God's Blueprints for Marriage

Old Testament Reading: Psalm 127:1-5 – New Testament Reading: Matthew 18:1-11

“Designed for Family”
Deuteronomy 6:1-25

Wayne J. Edwards, Pastor

   Since the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage, liberal progressives have continued in their quest to fundamentally transform America, especially in areas that affect the family, the institution God created to partner with Him in bringing life into the world.

• According to the secular worldview, this rejection of God’s design for marriage and the family will help accomplish their goal of “human equality,” where no one’s choice of lifestyle is better or worse than another.
• According to the biblical worldview, this rebellion against God’s divine authority, God’s holy nature, and God’s holy law is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and the evidence that God has turned that society over to a reprobate mind.
• Romans 1:18-32, Matthew 12:31

Questions and answers regarding the three most significant issues of today:

Q: Why did God create mankind, male and female?

• Both sexes were required to fully reveal God’s total character to and through man. Therefore, every person is created by God, in the image of God, and for God’s purposes.

Q. Why did God design the relationship of marriage for males and females?

• Both sexes are required to partner with God in the process of procreation, bringing new life into the world that will live forever, and to model the love that exists between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Q. Why did God design the marriage relationship between a man and a woman as the only place where children are to be born and raised?

• God designed the “family” – father, mother, and their biological or adopted children, to represent our eternal family in heaven. Therefore, God desires every home to be a little colony of heaven on earth.

In the Book of Exodus, Moses described how God delivered the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt. Because they failed to be obedient to God at the Jordan River, all that generation died in the desert, except Joshua and Caleb.

In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses described how God commanded the fathers to continually remind their children of what He had done for their fathers in Egypt, so they would continue to observe His statutes and obey Him.

1. Parents are to permeate their own hearts with the love of God – Deuteronomy 6:1-6.

Verse 5 – “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

• This is the Hebrew “SHEMA” – the first verse every Hebrew child memorizes, the first verse quoted in every Hebrew worship service, and the one verse Jesus called the Greatest Commandment.
• God created every man with the capacity to love Him:
• With all their heart – the source of their desires.
• With all their soul – the seat of their mind, will, and emotions.
• With all their might – every action of life should manifest one’s devotion to God.
• God commanded every Hebrew father to make sure that was true in their own heart, so they could fulfill their assignment to teach their own children about the love the Heavenly Father has for His children.
• In Ephesians 6:4, the Apostle Paul said, fathers are to train their own children in the same way God trained them –“not provoking them to wrath” with demands and unrealistic expectations, but with patience and forgiveness; his words always filled with truth and his heart always filled with love.
• An undisciplined child brings his father dishonor and disgrace, but godly children will bring him great joy. (Proverbs 29:15, Proverbs 23:24)

2. Parents are to saturate their children’s hearts with the love of God – Vs. 7-9.

Verse 7 – “thou shalt teach them diligently.”

• The word “diligently” means to “impress with great intensity.”
• Verbally – not just at the regular times of family Bible Study and prayer, but in the general conversations of the day – communicating to them the joy of knowing God, having their sins forgiven, and the assurance of heaven in their future.
• Non-verbally – demonstrating the character of God in their personal attitude and actions of life, including their appearance and in the order of their home.
• Everywhere a Hebrew child turned they, would be reminded of their father’s faith in God, and while they may not have understood it, they could not deny it, for it was constantly impressed upon their minds.

3. Parents are to validate their children’s faith in God when they ask questions – Deuteronomy 6:20-25

   Verse 20 – “What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God hath commanded you.”

• It is in this “teachable moment,” which could have only been orchestrated by the Holy Spirit, that both parents, but especially fathers, are to share their personal testimony of faith with their children.
• This is where fathers give their children a “reason” for the hope that is within them; where they explain the convictions they will not compromise, the values they live by, and that they are commanded to instill within them.
• This is where parents pass down to their children what it means to express true faith in God and why they believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.
• This is where that child can be “born again”!

Liberal progressives hate Christianity. They know, if they can destroy the family, they can destroy the channel God designed for the propagation of the gospel to the next generation.

• As goes the family, so goes the church!
• As goes the church, so goes the nation!

This is why Satan’s greatest, and final attack is upon marriage and the family.