From His Heart

Speaker 1

And family so important to God on the sixth day of creation when he made Adam Eve established marriage. There's much that we can learn from story about structure how designed wants us marriage.

Speaker 2

Operate in the world that he designed.

Speaker 1

This is from his heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. And welcome to the broadcast and today's message: Marriage and Family. We should know that the institutions of marriage and family are the bedrock of every society. How are your marriage and family doing today? Are you struggling to hold them together?

In today's message to all families, Pastor Jeff shares the truth about God's design for marriage and family and how they're intended to give a clear and healthy picture of our relationship with the Lord. They also allow us, as individuals and humans, to fulfill our purpose.

The message today is the third from Pastor Jeff's five-lesson series, Foundations. You can find out more about this series when you go to promisheart.org. Now, though, open your Bible to Genesis chapter one. Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve to begin sharing important truth in this lesson entitled "Marriage and Family."

Speaker 2

I heard about a couple. They were celebrating 50 years of marriage. That's a big milestone. 50 years of marriage. And the wife had gotten pretty deaf over those years, very hard of hearing. They were having a big 50th celebration. I say big, just, you know, friends and family were there. The husband made a toast to his wife and he said, "Over these 50 years, I have found you to be tried and true." And she said, "What?" He said, "Over these 50 years, I have found you to be tried and true." She said, "Huh?" He said, "After 50 years, I found you to be tried and true. Tried and true. Tried and true." She said, "Well, after 50 years, I'm tired of you too." Not what he wanted.

Marriage and family are so important to God. God designed marriage and family and set up marriage and family in the first chapter of the Bible. On the sixth day of creation, the day when he made Adam and when he made Eve, he established marriage and family. It's more important than government. It's more important than schools. It's more important in terms of first things than even the church, because God established that first marriage and then marriage that produces children and produces a family.

Now, I think we would all agree that marriage and family are being attacked today, with a severe attack on marriage. People in our world today want to redefine marriage; they want to redesign marriage. Many in our world today say, "Well, who needs marriage? I'm just going to live with my girlfriend, live with my boyfriend. If we have kids, we have kids. We don't need marriage. It's just a piece of paper." But there's a reason why God set it up the way he set it up. There’s so much that we can learn from the creation story about marriage and family, the structure of marriage and family, and how God designed marriage and family and how he wants us to operate in the world that he designed.

Genesis chapter one begins with God creating. He has created everything except man. It says in verse 26, "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image according to our likeness. And let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" And 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 rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

What do we learn about marriage and family from creation? I want you to notice with me three insights that we get from Genesis chapter one and then from Genesis chapter two. You know, Genesis chapter one is a big 30,000-foot view of creation. It tells us what happened on every day. God created the world in six days, and on the seventh, he rested. Genesis chapter two really zeroes in on day six of creation as God created Adam and then God created Eve.

So what do we learn? What are the insights? Insight number one: God designed marriage and family for good. For good. God is a good God, and everything that the Lord does is good. Marriage and family are good. They're not designed to be something that's horrible. It's not designed to be something that's like a life sentence. You know, "I got married; she's my ball and chain." Adam never said that about Eve. The Lord designed it for good.

Now, we read in Genesis 1, very interestingly, when God creates, he says something that's used over and over—five times, actually—in Genesis chapter one. As he's creating things, he said, "And God saw that it was good." And God saw that it was good. And God saw that it was good. And God saw that it was good. And God saw that it was good. But then, when we look a little more closely in Genesis chapter two, when it really zeroes in on what happened on the sixth day, we read these words. He creates Adam, forms him from the dust of the ground, and breathes into his nostrils the breath of life, and man becomes a living soul.

Then God, what's the first thing he does with Adam? He gives him a job. Work is not a bad thing. Sweat's a bad thing; that's part of the curse. Work's not a bad thing. So he gives him a job. He puts him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it. It says in verse 18, "Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him.'"

Now, God saw that it was good. God saw that it was good. God saw that it was good. God saw that it was good. God saw that it was good. And then God saw Adam by himself and said, "It is not good." Wait, what? I don't understand, God. How could this not be good? Not good that the man should be alone? Well, God, he's a perfect man, and he's in a perfect garden in a perfect environment, and he has a relationship with a perfect God. Everything is perfect. No, God says, "It's not good for the man to be alone."

God didn't want Adam to be alone. He created him with an unmet need. Very interesting that God did this. When he says to Adam, "It's not good for the man to be alone; I'll make a helper suitable to him," that word "suitable" means corresponding to him, parallel to him, somebody that is in concert with him. You would think, "Okay, well, then he's gonna create this helper suitable to him." But he doesn't do that right away. He has Adam name the animals.

It says in verse 19, "And out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name." The man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper for him.

Now, why did God say, "I'm going to make you a helper," and then have him name all the animals? God knew the helper wasn't in the animals, but Adam didn't. As he's naming all the animals and sees all these animals, he's thinking, "Helper for me, helper for me." No, it's not the giraffe. It's not the lion. It's not the hippopotamus. Good night. Who would want to live with her? He sees, "No, God, there's nobody here for me. There's nobody that corresponds to me. Oh, God. Oh, God. I wish there was someone like me."

