The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church. What is Christ now doing for the church? Christ is in the process of restoring the image of God and restoring the church to that paradise relationship with the Father that we're going to begin to enjoy now and enjoy throughout all eternity.

Guest (Male): Marriage and family were part of God's plan from the very beginning. Today on The Healing Word, Pastor Jack Morris is here with you and presents "God Made Woman." We'll look at God's design for husbands and wives and how Christ restores relationships through love, partnership, and grace.

Pastor Jack Morris: With the help of the Holy Spirit, I want to talk about how it was between husband and wife before the fall and sin entered into the world. Then contrast that to how it is after the fall and sin entered into the world. I want you to look with me at the roles and how their roles began to change and the structure of the family changed and what Jesus Christ is doing to restore. We're going to see that before the fall, before sin, there was full partnership between the sexes. Full partnership, equality.

When sin entered the world, there came a hierarchy. Now we hear things like "head of the house," "submission." That is a result of sin. And we're going to see what Christ is doing to remove that and to restore the church and to restore the family and to bring us back to that state of redemption before sin. It's happening today in the church and it's happening in Christian homes and by the grace of God may it happen in all of our homes.

Let's look at Genesis chapter 2 and see how it all started between the man and the woman. Verse 18 says, "The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone.'" Now he had just created the heavens and the earth and all the vegetation and the animal kingdom. God had created it all, looked at it all and said it was good. Over and over repeatedly he said it was good. And then on the sixth day he created man and the longer God looked at man, the longer God decided there's something missing.

This man does not have a counterpart. This man does not have someone with his own nature. And he said, "There's something just not good if we leave things as they are. There's something not good about this whole thing." It's not good that man be alone. Aloneness is never good normally, usually. We all want those periods where we like to be alone and have some time to ourselves, but to live in isolation, separated from one another, husband and wife, fellow Christian, the church, just to live alone like a hermit in isolation, that's never what God intended for anyone, even including himself.

Remember he is the triune Godhead. There is a Trinity. God conversing with that part of the Trinity, that part of himself, saying, "Let us make man in our image." God knew fellowship with the Trinity. He also extended himself and created man in his own image so that he might have fellowship with man. God's social likeness was being well taken care of. You see, when God created man, he created man in his own image, in his own likeness, meaning that God gave man a mental likeness to himself, to God.

He gave man a moral likeness to himself and he gave man a social likeness. The mental likeness was operating just fine in Adam. God looked at Adam and there he was, a brilliant man with superior intelligence. God told him, "I want you to take care of Eden, take care of the garden, keep it and dress it." Already we see that the man had knowledge, horticulture knowledge to care for all the vegetation. Where did this knowledge come from? It was the image of God. He was born with innate, superior knowledge. It wasn't an easy thing keeping paradise looking like paradise, but he was born with that know-how.

He looked at all of the animals that God had made and he observed them scientifically and he had this built-in innate zoological knowledge that he could observe their nature and give them a name appropriate to their nature. He also had the power of speech to pronounce their names. He was brilliant. So there was the image of God mentally. The image of God morally was there also. Man was created moral, upright, pure. He was able to distinguish between obedience to God and disobedience to God. He knew what to do to obey God. He knew what not to do. He pondered this. Birds and beasts never seemed to be able to ponder this.

He was like God's likeness morally speaking. He was also like God socially, but that part was dormant. That part was not functioning because he couldn't socialize. He had the ability, he had the capacity, but there wasn't anybody there to do it with. And so God said, "Here's my image in man only partially functioning, so I'm going to create something like himself, a counterpart with his own nature, so that my social image might function within him." So the scripture said in verse 18, "It is not good that the man be alone because this part of the image of God will not function properly, the social part. I will make a helper suitable for him."

You see, friends, from the very beginning, God knew that husbands were going to need a lot of help. So he made a helper, somebody to come alongside, alongsideness, to support, to encourage, to help. God wants man, every male, to be in his likeness and in his image and he knew that that man just could not quite make it on his own. He needed a lot of help to be that Christian father, to be that Christian husband, to be that servant of God. He needed help in being what God intended him to be, so he made someone who would come along and help him.

Now wives, I want you to think with me for just a minute. If you did what you were supposed to do, if you did what you were supposed to do and if husbands did what husbands were supposed to do, if we only knew what we were supposed to do. You see, everyone knows that a woman is superior to a man in being a woman. Did you get that? Every man is superior to a woman in being a man. So men, do what a man is supposed to do. Women, do what women are supposed to do. Here's where the problem comes. It's when women get over into the man's role and begin to act and behave and function in that area and a man gets over into the woman's role.

