You can have a seat. Kiddos can head down to Children's Church if they would like. We have a great staff of workers down there who teach Bible lessons and have fun, play games, and I think there's even some snack eating involved downstairs. So sorry about that, adults. No snack eating. I mean, you can eat snacks if you want up here, but B-Y-O-S. All right, if you have a Bible, turn to 1 Corinthians 7. 1 Corinthians 7 is the main place that we're going to camp out this morning as we go into the Word this morning. And this summer, we're doing a series called Summer on the Mount. I'm preaching through the Sermon on the Mount, what they say is the most famous sermon by the most famous preacher ever, the sermon that Jesus taught, it's recorded in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. So you're saying, why are we turning to 1 Corinthians 7? Well, I was talking with a pastor this past week on the phone, we were talking about different things, and we both commented, and we both kind of were thinking the same thing about how smart God was to include things in the Bible, in His Word, that apply to the messes that we have in our world today here in 2023. And just how really kind, not only smart, but kind that God was to include instructions, directions for the things that we're going to deal with, that we do deal with here in our world today. you know, back when Scripture was penned by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, a lot of things that we deal with today weren't even known of then. it still applies, scripture still applies, even with the things that we have today that are new, I'm doing the air quotes, that are new, scripture still applies to. And just how God in his foreknowledge knew what we would need and he gave us what we need in the word. And along those lines, sometimes I think that we think that the Bible is out of date. And you'll hear that, well, it's an old ancient book written centuries ago by people who didn't know, were out of touch. And so that's kind of a knock on the Bible that it's ancient manuscript, it was okay for then, but now times are different. Well, let me, just so you know how relevant the Bible is today as much as it was back when it was written in Jesus' day, a little after Jesus' day or Paul's day, let me give you a little glimpse into what life was like back then. especially as it relates to marriage and family. And what, I'm gonna use the word mess a lot this morning, and what a mess it was, even family and life and marriage was a equal mess back in the days that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. So here's some examples, and historians tell us this is kind of what life looked like in the ancient Roman world where Paul was writing from. Adultery, fornification, You know that word, fornication, homosexuality, polygamy, were not only just tolerated, but it was kind of accepted. Like, it was just like a normal thing. All these kind of different sexual sins. Divorce and remarriage were common. In fact, in Roman culture, up to 20 marriages and divorces. It was not unheard of. 20. There was an active feminist movement. Some wives were so competitive with their husbands in business, sometimes feats of strength, like women, like feminism didn't start in America in the 60s. It goes all the way back to Rome. And therefore there's a lot of childless marriages because women were so concerned about their careers and making money and men were too. And in spite of maybe the vows that they had, husbands and wives had made with one another, there was still this this messed up feminist competition between husbands and wives. Under Roman law and under the customs of the day, there were four types of marriages in the culture into which Paul is writing 1 Corinthians. There's four types of marriages. First was a man and a woman slave, if they wanted to be married, they were allowed to live together They weren't really married, but they were allowed to live together. It was called tent companionship when they were slaves. But it only lasted as long as the person who owned them allowed it. So at any moment they could say, you know, I'm getting rid of you, I'm getting rid of you, or you can't be together anymore. So it was totally up to the whims of the master. how long that lasted, so this tent companionship, the rights that slaves had. And by the way, remember that a lot of early Christians, probably in the church in Corinth, were slaves. So these unique You know, you look around here, you think this is an eclectic group of people. They had slaves, you had masters, you had all people in all these situations that we're going to talk about this morning, part of these local churches, including the slaves. So there was that. The second type of marriage was known as common law. And that's not the slaves as much as it was just regular folks. As long as they lived together for a year, they would be recognized as husband and wife. They weren't technically married, but they were together for a year. So they're like, OK, yeah, we'll just consider you married now, common law. The third type of marriage was if a father wanted to, he could sell his daughter to a suitor, to a man who wanted her as his wife. And so it was like just like buying cattle, kind of like