Well, good morning, brethren. It is a blessing to be in the Lord's house on his day. We have come to praise and worship his name as his people. And we are thankful for the opportunity to come to his word and hear what he has to say to us. And this morning we come to chapter 25 in our study of the confession of faith. This chapter talks about the doctrine of marriage, what we believe the Bible teaches regarding marriage. But before we begin our study, let's let's seek the Lord's help and prayer. Lord, our God. We praise your name for your loving kindness and truth. It is by your mercy that we are here bowing the knee before you, and we are not somewhere else bowing the knee before idols. We are thankful, Lord, that as your flock, you gather us and you lead us to green and delicate pastures in your word. And we come with great expectation, Lord, that you will speak to our souls and feed us. Lord, we know that the ordinary means by which you save sinners is by the teaching and the preaching of your word. And we pray that in the Sunday school and both worship services, May Your Word come with power by the operation of Your Spirit, and edify us who are already part of Your Son's body, but also save sinners in our midst in this day, we pray. Give us wisdom and understanding to consider these truths. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so chapter 25 of the London Baptist Confession of Faith Yes, please. And there's a handout that will help us in parts of our study. You may find the Confession of Faith in the back of the Blue Trinity hymnals. May I have some volunteers to help me read this chapter? There's only four paragraphs. We have one. One more, two, three, four. Okay, so Miss Stevenson, you may begin with paragraph one. Marriage is to be between one man and one woman. Neither is it lawful for any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have more than one husband at the same time. Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife, for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue, and for the preventing of uncleanness. It is lawful for all sorts of people to marry who are able with judgment to give their consent. Yet it is the duty of Christians to marry the Lord. And therefore, such as profess the true religion, should not marry with infidels or idolaters, neither should such as are godly be ungodly. forbidden in the Word, nor can such incestuous marriage even be made lawful by any law of man or consent of parties, so as these persons may live together as man and wife. So that's what our confession says on the doctrine of marriage. But I would like us to begin our class with a pop quiz on the things that we have just read. Can anybody tell me what's missing in these four paragraphs regarding marriage? Tom. That's one of the questions that's left unanswered by our confession, the question of divorce and separation. We're going to come back to that at the end of our session today. But there's one more question that our confession doesn't explicitly answer for us. Alex. Yes, I wasn't thinking of that one, but that's one of the issues that in our day we have to wrestle with. But even more basic, more basic of a question is left unanswered for us. Anybody? The confession assumes that we know what marriage is. is not giving us a definition of marriage. It is assuming that this is common knowledge to us. And perhaps it was safe for the framers of our confession and the framers of other Reformed confessions in the 17th century to make this assumption, but in our day we cannot afford to take this definition for granted. So, first of all, I would like us to begin by answering the question, what is marriage? At its core, marriage is the covenantal union between one man and a woman. In other words, it is the union of a man and a woman which results from their mutual oath, solemnly sworn before God and man, to give themselves to each other in all areas of life. When spouses enter into this covenant, a covenant of companionship, as one of your very own theologians have called it, Dr. Waldron in his commentary. And by the way, let me stop here to give credit to all the help I've received from many men, including Dr. Waldron, A.A. Hodge. I want to say this class, I don't know if I can use this term, but I'm gonna say it anyways. It's gonna be like holy plagiarism. Except it's not plagiarism, because I'm giving the credit where credit is due. But I have received a lot of help from many men. But when spouses enter this covenant of companionship, they are performing a religious act. Marriage is ordained of God, as we will see in a moment, and the man and the woman swear before God that they will do everything in their power to fulfill the demands of the commitment they're making to each other. But it is also a civil contract. They not only swear before God, but they also call men as witnesses of their promise to honor and protect their union. And for this reason, the civil government has the authority to regulate marriage when two persons, a man and a woman, unite themselves in the bond of marriage. There's property involved. There's going to be other human beings involved, and the children, etc. And it is the duty of the civil government. It is under their sphere of authority, as we were hearing the last two weeks, to regulate these matters. But what is the origin of marriage? Again, it would be dangerous for us to assume the answer to this question. Our confession does state that marriage is ordained, but it doesn't say by who. And we must affirm that marriage is a creational institution ordained of God. This is the teaching of the scripture. And undoubtedly, the most foundational text on this matter is Genesis 2, 18 to 25. And I would like us to go there and do a brief survey of this passage, Genesis 2, 18 and following, so that we could gain a better understanding of the foundation upon which the framers of our confession were building. And I'm gonna make some comments as