06 A Portrait of Biblical Womanhood in the Proverbs 31 Woman

We'll go ahead and turn to Proverbs chapter 31. That's where we'll be in God's Word tonight, Proverbs chapter 31. And we'll be looking at a portrait of biblical womanhood from the Proverbs here. As I said, I'm going to change gears here a bit. We've been talking to the men primarily throughout the Acts like men weekend. And of course, that's what we set out to do. But as I told Tommy, as he and I were texting today, I didn't want you ladies to feel left out this weekend. So I want to end by looking at Proverbs 31.

Of course, this is a very familiar passage in the Proverbs and a very familiar passage that ladies you probably have turned to and studied. Maybe you've even studied some of these things in a small group class before, something like that. But men, you're not completely off the hook tonight. I'm actually going to end with an application for you. And so I'm going to loop you back in all the way at the end of our sermon here tonight. But you and I know that we live in an age that is increasingly becoming more and more confused on the subject of gender issues.

You don't have to do much more than turn on the TV, turn on a news station, get on the internet and you see some of this confusion just oozing out of people's mouths, oozing out of political venues, oozing out of the hot topics of our day. And tonight I want us to focus in on just one aspect of these gender wars that our culture seems to have brought to our doorstep. And I want to do that by looking at the picture of what God's Word considers to be an excellent wife. And not just an excellent wife, I believe we can broaden that out to see the excellent woman, the godly woman here from Proverbs chapter 31.

Now before we do that, let me give you a few statements regarding a text like this in what is a crowd of obviously various ages, various life stages, various marital statuses and various genders, okay? For the married woman tonight, and I know that's probably a great many of you ladies that are in here, this is obviously a text that is helpful and that is applicable to where you are right now in life. You are, if we can say it this way, the target audience of Proverbs chapter 31 that can be easily seen from the text and so you as a married lady should profit easily from the text that we are looking at tonight.

The biblical wisdom of this passage can and should be some of the most encouraging and helpful verses in all of God's Word when it comes to the practicalities of being a godly wife. For the single lady that's here tonight, there is wisdom here for you as well. If you are single and hoping to be married one day, then this is a time for you to prepare for that stage of your life. And Proverbs 31 is a wonderful portion of scripture that should help you, that should aid you to prepare one day to be a godly or excellent wife.

If you are a single lady and that you are a widow or maybe you are a single lady and you believe you have the gift of singleness and you are not planning on pursuing marriage, then I would encourage you to develop some relationships with some of the younger generation and encourage them towards faithfulness in preparing themselves to live out this text. You have a role here as well. Now for the married men, good many of you in here tonight, let me encourage you to think of Proverbs 31 as a passage that brings about thanksgiving in your life and not to view it as a passage that brings about wishful thinking in your life.

As we look through some of Proverbs 31 tonight, men, you might have a tendency to say, "Well, I just wish my wife would get on board with everything in Proverbs." You know what, I'm glad Brother Matt's preaching this tonight. My wife needs to hear some Proverbs 31. Let me encourage you not to take that angle as I preach God's Word tonight. Let me encourage you to use this as a time to cultivate thanksgiving, to see the evidences of God's grace that are in your wife's life and to praise the Lord for them. Maybe also to the married men, you can use this as a prayer guide when praying for your own wife. Have you ever considered that?

Use this as a challenge to your role as a leader in her life by asking how you can lovingly lead your wife to live out the biblical truths found within Proverbs 31. For the single men here tonight, I think that'll get just about all of us right. I told you I was going to loop you all in in some way. For the single men here tonight, let me encourage you to use Proverbs 31 as a guide for choosing a spouse one day.

There's a lot out there that you could say, "Well, I want a lady that's this way or that looks this way or that participates in these things." Let me encourage you to think biblically about your future wife and say, "You know what, I want a lady that matches what is found in Proverbs 31. Lord, would you please send a lady like that my way?" God's Word is going to answer some questions tonight about what it means to be a woman who honors God, who fulfills the role given to her by her Creator. Ladies, there is no wisdom in looking to the world to find your identity.

