Two. That shouldn't take you too long to find. It's seen as it's the first book in the Bible, and we'll be there in just a few minutes as we continue part two on marriage. Proverbs eighteen twenty two, it's in the bulletin. It's also up here now.

Proverbs eighteen twenty two. What does it say? It says, who so findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth favor or blessing of who? Of the Lord. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more.

Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for all your many blessings. Pray, Lord, that we would be grateful today for those of us who have or have had the opportunity on this earth to have a spouse, spouse particularly that that loved you. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to share the the love of Christ with others, particularly in our homes. Thank you for what you've done for us. We pray, Lord, today if there'd be one here that's yet to trust Jesus Christ as the Lord and savior of their life and receive the love that you have for them, that they would do that even today.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Last week, as I mentioned, we moved our Sunday night series into Sunday morning from Malachi because we didn't have Sunday night because we well, we did have Sunday night. We didn't have a Sunday night sermon because we had our fifth Sunday testimony service.

We're gonna move Malachi back to Sunday night again tonight, but I just felt like I wasn't done with marriage. In Malachi, we focused on some evils that Malachi and particularly the Lord have observed in Israel's treatment of marriage in his day. Two things the Lord addressed there in the book of Malachi that he was angered by. The first was concerning who they married. They were marrying people who didn't know, didn't believe in the Lord.

And that was a problem. God desired for their children and their children's children and their children's children's children to know him and love him and serve him. And that wasn't gonna happen if they chose spouses that did not love him and did not serve him. That, of course, is still true today. Secondly, God was angered by their divorcing of their wives.

Not for cause of fornication or adultery, but mainly just to seek greener pastures in the arms of another. This Jesus condemned bluntly during his earthly ministry also declaring basically that divorce for reasons of convenience or to escape hardship or to gratify selfish desires is really no different than adultery in the eyes of who? In the eyes of God. And really when it comes down to it, he's the one that matters. Not your friend, not your neighbor, not your government, not your culture.

It's a point on demand wants to die, after this what? The judgment. We're gonna give an account to our maker and it's his. It's his opinion that counts. But now this morning, I would like to take a few minutes to focus not on the negatives.

The negatives of Israel or the world's treatment of marriage so much, but of the greatness and endurance of marriage. The greatness of endurance of marriage despite the world's and Satan's best attempts to undermine it, and we can see that happening today around us, even in our society. It is heartbreaking to view the shift in the hearts of many young people today away from this God ordained and blessed institution. This God ordained our creators choosing and making and blessed institution. Some avoid it because having seen the failures of so many others, so many other marriages, they have decided it just isn't worth the what?

Just isn't worth the the effort. And they just think, hey, I'm not gonna bother to make look, that one failed. That one failed. That one failed. It's not worth the effort.

Isn't that sad? Wouldn't that be sad if that's how you treated all of life? Well, other people say, oh, I I can't I won't do that. I won't try that because, well, it's just not worth the effort. That would be very, very sad and is.

Some see it as a form of bondage or oppression. That's being preached all over our society today, particularly to young people. You might scoff at that, but that is what is being taught and that's what some think. Some see it as government sticking its nose in where it doesn't belong or bowing to the system. I would assert to you today, don't bow to the system, but bow to the God of heaven.

Others just think it's outdated and unappealing and they certainly do not care for the moral implications. Marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled, God says, but whoremongers and adulterers, God will what? There are moral implications. But marriage is not the invention of government or the system or the culture, but of God. It was not created to put anyone in bondage And if entered into and carried out God's way, it need never fail.

And it need never feel like restriction on your personal freedom. It is blessed. It is a gift from who? A blessing. The favor of who?

Of God. There are many reasons why both young and old should still seek it and venerate it as one of the most wonderful parts of life for many. Not all, but many. Jesus made it clear at the conclusion of our passage from Matthew last week that marriage is not for all. Some never get married.

