Romans chapter 7, verse 1. Hear now the reading of God's inerrant and infallible word. Know ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that she should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit, unto God. Please turn over to Genesis chapter 18. Genesis chapter 18. We'll read verses 10 through 12. Page 17 of your pew Bibles. Starting at verse 10. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life and lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. and Sarah heard it in the tent door which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well-stricken in age, and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure? My Lord, being old also. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the holy word of God. We thank you for your holy truth to make us into a holy people, to reveal to us your son. We pray that you would guide and direct us as we consider the words of God, inspired by your spirit, recorded by the prophets and apostles, and preserved by your singular care and providence to this very day. Guide and direct us in these things we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. We're continuing in our study of the law of marriage, taking as a springboard Romans 7 verses 1 through 4 concerning the law of marriage discussed there. We've looked at the original created order for marriage from Genesis chapter 2. We've looked at the lives of the patriarchs, Noah and Abram. And we continue now looking at the patriarchs. We'll look at Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Today, God willing, and then we'll pick up in the law of Moses next Sabbath. Genesis 18, very interesting passage. God has promised that Abraham will have a child of his own body. Now God gets very specific and narrows it down to Sarah, his wife. She will have a child. That's the context here. God is increasing the truth that he's revealed to his servant, Abraham. He adds more to what he had shown him before. Notice verse 11. It says that it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. God in his providence has instituted a beginning to the childbearing years and an end to the childbearing years. Here, it had ceased for Sarah. She could no longer have children in the ordinary means that are used to propagate mankind. But notice, this is still Abraham's wife. This does not terminate the marriage, in other words, simply because she could no longer have the manner of women upon herself. Notice verse 12, how she refers in her mocking or laughing at the promise of God, she says, after I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also. Now this is a rather crass way of stating it, if you look especially in the Hebrew, she's a little bit vulgar, you might say here, in the description of what she's saying. One thing, however, that the Holy Spirit picks up on, and we'll see in 1 Peter, is that she refers to her husband in a specific way. She calls him Lord. And this word is a very interesting word, Adon. It means one who owns me, one who is my master. One who is my Lord. In fact, this is the name of God in certain passages of scripture. He is our Lord. Kurios is the Greek. Dominus is the Latin. This is what this means. My master, my Lord, my king, you might say. And the Apostle Peter picks up on this and gives it as a paradigm for believing women in the New Testament. This is not an Old Testament idea way back when they scraped their fingers on the ground and were like monkeys as the evolutionists vainly imagine. No, this is the truth of God from the order of creation as we saw in Genesis two, who pandras means one who is under a man. Therefore, naturally she refers to her husband as her Lord. I note then that marriage is not a 50-50 partnership. It is not a democracy. Marriage is a constitutional monarchy. There is one who reigns in the household, and there is a constitution called the Bible that says what are the bounds of his authority. Here's this side, here's this side. He can't go under this, he can't go over this. It is a constitutional monarchy. The head of the household is the man. He is the lord and master of his wife. This rebukes then the egalitarian notions of our day. The complementarian ideas, which I've discussed before, no need to go over that again. Sarah is an exemplary wife, again, as we'll see in 1 Peter 3. She's brought up, even though she's sinning when she says this, even though she's unbelieving when she says this, the Holy Spirit chooses this one word, Lord, and brings it out and says, this is an example for you. Forgetting about the failing of Sarah, it shows the goodness in her. It emphasizes the truth that she spoke. In fact, her husband was her Lord. So this rebukes these egalitarian notions and somehow thinking that, oh, well, we come together and we have powwows and we have a vote and then we figure out what we're going to do. No. I exhort then, ladies, follow Sarah's lead. Do not be afraid to subject yourself to a sinful, fallible human authority. That's what Peter says. Do not be afraid with any amazement. Now, when Sarah submits herself to Abraham's orders, sometimes, as we'll see, it's a little dangerous. It's a little spicy. It's a little troublesome. It's difficult. It's a hard life she leads. But she still submits herself and recognizes his authority. And so, trust in God to protect you. He is your Lord's Lord, so to speak. And you must both think of your husband as Sarah did with reverence, thinking of him in that light as under his dominion. She spoke of him with respect. Even when she's disbelieving of God, she speaks of her husband in a respectful way, much more than we can say for many women. She speaks respectfully of her husband and thinks and acts under his dominion. Turn over to Genesis 