INTRODUCTION

1 Corinthians 7:29 - But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none

Luke 14:26 - If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.

Luke 18:29,30 - So He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

• Marriage is a good gift of God, but the world has fallen.  Sin abounds, obedience is costly, suffering is to be expected, and “a person’s enemies will be those of his own household” (Matthew 10:36).  

• Marriage is a momentary gift.

CHAPTER 1

Genesis 2:18-25 - And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.  And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept, and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

• The world cannot know what marriage is without learning it from God. 

• 1) Marriage is God’s Doing

  • (a) Marriage was God’s Design

    • Genesis 1:27,28 - So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

    • Genesis 2:18 - And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”

    • God decrees that man’s solitude is not good and God Himself will make a being perfectly suited for him - a wife.

    • (vs. 21,22) God made her

    • (vs. 24,25) moving toward marriage

    • Marriage is God’s design because He created man and woman.

  • (b) God gave away the first bride

    • Genesis 2:22 - Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

    • After God created her, He brought her to Adam for the relationship of marriage.

  • (c) God spoke the design of marriage into existence

    • (vs. 24) These are God’s words concerning marriage 

  • (d) God performs the one-flesh union

    • Genesis 2:21 - And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 

    • Genesis 2:24 - Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

    • Mark 10:8.9 - and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

    • God is the one who ordains and unites man and woman for marriage 

• 2) Marriage is for God’s glory

  • Marriage displays God’s glory

  • Genesis 2:24 - Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

    • Marriage is a sacred covenant rooted in covenant commitments that stand against every storm “as long as we both shall live”

  • Ephesians 5:31,32 - “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

    • Marriage is patterned after Christ’s covenant commitment to His church

    • Bridegroom:

      • Matthew 9:15 - And Jesus said to them, “Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

      • Matthew 25:1 - “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

      • John 3:29 - He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled.

    • 2 Corinthians 11:2 - For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

      • Paul’s role was to gather the bride (church) and betrothed the church to her husband (Christ)

    • Christ obtained the church by his blood and formed a new covenant with her, an unbreakable “marriage”

    • Staying married is about keeping covenant, the way Christ did for the church 

    • Marriage puts the glory of Christ’s covenant-keeping love on display

CHAPTER 2

Genesis 2:25 - And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

1 Corinthians 2:14 - But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Genesis 2:24 - Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Ephesians 5:31,32 - “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

• Leaving parents and holding fast to a wife, forming a new one-flesh union, is meant from the beginning to display this new covenant - Christ’s leaving His Father and taking the church as His bride, at the cost of His life, and holding fast to Her in a one-spirit union forever 

1 Corinthians 6:15-17 - Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

• The covenant union between a husband and wife is designed by God to reflect & display the spiritual union between Christ and the church

Genesis 2:25 -And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

• Why were they not ashamed?

  • Not being ashamed in a marriage relationship takes more than being physically perfect

  • The one who is looking at you must be morally upright and gracious

  • (vs. 24) “holding fast in a one-flesh union” creates the relationship where (vs. 25) “naked and not ashamed” can happen

  • The essence of this new covenant is that Christ passes over the sins of His bride

  • His bride is free from shame not because she is perfect, but because she has no fear that her lover will condemn her or shame her because of her sin

• The foundation of the covenant-keeping love between a man and woman is the unbroken covenant between them and God.