This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the Church. This is the essence
of what marriage is about. I speak concerning Christ and
the Church. Revelation 21 says, I saw a new
heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw
the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men
and he will drill with them. And they shall be his people
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write,
for these words are true and faithful. The words regarding
the Lord Jesus Christ, I will be with them, I will be their
God. If our earthly marriages are
going to be lived for the glory of God, then how absolutely essential
is it for God to be with us? For those of us who have been
married for some considerable time, And when two sinners are
joined together, there is an exposing of all sorts of things,
but for those of us who've been joined together for some time
and the Lord has been merciful to come and reveal himself to
us, we keep saying, here I am. I am what I am by the grace of
God. My marriage is what it is by
the grace of God. I'm very aware of the circumstances
of many people concerning marriage and divorce and other things,
and I just pray at the very beginning the Lord would cause you to forget
what was behind this history that's been done with and look
forward to what lies ahead. But most of all I want us to
see the Gospel. I want us to see the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ in this marriage. We did read from Genesis
chapter 2, and I'd like you to take your Bibles there as we
look at this. It's such an amazing picture
of the bride being taken out of the body of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In verse 21, the Lord God caused
a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. What happened to the Lord Jesus
Christ on the cross of Calvary? Who caused that? The great transaction
of the gospel is the transaction, and I don't even like to use
that word. Any word we use doesn't seem
to do justice to the extraordinary actions of God the Father and
God the Son and God the Holy Spirit on the cross of Calvary.
And he slept. And he took one of his ribs and
closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God
had taken from man, he made, and that word means to build
it, he builded he a woman, he made a woman, and he brought
her unto the man. I love what Malachi says when
he speaks so strongly against divorce. The Lord hates putting
away, and so we ought to be so thankful that God never, ever
will be charged with any misdemeanor. He will never put her away, but
he speaks of the bride being thy companion. That's a really
sweet way of thinking about marriage, isn't it? Thy companion. And
verse back to Genesis 23, and Adam said, now this is bone of
my bones, for she was builded, because she was builded from
Adam's rib, and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman, because
she was taken out of man. Therefore, therefore, shall a
man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife,
and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, and
the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed. There was no
sin, nothing to be ashamed of. No sin. Sin is the cause of all
shame, isn't it? So that's what I said earlier. God created this universe so
that his son could go to the cross of Calvary and these very
things which are pictured here right at the very beginning and
before the fall could be pictures of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The very first human interaction was in marriage. And as we've read in Ephesians
chapter 5, the same words which are here recorded in Genesis
2 are recorded in Ephesians 5, so we have no doubt that this
is a marriage. It's interesting to note, isn't it, that in all
of the scriptures, there's not a description of a marriage ceremony. Not one that I can think of.
There are plenty of so many instances of marriage and how glorious
they are. You think of Jacob and what it
cost Jacob 14 years labour to win Rachel to himself. And he
said those 14 years were just like a day because he loved her
so much. Any amount of labour to have
his bride. was not too much for him and you can recall many other
stories like Isaac and Rebecca and the wonderful way the covenant
of grace and the glory of God is revealed in the provision. As I said, the very first human
interaction was in marriage and when the end of this age and
the beginning of the new creation comes there's this marriage feast
of the Lamb. It's interesting, there's always
a marriage feast of the Lamb. The Lamb. The Lamb. The Lamb
slain, which is exactly what is pictured here in Genesis chapter
2, the Lamb slain. The only basis for real communion
that lasts in this world and on into eternity is a union and
a communion in the Lamb slain. Therefore, verse 24, a man shall
leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife. This now becomes the most important
of all relationships. He'll cleave unto his wife and
they shall be one flesh. Our great God pictures marriage
and gives us this glorious institution of marriage. I don't even like
to call it an institution. That's almost a degrading word,
isn't it? It begins with a ceremony It continues by the grace of
God in the lives of his believing people to be something that is
sustained for the glory of God. He left his father and mother
and he clung. He left heaven for the sake of
his wife. And they are one flesh. There
is that glorious picture of the union of the Lord Jesus Christ
with his people. But notice what it says. He took
one of his ribs and closed up the flesh thereof. First operation. First anesthesia. and the extraordinary creation
of woman. You probably have heard Matthew
Henry's great description of this, as Eve was not taken from
Adam's head to rule over him. Eve was not taken from Adam's
feet for him to trample on her. Eve was taken from his side to
be his equal. in fellowship and in communion. Man is not superior to woman. There is a necessary obedience
and submission of a wife to a husband, but don't forget it's her submission
to him, not his domineering demand of submission on that basis.
