The Importance Of Biblically Preparing For Marriage ❃Voddie Baucham❃

his wife Bridget had been married since 1989 they have six children all of whom we are delighted to have with us and they are Jasmine Trey Elijah Asher Judah and Micah and we are you he adopted another seven and what what is the new ones named Sophia praise the Lord we are delighted as a matter of fact one of the subjects bodis going to be speaking on is a subject of adoption so we are glad here to have all seven of the tribe of baucom here the Balkans are committed home educators I'm sure everyone here knows that and we are humbled that he would agree to come to our small congregation and spend the next few days with us brother bode would you please come and preach the Word of God to us while they're fixing that let me just say that I am indeed grateful for the opportunity to be here I will say I took a gamble in preparing to come as you know we're on our way to vacation so we leave from here going to vacation I thought you know we have the conference for a couple days it's gonna be during the day I doubt if anybody me wearing a suit so I come today and I see you on the monitor and you have your suit on and and and I don't and I won't accept the Lord's Day so if that offends anybody I'm not sorry no I do not mean it at all as a disrespect I just I took a gamble and I couldn't bring everything and so we'll be more casual during the day alright we're trying to get these plugged up here we'll find we'll get started in this first session yeah okay thank you thank you Joe my assignment is to address the issue of the importance of biblically preparing for marriage what why is it important that we prepare biblically for marriage is most people would assume here's the assumption in our culture about marriage marriage is not something you prepare for marriage is something that you happen upon if you looked at movies in our culture read books in our culture and I don't mean just now you can you can go back quite a ways and see the trend start to change in our culture over a hundred years ago from marriage being something that we thought about soberly something that we went into for very specific and biblical reasons to this sort of romantic idea of something that we happen upon and so as a result there's been a shift and again it's not something that happened in recent days it's not something that happened in the 50s this is over 100 years old there is a shift and that shift is to the idea of Cupid hitting you with your arrow you falling in love finding the one one one and then getting married and that that love carrying you through to the end and so that phrase and they lived happily ever after the fairy tale idea this is the concept that we have as it relates to marriage so because of that when most people think about marriage Christian or non-christian what they think about is that moment where God Allah again Christian people here's our Christian people think about it that moment where God not Cupid because we don't believe in that pagan myth of Cupid but where God hits you with the lightning bolt instead of Cupid hitting you with the lightning bolt so that you know somewhere down in your gut that this is the one it's the same concept we've just changed the players but it's the exact same concept and so we do not think about marriage as something that you would prepare for in fact in our day and age it is actually offensive to think about marriage as something that you prepare for because that's unromantic and everybody knows that marriage is all about romance that is until you've been married for longer than a week all the married people in the house said Amen okay and so what this is done is a number of things not the least of which it's caused much turmoil within marriages for example if we believe that marriage is that Christian marriages are about God supernaturally hitting you in the lightning bolt and letting you know that this is that one that he has for you and then you're getting married to that one but he has for you by the way if let's just backtrack for a moment okay there's some ideas that we have to sort of connect here the difference between the right one and the wrong one and this is a theological construct as well you see because of the ideas of romanticism marrying the right one means that for the next 40 50 years every day you wake up with a smile being married to the right one means just marital bliss constantly being married to the right one means you may occasionally have a hiccup where you say something perhaps not quite as kindly as you should have but you know within seconds there is reconciliation because it's the right one that's the picture that we have of marriage and we just sort of hum along smoothly well marriage doesn't work like that so if I have that construct when I find the right one that's what my marriage is going to be like then I get married in the real world and within a week those things that I thought were just so adorable I now find annoying that person will whom I thought I would never disagree I'm now perhaps in a knock-down-drag-out what's my immediate thought based on that construct it must be the wrong one why because the romantic notion of marriage makes no room for the difficulties that must follow when two sinful selfish egocentric narcissistic people enter into a covenant relationship with one another and so because it makes no room for that it has only one explanation for that and that one explanation is this must be the wrong one and so in our culture what do you then do well if this is the wrong one I'll talk again I'm talking about Christian people we're not talking about people out there who don't know God don't claim to know God I'm talking about people who say that they were born again blood washed followers of the Lord Jesus Christ their response then is something like this well I'm unhappy I am in a marriage that makes me unhappy of course God's design and intent for me was to be with the one where I would be fulfilled and happy he has let me know that this is not that one I did a bad thing marry the wrong person I need to get a divorce so that I can then go out and find the one that God intended me to be with that's Christian people and I'm not telling you what I've heard