They live as a bachelor their life. Paul says in first Corinthians seven why he believes being a bachelor like himself has its advantages, particularly in service to God and particularly for him as he did a lot of what? A lot of traveling. Said it so it does have can have its advantages of being single, not being married. And it isn't God's intention for everyone, but it is God's intention for what?

For most people to marry men and women. For their good and for his what? And for his glory. Let's start with our good. Okay?

Why is marriage for our good? Well, two things in particular here and we could add many to the list, but I don't wanna preach five sermons on this. We'll see if we can pack it into one or two. Number one, mutual companionship. We mentioned this last week, but we didn't spend a great deal of time on it.

So I felt it a little more necessary to stop and smell the roses a bit this morning. Okay? Genesis chapter two and verse 20. So if you're in Genesis two or if you wanna find Genesis two, won't take you but a second, just a few pages in there. Genesis chapter two verse 20, this is God's.

He created Adam and then he created Eve. And before he created Eve, he brought all the animals to Adam and he had them named them. And as Adam named the animals, he noticed there was a male and a female. But when it came to Adam, he was all alone. There was no mate for him.

So verse 20, Adam gave names to all cattle for the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he woman and brought her onto the man.

And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore, shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. Why did God create a man and a woman? Why was Adam just not complete without who?

Without Eve. God created us to be social animals, so to speak. Social beings. Okay? God created us for mutual companionship.

And the man needed the woman and the woman needed the the man. He said there was not a help meet for him and so he made Eve. This doesn't mean that God made woman for the sole purpose of completing the man any more than he made man for the sole purpose of completing the woman. It means that Adam and Eve were made to complete, to help one another, to be one another's partner in life, in work, in family, in worship. Like I said earlier, as Paul declares, not all men nor women are meant to be married, but but most are.

There can be a special bond between best friends. One that sticketh what? Closer than a brother as the scripture states. But it isn't the same as the companionship and intimacy shared between a husband and a wife. A sacred union, a sacred relationship created and ordained by who?

By the one who made us. For our own mutual benefit, for our good. This is God's doing. It is the way he made us. The world would have us think that this is just the the construct of culture or religion, but it is the way we were made.

It is who we are. It is how we we function best. It is good. It is not evil. One of the things that says in scripture of a world that is is spiraling away from God is that they begin to call good evil and evil good.

That is happening in our culture around us. Things that are evil are being called good and things that are being good are being called are evil. Don't listen to the culture that defies the God who made us. Listen to God. He knows what he is doing.

As I mentioned in Sunday school, human nature hasn't changed. Our music has changed. Our clothing has changed. Our language has changed. Human nature, well, it's still the same.

It is still the same. And this is the way God made us. And he knows what is best for us. It is good. It is good for a man and it is good for a woman.

Particularly when the man and woman truly love, respect, and care for one another. Even more so if God is the Lord of their lives. The two sexes God created in humanity are different from one another. Agree? I hope so.

They're different from one another in undeniable and universal ways like biological makeup and function. And they're different in some more general ways to varying degrees, physical, emotional, and spiritual. We tend to view the world from a slightly different perspective, and that's okay. These differences can sometimes be a bit frustrating. However, they combine to form an incredibly strong, wise, and mutually beneficial unit in the service to God and in the raising of a family, especially when we embrace them and each other.

Like ingredients in a cake. You take baking powder or something like that and you take eggs and are is baking powder and eggs different? Yeah, it is. But you mix the ingredients together and you put it in the oven and what comes out is wonderful and sweet and something to be celebrated. So is true of a man and a woman in marriage.

Yes, we are different in many ways, but combined together forms a beautiful, strong, sweet union that God created. Sadly, we live in a society today which grows more confused and miserable every day. They scurry about in constant frenzy from thing to thing, from job to job, from party to party, from drink to drink, in many cases from sexual partner to sexual partner looking for but not finding happiness or fulfillment in life. They scoff at our outdated beliefs and practices like what? Like marriage.