thing, chattel, like it was, and the rights of the daughter, she didn't really have any, she had to go where her dad sold her into that marriage. And the fourth kind is the closest to what we have today. And it was a lot of times reserved for the nobility of the Roman culture, but not just exclusively. Other people could take part in this as well. And so this was a marriage where there was actually a service. There was actually a ceremony, which historians tell us was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church, and Protestants after the Reformation kept the, so the marriage ceremony that we know kind of goes all the way back to Rome. to the nobility, primarily of Rome, handed down through the Reformation. The Protestants kept it. So there was a service. The families were involved. There was actually even a matron that would accompany the bride. There was a man who would accompany the groom. Rings were even exchanged. And there was even oftentimes cake at these ceremonies. So the closest thing to what we have today is this fourth type of marriage. And so the early church, For our purposes this morning, even this church in Corinth that we're going to be reading about probably had members in all four of these situations. They had members who had multiple marriages and multiple divorces. They had members who were single. and were being, some people were taught back then that it was more spiritual, more godly to be single, to live a single life. They had people who were teaching in that culture back then, the stricter type of teachers, that sex was unspiritual and should be avoided at all costs. And so you can see there's a lot of confusion. There's a lot of need for God to include in the scripture, like, OK, this is the mess going on in your culture. So I'm going to clarify some things. I'm going to write some things. And we can see that it applies today in different ways, but applies today just as much as it did back then. And so when I'm working through, I preach what's called expositionally. That's where my preferred way, sometimes I'll do topical things, but I pick a passage and just kind of like work through it. And the reason for that is so that I don't develop hobby horses. And like, I'm gonna preach on fill in the blank every week. This is what the passage is. So this is what we're gonna talk about. Well, the next two verses in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches on divorce. And I was early in the week last week, I was looking at those verses, and it's such a big topic in our world today. And I knew other passages, specifically 1 Corinthians 7, talk a lot about divorce and other things. So what I decided to do was kind of zoom the lens out. from those two verses in Matthew 5, 31 and 32, and zoom out to other scriptures that teach on the same topic or similar topics, marriage, divorce, et cetera, et cetera. So that's why we're landing in 1 Corinthians 7 this morning. So if you wanna put a bookmark in Matthew 5, we'll eventually flip back there, but most of the time we'll be in 1 Corinthians 7, talking about the same topic that Jesus talks about in Matthew 5. Clear as mud, right? So, as I was studying through 1 Corinthians 7 and reading again what Paul's teaching in that chapter, I couldn't help but think that this chapter is one big episode of Dr. Phil. Or, I thought, that kind of dates some of us, or Dear Abby for some of you. And I thought, what's the new thing? Because Dr. Phil is even kind of old now, like what's the new thing for advice? Anybody know? I don't know. Is it still Dr. Phil? Okay, we'll say Dr. Phil. So one big episode of Dr. Phil, not Jerry Springer, that's a whole other, that's a whole other thing. And so the difference is, though, instead of Dr. Phil, what we're going to do is we're going to hear the wisdom and the advice of Dr. Paul. under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So, an interesting thing about this chapter, 1 Corinthians 7, if you look at it, if you look at your Bibles right now, the first line is, now for the matters that you wrote about. So what this is, is Paul's writing back in response to questions that they wrote to him. So this is real life, this is what they were living. Like, we don't know, what do we do about this? Or what do we do about this? They're like real questions, and we don't have those questions, so I'm gonna kind of surmise and guess at the questions this morning. But he's writing in response to real life marriage, family, sex, things that they're like, we're kind of like, we're new Christians, we're new church, we don't know what to do. And so, Holy Spirit-inspired Dr. Paul responds to them with these issues that they had. Now Paul is not, in 1 Corinthians 7, he's not giving us a complete lesson on marriage. There's other passages that we'll go to some, but there's a lot we're not going to go to this morning. So he's not giving a complete teaching on love and marriage and family and everything that goes with it. He's answering specific questions that they had for him. So we've got to keep that in mind because you're going to say, well, why didn't you go here? Why didn't you talk about this first? Well, Paul's answering specific questions. So we're going to pretty much try to stick with his responses to