You must find your identity in Christ, and you must find your purpose in living out His plan for your life. That plan is, of course, found in the Word of God. Let's read our passage for tonight. We're going to begin in verse 10, which is where the description of an excellent wife or an excellent woman begins. We'll read all the way through the end of the chapter, but we ultimately are going to look at one verse from Proverbs 31, and that will be verse 30. Let's read, beginning in verse 10, Proverbs 31. An excellent wife who can find, for her worth is far above jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.

She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. She looks for wool and flax and works with her hands in delight. She is like merchant ships. She brings her food from afar. She rises also while it is still night and gives food to her household and portions to her maidens. Verse 16, she considers a field and buys it from her earnings. She plants a vineyard. She guards herself with strength and makes her arms strong. She senses that her gain is good. Her lamp does not go out at night. She stretches out her hands to the distaff, and her hands grasp the spindle.

She extends her hand to the poor, and she stretches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of the snow for her household, for all her household are clothed with scarlet. She makes coverings for herself. Her clothing is fine linen and purple. Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them and supplies belts to the tradesmen. Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she smiles at the future. Verse 26, she opens her mouth in wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children rise up and bless her. Her husband also, and he praises her, saying, "Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all." Here's the verse we will focus on, verse 30. "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her the product of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates." Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, I trust and I pray that you will send the person of your Holy Spirit that he may apply the word of God to our hearts.

And Lord, as we have already seen, there is something here from this text, even though it is a text that is directed primarily at the ladies. Lord, there is something here for all of us tonight. And so I pray that you would teach us and use your word to sanctify us and conform us to the image of your son, Jesus Christ. And it's his name that we pray. Amen. Point number one tonight is simply this, examine your heart. We're going to be looking at verse 30. Examine your heart. Let me just read verse 30 again since that was a lot of scripture that we read. Let us laser focus in here on verse 30.

"Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised." In order to begin with some proper perspective on the profile of a godly woman and an excellent wife, we need to begin with an examination of our hearts, ladies. The last thing we want is to simply give a checklist of do's and don'ts. And there have been times when I have heard Proverbs 31 addressed as something of a checklist. You have to go down through the verses, "Well, do I do that? Do I do that? Do I do that?" And you know what? That's not completely wrong.

There are a lot of very practical exhortations that you can get from Proverbs 31 that do inform biblical or godly womanhood or being a biblical or excellent or godly wife. But I don't want to start with a checklist of do's and don'ts for you ladies that is separated from a genuine walk with the Lord and a genuine fear of the Lord. Ladies, your deepest desire should not be just to be a woman who is the all-star soccer mom. The woman who has her kids that spill out of her minivan one by one to the soccer game with everything in tow, with everything planned out, with the calendar done just right, although none of that is bad in and of itself.

Your deepest desire should not be to be a woman who has your house spotless all the time. Your deepest desire should not be to be a lady who gathers the most coupons each week and has figured out how to save the most money at the grocery store, although there's nothing wrong with that either. Those things are good, but they are not primary. The first priority for the Christian woman, for the Christian wife, is the cultivation of her love for God and a more intimate fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a contrast made in verse 30 between the outward appearance of a lady and the inner disposition of a lady.

Let's examine this by looking at each category, and as we do this, examine your heart's ladies according to God's word. Number one, we see the description of how God's word addresses her outward appearance. It says there in verse 30, "Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain." Charm is a word that is used in the Proverbs to describe aesthetic loveliness. It refers to the physical attractiveness of a lady. In this context, for a lady to have charm was for her to have beauty, was for her to be very attractive physically, so that word charm is used. The word beauty is used. Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain.

