Marriage, as God prescribes it, is foundational to the fabric of society. Any form of abuse of marriage, contradiction to it, or defilement of it is a perversion of God's created order. Sadly, today we are inundated with a variety of contradictions to marriage, many of which we are being told must be accepted and celebrated; contradictions and defilements such as polygamy, transgenderism, chauvinism, feminism, homosexuality, fornication, and pornography.
Alright, again I'm glad to be with you all, the opportunity to open God's Word and consider it together. If you want to open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 2, I want to talk about the theme, marriage matters. Combining it together with the mystery of marriage and the matters of marriage might be a better way to think about it. Let's pray before we look at it together. God, we thank you for your word, the sufficiency that we find in it, how you've preserved it and provided it for us.
We pray that our hearts would be enthralled with you and with it, that we might make room in our lives to live on the truths as they are in Jesus. In his name we pray, Amen. I would like to take advantage of the 45 minutes and use it as more teaching, less preaching. Sometimes that's difficult for me. But it will be better if I can refrain from preaching and teaching just because of the nature of the material and I want to put a lot into it.
However, I don't often do a good job of just teaching, so forgive me if I lean into preaching it a little more. You know the difference in teaching and preaching? There's a difference, Right? All preaching is a measure of teaching, but not all teaching is preaching. Teaching informs and preaching moves.
So I do hope you're moved by it in some measure, but I primarily want to do more of the work of informing with regard to marriage. Marriage as God prescribes is the foundational fabric of society. Now, if that's a true statement, then it goes without saying that we're in pretty bad shape as a culture and as a country. Marriage, as God prescribes, is the foundational fabric of society. Listen to the writer of Hebrews in chapter 13.
Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember the prisoners as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Marriage is to be held in honor among all.
Every marriage, every family has this remarkable privilege and obligation of putting on display the glorious truth of salvation. This is that mystery of marriage that the apostle talks about in Ephesians chapter five. The context of the writer of Hebrews here is that marriage is expected to display God's love throughout society, throughout culture. As you walk through those four verses in Hebrews 13, it's from the wider, let the love of the brethren continue, into the all the way to the inner circle, to the intimacy of marriage, even the marriage bed. Which begs the question, it's to be held in high honor among all.
Those who see your marriage, that are close to you, Do they hold marriage in high honor? Are the unmarried people in your life, are they being prodded, not necessarily by your words, But by your actions in your life, are they being prodded to get married because they see the benefits that are displayed in your life? Do you bemoan your marriage at the office? Complain about your spouse at the gym, always having a prayer request regarding your spouse at the Bible study. Do people leave interactions with you individually or with your family?
Do they leave them glad to be unmarried and determined to remain that way? Or do they leave thinking what they have, what that family has, what that couple evidently has? I want that. I hope God has that for me. Marriage is such a good thing.
It was instituted by God near the very beginning of time. God instituted two primary things before sin entered into the world before the fall. One was marriage, the other one was work, vocation. This is how it happened before time the delight of God in God Overflowed into creation and time was one of the things that was created and the scriptures reveal history from their own God created the world and everything in it. He created man in his own made in the image of God, you and me and everyone on the planet.
And everything that we find in Genesis Chapter two, we see that it's all geared for the benefit of men and for women, for God's highest creation, humanity. Let's read Genesis chapter 2 beginning in verse 4. Genesis 2 verse 4, this is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven. Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprouted for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth and there was no man to cultivate the ground but a mist you used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being God provides life He's the one who gave us life.
The Lord planted a garden toward the east in Eden and there he placed man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God caused every tree, caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food. The tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden and from there it divided and became four rivers. The name of The first is Pishon and it flows around the whole land of Havilah where there is gold.
The gold of that land is good. The delium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon. It flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris and it flows east of Assyria and the fourth river is the Euphrates.
Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded man saying, from any tree of the garden you may eat freely but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die then the Lord God said it is not good for the man to be alone I'll make a helper suitable for him 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 the living creature, that was its name. 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 a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused the deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept, then he took one of the ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man and he brought her to the man the man said this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called the 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 is wife were both naked and not ashamed God provides life in verse 7 he provides work in verse 15 the these initial early blessings included and were not separated from fellowship with God and abundant provision of all that we needed.
