This is a study on foundations within the Christian faith. We also call it keep the faith because we are guarding the faith that God has given to us in his word. And every word of God is a word by which we live. And these are foundations. That is, without this, we have no business going anywhere else in the word of God. We have to know about creation first before we get on to redemption. We have to know certain things first. And before we get to any other part of life, these first chapters in Genesis give us a basis, a foundation upon which to live. Now, by God's common grace, civilizations and tribes have been able to survive. for a period of time, but when they undermine the civilization by jettisoning the foundational truths that have been set there by God's ordination of creation, those civilizations and tribes are wiped off the earth. What makes this era so different, the current situation so different is that we understand why certain tribes like the Colusa tribe of Florida was wiped off the face of the earth. There's nobody left. We understand why small tribes in some civilizations, you know, we find their buildings in the jungles of South America. We understand why certain small tribes are wiped off the face of the earth. But what's unusual about the present day is that there is a much larger problem. The sheer magnitude of the civilizations that have dynamited their foundations is mind-blowing to the point that some might think that we are almost to the end of the world. In other words, what's unique about this era is that the civilizations that have dynamited the foundations are most of the world today, with the exception of the Church of Jesus Christ, wherever the Word of God is preached. So we are in a desperate and an urgent time to rebuild foundations. And the only place where it makes sense to get started on a project is right here in the church. So we begin with these very basic teachings. Evil men are growing worse and worse, 2 Timothy 3. But Paul says to Timothy, but you, Timothy, continue in what you have learned from the holy scriptures. In other words, no matter how bad it gets, the perilous times, evil men grow worse and worse. It doesn't matter, Timothy. You continue in the Word of God because all Scripture is given by inspiration of God to equip the man of God and the woman of God for every good work. So continue to build your lives on the Word of God. So whatever happens as civilizations are coming down around us, what do we do? What do the righteous do? Well, when the foundations are destroyed, what do the righteous do? The answer is really simple. Actually, people typically don't read on in Psalm 11. But what do the righteous do when the foundations are destroyed? You know it's coming down. You know that you know that civilizations cannot survive what we have been through. What in the world do the people of God do when the foundations are destroyed? The very next part of the verse says, God is in His holy temple. God is in His holy temple. Moreover, the Lord's throne is in the heavens. And so the only solution the day of catastrophic destruction is really go to church. And so much the more, as you see the day approaching, utter foolishness to abandon church in a day like this, when things are so bad, when the foundations are so undermined. This is the time to go to church, hear the Word of God again, and live it out in your own life. This is what we do in a day like this. So in our introductory messages over the previous three weeks, we looked at matters of origins, creation versus the pagan doctrine of evolution. We looked at the creation of man. We talked about gender. Man, male and female, in the image of God, created he them. We looked at dominion, being fruitful and multiplying, the blessing of children, churches with a birth rate of 4.7, not 1.2. Very essential for retaining any kind of civilization. So churches that have a birth rate of 4.7, that's actually a positive. Work as well, rest. Cultural beauty, we talked about that last week. Sacraments, the necessity of special revelation. Covenant, the economic value of gold. And community, the necessity of community for man versus isolation. So these are the things that we went over in the first several weeks of our study. And today we're moving on to marriage and clothing from verses 18 through 25 of our passage this morning. All right, let's begin with verse 18. We talked about this briefly last time, but let's get back into verse 18. And here again, God defines what is good and what is evil. In fact, this is the 10th reference to the word good in Genesis 1 and 2. I'm sure you've caught this. If there was a theme from chapters 1 and 2 of the book of Genesis, it's going to be that God defines what is good. So this is the 10th, so you should underline perhaps in your Bible each reference to that which is good because this defines what is of value to us. The world is always defining what is of value. What is of value is decadent forms of sexuality and not having any children and being in debt up to your eyeballs. The world tells you what is good. They've defined their standards of good. But God defines what is good. And so if we're going to serve God and submit ourselves to God as God, we have to realize that He is the very defining of what is good. And here again, what is good is that man is with others. It is not good that man be alone. It is not good for man to be alone. So God condemns the isolation. We talked about this last week. We're not going to go there very much, except as far as it connects to marriage. But God does not want man to be alone. This whole isolation concept of the modern age, not good, not good, but this is the zeitgeist of the day. Everything in the Western world, not so much South America, not so much Africa. In fact, there was a brother in Africa I ran into, this would have been maybe four or five years ago, And he had been in the States in the early 1990s, and his brother gave him the opportunity to stay and not to return to Uganda. And this brother, who's Christian, very godly Christian father, homeschooled his kids in Uganda, he was pressed with this question of whether to stay in America. He said, I'm not going to stay in America because American churches are extremely isolated from each other. There's very little relationship. And so we have community in Africa, but Americans are the most isolated people, the most lonely people on planet Earth, and I don't want to raise my children in that environment. So again, looking at America and the Western world from the outside, we see a tremendous isolation that has been the zeitgeist or the spirit of the age that has so controlled the world, but not so in the church, where we gain the vision that God has. for us in terms of community. Very important that we maintain community, work through our conflicts and be able to establish community in a day in which isolation is really what the