Again, this idea of beauty is simply a second reference to the physical appearance of a lady. These words used to refer to physical beauty, physical attraction, and they're described in this way as being deceitful and being vain. Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain. The word deceitful, scholars tell us, was often used of lying words or of false prophecies in the Old Testament. In other words, physical beauty can be deceitful concerning the true character of the lady's heart. Simply because one may appear beautiful in her physical form does not guarantee that her inner person will be beautiful as well.

Charm and beauty are also deceitful and vain in that they do not last. In a fallen world corrupted by sin, the Scriptures tell us that our outer person is decaying day after day. Some other Scriptures that talk about this outer person that is decaying in 2 Corinthians 4.16, the Apostle Paul says, "Therefore we do not lose heart, though our outer man is decaying yet our inner man is being renewed day by day." We could almost say that from the moment you are born into this world, you also are born as a decaying person. There is a clock that is ticking. We don't know when that clock is going to go off.

The Lord Jesus Christ does, of course, but you are decaying in your outer person. 1 Peter 3, also addressing women here, says, "To the women, your adornment must not be merely external, braiding the hair, wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses, but let it be the hidden person of the heart." Why? Because that is the imperishable quality. The inside, right, is the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit. What is external is very perishable.

Paul again in 1 Timothy 2, 9 and 10, "I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair, and gold, or pearls, or costly garments, but rather by means of good works." Why? Because those never decay, but the outer person does. Now ladies, to be sure, God's Word never states that outward beauty is wrong. It never states that outward beauty is sinful. It does not say that taking care of your physical health is wrong, or that keeping up your appearance is innately sinful. That's not what God's Word teaches either.

However, the weight of biblical teaching leans heavily towards teaching us that one's outward appearance, how one looks, one's beauty, one's attractiveness, one's charm, must run a distant second to the inner person of your heart and your soul. Ladies, I think now is as good a time as ever to ask yourselves some heart-searching questions about how you view beauty, how you view charm, how you view physical attractiveness. Number one, let me ask you this. Has your physical beauty, your outward appearance become more important to you than your desire for a deeper walk with Christ?

I can't answer that question for you, but you can answer it before the Lord. Or maybe this question, where do you spend most of your energy towards physical attractiveness or towards the spiritual means of grace? Again, I'm not talking about putting an exact timer. You know, well let me time this. I'm going to spend one hour on physical attractiveness. I'm going to make sure I spend one hour and one minute on spiritual ... I'm not talking about that. Your energies, right, your desire, your pursuit. What is it leaning towards? What is it most heavily weighted towards? The outward person or the inner person of the heart?

Maybe this question, does physical appearance consume your thoughts? Number four, have you made an idol out of your physical appearance? Or this one, have you begun to look for your identity in how you look rather than in the gospel of Jesus Christ? Bridges and old scholars said it this way, beauty. What a fading vanity it is. One fit of sickness sweeps it away. Isn't that true? That's true not only of our beauty, but just our physical health. It can take just a couple of days of being sick and you just think, my goodness, I just feel awful. By the way, we can look awful in just a couple of days of being sick and unwell.

Beauty, what a fading vanity it is. One fit of sickness sweeps it away, sorrow and care wither its charms, and even while it remains, it is little connected with happiness. Men, some questions for you. I told you you weren't off the hook here tonight. Got to keep you with me here as I'm speaking to the ladies. Some questions for you, men. How are you doing in shepherding your wife and encouraging her in the pursuit of godliness and sanctification over and above the pursuit of physical attractiveness?

Men, do you let your wife know and lead her to prioritize a more intimate walk with Christ as the priority of her life over her outward appearance? Men, can your wife see an example in you of the pursuit of godliness from your own walk with Christ? We see what the scripture has to say here about the outward appearance. Charm is deceitful. Beauty is vain. But next we see what it has to say about the inner disposition of a godly lady. It says there in verse 30, "But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised." A woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

The truly distinguishing mark of the Proverbs 31 lady, and there's a lot of marks in there, there's a lot of characteristics in there, but the truly distinguishing mark of the Proverbs 31 lady is her fear of the Lord. That's it. You know, ladies, you can be an enterprising lady, and by the way, the Proverbs 31 lady I believe is an enterprising lady. She has a lot of things going on. We see that from the text. But you can be an enterprising lady and not fear the Lord. You can be an attractive lady and not fear the Lord. You can be a hardworking lady. You know what, I think that's clearly coming out in Proverbs 31.

