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Voddie Baucham - Marriage - A portrait of hope before the fall · Voddie Baucham Sermons

0:02
Speaker 1: Well, good morning. It is good to see all of
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Speaker 1: your smiling faces here this morning. We have quite a
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Speaker 1: day ahead of us, and I'm excited about being able
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Speaker 1: to address this topic and really to be able to
0:21
Speaker 1: address it from this perspective, especially because we live in
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Speaker 1: a time where marriage is really under attack. sorry hold
0:37
Speaker 1: on and it seems even strange to say that right
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Speaker 1: that marriage is under attack and I want us to
0:51
Speaker 1: understand not only the fact that that is happening but
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Speaker 1: I want us to understand why it's happening I want
1:01
Speaker 1: us to understand where that's coming from And then I
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Speaker 1: want us to understand the impact of that on us
1:08
Speaker 1: as individuals, on us as couples, and on us as
1:15
Speaker 1: a society. The attacks on marriage are really primarily coming
1:20
Speaker 1: from a couple of places. One of the areas that
1:26
Speaker 1: that attack is coming from, there's two extremes that we
1:31
Speaker 1: go to. that have really wreaked havoc on marriage. One
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Speaker 1: is sort of a feminist perspective, social justice perspective, that
1:45
Speaker 1: sees marriage as oppressive, right? Marriage is part of the hegemonic, patriarchal,
1:55
Speaker 1: institutional oppression of women, okay? And again, For people who
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Speaker 1: come at it from that perspective, it makes one wonder
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Speaker 1: why you would want to get married at all. But, again,
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Speaker 1: that's one perspective. But there's another perspective that has wreaked
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Speaker 1: havoc on marriage, and it's the perspective of romanticism, right?
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Speaker 1: The perspective that says that, you know, that sees marriage...
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Speaker 1: as a manifestation of all that we see in romantic comedies, right?
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Speaker 1: That marriage is supposed to be about, you know, butterflies
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Speaker 1: and emotional highs, and any time we're not experiencing butterflies
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Speaker 1: and emotional highs, then we must have chosen the wrong one, right?
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Speaker 1: You know, any time we run into difficulties, It's always amazing,
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Speaker 1: you know, when young couples get together and young couples
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Speaker 1: are about to get married and their romantic ideal is
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Speaker 1: that their love is the love to end all loves
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Speaker 1: and that there's never been a love like the love
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Speaker 1: that is their love and that their love will overcome
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Speaker 1: the odds. And of course, people talk about marriage being difficult,
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Speaker 1: but it's only because they've never experienced the love that
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Speaker 1: is this love that is about to be, stop me
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Speaker 1: if you've heard this before, right? And then all of
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Speaker 1: a sudden, here they are, and they're in marriage, and
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Speaker 1: reality happens, and the reality of bringing two sinners together,
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Speaker 1: amen somebody, right? It's amazing that, you know, you would
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Speaker 1: think that bringing two sinners together would just mean that
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Speaker 1: you would get double the sin, but somehow you get
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Speaker 1: more than double, right? And all of a sudden, you know,
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Speaker 1: they're crestfallen. And it's like, what did we do wrong, right?
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Speaker 1: And the answer is simultaneously everything and nothing. This is
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Speaker 1: the reality. This is the reality of our fallen world.
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Speaker 1: This is the reality of fallen people entering into relationship
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Speaker 1: with one another. But if you hold on too tightly
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Speaker 1: to that view of romanticism, what you end up doing,
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Speaker 1: and this is what a lot of people do in
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Speaker 1: our day and age, right? Is you end up running
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Speaker 1: from one relationship to another, believing that the problem is
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Speaker 1: the mate that you chose. And not your wrong understanding.
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Speaker 1: of where hope is to be found. So I want
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Speaker 1: us to look at that, and I want us to
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Speaker 1: address both of those issues. And I want us to
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Speaker 1: address it by pointing to the hope that God intends
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Speaker 1: for us to see and to have in marriage. In
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Speaker 1: this first session, we're going to be looking primarily at Genesis,
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Speaker 1: but I'll point you there when it's time. Listen to
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Speaker 1: this from Andreas Kostenberger in his book, God, Marriage, and Family.
