Hold Marriage In Honor

MEFC turns 50 graphic

50 Years of God’s Faithfulness (during the month of October)

The Gospel in Everyday Life Graphic

Hold People Closely (A couple of weeks ago)

Hold Marriage in Honor (today)

Hold Money Loosely (next week)

*Warning: We will talk about God’s design and boundaries for sexual relations. The material may not be suitable for all audiences due to the nature of the message. Parental discretion is advised. For those who don’t feel comfortable with their child/children listening to the sermon, we will provide volunteers to supervise little ones in a designated area during the sermon.

Weekend to remember graphic

I have four gift certificates to give away for married couples or engaged couples.

WTR: 3 days of marriage enrichment: tools, talk, time with your spouse.

INTRODUCTION

Sex is everywhere in our culture. We live in a society that is obsessed with sex and at the same time is confused about sex. (resources in the foyer)

The Bible is not silent: Sex is God’s idea and design.

Hebrews 13:4 “4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”

3 realities about things about marriage and sexuality

Let marriage be held in honor among all

We are called to honor marriage through our sexuality.

A commandment for all the followers of Jesus (married & single)

What does it mean to honor marriage?

The word honor in the NT is used to describe something of great worth/value. It is used in 1 Peter 1:19 to refer to the precious blood of Christ and in 1 Cor 3:12 when referring to precious stones.

The author of Hebrews wants us to see marriage the way God sees marriage: a precious gem of great worth and value.

The opposite of honor is the word profane which the author of Hebrews warns just a chapter earlier (Heb 12:16)

“A profane person does not value what is sacred and treats it as unimportant “- Tom Loyola

Esau treated and traded his birthright, something of great value, for a bowl of stew.

What does God’s Word have to say about marriage?

Marriage is a covenant union

God’s original plan was for marriage to be a covenant - that is a permanent union that should only be dissolved by death.

Jesus put this way (quotes Genesis 1-2)

Mark 10:6-9 “6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.””

KJV: Leave & Cleave - covenant language

Jesus own interpretation is that marriage is a covenant. Jesus said that Scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35)

Proverbs 2:17 Speaks of marriage as a covenant.

Malachi 2:14 “14 But you say, “Why does [God no longer accept my offering with favor]?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.”

The writer of Hebrews is not introducing anything new, but rather reminding his audience to hold marriage in honor among all.

Marriage is a covenant union. Second:

Marriage is a heterosexual union between a man and a woman

This is God’s original design

Mark 10:6-9 “6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.””

Jesus is quoting Genesis 1-2 to establish the fact that our genders are not a social construct but a gift from our Creator.

Genesis 1:27-28 “27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””

Male and female are told to have children.

Marriage is a union between a male with XY chromosomes and a female with XX chromosomes (DNA)

God designed our bodies male and female to complement one another.

Society may recognize same sex marriage but in the eyes of God it can never be so. This is has been the position of God’s people for millennia.

We are called to hold marriage in honor.

The Bible affirms that

Marriage is a covenant union

Marriage is a heterosexual union between a man and a woman

Third...

Marriage is a monogamous union between a man and a woman

From the beginning, Genesis 1-2 establish monogamy as the marriage norm. That is one woman and one man.

Mark 10:6-9 “6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.””

Polygamy appears in the OT as descriptive but not prescriptive.

Jesus and the apostles ratified God’s design of monogamy.

Let marriage be held in honor among all

The second thing this passage teaches us...

Let the marriage bed be undefiled

The “marriage bed” is a reference to sexual activity in the marriage.”

In Scripture we discover that God is pro-sex and that sex in marriage is intended for the following...

Sex is intended for procreation

Genesis 1:28 “28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””

Be fruit and multiply is a reference to having babies.

God designed our bodies male and female to complement one another. The man produces the sperm, the woman produces the egg.

*We because we live in a fallen world, infertility may affect some couples.

Sex is intended for physical pleasure

The Song of Songs is about celebrating the love between a man and a woman, including the sexual relationship.

