[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfredo, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word.
[0:13] Take your Bibles to Genesis chapter 2. I've got Betty's phone here, but it's a woman's phone. Probably would tell us fine too quickly. Genesis chapter 2, if you would.
[0:24] The Bible says in Genesis 2, 1. I needed a man's watch. All right.
[0:36] Genesis 2, 1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And the seventh day God ended his work which he had made. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
[0:49] And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.
[1:01] And the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew. For the Lord had not caused it to rain upon the earth.
[1:12] And there was not a man to till the ground. But they went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed a man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
[1:24] And man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. And there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge and of good and evil.
[1:42] And a river went out of Eden to water the ground. From thence it was parted, it became into four heads. The name of the first is Pisan, and that which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
[1:53] And the gold of that land is good. And there's Bedlam and the Onyx Stone. The name of the second river is Heon, and the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hidikiel, that is which goeth toward the east of Assyria.
[2:08] And the fourth is the Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it.
[2:27] For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone, and I will make him a helpmeet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every file of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them.
[2:43] And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle and to the file of the air and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helpmeet for him.
[2:55] The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man.
[3:07] 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 shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.
[3:22] And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Father God in heaven, I thank you for this wonderful passage of scripture, this beautiful chapter that you've given us.
[3:33] And I pray God that you would help it to come alive. I pray you'd help it to teach us some principles that would be clear from your word that would apply to our lives. And I'll give you great honor and glory and praise for what you do. God, I pray that you would help us to worship you.
[3:45] I pray that you'd help us to serve you. And I pray you'd help us to realize that you have every right to make every decision about what we do because you not only saved us, but you even made us.
[3:56] And I thank you for what you're doing. Pray you would work tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, quickly, I'm only going to give you four little things to look at. And the first thing tonight is that there was a blessed day.
[4:08] Look at verse 1, if you would. It's a blessed day. It was the day he finished. It was the day he finished. Verse 1, thus the heavens and the earth were finished.
[4:19] Were finished. You should underline in the verse, were finished. And all the hosts of them. The creation was not some long process that he's still working on. It was done.
[4:30] It was finished. If you want to believe the scriptures, it was finished. If you want to believe the scriptures, it was finished. You'll have to choose here. He says he did it in six days and finished.
[4:42] So you'll either believe him or you won't. He said your salvation was finished also. So I guess you'll have to choose on that one too, won't you? If you don't think he can finish the world in six days, I'm not sure you believe he could finish your salvation on the cross with one simple saying when he said it's finished.
[5:00] The second thing, verse 2, that was the day his work ended in creation. The Bible says in verse 2, and on the seventh day, God ended his work.
[5:10] He ended his work which he had made and he rested on the seventh day from all the work which he'd made. He put it together and his work ended. Another time in the second verse, he reinforces that he did it and stopped.
[5:23] The creation is not still continuing. He said it ended. It kind of goes away with the idea of evolution, doesn't it? If you're going to believe Genesis chapter 1 and 2, you're going to have to believe that he started it.
[5:35] He stopped it. He said he did it in six days. Finished it on the seventh day. His work ended. Another time, says it again, it ended. Verse 3, he rested. Verse 3, he rested.
[5:46] Now, some fool theologian told you that that doesn't make sense. And that's why you shouldn't take chapter 2 to be literal. Because if he's God, how come he needs to rest? That's because they can't understand English.
[5:57] That's the main reason. They understand too much other stuff. The Bible says in verse 3, and God blessed us of it. They had sanctified it because he had rested from all his work. Rest means not he has to rest like you do.
[6:09] He rested as in he finished, he ended, and he is satisfied. He got through and he looked at it and said, that's good. I did a good job. That's how he rested.
[6:20] He stepped back and goes, are you believing this? Look what I did. That's what he said. He rested. He stated that it was all good. He said he was pleased with his work. By the way, can I just say for you, studiers, chapter 2 is not a different creation story and it doesn't contradict chapter 1.
[6:38] You know, that was what the evolutionists taught when I was in school in 1972. It kind of went away for a long time. And then now new believers have come up with a new thing that they used to teach back when 1972.
[6:49] When I was in college, those who say this are just looking for a way to fit evolution into their scheme. It's another gap theory. It's another gap theory. It's another way just to say, I don't think God really did it in six days.