devil, the demonic world has imposed upon us. So it's not good for man to be alone. Now there's a role for celibacy, but not for isolation. Now here specifically, the verse speaks of Adam. It's not good for Adam to be alone, it says. So it is not good for the man to be alone. I believe that this context speaks primarily to the man and not the woman. But why is this? Because males tend to gravitate more towards isolation than women do. Women can be more relational than men. So the tendency that there's going to be isolation, men are the ones that are lost in the world of computer games or whatever it is. Men are the ones that are primarily isolating themselves. Now Paul traveled with Barnabas and Silas, don't forget that. He was always careful to be with other brothers in the ministry. Also keep in mind that monasteries were very critical in the early days of the Christian church in the pagan world. Now why is that? Because monasteries developed in lieu of the sexual confusion that totally dominated the Roman world much like it dominates our world today. So if men were repenting of this sexual craziness of the day, they typically would move into the context of other men who worship God on a daily basis, typically five, six, eight times a day. So it was a very important transition out of the world into a Christian community. Very important for a Christian society to have monasteries, especially for those that are recovering from the sexual insanity of the day. Also, in the context of social disintegration, we have to ask ourselves, what will Christian men do today? And I believe it is to resort to something like a monastery. All right, so it is not good for men to be alone, but let's move on. Here, God institutes marriage. Now, why is this important to us? Because, well, God designed it, God invented it, He owns it, He defines it, and He will redefine it for us as man, increasingly perverts it in our day. So I want to really dig into this passage. I want to take a laser focus in on exactly what is being said here, communicated here to us, so that all of us, hopefully our minds are renewed and we understand again, what is our purpose? What is our calling? Why are we here? What is this thing called marriage? It's so important for us to really drill into this, whether it be those already married or those who intend to be married sometime in the future. Very, very crucial stuff. So let's make sure we get the foundation straight. Let's get the rebar into the foundations and understand what God is saying to you women and to us men concerning marriage. What is this? God, what did you intend? What is your original intention? And how do I live this out myself in my marriage or my future marriage? Okay. The first thing I want to say here is that God does not introduce sexuality in his design to create man in this particular passage. Now, I'm not saying sexuality doesn't play a part in marriage, but please understand that sexuality and romance has become far too preeminent, idolatrous, fetish-like in this perverted world we live in today. And it's been utterly ruinous to marriage and to family life. Brought about a lot of divorce and homosexuality is all rooted in the whole romantic fairytale fantasy world of Disney and all this crazy stuff. Homosexuality is all part of that. So no, no, we don't embrace the idolatry of romanticism and sexuality. Let's purge ourselves of that insanity and let's think God's thoughts after us this morning as we dig into this. What is it that God's telling us? This was his design. Do you want to ruin it? Or do you want to build something here on the foundations that God has given to us? So let's discover what God has for us in this passage today. Beyond sexuality, two very important and very basic elements in marriage, and that is companionship and the dominion team. So let's dig into these words. The Hebrew term is ezer kanegdo. Ezer kanegdo. There it is. In verse 18, it is not good man be alone, but I will make him a helper comparable to him." Ezer k'negdo. Those are the words used for helper comparable. So what is this? Again, I've been somewhat clarified in my own mind concerning these things as I, you know, do the hundred-page review of the word Aser and what it is and what do we have here. So we really need to dig into what God has for us in these words, Aser Konegdo. The word Aser is really the word for helper. The word Konegdo is translated comparable, a bad word. There is no good translation to the word in any translation I saw. Konegdo is not comparable. It's not good. It's not a good word. The word is complementary to, slightly different than comparable. Comparable refers to more of the similarities than it does what the word really means. The word is a helper over against him. That's the way it's translated, perhaps best. She will be the helper over against or the mirror or the reflection or not just a reflection but a portion that is opposite to and different from him and yet compatible to him. Okay, so that's the better word. I believe it's complimentary. It is to be compatible with. That's another good word. Comparable, not so much. Compatible, better. Complimentary, even better. So far, we haven't got a very good translation on this word, and that's why I think we need to get back to Conecto and to Aser, and we have to ask ourselves, what is this? Come on, we're trying to throw away all of this junk that's clouded our marriage and the whole idea of marriage for the last 200 years of the Western world, and what is this? I believe that the best analogy for what is a a marriage of a man and a woman coming together as that dominant taking team, it would be the axe head on the axe handle. I believe it's the best analogy that I've ever seen before. I don't know where I picked it up, but I think it is really a critical idea that you need an axe head and axe handle. Now, children, how many trees can you cut down with an axe head if you just went out there and started cutting down the tree with the axe head? How long would it take you to cut down one of these big old 12-inch trees in your backyard? Probably take you a long time would take you probably roughly a year now take the axe handle and whack on that tree as hard as you can For the next two and a half years and let's see how many trees you can take down probably take you about five years Take down one tree if you just use the axe handle But put the axe head on the handle and you're taking serious Dominion over God's creation now suppose you had two heads and So okay, I'm doubling it up a little bit. We're gonna team up here. You got two heads. So honey, you get this head, I'll take this head, and we're gonna go at that tree as hard as we possibly can, or let's go with two handles. So again, here she is, a handle comparable to the man. Okay, we got two handles, she's comparable to the man, so we're coming together two handles, okay? So you get to whack the tree on