And for the rest of us, I would invite you to turn to the book of Hebrews once again, chapter 13. And if you're using the Bibles there in the seats in front of you, it's going to be page 1009 as we come back to Hebrews chapter 13, the last chapter of the book. And we are indeed coming down the homestretch of the time that we have been in this great portion of God's Word. I want to mention, as Smokey prayed for the Duran family, just to encourage you to continue to be doing so for Christina, and for David, and for all of their children. Many of you know that Christina had been pregnant, and as of later last Sunday evening, learned that the child that she was bearing had indeed miscarried, and that was confirmed. And because he was 19 weeks along, the decision had been made for him to be delivered. And so that transpired this last Wednesday evening, that Andrew Joseph was delivered. And so you can understand the difficulty, the grief of that. Both David and Christina are very much seeking the Lord, very much resting in His sovereign purposes, assured that Andrew Joseph is in the presence of the Lord. And yet there's understandable grief. So please continue to keep them in prayer. And they're actually scheduled to be leaving this week, the whole family, to make their way back to Texas. One of Christina's sisters is getting married next weekend. And so be praying for them even as they journey there and back for that event and for that occasion. But we rejoice in God's provision, and yet we know often there is real grief. And so be praying for David and Christina. Well, as we come back to the book of Hebrews, of course, last week we took a break as we focused in on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ in a little bit more direct way. But we are now back in this book in which God, through the human author, is exhorting and encouraging Christians to keep persevering in faith. And we've seen in matters leading up to chapter 13 that the focus of the book revolves around God's glorious purposes in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. The supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ and the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ being greater and better than all that had preceded in the Old Covenant and all that has been revealed in the Old Covenant of God's Word was all anticipatory of the work that God accomplished through the Lord Jesus Christ in making once for all purification for sins to all who believe and providing forgiveness and providing reconciliation with God and providing hope that is eternal and that is real. And as he's come to the latter part of the book of Hebrews, the author has been driving home this point of the need to persevere in faith. He knows that he's writing to professing Christians who are experiencing trials and difficulties and challenges and the walk with God and the race of following Christ has become very, very difficult. And very wearisome. And these believers are being very tempted to give up on trusting Christ. And the message again and again and again is to keep believing in Christ alone. Keep trusting. Keep laying hold of this hope. And keep holding fast to the confession that has been made of faith in Him. And this exhortation really intensifies from chapter 12 into chapter 13, as the urgency and the need for believers to keep persevering is pressed home. To be submitting to the Father's loving discipline and sharing in His holiness, in the beauty and in the perfection of His life and of His love, to be sharing in all that God is. and submitting to His work in growing us and maturing us, and even loving and helping one another in the fullness of growing in God's grace, to be encouraging one another that way. And then as we get into chapter 13, there are a series of very specific exhortations, very specific, very practical, and we're gonna be looking just at the first part of verse four this morning about this matter of letting marriage be held in honor by all. But it's vitally important to see all of these exhortations in chapter 13 as the expression of what it means to worship God. And in just a moment when I read our passage this morning, and I actually want to start in chapter 12, verse 28, because it sets the framework that all of these specific details that are mentioned in chapter 13 are expressions of how believers are to be worshiping God acceptably. And so this is all in the framework of worship. Worship isn't just what we do when we gather on Sunday mornings. Of course, that's a huge element of it as we gather to praise God and to thank God and to pray to Him and to hear His word read and preached and to sing to Him and to sing to one another. Those are huge parts of our worship, but our worship translates into all of life, into the nitty-gritty details of day-by-day life. And so I'm going to begin in verse 28 of chapter 12 and then read through verse 4 of chapter 13. But let me pray before we look to God's Word and then we'll hear His Word this morning. Father, we thank you that you have given your word. And even as elsewhere in your word, you have taught us to pray that your name would be hallowed, and that your kingdom would come, and that your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Even now, we pray that that would occur as we hear your word from Hebrews this morning. And Lord, that your purposes in each one of our lives would be realized in what you desire to speak to us. And so help us, give us ears to hear, give us eyes to see, give us hearts to respond in humility and faith to the things that you would feed us this morning. We pray this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's hear the word of the God who speaks. Hebrews 12, verse 28, leading into chapter 13, verse four. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And thus, let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be defiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will remain forever. Many of you received an email that I sent out on Friday afternoon alerting you to the subject matter for these next couple of Sundays as we look into verse 4 of chapter 13 regarding marriage and regarding sexuality. And I made the point in that email that this is a small verse, but it has gigantic implications. And it exposes a massive danger and a massive problem in the church today, namely, the possibility of dishonoring marriage and of defiling the marriage bed. And sadly, this danger is nothing new in our world, and this danger is nothing new in the church. And in one way or another, matters of God's design for marriage and God's design for sexuality, they affect every single one of us. Whether you're married, whether you're single, whether you're young, whether you're old, if you are married, whether you're in a good marriage or a mediocre marriage or a bad or in a hard marriage, whether you're single, wherever the case may be, these matters have significance for all of us. My prayer as I've been preparing this and as I've been looking into the fullness of what God's Word teaches regarding these matters is that God would use these truths to meet us where we're at and to ultimately help us even look beyond the details of life in this world all the more to the hope that He's called us to in Christ. And even as we move through things this morning, I trust that this will be true. But marriage is a reality in this world. A number of years ago, Time Magazine had a cover article that was entitled, Who Needs Marriage? If you know anything about Time Magazine, it's rather liberal in its orientation and rather unbiblical in its orientation. You could imagine the direction that that article went. Who Needs Marriage? And the article recounted a nationwide poll that was conducted by the Pew Research Center in connection with Time Magazine, and they posed a number of questions to people. They asked people what they wanted and expected out of marriage and of family life, why they entered into committed relationships, and what they hoped to gain from those relationships. And all of the polling that they did led them to the conclusion and the discovery that what they found was that marriage, whatever its social, spiritual, or symbolic appeal, is in purely practical terms just not as necessary as it used to be. And they go on to say that neither men nor women need to be married to have sex or companionship or professional success or respect or even children. Now that's in many ways no surprise in terms of the world's perspective. And this was a number of years ago that this research was done and that the article was written, and from that time until now, the perspective and the attitudes, the prevailing attitudes towards marriage, towards sexuality, have only multiplied exponentially in their decline. And there's a lot of different things we could dive in at with regard to this article. I think fundamentally, they're asking the wrong questions, and as a result of that, they're coming to the wrong conclusions. but it does reveal nonetheless the issue of where do we get our values, where do we get our priorities, where do we get our morals and our practices, both in a general sense and certainly in a specific sense as it relates to marriage and to sexuality. And fundamentally for believers, we must come back again and again to the authority of God as revealed in His Word. And there's a reason that the Holy Spirit, through the human rider in Hebrews, was compelled to make this statement that marriage is to be held in honor by all, Because there was the potential, if not the reality, that in the local church that this letter was originally written to, marriage was indeed perhaps being dishonored. And so it's one thing to acknowledge that the world at large has a lot of misconceptions, a lot of wrong ideas regarding marriage and sexuality. But brothers and sisters, the same can be true in the church. And sadly, all too often is in the church. And so this is a word to believers, and certainly it has many implications and significance to unbelievers as well regarding God's design for marriage and for sexuality. And let alone the way that marriage is treated and regarded and often portrayed and pursued in our world, the church is to be unique. The church is to be distinct as God's blood-bought people through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's interesting to note, even in the context of Hebrews chapter 13, that this word regarding marriage and sexuality in verse 4 follows the exhortation of verses 1 to 3 regarding loving the brethren, loving one another, loving strangers, loving those believers that have been imprisoned. There is a priority here. There is a designed intentionality of acknowledging that flowing from our worship of God, if we have come to faith in Christ and are related to God through faith and worshiping Him, that we are to love one another. And indeed, the foundation of healthy marriages and godly marriages is first and foremost having a right relationship with God, and flowing from that, learning to love one another and grow with one another. And then we can understand and pursue more fully the responsibilities within marriage and the significance of holding marriage in honor and not letting the marriage bed be defiled. And so the point of this text is very clear and straightforward. Marriage is to be held in honor by all. And the all there is ultimately by all believers. Of course we desire and we would long that it would be held in honor by all people. But for a person who is alienated from God because of their sin, just like any of us were before God brought us to faith in Him, there's not going to be any motivation. There's not going to be any inclination to hold marriage in honor. Their first need is to know faith in Christ, to know the forgiveness of their sins and being reconciled to their Creator just as it was for us. And so this is most particularly a word to believers. And to hold marriage in honor