible into a house of cards. Our confidence in the whole thing collapses entirely.

If we cannot trust all of it, we cannot trust any of it.

But if the Bible is without error, than what it says about men and women cannot be wrong.

If we’re going to understand how despite our differences, men and women stand on level ground at the foot of the cross, we need to understand what we believe about the Bible.

But we also need to understand...

2) What We Believe About BIBLE INTERPRETATION:

When we say the Bible is without error, we are not saying that humans do not sometimes interpret the Bible wrongly.

For example, some of the earliest Southern Baptists taught that the mark of cain in Genesis 4 was dark skin. Therefore chattel slavery was justified because people with dark skin were cursed.

The fourth president of our denomination said: “From Ham were descended the nations . . . that now constitute the African or Negro race. Their inheritance, according to prophecy, has been and will continue to be slavery . . . [and] so long as we have the Bible . . . we expect to maintain it.” [2]

There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in the Bible that even gives a hint this interpretation is true.

Comments like these are a demonic example of how to twist Scripture.

And they’re a reminder that it is not enough to believe the truth about the Bible. We also need to learn how to interpret the Bible rightly.

Once again, there’s a LOT we could say about interpreting the Bible rightly. But there are two convictions especially important to rightly interpreting Galatians 3:28.

A) We Interpret Scripture WITH SCRIPTURE.

If the Bible is God’s Word, and if the Bible is without error, than we cannot interpret one passage in a way that disregards the rest of what God’s Word says on a subject.

We must interpret Scripture with Scripture.

Let me show you how this works.

Galatians 3:28—There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Some in the LGBTQ+ community have tried to use this text to eliminate the entire concept of gender.

To accept this argument you’d have to ignore massive chunks of the New Testament, including the teaching of Jesus who went back to Genesis 1 to explain His beliefs about gender.

Besides, those who argue this are often the same people who argue for dozens and dozens of different genders.

A few years ago The Times in London reported that a series of films for middle-school students in Britain taught that there are 100 genders or more. [3]

So in the words of one of our beloved pastors, Mike Klaassen, "If there's no male or female, there's no other genders either so quit making them up!"

Others have said this passage doesn’t eliminate gender, but merely the differences between the genders.

They view this passage like a skeleton key that allows us to go through any door we choose.

Now we agree that men and women are equal, but these interpreters would say that passages like this eliminate the differences between men and women.

The problem with this argument is that it ignores the many texts that do highlight the differences between men and women.

Some texts emphasize the differences between men and women in the home...

Ephesians 5:22–25—Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, His body, and is Himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.

We’re going to look at this and other passages like it in greater depth over the next few weeks, but for now I want you to notice that the only way to argue Jesus eliminates gender distinctions in the home is if we ignore passages like this.

But if we’re going to interpret Scripture with Scripture, we cannot do that!

Other texts emphasize the differences between men and women in 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.

Ladies, I hit on this last week, but this does NOT mean you’re not allowed to talk in the building!

When we interpret these verses we also must interpret Scripture with Scripture.

And since elsewhere Paul does talk about women praying and speaking in church (1 Corinthians 11:5), and since all Christians are commanded to encourage one another (Hebrews 10:25) and sing when we gather (Colossians 3:16), Paul cannot mean that women are not allowed to talk in church.

I believe Paul has in mind an authoritative kind of speaking, the speaking that a pastor does when he stands to preach God’s Word.

But we’ll examine that in greater detail in a few weeks.

The main point I want you to understand today is that the only way to argue Jesus eliminates gender distinctions in the church is if we ignore these passages.

But if we’re going to interpret Scripture with Scripture, we cannot do that!

Interpreting Scripture with Scripture is like the guardrails on a mountain highway that keep you from careening off a cliff.

If we want to remain faithful to God’s inerrant Word, we must interpret Scripture with Scripture.

Practically, this is one reason why Christians should make it a goal to repeatedly expose themselves to the entire Bible. We should read all of God’s Word. And when we’re done we should do it again!

As a church, we should make it a goal to visit as much of God’s Word as we can. We shouldn’t limit ourselves to the books of the Bible that are easy to understand. We should visit hard books of Scripture, like the book of Judges, which we’ll begin studying in March.

But there’s another important conviction about interpreting Scripture we need to consider...

B) We Interpret Scripture IN CONTEXT.

The Bible is not a collection of fortune cookie quotes that can be ripped out of the cookie and read at random.

If we’re going to understand Scripture, it is absolutely essential we examine its context. A failure to do this will often result in a failure to understand what the Bible is actually saying.