that side, I'll whack the tree on the other side, and let's work at this for the next six years, and see how many trees we can take down. Now do you see, brothers and sisters, what this is? Do you understand it? Better than you did before. The Ezer to Conegdo. What is it? What are we doing? What has God called us to? God is calling us. And so many young people are saying, I'm just wondering what my calling is. Don't know what it will be when I grow up, et cetera. But this is it. We want to be fulfilling the calling that God has put on your life. Tag, you're it. You're a husband. You're a wife. You're, you're an acer connecto. Just be aware of that. That's what God calls you to do for the next 40, 50, 60 years out of your life. This is the calling. There's no question as to what God wants you to do in your life. God has called you to these things. So children, the axe head does not look like the axe handle. Does that make sense? Have you seen an axe head and axe handle? Do they look alike? They look quite different, don't they? Why? Because they have different functions. And they're meant, they're meant to come together. You're supposed to put the axe head on the axe handle. They look quite different. The man needs the woman. The woman needs the man. And women actually do look quite different from men. I don't know if you noticed that. Most of the world doesn't understand this very well today, but they actually do look quite different, like maybe not quite as much as an axe head, axe handle, but they really do look very much different. and to demand that the man should think like the woman, and that the woman should think like the man, or to get frustrated when the woman or the wife doesn't think like the husband. It's just sheer foolishness. Guys, don't get frustrated with your wife. She takes it at a different angle. She's thinking differently. She puts in a different input into the situation. You know, don't get all upset that she's not thinking like you're thinking. See, that's what's being conveyed here in this passage. The husband needs to understand his need for his wife. He may perceive her thinking wrongly at first, but she may be thinking differently. So consider that. She is the other half of the axe. Now, we haven't got to axe headship yet. I'm dragging the analogy in just a little bit. But we're not going to spend much time with axe headship. We're not going to do that today. We'll do that in another week. But that's the first point is that there is a complementary element to the helper. Now, let's talk about the helping role itself, and that comes in the word æsir. The helping is for the dominion task. the financial, the physical elements of the home, as well as the spiritual and emotional. Now, the word Azar is used a number of times throughout the Old Testament. It shows up again in Exodus 18 and verse 4 and used for God helping us through life. Like, how do you get through life? How do you get through life? Most of you would say, I need a lot of help in an honest moment. How many of you in an honest moment say, you know what, I need a lot of help? No, that's God's purpose. God's there to help. We all need help. And that's what God does for us. God helps us. Well, it's the very same word used for helper here in this passage for the wife. Exodus 18, for the God of my father was my help. The word is there. Also, Deuteronomy 33, 7, hear, Lord, hear the voice of Judah. and bring him to his people, let his hands be sufficient for him, and Lord, may you be a help against his enemies." So God is a helper against the enemies. In the same way, the woman helps the man. Now, what are the comparative elements of the woman's help for the man versus how God helps us? And I'd give you a couple of examples that I think comes to mind. She is an indispensable helper. She's an indispensable helper. What does that mean? It's a big word. Children, it means simply, we can't get along without her. She's an indispensable helper. God has designed the axe head to need the axe handle. That the axe head is not complete. He cannot live. He cannot go on. He cannot function without this other part of him attached to him. She is indispensable. An axe head that loses a handle is in a lot of trouble. Secondly, she's a defense for her husband. I take that directly from Deuteronomy 33. She defends her husband, not to defend his sins. Some women might be tempted to defend their husband's sins. Maybe he has a sexual habit that's not right. needs to be brought to the elders, so be it. The best way she can help him is to introduce others to Matthew 18 and get some folks into his life who can help him, etc., etc. But she needs to be the helper and the defender of her husband, to defend him against the world, the flesh, and the devil. And when the world is attacking him, she stands by her man. Now she's built for this, absolutely. Women are fiercely defensive of their husbands and children. I remember running for governor of Colorado a number of years ago, and there was a Christian radio station that came after me, and my wife called up that station, gave them the what for, and the next week I was on that program, being interviewed by the same guy that attacked me. So, you know, my wife was taking care of business a little bit, but that's what women are geared to do. There's something in them that's just gonna...the female as a species is more deadly than the males. Actually, a really thoughtful poem by Rudyard Kipling, only because she is equipped for this. This is in her blood. This is what she does. She defends her husband, her family. All right, let's move on. She's also primarily a helper for her husband, not primarily for anybody else. In Proverbs 31, what do we find? The heart of her husband safely trusts in her so that he shall have no need to spoil. So what does this assume? Of course, the unity of the household economy. That man trusts in that woman. One of the best examples I've ever read is Abigail Adams and the way she handled the family economy when John Adams was at the Constitutional Convention. Phenomenal the sort of testimony this woman was buying fields. She was taking care of all the neighbors and the widows She had seven widows on the list. She took care of while she was off to France were their husband She was managing that household economy like nobody you had ever seen Phenomenal story of Abigail Adams, but the heart of her husband safely trusts in her so that he shall have no need to spoil. It doesn't say the heart of her corporate boss safely trusts in her so that they shall have no need to spoil. It doesn't say anything like that. What does it say? The heart of her husband safely trusts in her because they are together in that household economy and she is defending, she is adding to, she's buying into the teamwork. It's a tough world. That's why it's so good for me to be married at times at which a man feels like the entire world is against