All right, let's stand for the reading of God's word. Please take your Bibles and find Revelation 19. If you are a young person this morning, I'm talking about middle school, I would love it if you would pay attention. I would appreciate it if you would pay attention if you're in middle school this morning. I wonder if you're in middle school if you'd put your phone away. Just completely put your phone away. Told somebody in the 830 service it'd be wonderful if we were like in one of those special places like JSOC and everyone had a little slot outside in the hallway that you dropped your phone in. And you got a little key and then you just put your phone in there and at the end of the service you'd get it back out, you know, and it'd be in your little box. I can't help but to think how many middle schoolers are not learning truth because of the phone. I wonder if you'd be different this morning. You'd be the only one on your pew that listens. After this I heard what seemed to be a loud voice or the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven crying out, hallelujah. Salvation and glory belong to our God, for His judgments are true and just. He has judged the great prostitute, the one who corrupted the earth with her immorality, has avenged on her the blood of His servants. Once more, they cried out, Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever, and the 24 elders, four creatures, fell down, worshiped God, who was seated on the throne, saying, Amen. Hallelujah! Praise our God, came a voice from the throne. Praise our God. See the progression here. First, it's the multitude. Then after the multitude, it's the four and 20 elders, it's the living creatures. And then after that, it's a voice from the throne saying, praise our God. Praise our God, all his servants, you who fear him, small and great. Then I heard what seemed to be a voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters, like the sound of a mighty peals of thunder, crying aloud, Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory. Why? For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Let's pray. Amen. God bless the preaching of your word this morning. Would you, oh God, be exalted? Would the distractions be minimals, the in and out of the auditorium, all the comings and goings, would it be the least? Would the leaders on the pews, would they lead by example, oh God? Would they show other young people what right looks like as they listen to the preaching of your word, as they fall along in the Bibles that they carried into the auditorium? Would you, O God, minimize the digital distractions this morning and exalt your holy name in the preaching of your word to your honor and to your glory, in Jesus' name, amen. Let's move through the opening of this section of scripture. I want to get to the reference to marriage in just a moment. Hallelujah. This is a proclamation of praise the Lord. Interestingly enough, it's only found here. Hallelujah is found three times in this chapter, and only in this chapter. Salvation probably has specific reference to those who've been saved out of the destruction of Babylon. Not salvation in a general term, although God is obviously to be praised in the salvation that he brings through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the context seems to be referring, in particular, to this incredible judgment that was rendered upon Babylon. And God, in his providence, has protected his people. He has saved them from this destruction. Now, if one wonders if God is just to destroy the earth in judgment after judgment, and really, that's what happens. We've been doing chapter after chapter of God judging and God judging and God judging and God judging, and the last chapter was fallen, fallen is Babylon. It's gone. It's utterly destroyed. And so now if one wonders, what right has God to kill and destroy? If one wonders, is God a monster arbitrarily inflicting judgments? The text says, no, no, no. Actually, He's true and just. He's a true and just God. No one's getting what they don't deserve. Everyone's getting what they deserve according to the texts. His judgments are true. Why? Because she is a great prostitute. She's a great prostitute. She's guilty of corrupting the earth with her immorality and she has been killing Christians. The blood of his servants, those that she, this monster Babylon, the moniker of the world system, been eliminating Christians and now God is avenging their blood. She is the great prostitute in contrast to the bride of Christ. She versus she. This has been a tale of two women and tale of two cities. And we're wrapping it up now. We're transitioning now to the bride of Christ in contrast to the great prostitute. The bride is clothed in fine linen, pure and bright. The city of God, the New Jerusalem, is coming down from heaven. It is the city of God. It is not the city of man. It will be filled with the elect of God, not the earth dwellers. It is holy and righteous instead of sinful and wicked. The King of kings and the Lord of lords will reign there instead of the kings of the earth. It is coming down from heaven instead of being destroyed from heaven. It's built by God instead of being built by man. Now that's chapter 16 through about 22 summed up in one chart. Babylon must be judged for corrupting the world. It's not okay for Babylon to corrupt the world. It's not okay for Babylon to infiltrate the public school system and corrupt the minds of our children. It is not okay for Babylon to have such an impact on