their questions. So we're going to take a look at these issues, there's five of them, that the Church of Corinth had. And there's five Holy Spirit-inspired, and that's an important point, because that separates him from Dr. Phil, Holy Spirit-inspired responses. That means they're right. That means they're truth to the issues that they were having. So let's look at these five issues. We're going to spend the most time on number one, because there's kind of two issues in one here, and I didn't In your notes, it doesn't show that, but you'll see as we go here, there's kind of like one and a half. We'll say one and a half issues with number one. But issue number one in your notes there, if you want to fill in the blank, has to do with marriage versus singleness. And again, we don't know what the question looked like that they wrote to Paul, Dr. Paul, but it might have sounded something like this. Dear Paul, is it better to get married or to remain single? What are the pros and cons? So Paul responds, verse one, now for the matters that you wrote about, so I'm writing you back about these questions you had. He says, look at verse one, it's good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman. What he's implying there, because the assumption is that sexual relations are reserved for marriage. So he's not, he doesn't, what he's saying, it's better, it's good for a man to be single. That's kind of like a long way of saying, he's saying it's good to be single. Because it's assumed that if you're single, you're not having sexual relations. Like that sounds like Chinese in our culture today, doesn't it? But that's the biblical standard. So he says it's good for a man not to have sexual relations, in other words, to be single. Then jump down to verse six. I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you, you have your own gift from God. One has this gift and another has that. So looking at verses one and verse six together as the side issue is in verses two to five that we'll get to here in a second. But if you look at one and six, Paul's not being critical of marriage. He's not saying it's a bad thing or a good thing. He said both have their pros and cons. He's just saying that being single, and he'll continue here in a little bit with other verses, he's gonna continue saying that being single does have its advantages. Being single is not a bad thing. And there were people in that day that were saying that. Actually, sometimes people were saying it was sinful to be single. And he's saying no. In fact, he says in verse one, it's a good thing. But he's also saying, And he's gonna say here that inherent in singleness is the reality of sexual temptation. Because the truth of the matter is marriage provides a place where physical needs are met by God's holy design. Verses two through five. So this is the side issue, the half. verses 2 through 5, it's kind of like a parenthetical. He teaches a little bit on what this looks like. So let's look at that for a second, verses 2 through 5. But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive, and actually that word there, deprive, is defraud. rip off, we might say. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. And so marriage, in Paul's teaching here in verses two through five, can't be reduced to just merely an escape valve for physical needs. It's more than that, but it's not less than that. That's one of the things that marriage, verse five, that's one of the purposes of marriage. In fact, MacArthur says this, Scripture gives us numerous reasons for marriage. Procreation, pleasure, partnership, it's a picture, and purity. Purity is one of the reasons that God has given us marriages. And so Paul's teaching here in verses two through five is that celibacy which is assumed for singleness, and again, I'm gonna hammer that again, because that's something that we miss in our day and age. Celibacy is assumed in singleness, and celibacy is abstaining from sex, is a bad thing for a marriage. The opposite is assumed for a marriage. Sex in marriage between a man and a woman is not only a good and a sacred thing given by God, and here's the word that is not gonna be popular today, It's obligatory. Verse three, Paul uses the term marital duty. The word duty is the same word that Paul uses in Romans 13, seven, and this is gonna like just make it sound so technical or whatever, I don't know what word. It's the same word that Paul uses in Romans 13, seven for paying your taxes that you owe. That just sounds so romantic, doesn't it? But it's the same word. Marital duty is a debt that is owed. It is something that you owe, like you owe taxes to Uncle Sam. Physical intimacy is a duty. It's something that is owed. It's obligatory in a marriage. And he says in verse five, again, don't deprive each other except for perhaps, then not even for sure, but perhaps by mutual consent, that means that both people agree, and only for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. And I've said this in the past, kind of tongue in cheek, but I think it's funny, so I'll say it again. So with only the exception of a Wednesday night prayer meeting, wink, wink, husbands and wives should not be depriving each other of sex. It's dishonoring to the Lord. It's disobedience to