Please open your copy of God's Word to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2. Well, we're talking about marriage. And I read a story about a man who went to his wife and he asked her, what would you like for your birthday? It's a dangerous question, man. Walk carefully. And her answer to him was, I'd love to be 10 again. So he noted that. And on the morning of her birthday, he got up super early and he made her breakfast in bed. And what was the breakfast? It was a nice big bowl of Cocoa Pops. And after that, he told her, let's get dressed, let's go, where are we going? He says, it's a surprise. And he took her to the local theme park for the day. And they rode every ride in the park. They rode rides by the name of Death Slide. They rode the Wall of Fear. They rode the Screaming Monster Roller Coaster. Everything there was that was fast and intense, he took his wife on those rides. And five hours later, she staggered out of the theme park and her stomach fell upside down and her body. And where did they go from there? Oh, the day's not over yet. It's a birthday. They journeyed to McDonald's, where he ordered her a happy meal with extra fries and a chocolate milkshake. And just when she thought she couldn't handle any more on this particular day, it wasn't the end of his plans. He took her to the movie theater, and they watched the latest Star Wars epic. And with the Star Wars epic, they ate another hot dog, a ton of popcorn and all the Coke she could drink and finished it off with a big box of M&Ms. What a day. So as he went home, he took her home, she wobbled into the home and collapsed into her bed absolutely exhausted. And he leaned over to his precious wife, and with a big smile on his face, he says, well, hon, what was it like being 10 again? And she looked at him, and her eyes slowly opened, and she says, wait, wait, I meant my dress size. Men need clarity and simplicity, right? Give us simplicity. But the reality is, all of us need clarity and simplicity. That's why I am so thankful that we get to once again pull our chair up to the table of Scripture and see what the Bible says about marriage. Last week, actually, we had a hard sermon. It was hard on both sides of the pulpit. As we looked into scripture and asked, what is the direction you point every Christian man in as a husband? What is the data? What is God's will for every husband? And we saw that, and we saw it in eight words, if you will. Why? Because husbands need clarity and simplicity. We saw last week ground zero for the Christian husband. But this morning, we want to do the same thing for the wife. We want to see ground zero for the Christian wife. In a way, we want to remove faces from our mind this morning and ask scripture, what is God's will for every Christian wife? What is the design? And as we do this kind of a study in scripture, I don't know about you, but I want to push myself away from the desk and simply say, wow. The brush strokes that the Bible uses to describe the beauty and the high calling of a Christian wife is simply breathtaking. It's beautiful. And a wife like this makes a deep, deep impact for the sake of the gospel. It's amazing. Well, here's what I want to do. Here's what I want to do. How do we mine what the Bible says about being a godly wife? The approach I'm going to take is the same approach we took last week. And while we're between expositions in our series, this particular series on marriage and especially these messages on the roles of marriage, I want us to feel like we're in a coffee shop and we're talking and we're asking the question, what does the Bible say about the roles of marriage? And we have a napkin in front of us and we're going to stop off in four key passages of scripture asking the question, what's a wife to be? And we just want to hear what the Bible says. We want to hear the answer and then bring it in for our landing. So what we're going to do is we're going to go through what I consider some of the major wifing texts. The Bible has so much to say to the women in general, single and married. We're not going to stop at all those texts. We're going to stop at the main texts that deal with the wife's relationship, not necessarily with her children, not necessarily with her culture, not even necessarily with just the church. What are the main texts and how she is to respond and have a relationship with her husband? And as we stop at these main texts, like I did for the men last week, I want to give you ladies. eight words. Eight words that I would write on the napkin and slide across the table to you. But fair warning, as we look at these eight words, we're going to say, wow, what a high calling. She's stunning, spiritually speaking. But I also have to warn you, that the words we're going to write on the napkin that come from these four texts of Scripture are controversial here in the West. As a matter of fact, just reading these texts that I'm going to read right from the Bible are controversial in our culture today. But what we're doing is we're saying, God, tell us your will for the wife. And then we're dependent on the Holy Spirit to bring it home. So, eight words. God's clear and simple description of a biblical wife. The first two words, number one, perfect fit. Perfect fit. And the key text for this is Genesis 2, verses 18-20. Your Bibles are open. And we're going to come back to this text in even more detail in a future message in November. But suffice it to say, for now, Genesis 2, is circling back to day six of creation from Genesis 1. And Genesis 2 is focusing on not just the