The Mystery of Marriage

Take the mystery of marriage. In Genesis 2:24, right after the account of how woman was created, Moses (the writer of Genesis) says, “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Now when the apostle Paul quotes this verse in Ephesians 5:31, he says, “This is a great mystery, and I say it refers to Christ and the church.” And, with that as his clue, he unfolds the meaning of marriage: it’s a symbol of Christ’s love for the church represented in the husband’s loving headship toward his wife; and it’s a symbol of the church's glad submission to Christ represented in the wife’s relation to her husband. | John Piper - Male and Female He Created Them in the Image of God

Why Marriage?

Marriage is a temporary institution for this age until the resurrection of the dead. The essence of its meaning and purpose is to represent Christ’s relation to the church. But when the reality comes, the representation as we know it will be laid aside. And there will be neither marriage nor giving in marriage in the age to come. And those who have been single and devoted to the Lord will sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb as full fellow-heirs of the grace of life. And according to their devotion to the Lord and their sacrifices they will be rewarded with affections and relationships and joys beyond all imagination.

John Piper | Male and Female He Created Them in the Image of God

Courageous Headship

Courageous Headship

 

Renewing Our Repentance

"God has already forgiven all our sins once-and-for-all through the death of Jesus Christ. Why then do we need to keep on asking for His forgiveness? The answer, of course, is that we are not perfect, and never will be in this life. We keep on sinning. We break God’s commandments every day, in thought, word, and deed. And although all our sins have been forgiven – past, present, and future – sin still has a way of disturbing our fellowship with God. It interferes with our intimacy with Him, estranging us from His holiness. When we sin, therefore, our personal relationship with God needs to be restored. The Puritans called this “renewing our repentance.” It means asking God to take the forgiveness He has already granted through Christ’s death on the cross and to apply it freshly and directly to our sins."

Philip Graham Ryken

He is Jealous.

[God] is a jealous God. Throughout the Bible He uses the marriage relationship to set for the union of Himself and His people Israel in the Old Testament and that of Christ and the church in the new. In either case He calls unfaithfulness adultery. In Jeremiah He says, 

“Turn O backslidden children…for I am married to you.” 

The book of Hosea is built on this theme. In the New Testament we read that the believer is married to Christ (Rom. 7:4). Paul wrote to the Corinthians, 

“For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (1 Cor. 11:2). 

And James puts it bluntly, 

“You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore is a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (Jas. 4:4).

Vance Havner -- Repent or Else, Revell, p. 54.

Some Thoughts on Idolatry

“All the sin that men commit is what they do in the service of their idols: there is no one act of sin, but what is an act of service to some false god.” | Jonathan Edwards -- Men are Naturally God’s Enemy

Idols are our functional saviors, or to say this differently idols are what we use in our lives to supplement (or replace) the living and true God. We use our idols to save us from the realities of life in a sinful and fallen world. They offer us pleasure, distraction, hope and other benefits but the interesting thing about idols is that they cannot deliver on these promises. Regardless of this fact, people still rely on idols and their false promises, anyway.

Tim Keller says the following about idols:

"Idols are often good things. That's right, I'm not talking about little statues we bow down to each morning. I'm referring to normal every day things which function as gods in our lives. They have our allegiance and we rest our sense of security on them. As John Calvin noted, our hearts are factories of idols. Not that we create idols, but we turn good things into idols. The problem is not “out there”, but “in here” [our hearts]."

Take a look at Genesis 1:26-31. This is a story of creation [before the fall]. These verses show us how God created everything, including man and woman...and then gave Adam and Eve dominion over all creation and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth and subdue it. God did this both for their joy and for his glory.

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.”

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 have 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 has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 1:26-31 (ESV)

But now the bad news. Because of sin, even the things which God gave to mankind for our joy are now often times turned into idols instead. We see a number functional saviors in the verses from Genesis above and the sad reality about idols is that instead of bringing people the joy which they were created to find in God's provisions and blessings...they instead begin to entrap or enslave people and keep them from experiencing true joy.

Here are a few functional saviors (idols) found in the verses in Genesis:

Religion: We see in these verses that God blessed Adam and Eve, he had a relationship with them, and they saw value in their relationship with God. But sin destroyed their relationship and sin's destructive nature is still destroying our relationships with God, today. People make efforts to replace a genuine relationship with God with something else. Religion is a great substitute…where true connection with and faith in God are replaced by our leanings towards ritual and legalism which can provide us with a false sense of assurance.

Marriage: Marriage is also a favorite idol for many people. We see in the Gen. 1:26-27 how God created and then blessed the bond between man and woman. However, many people today don’t see marriage as a way to glorify God and instead look to marriage to become a refuge from loneliness, economic insecurity and hopelessness. Single people often think that life would be tolerable if they were married and many married people live in fear of their marriages ending so they don’t take the necessary steps to make that relationship healthier and more godly. And to some, marriage -- which was ordained by God as a covenant between a male and a female -- has become another way for people to rebel against God's holy design for this sacred relationship.

Sex: We live in a culture that has, without question, turned sex into an idol. God divinely connected sex to marriage…but it has been disconnected from marriage by humanity. People think that sex will offer them enough pleasure to overcome the pain and/or boredom of their lives. People think sex will offer them  intimacy, but they forsake its intended intimacy through perversions and objectification of various kinds. And the sad reality is that sex, outside of God’s divine plan, often destroys the very relationships people so desperately desire.

