1 Corinthians (Session 6) Chapter 7

well good evening and welcome to our monday night study of first corinthians and uh glad to have you with us and we are in session six and focusing on chapter seven and uh as you know we sometimes with our tongue and our cheek like to call this letter first californians because there's a very close uh concept between what they knew as corinth than what we know as hollywood las vegas and new york all wrapped up into one so i'm just calling it californians but to try to give it a contemporary flavor but the this passage that we're going to deal with is going to be on marriage and should never be taken alone by the way we should realize the problems in corinth are not the same as was in berea philippe or ephesus and so uh to get paul's full view of marriage you've got to look at his other letters not just this one because corinth was a church of contradictions the diverse response to the widespread immorality included two different things licentiousness on the one hand and a legalistic asceticism on the other sex itself is never sin it is the abuse of this god-given function that makes it immoral and titus 1 15 is one of your references to that paul uses language that's found nowhere else in the new testament he'll say by permission and so forth and we'll watch that closely it's still authoritative in view of their circumstances but there's no law that is so inclusive as to apply in every situation so let's keep that in mind so we'll notice this phrase here now concerning he's referring to a letter now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me it is good for a man not to touch a woman nevertheless to avoid fornication let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband so he's making a reference here to the terms that were in the letter that they sent to him and so he's going to respond to a list of questions in their earlier letter and he said he sent a previous letter and they replied with questions delivered by stephanus fortinatus and akayakis and that's all been rough we referred to that back in chapter five we'll keep moving here and now concerning that's a phrase we're going to see him use all through this letter a key phrase and uh on marriage in chapter seven you see we're going to talk about that quite a bit tonight celibacy he'll touch on now concerning meat offered to idols and then the spiritual gifts the collection for jerusalem christians in chapter 16 apollos in chapter 16. so the resurrection is also a very key thing but it doesn't happen to have that phrase now concerning all these other topics have that phrase but we must remember as we go through this the pressures that they were under there was not only widespread immorality comparable to our own in our culture but for them becoming a christian was putting one's life in danger so let's take verse one now concerning the things where if he wrote unto me it's good for a man not to touch a woman and so this refers to the quote from the previous letter paul could not have advocated celibacy for everyone because if he did he would be contradicting god's utterance in genesis chapter 2. it's not good for man to be alone and so god's covenant blessings go from generation to generation and they involve the growth of the church so he's going to emphasize a high view of marriage in ephesians chapter 5. so let's not lose sight of that as we go forward in this particular letter with these particular comments now a group of believers in corinth had set themselves against the widespread immorality in the city by advocating celibacy and to certain terms there for man husband and woman are in definite terms implying non-marital intercourse and paul points out that apostates forbid people to marry nevertheless to avoid fornication let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband and they don't do that in hollywood do they they spread it around a little bit but anyway it must be kept in mind that the conditions in corinth were terrible almost as bad as ours you know we tend to think look at them and say wow but ours is probably as bad if not worse polygamy was the common practice in their world and paul effectively rules out polygamy as well as homosexual combinations we don't have to dwell on that because let the husband render unto the wife do benevolence and likewise also the wife and to the husband the wife has not the power of her own body but the husband and likewise the husband hath not the power of his own body but the wife the elegant paradox equality and mutuality is what he's talking about here ye not one the other except it be with a consent for a time that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer and come together again that satan tempt you not for your incontinence and so the word defraud here by the way could be rendered deprived it's a little in our language marriage is a protective shield that should be employed effectively against satan's subtleties is the suggestion and that'll also come up in the ephesians letter in chapter 5. let's remember that god established the home before he established the church the home itself is a basic institution of god we need to never lose sight of that now the question that comes up with all these discussions was paul married and there's a diversity of opinion among good scholars about that the early church tradition was that he was not married detrillion jerome and origen are are doubt and arjun's doubtful about it methodius as well as clemens alex and ignatius believed he was a widower that was their belief i happen to believe that paul was either a widower or possibly that his wife left him after his conversion but that's a speculation that i've run across we don't know and he paul claimed to have failed in none of the duties which jewish law and tradition laid down he makes that statement well if that's the case orthodox belief laid down the obligation of marriage that implies that he was married and there's plenty of references on that if you want to chase those things down if a man did not marry and have children he was said to have slain his posterity