Marriage - what a wonderful creation of God!
Just yesterday Pastor Karenlee and I were privileged to perform a marriage ceremony for two of our friends who live in Rochester! May the Lord bless their union and their lives.
Jesus Himself believed in marriage. Listen to what He told the Pharisees in
Matthew 19:4-6 NASB
“And [Jesus] answered and said, ‘Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 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’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”
Marriage was created and instituted by God and the guidelines are specific.
So, why try to parallel marriage with the relationship between Jesus the Messiah and the church? Well … because the Bible does so! So, why not???
Marriage is a lifelong commitment between a man and a woman.
“For as long as we both shall live.”
I love these traditional vows:
“I take thee to be my wedded wife/husband,
To have and to hold from this day forward,
For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer
In sickness and in health, to love and to cherish,
till death us do part, according to God’s holy ordinance;
And thereto I plight thee my troth.”
(And according to these vows I pledge to you my faithfulness.)
Nice word, aren’t they???
What if we made them sacred, between us and our Lord?
Lord, Jesus, I take you to be my Lord and Savior
I will hold completely to You from this day forward
For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer
In sickness and in health, to love and cherish
Never to part for all of eternity, according to Your Holy Word
And according to these vows I pledge to You my faithfulness.
Recently I’ve seen a bumper sticker that said, “Try God.”
Can we take Jesus out for a test drive?
I mean, the Bible does say, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Doesn’t it?
The phrase “Try God” just seems to have the same sentiment of those who say you should live together before you are married so that you can see if it will work out. God is definitely NOT in favor of that.
Perhaps “Taste and see that the Lord is good” means that people should come into the presence of God (like we are gathered here together here today) in order to observe us worshiping the Lord, to sense His presence and learn from His word! Kind of like dating.
But it won’t be long before the Holy Spirit will be saying, “You’ve got to make a commitment here, you can’t just sit on the fence for the rest of your life.”
You see, “Taste and see that the Lord is good” is not the end of the sentence. The rest of it says, “blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.”
So, what about you? Could you make that pledge right now?
Lord, Jesus, I take you to be my Lord and Savior
I will hold completely to You from this day forward
For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer
In sickness and in health, to love and cherish
Never to part for all of eternity, according to Your Holy Word
And according to these vows I pledge to You my faithfulness.
OK. Now that is how man and the woman are married and are husband and wife. And the church equivalent of that is now you are a child of God, you have entered into a holy covenant with God. In common church vernacular, you are now saved or born again.
OK. So, what do married people and those who are a part of the universal church have in common? Well, God gave a commandment to Adam and Eve which has carried down through the centuries to us, and what is that command?
That command found in Genesis 1:28a
“God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth…’”
Now, this is just a natural part of being a married couple but in addition to having children this commandment also sets in stone the formation of the marriage family; one man to one woman.
Only a man and a woman can be fruitful and multiply. Only a man and a woman can procreate children and fill the earth with children and grandchildren and nieces and nephews and great grandchildren, etc.
Two women cannot. Two men cannot. The God who created everything gave a natural order to this process.
If all of the humans in the world became exclusively homosexual or even celibate the human race would cease to exist. We would become extinct. But that’s not God’s intention. We are to be married, one man to one woman and to be fruitful and multiply.
Well, what does that have to do with the church?
God has chosen to work His plan of salvation through His witnesses, through us.
God has chosen to bring to new life new born Christians in cooperation with us.
He COULD do it on His own. He DID provide the way of salvation totally on His own.
But, He chose to work in and through those who have made the vow to Him, those who have pledged, “And thereto I plight Thee my troth.”
You might say that there seem to be instances in the Bible where Jesus brought people into salvation without the witness of Christians.
The only one I can think of might be John the Baptist. Or you might say Saul on the road to Damascus but I would say that Saul had heard many convincing testimonies before Jesus knocked Saul to the ground to get his attention.
Do you think that Saul easily forgot the testimony of Stephen the first martyr for Christ? And, he must have heard the testimony of many others he had captured for imprisonment and death.
You and I and all who have taken the spiritual vow of faithfulness to Christ are supposed to “be fruitful and multiply.”