I'm telling you what I've experienced as a pastor I'm not telling you what somebody told me I'm telling you what has made my jaw drop I'm telling you what I've seen with my own eyes I'm telling you what I've pleaded against argued against rail against personally in one-on-one meetings where I sit down and asked men do you have any idea how much of the Bible God would have to change for what you just said to be accurate I'm talking about meetings where statements like that are responded to with you know what don't talk to me what the Bible says I prayed about it and this is what God's telling me to do all from this faulty construct so why is it important that we prepare biblically for marriage we give you this statement and then we'll unpack it in the time that we have remaining it is important to prepare biblically for marriage because marriage was designed by and for God and therefore he will vindicate marriage from all perversion misrepresentation and abuse for the sake of his name and his glory said that again it is important to be prepared biblically for marriage because marriage was designed by and for God and therefore he will vindicate marriage from all perversion misrepresentation and abuse for the sake of his name and glory let me give it to you one more time because some of you haven't written it down yet and you need to because this is all we're talking about in this session and really really when it comes down to it it's not we're talking about all weekend okay it is important to prepare biblically for marriage because marriage was designed by and for God and therefore he will vindicate marriage from all perversion misrepresentation and abuse for his name and his glory said so let's look at that and unpack it first marriage is designed by God marriage is designed by God that seems like a simple statement and he seems like a a no-brainer it seems like something that just it ought to be assumed unfortunately it's not marriage was not man's idea that's very important to note marriage was not man's idea it did not originate with man it did not come from man it was not invented by man man is not the architect of marriage God is the architect of marriage God is the architect of marriage therefore man does not have the right or the authority to tinker with the design of marriage okay although that marriage was not man's idea secondly God was actually the architect of marriage therefore man does not have the right or the authority or you could add the wherewithal to tinker with the design of marriage I'm not the architect of marriage and unless I understand it from God's perspective I don't need to go messing with it amen it's just if you it's like going into work anyway we'll talk about that momentarily just let's look at this marriage before the fall Genesis chapter 2 verse 18 then God said it is not good that the man should be alone I will make him a helper fit for him very important not to rush past that phrase okay there's been a pattern in creation for six days let there be than there was it was good let there be than there was it was good let there be then there was it was good let him even there was it was good let there be than there was it was very good then all of a sudden we come to Genesis chapter 2 in verse 18 so the first time that God says something is not good that's important that's very important so the first time God says something is not good now we need to understand this contextually within the context of the overarching teaching of the Bible about marriage when the Bible says here when God says it is not good that the man should be alone notice a couple of things notice grammatically he doesn't say it's not good for any man to be alone he's talking specifically about Adam I want you to know that this statement does not mean that every man is supposed to be married how do I know this well I know this number one because the first Corinthians chapter 7 Paul talks about this supernatural spiritual gift from God of singleness by the way Jesus also speaks about it in Matthew chapter 19 it is a supernatural gift from God for certain individuals they are few and far between but it is a supernatural gift from God for certain individuals to be single it's a calling from God to his praise and to his glory so not every individual is called to be married not every individual is supposed to be married there are some people there are very few of them who have this gift of singleness now let me put a footnote here I don't have time for this excursion but we have to take it today because here's what has happened in modern days and modern days as we push adulthood farther and further back as we see our children getting married later and later and later outside of the church people are just being more honest about that I'm selfish and I don't trust anybody inside the church we're not being honest about it and one of the ways we're not being honest about it is we're saying we're giving pious reasons and so there is this idea that people are called to singleness for right now that's not a biblical concept yeah if you had this calling in this gift going to first Corinthians chapter 7 and according to Matthew chapter 19 is a calling for a life it is not an excuse to put off marriage while you go do other things in many instances that is quite frankly tempting the Lord your God can't say Amen you'll say ouch okay and so you have people for example whose sons or daughters are ready to be married but they're not ready for their sons or daughters to be married there's other things that they want them to do and so they said no no no right now you need to go and serve the Lord because you know according to 1st Corinthians chapter 7 singleness is a great gift that you can use for ministry so right now you use that for ministry and push that on push marriage on out into the future so that you can use your singleness for ministry well I agree that every individual who's single ought to be using that to the glory and honor of God for ministry but to take that and intentionally extend your singleness is an abuse of the text it's also a perversion of marriage because here's ultimately what we're saying to our children specifically to our sons listen son here's what I want you to do I want you to go and I