Heaven's Point of View

Instructions to Husbands, Part 2

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: J.D. Quinn (Host), Tom Shepherd

Home

Series Code: HPOV

Program Code: HPOV000032A


00:16 Welcome to Heaven's Point of View.
00:17 My name is J.D. Quinn.
00:19 We are working on a series that is really enlightening,
00:23 love, marriage, sex and divorce according to the New Testament.
00:27 Our host, our speaker,
00:30 the one that's making this all come together
00:33 is Dr. Tom Shepherd and we welcome you, Dr. Tom.
00:36 Thank you. Thank you.
00:38 What we've been talking about,
00:39 we've been talking about the husbands and the wives
00:42 and their positions and everything.
00:44 Now in Christian marriages where are we now?
00:49 So we've been talking about Ephesians 5,
00:52 this is our last discussion of Ephesians 5 in this series
00:56 and we're in the section talking about the husbands.
00:59 So we're gonna look,
01:01 we've already looked at verses 25, 26, and 27.
01:06 The section on the husbands
01:07 goes from verse 25 through verse 33.
01:11 We worked talking about verses 25 to 27 last time
01:16 so we're gonna go on from there
01:19 and read some more about the rest of it.
01:22 So we are gonna start with verse 28?
01:25 We will. We will.
01:26 Now Paul has been talking about the church
01:28 almost to the point where people get the idea like,
01:31 "Oh, well, has he forgotten
01:34 to talk about Christian marriage?"
01:36 But no, actually the passage is,
01:41 has a lot to say about the church,
01:43 but Paul is still discussing Christian marriage.
01:45 So just like he illustrated talking to wives
01:48 and used Christ as a paradigm there,
01:51 so now he holds that up for the husband.
01:54 Okay, so where are we going from here
01:58 dealing with the Christian marriage?
02:00 All right, so we're gonna start in verse--
02:03 Well, you know, I don't think
02:05 it hurts to read the whole passage again
02:06 because people may not have-- It's been a while
02:09 since they saw the previous program
02:11 and if we put, read the whole passage,
02:12 we get the context.
02:14 It's Ephesians 5:25-33. Okay.
02:17 And I'll read through this pretty fast
02:19 because I know that we got a lot to cover up.
02:20 It's true. We got lot this time.
02:22 "Husbands, love your wives,
02:23 just as Christ also loved the church
02:25 and gave Himself for her,
02:27 that He might sanctify and cleanse her
02:29 with the washing of water by the word,
02:31 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church,
02:35 not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
02:38 but that she should be holy and without blemish.
02:40 So husbands ought to love their own wives
02:43 as their own bodies;
02:44 he who loves his wife also loves himself.
02:47 For no one ever hated his own flesh,
02:49 but nourishes and cherishes it,
02:51 just as the Lord does the church.
02:53 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.
02:57 And 'For this reason
02:58 a man shall leave his father and mother
02:59 and be joined to his wife,
03:01 and the two shall become one flesh.'
03:03 This is the great mystery," or a great mystery
03:07 "but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
03:09 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular
03:12 so love his own wife as himself,
03:14 and let the wife see that she respects her husband."
03:17 Okay. Wow.
03:19 Beautiful passage. It is.
03:20 Beautiful passage and we are thinking now
03:22 of the love
03:24 that husbands are to show towards their wives.
03:27 We know that last time we said, you know, Paul said
03:31 that the wife would submit to their husbands
03:34 and so you might get the idea that Paul would say it,
03:36 and husbands, rule your wives, you know.
03:39 But that's not what he says. No.
03:40 He says, you are supposed to love your wives
03:43 and in case you didn't know how that was supposed to be,
03:46 it was as Christ loved the church
03:49 and gave Himself.
03:50 Let's say, giving sacrificial kind of love that He has.
03:55 The results that this has in for Christ in the church
03:59 is a sanctified church,
04:01 the waters of baptism set us apart
04:04 and then he wants to present us to Christ glorious
04:07 without spot or wrinkle holy and blameless.
04:10 So it's a process of us becoming more like Jesus.
04:14 So that's the sacrificial type? Yeah.
