Genesis chapter 2, verses 18 through 25. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make and help me for him. And out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found an helpmate for him. And 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 instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bone 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. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." We find in these verses Adam's calling, Adam's helpmate, and Adam's psalm. One question though, just before we look at these beautiful verses, when was the woman created? In 127 So God created, this is on the sixth day, in his own image, in the image of God, created he him, male and female, created he them. Some who have adopted a metaphorical day of Genesis, long periods of time, have asked the question with some, at times, ridicule. How could all of this have happened on the sixth day? So you got the first part of the sixth day back in chapter one, beginning in verse 24, where the Lord brought forth the living earth creatures, the cattle, the creeping things and the beast of the field. And then he made man and then Adam would have had to name the animals and he would have had to taken a nap and then God would have had created the woman. So how in the world could all this have happened on the sixth day? In fact, the argument has become, well, if you deny a form of evolution, whether it's Christian, theistic or straight evolution, or you take Genesis 1 as referring to non-normal providences, then when you get to the sixth day, you're going to have to have macroevolution on steroids. Because so much of this stuff has got to happen on the sixth day. I would simply offer three quick provisos why the traditional interpretation is in fact the correct one. One, Adam did not name every species of animals on the sixth day. He named the animals specifically that were in the garden, because remember in chapter 2 verse 8, God put Adam in the garden. It's not like Adam sprouted wings and flew around the globe in a few hours. or anything like that at all. He named the animals that were in the garden. And secondly, he didn't have to look for them. Because what you have here is a picture of man, the monarch, the animals, his subject being paraded in front of Adam. And third, we always need to remember something about Adam in this chapter. No sin. We cannot imagine what we have lost in terms of intellectual ability, quickness of judgment, clarity of thinking, the ability to see the very essence of things, no distractions, no weariness in our work. Adam certainly accomplished this in a very brief period of time, leaving him plenty of time to take a nap and then to have the woman created and brought to him. So I do believe that both Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day with some time, as we'll see why in just a moment. But before we mention that, just don't ever forget that all unbelieving science and all Christian scientific philosophy that wants to accommodate worldly science fails to take into consideration the difference between pre-fall Adam and post-fall Adam. Very, very different. Man is not as he has always been. When we fell, we lost far more than we can know. This is one reason among many why we need to run to the Lord Jesus Christ, because He begins to restore in us What we've lost in Adam, working heartily unto the Lord, joyfully in the Lord, loving our husband and our wife, as we'll see in these verses. In verses 18 through 20 then, God provides a help meat for Adam, and notice we run into in verse 18 a surprising declaration. It is not good. Everything that the Lord has said so far has either been good or very good, but here it's not good. Now, this doesn't mean God made a mistake or said, oops, I forgot something. In fact, we would not have even known this, consider what a mercy this is, unless God himself had told it to us. So there's a lesson here for us, I think, that we are not so much to focus on, oh no, did God leave something out? Instead, God wanted us to learn by experience how much we need a helpmate to complete us. It's interesting in verse 18, it is not good that man should be alone. We always need to ask ourselves, do we prefer to be alone? There may be something wrong with us. We were created for community, family community, church community, I mean, think about this. This even reflects the triune God. He's not a sterile monad. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons, the one true God. By the way, the word helper at the end of verse 18 should never be taken to imply somehow woman's inferiority. Now, Adam, as he named the animals, would have seen many animals. Oh, that ox can help me. or larger creatures that don't now exist, but they would be domestic servants, but not alone companionship. He didn't find any that were fitting for him. And so God said, I'm going to provide you a helper. And interestingly enough, this word helper in all but two cases in the Old Testament implies Someone who comes alongside of you to give you something that you don't have. To complete you. To make up a lack that is in you. So if anything is inferior about this, it's Adam. Okay, not the woman. Plus, this is