From His Heart

Speaker 1

Marriage and family are the foundation of every society. You can't have a society that won't be in full total chaos if you don't have marriage.

From marriage, we build family. The foundation for family is marriage, where there's a commitment before God between man and woman.

We make the commitment that says, "I will be with you, I'll be faithful to you, and I will be with you until death."

Speaker 2

Thank you for joining us today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Today we're in part two of the lesson, "Marriage and Family." The truth is, on the sixth day of creation, God established marriage and family when he made Adam and Eve.

There’s so much that we can learn and need to remember from the creation story about marriage and family and how God intended and wants them to operate in this world that he designed. If your marriage is unsteady and the foundation is cracking, help is on the way today.

This lesson is from the timely five-message series, Foundations. Pastor Jeff Shreve will show you how to build your marriage on the solid rock to find lasting and dramatically transforming truth for your marriage and home.

If you can now open your Bible to Genesis chapter one, we’ll be in part two of the lesson, "Marriage and Family."

Speaker 1

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.

**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. Now, we read in Genesis 1, very interesting, 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. 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? It's 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. 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." 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.

**Second insight:** God designed marriage and family for oneness. 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, but Adam and Eve, both made in God's image, were made different from each other. Now here I have a pair of scissors. You know, these scissors are two pieces. They're two pieces with a rivet to hold them together. The pieces are very similar; they're made of the same stuff. But this side is different from this side. And if they were exactly the same, if this side was a mirror of just exactly the same, you couldn't cut anything. It wouldn't work because they don't go together. But God created so that a husband and wife would come together so that they could cut it in life.

Now we live in a world where people say there's no difference between a man and a woman. Well, obviously to God there is. He's the creator; he's the designer. We ought to listen to what he has to say. And we live in a world today where it says, "Well, you know, people should have the right to choose what gender they are." And if their gender doesn't match up with their biological sex, then we'll just change their biological sex. Because obviously, God, you got it wrong. That's the world in which we live in today. And that is, 20 years ago, a question nobody was talking about. But people are talking about it today. And kids in high school, in middle school, in grade school are telling their parents, "I really think that I'm trapped in a body that's not in congruence with my gender." And parents are listening to that. And parents are making terrible decisions that will affect their children for the rest of their lives.

In August of 2016, Johns Hopkins issued a 143-page report. Two eminent scholars at Johns Hopkins—this isn't Podunk Community College; this is one of the world's leading research and education facilities—were talking about leaders in medicine and public health and science and engineering. Well, two guys, one was named Dr. Lawrence Mayer, and the other was Paul McHugh. These guys are psychiatrists and psychologists and scholars in that world. They did a study, and the end of their study said this: There is no evidence that people are born gay or born transgendered. No scientific evidence of that. People always say, "Well, they're born this way." Well, according to science, that's not true. Science is always going to match up with God.

The LGBTQ community looked at this report and they said to Johns Hopkins, "If you don't denounce this report, we will penalize you." It's like, "Well, it's a scientific report. This is not a political hot potato; this is what the evidence shows." You say it's false or we will penalize you. Man, those are people that want to gouge out their own eyes. They don't want to see the truth. They can't find God for the same reason a thief can't find a policeman. They can't find the truth because they don't want to find the truth because they've already said, "Well, this is the truth." And I don't care what science says. I don't care what the data says. I don't care what God says. This is what we're going with.

Hey, there's a way that seems right to a man, but the end are the ways of death. You can't blow off what God says and think that it doesn't matter. It does matter. And when science really, honestly looks at it, they say what God says. There is no evidence for people being born that way, born transgendered. God creates us either male or female. And marriage is exclusively between a man and a woman. That's the way it was designed. God created Eve different from Adam, just like these scissors are different. They are different so that they can be one, so that they can be one, so that they can cut it in life. And God created a man different from a woman so that together they could come and be one. "For this cause, a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."

**Now, insight number three:** God designed marriage and family not only for good, not only for oneness, but for an example. It's an example. He sets it up in Genesis chapter one, and this is going to be a picture coming down the road of Christ and the church. You say, "Where do you get that?" Ephesians chapter five. The Lord in Ephesians chapter five talks about being filled with the Holy Spirit, and then he goes right into marriage and family. Chapter five and chapter six. Chapter five talks about marriage; chapter six about family, how the fathers are to train up their children in the fear and the admonition of the Lord, and how children are to obey their parents in the Lord.

He says this about the marriage relationship: "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church." And then he says, "So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of his body." And then he quotes Genesis 2:24: "For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

Marriage is to picture Christ in the church. Now the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. Man, that's a tall order for a husband. To love your wife sacrificially, to love your wife completely, to love her when she's not very lovable, because that's how the Lord loves us. When we're not very lovable, when we're not doing right, he still loves us. "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church." And the wife's job is to submit herself to the husband. That's the church's job to the Lord. We submit ourselves to the Lord and we sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts. We yield to him and we say, "Yes, Lord, you must increase, I must decrease." That's the job of a wife to her husband. As he loves her, she submits to him. And when he's not very respectable, she still respects him. And when she's not very lovable, he still loves her. That's how marriage works. And the woman pictures submitting to Jesus, and the man pictures the Lord loving us.

