Series -- "Does It Matter What You Believe?"
Luke 1:1 Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, KJV
"About the Structure of the Home"
Matthew 19:4-6
Matthew 19:1 And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan; 2 And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there. 3 The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? 4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. KJV
Introduction: I want to give a little background about the context of our Lord's remarks on this occasion. In the Lord's day there were two schools of thought among the Pharisees. They were the houses of Shammai and Hillel, name after two sages or teachers of the first century. Simply put the Shammai school was the conservative school and the Hillel was the liberal school of thought. Despite the many disputes that later developed between their respective Houses, only five differences are recorded between Hillel and Shammai themselves but these differences help explain the question and Jesus answer. In the record of the Talmud alone, there are 316 issues on which they debated; the large number of their disputations led to the saying the one law has become two. The matters they debated included:
1. Admission to Torah study. The House of Shammai believed only worthy students should be admitted to study Torah. The House of Hillel believed that Torah may be taught to anyone, in the expectation that they will repent and become worthy.
2. White lies. Whether one should tell an ugly bride that she is beautiful. Shammai said it was wrong to lie, and Hillel said that all brides are beautiful on their wedding day.
3. Divorce. The House of Shammai held that a man may only divorce his wife for a serious transgression, but the House of Hillel allowed divorce for even trivial offenses, such as burning a meal.
4. Hanukkah. The House of Shammai held that on the first night eight lights should be lit, and then they should decrease on each successive night, ending with one on the last night; while the House of Hillel held that one should start with one light and increase the number on each night, ending with eight.
As I said earlier in general, the House of Shammai's positions were stricter than those of the House of Hillel. These two groups were trying to get Jesus to endorse the position that they held on the subject of divorce. It gave the Lord the opportunity to restate the Bible position for the home.
This brings us to the question: "Does it matter what you believe about the Structure of the Home?" The answer is yes it does make a difference. This statement is true now more than ever because we are experiencing the fallout produced by alternative concepts of what the home should be. Now don't think for one minute that all of the attacks on the home are some sort of recent occurrence. Satan attacked the home in the Garden of Eden and he has been doing it ever since. Satan knows better than a lot of folks that the home is the building block of society and has the home goes, so goes our society. If you deconstruct the home you destroy the very thing that produces a civilized society. Now the question is how would you go about this deconstruction of the home? The obvious answer is you would do it incrementally; a step at a time and you would do it in such a way as not to alarm those who have a belief system that is different from what you are seeking to promote and you would count on the apathy and indifference of this same group. That is what has happened in America. We are now almost at the tipping point where the home has been almost completely redefined and it will take a major social upheaval to turn it around or a revival.
Ultimately the Bible is the final word on the home so that's where this message will begin and that's where it will end. Let's think about:
I. The Designer of the Home
First, It is impossible to have the right concept of what the home is and should be without a belief in:
a. The Creator of the home
The same God who created the heavens and the earth also created the first home. We are told that the first family was created on the sixth day and that God surveyed what He had made and said it was good. We are told that God created man in His image. That means they were created righteous, rational and relational. All three aspects of this truth are vital to a correct understanding of the concept of the home.
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him;
b. The Couple in the home
We are told that He created them male and female and that they were to procreate, be fruitful and multiply. God also gave them dominion (authority) over all of the rest of creation.
Gen 1:27 ...male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
c. The Curse on the home
All of the trouble for the home today can be traced back to a single incident in the Garden of Eden. In Gen. 3 we read of the fall of man through the disobedience of this first couple. From that moment forward there has been and continues to be a curse on the home. We find the curse in vs. 14-24 of Gen 3.
II. The Description of the Home
a. The Head of the home
God created
b. The Heart of the home
c. The Hope of the home
III. The Defense of the Home
a. What the Bible prohibits
First, it prohibits divorce, it prohibits polygamy. Next it prohibits adultery. Next, it prohibits homosexually.
b. What the Bible permits
c. What we should promote