the world. She must be judged. Church, remember, Babylon is not one particular city. It's a moniker. The first city of Babylon is in Genesis 11, in which they said, let's build ourselves a way to heaven instead of obeying God's command, which was to scatter and occupy and have dominion over the earth. Once more, they cried out, hallelujah, praise the Lord. And let me remind you, if you're uncomfortable praising God, you'll probably be uncomfortable in heaven. probably be a little awkward for you to be up there. Because we praise our God. Let everything that hath breath praise ye the Lord. And if you are not joining the congregation, we're praising God. Ask yourself, am I saved? Am I saved? Am I a new creature in Christ? Has God redeemed me? Has God delivered me from this sinful body? Because God's people praise the Lord. The smoke from her goes up forever and ever. We know this is figurative language intended to magnify the word hallelujah. You say, how do we know that, Pastor John? Because God creates a new heaven and new earth. So Babylon doesn't burn eternally. It's a means of magnifying the significance of the declaration hallelujah. Amen. What's the word amen there? Affirm. True. Say it again. For example, the preacher may pray, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. And all God's people said, Amen. Because we all collectively affirm the desire for God's kingdom to come. The amen is not an end to a prayer. It's an affirmation of saying, we believe this is true. Bring it together, make it happen. We join you in this declaration. Praise our God, all his servants, you who are fear and you who are small. I say this is the voice probably of the Lamb of God coming out of the throne of God because of what we saw last week where it happened earlier. I'm the Alpha and the Omega, also coming out of the throne of God." So first we had the multitude saying, praise the Lord. Then we had the 24 elders saying, praise the Lord. The four living creatures praising the Lord. And now Jesus says, praise our God. And I asked this morning, does all this rejoicing over the destruction and death of people in Babylon seem a little anti-Christian? Because that's what we're doing right now. We are going crazy as a great multitude that people are being destroyed. And it might seem a little like anti-Christian. I can't believe that you guys are rejoicing over the death of innocents in a city called Babylon. Do you remember when the Germans rejoiced over the fact that a man by the name of Hitler had been eliminated from the face of the planet? Why? Because he was a monster. He was a monster responsible for the death of so many people, a monster responsible. And so this is not anti-Christian, this rejoicing over the Babylon, the great prostitute being defeated. On this side of eternity, we pray that each and every sinner will repent, on this side of eternity. We don't rejoice in the death of anyone on this side of eternity. We pray that the worst of sinners will come to Christ in repentance. But on the other side, When we get to the other side, when repentance is no longer possible, and that terrorist that was responsible for killing so many lives is now getting what is just and true, we rejoice. We rejoice. The murderers, the immoral, the kidnappers, the sorcerers, the idolaters, the thieves, the drunkards, the terrorists, the greedy, those who practice homosexuality and all liars are going to have their part in Lake of Fire. You say, why do you say such a thing like that? To scare you. To show you what the text says. That God is not okay with you being a habitual liar. That God is not okay with you being filthy, greedy, selfish, covetousness. No. These qualities are not okay. Hallelujah. For the Lord God reigns. He reigns. This is the culminating event. He will now reign forever and ever. And then we get to this reference. Let us rejoice and exalt and give him glory. Why? For the marriage of the Lamb has come. The marriage of the Lamb is the culmination of human history. God's people are now going to be permanently united with their God forever and ever. And so what I would say to you is marriage is a big deal in the Bible. Marriage is a big deal in the Bible. And that's where I'm going this morning. I'm not afraid of preaching practical truths from the book of Revelation, because they're there. This is a big deal. Consider the reality that the Bible opens with God presenting a bride to the first Adam, and the Bible closes with God presenting a bride to the second Adam. Now, what do you want to do with that? Think about what I just said to you. Don't just let this go by. Young people, let me teach you something. The book of Genesis written by Moses and the book of Revelation written by John tell the same story. Your Bible opens with Adam getting a bride and your Bible closes with the second Adam getting a bride. And John never met Moses and Moses never met John. They lived at least 2,000 years apart. 