means to respect it, to esteem it, to value it, to treasure it in light of God's design and His purpose with it. And so the thrust of this passage, the word of application for every one of us is that you and I would do our part in honoring marriage in the local church and the world. That we would do our part. And again, whatever our situation, whatever our circumstance, whatever it may be, that we have a responsibility to do our part in honoring marriage. And it tells us that marriage has profound meaning, and marriage therefore matters. And that's the heart of the verse. It's very clear, it's very straightforward, it's not very complicated. And you see that this statement in verse 4 unfolds in three different parts. And together, these three parts express an urgent need for believers, for every one of us, to passionately uphold God's design for marriage and for sexuality. The first part is the beginning of verse four, hold marriage in honor. The second part is in the middle of the verse, keep the marriage bed pure. And the third part is at the end of the verse, this is the driving motivation of all of it, fear God's judgment. This is a word of warning. There is an implicit promise of blessing because the opposite of God's judgment is to know his blessing. And so if we are striving by the power of His indwelling Spirit in our lives to uphold the honor of marriage and to keep the marriage bed pure, there is great blessing. But the word also comes as a word of warning that we ought fear God's judgment. because He is a holy God and He is a just God. And so those are the three parts of the verse, to hold marriage in honor, to keep the marriage bed holy, and to fear God's judgment. Now this morning, we're gonna really zero in on this first part, what it means to hold marriage in honor. And then next week, Lord willing, our plan will be to consider the second and third parts because they're really connected. Really, the whole verse is connected. So even as we zero in on the first part, keep those other two in mind because it is all very deeply tied together in how marriage is to be held in honor. And so this morning, with that, what we want to do is consider a couple of questions related to this first part. Namely, how do we honor marriage? And then second of all, how do we dishonor marriage? If we're to honor it, we need to understand what it means to honor marriage in God's design. We also need to understand what it means to dishonor marriage. We need to understand the former so that we cultivate honoring marriage. We need to understand the latter so that we avoid dishonoring marriage. And so that's what we want to think about consider as we look at these matters this morning. So first of all, how do believers honor marriage? If we are to respect and to esteem and to value and to treasure marriage, exactly how do we do that? Let me give you a general statement and then we're going to look at some details related to marriage and how we honor it. Christians honor marriage by understanding, by submitting to, by delighting in, by promoting and defending God's purpose for marriage. I know that's a mouthful, but think about it together with me. We honor marriage when we understand, when we submit to, when we delight in, and then promote and defend God's purpose for marriage. Now we need to say at the outset that while this is a word to Christians and while marriage in God's design is only going to be fully understood and ultimately only rightly honored by those who are believers, by those who have come to faith in Christ, we rejoice in and we acknowledge that God's common grace in this world falls to everyone. And much like everyone in Sacramento will enjoy the beauty of this day, they'll vary, of course, in degrees to which they acknowledge the beauty of this day, but God causes His Son to shine on the wicked and on the righteous, on believers and on unbelievers. And much as it is with marriage, many unbelievers experience the blessings of marriage. Now, they may not experience them in the fullest degree, and they certainly may not be consciously giving thanks and praise to God, but it's an expression of God's generous, kind, common grace in which many people who even are rebellious against God and have no interest in honoring or worshiping or thanking Him yet experience much of the goodness that He's designed within marriage. But again, in a fuller way, and certainly in the context of honoring marriage in connection with God's design, only those who are believers, only those who are born of God have the ability to do this. And what it means for us as well is that every single one of us as believers need to have a biblical theology of marriage and of sexuality. To speak of a biblical theology means the way that we think about things and understand things in accordance with God and with the study of God. That's what theology means, the study of God. We need to have a biblical theology of God's view and God's perspectives of marriage and sexuality. Every single one of us have a philosophy, have a mindset, have attitudes and ideas regarding marriage and sexuality, but we need to make sure that ours is informed by Scripture and by what God has revealed, to understand the design and the definition, the meaning and the purpose of marriage and sexuality in God's design. Because if we don't have that, we can't rightly honor marriage. And so all that we're going to look at this morning is intended to help inform us and strengthen us in having a biblical theology of marriage, and that we can rightly uphold it with and among one another, as well as others that we interact with, believers and unbelievers alike, that we know where to go in Scripture and that we can point to God's design Because we understand that marriage is a lightning rod. Marriage and sexuality are lightning rods in our culture today. And we need to be clear in the truth. So there's a few things that we need to rightly understand, submit to, delight in, and promote and defend regarding marriage and sexuality. A number of specifics that we need to consider. First of all, the whole matter of who designed and defines marriage. Who is it that defines and designs marriage? Well, we understand it is God himself. And God has revealed this going all the way back to the very first two chapters of Scripture in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. So let me invite you to turn there if you would. I want to briefly look at these passages because it would seem self-evident, and yet it's a point that cannot be underscored enough, that God is the one who designed marriage. God is the one who defines what marriage is. And so we see this in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Genesis chapter 1, verse 26. Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, behold, I've given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit, you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that is it, that has breath of life, I have given every green plant for food, and it was so. And then, verse 31, God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good, and there was evening and there was morning the sixth day. The crowning jewel, if you will, of God's creative work was in the creation of man and woman. As we're going to see in a few moments, chapter 2 goes into more detail about what transpired in the creation of man first and then woman. But the point being emphasized is that God is the one who is the author and the designer and the source of life in all of this, which tells us that He is the one who designed and defines marriage. Now think that through with me. What that means is there is no group of individuals that designs and defines marriage. There's no family, there's no parent, there's no sibling, there's no grandparent who defines and designs what marriage is. There's no society or culture who defines and designs what marriage is. The church itself doesn't design and define marriage. No legitimate parachurch ministry, even those that focus on the family as it were, they didn't design and define marriage. No human government designs and defines marriage. No judge designs and defines marriage. Marriage is not designed and defined by majority vote or by special interest groups or by popular opinion or by the will of the people. I know this comes as a shock. Hollywood does not design and define marriages. Liberal magazine editors do not design and define marriage. Universities and scholarly journals with all of their research and statistics don't design and define marriage. And beloved, likewise, you and me, none of us design and define marriage. God alone is the one who designed marriage. God alone is the one who defines marriage and sexuality. And as we saw there in verse 31 of Genesis chapter one, God saw his creation and what was it? It was very good. God's ways are good. When they're understood in the purity and the fullness of who God is and what God has done and what His design is, it is good. And it reflects His goodness, it reflects His wisdom, it reflects His power, it reflects His righteousness. It is good because He's the one in absolute authority. And so the fundamental point in our understanding and submitting to and delighting in and promoting and cherishing the honor of marriage is to acknowledge and to confess and to affirm that God is the one who designed it and who defines it. Well, that of course leads to the second particular matter to consider, and that is namely, if God is the one who designed and defined it, then exactly what is the design and the definition of marriage? How should we understand it? Well, this is what the details of God creating Adam and then Eve in Genesis chapter 2 tell us about. So look over in chapter 2, and I'll pick it up in verse 15, because now we read more detail of God creating man and then woman. And so verse 15. The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in that day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Then the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone, but I will make a helper fit for him, or suitable for him. God knew what he had done when he created Adam, when he created the first man, and God knew what he had done in leaving Adam alone up to that point. And he acknowledges and says that it is not good. He needs a helper. He needs one who will complement him, one who will be suitable for him. And so this is what he does. And so now we read in verse 19, now out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was his name. And so the man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. Among other things, God is parading all of the animal creation that he has made before Adam to help Adam understand that none of these were suitable as a helper for him and that he needed such a helper. And so then we read verse 21. And then the man said, this is at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Adam recognized that this was now a helper suitable for him. So then we read these very significant words of commentary in verse 24 and 25. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. This is before they had sinned and before God's curse had come because of sin, there was an absolute absence of shame in the fullness of all that God had intended in their marriage and the sexuality that was a part of their marriage. There was no shame. But this is God's design and his definition then of flowing from his design helps us to understand that marriage in God's design means the lifelong covenanted union of one man and one woman. And that's what we see patterned for us in God's original creation with Adam and with Eve. A man and a woman suitable for one another within God's design and within God's purposes, even for creating them to rule over creation and to be fruitful and to multiply, they needed one another in order to be faithful to that command. And so when this word of commentary is given in verse 24, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast or cleave to his wife and they shall become one flesh. That's speaking of this unique, profound, exclusive, covenanted union that the man and the woman shared as husband and as wife. And so we see that the design and the definition for marriage is bound up in God's very good and wise created order. that a man, one man, and one woman would be covenanted together as husband and wife in a lifelong union. So that's really our definition of marriage, the biblical definition of marriage in God's design, the lifelong covenanted union of one man and one woman. And again, it's very much connected with this sense of leaving and holding fast to one another. A new family begins every time a man and a woman make vows to one another. Before witnesses and before God himself, they're covenanting to be loyal to one another until death do they part. And so this has, of course, many, many implications. Contrary to much popular belief, contrary to much that we find in the world, the whole concept of same-sex marriage is a complete non-existent reality. Because marriage, by its very definition and by God's very design, means one man and one woman covenanted together for life. Anything other than that is not marriage in God's design and in His definition. And so we must be clear that any unbeliever is in need of coming to faith in Christ, is in need of being forgiven, is in need of knowing God's mercy and grace and being reconciled to their Maker just as we are, or just as we were before any of us came to faith in Christ. We were dead in our sins. We were blind in our sins. And that's true for any other unbeliever, whether they're heterosexual, whether they're homosexual, whether they're somewhere in between. They need Christ. They need to be forgiven. But we dare not compromise, and we dare not fall short of God's definition of marriage. And as believers, we must be clear on this. And so the whole idea of same-sex marriage is as non-existent and as absurd as hot ice, we could say, or cold fire, or dry water, or dark sun, or sad Oklahoman. It just doesn't exist. It just doesn't exist. That was a little joke. So to say that ice is hot, or to say that fire is cold, or to say that water is dry, or that the sun is dark, it's to say something that is contrary to the very nature of the object. And so you see, marriage, by its God-designed nature, involves one man and one woman in a lifelong, covenanted union. And this, and this alone, is true marriage. Anything other than one man and one woman, it is not marriage. Whatever else it may be, it is not marriage in God's eyes. Now some will say, many will say, that is just way too old fashioned. It's just outdated. Nobody thinks like that anymore. How can you say that? My answer is you have no idea just how old-fashioned that reality is. You have no idea. This definition and this reality of marriage goes further back than you can imagine. It goes back further than the happy days of the 1950s and good old leave it to beaver. It goes much further back than the 1800s. It goes much further back than the Puritans of the 16th and the 17th century. It goes much further back than the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. It goes much further back than the time of Christ and of the early church. It goes much further back than the giving of the Ten Commandments and the establishing of the Old Covenant with Israel through Moses. It goes much further back than God even making a covenant with Abraham, and even with him making a covenant with Noah after he destroyed all living humanity, save Noah and his family, through the Flood. It even goes much further back than the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, the first husband and wife. Do you know and do you understand that God's design and definition of marriage goes back to eternity past, before God created anything, when God the Father determined to give God the Son a gift of a bride, a people that the Son would purchase for himself through his own blood. Beloved, that is where the definition and the design of marriage takes shape in the eternal counsels of God. Before he created anything, and God the Father's design and intention to give God the Son a love gift of a bride that the Son himself would ultimately die to purchase through his own blood. Well, that leads to another question then, why it is that God designs and defines marriage as he does. And it helps us understand the uniqueness and the significance of marriage being a lifelong covenanted union between one man and one woman. It's because of what God has designed to provide a bride for his eternal son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is why these matters are of such great significance. Now, it's in the New Testament that we understand, and we'll look at just a few passages that help us understand that the whole point of human marriage is pointing to a greater reality of Christ's marriage with His church, with His bride. We understand that from the New Testament because there's some places where it's spoken of very directly. But even in the Old Testament time, even in God's covenant with His people Israel, there were numerous times where He referred to Himself as a husband to them. And often in their own unfaithfulness and in their own rebellion against them, He likened their rebellion to the committing of adultery, spiritual adultery. such as in Isaiah chapter 54 and chapter 62, also in Jeremiah chapter 3, and also in chapter 31, even in the context of promises related to the New Covenant, God likens His relationship with His people as that of a faithful husband to an unfaithful woman. And yet His love persists. It's in the Gospel of John that we learn more about God providing a people for His Son. In a number of places in John's Gospel, reference is made, Jesus makes reference to the people that the Father had given Him. He speaks of this in John 6, verses 37 and 39. He speaks of it again in John 17 as he prays to the Father. In