Well, as I mentioned earlier, we have the opportunity of continuing to work through the Second London Confession from 1689, having worked our way all the way to chapter 25 of marriage. So we will consider what our spiritual forefathers had to say about marriage this evening. hopefully not just considering what they said but bringing it forward into our day and how it might apply to us. Marriage is one of the very few things that was instituted prior to the fall in the scriptures. But God gave us marriage as humanity, prior to the fall. Does anybody know something else that God gave to us as his creatures before sin entered the world? Work. Those are the big two, work. And in marriage, it is work to take dominion, which is there at the end of the chapter. And we'll talk about some of that. What did you say, Michael? I didn't want to ignore it. Oh yes, the Sabbath is also instituted prior to sin entering into the world. It's not just part of the Ten Commandments. I think that's another night, another chapter. Let's look at paragraph one together. Chapter 25, paragraph one, marriage is to be between one man and one woman. It's not lawful for any man to have more than one wife. nor for any woman to have more than one husband at the same time. Seems pretty straightforward and maybe 35, 40, certainly 50 years ago it would have been assumed even in our culture that this was a reality but increasingly so in the culture in which we live this first sentence is quite a controversial statement. Marriage is to be between one man and one woman, not just the oneness, but also the gender specificity that's laid out here. It's not lawful for any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have more than one husband at the same time. The failure to believe the Bible about the actual differences between men and women with regard to gender and or sexuality Failure to believe the Bible about these things has opened the floodgates for all kinds of ungodly responses. Marriage, according to the scriptures, according to what God has said to us in his word, is a union between a man and a woman. It's a physical union, it's a personal union, it's a covenantal union, it's a permanent union. and within marriage God has delineated for us certain roles within the relationship and he has provided restrictions for us with regard to those roles and the relationships. Any contradiction All contradictions outside the bounds that God has given us in his word for the roles of men and women, for the relationships that exist between men and women, and for the restrictions that he's laid down. Any and all contradiction outside of God's design is sin. It's an offense to him. Not only that, any and all sexual desire outside of the bounds that God has given us in scripture, contrary to his word, is sin. When the confession says it is not lawful for any man to have more than one wife, he's not saying that it's necessary the law of every land. The point that's being made is according to God's law, the law that matters, according to God's holy law, One man cannot have more than one wife, nor can any woman have more than one husband. The law that matters is God's law. Now, this distinction that's emphasized, we should also note that men and women are fundamentally one in human nature. God created man, male, and female, but he created us with very clear distinctions between our genders. And it's these two separate genders that he has ordained to be married. Marriage is instituted between a man and a woman. When it comes to being male or female, we don't make ourselves male. We don't make ourselves female any more than we make ourselves human. When you are conceived, you are human and you are either male or female. And that cannot change because it is connected with the stamp of God's image on us as his image bearers. Bearing his image requires distinct masculinity for all males and bearing the image of God requires distinct femininity for all females. And rejecting this truth in any way whatsoever is a rejection of God, of his will and of his rights over our lives. Marriage is to be between one man and one woman. Gender clarity and biblical gender relations are essential to healthy human identity. And this is one of the reasons that as a culture we've gone so far off with regard to what marriage is. It didn't start necessarily with marriage but with identity and our failure to realize that it's God who's made us. Therefore he has also given us his word whereby to live by and order our lives. Biblical gender relations are essential to healthy human identity as well as our Christian witness for God, the God who made us. He made us for specific roles in society. He made us to have certain relationships with the opposite gender. And he provides restrictions in both the area of role and relationship. He provides these with utmost clarity in his word. So that's paragraph one from chapter 25. one man and one woman. Let's look at paragraph two, the purpose of marriage. Why did God institute marriage? Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife, there's one purpose, for the increase of mankind with legitimate offspring, point number two, purpose number two, and for preventing immorality. Purpose number three. So the purpose of marriage for mutual help and enjoyment, for procreation and for preventing sin there on the outline. The Lord God said, Genesis chapter two verse 18, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make a help meat for him. It is not good. Humanity as a whole is incomplete without women, according to God. Mankind is incomplete without woman. So God says, I will make a partner perfectly suited for him. So he created woman. Chapter one of Genesis, verse 27, male and female, he created them. Note the lack of obscurity here from God. He created male and female. There's no dot, dot, dot to fill in the blank with the other 274 genders. It's just incredibly straightforward. He created them male and female. And there are no other options. We, both men and women, are created for communion with God, but not just for communion with God, but also for fellowship with one another. We're thinking specifically in the context of marriage. I will make him a helpmeet. I'll make him a helper. Now, this idea of a helper isn't a woman who comes along to help the man accomplish all of his great goals. It's not a demeaning concept at all. Even the word itself is not demeaning. We have people in our culture and in cultures gone by that have used it in that way, but it doesn't have the connotation of someone who is second rate. There's no sense of inferiority with this concept. In fact, in Exodus 18.4, the very same word and context is used. The God of my father was my help and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh. Now here's Moses in Exodus using the same word to describe God. Moses is not describing God as some inferior helpmate who just came along to help him accomplish his plans and goals. In the same way, the helper that God has created in a woman to come alongside a husband is not demeaning, not second rate, with no sense of inferiority. The way that the writers of the Confession said it, marriage was ordained for the mutual help. There's a reason why they included that word mutual. There's mutual benefit. What man lacked, what God said was not good, woman supplied, right? The not goodness that existed in Adam became good with Eve and vice versa. Aloneness was remedied in the garden with corresponding companionship. God desires us to have fellowship as his people and he desires that to primarily exist or especially exist in the context of marriage. Now the need that existed, this not goodness, I'm sure I'm creating a word there but the concept you understand, based on the context. This need that Adam had, this lack that existed in the garden was not a result of sin. The garden was an absolutely perfect environment. Adam was living and experiencing the unbroken presence of God but Adam had actually been created by God with the need of a corresponding relationship and the differences then between man and woman being created by God are complementary. They are matching, not rivalry. Sin makes it feel like rivalry, but the way God created it is perfectly complementary, perfectly matching. There are relative distinctions between man and woman with essential equality, especially in our humanity as God's creatures. Woman does not occupy an inferior position, but fully assists. her husband in fulfilling the divine cultural mandate, Genesis 1, 28, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule. Which brings us to the second purpose here, procreation, the way that the confession says it, for the increase of mankind with legitimate offspring. Humanity being made in God's image is not only a matter of character or image but also of activity. What we do we're also supposed to mimic God. It's what he did in creation, he created the earth and he filled it and he's commanded us to keep on filling the earth and to subdue it and to rule over it. As we mentioned in opening that this was commanded prior to sin, and it would have been much easier apart from sin, but we sinned and we made this command much more difficult, creating the rivalry aspect between men and women, and also making the ground hard to till, creating problems with relationships, with responsibilities, the activity that God's called us to, the function that we're called to live out is all more difficult because of sin, because of redemption in Christ but certainly more difficult. But this cultural mandate that God gives us applies to all of life. It's reproducing, as I mentioned, God's activity in creation. So mankind was both then at this point in nature and over it as well, both created by God but given the responsibility over every other living thing. Marriage was designed by God, that is it was ordained or established by God. It's not a human invention, it's not a social custom. Because it was ordained and instituted by God we aren't free to do whatever we want with it, we don't get to describe it however we want. It's similar to truth, right? Your truth matters not. And your idea of truth matters not. And your idea of marriage does not matter if it is not in keeping with the scriptures. Weddings, ceremonies, cultural expectations, societal norms, these are all the creation of man, but not marriage. God designed marriage with intentionality and with clarity. He's recorded it for us in his word, what marriage is and what it ought to be. and for the final purpose, preventing sin. 1 Corinthians 7 verse 2 and 9, because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife and each woman is to have her own husband. But if they do not have self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. Marriage is to be held, Hebrews 13, 4, in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. So the purpose of marriage, mutual help one for another, mutual enjoyment within the confines of marriage for procreation and for preventing of sin, because God has made us as sexual beings, but he hasn't created us with those desires and given us no outlet, no way to fulfill those desires. He's created those desires and also given us marriage in order that those desires might be fulfilled. So he's created us with, in the same way with Adam, longing for something else and then he provided exactly what that was and he's done that for every individual in a way that he has determined best for them. Let's look at paragraph three, it is lawful, note that word again, it is lawful, it is in keeping with God's law for all sorts of people to marry if they're able