Marriage, Divorce and Singleness | Part 1
In a culture loud with opinions about love and family, we return to the quiet authority of Jesus’ own words in Matthew 19. In part one, we set the scene, listen carefully to the question that tested Him, and begin uncovering His timeless vision for marriage that dignifies every person—married, single, or seeking. Expect clarity, conviction, and hope. This episode expounds the reasoning behind marriage that demystifies the confusion about divorce, remarriage and singleness that is addressed in part 2.
Checkout these other Family Fortress Ministries Podcasts:
TIME FOR THREE daily couples devotional: https://time-for-three.captivate.fm/listen
FORTIFYING YOUR FAMILY: https://fortifying-your-family.captivate.fm/listen
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Transcript
Welcome to the Fortifying youg Family Podcast.
Speaker A:It can be daunting to navigate through an anti marriage and family culture.
Speaker A:Our teacher will expound biblical principles to help fortify our families and keep these sacred institutions strong.
Speaker A:And now, here's this week's teaching from Sam Wood.
Speaker B:Turn to Matthew, chapter 19, and I want you to hear the words of Jesus as he talks about marriage, divorce, remarriage and singleness.
Speaker B:Matthew, chapter 19, verse 1, and I'll read down through verse 12.
Speaker B:And it came to pass that when Jesus had finished saying these things, he departed from Galilee and he came into the coast of Judea by yon Jordan, and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them there.
Speaker B:And the Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, is it lawful for a man to put away or divorce his wife for every cause?
Speaker B:And he answered and said unto them, have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they twain, or two shall be one flesh, wherefore they're no more twain, but one flesh.
Speaker B:What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
Speaker B:They say unto him, why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away?
Speaker B:He said unto them, moses, because of the hardness of your heart suffered you to be put away, you'll put away your wives.
Speaker B:But from the beginning it was not so.
Speaker B:And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery, and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
Speaker B:His disciples say unto him, if the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.
Speaker B:But he said unto them, all men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.
Speaker B:But there are some eunuchs which were so born from their mother's womb.
Speaker B:And there are some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men.
Speaker B:And there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake.
Speaker B:He that's able to receive it, let him receive it.
Speaker B:Jesus had left his Galilean ministry and headed toward Jerusalem.
Speaker B:Instead of going through Samaria, which was a defiled place for a Jew to go, he headed down.
Speaker B:He headed south down the Jordan, near Jericho, to a place called Perea, as we read Scripture.
Speaker B:And this was the same area in which John The Baptist had ministered and he was killed by Herod Antipas.
Speaker B:It says that the multitude followed him.
Speaker B:What a beautiful scene it must have been to see him heal them.
Speaker B:But there was also among the multitude, I believe, a demonic delegation that was following him.
Speaker B:And they were called the Pharisees.
Speaker B:They hated Jesus.
Speaker B:They wanted to discredit his ministry and they wanted to do everything they could to destroy him.
Speaker B:So trying to trick and trap him, they tempted him, it says, and they asked him the question in verse three, a very, very important question.
Speaker B:Is it lawful for a man to put away or divorce his wife for every calls?
Speaker B:This question wasn't just blurted out, but it's a well thought out question and planned out question because they wanted to trick him, they wanted to destroy him, and again to destroy his ministry.
Speaker B:He claimed to be the Son of God and they hated him because of that.
Speaker B:So there was a demonic delegation who hated Jesus Christ so much because he claimed to be the Son of God, that they were doing everything that they could to destroy him.
Speaker B:Let me just pause and say, I believe today in America there's a demonic delegation in America who hates Jesus Christ, who hates Christians, who hates marriage and hates the family.
Speaker B:They're doing all they can to destroy every part of God's sacred institution called the family.
Speaker B:Let me just say here this morning, Satan hates your family, Satan hates your marriage.
Speaker B:Satan hates your children.
Speaker B:He will do anything he can to destroy the family unit.
