Sermon Tone Analysis

*Family Foundations, Part 1 – Marriage According to God (Genesis 1-3)*

/Preached by Pastor Phil Layton at Gold Country Baptist Church on November 9, 2008/

www.goldcountrybaptist.org

 

3 Sundays ago at this time we were at the very God-glorifying and Christ-centered Christian wedding of Kevin and Holly Freeman, officiated by Mark Freeman.

Both solid Christian families all around, both sets of parents still married and love the Lord, the way it should be.

Marriage has been much in the public light lately, and unfortunately it’s not always the way it should be.

That same evening at the same time as the wedding, I heard of a local church that hosted a video simulcast about the attacks on those who believe in such traditional marriages, the discrimination and prosecution against Christian groups and others, etc.

On the video call were people who have recently been in the news because of persecution they’ve received for biblical convictions about marriage being only between a man and a woman:

 

The Pastor in Sweden who preached from Romans 1 about homosexuality and was arrested, tried three times, found guilty by the High Court of Sweden and sentenced to one month in prison

David and Tonia Parker – In Massachusetts, David went to his son's school and explained that he wanted to opt his kindergartner out when homosexuality was being discussed.

He was arrested, taken to jail, went through two trials that he lost, and the US Supreme Court refused to hear the case last month.

Elaine Huguenin -- She is the 25 year old photographer that was fined $7000 by the state of New Mexico for refusing to film a gay~/lesbian "celebration."

Chuck Limandri – attorney for the four fighters that were forced to march in a Gay Pride Parade

Bob Tyler – attorney for the two doctors who lost their case before the CA Supreme Court when they refused to artificially inseminate an unmarried woman (lesbian).

Scott Hoffman – from New Jersey , director of the Ocean Grove, New Jersey church camp grounds where they lost tax exemption for refusing to perform a lesbian civil union

Almost exactly one month ago, just 120 miles from here, a first grade class took a school-sponsored trip to a homosexual wedding.

Eighteen first graders traveled to San Francisco City Hall Friday for the wedding of their teacher and her lesbian partner, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The school sponsored the trip for the students, ages 5 and 6, taking them away from their studies for the same-sex wedding … The lesbian teacher's wedding was officiated by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.[1]

It was referred to as a “teachable moment.”

/Our nation is in need of a teachable moment/!

Maybe a better way to say it is, our world needs to be teachable to the teaching of God’s Word, beginning with the first page of the Bible we’ll begin with today.

Have you ever noticed that those who are all for teaching tolerance are very intolerant of the biblical perspective we’re going to see in Genesis 1-2 today?

Well, for the /truly teachable/, God’s Word clears the fog coming from the Bay Area and our culture, and it does it from page 1.

 

26 *Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;* and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; *male and female He created them*.

28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “*Be fruitful and multiply*, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, /I have given /every green plant for food”; and it was so.

31 God saw all that He had made, and *behold, it was very good.*

And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 2:18-25 (NASB95) 18 *Then the Lord God said*, “It is not good for the man to be alone; *I will make him a helper suitable for him.*”

19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought /them /to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.

20 The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.

21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.

22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

23 The man 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.” 24 *For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.*

25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Last year I preached through the first 3 chapters of Genesis on Sunday mornings, and then we took a break in the mornings to go through some real foundational studies on the church, the purpose of the church, glorifying God in the church, as well as verse-by-verse studies through Titus and now Psalm 119 which we will continue to study in the months ahead.

I have always desired, though, to return to the book of Genesis and continue our study because its truths are so fundamental and worldview-shaping, especially in the first 11 chapters which are really foundational for the rest of the Bible, NT theology, and much of what Jesus said.

So as we resume our studies in Genesis on Sunday nights, I want to review and reinforce some very basic truths we need to be reminded of and grounded in, for this “Family Foundations series.”

I believe it’s more important than ever that we have a good grasp of what the beginning of the Bible teaches about family, marriage, gender roles, manhood and womanhood, a biblical view of children, dealing with sin within families, departures from God’s original design for the family, and even learning from some of the bad examples of families in Genesis.

Those will be some of the messages in the weeks ahead, starting with /marriage/ tonight.

Genesis is the book of beginnings, the book of origins.

It is the foundation of all of life, a fundamental explanation of who were are, where we came from, the explanation of the way things are today because of the fall into sin in chapter 3. We’ll pick up in chapter 4 in a few weeks, but there are some truths from 1-3 that we first need to re-establish in context.

Genesis 1 gives a chronological literal day-by-day account of the creation in a high-level fashion.

Chapter 2 gives additional details, especially verses 15-25; important details about what happened /on day six/ after Adam and the animals were created.

Chapter 1 gives the summary overview, while chapter 2 more fully describes the unique creation of male and female in God's image, the climax and crown of creation.

We have here God’s infallible Word for man, and woman, and marriage.

/What is, God’s Definition of Marriage?

/Let’s start in Genesis 1:27

 

/ /27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; *male and female He created them*.

/ /

This is the first definitive text on mankind and marriage – in the beginning God created a male and a female.