19, we'll read verses 4 through 7. Genesis 19, verses 4 through 7, page 18 of your Pew Bibles. Verse 4, But before they lay down, that is the angels sent to Sodom, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter. And they called unto Lot and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, and said, I pray you, brethren, do not sow wickedly. This, verse four we see, is the men of Sodom. What did they do? They surrounded the house. And who, pray tell, was there, old and young, from every quarter of their city? Now we've seen the natural order. It is one man and one woman. We've seen the violation of the natural order with multiplying of wives, but now we see something even worse. You could make the pretext that having multiple wives is at least according to the normal order of male and female, isn't it? But notice here, this is not according to that normal order. Man has become emboldened in his evil deeds. He has become prosperous in the beautiful green lands of Sodom and Gomorrah. They are filled with bread. They are prideful. You know, they call that flag that they wave to celebrate their godless wickedness. They call it the pride flag. Well, that's true. It is a pride flag. And God resisted the proud. He hates those who exalt themselves. We ought not to celebrate our sins, but the men of Sodom, all of them from the oldest to the youngest, it says. Unless this unnatural vice is severely punished, what does it do? It spreads. When you openly say, it's okay to be gay, guess what happens? It infects everyone from every quarter, from the oldest to the youngest, he says. You see that? Our natural depravity takes the crookedness and says, oh, me wants it. They say, in verse 5, "...bring them out unto us, that we may know them." We want to have relations. As Adam knew his wife and she had a child because of that, that's the kind of carnal knowledge they want of these angels. Sodomy is the abandonment of the order of creation, which is what? One man and one woman. They leave then the natural use of the men. They don't even realize these are not actually men. They are angels. They don't care. They want what they want. They're prideful. They've abandoned the order of nature and so God has given them over. And notice, do not sow wickedly, he says. This is Lot speaking back to them. Sodomy is a wicked sin. It is not just some state you're born in. Are you born in sin? Yes. Does that make sin okay? No. If someone says, I am born as a sodomite, you say, well, are you born a sinner? Because if you are, it doesn't justify your sin. It means you need to repent of your sin to crucify the flesh with the affections and the lusts. God said that this sin was so wicked that it cried to God in heaven and He had to come down and examine it to see whether the cry of it was accurate. Their sin is very grievous, he says in Genesis 18, 20. Do you know what they want to do to us? Numb your senses. Accept our lawlessness. Accept our perversity. Celebrate our sin. This is the devil's way. But note, this doctrine, sodomy, is a crying sin. It cries out, please destroy us. And when it is accepted as a judgment from God, God brings more judgments to follow. Have you ever driven somewhere and you wonder how long until we get there? How soon will we be at this place? Do you want to go to a park? Or you want to go to a museum? Or you're visiting family and you're driving along. How many miles until we get to Orlando? Oh, 200 miles. Now it's 100 miles. Now it's 50 miles. Now it's 3 miles. When you see sodomites show up publicly, guess what? You're close to judgment. The marker is saying, judgment is soon. You can write it down. It might have been 200 miles when they were making fun of them in the 80s on TV. Oh, and then in the 90s it became, well, let's just say it's an alternative lifestyle. You're about at 100 miles. Guess where we are now? We're about 3 miles away. The sign says you're about to be doomed, because you accepted this lawlessness, God's going to judge you. Sodomy is a crying sin. It is a judgment of God against past idolatry, and it brings more judgments in its train. It's a flashing light saying you're going to be destroyed, your nation must be ruined, your city will be overthrown. Let us pray for the end of sodomy in our land. Let us work toward the eradication of all false worship. False worship is an inversion of the order of nature. It does not submit to its superior. It submits God to man and says, God, you will receive worship as I see best. Who's in charge? Man. The inferior is put in charge of his infinite superior that is God. So guess what God does to people who do that? He gives them over to a reprobate mind to do those things that are not convenient. False worship leads to sodomy. Pleasing the creature, man-centered living, These bring in unnatural desires, and it's a judgment directly from God for the prior idolatrous behavior. Now, we must also with the Apostle Paul say, as he said to the Corinthians, such were some of you. The gospel is for sodomites as well. They may be saved, not if they're patted on the back and told, Love is love, everything's hunky-dory. But if they are called to repent of their wicked ways, turn from their sins, and come back to Jesus Christ, crucify your desire for those things, as well as your old man. Crucify the flesh with the desires and lusts. Get rid of your attraction for these things by the grace of the gospel. Chapter 19, further on, verses 31 through 38, we see the origin of the Moabites and the Ammonites through the lascivious deeds of Lot's daughters. Chapter 20, let's read verses 1 through 6. And Abraham journeyed from Thense toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and journeyed in Gerar. And Abraham said to Sarah his wife, she is my sister, or of Sarah his wife, she is my sister. And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. Does this sound familiar? Same song, second verse. We'll see the third verse later. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken, for she is a man's wife. But Abimelech had not come near her. And he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? Said he not unto me, she is my sister, and she, even she herself, said, He is my brother. In the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this. And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart. For I also withheld thee from sinning against me, therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. So here we see the heathen. What does he say? Verse 4, "...Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?" This is the Philistines. He understands, by the light of nature, marriage is honorable among all. God hates adultery. Therefore, we must not wink at such sins or others related to it. Look down at verse 16, Abimelech continues speaking truth. And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver. Behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes unto all that are with thee, and with all other. Thus she was reproved." Notice there, who was reproved? Sarah was. She was responsible for her actions, though acting under the authority of her husband. Now this phrase, to be a covering of the eyes. Put your hands over your eyes. What do you see? You can't see much, can you? You see nothing. If you did a good job of covering your eyes, you would see nothing. What is Abraham to you? A covering of your eyes. You walk as a blind woman, Sarah, and you are to be corrected for your sin. This word reprove means to be pronounced guilty, to be convicted, to be judged. Now we know, as we saw previously, that Abraham was guilty for telling his wife to lie. But was Sarah off the hook because Abraham sinned? Was it 50-50? If he does his part, then I have to do mine. But if I'm a victim, I lose my moral responsibility after all. It's always the oppressor and the oppressed. Poor oppressed Sarah. She couldn't help but do it. Her husband told her to do it. The devil made me do it. The woman that thou gavest to me, she gave to me, and I did eat. Is that how it works? Nope. Wives, I exhort you, as Abraham was commanded to say nothing sinful for his wife to do, so you are to obey nothing that is sinful. Those under authority must take responsibility for their actions. Do not blame your superiors for their sinful actions and say, well, I'm not responsible because they sinned against me. Superiors are responsible to command nothing sinful. Inferiors are responsible to obey nothing sinful. Both are responsible. Please turn over to chapter 24. Genesis 24. We'll read verses 1 through 4 and then 12 through 20. Let's start at verse 2, actually. And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, but thou shalt go unto my country and to my kindred, And take a wife unto my son Isaac. Now verse 12. This is the servant praying. And he said, O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and show kindness unto my master Abraham. Behold, I stand here by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water. and let it come to pass that the damsel to whom I shall say, let down my pitcher, I pray thee that I may drink. And she shall say, drink, and I will give unto thy camels drink also. Let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac, and thereby shall I know that thou hast showed kindness unto my master. Now in verses 15 through 20, we have a description of a miraculous answer to his prayer. Exactly as he asked it, God answered. And right as he was speaking the prayer to God in his heart, God answered his prayer. This is pretty amazing. It was obviously from God. But notice verse 3. Thou shalt not, Abraham says, take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites. Marriage is only in the Lord. It is not to be with idolaters, or even those who profess to be Christian who are yet idolaters, semi-idolaters. There would be semi-idolaters among the Canaanites, as well as the worst kind of idolatry. But notice, Abraham says, none of them, not one, go back over here where there are at least some godly people. Marry in the Lord. Note here that families have an interest in their children's marriages, even in the marriages of their sons. Now we'll see in the scriptures, there is the giving of a daughter in marriage, there is the taking of a wife by the man, or by the party who acts for the man as here. And even more so, the interest of families in their daughter's marriage, to ensure that the man is responsible, is able to provide, is able to govern a household. Families are responsible for their children's marriage. Now notice verse 14. Here are his conditions in his prayer. The damsel to whom I shall say, let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink. And she shall say, like, I'm kind of busy. Are you asking me to do stuff for you? Can you believe this guy is such a chauvinist? Is that what she says? Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also. Let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac. What kind of woman is he asking for Isaac? Do you notice? How much water can a camel drink? You know, they can store lots of water in those humps they've got. They have the capacity to store up so that then they can march along the desert without dehydrating and dying. That's why they're so good for desert people. Now, if he's at the end of his journey, do you think those camels are thirsty? Oh, you better bet they're thirsty. And he's asking that she will not just give him something to drink, but that she'll ask, how can I serve your camels? How many camels do you think he had? It's at least two. Gallons and gallons and gallons and gallons and gallons and gallons of water of her own will. Without complaint? Without sloth? Young ladies, what sort of women do you want to be? What sort of character are you developing? What are your work habits? How willing would you be to fulfill such a request? Even to offer it of your own will to do these things? Is this the character you're developing? Do you desire to marry well? then be well. If you desire to marry a good and godly man, strive to be a good and a godly woman. If you want to marry a slouch, be a slouch, and you will get one, and your life will be harder, it will be difficult, it might even be miserable. but your chances of marrying well increase exponentially depending on your character. This is true of young men as well. We'll see this in a little bit. But notice, this is the character of our mother, Rebecca. She is diligent, she is hospitable, she is caring, she is oriented towards service, all of the things, and she probably was pretty strong too, wasn't she? Can you imagine carrying all that water? What kind of endurance she must have had? Turn over to Genesis 25. We'll look at verses 20 and 21. Concerning our father Isaac after the marriage of these two. Genesis 25 verse 20. And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian, of Paddan Aram, the sister to Laban the Syrian. And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived." Isn't this beautiful? Notice here, his wife is in distress. Do you think women were happy to be without children as the unnatural and godless satanic women that we have in our day? No. These women were distressed if they couldn't have kids. My body's designed for this. God made me for this. Why can't I have children? You will see this, perhaps, if you read through the book of Genesis. You'll notice this very carefully. Some of these women say, give me children or I die. It mattered to them. And guess who else it mattered to? Isaac. Isaac, our father, entreated the Lord for his wife. What concerned his wife concerned him. The duty of a husband is to pray for his wife, to seek her good, to bless her, and to seek God to bless her. I note then this doctrine. Our catechism asks, in the larger catechism, question 129, What is required of superiors toward their inferiors? The answer is, it is required of superiors according to that power they receive from God and that relation wherein they stand to love, pray for, and bless their inferiors. Husbands, parents, bosses. Note here, church governors, what is the duty of anyone who has authority? It's to follow our father Isaac. Love them. Let their concerns be your concerns. Pray for them. Bless them. That's what our catechism teaches. That's what scriptures teach. We are to bless those, to pray for those, to do good to those under our authority. Look over at chapter 26 on the next page, verses 7 through 9. Verse 7. And the men of that place asked him of his wife, and he said, She is my sister. This is Isaac, by the way. This is in Abraham, part three. This is Isaac continuing on in the noble tradition of his father, Abraham. She is my sister. For he feared to say, She is my wife, lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah, because she was fair to look upon. And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife. And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife, and how saidst thou she is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her. Okay, so we've seen some good things in Isaac, here we see a bad. She is my sister. That's what he says. Boys, when you grow up, and men, as we are now, do not follow the sins of your fathers. Do not justify them in your head and say, well, my dad sinned this way, why can't I? I'm supposed to honor my father, right? How can I condemn my dad? No, we honor God first, and we honor our parents in light of our honor for God and not vice versa. Do not follow the same sins as your father as Rebecca did. Repent of the sins of your fathers. Break the chain of wickedness. Don't imitate their sins. Notice, Abimelech looks out the window and what does he see outside of his window? Isaac, sporting with his wife. Now this is an interesting term. It can mean to mock someone, to play with them, to sport, or to seek your pleasure with a person. The scripture is no prudes manual. How can I be a prude? Let me read the Bible. No, I'm sorry. It doesn't work that way. You read the Bible, you find out there were real people there who had real marriages and real sins and real problems and real troubles and sufferings. And that God in his grace was with them in those sufferings and bless them in their joys. This is one of the joys of marriage. God, in his word, endorses husbands and wives displaying affection for one another, even public displays of affections. Now, there is a line that you can go over, which is what we call obscene or obscenity. That's where that should not be seen by other people. Certain things husbands and wives do should not be seen by others. But apparently, sporting with his wife was within the bounds of normalcy. He could tell that kind of touching is not the kind that happens to just brothers and sisters. No, that's your wife, he says. How did you try to trick me into thinking she's not your wife? I just saw you put your hands on her. No. So the Bible is not a prudish book. Now, I exhort us then to conform our opinions and affections to the Bible rather than to overreact to the sins of others. Now let me give you an illustration. In the Roman world, as I mentioned earlier in the book of Galatians, the apostle says that if you're a fornicator, you won't inherit the kingdom of God. Now in the