Where Manhood Began, Part 2 | Clarifying Gender Confusion

     Here in Genesis 1, take a look at verses 26-27 “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 of 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.”

     Any confusion about God’s intent for Adam is removed by verses 16 and 17. God designed Adam to show love and affection for his wife by leading her and by teaching her. Biblical manhood is all about being a leader and a teacher. Let me show you that. As we’ve seen, God created Adam first, and then he immediately took him on the creation tour. Okay?

God introduced Adam to the environment, he showed him around the garden, situated him geographically, he oriented the garden that he was in to the surrounding country. God gave Adam his work assignment by the way notice that work was created before the Fall not after. Toil, sweat of your brow kind of work, that’s a result of sin. But work is God-given and work therefore is very good.

Just as God did for Adam, showing him all those things, leading him through all that territory. Guiding him, teaching him, instructing him, showing him, revealing, God expected Adam to do the same for his wife. God designed, even trained him for that. Hard wired Adam to think like that. Adam was to be Eve’s tour guide and that would create the very special bond of intimacy between these two.

But let’s suppose for a moment, Adam didn’t catch the significance of all that. Just by going on the tour, we might be able to forgive Adam for missing the point. After all, first few hours on earth, just learned it all, kind of head might be swimming. We could understand if he tried to let her discover things on her own, develop as her own person, be the modern woman. Dependent on no man. You know, wear pant suit, and all that kind of stuff. But God didn’t allow that, did he? Not for a moment.

What he revealed to Adam in verses 16 and 17 upped the ante. Now it’s serious, those verses contain important information about danger. A mortal threat in the midst of an otherwise safe and peaceful paradise. For Adam to fail to pass on that bit of vital information, not only would it be unloving, it would be an unthinkable, unforgivable dereliction of duty.

Adam held the key of life and death, of course he’d want to pass that on to his wife, he’d be of no other mind about it. Likely have been the first thing he told her, forget about Eve becoming an independent, free thinking, self made woman. All that is nonsense. Without that key bit of information, Eve would be in mortal danger. See what God has done here?

Even before creating Eve, God has given Adam a bit of a shove, a nudge, pushing him into the role for which he was designed. Giving him the impetus to do what God intended him to do. Namely, to teach his wife, to lead her, to guide her, to make sure she has the proper exposure, proper instruction, all the information.

Again there’s almost nothing as intimate as the relationship between teacher and student. Almost nothing that compares to imparting knowledge, communicating ideas within the worldview of truth. Almost nothing that compares to that, informing and forging a bond of love and appreciation, develop mutual respect and gratitude, and that’s what God intended, to bring this first couple together in an intimate relationship.

Especially when life and death is on the line. For those of you who served in the military you understand this. You go into hostile country, when death is on the line, and those people who teach you, those people who show you how to survive, you’re all ears and you appreciate them so much when the bullets start flying.

Now it’s after all that, Adam rises from the, with the dust, or from the dust, he’s got the breath of God in his lungs. He takes the creation tour, receives his work assignments, he receives vital information, he gets this life and death warning, it’s at this point we come to the creation of the woman, and only at this point, verse 18.

“Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone.” This is the first not good thing in God’s perfect world, no woman. Can I get an amen on that? Can you imagine what this world would be like without the women? For one thing it would be empty. But, continuing verse 18, God had it all worked out, he says, “I will make him a helper fit for him.”

God created and designed Eve to be Adam’s helper, his helpmeet, that’s her role. That’s her design. She’s hard wired to submit to him. He’s, she’s hard wired to be his helpmeet. In as much as God designed Adam to be the leader, made him perfectly for that task, he designed Eve to be the helpmeet. Woman is not to be the leader that’s not her role.

The woman is to be in the position of a follower, the one who practices biblical submission, which is an active submission, a wise submission, useful to the leader. You see submission all through society, many of you men submit, and many of you men are in positions where you need others to submit. And when you have people who submit to you well you know how much can be accomplished.

When you submit well to your leadership you understand how useful that is to your leader. Same thing here. Submission biblically, it’s not walk on me I’m a doormat. That’s not submission, that’s a perversion. Submission here is to be helpful, and it’s so helpful especially in the realm of counsel. In informing wise leadership.