want you to live and I want you to do all those important things I want you to serve God with everything that you have and then one day later on in your life I want you to come up to a young woman look her in the eye and say I have sucked all the joy and meaning out of life now I'm ready to marry you and die that's what we're communicating people that's what we're communicating you need to go do ministry now because you certainly can't do ministry when you're married you need to go do important things for God now because being married is certainly not an important thing for God you need to go and fulfill yourself and reach your dreams now because certainly marriage cannot be a part of that and then one day after you have profaned marriage for the sake of all these self gratifying things then you go and give it your all wake up people wake up I know this is Florida but it's barely Florida so I'm gonna go ahead and say this and you'll understand it because we're close enough to Alabama that dog won't hunt alright but that's what Christian families are communicating to their children that there are so many more important vital things for you to do put marriage off as long as you possibly can because it will be a hindrance to your enjoyment to your service to God and your ability to have meaningful existence and then after communicating that for twenty twenty-five thirty years we think people ought to be able to get into marriage and give it everything they got it's not good for the man to be alone I'll explain this in a few moments but what's being referred to here is not the idea of loneliness the idea of Alumnus as it relates to the image of God as it relates to the purposes for which God gave us marriage and we'll explain that momentarily I'll make him a helper fit for him now out of the ground the Lord God formed a wife so that he wouldn't be that's what you would expect to be next right but it's not now out of the ground the Lord God has 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 why this parenthesis it's not good for the man to be alone I'm going to make him a helper suitable for him okay make him a helper suitable for him name the animals okay wait a minute what just happened well there are a couple of possibilities let me give them to you number one marriage is God's idea not man's however God does give man the idea God does give man the idea and this is one way Adam may me animals hi Adam goes about naming animals now these animals don't have the problem that he has he's naming these animals and he sees he cats and she cats he dogs she knows he primates and she primates everybody's got some money except Adam there's a concept that he's introduced to the concept of being alone and of that not being a good thing think about it Adam is created by the hand of God he has no concept of want or need whatsoever God introduces the yearning there's another thing that we see here though in the naming of the animals by the way again another parenthesis here my my formal training and much of my work and teaching everything else in the area of apologetics and so I just can't help it I really can't I'm just I'm just apologetics just all the time so I read a passage like that immediately in the back of my head you know there's that guy on the college campus that I've talked to a thousand times she goes you know you believe it got green you believe well six days oh yeah I do well that's not possible what does adam clinton things in the world and one point for our day talk to that guy lots to it I just have to respond okay let me just help you really quick all right because that's really not an important question but I can answer that question for you and I'm not even going to answer it with well it could've been longer than 24 hour day because I don't believe it was longer than 24 hour day I really don't I believe it was 24 hour day I believe you named all the animals but I believe he named categories of animals he didn't have to name millions of animals because there weren't millions of animals all he would need for example he doesn't have to Maine lion and tiger and house cat there's one representative cat with all the genetic makeup that could eventually derive or from which you could eventually derive every kind of cat he didn't have to name the dog and the wolf and the Fox no one representative canine from which you could get because of the genetic material present in that one representative canine all the different types of canines by the way if you have a problem with that idea then you also have a problem with the flood here's why who went on the boat Shem ham Japheth Noah and their wives how do we get all the different ethnicities of people from just Shem ham and Japheth same way we got all the different types of dogs and cats from representative dog and cats so you have problem that you got a problem with ethnicity by the way this is not just in the Bible we recognize from genetic studies that all human beings were derived from a pair of human beings and share common genetics and DNA in order to prove that so Adam was not naming every conceivable animal he's naming categories of animals why is that important here's why it's important because when he names his wife the first time he does not name her Eve he gives her a categorical name because that's the kind of naming that he was doing now why is this important because it proves male headship in marriage before the fall can you say that again this little naming exercise that is then carried over to Eve proves male headship before the fall so male headship is not a product of the fall male headship is part of the original creation order that's important okay that's important he goes on the man gave names to all the livestock the version of heavens into every beast of the field but for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him so there's that first argument Adam doesn't know anything about needing a corresponding part he names the animals and derived directly from naming the animals is it this idea that has not found one for him so the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and long he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh so here's what we've learned so far number one we've learned that the woman was