But they're the ones that are missing out, not us. They're the ones that are missing out because they refuse to acknowledge their creator and the way that he made them. If you created something, you created you created a a a mixer, k, while we're on the cake. So let's say you created a mixer and the the idea of the mixer is you put stuff in there, you turn the thing on and it goes around and it mixes the stuff up so you can make foods and put in the oven so you can enjoy it. Let's say that you made a mixer.

Okay? And you went to use the mixer and you put the stuff in there and you flip the switch and the mixer makes a noise but it doesn't turn. Now, are you gonna be really excited with the mixer that makes a noise but doesn't turn? Are you gonna be excited with the mixer that goes so fast that it just throws everything out of the bowl and covers you in flour? Probably not.

You want a mixer that does what? That mixes the food. Who made us? God made us. God made us to bring glory to him.

God made us to be fulfilled when we bring glory to him. And God is not pleased and we are not prosperous and successful when we refuse to do things whose way? God's way. The way he made us. And when we do do things God's way, it brings joy and it brings fulfillment and it brings success.

Acknowledging and embracing the differences he created in us, particularly between men and women in marriage, we can enjoy the sweet, though sometimes bumpy communion and companionship it affords. There is a sacred intimacy which can be found in the romantic and physical relationship between a man and a woman which is both unique and satisfying. But not nearly so much when there is no commitment to one another as God intended. The world acknowledges the the intimacy and the benefits, but they want to ignore the commitment. But marriage is a commitment.

Don't be confused by the world's lies and hatred for biblical roles. They they're not real happy with the passage I read to start today on wives submit to your husbands and husbands love your wives. Why did Paul mention those two? Well, because human nature. Wives have a difficult time submitting to their husbands and sadly, husbands love who most often more than their wives, themselves.

So that's why Paul addressed those particular topics. Don't be confused by the world's lies and hatred for biblical roles in marriage and the blessings that follow. The God who made it knows what he's doing. He knows how he made us. He knows what will make us happy, fulfilled, and successful.

Don't listen to them, listen to to him. You won't regret it. Not if you marry the right person and not if you're loving and committed and faithful. Why did God ordain marriage for our for our good, for mutual companionship. Number two, for propagation of the human race.

This one's kinda obvious, but again, some people seem a little bit mixed up on this, so we'll address it. Genesis one twenty seven and twenty eight, so God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. And God blessed them and God said unto them and God blessed them and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Be fruitful, I just want to focus on I got one phrase that's in there twice. Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.

What does that mean? That means have children, reproduce, fill the earth with people. Why did God ordain marriage to fulfill this obvious purpose? Marriage and relationship, physical relationship between a man and a woman is not merely for personal pleasure as the world would have so many people think. It has a purpose.

The purpose is to reproduce. The purpose is for two to become three, and then four, and then five, or however many God blesses you with. Yes, man has devised some ways around this, so he thinks. But the fact is we cannot manufacture eggs or sperm in a laboratory. Can we?

Nope. In vitro fertilization still requires a male and a female donor and a uterus to carry the child till birth. Gay couples cannot have children. It is not possible. It cannot happen.

That's why God created Adam and Eve. That's why God ordained marriage to be between a man and a woman because one of the primary purposes is the propagation of humanity. To ignore this stated purpose for marriage is simply to defy God and deny his stated purpose in the creation of two sexes. Of course, there are plenty willing and eager to do so, but that does not change what? Doesn't change reality.

Just because I deny reality does not does not change it or doesn't change man's makeup or his design or the destructive ramifications if I deny it, which we see in the lives of so many today in our world. Who don't grow up in a home with a family. Yet you might say if there are ways around it or if a man and a woman need not be married to produce a child, then why is marriage so important? And that question is certainly asked. Well, it's important because first of all, who said so?

God said so. But secondly, it is important in relation to this because there's more to propagating the human race than simply conceiving and giving birth to a child. Is there not? That child is gonna need what? It's It's gonna need care.