the word that God uses for Himself whenever He speaks of being Israel's helper. I am your help, O Israel. And so we certainly could not assume that God was inferior by calling himself a helper. It means to supply what is lacking. By the way, it's important for us to remember this, to remember that man without a woman is only half a man, as the proverb often goes. And we need to remember it so that we learn to treat women with respect and dignity, not as objects to gratify our passions. And of course, this is true even for married men, because we know the evil that is in our culture on this point. And what a degrading way that women are treated. And here we learned that if God calls them a name that he calls himself helper, one who comes alongside and supplies what is lacking, we ought to treat. women, in general, and certainly our mothers and our wives with the utmost respect and dignity. We also learn in verse 19 about Adam's initial calling, his initial work. God brought the animals before him and told him to name them. Verse 19 does not mean at this point he created them. This would be absurd. Chapter 1 is completed all the way through chapter 2 verse 3. The verb form here in verse 19 could very easily be translated as a pluperfect and out of the ground the Lord God had formed. So it's referring back to what was completed in chapter 1 now with more detail. So he brings them to Adam to see what he would call them. What an interesting job this must have been for Adam. Quick judgment, no sins, no prejudices. the breath of life freshly surging in him. He looks at an animal, sees something of its mannerisms perhaps, its characteristics, size. We don't know everything that Adam could have seen and comes up with a name that is perfectly suited, or maybe even in some cases that were just whimsically suited, because this is what he thought of when he looked at this animal. But the important thing is, is that naming implies authority. Naming implies authority. Another little verse of the Bible phrase that totally refutes the evolutionary ascent of man from lower forms to higher forms. No, from the beginning God paraded the animals in front of Adam. He had authority over them and he named them. And in the process, verse 20, he makes a sad discovery. that there is no helper for him. By the way, again, that also refutes all evolutionary theories, because man is unique and distinct from the animals. The animals were undoubtedly friendly to Adam, submissive to him, paid him deference in an animal kind of way, and could help him in various tasks, but they could not reason as he could, feel as he could, communicate as he could, In other words, none of the animals could be a life companion for him. And it's important for us to recognize that as Adam is fulfilling his calling, it's then he recognizes his need of a helper. Someone to be a life partner with Him, a soul mate, to share His joys, His life, His purpose. And you know, this whole principle of calling wife is basically turned into a norm in Scripture. Proverbs chapter 24 verse 27 is probably the simplest verse and most straightforward for us to see this. that the order is simply this, God gave man a wife when he needed one to help him seek the Lord in his kingdom. Proverbs 24, 27, prepare thy work without, meaning outside, in the field and make it fit for thyself in the field and afterwards build your house. The biblical order is calling first, romance second. Calling first. Romance second. Of course, in our culture, sexual desires are looked at as, hey, they must be fulfilled because I have them. I'm hungry. I eat. I lust. I need to have that gratified. But again, sexual desires are no proof that somebody needs to take a wife. And it's certainly no proof that someone is fit to be a husband. With respect to our lust, we are told very simply in scripture, Colossians chapter three, verse five is one place among many that we could look at, which is this talk about anti-American. Colossians three, five mortified, therefore, your members, which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil, concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry. Mortified doesn't mean simply curb. It doesn't mean find. Better outlets, it means kill them. It means put them to death. He mentions here fornication, which would be unlawful, premarital, sexual intercourse, uncleanness. Inordinate affection is a word that means cravings. Sexual cravings. Evil concupiscence is a similar idea. Someone that's eaten up with these desires. And the young especially need to pay careful attention to this paradigm. It's very simply this. We must mortify our desires, put them to death and use the energies. that are in us when we are young to prepare for our callings, to pursue our callings to the utmost. Because if we spend our time when we're young looking for romance, looking for boyfriend, girlfriend, then we lose the precious years of preparation time to lay a foundation for piety and for lifelong service to God. And even, of course, if you wind up getting the girl or getting the guy, all you've done is set yourself up for misery. I wonder how many young men today and older men are in work and work by far is going to take up the most of your