of all things in God's creation,
all things in Christ's creation, of all things that he has ordained
in this world, that he has set forth as a picture of his gospel
and of Christ's love for his church, the institution of marriage
is opposed and undermined far more greatly than just about
anything else. We live in a day and an age where
the world around us increasingly undermines, attacks, despises
and tramples underfoot marriage as God created it, marriage as
God set it forth unto the world, marriage as it truly is, of all
things this world opposes it. There has never been a time and
an age like today when man has so greatly risen up against this
and in so doing they are not simply changing marriage to suit
their own ends, to suit the current social situation. Behind all
the machinations of men, behind all the movements, behind all
the changes that are brought about in society, deep down,
whether consciously or unconsciously, mankind is taking his fist and
shaking it at God, shaking it at his son, shaking it at his
church, and shaking it at the gospel. There are few things
so fundamental to the very picture of the Gospel, the order of God
in this world than is marriage. There is a great reason why marriage
is under attack because as this world increasingly turns its
back upon God and God gives the world and the people in the world
their own way, its own way, as he gives them up to a reprobate
mind as he tells us in Romans, as he allows them to do what
they want, they depart from his ways, they depart from his order
and they undermine the fundamentals including marriage. It's not
coincidental the current movement against marriage, which caused
those who stand for it to stand up and be opposed and hated for
their stance, bring about some of the greatest persecution and
alienation of Christians that we have seen. Christianity was
once respected in Britain and the Western world for generations. now it is treated as the greatest
evil if truly believed and held to. There are many today who
claim to be Christian and who are claiming and debating and
trying to change what Christianity is and its view of things and
its view of marriage in order to accommodate the evil around. So the Church of England for
example even today discusses marriage and discusses services
and discusses what can be done and what can't be done and what
is right and what isn't right and what Christians believe and
what they don't believe in order to accommodate the fashion and
the times around it. In order not to be seen, to be
out of touch and out of step with what the evil minds of men
all around them want. rather than be seen standing
for that which is right standing for that which was given to them
from the beginning the modern church would rather alter it
to say yes we agree with you dear world so they do it with
evolution and they do it with marriage and they will do it
with whatever else comes along in which they find themselves
standing against a world that wants to go another way. They'd
rather not offend. They'd rather preach peace, peace
when there is no peace. They would rather form a marriage,
a union between the church and the evil in this world than stand
up for the truth and be hated and opposed. And if you take
it to its logical conclusion, what they are doing is this. The professing church of our
day would rather be married and united to Satan, the devil, and
his children, and his ways, than to be married and united to Christ. It calls its name Christianity,
it says it worships Jesus and yet it unites itself to the ways,
the thinking, the mind, the desire of Satan the devil and his children. They have redefined marriage
by ceasing to be married to Christ and marrying the devil. And if
that's your idea of marriage, and you begin it in this world
in such a fashion, by uniting with the devil and despising
Christ, then you will find that you will spend eternity in such
a marriage. You wanted it, you desired it,
you got it forever. Dear Church, Dear Church of England,
dear Western world, if you wish to marry the devil and his ways,
you will have him forevermore. But don't be surprised. You're
either wed to Christ or you're wed to Satan. You're either wed
to him from above or you're wed to him from below. For either
way you choose your partner and you're wed to him and your ideas
and your goals and your desires will either lead you to hell
because you despise Christ or you'll be wed to Christ. Nothing
is under attack like marriage. Christ spake of it in Mark's
Gospel in chapter 10 when the Pharisees came under him asking
him about divorce. Marriage has always been under
attack because there's always been those in this world that
don't know God and want to accommodate their sin. We read in Mark 10, And Jesus
arose from thence, and cometh into the coast of Judea by the
farther side of Jordan. And the people resort unto him
again. And as he was wont, he taught
them again. And the Pharisees came to him
and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife, tempting
him? And he answered and said unto
them, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses suffered
to write a bill of divorcement and to put her away. And Jesus
answered and said unto them, for the hardness of your heart,
he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the
creation, God made them male and female. For this cause shall
