Latest / Voddie Baucham Sermons / Voddie Baucham - Marriage: A portrait of hope after the fall

Transcript

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

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: If you open your bibles back to Genesis chapter three.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I have seventeen minutes, people, seventeen minutes twenty three if
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I take us all the way to the debate. So
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: listen fast, Okay, listen fast. Genesis chapter three. If we
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: looked at this picture that we have of marriage before
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the fall, and now we're going to look at the
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: fall and the implications of the fall related to marriage,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: and really the difficulties that we see, and we could
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: you know, I talked about these two different paradigms that
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: make it difficult for us, but we could sort of
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: multiply the paradigms that make it difficult for us, but
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: all of them would be reduced to the same thing.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: And that is the Fall. It is the fall that
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: has reached havoc on not just marriage, but really on everything.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: And so as we look here in three of the
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Book of Genesis, will examine how this impacts us as individuals,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and how this impacts us as couples, how it impacts
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: the institution of marriage. Genesis chapter three, beginning of verse one.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: of the field that the Lord God had made. He
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: said to the woman. Did God actually say, you shall
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: not eat of any tree in the garden? Did God
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: actually say and so there's an attack here on the
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: word of God, but it's a subtle attack on the
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: word of God. Notice the subtlety of the question, did
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: in the garden? Now we know that God didn't say
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: you shall not eat of any tree in the garden.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: God said specifically that there's one tree in the garden
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: from which you shall not eat. You eat from that
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: one tree. The day you eat of it, you will
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: surely die. But even if we take semantics into consideration here,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the serpent is really focusing on the limitation and not
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: the blessing. So, for example, let's say that there were
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: one hundred trees in the garden. And I'm going to
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: argue that there were many more than one hundred trees
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: in the garden. But let's say there were one hundred
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: trees in the garden, and there's one tree in the
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: midst of the garden from which Adam was told not
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: to eat. There's a couple of ways that you can
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: look at that. You can look at that and you
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: can say, wow, ninety nine trees with the most incredible
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: fruit ever imagined are here for the taking. Or you
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: can look at that and say, wow, why would I
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: have any limitations on what it is that I could eat?
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: And the serpent is taking the second tack. Did God
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: really put limitations on what it is that you can enjoy?
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: And this is often attack that Satan takes, that we
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: look at the limitation and not the blessing. Amen, that
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: we look at the limitation and not the blessing, not
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: what we have, but what we don't have. Verses two
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: and three, the woman says to the serpent, we may
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: But God said you shall not eat of the fruit
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: of the tree that is in the midst of the garden.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Neither shall you touch it lest you die. So the
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: serpent takes this famous tact. Right, instead of looking at
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: the blessing, we look at the limitations. And now the
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: woman takes another very famous tact, and that is adding
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: to the word. No, He just said that there's one
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: that we can't eat from and we shouldn't even touch it.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: God didn't say you can't touch the tree, just don't
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: eat the fruit, right, just don't eat that. That was
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: the rule, don't eat the fruit from that tree, not
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: that you can't touch it. So again we have this
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: idea of limitation. Here's the idea of even greater limitation
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: than God has given. We see this for example in
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Israel and the laws that Israel makes around the laws
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: of God. Right, these extra laws, more than three hundred
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: laws that Israel imposed on themselves in order to make
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: sure that they don't come close to violating the Decalogue. Right.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: So it's not just God's limitation, but it's extra limitation
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: that we put on ourselves Verses four and five. But
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the serpent said to the woman, Now we get outright defiant.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: You shall not die, for God knows that when you
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: eat of it, your eyes will be open, and you
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: will be like God, knowing good and evil. Couple of things. First,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: outright denial of the word of God. We went from.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Did God say to God lied, you shall not surely die?