time unless, of course, you're an American increasingly, but they're in work that doesn't suit their gifts and their character, but they had to pay the bills incurred by their lusts and lack of self-control. So we need to understand what's behind a lot of the misery in our culture. Men pursuing work mainly because, hey, I had to have the girl now and so I've got the girl, but You know, then they wake up 5, 10, 15, 20 years down the road and say, but mainly I'm called to serve God diligently in my work. But I lost my preparation years because I dispersed my fountains abroad in the street rather than storing them up and using them as energy and motivation to prepare for my calling. By the way, that is one of the surest signs. of the sickness of our particular nation at the moment and the precarious future that we have, that the young are encouraged. Now, praise God for y'all. But we have to understand we live among a people that the young are encouraged in the government schools. They are encouraged. to, as Proverbs says, disperse your fountains abroad in the street. And what happens? You lose your life energy of preparation to serve God. In verses 21 and 22, back to Genesis chapter 2. So the Lord here shows Adam how much he needs to help me. And now in verses 21 and 22, he forms Eve and brings her to Adam. The deep sleep. I don't think it had so much to do with pain. Probably not very pleasant to have a rib removed. Of course, it would have been easy if God does it. God can do surgery with no pain and no anesthesia at all if he wants to, but probably to. We're not. There's something there's some secrets of God's power. He just doesn't share with us. Plus, he may have even wanted to surprise Adam with the gift. So he places Adam in a deep sleep. Now, why create the woman differently? Why create her from the rib? Some translations may say side. The word here can be translated both ways, but in a moment when Adam starts singing, he says, bone of my bone. So at some level, God must have communicated with him, hey, you're one bone less, but you're one wife more. Okay, so this is very much a real physical removal of one of Adam's ribs. But why create the woman differently? Well, I think just like with the man, remember? So, God entered into deliberation, let us make man in our image. And He made a very special declaration, let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowls of the air. With the woman, He lovingly fashions her out of the rib of the man to stress her uniqueness, also to stress their mutual dependence upon one another. The man and the woman are incomplete emotionally, physically, spiritually, without one another. The Lord is also teaching us how close the connection exists between the man and the woman. Now, I realize we're all used to growing up in a culture that says, no, it's the battle of the sexes. But understand, that's only a battle that's fought, or should only be fought, by the city of man. Because both the man and the woman have thrown off God's authority in their life. And so the man abuses the woman or uses her as an object simply to gratify his passions. The woman gets fed up with it. And rightly so. We can understand at one level and wants to escape. Ergo, the battle between the sexes. But we learn here. Don't forget this. The unity. the closeness, the interconnectedness, the mutual dependence upon the man and the woman. In fact, the two really share one life because God made the woman from the man. That's why Paul says, turn to 1 Corinthians 11, Paul says this so beautifully in referring back to this, which, by the way, the apostles say that the creation of Eve happened just like Genesis 2 said it did. Therefore, there is no evolutionary origin of man, because he who hears the apostles hears Christ. First Corinthians chapter 11, verse 11. Nevertheless, neither is the woman without the man, neither the woman, excuse me, nevertheless, neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, Even so is the man also by the woman, but all things of God. So here Paul just makes a more theological statement out of the historical narrative of Genesis two that that the woman comes from the man. Now, of course, you're all familiar with Matthew Henry. And what he says about this verse, perhaps it was not original with him. Other commentators have said this way back, almost to the beginning of the church fathers. He said, speaking of the woman, she was not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near to his heart to be beloved." So woman is uniquely, lovingly, specially fashioned just as much as the man is. And we've got to be careful because if we deny this historical creative work of God, the whole foundation for human happiness and peace and marriage and the glory of God winds up being destroyed. Men become animals, getting what they can. Women become payers of our emotional payback and coldness and other worse sins become evident here. And this is evident in all of the misery that we see around us, the sexual abuse, the destructive fantasies that many engage in, the rampant perversion. We have forgotten. That the purpose of woman is to be close to the man, near to his heart, loved by him. There's no gender contest between