It's always voluntary. Man is not superior to women.
You might recall all these things are pictures of our God and the
glory of the Gospel in the salvation of the people, the Bride of the
Lamb. The Lord Jesus Christ lost none
of His dignity by obeying His Father. The Blessed Holy Spirit
loses none of His dignity nor any of His deity by being the
one sent by the Father and the Son. So we have fallen, wicked,
human thoughts about submission and things. See, He was taken
from beside His heart for Him to love. protect and defend, but most
of all to embrace and to cherish. That's the picture, isn't it?
That's the picture that we have of the Lord Jesus Christ and
his relationship with his bride. Marriage at the beginning of
this age, marriage at the end and marriage signalling the end
of the age. Marriage beginning and ever continuing
into the new creation, not the marriage that we will witness
on Saturday. But something far bigger happens
when people leave this earth, the relationship that believers
have, the relationship that believing husbands and wives have. is enhanced
in the most remarkable way by their closeness to the Lord Jesus
Christ, aren't they? And so you might recall the parable
that the Lord said that marriage is for this time, but for those
who are children of God and blessed to be in a marriage with another
child of God, of marriage in this world. May
that be the desire of our hearts to be taken into something much
deeper and closer and more secure than the physical relationship
that exists here. The other thing I want us to
see is that marriage is instituted And this, for want of a better
word, this institution precedes the fall of man. And this is
an institution, therefore, has a divine significance. and a
significance which transcends culture. You might remember in
Genesis chapter 12, after Abraham had received all these enormous,
amazing promises from God and being called to God's side and
knew that he was a friend of God, knew that he was blessed
of God, he went down to Egypt and lied about Sarah. But the thing I want us to note
is that Pharaoh, that pagan man, in his court. So the pagans respected
marriage. You might read in your time,
in your leisure, go back to Genesis chapter 20, God uses a whole
chapter of the Bible in Genesis to speak about marriage and how
significant it is. Abraham And Avimelek was protected by
the grace of God. God's free and sovereign grace
from defiling Sarah. And he honoured the marriage.
He honoured marriage. The man shall leave and the man
shall cleave. The health of every society is
measured by its respect for marriage. And people might say, well, look
how well we're doing. Are we? When the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do? It's a tragic, tragic sign of
the fall of man. But surely in the midst of what
the world rejects, the children of God find great joy and a great
picture. Because marriage is instituted
and constituted by God, the rejection of marriage is therefore the
judgment of God on societies and individuals. fornication
and homosexuality are both God's judgment, but the sign of someone
being deceived by Satan under his sway and captive to the great
whore of Babylon and made drunk. You see, marriage is a covenant. Our relationship with God is
based on a covenant. The covenants that God instituted
matter to God and are significant to God, even if they're not significant
to people. And a lot talking about those
have been through the tragedy of divorce. I'll just keep praying
that you would look ahead and look to Christ and not look,
because this is a glorious picture of the relationship between the
Lord Jesus Christ and his bride. The great harlot of Babylon which
makes the whole world drunk. Babylon means confusing by mixture. Mixing grace and works, mixing
law and grace, mixing the covenants is fornication. Homosexuality
is the act, is doing the act of creating life when no life
can ensue. It pictures man-made works religion. It brings no life. It cannot
bring any life. It's gratifying the flesh for
a season with eternal consequences. May the Lord cause us to see
these things through spiritual eyes because we can be incredibly
harsh and self-righteous and legalistic. Leave and cleave
are the words, the great words of Genesis chapter 2. And this
can only be said of two. Three can't be as one, but two
can be as one. So any third party which takes
the affection of the others is always deadly. This applies to
the things of life as well as people, doesn't it? It's a help,
meet, suitable, appropriate and fulfilling. Love and respect. Respect and love. You look at the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is he worthy of submitting to? My great concern is that I don't
submit as much as I'd like to. Lord, be Lord. Be really Lord. Be Lord over my flesh. Be Lord over my wanderings. Be
Lord over my mind. Be Lord over my heart. how we need and how God provides
a help meet. A help meet. I love my wife. I love the fact that we had 43
years of marriage. I love the fact that she's been
a help meet for me. And you other husbands could
say the same. They have to tolerate an awful lot from us. But those who are blessed with