scripture. And I think there's a point where it could become sinful. And I know there's biological, there's physical. I'm not painting with a broad brush here. We all know life. But if it's a volitional holding back on something that you have a duty for, then it becomes a sin, I think, according to scripture. So all that's the half issue here. So let's get back to the issue of marriage and singleness. Paul's saying that while marriage is normal and good and God's plan for men and women, being single and celibate is a good gift that God gives some Christians. So that, and here's a big so that, so that they can serve him more, like Paul said, like I'm doing. And so this kind of pushes against this mentality in our world about singleness and people putting off marriage until they're like 50 or whatever just because they want to do them and they want to do life. And so being single isn't about being selfish. It's about serving the Lord. And so the gift of celibacy that God does give some people. Happiness, you know, this temptation that Paul, that's not a thing. And so I'm gonna double down on what I can do for God because God has given me the gift of not being married. And so Paul continues this exact thought in verse 32. Look down at verse 32. I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs. how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of the world, how he can please his wife. And his interests are divided. So it's not a bad thing, but it's just different. A married person has to think about more things that are important other than serving the Lord. An unmarried woman or a virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs. Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and the spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of the world, how she can please her husband. I'm saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in the right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. And so Paul's teaching here is that there's pros and cons to both. One is not better than the other. There are people that legitimately have been gifted with God with being single. And by the way, married folks don't, Don't see that as a bad thing. Don't see that as less thing. And that's another temptation that we might have in this world today. I think we're doing a disservice to that person and to the Lord by saying they need to be more than what maybe God's called them to be. We need to be okay with that if they're okay with that. So Paul's, the marriage versus singleness thing is Paul's saying, you know what? There's good and bad to both. But neither one can be used selfishly. Neither one or whatever we do shouldn't be used selfishly in life. Issue number two. The rest of these are a little quicker. Issue number two has to do with remarriage. The question that they wrote to Paul might have sounded like this. Dear Paul, I was divorced before I became a Christian. Is it okay for me to get remarried? Paul answers whatever question they wrote to him in verses eight and nine. Now to the unmarried and the widows I say, it's good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it's better to marry than to burn with passion. So important question here to unpack these verses and really this whole chapter. Who are the unmarried? That's a good question to ask. Who is Paul talking about when he uses that term, the unmarried? Well, there are three categories of women, but we can say people mentioned in this chapter, 1 Corinthians 7. There's three categories. The first are virgins. In verse 25, he uses the word virgins. Those are single people that have never been married. So that's Paul's, how he delineates that person. never been married, still not married. Widows, in verse 8. Those are people who were married, but now their spouse is deceased. He talks about them in verse 8. And then also in verse 8, he talks about the unmarried. Unmarried are divorced people. We know that because if you look at verses 10 and 11, it's the same Greek word that Paul uses that clearly Paul's referring to divorced people in 10 and 11. So it's the same Greek word. So unmarried mean he's referring to people who are divorced. And by the way, this was Paul's situation, I believe. I don't think he was a widower, and some people think that. I think he was divorced. I know that he used to be married, he was married at one point, because to be a member of the Sanhedrin, you had to be married. So at some point he was married, so either she died or she left him, and because he uses this term for himself, he says, as I do, remain unmarried as I do, my assumption is that probably when he converted to Christianity, his Jewish wife said, I'm tapping out. So I think this was Paul's situation where he was unmarried because he was divorced. Again, verse eight, he said, it's good for them to stay unmarried as I do, remain unmarried. So to answer the question here, the issue for number two here on remarriage, Paul is saying that widows and divorced women, that singleness has its advantages when it comes to serving the Lord, but if they've not been given the gift of celibacy, it's okay to get remarried. for the widows and those divorced for biblical reasons. Verse nine says, but if they cannot control themselves, they should