The Gospel Through Marriage
Young Adult Valentine's Day Banquet • Sermon • Submitted
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Intro:
Who we are and what we do.
Who here has been married the fewest years? How about longest?
This year, Christy and I will be married 23 years! I know, we look too young to have been married that long. At our 5-year anniversary, when we were 18, we began to ask, “where has the time gone?”
Do you remember before you got married? Men, please don’t say anything because we’re trying to have a nice night. Do you remember how you idealized your now wife? And it wasn’t until a year later that you understood why her dad and brothers were pointing at you and laughing!
Ladies, don’t say anything, because we’re trying to have a nice night, but do you remember how you’d look into his eyes and think, “there’s nothing he could do that would drive me away!” And it wasn’t until a week after the honeymoon that you were wondering why his momma thinks he hung the moon!
Brothers and sisters, we fall in love for different reasons, but generally, we idealize the other person until we’ve been with them for some time.
Before we were married, we had a picture of life with our spouse that was a little too unrealistic.
This is because before we were married, we were imperfect ourselves. Add another imperfect person to the mix and you get double trouble.
But scripture shows us a different image of marriage, and if you’ll allow me tonight, I’d like to come at it with the gospel in mind.
We are going to look at:
A Picture of the Gospel in the Beginning
A Picture of the Gospel in the Beginning
A Picture of the Gospel after the Fall
A Picture of the Gospel after the Fall
A Picture of the Gospel through the Church
A Picture of the Gospel through the Church
A Picture of the Gospel in the Beginning
A Picture of the Gospel in the Beginning
Gen 2
15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.
23 And Adam said:
“This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.
Gen 2
Quickly, we see several things in these verses:
We see that God gave man a command.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Gen 2:
This gives us an indication that He made the rules. If there are any ground rules to follow, certainly His would be of utmost importance.
We also learn that God knew man needed a companion; but it was done with a twist:
20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.
Gen 2:18-
God doesn’t simply give him Eve, but shows him that all the other living things weren’t what he needed.
His companion would be made from him. She would be “bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” (23)
What do we see next?
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
We see union among man and woman.
Togetherness
A bond
We see sex as a gift from God to be enjoyed in the context of marriage.
What do we see next?
25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
They were naked! This picture shows that they were unashamed. Untouched by sin. Completely open with one another and God.
Gen 2:
The gospel in this picture where man and woman are together in the garden, enjoying God’s creation is seen through a perfect relationship.
You see, things were perfect, we then disobeyed God, sin entered the world, and now things are broken.
But the picture in the beginning was perfection. This is what God desires, AND demands. But the problem is that we’ve all sinned.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
So, a picture of the gospel in the beginning shows us perfection. Adam and Eve had a perfect marriage. One made to complement the other, beautifully working the garden as a couple loving one another and God.
A Picture of the Gospel after the Fall
A Picture of the Gospel after the Fall
So here’s what happened next:
Gen 3:
13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
“Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
We went from, “oh, you are perfect, and I’ll love and take care of you,” to “what did you do! Not only did you sin, but you took me with you! My mom told me not to marry you!”
We go from a perfect union, one flesh, to this:
1 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, 2 when she has departed from his house, and goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3 if the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife, 4 then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Deut 24:
The NKJV uses the word “uncleanness” while the ESV uses the word “indecency.” The Hebrew for this means “nakedness,” which could mean anything indecent.
What we learn from Jewish history is that they aren’t too different from us because they are human.
The earlier, more strict Jews, would have interpreted this as, “she showed her nakedness to another man, was flirting, or was immodest.”
Ladies, he isn’t cool with you chatting with your high school “buddies” online.
Later on in Jewish history, the rules are relaxed a little. Kinda like today. Instead of outright adultery, or flirting, in indecency, the law was interpreted to mean whatever the male wanted it to mean. The first century version of “irreconcilable differences.”
Today, we call this a “no fault divorce.” Talk about the epitome of sin. Neither one of us are at fault? Doubt that.
Take a look at for an example.
3 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”
4 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”
Listen to what Jesus says:
8 He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
Matt 19:
This picture of the gospel through marriage in the fall shows us that, like our relationship with God, our marriages are supposed to be whole, perfect, sinless.
But when sin enters into the equation, they become broken, imperfect, and sinful. We see people looking for loopholes to get out.
We see one physically and mentally damaging the other.
We see kids, family members, and friends being used as pawns that are oftentimes expendable as long as we get our way.
A picture of the gospel through marriage after the fall is one you and I live weekly.
Just as the first marriage started out as perfect and whole, our marriages, through Christ, can be a representation of what He’s done for us through His shed blood on the cross.
We get offended by our spouse, but because Christ forgave me, we seek to reconcile rather than seeking revenge.
Since we are sinful and oftentimes weak, one of us may be struggling. When this happens, the other one holds up and supports their spouse.
A Picture of the Gospel through the Church
A Picture of the Gospel through the Church
Listen to this passage from :
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Eph 5:25-
Verse 33 is a big deal! Drs. Les and Leslie Parrott wrote a book explaining that almost everything in a marriage boil down to the wife desiring love and the husband’s need to provide it, and the husband desiring respect and the wife’s need to provide it.
Think about the picture the Apostle Paul paints using the familiar language of husband and wife.
Christ, the husband, loves His bride. He loves His bride so much that He gave Himself for her.
This is one reason that I’m baffled when people say, I love Christ, but I hate the church.
How do you think I’d respond if you said to me with all seriousness, “Toby, I really love you, I do; but it’s that wife of yours that I hate!”
You’re no friend of mine!
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
A picture of the gospel through the church is seen here as Christ died for the church.
That is you and I.
We are His bride.
He’s given Himself for us and when we receive Him we are sanctified (set apart), and cleansed, in order that we may be presented as perfect, and righteous, and holy.
Friends, our marriages are far from perfect, but those of us who are born again can use our marriages as a representation of the gospel to those with whom we need to share the gift of life.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church!
Friends, Christ loved the church so much He died for us.
Who among us wouldn’t die for their spouse?
My challenge to you today is two-fold:
Maybe you are here today and you have not been born again.
Jesus said, “I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
You are born again by repenting of your sin and believing AND receiving the Good News of the gospel.
You are born again by repenting of your sin and believing AND receiving the Good News of the gospel.
Sometimes we say we are a Christian and we aren’t.
Sometimes we say we are a Christian and we aren’t.
Sometimes we say we are a Christian and we aren’t.
We’ll say that because we attend church, have been baptized, or because we think we are good we are a Christian.
The Bible says that not all who claim the name of Christ will enter heaven.
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Believer, is your marriage a good representation of the gospel?
Are you loving one another well?
Do you worship together?
Are you encouraging one another to share the gospel with your friends, family, and co-workers?