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Speaker 1: Measured against the biblical teaching on marriage and the family,
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Speaker 1: it seems undeniable that Western culture, really all the world culture,
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Speaker 1: is decaying. In fact, the past few decades have witnessed
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Speaker 1: nothing less than a major paradigm shift with regards to
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Speaker 1: marriage and the family. Our Judeo-Christian heritage and foundations have
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Speaker 1: largely been supplanted by a liberation ideology that elevates human
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Speaker 1: freedom and self-determination as the supreme principle for human relationships. Again,
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Speaker 1: let me say that again. It elevates human freedom and
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Speaker 1: self-determination as the supreme principle for human relationships. In their confusion...
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Speaker 1: Many hail the decline of the biblical traditional model of
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Speaker 1: marriage and the family and its replacement by new competing
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Speaker 1: moralities as major progress. There are people who see the
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Speaker 1: decline of marriage as major progress. Unless you think that
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Speaker 1: that's hyperbole, right? Unless you think that, of course, there's
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Speaker 1: no one who would make that argument, um, Listen to
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Speaker 1: this from Ari Hoikman, a UN representative. This is back
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Speaker 1: in January of 2009 at a UN conference in Mexico.
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Speaker 1: Hoikman denounced the idea that high rates of divorce and
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Speaker 1: out-of-wedlock births represent a social crisis, claiming that they represent
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Speaker 1: instead the triumph of human rights against patriarchy. the triumph
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Speaker 1: of human rights against patriarchy. In other words, better to
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Speaker 1: have women raising children by themselves than to have male-headed households. Again,
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Speaker 1: this is sheer folly. But the argument is that there
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Speaker 1: is progress. Another area where we see this pronounced openly
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Speaker 1: and blatantly is in the feminist movement. It's always interesting
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Speaker 1: to me when people talk about feminism and they say
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Speaker 1: things like, well, no, you know, feminism is just, it's
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Speaker 1: women responding to men not being what they're supposed to be,
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Speaker 1: or it's women responding to men, you know, not stepping
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Speaker 1: in the roles that they're supposed to have. Anyone who
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Speaker 1: says that has no idea what feminism is and what
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Speaker 1: its roots are. Nothing could be further from the truth.
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Speaker 1: That is not the feminist movement. Listen to this from
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Speaker 1: Linda Gordon, one of the leaders of first wave feminism.
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Speaker 1: She writes, the nuclear family must be destroyed and people
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Speaker 1: must find better ways of living together. Whatever its ultimate meaning,
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Speaker 1: the breakup of families now is an objectively revolutionary process.
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Speaker 1: No woman can should have to deny herself any opportunities
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Speaker 1: because of her special responsibilities to her children. Let me
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Speaker 1: just read that again. No woman should have to deny
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Speaker 1: herself any opportunities because of her special responsibilities to her children.
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Speaker 1: Families will be finally destroyed only when a revolutionary social
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Speaker 1: and economic organization permits people's needs for love and security
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Speaker 1: to be met in ways that do not impose divisions
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Speaker 1: of labor or any external roles at all. Does that
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Speaker 1: sound like a woman who's responding to men not being
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Speaker 1: what they're supposed to be? How about this? From the
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Speaker 1: Declaration of Feminism in November 1971, how many of you
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Speaker 1: knew there was a Declaration of Feminism? A couple of you, right?
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Speaker 1: Declaration of Feminism, 1971. Marriage has existed for the benefit
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Speaker 1: of men and has been a legally sanctioned method of
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Speaker 1: control over women. We must work to destroy it. The
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Speaker 1: end of the institution of marriage is a necessary condition
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Speaker 1: for the liberation of women. Therefore, it is important for
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Speaker 1: us to encourage women to leave their husbands and not
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Speaker 1: live individually with men. Again, sheer folly. But this is real.
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Speaker 1: Betty Friedan, in her book, The Feminine Mystique, called the
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Speaker 1: family a comfortable concentration camp. Her goal was not to
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Speaker 1: eliminate marriage per se, not at that time. She merely
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Speaker 1: wanted women to insist on more from life for them
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Speaker 1: to reach outside of marriage for fulfillment. Interestingly enough, I
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Speaker 1: agree wholeheartedly with Friedan on that. No one should look
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Speaker 1: to their marriage for their fulfillment. Anyone who's looking to
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Speaker 1: marriage for their fulfillment is, number one, guilty of idolatry
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Speaker 1: because your fulfillment is found only in God. Amen? Amen.
