Adult Sunday School - Marriage And The Great Commission

Okay, today we're going to continue our study of marriage, walking through the Historia Salutis, the history of salvation, and applying it to marriage, as Paul tells us it ought to be.

So today we are looking at the Great Commission. So we already looked at the Ascent of Christ before, and I know the

Great Commission is given prior to the Ascent of Christ into heaven.

However, it is lived out by the church after Pentecost. So let's go ahead and read a few passages, if I could get a few volunteers.

One passage is in Luke 24. I'll volunteer for that one. All right, Brayden. Another in Matthew 28.

Who wants to do that one? Okay, Chris. And then Acts 1.

Okay, Albert. So let's start with Brayden here for Luke 24, verses 44 through 48.

So these are all passages talking about the Great Commission. Luke 24, verse 44 to 48.

Then he said to them, "'These are my words that I spoke to you "'while I was still with you, "'that everything written about me in the law of Moses "'and the prophets and the

Psalms must be fulfilled.' "'Then he opens their minds to understand the scriptures "'and said to them, "'Thus it is written that the

Christ should shuffer "'and on the third day rise from the dead "'and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins "'should be proclaimed in his name to all nations "'belonging from Jerusalem.

"'You were witness to these things and behold.'" Yeah, you were witness to these things. Thanks. All right,

Matthew 28, 18 through 20. This is Chris, thanks. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "'All authority has been given to me "'in heaven and on earth.

"'Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, "'baptizing them in the name of the Father and the

Son "'and the Holy Spirit, "'teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you "'and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'"

Thank you. And then Acts 1, six through eight. So when they had come together, they asked him, "'Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?'

"'He said to them, "'It is not for you to know the times or seasons "'that the Father has fixed by his own authority, "'but you will receive the power "'when the

Holy Spirit has come upon you, "'and you will be my witness in Jerusalem "'and in all

Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.'" Okay, thank you. All right, so Jesus gives his disciples the

Great Commission, the Great Commission being a command to go and spread the gospel. Christianity is different than a lot of religions in that regard.

A lot of religions are just for the followers. It's not for others. But we believe that the gospel is to be spread to others.

So essentially, evangelism is the church honoring Christ's name to others.

Now, there are several ways that could be applied to marriage.

So Proverbs 22, one says, "'A good name is rather to be chosen in great riches "'and loving favor rather than silver and gold.'"

So, right, if Paul says that the union between Christ and the church, like the, is, demonstrates what the union between a man and woman should be, then how does this apply to marriage?

Well, wives should honor their husband's name. So this applies in a couple of ways.

One is simply speaking well of her husband and not speaking ill. We've talked before how it's common for wives, especially early on in marriage, to call up their moms and complain about their husbands, right, like that kind of thing is not honoring in marriage.

Does not honor the husband. We've talked about this a bit before. So one thing I wanted to focus on as we were going through this part is just how she addresses him in general.

First Peter 3, five says, "'For after this man are previously the holy women also, "'who hoped in God, adorned themselves, "'being in submission to their own husbands, "'as

Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, "'whose children you now are, if you do well, "'and are not put in fear by any terror.'"

Okay, so of course, the suitability of titles has a lot to do with cultural norms. Our own culture doesn't have many terms of reverence in marriage.

Now, as I've been studying, I've mentioned several times, I'm using a lot of resources, but one of them is

William Gouge, a Puritan, who wrote a book called Domestic Duties, which goes through the end of Ephesians five as well as the beginning of Ephesians six.

It talks about the relationship between husbands and wives, parents and children, and then masters and slaves. And he wrote a lot of interesting thoughts about this that I wanted to share.

It's kind of difficult to apply in our own culture, but I kind of want to give you an idea of how he was thinking about how wives should address their husbands, because they had some options back then that we really don't, culturally speaking.

So he ends up advocating for a wife speaking to her husband and frequently calling him husband or master surname, like Master Owens or Master Searle, something like that, because that was common back then.

And he said that expressed reverence. And so there's a lot of things he advocates against, and I want to go through all these.

Once again, I'm not necessarily implying any particular application for us right now.

I'll do that in a minute, but I want you to think about how he's thinking about this. He advocates against using biblical language that would be uncommon, though it expresses reverence.

So for example, head, guide, lord, master on its own without the surname, because that was not common in his time, just to refer to someone as master as opposed to Master Owens, that kind of thing.

So he said because those things would sound weird and singular is the word that he used. He advocates against using that even though it would be respectful.

He advocates against using titles of equality, such as brother or friend. Think of a pretty common one that, it's pretty obvious what the agenda is, right?

Is partner, right? A lot of, I had a coworker for a while who would always refer to her husband as partner, and I just assumed for the longest time that she was a lesbian.

I had no idea that she was actually, and I didn't think much of it.

It's like, oh, okay, she's a lesbian. But yeah, and then I found out, oh, no, wait, she's actually married to a man, and she just doesn't want to give him a title that would distinguish her from him, and make the relationship asymmetric in any fashion.

So she wants to use something of equality like partner. Yeah, in the presence of others, he's mostly concerned, he's concerned also developing a heart of submission for the wife, but he's also talking about when others are in your presence, what do they see of your relationship?