them. That's totally a satanic creation. We feel it because of sin, but it has no basis in reality other than our sin. Instead, we must think. Husbands, you must think of your wives. Wives, you must think of your husbands. Closeness, mutual dependence, love. This is what God intends. And so in verse 23, Adam sings. Now, why do I say he sings? This is the first instance, by the way, interestingly enough, in Genesis 1 and 2, where there's any characteristics of Hebrew poetry. There's parallelism in verse 23. So virtually all commentators take this to be poetry. It could very well have been singing. In other words, when God brought Eve, as he will soon name her, when he brought Eve to Adam, He burst into song. Why? Well, he says here, bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. Woman, this woman provides the rhythm of my life. She gives beat to my life. He looked at the animals. There was no one like him. He looked at Eve. Yes, they're different anatomically, obviously, and she's fair to look at, and softer, and all those sorts of things. But she's also similar. She can communicate. She can feel. She can reason. Adam says, in effect, she makes up my whole life. I am completed by her. She is my soul mate. to share life with. I am no longer alone. There is another with whom I can share my life as we walk together seeking God's eternal kingdom. Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. He names her woman, in Hebrew the word is Ishah, because she was taken out of man. In Hebrew the word for man is Ish. So he takes the woman out of the man and basically Adam names him whatever language they spoke, something very similar to what he identified himself as. She was an image. She shared the image of God with him. She was one with him. She completed him. And in fact, together, remember Genesis 127, God created them male and female. Really male, female together equal man. To emphasize oneness and unity. Now, I admit this is very idyllic. This is very poetic. You know, if you've been married very long, you know, my wife every now and then may want to watch a musical and suddenly the lead guy. You know, starts, oh, you're the love of my life. I'm like, I've never really done that. I, you know, I've never burst into song. May have burst into tears some, but I've not burst into singing. And you know what our problem is? We ate of the wrong tree. That's our, that's our problem. That's why there's not more singing in marriages today. We ate of the wrong tree. We know this was Satan's lie. Remember, knowledge on your own terms. We know now, because of our sins, too much of the wrong things to enter into marriage with a heart prepared to sing. Many today feel like, yeah, I need to experiment a little bit. I need to know if I can really live with this woman like this. So I'm going to go ahead and have relations with her. It's not uncommon for people to give their hearts away a dozen times or more. And what are we doing as we do all this? We're building up a treasury of guilt and unrealistic expectations. Then when we get married, we've already got built in barbed wire emotional fences. because we expect we're going to be hurt and disappointed. And very often we just in our culture keep the key in our pocket called divorce to where if it gets too bad, we can just leave because disappointment is likely. And so the song grows stale, we leave, we try to sing the song again, maybe a third time, fourth time, fifth time, and thus our culture. So how do we recapture the song? I mean, this isn't a marriage sermon, but it certainly lends itself. I mean, Adam's saying when he saw his wife, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, you're the beat of my life. We can share purpose together and hope and joy and words and laughter and and work as those to whom God has given the dominion of the earth. I think the first thing we have to remember. If we want to learn to sing this song again, being fallen, being sinful, is to remember that Jesus, one, is our only healer. And so if we want marriages to be healed, both the husband and the wife have to come to the throne of God with boldness and confidence and confess their sins and renew their vows before him. Jesus is our healer. If you want to sing in your marriage, You must be close to the Lord Jesus Christ, each one of you, and together as well. Two. Recognize that even if you maybe think to yourself, and I know people do, you know, I'm not sure I married the right person. Or maybe I married this person unwisely or so willfully. Now what am I supposed to do? Confess your folly to the Lord. because he still brought that spouse to you in his providence. He still brought her or him to you. I read a very, very interesting book this week called Nathan Bedford Forrest's Redemption, and it tells the story of the great Confederate lieutenant general. He actually is the only private soldier in the war between the states on either side that rose to the rank of general. And in about the year 1845, Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was known as an extremely quick-tempered man, he was coming to a river near Memphis and it was swollen. And out in the middle of the river, he saw a wagon that was stuck. And there were