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Speaker 1: If you're looking to anything other than God for your fulfillment,
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Speaker 1: you're guilty of idolatry. And secondly, you're going to be disappointed. Amen?
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Speaker 1: You were never, ever intended to find your fulfillment in
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Speaker 1: your marriage. You were never intended to find your fulfillment
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Speaker 1: in your children. You were designed and created to be
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Speaker 1: fulfilled by God in Christ. Amen? But that's not what
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Speaker 1: Friedan is talking about here. Well, with all of this craziness,
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Speaker 1: there's also another piece to the puzzle. And this piece
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Speaker 1: to the puzzle today, we don't even have time to
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Speaker 1: get into all of this. But this whole move toward
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Speaker 1: gender bending, right? the LGBTQIA2S plus movement, right? By the way,
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Speaker 1: I didn't make any of those up, okay? All of
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Speaker 1: those are part of the acronym, and the alphabet mafia
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Speaker 1: is constantly growing, okay? But in the midst of all
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Speaker 1: of this, there is this attack on marriage because traditional marriage,
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Speaker 1: if nothing else, upholds the idea that of the sexual
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Speaker 1: and gender binary, that there are two sexes, that there
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Speaker 1: are two genders, and that marriage is designed for those
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Speaker 1: two sexes, for those two genders to come together in
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Speaker 1: unique ways that cannot be replicated, that cannot be duplicated,
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Speaker 1: and that cannot be undermined no matter how many letters
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Speaker 1: we put in this new acronym, right? And so because
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Speaker 1: of this, there is this clash between traditional marriage and
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Speaker 1: this new ideology. Listen to this from Stephen Baskerville. The
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Speaker 1: sexualization of politics and the politicization of sex is the
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Speaker 1: most important and least scrutinized political development since the 1960s.
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Speaker 1: In 40 years, the political left has transformed itself from
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Speaker 1: a socialistic campaign against poverty and enterprise into a sexual
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Speaker 1: attack on family marriage, and masculinity. And it's interesting. Now
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Speaker 1: we're seeing, especially through the transgender movement, because again, the
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Speaker 1: feminist movement and to some degree the early homosexual movements
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Speaker 1: were really wars not only on marriage and family, but
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Speaker 1: particularly against masculinity, against men, again, against the patriarchy. Right?
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Speaker 1: Because men are these evil oppressors. But now we're also
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Speaker 1: seeing this war on women through the transgender movement. This
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Speaker 1: sort of erasure of women. Well, what do you mean
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Speaker 1: by that? Isn't it interesting? You know, transgender athletes competing
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Speaker 1: in sports. Are women who transition to be men taking
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Speaker 1: medals away from men? No, they're not. But men who
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Speaker 1: are transitioning to be women are taking medals away from women.
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Speaker 1: Imagine if some unscrupulous country, let's say like North Korea, right?
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Speaker 1: I mean, is there a more unscrupulous country than North Korea?
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Speaker 1: Let's say that North Korea gets together and they say,
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Speaker 1: wait a minute, in terms of sports, Nobody knows us
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Speaker 1: on the world stage. But if we could get about
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Speaker 1: 15 men to transition, we could probably win the Women's
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Speaker 1: World Cup. And they literally could. They literally could. So
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Speaker 1: now we're erasing women in this regard. There are now
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Speaker 1: professional fighters, MMA fighters, men who've transitioned to be women
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Speaker 1: who have fought professionally against women. One man by the
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Speaker 1: name of Fallon Fox. In Fallon Fox, Fallon Fox is
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Speaker 1: a man transitioned to a woman, MMA fighter, had a
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Speaker 1: fight against another woman, his first, and he broke her skull.