creation of man, but also the creation of his wife. It's an amazing text. Look at verse 18. Then the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. And the man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to every beast of the field, but For Adam, there was not found, and here's that phrase again, a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept. And then he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man. And then he brought her to the man. And the man said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed." All the way to verse 25. Very, very important text. And as I've said before, when someone asks Jesus in the Gospels about the permanence of marriage, he quotes this text, verse 24. When Paul writes his Ephesians 5 thesis on marriage, he quotes this text, Ephesians, or Galatians, excuse me, Genesis 2.24. I mean, this is a key text, and I can't help but notice that repeat phrase in verses 18 and 20, that the wife, Eve, is a helper suitable for Adam. a helper that's suitable. What does this mean? It means this, that God's plan before he created Eve and God's intent in the creation of Eve and in bringing Eve to Adam is this, that she would be a handcrafted, if you will, by God himself, suitable helper to Adam. Now there's so much we can say here, but I want you to just note the mountain peak of this text. God has handcrafted Adam's best friend so much so that when Adam sees her for the first time, and what's that scene look like? I mean, one of those has never existed before. And God fashioned her just for Adam. And God brought her to Adam. I love the first thing out of Adam's mouth. Bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. Yeah, what does that mean? It's Adam saying this, there's the rest of me. God has crafted into the perfect companion Eve for Adam. So the key word here is completion. Completion. In God's mind, God completed Adam with Eve. And as you continue to read through the Old Testament, especially in the wisdom books, but even in the minor prophets, you're going to come across a phrase that throws our mind back to Genesis chapter 2. For example, Malachi 2.14, here's the phrase, because the Lord has been a witness between you and, listen to this, the wife of your youth. against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant." You see, when God crafted Eve to be the perfect complement for Adam, He brought together two into one So much so that you can't tell where Adam ends and Eve begins. They move as a unit, they move as a completed whole as they go through life. And God says she's the companion of your youth, the wife of your youth, the covenant companion. You say, yeah, what's up with that covenant word? In the Old Testament, they referred to cutting a covenant. If two parties came together to make an agreement, enter into a contract together, it usually accompanied taking sacrificial type of animals and cutting them in half and creating a little road between the cut pieces. And the two parties that were making an agreement would walk together through those pieces, in essence saying, if we go back on our promise to each other, may we end up like this. It's pretty serious. And the Spirit of God in the Old Testament uses that kind of language to talk about the permanence and the beauty and the unity of what a wife brings to a husband. She's a helper suitable for him. Or can I just put it to you this way in these two words? She's a perfect fit in God's opinion. A perfect fit. Best friend. Completion. You say, I don't know if I like that word helper. For a woman, that means, that sounds like she's merely just an assistant. Oh no, she's way beyond anything of that concept. As a matter of fact, I like what Jannie Ortlin in her book Fearlessly Feminine says. She says, in referring to this word helper, that, quote, a helper gives aid and support from a position of strength. And then she notes this, God himself is called a helper. Same Hebrew word. She's a perfect fit. She brings all of her strengths, all of her God-given abilities, and focuses them on a husband, listen, who desperately needs them, in God's opinion. The perfect fit. And we say, well, what's the fruit of this companionship? The fruit of this companionship is that the husband, listen, is a success in what God has called that husband to do, be, and go because of his wife, what she brings to this. It's his success in God's call on his life. I mean, I remember the years I was able to live in Virginia Beach, it wasn't uncommon to have fighter jets flying overhead all the time, like every day. There's things that flew over my house there I'm still not allowed to tell you about. But you know what, every once in a while there were some special fighter jets that stood out from the rest that would fly over our house there. They were blue and yellow. representing the University of Michigan. No, I'm just kidding. They were the Blue Angels. And they would be in town regularly to do shows and do drills and stuff like that. And it was no big deal to look up and see the Blue Angels. But, you know, I moved to the Detroit area and what do I see when I look up in the sky every other year? The Blue Angels again. Same. Same. I see the Thunderbirds on the off years. What causes us to stop what we're doing and run out in the parking lot when we hear these jets warming up for the air show? It's just a beautiful formation. And the wings stay a certain distance apart, and they do death-defying feats in the air in perfect formation. You know what that requires? It not only requires a good lead, but also good support. And it