I mean, she rises while it's dark. She's taking care of her household. She's making provisions for the future. I mean, she's doing all sorts of stuff. She's busy. She's not lazy. But you can be a hardworking lady and not fear the Lord. You can even be a caring mother and not fear the Lord. What I want you to see, ladies, is that the hinge pin of the Proverbs 31 text that describes the godly woman, the biblical woman, the excellent wife, the hinge pin that makes all the difference in the life of this lady is this second phrase of verse 30. She is a lady that fears the Lord. Morality is not the point.

Simply being a good mom, a good wife, a good lady is not the point. The main thrust is that God has worked in the Proverbs 31 woman's heart and given her a new relationship with him that is characterized by fear and by reverence of the Lord. That's what Proverbs 31 is after. And that's what sometimes in some of the books that can be helpful and the literature that can be helpful, but it takes this and it makes it a checklist and do this and do that at the end of the day. If you do all that, you're good. What about fearing the Lord? That's where it starts. By the way, that's where it ends and that's where it is in the middle as well.

A woman who fears the Lord. Those are the types of ladies I desire to see at Grace Life Church of the Shoals. I'm sure those are the types of ladies that Pastor Chris desires to see at Grace Life Church of Brookhaven. This is what I want more than anything else for my wife, to be a woman who fears the Lord. That's what I want for my daughters, for Kenzie, our oldest, and for Prentice, our youngest, to be ladies that fear the Lord.

Ladies that truly make an impact for God's glory are those who both fear the Lord and are growing in their knowledge of Him to the point that their thoughts, their desires, their goals, their ambitions, whatever else we want to fill in the blank there, are reoriented around God and seeing Him glorified in all parts of their lives. Now again, let me just make sure you hear me. I'm not saying that there's no place for a real practical exhortation from Proverbs 31 and other points in the Scripture. They give you some how-tos. Okay, I like how-tos. I'm a real simple guy, real practical guy. I like how-tos from the Scripture.

The Scripture gives us some of those. But if you're getting the how-tos and you're not starting with the God-centeredness of it all, you're in the wrong spot. If you've got all the how-tos but you're not a lady that fears the Lord, that's not what God desires most from you. As a matter of fact, I believe that if you are a lady that fears the Lord, all the how-tos eventually just kind of find their way and work. If you're a worshipper of the Lord and you're seeking to fear Him and live humbly before Him, all those other things will eventually kind of even out in your life.

Now, I don't know about the context here at Church of Brookhaven, but in our context at Grace Life Church of the Shoals, we have far too many, particularly young ladies, that are so caught up with everything they feel like they're supposed to do. My house has to be spotless. I've got to have this many number of kids. My kids all have to have this. I've got a homeschool. I've got a Christian school. I've got a public school. I've got a this. I've got a this. I've got a this. And they're forgetting verse 30, second phrase, "Just be a woman that fears the Lord." If you're a woman that fears the Lord, I would say this.

You can probably make some mistakes in some of those other areas, but in God's grace, He'll cover over them for you and for His glory. This proverb, of course, in Proverbs 31, is not the only place where we see the importance of fearing the Lord. We won't turn to these, but Proverbs 1.7, "The beginning of wisdom is," what? "To fear the Lord." In 1 Peter 1.17, we're taught that as well. What is this fear of the Lord? Well, it's a reverence and a humility before your maker and redeemer. A reverence and a humility before your maker and redeemer.