made for the man that points to male headship it's not good for the man to be alone I will make him a helper suitable for him the woman was made for the man thus male headship secondly the woman was named after the man he's there first she's made after him the smell head chef thirdly we've already seen now that the woman is made from the man which points the male headship rid that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man then the man said this is at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she should be called a shah because she was taken out of each he gave her a categorical name this is that last bone of my bone flesh of my flesh he is now pointing back to his naming exercise earlier she's one of me which points to the Equality of the man and the woman and yet again points the male headship so in the Bible before the fall we have male headship and complete equality not egalitarianism there is a difference he Galit arianism you get no head you have complete equality and yet male headship okay the woman's made for the man she's made after the man she's made from the man she's brought to the man and she's named by the man all of these point the male headship in the creation order this is incredibly important remember we're talking about marriage being designed for God marriage is designed to give glory and honor to God marriage is designed to give glory and honor to God and marriage is designed for God honoring purposes let me give you the three basic ones the three basic ones number one procreation number two illustration and number three sanctification procreation illustration sanctification these are the three basic purposes the three overarching purposes for marriage and again remember it why is it important for us to prepare biblically because marriage is designed by God it's designed for God and God will vindicate it because it's designed by him and for him so we have to understand his purposes let me briefly explain these three purposes the more on procreation which are my procreation we're not just talking about having children and this is incredibly important it's God's first command to man be fruitful to multiply and it's almost not fair to say it that way because the command to be fruitful and multiply was not a command in the sense of you know we think about command we think about you know a marine sergeant you know under machine-gun fire looking at a man saying we'll take that machine-gun nest it's an order you know like a command you usually be thinking about commands and being commanded to do things that we don't necessarily want to do hey man this command be fruitful and multiply was not a command that God was giving to Adam against Adams wills and desires it is as though God says to him now you have all you need don't be fruitful go multiply it's permission it's not hey you know Adam I know you really don't want to do this well just suck it up and go it's not what's being said there when he says to be fruitful and multiply not at all that is why I love the way the ESV rent renders Psalm 127 you know not not children are a blessing from the Lord and and blessed as a man whose quiver is filled with him but it captures the Hebrew beautifully but it says and blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them not the man who just wakes up one day and goes through highs a lot of arrows in my quiver no warrior does that no warrior goes off the battle hey man how many arrows you got in your quiver really not sure man just kind of picked it up and I'm going to fight no a warrior goes out to battle how many you got you know all I could stuff in mind was you know and if I have room for one more I to put one more in there why because I'm going out the battle and I want to receive as many arrows as I can in order to go out to the battle that's the idea that's the idea presented in Scripture it involves bearing and training children you see this for example in Ephesians 6:4 and again some of these I'm just for the sake of time I'm trying to lay foundation here we're going to talk in more depth about some of these passages so I'm just going to give you some of them okay involves bearing and training children that's important it involves bearing and training children procreation is not just about having kids it is connected to the Dominion mandate it's same verse the go and exercise Dominion part is right there with the be fruitful and multiply it's connected to one another and so understand this you need to go and subdue the earth you need to go and exercise dominion over the earth you need to go and make of the earth everything that you can make it with everything that I've given you and be fruitful and multiply as part of that which assumes that when your children are born to you will you will communicate to them the Dominion mandate otherwise they won't know either here you follow that so such as bearing its training with a kingdom purpose and mindset the next generation and thirdly it's spreading the image of God throughout the earth that's the goal that the imago Dei that the image of God would be spread abroad throughout the earth so when we talk about procreation that's what we mean why is this important again the apologists just okay just let him out one more time for just just a second here because one of the arguments against homosexual marriage for example is that homosexual American against the possibility of procreation well the homosexual crowd has sort of gotten slick and they said well then do you believe that two people who were beyond childbearing years whose spouses have died shouldn't get married because they can no longer procreate procreation is not just about having children it's about baring raising training them for the glory and honor of God so there are two answers to that question when it comes to homosexual marriage number one procreation is a purpose for marriage categorically categorically so we mean as a category people who get married are from opposite sexes because categorically it's for the purpose of procreation secondly procreation is about more than having children it is about modeling for them through your marriage raising and training them to go out and subdue the earth as they've been called to I can be married to my wife