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Speaker 1: So again, now it's not just this war against masculinity,
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Speaker 1: but it's also now this Almost erasure of women. This
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Speaker 1: erasure of women. So in the midst of all of this, right,
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Speaker 1: how do we hold on to marriage and have any
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Speaker 1: kind of hope? Well, I'm glad you asked. Open your
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Speaker 1: Bibles to the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 2. Genesis
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Speaker 1: chapter 2. And in our first couple of sessions here,
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Speaker 1: we'll be looking at Genesis chapter 2. Because in order
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Speaker 1: for us to understand marriage as a portrait of hope,
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Speaker 1: we have to understand marriage before the fall. Amen? Amen.
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Speaker 1: We have to understand marriage before the fall. All those
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Speaker 1: things that we alluded to earlier, all those difficulties that
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Speaker 1: we experience in our marriages, these things are a result
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Speaker 1: of the fall. These things are not a result of God,
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Speaker 1: you know, having designed this relationship with a view toward
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Speaker 1: all of our difficulties and pain. This is a result
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Speaker 1: of the fall. So the only way that we'll see
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Speaker 1: it as a portrait of hope is if we look
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Speaker 1: at what God designed before the fall. So in the
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Speaker 1: first session, we'll do that. And then we'll look at
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Speaker 1: the fall itself. And then we'll come back in the
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Speaker 1: last session and look at this picture of hope that
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Speaker 1: we have in Christ, even after the fall. Genesis 2,
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Speaker 1: beginning of verse 18. Then the Lord God said, it
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Speaker 1: is not good that the man should be alone. Now,
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Speaker 1: that phrase, it's always important that we pause and note
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Speaker 1: that phrase. Genesis 2, 18. Genesis chapter 2 comes after
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Speaker 1: Genesis chapter 1. Should have told y'all we were going
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Speaker 1: to be doing some deep, sophisticated theology here today, right?
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Speaker 1: But in Genesis chapter 1, we have this picture. It's
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Speaker 1: a poetic chapter, right? And we have this phrase that's
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Speaker 1: repeated over and over again, right? Let there be, then
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Speaker 1: there was, it was good. Let there be, then there was,
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Speaker 1: it was good, right? For these six days of creation.
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Speaker 1: Let there be, then there was, it was good. All
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Speaker 1: the way down to let there be, then there was,
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Speaker 1: and on the sixth day, right? It's not just good,
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Speaker 1: it was what? Very good, okay? Now all of a
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Speaker 1: sudden in chapter 2, after that's been repeated over and
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Speaker 1: over and over again, we have God saying, It is
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Speaker 1: not good. All of a sudden something is not good.
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Speaker 1: But interestingly enough, chapter 2 not only comes after chapter 1,
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Speaker 1: but watch this, it comes before chapter 3. Why is
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Speaker 1: that significant? That's significant because the fall happens in chapter 3.
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Speaker 1: which means God is saying something is not good before
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Speaker 1: the fall. Which, right? Right? How can something not be
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Speaker 1: good before the fall? Well, he's not talking about something
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Speaker 1: being sinful here. We know that because there's no sin yet, okay?
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Speaker 1: So when he says it's not good, he means something
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Speaker 1: other than it's evil. So what does he mean? I'll
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Speaker 1: tell you in a minute. He doesn't answer the question,
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Speaker 1: but he does something. It's not good that the man
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Speaker 1: should be alone. I will make him a helper fit
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Speaker 1: for him. Now out of the ground, the Lord God
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Speaker 1: had formed every beast of the field and every bird
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Speaker 1: of the heavens and brought them to the man to
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Speaker 1: see what he would call them. And whatever the man
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Speaker 1: called every living creature, that was its name. Now, there's
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Speaker 1: a number of significant aspects to this, but there's some
20:51
Speaker 1: theological points that I want to make here. First, understand
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Speaker 1: that Adam would have had no concept of alone. He
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Speaker 1: wouldn't have known that, right? It just would not have
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Speaker 1: been there. How would he have had that concept, right?
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Speaker 1: I liken this to when I was a boy and
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Speaker 1: I learned that we were poor, right? In fact, I
21:23
Speaker 1: often said, you know, when I was growing up, we
21:25
Speaker 1: weren't poor. We were poor. Couldn't afford the other O
21:28
Speaker 1: and the R, right? But I didn't know this. I
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Speaker 1: was raised by a single teenage mother, and we just didn't.