1,600 years apart. Two different languages. They never met each other and yet they tell one story. You figure that out. You figure out how amazing this book is. It's going to open with a garden. It's going to close with a garden. It's going to open with the tree of life. It's going to close with the tree of life. It's going to open with God having communion with his people in a place of NNC. And it's closing with God having communion with his people in a place of NNC. Now that's an amazing story. Nobody else on the planet has anything like this. Nobody, nobody, nobody. No other religion. We are the only ones that have such a unique story. And it's amazing. And we're going to make a big deal of the fact that God opens without him getting a bride and God closes without him getting a bride. Genesis 2 22 says the rib that the Lord had taken from the woman He made into a woman and brought her to the man the rib that he'd taken the Lord had taken from the man He made into a woman and brought her the man. This is why we say God ordained marriage This is why the church teaches that marriage is God's idea because God saw that Adam was alone and it was not good for him to be alone and God made him a helper God made him a helpmate brought him to Adam and Marriage is the fundamental building block of society. Marriage is the fundamental building block of society, and Babylon is taking apart that building brick by brick. Babylon is doing everything it can to destroy the institution of marriage. Three facts, none of them good. One, fewer Christians are getting married and staying married. Two, Christians are waiting longer to get married. Three, Christians are having fewer children than ever before. All three bad. All three bad and should be dealt with. Genesis 2 24 says, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, hold fast, hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Genesis presents marriage as one man one woman united in a covenant relationship of commitment before God and humanity The words hold fast remind us of the permanency of marriage Now turn in your Bible to Matthew 19. I Need you to see this in your own Bible. I don't want to just show you on this screen. I need you to see this apologetic in your own Bible What are we going to do with Genesis? What are we going to do with Genesis 1, 2, and 3? How will we view Genesis 1, 2, and 3? What should we make of this idea of leaving father and mother and holding fast to a wife, and the two shall become one flesh? Is this an invention of society? Is marriage a societal construct? The church loudly says, no, it's not. Genesis, I'm Matthew rather 19 The Pharisees came to Jesus and tested him by asking is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? He answered referring to Jesus. Have you not read now, please notice the structure of this language is so important Have you not read that he? He, masculine pronoun. Now we're wondering who is the antecedent to that he? It is the one who created them from the beginning. You get that? Let's look at it together now. You've got a seed in your Bible. Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning, the one that made them male and female and what? Said. Do you know what Jesus did? He attributed the authorship of this to the creator God. He didn't say this is Moses's idea. This is divine inspiration right here. This text right here. This instruction that marriage is defined as one man and one woman who hold fast in a permanent relationship forever. This is God's idea. This is God's idea. This is not Moses' construct for Israel. This is not an editorial comment re-inserted afterwards by Moses or some other scribe. This is Jesus saying, God said this. Notice who Jesus gives credit of authorship to. It's to God. According to Jesus, God defined marriage as one woman, one man, one woman becoming one flesh. Babylon has ignored God's definition of marriage. Babylon has rebelled against God's restriction of intimacy to marriage. Babylon has redefined marriage. And here's the reality. The church is going with Babylon. The church is siding with Babylon every time we turn around. Look at Genesis 12 with me on the screen. This is the story where Abraham and Sarah are going to Egypt. And Sarah must have been quite the looker because Abraham is very concerned about losing his wife to Pharaoh. So he says, tell everyone you're my sister. I want you to see how God protects the sanctity of marriage. but the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues." Why did you do that, God? Because of Sarah, Abraham's wife. God was protecting the covenant relationship between Abraham and Sarah. Abraham, in fearing for his life, allowed Sarah to go in with Pharaoh as though she was his sister. He couldn't say that he was a wife because Abraham thought he'd kill me and take my wife. And God says, I'm gonna protect the integrity of this marriage with plagues until Pharaoh figures it out. Look at the next verse. So Pharaoh called Abraham and said, what is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your what? Wife, your wife. Imagine that. Understanding that marriage limits who she can sleep with. And God did that. God protecting the sanctitary of holy matrimony, God is protecting it in Genesis 12, 17, and the church is abandoning it in 2019. Leviticus 20, 10. If a man commits adultery with his wife of his neighbor, Both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be surely put to death. How many are thankful for God's grace? Amen. We are not executing people at every members meeting. There is this thing called forgiveness. Praise the Lord for it. But the fact that you can be forgiven doesn't minimize the legitimacy of the sin. Here are two realities that should be of great concern to the church. Number one, fewer adults are getting married than ever before. Number two, more children are being conceived and born out of wedlock than ever before. That should bother the church. A church who cares about people, a church who cares about people does not want children to be born out of wedlock. You say, what's the big deal, Pastor Sean, whether