That child is going to need love. That child will need repeated daily instruction. That child will need somebody in its life to demonstrate how to care for themselves. It that child will need a mom and a dad to help them to learn how to make wise decisions, to learn how to to love and to put others first, to not only teach it but to demonstrate it between one another. That child will need a mom and a dad to help them to know and to love the God who made them.

You can't just have a child and say, okay, I've done my job. No. Your job just what? Your job just started. And as God intended, it's not a job for one, it is job for for two.

A mom and a dad. Boys need fathers as role models. We see the repercussions of this particularly in our inner cities where boys grow up without fathers. Where so often fathers and mothers don't get married and the fathers go off to have children with other people. And the moms are left to raise their children all by themselves.

And what happens to the boys so often, they end up in things called gangs. And then they have shooting at each other and killing at each other. The greatest travesty in our country in regards to murders takes place every weekend and all throughout the week in our inner cities where people are killed every week, sometimes dozens. A testimony to what happens when we ignore who? God.

People need family. Boys need fathers. Girls need mothers and vice versa so they will know how to treat and understand the other. This is meant to be a team effort. And while God and others cannot help to fill in some while God and others can help to fill in some of the gaps, it definitely works best when it's done whose way?

God's way. Bible says, both moms and dads here in Deuteronomy six seven concerning the love and the law of the Lord and thou shalt teach them diligently under thy children. Thou shalt talk of them when thou sitest in thine house, thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, when when thou rises up. That is the job, the responsibility of parents. In Ephesians six four, it says, and you fathers, provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

It isn't just your responsibility to make a child, it's your responsibility to raise a child, fathers. And boys need fathers. Ephesians, Proverbs twenty two six, train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Whose job is that? It's not the job primarily of the church or of the school or of the government.

It is the job and responsibility of parents. And boy, it works best when there are as a mom and a dad working together to do that. It is a wonderful thing. It is a difficult thing, but it can be a wonderful thing too. So marriage is for our good.

It is marriage, our good in mutual companionship, our good in the the birth and raising of children, but it's also for God's what? It's also for God's glory. So back to Ephesians chapter five. Back to Ephesians chapter five. Marriage, the committed relationship between a man and a woman for life can bring glory to God.

Does it always? No. Why does it not always? Well, because a lot of marriages don't go well. Why does that?

Because the two married people that are married aren't doing things whose way? God's way. So sometimes marriages do fail because of sin. That does happen. Like pretending it doesn't.

It does. But it's not what it is intended to be. And it is not what it has to be. It can be better and it can bring glory to who? It can bring glory to God.

When it is done right, then the love and wisdom of God and its design is evident and it brings glory to God. When marriage is done right, then the love and wisdom of God and its design can be seen by other people and it brings glory to him. Al and Joe, how long have you been married? Sixty six years. Six years.

That's a little older than I am still. Praise the Lord. Beverly, Harry, how long have you all been married? Sixty one. I don't know if you're gonna catch them.

We'll see. Praise the Lord. Sixty six, sixty one. I'll stop there. I'm not gonna go around the room to everybody.

Alright? But you know something? They bring glory to God as so do so many others because God's design works. Brother John. Seven years.

How about yours? Sixty eight. Sixty eight. You got them beat. His wife can't be here today.

Yep. We'll see. But you know something? Why is it the average is seven years? Because we're not listening to who?

Not listening to God. Not marrying for the right reasons, not choosing to love the person we're married to. But you know something? It can be. It can be wonderful and it can bring great glory to God.

Because when we do it God's way, you know something? It works. It works. Brings glory to God. In that way, it brings glory to God also.

When the married join forces in life and service to God and in raising of children who know and serve him, that brings glory to him too. There's more often we can do together than we could do what? Than we could do apart. The Lord is wise. And when we serve the Lord as a team in the raising of our children and in the service to our Lord, brings glory to our God.