Foolish is the man who never seeks, or ignores, or stifles, his wife’s input and counsel. That means her submission to her husband is to be useful, it’s to be wise, it’s to be well thought through, it’s to be thoughtful, insightful. Where is she going to get the information she needs to be wise, thoughtful, useful to her husband? That’s right, she after all has been joined to a teacher, you.

She’s one with a leader, one with her guide, her instructor. That man is there to love her, to equip her, to be a useful helpmeet. So that she’ll provide wise submission that informs his leadership, that makes it effective and useful. This is to be a reciprocating relationship, providing mutual benefit. Resulting in the two of them growing so close together as wise co-regents over the whole created world. It’s a relationship bound together by love, by mutual appreciation, by mutual respect.

Now, just before God rectified this massive deficiency, this massive problem of no woman on the earth, God gave Adam one more job to do. Look at verse 19, “Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.”

Naming was an act of authority and God gets Adam involved right away in exercising his authority for the purpose of caring for creation, for caring for its creatures, and so Adam exercises authority and he gives names to all the animals. And no doubt, as he got acquainted with the animal kingdom, he made a very simple but very important observation. Mr. Elephant, and Mrs. Elephant. Mr. Lion, Mrs. Lion. Mr. Mouse, Mrs. Mouse.

End of verse 20, “For Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.” God didn’t want Adam just to start exercising dominion in naming the animals, that was part of it. God wanted Adam to recognize his need. God wanted Adam to come to the conclusion that he lacked. To come to the conclusion that he was incomplete, and he wanted him to come to that conclusion all on his own.

God could have simply told him, Adam, you need a woman. He didn’t do that though. He discipled him through this. He, he brought him as it were into his thinking, through the process of discovery. And by experience, through doing what God designed him to do Adam came to know and understand God’s will. It’s a pretty useful lesson for men who would lead and teach their wives right? Discipleship.

Let’s take at verse 21 just quickly, God designs Adam’s perfect helpmeet. “Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, while he slept took one of his ribs, closed up,” the flesh, it’s flesh, or uh, “it’s place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.” God formed man from the dust, but he fashioned Eve from the rib of the man.

Eve is the crowning jewel of mankind. The pinnacle of beauty and refinement. Again, an amen? Right? Are our wives not our betters? Our better half? Amazingly, removing a rib is nothing more than an outpatient surgery, that’s how God does it right? When Adam wakes up he recognizes immediately what God has done. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

After looking at animals all day, boy is Adam ready to meet this girl. He is really excited, as you might imagine, and he gets right to work in naming her too. Again, he indicates his authority over his wife. His authority over the woman. It shows the appropriate exercise of his headship over his wife.

It’s not a tyrannical, dictatorial, ham fisted exercise of authority. In this he’s rejoicing over her. Adam is so appreciative of his wife. He’s so sincerely respectful, and he is quick to acknowledge here the close correspondence between the two of them. He’s, he’s seen the complimentary nature of this relationship. It’s an intimate communion here between the two of them. And so he imbeds a reminder of their intimacy in her very name. “She shall be called Woman, for she was taken out of a Man.”

And that’s why, incidentally, verses 24 to 25, “a man shall leave his father and his mother, hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” They came from one flesh, they should become one flesh. “The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” When God finally brought Eve on the scene and remember this is all happening within the space of that sixth day. Very busy day.

But when Eve arrives, Adam’s role is already clearly defined and established. His position firmly established. Just to review, God designed Adam with the ability to lead his wife. Adam had no innate lack of ability. God put Adam in the position of leadership. He not only made him with the ability, but he put him in the position. Creating him first, putting him there before Eve. Exposing him to the world, giving him a head start on learning.

God gave Adam the impetus to lead, the motivation. He had some vital information that he would have felt compelled to communicate to his wife. He was motivated to teach and to lead out of love for his wife. God then trained Adam to lead, getting him started in the right use of his authority and his leadership. He discipled him in that way and Adam would then take that pattern to his wife.