two women that were on the wagon, a mother and a daughter. And so he walked out there in the middle of the river that was that was raging. And he asked, hey, remember, it was the 1840s. Is it OK if I pick you up and carry you to shore? And he did the mother. Then he did the daughter. Turns out now he was not a Christian at this time, but it turns out that he ends up marrying this girl who was a strong Christian and she did wrong to marry him. and her protector, I think her father was dead. He did wrong to give his hand, give her hand to Nathan in marriage because he was not a Christian. Now, Nathan's mother was, but he was not. He had already killed men, self-defense, but he seemed to always be getting into fight. Well, I believe the wife's name was Anna. She always her whole life prayed for him during the war. She came to his tent and lived with him in camp and took care of him and their two sons who were his adjutants and kept praying for him. And Nathan just watched him over his whole life. And after the war, he was a broken man. He went into the war. He was about 6'1 and weighed 200 pounds. He came out of the war and was about 5'11 and weighed 110. He had 29 horses shot out from under him, eight bullet wounds in various parts of his body. But for some reason, God was keeping him alive. And he wrote toward the end of the war, I know why he's keeping me alive because my wife is praying for me. And he became a Christian and a devoted Christian and a member there of the Presbyterian Church and was baptized and became a great instrument for healing between the black and white races after the war in the years that he lived. So you might think, well, I made the wrong choice of a spouse. I'm sure Nathan Bedford Forrest, maybe she recognized, you know, I should have only married a Christian here. And I don't know why I was given permission to do this. But what men mean for evil, God can often bring great good out of. So we can't leave and we shouldn't get into those kinds of marriages. It's sinful. But if we do and our parents don't do their job in preventing it, then we need to confess our folly to the Lord. And we then also need to, if we want to sing again, embrace the chastening that God brings into our lives. Let's say that, you know, two spouses are not singing. They're not happy together. What are you supposed to do? Well, you got to have an honest come to Jesus moment in your marriage and say, listen, we brought these calamities, these sorrows, these sins upon ourselves. Let's go to the cross. Let's go to the Lord Jesus. Let's confess this together. Let's recognize that God has brought us together in his providence, whether it was sinful on our part or not. And let's go to him and and seek healing from him and build a new relationship together. based upon mutual trust and respect and repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, Adam had to learn this very lesson because pretty soon he stopped singing. He stopped. And he evaded it and he took it, and I'm sure remember he's falling now after he did this. I'm sure he thought that woman. He already told God, the woman that you gave me, song's over. The woman that you gave me, song is over. But Adam and Eve, I believe, believe God's promise of redemption. And Adam learned to sing again about his wife. But he had to learn obedience and he had to submit to God's chastening in his life. And he could never say, well, I'm getting out of it. He couldn't take a drug. to say, I'm done with this. So if we want to sing, we've got to repent of our follies. We've got to recognize that in God's providence, He gave us the spouse that we have. We have to go together before Him and confess our sins and make the renewed commitment to walk in obedience to Him. And the Lord tells us what that looks like in verse 24. Very famous verse. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh." Now, one interesting question is, who said this? Did Adam say this, or did God say this? Well, there's no note of a change of speaker, so I think it's Adam, but the interesting thing is in Matthew 19, where Jesus quotes this to the Pharisees, who were advocating what? Do you remember the whole Pharisee debate? There was one school of the Pharisees, I believe it was the school of Shemiah, who said, you know, if your wife burns your biscuits, you can divorce her. Easy divorce, no fault divorce. Another school took a little bit stronger view of, you know, no, you've got to have a real serious reason. I believe that was the school of Hillel. But the Lord Jesus quotes this as being God's will for marriage. These are the three aspects of the marriage covenant. And notice three things about They're stated in this verse. One, it's a relationship of authority. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother. Oh, so the fifth commandment has a limit. Well, the fifth commandment changes. This is more correctly a transference of authority that by marriage, the husband becomes the head of a new family unit. He leaves his father and mother. He may live in the same house. or nearby, as often was the case in a patriarchal society. But there's still a different authority structure. And the wife needs to look to her husband to be her emotional support, not her mother, needs to look to her husband to provide for her and to direct her. So it's a relationship of authority. By the way, this one, that one little line completely makes verboten. OK, out of line. all living together schemes for one very simple reason. When a young couple, you know, hey, let's try it out. Just there, you have decided I'm running from God's authority. And so notice here, God says the parents are involved in this. There's a transference of authority. All sexual activity, therefore, outside of marriage is forbidden, we must be under the sanctions under the blessings of God's authority to enjoy the blessings of love. But what about my feelings? What about them? We're supposed to mortify. I realize we've all probably many of us have repentance that needs to be lifelong and chasing that we will feel lifelong. But our feelings never trump what God has said is best for us. Do that what God has said is best for us. Before marriage, what are we supposed to do? We've already seen, we're supposed to use our energies to prepare for our calling and to pursue it. Secondly, it's not only a relationship of authority, it's a relationship of total commitment. He says, and shall cleave unto his wife. Cleave is a verb that means stick closely to, be joined together, be one with. It's a relationship of fellowship and purpose and love under God's blessing. It would certainly include the sharing of sexual intimacy. The husband must cleave to his wife in that way and vice versa. No mental cheating, no online private life, no bringing the brothel into the bedroom. Look at Hebrews chapter 13 verse 4. We need to hear this in our day. There's a whole huge, huge businesses. that are designed to tell you what you should be expecting in your marriage from your wife or from your husband. Remember what Psalm 1 says. Blessed is the man that does not walk in the way with sinners or sit in the seat of the scornful. So we can't listen to what an unbelieving world says is the quality of our love life. Can't do it. Marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled. But whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. You know, it's interesting. This is forgotten today and nobody likes to hear this. But Augustine was one of the first who said marriage can become legalized fornication. Marriage can become legalized fornication when the husband uses his wife without cleaving to her as part of the marriage covenant. Or the wife refuses to fulfill her marital obligations or to seek emotional oneness with her husband. The point here, I think, from Genesis 2 is the married sexuality is both beautiful and mutually satisfying when it's an expression of cleaving, of life oneness, mutual sharing, seeking to be soulmates together. Now, of course, our culture, all right. OK, but remember, we ate of the wrong tree. We ate of the wrong tree. And it shows. And that's one of the reasons why prior sexual experience before marriage is almost a guarantee of chastening and trouble and frustration in a subsequent marriage. Repentance can restore it. But chastening, remember the Lord chastens whom he loves. And we need to remember this too, that it's an honor for both the young man, the young woman, to be a virgin of Christ. I know it's a term of reproach in our culture. What? You haven't tried things out? How do you know you're going to be, you and this person are going to be a fit match? Just remember every time, that's Satan talking. Because God says you don't need experience, you need submission. If you want to be happy, seek it by eating of the tree of life, my word, not by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is knowledge on man's terms. And by the way, we should also note on this point that marriage will not tame lusts if one goes into marriage with uncontrolled burning lusts that are not repented of. I mean, it can be a remedy. But remember, the essence of sexual lust is that they are cravings and those cravings, if they are not mortified, will morph. Read Romans one. If you give yourself over to these things, then lesbianism, sodomy are not far behind as we see in our culture. Notice, by the way, we didn't stop in 1960s with Hugh Hefner and the playboy philosophy and the sexual revolution. It doesn't stop. The cravings are never satisfied unless they are put to death by the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and legitimate outlets are sought for them. Just took that away. Guard your heart. That's why the scripture says to us. Guard your heart. That's why Proverbs was written, especially with young men and also young women in mind. Guard your hearts. If you like this fire, it is very difficult to put it out. It is almost a miracle if it is ever completely put out. And just don't light it. That's why you notice it's funny. So many sins, you know, resist the devil and he will flee from you. We're never told to resist lust. We're told to flee it. Flee it. Flee youthful lust. Isn't it funny? Wait a minute, you're telling me that lusts are more powerful than the devil? Yeah, in one respect, they are. Because remember what Paul says, every other sin somebody commits is outside the body. But this is a sin in the body, against the