ancient Roman world, fornication was as common as day. Everybody did it. It was to be expected. Then you kind of sobered up and got married and then you stopped doing that. Maybe if you're a woman, you shouldn't do it, but if you're a man, it's okay. If you do it a little bit and commit adultery, But for them it was very loose sexual laws in their minds. They had hardened themselves against the light of nature. And so Paul has to remind the Galatians that if you live in that fornicator's way, you're going to go to hell. But the Romans were very loose. And so in response to the loose moors of the Romans, guess what the church did? They said, well, let's all try to be virgins. And the only people who are really, really close to God, where you can almost write it down, you're going to heaven, is if you join a monastery. Because after all, look at how bad the Romans are. Look at all their perversity. You can see their gods and their paintings are perverse. Let's go all the way to the ditch on the other side of the road. That's what the church did. Part of the Antichrist's kingdom is the denial of the rights of marriage, the goodness of marriage, the blessings of marriage, the affection, even public displays of affection between a husband and his wife, countenanced in the Bible, encouraged as you read through the whole Bible, you'll find God encourages these things. But the church said, oh, look how bad that is. It leads to all these bad results. The thing itself we have to do away with. Let's say, let's not get married, OK? Let's just be virgins the rest of our life. That thing is kind of dirty that they do in marriage. So let's not think about it. Is that what God says? No. People are prudish. People make rules that bind where scripture looses us. God says, here's an area of freedom. Man says, nope, I don't want you to have that. Because you might abuse that freedom. This is the school marm approach. You might abuse alcohol, let's get rid of all alcohol. You might abuse your slaves, let's get rid of all slavery. You might abuse your wife, let's get rid of marriage. God says, no such thing. We are not to overreact to the sins of others. We're not to create prudish rules that bind where scripture looses. He showed affection to his wife to such an extent that Abimelech... No, no, no, no. That's not your sister. You're not fooling me. Genesis 29, verses 15 through 26, and we will conclude with this passage and conclude with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Page 32 of your Pew Bibles. Starting there at verse 15. And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for naught? Tell me, what shall thy wages be? And Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah was tender-eyed, but Rachel was beautiful and well-favored. And Jacob loved Rachel and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel, thy younger daughter. And Laban said, it is better that I give her to thee than that I should give her to another man. Abide with me. And Jacob served seven years for Rachel. And they seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had to her. Now notice there in verse 18, Jacob loved Rachel, it says, and he said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel. Notice, what sort of man is our father, Jacob? Is he serious in what he's saying? Well, you better bet. You're gonna commit seven years of your life to have this woman as your wife? Yes. Jacob was willing to serve to sacrifice himself for the love that he bare to Rachel. Therefore, I exhort young men, do you desire to marry well? Remember, we talked to the ladies earlier. What about young men? Do you want to marry well? Would you desire to be the sort of man who could marry the woman that he wants to marry instead of maybe settling for something else? then imitate the self-denial and diligence of our father Jacob. Seven years indentured servitude? Don't you have other things you want to do with your life? But Jacob, as we will read, if you read through the account here, Jacob is a hard worker. Jacob denies himself and prospers the estate of Laban. Now he receives wages and Laban tries to cheat him and he recognizes his right to his wages even though Laban is a trickster and a huckster. But still, for all of that, Jacob builds the fortunes of Laban. By his hard work, by his industry, by his self-denial, by nights out in the cold, sleep robbed from his eyes, he works hard for this woman to bless his employer, to provide for his family. Is that the sort of man you want to become? Then you must deny yourself. You must become such a man who can work hard, save a lot, and provide for his family. And married men, let us work diligently for our families. Let us remember the first love. What is it that impelled him to work so hard? For the love he bared to Rachel, he says, I'll serve seven years. I'll work hard for that woman. Let us remember our first love, renew our commitment to be diligent, to sacrifice ourselves, to save and provide for those that we love. And notice verse 20. It says that these days of service seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had to her. The scriptures tell us that love never fails. Not the soupy, syrupy, emotional love, but that which practically applies itself for the benefit of the other. Jacob was such a man. Let us renew our first love to our wives. If we find it a drudgery to serve our households by working hard for them, saving up for them, suffering for them, we must renew our first love and thus be ready for it to be as nothing. And is this not the gospel in a nutshell? Our Lord Jesus Christ loved us and gave himself for us, and so we are called to do as well. And thus far the explanation of the law of marriage from the patriarchs. Let's pray.