04:16 That's a sacrificial kind of love
04:18 that husbands are to have for the wives
04:20 and you think about it,
04:21 when you sacrifice for your family in this way,
04:24 they really take note of it
04:25 and it has an impact how they think about you.
04:30 But then he switches and in verse 28 he says,
04:36 "In the same way,
04:37 husbands should love their wives
04:40 as their own bodies.
04:42 He who loves his wife loves himself,
04:45 for no one ever hated his own flesh,
04:47 but nourishes and cherishes it,
04:50 just as Christ does the church."
04:54 This is a different kind of love.
04:55 Now we are going to a nurturing type.
04:57 Yes, it's a nurturing type of love
04:59 that Paul uses the terminology, you don't hate your own body,
05:03 you cherish it, you take care of it.
05:07 It is that which takes care of the other
05:08 because of the inherent linkage between them.
05:11 So he is talking about the unity of marriage.
05:16 Paul puts it simply,
05:17 he who loves his own wife loves himself.
05:22 He who loves his own wife loves himself.
05:25 It seems to me it's important to talk well of your spouse
05:30 to other people.
05:32 I know that it's--
05:33 that's real easy in our relationship
05:35 with Shelley and I.
05:36 We go out--
05:38 It's a nice testimony. Well, it is.
05:39 It is a testimony and the thing that I have found
05:44 is that I love Shelley very much.
05:47 I adore Shelley.
05:48 Now she is my wife I think that I'm very blessed.
05:51 But in this situation,
05:53 I've always liked her more than anything.
05:56 And so, you know, here you're kind of saying.
05:58 So consequently it's kind of like,
06:00 it just comes natural
06:02 that if I speak well of her, then she reciprocates.
06:06 That's right.
06:07 Now I have a practice that I do when I go out
06:10 on my morning walk or morning run,
06:13 I start thanking God for people and I start with my wife.
06:16 Amen. Amen.
06:18 And I thank her for God for different things about her
06:20 and then I go through a series of other people.
06:22 I thank God for all my colleagues
06:25 that I work with, you know, and staff and the secretaries
06:29 and I'll pray for them too.
06:31 I'm out there, you know, walking along
06:32 and this morning actually when I was out for my run,
06:36 I thought of 3ABN.
06:37 Amen. Amen.
06:39 And, you know, I think thankfulness
06:41 just builds in you a certain aspect of joy.
06:45 You just feel happier and to me-- Yeah, go ahead.
06:49 And I'm assuming that being thankful
06:52 is a first cousin to nurturing.
06:54 Yeah. Yeah.
06:55 Because when you're thankful for somebody,
06:57 you are positive about that.
06:59 So it's easier for you to think of how you can care for them.
07:01 Yeah.
07:03 In homes, I think sometimes what happens
07:05 people start to get into, you know,
07:06 when you first meet somebody, when they first fall in love
07:09 or when they're first dating and everything, it's all rosy.
07:12 And then when you get married you find out,
07:15 oh, this person has some faults.
07:16 Yes.
07:18 And guess what, they find out that,
07:19 oh, you have some faults too.
07:21 If you focus on the faults, then things start to go down.
07:25 It starts eroding in a hurry. Yeah.
07:27 But if you focus on that which is good,
07:29 you know, I'm so thankful.
07:30 In fact if you tell them, I'm so thankful
07:32 you're such a good cook, you know,
07:34 or you like to keep nice clean house
07:37 and we appreciate that.
07:38 If you actually tell them the expression of it
07:43 just helps to deepen the sense of appreciation
07:46 and builds more the same kind of characteristic,
07:49 you know, be shown to.
07:50 Most certainly. Most certainly.
07:52 And it just seems to me, I guess it's common sense.
07:54 Goes back to what you were saying
07:56 the practicality that Paul brings
07:58 into his message and so--
08:01 So this parallel, you know, when Paul says
08:06 that you love your wife like you love yourself.
08:09 It's parallel to Christ concerned for the church.
08:12 He says, for we are members of His body.
08:13 Christ cares for us. Why?
08:15 Because we are His body. Amen.
08:17 So when the husband cares for his wife
08:19 "He who loves his own wife loves himself."