[7:01] It doesn't make sense. Science tells me the world is this old. It must be. So I've got to figure out how to make the Bible fit to science. And I'm not really interested in making the Bible. I already told you. I'm a very ignorant preacher.
[7:11] I just believe it like he said it. Every time he uses the word day, he means day. And every time he says finished, he means finished. And every time he says end, he means end. And so I'll just take it from that. From a biblical point of view, God did it and he finished it.
[7:25] Your choice as always is to believe God or yourself and others. That's your choices. The Bible's clear. There's no doubt about what it says.
[7:36] You do not need the Da Vinci code to figure out what the Bible says. And you don't need a killer code or any other code of some apologist. Just take the book.
[7:48] Take it as he clearly states it. The Bible consistently says that God created it all in six days. By the way, you can read through other parts of your Bible. You can start all through your Bible. He's going to say the same thing.
[7:59] He's redundant. He said he did it. Genesis 2.2 on the seventh day. Genesis 1.31 when he finished, he said, And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good.
[8:11] And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. By the way, he didn't create evil. He didn't create the devil. When he got through, he looked at it and said, I did a good job. It's all good. And God's not the creator of evil or immorality.
[8:25] God created it and it was all good. Genesis 2 simply explains in a more detailed way several things that God did in and through creation. I just want you to stop and listen to me just a second.
[8:38] There's some, there, some of you older people might not know this, but some of our young people, they're really into some internet preachers who don't believe Genesis 1 and 2, which is not anything new. The liberals I went to that thought Jesus was not born of a virgin, they also doubted Genesis 1 and 2.
[8:52] And so I'm just going to tell you that Genesis chapter 1 gives you an out description of what he did in Genesis 2. He simply goes in and explains it just a tad further and lets you know more of what he did.
[9:04] And I don't have time tonight because I'm going to try to finish all of chapter 2. But in chapter 2 and verse 4, he said, These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the heavens and the earth.
[9:18] And so he's just simply telling you the story and giving you more detail. By the way, there was another day that was a blessed day and that was the day he finished his work on Calvary. And it'll be another blessed day when he comes to get us and take us home.
[9:30] Second thing I'd like you to see in chapter 2 if I could. Look if you would at verse 5. I'm just, since I'm finished with the creation. So would you look this way just a second. And I'm going to just say you something real clear.
[9:42] I believe that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. I do not believe that he stepped in after 5 billion years and said, Let me make up a real quick thing I can write down.
[9:53] And I'm going to say that there were 6 long eons out there. Some of them were a billion years and some of them were a few million years. And I'm going to stick it in and try to say that. It ruins the whole Bible picture if you take out Genesis 1 and 2.
[10:06] If there was no Adam created, then there's no first Adam. If there was no first Adam, is there a second Adam that was Jesus Christ? If God can't say he finished creating us in 6 days, can he say, I finished when he dies on a cross after 6 hours.
[10:20] He dies, gives up the ghost and goes to heaven. Can he say he finished? I'm just going to say to you so you know. And you can easily get another pastor. I am old enough and ready to go to the hills anyway. Get a pastor that's smart enough to know that Genesis 1 and 2 don't belong in the book.
[10:34] But I'm going to preach it belongs in the book. And I'm going to preach it means it exactly like it says. I'm not smart enough nor educated enough, don't know enough Greek, don't know enough Hebrew to not believe it. I'll just take it like it says it.
[10:46] Does that make you mad? By the way, I think it did make a couple of mad. And I don't mind talking to the couple I made mad. Come see me. Verse 5. That was mean. God gave man a job to do.
[10:58] Boy, I love this. Now we're moving out of creation. Y'all ain't going to like this part. You think you didn't like that part? Hang on. God gave man a job to do. Verse 5. In every plant of the field before it was in the earth, in every herb of the field before it grew for the Lord, God had not caused it to rain.
[11:12] Boy, I love that. He either made it or caused it or said it or did it. I mean, it's always God, God, God, God, God. I mean, you know who the hero this story is, don't you? God. In the beginning, God. In the first 31 verses, I think I told you the other day, it says God 32 times.
[11:25] He's like God everywhere. God over everything. God. So he hadn't made it to do that yet. But he made man to work. I want you to write that down somewhere. I want you to know that.