marry. For it's better to marry than to burn with passion. Issue number three has to do with divorce. The question might have sounded like this. Dear Paul, my wife and I have fallen out of love. Is it okay for us to get a divorce? So Paul responds verses 10 and 11. He says to the married I give this command, not I but the Lord. And what he means by that is Jesus already talked about this. There's previous revelation on this. This has already been covered by Jesus, but I'm gonna repeat here. It says, to the married I give this command. A wife must not separate from her husband, but if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife. So to answer the question, is it okay we've fallen out of love, is it okay if we just go ahead and get divorced, Paul's short answer is no. And he's not, and we'll get to this in a few minutes, he's not addressing issues of adultery or abandonment. We'll talk about that more in Matthew to come here. But he's addressing divorce for other reasons. We don't get along anymore. We have irreconcilable differences. We've just been growing apart. He's got really bad breath. I'm ready to trade in for a newer model or whatever thing people might say these days. Paul's saying no. No, except for adultery or abandonment, no. Christians, it's off the table. in most all situations. We need to remember back in the Old Testament, one of the last minor prophets, Malachi 2.16 says, I hate divorce, says the Lord. We need to realign our thinking to what God thinks about things instead of what's convenient for us. I hate divorce, God says. And by the way, before we move on to issue number four, from verse 11, if a divorce does occur for an unbiblical reason, his feet stink, so I'm out of here, he chews so loud, I am so tired of hearing him eat cereal in the morning, you know, whatever, she folds the laundry wrong, whatever. If a divorce occurs for an unbiblical reason, remarriages, verse 11, is prohibited. So if a Christian says, you know what, I'm just gonna do the selfish thing, I'm tapping out, then God prohibits remarriage of that person because it's an unbiblical reason, so the remarriage would be unbiblical. Verse 11, he says, they need to remain unmarried. Issue number four has to do with being unequally yoked. See, Dr. Phil, right? This is just like, boom, issue after issue. So contemporary to our times. Dear Paul, might have sounded like this. Dear Paul, I've recently become a Christian, but my husband is still an unbeliever. Am I now unequally yoked? Should I divorce him and live singly, or maybe even marry a Christian? It's a good question, because we're not supposed to be unequally yoked. Well, Paul answers it in verse 12 and following. To the rest I say this, not I, or I and not the Lord. And what he means by that is there is no previous revelation on this. He said, so this is new revelation. There's nowhere you can go back and look this up. He said, I'm telling you this for the first time. If a brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. And if a woman has a husband who's not a believer, and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. And I'll explain that last verse here in a second. But for these new believers, they were young believers in Christ, they wanna do the right thing, these were legitimate concerns and questions. Being now married to an unbeliever, were they defiling the body of Christ? Were they defiling their home and their kids by being joined together with an unbeliever? And would the lesser of the evils be to break off the marriage so that there would be a purity there? And Paul says, no. He said, in fact, the thing to do is stay together with the unbelieving spouse and have a positive spiritual influence on them in the home. He uses, in verse 14, he uses the word sanctified. Sanctified here doesn't mean saved. Through you, they're gonna get saved, because if it meant saved, then there would be no more unbelieving spouse in the home, right? So it can't mean saved. But rather, one commentary says, it's putting the home in a position for blessing. Because you're there, there's a blessing that's gonna flow through you to others in the home, and God can use you spiritually to influence the home. Leon Morris wrote this about this verse. He says, it's a scriptural principle that the blessings that flow from fellowship with God are not confined to the immediate person, but extend out to others. So the short answer of their question here is, again, no. God's will is not that you would end your marriage, but that you would maintain the marriage. as much as is up to you so that God can work through you in the home, in the lives of your spouse and the lives of your kids. And then issue number five has to do with when a spouse leaves. The question might have sounded like this. Dear Paul, my unbelieving husband has left me. What do I do now? Verses 15 and 16, Paul answers, he says, but if the unbeliever leaves, and this is one of the saddest lines in this passage to me. If the unbeliever leaves, let it be so. The brother or sister, and these next two words are important, we'll get back to them in a second here. The brother or sister is not bound. So make a mental note of that, not bound in such circumstances. God has called us to live in peace. And I think