body, involved with the body, that burns and gets a hold of people. We've heard so many horror stories. And of course, that's one of the reasons why Now our whole culture is dedicated to making vice virtue. Because it is an autobiographical. We are teeming with these lusts. They are out of control. So the only way that we can deal with them is to force them to be publicly accepted. By the way, that's Sigmund Freud. You know, I won't go into a whole lot of detail, but his whole psychology with the Oedipus Rex and all of this. Understand, he committed incest with his sister-in-law. over many, many years. And this has come out very clearly in letters that have been published since the 80s. So that his psychology, his so-called profound understanding of what makes men, men is really nothing but an autobiographical statement of his own lust and his own neuroses and inability to overcome the guilt. So he turns it into a virtue. That's how we're to think of the whole sodomite marriage movement, so many other things we see in our culture. It is guilt screaming for self-atonement. It is guilt screaming to be accepted on its own terms and to make everybody else go eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as well. But to pleasanter things, at the end of verse 24, God says that man-woman, husband-wife relationship is a relationship of authority. It is a relationship of total commitment, cleaving. And it is also, thirdly, a relationship of two made one. Full circle. The two are one. Now, this means more than the sharing of body parts. It means the sharing of soul, the sharing of love, of life, of purpose, of words, of dreams. No longer two, but one. Turn to Ephesians chapter five. Paul speaks of this here beautifully. Look at this in our study of Ephesians, if we ever get there. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 29, verse 28. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. What a profound verse. Husbands to love their wives as their own bodies. It's my other half. It's part of me. I'm to give, to serve, to lay down my life as Christ did. And that's why Jesus said, turn to Matthew 19, quoting these verses from Genesis 2. We'll now look at these. Why Jesus said, Matthew 19, 3, the Pharisees came to him, tempting him, saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every reason? What a dumb question, but anyway. And he answered and said unto them, have you not read that he which made them at the beginning, which by the way, again, isn't that a beautiful use of Genesis 1.1 and Genesis 1.27. Our Lord clearly says he who made them at the beginning. Made them male and female and said for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother. By the way, this is verse five and said with verse four. Have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female and said, that's one reason why Genesis 2, 24, maybe, you know, God speaking here for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they to twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore, they are no more to but one flesh. What therefore God is joined together. Let not man put asunder. So the divorce that we see in our culture, what is it? It is a shattering. It is a tearing apart of two that God has joined together as one. Now we have in our culture no fault divorce. And it is possible, of course, that one party in the marriage has more at fault than the other. But there's never a no damage divorce. Never. because the two are being pulled apart. And by the way, I won't get into the details, but all you need to deal with the whole issue today of sodomite unions is Genesis 3, 24, because there's no way a sodomite or a lesbian union can ever meet God's three covenant requirements for marriage. One, just quickly, it's not a relationship of authority and submission, it's a relationship of rebellion. Two, they can't cleave unto each other because we can't cleave except as God has given us permission in His Word. And three, they can't be one flesh. These are violent actions. They are against nature. They are against reason. They are against man himself. So we come to the end of Genesis 2, verse 25, and they were both naked. So Adam's been singing. God has made this declaration as to, you know, basically officiates the first wedding service. And they were both naked, the man and his wife. And they were not ashamed. Now, by the way, I have no doubt had they not sinned, we would be wearing clothes. And Adam would have soon learned the importance of clothes. No fun to till a field naked. You're going to have to have clothes. If you're going to build a house, you don't want to be sliding down boards naked. You're going to have clothes. But clothes would have been tools. So there's something here deeper. Why no shame? Well, because they were not alienated from God. Why are men ashamed? Because of guilt. But there's no guilt. The desires that Adam had for Eve and that Eve had for Adam were pure. They were under the authority of God. They were under His blessing. And they lived together in purity without guilt or uncontrolled passions. And so they needed no covering. for sin's shame. First thing God does is make them clothes. They made some poor ones. God killed some animals, showed