[11:36] Because your society would have you believe, if they are at all Christians, that work was a product of sin. No, work was before the fall, man was going to work. There's dignity in work.
[11:48] Man was made to work. In Ephesians 4, 28, the Bible says, Let him that stole, steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands a thing which is good, that he may be able to give to him that needeth.
[11:59] Work's not a result of sin. Work was a sign before sin entered into the world. You should work. You should teach your children to work. And you should take joy in your work. Work's good.
[12:11] Listen to what I'm going to say. Look this way. I need you to get this. We're in Genesis 2. They will fall in Genesis 3. In Genesis 2, they were given a job. Don't you dare.
[12:21] Let the world make you think works bad. Works great. There were some guys that came to Peru. They had retired from the states. They were in their 40s. And they came down to Peru. And they lived in Peru on vacation because it was cheaper to live in Peru.
[12:35] And they played golf every day. And for about a year, they played golf every day. One day, I saw them in town. And they said, we're opening a business. I said, why are you opening a business? They said, we're about to go crazy. You have no idea what it's like to have nothing to do.
[12:47] They said, all we do every day is go down and play golf. And finally, we want a job. We want something to do because God made you to work. Work's good. Don't be embarrassed by work. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 11.
[12:59] And that you study to be quiet and do your own business. And to work with your own hands as we commanded you. That you may walk honestly toward them that are without. That you may have lack of nothing.
[13:11] Work. Second thing I like to say, God gave man a job. Are you ready for this? And he made Adam before he made Eve. It's all important. You see, the guys that don't understand how chapter 2 seems to be different.
[13:22] Chapter 1. Chapter 2 is just like, it's like you put a lupa. How do you say lupa in English? What? Magnifying glass. It's like you put a magnifying glass up to see what God was doing.
[13:33] Because he said, I made man. But in chapter 2, he says, watch this. I'll take you in close to see what happened. I'll spread the day out and I'll give you more details. So look what it says. In 1 Timothy 2, 11, he said, Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
[13:48] But I suffer not a woman to teach nor use of authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed. So in case you think I misread this. Adam was first formed and then Eve.
[13:59] And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in transgression. And she'll be saved in childbearing. God instructed Adam before Eve was ever created. If you read Genesis chapter 2.
[14:10] Man, will you look this way a second? It's time to man up. Because in Genesis chapter, here's what you find out. Man was made to work. God told man what to do before he ever had a woman with him. The scriptures never showed God explaining to Eve what his instructions were.
[14:26] Interesting. In Genesis chapter 2 and verse 18, the Bible said, Then the Lord God said, It's not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a help meet for him.
[14:36] I'll make him a proper, fitting, correct helper to work with him. I'll make him a proper, fitting, correct worker to work with him. In chapter 2, verse 5 down to verse 8, he's made a man.
[14:48] He's formed him. He gives him instructions. And finally in verse 18, he's going to make him a help meet. Adam was responsible to lead his home. God gave the job to Adam.
[14:59] God gave the commandments to Adam. God gave Eve to Adam as his helper. Adam was the responsible one before God. There's no way to dodge that Adam was responsible and he can't pass the blame to anyone.
[15:11] There's only one man on the planet. He was given the job. He was told what to do. He can't blame anybody. He will, but he can't. He shouldn't. Men need to understand that the position God has given them. Men, could I just challenge you?
[15:23] We live in a wimpy world. Man up. Men ought to understand that God gave you a wife and a family. God communicated with the man. The job's yours.
[15:33] You're the spiritual leader. You can't use your wife and children as an excuse. You can't use your wife and children as an excuse. You set the spiritual leadership and environment in your home.
[15:45] We have a work to do today. We're to carry the gospel of the world. We're to spread the worship of Jesus around the world. We're to lead our families spiritually. We're to seek God with all of our hearts.
[15:55] I'll just stop here, but I just want you to see something. Would you men look here just a second? How many of you believe God created the world? I know some of you don't, but how many of you believe God created the world? Say amen. How many of you believe he did it in six days?
[16:07] How about six 24-hour days? Oh, that's pretty good. And how many of you believe God made man before he made woman? How many of you believe God told man what to do? All right, man, when are you going to man up and do it?
[16:20] When are you going to man up and do it? You know, a skirt doesn't need to be leading you. You got it backwards. And the most spiritual person in your house ought not to be your wife. It ought to be you. You ought to be the prayer.