a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they
twain shall be one flesh. So then they are no more twain,
but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder. And in the house his disciples
asked him again of the same matter. And he sayeth unto them, whosoever
shall put away his wife and marry another, commit if adultery against
her. And if a woman shall put away
her husband and be married to another, she commit if adultery. From the beginning of the creation
God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they twain shall
be one flesh. So then they are no more twain
but one flesh. Christ is unequivocal in his
answer to these questions about divorce, these questions which
undermine marriage, and by extension to any who should ask what marriage
is, what marriage is about, his answer is plain. From the beginning
of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause
shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his
wife. That is marriage. And that is
marriage because it is a picture of the marriage of Christ to
his bride, the church. And anything else is not marriage
and anything else destroys and tramples underfoot that picture
of the gospel because it hates the gospel, despises the gospel
and wants to undermine the gospel. As I said, we live in a day where
marriage is under attack. There have never been as many
who marry, who then divorce and separate as in the generations
in which we live. As a consequence, the younger
generations, so many of them have abandoned marriage. Rather
than becoming married, they simply live with their boyfriend or
girlfriend, their partner, until such a time as maybe they want
to have children and be seen as a little bit more respectable
perhaps, so that the children can say that they have a mother
and father by the same name. Some don't even bother with that.
But there's a great abandonment of marriage altogether. often
driven by the pain and the suffering that the younger generations
have experienced when their mothers and fathers have divorced and
brought in trouble into the household. For marriage was given unto this
world, marriage was given unto mankind by God for the good of
mankind. God looked upon the first man
Adam and said it is not good for man to be alone. And out
of his side he took a rib and from it he made woman and presented
woman unto the man as his help meat. As one who was united to
him. As one who was complementary
to him. Human like he's human but different. having qualities the man doesn't
have and he having qualities she doesn't have but together
united they're perfect and she was a help to him and the one
to love him and one to bring companionship to the man and
he to her and through their union through their love through their
marriage they brought forth children and they as parents are the perfect
parents for children. To have both the loving care
of the mother and the authority and leadership of the father.
To have both the qualities that the man brings and the quality
that the woman brings. That they might have the security
of a safe and a comfortable home. God gave these things to the
world because he knew it was for mankind's good. This is how
children should be brought into the world, how they should grow
up and how they should be given security until that day when
they leave their father and mother and marry their husband or marry
their wife. But today so many marriages end
in divorce. Why do they end in divorce? Because
man at heart is selfish. And when he becomes weary with
one, he desires another. And when trouble comes in, he
doesn't persevere. Although in the marriage vows,
people say for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer. People
just want better and richer. They don't want worse and poorer.
They're not prepared to endure worse and poorer and work it
through until better times come. As soon as trouble comes, they're
off. and they look for better and
richer elsewhere. How evil is the heart of man
that he's prepared to bring so much pain and hatred upon both
his wife or her upon her husband and upon the household and the
children simply for selfish gain. How evil it is that a father
could leave the family for someone else or a mother could leave
the family for someone else. And yet it's rife. This is what
the heart of man is like. This is what you're like. This
is what I'm like. This is what we're all like.
Left to ourselves. When God blesses a nation, He
blesses the families in the nation. He puts love in the household.
He keeps them together. But when a nation turns its back
upon God he sends judgment and judgment comes in all sorts of
fashions and it comes into the household. The rise in divorce
in this nation is directly linked to how the nation has turned
its back upon God. It's turned its back upon the
gospel, it despises the gospel, it goes after its own ways and
there's no surprise then that it turns its back upon marriage.
as it goes off in its evil ways. This particular chapter in Mark
10 having spoken about marriage and divorce in the opening verses
goes on to some other accounts one of which is the man that
comes unto Christ calling him good master and asking how he
may inherit eternal life Christ tells him that he should keep
the commandments And he says, I've done all these things. And
then Christ tells him that he should give up all that he have.