Because Adam noticed, as he's naming the animals, that for every animal, there's a corresponding animal that's just a little different. For Mr. Lion, there's Mrs. Lion. For Mr. Giraffe, there's Mrs. Giraffe. For Mr. Hippopotamus, there's Mrs. Hippopotamus, although she doesn't like to be called that. He notices that and looks around. He goes, "Well, there's no Mrs. Adam. God, I'd like to have Mrs. Adam. Where's Mrs. Adam?"

The Bible says that the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. God performed the first surgery in Genesis chapter two on day six of creation. God took from Adam a rib from his side. He opened up a place, took the rib, closed that place up, and then fashioned this creature, this beautiful creature. He brought her to the man. It's a picture of marriage. God himself is walking Eve down the aisle to Adam. Adam was excited. He was flipped out. He was like, "Wow."

There's a note in the Living Bible that said Adam began to sing: "At last my love has come along. My lonely days are over, and life is like a song." I know what you're thinking, Jeff. Why are you not on the praise team? But Adam was excited. "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man." But that's kind of a Hebrew idiom. All that stuff that he's saying is really him saying, "Wow, thank you, God. That's the one that's suitable to me. She corresponds to me." It was not good for Adam to be alone, but it was very good for Adam to have Eve.

Speaker 1

You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, and part one of the message, "Marriage and Family." He'll return in just a moment to continue this very important lesson from the Foundations series.

But first, people are searching for foundational pillars upon which to build their homes. At the same time, they're fed a lot of lies about who to marry, whether marriage is necessary, how to get out of that marriage, commitment, and reasons to wander, and so forth. It corrodes families, and marriages do dissolve. These are lies from the devil, of course, and it's time for us to all be aware of how these insidious untruths can impact us.

You can find out some real lasting help when you get Pastor Jeff's new book about the lies of the devil. It's called "The Devil's Newsroom: Muting Satan's Fake News and Tuning in to God's Truth." Pastor Jeff wants you to get a copy of his new book as our thanks for your support of any amount from From His Heart this month. Pastor Jeff receives no income from this ministry.

To get this eye-opening resource, call 866-40-BIBLE (866-402-4253) or go to fromhishheart.org to request the book "The Devil's Newsroom: Muting Satan's Fake News and Tuning in to God's Truth." God bless you for what you're doing for us this month at From His Heart. We are so very, very thankful. Again, go to fromhishheart.org to get your copy.

Well now, let's get back to today's lesson from Pastor Jeff called "Marriage and Family."

Speaker 2

It was not good for Adam to be alone, but it was very good for Adam to have Eve. And in Genesis chapter one, when God puts the final say on creation, he says in verse 31, "And God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good." And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. God was done with his creation. After the sixth day, on the seventh day, he rested. So marriage is designed by God for our good because he's a good God and he wants to bless us with marriage and with family. "Be fruitful and multiply," he told Adam and Eve, "and fill the earth." The family comes on the platform of marriage. So that's the first insight: God designed marriage and family for good.

The second insight is that God designed marriage and family for oneness. In verse 24, we kind of step away a little bit from what is going on, where Adam sings this song and then says, "This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she has been taken out of man." Moses, who was the writer of the first five books of the Old Testament, received instruction from God during the 40 years of wilderness wandering. He was writing the Bible as God communicated to him. By inspiration of the Spirit, he writes, "For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." One flesh. She was taken out of him, and then they come back together and become one flesh.

Now, remember this about the one flesh of marriage as it relates to Adam and Eve: both Adam and Eve were made in God's image. Both of them were created by God, and they were created in God's image. In verse 26, it says, "Let us make man in our image according to our likeness." The other things that God had made were not in God's image according to God's likeness. He says, "And let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." And God created man in his own image; in the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. It is very emphatic and specific that Adam and Eve were both made in the image of God.

Now, what exactly does it mean to be made in the image of God? Well, God is a triune God. For thousands of years, people have argued and said, "No, God is not Trinity." But it's in the first chapter that God is Trinity. "Let us make man in our image." God is speaking in a plural form. If God were just one in the sense of there being no Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—just one person and one God—he wouldn't say "us." But God exists as one God in Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And God makes man in his image, a triune man. Man is body, soul, and spirit.

Now, when God made plants and trees, they have a body, but that's it. They don't have a soul. They don't have consciousness of what's going on around them. It's not like the Wizard of Oz, where when you pick an apple off a tree, it gets mad and starts throwing apples at you. Plants and trees have a body, but they don't have any kind of awareness. There's no consciousness of life. Animals, on the other hand, have a body and a very elementary, rudimentary soul because they are aware of things going on around them. Bulls are aware of their surroundings. If you don't realize that, go flash your red hanky in front of a bull, and he will know what's going on around him. Trees don't do anything, but animals do. However, their awareness is just rudimentary; they don't have a sense of God.