[16:31] You ought to be the Bible reader. You ought to be the person that leads your family. God made man, gave him a job. Third thing I wish you'd noticed, we're rushing through it. But in verse nine, there's rebellion or obedience.
[16:42] Everything in the Bible is going to revolve around what's happening in verse nine. Just write it down, rebellion or obedience. In verse nine, it says, God placed many trees in the garden, but two very special ones.
[17:04] He made one rule, one commandment, one restriction. That's it. God was obviously giving man a choice. You can obey or you can rebel.
[17:14] Man in his pride still thinks and then thought that he was better than God and he knew better than God and he could make decisions. Every day and in every way we make decisions about obeying or disobeying.
[17:30] We choose to consider God wise enough to tell us instead of trying to figure it out or we choose to rebel. We choose to submit or we choose to rebel. All sin is rebellion against God.
[17:41] Every day we make the same decisions that they had to make in the garden. No matter how much we like to think of it as less important. Do you not understand? He made all that beautiful stuff. He made the tigers and the lions like big kitty cats and the elephants to play with.
[17:55] And he put one tree and he said, that's the only tree you can eat of. Eat of every other tree. And their first thing to do was to go to that tree and the devil tempts them and he falls and they eat the fruit. And Adam eats the fruit.
[18:06] And you know the story, but you know that every day you and I choose to obey God or not to obey God. We choose. I will do what he says or I won't do what he says. I'll believe him or I'll not believe him.
[18:18] The way we got saved is we realized that we had sinned against him and we had rebelled against him and we trusted him to save us. We choose to do what we know to do or we choose to do what we know that will please him and what's his will.
[18:34] Last thing. Spending just a tad of time here. It was God who ordained marriage. Take your Bible. I really wish you to open your Bible. Genesis chapter 2 and verse 24.
[18:46] Genesis chapter 2 and verse 24. Therefore shall I... I call this everything's based on the beginning. I'd just like to stop. Maybe I should try to get you to see where I really want you to go in this.
[18:58] The seventh day was blessed because God rested there and he said it was blessed. That's it. Just God said it. That's why. Fact is, the world uses seven days and there's no reason to use seven days except what the Bible says in the beginning.
[19:10] Go study it out. There's only one way to use seven days. That's because God said it. Scientists don't even know why we use seven days. We use seven days because God said he made the world seven days. That's a good one if you're going to think on a while.
[19:22] God gave a man a job to do. God gave a man a job to do. Told him what to do. Gave him instructions about how to do it. And then finally he gave him a help meet later on that day. I've heard some of you even say stuff like, Well, God planted a garden.
[19:36] He must have gotten tired. You know how long it takes God to plant a garden, don't you? About as long as it takes to make a sun or a moon or a planet or a whole solar system. He just says, done. Thank you. That's about how long it takes God.
[19:48] Garden. Yeah. Trees. Thank you. Done. That's how God does it. Amen. He probably doesn't sweat very much. He just spoke and it happened. But then he ordained marriage.
[20:00] All the way back in the very beginning, God is the one who picked out how marriage would be. Genesis chapter 2 and verse 24. The Bible says, Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh.
[20:13] And I would really like to challenge you to take your ink pen and put a circle around the word leave. Put another circle around the word cleave and put another circle around the word one flesh. And God said in the very beginning, this is how I want it done. By the way, Adam didn't have a father and a mother to leave.
[20:27] He was just being told what to do. So, hey, man, it wasn't society. Unless you fall for some of the guys who don't believe in Genesis 1 and 2. Adam didn't have a father and a mother to leave.
[20:38] He was just doing what God told him to do. And he was going to tell his kids. This is what God said to do. I never did have a daddy. Didn't have a mama. But y'all going to have to leave me. You got to go cleave. Leave, cleave one flesh. God said that it is not good that man should be alone.
[20:52] In Genesis chapter 2 and verse 18. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmate for him.
[21:03] It was God who said man shouldn't be alone. It wasn't good for man to be alone. The woman was not an animal nor a lower creation.
[21:15] So this whole idea of buying and selling wives. It takes place in lots of the countries I visit. I'll be in one of those next week. This whole idea of a woman being subservient. This whole idea that we've even had in our own culture of keeping women down.