and to have lessened the image of god in the world that's the attitude within the jewish community and paul said he never failed any of his duties to be fruitful multiply was viewed as a positive commandment of god both in genesis but also proverbs 2 and proverbs 5. so by the way it was also the first of the 613 talmudic precepts now we're not into the 613 rules that's that's the talmud but still in that world uh being married was considered appropriate so we suggest he must have been a member oh we know that he was a member of the sanhedrin for he says that he gave his vote against the christians in acts 26. well if that's the case if he gave his vote in the sanhedrin then he had to be married that was a requirement okay and it was required that members of the son he wouldn't be married as it was held like this it was held that married men were more merciful aliyah i'll leave you with that one and uh his enablement to be alone was a result of a spiritual gift so whatever it was whether she left him at conversion is one speculation we don't have any evidence of that or whether she just passed away he was a widower we don't know he clearly did not have a wife with him on his travels and so forth but he goes on here says i speak this by permission not of commandment referring to the temporary absence that has the consent of both spouses is what he's alluding to there and it's a matter of individual responsibility this is romans 14 but paul continues i would that all men were even as i myself but every man had this proper gift of god one after this manner and another after that and we should always remember that by the way it's not the same for everybody these are paul's own words on a very sensitive issue marriage is good but every person should but not every person should be married he suggests i say therefore to be unmarried and widows it is good for them if they abide even as i but if they cannot contain let them marry for it is better to marry than to burn and what he's talking about there is to burn with sexual desire he's not talking about hellfire by the way as many people read that and jump to a different conclusion the context is the the the burn of desire and unto the married i command yet not i but the lord let not the wife depart from her husband wow that's quite a commandment and he's underscoring that under the marriage i command yet not i but the lord he emphasizes let not the wife depart from her husband and uh that's the lord's command in genesis chapter 1 27 2 24 and emphasized in mark 8 and so god hates divorce and he talks about that in malachi 2. matthew wrote for a jewish audience in which the husband could dismiss his wife for any reason mark wrote in a roman context in which the woman could take the initiative incidentally subtly is between the two that you need to have in mind as you go but if she depart let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband let not the husband put away his wife by the way reconciliation is never used of an innocent party we are reconciled to god never heed us paul teaches what the scriptures have to say unadulterated by the culture of his day he doesn't make uh you know compromises because of culture he preached he teaches what the scriptures have to say all the way through here but i want to pause here let's talk a little bit about the cost of broken families because what we're what we're touching here on of course is the whole area of broken families many of the the uh statistics i took from a famous article in atlantic monthly some years ago but we know that scientific evidence demonstrates that children in disrupted families do worse than those in attack managers plenty of statistics on that they are six times more likely to be poor 22 percent of one parent families will experience poverty during childhood for seven years or more versus two percent of children in the two parent families so that's ten to one difference teen suicide rate has tripled juvenile crime has increased and becomes more has become more violent school performances continue to decline these are just summaries of some statistics according to the national center for health statistics children of single-parent families are three times as likely to have emotional and behavioral problems they are more likely to drop out of high school get pregnant as teenagers abuse drugs and be in trouble with the law that's what they tell us they also have a higher risk for physical or sexual abuse and are less likely to be successful as adults especially in love and in work in love and in work both they have a harder time achieving intimacy in a relationship forming a stable marriage or even holding a steady job the me generation fewer than half of adult americans today regard the idea of sacrifice for others as a positive moral value that used to be something that was very much esteemed today it shrugged off the adult quest for freedom independence and choice and family relationships conflicts with a child's development developmental needs for stability constancy harmony and permanence in family life they're just antithetical to each other welfare dependency also depends to be passed on from one generation to the next none of these are really surprising when you think about it daughters of single parents daughters of single parents are 53 percent more likely to marry as teenagers 111 percent more likely to have children as teenagers 164 more likely to have premarital birth 92 percent more likely to dissolve their own marriages each divorce is the death of a small civilization it inflict it inflicts wounds that never heal and the lack of love in america is also something coming up the love of many will grow cold matthew promises us my wife has written a great deal on that when you speak of eschatology that's the primary verse she thinks about is that the love of many and that's the agape of many by the way of many will grow cold the most basic form of love is found in the family the family serves as the seed bed for virtues if there's going to be virtues at all that's where the roots are so if they're not there you've