him. Comes home, gets in bed with his wife, and she's his biggest fan. And you know what? Somehow that's encouraging. Now, it's even more encouraging to know that God is on our side. But that we have, a wife. beautiful woman of God is willing to encourage and to build up, to edify, to cheerlead her husband along. Nobody in the world could add that kind of encouragement to a man. It's phenomenal. It's a beautiful thing. A man needs a woman to encourage him. Dominion work is tough. The world is antagonistic, and every man needs a woman, with the exception of those called to celibacy in the service of Jesus Christ. And we know there's an exception to that, and we throw that in, of course. But generally speaking, I'm talking about the rest of us, 97% of men. We need the woman. We need the wife, absolutely. Certain evangelists, like Paul, didn't have a wife, but elders need wives. Kind of work that we do in the church. Evangelists can move on to the next town. It's kind of neat. In fact, I think some pastors are sort of like evangelists. They get beat up pretty good in one city, and three years later, they move to the next town, then to the next, and then to the next. I get it. He can be celibate. That's no big deal. But man, you stick with somewhere, and you just stay there, and you get beaten up day in, day out, week in, week out, year in, year out, for 28 years out of your life? Man, you need a wife! Amen. I need two amens right now for the congregation. Okay. Maybe a few deacons could chime in there, too. But just the blessing of a wife, amen, to be the cheerleader for her husband. What a beautiful, beautiful thing God has brought about. All men need A wife. Presidents need wives. One president didn't have a wife, Grover Cleveland. And all the pressures of that office started to press in upon Grover Cleveland. What was it, 1892? He got married to a woman. They had four or five kids while he was in the White House. But presidents need wives, and so do plumbers and the rest of us. We need a wife. So important. She's an azer for us. So critical. So important. Now, let me ask you this, children. Which is more crucial? The axe head or the axe handle? Okay, quiz. Quiz time for the children. Which is absolutely most important of all, the axe head or the axe handle? Oh man, you guys have been educated well in this congregation. The answer is yes. Yeah, are we going to say one's more important than the other? No, we're not. Of course not. In the words of G.K. Chesterton, I love this little poem. It's not really a poem, I've quoted it before, and I don't know if I've ever quoted it here, but G.K. Chesterton, he wrote this. This would have been the beginning of the 1900s when egalitarianism was on the roll. If I set the sun beside the moon, and if I set the land beside the sea, and if I set the flower beside the fruit, and if I set the town beside the country, and if I set the man beside the woman, I suppose some fool should talk about one being better. A little bit of an amen there or something. Yeah. And, you know, egalitarianism comes so hard and fast down upon us. The president of Harvard in 2005, this was a Clinton appointee. He's a Democrat. He made a massive mistake. He said, I think that men and women think differently. He said in some talk in early 2005, he was on ice within nine months. He was gone. He was out of the game. Dust on his shoes. You're out of here. Why? Because he stepped up to the plate and he said, I think that men and women think differently. OK. Thankfully, they've got a much better president down at Harvard today. It all worked out for him. But you just need to understand the force of egalitarianism that has so destroyed our world today. It's very strong. But here's the application for us. Men, embrace your need. Men, don't be proud. Don't be proud. Embrace your need. I need you, wife. I need you. You need a woman. You need your wife. Absolutely. And women, Embrace your roles as the helper, compatible to your husband. And young women, what do you do? Train for it. What is it to be the helper? What is it? How do you fill in? How do you gain an instinct? How do you nurture the instinct? To just know what needs to happen. You walk into a structure of a household and immediately you see the pieces that need to be filled in. So develop that instinct. Nurture the instinct, hone the instinct that God has already put into you. Prepare to be the helper compatible to the husband that God is gonna give to you. Let's move on to another word, companionship. It's a different word found in Malachi 2.14. And I believe it ties in directly to this, but I just throw it out as well because here in Malachi 2, we find she is your companion and the wife of your covenant. Companionship. Now this isn't just French. This word is actually more than that. It ties into teamwork. That she is a valuable, the valuable team member where there is a great deal of camaraderie. And what's the word camaraderie mean? I believe the word camaraderie can be very helpful. Again, doing extensive word study on this and trying to find the word or the better words to put together into this. What is it to be camaraderie within the marriage? She has come together with you as a team, united in the objective in life. And here's a couple of definitions of camaraderie that might help you. They're just dictionary definitions I throw out. And again, I think this applies to every marriage. Listen to this. A friendly feeling Toward people with whom you share an experience or with whom you work. Mutual trust and friendship among people who spend a lot of time together as in there was a great deal of camaraderie on the hockey team. So camaraderie is very important in the marriage. She is your companion and this is God's fundamental intention for marriage. Let's move on to verses 19 through 24. Take the last little bit of time and look at these verses. We have one more element or descriptive of marriage that the Lord God has given to us here. Verse 19, out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle. the birds of the air, to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper comparable to him. The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam. He slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in his place. And then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, he made into a woman, brought her to the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Now, what is this? We've already talked about functional unity in the axiodex handle analogy. It's not just a functional unity here, brothers and sisters, but a covenantal unity. It's a covenantal unity. And in God's math, he takes one, makes two, brings the two together and turns them into one again. And it turns out to be a one plus one equals One. Form of math. Unusual. God can do whatever he wants with his math. But that's what he's done here as he created Eve for Adam. So Adam's flesh becomes Eve's