Welcome, my friend, to our Bible study program “In Search of the Lord's Way.” I’m Mack Lyon and I’m so glad you have chosen to be with us today. My message is titled, “Marriage Is Honorable Among All.” I pray we’ll both be blessed. Stay tuned.
My warmest greetings to you, friend! We’re in a Bible study program seeking the Lord’s way to live so as to get the most out of this life, and how to prepare to live with Him in the hereafter. Of course, we all know we’re creatures possessing “choice,” don’t we? Therefore, there are many lifestyles from which every person is free to choose. As a matter of fact, I read recently that a prominent atheist argues that, “...the atheistic way is actually a superior intellectual and moral way of thinking” than that of the Bible. Well, he’s free to believe that if he chooses; and I would defend his right to choose it. But I believe the Lord’s way is the Bible way; and it is the best way to live this life that has ever been introduced to the human family. And I’m convinced His way of salvation is the only way.
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Today’s message is titled, “Marriage Is Honorable Among All.” Our Scripture text is Hebrews chapter 13, verses 1 to 6; and I’ll be back to read it with you after Ken Helterbrand leads us in singing a hymn.
Our Bible reading today is the first six verses of the 13th chapter, the last chapter, of the book of Hebrews. “Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also. Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’” Now let us go to God in prayer. Our Father and our Helper, God, we recognize You as the divine source of help that we have to live the proper kind of life here in this world. Grant us the wisdom today and throughout our lives to choose the best way to live, the Bible way to live, in this life and to prepare for the life which is to come. And we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!
My friend, I’m not being quarrelsome or judgmental in the selection of subjects that I discuss with you in the declining frequency of my appearances in these programs. Oh yes! I’m fully convinced that Phil Sanders is of the same persuasion as I am on these subjects and he’ll discuss them with you in his way and in his time. However, I feel compelled within to address some of the moral problems and do what I can to help restore Christian morality in America while I am living. Every knowledgeable, responsible person of whom I have any acquaintance, either personally or through his writings, knows our beloved country is in moral decline, and has expressed it so. As a nation, we’re rushing head-long, blindly, and head-strong toward the ugly precipice of self-destruction.
Christians, too, are losing the battle for morality. Many preachers and ministers and evangelists and bishops-- whatever they are called in the preferred denominations-- will keep silent about such things. After all, it just doesn’t lend itself to building a “mega-church” of thousands or tens of thousands of people to speak where the Bible speaks about matters of morals, well for that matter anything else that the Bible teaches. But, I don’t want to be a part of the problem. I want to be a part of the solution. I’d like to be remembered as having had a part of solving the problem of growing immorality in America. Therefore, I take seriously and very personally what the Bible says in these words, “......evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them.” That is 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 12, 13 and 14. Those are words of encouragement from Paul to his young preacher-friend; and they are good advice to all who preach the gospel and all who hear it.
President Ronald Reagan said, “The family has been the cornerstone of American society.” Well, as he would have said probably, I’m sure he would have, of course he was right about that. As a matter of fact, it can be truthfully said that the family has always been the cornerstone of any society. As go the families, so goes the nation. It’s in the family circle, from mother and dad that the children are taught and see daily demonstrations of the accepted morality, the values, the ethics, the acceptable behavior of the family, and supposedly of the community as well. Of course, President Reagan was speaking of what is now being called “the traditional family.” I call it “the Biblical family.”
You see, friend, the family as God defines it consists of a married man and woman with or without children. Marriage is ordained of God. It didn’t evolve from a pagan ritual of some primitive tribe of uncivilized people. Nor is it the invention of some prehistoric chauvinistic king whose idea it was to keep women in subjection to men. It isn’t the result of a study done by some government agency or bureau at some point in ancient history. It was not conceived in general council of some “bishops” in medieval history either. What I’m saying is that traditional marriage is not the result of a changing sociological need or a political expediency. It originated in the mind of our all-loving, infinitely wise and almighty God. It follows, then, that to pervert or to abandon marriage as He ordained it is to pervert or abandon God’s way for healthy living.
Immediately following the story of God’s creation of the heavens and the earth and everything that is in them, in the first chapter of the Bible, there follows in the second chapter the story of the first marriage. God, who had made the man and the woman male and female, said, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be one flesh.” And when Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, was asked about divorce for any and every cause, He replied, “Have you not read that He who made them in the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?’ So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew chapter 19, verses 4 through 6)).
From what God did and what His only begotten Son said, we arrive at the only possible conclusion, friend: marriage is a divine joining of a man and a woman and that for a lifetime. It’s a divine arrangement; and according to our text it is to be held in honor among all people. In spite of all that, it’s freely admitted that there has never been a perfect marriage, if by “perfect marriage” we mean one in which there’s never been a disagreement or a conflict or perhaps some emotional, mental or even some physical abuse of someone. Marriage itself is divine and sacred, but the married man and the married woman are imperfect human beings. Children of what is being called “a dysfunctional family,” a family in which there’s a lot of quarrelling and fussing and fighting; and children of divorced parents, sometimes find it hard to believe that marriage can be good and a pleasant source of much joy. Therefore, or perhaps I should say, thereby some are “turned off” marriage. That may be one excuse for not marrying-- just “living in.”