got big problems heterosexuals are reproduced homosexuals recruit this is the first generation in the nation's history to do worse psychologically socially and economically than its parents it always used to be a a step better not anymore let's take a i i decided rather than lean on the islamic message that i've done for years so if i'd take a look on the internet a little bit not a lot a little bit children of divorce statistics half of american children will witness the breakup of parents marriage of these close to half we'll also see the breakup of their parents second marriage that's interesting among the millions of children who have seen their parents divorce one of every 10 will also live through three or more parental marriage breakups forty percent of children growing up in america today are being raised without their fathers of all children born to married parents this year fifty percent will experience the divorce of their parents before they reached their 18th birthday children in repeat divorces earned lower grades and their peers rated them as less pleasant to be around teenagers in single parent families and in blended families are three times more likely to need psychological help within a given year compared to children from homes disrupted by death children from divorced homes have more psychological problems think about that for a minute they have more problems from a divorce than death in the family death in a family you can reconcile to the divorce you never really do the death of a parent is less devastating to a child than divorce and i wouldn't believe this so i didn't see the statistics myself these are shocking what about physically damaged children of divorce are at greater risk to experience injury asthma headaches and speech defects than children whose parents have remained married following divorce children are 50 more likely to develop health problems than two parent families children living with both biological parents are 20 to 35 percent more physically healthy than the children from broken homes most victims of child molestation come from single parent households or are the children of a drug drug ring members a child of a female headed home is 10 times more likely to be beaten or murdered really wow did you get that number 12 a child raised by his or her mother is ten times more likely to be beaten or murdered what about long-term effects here a study of children six years after parental marriage breakup revealed that even after all that time these children tended to be lonely unhappy anxious and insecure the book's written on these topics obviously 70 percent of long-term prison inmates grew up in broken homes that probably doesn't surprise us what about relating to peers children of divorce are four times more likely to report problems with peers and friends than children whose parents have kept their marriages intact that's interesting children of divorce particularly boys tend to be more aggressive toward others than those children whose parents did not divorce wow let's talk about suicide people who come from broken homes are almost twice as likely to attempt suicide than those who do not come from broken homes that's what the research is telling us one last one in here children of divorced parents are roughly two times more likely to drop out of high school than their peers who benefit from living with parents who did not divorce okay you know it's interesting when we really look at our national bystan the us now national policies contribute to family instability and breakup divorce itself is a public acknowledgement of failure and problems seem to have increased since the 1960s when the supreme court outlawed mentioning god in schools there was a whole series of from 60 through 63 decisions that just shredded our cultural heritage hollywood celebrates divorce and unwed motherhood they make they celebrate it like it's the norm of course u.s federal policy celebrates social and sexual variants and it's getting worse and worse you're familiar with that well back to the text i just inserted that because i think we need to realize that the problems in corinth uh were pretty severe but no more severe than ones we have in our culture we have i don't know how you try to relate the two they're both pretty sick okay to verse 12 then but to the rest i speak i not the lord to the rest speak i not the lord interesting if any brother hath a wife that believeth not and she be pleased to dwell with him let him not put her away he's speaking in the mixed marriages thing believers and believers non-married being married and in the old testament god forbade his people to marry gentiles paul tells the corinthians to marry only in the lord that's what he's suggesting and if they're not you know that's a whole other issue if you are a child of i love this as a puritan proverb but i couldn't resist including this if you're a child of god and you marry a child of the devil you're sure to have trouble with your father-in-law i thought that's pretty cool marrying a christian isn't all let your marriage be in the lord just because he's a christian isn't enough you should your marriage should be in the lord and the woman which hath a husband that believeth not if he be pleased to dwell with her let her not leave him in the greco-roman world the wife had the right to divorce her husband but moving on here in verse 14 for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband else were your children unclean but now are they holy at least a big chance for that the opportunity to win the partner for christ is what he has in mind here the word sanctified what does that really mean let's understand that it's set aside for sacred functions the temple sanctified the gold connected with it and the altar the gift thereon sanctified meant to consecrate people by baptism like christian marriage or atonement for sin to reverence people names things are in the place of a position of special privilege that's what the word sanctified can mean there's four different meanings here or to purify someone from evil statistically real tremendous