Marriage Series

Scripture

Have I told you the story about how Eileen and I met and got married?

I came to this country in 1983 to study at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago, IL. During the summer break between my second and third year at seminary, I met Eileen on August 3, 1985. It was a beautiful summer’s day, and it was love at first sight for me. She was beautiful, winsome, and attractive.

Since I was on a summer break I was able to spend a lot of time with Eileen. With each passing day I knew that Eileen was the woman with whom I wanted to spend the rest of my life.

Having come to the United States from South Africa I was rather shy and quite reserved when it came to dealing with girls. Because South Africa was a former British Colony there is a great deal more formality in our relationships with one another. So when I first met Eileen I addressed her by her last name—Miss McCloy—as it was the proper thing to do.

However, after a week or so I knew that I wanted to take our relationship a step further. So, I plucked up what little courage I had, and with apprehension and trepidation asked Eileen, “Miss McCloy, would you mind if I called you by your first name?”

To which she responded, “Why, not at all. In fact, I wouldn’t even mind if you called me by your last name!”

We were married four months later!

And we have been happily married for twenty-three years.

We are currently in a series titled, “How Would Jesus Vote?” We are examining key issues that confront us today and asking how Jesus would vote, if he were here.

Today, as we continue in our series on “How Would Jesus Vote?” I want to examine “Marriage.” What does the Bible have to say about marriage? How would Jesus vote regarding marriage?

I would like to draw your attention to Genesis 2:15-25:

15The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17but 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.”

18Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman,

because she was taken out of Man.”

24Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:15-25)

Introduction

One of the major issues in this election is marriage. This is particularly true for our state this year as there is an amendment to our state’s constitution on November’s ballot to define marriage exclusively as the union of one man and one woman.

One of the most troubling trends in our day is the growing confusion about marriage. Our society is spiraling dangerously and speedily downwards regarding a biblical understanding of marriage. Led by a supportive media, people with a non-biblical worldview are championing all kinds of relationships that are narcissistic, sodomitic, and debased.

It is time for us to stand and speak up. We must not allow people with an unbiblical and sinful worldview to bully us into silence by telling us that our views of marriage and relationships are old-fashioned and Victorian. We have the blueprints for fulfilling relationships. Unbelievers have no idea about how to do it right.

God created and designed marriage. Every time we deviate from God’s design, we reap disillusionment and heartache. It is time for us to lead the way regarding marriage and relationships.