moves as a whole that just causes you to say, wow. That's the design of God for marriage, too. God says, the home's gonna have to have a leader, but wait till you see the one I bring in and I create to support the leader. She is going to create a beautiful, amazing wholeness to the picture that will cause people to say, wow. But there's a warning here in this one. As we understand perfect fit, as we understand the concept of completion, there's a warning for every family here. And it's this. Sometimes in the place of completion, there can be competition. Competition. Where we find couples that should be rejoicing in their differences of strengths and weaknesses, now using those as points of conflict and competition. This shows up whenever, for example, a wife sees that her husband's career threatens hers, or she wants to take over, if you will, the lead plane. After all, we're both planes. And she steps out of the order that God has created. We call it complementarianism and Pastor Ernie spoke about that a few weeks back. It's when a wife, for example, will look at her husband and see and really believe that her husband was created to follow her lead and make her a success and her agenda alone. Suddenly there's not completion anymore. It's competition. And the picture gets warped. And whenever we stray from the blueprint that we see in Genesis 2, bad always happens. In Genesis 2, it's followed by Genesis 3, the fall. Now man's responsible and bears a huge responsibility for the fall that's going to happen in Genesis 3, but so does the woman. You know, when Proverbs says in Proverbs 13, 15, the way of the transgressor is hard, that's exactly the truth. She's a perfect fit according to God. But there are two more words, a trustworthy steward. A trustworthy steward. For this one, as we drink this coffee, go with me to Proverbs chapter 31. Don't worry, I'm not going to read and preach the whole chapter. But it is an amazing chapter, and we're focusing just on key texts that deal with her relationship with her husband. Trustworthy steward. Look at verse 10, Proverbs 31 verse 10, and the key text here will be verses 10 through 12. An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. And look at this, the heart of her husband trusts in her. and he will have no lack of gain. And she does him good and not evil all the days of her life. And then pretty much the rest of the chapter up to verse 27 talks about the good she does for her husband and not evil the rest all of her life. But I'm just captured by the phrase there in verse 11. The heart of her husband trusts in her. I'm calling this trustworthy steward. You say, what does this mean? What's verse 11 saying? Well, this means one word, confidence. Confidence. You see, her husband trusts in his wife at the level of his heart. The very core of him. You see, the husband is free to focus on what God has called him to do with his life, knowing this, that his wife is with him, and completing him in that call, and he's not worried. When it comes to the areas of finances, listen, her husband trusts in her, whether they're in the same room or not. When it comes to the area of parenting, his heart trusts in her, whether they're in the same room or not. In the area of purity, in every area, the husband trusts in his wife at the heart level. I remember when my son Jared, when he was a teenager, a young teenager, he told me what a trust fall was. And he did it. He demonstrated it to me. He says, I'm going to turn around, you're standing behind me, I'm just going to fall backwards and you catch me. And I don't know when you're going to catch me, just let me hit the floor. Right? And there he comes. Here he comes back and I catch him. And I guess that was cool with teenagers back then. Trust falls. You know what? The husband doesn't hesitate to do a trust fall into his wife's arms, figuratively speaking. He just trusts her. He doesn't doubt. He knows that she is with him and for him. Her loyalty is impeccable. Proverbs 25 verse 14 says, Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of his gifts falsely. There's a lot of husbands that say, I want to be a godly husband. But they let their wives down. And wives, too, can struggle with this, too. It's one thing to say we want to be a biblical husband. It's another one to be able to read books on it. But it's quite another thing, whether it's being a godly husband or a godly wife, to do it. This husband trusts his wife. But there's a warning here. There's a warning. You see, sometimes in the place of transparency, there can be secrecy. secrecy. Or what I sometimes refer to as pockets of privacy. I'm shocked to read from Alexa research that 70% of women, this is talking about all women, not just singling out Christian women, I hope the number is lower, but 70% of women keep their cyber online activity secret in their home. Pockets of privacy. Sometimes these pockets of privacy happen in friendships. They happen online. They happen with children. They happen with in-laws and parents and spending and sin. And they keep things a secret and transparency is gone. And trust is broken. But we're looking at God's design, not our failures. And by God's design, a wife has as her grace-filled assignment to be a trustworthy steward. There's a little principle here. Continents are built on trust. Islands are created when trust is broken. This is serious stuff. Jesus couldn't get any more clear. When he's talking about the kingdom of Satan, Being divided, he's gonna refer to a home division and say that neither can stand. Listen to his words in Matthew 12, 25. Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste. Listen to this. And any city or house divided against itself will not stand. I'm not removing any responsibility for the husband. I hope last week you watched me land with both feet on the chest of the men of the church. They are to be guarding independence. They're supposed to be discipling. This is the other side of the coin. There's a heavy burden and responsibility, and I think a wonderful responsibility, also with the wife to be worthy of trust. Well, two more words for that napkin, and here they are. Eager learner. Eager learner. For this one, I'd like for you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 14. This is the text I would write on the napkin underneath these two words, eager learner. 1 Corinthians chapter 14, the whole chapter is given to instructions and corrections of worship, Some come to this chapter and see that it is 100% prescriptive. I think that it is descriptive as well. But I want you to note in this conversation Paul is having with his pen to the believers at Corinth, there's two verses that just leap off the page to our topic here. Verse 34, 1 Corinthians 14, 34 and 35 is a key text. The women, the wives, are to keep silent in the churches, Doesn't mean they can't talk. What does it mean? We'll see. For they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the law also says. And if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home, for it is improper for a woman to speak in church. Some people isolate those two verses and they say, what? I mean, when women come to church, they can't talk to people. Is that what he's talking about? No, no, no. That's the danger when we take two verses out of context. He's talking about the local church. He's talking about leading and teaching, prophesying, if you will, in his language. And he's saying, my design is that I'm putting this heavy task of leadership on the men for the position of authoritative teaching in the church. And their authority doesn't come from because they're a man. It doesn't come because they're smart. Their authority is from scripture. Their authority is in teaching God's Word because when God's Word is taught, it is authoritative. I have no authority at Calvary Baptist Church as Jim Newcomer, even though the paycheck says I'm a pastor here. I have no authority but that I teach God's Word and I'm merely a conduit as a pastor to preach it clearly so that you are under the authority of God's Word. Well, God in his design is having this conversation with the church in Corinth through Paul's pen, saying, I need men to lead spiritually. And we've talked, I've had two sermons on why it's important for men to lead spiritually. This is the other side of the coin. It's like, women, be teachable too. Can I give a little pastoral observation before I unpack this? You understand, don't you, that some of the best teachers And churches like ours are often the women, they're compassionate, they're caring, they're very careful students of the Word, and they can teach in circles around a lot of men. This has nothing to do with their mental ability. Actually, I stand in awe of how good they teach and the content they come up with. This is merely saying, not teaching the Bible that would put you in a spiritual authority over the men. but it doesn't mean you can't teach. And we have wonderful opportunities for our women to use their giftedness and the fruit of their studies with other women. Paul even prescribes that to Titus and Timothy, as well as to children, as well as to young people. But with relationship to the spiritual leadership in the church and in the home, I see these two words just coming together from this text. She is to be an eager learner as well, a constant, insatiable hunger herself to learn more of God's Word. I mean, you're in church, Christian wife, and you desire growth, not only growth for others, but growth for yourself. And whenever I have such an eager learner in my own wife or my daughters or someone at the church, I can't tell you the heavy weight that puts on my shoulders to make sure I lead correctly and study correctly and teach correctly. She's an eager learner. As a matter of fact, you might want to tie this text in with a second primary text over in Ephesians 5. Look at Ephesians 5 with me. Ephesians 5, verses 25 and 27. Husbands, again, I know I'm supposed to be speaking to the wives, but I'm lowering the weight on your shoulders again, men. You've got to lead spiritually. Verse 25, Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own body." There's a mandate here, men, to be leading spiritually. And the other side of the coin is finding a wife in the home that's eager to learn. Not that everything has to come from her husband. But she wants to see him grow. She wants to see him succeed as a spiritual leader. So she's eager to see him grow, for example, in a context like this, in being a worshipper, a servant, a witness, and a discipler with other men of the church. He's eager, the husband is eager to set the table for the wife to grow spiritually. It doesn't mean he's doing all the devotionals, but he's letting her go to church. He's taking her to church. He's buying her good resources and making sure she's around godly women. And so you have two sides of one coin, an eager teacher and an eager learner. The warning here, of course, is sometimes a teachable spirit can be replaced with proud resistance, through debate, through broken communication. But just be reminded, whether you're the husband or the wife in a marriage, that God has the last word. And His last word is, here's the structure I have, and that I work through, and I bring glory to myself through. And it's for the man to take the initiative to lead, and for the wife to be the wind in his sails. I need to give you two final words. Our time is gone. Two final words for the napkin. Willing follower. A willing follower. Your Bibles are open to Ephesians chapter 5, and I'd like to point out two verses as our key text for this. These are the verses I would put on the napkin, Ephesians 5 verse 22 and verse 33. The bookends of this paragraph, of this unit of thought. Verse 22, wives be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. And then Paul gives his whole instructions and look how he ties it off at verse 33. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband." I can't tell you how carefully I'm walking up here right now. I mean, you knew at this point and this sermon was coming. You say, well, you've got to be careful what you say about submission in marriage. I don't want to go beyond the Word of God, but I know this. There have been a lot of people in the name of Christianity, and even outside of Christianity, who've taken what we're going to talk about here in this moment, and they've run to sinful extremes. They club wives with this text, saying, you are nothing but a servant of mine. And sometimes in the name of Jesus and whirling Ephesians 5 in the air, they will say, you are merely a doormat in my life, wife. You are merely an accessory that God chose to give to me for my consumption or just for my decoration as a husband and a man. I want to tell you, that is a lie. That is a satanic lie that warps the picture that marriage is supposed to be painting to the world. Whatever you want to say about this concept of submission, we must come back to Scripture. And I know this, as I read about the beauty of submission in Ephesians 5, I don't see a doormat here. I don't see anything about inferiority here. Nothing. Zero. I don't see anything here that she is an accessory, that she is sub-level, that she is second-rate, And if you do, you are being inconsistent with the gospel. Because Paul writes in Galatians 3.28, there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ. Brothers and sisters, we say it all the time, the ground at the foot of the cross is level, whether you're a husband or a wife. You both had to be rescued. You both stand in grace. And Peter will say to the husbands in 1 Peter chapter 3, you need to change how you look at your wife. She's a fellow heir. She's a fellow heir. As we talk about submission, being a willing follower in marriage, we're remembering the backdrop of Genesis 2 that Though equal, God has put structure and order into the family, just as he did in the other institutions of the church and the government. But understand this, when we talk about submission, it's a choice. This word submit means to make the choice to arrange yourself under the leadership of another. It's a choice. And this choice isn't based on your feelings or your husband's worthiness or his consistency or the convenience of the moment. It's a choice. You say, okay, yeah, here we are though. We're talking submission and now I feel vulnerable. There's a vulnerability involved in this. I'm going to say yes. And the other two institutions that God has created when there's a call for submission in them, and there is, there's a vulnerability that comes with that. So I want you to hear from a few women that will think through this with you. Martha Peace wrote a book called The Excellent Wife, and she says this, quote, God has created an orderly world. To maintain that order, he has appointed three institutions with their own spheres of authority, the family, the church, and the state. God planned it this way so that people could live in harmony together, and get this, and be protected. Within the family, God has given the husband authority over the wife for her protection, not for his consumption. The wife is supposed to feel safest in the realm and under the leadership of her husband. But there's a warning here. Sometimes in the place of submission, there can be domination. Whether it's because of the consistency or inconsistency of the husband, the wife may take charge in decision making, may flat out not approach her husband and may tear him down in talking about him to others." Now again, we're looking just at the Bible's prescription here, but understand this. When there is a wife who moves outside of the protective plan of God in the home, she's more vulnerable there than she was in submission in so many ways. Look at it this way. If life is war, this is the wife jumping out from behind the bunker which the Lord has given to her, her husband. See, what if her husband's not following the Lord? What if he's not saved? What if he's really even working against the faith? If you're in a place of danger because of your husband, this doesn't apply to you, what I'm talking about right now. If you are in physical danger because of your husband, you have God's permission to be in a safe place. And guess what? The state of Michigan and your local church will help you. And will help bring consequences to the husband. With zero hesitation. Watch this. David was told to be under and submit to his God-appointed King Saul. But when King Saul started hurling spears at David, David was allowed to get out of the way. I want to say to the wives present and future in this room, if you're in a place of danger because of your husband, you come to us and we're going to get the state involved. We're