The Plan for Marriage

 

The Plan for Marriage

GENESIS 2:18-25

SUBJECT: THE FOUNDATION OF MARRIAGE

THEME: We must Return to the Lord’s Plan and Design for the Help of Our Marriages and the Preservation of Our Culture. 

RELEVANCE: 

God’s Enduring Plan for Married Life shines like a beacon of hope to every couple and single alike. The preservation of the institution of Marriage can only be realized in our culture as we submit to God’s enduring plan.  It’s time for Christian marriages and families to demonstrate a way of living that is rewarding, meaningful, and fulfilling. God’s Plan for couples should be evident to the world as it looks at Christian marriages and families.  As we realize God’s plan in our lives, we supply hope to the many others who need direction, counsel, and hope.

INTRODUCTION:

When God joined the first couple in marriage, he also gave them a plan for fulfillment and happiness.  This same plan is very much applicable to us today.

LESSON:

I.        A CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE ACCEPTS GOD’S PLAN FOR MARRIAGE.  Gen. 2:18-25. 

A.    Married Life Is God’s Idea. Genesis 2:18, And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.  (See also Gen. 2:21-23) Marriage is not an institution of human origin, in fact it was God’s idea and design even from the very beginning. Since He created this institution, it would be wise to follow His plan and design for the couple.  Social engineers and sociologists may have some valuable insights on rare occasions, but we desperately need to get back to THE authority on marriage and family life– the Lord God himself.  What did God have in mind when He designed and created marriage?

1.      God Created Marriage For the Purpose of Procreation.

                                          i.     One basic purpose is procreation—to bring children into the world. God created man in His own image for this expressed purpose.

                                        ii.     Genesis 1:28,  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.   (See also Psalm 127:3-5; Prov. 22:6).

                                       iii.     But there is much more to marriage than the procreation, care for and training of children.

2.      God Created Marriage For the Purpose of Companionship.  Genesis 2:18

                                          i.     God created marriage for companionship.  Loneliness was the first thing God's declared “not good.” Loneliness and isolation are not a part of God’s purpose for the human experience.  God made man to live with others, and the first "other" was woman– his wife.

                                        ii.     This is the primary obligation of marriage that underlines all other obligations and purposes for marriage—companionship. When a couple takes there marriage vows, whether they realize it or not, they are vowing to provide companionship for one another for the rest of their lives; that is what their vows amount to.

                                       iii.     Notice a couple does not vow to receive companionship, but to provide it for one another. Marriage itself is an act of love in which one person vows to meet another’s need for life unconditionally. This means that when a husband or wife complains, “I am not getting what I want out of marriage,” he or she or he is making a ridiculous statement. But the truth is you did not enter marriage in order to get something for yourself, but to provide companionship unconditionally for your spouse. You made a vow to give intimate company to your spouse whether you get anything in return or not.  As an act of love marriage is a commitment to giving and not getting and demanding!

3.      God Created Marriage For the Purpose of Completion (Genesis 2:18). God also created marriage for completeness. The woman was to be ... “an help meet for him” (Gen. 2:18).

                                          i.     Completion Through a Help Meet. The term “help meet” does not mean “identical to” or even “similar to.” It means “corresponding to.”

1.      Corresponding is the Idea. The woman was created to be a complement or counterpart, suitable for the man.  The idea of a “help meet” carries no implication of inferiority, but means the wife is the completer of the man.  Eve was Adam’s other half!   Thus,  the woman’s purpose to be a companion and helper to the man is clearly established.

2.      ILLUSTRATION:  If you tear a one hundred dollar bill in half, the two pieces are not identical, but they belong together. The features on each half are quite different but clearly related to a larger design than either depicts alone.

Along the edges that mark the torn sides, the two halves are most different and most corresponding because each of those edges complements every in and out of the other. In marriage,  male and female personalities, strengths, peculiarities, as well as bodies, are to correspond and complete one another in the same way. Franklin's image is on the one the hundred dollar bill. God's is on the man and woman in marriage.

3.      Completion is the Goal. Therefore, the woman assists man in making his life (and hers, too) complete. She fills up the empty places. She shares his life with him, draws him out of himself and into a wider area of contact through the involvement they have with one another. She is one who can enter into responsible companionship. The partners in a marriage relationship are actually fulfilling God's purpose of completeness to life.

                                        ii.     Completion Through Communication. The companionship and completeness that God intended for marriage grow out of communication as two people share each day and the meaning of their lives.

1.      QUOTE:  Dwight Small says, "The heart of marriage is its communication system. . . . But no couple begins marriage with highly developed communication. It is not something they bring into marriage ready made but something to be continually cultivated through all of the experiences of their shared life."

2.      Satisfying companionship and a sense of completeness develop as husband and wife learn to communicate with openness and understanding.

B.     Married Life Is God’s Plan.  Gen. 2:24-25

1.      God Presented a Four Part Plan for a Fulfilling Marriage.

a.      God Gave His Plan for Married Life in the Garden of Eden With Adam and Eve.  Gen. 2:24-25

                                               i.     “Leave.”  Vs. 24  — Severance: Separation from the old family.

                                             ii.     “Cleave.”   Vs. 24   — Permanence: Cementing two individuals together.

                                           iii.     “One Flesh.”   Vs. 24   — Unity: Sex, Physical Union of Husband and Wife.

                                            iv.     “Not Ashamed.”  Vs. 25  — Intimacy: Open, transparent, Intimacy, and Vulnerability in the relationship.

b.      The Fall of Man and Sin in the World Does Not Alter this Basic Plan. Yes, sin did throw every part of God’s creation into chaos and disorder– this includes marriage (Gen. 3:12).  God had to adjust the plan to maintain order in the home.  This is where the two distinct roles of the husband and wife within marriage can from. The roles were introduced for the purpose of securing order, but the plan and goals of marriage remain the same.