them the way of sacrifice, and he made some real covering for them. But again, that really didn't do it. The blood was what really covered them. The blood was what really covered them. By the way, just a final comment. You've been very patient this evening. We live, of course, in an age in which there's been the public undressing of America, of women, what are we to make of this besides just dirty old men or making money off lust? That's really fundamentally what it is. It's just greed, pure greed and killing men's souls in the process. But it's a little bit more than that. When women do not recognize the decorum and the modesty and when men support it because women wouldn't do it if there wasn't a demand for it. Understand that what we have done is we have thrown off the mask of our rebellion. And we're just out there parading it. And what we're really saying to God is, come and get us. And He will. And He is. In case you hadn't heard, I know we don't have to worry about it. By God's grace, I pray in our circles, but diseases associated with promiscuity are on the rise across the board. Syphilis. Other diseases, they're on the rise. Why? Promiscuity kills the soul. Promiscuity kills the body. And God will not be mocked. And so you can come up with your drugs and you can come up with other things to mask the symptoms. But once the soul rebels against God, and doesn't repent, and God doesn't grant repentance in life, it's going to eventually throw off any pretense of hiding. You know, if you've ever thought about this, Adam and Eve, we kind of laugh, oh, they hid in the bushes and made coverings of fig leaves. But you know what it at least showed about them? Their conscience was still operative. Their conscience was still operating. In America, among unbelievers in the West in general, conscience, remember how Paul described it in 1 Timothy? Their consciences are seared with a hot iron. They don't function anymore. Now, every now and then, you know, fear of God's judgment will get through and 450 congressmen will sing God Bless America on the Capitol steps when planes hit buildings. But in practical life, there's no fear of God before their eyes. But on a positive note, God has called us to something better. You know, it's interesting that what we lost in Adam, Jesus restores us to. So we can sing again in our marriages if we follow God's blueprint here, cleaving. Lawful authority, oneness, husband's thinking. Wait a minute, this is my other half. This isn't somebody who's just an annoyance and gets in my way and stops me from doing what I want to do. This is my other half. I need to treasure her and love her, as Paul says in Ephesians 5.29, as I love my own body and nourish and cherish her as I take care of myself. And then we sing again. You know, here's something really, really odd. Don't get your emotional feelings about 2015 or 2016 by what you're reading that's happening in the city of man. God has given us something better and nobler by his grace. And so in our marriages, we can sing and rejoice. I'm really sorry that the other city is burning to the ground in this country. This country had the gospel. Its leaders professed Christ. George Washington one time said Jesus Christ is the founder of the United States of America. Can you imagine any president in the 20th century saying this? Or even the second half of the 19th century? I think not. So the mighty have fallen, and it's impacted everything, and especially this most fundamental unit of marriage. What a pity that in the United States today, only one in four children, one in four, is born in a home where both birth parents are there and married. Brokenness at the outset. because we have broken God's covenant. Let us repent and seek the Lord Jesus and pray that God will have mercy upon our nation and that He will give us pure hearts. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Purify your hearts, you double-minded, said James. Let's heed this and purify our hearts and seek the Lord and then we'll sing again in our marriages and be ready in our callings to serve God. Let's pray. Our Father, we bless you for your goodness to us and for these fundamental foundational words that you have given to define marriage and life and joy and unity between the man and the woman and what our purposes are. And we bless you. Thank you that you didn't just make us and say, go figure it out yourself, but you have shown us what is good and what does the Lord require of me. And we pray that you would give us hearts to heed it. And even if we find ourselves somewhere in the middle of our pilgrim way and we've gone astray, Lord, I have no doubt, I know I need to work on and seek you to work on my own marriage relationship. And I know all of us would feel the same. We would be more one, have more communion, more joy, more seeking of you together, more intimacy. to rejoice in your goodness. Help us, O Lord, to seek that. Thank you that you offer it to us. And the Lord Jesus, you are the healer of all of our diseases, including our lusts, our lack of self-control, our wandering eyes, our wayward hearts. Corral us to yourself. Tame us, O mighty Savior, that we might be yours and yours alone. We ask in your name. Amen.