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: You won't. God didn't tell you the truth. Not only
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: did God not tell you the truth, but he lied
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: to you in order to withhold good from you. God
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: lied to you in order to withhold good from you. Right. Again,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: this is still with us today. How many of us,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: when we were not Christians, when we first heard the Gospel,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: our object to the Gospel was no, because Christianity limits
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: the amount of joy you can have in life. Right,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: how many of us when we talk to people about Christianity,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: their understanding of Christianity is that Christianity is this restrictive religion,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: and there are all these wonderful things in life to
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: be enjoyed. But when you become a Christian, it's about
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: you not enjoying those wonderful things in life. God lied
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: to you, and not only did he lie to you,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: but he's withholding good from you. God wants people to
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: live lives where they don't experience fullness and abundance. It's
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: actually not only a lie, but it's the opposite of
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: the truth. God lied to you, and he's withholding good
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: from you. We are still believing life like this, and
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: they are the source of much of the difficulties that
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: we experience. Verses verse six. So the woman saw that
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: the tree was good for food, that it was a
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: delight to the eyes, and that it was to be
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: desired to make one wise. She took of its fruit,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: and she ate by the way. The source of temptation
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: is always the same one John two sixteen. For all
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: that is in the world, the desires of the flesh,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: is not from the Father, but is from the world.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Notice what we see here in this text. The woman
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: saw that the tree was good for food. There's a
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: desire of the flesh, that it was a delight to
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the eyes. There's the eyes, and that the tree was
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: to be desired to make one wise, there's bolts were
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: pride of life. Okay, they're they're, they're, they're, They're all
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: the same. Interestingly enough, Jesus, when he is tempted by Satan,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: is tempted in these same three areas. Jesus is the
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: second atom. He's the last atom. The first atom fails
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: because of the lust of the eyes, the lust of
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: the flesh, and the boats were pride of life. And
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: all men fall into sin because the first atom fails.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: There the last atom is tempted in these same areas,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: and yet he does not fail. And she gave it
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Then the eyes of both were and they knew that
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: made themselves loinclothes. So three things come here as a
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: result of the fall. And these three things are at
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: the root of all of our difficulties, not just in marriage,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: but as human beings. And they are guilt, shame, and alienation. Guilt,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: shame and alienation. Guilt is internal. I feel guilt because
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: of my sin, because of what I've done. Shame is external.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: I feel shame because of what I perceive about the
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: way you look at me. Alienation is the byproduct of
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: guilt and shame that divides you and me, and divides
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: me and God. So what happens as a result of
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: the fault several things? Number One, roles are reversed. Secondly,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: man is alienated from God and from one another. Thirdly,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: the offenders are cursed, and then their redeemer is promised.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: What do I mean when I say there was a
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: reversal of roles? You know, interestingly enough, When God creates
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: the world, we see in Genesis one and Genesis two
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: that there is God the creator, and then there is man,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: God's vice right. He gives man dominion over all things.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Then there's the woman, the man's co vice regent. Man
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: has headship over the woman. But they are absolutely equal
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: before God. And then there are the creatures, and the
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: man and the woman are to have dominion over the
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: creatures whom God created. So what happens in the fall, Well,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: the creature the serpent, deceives the woman, who gives the
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: fruit to the man, and they eat so that they
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: could be like God. It is a complete reversal of
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: the created order. And this is one of the things
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: that sin does that it completely reverses the created order.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Things are not operating in the way that they were
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: designed to operate. Then there's alienation, alienation between man and
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: God and alienation between man and man. Look at the
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: next part of the text. And they heard the sound
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: of the Lord God walking in the garden in the
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: cool of the day, and the man and his wife
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: the trees of the garden. Now, a couple of things
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: I want you to note. Number one, this is a
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: completely irrational response in a number of ways. This is
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: a completely irrational response. First, it's irrational because riddle me this, batman,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: where do you go to hide from God? God's coming
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: quick behind the tree? That's completely irrational. Right, It's like
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: you know when you're afraid, you know, you hear a
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: noise and the bad guy's coming, and I'm going to
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: put the cover over my head, right, remember when we
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: were kids, you're scared something's coming, you put the cover
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: over your head. Well, like, what's that going to do?
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: It's completely irrational. It's also irrational because they've eaten and
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: there's a penalty for that, and the penalty is death.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Who's the only one who can rescue them from that penalty.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: It's God. So it's not only irrational because they're hiding
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: from someone from whom you cannot hide, but it's irrational
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: because God is the only one who can have mercy
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: on them. He's the only one who can save them.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: So they're running away from their only hope. It's irrational,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: and sin makes us irrational, completely and utterly irrational. And
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: if you don't believe this, you've never done matter. Counseling, Amen, somebody,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: because you can sit there with a couple and you
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: can see it. Okay, they this one is saying this,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: and this one is saying that, and it's obvious. It's
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: obvious not only that there's a problem, but it's usually
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: obvious what the problem is. But it doesn't matter that
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: it's obvious to you what the problem is. And if
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: you think that all you have to do is say, hey,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: here's your problem, bless you. It's not that simple. Why
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Because these people are irrational, irrational, we're irrational. And the
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: other thing too, is it's the same irrationality. Not only
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: are we we irrational in that whatever this thing is
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: that we're dealing with, we're dealing with it in an
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: irrational way. But God is our only hope. And what's
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: ironic is when couples get in trouble, slowly but surely,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: they not only move away from one another, but they
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: move away from God. So now the couple that's in trouble,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: for example, they stop praying together. The couple that's in
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: trouble stops going to church together, the couple that's in
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: trouble stops seeking biblical counsel together. In other words, running
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: away from the only one who can save us. It
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: is completely and utterly irrational. And yet that's what we do.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: If you can't say amen, you ought to say ouch, right,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: it's what we do. So they ran over from God.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: But the Lord God called to the man and said
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: to him, where are you? What a merciful response. By
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: the way, God knows exactly where where Adam is. And
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: he said, I heard that. I want you to notice something.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: This is the same thing our children do. If you
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: don't have children yet, just hold on. They're going to
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: do this. Why because they're descendants of Adam. Adam doesn't
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: answer the question where are you? Okay? See, no, okay, wait,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: So what had happened was I heard the sound of
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: you in the garden and I was afraid because I
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: was naked, so I hid nowhere in there is an
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: answer to the questquestion. It's a real simple question. Where
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: are you? Answer? I'm right here. Not when you're in sin.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: When you're in sin, you do everything other than answer
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: because you're alienated. We're alienated from God, and so we're
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: not honest with God, which again is completely and utterly irrational.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: And there are many of you who are experiencing hopelessness
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: in your marriage because of this kind of irrationality. You're
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: not being honest. You're not being honest with another, you're
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: not being honest with God. Remember, there's also alienation between ourselves.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: He said, again, who told you that you were naked.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: It's like my favorite question of all tis who told
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: you that word? Because because yesterday you didn't know that word. Yesterday,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: that wasn't even a word. Right, You've been naked your
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: whole life, and now today you you put you put,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: you put clothes on. Right, have you eaten of the
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: tree of which I commanded you not to eat? Why?