One thing I can't stand and God can't stand and that is a mannish woman and a womanish man. There's always problems when that begins to happen. Women were made to be a helper, to help the man. There's two things here right now. Men, let your wives help you. I have talked with so many women who have said, "I would help him if he'd only let me." But you see, he knows it all. He makes all the decisions. He controls the money. He doesn't need any help, so I can't help him. Mister, if you act that way, you're blocking God's plan for your home, for your life, for your marriage. God made you a helper. Stop trying to be macho and a big shot. You need help and you've got a helper on hand.

God knew you couldn't make it alone. It wasn't good for you to try to do that alone. And women, help your husbands. Help them. God wants husbands, and I'm going to talk about it just a little later on in the message, to be the spiritual head of the house. But he cannot be the spiritual head of the house without the support of the wife. No more than Christ can be your Lord unless you make him your Lord. And wives are going to have to get in there and help the husband to become that spiritual man that God wants him to be.

Now let me get very close now. We are trying to help husbands to be that kind of man that God wants them to be. And wives, as your pastor, I can only do so much. I can only do what you help me to do. Wives, God can only do so much. I put together meetings to bring men together where Christian men can fellowship with Christian men and then the wife will say, "Well, you can't go away to that retreat. We've got something on the schedule." I mean, one time or two times a year. Your husbands have more fellowship with the men where they work. They play golf with the men where they work. They play racquetball with the men where they work.

But the men of the church, all they do is see them on Sunday morning and shake hands. Wives, you're going to have to be a helper to make your husband the spiritual man God wants him to be. You're going to have to loosen up and let those schedules go and say, "Hey, the kids can miss the swim meet this one week, one time a year, so that you can fellowship with other men and grow in Christ and learn the word of God." Wives, you're a helper, but if you block it, then it's going to be blocked. This is the design God made. He is sovereign. He's not going to change it. You are a helper.

Now when I use that word "helper," look at this word again. This word "helper," sometimes we look at it and we think, "Well, man was made first, he's superior and then God made this inferior, this helper." The word "helper" in no way means that the wife or the woman is inferior. Listen very closely now, especially you men. 21 times in the Old Testament, the word "helper" is used, the same Hebrew word. 15 of those 21 times, God is spoken of as helping the man, being a helper to the man in some way or another.

Now when that term is applied to your wife, sometimes you look upon her as inferior. But that term is applied more to God helping you than your wife helping you. Does that mean God is inferior? By no means, absolutely not. So wives have a great work, a superior work to do in the home if the husband is to become the man of God. And wives, if he becomes the man of God that the scripture wants him to be, you're going to have to help him to become. And Mister, if you become the man God wants you to be, you're going to have to reach out and allow her to help, knowing that God has also given her intelligence and wisdom and she has a great contribution. You're going to come up short if you ignore her.

Again, that's pretty good preaching, isn't it? All right, okay. Now look at the scripture. We go on. Verse 20, "So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air, and all the beasts of the field, but for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping, God took one of man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken from the man and he..." what did God do? "...brought her to the man."

You talk about a matchmaker. You talk about a blind date. God's the best matchmaker there is. I wish all of our teenagers were here today that I could talk to them about the spouse, the mate that they're going to choose and how they need prayer and they need God's choice in that because they're going to come together in a one-flesh relationship and it's going to impact their lives and affect their lives the rest of their life, just as it is all of those of us who are here today who are married.

God brought. Let God select your spouse. I remember when I was a teenager and I was beginning to grow up and my grandmother talking to me and she said, "Jack, I want you to pray. You're going to grow up, someday God's going to call you and you're going to become a minister and you're going to have to have the mate of God's choosing. Let God choose the person for you. You'll never be able to preach the gospel and build the churches and go to the foreign fields and do the things that God wants you to do if you have the wrong mate. Not only you must choose her, God must choose her for you."

I wonder what God did. I wonder if God said, "Adam, boy, have I got a date for you tonight. You're going to see something you've never seen before." And then he tells Eve, "Eve, you're going to meet your future husband tonight." I wonder if Eve said, "Is there a comb or brush, a mirror, some cosmetics, some canned beauty here? Let me get ready for this." No, I don't think that happened because I believe she was the most beautiful woman, the sexiest woman in all the world. After all, she was the only woman. She had to be the most beautiful in all the world. Nothing to compare to.

Well, I know she was because look at verse 23. The man said, "This is now..." that's all I want to read right now. That phrase in Hebrew. He looked at her and he said, "This is now." Now that phrase could have literally been translated, "At last! It's my turn." You see, that man had been looking at those animals all that time. Anything would have looked good. But she had to be beautiful because God fashioned her. Here it's translated, "This is now." It also could have been just equally translated, "At last." And the third translation it could have been in the contemporary, modern version, it could have been literally and correct, Adam could have looked at her and said, "Wow!"