Then in verse 18, not good. All was good until 2.18, It was not good. It appears for the first time. It's not sin. Sin is not entered in, yet it's not good.
God makes a situation that was not good, good by making woman. God had delighted in fellowship and intimacy within the Trinity, with Father, Son, and Spirit, and now he saw that man Adam there in the garden lacked that kind of communion and fellowship. It's not good for him to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. I will make him a partner perfectly suited for him.
So God created woman. Chapter one verse 27, male and female, he created them. The Lord fashioned woman, brought her to the man. And we read, man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they should be one flesh leaving behind all other loyalties to give focus and attention to this new relationship to the marriage and God knowing exactly what we need being our Creator has continued from that moment on to provide for and to sustain His people. The way the Apostle Peter says it, His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.
The goodness and the glory that was so prevalent immediately after creation unfortunately didn't last long. We stopped reading at 2.25. It's a quick downhill turn from there. When God instituted marriage between humanity's first parents, all was well. There was no sin.
There was a perfect situation. Something wasn't good. It had been made good by the creation of woman. All was well, but it didn't remain well. It was a short honeymoon, we might say.
The decision of our four parents to disobey God has consequential effects on their relationship. Not just with one another, but their relationship with God primarily. It affects all future relationships, both with God and among one another. The sin that we read about that happened in the garden of serving self rather than obedience to God affects us. It affects you and me still today, not only our relationship with God being severed, but our relationships with one another end up having tension.
Rather than following the clear path for joy and eternal happiness that was laid out before them, an alternative route was taken. One of serving self in sin rather than serving God. We, not just they, we chose the path marked by sin, disobedience, and wickedness. Yet still, in remarkable kindness and incomprehensible mercy, God didn't cast us off. He didn't brush us aside, but rather chose to display his undying love for his people by implementing His eternal plan for reconciliation and redemption.
God, who alone knows what we need, who alone supplies all what we need, provides for us through the work of his son Jesus Christ on the cross. There's never been a greater need for all of humanity than the forgiveness of sins. And God supplies and provides by sending Christ for us exactly what was needed. Exactly what we lacked, God provided. So that all who trust in Him, repenting of their sin, will return to that never-ending bliss, that unspeakable glory that we were initially created for.
The first great problem that we read about on the pages of our scripture is this aloneness the need for a companion and the provision is met when God made woman but the greatest of all problems is sin resulting in separation And God provides what we need in Christ for our salvation. This is the parallel, this is that mystery that the Apostle Paul's talking about, that the glories of the gospel should therefore be reflected through marriage. And here's where the rubber meets the road for us. No one is willing to argue that Christ is not the Savior you need. Yet somehow we are tempted to believe too often that some other situation or some other spouse would be better for us.
Compatibility in a relationship is of minimal importance. Hear me, I'm not saying it's of no importance, it's of minimal importance, especially when compared to conformity. Conformity to Christ is the calling of the Christian. Conformity to Christ is the calling of the Christian husband and the Christian wife. This is the will of God, your sanctification." 1 Thessalonians 4.3.
Too many folks in our day are interested in conforming their spouse into their own likeness rather than themselves being conformed into the likeness of Christ. Your spouse offers you the best scenario possible for your complete conformity to the image of Jesus. We have to agree with this. If we agree with Romans chapter 8 verse 28, God causes all things to work for good to those who love him, who are called according to his purpose, for those he foreknew he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son. If Christ is what you need for salvation, the God-man, representing us before God in the heavens and living for us here on earth, then Your spouse is exactly what you need for sanctification and conformity to the image of Jesus.
God has sovereignly, graciously, and lovingly provided both for you. He's given you Christ to save you. He's given you your spouse for your good and for his glory and for your sanctification. The mystery of marriage is that it displays the glories of the gospel. What is required in order for us to accomplish this grace feat?
