The Demise of God's Design

=MsoNormal align=right style='text-align:right'>1) 3-2-08…AM…SBC   2)“The Demise of God’s Design” – Part 1

Introduction:

1-      Our world is currently caught in the cross hairs of Scripture and sexual identity in the realm of marriage

2-      Tragically the world is fairly convinced that we have nothing relevant to say about this

·         there are many Christians who aren’t sure we have something profoundly meaningful about this

3-      The moral rebellion of our world today is leading to a deep rooted confusion and a deep hatred of God’s design for marriage and human sexuality

4-      During the 1992 Presidential campaign, former Vice President Dan Quayle made national headlines by accusing the producers of a popular television show of promoting single motherhood in one of their programs. His comments prompted a national debate on “family values” and much analysis on the state of the American family. [1]

5-      One thing is clear, we are witnessing the death of the traditional family where the husband is the sole breadwinner and the wife remains at home to manage the household and raise the children. [2]

6-      Marital infidelity, sexual sin, homosexuality, abortion, women’s liberation, delinquency, and the sexual revolution in general have all contributed to the demise of this type of family.[3]

7-      People are groping, without any base of authority, to try to find out how to make meaningful relationships in a disintegrating society.[4]

8-      The moral rebellion of our world today is leading to a deep rooted confusion and a deep hatred of God’s design for marriage and human sexuality

Thoughts for prayer:

-          the issue of marriage in our society is bigger than we can even understand

-          you have given us all we need in Your Word

-          help us to stand on that authority

-          give us the courage and the wisdom to speak the truth in love

-          this topic of God’s Design for Marriage calls for our clearest thinking – please grant that to us Father

-          prayer for myself and clarity of thought and communication

9-      We are a civilization in crisis

10-  Our business as Christians must be compassionate truth telling

o       This is difficult when we know that some will not receive the truth as compassionate

o       It is truth or compassion in the equation held by too many

o       We must refuse to allow the concepts of truth and compassion to ever be severed

Illustration:                Documentary – “For the Bible Tells me so”

Ø      winner of 5 film festival awards

Ø      Through the experiences of five very normal, very Christian, very American we discover how insightful people of faith handle marriage rights and sexual identity

Ø      We are presented the view that “our country is in great need of healing, in great need of anything that spreads the message of tolerance, understanding, and inclusiveness.”

Proposition:   What kind of people must we be to deal with something as big and as tragic as the issue of marriage and human sexuality?

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Transition:                               Questions being asked by our society

1-      Can love between two people ever be an abomination to God?

2-      Is the chasm between homosexuals and Christianity too wide to cross?

3-      Is the Bible an excuse to hate?

Ø      Friends, the Bible is not silent on this issue

Ø      God’s designed pattern for marriage and human sexuality is stated in the beginning and is assumed and celebrated throughout the rest of Scripture

Let’s look first of all at…

1)      God’s Design

A-    God’s design for marriage and human sexuality has parameters

1- Boundary #1 = covenant                Malachi 2:13-16  (this is two-way covenant with H or W & q)

a-      God’s complaint against Israel was because they were divorcing their wives

b-      These men made vows before God and were now breaking them – they rejected the life-long commitment God designed

c-      Covenant (בְּרִיתֶֽךָ):          treaty; alliance; agreement; pledge

d-     Divorce is a serious sin (summary of Malachi 2:13-16)

                        2-Boundary #2 = companionship        Malachi 2:14              Proverbs 2:11-19

a-      marriage is a triangle relationship with God that is not meant to be broken

b-      the heart of marriage contract is a life and death promise to provide companionship in fellowship

c-      companionship is completing the other spouse – mutual submission within the respective roles  (Ephesians)

Application:

Ø      man and woman both individually and corporately are the image of God

Ø      Any implication of inferiority of personhood is a pagan perversion of the equality of the sexes and makes man better than women

B-    God’s design for marriage and human sexuality includes the right partners           Genesis 2:18-23

1-                          God’s designed pattern for marriage and human sexuality is stated in the beginning and is assumed and celebrated throughout the rest of Scripture

2-                          the importance of heterosexual couples in the story of redemption is see from:

§         Abraham and Sarah

§         Boaz and Ruth

§         The praise of marriage between a husband and a wife in Proverbs, Psalms and Song of Solomon all assume a heterosexual foundation

§         The references to Christ being the bridegroom and the church being the bride point to the Divine pattern of for the participants in marriage

3-                          Homosexuality is unacceptable because it does not conform to the patterns that God has established for sexuality.