From here through the end of chapter 2, the main subject is mankind, and marriage in particular.

Look at the end of chapter 2 which sums up the section:

 

24 *For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.*

In Matthew 19, Jesus clearly saw this portion of Scripture as definitive, as defining marriage in God’s eyes, not in the eyes of the opinions of the Rabbis.

The way He answered their question I believe is the best pattern for us to interact with people about questions relating to marriage, even with the unsaved (the Words of Christ are an answer to the unsaved; He’s not just talking about principles for Christians in marriage – cf. 1 Cor.

7).

Matthew 19:1-12 (NASB95) \\ 1 When Jesus had finished these words, He departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan; 2 and large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there.

3 /Some /Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful /for a man /to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” 4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created /them /from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

6 “So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send /her /away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.

9 “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

10 The disciples said to Him, “If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.”

11 But He said to them, “Not all men /can /accept this statement, but /only /those to whom it has been given.

12 “For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are /also /eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.

He who is able to accept /this, /let him accept /it./”

God’s definition of marriage: ONE MAN, ONE WOMAN, ONE FLESH FOR ONE LIFETIME

/ /

Genesis 1 & 2 proves authoritatively for all time what God’s defining design is for marriage in how He created Adam and Eve:

-         God did not create spares or backup spouses just in case; divorce wasn’t to be an option from the beginning.

-         God didn’t create or intend multiple spouses at once, i.e., He didn’t make Eve and Genevieve so Adam could have 2 wives at once, or could dump one when he decided he didn’t love one anymore; that was never to be an option

-         Sometimes people wonder and ask why the Mosaic law did not more explicitly say things like “Don’t divorce” or “Don’t have multiple wives” (Deut.

24 does regulate divorce and remarriage, and Deut.

17 does forbid kings multiplying wives as ancient kings often did, cf.

NT “husband of one wife” language).

But Jesus doesn’t rely on any later law or revelation beyond Genesis 1-2 to prove God’s absolute standard for marriage.

Have we not read?

-         God did not two of the same gender, which rules out same-sex marriages or relationships.

Later laws against homosexuality were just reiterations of God’s original plan

 

Genesis 1:27-28 further rules out same-sex marriage by the very commission (or better the /blessing/) God gives the married couple:

 

27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; *male and female He created them*.

28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “*Be fruitful and multiply*, and fill the earth

 

The first purpose or role God gives to the first couple (we’ll look at the purposes of marriage next time) is to reproduce, which of course is impossible without a man and a woman.

The excellent book God, Marriage, and Family/ /points out secondly

‘that homosexuality violates … [marriage’s] /complementary /nature.

According to Genesis 2 and 3 – where the man is given charge of his wife, while the woman is placed alongside him as his “suitable helper” [see Gen. 2:18] – differences in gender role are an essential part of the Creator’s design for marriage.

These roles were assigned by God at Creation (Gen.

2:18, 20) and were reaffirmed both after the Fall (Gen.

3:16-19) and in NT teaching (Eph 5:22-23; 1 Pet.

3:1-7).

Since these marital roles are tied inherently and unalterably to gender, same-sex partner cannot participate in … biblical marriage …

Not only does homosexuality fall short of the biblical pattern of marriage with regard to /heterosexuality, complementarity, /and /fertility, /homosexual couples also often do not uphold other aspects of biblical marriage such as /monogamy, fidelity, /and /durability … /homosexuality does not merely misrepresent or misunderstand God’s design for marriage and the family at just /one /point; it rather skews the Creator’s model at /almost every /point … homosexuality is so “contrary to nature” (Rom.

1:26) that its participants cannot help but be aware of the fact that their actions are incompatible with the Creator’s design for marriage’[2]

 

This past Tuesday California voted on the nature of marriage for our State constitution, and a little more than half of participating voters cast their ballot to define marriage in this State as Gen 2:24 says (“a man” and “his wife” - similar props in AZ & FL passed)

-         8 years ago the support for this definition among CA voters was 61% pro, 39% against -- but polls through the Fall showed those numbers nearly flip-flopped in a few years, suggesting there were more like 50-60% /in favor of gay marriage/ -- actual voter count ended up a little less than 50

-         One news release said Prop 8’s “approval marks a stunning upset in a $70 million campaign that just weeks ago looked to be running in favor of preserving gay marriage rights.”

-         We can thank God in His Providence that true marriage has been upheld, /for now here/, but of course the war against a biblical definition and design of the family has only begun.

Ultimately, our main concern is not with the definition of marriage according to Massachusetts or Connecticut or Canada or Europe or even California, and we know truth is not based on ballot counts.

What we want to concern ourselves with is what marriage is according to God.

 

That’s what our focus is this evening.

I don’t want to focus just on the sin of homosexuality tonight or other departures from God’s design, I would prefer to focus most time on God’s design (although teaching the truth must also refute such errors).

There are some I think who are up in arms about the sin of gay marriage as ruining our culture, while ignoring the far bigger and more common cultural calamity of traditional marriages that fail 30-50% of the time.