Speaker 2

Pastor Jeff Shreve will elaborate a bit more on this in just a moment, but first, he has a special offer and request for you today, Pastor.

Speaker 1

The devil is working hard to deceive people with his lies. Surely you've noticed it happening in your family, friends, neighbors, workmates, classmates, and associates. So what are we going to do? What can you do?

I've authored a new book that will help focus your attention on exactly how the devil distorts truth and how he can destroy your family and our nation. The new book is called *The Devil's Newsroom: Muting Satan's Fake News and Tuning into God's Truth*.

In this book, I pull back the curtain on the enemy's deceptions, exposing his subtle lies, his blatant lies, and his twisted lies. I'd love to send you a copy of *The Devil's Newsroom* to say thanks for supporting From His Heart Ministries this month with your timely gift.

When you read it, you'll discover the truth that sets you free, the hope that anchors your soul, and the victory Jesus has already won. God bless you for helping us expose the lies of the enemy. Here's how to get your copy of this new book.

Speaker 2

Well, you can receive Pastor Jeff's new book as our thank you for your support to From His Heart this month of any amount.

To do that, simply call 866-40-BIBLE or go online to fromhisheart.org to request the new book, *The Devil's Muting: Satan's Fake News and Tuning in to God's Truth*.

And God bless you for coming alongside us to help share the good news with the world each and every day.

Now, let's conclude the lesson from the foundation's series called *Marriage and Family*.

Speaker 1

Listen. Marriage is also a great picture to show us about our relationship with God because Christianity is not religion. It's a relationship which is totally different than religion. I grew up in a home where I learned religion. You go to religion class and everything's religion. Religion is clean yourself up, grit your teeth, try harder, just do better. And God is always, he's far away. And you're just trying to do these things that you think God will like. That's religion. A relationship is I talk to God. I know God. He knows me. We go through things together. When I pass through the waters, he says, I'll be with you. And through the rivers, they'll not overflow you. And the Lord is there. And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil. Why? Because he's with me. And his rod and his staff, they comfort me. It's a relationship.

Now, we know those of us who are married, that marriage goes up and down. There are times that it's going good and there are times that it's going bad. It's a dynamic. It's not just like that. If you have a marriage like that, probably both are dead. We have times, Debbie and I, we've been married for 30 years. There are times where man, the emotions are just there. And we used to tell each other, we'd say, Man, I'm having a big surge of love for you today. And so it's so wonderful to hear that. It's like, man, that's great. I'll come home early and you know. Cause it's this surge of love. I like that. The emotions are in it. And there's some other times that she would say to me, you know what? I love you, but I don't like you very much. I need to get away from you for a while. And it wasn't going very well. Have you ever noticed in marriage that sometimes it can be going great in the morning and the bottom drop out in the afternoon? It's like, what happened? It's a dynamic.

The same is true in our relationship with the Lord. And so the Lord uses marriage as a picture of our relationship with God, a picture of Christ and the church. So very important. Marriage and family are the foundation of every society. That's the building block of every society. You can't have a society that won't be in full total chaos if you don't have marriage. And from marriage, build family. It is that important. The foundation for society is marriage and family. And the foundation for family is marriage, where there's a commitment before God between man and woman. We make the commitment that say, I will be with you, I'll be faithful to you, and I will be with you until death.

I asked my girls, I said, girls, just this morning, I said, what would it be like if mom and dad got divorced? How would that affect you? And they said, well, that would affect us greatly. So we would think that there's nothing to this about love, that it's just a sham, that there's nothing solid about that. Because the people that we were looking to as our examples, they didn't. They couldn't do it. That's why it's so important for a pastor. And God says, look at how he handles his family, the way he handles his family. If he can't handle his family well, if he can't handle his marriage well, don't put him in charge of the church of God.

Now, I have struggles in my life, and Debbie and I have had struggles in our marriage because we're human and there are ups and there are downs. But listen, we made a commitment to one another until death do us part. And when my youngest daughter, Sarah, experienced one of her friends, their parents went through a divorce, Sarah got really nervous. And so she talked to Debbie and me, and she said, now, mom and dad, that would never happen to you. Right? Please help me and give me comfort that that would never happen to you. And I said, no, that's never going to happen to us. I told your mother early on, if she ever left me, I'm going with her. I mean, we're just never going to be a part of. Cause I'm just committed and she's committed.

And, you know, any marriage, if you will complete your wedding vow to be faithful, because adultery is like an atomic bomb that blows up in your marriage, you're gonna be faithful until death. You can get through anything by God's grace. Marriage and family is important, and marriage is the foundation stone for the family. And some of you might be sleeping around and thinking, it's no big deal, and living with your girlfriend, living with your boyfriend, thinking it's no big deal. It's a big deal because it says in Hebrews, let the marriage bed be undefiled for fornicators and adulterers. God will judge. Don't tempt God. Don't test him. Don't say, well, I'm gonna do this. What are you gonna do about it? God, you don't wanna do that.