going to help you out. Now that's an extreme and sadly yet more and more common scenario. But I'm talking about something a little less than that. As we go through the day by day living with each other, there is an order that's in place for your protection. And if you change that order, you warp the picture it's supposed to give of Jesus. Remember Ephesians 5, 24? As the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be subject to their husbands and everything. If that's reversed in the home, then it looks like Christ is merely a responder. to the church, and the church is merely acting as protection to Jesus. I mean, the whole thing is turned on its head, as far as the picture we're supposed to portray. You say, well, my husband's disobedient to the Lord. I'm glad you brought that up. Peter writes this in 1 Peter 3. In the same way, wives, be submissive to your own husband so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior. Let me say this. I know the time's gone. You understand, dear wives, that God never calls you to trust your husband. Now, you should be able to, and I'll preach a bunch of sermons on that. But the Bible, in these passages we're looking at, doesn't use the word trust. God commands you to obey your husband and trust God. That's what 1 Peter 3 is saying. Betsy Ricucci put it this way in the book Love That Lasts. She writes, quote, my ultimate confidence is not that my husband is all wise, all knowing, and all powerful, but that God is. And she's right. Jani Ortlund again with these words describes what we're talking about. Quote, how does God regard submission? He dignifies it as an offering to himself which he surely accepts with sweet approval. To choose deference over defiance, yielding rather than competing, meekness instead of arrogance, flexibility rather than stubbornness, this is kingdom work. To build a God-honoring marriage by putting self-obsession on the cross is a glorious spiritual liberation." In other words, she's saying, and I like this, I love this, when a wife is living this out, even in a difficult situation, as long as she's safe physically, I'll add, that's an act of worship to God. It has nothing to do with the worthiness of her husband. That's beautiful. That's stunning. That's breathtaking. So husbands, I know this is the third time in this sermon I'm addressing you, and you're like, wait a minute. You've already had two sermons at us. I got a third one for you, men. Wake up. Wake up, men. Are you playing a part in making your wife a success in God's calling for her? Or are you a significant speed bump in her journey? I mean, for her to be your perfect fit is a pain Or for her to be a trustworthy steward, you don't let out the leash at all for her to build trust. For her to be an eager learner, you're not even teaching. Or for her to be a willing follower, she's having to do it as a difficult effort at worship because you don't make it enjoyable. Men, I just want to ask the question. You are either helping your wife succeed in what God's called her to be and do, or she's having to work around you. Which is it? Which is it? The writer of Hebrews says, let us study how to stimulate one another to love into good deeds. You know the name Agatha Christie. It's interesting, she was married to an archaeologist. I didn't know that. But she made this statement once, an archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets, the more interested he is in her. I'll tell you what, as we look at this napkin on our coffee table, it's been hard. These eight words are radical in our culture today. And I'm like zero comfortable right now saying these things, except it's what the Bible teaches. And that's the authority. She's to be a perfect fit, a trustworthy steward, an eager learner, and a willing follower. And you say, well, I fill all eight words, all four concepts. And I say, whew, good, you're not perfect is what you're saying? You're saying you need grace? You're saying you have to go to the Lord and ask forgiveness for failures just like the men? This is good that you realize that. This is where the Gospel enters in and covers your failures and empowers you to move ahead one day at a time in His design. It's the gospel that frees you to love and live with your primary neighbor called your husband, your primary one another called your husband, in a way that worships God. And I close with these words, again, from one of my favorite books on marriage, Love That Last, written by a husband and a wife, Gary and Betsy Ricucci. Quote, when we grasp the depth of God's love for us revealed in the gospel, When we rest in the joy of God's forgiveness toward us in the gospel, when we experience God's transforming power in us through the gospel, and when we begin to emulate the pattern of humility and obedience we see in the gospel, what a wonderful difference this will make in our lives and marriage. Nothing is more essential to a marriage and nothing brings more hope than applying the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Paul Tripp agrees, he writes in his book, a marriage of love, unity, and understanding is not rooted in romance, it's rooted in worship. And suddenly, the gospel allows you, wife, to be free. You're free to be a woman like this. No wonder we read in Proverbs 12, 4, the excellent wife is the crown of her husband. This is stunning. Now, wives, you want to crown your husband sometimes, I know. Do it this way, and you too will marvel at God's high calling for you and the deep impact you can make in portraying the gospel through the picture of your marriage.