It's not a small thing to display the glories of the gospel. Well, the gospel must be a reality in our lives. What must we do if we're to take part in this wonderful privilege of displaying the glories of the gospel? We must be filled with the Spirit. The the the the the the the We must be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
Which begs the question, are you in the context of your marriage portraying an accurate depiction of who Christ is? Is Your relationship mirroring the remarkable union that exists between Christ and the church. Is this the picture that you're displaying in your life and in your marriage? Husbands, are you loving your wife? Are you sacrificing for the sake of your wife?
Wives, are you trusting and following? Is your marriage displaying gospel glories? Remembering that marriage, as God prescribes, is the foundational fabric of society. The garden that God put Adam and Eve in was great, far better than we can even imagine. We'll know some of what it's like one day.
But it was not an extended holiday. It was a place for worship, for serving God, for obeying Him. God took the man, verse 15, and put him in the garden to cultivate it and to keep it, to serve and to obey. And then the great provision, Eat from any tree in the garden freely comes with a very specific prohibition, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. This prohibition is as strong as anything found in the 10 Commandments.
And it's not just a prohibition, but it's a prohibition with a penalty. In the day that you eat from it, you will surely die. In the very beginning, we have this guaranteed promise from God, Obedience to God leads to life. Disobedience to God leads to death. And then flowing right out of that there's this recognition it's not good.
It's not good for man to be alone. Humanity is incomplete without woman. Mankind is incomplete without woman. Humans, men and women are created for communion with God and fellowship with one another. Therefore, people who claim to be Christian, but only desire their own company, worshiping only in solitude, have a warped view of themselves as well as a blatant disregard for God's will.
We're created to commune with one another, to worship God one with another, generally speaking, but also specifically in the context of marriage. I will make him a helper suitable for him. A helper. Now, it's easy for us to read that. I'm guessing most of you are not arguing with that in your mind, feeling like that it's demeaning, but you understand the culture in which we live, and that can easily be seen as demeaning.
They're just the help. The word that God uses here is not demeaning at all. It's not second rate in any way. There is zero sense of inferiority in the terminology that God is using. In fact, the same word for helper here is used in Exodus 18 four.
Listen to how it's used there. The God of my father was my help and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh. Does anybody read that It was God who was the help. In Genesis chapter two verse 18, it's the woman who's going to be created to be the helper who is suitable, who is fit perfectly for him, who is a corresponding opposite. What man lacked, what was not good about man, woman supplied.
She was the good. She was the completion that made the garden good. Aloneness was remedied with corresponding companionship. It's important, I mentioned this already, but it's important that we realize a result of sin. The garden was a perfect environment.
Adam experienced and was experiencing the unbroken presence of God. Therefore, he was actually created by God with this need of a corresponding relationship. So God reaches down, takes from his side, we think rib, that's not really here in the text, but ribs are in our side. So that's what we think when we read it. And we see that God is as personally involved in creating woman as he was in creating man.
God made them both. It wasn't that he made man and then man-fashioned woman himself. God made them both. And in making them both, he made them both distinct. That is different.
Differences that are complementary and matching rather than rivalry he made us men and women with relative distinctions on the one hand while having essential equality on the other hand. Women do not occupy an inferior position, but fully assist their husbands in fulfilling the divine cultural mandate. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule commands for Adam and Eve commands for every husband and wife. Headship is real. It's expected, But it in no way undermines equality.
Again, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, co-equal, co-eternal, yet with clear authority belonging to the Father, who sent the Son, the man Christ Jesus, who always did the Father's will, by the power of the Spirit, who glorifies the Son, who in turn honors and glorifies His Father. Men and women are fundamentally one in human nature, with a clear distinction between their genders. We do not make ourselves male or female any more than we make ourselves human. The image of God that we are stamped with at creation is uniquely connected to our being either male or female. Bearing His image requires distinct masculinity and femininity, and rejecting it in any way whatsoever is a rejection of God, of His will, His law, and His rights.
Gender clarity and biblical gender relations are absolutely essential to healthy human identity, as well as our Christian witness for God who made us. He made us for specific roles in society, to have certain relationship with the opposite gender. And he provides restrictions to both those roles and relationships in his word. The three R's, not reading, writing and arithmetic, are roles, relationship, and restrictions. Christian women should cultivate wholesome, natural, godly femininity.