                                               i.     Genesis 3:16,  Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

                                             ii.     Bear also in mind that there is no idea of inferiority or superiority nor dictatorship and enslavement!  The idea is order, authority, and responsibility.

c.      God’s Plan is Timeless and Enduring for Every Generation, and Certainly for Us Today! Gen. 2:24 is repeated several times in the New Testament for the Christian to observe and obey today. 

          1.  The Lord Jesus Restated Its Significance to Christian Marriages.

Matthew 19:5-6, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? [6] Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Mark 10:8, And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.

           2.  The Apostle Paul Also Re-Issued These Principles for Christian Marriages.

1 Cor. 6:16, What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 

Ephes. 5:31, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

We will spend some time exploring the depth of meaning for this divine plan for a fulfilling marriage.  There are related truths and principles that we will share as they are clearly implied in these verses.  The thing we need to realize at this point is that there is hope for a Christian couple, single, or family to survive the social chaos around us and literally thrive in the plan and grace of God in our lives.

   2.  Don’t Look to Our Society for The Answers for Married Life.

Society is only contributing to the confusion.  But how do you go about trying improving married life? It will do little good to look to society for help. Society struggles with the crisis but continues to become hopelessly entangled in its own web of conflicting values and ideas. Society seeks answers but only provides more and more questions.

          A.  Our Society and Culture is Witnessing Some Extremely Serious Problems. 

Our view of Marriage and Family have greatly departed from God’s original plan. Our generation is watching the death of marriage and the family as we know it. Our society has produced a number of answers, but no real positive results or developments.

               1.  The Contributing Factors.

Among the many factors contributing to its destruction are immorality, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, abortion, sterilization, women’s liberation, delinquency, and sexual rebellion. All those things are like strands in a cord that is strangling the Christian home.  This is what society gave us, I really do not want them instructing or guiding me in anything!

                 2.  The Confusion of Society.

There are many opinions about the restructuring of the family. Some sociologists say marriages need to change. They say we need “open marriages” or “non-marriages” and that it really doesn’t matter whether marriages continue as they have in the past. People are groping, without any base of authority, to try to find out how to make meaningful relationships in a disintegrating society.  Clearly, there is little or no hope in turning to mere human beings to fix the problems facing our culture.  Man can only recognize that we have a problem, and study the damaging effects on the culture, while speculating on the long term effects.  But we are powerless to do anything in our own wisdom and strength.

          B.  God Offers Proof That His Plan Works Through Faithful Christians Who Take His Plan Seriously. The Preservation of Marriage and Family can be realized in our culture as we submit to God’s enduring plan. 

                 1.  Christians Have a Great Opportunity to Impact Our Culture.

It’s time for Christians to reiterate the divine pattern. Our marriages and families should demonstrate a way of living that is rewarding, meaningful, and fulfilling. That divine pattern should be evident to the world as it looks at Christian marriages and families.

                 2.  Christians Marriages Are Failing Instead of Effecting Positive Changes.

Unfortunately, the world’s problem of divorce has also become a problem of the church. But God has the divine standard that can make marriage and the family what they ought to be.  In His plan is hope, promise, and wonderful potential for the faithful adherents.

          C.   Marriage and Family Issues are a Priority With God and the Bible.

It we don’t preserve the marriages and family, society will crumble. The family is the basic building block of society. When it goes, everything goes.  Clearly God is interested in this as a matter of priority and not as a secondary issue. The ability to pass on meaningful advice to the next generation is lost when there is no communication, family order, and discipline. Every society becomes an end in itself, and those who are richest, strongest, loudest, influential, and most vocal will dominate stirring the culture into further chaos.  Its time for believers to look to the Lord and His Enduring Plan for married life.

CONCLUSION: God’s Plan Is over 6, 000 Years Old, but it Still Holds out the Light of Hope and Fulfillment in this Age Darkened by Family Confusion and Social Corrosion. 

Finally, God says that we all are sinners. Unless God, pure and righteous, take our place and suffer the penalty for our sin, we would have to bear that ‘death’ penalty ourselves. The Apostle Paul explained this in Romans 3:10–18: As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: [11] There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. [12] They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. [13] Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: [14] Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: [15] Their feet are swift to shed blood: [16] Destruction and misery are in their ways: [17] And the way of peace have they not known: [18] There is no fear of God before their eyes.  Clearly…we are in great trouble with God because of our guiltiness and sin. We have sinned against God. 

Jesus died in our stead though, and his death on the cross for us never needs to be repeated, and neither does anyone else ever have to suffer and die as He did. He is the sacrificial, substitutionary, all-sufficient atonement (Romans 5:20-21; 6:10-11). Yes, Christ died for us. Jesus came from the Father so that you and I might transfer our guilt to Him, and accept, by faith, that He is the risen guiltless Savior who has received our sin and taken it to Himself.

So, the only thing you need to do is literally receive God’s forgiveness. And when you do, you truly have made a choice for real life. Here is how you accept God’s salvation. We must believe the Son of God, Jesus Christ, died for our sins, was buried, and God raised Him up again from among the remaining dead people the third day for our acceptance before The Father (see 1 Cor. 15:1-4 and Rom 3:21-31). It is a matter of placing your faith in Jesus Christ and His Gospel that is the power of God that saves us…that grant us eternal life through Christ (Rom. 1:14-17). Again, receive God’s salvation even now. Yes, you can experience God’s spiritual new birth right now!