verse 16 is kind of parenthetical, kind of like an afterthought, parenthetical thought here, because Paul goes rhetorically, how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? How do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? So Paul answers in verse 15, if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so. And then the Christian who remains is not bound in such circumstances. And Paul's teaching at least three different things here in these two verses. First of all, obviously, if the unbeliever wants to leave, Paul's teaching don't stand in their way. He says, let it be so. What he's saying here is there's nothing that you can do spiritually to change a person spiritually. That's verse 16. And it's a heartbreaking thing, but he's saying if they insist on it, let them go. And I think in today's vernacular, what we would say is, what Paul's saying is don't hold the door for them, but don't slash their tires either. And it's a sad thing, it's a sad thing that it would get to this point, but scripture says, if they insist on it, let them go. The second thing he's teaching is, and this is the not bound part, that in such circumstances, the believing spouse is no longer bound in such circumstances. The brother or sister is not bound in such circumstances. Verse 15. And so scripture, and you might want to write this in your notes, I referred to this earlier. Scripture, I believe, God allows for a marriage to be dissolved in one of three ways. First of all, death, Romans 7, 2, is one way a marriage is dissolved. Second, here in 1 Corinthians 7, desertion, abandonment. And the third way a marriage can be dissolved is because of adultery. Jesus teaches that in Matthew 19, 9, but also, and this is where we go back to the Sermon on the Mount, but also Matthew 5, 31 and 32. Jesus teaches there, it's been said, anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce. Just real briefly, what that means is that the Pharisees had made it so easy for men to divorce, literally, if a woman burnt supper, a man could say, okay, we're divorced. And so there's no protection. The certificate of divorce was a protection for women so they wouldn't just be kicked to the curb. So that's the reason for that. And so Jesus is saying this is a protection thing for women here. But in verse 32 he says, but I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife except for sexual immorality makes her the victim of adultery. And anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. if it's a non-biblical divorce. And so, that person, if it's because of sexual immorality, that person, to use Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 7, is not bound, is not bound in such circumstances. And also, we need to point out here in these verses here, that in Scripture, whenever there's a legitimate divorce, desertion, abandonment, adultery. Whenever there's a legitimate biblical divorce, remarriage is always assumed. If the divorce is permitted, remarriage is permitted. We know that because of Romans 7.3, that term, not bound, no longer under the obligation. You're kind of free from the obligation. Romans 7.3, Paul uses that same word, that same language, bound, not bound, released, for when a husband dies. He says in Romans 7.3, but if her husband dies, she is released. She's no longer obligated to him. from that law is not an adulteress if she marries another man. So that same word is this word that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 7, released, no longer bound in such circumstances. But just to wrap up this point, if it's an unbiblical reason, then remarriage is prohibited. Verse 11, like Paul says, must remain unmarried. But if it's a biblical reason for a divorce, then remarriage is permitted. And then the third thing that Paul's teaching in these verses, God allows what he allows because he wants his children to live in peace. Verse 15, God wants his children to live in peace. If an unbelieving spouse in some situations can't tolerate the Christian's faith and desires to be free, like, you know what, this isn't what I signed up for. You weren't a Christian when we got married, but now you are. And the husband or wife says, you know what, this isn't what I thought. Then God allows the Christian to release them for the sake of their peace. And like Paul says, everything in us might say, but if I hang in there, I can change them. And maybe, maybe you'll be that sanctifying thing, but Paul says here, but how do you know? And so if they insist on leaving, again, you're not pushing them out, but if they insist on leaving, let them go so that you will have peace. He wants us to live in peace, verse 15. And again, it's a heartbreaking thing, but it's an allowance by God for the sake, for the goodness of his children, that they can live in peace. And so let me wrap it up with this. The primary purpose, the primary purpose for marriage is to be a living object lesson of the gospel. It's an illustration of Christ and the church. It's a living illustration how Jesus loves us, how he leads us, how he cares for us, how he protects us. That's the reason for marriage. And I think sometimes we get that backwards where, oh, I'm so thankful that I'm in a marriage, or that God's given me the gospel so that I can understand marriage better. I think that's backwards. God's given us marriages so that we can understand the bigger picture, the meta-narrative. We can understand that better, the gospel story. And so our marriages, the life, the little things that we have going on here are just pictures of the greater picture. Just illustrations of the greater picture of the gospel. And so we see this in Ephesians 5, and these are the last verses I'm gonna read to kind of land the plane here. But this is what Paul teaches about marriages more than just us, more than what we got going on here in our vows. It shows something greater, something bigger. Ephesians 5, 23 and following. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, his body for which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. And after all, no one ever hated their own body. But they feed and they care for their body just as Christ does the church. So God said, okay, I'm gonna give you a picture to help you understand just the beauty of this, what my son has done for you. So he gave us marriages, and if not yours, if God's given you singleness, there are a lot of marriages, one of the reasons the beauty of the body of the Christ is we can look around and we can see, when we see it, we go to a wedding, we see a marriage, we can say, oh, that's what Jesus is to me. That's the gospel story, how much Jesus loves me, how much Jesus cares for me and protects me. This is why the sanctity of marriage is such a big deal. This is why male leadership and submissive wives are such a big deal. This is why God has no patience with things that corrupt the picture like adultery or divorce or homosexuality, et cetera, et cetera. And yes, we mess it up daily. If you were to look at me as an example of how I love my wife, selflessly, if you're looking at me like, oh, that's how Jesus loves me, I would mess a picture up every day. But that's my calling, is to be that part in the picture, that part in the play, to give some kind of an example, this is kind of what it looks like, to give your life and to sacrifice yourself for somebody. And the way that Cindy loves me in submitting, she does actually a lot better job with her role than I do with my role, but it's the same thing. It's like, oh, that's kind of what it's supposed to look like. We submit to Christ the way wives submit to their husbands. And we mess it up daily, and that's why the gospel is such a big deal, because we need that. And so going through a passage like this and going through issues like this, one of the temptations that we might have is to beat ourselves up about how we've gotten it so wrong in the past. And I can tell you this, the only way, the only way that you can do marriage right, that you can do singleness right, You can do sacrificing yourself for your wife right. You can do submitting to your husband right is because of the power of Christ in you. You can't do that stuff on your own. These are on another level that God's called us to. And we can only do that with the power of the risen Christ living in us and the Holy Spirit equipping us and enabling us to live out what God's told us in his word. And so you see, we don't know each other that well. We think we do, but we don't. But if we would see what happens behind walls and doors, we would see that we all drop the ball. We all fall short. And we all will have to say, except for the power of Christ, I couldn't do it. We would all have to admit that we can't do it. But God can do it, working through us. And so if you would, let's stand. I'm gonna pray and then we're gonna close with this song to remind us, to remind all of us how much we need the Lord in our homes, in our lives, in our singleness, whatever life looks like, how much we need God to help us. Father, we thank you for the scriptures. We thank you for putting stuff on the bottom shelf for us so we can understand and it's so relevant to where we are today. We thank you that you've given us this light called your word to guide us through this life, but also we thank you for the promise of forgiveness. That if we confess our sins, you're faithful, you're just, and you will forgive us our sins. So Father, help us this morning as your children, to take to heart that you want us to live in peace. So Father, help us if we're struggling this morning with the guilt, the pain, just the stupid decisions we've made in the past, help us also to rest in the forgiveness that we have in Christ. And to be reminded, all of us, that none of us can do this apart from Christ in us. And it's in his name we pray, amen. ♪ What gift of grace is Jesus my Redeemer ♪ ♪ There is no more for heaven now to give ♪ ♪ He is my joy, my righteousness and freedom ♪ ♪ My steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace ♪ To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus For my life is wholly bound to His Oh, how strange and divine I can seem All is mine, yet not I ♪ The night is dark but I am not forsaken ♪ ♪ For by my side the Savior ye will say ♪ ♪ I labor on in weakness and rejoicing ♪ ♪ For in my need His power is displayed ♪ To this I hold, my shepherd will defend me Through the deepest valley he will lead Oh the night has been won, and I shall overcome Yet not I, but through Christ