A Godly Marriage
Today starts the Marriage protection week. Sometimes we need to be reminded what God considers a marriage to be and how a husband and wife should act in that marriage. This sermon will consist of three topics. The first topic we will look at is what constitutes a marriage. The second topic we will look at is how God expects the husband and wife to act in that marriage and the third topic will be for our youth to remain pure until marriage.
Let’s look at the first marriage.
Gen 2:18-25
18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.
20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh.
22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ’woman,’ for she was taken out of man."
24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
(NIV)
The first marriage God ordained consisted of one man (Adam) and one woman (Eve). God created Adam and Eve and told them to be fruitful and to have children. To be able to be fruitful and to have Children, a marriage must consist of one man and one woman. I know some are you are thinking that in the Old Testament times that men had many wives. This was true back then, but we look at that later in the sermon. The point that I am making is that marriages are between men and women, not between two men or two women. Today we are seeing legislation being passed that makes same sex marriages not only legal, but having the same rights as the traditional Biblical marriage. Our schools across this nation are teaching in Sex Education classes that the homosexual lifestyle is normal and that they have the same rights of adoption and raising children as traditional marriages. Our children are being bombarded by this lie in our schools and on television. There are very few prime-time TV shows that do not portray homosexuals. If we allow this to continue, our children will grow up believing this lie. It has even gotten into our churches. I am sure that you have heard about the homosexual Bishop that the Episcopal Church has just appointed. Even many of our churches believe the lie now. This really doesn’t surprise me. Over the past fifty years or so, some of our Churches and Pastors are turning away from true doctrine and allowing sin to enter into their churches. We must return back to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and follow all of His teaching, not just some of them.
You know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Because of the sin of homosexuality, God destroyed all the people, cities and the entire area.
Let read a little about that story.
Gen 19:4-7
4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom-- both young and old-- surrounded the house.
5 They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."
6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him
7 and said, "No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing.
(NIV)
The angels told Lot to take his wife and daughters and leave this wicked city because they were going to destroy the cities and all the wicked people.
Gen 19:23-25
23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land.
24 Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah-- from the LORD out of the heavens.
25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities-- and also the vegetation in the land.
(NIV)
How much longer will God put up with our wickedness in our Nation?
Even Paul speaks of homosexuals in the New Testament.
Rom 1:26-32
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
31 they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
(NIV)
As Christians in the Body of Christ, we must stand against the sins of the world. If we turn our backs on sin, we are opening the door to our churches to allow it to come in. We read daily in the news of Churches ordaining homosexual bishops and pastors. We are seeing churches performing homosexual marriages. We are seeing husbands leaving their wives and having homosexual relationships with other men. We are seeing priest and pastors sexually molesting children. How long will God tolerate these abominations?
Now let’s talk about how God sees our marriages.
Eph 5:31
31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."
(NIV)
I learned a couple of weeks ago what this verse really means. My lovely wife and best friend went into the hospital for an operation. I was asked to preach at Trinity Church on the Sunday that Maria was still in the hospital. I knew as I was preaching that a part of me was missing. It was a big part. It was half of me. When two people marry, they are no longer two separate persons; they become one person in two bodies. In a marriage that God has put together the joy of that marriage is doubled and the sorrows that may be experience is halved.
A marriage that will last forever is like my Granddaughter’s pigtail. To look at the pigtail, it appears to have been braided with only two sections of hair, but as most of you ladies know, you must use 3 sections of hair. If you try it with only two sections, it will immediately fall apart. The third section, which isn’t readily noticeable, is what keeps the pigtail together. It is the same with any successful marriage. You must have one husband and one wife braided together, but God must be that 3rd section to keep the marriage together. Without God in the marriage holding it together, it is destine to fall apart. The divorce rate today is over 50% even in our churches. God gives instructions to both the husband and wife in the responsibilities of a marriage. Jesus and Paul talked a lot about divorce.
Let’s look at some of the teachings.
Eph 5:25-27
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
(NIV)
Husbands we commanded to love our wives unconditionally. The Greek work for love in this verse is “Agapao”, which is the same word that Jesus used when He asked Peter if he loved Him. Agapao means an unconditional, absolute, true love; the type of love that Christ has for us. Husbands we are to see our wives as blameless and holy. To many times, I hear men belittle their wives and make harsh jokes about them. Instead of joking about our wives, we should be holding them in reverence. If we would treat our wives as God described in the verses we just read, don’t you think your wife would be treating you differently? Some of you may be sitting there saying that my wife doesn’t respect me. Respect isn’t something that is learned or required. Respect is earned by the way we treat others. Love your wife as Christ loved the Church and I will guarantee you that she will respect you and your authority.
Now let’s read about the wives.
1 Pet 3:1-4
1 Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives,
2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.
3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes.
4 Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.
(NIV)
In witnessing I have learned that you can’t be loud and pushy. To be successful in your witnessing you must speak calmly without confrontation. You can’t argue someone into accepting Christ. Ladies in the same way you can’t argue you husband into being the person that Christ meant for him to be. If you show Christ in your life, he too will show Christ in his life. If your husband is not a believer or has turned away from his beliefs, then he can be won over by your behavior. The old adage of “Actions speak louder than words” is very true. People judge us, not by our words, but by our actions. Ladies, a gentle spirit can change not only your husband, but it can change the world.
Remember a marriage is for a lifetime.
Mark 10:9
9 Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
(NIV)
Today we have what is called a “no fault divorce.” What does the Bible have to say about this?
Mark 10:10-12
10 When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this.
11 He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.
12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery."
(NIV)
Matt 19:9
9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."
(NIV)
Jesus is telling us that divorce is a sin. If we divorce and remarry then we have committed adultery. There is an exception here. If there was marital unfaithfulness in the marriage and forgiveness could not be obtained, then divorce is permissible in this instance and you may remarry. Today in the United States we have more people getting divorces every day than we have people coming to Christ. We have turned our backs on God. We claim to be saved, but we live our lives like an unsaved person.
There is one more point I want to cover concerning our youth. Sex before marriage is a sin.
1 Cor 6:18-20
18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
(KJV)
Fornication is defined by the Webster’s Dictionary as “Sexual intercourse between a man and woman not married to each other.” God’s design for marriage is to stay sexually pure until marriage. It has also been proven that couples that remained pure until marriage has a very high success rate.
God knows what is best for us. He knows what works. Why do we think that we have to do it our way and not His? God is the created of the universe. We have never been able to create anything from nothing. If you want a loving, successful marriage follow God’s commands and He will be with you and your marriage always.
We have talked about several things that may have upset some and many may be guilty of. We must remember that our God is a loving God and He forgives our sins that we repent of. Repenting of a sin means that we turn back into God’s will and we will teach others not to make the same mistakes that we have made. This isn’t a free ticket. If you are considering having a divorce and you justify it by saying that I will repent later for doing it, then you are living dangerously. You may want to take a close look at your Christian walk.
Invitation:
