GOD'S ORDER

Intro:

	1.	God has set certain things in order and we must abide by His order of things.

	2.	Many today want to devise their own order of how things should be and ignore what God has said.

	3.	I want to examine God’s order in at least two areas of our lives and see how we are to submit to what God says:

I.	God's Order In The Home.

	A.	Husband — Wife.

		1.	Wife must submit to and obey husband. (Eph. 5:22-24,33; Col. 3:18; 1 Pet. 3:1-6; Tit. 2:5)

		2.	Wife must be content to fulfill her role in the home. (Tit. 2:5; 1 Tim. 5:14)

	B.	Parents — Children.

		1.	Must obey parents as children. (Eph. 6:1-3; Col. 3:20; Rom. 1:30; 2 Tim. 3:2; Prov. 1:8-9; 6:20-23; 15:5; 30:11,17)

		2.	 Must honor and respect parents as adults. (Prov. 20:20; 23:22)

II.	God's Order In The Church.

	A.	Elders — Members. (Eph. 4:11)

		1.	Members includes deacons, evangelists, teachers, etc.

		2.	There are various admonitions as to the relationship between elders and members of the church.

			a.	Elders are to exercise oversight. (Acts 20:28-31; 1 Pet. 5:1-3; Tit. 1:9-11)

			b.	Members are to submit to them. (Heb. 13:17; 1 Tim. 5:17-20; 1 Thess. 5:12-13)

	B.	Older Members — Younger Members. (1 Pet. 5:5)

		1.	We must respect the wisdom of age. (Job 12:12)

		2.	We must respect age in general. (Prov. 16:31; 23:22; Duet. 28:50; cf 1 Kings 12:8)

	C.	Men — Women. (1 Cor. 11:3)

		1.	God has set down His order: God—Christ—Man—Woman. We must accept and respect that order.

		2.	New Testament has much to say about the place which women are to occupy and the boundaries of their 

			authority. (1 Cor. 14:34-35; 1 Tim. 2:9-15)

		3.	Women must be content to fulfill the role God has assigned for them to carry out. (Tit. 2:3-5; Rom. 16:1-4)

III.	Reasons Why God's Order Is Often Rejected Today.

	A.	Lack of respect for God and His word. (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

		1.	If one chooses to ignore God’s order, he chooses to ignore God’s authority to command.

		2.	The bottom line is: if a wife refuses to submit to and obey her husband she is rebelling against God; if a child 

			refuses to obey or show the proper respect and honor toward parents he is rebelling against God; if members 

			of the church refuse to submit to an eldership they are rebelling against God.

	B.	Self-will.

		1.	Many want to have own way instead of submitting to God’s way. (Jer. 10:23)

		2.	Many women are so determined to have their own way with things that they will never submit to their husbands

			and many children want to do as they please rather than listen to their parents.

		3.	The reason many churches do not have elders is that there is in many churches an element that refuses to submit

			themselves to anyone else and will see to it that elders are never appointed. — They don’t want elders and if elders

			 are ever appointed they do not intend to submit to them.

	C.	We tend to want to judge who is worthy of respect and/or submission and who is not.

		1.	When God tells us to submit, He did not leave it up to us to judge who is worthy of our submission and who is not. 

			(i.e. He taught submission to government in Rom. 13 — if there was ever any government that was not worthy of 

			submission, it was the Roman government of that day.)

		2.	Must not encourage children, wives, or church members in any way to not be submissive in the areas that God has

			 commanded submission. — To do so is sinful.

	D.	Attitudes of Today’s Society.

		1.	Whether we admit it or not we are often influenced by the attitudes of society around us.

		2.	Attitudes toward the elderly and toward parents.

			a.	Common practice to stick old people into nursing home and forget about them. — Common practice to 

				view them as senile and useless.

			b.	Common practice to neglect parents after grown.

			c.	The cool thing for children to do is to consider their parents as out of it and unable to make proper decisions.

		3.	Attitudes that have grown out of the Women’s Lib movement.

			a.	Women are lead to think that submission to husband and/or other men is degrading to them.

			b.	Women are lead to think that they can do anything man can do — even in the church. Anything that tends to 

				restrict what they can do is then cast aside — even God’s word.

Concl:

	1.	Christians who fail to respect God’s order have fallen into sin.

	2.	We have a choice that must be made in our society today: Are we going to respect God’s order and do as He says or 

		are we going to rebel and cast His will aside. (If we are not going to follow His word we might as well toss it out the window)