Speaker B:Why do you think everything's happening the way it is in America today?
Speaker B:It's a demonic delegation trying to do everything they can to destroy.
Speaker B:Listen, I'll remind you what God has called precious.
Speaker B:That is, he says in Hebrews 13:4, that marriage is to be held in honor among all that is.
Speaker B:A marriage institution is so sacred, it's so precious that God says every man, every woman, every teenager, every child should look at marriage as a sacred, holy institution of God.
Speaker B:And it's very precious in my sight.
Speaker B:Of course, that's not the way it is in America today.
Speaker B:In the first part of the answer that Jesus gives to the Pharisees, he shares six very important truths about marriage.
Speaker B:They're essential for us to remember today, and I hope you take notes.
Speaker B:I'm going to give you these six because I think it's very, very important.
Speaker B:There's a lot of places I can preach on marriage, but I want to just give you directly what Jesus says right here in Matthew, chapter 19.
Speaker B:And it's very, very important that we see the, I guess the gravity of his answer as he talks and gives an answer to their question about divorce.
Speaker B:The first thing he says, and we see it there, he says, have ye not read?
Speaker B:I'm just gonna stop right there, you know, and that's a question.
Speaker B:You know, sometimes I think it was said very sarcastically too.
Speaker B:Have you not read?
Speaker B:I mean, you're the religious leaders, you're, you're the ones who's supposed to know the word of God.
Speaker B:Have you not read?
Speaker B:That's what I'd like to shout out across America today.
Speaker B:Have you not read what the Bible says about marriage?
Speaker B:And have you not read what the Bible says about male and female?
Speaker B:Have you not read?
Speaker B:And Jesus is saying, are you so ignorant?
Speaker B:Have you lost your senses?
Speaker B:So it's a lot right there, just in that state.
Speaker B:But here's the first truth I think Jesus is reminding them of, that God's design for marriage has not changed.
Speaker B:Have you not read?
Speaker B:Jesus is telling these religious leaders of all the people who should know what God created marriage to be, you should be some of them.
Speaker B:And again, I'll stop and say this too.
Speaker B:There's many religious leaders in our country today, in various denominations who have compromised the truth of the word of God that need to hear again, have you not read what the Bible says?
Speaker B:It doesn't matter what you think about it.
Speaker B:It's what God says about it.
Speaker B:Then he continues that he which made them notice at the when beginning.
Speaker B:He which made them at the beginning.
Speaker B:So Jesus says, I want to take you back to Genesis chapter two and remind you of God's design for marriage.
Speaker B:He reminds them and he reminds us that marriage is not a cultural design, it's a creational design.
Speaker B:And what marriage looks like does not depend on what year it is.
Speaker B:It does not depend on what country you're in.
Speaker B:We met a couple from not long ago over in Lexington.
Speaker B:We were at a harvest festival for our church and a couple was visiting and they had moved here from Kenya.
Speaker B:And it was no accident that this wife got behind my wife in line.
Speaker B:I don't believe it's accidents like that.
Speaker B:And she started talking to my wife and Debbie started talking to her and she said, well, we're, we're over here in America and we have a 10 year old son.
Speaker B:And Debbie said, well, how long have y' all been married?
Speaker B:And she said, well, we have, we're not married.
Speaker B:And I understood some of that.
Speaker B:There's a lot of different cultural differences in Kenya because I've been there four times ministering.
Speaker B:And she said, we really need help with our Marriage.
Speaker B:And Debbie told her what we did, and she said, can we?
Speaker B:We can if you want to.
Speaker B:We'll help you and you can come see us.
Speaker B:So we've been counseling them.
Speaker B:One of the first things I told them of, I said, listen, the Bible is not a cultural book.
Speaker B:That's so important to understand.
Speaker B:Listen, you can say there's certain traditions in America and there's certain traditions you have in Kenya, but listen, the Bible crosses all those traditions.
Speaker B:We have to look to the Bible for the truth because God gives us a truth.