08:23 Thus the basis of the sacrificial love
08:25 is the example of Christ
08:26 in giving himself for the church.
08:29 And the basis of the nurturing love
08:31 is the unity that exists in our own body
08:34 and in Christ love for the church.
08:36 So you have both of these kinds of love
08:38 sacrificial and nurturing love.
08:40 Now this is rather interesting because these two kinds of love
08:44 kind of go with two different characteristics.
08:48 You know, self sacrificing love.
08:49 When you think of making self sacrifice,
08:52 you think of like a soldier out in the front lines.
08:54 He runs out and takes care of his buddies.
08:57 Well, everybody looks at him and says--
08:59 Wow, he is courageous.
09:01 That man is courageous, you know.
09:02 He really cares for his buddies.
09:04 He is taking care of them.
09:06 On the other side nurturing love,
09:09 you think more in terms of gentleness
09:13 and these two characteristics are--
09:16 There is little tension between them in a way,
09:18 I mean, they are kind of two different ways
09:20 of thinking or doing.
09:22 I think probably most men have an easier time
09:27 with the courageous aspect.
09:29 There's something in the man that wants to protect,
09:31 that wants to guard and to defend his family.
09:35 And when he doesn't have that opportunity,
09:37 when he is not offered that opportunity
09:39 there's, you sort of lose something
09:40 of his manliness.
09:42 He wants to be able to do that. Yeah.
09:43 But most of us probably need to find,
09:47 we need to focus more
09:49 probably on the nurturing side of this of.
09:51 You know, we need to be able to show people
09:54 that, to show our families and express to them
09:57 a nurturing caring kind of love as well.
09:59 Even if it takes us out of our comfort zone,
10:02 the more that you practice the better, the easier it is.
10:07 That's right. Right.
10:08 And the more you express it the more you,
10:11 you know, sometimes
10:12 we will have to say things that we may not always feel,
10:16 but you are saying because they are right
10:18 and the right to do and you-- Very well put.
10:20 You put expressions there and you practice,
10:25 you practice Christian love.
10:27 And then you become a more loving person.
10:30 I mean, I know over--
10:32 That's about as biblical as you get.
10:33 You know, over the 40 years I've been married
10:35 that I have had to learn to be more patient,
10:38 I had to learn to say things in different ways
10:40 and the Lord keeps working with me
10:43 and my wife keeps patiently being with me.
10:47 Amen.
10:48 I know exactly what you are saying
10:49 and thank You, Jesus, that they are patient.
10:54 Yeah, now, verse 29 has this interesting truism.
10:57 He says, "For no one ever hated his own flesh,
11:00 but nourishes it and cherishes it,
11:02 just as Christ does the church."
11:05 Paul is using here a what we might call a truism.
11:10 It's to describe how we take care of ourselves.
11:14 Now we know that sometimes people become discouraged,
11:18 they become depressed
11:20 and they don't feel like taking care of themselves
11:22 and sometimes they don't.
11:24 Paul is not denying such behavior
11:26 rather he is describing what is generally true.
11:30 You know, it's just generally true
11:32 that people take care of themselves.
11:34 And so this becomes the basis for talking about
11:37 caring for your spouse and marriage
11:39 because your spouse is one with you.
11:42 It's a fool who talks bad of his spouse.
11:45 Because--
11:47 you just point the finger back at yourself really.
11:48 You are the one that chose this person.
11:50 You know, so you really ought to speak well of them
11:53 and that speaks well of your choice.
11:55 Yes. You know.
11:56 And sometimes if you get off to a bad start,
12:00 then this goes back into what you were saying earlier,
12:02 maybe you need to practice some skills, some life skills
12:06 and then you'll reciprocate, you know, that feeling.
12:11 And you know, most of us we learn our life skills,
12:15 we learn about what is normal in the home,
12:19 in our own homes when we were children.
12:22 And if our own homes
12:23 were not the loving Christian homes
12:25 that they should be.
12:27 We don't know that the right way.
12:30 We don't know the Christian way.
12:31 This is why the church must take time to educate.