we read. Verse 18. After creating the man, then the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. And here we see the inadequacy of singleness. And let me qualify what I mean when I use the word inadequate. I'm using this word as meaning it was insufficient for a purpose. The Lord says that it was not good for Adam to be alone for at least three reasons. Number one, God's purposes for creation could not be fulfilled by an individual man. The mandate that he's given, called by many the Dominion Mandate in Genesis 128, could not be fulfilled by Adam alone. But number two, man was created as a social being. And we've been taught that a person only exists in relationship to another person. He was created as a social being to exist in a society of people. But number three, Adam was created as a dependent being. By definition, we know that a creature is not self-sufficient. We all depend on our creator as creatures. So in this sense, Adam would always be dependent on his creator, but he also stood in need of a companion to satisfy his physical, emotional, and intellectual needs, among others. These needs, and this is important, these needs existed before sin entered into the world. And so if this is the case, Then Adam was lacking, and this is why I'm using the word inadequacy, he was lacking a helper. However, and let me make another qualification, this doesn't mean that single people are incomplete per se, or that being married is a more excellent state than being single. Until God providentially unites a man and a woman in the bond of marriage, that man and that woman are complete. Before getting married, they are two. It is only after they get married that they're called by our Lord Jesus Christ that they are no longer two but one. But before marriage, they are two complete human beings made in the image of God. Furthermore, believers are complete in Christ. Paul writes to the Colossians and he says, Christ, the head, in him the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form, and in him you are complete. So Christians, single Christians are complete. Nonetheless, it is not good for man to be alone. Single Christians will get the supply of grace that they need from their head, the Lord Jesus Christ, but if it is His will for them to get married, they cannot stay as singles indefinitely. It is not good for them to stay in that state indefinitely if it is the Lord's will for them to get married. So with this only exception, of for the singles who have received the special gift of continency. The Bible teaches that God has given the Bible teaches that God has given some the lack to lack sexual needs and desires so that they may wholly give themselves to the kingdom. But this is the only rule, this is the only exception to this rule. In general, it is not good for us to be alone, as God says of Adam. So we see the inadequacy of singleness, especially in the case of Adam, because of God's purposes for him and creation, with this only exception of the gift of continency for some adults. Let's keep reading on verse 18. It is not good for men to be alone. And then we see a divine promise. I will make him a helper suitable for him. The creator himself identifies man's need and promises to make provision for that need himself. Let's keep reading verse 19. Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, bird of the sky, and brought them to the man, what he would call them. So we see here a divinely appointed search for a man's companion, for that suitable helper that he needed. Now, notice that he's naming the creatures, and this was a way in which he was to fulfill the dominion mandate given to him in Genesis 128. But it's also important for us to notice that the names Adam gave to the creatures were descriptive of their nature, of who they were. They are the result of Adam's personal assessment of the creature. Knowing the creatures by name in this sense gave Adam the grounds to know whether or not any of these creatures could be his fit helper. But then we read in verse 20, the man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. The text indicates that the primary purpose of this long and tedious process was for Adam to realize that his companion was not going to come from the animals that were already created. The suitable helper that he needed had to be tailor-made by God. Verse 21, we see the divine provision for this need. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. He then took one's ribs and closed up the place. The Lord God, verse 22, fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man and brought her to the man. The Lord takes one of Adam's ribs and he fashions that rib into Adam's suitable helper. And some of the ancient interpreters and even some Puritans say, well, why was it a rib? And maybe there's some allegory here, but I think it's a valid one. They say, he took He made the woman from the rib, not from the man's head, that she might not rule over him, nor from his feet, that he might not trample over her, but from his rib, that she may always be close to his heart. I think that's a valid interpretation of that text. But then we see at the end, verse 22, that God himself walks the woman down the aisle and brings her to the man. and God brought her to the man. And the same is true for us today. In his providence, God is the one who brings our spouses into our lives. This is why the Lord Jesus could say, what God has joined together, let man not put asunder. Verse 23, we see man's response. Then the man said, At last, this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Adam is astounded. And when he sees the woman, he sees in her something that he had not seen in any of the other creatures. She is of one nature with her. She is also made in the image of God as he was made. She fulfills all the requirements of a suitable helper. He is naturally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually attracted to the woman. They complement each other. At last, Adam says, Oh Lord, after this long review of all your creatures and after having found none to be my helpmate, at last you have provided for my need. In these words, the man joyfully receives God's provision and notice, he identifies himself as one flesh with the woman. Verse 23, the last part. And she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. He names the woman even though in this instance there's not an explicit commandment for him to name her. He names her and he names her in relationship to himself. The name Adam gives the woman is the perfect description of her nature as a creature. Verse 24, we see the marriage union explained by Moses. Verse 24, for this reasons, Israelites coming out of Egypt, going into Canaan, this is what marriage looks like. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh. Verse 25, we see their marital intimacy. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. They lived in perfect fellowship, not even a piece of cloth stood between them. So it is very important for us to see in the Scriptures that God Himself designed and ordained marriage the institution of marriage, and this institution is not a human invention. Perhaps Adam felt his need for a companion, but he had no idea how to satisfy it. The most wise God was the one who identified his need and the one who satisfied that need. So after this brief, very basic survey of this Genesis 2 passage, We will now dive into the text of the confession and now many of the assertions that the framers make will be very obvious to us. Just a brief outline of this chapter. First we have its biblical rules on marriage. First part of paragraph one, we see the legitimate parties identified, and then also polygamy prohibited. Then we see the divine purpose for marriage, companionship, fruitfulness, and sexual purity. And number three, we see its restricted universality. the consensual restriction, the Christian restriction, and the natural restriction. So, in paragraph 1, we're going to see its biblical rules. Paragraph 1 defines the norm for marriage. For a marriage to be legitimate, it must conform to the biblical pattern. Any deviation from this biblical and divine blueprint is just that, a deviation or an aberration of divine truth that will be judged by God on the last day. So, first part of paragraph one, we see the legitimate parties identified. Marriage was designed to be a monogamous And this one has the Westminster and not the Baptist. So first part of paragraph one, we see that the Bible teaches monogamy. This is an obvious inference that we may draw from the nature of this covenantal union, but it is also explicitly taught in the scriptures. And the proof text that the framers use in this section, the first one is Genesis 2.24. For this reason, we just read it, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife. His wife, there's one single man and one single woman. And they, the two of them, shall become one flesh. Matthew 19, verse 5 and 6. In verse 5, we see a word-for-word citation of the Genesis 224 text. But listen to our Lord's application of this text on verse 6. Matthew 19, 6. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no person is to separate. Third text is 1 Timothy 3.2, an overseer then. Paul is given the qualifications of an overseer in the church of Christ. He must be above reproach. the husband of one wife, or in the original, a one-woman man. What about for the Cretans over in Crete, for Titus? Titus 1.6, Paul says the same exact thing. He who is qualified to be an elder, namely, if a man is beyond reproach, the husband of one wife. The scriptures teach that this covenantal union could only be composed of two, one man and one woman. But then, second part of paragraph one, we see polygamy prohibited. Neither is it lawful for any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have more than one husband at the same time. So from these texts it follows that, from the texts that we just read as well, it follows that polygamy is an aberration of marriage. But someone might object, what about the Old Testament saints? Abraham, David, you name it, there's many other more examples. What about them? They had polygamous marriages. And this is where quoting Dr. Waldron will keep me out of trouble. And I quote him on his modern exposition. The instances of polygamy among the Old Testament saints like Abraham, Jacob, David, and others were violations of God's law for marriage. Due to the lesser light of the Old Testament dispensation, such polygamy did not manifest the same degree of hardness of heart as it would today. the contracting of such polygamous marriages under gospel light would manifest a much more dangerous degree of hardness of heart. And that's all I'm going to say on that. Now we move to paragraph two, its divine purpose. We read, marriage was ordained And we can say marriage was ordained by God. And this is how some of the older confessions say it. Before even before Westminster, marriage was ordained of God for the mutual help of husband and wife, for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue and for the preventing of uncleanness. And in the handout, there's a little chart here that illustrates the three assertions that we just read. First one is companionship. Marriage was ordained for, it was ordained as a covenant of companionship between a man and a woman. Again, this is clearly seen in the Genesis account that we read earlier. The man and the woman complement each other. And their companionship extends to all areas of life. In verse 25, we see that they were naked and were not ashamed. So we see that there were no reservations between them. They had all things in common, we can say. It is true that the woman comes to be the man's helper, but the confession is right to call it a mutual help. because the man is also the woman's helper. But number two, we see it was given for the purpose of fruitfulness or procreation. God gave