the God-given gift of an honourable wife, and you can read about
that wife in Proverbs 31 and many other places, will find me. I need her to walk alongside
me. I need her to tell me when I'm
just being an absolute idiot. I need her again and again. It's a help mate. There is a
mutual responsibility. Women Wives submit because the
husband, like the Lord Jesus Christ, is worthy of submitting
to because of the way he behaves. The responsibility is on the
man. The responsibility is on the man to behave in such a way
that submission becomes a delightful thing and not a burden. Marriage
is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled. Therefore every bed that's not
a marriage bed is a defiled bed. But whoremongers and adulterers
God will judge. 1 Peter 3 says, likewise ye husbands,
dwell with them. You leave in plea, you dwell
with them according to knowledge. You dwell with them according
to love. Giving honor unto the wife as
unto the weaker vessel. That's in a physical sense, isn't
it? And being as heirs together of the grace of life. And the
reason is that your prayers Isn't that extraordinary? We
would think that that would come a long way down the list on the
problems that happened, isn't it? But I don't want my prayers
hindered. I don't want your prayers to
be hindered. Finally, be of one mind, having
compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous,
not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contriwise
blessing, knowing that ye thereunto are called, that you should inherit
a blessing. We've all seen and we've all
heard men use this headship to be tyrants of their wives. And I sadly have witnessed that
on many, many equations. But I've also seen almost more
often men not take responsibility for leading and protecting and
caring for their wives. She was taken from his side.
for Him to care and protect her, for Him, as the Lord Jesus Christ
did, to stand there and bear all the infinite wrath of God
Almighty for His love for her. How great the tragedies of this
world, how great the tragedies, how so, so many of the children
of this Western world in particular grow up from broken homes and
attend school with the majority of their classmates from broken
homes. Who's at fault? Men. Men not living up to their
responsibility. I'm not saying that women are
innocent and all of that. May God grant men to be real
men with backbones and not cowardly wimps that leave their wife to
be the prey of all sorts of other people. Leave her for the gratification
of their own flesh. Huh? If you really love her, you will
love her eternal soul. And like the Lord Jesus Christ,
you will be prepared to die to yourself, that she might know
him, she might live in his presence, that she might not join with
those who do not love and hear and know the gospel. love through God was reflected
in how he loved her eternal soul. Don't you love what happens in
Genesis 3? He gives the promise of the gospel. He says, I will put enmity between
thee, Satan, and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed,
and it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. There is the great gospel promise
that the Lord Jesus Christ, in all of these events of life,
is gonna reign sovereign and supreme. He will put the deceiver
down, and he will protect his bride. And the very next thing
he says in verse 16 is, unto the woman, I will greatly multiply
thy sorrow and thy conception, and in sorrow thou shalt bring
forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and
he shall rule over thee. The entailment of the fall causes
us to need the gospel. The promises of what happens
in the fall cause us to need the gospel. Thy desire will be a desire to
rule, and his desire will be a desire to rule. What's the
solution? The previous verse. That our great God and Saviour
and Husband will come, and He will come and sweetly bring the
Gospel Your wife and your husband always
need to hear the gospel. The gospel that speaks of this
glorious saviour who did all that he did for the love of his
bride, did all that he did so that he could be in union and
in communion with her. Thy desire shall be for thy husband
and he will rule over you. The only solution to all of that
is that Christ rules. Our responsibility, then, as
husbands and wives, is to know and love the Gospel, such that
any deviation from the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ must
not be tolerated. Paul said, not for a minute,
so that the truth of the Gospel might remain with you. He didn't
tolerate all of Paul's for a minute. Paul's great desire is that the
churches may be presented a pure virgin to Christ. The marriage, as I said earlier,
speaks of the covenant of love, the eternal covenant of grace. For thy maker is thine husband,
Isaiah 54.5, and the Lord of hosts is his name. Thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall he be
called. He loved his bride to the cross. His first miracle, the greatest
miracle he performed, where he pictures the very creation
of his people, the very emptiness of man-made works religion, which
all it does is provide empty stone water pots, and he fills
it to the joy of the bride and the bridegroom and all others.