Jameson Fawcett Brown says, "The fear of the Lord is the principle of true piety in our lives." In the ESV study Bible, it describes the fear of the Lord in this way. "Fear is a reverence and awe that should characterize the lives of believers during their life on this earth." The fear of the Lord sets one on the path of learning more about God and walking in godly wisdom. Apart from this, apart from this fear of the Lord, there is no godly wisdom that can be lived out, ladies. Because in reality, our starting point with the Proverbs 31 lady is her fear and awe before her God. Some questions maybe again, ladies.

Number one, can you honestly say when examining your heart that it's been changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ? And at some point, God did such a work in your life that He gave you a new fear of the Lord, a new reverence, a new awe of the Lord that now is the centerpiece of your life. As I've said, there are some who do not need another how-to book on marriage, another how-to book on parenting. You need to be changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what you need. You need your life to be reoriented around the glory of God through the gospel of the Lord Jesus.

Ladies, I know that there are many, maybe all of you, who are running around doing all of the normal wife and mom activities that maybe you witnessed your mom do when you were a kid. You're staying busy with groceries, with work, with caring for your husband, caring for your children, taking care of schedules, doing all of those things. You attend church, you read your children bedtime stories, but maybe, maybe you have never been changed by the gospel and you have no fear of God in your life and you need salvation.

For some of you, there's no doubt you have been changed by the gospel, but in the busyness, the busyness of being a wife, the busyness of being a mom, the busyness of just maybe being a single lady that's got a lot going on, the fear of the Lord has kind of gotten covered over through the years. And it needs to be renewed in your heart. You need to fan the flame of the fear of the Lord and how it should impact in your life. Ladies, what I'm asking you to do now is just do some soul searching, to ask some questions of yourself and your own hearts.

And if you search your heart and indeed you can see that a fear of the Lord is present in your life, then let me encourage you to further cultivate that fear and reverence of Him. Now after saying all that, let me give you a couple of how to's. All right? Now that we've covered that and laid that foundation. Ladies in order to cultivate this further fellowship with the Lord, number one, let me encourage you to do this. Get some Titus 2 help. Now I don't know about Grace Life Brookhaven, but Grace Life Church of Souls, you know how that happens? We have things called small group classes. You ever heard of those, Pastor Chris?

All of you have, right? Because I know you are. You all are like us. Get with some other ladies and yes, encourage one another in all of those little practicalities, but give it some other ladies. We're going to challenge you to just fear the Lord and love Him more. I asked Kristen years ago, we were thinking about some of this, about some ladies that had impacted her life at Grace Life Church of the Shells. Kristen is my wife. Sorry, I should have clarified that. And she had 16 ladies that she could name just off the top of her head that had been helpful all in different seasons of life, you know, because we grew up there.

So she had some that influenced her as a teenager, as a single lady. Some when we were young and first married and first having kids. Others that are more recent now that we have older kids on a little different season of life, right? But 16 ladies that in some way, and I'm not talking about she sat down with every one of them and read a book and all that type of stuff, but they just had relationships with one another. Many of the times it was through our small group classes so that they could encourage one another to fear the Lord, love the Lord, pursue godliness. You need that. So that's the first thing. Get some Titus 2 help.

Number two, secondly, this one has to do with you. We talked about it a little bit this morning. Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. Ladies I know your time is stretched. You bear a lot of burdens that many times go unseen. Let me encourage you to carve out some time somewhere in that day to just spend some time with the Lord. It will make a huge difference in your growth and godliness. It will make a huge difference in the joy you have in fulfilling the role that God has given you and it will further cultivate an awe and fear of the Lord in your own heart. Number three, let me encourage you to put your family second.

Does that sound sacrilegious? Put your family second. You know ladies, above your role in calling his wife or your role in calling his mother, you are called simply to be a disciple of Jesus. You are Jesus before you are your husband's. You are Jesus' possession before you are your child's mom. Your affections must be first and foremost directed to Christ. More so than your husband, although I know you love him. More so than your kids, although I know you love them. Your affections first and foremost are for the Lord Jesus. You are a disciple of his. Everyone and everything else comes behind your first love and your first love is Jesus.