Christian men should cultivate wholesome, natural, godly masculinity. It's required that we understand the gender issues, the clarity that the Bible has. He made them male, he made them female if we're going to understand marriage as designed by God. It's not a human invention. It's not a social custom.
Weddings are, ceremonies are, cultural expectations are, societal norms are the creation of man. But not marriage. God designed marriage. And the first one was perfect. Can't you hear it in Adam's voice in verse 23?
Finally, finally, a helper. This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Finally, there's one that's the perfect corresponding complementing opposite. Flesh of my flesh, she'll be called woman because she was taken out of man. He responds in song and poetry and doxology because of the excitement, the desire.
For this reason, verse 24, because God himself designed marriage, man shall leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. If we're going to serve him and obey him rightly, we must follow his word, his will, and his ways. They were not ashamed. They were living in complete harmony, perfect transparency, unhindered unity.
Marriage, as God prescribes, is the foundational fabric of society. It is a union between a man and a woman. It's a union that's physical, personal, covenantal, and permanent. It is a relationship in which there are roles for the man, roles for the woman, and restrictions regarding the relationship and the roles within the relationship. Any contradiction, All contradictions outside of God's design of marriage with regard to role, relationship, or the restrictions is sin.
Any and all sexual desire contrary to Scripture is sin. Now we're faced with a host of matters regarding marriage in our day. And when these marriage matters begin to affect us, negatively the mystery of marriage is lost. We must think rightly about these matters, Avoid them at all costs so that our marriages will have more to do with the mystery of the Gospel rather than these matters that are affecting marriages in our day. I want to walk through a few of them to draw attention to them.
Polygamy. Most of us are probably not drawn to polygamy or affected by it. We may not even know anyone who's practicing polygamy, but the idea of having more than one spouse, more than one wife, more than one husband. It's relevant in parts of the world. The Bible says, man shall be joined to his wife and they should become one flesh.
The two, this is the words of Jesus, the two shall become one flesh. End of discussion. It's one man and one woman. That's what marriage is according to the Bible. Now one that's more relevant among us, not necessarily affecting us, God willing, but definitely in our culture, gender confusion or transgenderism.
If marriage is between a male and female, then the idea of a male and female must be clear on our part. So What's being promoted, what's understood by our culture at large, is that identity, sexual identity or gender, does not actually correspond with the birth sex or birth gender. Which is an absolute contradiction to Genesis. In the image of God, He created them. Male and female, He created them.
End of discussion. There's no question. Any alteration or confusion is a denial of God and of his rights. Does anybody know the current count of how many genders there are? Actually, two.
How many are being promoted? It changes all the time. But did you know if you go in for gender reassignment surgery, you only have two options? There's no surgery for binary or all the other whacked out ideas that are being promoted. There are only two genders, male and female.
How do we know? Well, one, we can look around. Two, we can look at God's Word, and his word matches the reality of our situation. Another matter to concern to concern ourselves with male chauvinism, prejudice-ness against women, an assumption that men are superior in ability or in intelligence. The essential equality of women is promoted here in the creation story.
God fashioned woman. He didn't make her less. He made a helper suitable for man Corresponding and complementary opposite yet equal To oppress to promote an inferiority is Anti Bible, it's anti God The garden was not good without woman. You don't add something lesser to make it good. You add what's missing.
Woman made the garden good. Swinging the pendulum to the other side, feminism. I mean, feminism states that it's based on equality for women. If you've ever been around feminists, you know that's not true. It actually undermines these roles and relationships and restrictions that we find in the Word of God.
A quote from an article in the New York Post last year, feminist, Greek, unwed parenthood, and easy divorce as steps on the ladder of liberation. Feminism has destabilized the American family. Because of a refusal to believe what God says. I think it would be helpful if we were willing to often understand that feminism, though completely wrong and I'm not justifying it in any way, might be the natural, ungodly and natural response to chauvinism. If men were more often carrying out their proper biblical duty and responding to women in the right way, they might not try to climb the ladder of success, because they might actually be content with their identity in Christ and what God's called them to, rather than feeling the unnecessary oppression from the men in their lives.
