Word of Salvation – Vol.27 No.16 – January 1982

 

Lord’s Day 41 – P.S.

 

Sermon by Rev. P. Stadt on Lord’s Day 41

Scripture Reading: Genesis 1:26-31; Genesis 2:15-34.

Psalter Hymnal: 364; 78; 204:1,2,3; 297; 481

 

Marriage and covenant go together.  The seventh word of the covenant talks about the marriage room in the kingdom.  A marriage is very much a covenant relationship.  When we understand the covenant relationship between God and ourselves to be a relationship of faithfulness, marriage we understand then is a relationship of faithfulness to each other until death do us part.  Out of the marriage relationship God forms a family.  We see that at baptism.  Not all marriages are opened up into a family.  God sometimes withholds that blessing from a marriage.  Withholding of children is often a difficult burden to bear, but God gives the grace and comfort to bear that childless burden.

The seventh word of the covenant is, “You shall not commit adultery.”  In that word God by His restoring grace is preserving the sanctity of marriage.  In our day we must really hang on to that restoring word of grace or else we will lose our way.  We live in a very sheltered society.  I think to myself how naive I am.  I live a very sheltered life.  I don’t know half of all the hanky-panky that goes on.  Many people just pair off and go live together.  If we get into a big fight, they say, we can just quietly leave each other.  We don’t have any hassle from the state.  We can just divide our stuff and part ways.  There we see that marriage is completely disregarded in a common law arrangement.  Then there are those who go through the legal marriage ceremony with the idea if it doesn’t work we can always get a divorce.  If anybody enters a marriage with the idea if it doesn’t work we can divorce, that marriage is broken already before it starts.  Then of course the whole area of abortion comes in.  Abortion becomes even for us something we have become so accustomed to we lose our sensitivity to life.  Then there is the whole question of the pill which somehow makes people free in the wrong sense.  The way the television portrays marriage and sex – if we see much of it we can easily get the wrong direction about marriage ourselves.

As a Christian covenant community we must stand together and help each other to see God’s direction for marriage and sex.  We need each other to keep our heads above water.  Not only do we need each other to guide each other in the paths of the Lord, we must be a witness in our society to the renewing grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Our marriage and families must stand out on our street as a witness to Jesus Christ and His Kingdom through His grace.

Whether we are single or married, young or old, the goal of our life must be the Kingdom of God.  It used to be that people had big families.  Ten, twelve even fifteen children was not uncommon.  If you asked those parents of the big families why they had so many children, they would say God gave them to us.  We need citizens in His Kingdom.  Today perhaps we smile at those parents.  If the smile is a smile of ridicule or at “an old fashioned couple” I would find that very unfortunate.  There is something very beautiful in confessing we are having a family for the King’s sake.  That is why Christ gives us children: for Himself as the King and His coming Kingdom.  The reason for having children for the King’s sake is not an old fashioned idea, but right on.  If we have no children or 1 or 2, or 6 or 10, everything must focus on the King.  So often children are looked upon as playthings and objects to satisfy their parents’ desires.  If marriages and families are only for our own pleasure, they become very self-centred and selfish.  That is not to say we shouldn’t enjoy our singleness or marriage partner or family, they must be enjoyed.  The only way they can be enjoyed is through the grace of our Lord Jesus and His Kingdom.  He brings joy and meaning into life when we live for Him as our King.

The Catechism asks what is God’s will for us in the seventh commandment?  God condemns all unchastity.  We should therefore thoroughly detest it, and married or single, live decent and chaste lives.  Married or single we should live a chaste life.  Married or single we are image bearers of God.  Every person we see we must view as an image bearer of God.  God takes great pains in the opening chapters of Genesis to tell us we are His image bearers.  Let us look together at those texts we read in early Genesis.  There are so many sex manuals around let’s go to the Bible as our guide.