a number of places in that prayer, he makes reference to those whom the Father had given Him. This is where we understand that those whom the Father had chosen to give His Son, He had chosen to do this before the foundation of the world, before He created anything. And so this is why we understand that the church is identified as the bride of Christ, a people that God is preparing to make holy and to ultimately bring and give to his son as a bride. If you'll turn in the New Testament to the book of Ephesians, chapter five, this is where we hear this spoken of explicitly and directly. Ephesians chapter 5 verses 22 to 33, the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul is giving instructions regarding the roles and the responsibilities of men and women, of husbands and wives in marriage. And notice what he says down in verse 29, or actually I'll start in verse 28, as he's speaking directly to husbands at this point. He says, in the same way, husbands, you should love your wives as your own bodies. He who loves his wife, loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but he nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. Therefore, verse 31, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. He's making reference to Genesis 2, verse 24. And now listen to verse 32 in Ephesians 5. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. Oh, do you see the glory, the weight, the significance of that, brothers and sisters? We're being told by the Holy Spirit here in Ephesians 5 through Paul that what God did back in Genesis 2 and creating Adam and then creating Eve was all about providing a picture to the world of Christ's relationship with the church. And it's vitally important to understand that. God did not design marriage as it was between a man and a woman and then at a later time think to himself, oh wait, here's a great idea of how I can tell the world about Christ's relationship with the church. No, Christ's relationship with the church and this bride that God the Father was giving to his son was in his heart and in his mind before he created anything. So his design and his purpose in marriage is to be a picture of the relationship of Christ with his church. He designed human marriage for that very reason. And it's only as we understand that and embrace that and delight in that and promote that and defend that reality that we all the more fully rightly honor marriage and hold it in honor among us all. Because we realize it points to something infinitely greater than the marriage, than the human marriage itself. It points to the relationship of Christ with his bride and all of that within the purposes of God the Father. Well, that leads to another particular matter that we'll just touch on, and namely, if we understand something of what God's design and definition of marriage is, and if we understand why God designs and defines marriage that way, to be a picture of Christ's relationship with the church, it helps us understand more fully, then, the roles and responsibilities for husbands and wives in marriage. And this is why this is all established by God in His design and in His definition. We're not free to make our own rules as it relates to marriage. We're free to trust and to obey Him if we indeed are united with Him through faith in Christ. But we need to understand the roles and responsibilities. Now, where I've been here in Ephesians 5 speaks directly to this, and this corresponds with God's created order back in Genesis chapter 1 and 2. It corresponds to other passages of instruction such as in Titus chapter 2, also in 1 Peter chapter 3. And what we ultimately understand is that husbands and wives, while being completely equal as image bearers before God, absolute equality as human beings, nonetheless are assigned different roles and responsibilities to complement one another. So we are equal in our identity and in our personhood before God, but we have unique roles and responsibilities in accordance with God's design. The essence of it is that husbands are to love and to lead their wives, and all that is connected with that, to protect, to provide for them, to pursue God's will and purposes, and to love and to lead in every way. And the wife's role in response to that and complementing that is submitting first and foremost as unto the Lord, and unto her husband as unto the Lord, and respecting and responding to his leadership. And all that is bound up in that, helping and complementing and supporting and working together as a unit in the fulfillment of God's purposes and God's design. And for any woman who is married, this is ultimately the highest calling. There's many other places we could look at, such as in Proverbs chapter one, or Proverbs chapter 31, that gives a beautiful and a detailed description of what a godly wife looks like as she strives to fulfill her calling and responsibilities. Of course, there's a lot of implications there we won't take time to go into, but it's understanding that this is all part of God's design. And so if we're rightly honoring marriage among us all, it means that we're acknowledging that God is the one who designs and defines marriage. It means that we acknowledge that that design and definition means the lifelong covenanted union of one man and one woman. It means that we understand that all of this is a picture of Christ's relationship with the church. And it means that we're encouraging and praying for and lifting up those roles and responsibilities that God has assigned to each. Now that then can lead us to the second major question to consider, and namely, if this is what it means to honor marriage as believers, what does it mean to dishonor marriage? Well, we can say it that it's falling short in any of those areas of things we ought to be aware of and know and to be encouraging and delighting and promoting and defending regarding the honor of marriage. But we can also work that out just a little bit more as we draw this to