He fills it with the wine of the gospel. Man-made works religion,
whatever form it takes, is always just going to be an empty stone
jar. Six of them, man's number 666. So in closing let's just go back
to Genesis chapter 2 and let's see some of the glorious pictures
of this husband. Husbands love your wives as Christ
loved the church. The first thing I want us to
see in Genesis is that Eve was in Adam before her physical creation. The church had a being, a real
being, in Christ before their physical existence. And people
might say, well, I can't explain that. Well, I can't explain what
it is for a rib to be taken out of a man and turned into a woman,
and it'll be laughed at by millions of people. But God said it, and
God did it, and it's true, and God's children rejoice in it.
The church had a being in Christ. We've always been in Christ from
the foundation of the world. It's a union before creation,
a covenant union, a union of love, a union of grace, a union
in his blood, a union in his body. That's why she's bone of
my bones and flesh of my flesh. just like the vine in the branches,
just like the shepherd and the sheep, just like the head and
the body, all of the pictures are pictures of the Lord Jesus
Christ in union with his people. It's an eternal union. It's a
union in Him. Our election's in Him. Our redemption's
in Him. Our righteousness is in Him.
Our justification is in Him. All of what we need to stand
in the presence of God Almighty, holy and unblameable, unapprovable,
it's all in Him. And it's all ours, ours, by grace
and by union. It's a real union. And that's
how God sees it. And God's eyes are the only ones
that matter. She's presented, Colossians 1.20, she's presented
in His sight, holy and unblameable and unreprovable. Why? Because
of the blood, the blood that was shed. There's a deep sleep
which speaks of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord
God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. Who put the Lord Jesus
Christ to death on the cross of Calvary? God the Father. It pleased the Father. But out of his side, the spear
of the justice of God pierced the side of the Lord Jesus Christ
and she was taken out. The life of the church comes
from his wounded side. What flowed out of that wounded
side? Water and blood. He made Eve. He made a woman. It says literally that he built
her. We are his workmanship. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus under good works which he has ordained that we'll
walk in. God builds a new creation. God creates and puts in his people
a new creation. And she was taken. bone of his bones and flesh of
his flesh. Eve was made for Adam as a help
made for us. The church was made for Christ,
for his glory and for his honour. We are his body, we are his body,
the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Christ left Not two now, but one. Holy and righteous and loved
and accepted in the beloved. He calls upon husbands to take
responsibility and in that responsibility they are to reflect Christ and
the church. What's the most significant responsibility
to your wife? What glorifies the Lord happened on the cross. The gospel
is a picture of Mary's, the gospel is a person declared and described
in scripture. Is she being brought to years. Eve was not taken from
Adam's head to rule over him. Eve was not taken from Adam's
feet to trample on him. Eve was taken from his side to
be his equal, to walk beside him in fellowship in communion
with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our great responsibility. as Christ loved the church. Eve
was taken from under his heart to love. Eve was taken from under
his arm to protect and defend her. And most of all, to embrace
and to cherish her. What's the wife to do? She's not a doormat to be trodden
on. She's not to rule, but she's
to take due responsibility. She's to help meet for him, to
aid, to nurture. We husbands need our wives. We
need their counsel. We need their wisdom. We need
their insight. We need their correction. We
need their love. We need their compunion. We need
their companionship. Is he straying from the gospel? You have a responsibility, wives,
to know personally, to know and to love and to come to the Lord
Jesus Christ and to believe in him as he's commanded and to
care and protect him for your husband. What's his greatest
need? The Lord Jesus Christ. What's
the greatest solution to all the issues of marriage? The Lord
Jesus Christ. We have one balm for all the
trials and troubles of this world. We are doctors, physicians with
one medicine. One medicine all the time. If you love each other, you'll
love each other. I love what Henry Mayan said
to a pastor going out to his first charge. He said, you love
them to Christ. You love them to Christ. You
love them to Christ. You love them as Christ does. You love them so much that you
will die for their purity. will die for their purity in
relationship with him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we do pray that you would bless the marriages here, you would
bless marriage, this marriage on Saturday, Heavenly Father,
that it might be A time where our Lord Jesus Christ is proclaimed. A time when His people again
just fall in love with Him and fall into His arms and find themselves
embraced by such a Saviour, such a Husband, such a Redeemer, such
a Friend. We pray for Ben and Tegan, Heavenly
Father, and for all you be the one who speaks. And may they,
at the end of their days here on this earth, Heavenly Father,
be able to declare, I am what I am, and my marriage is what
it is, by the grace of God. May his grace be abundant, and
evident, and saving. I pray these things in Jesus'
name, for his glory. Amen.