God's Basic Design - Male and Female
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Rom. 1:20
We are supposed to understand. God designed the entire Creation to reveal himself to us and therefore anyone who walks a lifetime sowing darkness and confusion in their own heart and the hearts of others will stand before Him without excuse. The Creation is so orderly and consistent in its design that one simply cannot miss God unless he does so on purpose out of a blind, stubborn, and rebellious heart.
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 2 Cor. 4:3
Just take one thing to start with - the fact that God set up the entire Creation with things that oppose each other. To create order out of chaos God began by dividing everything in two. He divided the light from the darkness and the water from the dry land, etc. We understand nothing without the idea of two things that are opposite each other. It gives us reference points to discern the truth. Every concept we understand or feel is determined by two things that are opposite each other. There is light and darkness, hot and cold, up and down, positive and negative, north and south, east and west, left and right. There is good and evil, love and hatred, birth and death, happy and sad. Think about it, there is no end to the list we could write of opposite things. Without this basic concept and obvious design of God we would not be able to correctly comprehend anything at all and in fact, we would not be able to survive without being quickly destroyed.
The whole Creation is built around opposites. A very important fact is that opposites attract and like forces repel. That is a basic truth we all learned in physics when we were in school. If there were no opposites nothing would stay together and nothing would be complete. Atoms contain positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons and that is what holds them together. If they were both positive or both negative the atom would blow apart and cease to exist. Everything in the universe would become chaotic and violent with no order at all. A magnet has a north and a south pole. If you take two magnets and put a north pole against a north pole or a south pole against a south pole they will resist and push away from each other, but if you put opposite poles together they will immediately lock together and form a complete circuit with all their power enclosed in that circle created by two becoming one. Many other examples could be given to show that the first element in the order of God's Creation is opposites.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Gen. 1:27
Male and female – opposites. God made man in his own image and He made them male and female. In God's design it takes two to make one. Every new life begins by two opposites (male and female) coming together to become one.
God made man in his own image. When we look at our image in a mirror we are looking at our opposite. Hold up your right hand and the image in the mirror is holding up the left hand. Now look at your hands. You have a right hand and a left hand. What if you had two left hands? What if you had two left feet? That would not work out very well, would it? But your left hand fits perfectly in your right hand. It takes opposite things to make everything work. It takes two to make one and those two are the image of each other. God made man in his own image, and He made man to become one with God. God obviously made the woman for the man and they are meant to go to together. Two become one in order to complete the perfect image of God.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. Gen. 2:24
She is his opposite, and remember one of the basic laws of nature – opposites attract. They were made for each other and meant to be together by God's design. God did not make woman just like man – obviously. He made her to complete the man. She is as much a part of "mankind" as "man" is. She is of no lesser importance, and her position in God's order is of no lower esteem. The only time she lessens her importance or lowers her esteem is when she refuses to abide in her place in the Divine Order – likewise for the man.
Since opposites are what holds God's Creation in place and give meaning to life and understanding to man, it is the point that comes under attack by God's enemies first. God is not the author of confusion – He has laid all in perfect order with points of reference to work from so that we do not need to get confused. Satan, as well as all the men, women, and devils who are likeminded with him, start their attack and resistance to God by trying to erase the differences and make everything the same. When the obvious differences are blurred or erased the reference points are lost and confusion is the result. The compass does not point north anymore. The stars are not where they are supposed to be and the sun does not come up in the east anymore. Anyone willing to study the history of mankind can see that the cycle has repeated itself over and over through the millennia. There is spiritual awakening, followed by a period of enlightenment and order, prosperity and peace, and advancement in civilization. Then the abundance of luxury, idleness, and pride lead to a decline into immorality, confusion follows, then loss of purpose and direction, and finally disintegration and destruction. How does mankind keep falling into the same trap over and over? The pathway is worn and very easy to see if you will take an honest look. There is a common starting point, or gate into this moral decline that leads to apostasy and destruction.
Without exception the first place where the differences are blurred and erased are between male and female. Every people that ever began their descent into darkness began right here. Think about it …God made this great distinction from the very beginning. It was the foundation He started from with mankind. It was designed by God to be a blessing to all – both male and female and their children, yet it has become the greatest occasion of sin to the human race since the garden. This is because this beginning point in the Divine Order is under continual attack by all the forces of evil.