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Because guilt and shame are byproducts of sin. It's the
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: only place that could have come from. Guilt and shame
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: are byproducts of sin. For example, had the serpent just
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: come and said, hey, I don't know if you guys
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: know this or not, but you're naked, that could not
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: have created guilt and shame, because there is no guilt
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: or shame without sin. The man said, the woman whom
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: you gave to be with me. That's a double pass
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: of the book, right, just passing the buck. This was
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: a double pass, right, it's the woman whom you gave
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: to me. So now I'm not only blaming the woman,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: I'm blaming God. Which again, this is what sinners do.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: We never accept responsibility, we never take ownership. We passed
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: the buck. It's always somebody else's fault. Even if I
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: eventually get around to saying I did it, and he does, right.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: He eventually gets around to it, and he says, and
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: I ate. By the way, that's all he had to say,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: or even just yes, did you eat? Yep. But even
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: if you eventually get around to it, you passed the buck.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Why because what you're saying there is my sin might
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: be sinful, but it's not necessarily my fault. Did you
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: speak to your spouse in an ungodly disrespectful way? Okay,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna answer you, but before I answer you, you
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: need to know what happened before I said what I said.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Because if you knew what happened before I said what
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: I said, then you would understand that it really made
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: sense that I said what I said. Then the Lord
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: God said to the woman, and this is incredibly important, right,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: But we could have stopped there, but we didn't stop there.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: All we needed was for Adam to say, yes, I ate,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: and we're done. That's a wrap, okay. In fact, the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: question didn't even have to be asked. Ate the fruit die? Amen?
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Justice is served, right, we can go whatever. So all
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: of this is merciful. But now there's another question. Then
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: the Lord God says to the woman, what is this
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: that you have done? Why does he do this? Because
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: male headship does not eliminate female responsibility. Amen, some the
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: woman said, the serpent, deceive me, and I ate right.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: All she needed was a yes. And then the offenders
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: are cursed. The lord said to the serpent, because you
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: have done this, curse to you above all livestock, above
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: all the peaces of the field. On your belly you
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: of your life. I will put enmity between you and
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: And this starts a war between the serpent and the
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: seed that goes from the book of Genesis all the
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: way to the book of Revelation. For the sake of time,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: we won't look at all of that, but just know
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: that that is there. To the woman. To the woman,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: he said, I will surely multiply your pain and child bearing.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: In pain, you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: I just want to make a brief point here that
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: I alluded to earlier. There are people who want to
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: go here, and they want to argue that, well, actually,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: male headship is a product of the fall. Right, male
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: headship is a product of the fall. God never intended
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: for there to be anything other than an egalitarian relationship.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: And so now that we're in Christ, there should no
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: longer be any male headship. And I answer that assertion
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: with a question, does it still hurt to have a baby? Now?
