Many a man in love with a dimple makes the mistake of marrying the whole girl'

1
Many a man in love with a dimple makes the
mistake of marrying the whole girl.

• Stephen Leacock

2
Marriage a ceremony in which rings are put on
the finger of the lady and through the nose of
the gentleman.

• Herbert Spencer

3
Theyre married for better or worse. He
couldnt do better and she couldnt do worse.
4
When a girl marries she exchanges the attentions
of many men for the inattention of one.

• Helen Rowland

5
Marriage as God Sees It

• He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and
  obtains favor from the Lord. (Proverbs 1822)

An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is
far above jewels. The heart of her husband trusts
in her, and he will have no lack of gain.
(Proverbs 3110-11)
6

• Some Pharisees came to Him, testing Him, and
  saying, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his
  wife for any cause at all?"
• And He answered and said, Have you not read,
  that He who created them from the beginning made
  them male and female, and said, 'For this cause a
  man shall leave his father and mother, and shall
  cleave to his wife and the two shall become one
  flesh'?
• Consequently they are no longer two, but one
  flesh. What therefore God has joined together,
  let no man separate. (Matthew 193 6)

7
In the Beginning... (Gen. 224)

• For this cause a man shall leave his father and
  his mother, and shall cleave to his wife and
  they shall become one flesh.
• Central life relationship is no longer
  parent/child
• Central relationship is now husband/wife
• No longer Me or You, but Us
• What God has joined together, let no man
  separate.

8
But... why did God create Marriage?

• The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to
  be alone I will make him a helper suitable for
  him. (Genesis 218)
• Why this solution for Mans loneliness?
• Why an inseparable solution?
• Not everyone can accept this. - Jesus in
  Matthew 1911
• Why a controversial, potentially difficult,
  permanent relationship?

9
God must see marriage as more than just a
solution to Mans loneliness.

• Why such strict rules?
• Why does it matter to the Lord that marriage
  is inseparable?

The Bible does not show marriage as being only
for a Man and a Woman.
10
Marriage not only Man Woman

• To the people of Jerusalem
• Your husband is your maker, whose name is the
  Lord of hosts and your Redeemer is the Holy One
  of Israel, who is called the God of all the
  earth.
• "For the Lord has called you, like a wife
  forsaken and grieved in spirit, even like a wife
  of one's youth when she is rejected," says your
  God. (Isaiah 545 6)

11
Marriage not only Man Woman

• Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord,
  "when I will make a new covenant with the house
  of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like
  the covenant which I made with their fathers in
  the day I took them by the hand to bring them out
  of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they
  broke, although I was a husband to them,"
  declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 3131 - 32)

12
Marriage not only Man Woman

• Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem...You
  adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of
  her husband! (Ezekiel 161, 32)

13
Marriage not only Man Woman

• For the husband is the head of the wife, as
  Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself
  being the Savior of the body.
• But as the church is subject to Christ, so also
  the wives ought to be to their husbands in
  everything. (Ephesians 523 - 24)

14
Marriage not only Man Woman

• Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to
  Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and
  His bride has made herself ready. (Rev. 197)
• Lamb Our Lord
• His Bride The assembly of Christians

God uses Marriage to describe our relationship
with Him.
15
God uses Marriage to describe our relationship
with Him.

• God created marriage, with it inseparability and
  uncompromising longevity, to help us understand
  the nature of our relationship with Him.

16
What does Marriage Teach Me about God?

• Ephesians 522 - 24 -- Wives, be subject to your
  own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is
  the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head
  of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the
  body.
• But as the church is subject to Christ, so also
  the wives ought to be to their husbands in
  everything.
• My will must always submit to Gods, even if I
  dont want His will.

17
What does Marriage Teach Me about God?

• Ephesians 525, 28 Husbands, love your wives,
  just as Christ also loved the church and gave
  Himself up for her... So husbands ought also to
  love their own wives as their own bodies.
• If the Almighty Creator and God loves each of us
  to this degree, His love will never fail.

18
What does Marriage Teach Me about God?

• 1 Peter 37 You husbands,... live with your
  wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker
  vessel, since she is a woman and grant her honor
  as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that
  your prayers may not be hindered.
• The Lord is gentle and understanding with each of
  us, and will honor you and me as heirs of eternal
  life with Him.

19

• Some Pharisees came to Him, testing Him, and
  saying, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his
  wife for any cause at all?"
• And He answered and said, Have you not read,
  that He who created them from the beginning made
  them male and female, and said, 'For this cause a
  man shall leave his father and mother, and shall
  cleave to his wife and the two shall become one
  flesh'? Consequently they are no longer two, but
  one flesh. What therefore God has joined
  together, let no man separate.
• Marriage is to be inseparable because my
  relationship with God is to be inseparable.

20
Matthew 193 9 (contd)

• 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.
• "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife,
  except for immorality, and marries another woman
  commits adultery."
• Sacrifice of the relationship is not an option.
• Nothing can separate me from God unless I am
  adulterous, unfaithful to Him.

21
In the Beginning... Genesis 223 24

• And 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.
• Are we not taken out of God? (In His image)
• For this cause a man shall leave his father and
  his mother, and shall cleave to his wife and
  they shall become one flesh.
• The Central relationship in my life is now with
  God
• He who loves father, mother, son, daughter
  more than Me is not worthy of Me. (Mt. 1037)

22
Marriage with God Hosea

• Hosea 12 When the Lord first spoke through
  Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take to
  yourself a wife of prostitution, and have
  children of prostitution for the land commits
  flagrant prostitution, forsaking the Lord.
• God took Israel, His bride, out of spiritual
  prostitution (giving love and attention to sin)
• Before I was married to God, I was impure. He
  forgave and took me anyway.

23
Marriage with God Hosea

• After Israels adultery, with children
  resulting...
• Hosea 22, 5 Contend with your mother, contend,
  for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband
  and let her put away her harlotry from her face,
  and her adultery from between her breasts... For
  their mother has played the harlot she who
  conceived them has acted shamefully.
• The Lord divorced Israel for her adultery.
• My unfaithfulness separates what no man should
  separate my marriage with God.

24
Marriage with God Hosea

• Hosea 214 16 Behold, I will allure her,
  bring her into the wilderness, and speak kindly
  to her... And she will sing there as in the days
  of her youth... And it will come about in that
  day," declares the LORD, That you will call me
  Ishi my husband and will no longer call me
  Baali my Baal.
• The Lord still wanted Israel back.
• Even if I am unfaithful in my marriage to God, He
  wants to take me back again.

25
Marriage as God Sees It

• Marriage, as God established it, teaches us how
  to have a successful, life-long relationship with
  God.

26
Marriage As God Sees It

• For better or worse... In sickness and in
  health... it is inseparable for life.
• If I learn how to succeed in marriage here on
  earth, I know how to succeed as the bride of
  the Lamb.
• Personal failings that weaken and destroy
  marriages here also produce the sin and failure
  of love that breaches my covenant with God.
• The love, trust and commitment that produces a
  successful marriage mirrors what is needed to
  have an enduring, unfailing covenant with the
  Lord.