Another matter to consider, homosexuality. Desiring or practicing sex with the same gender. Legitimizing same gender attraction and homo sex requires a completely different creation story. If we're going to seek to legitimize same-gender attraction as okay or homosex okay in any way, we're going to have to do away with Genesis one and two. God fashioned into woman.
I will make a helper suitable for him, the man and his wife. Homosexuality perverts the created purpose that is revealed in nature. Now, we live in a day where many people are promoting seemingly good people, people that 10 years ago we would have said were very safe guides are suggesting that same-gender attraction, same-sex attraction, that the desire itself is morally neutral and potentially even acceptable to God if not acted upon. This is completely contrary to the Bible. Romans 1.24 proves that the desire itself is perverse.
God gave them over to the lust of their hearts. He didn't give them over to the actions of their lives, He gave them over to what they desired on the inside. Our hearts are our greatest problems. If anger makes you guilty for judgment, and it does, Matthew 5.22, and if lust condemns you for adultery, and it does, Matthew 5.28, then same gender attraction leaves you guilty before God. If malice filled hearts and sinful lusts are unacceptable to God, and they are, Sermon on the Mount, then same gender attraction and homosexual desires even more so because they are an affront against God and his created order.
Another matter, fornication. Physical or sexual relations outside of marriage. If you're married with someone else, it's adultery. It's still fornication even if it's sex with one's self. Which leads into the last one I want to look at and consider is pornography.
Looking at or reading about sexually explicit material, primarily for the purpose of personal arousal or self-sex, is a matter to be dealt with. If you're single, definitely. If you're married, absolutely. I'll leave it at this. Please implement a proactive policy against pornography for you and those that you have oversight of.
God created us as sexual beings with clear intentions and specific parameters regarding sex. And being an all-wise creator, He made us to enjoy the opposite gender within the confines of marriage. When sex is desired, pursued, or practiced outside of marriage, it is a distortion or a perversion of what God intended. Sexual perversion of many different types is increasingly visible and even celebrated in our day. Therefore, friends, we must be all the more vigilant to know what God says about marriage, what God says about marriage.
About sin, especially sexual sin. Not forgetting. That we are expected as Christians to portray the mysteries of the gospel in our marriages, but also remembering that God came to redeem. God sent his son to redeem us from our fallenness from these perversions. Listen to 1 Corinthians 6.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God." And then these wonderfully encouraging words from the apostle, such were some of you, but you were washed. You were sanctified, But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God. There is hope for the sexually broken. Along with all people who break any of God's laws. There is hope to realize that God is holy, that He will rightfully judge all who have sinned against Him by breaking His holy law.
Just like any sinner, the sexually deviant needs to repent, to receive Christ by faith and be saved from God's righteous judgment by trusting in Him. Trusting in Christ and the judgment that fell upon Him at the cross. When we come to Jesus, our lives, our hearts, our desires begin to be put back together again. And they start working in proper order again. If you are sexually broken, If you know someone that's been sexually broken, remember this, you're made in the image of God.
Even in rebellion against Him, they're made in the image of God. Let's preach Jesus. Let's serve, believing in the power of the gospel. We begin by looking at Genesis chapter two, where God prepared a garden for the first humans. When Jesus left the Earth, he told his disciples in John 14, two, I go and prepare a place for you.
The garden was the perfect scenario, wonderful. And though Adam and Eve were sufficient to stand in righteousness, they were free to fall. But this place that Christ has gone to prepare. The first home was magnificent, but it was nothing compared to the final home that is being made by Christ for his people, for sinners, for sinners of all types and stripes. May God help us, that we might be sinners redeemed by his grace who are committed to taking him at his word, honoring him in all of life, especially the relationship that he has designed, marriage, that it will indeed be held in high honor among all, that our lives, our marriages, our families would be a healthy, infectious, contagious glory and mystery to those that we come into contact with.
Let's pray. Our Lord and our God, again we thank you for your word. We pray that the truths as they are in Jesus would sink within our souls, that they would have eternal value, that marriages might be restored, reconciled, that they might continue, those that are healthy might continue honoring and glorifying you in all things. You alone are worthy. Aid us in honoring you for Christ's sake.
Amen.