You know here's the wonderful thing about that. When you love Jesus first and foremost and you make him the priority, you will be a more loving wife. You will be a more loving, caring mom. That's how that will work. You love your husband and your kids and make an idol out of them. You end up crashing the whole thing over time. Put your family second. So ladies, this proverb is not teaching us about the moral woman or about the nice woman or about the busy woman or about the working woman or about the woman who has it all put together. It is teaching us about the godly woman.

Godliness starts with a change of the heart and it flows out from that into the daily life and activities that a woman is involved in. I do believe that Proverbs 31.30 is the hinge pin on which the rest of this proverb revolves around. Charm is deceitful. Beauty is vain. The woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Now I told you I was going to end with the men. So ladies, don't cut me off. Okay, we're kind of done with the exhortation to you. And men, we're going to jump back in to act like men weekend with a couple of exhortations here from Proverbs chapter 31.

We've exhorted the ladies to examine their hearts, to discern where their priorities stack up in light of Proverbs 31. Now I want to give a quick exhortation to the men and I want to give it actually from verse 10. So turn back with me maybe one page in your copy of God's Word. Two quick exhortations to end our act like men weekend. Verse 10, Proverbs 31, "An excellent wife who can find for her worth is far above jewels." Question number one, men, especially married men here tonight, but all men, understand that excellent wives are hard to find. Excellent wives are hard to find.

It asks it in the form of a questionnaire in verse 10, "An excellent wife who can find." It's pointing us to the truth that a woman like the one presented in Proverbs 31 is a rare commodity. Now silly little girls and ladies that are wrapped up in nothing more than selfish pursuits, maybe that charm, maybe that beauty that's deceitful, that's vain, ladies that are wrapped up in that, they're not hard to find at all. They're abundant. They're everywhere. They populate the earth. It's easy to head out and find a lady that does not have a noble character and a fear of the Lord.

Men if you're here and you're not married, let me encourage you to be careful about finding a lady like that because in Proverbs 19.13 it says this, "A foolish son is destruction to his father and the contentions of a wife, a wife that does not fear the Lord, a wife that does not care about walking in godliness." The contentions of a wife are a constant dripping. In Proverbs 21.9 it says this, "It is better to live in a corner of a roof." You ever been up in your attic, in your roof space? If you were to walk all the way into the corner of it, that'd be an awful place to live, right?

I mean I don't know about you, but I mean the corner of my roof, it's small. By the way, it's not heated and it's not cooled so in the summer you're going to burn up and in the winter you're going to freeze. That would be an awful place to live. Well, it would be better to live in a place like that, Proverbs 21.9 says, "Than a house shared with a contentious woman." Only the Lord can form godly character into the soul of a lady and it is that lady that you must pursue and trust the Lord to bring your way. You know a godly wife is not the product, men, you may think it is, but it is not the product of you just being such a charmer yourself.

It is not the product of you somehow wooing her with your looks or with your words. It is actually a gift from the Lord, Proverbs 19.14, "House and wealth are inheritance from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the Lord's." Proverbs 18.22, "He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord's." Men, if you are married and the lady sitting next to you, not that she is perfect, but if she is someone who is pursuing the Lord, who fears the Lord, who fits the Proverbs 31 profile, then you have a rare commodity at your side. Thank the Lord for her. Don't nitpick all the things you wish it might be different in her life.

Thank the Lord for the evidences of grace that are a part of her life. Number two, understand that excellent wives are a treasure. Again, Proverbs 31 verse 10, "An excellent wife who can find," she is a rare commodity. Here is number two, "her worth is far above jewels." Again, one scholar said it this way, "No treasure can be compared with the woman described in these verses." Not only should we recognize the rarity of finding the excellent wife, but we must recognize her worth. Men she is, at least earthly speaking, your most valued possession. Men, do you have some valued possessions? I have some.