Children: Also connected to marriage by God, and increasingly disconnected from marriage by people, are children. God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, but this was always intended to happen within the confines of a marriage relationship. Apart from children being born outside of the marriage covenant, many parents today also seek love from (rather than giving love to) their children. They seek to fulfill their own failed goals through their children lives and by doing so they place intolerable burdens on their children, destroying them as a result.

Control: God commanded that Adam and Eve subdue and have dominion over creation. However, this was always supposed to happen under God’s authority. Instead, we try to play God and make everything bend to our authority. Because of sin, we crave control (Genesis 3:16). Fear drives many of these efforts as we feel unable to handle unexpected events or circumstances which fall outside the realm of our “control”. Control destroys relationships. Control is fueled by pride and our resistance to trust God. We were created to be dependent but sin drives us towards independence and control.

Creation: Because of sin, people often make a god out of God’s creation. People begin to worship the created things instead of the creator (Romans 1:25). Sin causes our idol making hearts to twist God’s command of stewardship for his creation into a neo-environmentalism, where the environment and/or animals become more important than people made in God’s image. People often times look to their pets to fill the desire of their hearts for God's unconditional love. No doubt we are commanded to care for the environment and animals, including our pets, but unfortunately many people give these things an ungodly and unhealthy status in their lives.

Work: is another functional savior for many people. Sin entices people to seek independence, security and safety through their work. For many, work provides an ultimate meaning for them that only God was intended to have. God works, and he calls us to work as a means of providing for our families and ourselves.  However, God never intended for us to work as a means of obtaining our righteousness or self-worth. We were created to have our identities firmly-rooted in Christ, not our personal accomplishments, achievements or recognition.

“A true hope looks forward to the obtaining of happiness in no other way but the way of the gospel, which is by a holy Savior, and in a way of cleaving to and following him.” | Jonathan Edwards in Charity and Its Fruits

As the verses we read in Genesis show us, all created things were given to Adam and Eve (and us) by God and he called them very good (Genesis 1:31). However, because of sin, we continue to elevate created things to inappropriate levels in our lives. Instead of receiving these things as blessings and pointers to God…we instead put them in the place of God in hopes that they will provide us satisfaction, security, pleasure and even salvation. Anything that has become a functional savior in our lives will only be returned to its rightful and godly place if we make efforts to seek & find our significance, meaning, security and satisfaction in Christ alone. This will only happen if we choose to believe in the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ as both Creator and Redeemer. As Jonathan Edwards argues, “only when we see Christ as sufficient to bestow all the happiness we need, will we forsake other means to secure earthly happiness.”


Some more (audio) resources on Idols:

http://www.1031sermonjams.com/media/idols.mp3

http://www.1031sermonjams.com/media/americasidols.mp3

What is Harbor Pillars?

"To teach, equip, and encourage men to lead their families and live their lives with integrity, humility and a passion for the glory of Christ." | Harbor Pillars -- Mission Statement

Over the past several years, through prayer, my time in the word, and an overall look at Christianity in America...God has been leading me to start something deeper for the men at Harbor Church. The aim of this group (PILLARS) is to build a foundation of Biblical Manhood for the men (i.e. boyfriends, husbands, fathers, grandfathers and future generations of men) at Harbor Church.

Throughout history, God has entrusted men with the responsibility of spiritually leading their homes and the sad reality is that in many cases, men have been comfortable surrendering that mission to other people and programs in the local church or elsewhere. Don't get me wrong, these people and programs are not bad additions to the spiritual growth and development of Christian families, but I believe God desires for men to reclaim and tightly hold the responsibility for the spiritual well being of their homes.

As I see it, the purpose of Harbor Pillars is to teach, equip and encourage men to live out their lives with integrity, humility and passion for the glory of Christ.

The attacks of the enemy are numerous and the temptation to become comfortable living the American Dream is enticing. However, we are called to be different than the world. We are called to live humbly and to serve others with our time and our talents. We are called to surrender everything in order to follow Christ, and to make disciples. We are called to lead our homes (as our primary mission field) with humility, courage and zeal...submitting to God's will and allowing him to lead us. We are called to raise our children to know and fear the LORD. We are called to hold each other accountable and live with a passion for the glory of Christ in all areas of our lives. No longer can we be satisfied with a Sunday morning worship service. No longer can we accept living the watered down version of Christianity that entices us to serve God on Sunday mornings and serve ourselves the other (6) days of the week.

So there's the mission statement of this group. I believe we have enough diversity in our small group of men at Harbor to make an impact in our church, our community and the world. Please pray about getting involved in this mission. If God prompts your heart, please respond to this blog post and make a commitment to join this cause. I will make you one promise; this will not be your typical run-of-the-mill group. We will not settle for mediocrity. So, if you are looking to grow deeper in your faith and pursue the Spiritual Growth that we talk about at Harbor Church, please pray about joining this group.

More information to follow.

P – Passionate Men
I – Interested in REAL Spiritual Growth
L – Learning with Humility
L – Leading Our Families Intentionally
A – Ambassadors of the Gospel
R – Rediscovering the Responsibility of Biblical Manhood
S – Sanctification through Scripture, Prayer and Accountability

For His Glory,

Jason