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Speaker 1: We were poor. And I didn't know it until I
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Speaker 1: went and visited some relatives of ours who were far
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Speaker 1: from Pope, right? And I remember coming back home and saying, Mom,
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Speaker 1: why didn't you tell me we were poor? Because I
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Speaker 1: had no idea. Because everybody who lived around where we lived,
22:05
Speaker 1: we lived in the projects, right? Everybody who lived around
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Speaker 1: where we lived were just as poor as we were, right?
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Speaker 1: It was only when I went and I was like, Mom,
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Speaker 1: help me to understand this whole situation here. Same thing
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Speaker 1: with Adam. How is Adam going to have a concept
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Speaker 1: of alone? I mean, he walks with God in the
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Speaker 1: garden in the cool of the day. How does he
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Speaker 1: have a concept of need? God sees Adam and sees
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Speaker 1: that Adam is alone and sees that Adam has a need.
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Speaker 1: But Adam, as far as he's concerned... Alone is not
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Speaker 1: even a thing, right? That's kind of like in the
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Speaker 1: next chapter, in chapter 3, we'll see this. One of
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Speaker 1: my favorite, you know, scenes in the whole Bible. God
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Speaker 1: shows up and Adam runs and hides. Adam, you know,
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Speaker 1: where are you? Like he already knew, right? And Adam says,
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Speaker 1: I ran and I hid because I was naked. And
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Speaker 1: God says, who told you you were naked? Right? Because
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Speaker 1: he had no concept of naked until he ate the fruit, right?
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Speaker 1: So here he has no concept of alone. He has
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Speaker 1: no concept of need until he names the animals. Interesting thing.
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Speaker 1: God makes the animals male and female. But Adam's alone.
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Speaker 1: And then he has to name the animals. Right? And
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Speaker 1: he's naming dog. That's it. He dog and she dog. Cat.
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Speaker 1: Probably not cat. Cats have to come after the fall.
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Speaker 1: But anyway, the idea is he's Naaman, right? And all
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Speaker 1: of a sudden, there is none of them that correspond
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Speaker 1: to him. He understands now that he's alone. He understands
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Speaker 1: now that he has a need. But only if God
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Speaker 1: reveals that to him. God here demonstrates that marriage is
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Speaker 1: his idea, not man's. The man gave names to all
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Speaker 1: the livestock, to all the birds of the heavens, to
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Speaker 1: every beast of the field. But for Adam there was
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Speaker 1: not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord
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Speaker 1: God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man.
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Speaker 1: And while he slept, took one of his ribs and
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Speaker 1: closed up the place with flesh. And again, I absolutely
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Speaker 1: believe that it was necessary for the man to go
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Speaker 1: to sleep. Not necessary because it would have been painful,
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Speaker 1: because God could have done it without it being painful.
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Speaker 1: But if he was awake... He either would have messed
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Speaker 1: it up or taken credit for it, right? Because, I mean,
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Speaker 1: that's what we do. The rib that the Lord God
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Speaker 1: had taken from the man, he made, he fashioned into
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Speaker 1: a woman and brought her to the man. Then the
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Speaker 1: man said, this is at last bone of my bones,
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Speaker 1: flesh of my flesh. She should be called woman or
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Speaker 1: Isha because she was taken out of man or Ish.
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Speaker 1: This is at last. literally after everything else that he
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Speaker 1: had seen and everything else that he had named. Unlike
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Speaker 1: anything else, this was the corresponding part. So we see
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Speaker 1: from this a number of things. First, that God designed marriage.
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Speaker 1: God designed marriage. Marriage is not designed by men. It's
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Speaker 1: always ironic to me, you know, the people who want
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Speaker 1: to say, you know, no marriage, you know, is this hegemonic,
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Speaker 1: oppressive institution designed for the benefit of men, right? That
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Speaker 1: the patriarchy designed marriage in order for men to take
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Speaker 1: advantage of women. That is ridiculous on its face for
26:46
Speaker 1: a number of reasons. If it were not for cultural pressure,
26:51
Speaker 1: men would not marry. They wouldn't. They'd just go from
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Speaker 1: woman to woman, right? Like birds and bees going from
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Speaker 1: flower to flower. and there'd be children out there that
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Speaker 1: they were not taking responsibility for, right? If there was
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Speaker 1: no stigma attached to a man being irresponsible and not
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Speaker 1: taking care of his children, if there was no stigma
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Speaker 1: attached to a woman, right, being a player from the Himalayas,
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Speaker 1: if there was no... You mean to tell me that
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Speaker 1: men would concoct this idea, especially of monogamous marriage? and say,
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Speaker 1: there's the way that we can take advantage of women.