But the young man is rich and he's grieved. goes away grieving
for he had great possessions and Christ goes on to say how
hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God.
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. So he speaks
of riches and how riches lead people away from God. Then at
the end of the chapter we read of one who is blind. when Christ
passes by he calls out from his blindness and darkness Jesus
our son of David have mercy on me now these things are not disconnected
there's a connection there's a connection between a society
which undermines marriage and which seeks after riches and
in which the people are blind when you go after your own ways,
your own things, your own desires when you seek the riches which
are here below the pleasures which are here below and you
turn your back upon that which is from above then you will inevitably
turn from God's order in marriage because your desire is set upon
something else and you do this because you're blind to the truth
And your only hope is one who's blind. As one who's consumed
by riches and full of grief because you can't give them up. You can't
turn and follow Christ. He can come unto you and say,
well just give up these things and follow me. You can't. You're
blind, you can't make yourself see. You can't give up your love
of this world and its ways. And you can't be faithful to
a saviour, to a husband who loves his own and gave himself for
his own. Despite what he is, you go another
way because you're blind. We're all blind. We're all born
like this. This is why we are like we are.
And when God leaves us to what we are, society becomes what
it is today. Marriage is undermined through
divorce. It's undermined through its sheer
rejection by a generation that can't be bothered with the institution
of marriage, even though it's carnally married. but it goes
from one partner to another partner as though it doesn't matter bringing
chaos in its wake and it's undermined by the hideous reinvention of
marriage where male marries male and female marries female as
if children can be brought forth into the world in such a manner
when even nature itself tells them that this is crazy this
is foolish But they're blind. And if you think that's acceptable,
if you think that that can be called marriage, if you think
for two men to dwell together is marriage, or two women to
dwell together is marriage, if you want to call it marriage,
do. But you're a fool. You're blind,
that isn't marriage. From the beginning of the creation,
God made them male and female. Biology itself tells you. A man
marries a woman. Children are brought forth into
the world. That's God's creation. That's how it works. That's how
we are. Anything else is but friendship. And nothing else but sin and
gross desire if wrongly brought forth. But from the beginning of the
creation, God made them male and female. The first man he
made was Adam. Out of his side he took the rib
and created Eve and presented her to him. And he said, this
is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh and he loved her.
And he was wed to her and united to her. And in this, from the
beginning, God set forth a picture of the Gospel. Adam is Christ. Eve, as we've seen before, is
his bride, his church. And here we see from the beginning
of time the gospel declared throughout all history that Christ the Son
of God will be united with his people, his bride. He loves her
and he gave himself for her. He laid down his life for her. When Eve was brought forth for
Adam she was taken out of his side when he slept. He was put
into a great sleep. He as it were died and God took
out of his side a rib and made out of that rib a woman and presented
to him. He rose again out of sleep and
saw this bride. A picture of the death of Christ
and the union of Christ with those for whom he died. When
Christ died he was wed to his people in death. and they were
taken out of his side as the blood came forth from his side
when the soldiers pierced him and blood poured forth. That
people were taken out of his side. He bore their sins. Why did blood pour forth from
Christ? Because he'd borne the sins of
his people. They were judged in him. That's
why he died. That's why he slept. And at the
end of his death, when their sins were blotted out, when he
paid the price of their sins, when judgment had fallen upon
him, blood poured forth. Blood which washes away all sin. Blood which made that people
pure, spotless, blameless, perfect. Out of Christ's side came his
bride, came his church. They were wed to him as sinners. They brought about his death.