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: I never had one, but I've been there, Like in
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: the delivery room, I cut both of my kids on
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: biblical cords. Right Like I was there, I experienced my
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: wife thinking things about me that no Christian woman should
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: ever think about her husband, saying things to me no
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Christian woman should ever say to her husband. At one
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: point during the birth of our first child, Brigid had
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: asked me to sing to her, and I was singing
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: to her, and you know, then the contraction came and
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: I got distracted, and you know, and all of this
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: stuff is happening, and so I stopped singing. Yeah, I'm
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: going to just leave it right there. So So but
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: here's what I know. Here's what I know. What I
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: know is if you go down the ward where women
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: are having children, you don't have the non Christian women
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: right in pain and all the Christian women saying, what
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: is she crying about? What's my point there? My point
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: there is listen. Listen. If we're saying that male headship
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: is a product of the fall amen and that then
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: when we're Christian we should no longer have that product.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: To the woman, he said, I will surely multiply your
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: pain and childbearing in pain your shop bring for children.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Your desire should be if you're a husband and he
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: should rule over you. All of that's part of the
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: same curse. So if Christianity removes male headship, it should
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: remove the pain of childbearing as well. But you and
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: I both know that dog won't hunt right all right. Now, lastly,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: to the man the atom, he said, because you have
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: of the tree of which I've commanded you, you shall
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: not eat of it. Cursed is the ground because of
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: you and pain. You shall eat of it all the
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: the field by the sweat of your face. You shall
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: eat bread till you return to the ground, for out
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: of it you were taken for your dust, and the
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: dust you shall return. I want you to notice that
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: the curse to the man includes a curse to the
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: entire world. So when we till the soil and the
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: soil is rocky and filled with thorns and thistles, and
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: it's hard, when there is drought, when the crops don't
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: come in, all of that is a byproduct of the
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: fall and a curse to the man. So, ladies, the
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: next time you feel like it was just so unfair
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: that you ended up with male headship, remember number one,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: male headship is not a byproduct of the fall. Your
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: attitude towards male priyriadship is a byproduct of the fall.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: And number two, so a whole lot more stuff we
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: have to deal with than that, Amen, somebody right. So
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: all of this, every last bit of it, is a
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: byproduct of the fall. So all of these things that
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: we deal with, all of these things that make us
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: experience marriage as something less than hopeful, all of these
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: things that make us think of marriage as something less
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: than hopeful, all of these things that make question marriage,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: they all spring forth from the fall. And this is
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: incredibly important for us to know, right, because we had this,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: this this picture in our mind, whether we openly acknowledge
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: it or not. Right. A great example of this is,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: you know the sanctification by love argument. What's the sanctification
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: by love argument? Well, he keeps doing ABC or X
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: y Z or she keeps doing ABC and X y Z,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: and if they really loved me, they wouldn't do that.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: That's the sanctification by love argument. Right, If you really
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: loved me, then you wouldn't sin against me. That's the
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: stupidest thing that a Christian ever said. If you really
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: love me, then you wouldn't do that. Because here's the deal.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: I love God and I sin against God. Who does
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: my wife think she is? That loving her ought to
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: mean that. I don't say, come on, now, come on.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: Here's the other issue, the other issue. But by the way,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: that's also quite idolatrous. Right, Like you're a sinner. You're
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: a sinner. But if you really loved me, like you're
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: supposed to love me, that would do what the Cross
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: can't do. You gotta watch your mouth. Right, here's the
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: other thing. Like I am a sinner saved by grace,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: I'm being sanctified. The Lord is chiseling away at me.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: But I'm not fixed yet a man. So if I am,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: I am a sinner and there's going to be sin
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: committed in my life against whom am I going to
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: sin more than anybody else? The person closest to me.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: So really, if we had proper theology, we would say,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: if you really loved me, you would sin against me
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: a lot more. If you're sinning against somebody else more
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: than you're sinning against me, that means you're closer to
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: them than you are to me. And we got a
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: problem again, all of the things that we deal with. Now,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: does this mean that there's no complexity there? Does this
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: mean that there's no difficulty? Not at all. But it
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: changes everything when we have a proper perspective and a
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: proper understanding of the fall and its implications. So we
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: start with this picture Genesis one, Genesis two, of marriage
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: as God has given it to us. Then we bring
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: this picture of Genesis three and the fall and the
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: implications of the fall right, and that could lead us
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: to hopelessness. But the good news is that the story
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: doesn't end there. So in our last session, and I've
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: gone over in our last session, what we're going to
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: do is sort of put this together and try to
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: understand the beauty and the hopefulness that we have because
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: of the last atom Jesus Christ, and because of what
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: our marriage is can be as a result of what
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: he has not only done but undone through his work
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: on the Cross, and how he restores this beautiful, hopeful
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: picture of what marriage is and gives us an incredible
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: anticipation for what is yet to come at the consummation
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: of all things at the end of the age that
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: has been pictured as a marriage. Amen. All right, let's
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: pray Father again. We thank you. We thank you for
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: your goodness, even in the way that you give us
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: hope in the midst of what seems to be hopelessness.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: Grant by your grace that we might have a realistic
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: picture of what it means for two sinners to unite
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: together in marriage, and a hopeful picture of what it
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: means to redeemed sinners to walk together in Christ. We
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: pray this and ask this in his name. Amen.