to give their rational consent. However, it is the duty of Christians to marry in the Lord. Therefore, those who profess the true religion should not marry unbelievers or idolaters. Neither should those who are godly be unequally yoked by marrying those who are wicked in their life or who maintain, that is, who hold and teach damnable heresy. So according to God's law, it is okay for all sorts of people to marry. Now, the boundaries that God gives we've talked about already. What are the requirements? One man, one woman. He goes a bit further here and says, if the man or the woman is a Christian, then they ought to marry someone who is also a believer. Beyond that, the ability to give rational consent, that's it. God doesn't come down in dividing us up into these other categories that make it okay to marry or not okay to marry. God created and creates all people desirous of marriage, as I mentioned earlier, as well as making us sexual beings with clear intentions and specific parameters regarding marriage and sex. Being an all wise creator, he made us to live alongside and enjoy the opposite gender within the confines of marriage. When sex is desired, pursued, or practiced outside of marriage, it is a distortion or perversion of what God intended. So it is lawful for people to marry. It is not lawful for people to have any type of sexual encounter outside of marriage. Sexual perversion of many different types is increasingly visible and even celebrated in our day. Therefore, we of all people must be vigilant to know what God says about marriage, about sin, especially sexual sin. It is lawful for all sorts of people to marry. if they're able to give their rational consent, which probably had more to do with an age issue in the immediate context that this was written. Both parties needed to be old enough to give rational consent in order to marry. And if they were Christians, they needed to marry a Christian. It's really plain how they've stated, those who profess true religion should not marry unbelievers or idolaters. If you're a Christian, it should be a non-negotiable. Marrying a non-Christian is a non-negotiable if you're a believer. Let's look together at paragraph four. Marriage ought not to be within the degrees of consanguinity, blood relationship, or affinity, close relationship, that are forbidden in the word. Such incestuous marriages can never be made lawful by any law of man or consent of parties in order that those people may live together as man and wife." So marriage ought not be incestuous. The second sentence makes it abundantly clear. I've said it really plainly in the first sub point of the laws of marriage, incest is out. It's just not an option. This is made clear in scripture. What's also made clear here is that man doesn't make marriage laws. And again, this is incredibly applicable to our day and our culture. Marriage as God has prescribed it in his word is the foundational fabric of society. There can never be, never be made lawful, quoting here again, by any law of man or consent to parties. It doesn't matter if two men say they want to get married. That doesn't override the scriptures. It doesn't matter if two women say they want to get married. It doesn't matter if some person says they want to marry some animal. None of that matters. It's all perversion based on God's word. Any and all sexual relations or even desires outside of God ordained marriage is illegitimate, displeasing to the Lord and is sin against him. Things like polygamy, it's been dealt with already here previously. It's not lawful for any man to have more than one wife or for a woman to have more than one man. Having more than one wife or one husband is a contradiction of scripture. Do you remember what Jesus said quoting the Old Testament? The two shall become one flesh. Two doesn't mean anything other than that. And so anything other than monogamy is sin. It's a perversion. One that's more relevant in our day, the transgenderism and gender confusion. Claiming some identity or gender that doesn't correspond with birth sex or birth gender. Listen, in the image of God, he created them. Again, male and female, he created them. Any alteration of this, any confusion of this is a denial of God and his rights over us. Male chauvinism. a prejudice against women. It's contrary to the word of God. Thinking somehow that men are superior in ability or intelligence. It's a contradiction. We are created man and woman and stamped with the image of God. God said he will make a helper suitable for Adam, a corresponding and complimentary opposite yet equal. Feminism. probably running a race for the most relevant one in our day. States that it's based on equality for women, but actually it undermines all of the roles and relationships and restrictions that are laid out for us in the scriptures. In an article in 2018, the New York Post, feminism has destabilized the American family. This quote shows up, feminists greet unwed parenthood and easy divorce as steps on the ladder of liberation. So there's nothing freeing about being in bondage to sin and yet that is the goal ultimately of feminism. Homosexuality, desiring or practicing sex with someone from the same sex or gender, it's contrary to the word of God. Legitimizing same-gender attraction or homosex requires a different creation story than we find in Genesis. Again, I will make a helper suitable for him. God fashioned into a woman the man and his wife. Anything outside of those parameters is not okay. It's not just not okay, it is sin against God. It's an offense against him. Homosexuality perverts the created purpose revealed in nature. Same sex attraction and desire is not morally neutral. It's not acceptable to God. That is being pushed down our throats from so-called Christians all throughout our country. Romans 