Most of them probably really aren't valuable to anybody but me. Maybe you've got an old gun that's been passed down from generations. You think, "Man, that was my granddaddy's gun and he hunted deer with that and then my dad hunted deer with it and now I'm hunting deer with it." That's a valued possession. That's okay. It's okay to look at it as valuable. It could be something else. Whatever it is, what's really valuable is the wife that the Lord has given you. Her worth is far above jewels. You know what? Because she's valuable, Proverbs 31, 31 gives you an exhortation, men.

Because she is that, you are, it says here in the scripture, to give her the product of her hands. You know what an easy translation of that means? You should reward her because of who she is, her fear of the Lord and how she serves in your home. Don't deprive her. Don't put your thumb on her in some kind of authoritarian leadership. Reward her because of who she is. Be thankful and say, "I want to bless my wife in every way that I can and every way that is possible because she's worth far above jewels and she has a rare commodity and so I want to give her the product of her hands.

I want to reward her for the work she is doing here in my home." Men do your wives realize how thankful you are for them? Do your wives realize and see that you value them far above jewels? In what ways men do your actions and your words demonstrate your thankfulness for your wife and your valuing of your wife? You know, this sort of love from a groom to a bride and this sort of treasuring and caring for her is only a mere shadow of the love that Jesus has for his bride, the church. Men no matter how well you may be doing it, treasuring and valuing your wife, it still hails in comparison to the love that Jesus has for his bride, the church.

That love is described in Romans 5-8. God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. There's just one main difference in this analogy and it is an analogy that the Apostle Paul uses quite extensively in Ephesians 5. The husband and the wife are a picture of Christ and his church. But the difference is this, men, your wives really are valuable and precious, far above rubies. They are worthy of your love, your appreciation, your thanksgiving for them. But when we think of the gospel, the death of Jesus was not a sign of our worth. It wasn't. Your wives really are valuable.

They really are precious. But you know what you and I are? We're just regular old sinners before the Lord. Jesus' death was not a sign of our worth, but rather was a sign of how sinful and depraved we are. Sometimes people will say, "Jesus proved how valuable man is because he went and died for him." No, Jesus proved how utterly sinful we were. That's why his death was required. And less would do. It only serves to show how great God's love for sinners is. It is beyond comprehension. So as we wrap up our weekend together, men, number one, let me say this. I have thoroughly enjoyed being back at Grace Life Church of Brookhaven.

Men, I am encouraged. Pastor, I am encouraged when I am with your men, when I am with your people. You hear the Word. You listen to the Word of God. I was speaking with one of the brothers this morning, and I said to me, one of the greatest marks of maturity in a local church is their willingness to hear and continue hearing the Word of God. It's one of the great things that I get to preach at Grace Life Church of the Shoals. We have a church at Grace Life Church of the Shoals of people that just love God's Word. And I think it's a mark of God's work of maturing them. And I see that in you, and I'm encouraged by it.

I'm encouraged by the maturity that God is bringing about in your local church. And my prayer for this weekend has been that God would just push it forward a little bit. That he would just a little bit more, you know, a little further up, a little further in on biblical manhood. And tonight, as we wrap things up, a little further up, a little further in on biblical womanhood. So that as we said this morning, and we saw that description of Noah, that when the community here in Brookhaven thinks of Grace Life Church in Brookhaven, they'll say, "You know what?

We don't know everything about those people, and we've heard some things about them, but we know that they walk with God. And we know that their ladies are ladies who fear the Lord. I'd be satisfied with that. And by the way, I believe that that's what God is doing in your lives. So thank you for allowing me to be here. Thank you for the encouragement you have given to me. Thank you for the partnership that we have together in the Gospel for His glory as sister churches. Let me pray for us. Father, again, I do thank you for being here.