[21:28] Was never God's plan. When God made a woman. He didn't take one of the animals. Adam looked over all the animals. Adam named all the animals. He got through with all the animals that God looked at him and said, What do you think?
[21:40] And Adam said, I don't like none of them. You say, How long did that take? Well, I don't know. It took less than 24 hours. I'm sure of that much. Hey man. He got all of them named. And he said, Well, lay down Adam.
[21:50] I'll put you to sleep. He put him to sleep. Cut his rib out. Took his rib out. And made a woman. Look if you would in Genesis chapter 2 and verse 19. Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every file of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them.
[22:05] And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. That's pretty good evidence right there that he wasn't a caveman that was illiterate and stupid. He's smarter than most of us. If I had to come up with that many individual names, I can't even think of your name, much less all those animals.
[22:20] And God and Adam gave names, verse 20, to all the cattle and all the file of the air and to every piece of the field. But for Adam, there wasn't found a helpmate. Not one helper worthy of Adam.
[22:32] So God gave him a suitable helper. A face-to-face helper. She wasn't made as his servant. She wasn't made to keep her eyes always down and always on the ground.
[22:45] She was made to serve him with him as an equal. She was a worthy help. He made man from dirt, but he took her out of the man.
[23:00] Just so you get this. A woman was never property. She was part of man. And just so you get this.
[23:12] He met a male and he met a female. He met an Adam and he met an Eve. And by the way, I really believe he made a real Adam. I went to school with these professors that you guys, you young guys are listening to on the internet.
[23:24] I went to college with those guys. And those guys, they don't really believe there was a real Adam, a lot of them. And a lot of them, they try, they can't figure it out. And, but God made an Adam and he met an Eve.
[23:36] And that's how he did it from the very beginning. The woman was to be his glory. Is his glory. First Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 7. The Bible says for a man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he's the image and glory of God.
[23:50] But the woman is the glory of the man. I just stopped there and say, man, if you mistreat your wife, you just mistreating your own glory. I mean, you got this whole big thing of glory and you're rough on her.
[24:04] You mistreat her. You're not sweet to her. You're not kind to her. And she's your bragging rights and you don't treat her like it. By the way, Jesus thought God made man.
[24:15] And Jesus thought it was God who put together marriage the first time. Because in Matthew chapter 19 and verse 8, he said, Matthew 19, 8. The Bible said, he said unto them, Jesus said unto them, Moses, because the hardness of your heart suffered you to put away your wives.
[24:30] But from the beginning, it was not so. They said, well, you know, Moses let us get a divorce. And Jesus looked at him and said, sure, because you're hard hearted. Because you don't care what God has to say.
[24:42] In verse 9, Jesus said, I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife except to be for fornication and shall marry another commits adultery. And whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. From the beginning, God made Adam, made Eve, made a man, made a woman.
[24:56] It was one man, one woman, one lifetime. Could you say amen right there? By the way, if you've had a divorce and you've been through a lot of mess, I love you and God loves you. And there is grace for you and there is mercy for you.
[25:07] But you ought to know from the very beginning, it's one man, one woman, one lifetime. And no matter where you are right now in your life, let's say you've already messed up. Let's say you've already messed up and you've already messed up your past.
[25:20] And you say, man, I wish I'd have known this to begin with. From today, you could live like you believe this and say, I will be loyal to my wife. We're not part of those that can just cash in when we want to.
[25:31] We are one flesh. Could I get an amen right there? Marriage was for companionship. In Genesis chapter 2 and verse 18, the Bible says, And the Lord God said, it's not good that the man should be alone.
[25:46] I will make a help meet for him. So, you know, God knew that we needed a partner. We had God. We could talk to God and spend time with God all alone. But you know what God said?
[25:57] I know you got me. Maybe I don't know what happened. Maybe Adam's making everything. You realize here comes a boy baboon and a girl baboon. Here comes a boy elephant and a girl elephant. Here comes a zebra and a girl zebra.
[26:08] And maybe you got through and looked at God and said, it ain't but one of me. I don't know what happened. But here's what God said. You need a woman and I'm going to make you one. A companion. The interesting, I always say this and people laugh at it.
[26:22] I actually found out today who said it first. But, you know, he didn't take her out of Adam's foot. He didn't take her out of Adam's head. He took her out of his rib. He made her, from what goes closest to his heart, he wanted her to be his companion.