They brought about the sleep. But when he rose again, the blood
washed them. and they rose up with him as
his bride and he looked upon her pure and perfect spotless
and blameless and loved her and he loves her forevermore his
love caused him to come into this evil sin sick world His
love brought Him to come into this world that despised Him,
that rejected Him, that hated Him. A world full of sinners
like you and I. His love brought Him into a place
where you dwell. Where people like you hate Him. And hate His order and hate His
creation. And hate marriage. You hate the
Gospel. But His love brought Him where
you and I are. And though we hated Him, though
mankind hated Him, though mankind took up their arms against Him
and beat Him, and cast him out and cried out crucify him though
men took him and nailed him to a cross though men with wicked
hands took nails and drove them through his hands and drove them
through his feet and nailed him to a cross though they lifted
him up in the heat of the midday sun to die and though they spat
upon him and jeered at him and laughed at him and wanted him
dead yet he came He came to where they were. He came to where you
are. He came to this world knowing
what you and I are like or knowing what you and I would do to him.
He came knowing that we would hate him, knowing that we would
reject him, knowing that we would put him to death because he loved
his bride, the church. Did he love you? Though you hated
him, though you pierced him, though you trod his gospel underfoot,
though you hated his creation and hated his order and hated
his church and hated the bride and hated marriage, though you
hated all that was to do with him, all that he declared, all
that he declares today, though you may hate him today. Yet he set his love upon his
people that he set it upon you. Did the blood that came from
his side wash you clean? Do you despise him this day?
Do you despise those who speak of him this day? Do you despise
those who speak of marriage this day? That marriage that set forth
Christ and his church and his gospel, do you despise it? Well
you may, but his love transcends all that you are and all that
you can do. We live in a world where people
speak of love and promoting love, but ultimately their idea of
love is a love where they should be loved, where we should love
the wicked, but where they hate that which is right. They have
no love for those who love Christ. They have no love for Christ.
They have no love for the truth. Yeah, his love was set upon people
like them, who hated the truth, who hated him, who hated the
gospel, who hated the church. And yet he took that hatred upon
himself as though he was the one that hated. And he bore the
judgment so that he could take it away. So that people like
that who hate, people like you who hate, though you speak a
love, though you hate him, you may love others but you hate
him. Don't you speak of love and yet hate him and his truth.
He took that hatred and bore it that those for whom he died
should be forgiven and should know his love that began before
the world was. That was always there. Always
there from the beginning of time and will always be there after
time. A love that has no beginning
and no end. A love that washes away hatred. From the beginning of the creation,
God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother and cleave to his wife. A man shall leave
his father and mother and cleave to his wife. Notice in this verse,
in this message of marriage that not only do we read of a man
leaving his home and cleaving to his wife but we read of the
man leaving his father and mother and cleaving to his wife. There
is an emphasis on the generations. Not only is there marriage in
that generation, but there was marriage in the generation before,
and marriage in the generation before that. Nobody comes into
this world except they have a father and a mother. That's universal. However it's performed, however
science might dabble with things, everyone has a father and a mother. Whether you have a father and
a mother living, whether you were born an orphan, In the beginning
there was a father and a mother. Because that is marriage. No one has a father and a father,
or a mother and a mother. In time there might be, in some
households, a mother and a mother, supposedly. Or a father and a
father, supposedly, but they're not. There may be one who's the
father, and one who's the mother. And the true mother or true father
might long have gone, but everyone ultimately has a father and a
mother. It sets the precedent. And this is why Christ says that
a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his
wife. Christ came into this world for
his bride. For this cause a man shall leave
his father and mother and cleave to his wife. Not his partner. Not his girlfriend. Not somebody
he met at a nightclub. And certainly not his boyfriend.
But his wife. His wife. When you marry, you
marry. When you're united, you're united. to your wife or your husband. Marriage is for life. For this
cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his
wife, singular. Not to wives, not to girlfriends,
but his one wife. One, committed, one husband,
one wife, one mother, one father. Marriage is the union of one
man with one woman, one husband, one wife, forever until death
do us part. Not one wife to then be divorced
and marry another wife, to then be divorced and marry another
wife, but one wife until death. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they twain shall
be one flesh. So then they are no more twain
but one flesh. They're one flesh. Before they're
married they are a man and a woman but when they're united they're
one flesh. They're united. They're companions. They're two halves of a whole.