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Speaker 1: That is absolutely ridiculous. Fallen man is not going to
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Speaker 1: invent monogamous marriage. Amen, somebody. Right? That is not what
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Speaker 1: fallen man is going to come up with. You know
28:01
Speaker 1: what fallen man is going to come up with? He's
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Speaker 1: going to come up with the elephant situation. I remember
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Speaker 1: the first time, you know, I was on safari and,
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Speaker 1: you know, we were, I think it was Chobay, right?
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Speaker 1: One of my first visits here and, you know, we
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Speaker 1: went down to Livingston and we went over to Chobay and,
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Speaker 1: you know, we're right in, and this guy kept talking
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Speaker 1: about bachelor herds and breeder herds. I'm like, what is that?
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Speaker 1: He said, well, here's the way it works with the elephants.
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Speaker 1: The females, they have a herd with the juveniles. And
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Speaker 1: the juvenile males are part of the breeder herd, you know,
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Speaker 1: after they're born and they grow. But then when the
28:47
Speaker 1: juvenile males get of a certain age, they leave the
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Speaker 1: breeder herd and they go join the bachelor herd. The
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Speaker 1: bachelor herd is a herd of males that only have
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Speaker 1: anything to do with the females when it's breeding time.
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Speaker 1: That is what fallen man would have come up with.
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Speaker 1: But the idea of monogamous marriage is God's idea, not man's. Secondly,
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Speaker 1: it is God not only who designed marriage, but it
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Speaker 1: is God who made marriage possible. Thirdly, it is God
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Speaker 1: who set the parameters for marriage. Again, there would have
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Speaker 1: been very different parameters for marriage today if it was
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Speaker 1: designed by us, especially if it was designed by the patriarchy, right?
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Speaker 1: And it is God who organized the family, the family unit,
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Speaker 1: to maximize not only the benefit to men and women
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Speaker 1: and children, but also to maximize the glory that it
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Speaker 1: brings to God. Listen to this from Pollard and Brown
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Speaker 1: in their book, The Theology of the Family. We need
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Speaker 1: to recover a belief that God's purpose for and instruction
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Speaker 1: of the family is a vital aspect of life in
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Speaker 1: this world. We need to affirm that in our generation
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Speaker 1: that God created the family as an important element in
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Speaker 1: the outworking of his eternal purposes. First, God created the
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Speaker 1: family to give structure and order to human beings that
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Speaker 1: he made in his image. Second, the family provides the
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Speaker 1: essential labor of teaching and preparation of children for churches, communities, cultures,
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Speaker 1: and nations. Third, God created the family in order to
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Speaker 1: to pass the gospel from one generation to the next. Finally,
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Speaker 1: God designed the family to be a living demonstration of
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Speaker 1: various aspects of the glory of the gospel and of
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Speaker 1: the embodiment of biblical truths. This is why God has
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Speaker 1: ordained that the family is the fountainhead of culture. It
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Speaker 1: is the first place on earth that culture is made,
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Speaker 1: and it is formational of all other cultures. Amen. So,
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Speaker 1: God gives marriage its purpose. But what is the purpose
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Speaker 1: of marriage? And this is where, you know, we have
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Speaker 1: to think biblically and theologically and not just individually or
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Speaker 1: even culturally. But the main purposes that God gives marriage
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Speaker 1: are procreation, illustration, and sanctification. Okay? Procreation, illustration, and sanctification.
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Speaker 1: What do we mean when we talk about procreation? Well,
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Speaker 1: procreation is the first command that God gives to man.
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Speaker 1: Be fruitful and multiply, Genesis 128. Be fruitful and multiply.