flesh. Adam's rib turns into part of Eve's constitution. The oneness has a physical component to it. the melding of flesh to flesh. So what is this marital covenant? Let's talk about it a little bit more in detail. This is an existential ontological reality that is determined by God Himself that changes your very existence. I was trying to think of an analogy for this. What would it be? Well, let's say that I took a chainsaw and I cut off my arms and cut off my legs. I know that's a negative analogy, but it's just to help you a little bit. Now, what's going to happen for the rest of my life? It's going to be a little bit different. That's an existential change in my life, wouldn't you say? My life is going to be phenomenally different. I'm going to be very dependent on somebody else for the rest of my life. That would be an example. Yeah, if I cut off my arms and my legs, I'm sitting there in a wheelchair for the rest of my life, I would say that's an existential ontological shift in my existence. That's pretty significant. That's not like a sliver in my hand or I get a little scar on my thumb or something. No, no, that's a big change for the Kivsky. And the same thing for marriage. Marriage is an existential change in your entire Constitution. Now, it may seem strange to you that someone up here makes a vow, or two people make a vow, they seal it in a physical way, and now they're one flesh. They're as different as the guy who lost legs and arms in a chainsaw accident. Is that strange to you? Well, it's because God has ordained it, that's why. God's just ordained it that way. God set it up that way. It's an existential ontological change because that's just the way God designed it. And there's no getting around it. Is it strange to you? Here's one more question. Is it strange that when you confess Jesus Christ and seal it with baptism, you are now one with Jesus? And your whole life is different from here on out. Is that strange? That's called a covenantal oneness that develops. There's two aspects to it. We've already talked about two aspects. One is the written or stated promise. And what is that? What is God's promise to us? God's covenant to us comes to us through 66 books of the Bible. This is the deal He laid out for us. But it's not just that. It's not just a rule, but also a relationship. So two parts to marriage, two parts to our relationship with God. It's His promise, our belief in the promise, but it's also our baptism into Him and a growing into Him that happens over a period of time. So there is the rule and there is the relationship. There's the both and. Let's look at Ephesians 5 verses 28 to 33. This is the New Testament take on this, so let's spend just a little bit more time on this covenantal relationship that God has hardwired into marriage, and whether unbelievers will believe this or not, it still exists. Say you don't believe in the law of gravity. You say, I don't believe in the law of gravity. Well, you're going to get a lot of owies in your life. And you're going to say, where do all these owies come from? Well, there's something called the Law of Gravity. I realize you don't believe in it, but it still exists. Same thing for unbelievers that get married. You see, they say, I don't believe in the Law of Covenant, but they seem to get a lot of owies. So let's, as believers, let's gather around Ephesians 5 one more time and listen to the admonition of the Apostle Paul on not just marriage, But Jesus and the church, and both of these I think are equally, some people say it's all about marriage here, some people say no, it's all about the church here, it's all about both here. So let's receive both as I read, one more time. So husbands ought to love their own 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, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let each one of you, in particular, so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Now, I'm not gonna get into a lot of practical exhortation here. I just wanna talk the doctrine. This is mainly a teaching service today. I just wanna teach as best as I can. Remember that marriage is a metaphor. It points to something bigger, a bigger reality, and that is the relationship of Christ and the church. Two themes in the passage, marriage and the relationship of Christ and his church. So let's just take this apart. First thing we find in verse 32 is this is a mysterious thing, and that's absolutely true. When Jesus said, they are no longer two but one flesh, and Jesus said that in Matthew 18, he says, They are no longer two, Matthew 19. They are no longer two, but one flesh. That's what he said. Well, you're looking at me and my wife right now, and you're saying, well, wait a minute. I count one and two. And that was something your children were thinking. Jesus said, they're no longer two, but one flesh. But some of your children was going, okay, there's Mrs. Swanson over there, one, that's one. There's Mrs. Swanson over here, that would be? Two. So it seems to me there are two. But Jesus is contradicting what you're thinking. So you're saying, well, what is that? Well, it's a great mystery. Just take it like that. It's a great mystery. There's no way we're going to be able to explain it very well. Gravity is actually something of a mystery, too. Einstein figured it all out. No, he didn't. He didn't figure it out. What is the force of gravity? What is a black hole? Okay. It's a great mystery. Very mysterious. The oneness becomes more ultimate than the two-ness. Move on. Sacred reality. It's a mysterious reality. It's also a sacred reality. Not to be broken without fearful consequences. And again, this is something I want to impress on all of us. Very sacred. Marriage is so sacred. What do we mean by sacred? It means that, let's say that your mother had a sacred vase. Not exactly sacred the way we use the word here in the church, but a vase that was handed down from her great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother all the way from China. It's worth about $80,476. And one of you boys takes the vase and you say, go long to your brother. And you just rocket that thing through the living room, and it smashes against the door into a thousand pieces. That's a sacred vase. And you went and smashed it. Everybody in the house is gonna be looking at you For like the next ten years that was the vase that Jake broke You remember when Jake did that it's gonna go back down to history Generations from now people are gonna talk about how Jake broke grandma's vase Because it was a sacred vase Marriage is sacred guys And so is the relationship of Christ in the church. The most sacred things on earth is the church of Jesus Christ and your marriage. Our Lord Jesus, when he said, the two shall become one and they are no longer two, he also said, what God has joined together, let no man put us under. I mean, this is speaking with the authority of God. all the