So when Eve opened her eyes for the first time she immediately looked to Adam as her leader. Looked to him as her guide, her teacher, her authority. There’s no insecurity on her part. There’s no laziness on his part. Just naturally fall into their God given roles, no conflicts, perfect harmony.

As Eve asked questions about the world that she’s entered into, Adam is there to provide all the answers for her. He knows the lay of the land, he’ll show her around, he’ll teach her about her purpose, her work. He’ll warn her about the danger of the tree over there, in the knowledge of good and evil. He’ll teach her all the names of all the animals. He’ll expose her to everything.

Adam is Eve’s leader, he’s her head, he’s her authority. Just as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:3, “I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” These role distinctions in marriage reflect the role distinctions in the triune God himself. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Equality of essence, complementarity in the distinction of their roles.

Adam needed to love his wife by embracing his role. Performing his God given responsibility to her with diligence and excellence. He was designed to love his wife by teaching her, by leading her, guiding her, caring for her. In the words of the apostle Paul, Adam was designed to love his wife as his own body. By loving his wife he loved himself.

Well we know where we’ve come from now, going back to Genesis chapter 2. We’ve already taken stock of where we are now in our time. Each of us is at varying degrees of faithfulness or unfaithfulness in fulfilling our God given, God ordained, roles of biblical man. Here’s where all this gets challenging isn’t it?

It’s one thing to look at the blueprints. It’s quite another to know how to build a life of biblical manhood. What we need to know is how to move forward. How do we go from where we are right now to take that first step, and then the second. That’s point three for this evening. God has called us to embrace our calling.

Number three, God has called us to embrace our calling. Again this isn’t so much about what you do as what you believe. This is about what you understand, what you embrace. We all know what happened next after Genesis chapter 2, that Adam and Eve fell. God had set Adam up for success. He gave him everything and then Adam turned around and fell flat on his face.

He’s running with the ball to the goal line, and at the five yard line, boop, there goes the ball. Adam failed. And what’s so interesting about this is that the tempter tempted Eve, he deceived Eve. We read earlier from 1 Timothy 2:12 and 13, now I’m going to include verse 14, I’m going to read that passage again.

Paul says, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.” You see, when Satan attacked this happy couple, he was wily, he was crafty, very shrewd. He chose the more vulnerable of the two. He chose the more susceptible to temptation.

Satan chose the one who was created second, not first. Because he knew she was one step further removed from those original commands. Therefore, be a little bit easier to deceive her about what really happened between Adam and God, before she was ever on the scene. Of the two, the devil had a much better chance of convincing Eve that God didn’t have her best interests in mind. But Adam, he wasn’t deceived, was he? Gave into his wife? Yeah, he did, she’s very persuasive as our wives can tend to be. He wasn’t deceived though. He just walked head long into sin. He knew what God had called him to do, what God designed him to do, what God trained him to do, but he didn’t do it. He just went along with it, chose the easy route.

He followed his wife’s lead rather than confronting the conflict that faced him. He chose to go along with this conspiracy that had formed between Satan and his wife. He just went along for the ride. Listen up gents, when we’re silent, when we’re lazy, when we fail to lead, when we refuse to communicate or when we communicate sinfully, impatiently or critically, with our wives and families. When we sit back, let others do while we watch. Or even worse when we criticize and quarterback from the armchair, good at that.

When we invest our time and our energy and our attention in self-centered pursuits rather than giving of ourselves sacrificially, generously to the home and to the church. When we elevate our responsibility to provide and protect our families over our responsibility to love and to teach them and to guide them, lead them, then we’re guilty of those sins or other forms of dereliction of our duty, we are following our father, Adam. Men, that is sinful.

That is failure. Even if you’re putting a roof over the head and food on the table that’s failure. Even if you never yell and you never raise the hand in anger, that’s failure. God has called us to loving leadership. To live according to our original design. Leadership is a function of credibility, and our credibility as leaders depends on our continuing growth and skillful exercise of two things. Character and competency.

Growth in godly character, growth in biblical competency. God has given you all the resources you need to grow in both character and competency. If you’re a Christian, then you have within you a new nature. You’ve got a heart to receive his word, you have access to his word.

