Marriage: God's Good Plan & Satan's Scam Series

MARRIAGE: GOD’S GOOD PLAN & SATAN’S SCAM

Matthew 5:27-32

1. In Genesis 2 we read that after God had created the heavens and the earth and all the living creatures, He formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living soul.

• But while all the animals had their counterparts, there was no counterpart for Adam. So the Lord said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man said, (WOLF WHISTLE). WOWEEEEE!!! - Well they didn’t quite translate it that way, but I am sure it happened something like that.

"This is now bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called ’woman,’

for she was taken out of man."

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

2. Marriage as the union of one man to one woman was God’s idea and plan from the very beginning. Within the nature of God there are both masculine and feminine attributes and so it took the creation of both males and females to fully depict the glory of God in human beings.

• And as a man and a woman come together in the blessed and sacred union of marriage they are to serve as the visible human expression and representation of God on the planet

• Together we are to express God’s tenderness and God’s strength, God’s gentleness and God’s power, God’s nurturing and God’s leadership, God’s creativity and God’s orderliness, God’s compassion and God’s serving nature – never the two in competition with each other, but complementing, highlighting and enhancing each other’s unique contributions.

• Like the violin and the bow are both essential to make beautiful music in the hands of the trained violinist – so it is with the husband and wife who understand and acknowledge their unique differences and how together they are to allow the Holy Spirit to bring forth a divine witness to the glory of God.

• Husbands and wives who recognize and acknowledge that their marriage is to be a billboard for God in their neighborhood will honor and respect one another. They will prefer one another and go out of their way to bless and delight one another – spiritually, mentally, emotionally, psychologically, and physically.

• And within such a godly union children are the joyous and satisfying fruit and our calling is to raise them up by teaching and example to continue our witness to God.

3. Now that was and still is God’s plan for marriage. He hasn’t changed. He hasn’t come up with a more “with it”; more “up-to-date” plan for our well-being and happiness. The original plan always was, is now, and always will be the very best.

• Unfortunately since we allowed our hearts and our minds to be deceived and corrupted by the Deceiver, and have permitted ourselves to be suckered and hoodwinked by all his schemes and scams, we chose to believe the lie that somehow or another God doesn’t have our best interests at heart and that there are delights and passions that “the Old Meany” and “Spoilsport” just wants to keep us from enjoying.

4. Peter writes in his first letter that we “…be sober, be watchful, for our adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour”. (1 Peter 5:8). Paul writes to the church in Ephesus to “be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might”, urging them and us to “put on the whole armor of God that we might be able to stand against the wiles (scams) of the devil”. (Ephesians 6:10-11).

• We live in an age and a culture that has virtually committed itself to remove and eradicate all warning, taboo, and “Thou shalt not” signs as being “paternalistic”, “authoritarian”, “restricting”, “inhibiting”, “unenlightened” and on and on. And nowhere is that more blatant than in the realm of our human sexuality.

• And so instead of staying within the boundaries God has clearly marked and identified for our protection, our well-being, and our happiness, we have believed the lie, fled the coop, jumped the fence, and are now desperately trying to prove to ourselves and others that we have found a more liberated and liberating way – men with another woman, women with another man, men and women in groups, men with men and women with women, men with young boys, women with young boys, men and women even with dogs and horses and cows - and we wonder why so many in our society today, in this and so many other ways, are behaving worse than beasts!