importance of a united home i don't have to beat a dead horse we've we've done with that but that's sanctified now the questions what what comes out of all this of course are issues are children saved there are good scholars that have different views on this okay but the child of a believing parent is regarded as a christian and how do we why do we say that for about three or four reasons david's response to the loss of his son in second samuel 12. david makes it quite clear that when his son died he expects to see him when he gets to heaven that was david's expectation and that's in the word of god so that's relevant to all of us perhaps a more construct or specific instruction comes from paul in chapter seven of romans he makes a it's a very important chapter in romans but he makes a very strange remark in verse nine of chapter seven paul says for i was alive without the law once but when the commandment came sin revived and i died and the commandment which was ordained to life i found to be under death for sin taking occasion by the commandment deceive me and buy it sloomy now as you analyze what paul is talking about it's a very strange remark because he was alive without the law he's talking about the law he points there was a time when he was alive outside the law but when the commandment came as his way it what he's pointing to we believe is the age of accountability prior to the age of accountability he's outside the law but when he gets accountable then that the law applies and he died he's dead then because okay that's what he's really saying sin for taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and it slew me so he's just got jesus he's describing himself going from before the age of accountability through the age of accountability where he then is accountable and being accountable uh he he he's in need of redemption you follow me that's it's kind of a complicated thing to analyze in romans 7 but that's pretty clear what he's talking about and that's that's a that's a major stake in the ground in terms of your perspective of of the status of a child but there's something else that you should be aware of and i'm quite intrigued with how many especially parents of children have never noticed this in the book of job when you study the book of job in chapter one you may recall that he had all these different cattle and sheep and they're all numbered there and he had seven sons and three daughters right and as part of the trauma of job he lost his crops and his herds and and he lost his seven sons and three daughters right no problem we go through the whole thing all the all the dialogues and you go through the whole book of job for 40 chapters 41 chapters you get to chapter 42 and the good news is in verse 10 of chapter 42 god restores to job twice of everything he lost so if you look through the list there of the sheep and the cattle everything is twice as many as he lost so god gave him twice as many sheep and twice as many cattle and all the way through right and god gave him seven sons and three daughters now if you're reading carefully you sort of say wait a minute he got double of everything else how come he only got you know seven sons not 14 lost he lost seven sons and three daughters and god gives him seven doubles him up by giving him seven and three and you begin to realize what the text is saying the first seven and three are waiting for him they're waiting for him and you would be amazed how many parents take deep comfort from that insight i'll leave that with you to study on okay but paul continues but if the unbelieving depart let him depart a brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases but god hath called us to peace if an unbeliever decides to dismiss his wife he not his marriage partner takes the full responsibility for the divorce wow okay god has called us to peace is the commandment and you've got all your you're going to trace track they're all quite consistent obviously for what knoweth now o wife whether thou shalt save thy husband or how notice thou o man whether thou shalt save thy wife now don't misunderstand by the way he's expressing that only god can save his people but we can always hope that god will affect his plan and purpose the willingness to live with the christian spouse is a form of sanctification it might lead to salvation by it it leaves that influence there that may bear fruit that's the idea marriage is a vow which is not to be broken we're reminded right okay but as god has distributed to every man as the lord hath called everyone so let him walk and so or thine eye in all churches paul digresses to lay down to lay down a rule three times in verse 17 and 20 and 24 he lays down a rule that we would summarize by saying you bloom where you're planted until god makes it clear that there's a change the your prime your primary presumption is you bloom where you're planted and whereas god's called you so let him walk okay in whatever situation a person becomes a christian he or she should remain there until he makes it really clear that a move is in his will god calls the believer now there's plenty of verses on that you can track that down do a little study of your own on that is any man called being circumcised let him not become uncircumcised if any call in uncircumcision let him not be circumcised circumcision is nothing but uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the commandments of god and so see some of the jewish jews tried to to undo their thing to join the broader hellenistic world and josephus talks a little bit about that most of those issues were resolved in the council of jerusalem acts 15. distinctions disappear in christ is the real point here distinction disappear in christ paul divides the universe in three sections jews gentiles and the church in the church in paul's mind there's no distinction circumcision was of paramount importance especially after the maccabean struggle matter of life and death let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called there it is again that every man abide in the same calling when he was