In Proverbs 5, Salomon teaches his son about the danger and beauty of sexual pleasure. The danger is found in engaging in sexual activity outside the covenant of marriage. “Let your marriage bed be undefiled son.”

Sexual pleasure is intended to take place only in the context of marriage.

I’m not saying sex in marriage is without issues.

Proverbs 5:18-19 “18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, 19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.”

1 Corinthians 7:2-3, 5 “2 But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. 3 The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. Do not deprive one another.”

Sex is intended for personal closeness

Genesis 2:24 “24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

The “one flesh” indicates a union, a bond of the married couple, including sexual union.

In the Old Testament the term for sexual intercourse was "to know" (a husband or wife). (Gen 4:1)

When Paul writes to the Corinthians to address sexual immorality, he writes the following:

1 Corinthians 6:15-17 “15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.”

Sex is intended for physical pleasure and more. There is a bond and a deep connection that takes place: you literally become one with that person in body, mind and spirit.

The reason why the Bible promotes sex only within the covenant of marriage is because God has a high view of sex. Anything outside of that is harmful (it’s hard to break up).

C.S. Lewis, many years ago, in his book Mere Christianity, described our modern battle with human sexuality in the following words:

The Christian idea of marriage is based on Christ’s words that a man and wife are to be regarded as a single organism—for that is what the words “one flesh” would be in modern English. And the Christians believe that when He said this He was not expressing a sentiment but stating a fact-just as one is stating a fact when one says that a lock and its key are one mechanism, or that a violin and a bow are one musical instrument. The inventor of the human machine was telling us that its two halves, the male and the female, were made to be combined together in pairs, not simply on the sexual level, but totally combined.

The monstrosity of sexual intercourse outside marriage is that those who indulge in it are trying to isolate one kind of union (the sexual) from all the other kinds of union which was intended to go along with it and make up the total union. The Christian attitude does not mean that there is anything wrong about sexual pleasure, any more than about the pleasure of eating. It means that you must not isolate that pleasure and try to get it by itself, any more than you ought to try to get the pleasures of taste without swallowing and digesting, by chewing things and spitting them out again...

Sex is intended to be pure

Let the marriage bed be undefiled (Heb 13:4)

Paul exhorts the Corinthians to flee from sexual sin.

1 Corinthians 6:18, 20 “Flee from sexual immorality” 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

Ephesians 5:3-6 “3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”

Cohabitating (the Bible clearly calls it living in sexual immorality)

Wrong Reasons

Fear (test drive before you buy)

Everybody is doing it (fish, what is water?)

Financial savings

The Bible says it’s sinful and harmful. Sociologists are discovering that it is also harmful.

Couples who cohabit before marriage (and especially before an engagement or an otherwise clear commitment) tend to be less satisfied with their marriages — and more likely to divorce — than couples who do not. These negative outcomes are called the cohabitation effect.

Last but not least… The third thing Hebrews 13:4 teaches me about marriage and human sexuality is that,

God will judge the sexual immoral and adulterous

Our opinions will never change what the Bible says. The Bible ought to influence our opinions.

Sexual immoral: those who engage in sexual relationships outside of marriage.

Adulterers: those who are sexually unfaithful to their marriage.

Sexual activity is designed by God to be enjoyed only within the covenant of marriage. Anything outside of this brings invites horrendous consequences.

Horrendous - extremely bad or unpleasant

(Think electricity. 220 volts for your stove/dryer)

Why does God care so much about who I sleep with?

Galatians 5:19-21 “19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 “9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

1 Thessalonians 4:3-7 “3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.”

Why does the author of Hebrews bring the topic of judgment in the context of marriage?

Marriage is a picture of the relationship between Jesus and His Church.

Ephesians 5:32 “32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”

Conclusion: FORGIVENESS FOR THOSE WHO REPENT

Truth: All of human existence, including our sexuality, has been deeply damaged by the fall into sin (Gen. 3; Rom. 3:23; 5:12).

Reaction for many: shame

1 John 1:9 “9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Psalm 51:1-2 “1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!”