authority over heaven and earth, Jesus looks up at all of us and says, let no man put this asunder. No institution, no government, no adulterer, no media outlet, don't anybody chip away at the sacredness of this marriage covenant. In 1 Corinthians 3, some of the most frightful words in all of scripture, if any man defile the temple of God, that is the church of Jesus Christ, Him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, as you all are. Okay. So you can mess with Texas, but don't you ever mess with the Church of Jesus Christ. People that play fast and loose with the church and church relationships, that's a problem. You can mess with a lot of things out there, but don't you mess with the Church of Jesus Christ. Sacred. Sacred. So's marriage. But it's also a glorious and beautiful reality. It's the most beautiful thing on earth. Jesus will present his bride a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. Again, that's the church. Now let's move on. It's a corporeal thing. The marriage is a corporeal thing, and we've already talked about this briefly, but what is this? Again, it's the one-bodiness of the marriage. The oneness of the marriage. The church is not an organization. The family is not an organization. It's a body. Different it's not a YMCA. It's a body We've got to understand the unified organism with connected parts all connected to the head and The Lord Jesus is the head of the church Not the leader of the church as the word to be used. Now, he leads the church, yes, but that's like a subsidiary idea. Don't use the word leader. I don't run around saying Jesus is my leader. I don't think we should. We should say Jesus is the head of the church. What's the difference between a leader and a head? Do I say that my head is the leader of my body? Do I say that? Do I say my head is the leader of my body? Well, in a sense it is, but there's the connectedness between the head and the rest of the body. We need to think in terms of this connectedness. One of the examples I like to use is the head doesn't like beat on the body. Like what if my head says, I've had it with my arm. That's it. you know, just start whacking real hard on my arm. Some of you would probably say I'm borderline insane. Wouldn't you? If I was running around sort of, I don't know, upset with my big toe or something, you'd say, there's something wrong with that guy. Well, that's because the body is a unit. The marriage is a unit. The church is a unit in Christ. And we gotta get away from this individualistic American thinking on this. and realize the corporeality of the body. Jesus, our head, directs the body, and the body should not act independently of him. The body has a grandma seizure. You know what a grandma seizure is, right? The body's just going through all this crazy stuff. That's a problem. Somehow the head isn't really connected Somehow there isn't a control anymore of the rest of the body because the body is this out-of-control sort of thing that's going nuts. And you don't want a grandma seizure. Anybody want a grandma seizure? It's not a grandma's seizure. It's a grandma seizure. It's slightly different. You can look it up later if you want. But, you know, we don't want these grandma seizures. In the church, there needs to be this connectedness, this prayer life of the body, and this word being shared, hopefully by the Holy Spirit, applying these things to the body through the members of the body, where there's all this communication and interaction going on in the body, in the church. Secondly, Jesus is the representative or the federal head of the body, and we're all under him. Thirdly, Jesus doesn't compete with the body, doesn't want to destroy the body, the whole idea of competition, the egalitarian concept is so foreign to any Christian. It's like, what, competition between the husband and the wife? What? You're out of your mind. You don't even have a concept for what the husband and wife relationship is in marriage as designed by the Creator. Our Lord also identifies with the body in a very special way. He identifies as if he's part of it. He doesn't really separate himself from it when he speaks of it. And our Lord also feels what happens to the body when the hand gets smashed in the car door. The head is concerned. It's not like the head has gone, well, too bad for the hand. That's got to be a bummer. You know, that's gotta hurt. I'll bet that really smarts. No, no, no, the head is going... Okay, the head feels it. And that's why the Apostle Paul was kicking against the pricks, and he was persecuting me, Jesus said, and that is my body. You know, my hand is getting slammed in the door by this man Saul, and Jesus was really concerned about that, wasn't he, and applying that to the Apostle Paul there on the road to Damascus. So the world doesn't understand it. The feminists say the wife is the leader of the husband. Others say the husband is some corporate boss for the wife, etc. But Christians say, no, no, the husband is head of the wife, even as Christ is head of the church. It's a whole different concept. So this bears a lot of implications for Christian marriage. First of which, husbands, make sure you're communicating. What does the head do in relationship with the wife? communicates. There's communication. We don't have this disconnection and this, I don't know, lack of communication or disengagement. That's just miserable. It's rotten. It's a precursor to cutting the head off the body. You don't want that. Self-centeredness, slothfulness, etc., that just destroys a lot of marriages. Okay, for wives, what happens to a body when it takes no signals from the head? Well, grandma seizures. You need to You need to take some signals. Start to get some signals. Start to receive some signals. Okay. Jesus said, they're no longer two but one flesh. Well, we'll wrap up here. I just touch on briefly the very last verse of the passage. They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. I realize I'm not addressing the whole marriage thing in total right now. We'll get to a little bit more in the next message. That'll be my final message. But let's just end here where it says, they were naked and not ashamed. That is, there was no guilt before God and so therefore no shame between one another. Guilt is vertical, shame is horizontal. Shame is what happens when we're embarrassed in front of other people. We have this strong sense of our inadequacies or our sinfulness. in relation to other people. And that's that shame element. But shame doesn't exist where there is no guilt. But when man broke the covenant, then guilt came upon all mankind, as did shame. They immediately ran for the clothing, and then God dressed them even in a more full sense. Well, briefly now, the devastation of the fall brought to man, obviously the breakdown in marriage, Not going to spend much time there. A breakdown in companionship, oneness, an erosion of the