called now paul does not address the issue of slavery it's foreign i think it's really important for us to understand that paul with all his zeal and commitment was not interested in disturbing the existing structure of society that wasn't his calling and many pastors fail to really realize that they are very worthwhile uh social issues to be dealt with but if you do that you're doing that instead of doing what you're called to do which is to declare the gospel and there's a there's a big there's a big debate among pastors about that art thou called being a servant care not for it but if thou mayest be made free use it rather for he that is called in the lord being a servant is the lord's freeman likewise he that is called being free is christ's servant so your servanthood or freedom is is in your own mind anyway ye are bought with the price be not ye the servants of men that's what he means in romans he says oh no man anything. the slaves they are slaves in bondage to christ such as the israelites who are in bondage to god that's paul's approach here brethren let every man wherein he is called therein abide with god there again it is the third time bloom where your plan is what are you saying doesn't mean that he doesn't say there isn't going to be a change but it will be very clear let god make the change the christian must remember that god is always with him and will never forsake him in any case and there's plenty of scripture on that um you've got deuteronomy 31 here joshua one he i didn't put in the one of the biggest one romans eight nails it for me man is used in a generic sense here mr and mrs man by the way don't get uh here don't play grammar with me here abide with god sets your mind on heavenly things not earthly things is advice all through his letters we'll talk more about that before through here now concerning virgins i have no commandment of the lord yet i have my judgment as one that hath obtained mercy of the lord to be faithful now concerning so this is regard he's he's he's commenting in regards to the letter they wrote him and so we can only guess what they were talking about i suppose therefore that is good for the pleasant distress i say that is good for a man so to be present distress we there's a lot of scholastic speculation what on earth he might have in his mind and uh uh president is this a crisis a misfortune a famine we're not sure there's echoes in chapter 11 of first corinthians we'll see the greek word for distress occurs in respect to starvation in one place that same word uh it's also used when ptolemy entered the temple of jerusalem it's a term of distress some associate with a famine in the time of claudius could be in any case being a christian in those days was to put one's life in jeopardy that's his main point here and when he's when high seas are raging it's no time to change ships is the idea art thou bound unto his uh a wife seek not to be loosed art thou loose for a wife seek not a wife that says god intended that husband and wife remain together this can also apply to both prophet vows in which in a jewish context our talent amount to marriage so there we go he's not just minimizing that but and if thou mary thou hast not sinned and if a virgin mary she hath not sinned nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh but i spare you paul addresses the hardships of the day for the christian and and not the matter of sin just that time the time is trouble virgin and mary so the word there is a parthenos which is mentioned seven times in the second half of this chapter but this i say brethren the time is short it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoice as though they rejoice not and they that buy as though they possess none and they that abuse they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passes the way that's the basic threat here the eternal perspective these are you know poetic lines emphasizing that we should be living as if we might leave this world at any moment we should be passing through with a light touch as a suggestion earthly things should not be our ultimate objectives we should not be absorbed by them okay you may have a very nice card but make sure the car doesn't own you or boat or plane or whatever the indulgence might be have something like that fine but make sure it doesn't have you the time is short is paul's point by the way how many weekends do you have left have you ever thought about that i had a i was at a boat i had a company i was a board member on a company i was involved with a guy by name bernie and i says bernie how many weekends you have left you really mean i pray i guess you know you're you're about 50. so you see statistically you've got about 20 years and you've got about 50 weekends a year so you've got about a thousand weekends you probably have about thousand awakens left then huh he looked me startled see if you say 20 years that's that's abstract when you put it into weekends it rattles when you shake it it you know i ran into him years later in an airport he saw me and what is it now chuck about 900 i didn't know what he meant at first but it it it impacted him you realize the idea of toting up the likely weekends you got left makes it a little more realistic because we'll accept statistics typically what our life obviously could happen anytime but we have a statistical expectation right that's what actuarial statistics are all about well if you say you've got 10 years or 20 years that's academic but if you say gee you've got 500 600 maybe weekends ouch that has a finite to us that may reach us you see so i leave that with you to think about how many weekends do you think you've got take the number of years you think and multiply it by 50 to make the arithmetic simple um yeah okay the world is passing away and so is the america we once knew instabilities are the order of the day family life desertion divorce and so forth disease famine and poverty cause untold misery grief and death bankruptcies of individuals and companies will be accompanied by city states and countries are going bankrupt the turmoil that's coming