I was reading Matthew, chapter seven, the end of the Sermon on the Mount. You know, when Jesus talked about all these different subjects, then he talks about heaven and hell. Many will say to me on that day, lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons? And your name performed many miracles? And I'll declare to them, the Lord said, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. That's a pretty stern passage there in Matthew 7. And he follows that up with a parable about the wise builder and the foolish builder. He said, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them, puts them into practice, does what I say. He's like the wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rains descended and the floods came, and the winds blew and burst against that house, and yet it did not fall because it was founded on the rock.

But the one who hears these words of mine and doesn't act upon them, let me tell you what he's like. He's like a man who built his house on the sand. And the rains descended and the floods came, and the winds blew and burst against that house, and great was its fall. Now, I want you to notice something in our world where we're redefining and redesigning marriage, and we're saying that marriage can be between a right hand and a right hand, or a left hand and a left hand. It's just whoever loves. And it has nothing to do. And it's like, well, yeah, but the scissors don't work if you do it that way. Oh, well, we're gonna do it the way we wanna do it. And the Supreme Court voted, and that's fine for us. And if you don't get on the bandwagon, you Christians, well, you're bigots, you're haters, you're homophobes. You're all these names, you're demeaning and you're dehumanizing and all the terrible things that they say about us.

But it's simply this. Listen, I didn't invent marriage. God did. I didn't define marriage. God did. I didn't design marriage. God did. And this is how it works. This is what he says about it. We would all agree that when God created the first man, if he had created a second man, they couldn't be fruitful and multiply. That wasn't going to work. And it's still that way today. Two men can't be fruitful and multiply. Two women can't be fruitful and multiply. And here's what people say, well, they're just such good people. They may be good people. Well, everything's going well for them. The guy that built his house on the sand, the house didn't fall immediately. Maybe the house went for months, maybe it went for years. Everything looked good. And you say, see, he built on the sand, and everything's fine. It doesn't fall immediately, it falls eventually. Because one day the rains descend and the winds come and the floods come and blow against the house, and the house on the sand will fall.

Did you know that if you jump out of an airplane at 30,000ft without a parachute, you will drop about 10,000ft for every minute? Suppose you are on an airplane. You're at 30,000ft. You're with a friend who's so nice and so wonderful and you just love his company. But he says, you know what? I'm gonna jump out of the airplane. He said, man, you don't have a parachute. He said, I don't need a parachute. I've redefined the law of gravity. I'm saying that the law of gravity doesn't matter to me. I'm gonna do it my way. And he jumps out and, you know, everything's going good for the first minute or two. He doesn't hit the ground immediately. He hits the ground eventually. And when he hits, it's too late and it's over and life is destroyed. And God doesn't want anyone to do that.

We're called to speak the truth in love. And because you tell someone the truth in love, that doesn't make you a hater. Because someone's trying to jump out of the airplane without a parachute, saying that the law of gravity is not going to apply to me, and you try and hold that person back, that means you love them. That doesn't mean you hate them. And when you tell them if you do this, you're gonna hit the ground eventually doesn't mean you hate them. It means you love them. And those who are patting people on the back as they leave the airplane without a parachute and saying, isn't that wonderful? Let's light up the White House. Cause that's so wonderful, those people are getting ready to hit the ground. That's not a good thing. That's a bad thing.

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? What can anyone do? If you build your house on the sand, your house is going to fall and God's word goes out. He's declaring to all men everywhere that they would repent and build their lives on the rock of Jesus Christ. And the question is this. Where are you building your life?

Speaker 2

And that is a critical question. Are you building your life on Christ alone? If you're not, then you're putting your marriage and family in serious jeopardy. We pray this lesson today called Marriage and Family will be a help to you to reprioritize your understanding and appreciation for the marriage and family that you've got that God designed.

Today, you heard part two of this lesson. Part one we aired on Friday, but you can listen to both of them again at fromhisheart.org. Click the listen link. You can download both broadcasts to listen to again or share with a friend there and get Pastor Jeff's sermon notes and outlines there too, for free. Just click the Listen link on this message, Marriage and Family, when you visit us at fromhisheart.org.

When you're there, we invite you to make a gift to From His Heart this month to help support this outreach. Pastor Jeff receives no income from this ministry. Everything that you give goes to help us get this program on stations all around the United States and around the world each and every day. And when you do, we'll say thank you this month by sending you a copy of Pastor Jeff's new book, The Devil's Muting: Satan's Fake News and Tuning in to God's Truth. To make your gift of support, go to fromhisheart.org and give securely online or call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE).

Well, our time has run out for today. Thank you so much for being here on From His Heart, and we trust that it was a blessing to you. We'd appreciate you telling others about this outreach and thanking this station for helping us share the good news each day with you and others in your community. Just call them up and say thank you. That will bless them for sure.

We also trust that you'll be here tomorrow for the next lesson in the Foundations Series. Join us on Tuesday for a very timely take-no-prisoners lesson about God, government, and Christians. That's when Pastor Jeff will open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from his heart.