God has also given sound biblical churches, led and instructed by godly leadership, Ephesians 4:11, who equip you, verse 12, to do the work of the ministry. We’ve got two faithful men who will be doing more of that equipping work tomorrow. Teaching us, instructing us. So informed by the church’s teaching ministry, you have a bible written in your own language, there for you. So read it, study it, obey it. Pray and ask God to help you.

I realize we have, all of us have, myself included, we have been severely diminished by the Fall. Adam was created in the image of God but that image, though not entirely lost, it was irretrievably, irreparably, damaged in mankind. And so when Adam fathered children, Genesis 5:3, they came out looking like him, looking like dad. When Adam had lived a hundred and thirty years he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his own image, he named him Seth.

All those in Adam are doomed to follow Adam. To fail in the exact same ways, and that is what we’re seeing displayed all around us, it’s what we’ve seen displayed ever since Genesis 3. Same thing. But I’m here to tell you some really, really good news. If you’re a Christian you’re no longer in Adam, you’re in Christ.

Paul says, 1 Corinthians 14(15):45 and following, “it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being’ the last Adam became a life giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” Who’s that? Jesus Christ, right?

If you’re in Christ you bear his image, you possess a new nature. Which has been restored for to its original capacity for glorifying God. Ephesians 4:24 says, the new nature is “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Men, that’s us. Better than that, in Christ there is total and complete fulfillment of God’s design for manhood.

Was there any better leader than Jesus Christ? Any better teacher than our Lord? Listen, Christ accomplished all that Adam failed to do. He fulfilled everything. So don’t go out from here and read a bunch of leadership books or try to speed walk your way into faithful leadership.

If you want to grow in character and competency, if you want to grow into your God ordained role as a leader, here’s what you do. Study Jesus Christ. Worship him and God will conform you to his image. There’s no short cutting the time it takes to mature as a leader.

Effective leadership, teaching, the essence of biblical manhood, it requires time and experience to grow in that character and competency, so don’t hurry it. Just put one foot in front of the other. Study, admire, worship Jesus Christ, obey his commands, and God by the Spirit, he will conform you to his perfect image. It will happen, trust him. I want to close with this passage in 2 Timothy.

Something that Paul, the elder, taught the young and growing leader Timothy in his pastoral leadership. He wrote this “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier,” of Jesus, “of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It’s the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.”

Listen faithful men, here they’re pictured as soldiers, athletes, farmers. What do all those men have in common? They are only worthy of admiration, they’re only worthy of emulation, following their example, if they’re diligent and focused on their tasks like good soldiers. If they compete according to God’s rules like a victorious athlete. If they’re, if they’re working hard at their tasks, staying at it every single day like a hard working farmer.

We don’t need to go out and study soldiers, athletes and farmers and find out all their techniques. Those are just illustrations; the point is there in verse 7. “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David as preached in my gospel.” Gentlemen, this is biblical manhood. Study Jesus Christ, you will become the man that God designed you to be from the very beginning. Let’s pray.

Father we find ourselves, um, humbled by your word. Convicted, um, actually in some cases we feel flayed open with the spotlight of your word shining on our hearts and revealing our inadequacies and yet would be completely discouraged and undone if it weren’t for the fact that you have saved us by the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s because of him that all our sins are forgiven, completely paid for, atoned for, on the cross. It’s because of Jesus Christ fulfilling all your law, doing what Adam failed to do, shortcutted by his sin, failure. It’s because of his fulfilling the law that we stand perfect in your righteousness, fully accepted by you. So we pray as you reorient us this weekend toward biblical manhood that we would embrace the challenge once again.

And that you would encourage our hearts in the Lord Jesus Christ to be the men that you designed us to be. Help us Lord not to look around at one another, not to look around at human examples. But look at the Lord Jesus Christ. We can follow human examples as long as they follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to be discerning men, judicial in what we follow, what we don’t follow. Help us to be discerning, help us to be wise. And help us to be diligent. We have such a desire to sit back and relax after a hard day’s work. After twelve, fourteen, sixteen hour days, we just don’t want to lift a finger anymore. But help us Lord to strengthen the weak knees and the feeble hands. Help us to throw ourselves into the work and to be the men that you’ve called us to be.