1.24, makes it clear that the desire itself, even if not acted on, is perverse. God gave them over, Romans 124, in the lusts of their hearts. Or using the words of Jesus, if anger makes you guilty for judgment and if lust condemns you for adultery, then same-gender attraction leaves you guilty before God. And if malice filled hearts and sinful lusts are unacceptable to God then same gender attraction and homosexual desires even more so. It's an affront against God and his created order. Marriage has been ordained and instituted by God and he's been abundantly clear with regard to how we function and what marriage is. Here's an extended quote from a book on dangerous affirmation, the threat of gay Christianity by Michael Perkins. Scripture doesn't give us any unique sexual identities outside of husbands and wives because sexual intercourse is only meant for a man and woman in marriage. Where the Bible may describe other so-called sexual identities, they are violations of God's law and God's design. Adulterers, fornicators, prostitutes, homosexuals, sexually immoral. our sexual identity is intrinsically tied to our biological sex. A man cannot become a wife, a woman cannot become a husband, those terms are sex specific and they are not fair game for redefinition." Now this stuff is really pushed again in our day considering those who claim such identities as minorities, sexual minorities, and that there's a push to be careful about discriminating against them. But love actually requires that we confront them to their face about their perversion against God because sexual minorities are in far more danger of damnation than they are discrimination. So we ought to pursue them with the truth. and proclaim God's word to them. Now polygamy and transgenderism and gender confusion and male chauvinism and feminism and homosexuality are not the only dangers for us. While those are going to hit close to home to some of us, there are others that are going to hit even closer to home. Keeping in mind that marriage has been instituted by God. And any interference in the boundaries, anything outside the bounds of what God has made clear in his word is sin. So fornication, any physical or sexual relations outside of marriage with someone else, which would be adultery, or with oneself, or pornography, looking at or reading about sexually explicit material primarily for personal arousal or self-sex. These are an offense to God. And it is my hope that if you are struggling in these areas that you have a very proactive policy against pornography and you've set up boundaries in your life to prevent giving into sin. And then if you are married, you are guarding your hearts and your minds, particularly in these areas where God has given us clear boundaries in the scriptures. So the description of marriage, one man, one woman, there are no other options. the purpose of marriage, for mutual help and enjoyment of one another, for procreation, for bringing children into the world and raising them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, for preventing sin, because God's created us as sexual beings. He has given us marriage in order that we might fulfill the desires that he's given us in a context that's pleasing to him. the limits of marriage. Consent is absolutely required. Christians should only marry Christians. But also, I didn't hit on this as we ran through it there in paragraph three, marriage is also good for non-Christians. If you notice, there's no statement about non-Christians not considering marriage. It is actually a good thing. Again, we go back to when it was established prior to the fall. Marriage is for all people. Now we do see cultures where marriage is free to happen outside the bounds of scripture, say with polygamy and other things, you see those cultures crumbling. You see the problems there because marriage is a fabric of society. It's the fabric of their society too and that society will crumble because it's not established according to the word of God. So marriage is good for all, but Christians can only marry. Christians should only consider marrying those who are in the Lord. and the laws of marriage. Incest is out. In any one of close relationship, whether blood or just close family relationship, it is forbidden by the scriptures. The example we have is 1 Corinthians 5. It is actually reported that there is immorality among you and immorality of such a kind as does not even exist among the Gentiles that someone has as father's wife. We often use that passage when thinking about church discipline in areas of great magnitude and public sin but we also see that it is immorality and it's problematic. Ancestralist marriage can never be made lawful which is a helpful point. If the Bible is against incestuous marriages, it is also against homosexual marriages. So it doesn't matter what the guys in Richmond or the guys in DC or the guys at the capital of whatever state you may be from says marriage is or marriage is not. It's completely irrelevant. Marriage is what God says it is. Now, as long as we can marry in the Lord, and it can be in keeping with the laws of the state, we continue to do that, right? So we're not at a position where when young man, young woman come and say, we want to get married, we don't advise them, don't go register with the government. Now, God forbid that day may come that we have to say, forget them. But right now we can operate in the confines that they've given us. Now others can too. Right? So-called gay marriage and other things may be accepted but we are able to do what is right before God and what is right before the civil authorities at this point and so we seek to do that. But we can't make our own marriage laws. You can take all the leftists in the world and they can vote more left than they could