they've got some piece of paper between them or not? It's just man's construct. It's just an invention of society. Not true. Here's the reality. By every measurable metric, every measurable metric, high school graduation, high school dropouts, drug use, alcoholism, average median income, time in prison, all of the metrics that we use to measure success, children with a mom and dad in the same household crush the children who are born to single moms. That's the reality. That's the truth. It doesn't mean that they crush them all. It doesn't mean that you can't overcome. It doesn't mean that God's grace isn't sufficient. It doesn't mean that you can't make a difference single mom. There's always exceptions to all the rules. But as a norm, children who have a mom and dad living in the same household always do better. Always. In one of our demographics, it's as high as 70% being born out of wedlock. 70% we cannot say we love our neighbor and ignore this This is a love your neighbor issue Babylon is influencing the church as never before Fewer in the church are marrying some denominations are letting Babylon define marriage for them. God's elect are routinely marrying earth dwellers How are you going to decide how your children should be raised when you marry an earth dweller I But he is cute. Cute is not going to cut it at 40 years old. I promise you that. You will completely abandon cute. That will go. It is happening all over the place. You say why are we talking about this? I thought we were talking about end times. This is a sermon on end times. This is a sermon about marriage. It's not an accident that God chose marriage as the presentation of his relationship to his people. He could have chose any institution he want, but instead he said, this is how I want to communicate how important this is to me. God chose marriage as the institution to portray his relationship to his people. Since God chose marriage as the institution to portray his relationship to his people, shouldn't we as his people hold marriage in the highest regard We must guard against letting Babylon influence our understanding and perspective on marriage. This is from the Common Book of Prayer of the Anglican Church in 1789. This is the introductory instructions. at the day and time appointed for the solemnization, a solemn occasion. So this is the formalizing of holy matrimony. Read it on the screen with me. The persons to be married shall come into the body of the church or shall be ready in some proper house with friends and neighbors, and they're standing together, the man on the right hand, the woman on the left, and the minister shall say. Now let's see what the minister's supposed to say according to the Book of Common Prayer. What will he say? Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God, in the face of this company, to join together this man and woman in holy matrimony. We don't use those words anymore. Holy matrimony. That's my partner. We're getting married. Hold on. Holy Matrimony, which is an honorable estate instituted of God in the time of man's innocency, referring to Adam and Eve in the garden, signifying unto us the mystical union that is between Christ and the Church, ...which holy estate Christ adorned and beautified with his presence, and the first miracle which he wrought in Canaan of Galilee, commended of St. Paul to be honorable among all men, and therefore is not by any to be entered into it unadvisedly, lightly, but with reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, in fear of God. They got it right. That's a great paragraph. We ought to embrace that. We ought to say, I want to hear those words at my wedding. Instead, we're writing our own vows with almost no regard to Scripture. In the Old Testament, Jehovah is presented as the bride and the wife, Israel is presented as the bride and wife of Jehovah. All over the place. Isaiah 49, Isaiah 50, Isaiah 54, Isaiah 62, Jeremiah 2, Jeremiah 3, Ezekiel 16, Hosea 1. In this passage, marriage covenant language is used and Israel's faithlessness is described as whoring and adultery. Incredible. Let me show you Malachi 2. Let me show you Malachi 2. Why don't we turn there? We have enough time. Let's turn to Malachi 2. It's a very powerful scripture. Easy to find. It's right next to Matthew. Malachi 2. I'm gonna look at verse 14 with that first sentence that begins with the word because. And the context is why, why are you not hearing us? We're weeping, we're mourning, we're groaning. You're not regarding our offerings, you're not regarding what we present to you. Why? Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth. To whom you have been faithless. Now get this, God's watching us. God's watching whether you're going to be faithful to your wife or your youth. God is looking down from heaven and he's saying, are you being faithful? Though she is your companion and the wife by what? Covenants. God is not okay with us breaking our marriage covenant promises. God's like, that's fine. I don't mind. Try again for someone else. She probably wasn't your soulmate anyway. That's Babylon influencing our thinking. Let's keep reading. Did He, did He not make them one? Oh, you thought you made yourself one? No, He made you one. He made you one. Wait a minute. He made them one with a portion of the Spirit in their union. And what was the one God seeking? What was He seeking? What did He want to underline in your Bible, circle in your Bible? He wanted godly offspring. God's plan was for you to get married and you to