Let me give you an example of this...

Recently I was using a popular Bible study program when I came across this Bible verse image...

SHOW GREEN LIGHT IMAGE

The image shows a green light and quotes 2 Samuel 7:3, which says: And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”

Now, if all I knew about this verse was this image, I might think God wants me to do whatever is in my heart. I might think it’s a good idea to follow my heart. I might even think God wanted King David to follow his heart.

But all you have to do is read THE NEXT TWO VERSES to learn that NONE OF THOSE THINGS ARE TRUE!

Whoever created this verse image surely meant well, but they butchered the interpretation of this passage because they divorced it from its context.

Now what can we learn about Galatians 3:28 by looking at the context?

Let’s begin with the context of this letter.

Galatians is a letter written by the Apostle Paul to a group of churches in a Roman province called Galatia, which is in modern-day Turkey.

It was written a few decades after Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, to combat a serious error that had crept into the church.

In the early 4th century, a theologian named Marius Victorinus summarized the letter like this: “The Galatians are going astray because they are adding Judaism to the gospel of faith in Christ. . . . Disturbed by these tendencies Paul writes this letter . . . in order that they may preserve faith in Christ alone.” [4]

And you can catch a glimpse of that at the very beginning of Galatians.

After beginning his customary introductions, the Apostle Paul immediately gets to the purpose of this letter....

Galatians 1:6–7—I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.

So the purpose of this letter is not to eliminate gender distinctions or overturn the social order, but to encourage Christians to cling to the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

And what is that gospel? The word literally means “good news.” It’s the good news of how God rescues sinners through the work of Jesus. It’s the good news about how God the Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to live a sinless life and die a sinner’s death in our place. It’s the good news about how Jesus rose from the dead so that whoever believes in Him can have eternal life.

So what does the gospel have to do with Galatians 3:28?

Honestly, everything.

Galatians 3:27— For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

The word “baptized” in verse 27 literally means to be dunked or immersed.

You are immersed in Jesus when you repent of your sins and put your faith in Jesus. That’s how we respond to the gospel.

And then you make your faith public, not by attending a church or walking down an aisle or praying a prayer, but by getting baptized into a local church.

Dear friend, have you been baptized into Jesus? Have you turned from your sins and put your faith in Him?

If you have done that, have you taken the first step of obedience by pursuing water baptism as an outward symbol of your inward faith?

If the answer to any of those questions is no, I’d love to talk with you more after the service.

If you have been baptized into Christ—if you are a baptized believer—you need to understand there are no second-class Christians.

That’s the point Paul is making in...

Galatians 3:28—There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

In Paul’s day there were three things that divided people into different classes: race (were you a Jew or a Greek?); rank (were you a slave or a freeman?); and sex (were you a male or a female?).

The Greeks often despised their slaves and mistreated their women.

And the Jews were rarely much better.

There’s a popular Jewish prayer from the first century that goes like this: "Thank you God for not making me a foreigner, a slave, or a woman.”

That sort of thinking was popular in Paul’s day, but it is absolutely incompatible with the Gospel.

If we interpret the Bible in context, it becomes clear that Paul is not trying to eliminate gender distinctions in this passage. He’s trying to explain how everyone has equal access to Christ in the gospel.

If we’re going to understand how despite our differences, men and women stand on level ground at the foot of the cross, we need to understand what we believe about Bible interpretation.

But finally we need to understand...

3) What We Believe About THE CROSS:

The message of the cross is both the heart of the Gospel and the most important truth claim of Christianity.

What we believe about the cross is more essential than what we believe about gender, about marriage, and about anything else.

As the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:2—For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

But if we believe the truth about the cross it will change the way we believe about everything else.

Let me suggest three truths about the cross that help us to understand the heartbeat of Galatians 3:28.

A) Men and Women Have Equal NEED for the Cross

In the ancient world it was pretty common to speak of the wickedness of women. In our world today we talk about toxic masculinity.

But neither femininity nor masculinity are toxic. Sin is toxic.

Now to be sure, men and women often sin in different ways.

I asked PBC member Kathy Proctor about this, because she has years of experience counseling people in this church and beyond. Here’s what she said...

“Men are overt and women are covert in how they execute their sinfulness. He abuses violently, she abuses psychologically. Of course, both can be guilty of both, but I am referring to our sin-natured defaults.”

Or to put it another way, all sin is equally damning but it’s not equally damaging.

Coveting something that doesn’t belong to you is a sin and it will send you to hell apart from Christ.

But wanting it so bad you steal or kill to take it is a sin that causes more earthly damage to those you sin against.