ever imagine and it will not make homosexual marriage an actual thing. It's a mirage. but because we are sinners, we are prone to usurping God's law in all kinds of ways. There's one gaping hole one gaping difference, one drastic difference between what the London Confession says and what the Westminster Confession says. Now, taking the full confessions together, the big differences are on church ordinance, particularly of baptism in the church section. But by and large, the two confessions are very similar. This is one of the chapters where they're drastically different. The Westminster, the Presbyterian version of this, what someone called a rough draft of this, the final copy, include a lot of details about divorce and remarriage. more than likely our Baptist forefathers a lot like us as Baptists today couldn't come to an actual agreement on what to say about that and so they just left it open and didn't speak to it at all. But the Presbyterians were more specific in walking through it and the Baptist decided not to wade into those waters but leave it open for interpretation evidently. One other thing I want to mention in closing because in considering marriage, a little bit more than one thing, kind of a sweeping group of things in closing, it's very possible for people who have been in difficult marriages, who have grown up in broken homes and seen poor marriages, people who desire marriage, it's very easy to hear something like this and for it to be like a gut punch of, you know, maybe this is not for me, or yeah, that's kind of the ideal, but that's not a reality for me, or I don't, I'm not married right now and I want to be, so this kind of hurts to hear about it because I want this and I don't have it. There's also the possibility of all of these perversions of sexuality and the wrong views of marriage that we may have been guilty of, and it would be easy for us to leave only thinking about those things and being overwhelmed about that. And I don't want anybody to do that. There's no need to do that. There is abundant hope in God that we all ought to have with regard to forgiveness of sin, where we have been outside the bounds of what God has said with regard to sexuality. and marriage. And there is abundant reason to hope that if you desire to be married and you are not yet married that God does have a spouse for you and will provide that in his perfect timing. And there's a host of people in here who could argue that who are on the other side who can say that is absolutely true. I see people smiling and nodding right now. It is true that God does do that. and so you ought to have an abundant measure of hope. Now, more specifically for those who have been guilty, whether recently or in the distant past of sinning with regard to sexuality. Listen to the words of the apostle writing to the church at Corinth in chapter six. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Here's the hopeful verse. Such were some of you. Passages like this make you love grammar whether you love grammar or not. It's past tense. Such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit of our God. There is hope, abundant hope, for the sexually broken. Along with all people of God who have broken any of God's law, there's hope to realize that God is holy. He will indeed rightfully judge all who have sinned against him by breaking his holy law. But as we repent, any and all sinner, the sexually deviant and any other sinner, all other sinners must repent and receive Christ by faith. and be saved from God's righteous judgment by trusting in Christ and the judgment that fell on him at the cross. And when we come to Jesus, our lives, our hearts begin to be put back together and they begin to work in proper order again. You haven't sinned in such a way that God can't put it all back together. It's an impossibility. You are elevating yourself above God if you think you've done something that he can't forgive and redeem and bring about reconciliation. If you're sexually broken you too were made in the image of God even though you may have rebelled against him or been sinned against By someone else, there is hope in Christ. Run to him, find forgiveness and freedom and satisfaction. Let's pray to close and then we'll sing. Our Lord and our God, we thank you for your word. Again, we thank you for marriage, how clear you've been to lay down the boundaries and the rules, how much hope you've given us, how much promise. God, we thank you. for the godly marriages among us as a church. God, we thank you how you've continued to bring young men and young women together year after year, what in some seasons seems like month after month, bringing them together and establishing godly homes. We pray, God, that you would continue providing in such a way that you would give those who long to be married a godly spouse, and that you would help the marriages that do exist, that you'll help them to continue pressing on in righteousness. And God, we pray for those families who desire children. God, will you grant them conception and give them the desire of their heart in order that they might raise and nurture children according to your word. God, we pray for those who have been guilty, particularly those in recent days who have been guilty of sin in the manners that we've discussed this evening. God, will you bring about not only conviction, but bring the healing salve of the gospel close behind it. Show yourself to be merciful and kind and saving and gracious and loving. Help us, God. As we live in a culture that has redefined you and everything about you, help us to remain steadfast, seeking to honor you and to please you. In our marriages, in our jobs, indeed, in the entirety of our lives, we look and hope only in you, look to and hope only in you. We pray in Christ's name, amen.