a close. We can dishonor God's design for marriage by treating marriage lightly or casually. Or jokingly, we can dishonor it by thinking and acting that being single is perhaps more spiritual than being married. The whole practice of asceticism through the ages is often grounded in that, that somehow there's this self-directed effort that thinks it's more spiritual to be a single and uniquely devoted to God. Well, that may be a calling for some to have more undistracted devotion to the Lord, but God makes it clear in Genesis 1 and 2, it's affirmed elsewhere, such as in 1 Timothy 4, that marriage is good and that it's pleasing to the Lord. And we can also wrongly dishonor marriage if we idolize and worship marriage instead of honoring it. and place maybe a higher value on marriage than ought to be. Recognizing and understanding that marriage in this world is just that, it is temporary, it is momentary. There's great blessing and goodness in God's design, but Jesus said in Matthew chapter 22 that in heaven, people are neither married nor given in marriage. It points to a greater reality that is to encourage the faith of all of us in Christ. We can dishonor marriage by being cynical and flippant and scornful about marriage, laughing along with so many ways that marriage is portrayed in television shows and movies and the like. Of course, even in the context of verse 4 in Hebrews 13, we can dishonor marriage by being involved in any form of sexual immorality or adultery, whether in actuality or in fantasies. And we can destroy and dishonor God's purpose for marriage. And we'll be looking at that more next week in the latter part of what's said in verse four. Of course, we can dishonor marriage by believing that same-sex marriage is valid and legitimate, also by believing that it's okay for Christians to marry non-Christians. The Lord tells us not to be unequally yoked in 2 Corinthians 6. We can also dishonor marriage if we accept divorce as a normal and legitimate option. God makes it clear in His Word that He hates divorce, even though He does provide exceptions in cases of adultery or in desertion. Matthew 5 speaks of that, as does 1 Corinthians 7. Yet if we become cold and callous to that and just accept divorce as normal as anything else, then we're really dishonoring God's design for marriage. Beloved, marriage has profound meaning in God's design, and it matters. And each of us need to do our part. And there's many different ways as brothers and sisters in Christ that we can be honoring marriage. We need, again, to be thinking biblically about marriage and sexuality, to have a biblical theology of those realities. We need to pray for healthy Christian marriages, that husbands and wives would be fulfilling their responsibilities. And for any who are single, that we're striving to live out our union with Christ as it were, and fulfilling His will, that all of us are looking to the eternal hope that we have in heaven, and encouraging one another, whether we're married or whether we're single. We need to be guarding our heart in these ways. Beloved, there is so much that is bound up within this small verse, is there not? As I said, one small verse with gigantic implications. And next week we're gonna talk more fully about God's design and purpose for sexuality within marriage and why it is such a blessed and a wonderful and sacred reality that needs to be upheld and needs to be not defiled. Wherever you may be this morning, the first and most fundamental point in honoring marriage is to first be a worshiper of God. If you don't know the Lord through faith in Jesus Christ, that is the first reality that needs to be resolved. Because if you're not reconciled with He who is your Creator, there won't be any inclination to want to uphold His design or to uphold His definition of marriage. And the first and foremost need is to have an understanding of who God is as holy, who you are as sinful and separated from Him in that sin, of understanding His judgment because of sin, but also understanding that in His love and in His mercy, He gave the Lord Jesus Christ to bear His judgment in the place of you if you would trust Him. And that's the basis of being reconciled to Him, is acknowledging your sin, repenting of sin, and then trusting God's provision in Christ as the one who bore that sin in your place. And if you're here this morning and maybe these things are new, maybe they're strange, maybe they're confusing, confusing, I'd encourage you to interact with me or to interact with another brother or sister who is a believer here that can point you and interact with you to God's Word and look at what it means to be reconciled to Him. But praise God for the goodness of His design. Praise God that He gives us the privilege, the blessing, the responsibility of sharing in it, even as we strive to honor marriage among all. Let me lead us in prayer. Our Father, we do thank you that you are good and wise. And though we acknowledge all too often, even within our own experiences, either directly or indirectly, that there is so much sin, and because of that there is so much brokenness, so much pain, so much grief, so much trouble and trials because of your good design and definition of marriage being obscured and being abandoned. And we see that there are consequences, grievous consequences that come from that. We thank you that you are yet gracious and merciful, and that you are forgiving. And Lord, that you welcome any and all who repent of sin and who trust the provision that you've given in Christ to know that He is the one who bore judgment, your judgment, for sin in the place of all who would trust Him. Oh, Father, may each one know that hope in fullest measure. For those of us that you've brought to saving faith in Christ, may you help us to rightly worship you and in the worship of you to rightly honor marriage among us all. Lord, we thank you that you have taught us and instructed us as you have in the name of Christ. Amen.