for forty years my life dies another woman who's married to her husband for forty years her husband dies we get married we can no longer have children but we are still in the process of raising training and disciple cildren and grandchildren and great-grandchildren to the glory of God to the ends of the earth do you follow that that's extremely important for the homosexual marriage debate which is the debate on the horizon when it comes to marriage right now in our culture and we got to be able to say more than just well you know God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve and you know that one's not working anymore not that it ever did at first okay but we've got to be a little more sophisticated than that okay we need to understand why this is a problem secondly illustration a physical model of a spiritual relationship we see that in Ephesians chapter 5 it was read earlier this picture in Ephesians chapter 5 of the relationship between Christ and His Church but also remember I said I'll explain more about that phrase it's not good for the man to be alone God creates man in His image and the image of who the triune God Father Son and Holy Spirit Adam by him is limited but when man has issues from him wife's who has issued from them children and that comprises the biblical nuclear family we have an earthly representation of the Tri unity of God in the form of husband wife and child our God exists has existed and will continue to exist throughout all eternity his father son Holy Spirit and perfect unity and that picture is carried forth in the human family which is why the male and the human family who is the head of the household is given the title father which ought to just make us weak in the knees man amen just the idea that God would call us by that title thirdly sanctification sanctification now when I talk about sanctification talking about active sanctification and passive sanctification so remember the purposes of marriage God gives us marriage for procreation God gives us marriage for illustration we illustrate the image of God and a relationship between Christ in the church but he also gives give us a match for sanctification active sanctification like avoiding sexual immorality and enjoying God honoring sexual relationship we see that in 1st Corinthians chapter 7 again our romantic culture doesn't like to hear that but that's one of the purposes for which God gave us marriage if Bridget and I got married the summer would play my sophomore and junior years in college and I remember now non-christian people had no problem with us getting married while we were still in college because they're like the all the Christians you're weird they'll do weird stuff makes sense Christian people were up in arms that we were getting married while we were still in college because evidently we hadn't read over in second hesitations where it says thou shalt not marry until after graduation okay and so here we were weak and ready to get married and now I mean L repeat that was pressured there was pressure from Christian people to not get married until after graduation nobody could point to anything in the scriptures you know and I'm just going there well man finds a wife he finds a good thing I found my good thing I'm not gonna let her get away we're gonna you know but and the one thing that just got all over people they didn't have an answer for but they really didn't like it was you know I just say they listen the wisest man in the Bible the strongest man in the Bible of the most godly man in the Bible all fell to sexual sin I am NOT wiser than Solomon I am not stronger than Samson I am NOT more godly than David I'm getting married and their only response to that was well that's just not very romantic really so you'd rather me tempt the Lord my god for the sake of romance I think not that's one of the active sanctification roles in marriage God has given us some natural designers they are wonderful desires they are beautiful god-honoring desires but they can be abused and marriages of context the fire in the fireplace the analogy put fire in a fireplace it'll warm the room you let it out side of the fireplace with a burned down the whole house amen sex is like that washing with the water of the word in Ephesians 5:26 it's interesting that when you look at the man loving his wife as Christ loved the church the picture there is clearly expressed as one of sanctifying her speaking the truth and love why according to Ephesians chapter 4 do we speak the truth in love that we might be built up in every rest aspect into him who is the head by the way no mistake that that's connected to the household codes that we find in chapter 5 this is the act of sanctification that we see there's also passive sanctification and so we see actively that there are things that we do in marriage that work toward our sanctification and the sanctification of our spouse but passively passively marriage sanctifies us as we learn to live with another imperfect center Amen hallelujah praise the Lord it's a sanctifying work you don't get your way you don't get to live for you anymore there are things and you that need to be chiseled off and marriage is the most part you know listen there are a lot of things out there in the world that God uses to sort of chisel you know sinful habits off of you sinful desires simple tastes you know they're little things and it's like you know Michelangelo it with a piece of marble you know there are other things in your life though where God needs a jackhammer amen your job is like Michelangelo your marriage it's like a jackhammer amen people ask me what did you grow up well I grew up some in Los Angeles but mostly when I got married it'll grow you up like nothing else in the world will you sanctify you like nothing else in the world will okay and that's one of the biblical purposes here's the great irony listen to this let's go back to where we were earlier the romantic view of marriage gets in the marriage and marriage is difficult and it immediately says this must be the wrong one the biblical view of marriage one of the purposes of marriage is sanctification I get in marriage and those difficulties are chiseling away at me conforming me to the image of Christ if I try to get away from