globally especially in the america america of all of them america is the least prepared it's the least prepared of all of them and what's really disturbing when you really get into this is being engineered by those who have an agenda to make itself it's not accidental it's being designed in so christ followers are not of this world it's interesting in john 17 jesus does not pray for the world he makes that point i pray not for the world he says really i know people spend their time praying for the world you might want to think that one through a little bit pray for his people pray for the church pray for some specifics fine but not the world in general that's satan's turf christ followers are not of this world they're left to scorn when they suggest chastity to prevent immorality or sin specific diseases or integrity of the workplace to prevent greed or contentment with basics to prevent envy our citizenship is where in heaven in heaven i usually when i decorate the slide when i do that i have a great picture of wall street you know the street sign and sitting on the sign are two buzzards you're waiting for some bodies to but i would have you without carefulness he that is unmarried care for the things that belong to the lord how he may please the lord and so uh now the the without carefulness is a little misleading in our english i would have you without care is what he really means when he says you have you without i i would have you without carefulness what he means is under the bondage of something of the bondage of care and see paul's intention is that you be worry-free be worry-free and the the one i always like a worry is a trickle of fear that soon cuts a rut so deep that it drains all other thoughts away that descriptive bacon said he that hath wife and children have given hostages to fortune life would said a man who is a hero in himself becomes a coward when he thinks of his witted wife and orphaned children interesting the word care for here occurs seven times five times in first corinthians and twice in philippians by paul i'll have you without careful what do you mean says carefulness he doesn't he doesn't mean don't be careful what he really means don't be you know bound with the burden of things you know don't don't don't get yourself in a position where you've got things to care for i think many of us who have had large homes know that once the kids are gone especially whatever there's more upkeep and it's worth the trouble we don't have the home the home has us you know several of us in here i know have simplified their life and discovered how rich it can be by not being encumbered with things you know but he that is married careth for the things that are of the world and how he may please his wife see care here is used in the positive sense paul tells his protege timothy in his first letter to him if anyone does not provide for his relatives especially for his immediate family he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever really from paul that's pretty strong language there's a difference also between a wife and a virgin the unmarried woman careth for the things of the lord that she may be holy both in body and spirit but she that is married careth for the things of the world how she may please her husband interesting there are all kinds of textual problems with the verse by the way but anyway an unmarried woman is able to give herself fully to the work of the lord is the thought that's behind all that and this i speak for your own prophet not that i may cast a snare upon you but for that which is comely that ye may attend upon the lord without distraction the word snare there is like putting a noose on you only the word only occurs here in the new testament the particular word there it's like a leaf you know what you're saying i i i know i put a leash on you is what he's really saying and the snare sounds like a trap no no it's like a leash i speak for you probably not that i may cast a snare or a you know a leash on you but for that which is coming that you may attend upon the lord without distraction see anything that distracts you from the lord is really a form of sin if any man think that he behaveth himself uncommonly towards his virgin if she passed the flower of her age and needs to require let him do what he will he sinneth not let them marry but if any man and there's there's a lack of clarity of expression here is the man is it the father the guardians the fiances or customs you can take your pick nevertheless he that standeth steadfast in his heart having no necessity but have power over his own will and have so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin he'd do as well so then he that giveth her in marriage doeth well but he that giveth her not in marriage and doeth better now so he praises marriage and exalts a celebrity as a as a special calling not for everyone in other words this passage is a likely response to specific cases that were inquired of in their previous letter people overlooked that he's not necessarily speaking for general rules here he's responding to a specific letter that we don't possess the wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth but if her husband be dead she is liberty be married to whom she will only in the lord but she is happier if she so abide after my judgment and i think also that i have the spirit of god so but in first timothy 5 he urges young young widows to be married again some will choose not to in luke 2 and you can chase those down if you like but i want to shift in another perspective since we've jumped into the topic of marriage and we could spend we could spend a whole weekend on that subject and we have by the way those materials are available but i like to talk about the mystical basis of marriage what on earth am i talking about there's the biological basis of marriage obviously for procreation and so forth there's a psychological basis of marriage a union to meet life's challenges joys and sorrows we can relate to that there's a sociological basis for marriage the family unit is the primary element of the tribe the community