For he knows what he was doing when he made a man and a woman to serve him together. And marriage itself, when done right, is a picture of the relationship between God and his beloved. It is a is symbolic with the relationship that God and Israel had in the Old Testament, but even more so between Jesus and the church in the new. Because marriage is meant to be for life. Marriage is meant to be held together by something called real love.

And that is evident in the love of Jesus Christ who will never fail us, who will never leave us behind, who will never cast us out. And what he did for us that he might redeem us. Look back if you would in Ephesians five again. And look if you would in verse 25. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.

What did Christ do? What does that mean? The church is us. The church is the believers in Christ. The the children of God, that's us.

What did Christ do for us? Well, he left heaven where he was God and glorified as such. He left heaven and all the glories and all the pleasures. And he left heaven, he came to earth to be born in a human body as a little baby. I can't even begin to fathom that.

Can you? The God of heaven, little baby, just still, just cannot fathom that. But Jesus was willing to become that hopeless little baby for us. But it didn't end there, did it? No.

He grew up. He dealt with the hardships and everything else that we do in life, but he grew up and at 30 years old, he started his public ministry. During his public ministry, he didn't have a a real home that he could call his own. He traveled, all throughout those years from place to place and place. He he dealt with all kinds of issues that people had and when they figured out who he was and where he was, they would come in droves to hear him.

They would come in droves for him to heal them and to help them. And sometimes so exhausted, he would leave the city to go out in the countryside and the people would just follow him. And they would complain and gripe as all of us do. And he put up with it and he healed them all. Times he fed them all and he never complained.

But that's not that's not all, is it? No. He went to the cross and he died for my sins. He died for yours. His love for us was so great that he wasn't willing to let us face the punishment we deserved.

Instead, he came to earth and he took the punishment for you. The punishment that I deserve. That's what Jesus did for you. And then he rose again. And he invites you to accept, to receive his love and his forgiveness and eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. He says, he that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Come to me all that ye are labor and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Jesus said, I will help. Would you come to me?

Would you receive me? Would you accept my gift of love and become my child? And God says, I will never leave you then nor forsake you. If you will receive his gift of salvation, if you will come in repentance and faith, you can trust him. He will receive you and he will not cast you out.

That is the love of Christ for us. And that's the kind of love God expects us to have particularly for our spouse, a sacrificial love. And you know marriage works really great when the two people care about each other and not just about who and not just about themselves. It doesn't work too well when everything's all about me. But when it's about the wife or the husband that God gave you, it works.

Not only works, it works great. And it's one of the most fulfilling aspects of life. If two walk together in love and communion with their maker and with each other, they will enjoy the blessings which are connected therewith and God is glorified. Don't give up on the opportunity to bring glory to God and the blessings and joy in your life. Don't give up.

Don't say, well, it's not worth it. Turn to the Lord and ask him to help you to be the husband or wife that you ought to be or to be that in the future. Don't sacrifice it for other so called gods and pleasures. They're not worth it. Don't listen to the lies of the world and the enemy.

Do it God's way. If you failed in the past, accept God's forgiveness. And if given the opportunity, do it right this time. Most importantly this morning, have you accepted the invitation of Christ to be his beloved, to receive his love, to accept his offer of salvation? If you haven't, you can.

His love never fails, but you must receive it. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for this day. Thank you Lord for your word. Thank you for all the blessings of life, the creation, marriage, and the home.

Lord, forgive us of our failures for the problem is not in the creation, the problem is in the exercise of it on our part. Lord, forgive us of our failures, and Lord, strengthen us. Give us the love of Christ in our hearts for one another that allows us to overlook the the difficulties and to to get through them and to succeed as the men and women, husbands and wives, the fathers and mothers that you have called many of us to be. Lord, we pray if there's one here today that has not received Christ as savior, we pray as we give this hymn of invitation, they would come. And Lord, I pray that you'd work in their hearts and that they might be saved soon, very soon.

Lord, thank you for your love, for your demonstration to us. Now, Lord, help us to demonstrate that love to others in our homes and in every aspect of our life. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.