Speaker B:Whatever culture that you're in, God's design for marriage is a sacred creational design.
Speaker B:So the first thing we need to understand, the first thing I think Jesus is reminding them is God's design for marriage is.
Speaker B:Has not changed.
Speaker B:That should be shouted today, too.
Speaker B:The second thing he says is God's design for marriage is for persons of the opposite sex.
Speaker B:That's very interesting.
Speaker B:Notice in verse four, he says he made them.
Speaker B:One of the first things he says he made them What?
Speaker B:Male and female.
Speaker B:You're talking about marriage.
Speaker B:Jesus says, and I don't believe it's any accident that it's here, because Jesus could foresee down the road to right here today, he said he made them male and female.
Speaker B:And regardless of how our culture attempts to redefine marriage, God never designed marriage to be between a man and a man and a woman and a woman.
Speaker B:And listen, if it's not between a man and a woman, it cannot and never should be called marriage.
Speaker B:Ron Anderson of the Heritage foundation says this, and I agree with him totally.
Speaker B:He says marriage must be colorblind, but it cannot be gender blind.
Speaker B:The color of two people's skin has nothing to do with what kind of marital bond they have.
Speaker B:However, the sexual difference between a man and a woman is central to what marriage is.
Speaker B:Let me emphatically say here this morning, there is no such thing as a homosexual marriage.
Speaker B:You say, preacher, what do you mean?
Speaker B:The government says there's such a thing as a homosexual marriage.
Speaker B:But I just want to say, to use the words homosexual, and I don't even like to say that with marriage or same sex with the word marriage, is to blaspheme what God has made, to be holy.
Speaker B:It's a holy, sacred institution.
Speaker B:You cannot put those words, homosexual, same sex with marriage without blaspheming what God made holy and sacred.
Speaker B:Because God made marriage be between a man and a woman.
Speaker B:Let me say number three.
Speaker B:God designed marriage for lifelong companionship between a man and woman.
Speaker B:Look at verse four.
Speaker B:This is so much in these verses, I will tell you, it's so much here.
Speaker B:When Jesus answers in verse 4, he which made them at the beginning made them male and female.
Speaker B:He was reminding them that the reason he made them male and female was so they could be companions in the marriage relationship.
Speaker B:And we see this in Genesis chapter 2 in verse 18 where God says, it's not good that man should be what church alone.
Speaker B:He says, I will make a help meet for him.
Speaker B:So God makes a woman to become Adam's marital companion and eliminate loneliness in his life.
Speaker B:But also notice at the end of verse 18, God calls His companion this someone who's going to be Adam's companion, a help meet for him.
Speaker B:Now, it's very important to understand what that means.
Speaker B:And I'm just going to take a second.
Speaker B:Everything I'm saying here this morning, I could do and do a conference for six hours.
Speaker B:The words help meet for him implies someone.
Speaker B:Now get this.
Speaker B:The word help meet implies someone who is like, opposite him, like him, but opposite him, like him, but opposite him.
Speaker B:He was a man, like him, opposite him, female, woman.
Speaker B:Okay, she's like him, but opposite in gender.
Speaker B:Opposite in biological sex.
Speaker B:God created a woman to be physiologically different to enable man and woman to carry out their God given roles.
Speaker B:And God wants us to celebrate these differences.
Speaker B:These differences shouldn't be a point of division, shouldn't be something that we argue about.
Speaker B:It shouldn't be something that years ago in the 60s when a feminist came out and says, listen, we got to treat women equal to men.
Speaker B:Women are being this, men are this.
Speaker B:So women need to be paid with men are and stuff and all this stuff.
Speaker B:You know, it's God created man and woman different.
Speaker B:It has nothing to do with superiority.
Speaker B:It has nothing to do with inferiority.
Speaker B:Listen, my wife is much more intelligent than I am.
Speaker B:Thank you all, appreciate that.
Speaker B:But, but you're right.
Speaker B:I don't have a problem admitting it.