Adam and mankind the commandment to fill the earth. And we see it in the text cited here. He says to the man, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. This is not something that Adam could do by himself. He needed a companion to do this. But God also gave the limitation. He limited sexual activity that leads to procreation and to this filling and multiplying the earth. He limited that to the context of a permanent covenantal union between that man and that woman. Now, it is also important to say that if there's a couple who has not been given children, there are other ways in which they can serve the Lord. Adoption is a good work. before God, and then for other couples it is to give themselves more fully to the kingdom of God. But we also see that it was given for sexual purity. God gave marriage and He gave sex as well. And like we saw above, Adam was created with sexual desires, and these desires existed even before he fell in sin. And they could only be legitimately satisfied by his companion, the woman. And we also saw that, or we may also say that sin intensifies this need of both the man and the woman. After the man's fall, he is now in a constant fight against lust and disorderly passions. And God has provided marriage for these legitimate desires and also for us to avoid temptations in this area. Here, the confession cites two texts. The first one is 1 Corinthians. 7-2, but because of sexual immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. Second text in the same chapter, verse 9, but if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. Notice that both of these texts and the Confession are assuming that sexual activity outside of marriage, outside of this provision that God has made, is out of the question. It is sinful. It is uncleanness. It is not even an option for the satisfaction of these needs. In Hebrew 13.4, a proof text that they use for the paragraph below, we read, Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Paragraph 3, we see it's restricted universality. Uh, let me stop here and ask if there are any questions, comments, concerns, objections. Okay. So paragraph three, the confession does not try to be more strict than the Bible and regulating marriage. It acknowledges that all men may marry if they so desire, but it does stipulate three restrictions. The first one is the consensual restriction. Marriage is a voluntary commitment. And so those who are binding themselves in this commitment are to be able to give their consent, their reasonable consent. So here it speaks, it's implicit that there's a, Age restriction. People need to be of age and be able to give with judgment, to give their rational consent and know the type of commitment that they're entering into. And also, citing Dr. Waldron again, we must keep in mind that what is not sinful may yet be unadvisable. Just because you are free to marry doesn't mean that it's the best time for you to get married or that the partner that you're considering is the best one for you. But we must not forbid marriage. The apostle Paul says to Timothy in first letter, chapter four, verse three, that to forbid marriage is the teaching of demons. God has made this provision for men and women and we cannot forbid marriage except with the following restrictions. In the second part of the paragraph, we see the Christian restriction. For a Christian to marry anyone outside of the Christian faith is a clear violation of God's Word. It is also sinful for a Christian to marry someone who professes to be a Christian, but who denies the clear teaching of the Bible in doctrine or practice. And here we have two proof texts that the confession uses. Can I have some volunteers to go there? First one is 1 Corinthians 7, verse 39. Anyone? Pastor Ben. Yes, please. Yes. So the Apostle makes the, he restricts who a Christian can marry. It's only in the Lord. Anything outside of that would be a clear violation of God's word. We also are given the text Nehemiah 13, 25 to 27. I won't read the entire text, but Nehemiah, it says that, well, I'm going to read it to give a better picture because I think it's important. Verse 25, So I contended with them, and cursed them, and struck some of them, and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin regarding these things, as we learned in the last few weeks? Yet among the many nations there was not a king like him, and he was loved by God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, the foreign women caused even him to sin." And my brother, my sister, you are not wiser than Solomon. It is a dangerous thing for you to be playing around with temptation, dating unbelievers. It is a dangerous thing. Amen. So for a Christian to be unequally yoked by marrying an unbeliever is infidelity against the Lord. Nehemiah says, Why did you act unfaithfully against the Lord by marrying foreign women? But we also see in this paragraph the natural restriction. In Leviticus 18, the Bible teaches that marrying within close degrees of consanguinity is one of the detestable sins the Egyptians and the Canaanites committed against the Lord. And he says to the people of Israel, A people who were to be holy as He is holy, you shall not do like they do. They marry their daughter, their aunts, their uncles. It is a detestable thing before the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 5.1, the Apostle Paul talks about that man who was with his father's wife. detestable thing against the Lord. The Bible condemns incestuous marriages. But notice that our confession acknowledges the perpetuity of this prohibition by citing Leviticus 18. But it also cites the two New Testament passages, 1 Corinthians 5.1 and also Mark 6.18, where John the Baptist is rebuking Herod and saying it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. So that's a very basic bird's eye view of the confession. But now we come back to the question of divorce and separation. This is a question that is left