covenant, whole idea of oneness has become antithetical to modern thinking within the church. And I want to do a seven-part series on covenantal family life during the winter months on Wednesdays. So we're going to dig into that just a little bit more. But also gender role confusion, as we mentioned, especially in the household economy. This is where egalitarianism has had its most Impact is the breakdown of the household economy. The economic unit of the household has been interrupted. Separate bank accounts developed. Husbands, wives came to live separate lives. Modern industry has pretty much put an end to the family economy. Socialism, womb-to-tomb security, health insurance from the corporations, Obamacare. All of this has relieved a woman's dependence upon the man and the man's dependence upon the woman. In fact, I ran into a Mormon attorney one time on a flight out of Salt Lake City and was talking about issues of character and faith and how it's important in education. This man came back to me and said, and that's why I'm raising my daughters to be independent. And so I thought, hmm, independent, let me look that up in the Bible. Independent where where does that show up as a character trait that we need to work into our our daughters? Why is that such an important issue today? I look it up. I find it actually the word independent is used in 1st Corinthians chapter 7 and there it says The woman shall not be independent of the man and the man shall not be independent of the woman and I thought to myself I'm not raising my daughters to be independent No, no. Brothers and sisters, we must be careful with what the world is teaching us. It's all wrong. Women are sent out to fight our wars for the nations. And I mentioned this a number of months ago by Adamnon, who was the next abbot to Columseal from Iona, the very next guy. Columseal came over from Ireland to Scotland, Iona, and then Adamnon takes up after Columseal dies. And at that time, the pagan tribes were sending their women to the front line of combat. And they would find both the woman and her nursing infants dead on battlefields all over the place. So Adamnon, this great man of God, says no more of this paganism. Got a legal edict called the Law of the Innocents put together, obtained 91 signatories from tribal leaders throughout the British Isles, and the law required a fine for any tribe who would employ a woman in an assault or in host or a fight. And that Christian worldview held for 1,400 years until Norway, approved women in combat in 1988, and the United States adopted the policy in 2013. Sixteen hundred years of Christian influence in the Western world. Amazing. Jesus reigns. But we have a rebel society that is shaking its fist in the face of Almighty God. And brothers and sisters, we need to stand against it. Also in terms of nakedness and this pretended lack of shame, the primitive world and the modern world both have experienced a loss of the most basic sense of shame. You go off into New Guinea or down into the South Seas or Africa in the 1800s or Western society in the 2000s. Those are two different areas in which they've lost a sense of shame. Go off in the deepest jungles in Africa in 1820, Going to the beach in America in 2000s, same basic worldview has come. It's the pagan worldview that has come back to this nation, and it's a matter of taking the clothes off and celebrating shame. So, brothers and sisters, man has broken the first covenant. People break covenants everywhere, but God has made a new covenant with man. And that is the covenant of grace with a new federal head, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ, who has come. He has kept the requirements of the covenant, and he has come to restore all things, including marriage. And I want to close with Malachi 2, because I think this very much is an encouragement. It applies. to the day in which we live, because they were dealing with Malachi 2 with broken covenants and all of these things, but we typically don't finish the passage, and I want to finish it. Because in all of this disaster that's going on, the breakdown of covenant, the brokenness, the dishonesty, the hypocrisy, the infidelity, these are the sorts of things we've seen in our country today. We have seen these things. We've seen Christians break their covenants. We've seen dishonesty. We've seen hypocrisy. Exactly what Malachi was dealing with. So frustrating in the church in the Old Testament at the time. But there was a remnant that still sat there in Malachi's little chapel. There was still a remnant that was concerned. And here's what it says in Malachi 2.16. Then those who feared the Lord... See, there were still some who feared God. They still had a fear of God. They trembled at His word, as Isaiah put it. There was still someone who came into the little chapel, trembling before God and His word, receiving the word, and then bowing before it and said, teach the Lord, thy servant hears. There were still those who feared the Lord in Malachi's little chapel. And the Lord listened and He heard them. And so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who feared the Lord and who meditated on His name. And here's what Jesus, here's what God says. They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts. On the day that I make them my jewels, I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him. Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him. But to you who fear my name, the son of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings." And friends, that's Jesus. If you fear God today, if you've been trembling at His Word today, the Son of Righteousness has already come. He's come for the humble. He's come for those who fear God. And that is Jesus. He's come to heal us, to heal our brokenness with healing in His wings. And all the brokenness, and I know there are aching hearts, broken hearts in this congregation. I speak to you, I pray with you. Jesus has come, the Son of Righteousness, to heal those things that sin is so broken in your life. The Son of Righteousness has come with healing in His wings. And Jesus has come as He came for the woman at the well with all of her divorces and all of her brokenness. He healed that woman. And He will heal you too. And that's why we've come together in this chapel this morning. Because we are the ones healed. Healed by the healing of the Son of Righteousness Himself. And that is Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen and amen. Our Father God, we are trembling at Your Word. And we're trembling before the cross as well. We know that's why He came. He has come to take the guilt of our sins upon Himself, to bear the curse, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He's already come. He's come to heal us. He's come to build us back. He's come to renew us as a new creature, a brand new creature in Christ. He is our head. He's come to restore us by His