Marriage is Honorable
Notes
Transcript
Marriage is Honorable
Hebrews 13:4
Tucked away in this book is a very precious verse concerning marriage. This subject is a sensitive one in our culture. It is the church’s responsibility to speak as clearly about marriage as Scripture does. For that reason, we will look at this verse by itself tonight.
“Let” This is an appeal to protect marriage. Christians should be concerned about the way a government defines marriage because:
God instituted marriage. We invite His judgment when we redefine it.
The family is the bedrock of a society. When that bedrock is weakened by sin moral decay will follow.
Children deserve a family that will give them what they need spiritually and physically.
Marriage is not a government institution. It is a divine institution. We should fight and contend for the Biblical view of marriage. It is not a social issue. It is not a political issue. It is a Biblical issue.
Christians need to stop surrendering everything to the world.
Listen closely:
Two men cannot be married.
Two women cannot be married.
Marriage is between a biological male and a biological female.
How do we let marriage be held in honor among all?
We contend for it. We insist that marriage be defined by the One who created it.
Homosexual relationships cannot be salvaged by marriage.
Sometimes people ask what a person who gets saved and is in a homosexual marriage. I have heard people say “God hates divorce”. Therefore, they conclude homosexuals should not get divorced if they get saved.
Here’s the truth: They were never married. You must be married to get divorced. In God’s eyes two men or two women are never married to one another. There may be a legal document stating they are married. That needs to be dissolved. But in God’s eyes that is not a divorce.
Biblical marriage is honorable in that:
It honors God- it meets His standard.
It honors the couple- the husband represents Christ, the wife represents the church.
Just as in our day the culture of the book of Hebrews had downplayed marriage.
Celibacy was on the rise- some thought it more spiritual to be single.
Loose marriages were common- adultery, divorce, etc. This was common among Jew and Gentile.
In our culture we see many people deciding not to marry. Let me be clear: Refusing to marry does not help a society.
While people are refusing to marry, they are not refusing to be intimate. You could possibly find a society that does not marry at all. But you will never find a society that is not intimate. Therefore, a society that does not marry will see an increase in:
Illegitimate births
Suppressed women- women stuck taking care of children alone
STD’s- multiple partners
Undisciplined behavior – no responsibility
Marriage should be something people desire because it is honorable. We should hold this institution up as a godly one and a blessed one.
Marriage God’s way is a beautiful thing. Society should celebrate it.
Let’s look at the second “Let”.
Let the marriage bed be undefiled.
This means that moral purity must be the standard in a marriage.
Intimacy in a marriage is a good thing. Some in that culture taught that intimacy was bad even in a marriage. Some husbands/wives were choosing to be celibate because they thought that was more spiritual. There are some who believe that intimacy should only be used for procreation.
In their minds intimacy for pleasure is sinful. Scripture doesn’t teach that. The context of this verse is treating intimacy as pleasure. That’s why it is contrasted with sexual immorality. No one commits adultery to procreate.
1 Corinthians 7:1-5 teaches that men and women have desires for intimacy that should be satisfied by their spouse. Paul warns that being celibate in a marriage could lead to a person being tempted by Satan to seek intimacy outside of the marriage (1 Cor. 7:5).
Proverbs 5:18-19 says:
Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
a lovely deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight;
be intoxicated always in her love.
The entire book of the Song of Solomon describes the joy and pleasure experienced between a married couple.
God has given us the wonderful gift of intimacy. It should be enjoyed. It should only be enjoyed in the parameters of a biblical marriage.
Singleness is not superior to marriage. It generally leads to sexual immorality.
Celibacy is not designed for marriage. It leads to temptation and discontent.
Intimacy outside of marriage is sinful. This is what defiles intimacy. He says :
“God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.”
“Sexually immoral” is very general. It includes all sexual activity outside of a biblical marriage.
Listen closely:
This means that same sex relationships can never be morally acceptable because two persons of the same sex can never be married to one another in the eyes of God.
We may not like that but it is true:
Persons of the same sex cannot procreate. It’s true that some men and women in a biblical marriage cannot procreate. But this is an anomaly. It is a medical issue that can even be treated in some case. Two persons of the same sex can never procreate. This should show us God never blesses that relationship.
Persons of the same sex are not anatomically created to be intimate with one another. That’s all I’ll say about that.
Let’s include fornication with this. God will not only judge the homosexual. He will judge the fornicator too.
People who are having sex outside of marriage are in the same danger as the homosexual couple.
We don’t like that either.
We have family doing that. Read the verse. It says God will judge the sexually immoral. Those who continue in sexual sin should not expect to go to heaven.
Did you know we even have seniors doing this. They don’t want to lose a check so instead of getting married they live together. They may wish they had lost that check when they lose their soul.
We can throw in pornography, perverseness with toys and dolls as well.
“Adulterous” This is when a person who is married is intimate with someone they are not married to. Adultery is a terrible sin.
God has given a person a spouse.
Many times they have children together.
They have built a life together.
God has blessed the adulterer. The adulterer responds to God’s blessings with sin.
The married person who engages in sexual sin often causes more damage than the unmarried person.
Destroys their own spouse
Destroys their own children
Destroys finances
Often destroys another marriage (spouse, children, finances)
God has some serious words for adulterers. Adultery is such a heinous sin in God’s eyes He even allows divorce for it (Matthew 19:9). In the OT adulterers were stoned.
God takes sexual sin very seriously. He will punish a people and a nation for it. Our society sees little wrong with freedom in sexuality. We have become a gross people.
Sex is nothing more than an appetite that should be filled. We treat it like hunger.
When we get hungry we eat.
We eat what we want.
We eat when we want.
We eat how much we want.
It is true that intimacy is a natural desire. That does not mean we should fill it as we like.
For instance, when we are hungry, we can’t eat someone else’s food.
When we are thirsty, we cannot take someone else’s drink.
Natural desires cannot be fulfilled in an unnatural manner.
There is a godly way to fulfill the natural desires for intimacy. If we depart from that we should expect the judgment of God.
Let me read you some verses.
1 Cor. 6:9
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality
Galatians 5:19-21
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God
Ephesians 5:5
For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Colossians 3:5-6
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming
Revelation 22:14-15
Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.