But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. Mark 10:6
We are living in a nation that has lost its way and has become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit. No one can argue against the fact that we are headed for disintegration and destruction. We entered into this path the same way everyone else always has – by tearing down God's Divine Order, beginning with the God-given differences between male and female. It starts with the physical appearance and ends with the whole order of God turned upside down. It always starts with the female becoming more masculine in her appearance, clothing, desires and ambitions. Women are "liberated" from their God-given role and the first freedom they exercise is to reject any and all authority. This is ungodly in a man or a woman. Then the freedom to be immoral immediately follows because after all, their body is "theirs" to do with as they please. Carnal, lust-filled men do not resist this because it is to their liking – at first. But this arrangement does not satisfy either male or female for long. It is not about love anymore, and the winning of another's heart is not a part of it. By refusing to make a commitment you forfeit the blessing of someone making a commitment to you. The very nature of this arrangement empowers a resistance to becoming "one" with another. Since it is based on selfishness each individual must maintain their own sovereignty and a wall goes up that will not let anyone else into their private kingdom except on a temporary basis. "Liberated" women boast of being independent and not needing a man, but this is completely against the design of God who created us. God said, "It is NOT GOOD for the man to be alone." God says that a man NEEDS a wife, and a wife NEEDS a husband. When this need is not met there is frustration, then anger, and then rebellion against order and a seeking to fulfill the need some other way, which always leads to immorality and a further breaking down of everything.
It progresses – as women become more dominant and masculine, men become more passive and feminine. The differences become hard to distinguish. Their roles become reversed and their responsibilities are abandoned, especially in the home, but also at church, and in the government. Mom has a career now and her children are trained and cared for primarily by someone else. Since his wife has her own friends, her own life and world that he is not a part of the husband feels incomplete, frustrated, and betrayed and finds an escape in sports, or work, or other women (which are plentiful since they are all "liberated" now). The needs of both are neglected and the home becomes a place where they meet to argue and fight before they go their separate ways each day. Under these circumstances it should not surprise anyone that most marriages end in divorce – and the numbers show that the divorce rate among Christians is almost the same as the world. That is because God's order has been turned upside down and forgotten. "They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him."
Now, since the home is broken down it immediately follows that the society in which they live will begin to crumble, also. Confusion is the rule in all things. As confusion increases so does frustration and violence. Since the differences between male and female have been erased and confused there is no longer any mutual respect or honor between men and women. Any relationship between men and women has become nothing more than a profane and common thing. In these circumstances homosexuality begins to rise – thus MORE confusion. Ridiculous ideas are then floated such as "same sex marriage," which is proof that the foundation is gone and God’s order has been laid aside. We are entering now into the debate over legalizing pedophilia, and so bestiality cannot be far down the road. When the natural order of male and female is thrown away there is no moral authority to make any kind of sexual perversion illegal. Apparently, most of the population does not have any problem with people living together without being married, or men marrying men, or women marrying women, so how could they possibly object to a man having multiple wives, or anyone doing anything they wanted? The most popular TV programs all have as their themes some kind of sexual perversion or exploit. At some point it must become apparent to any thinking person that we have lost our way. Where are we going from here? How did we get here anyway?