get married. And then from that union, that one flesh, God wanted godly offspring. Godly offspring. That's why I'm still parenting. So praying every day. Praying, praying, praying. Text messages to a 24 year old male. Reminding him that there is a God in heaven. That God expects him to live a life that's glorifying. God expects him to worship Him. God expects him to be a man of integrity. God expects him to keep the law. God expects him to serve Him. I'm not done. Why? Because God desires that Pam and I have a godly offspring. But he's 18. Where do you see that in Scripture? Where do you see some number that takes us off the hook? Where do you get to pass the buck because of some number? That's Babylon influencing our thinking. And we, as the church, need to make sure Babylon does not impact how we think. We're not Babylonians. We're not earth dwellers. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are the elect of God. Utterly different from the earth dwellers. Babylon has no impact on my thinking. I'm able to see it as Babylonian and reject it as such. God desires a godly offspring, so guard yourself in your spirit. Let none of you be faithless to the wife of your love, for the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not be faithless. Do not. In the New Testament, Jesus makes much about marriage in multiple situations and scenarios. Paul magnifies marriage as the mystery of Christ in the church. And then John goes out of his way to tell us that the culmination of human history is the marriage of the Lamb. Matthew 19, six through seven, what therefore God has joined together, let no man separate, let not man separate. They said to him, why then did God command to give a bill of divorcement? Why didn't we get a way out? Oh, it's fine. No, it's not. The answer is because of your hardness of what? Heart. Now look, I know in this congregation divorce is present. I got it. Get it right on your second marriage. Get it right. Fix it. Don't enter into that second marriage lightly or unadvisedly. Spend more time praying about it. Spend more time thinking about it. Contemplate it with greater series of integrity. And when you get there, realize you married a sinner. And the next marriage will be another sinner. And the fourth one will be another sinner. And there are no sinless people on the planet. Jesus performs his first miracle at the wedding. That's a big deal. It's not an accident that Jesus attends the wedding and performs his first miracle there. In John chapter four, I'm gonna talk about John four, then my translation to John eight, two different events. I wanna show you some similarities and I wanna teach you from both of them. John four and John eight, two different events. In John four, Jesus calls a woman who's not married and living in sin. This is this Samaritan woman. Go and call your husband. Come here." The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you are right in saying, I have no husband, for you've had five husbands, and the one that you now have is not your husband. What you said is true. Jesus defined marriage. And he said, you can't live with someone and be intimate like that unless you're married to them. And he doesn't give her a bye. He doesn't say, don't worry about it. He says, what you said is actually true. Now in John chapter 8, this is the scenario in John 8, where Jesus is confronted with the woman that was found in adultery. Remember this? It seems like the Pharisees and Sadducees may have in fact even set her up. And they bring her and say, come on, let's stone her. Join in the thing. And from Jesus' simple little sentence, we learn four things. Let me show them to you. Number one, the importance of marriage as the one place where intimacy is not sinful. Number two, the truth that fornication, sexual morality, adultery is all sin. And to the glory of God, number three, that sin can be forgiven. Amen. He said, Pastor Sean, I've committed fortification. It is forgiven if you're in Christ. And number four, the expectation that sin does not continue. And let me show it to you. Jesus stood up and said to them, women, where are they that condemn you? Has no one condemned you? She said, no one, Lord. And he said, neither do I condemn you. Go from now on and sin no more. Real simple idea. Does he call it sin? Yeah. Does he forgive her? Does he forgive her? How do we know she is forgiven? How do we know she is forgiven? Was she stoned to death? Then she was forgiven. Is he okay with her lifestyle? No. He says go and do what? Sin no more. Paul teaches that marriage is this amazing picture of Christ in the church. Turn to Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. I'm trying to show you that from the beginning of your Bible to the end of your Bible, it makes a big deal of marriage. A big deal. And the church is no longer making a big deal of marriage. The church is so afraid of offending anyone that it won't make a big deal of marriage. We are going to see in our lifetime, the United Methodist Church split right in half. We're going to see it in our lifetime. The conservatives are not going to allow the liberals to take it away from them. And the liberals are not going to put up with the progressive, the conservative nature of the traditionalists. On what issue? Marriage. And how it's defined. And the Methodists from Africa are saying that God has already defined it. And it needs to be left the way God defined it. And the progressives are saying, no. It's a societal construct that can evolve and be modified. Now that's the issue. And the church is wavering all over the place. Wavering. Ephesians 5. Yes, the church is wavering on the Bible, Rob, and the Bible is either the Word of God or it's not. 22. Ephesians 5. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church and his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Why? That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water of the words, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. This is what Paul is describing in Revelation 19. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it. So Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. And look, how many times do we keep seeing this scripture? Therefore, therefore a man shall leave his video games and the basement of his mom and dad. Time to grow up. Men take lives. That's what we do. Step one. Get yourself a good puberty. And then we move from there. It's God's plan. And we're walking away from it in droves. We don't get this for some reason. 29 years old and no interest in women. Something is wrong. Now I know that Paul speaks about this rare gift of celibacy. But those who get this gift are serving the Lord with a passion. They're not playing video games till 3 o'clock in the morning and having a little piddly part-time job. They're living for the kingdom of God. They're missionaries. They're taking the gospel forward in amazing ways, unencumbered by a wife and a family. It's not that they're too caught and picking lazy to do the hard work of getting a wife. So do I offend you? Good. Get out of the basement and get yourself a wife. It's a good thing. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife The wife of his youth who's described as a companion in a covenant relationship Therefore a man shall leave his father mother hold fast to his wife and they too shall become one flesh This is a mystery profound and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church. I So the marriage supper of Revelation 19 is the fulfillment of Ephesians 5, 27. The writer of Hebrews speaks to marriage. He says, let marriage be held in honor among all. Let marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexual immoral and the adulterous. When someone sleeps with another man's wife or someone sleeps with another woman's husband, he or she is not honoring marriage. I can't sleep with you. You're married. We can't sleep together. You're married. You're married. I respect marriage too much. We will not cross that line because you are married. So five things the Bible teaches us in review. Number one, that God is the author and definer of marriage. Not the state. We don't comply with them. We believe in separation of church and state. They don't influence us, we influence them. Number two, marriage is the first institution God created as the building block of human society. Starts with a pew buddy. Somebody in the church. Someone part of your faith. Someone with the same values you have. Someone appreciates the gospel like you do. Somebody who believes in the Bible like you do. And it goes from there. Number three, marriage is the one place where intimacy is holy and God-glorifying. The one place. It's the one place. Number four, marriage is the ultimate picture of the love relationship between Christ and his church and God and his people. It's the ultimate. All marriages need to reflect the gospel. And number five, marriage is for life. This is a series of pictures on the screen of the marriage between William, Prince William, and Kate Middleton. And it was quite the royal wedding. And it was pretty amazing. I want you to listen to the words that were spoken at this wedding by the officiating minister. First, referring to marriage now, he's going to give us three points about marriage. And I want you to hear what he has to say concerning marriage. First marriage, it was ordained for the increase of mankind. The increase of mankind. According to the will of God and that children might be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord and to the praise of his holy name. We're getting married. We're gonna have children. We're gonna teach our children the gospel. They're gonna learn about God. They're gonna live for God's glory and God's honor and we're bringing them into the world. And number two, it was ordained in order that the natural instincts and affections implanted by God should be hallowed and directed right. The very word right implies that there's a wrong way that they can also be directed. And he says there's a right way and there's a wrong way and marriage is about getting on the right path. It should be directed right that those who are called of God to this holiest state should continue therein in what? In what? Look at this language. Pureness of living. We're getting married. Why are you getting married? Because marriage is honorable. Marriage is pleasing to God. Because there can be no sexual intimacy until we get married. We're not living together for six months to figure out whether we're compatible or not. That's the world's way, Mike. And when a Christian starts talking about we're getting married, you don't live together? You're like, you haven't, what? You're getting married? You haven't lived together yet? No, no, we're not living together until we get married. you literally stand out like salt and light. You're utterly different. Thirdly, another great paragraph, just a superb paragraph. Thirdly, it was ordained for the mutual society of help and comfort that the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity." Oh, that