[26:39] Marriage became a school of character. Marriage became a school of character. You know, singles can pretty well do what they want.
[26:53] I'm not trying to be rude here. They can get up when they want, go to bed when they want, leave the dishes dirty when they want. They can do anything they want to do. They ain't got to worry about it. But, man, when you get married, lordy, lordy, lordy, doesn't it change?
[27:06] Say amen right there. I mean, even the way you put the toilet paper on the roll is important. I never knew it was important. We use Sears and Rollbook catalog, amen? I never knew that was important.
[27:19] Where you squeeze the toothpaste becomes important. Marriage became a school of character. Learning to live together. Learning to deal with the good and the bad. By the way, marriage brings out the best in us.
[27:32] And it brings out the worst in us. Done correctly, it'll grow both of us. I'll stop and just say this real quickly.
[27:46] Over the years, Betty's always liked it when I preached on marriage. And I said, well, why do you like it when I preach on marriage? She said, because you do better when you preach on it. Who knows you better?
[28:05] Who knows you like your spouse knows you? Who knows you alone? Who knows you on your good days and on your bad days? Who knows you when you're sick? Man, God put us together. Iron sharpens iron.
[28:17] And he let us get married. I'd rather have some iron we can keep in a drawer and see every now and then. Say amen. Yeah, that's a beautiful thing that God did for us. Marriage is for reproduction.
[28:28] They were to have children. In 1 Timothy 5, 14, he said, I will therefore that the younger women marry and bear children, guide the house and give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. I'd just like to say just real quickly here.
[28:40] Did you know that God, I mean, God's not against children. Can I get an amen right there? God's not against children. God likes children. God wanted families to have children.
[28:51] Ladies, you're not doing something less when you have children. That's a big thing for God. I'm not telling you to go out and be fruitful. No, but that's not my place.
[29:02] That's his. But I'm just saying to you, in our society today, children are like not good. They're to be aborted, abandoned. Parents don't care about them.
[29:14] In God's economy, they're an heritage from the Lord. By the way, marriage is to be waited for. Gentlemen, young men, I hope you'll all listen to this.
[29:25] In 1 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 1, the Bible says, Now concerning the things whereof you wrote unto me, it's good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife and every woman have her own husband.
[29:40] I'm going to stop there just a second. And I'd like to say to you real quickly, you realize God made marriage? That's not a society thing. That's not a North American thing. God made a man and God made a woman and God told them to be together and God told them to have children and God put them together.
[29:55] But all through his scripture, he says there's only one place where sex is good. And I'm just going to say it. Whether you like this or not, sex outside of marriage is completely wrong. I mean, it's just wicked.
[30:06] It's vile. It's reprehensible. It's wrong. Pornography is of the devil. I mean, because it's sex outside of marriage. And a man with man, that's horrible. And woman with woman, that's horrible.
[30:17] And young man with young woman not married, that's horrible. And old man with old woman that ain't married, that's horrible. And man that has a wife, it goes with another woman, that's horrible. Now concerning the things I wrote to you, it's good for a man not to touch a woman.
[30:31] But to avoid fornication, let's get each of us our own wife, our own husband. Sex is not to take place outside of marriage. It is always to be between a man and a woman.
[30:45] A husband and a woman. A husband and a wife. It's always about giving up control of yourself for your partner.
[30:57] So where'd you get that? Bible. 1 Corinthians chapter 7.
[31:08] Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence, and likewise the wife unto the husband. The wife has not power or authority of her own body, but the husband. And the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
[31:20] Don't steal from each other. Verse 5. You do know that marriage was not about getting pleasure. It was about giving pleasure.
[31:33] Nothing in the Christian life is about getting. It's all about giving. Nothing's about being selfish. Nothing's about taking. It's all about giving. If you're right with God, it's not about what you can get. It's about what you can give.
[31:47] I'm almost through. I feel really kind of like Lone Ranger right now. Let me just tell you that he did make the world. He did give you a job. You ought to realize it's a job.
[31:58] It is rebellion or obedience. And he did make marriage and had nothing to do with what Americans think about marriage or what the New York Times thinks about America or what these guys that are doing all this other junk about it.