12:34 We must have relationship between people
12:36 and maybe sometimes even people saying,
12:38 "Oh, is that you are in another home
12:40 and you see how a husband treats the wife or something.
12:43 I remember we were missionaries
12:45 I think I mentioned to you, we were missionaries in Brazil
12:48 and one Sabbath I was there
12:51 and there was this visiting professor from Argentina
12:54 and he was sitting there,
12:57 after lunch we were talking little bit
12:59 and I said to him,
13:01 I said, "Do you believe in women's liberation?"
13:04 And he probably didn't know anywhere
13:06 where I was going with this, you know, and he was,
13:08 he probably didn't want to offend me or anything
13:10 and he kept kind of serious look on his face
13:13 and he said, "Oh, yes there is, there is."
13:15 As he was very conservative guy if I would call.
13:17 He looked at me and he said, well, there,
13:19 there are certain aspects of that that I agree with.
13:23 I said, well, good, let's you and I go wash the dishes
13:25 and let women just sit here and talk.
13:29 Amen.
13:31 So, you know... He probably, oh, is that?
13:34 Is that what you are gonna try, that's what you want to do?
13:37 Yeah, you know,
13:38 we need to do things for our wives.
13:40 Just a lot of, you know, a lot of homes the wife does
13:42 like all the house work and things.
13:44 You know, they shouldn't be.
13:45 We husbands should be in there, we should be working,
13:47 we should be supporting them,
13:49 letting them sit and rest a bit.
13:50 Yes.
13:52 It's very positive.
13:53 That something that,
13:54 that I certainly need to work harder on.
13:57 Well, some thing, as we mentioned a while ago,
14:00 some things come easier than others.
14:01 My wife and I have become a team when we are,
14:04 when we are washing,
14:05 when we are cleaning up after meal.
14:07 Amen.
14:08 I'm the one who washes the dishes
14:09 and puts them in the dishwasher.
14:11 We've discovered that,
14:12 actually if we run washes dishes in the dishwasher
14:13 we don't get cold as much 'cause-
14:16 Yes.
14:17 So I'm the one washing them off,
14:19 putting in the dishwasher and she puts the food away.
14:20 So we kind of a nice team. Well, that's fair.
14:22 We kind of do this back and forth kind of a thing.
14:25 All right, so--
14:26 And you are the guy that takes for 25, 26, 27 someday you go,
14:32 you live long enough,
14:33 you could buy out the whole store of roses
14:35 on your anniversary.
14:37 I think that's the neat story.
14:38 Well, that, you know, to see what happened is that
14:41 she is actually become a little allergic to roses
14:43 so I don't get her roses.
14:45 Well, thank you, Jesus.
14:47 But she still, you know,
14:51 we are still going together there
14:52 and she is getting much sweeter.
14:54 That's right.
14:55 So there's really a--
14:57 you are gonna say something.
14:59 Yeah, you had mentioned earlier
15:01 that there is a big surprise in here.
15:03 There is actually.
15:05 Yes, and I'm anxious to see
15:06 what we are talking about the surprise.
15:08 Yeah, so when Paul talks, here's the thing.
15:12 When Paul talks to the wives, you know,
15:15 if you go back to the wives you see he says,
15:17 "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord."
15:20 that's instruction to them.
15:21 "For the husband is the head of the wife,
15:24 even as Christ is the head of the church, his body,
15:27 and is himself its Savior."
15:28 Okay, so when he talks to the wives,
15:32 the reason he gives is he talks about the husband,
15:36 all right.
15:37 When he gets over to the husbands, he says,
15:39 husbands love your wives.
15:40 Okay.
15:42 So, now he is giving instructions to husbands.
15:43 Yeah. And talking directly to them.
15:44 As Christ love the church and gave Himself up for her.
15:49 The surprising thing is
15:51 that when he talks to the wives,
15:54 the focus is on something that relates to the husbands.
15:58 Yes.
16:00 And when he talks to the husbands,
16:02 the focus is on something that relates to the wives.
16:06 The idea is that your life, your married life,
16:11 your married experience as a Christian
16:14 is not supposed to focus on you.
16:17 Yes.
16:19 It's supposed to focus on your spouse.