Speaker B:Some of you men need to admit that and start listening some to your wife because she has a lot of wisdom.
Speaker B:She's different than you are.
Speaker B:Praise God that we are different.
Speaker B:Celebrate the differences.
Speaker B:Don't try to blend it together.
Speaker B:You can't just say, I feel gender fluid.
Speaker B:One day I feel like a male, next day I feel like a female.
Speaker B:Where in the world did all this come from?
Speaker B:The devil?
Speaker B:It came from hell.
Speaker B:The theological term for this is called complementarianism.
Speaker B:If you want to write that down.
Speaker B:Complementarianism, that's very, very important that we understand that God did create us different and he gave us very different roles.
Speaker B:So how did Adam respond when God brought woman to him?
Speaker B:He was excited.
Speaker B:It says in verse 23 of Genesis chapter 2.
Speaker B:And Adam said, this is now.
Speaker B:And that word now, this is now also.
Speaker B:You could translate or this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
Speaker B:He shall be called woman because she was taken out of man.
Speaker B:When God put Adam to.
Speaker B:When God put Adam to sleep and took from his side and created woman.
Speaker B:And Adam woke up and he saw her.
Speaker B:Her.
Speaker B:He got very excited.
Speaker B:In fact, this version in verse 23 is a song he sang.
Speaker B:I can't sing Hebrew.
Speaker B:But he was singing, praise God, this at last to somebody that doesn't look like me, but she's bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
Speaker B:She looks like me, but not exactly like me and God.
Speaker B:I like those differences.
Speaker B:Praise God for the differences.
Speaker B:Now I have someone who is like opposite me, who can be my companion and complete me physically, emotionally, spiritually.
Speaker B:I'm no longer alone.
Speaker B:It's very insightful that in Proverbs chapter 2 and verse 17 that God uses both the word companion to describe how the adulterous woman broke her marital vows.
Speaker B:If you go to Proverbs chapter 2 and verse 17, he says, which forsakes the guide of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.
Speaker B:Describing this adulterous woman who had sexual relations with another man, which forsakes the guide, the word guide.
Speaker B:There in the Greek is the word alepp.
Speaker B:It's a L L U P, which means companion or partner in marriage is the same word.
Speaker B:But before we leave Proverbs 2, let me add that God is also making a statement in these verses in Proverbs chapter 2 and verse 17 about sex in marriage.
Speaker B:God is saying that he created sex to be a whole life commitment between companions who are in a covenant relationship.
Speaker B:I just want to throw that in God's saying, I didn't create sex to blossom between two friends who are not married.
Speaker B:I created sex to blossom out of a companionship of the opposite sex who have entered into the.
Speaker B:The covenant of the marriage relationship.
Speaker B:So let me pause just a second.
Speaker B:Give a word to singles.
Speaker B:How do you pick who you date?
Speaker B:How do you pick who you go out with?
Speaker B:When you're in a group of singles, what makes you more interested in one young lady or one young man than another young lady or another young man?
Speaker B:You might say, well, preacher, that girl's hot.
Speaker B:She's really good looking.
Speaker B:Or he's a hunk.
Speaker B:That's somebody That I like to go out with because, man, they're really good looking.
Speaker B:But I want to remind you of something.
Speaker B:You might say they're hot, but so is hell.
Speaker B:Some of you guys, you pick a girl based on her being hot.
Speaker B:You may marry her.
Speaker B:You might feel like you're living in hell.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:You better look more on the inside than you look on the outside is what I'm saying.
Speaker B:Your attraction to them should be more about the Jesus in them than anything else.
Speaker B:So far we've seen Jesus answer in verse 4, three ways he says God's design is for marriage has not changed.
Speaker B:God's designed marriage for persons of the opposite sex.
Speaker B:And God designed marriage for lifelong companionship between a man and woman.
Speaker B:In verse 5, Jesus shows us several other important truths about marriage.