Because of our physical strength, men are often (but not always) guilty of sin that causes a lot more earthly damage. But both men and women deserve the same judgment apart from Christ.

Our hearts are equally wicked, our minds are equally corrupted, our eyes are equally blinded, and our wills are equally rebellious.

Romans 3:23—For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Or, as Galatians 3:23-24 state, all of us are enslaved to sin and imprisoned by our inability to keep the Law of God.

Men: you are not better than women. You need the cross just as much as they do.

Women: you are not better than men. You need the cross just as much as they do.

Men and women stand on level ground at the foot of the cross because we have equal need for the cross.

But also...

B) Men and Women Have Equal ACCESS to the Cross

At its core, nearly every religion limits access to women.

In Hinduism, practices like sati denied the value of women by forcing widows to burn themselves on top of their dead husband’s funeral pyres.

In Buddhism, the Buddha himself said it’s better to sleep with a venomous snake or on a pile of burning coals than with a woman.

In Islam, men are given authority in the Quran to beat their wives since Allah has made men superior to women.

Even in Judaism, women were not allowed to enter into the main courtyard of the temple. And they were separated from the men in synagogue.

But not so in Christianity.

Far from being oppressive, passages like Galatians 3:28 make it clear that all people have equal access to the cross.

Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free, men and women are all able to repent of their sins and put their faith in Jesus.

John MacArthur— “In recognizing believing women as the full spiritual equals of believing men, Christianity elevated women to a status they had never known before in the ancient world.” [5]

It’s no wonder that many of Jesus’ followers were women, and that women flocked into the early church. For the first time in their lives these women were respected and given equal access to salvation in Christ.

Men and women stand on level ground at the foot of the cross because we have equal access to the cross.

But finally...

C) Men and Women Have Equal BENEFITS from the Cross

Look at all the ways men and women receive the same benefits from the cross...

Galatians 3:24—So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

Justification by faith—this amazing reality that we are declared righteous by God merely because we believe in Jesus—is equally given to both men and women.

Galatians 3:25—But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian

Men and women are equally free from bondage to the law.

Galatians 3:26—for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.

Men and women are equally children of God through faith.

But notice, the text doesn’t say we are all “sons and daughters of God,” but we’re all “sons of God.”

The Apostle isn’t overlooking you here, women. He’s saying that all of us—men and women—are in line for the same inheritance as a firstborn son!

Galatians 3:27—For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Men and women are equally immersed in Jesus, and equally clothed in His righteousness.

In Judaism, only men would receive circumcision as the sign of the covenant. But in Christ, all believers—both men and women!—receive the sign of the covenant through baptism.

Galatians 3:29—And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Jew and Gentile, men and women are equal heirs to all the promises given to Abraham.

And men and women equally belong to Christ.

In the Toy Story films, both Buzz and Woody go through an identity crisis. In different films, both toys lose sight of who they are. But both Woody and Buzz, snap to reality when they looked at the name Andy written on their shoes. It was easier to accept their true identity when they remembered they were deeply loved.

Or to put it another way, It’s easier to live like who we are when we remember whose we are.

Christian man—the world doesn’t have a lot of positive things to say about you these days. But the Scripture says all these benefits are yours at the cross.

Christian ladies—you are not second-class citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. This world often discards and disregards you, but Christ dignifies you beyond your wildest dreams.

Unbelievers—this is what is offered to you in Christ. No second-class Christians. No lower-levels. No halfway measures. All of these benefits are available to everyone who repents and believes in Christ.

Despite our differences, men and women stand on level ground at the foot of the cross.

As I reflect on that Esau sermon I preached all those years ago, there are three mains lessons I’ve gleaned from that experience.

1) Sincerity is not enough.

I was really sincere, but I was sincerely wrong.

So too are many people when it comes to manhood and womanhood. We must test our sincerity by the Scripture.

2) We must look to Christ!

A big part of my problem was that I was looking to impress, not looking to Christ.

We must look to Christ!

In 2004, University of Virginia sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox published a monumental study, “Soft Patriarchs, New Men: How Christianity Shapes Fathers and Husbands”

Committed, churchgoing men are the least likely to be physically abusive towards their wives.

Nominal Christians are the most likely to be physically abusive towards their wives.

3) Jesus is gracious!

That sermon wasn’t the end of me.

And your failures won’t be the end. God is gracious!

Not just to men, and not just to women. To all of us who come to the foot of the cross!

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Gospel Doxology

Benediction (1 Thess 5:23-24)