Sermon Tone Analysis

*God’s Design for Marriage*

* *

*September 25, 2005*

*1 Peter 3:1-7*

 

*Introduction: *As the one who designed men, women, and marriage, God knows best how to maintain loving order and mutual support in the home.

All people need first to submit to God’s direction and second to his delegated authorities.

We need to explore the nature of delegated authority in the home and why marriage works best when husband and wife follow God’s direction.

When a woman submits to her husband, she helps the home run smoothly, builds her husband up, encourages him in his spiritual growth, and exalts Jesus Christ.

When a husband treats his wife with loving respect, he also helps the home run smoothly, fulfills his wife’s need to feel cherished, honors Jesus Christ, and recognizes his wife as the weaker, yet infinitely valuable, vessel that she is.

It should not come as a surprise, then, to learn that marriages thrive best when God’s plan is understood and implemented.

*Introduction: An Unpopular Passage*

This is neither the most popular passage in  Scripture nor the most popular subject for a message.

I t wouldn’t take much to get myself into serious hot water here, but I’ll take that chance because we can’t continue our study of 1 Peter without Chapter 3 verses 1-7.

Let’s read that now.

*/“/*/In the same way, you wives must accept the authority of your husbands, even those who refuse to accept the Good News.

Your godly lives will speak to them better than any words.

They will be won over by watching your pure, godly behavior.

Don't be concerned about the outward beauty that depends on fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes.

You should be known for the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. \\ That is the way the holy women of old made themselves beautiful.

They trusted God and accepted the authority of their husbands.

For instance, Sarah obeyed her husband, Abraham, when she called him her master.

You are her daughters when you do what is right without fear of what your husbands might do.

In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives.

Treat her with understanding as you live together.

She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God's gift of new life.

If you don't treat her as you should, your prayers will not be heard.”

/

I saw a cartoon some time ago in which a preacher had prepared the pulpit area like a fortress.

He was peering through the crack of a machine gun nest.

The caption read, “Today my text is 1 Peter 3:1, ‘Wives submit to your husbands.’

”

 

Well, I have the unenviable task tonight of speaking from 1 Peter 3:1-7 in our study through this book.

It’s not a popular section.

It’s resented by many women in this age of women’s liberation.

But verse 7 isn’t very popular with the men either because it says, “You husbands be considerate of your wives.”

And that’s not easy to do in an age of pride and egocentricity.

In spite of its unpopularity, it’s a much needed section.

*I.

Preliminary Principles*

 

Before we look at the Scriptures, there are three preliminary principles that I want to underscore.

/God is our designer and he knows what is best for us./

When you buy a car, you look in the glove compartment and take out the owner’s manual.

The one who designed that car knows how it is to best function.

I bought a digital camera a couple of years ago.

I’d used it for about ten minutes, then recharged it.

I later learned that you should not recharge the battery until the energy is completely depleted.

The first time you recharge it programs it for the future.

I’ve got a battery pack that will last only ten minutes because I did what I thought was best and did not pay attention to the one who designed the battery.

God made man from the dust of the ground.

God made woman from the rib of Adam.

God performed the first marriage ceremony.

We need to look at what the owner’s manual says in order for marriage to function best.

Jeremiah 29:11 says/, “ ‘These are the plans that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

Plans to give you hope and a future.’

”/ God is our designer He knows what’s best for us.

The second principle to keep in mind is that man is a sinner and in rebellion against God’s authority/.

/Satan came to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and said, /“Has God said that you’re not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that you would die?

That’s not true.

If you eat of that tree, you will really live.

You’ll be like God.”/ Adam and Eve disobeyed; and discovered God’s Word was true, and they began to die.

Since that time, there is in every heart a spirit of defiance against God’s authority.

Jeremiah said/, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.”/

We do not want God’s authority over us.

God says, /“Don’t take my name in vain,”/ and though there are thousands of names available to us, when we get angry the one word we choose is the word “God” or the word “Jesus Christ” in defiance, in rebellion against God.

God says, /“I don’t want you to hoard up your money on earth.

I want you to learn to give at least a tenth of it away.”/

But we hoard it up for ourselves.

God says, /“Whenever you are wronged don’t retaliate.

Love  your enemy.”/

And we do just the opposite because we are in defiance against God.

Man is a sinner and his nature is to rebel against God.

The third principle is: A Christian is a humble servant acknowledging the authority of God and God’s Word.

When you become a Christian, you submit your ego and will to God, saying, /“Not my will but thine be done.

I acknowledge that my way is not the best way.

I’ve come with a spirit of submission to your word.”/

Isaiah 2:8 says, /“Let us go to the mountain of the Lord that he may teach us his ways.

And we will walk in his paths.”/

An airplane pilot is not to trust his own instincts in a storm, but to trust the instrument panel.

Instincts can be wrong if he experiences vertigo.

Just as a pilot can get so jostled around that he loses his sense of up and down, we can get so jostled around by the philosophy of this world that we lose our sense of right and wrong.

We have an instrument panel that is more reliable than our own feelings.

Proverbs 12:14 says, /“There is a way that seems right unto man but the end thereof are the ways of death.”/

So when it comes to God’s design for marriage you can come with a spirit of defiance as a sinner saying, “I’m going to do it my way.”

Or you can come with a spirit of submission to the one who designed you saying, “Lord, teach me what you would have me be in my home.”

I trust that as we open this passage it will be with the latter spirit.

*II.

Spheres of Influence*

 

/“Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands.”/

A good definition of the word “submissive” is acknowledging the sovereignty of God and respecting his delegated authority.

A submissive spirit is one who acknowledges that God is the king.

Jesus is Lord.

We acknowledge his sovereignty, his right to rule over us; but we also acknowledge that he has delegated authority to individual people in the world.

God has delegated authority to three spheres of influence in this world.

One is the government.

We are to respect the Prime Minister, the Premier, teachers, policemen—not because they are perfect but because they are God’s delegated authority to keep order in the world.

The second sphere of influence is the church.

We are to respect the teachers, the elders, the overseers of the church—not because these people are perfect, but because they have been delegated authority by God.

The third sphere of influence that God created is in the home.

God delegated authority to the parents, saying that children are to be obedient to their parents.

That’s the right order of things.

And even though parents are imperfect, children are to respect their authority.

In marriage, God has delegated that the husband be—not the dictator—but the leader in the home.

The husband and wife share; but when they come down to a point where they cannot arrive at a common agreement, the husband is to be the recognized leader in the home.