·         Not one Scriptural text puts homosexuality in a positive, God-ordained context

4-                          What Adam saw in the garden when naming the animals was not sameness but companionship that was between different spouses

C-    God’s design for marriage and human sexuality results in the right product           Genesis 1:28-29

1-                          It’s time for Christians to reiterate the divine pattern for the family.[5]

2-                          That divine pattern should be evident to the world as it looks at Christian marriages and families. [6]

3-                          The family is the basic building block of society. [7]      (Deuteronomy 6)

4-                          Before you can know the divine pattern that can make your marriage and family life meaningful, you must meet one requirement: you must be a Christian. [8]

Salvation Application – doing things God’s Way

-          If you’re not a believer, there is little hope that you can make your marriage and family anything near what God intends it to be.[9]

-          So, apart from knowing Jesus Christ, we can’t expect a family to be fulfilled, because God is the One who created man, invented marriage and the family, and wrote the book on how marriage is to function.[10]

5-                          The mission of the family is to reflect and bring glory to the One who created them and established their family and then carry that mandate to the next generation

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Application:

Ø      How does your family match up to God’s Standard?

Ø      Is God the standard for your family?

Ø      Could the world find God the center of your family if they could see behind your closed doors?

2)      God’s desired response for believers

A-    Our first response must be to acknowledge the divine pattern that God has established for marriage and human sexuality (we must know that the Bible is not silent on this issue)

1-                          “the biblical witness against homosexual behavior can only be neutralized only by grossly misinterpreting Scripture or by moving away from a high view of Scripture”

B-    Our next response is to seek after illustrating this divine pattern to a sinful world

1-                          the church (universal) has not always been a good example of God’s divine patter for marriage

C-    Another response is to biblically, truthfully and compassionately love those that are rebelling against God’s divine pattern

1-                          we are to love the sinner and hate the sin

2-                          the church has some ground to make up in this area

3-                          some of the most fundamental churches have the most ground to make up

4-                          the problem with those that are for gay rights and same-sex marriages is not that they are homosexuals – it is that they are sinners, like you and I, in need of regeneration

5-                          we must love them the same way that someone loved us when we were in sin

Conclusion:

1-      Marriage, the family and human sexuality are facing extreme pressure in our culture today

·         divorce it at it’s highest

·         common law marriage

·         dress-rehearsal marriage

·         marriage to satisfy lustful desires

·         there categories of male and female are being broken down

What kind of people must we be to deal with something as big and as tragic as the issue of marriage and human sexuality?

Application:

1-      We must be people with strong biblical marriages

2-      We must be people that practice what we preach

3-      We must be people that love the sinner more than we hate the sin

4-      We must be people that understand biblical headship and submission

5-      We must be the people with the theology that can adequately explain the oxymoron of homosexual marriage

6-      We must be people that know that God can change the heart – the problem is not that someone is a homosexual, the problem is that they are a sinner

7-      We must be the people who love homosexuals more than the homosexual loves their homosexuality

o       we have to love sinners more than they love their sin – and that is how Christ loved us

8-      we must be the people who tell the truth about homosexuality marriage and refuse to accept even its possibility

9-      We must, above all, be people that are so passionate about the glory of God that we will not accept anything less than marriages and families based on God’s divine patter

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[1]John MacArthur, Different by Design, Includes Indexes. (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1997, c1994).

[2]John MacArthur, Different by Design, Includes Indexes. (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1997, c1994).

[3]John MacArthur, Different by Design, Includes Indexes. (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1997, c1994).

[4]John MacArthur, The Fulfilled Family, Includes Index. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1997, c1985).

[5]John MacArthur, The Fulfilled Family, Includes Index. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1997, c1985).

[6]John MacArthur, The Fulfilled Family, Includes Index. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1997, c1985).

[7]John MacArthur, The Fulfilled Family, Includes Index. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1997, c1985).

[8]John MacArthur, The Fulfilled Family, Includes Index. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1997, c1985).

[9]John MacArthur, The Fulfilled Family, Includes Index. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1997, c1985).

[10]John MacArthur, The Fulfilled Family, Includes Index. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1997, c1985).