Genesis 1:26 – Then God said: “Let us make man in our image and in our likeness, and let them rule over the earth.”  Man has been given the task to be a steward, a manager of the Lord’s good creation.  Part of being an image bearer is to exercise authority, rule over the creation under God.  No other of God’s creatures has the task to rule over the creation.  That is the exclusive position of human beings.  We alone are unique in that task.  Verse 27 says further, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female he created them.”  God put a distinction among His image bearers, His managers, male and female He created them.  The male-female distinction didn’t evolve, we were created this way.  Both male and female belong to the general category man.  Male and female are equals, they are both image bearers.  Just as there is harmony and equality among the three persons of the Trinity, there must be harmony and equality between male and female.  Both male and female have been given the task together to be managers of God’s good creation.  In verse 28 after God says to us that He created them male and female, and said to them, be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it”.  Again in verse 28 God calls upon male and female together as His image bearers to rule the earth in His name.  God blessed Adam and God saw all that He had made and it was very good.  The male and female sexual distinction between His image bearers was very good.  Sex was good.  Sex is not just something physical but it qualifies every part of us.  We live either as male or female.

In Chapter 2, we read the story of how God made a companion and helper for Adam.  Chapter 1 gives us the week of creation.  The sixth day on which God created His image bearer fits in with the other days.  In chapter 2 God goes back to the sixth day and gives us some more of the details about His image bearers.  Adam who was created first could not covenant with any of the animals.  He could get along with them all.  He had to look after them.  He had to be faithful in looking after the creation as God’s image bearer.  That was His covenantal obligation.  But Adam could not find an image bearer like himself among the animals.  There wasn’t any, he was unique among God’s creatures.  God created an image bearer out of Adam and placed her beside him.  This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman for she was taken out of man.  There you have in verse 23 the first love song.  God says a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

If you turn to chapter 5 we read in verses 1 and 2.  This is the written account of Adams line.  When God created man He made him in the likeness of God.  He created them male and female at the time they were created, he blessed them and called them “man”.  We see how the Bible in the beginning stresses that male and female are together and separately image bearers of God.  If we hang on to that confession that we are together male and female image bearers of God, we will be able to approach our own sexuality and marriage and family in the right spirit.  Over against the unique creation of God as male and female is the evolutionistic approach.  Man is somebody who has evolved above the animals.  People are still looking for the missing link between animals and man.  They will never find it because man is a unique creature, created in the image of God.  For many man is an animal who can reason.

If man is only an animal that can reason, his sexuality is viewed very animal like.  He looks at the animals and says that’s how my own sexuality works.  He talks about sex drives and says that is how his sexuality works.  He talks about sex drives and his sexuality being a natural thing, he has to fulfil like the animals.  Much of the understanding of sex we find around us is very animal like.  For a Christian sexuality is not only physical, it is everything about us.  The only answer to the animal like approach, is the image of God position, restored in Christ Jesus.  We live in a sinful world.

Sex and family and all things have been disrupted by sin.  The devil goes around as a roaring lion, seeking whom he can drag down.  He tries to drag down every one of us.  We are all affected by the devil’s activities.  We must be constantly on our guard.  We often fall.  Christ forgives.

In Christ the image of God has been restored.  Among Christ’s people God’s great gift of sexuality that has been tainted by sin has been restored.  We see male and female as image bearers of God.  God gives gifts to His image bearers – male and female alike – as they exercise dominion together in God’s good creation.  Part of the feminist movement is a reaction to woman being treated as sex objects by men.  Together male and female we exercise side by side our gifts in managing the creation.  Some of his image bearers God leaves single as they use their gifts for His coming Kingdom.  Many of His image bearers God brings together into a covenant relationship of marriage.  Those in that position of marriage use their sexuality to enrich their marriage and have a family.  The intimate coming together called “knowing each other” in the Scriptures is always reserved for a marriage relationship.  As Christians we must only marry in the Lord.  Only in Christ can we see ourselves as unique image bearers of God.  Only in Christ can we consummate a marriage.  We must be sensitive to young people who are looking for a Christian partner and can’t seem to find one.  It is better to wait than to enter into a marriage with an unbeliever.

Christ restores His image among us.  Let us then be sensitive to His image as we live together, male and female, for His coming Kingdom.

Amen.