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Speaker 1: It involves not only bearing, but also training children. You
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Speaker 1: see that, for example, in Ephesians 6, 4. bearing and
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Speaker 1: training children. Training children for the cultural mandate that God
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Speaker 1: gives us to exercise dominion over all the earth. And
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Speaker 1: it spreads the imago Dei or the image of God
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Speaker 1: throughout the earth. What about illustration? Illustration, it is a
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Speaker 1: physical model of a spiritual relationship. It is a physical
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Speaker 1: model of a spiritual relationship. A physical model of the
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Speaker 1: Relationship between Christ and his bride, the church. But it
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Speaker 1: is also a triune representation of a triune God. Back
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Speaker 1: to that question that we asked earlier. How is something
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Speaker 1: wrong before the fall? How is something wrong without being
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Speaker 1: morally wrong? Or not good, rather, instead of wrong. Not good.
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Speaker 1: Not good that the man should be alone. And so...
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Speaker 1: You know, God, the triune God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit,
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Speaker 1: makes man in his image. The one God who exists
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Speaker 1: eternally in three persons makes man in his image. This
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Speaker 1: one God with the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, the
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Speaker 1: Son eternally begotten of the Father, the Spirit eternally proceeding
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Speaker 1: from the Father and the Son, this perfect union and
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Speaker 1: communion makes man. man in his image. And he says
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Speaker 1: it's not good that the man should be alone. And
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Speaker 1: so proceeding from the man is the woman. And proceeding
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Speaker 1: from the union of the man and the woman are children.
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Speaker 1: A triune representation of a triune God. If God has
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Speaker 1: eternally existed in perfect union and communion within the Godhead,
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Speaker 1: then how can a solitary be a perfect representation of
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Speaker 1: that union and communion. And so it was not good
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Speaker 1: for the man to be alone. In other words, it
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Speaker 1: wasn't sufficient. It wasn't enough. There was more to be communicated,
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Speaker 1: more to be illustrated. And so marriage exists for procreation,
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Speaker 1: And it exists for illustration. The illustration of this spiritual relationship.
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Speaker 1: The illustration of this picture of the relationship between Christ
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Speaker 1: and his bride, the church. And finally, for sanctification. For sanctification.
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Speaker 1: Active sanctification. Avoiding sexual immorality. Enjoying God-honoring sexual relationships. We
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Speaker 1: see that in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Washing with the
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Speaker 1: water of the word, Ephesians 5.26. Speaking the truth in love,
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Speaker 1: Ephesians 4.15-16 and then 25-32. Active sanctification. We are actively
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Speaker 1: sanctified in marriage. Amen? God uses marriage actively to conform
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Speaker 1: us to his image. God uses marriage to chisel away
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Speaker 1: at us. Right? Right? People ask me, you know, where
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Speaker 1: I grew up. And my answer is often something to
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Speaker 1: the effect of, I grew up mostly in Los Angeles,
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Speaker 1: you know, or partly in Los Angeles, but mostly when
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Speaker 1: I got married. Amen? Marriage will grow you up. You better, right?
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Speaker 1: You better. And nothing will mature you like that. Well,
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Speaker 1: let me take that back. That was an incorrect statement
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Speaker 1: when I said nothing will mature you like that because
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Speaker 1: having kids. Amen, somebody, right? Brisson and I got married.
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Speaker 1: Most of you know this story, but we got married
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Speaker 1: the summer between my sophomore and junior year in college.
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Speaker 1: I turned 20, like two, three months before we got married.
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Speaker 1: And then we had our first child 10 months later.
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Speaker 1: Because we were efficient. And boy, talk about growing up, right?
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Speaker 1: I mean, in that short period of time, the amount
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Speaker 1: of growth, it was either going to grow me up
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Speaker 1: or Kill me. Amen? It is sanctifying if we allow
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Speaker 1: it to be. It is sanctifying. But there's also passive sanctification,
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Speaker 1: learning to live with another imperfect sinner. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise
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Speaker 1: the Lord. Right? There's stuff that we do, that we
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Speaker 1: work at. in our sanctification. There's other stuff that the
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Speaker 1: Lord just brings our way to sanctify us. Well, God
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Speaker 1: establishes human sexuality. God designed men and women. God designed
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Speaker 1: men and women. Two sexes, two genders. Only two sexes,
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Speaker 1: only two genders. Okay? God designed the union between men
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Speaker 1: and women. And he makes it clear He makes it obvious, right?