16:23 Blessing and uplifting and honoring them.
16:26 Yes.
16:27 You know, unfortunate in our world today,
16:29 there is lots of turmoil
16:32 and I have a hard time
16:33 understanding people like terrorists
16:35 and people that are fighting and,
16:37 you know, just doing all these things.
16:39 And I think somebody one time said to me,
16:42 "Well, Tom, the reason you think that way
16:46 is because you are Christian.
16:48 You get up in the morning and you look in the mirror
16:50 and you say, whom can I bless today?
16:53 Whom can I help today?"
16:54 I tell you what,
16:56 I get no greater joy than helping somebody else.
16:59 I'm this PhD director, what's my day involved?
17:02 Students coming into my office with the problems
17:05 that they are facing.
17:06 It's this class or this problem or this deal, you know.
17:09 I just love to help solve the, you know,
17:11 open the door for them
17:12 so kind of solve the problem and,
17:14 you know, figure something out.
17:16 That's a great joy to me. It's a great joy.
17:18 Whereas these other people, they get up in the morning
17:20 and they say, "Who can I hurt?
17:22 How can I aim? Who can I blow up?"
17:24 That is sin.
17:25 As a Christian that is so foreign.
17:27 Yeah, it's so foreign.
17:28 So, you know, our job, our role as Christians
17:31 and particularly in the Christian family
17:34 is to bless and encourage.
17:36 Now when you think about it,
17:37 if you have a self sacrificing husband
17:41 who is focusing on blessing his wife,
17:44 is that a hard person to submit to?
17:46 No.
17:48 And if you think about a wife who submits, who is--
17:52 I mean, it's not like she is a doormat or anything
17:54 but she listens to you, you listen to her
17:58 and you're gonna is that a hard person to help?
18:00 No. No.
18:01 So Paul in both of these cases
18:04 points out the importance of our need
18:07 to think of the other person.
18:09 And that takes away some of the sting
18:11 that some people get with this idea of submission.
18:13 They are like, oh, that's so controlling.
18:16 That's so, you know, you are in charge.
18:19 Jesus said, that's what the gentiles do.
18:22 That's what the gentiles do, He says, but not so with you,
18:25 but whoever wants to be
18:26 your master must be your servant.
18:28 Amen. Must serve you.
18:29 Because the Son of Man
18:31 did not come to be served but to serve
18:33 and to give His life as a ransom
18:35 to so many, for many.
18:36 The life of Jesus is the great paradigm for our homes.
18:41 It's really interesting because
18:43 I was thinking about this the other day.
18:44 I have a brother and I have a sister and myself
18:46 and we are all giving people.
18:49 I mean, we all want to go out our way to help.
18:52 So I don't know if my father and my mother
18:56 I was fortunate enough to, you know,
18:59 for them to remain married.
19:02 I don't know if they had a plan or not, you know,
19:06 but I do know that out of three kids,
19:09 you have three servants.
19:10 Nice.
19:11 So something was done right.
19:13 Something was right. Yeah. Yeah.
19:14 And you know, I've just versus--
19:16 I do know that personality
19:18 where it's more about themselves
19:20 and what can I get.
19:21 Well, can you, could you run the store?
19:24 Man, it's kind of like I've already picked the keys
19:26 and already gone, you know, versus, well,
19:30 what we are paying for gas to go do it.
19:33 You know, I mean there is just
19:35 a difference in mentality there, you know,
19:37 and it just seems like that's a blessing.
19:40 I remember one of the greatest gifts--
19:44 See my wife is a medical doctor.
19:45 She is now retired because of health issues
19:48 but she practiced medicine for a number of years.
19:51 But I remember one of the greatest gifts
19:54 that I believe that my wife ever gave to our family
19:57 was for the first five years of my daughter's life,
20:02 we have two kids little boy and girl.
20:04 The girl is older.
20:05 But the first five years of that little girl's life
20:07 she stayed home
20:10 and was taking care of this little,
20:12 this little children and helping them
20:15 and I still see that the results of that
20:19 in the lives of my children today,
20:20 both are still in the church.