Speaker B:And the next one is this.
Speaker B:God designed marriage as the highest earthly relationship.
Speaker B:Look at verse 5 and said, for this call shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife.
Speaker B:Jesus reminds us that before all other human relationships, marriage must be the priority to relationship.
Speaker B:In the garden, God did not put a parent and a child.
Speaker B:He didn't put two people of the same gender.
Speaker B:He put a man and a woman who were married.
Speaker B:And marriage is foundational, the foundational relationship before all other earthly relationships.
Speaker B:Often I'll tell parents, listen, if your marriage isn't right, your parenting won't be right.
Speaker B:If you got parenting problems, you need to get your marriage right first.
Speaker B:You need to make sure your home's filled with the spirit of God, that you're exercising the fruits of the spirit in your marriage relationship.
Speaker B:And the only relationship that should take priority over your earthly relationship is your relationship with Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:And if that relationship with Jesus Christ is right, then your marriage will be right.
Speaker B:If that relationship with Jesus Christ is right, it puts all other things right.
Speaker B:If Christ listen is not at the center of your marriage, your marriage relationship will not be in harmony, will not be what God made it to be.
Speaker B:I was trying to think of a way to illustrate that.
Speaker B:I thought back many years ago and we had had a clothes washer then when it went on the spin dry cycle, all the laundry would somehow get moved over onto one side of the barrel and it would get off balance.
Speaker B:You probably had this happen, I'm sure sometime.
Speaker B:And then we would hear this incredible banging, bang, bang, bang, bang.
Speaker B:I mean, you know, and I'd run downstairs and I'd see the washer jumping up like this, you know, it's jumping all over the floor.
Speaker B:I mean, you know, You've seen that before, probably.
Speaker B:I mean, really, you have, haven't you?
Speaker B:You know, what do you have to do?
Speaker B:You got to take a plug out of the wall.
Speaker B:You can't get near it.
Speaker B:Then you open the top of it and you see all those clothes on one side.
Speaker B:The thing is out of balance.
Speaker B:So what do you do?
Speaker B:You distribute those clothes, put them equally around the center, and you cut it back on.
Speaker B:Runs fine.
Speaker B:When I was trying to think of illustration, I thought, that's a good illustration, a marriage.
Speaker B:Because when Jesus is not in the center of your marriage, there's gonna be a lot of banging, it's gonna be a lot of disharmony, a lot of fighting, all this conflict in your marriage.
Speaker B:It's wonderful what happens when you just put Jesus back in the center.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:Also in verse five, we see that God designed marriage to be a covenant.
Speaker B:And I kind of glanced over that a while ago when I was in Proverbs chapter 2 and verse 17.
Speaker B:But I want to go back to that because in verse five, notice the word cleave.
Speaker B:And the word cleave means to unite with someone through covenant.
Speaker B:To unite with someone through covenant.
Speaker B:I believe if Jesus were standing here this morning in person, I believe that he would emphasize to every believer who's married here today, he would say this and emphasize it.
Speaker B:I created marriage to be a covenant relationship.
Speaker B:That's so important to understand.
Speaker B:One of the biggest problems in counseling we have with non believing people or couples and with Christian couples also, unfortunately, is what I'm saying here.
Speaker B:They don't understand that they're in a covenant relationship.
Speaker B:It's very, very important.
Speaker B:We understand that.
Speaker B:As I said a while ago in Proverbs chapter 2 and verse 17, and God says, this woman forsakes her guide, forsakes her companion of her youth, and forgets what the covenant of God.
Speaker B:And let me just say something here and remind you of something.
Speaker B:When you stand and hold hands and make vows before each other and you enter into covenant with someone, that's not just a covenant between you, it's a covenant between you and God.
Speaker B:So when you break covenant, you're not just breaking covenant with that person, you're also breaking covenant with God.
Speaker B:No wonder God says this thing about marriage is sacred and precious and holy.