It starts with individuals. Each person must care about the Will of God. If everyone only cares about his or her own selfish interests and has no regard for God then they will reap the consequences and there is not hope for our children and grandchildren. If you care about knowing the Will of God then you must learn it from the Word of God. What is written has much more authority than what you or I think or feel or want. If there is any one thing that is clear from the Word of God it is that God's way is to make a difference between things. God created man in his own image and He created them male and female. If you care about what pleases God you will work to maintain that distinction. If you are a female you will not desire to have a man's job or hold a position assigned to a man by God. If you are a man you will not want to be feminine in any way and you will not desire to spend your time and settle your differences like a female. If you are a female you will not want to dress in anything that pertains to a man, and you will be happy to be a godly woman. If you are a man you will not want to wear a woman's clothing. Society used to call someone who would do such things a pervert. God says it is an abomination:
The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so abomination unto the LORD thy God. Deut. 22:5
If anything should reveal the mind of God in this matter this one verse of Scripture should. There is no room for interpretation here, the words are too clear. Everyone knows what pertains to a man and what pertains to a woman. Every public bathroom door in the world testifies against the justification for cross-dressing. There is no need to talk about thousands of years ago when they wore robes - we are living here and now and everyone knows what pertains to a man and what a woman's garment is, but everyone keeps doing it anyway. Clothing has become unisex and men now wear shorts that are nothing more than culottes, while women’s culottes have evolved into pants and shorts. No dignity, no modesty, no adorning the body, which is the temple of the Holy Ghost, to make it beautiful – but dishonoring their bodies by sloppy, careless, unisex clothes that are ugly and unbecoming. A person who loves God and cares about honoring God should automatically avoid anything that crosses the line and blurs the differences between male and female. Further, anything that might lead to a breakdown of the distinction between male and female should be willingly avoided by a child of God. The major point of this matter is that it is an affront to the very foundation upon which God built the Creation. It is absolutely taking sides with Satan against God and sowing confusion in the hearts and minds of other people, as well as your own. The only real reason for ignoring this part of the Scripture is simply to identify oneself with the world and to distance oneself from a holy God and his people. It shows contempt and disdain for God's Divine Order. It is not at all about convenience and modesty because neither is truly the case. It is about loyalty to the ways of the world which one has learned by looking, listening, and fellowshipping with them.This is only one area that shows a persons real understanding and attitude toward God and his Word. We are all living in a world that is out of order and so everyone is doing things against God. When the basic order of male and female, husband and wife, father and mother, brother and sister, etc. is ignored and undermined it quickly destroys the order in everything else. The home is left in shambles because there is no longer any order there. The children are left in daycare centers or with someone else while Mother is working or deployed in the military, or a hundred other things that takes her away from her God-given place in God’s order. She generally becomes bitter and angry because she is unfulfilled in her new role because it robs her of the satisfaction that is the reward of a faithful wife and mother. Men become bitter and frustrated also because they are robbed of the wife that God meant for them to have – a feminine woman who loves and trusts him as her protector and provider. There is a large part of his life missing and it shows up in such things as violence, pornography, obsession with sports or other hobbies, feminine traits and thinking, and lack of backbone, courage, and initiative. The following generation will turn to sodomy and all sorts of other perversions because the two opposites that they were to take their bearings from have been removed and now they have no means of reckoning who, what, and where they are in the whole scheme of things. God made the woman FOR the man and she is to be his greatest joy and blessing in this life, and she will be if they have a relationship based on God’s order. Since the woman was made for the man he is also meant by God to be her greatest joy and blessing in life, and he will be if they both order their lives according to the Word of God.
This type of relationship will produce children that are stable, secure, of a sound mind, and who know how to be at peace, enjoy life, and be a blessing to others. This type of generation will leave to their children and grandchildren a goodly heritage instead of a world full of confusion and violence.Perhaps you have been swept up into this transgression against God of breaking down his Divine Order because you just did not know. Most do not know anything about this matter because there are very, very few preachers who will touch this subject anymore. Nevertheless, it is still in the Word of God, so you must hear it, and now that you have heard it you must make a decision. Are you a part of this rebellion against the very foundation of God’s Creation? If you are a true child of God then I charge you today to step up to the plate and stand for God and his ways in this dark and wicked day. If you are truly a Christian then "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing…" (Matt. 5:13) If you are a preacher of the Gospel then step up and do your duty and teach your people the difference between the holy and the profane and show them the way of God according to his eternal Word, and quit trying to appease those who are in rebellion against God’s order. Our descent into this confused, violent, lawless, perverted, and immoral society began right here with the breakdown of God’s Divine Order. Think about it and then consider that since you will answer to God for every idle word you speak, you will also answer on that day for what you do with this very important message you just received from God. Set your house in order and hasten to your rightful place in God’s great design, whether you are a man or a woman, and discover how blessed life can be.
Mike Miller (Pastor)
Straight Paths Bible Church
Saturday, August 21, 2010