20:22 My daughter and her husband are both teachers down at,
20:25 down at Keene,
20:26 down at Southwestern Adventist University biology department.
20:30 And my son, he is in accounting work
20:33 and he has little children.
20:35 We have these little grandchildren running around,
20:37 so you know, it's a great joy.
20:40 So good seed were planted?
20:41 Good seed were planted
20:43 and we are thankful that they sprouted up.
20:45 This really brings us to verse 31.
20:46 I wonder if you read that for us again.
20:48 Thirty one. Verse 31.
20:50 Yes. Yes.
20:51 "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
20:54 and be joined to his wife,
20:55 and the two shall become one flesh."
20:58 It's fantastic.
20:59 So I'm interested to see
21:00 how you're gonna handle to that.
21:02 Yes, now this is actually a quote from the Old Testament
21:05 and he is quoting from the Book of Genesis 2:24.
21:09 So I want to turn over to Genesis
21:10 and read that passage,
21:12 Genesis 2 verse 20,
21:16 Genesis 2:18-25.
21:22 Genesis 2:18-25.
21:27 "And the Lord God said,
21:29 'It is not good that man should be alone,
21:31 I will make him a helper comparable to him.'
21:34 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field
21:37 and every bird of the air,
21:38 and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them.
21:42 And whatever Adam called each living creature,
21:44 that was its name.
21:46 So Adam gave names to all cattle,
21:48 to the birds of the air,
21:50 and to every beast of the field.
21:51 But for Adam he was not found a helper comparable to him.
21:56 And the Lord God
21:58 caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam,
22:00 and he slept, and He took one of his ribs,"
22:03 It's with the capital H "Took one of his rips
22:05 and closed up the flesh in its place.
22:09 Then the rib in which the Lord God had taken from man
22:12 He made into a woman,
22:14 and He brought her to the man.
22:16 And Adam said,
22:18 'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.
22:21 She shall be called Woman,
22:23 because she was taken out of Man.'
22:25 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother
22:28 and be joined to his wife,
22:30 and they shall become one flesh.
22:33 And they were both naked, the man and his wife,
22:36 and were not ashamed."
22:38 Okay. Amen.
22:39 It's a very interesting story.
22:42 Verse 18 is where the story begins and it says,
22:44 ''It is not good for the man to be alone."
22:48 There are these two stories of creation,
22:50 Genesis 1 focuses especially on God's amazing power,
22:54 God the creator.
22:55 Genesis 2 focuses more attention on the people
22:58 and how God put them together.
23:02 Verse 18 of chapter 2 is the first time in the Bible
23:05 when we have something said, "It's not good."
23:07 "It's not good." Yeah, well.
23:08 In chapter 1 everything was good,
23:10 it was good, it was very good.
23:11 Now here's something that's not good,
23:13 "It's not good for the man to be alone."
23:15 So what's the next thing that God does?
23:19 God, He says, then we need to make it good."
23:23 We need to make it good.
23:25 We need to find you a mate, a helper.
23:27 Yeah, so what does he do?
23:30 See, we go back to the story.
23:32 Now this is the surprising thing.
23:33 So what does he do?
23:34 He brings him all the animals to name.
23:38 Okay. And that's kind of...
23:39 That's, that's... That's kind of odd.
23:42 You know, what he is trying to...
23:44 Yes, really. Yeah.
23:45 He is trying to match him up with the animals.
23:46 You know, this one-- oh, that's not good enough.
23:49 You know, this one, oh, that's not good.
23:50 This man is just too hard to set right.
23:51 No, not this one, then we go to.
23:53 Actually the-- it says and there was no,
23:57 there was no on found.
23:59 There was no creature found.
24:00 There was no suitable helper for him.
24:02 So suitable helper. Yeah.
24:03 Now lot of people will say,
24:04 oh, they came in twos
24:06 and he noticed that was male, female.
24:07 There is no burden for him. It doesn't say that.
24:08 No it doesn't.
24:10 The difference actually is not the difference of gender
24:12 but the difference of kind.
24:14 They are animals he is man.
24:16 And they are not like him
24:17 so they are not suitable for him.
24:19 They don't match him.