This is it. At last. He saw what God had done and he accepted her as a gift, as a prized gift. He was no longer going to be alone. The help that he needed had finally come and it came from the hand of God. God gave her and it was a beautiful gift, a wonderful gift. Notice what he says, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man." Then it goes on, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become..." what does it say? "...one flesh."

Doesn't that sound familiar? That sounds like the words of Jesus from Mark chapter 10 when he said a man would leave father and mother and cleave to his wife, be joined to his wife, and they two would become one flesh. One flesh. The closest possible relationship, the unity that resembles the unity within the triune Godhead. One flesh. This is what God had designed and planned and he was bringing them together. Your husband will make you a better Christian or will make you less a Christian. Your wife is going to make you a better Christian, a more spiritual man, or she's going to make you less. You see, you're joined to her. You are one with her.

Stop trying to separate and distinguish. Those roles are only given because of what sin has done. I want you to look at something please. Everybody turn to this. Turn to Genesis chapter 5, 1 and 2. You see, when God does it, it becomes a one-flesh relationship and there are no more two, but one. Genesis 5:1, "This is the written account of Adam's line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them and when they were created, he called them..." what? "Man. Man. Man."

Stop putting your wife down into an inferior position because when you do that, you only reveal your spiritual and scriptural ignorance and cause yourself, Mister, to continue to be a child of the world. You are one in the Lord when indeed you are in the Lord. And Lady, allow yourself to grow in the Lord. Encourage your husband to go forward in Christ and grow in the Lord. You are one in him and he is the one that brings about that marriage, that marriage for lifetime. It is the blessing and the doings of the Lord.

Now look what happens in verse 25. "The man and the woman were both naked and they felt no shame." Well, basically that's how it was before the fall. Their social needs were met. Man was not alone. There was mutual assistance. He had a helper. There was equality of the sexes, one flesh. There was pure love and integrity. They were not ashamed. There was no evil. There was no fear of exploitation for evil. There was only pure love and integrity before the fall.

But next week, I'm going to talk about the fall. I'm going to tell you how sin entered the world, how the woman was deceived and the man was not deceived and how that played in to the present structure of the home and human life as we are now experiencing it today. But I must say this before I close this morning. It says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 3 that the head of the woman is the man, the head of man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God. Says the same thing in Ephesians chapter 5.

Does headship mean that one is inferior to the other? If that's the case, then Christ is inferior to the Father. Does the Father make decisions and then inform Jesus? Does the Father make plans and then after he planned everything out and worked it all out and has all the answers, then he informs Jesus? No, they are a Trinity. There is a oneness. Headship does not mean one up over the other. That does not mean that at all. That does not mean that at all. I'll tell you what it means. It means exactly what it says.

Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church. What is Christ now doing for the church? Christ is in the process of restoring the image of God and restoring the church to that paradise relationship with the Father that we're going to begin to enjoy now and enjoy throughout all eternity. The redemptive process has begun. It started when Christ took our sins on the cross into the tomb and he rose again. Christ loves the church. He's now preparing and in the process of restoring the church to full partnership with himself.

That's right. Full partnership with himself. The scripture says, and in the name of Christ, hear me friends, hear me now. The scripture says that you as a Christian are a king and a priest unto God. You are an heir and a joint-heir with Jesus Christ. Everything that God gives to Jesus, he gives to you. Everything he gets, I get. It clearly says I am an heir and a joint-heir with Jesus Christ. He is my savior but he's also my elder brother. He calls God Father and he taught me to call God Father and he has now bringing me into full partnership. That's what headship means.

Now husbands, you are to love your wife exactly as Christ loves the church. What does that mean? Bringing her into full partnership. Not dictating, not telling her what to do, not putting her down. You don't have a slave or a servant. When that starts happening, you can be sure that there is sin and carnality and flesh lurking somewhere in your house. Full partnership, full equality. God is taking us back beyond the fall to that place where all sin is forgiven and there is no sin. You are a church within the world, your house, your home, your family. You are a church within the church. Begin to act like the church and sir, lift your wife. Lift her to full equality, to full partnership. Get involved, begin to pray and ladies, you make him the head of the house so he can lift you. Stop blocking him, standing in his way, scheduling things. Get practical and get real.

Guest (Male): Before sin entered the world, God designed marriage to reflect unity, fellowship and partnership. Through Christ, he continues the work of restoring homes and relationships today. You can learn more about The Healing Word Ministry online, where you'll find encouraging Bible messages, eBooks and opportunities to grow deeper in your walk with Christ. And as this ministry reaches listeners through radio and digital outreach, your financial support helps make these broadcasts possible. Thank you for joining us today on The Healing Word. Next time, Pastor Morris brings the message, "The Serpent and the Woman," revealing how temptation entered the world and how God provides victory through Christ.