They're complementary. Eve was taken from the side of
Adam as he slept and then brought to him, their one flesh. This
cannot be so, unless it is male and female. And what a picture
this is of Christ and his church. How close we see in the union
of a man and a woman, how they are described as one flesh. Here
her body is his body, his body is her body. They're both together,
they're united. In God's eyes they're one flesh.
Two people but one flesh. Two souls but one flesh. They're
united. How close the union is. And what
a picture of how close the church is unto Christ. They're one flesh,
they're united. All that he is, she is. All that she is, he is. When
Christ came into this world to die for his people, to save his
people from their sins, he came for his bride and he took all
that she was. So he found her in this world
as one who'd gone astray. He found her as one who is blind. He found her as one who was taken
up with the world and its ways. He found her as one who was full
of the riches of this world and couldn't give them up. He found
her as a sinner. He found her as one who was a
stray, a sheep wandered off and he took all her wickedness all
her rebellion all her hatred upon himself all that she was
became his he didn't say I'll have her but
I won't take her sin but he took her sin and he bore her sin all
that she was he became he was made sin that she might be made
in him the righteousness of God. He bore her sins that he might
take them away and judge them in his own body on the tree.
All that she was, he took as his own. He represented her when
God's justice and judgment came down upon the bride. The husband
Christ said, I'm the guilty one. She's my bride. Whatever she's
done, I've done. Don't judge her, judge me. I
will pay the price for her. I love her. That's what a husband
does for his bride. He's hers and she's his. He takes responsibility for all
that his wife does, all that she is. If she goes wrong he'll
pay the price. If she's in trouble he'll do
whatever it takes to bring her out of trouble. She's his. In Ephesians we read of this.
Ephesians 5 verse 22 we read, Wives submit yourselves unto
your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the
head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and
he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject
unto Christ so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands love your wives even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it that
he might sanctify it and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious church
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should
be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourisheth it and cherisheth it, even as the
Lord the Church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Nevertheless let
every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself
and the wife see that she reverence her husband. How Paul makes it
plain here in Ephesians that the picture of marriage concerns
Christ and his church. He quotes the same phrase that
Christ uses Christ says, for this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they twain shall
be one flesh. Paul writes, for we are members
of his flesh and of his bones, for this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they
too shall be one flesh. He says exactly the same thing
regarding marriage but he says it's a great mystery. I speak
concerning Christ and the church. The picture of marriage, the
reason why it's so important, the reason why the love of a
husband for his wife and the love of a wife for her husband
are so important is because The whole matter concerns Christ
and his church. In marriage is a picture of God's
order, God's creation, and God's gospel from the very beginning. As soon as you begin to undermine
marriage, or question marriage, or redefine marriage, you attack
Christ and the gospel. Christ loved his bride, the Church. He loved her and gave himself
for her. They are one. They are united. They're one flesh. The Church is considered to be
Christ. His righteousness is her righteousness. Her sin was made to be his sin. and he paid the price that she
deserved to pay. He died, she died with him. He rose again, she rose again
with him. They're one. And in this world,
when we marry, we set that forth as an example. But when the world speaks of
changing this marriage, when they speak of men marrying men
and women marrying women, they attack the very message of marriage
in the gospel. They say Christ is not wed to
his church, and the church is not wed to Christ. They attack
it, they trample it underfoot, they despise it. in their assault
on marriage. They have attacked Christ and
his people. The only people in society truly
who stand against what this society is headlong racing into are those
who defend marriage because Christ has set it forefront to us. The
cancer in their eyes in society are those who love the truth. Never have the battle lines against
Christ and His Church been so greatly drawn as they have in
this day and age when the world rushes away from the truth and
tries to speak of maintaining Christianity whilst undermining
its very foundations. who supports this is attacking
Christ and attacking his Gospel. Now you may well support it.