24:20 And so what God does is then He does the first anesthesia,
24:24 He does the first surgery
24:25 and He takes the rib from the man side
24:28 and He makes the woman and He brings it to the man.
24:30 And when she comes, she is brought,
24:33 she is brought to him then he has the first love poetry.
24:36 Yeah. Women love this type of stuff.
24:38 But he does the first poetry and he says,
24:40 "Now this is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh,
24:43 shall be called Woman."
24:44 So what happened was God was creating a miracle
24:46 in this ancient world.
24:48 He was producing a sense of need in a perfect world.
24:52 So the man would sense his need of the woman.
24:55 And then the apostle, then Moses goes on to say
24:59 that the "Man leaves his father and mother,
25:00 he becomes joint to his wife,
25:03 they become one flesh and there is no shame."
25:06 There is these four steps.
25:07 Now we are kind of running short on time
25:09 so but we will kind of--
25:10 Let's look at the four steps.
25:12 We will look at the four steps real quick.
25:13 Yes. All right.
25:15 First they leave, He leaves his family.
25:18 Now Israel was a patrilineal society,
25:21 so the man would not be the person who normally leave,
25:23 the woman would,
25:25 but he leaves and now he is joint to his wife
25:27 because it is a new home.
25:30 Ellen White puts it nicely
25:31 in the book Ministry of Healing, page 361.
25:34 "Around every family there is a sacred circle
25:37 that should be kept unbroken.
25:39 Within this circle no other person has a right to come.
25:42 Let not the husband or the wife
25:44 permit another to share the confidences
25:46 that belong solely to themselves.
25:48 Let each give love rather than exact it.
25:50 Cultivate that which is noblest in yourselves,
25:53 and be quick to recognize
25:54 the good qualities in each other.
25:56 The consciousness of being appreciated
25:58 is a wonderful stimulus and satisfaction.
26:00 Sympathy and respect encourage the striving after excellence,
26:04 and love itself increases as it stimulates to nobler aims."
26:09 That's beautiful. Beautiful passage.
26:10 So when it comes to being joined,
26:13 it's a sense of permanence
26:14 and of passion that they have for one another.
26:17 The idea of one flesh clearly has a linkage
26:20 to the concept of sexual relations
26:23 but the Old Testament uses the word "to know"
26:27 as a euphemism for sexual relations.
26:29 Adam knew his wife but it's more than just sex
26:32 that's involved here
26:34 because sex in its joy, in its permanence,
26:37 in its pleasure, and its intimacy
26:39 unites two people as nothing else can do.
26:42 You do something with everybody else
26:44 but there is only one thing
26:45 that you only do with your spouse
26:46 and that's sexual relation.
26:48 That's why it's so precious
26:49 and that's why the devil wants to destroy it.
26:52 Now verse 25 seems like an odd ending.
26:54 It says, they were both naked but they weren't ashamed.
26:57 But the idea here is the idea of innocence
27:03 and there was nothing shameful
27:05 about sex in that ancient world.
27:08 Well, that really brings us to the end of the verses
27:11 in verses 32 and 33
27:13 and we may be just read those real brief.
27:15 "This mystery is profound,
27:16 and I am saying that in terms of Christ and the church.
27:19 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself,
27:21 and let the wife see that she respects her husband."
27:24 Paul summarizes all this.
27:25 Jesus is the pattern for the husband and wife.
27:28 As the wife submits to the Lord,
27:30 she is to submit to her husband.
27:32 As Christ loves the church and gave Himself for her,
27:37 so the husband is to love his wife
27:38 sacrificially and supportively.
27:41 Christian marriage is not 50-50
27:43 it's 100 percent, 100 percent.
27:44 Amen. Amen.
27:46 So that's a summary of Christian marriage.
27:49 Here again, Dr, Shepherd, we want to thank you so much
27:52 because this is, this is good stuff.
27:54 And in closing, I thank with this very sample.
27:57 "Jesus Christ is the pattern for the husband and wife."
28:01 Yes. You know.
28:02 So I thank you again for being with us today,
28:05 for spending this time with us.
28:07 God bless you.


Home

Revised 2016-03-10