Speaker B:Ezekiel 16:8, he says, now when I passed by thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy name was a time of love.
Speaker B:And I spread my skirt over thee, which is a picture of marriage, and covered thy nakedness, yea, I swear unto thee, and entered into a Covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.
Speaker B:God says to Israel that when I spread my skirt over you, the beautiful picture there of marriage, and you and I had vows with you, I entered into a marriage covenant with you.
Speaker B:That's why all through the Bible, God compares his relationship with Israel as a married relationship.
Speaker B:And when they get in love with the world and the idols of the world, they become adulterous.
Speaker B:The key word is covenant.
Speaker B:Now, listen to me.
Speaker B:Covenant.
Speaker B:And I'm just going to say a couple things because again, I can preach whole hour on this.
Speaker B:Covenant is not based on feelings.
Speaker B:It's based on.
Speaker B:It's not based on circumstances.
Speaker B:It's a solemn promise of future love.
Speaker B:When you stand as a couple and you hold hands and you give vows to each other, you're giving a solemn promise of present love.
Speaker B:But not only are you giving a solemn promise of present love, you're giving a solemn promise of future future love till death do you part.
Speaker B:Paul Miller, in his wonderful little book A Loving Life, says this covenant love is the opposite of the spirit of our age, which says we have to act on our feelings.
Speaker B:Covenant says, no, you act on your commitments.
Speaker B:The feelings then will follow.
Speaker B:Love like this is unbalanced, uneven.
Speaker B:There's nothing fair about this kind of love.
Speaker B:But covenant love lies at the heart of Christianity.
Speaker B:It is Jesus love for us at the cross, and it's to be our love for one another.
Speaker B:When feelings are the standard, we're left adrift on a turbulent sea.
Speaker B:I thought, wow, that needs to be heard and echoed through the churches and around the country because so many people believe that you base your marriage relationship contractually on your feelings.
Speaker B:I feel this way.
Speaker B:I don't feel this.
Speaker B:It's not fair what they did to me, not fair what you did to me.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And it's not that at all.
Speaker B:Covenant says, I'm willing to die to myself for the good of the one I entered into covenant with.
Speaker B:It's a daily death of self.
Speaker B:It's not just a decoration to all those who are listening, a present love, but a promise of future love till death do you part.
Speaker B:And Jesus wanted these religious leaders, these Pharisees, to understand that they could not just discard their wife based on how they might feel at a certain moment, but rather that marriage is a covenant.
Speaker B:Let me say, lastly, the sixth thing that Jesus shows us is that God designed marriage.
Speaker B:Now listen to this.
Speaker B:This is.
Speaker B:This is so important that God designed marriage to be a gospel reenactment.
Speaker B:A gospel reenactment look at verse five at the end.
Speaker B:It says, and they twain shall be one flesh.
Speaker B:Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh.
Speaker B:Jesus is reminding them that God's intention in bringing a man and a woman into a covenant of companionship called marriage is that they would become one.
Speaker B:They would become one flesh.
Speaker B:He reiterates this in verse 6 by saying again, wherefore there are no more two or twain?
Speaker B:But what church, one flesh.
Speaker B:What does it mean to be one flesh?
Speaker B:I love, and I've read so many books on this, but I love this answer that Tim Savage gives in a book he wrote on marriage.
Speaker B:He says this.
Speaker B:In the Bible, the word flesh is used to describe what a person is at the core of his or her being.
Speaker B:Hence, when two people become one flesh, they unite at the deepest level.
Speaker B:They become, as it were, ontologically, one.
Speaker B:Such a dramatic union represents far more than the sum of shared interest or the bond of sexual intimacy.
Speaker B:It's a fusion of souls, an organic commingling of two individual lives.
Speaker B:Husbands and wives are no longer two apart, but one together.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:Let me.
Speaker B:I'll stop here for a second.
Speaker B:I feel like I've lost part of me because Debbie is in here.
Speaker B:That's what he's saying.
Speaker B:To become one.