However, studies confirm that even with all its human failures, the Biblical family is still mankind’s greatest source of happiness in this life. My friend, marrying is the honorable and the moral thing to do. And it’s certainly true of people planning to bring children into this world. Children need a father and a mother in the home. A child, a living dependent human being, simply must have priority over the selfish interests of its mother and father. Well then, why is it so many people say that marriage is the best way for man and woman to live together and raise children? Why is it that it is so hard to convince people that marriage has always been a stabilizing force in all countries?
Well, every thoughtful American, and especially Christians, should be deeply concerned that only about one-half of the households in our American towns and cities consist of married couples. That means that about fifty out of every one-hundred households in your town and mine; well, let’s get a little closer to reality, why is it that on the average, in one of every two houses in your block lives “a single couple” or “live-ins” or a “cohabiting couple” or “a domestic relationship,” most of whom are bringing babies into the world? If what President Reagan said is true, that “The family is the cornerstone of the American society,” what does that hold for the future of America?
I’m going to digress from my thoughts about this message to try as much as in me is in my remaining time, to respond to my own question: “What lies ahead for our beloved country, if, indeed we do not change, or even reverse our moral direction?” I’m no prophet as was Daniel, but it seems to me, I see some “handwriting on the wall.” I don’t know how much you have studied the Old Testament book of Daniel, so I’m going to suggest you read it, or reread it; and you will find that it’s a short book of only twelve chapters. Nine chapters relate to dreams and visions and interpretation of them. And it’s chapter five that we are particularly interested in at this moment. You might want to read that chapter, even if you don’t read the whole book.
“In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged that city.” That’s the first verse of the book of Daniel. Anyway, Nebuchadnezzar took the people who had been “the people of God” into captivity for seventy long years. Daniel’s life and ministry bridged that entire seventy year period. God humbled haughty old Nebuchadnezzar, though, by turning him out to eat grass like the beast of the field. That made a believer out of him.
But his son, Belshazzar, became king, and he was very much a proud profligate. On one occasion he threw a drinking party. Well, we don’t know if it was some kind of a national holiday or just “one of the king’s parties.” Whatever the occasion, he took some of the holy vessels that had been taken from the house of God in Jerusalem in the captivity and they drank wine from them as they praised their gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone. While they were celebrating thusly, “In the same hour the finger of man’s hand appeared and wrote on the opposite lampstand, opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote, ‘Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.’” None of the king’s wise men could read the writing, so they sent for Daniel. He had earned the reputation of being a man of God. He read the message for them. It said, “You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting. Your kingdom has been divided and even to the Medes and the Persians it is given.....well, that very night Belshazzar was slain, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom!” Oh say friend, is there a message in that for us today? Am I seeing some handwriting on the wall that says to Americans, “You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting. Your nation has been taken from you?” Can you see it, too?
Well, back to our Bible text for today: “Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” Now, it isn’t that Mack Lyon, or churches of Christ will judge, but, God will judge! I don’t know about you, friend, but I’m simply appalled at the growing number and the frequent reports of unfaithfulness to the marriage vows of some of our political leaders, our sports heroes, our entertainment idols, and other lesser known of our day. Did you know that there are nearly one-half as many divorces granted every day as there are marriages? What does that say about our modern culture? In Matthew 19 it’s reported that many people came to hear Jesus teach and preach. “The Pharisees also came to test Him, and saying to Him, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?’ And He answered and said to them, ‘Have you not read that He who made them in the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?’ ‘So then, they are longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.’ They said to Him, ‘Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?’ He said to them, ‘Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.’” Young people, please, please don’t marry thinking that if it doesn’t work out we can divorce and begin over. “Marriage is honorable in all” people. Let’s pray. Holy Father, we are thankful to You for our homes and for the marriages that we have that are stable and that are inspiring to the youth to marry and to be one with their companions until one dies. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen!
Folks, I’m not scolding. I’m pleading. Let’s restore some sanity to our culture. I’m saying, if you really love that man you are living with, for the sake of your own soul and his, marry him. If you really love that woman you’re living with, for the sake of your own soul and hers, marry her. Well, maybe my grammar was not the very best right there, but you understand what I mean, don’t you? The two of you have some children together. Make for yourselves, the man or the woman you marry and your children, a Christian home. “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying godliness (ungodliness) and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, and righteously, and godly in this present age, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” That is Titus chapter 2, verses 11, 12, and 13.
Oh say friend, if you are not a Christian confess Christ today, repent of your sinful conduct, be baptized into Christ and let Him wash away your sins. Do as the apostle Paul was told to do: “Arise and be baptized and wash away your sin.” Oh course, that is in the blood of the Lamb. Don’t keep on putting it off. As the old-time preachers used to say, “Procrastination is the thief of time.” Well, they were right, you know. Of course, you know they were. If we may assist you, let us; would you do that?
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