If you're of this world you may well support it. You may well
support the fashions of this day. You may well support the
flying of rainbow flags and all the proclamations of love and
peace that this world proudly declares in their folly, in their
blindness. taking the message of the rainbow
that God set forth unto this world after he had judged its
wickedness and delivered his people, Noah and his family,
in an ark. Having sent such judgment upon
this world and its wickedness, God said, I will not judge this
world again in the same manner until I come in judgment on the
last day. He set forth his gospel and he
said unto this world, you will not be judged if you know my
son, if you love my son, if you're wed to my son. But this world
that flies its rainbow has run away from that God and brings
itself unto the very judgment against sin that God sent to
Noah. That judgment will come down
upon them in fire. It will come down upon you in
fire if you carry on in this mad career. If you carry on in
the darkness and the blindness of your sin. Rejecting the truth
of the gospel. But God has said plainly to every
generation from the beginning, and he says plainly to this day
and generation, and to you, whoever you are today, he says plainly,
without hesitation, from the beginning of the creation, God
made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother and cleave to his wife. And they twain shall
be one flesh. So then they are no more twain
but one flesh. What therefore God have joined
together, let not man put asunder. God has brought this forth. God
created this world. God sustains this world and God
says this is marriage. This is the gospel. This is my
son and this is my church. You are either wed to my son
or you are wed to the devil and his ways. You speak of marriage,
you speak of love. You either love the devil, you're
either wed to him, you're either wed to the riches of this world,
you're either wed to the darkness here below, or you are wed to
my son. who by grace delivered you from
judgment, spared you from wrath, declared peace and love into
your soul, waved a rainbow of truth over your head, declared
peace and grace unto you, took your sin and washed you clean. Either you're wed to him because
he came unto you in the gospel, and opened your blind eyes, like
he opened the blind eyes of Bartimaeus and caused you to see, or you
are wed to the devil in the darkness. Oh, has he come your way? Has
Jesus, the son of David, passed your way with his gospel and
declared unto you the truth as it is from the beginning? And
have you in the darkness, in your blindness, heard his voice? Heard his voice in power? And have you cried out? Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. What God hath joined together,
let not man put asunder. But man does put asunder, doesn't
he? You do put it asunder. You do
try to tear away God's order. You do try to tear it down. You try to put the gospel asunder. You try to put the truth asunder.
You try to put Christians asunder. You try to get away from all
of them and all that they say. You try to trample them underfoot.
You try to silence them. You try to silence their views,
you try to silence their message because it doesn't support your
evil ways. When men attack marriage, when
they attack the truth, when they attack the church, when they
attack the message of the gospel, it isn't just God's order and
God's creation which they attack. When they attack marriage, it's
not just his order from the beginning they attack. They attack what
it presents. They attack and reject the gospel. Now do you, in your darkness,
in your blindness, like Bartimaeus in the dark, just follow what's
in the dark. Or when the Son of God passes
you by and says unto you, from the beginning, I declared the
truth. From the beginning, God made
them male and female. From the beginning, I loved my
bride. From the beginning, I went to
the cross in the place of my bride. From the beginning I declared
I will take her sin, your sin, your corruption, and I will bear
the price. From the beginning I was willing
to die that sinners might live. From the beginning I knew they
would hate me. From the beginning I knew they'd
hate me today. From the beginning I knew the
world would rise up against me. From the beginning I knew the
world would take the bands of God and try to put them asunder. From the beginning I knew the
heathen would rage. From the beginning, though they
hated me, I loved them. From the beginning, though my
bride hated me, I loved her. and I took her sin and I bore
it and I took the judgment and I took it away and I took my
blood and I washed her in it from the beginning I loved her
from the beginning I preached my gospel from the beginning
I sent truth out into this world to the four corners of this world
to everyone that they might hear from the beginning I have preached
from heaven on high the gospel Oh, has he come your way with
that gospel? And you, blind man, sat by the
highway side, have you heard the Son of God speak from the
beginning? Have you heard him? Do you cry
out? Jesus, thou Son of David, have
mercy on me. Oh, God, give you grace. God,
open your blind eyes. God call you to cry, Jesus, our
son of David, have mercy on me.