is so good! You're not enjoying it the way I am? You want Instagram? You want a little tweet? Maybe a video? Words don't mean anything to you anymore? You can't see the glory of this idea of mutual society. That is human beings taking care of each other. Not dependent upon the government to provide for all their needs. Individuals who love each other and care for each other. Not worrying about big brothers stepping in and making sure everything's fine. A wife who says, I've got your back. A husband who says, I'll give my life for you. Third, in comfort one another ought to have the other both in prosperity and what? And what? Adversity. You know why we're waiting on getting married? Because we don't want any adversity. I'm not exaggerating. You know when we're gonna get married? When we have lots of money. You know why you don't want to get married before you have lots of money? Because you don't want any adversity. It's pitiful. It's pitiful. It means that the love of money is more important than the love of God. You tell me I'm wrong. It means that I will gratify my sexual needs outside of marriage until we make lots of money. You get your PhD, I'll get my PhD, we'll have $100,000 in the bank, and then we can have a $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 wedding and really do it up. Meanwhile, you've been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting to get married 15 years. You've been living on your own accord the entire time, and now we figure out why you're so struggling to get together. We were looking for something. I was going through the file and couldn't find it, John, just looking, looking. Man, we're going through everything. I was so exasperated. In the process of looking for this one piece of paper, I found my old LES's, leave earning statement from the army. This is when they were on the green pieces of paper, a little dot matrix printer. Some of you can remember, the few heads are nodding. Net pay when we got married. Net pay, this is twice a month, $384. And you know what? We made it. We made it. We made it on a piddly amount of money. You know why? Because we were in love. And can I tell you something? 30 years later, we're still in love. July, 30 years for us, 30. And we were dirt poor. We needed a lot of money. We had each other. And that adversity that we went through built memories. Today's generation wants no adversity. They're entitled to everything. And they're putting marriage off to avoid adversity. Adversity does a body good. Four things we must do to show marriage matters very quickly. Number one, we must celebrate. We must celebrate. Celebrate. That's why I notice when you get a pew buddy. I'm paying attention. We're not sitting up there distant, far away, and I have no clue who you are, and you're sitting in a theater seat. This is the family. And when I see you're getting a pew buddy, it's like, okay, you're on the right step, keep it up. What's going on here? Engagements. I mentioned in church, and we all go crazy about it. You know why? Because it's another step towards marriage. When you see it on Facebook, like it and post it and amen it and do everything you can on it. Glory to God it. When we have a bridal shower, attend it. When we have a baby shower, go there. When you get invited to a wedding, show up. and show up with a little something you're wearing, you know? Not your flip-flops and your stuff that you wore in the morning when you were mowing your grass. Dress up a little bit, so that you know this is a big deal. Somebody's getting married. When you get to the dinner invite and you go over there, congratulations and bring a little gift. Number two, we must guard and protect the sanctity and definition of marriage. You say, Pastor Shawn, what'd you make such a big deal about the middle schoolers paying attention? Because they're tomorrow's church. I'm gonna die. No doubt about it. I'm gonna die and go the way of all. And what about the next preacher of Berean? Will he lead them to cave? Or will there be a bunch of middle schoolers who've been taught well and they'll say, not in this church, preacher. The elders and deacons of this church will say, not in this church, preacher. We are Genesis 1, 2, and 3 church. We believe in one woman, one man, one flesh. You've got to go somewhere else, because Berean's going to stay by the stuff. Amen. Number three, we must create a culture whereby getting married is what God's people do. It ought to be abnormal that you're not getting married, not normative. Marriages and babies are indications of a healthy church. We had two born this week, male and female. One of them is here this morning, cutest little adorable thing in the world. The other one will be right around the corner, filling our nurseries up. Glory to God. Number four, our marriages, we have to work so hard at making sure our marriages picture Christ and the church. We need to live out the gospel in our marriages. Till death do us part. Let's pray. God, go with us with your grace and peace. Thank you, God, for being so long-suffering and merciful when we've made a mess of marriage. Forgive us, O God, for our lack of consistency and commitment. Give our daughters men who will marry them. Give us, O God, young men who will become old men, who will mentor young men again and again. Give us moms who are raising boys to be men. Give us women who understand that there is no perfect man out there. Oh God bless us with your Spirit in this area of your church. In Jesus name. Amen.