covenant. Now, Father, may we keep our covenants too. God, help us to understand this better and to look to Jesus, who's already gone before us and is with us now. In his name we pray, amen. Let's stand together and sing 320. Again, the coming of Jesus as with gladness, men of old. Malachi was looking forward to this time. And it came 400 years later. It came. Jesus came 400 years later. As with gladness men of old Did the guiding star behold As with joy they hailed its light Leading onward, beaming bright So most gracious God, may we Evermore be led to Thee As with joyful steps they sped To that lowly cradle bed There to bend the knee before Him whom heaven and earth adore So may we with willing feet Ever seek thy mercy seat As they offer gifts most rare At that cradle rude and bare Away we with holy joy Pure and free from sins our loy All our costliest treasures bring Christ to thee, our heavenly King Holy Jesus, every day. Keep us in the narrow way And when earthly things are past Bring our ransomed souls at last Where they need no star to guide Where no clouds thy glory hide In the heavenly country bright, Need they no creative light? Thou its light, its joy, its crown, Thou its sun which goes not down, There forever may we sing Amen. You may be seated. Now, brothers and sisters, we come to the table, the covenant meal of God's people. And as we seek to recover Christian covenant marriage, it's important for us increasingly to understand the covenantal nature of the church. And so, again, the covenant is the two things. The first is the objective. That is the promise of God that we have received and believe. And then there's a relationship. There is the vow in the marriage and the ring as well, very objective. And then there's that seal of the vow. And then there is the relationship that forms as time progresses. So I'd like to pull from Ephesians 4.15. to better understand how this happens. How do we grow into a unity? Ephesians 4.15, by speaking the truth in love, by speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head of, that is Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effect of working by which every part does its share Causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself and love. So how does it happen? Well number one the growth happens corporately It's not as if the thumb and the toe Grows separately ahead of the rest of the body if that was to happen. I would have a very large thumb and very large toes so the body There may be some exceptions, but I would say in 99.999% of the cases, as these little guys grow up, their body members grow up proportionately. Right? I mean, these little guys, they're not going to have some huge head and little tiny legs. Typically, it's a proportionate growth. And so that's what the growth of the body is about. It's a corporate body growth. And it happens by speaking the truth in love. That is, I need to be loving you, Neil and George. And Brother Todd, and Josh, and Rob, as I'm speaking God's word to you and as we interact with each other in the edifying and the one another's that we share together as a body. There needs to be a speaking the truth in this love. So one of the part of the body speaks to the other part of the body. The deliberate goal is to edify one another Love but the most covenantal thing we do together as a body now. We know it's the most covenantal thing that a Husband and wife do together as part of the marriage, but we're not going to talk about that this morning We all know what that is adults know what it is But what is the most covenantal? unifying element of what we do as a body of Christ and It is what happens here at this table, at the communion table. We partake of the one bread and one body, together as one body. That's what 1 Corinthians 10, 16 tells us. The cup of blessing, which is this cup right here, which we bless, is it not the communion or the fellowship with our participation in the blood of Jesus Christ? The bread which we break, over here, Is this not the communion, the participation in the broken body of Christ? For we, though many, there are 150 so here gathered in this room today, we, though many, are one bread and one body. For we all partake of that one bread. Now, let me use an illustration to help with this. You're sitting down for breakfast, kids, and you say to yourself, I'm gonna eat my breakfast, and today I'm only going to feed my big toe. I'm only gonna feed my left arm. So all of the nutrition that I'm taking in, is gonna go into, I guess, your stomach and then up into your heart and lungs. Tammy, help me here for just a moment. Okay. And then it's gonna, it's all gonna go to my left arm. Kids, is that the way you do it today? When you eat breakfast in the morning, I'm only gonna feed my left arm. Is that what you say? No, when we eat as a body of one bread, one cup in one body, We will feed the entire body at the same time. This is what is called a corporate meal, a corporate eating. But you say there's 150 mouths eating of this. Yes, and we're feeding the one body as we do so. Phenomenal. It's a bodiness. It's a corporate nature. It's a covenantal nature of the meal that we're partaking in this morning. And so, of course, we have to be careful and there's all these warnings in chapter 10 and 11. We actually don't go back to those warnings very much because I do believe there's a great deal of unity in our body. But if there isn't, if there's a lack at points, if there's animosity, If there's some kind of hatred or bitterness or some kind of conflict going on, Jesus doesn't want his two kidneys having a boxing match inside of him. Have you ever had your two kidneys go at each other inside of you? It's not comfortable. Nobody wants that. And certainly Jesus doesn't want it in his body either. So we're eating of a covenantal meal today. And thereby, as we do this in love for Jesus, and we're loving one another in the process, we are growing up into the one head, which is Jesus. Amen. Let's pray. Our heavenly Father, we thank you, Father, for the oneness, the bodiness, the love that Jesus has for us, the association that Jesus has for us in his incarnated body, that he should bear our sins upon himself on the cross. Oh, Father, that He should call us brothers, that He should be our head, our husband, our king, our chief shepherd, the one who cares for us and the one who feeds us at this table. Father, we pray for a unity. We pray for a growing up of this body into Jesus. Oh, make us more healthy. Spirit of God, work an amazing work upon us to first know your love for us, and to love you and to love one another. Father, we seek a maturity, a unity of the Spirit and a bond of peace with us too. Grow us. Oh, that we would grow up by the edifying of ourselves in love for one another. This is the will of God. Father, we pray your will for us. Unify us at this table now. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.