Speaker B:I. I'm missing something, some part of me.
Speaker B:She's.
Speaker B:I'm missing my body, my wife.
Speaker B:Like the fusion of a sperm and an egg, they become a new organism.
Speaker B:The fusion does not dissolve their original personalities, but redirects those personalities toward each other in such a way that the best traits of each spill out into each other.
Speaker B:Isn't that good?
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker B:That's so good.
Speaker B:To become one flesh is like he's describing, as a result of a divine joining of God.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:There's no way a man and woman can come together and be like that without God performing a miracle where two become one.
Speaker B:This is a miracle of God.
Speaker B:Your marriage is a miracle of God, folks.
Speaker B:Now, Paul describes this one flesh relationship in Ephesians 5, 32.
Speaker B:He says, all this is described this way.
Speaker B:He says, oh, I'm going to tell you, this is a great mystery.
Speaker B:A great mystery.
Speaker B:It sure is.
Speaker B:Church.
Speaker B:How do you describe something like this?
Speaker B:It's mysterious.
Speaker B:Unless the Holy Spirit reveals to us what this mystery is, we would never know.
Speaker B:But he does praise God, because in verse 32, he says, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Speaker B:He said, listen, if.
Speaker B:If you understand the Gospel, you realize what Paul is saying in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 32, is that when two become one and they become one flesh, it's a picture of the gospel, a gospel reenactment that is God designed marriage.
Speaker B:I've said this so many times in so many places to be an earthly manifestation of the heavenly relationship of Jesus Christ and his church.
Speaker B:Your marriage.
Speaker B:God designed your marriage to be a reflection of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:Now I'll tell you what, if we really could grasp that, it would floor us.
Speaker B:It would convict us so deeply.
Speaker B:When you see marriage through this lens, you're thinking, what can I do to serve you?
Speaker B:I want to love you the way Jesus loves me.
Speaker B:You begin to see your marriage as ministering to your spouse for their good, to enhance their glory.
Speaker B:Your thinking is no longer about what can I get out of the marriage, but what can I give in the marriage.
Speaker B:As I stated earlier, to live out this kind of spiritual oneness, both spouses must be on the same center.
Speaker B:Most both spouses must be orbiting around the one who created marriage and the only one who can sustain it, the person of Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:And singles.
Speaker B:Let me just make another comment here to you.
Speaker B:This is why God says we're not to be unequally yoked with non believers.
Speaker B:You need to marry someone with the same center that you have.
Speaker B:That center being Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:The same faith commitment that you have looking to the same horizon that you look to that is.
Speaker B:Listen, girls, you don't need to pursue guys, you need to pursue God.
Speaker B:And guys, you don't need to pursue girls, you need to pursue God.
Speaker B:If you pursue God, God will bring that guy, that girl there at the right time for you who loves Jesus.
Speaker B:So I'm just going to review real quick.
Speaker B:I told you this wasn't a short sermon.
Speaker B:But this is so important church, please don't tune me out.
Speaker B:This is so important.
Speaker B:God designed marriage.
Speaker B:Number one, his design for marriage does not change.
Speaker B:God's design for marriage number two is for persons of the opposite sex.
Speaker B:Number three, God designed marriage for lifelong companionship between a man and woman.
Speaker B:Number four, God designed marriage as the highest earthly relationship.
Speaker B:Number five, God designed marriage to be a covenant.
Speaker B:And number six, God designed marriage to be a one flesh gospel reenactment.
Speaker B:That's a lot in those verses if you just casually read over them that you would not see.
Speaker B:You have listened to the first part of a two part message by Evangelist Sam Wood.
Speaker A:Thank you for joining the Fortifying youg Family podcast.
Speaker A:And if you feel encouraged by today's teaching, get give us a follow so we can invite you back and share us on your socials so more marriages and families can be strengthened and fortified through the truths of God's Word.
Speaker A:Remember, fortifying your family starts with a strong belief in God's Word.