[32:11] It's not it. It's God. When you reject God's pattern for marriage, you can only arrive at perversion. When you reject God's pattern for marriage, you can only arrive at perversion.
[32:24] And by the way, if you reject Genesis 1 and 2, you're really rejecting God's pattern that even Jesus quoted when given a chance. In Romans chapter 1 and verse 24, the Bible says, Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever.
[32:49] Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. Likewise, also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another.
[33:03] Men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error, which was meat. He said, they committed these lesbian homosexual acts and I have given them a reward that is fitting for their deeds.
[33:22] That is not politically correct, but it is Romans correct. Marriage illustrates a relationship between Jesus and the church. This is an amazing thing if you ever think about it.
[33:35] In Ephesians chapter 5 verses 22 through 33, he talks about how the husband is to love the wife and how the wife is to submit to the husband. It's a beautiful thing. And he keeps saying, husband like Christ, husband like Christ, wife like church, wife like church.
[33:50] And he gets down to either 32 or 33 and he says this. It's so funny. He says, y'all thought I was talking about husbands and wives, but I was really talking about Jesus and the church. Did you know we're a picture of, we're a picture, we're a type of Jesus and the church?
[34:06] The respect and the honor ought to have towards my wife is a reflection of how Jesus ought to treat his church and does treat his church. He's my example. Say, how should I treat my wife like Jesus does the church?
[34:17] Boy, he's awful good to a church, isn't he? Say amen. Rescues us, loves us when we don't deserve love, pours out grace on us every day. Sweet, sweet, sweet Jesus.
[34:28] And the wife is like the church and she's supposed to honor and respect her husband like the church ought to. One more verse and I close. Genesis chapter 2 and verse 25 said, they were naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed.
[34:45] There was intimacy here. They were transparent. They hid nothing. They relaxed with each other. They were naked and they were not ashamed.
[35:00] Marriage is the most beautiful picture of our relationship with God. Ephesians 5, 22 through 33 says it's a church in Jesus. So let me say a couple of things about my relationship with the Lord that I think is pretty obvious for marriage.
[35:16] It's not good for man to be alone. You need God. And you couldn't get to him, so he came to you. You don't belong to him, but he came and bought you, so you could.
[35:27] We are separated unto him. It's a Bible principle. Leave and cleave. You ought to turn to the world and turn to sin and turn to wickedness and say, I leave you so I can cleave to Jesus.
[35:39] Leave and cleave. There ought to be an open, transparent, trusting, unembarrassed relationship with the God of heaven. Our relationship to Jesus is a secret to our entire life.
[35:55] Everything started in Genesis. Can I just say real quickly, I don't have time to preach it all to you, but you know, there was a first Adam and he messed everything up and there will be a second Adam that rescues everything.
[36:07] Can I say to you, he tells me about marriage here and shows all of that. So beautiful. Eve sinned and Adam wasn't deceived.
[36:20] Adam said, I love her enough that I'll die for her. Just like in the New Testament where Jesus said, you sinned and you deserve to go to hell, but I will die for you. It's all over the Bible.
[36:32] What a good God you serve. What salvation by grace and mercy you have. And you choose. You choose to admit your sin.
[36:43] You choose to admit your failure. And you choose to trust Jesus to save you. That's the real story. He made us. He finished it.
[36:54] You are not an animal. You're not the product of evolution. You are a God creation. Because he created you, he can tell you what to do.
[37:05] And he says, I give you a job to do. Man, you're to lead your homes. You're to lead your homes. He sets a tree there and says, I give you a choice.
[37:15] You're not robots. He let you choose or reject. And when Adam and Eve took that fruit, they chose to disobey God.
[37:27] But even in their rebellion, the great God of heaven, it wasn't Adam. You'll get this in Genesis 3 Sunday night. But it wasn't Adam that went to God to get help.
[37:38] And it wasn't Eve that went to God to get help. It was God who came to Adam and Eve and said, I'm here to help. Boy, if you can't love the God of the Bible, you don't know anything.
[37:53] Maybe you're not saved. Maybe you're not sure you go to heaven when you die. Maybe you got one of those bad attitudes about the God of the Bible simply because you've never read your Bible. What a wonderful, wonderful God we serve.
[38:07] Father in heaven, I love you and I praise you and I thank you for what you've done. Father in heaven.
[38:32] Amen.. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[38:47] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[38:58] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.