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Speaker 1: There's a way that men and women are designed to unite.
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Speaker 1: God also designed the fruit of that union. There's only
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Speaker 1: one way that the human species can come together and
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Speaker 1: unite sexually that provides the fruit of that union, and
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Speaker 1: that is this male-female union. God designed that. And it's
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Speaker 1: obvious that God designed it. And then God designed the
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Speaker 1: parameters surrounding that union. God also designed male headship. Male
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Speaker 1: headship wasn't something that men created in order to dominate women.
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Speaker 1: It is part of this picture, this physical picture of
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Speaker 1: a spiritual reality. And we see it before the fall.
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Speaker 1: There are people who argue, right, that no, no, no, no, no.
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Speaker 1: You know, this male headship thing, that's something that we see.
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Speaker 1: It's because of the fall, right? Even it's part of
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Speaker 1: the curve. Your desire will be for your husband, but
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Speaker 1: he will rule over you. That's part of the curse.
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Speaker 1: Not so fast. Our attitude toward male headship is part
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Speaker 1: of the curse. Male headship in and of itself is
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Speaker 1: not part of the curse. Male headship happens before the fall.
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Speaker 1: Five things point to that. Number one, the woman was
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Speaker 1: made after the man. The woman was made after the man.
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Speaker 1: Male headship. The woman was made for the man. I
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Speaker 1: will make him a helper suitable for him. Male headship. Thirdly,
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Speaker 1: the woman was made from the man. Male headship. Four,
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Speaker 1: the woman was brought to the man. And then five,
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Speaker 1: the woman was named by the man. Twice. First, he
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Speaker 1: gives her a categorical name. She shall be called woman
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Speaker 1: because she was taken out of man. Then in chapter 3,
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Speaker 1: he names her Eve because she's the mother of all living.
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Speaker 1: Male headship, folks. And in case that's not enough for you,
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Speaker 1: in Romans chapter 5, it's made abundantly clear because Paul
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Speaker 1: doesn't say through one couple sin entered the world. Huh? Huh? No,
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Speaker 1: he says through one man sin entered the world. Why
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Speaker 1: through one man? She ate first. Right? She ate first.
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Speaker 1: Adam even tried to point this out to God. Okay, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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Speaker 1: What had happened was that woman that you gave me, right?
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Speaker 1: It was her. But no. Sin enters the world through Adam. Why?
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Speaker 1: Male headship. Male headship. Okay? We see this before the fall.
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Speaker 1: All right. We could say more about that, but we won't. Um,
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Speaker 1: Next session we'll look at the fall, the implications of it, right?
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Speaker 1: How this mars this picture of hope that marriage is
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Speaker 1: designed to be, but it doesn't destroy it. Mars it,
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Speaker 1: but it doesn't destroy it. We have to understand that
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Speaker 1: if we are to understand how to experience and express
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Speaker 1: this glorious picture of hope in spite of the fall. Amen?
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Speaker 1: Let's pray. Father, thank you for this first session. Thank
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Speaker 1: you for this time that you've given us, this day
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Speaker 1: that you've given us. Grant by your grace that we
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Speaker 1: might take full advantage of it, that our lives might
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Speaker 1: be enriched by it, marriages might be enriched, strengthened, even
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Speaker 1: rescued by this picture of hope that we're spending this
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Speaker 1: day unfolding. Grant this, we pray, for your glory and
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Speaker 1: for our good. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Oh, sorry.
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Speaker 1: I was sent here with an assignment from my wife.
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Speaker 1: I am the head of my household, but my wife
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Speaker 1: gives me assignments. I allow her to. No, my wife
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Speaker 1: is not here with me. And that irony is not
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Speaker 1: lost on us that I'm here leading this marriage seminar
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Speaker 1: at our church and my wife is not with me.
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Speaker 1: But my sister just got into town. It's her first
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Speaker 1: time on the African continent. She turns 40 today. And
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Speaker 1: so my wife is doing the needful and they are
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Speaker 1: having a wonderful day without me. celebrating my sister's 40th birthday.
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Speaker 1: So she sends her greetings and just wanted me to
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Speaker 1: make sure that I explained that she hadn't left me.
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Speaker 1: All right. God bless you.