of the nation right but there's those are the commonly discussed ones there is a fourth one that's overlooked and that's the mystical basis the supernatural spiritual basis god's ordained unit through which he communicates his most significant truths it's interesting that the marriage relationship is what god uses to communicate the relationship between your va and israel and christ and his church those relationships are intimate and god uses the marriage in both cases to communicate that kind of intimacy so let's take a look at that for a minute preeminence christ is the head of the church there's all kinds of i encourage you to run through those and get that perspective clearly the head of the church is christ himself the preciousness of his people is paramount here they're called the apple of his eye in deuteronomy 32 the crown of his glory in isaiah 62 the stones of the crown and also an ensign in zechariah 9 and they're referred to as jewels his love for the church is hammered in in the fifth chapter of ephesians no nothing no double and a handful of other places too the church is also referred to as his bride there's a lot of debate and i'm not going to get into that here but is is the body of christ synonymous with the bride of christ i don't think it is by the way but the subtlety difference is what's there but the marriage is also a prophetic type the akita abram and isaac 22 isaac is headed out of the record from the time he was offered until he isaac and rebecca are meet each other at the well of lahai roy it's interesting that uh isaac has edited out the record from the time he's offered until the time he's united with his bride i think that's provocative the holy spirit actually diddled with the text there we get our uh our our notes on genesis 22 for that ruth and boaz interesting mechanism that god uses to explain us what a kinsmen redeemer is bo is of course the kinsmen redeemer the goal ruth is the gentile bride naomi is is how the land gets the land gets out of the redemption the land naomi gets their land back but the whole modeling of book of rules little four chapter book little romantic book really is an essential prerequisite to really understand what's going on in revelation chapter 5. and jehovah and israel the whole book of hosea hammers this the relationship with jorge vave and israel but here's when they surprise you cana the third day tuesday the double blessing and uh god there's messages there but the other one that may surprise you is adam we all know the story of adam but have you ever looked at adam as a type as a a mystical foreshadowing of christ because we have christ called the last adam well what what's the first atom all about and it's a very interesting thing adam as a type of christ that's a strange thought isn't it see we know from first timothy two paul emphasized that adam was not deceived eve obviously was deceived we all know the story but the point that paul makes is that adam was not deceived she may have been deceived he wasn't he knew what he was doing really adam loved eve so much you know if it was you and me we there we were there and we're still close with light we come home and eve oh kid you're in trouble you took the fruit i'll pray for you i mean that's terrible i really feel sorry oh i'm at that no that's not what you did adam loved eve so much that he knowingly chose to share her destiny whatever it is you've got to be kidding think that through he knew he wasn't deceived he knew what he was doing he was joining her in her predicament wow wow without which by the way there would have been no redeemer there would have been no seat of the woman but god had a plan for sinners and adam chose to join her in that predicament can you imagine how much he loved eve of course the question is do you love your wife that much i won't ask a ray of hands tough stuff huh wow now gen as you go through your bible you discover something interesting there's a number of cases where there's gentile brides in the in the narrative right adam and eve as an example but isaac and rebecca okay joseph and asanath moses and zipper these are all gentile brides technically salmon and rahab yeah rahab the prostitute was married to salman and she and of course she is the mother of boaz right and then and boaz takes a moabitis so we've got eve rebecca snf zipper rahab and ruth as gent those are the gentile brides in the bible that interesting notice something these gentile brides have no death recorded now they obviously die don't misunderstand me but i'm using a rabbinical argument that we used about melchizedek there's no death recorded so in type you see they're they're not killed now how many of them are there there are seven which one's the seventh the church is the gentile bride of the redeemer has no death recorded i'll just throw that out for what it's worth it's included the price of admission we have a marriage proposal that was written in blood on a wooden cross erecting it is some 2000 it's a love letter and that's what it's all about the entire universe will be measured by that love letter in the ancient jewish measure of course she had the sugarcane the engagement which was arranged by the father then you had the agreement the keruba which where the bridegroom was absent to build a house and that's what he's doing now he's i go to prepare a place for you the bride is snatched in the middle of the night for the marriage and then they celebrate the marriage and the ceremony the hupa which is a seven day celebration and i encourage you to notice the difference between the marriage and the marriage supper the marriages in the father's house the suppers on the earth when the kingdom is set up they are not frustrating about them for pointing that out so there we are we could obviously spend a lot of time on this is a rich material but i've tried to put all the roots in your notes that you can take them down the ones that you're drawn to you can go ahead and do your own study but with that let's bow with the word of prayer

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Published: Thu Oct 15 2020