A man marries a woman, they have children.
A person commits their life to Christ and becomes part of the church of Jesus, they bring others to Christ through their faithful testimony and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Now, this also carries on generationally. A husband and a wife have children as the Lord blesses them. Their children marry according to the will of God and they have children and on and on.
The same should be true of those who are “married” to Christ. They, in cooperation with Jesus, will lead some to the saving knowledge and faith in Jesus. These then go on to lead others to Christ. Sort of spiritual grandchildren.
I wonder if there is anyone here who has ever met one of their own spiritual grandchildren? Where you have been used by the Holy Spirit to lead someone to Jesus for salvation and you then have seen the fruit of that person witnessing in the power of the Holy Spirit and they come to salvation.
OK, so, married couples have children if the Lord so chooses to bless them in that way.
And, those who are committed to Jesus should be involved with the birthing of spiritual children.
So, let’s go back to the person being married. The marriage ceremony is only the beginning. What does it take to make a marriage strong and growing.
The obvious answer is including the Lord in everything right? Right, but, let’s just set that aside for a moment and take that back up when we get to the relationship between God and the church.
One thing that will make a marriage strong and growing is study.
No, not book study, studying each other.
How does your spouse react when things are great? (reading each other)
How do they react when things are stressed? (reading each other)
How does she react when dinner is over and you go read the paper or watch TV while she cleans up the kitchen?
How does she react when you help her clean up the kitchen after dinner instead of reading the paper or watching TV?
Do you know the things that will make your spouse happy?
Do you know the things that will make your spouse angry or nervous or worried?
Have you learned the little and big things that please the one to which you are joined with for life?
After you have learned them do you put them into practice?
Marriage requires study and a servant heart.
There are some specific gender roles for spiritual life within the boundaries of marriage written in the Bible but it is absolutely necessary that those passages be followed completely and not just the parts we like. (Listen up, men!)
There is a perfect parallel found in Scripture when we become part of the church of Jesus the Messiah! We don’t get saved and just continue on with life as if nothing had changed. Our role is now to serve and please our Master, Jesus Christ.
Colossians 1:9-10a LEB
“Because of this also we, from the day we heard about it, did not cease praying for you, and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual insight,
“So that you may live in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects …”
And what are the words we all long to hear from the Lord? “Well done good and faithful servant!”
1 John 2:4-6
“Whoever says, ‘I know Him [Jesus],’ but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.
“But if anyone obeys His word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did.”
So, how can we please God? We must study Him, through His word, learn what pleases Him and do it out of love for Him.
That will make an awesome marriage and an awesome Christian.
The last parallel I’d like to make between the relationship of a man and woman in a marriage and between the Lord and a child of God is faithfulness.
All through the kingdoms of Israel in the Old Testament we see faithfulness to the Lord rewarded and unfaithfulness treated as spiritual adultery leading to the punishment of Israel.
In addition we see sexual immorality of a married person as the only basis allowed by God for the dissolution of marriage.
If you want to see an excellent example of the rewards of God for faithfulness to Him and the results of unfaithfulness to Him check out Deuteronomy chapter 28. The first 14 verses deal with a faithful Israel and the rest of the chapter deals with an unfaithful Israel!
Now, many will say that faithfulness certainly applies to marriage and it surely does! But they also will say that while it is certainly important for Christians there is nothing that can break the covenant between the Lord and a person who has placed their faith and trust in Him.
Often they will quote 2 Timothy 2:13a
“If we are faithless, He remains faithful …”
This is quoted as if it were a complete statement. It is not. It is only a tiny fragment of a saying that is verified in the Scriptures as being faithful.
Here is the entire quote:
2 Timothy 2:11-13 HCSB
“This saying is trustworthy: For if we have died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us; if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”
Faithfulness in the church to Jesus Christ and in marriage to your spouse is essential, it is non-negotiable, it cannot be emphasized too much.
This is only a tiny portion of the parallels between the relationship between a Christian and Christ and the relationship between a husband and wife.
(Recap these parallels)
Commitment
Be fruitful and multiply
Study and be obedient to what you learn
Faithfulness
2 Chronicles 16:9a
“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.”