that here's what I'm saying to God God you are using my marriage to break me and to conform me to the image of Christ and because of the difficulties that I'm experiencing I'm looking more and more like Jesus every day you make it stop now and I mean it did you catch that perspective is everything in it these hardships I'm making me to look more and more like the one who died for his bride you stop that right now I don't want to look that much like him I want him to lay down his life for me but I don't want to do that as I represent him in this marriage the real culture war listen to this from John Calvin Moses now relates that marriage was divinely instituted which is especially useful to be known for since Adam did not take a wife to himself at his own will but received her as offered and appropriated to him by God the sanctity of marriage hence more clearly appears because we recognized God as its offer the more Satan has endeavoured to dishonor marriage the more should we've indicated from all reproach and abuse that it may receive it's due reverence amen after the fall now what happens roles are reversed the offenders are cursed and a redeemer is promised this is what happens after the fall but what you need to know is this marriage is created remember back to our statement why is it important for us to prepare biblically for marriage marriage is created by and for God and therefore he will vindicate marriage from all perversions misrepresentations and abuses for his glory and his namesake which means if I enter into marriage with ideas that are perversions misrepresentations and abuses of marriage God will vindicate marriage against me so I had better know what marriage is I'd better know why marriage was designed I had better know what my role is in marriage otherwise I end up working against God and God will resist me do you see that so does it look like well God comes to the man and to the woman he finds that they have sin that they have fallen and he begins to lay down these curses first the serpent the Lord God said to the serpent and here's what I want you to see I want you to see these areas where marriage is being perverted and where it's being vindicated by God the Lord God said to the serpent because you have done this kirsta you're both all livestock and above all beasts of the field on your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring he shall bruise your head you shall bruise his heel this is the proto un jelly on the first proclamation of the gospel the Serpent and the seed the serpent gets this by the way the serpent understands this clearly he and he immediately responds as though he understands this that's chapter 3 where do you get the first murder chapter 4 what is the first murder well the first murder is the seed of the serpent Cain killing the seed of the woman Abel why does not declared war and the serpent believed him and acted upon it now I'm not the one saying that Cain has seed of the serpent John says that first John 3:12 we should not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother and why did he murder him because his own deeds were evil and his brothers righteous Cain who was of the evil one which is by the way why in the next chapter in Genesis chapter 5 we are introduced to Seth who was born in the likeness of his father Adam in order to let us know see to the woman restored is it the ultimate see to the woman no not the ultimate seed of the woman but we get 10 generations from Seth down to Noah why is that important so that we know that when Noah gets on that boat with Shem ham Japheth and their wives that we have a directness representing that seed of the woman who has survived the flood we are then introduced to Abraham Abraham promised in Genesis chapter 12 to be the father of many nations so we have the idea of the promised seed he goes on his own there's Ishmael promise see nope ish smells got to go not a seed the seed Isaac Isaac has twins which one's promised seed the older note the older was certainly younger it's Jacob then we go on to these twelve tribes at the end of Genesis we come to the book of Exodus and in Exodus chapter one here's what we read in beginning in verse 15 then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives one of whom was named Chiffre and the other poor when you serve as Midwife to the Hebrew women and see them in on the versatile if it is a son you shall kill him but if it is a daughter she shall live what is that it's the war between the Serpent and the seed Jeremiah chapter 32 when God tells Israel that I am bringing the Chaldeans in in order to lay waste to this place and you're going into captivity why is it well beginning verse 34 they set up their abominations in the house that is called by my name to defile it they built the high places of bail and the valley of the son of Hinnom to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech though I did not command them nor did it enter into my mind that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin what are they doing what are they doing they are offering up the seed of the woman to a foreign God who promises them prosperity in exchange then we get to the New Testament by the way in the New Testament where do we begin we begin with the genealogy of Jesus Christ the Son of David the son of Abraham in order to do what let you know that the promise that was made in Genesis chapter three and verse fifteen came to fruition and the person of Jesus Christ he is the promised seed who will crush the Serpent's head but then what happens immediately after then Herod when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise man became furious and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all the region who were two years old and under according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men kill the seed of the woman kill the seed of the woman by the way it hadn't stopped we have a picture for example at the end of the Bible revelation 12:3 and for another sign appeared in heaven behold a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and on his head seven diadem's his tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she bore her child he might devour it from the beginning in the Bible to the end there is this picture