So, God creates man in his image: a man who has a body, a soul, and who understands things going on around him and can interact with others of his species. He also has a spirit inside him that communes with God and understands the things of God. The scripture says in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, "I pray that your spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." There are three parts of man: the spirit, the soul, and the body. Animals don't have a sense of God; they don't have a sense of morality like we do.

You know, there's not a lion today on the Serengeti licking antelope's blood from his claws, saying, "I did it again. I told myself I wasn't going to kill again, and here I am. I killed again. I feel terrible. Be merciful to me, oh God." They don't do that. If you go up against a wild animal, he doesn't care that you say, "Hey, I have kids at home." He's just going to eat you because that's what he does. There's no sense, no moral compass, or sense of right and wrong. We have that because we're made in the image of God. And that was true for both Adam and Eve. But while Adam and Eve were both made in God's image, they were made different.

Speaker 1

Other.

Speaker 2

Different from each other. Now we realize that when we read the story. How did God make Adam the Lord? God formed man from the dust of the earth. He's made from dirt. The name Adam literally means red dirt. That's what his name means, Adam, Red dirt. And he formed him from the dirt. The word formed means to squeeze into a mold. It's kind of a manufacturing term. Adam was manufactured from dirt.

Eve is taken from Adam's side. She's taken from bone. She's taken from a place where there is blood flow. And she's taken from his wounded side. And God doesn't manufacture her. He fashions her. That word means to build, to construct. And God is. You get the feeling that God, with Eve, he's really working on this special creature that he's bringing to Adam. He squeezed Adam together in a mold, but he fashioned Eve.

And men and women are just made differently. And God, he makes no bones about it.

Speaker 1

We're different.

Speaker 2

And one way to think about, you know, the Bible says in Peter that a woman is a weaker vessel. Some women don't like that.

But here's the deal. A man is kind of built like a Ford F150. He's just durable. That's the way he's made. Just squeezed together, molded together.

Speaker 1

Boom.

Speaker 2

Here you are, you're a man. And, you know, after a few years, he becomes a Ford F150 King cab. He puts on a little weight, and that's a man. The woman is not a Ford F150. She's a Ferrari. She is exquisite. She has lines. She has. I mean, it's just. She is built and constructed, and she is. Wow. She is something else.

But you know what you can't do with a Ferrari? You don't go off road with a Ferrari. You don't say, hey, let's go to the hunting lease, I'll take my Ferrari. You don't do that to go in the backwoods. And any of you that have a Ferrari, you know that one of the things about a Ferrari is it's in the shop a lot. You notice that you got all, man, that thing needs to be tuned up all the time. If you're not tuning it up, the Ferrari's just like, I ain't going. I'm not doing it.

Ford is like, hey, it hadn't changed the oil in 40,000 miles. It's still going. That's the difference. And God made us different from each other.

Now, one of the things that we see and an issue in today's world, what I'm about to say, very controversial. Getting ready to say something very controversial. And it shows us how far we have fallen from God's design. Because twice, 20 years ago, if I had said this, everyone would have said, yeah, we all know that. We all know that.

Here's what it is: God creates us either male or female. God creates us either male or female. That's how he created. He created the man, Adam. He created the woman. And he created them different from one another. They're similar. Just like Mr. Lion and Mrs. Lion are very similar, but they're different. They're different.

And see, God says he was going to make a helper suitable to Adam. That means corresponding to Adam, parallel to Adam, not the same as Adam, but someone who would fit together with Adam.

Speaker 1

There's a lot of confusion on what ought to be a simple matter regarding the topic of male and female. And tomorrow, and from his heart, Pastor Jeff Shreve will not hesitate to outline what God specifically says about the differences between men and women. Listen, understanding these differences is foundational to society and to life itself. And that's when we'll conclude the message, marriage and family.

From His Heart is the broadcast ministry of Pastor Jeff Shreve. He's our chief volunteer, and all the support that you give to From His Heart goes directly to getting these messages on over 850 radio stations each day across America and into 182 countries on television each week, not to mention always online.

For your gift this month, we'd like to send you Pastor Jeff's new book, *The Devil's Newsroom: Muting Satan's Fake News and Tuning in to God's Truth*. To make that gift, go to fromhisheart.org and click the picture of *The Devil's Newsroom* book right there on the homepage. Or you can call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-24253). Thank you for what you're doing to support From His Heart. You make a huge difference in the earthly and eternal lives of people around the world.

Joining with us in this kingdom work, you might want to take the opportunity to watch the From His Heart weekly television broadcast this weekend across the world on national networks and satellite services. Just go to fromhisheart.org and find the station and time in your area.

Hey, thanks for joining us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles. We're out of time, but we trust that you'll be here next time for part two of this message on marriage and family. Join us on Monday when Pastor Jeff Shreve will speak truth, love, and hope to a lost and hurting world. And remember that no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more at fromhisheart.org.