unanswered by our confession, perhaps because some of the particular Baptists did not agree with divorce under any circumstances, or perhaps they had other reasons from the one cited in Westminster. But the Westminster Confession of Faith does dedicate two paragraphs to answering this question, and when you have time, it is a good read. The Bible clearly teaches about divorce, so it is good for us to know when divorce is ever lawful or justified. And what they say in those two paragraphs could be summarized as the two reasons that the Bible teaches is in the case of adultery, it is a breaking of the covenant of marriage by one of the spouses. The victim of adultery has the right to demand a divorce or they may forgive their spouse and try to heal and restore their marriage and move on. But it is left to the victim to decide how, what they want to do moving forward. But we are also, any comments or elaborations on that? Any of the elders? The second reason that they give is based on 1 Corinthians 7.15 and it is, I'm citing Hodge here, willful, causeless, and incurable desertion. Now they also say that because of man's wickedness, they are very apt to multiply excuses and reasons to give a letter of divorce. But the scripture only gives these two and no more. Now, I want us to consider some applications from these truths. And if you have any comments or questions, feel free to at any time. hop in, but the first one is, let us carefully consider and fulfill the demands of this covenant that we are in for us who are married. Our marriages are serious business, brethren. They are to image Christ's union to his church. So this covenant of companionship demands nothing less than a wholehearted commitment to our spouses. Men are called to love their wives as Christ loves the church and gave himself for her. The women are called to love their husbands and to submit to them as the church submits to Christ her head. Their love and commitment to each other may only be subordinate to their love and commitment to God. But a second application is that to defile this covenant is wickedness before the Lord. God has provided for the physical and emotional, etc., etc., many other needs of men and women. He has made a provision for us. in the institution of marriage and to look for the satisfaction of these needs outside of God's provision is folly and wickedness. Again, Hebrews 13, 4, let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled for God will judge the sexually immoral and the adulterous. And also, only God's provision is sufficient to satisfy our needs. Illicit sexual activity may provide a very brief moment of pleasure, but it can never really satisfy man's multidimensional needs for companionship. But also, let single Christians pray for a godly companion. If you're single, pray that God would provide you a man or a woman after His own heart. He created you with the needs and the desires for a suitable helper, so pray that God Himself would supply for that need. If you're a Christian, be sure that this provision will come in the form of another Christian man or woman, an unbelieving partner could only lure you into deserting the true God and to go after idols. Foreign women caused even Solomon to sin. So if you're a believer and you're entertaining the idea of entering into a relationship with an unbeliever, I don't know if you guys ever heard of missionary dating. That's a silly thing. Most times, the unbeliever wins the Christian to go back to the world instead of the other way around. So if you're entertaining a relationship with an unbeliever, please hear the words of God to you. Pastor Ben. God says in 2 Corinthians 6, 14, do not be bound together with unbelievers, for what partnership has righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? Pastor Ben. I was just going to say it's also a warning for those simple Christians desiring to date, marry someone else, to make sure that the person might even profess to be a Christian, and to make sure is not to marry somebody who has a wicked lifestyle or maintains damnable heresy. So, what about dating a Roman Catholic? Well, do they believe in damnable heresy? Well, if they believe in the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, then yes. Therefore, seeking after a spouse who is a devout Roman Catholic would also be forbidden by God's law. Amen. We've also got to dig in to even those who profess to be Christians to see if their profession is genuine. Amen. Well, and I think wisdom would even have us go farther than that. You know, they may have the box checked, but is that all that it is to them? Are they a godly person? Does it affect their daily life, or is it just something Alex? I've heard it said that the Mormons actually train their young women to go out and get guys to date them in a relationship to bring them into their faith. They're actually doing the opposite, headhunting that way. Amen. But also if you're a believer with an unbelieving spouse, fervently pray for your husband's or your wife's salvation. That you may experience this true fellowship and companionship in the Lord. But lastly, all our need for grace to keep our covenant with our spouses before the Lord. Proverbs 20 verse 9 asks the question, Who can say, I have kept my heart pure, I am cleansed from my sin? But if we have fallen short of God's demands for marriage, or if we have defiled our marriages and have sinned against God and our spouses, let us go to that fountain filled with blood A fountain for sin and uncleanness. Let us go in repentance, confessing our sins to God and to our spouses. But let us also go in the boldness of faith because that fountain is open for us. There is no sin that the blood of Christ cannot wash away. Christ came into the world to save sinners. He came to die for our sins, including our sins against our marriages. So let us go to Him in repentance and faith, and let us renew our commitments to love our spouses in the Lord. Amen.