of enmity between the Serpent and his seed and the woman and her seed but then you ask once christ is born doesn't the war cease no here's why every child that comes forth from the womb there's the image of God and potentially potentially is a co heir with Christ upon the hearing and receiving the gospel so the serpent still wants to destroy the seed of the woman because when every child who was born he sees the image of God and potentially potentially a redeemed son and daughter soon wants him destroyed what does that look like in our culture today abortion murder you murder somebody you're basically giving God an effigy orphans child abandon that starvation you know the overwhelming majority of the victims of starvation in this world of children homosexuality think about it talk about a coup d'etat I hate the seed of the woman I want to destroy the seed of the woman that's great let's do it through abortion let's take it one step further let's cause people to embrace relationships that negate even the possibility of childbearing intentional childlessness which is the next best thing let's get people who can have children to get married and mutilate their own bodies so that they cannot bring forth seed fatherlessness again these are perversions of marriage God makes marriage for his purposes his glory his honor and then here's what we do so what will God do he will vindicate marriage secondly the woman the woman he said I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing and paying you shall bring forth children your desire should be for your husband and he shall rule over you careful there your desire should be for your husband does it mean that that Eve is going to just fine over Adam o Adam no same phrase is used in chapter 4 Cain sin is crouching at your door at your door it's desires for you you must rule over it this desire is user patient this desire is usurpation what does that look like looks like feminism looks like radical egalitarianism and again attentional intentional chalasis and abortion looks like something else they look like statism you know what statism is statism is basically the state saying we will reorder the fabric of society and the state will replace the man at the head of households it's a perversion of marriage finally the Atome said because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree which I commanded you you shall not eat of it cursed is the ground because of you and pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for your dust and to dust you shall return what does this look like sloth sloth men who don't want to work men who are 3035 years old and will not go out and get a job because they can't find a perfect one by the way what's the perfect one the perfect one is something that they love so much that it doesn't feel like work there's another word for that sloth sloth it's a new idea you got to go out and find the perfect thing that will fulfill you go out and find what you love and do it then it won't seem like work no go find something to do and love it because God gave you the privilege of doing it looks like a leadership vacuum looks like passivity and men by the way talk about a perfect storm women who because of the fall rail against the headship of their husbands and men who because of the fall are passive looks like delayed marriage and extended childhood looks like absenteeism and again statism now these are things that from the fall have reinterpreted and redefined marriage in ways that are complete perversions of the God ordained purpose for marriage if we aren't aware of this if we aren't speaking to this if we aren't shaping the way our children think about this and the way we think about this what do we automatically do we automatically drift toward marriages that don't look like this god-honoring relationship but they instead look like these self gratifying relationships that are the exact opposite of what God intended the Covenant of marriage to be and God will vindicate marriage better he do it through you than against you I don't know about you I don't know about you I'd rather he do it through me then against me and even when he does it through me he's that do it in spite of me know this and when we know this it will forever I believe eradicate this idea that we need to just sit by passively and wait for that magic stroke whether it be from Cupid or whether you redefine the characters and say that it's from God absolutely not we need to be thinking about this from a biblical perspective and the way that it's designed to honor God and ask ourselves how we how we can join God in the vindication of marriage as opposed to being part of that against which marriage needs to be vindicated let's pray father thank you for your goodness for your goodness expressed in your clarity now you have not left us to wander aimlessly trying to figure things out but you'd have made yourself absolutely clear and though we fall woefully short we recognize that sanctification is one of the purposes for which you gave us marriage so as we fall short you use it to sanctify us and conform us to the very image of Christ so that even our shortcomings bring glory and honor to you as you reshaped us through them help us to grasp these realities help us to embrace these truths and help us to raise a generation of young men and young women who are so immersed in them that they recognize the fraudulent portrait that the culture has painted and instead seek earnestly after the truth covenant of marriage that brings glory and honor to you her king a master Savior a friend this we pray in Christ's name and for his glory

Channel: Marriage Sermons Voddie Baucham

Views: 84,001

Rating: 4.9180188 out of 5

Keywords: Perry Stone, James Goll, David Swann, Derek Prince, Al Janssen, Roxanne Swann, Marilyn Hickey, Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, Joyce Meyer, Paul Washer, Mark Driscoll, John Piper, John MacArthur, Bishop T. D. Jakes, Bishop Noel Jones, Kirk Cameron, Matt Chandler, Dennis Leonard, Joseph W. Walker III, Chris Hodges, Rudolph McKissick Sr. and Jr., Troy Gramling, Larry Stockstill, Mark Balmer, Duane Sheriff, Jentezen Franklin

Id: Q5Cy3Bhdiys

Length: 56min 39sec (3399 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 28 2013