So he's concerned about both of those. Okay, so yeah, he advocates against brother and friend, and I'd say in our own culture, partner would be one of those that would fall under that rubric.

And then he advocates against titles such as love and dear as being too lighthearted. Now, I find that a little difficult to understand what he's getting at there, because you see that kind of language pretty frequently in things like the

Song of Solomon, you know, my beloved, et cetera. So I'm not sure if he's imagining a particular kind of use of that title to the exclusion of other titles, maybe.

I'm not sure. He advocates against pet names, such as common ones back then were

Pigsney and Chick. If you - Pigsney? Pigsney. Yeah, like P -I -G -S -N -I -E.

Like not knee, but you know. Oh, okay. Yeah, Pigsney. Pigsney and Chick.

So he said those are too condescending. And honestly, I've found the same things when wives use very condescending or demeaning pet names.

I guess they have a relationship where the husband appreciates it, but I always, you know, feel embarrassed for him a lot of times around.

So, you know, something to consider, even if your husband appreciates it, maybe it's not honoring him to others. Okay, and then more interesting things that just don't seem to fit well with our culture.

He advocates against using, he calls them Christian names. I'm not sure how they would. I think he just means first names in general, because I don't think they had alternative names or anything, such as John Thomas William, because these suggest equality as well.

He advocates against short names, such as Jack, Tom, and Will, because those were typically used for servants.

Typically you would use nicknames for servants. Now that's, once again, you know, our culture is different, so there's not like a one -to -one translation.

And he's trying to give the principle, apply it to his culture, and say, you know, this applies this way.

And he advocates against other intentionally insulting nicknames too.

One's common in his time were rogue or grub. I'm trying to think of what a good example in our time would be. You know, what's that?

Pretty boy? I don't know. No, no, I'm thinking it's something that like, you know, points out, you know, that you're a jerk or something like that.

You know, I guess as a man would refer to a wife as, you know, a ball and chain or something, right?

If you imagine like a similar term in the other direction. That's the kind of things that he's advocating.

That one's obvious, right? So let's see. Let me read a quote from him.

Subjection is that mark which wives are directed to aim at in their thoughts, words, and deeds in a whole conversation toward their husbands.

Such tokens of familiarity, speaking of, you know, things like pigs need chick, et cetera, love, dear, are as, are not with all tokens of subjection, reverence are unbeseeming a wife because they serve,

I think that's supposed to be swerve, they swerve from that mark. So like I said, it's difficult to know how to implement this in our own time.

Yeah, using first names I don't think is so problematic, but I do understand what he's saying, that it doesn't suggest anything about the relationship.

And that's one of his concerns, is if someone comes in and they see you talking, do they recognize that one of you is the wife and one of you is the husband by even the way they address each other?

And so I think maybe just one takeaway we can get from this is it's good for cultures to have those sorts of things.

You know, we might be quick to label cultures that have titles of respect like that as, you know, not being sufficiently progressive, not being, you know, not being advanced enough, and those are further back, you know, on the evolution chain of what it looks like for a culture to progress.

But actually these are good things in cultures when you have ways of expressing respect toward one another in a way that is appropriate to the relationship.

So even though I don't have too many specific applications for how to take all that, at least we can acknowledge that that's good for culture to feature ways of addressing people with appropriate respect.

Like Sarah did. Sarah called her husband Lord in 1 Peter 3 .5.

Okay, let's also talk about hospitality. So the Great Commission instructs the church to welcome others into the house of Christ.

Isaiah 55 .1 says, ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money, come, buy, and eat.

Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Revelation 22 .17 repeats the same.

And the spirit and the bride say, come. And he that hears, let him say, come. And he that is thirsty, let him come.

He that will, let him take the water of life freely. Luke 16 .16 says, the law and the prophets were until John.

From that time, the gospel of, from that time, the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached and every man is instantly urged into it.

So properly speaking, the Great Commission is to invite people into the house of God to be identified with the house of God.

At the same time, it's worth considering just the welcoming nature without the identification aspect, that there is a welcoming to experience that house of Christ, a welcoming to experience the glory of that union between Christ and the church, like come see this, come see this union.

And there are implications for marriage. Marriages should be excellent platforms for hospitality.

You know, all Christians are commanded to hospitality, but there's a particular way that people who are married are equipped for it.

Typically, the man will have resources, but not the time or skills for hospitality. The woman will have a lot of time and skills, but not necessarily all the resources for hospitality.

You put those two together and you've got a lot of potential for hospitality.

And you see this a number of times in Scripture. I'd like to read a couple of passages here.

Genesis 18 and Judges 13. These are some of the most significant instances of hospitality, that even

Scripture itself appeals to to argue for hospitality. Genesis 18, who would like to read that one?

Okay, Nick. All right, and then Judges 13. You can go ahead and hand it to Nick, thanks.

It's gonna be Genesis 18, one through eight. Okay, and then can

I get a volunteer for Judges 13? Okay, Natalie, thanks. And the

Lord appeared to him, one through eight, right? And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of the

Mammer. As he sat at the door of his tent, in the heat of the day, he lifted up his eyes and looked.

And behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran for the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said,

O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree while I bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves and after that you may pass on since you have come to your servant.

So they said, do as you have said. And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, quick, three sayers of fine flour, knead it and make cakes.

And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man who prepared it quickly.

Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

Thanks. Okay, so that was about Abraham and the three men who appear to him and he takes the men.

Okay, and he and Sarah both prepare food for them. Okay, Judges 13, 15 through 21.

Natalie. Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, we would like you to stay until we prepare a young goat for you.

The angel of the Lord replied, even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the

Lord. Manoah did not realize that it was an angel of the Lord. Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the

Lord, what is your name so that we may honor you when our words come true? He replied, why do you ask my name?

It is beyond understanding. Then Manoah took a young goat together with the grain offering and sacrificed it on a rock to the

Lord. And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched. As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the

Lord ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. When the angel of the

Lord did not show himself to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the

Lord. All right, so Manoah is Samson's father, and he and his wife, once again, are receiving the angel of the

Lord for hospitality. Hebrews 13, two says, do not forget to show love to strangers for, and a lot of translations say hospitality, for by it some have entertained angels without knowing it, particularly referring to these instances,

Genesis 18, Judges 13. And here, in both cases, you see it is a husband and wife together that are welcoming in angels.

And both of those, the result of them was the blessing of the child, one for Abraham, one for Manoah.

And we even see hospitality result in the miraculous blessing of a child later on with the woman of Shunem and her husband, yes?

Testing? Yeah, that's part of it.

I'm not sure, as opposed to what? As opposed to just God having, giving them a child without that?

Yeah, because like, in these cases, it seems like it's now or is it in the future?

I mean, they are, right? They are speaking for the Lord to people. And of course, the angel of the

Lord, when it speaks of the angel of the Lord, that's always Christ. It's, well, it's, or the pre -incarnate

Christ, anyway. Christ is a term of incarnation, so it's a bit odd to refer to that as.

But yeah, it's the Son of God, Genesis 31, 13. The angel of the

Lord says, I am the God of Bethel, right? He calls himself God, and he is the one who is both

God and from God. You know, who is that other than the Son? He's the one who wrestles with Jacob, and then

Jacob afterwards says, I've seen the face of God and lived, right? So you have lots of instances of that.

Christophany. So a theophany is an appearance of God, a Christophany is appearance of Jesus in particular, of the

Son in particular, yeah. Yeah, I forget what you call it, if it's particularly the

Father or the Spirit, but like at the baptism of Jesus, where you have the voice of God and you have the

Spirit descending as a dove, you know, those would be particular, those would be particular theophanies for the

Father and the Spirit, yeah. But the angel of the Lord is the Son. Okay, right, and you see another hospitality result in miraculous blessing of a child.

2 Kings 4, 8 through 10 says, And it fell on a day that Elisha passed to Shunam, where was a great woman, and she constrained him to eat bread.

And so it was that as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat bread. And she said to her husband, behold now,

I perceive that this is a holy man of God that passes by us continually. Please let us make a chamber on the wall and let us set for him there a bed and a table and a seat and a lampstand.

And it will be when he comes to us that he will turn in there. Okay, so this is more than just a meal, you know, she's making a whole room for him to come in regularly.

And, you know, this results in her having a child even though she was barren previously or had lost her child.

There were several of these stories, I'm getting mixed up at the moment. But anyway, she miraculously receives a child.

And while hospitality is a sign of good marriage in Scripture, its lack is seen as a bad sign.

Consider Abigail and Nabal, right? And Nabal answered David's servants and said, who is

David and who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days that break away from every man from his master.

Will I then take my bread and my water and my flesh that I have killed and my shears and give it to men whom I know not from where they are?

So he's refusing to give hospitality to David later on. And when Abigail saw

David, she hastened and alighted from her donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed herself to the ground. And she fell at his feet and said, on me, my

Lord, on me be the iniquity, and please let your handmaid speak in your ears and hear the word of your handmaid.

Please do not let my Lord regard this worthless fellow, even Nabal, for as his name is, so he is.

Nabal is his name and folly is with him. Nabal means fool, like this guy's name is actually fool.

But I, your handmaid, saw not the young men of my Lord whom you sent. All right, so yeah, a lot of couples see their marriage as something that's only to be enjoyed by them, that's not designed to be enjoyed by more than just them.

But really, God is designed to be enjoyed by more, not only in children, but also in others experiencing the glory of marriage who are able to enjoy hospitality from a married couple who is especially equipped for hospitality.

So yeah, for a husband, he should provide everything that's needed for hospitality. He should not restrain his wife or consider those things wasteful.

He should consider that not like outside of the main thing that the family is supposed to be doing.

He should consider hospitality a main part of the thing that the family is supposed to be doing, right, so that he's providing for it and not being stingy, you know, saving up for ways that they can just spend on themselves.

And then, yeah, wives should understand that this is the way they glorify their marriage by making their home beautiful, welcoming to others, and she shouldn't consider this a burden, but rather, yeah, a joy, and by it, many have entertained angels and receive great blessings from it, and it is a great blessing to engage in hospitality.

Right, it's more blessed to give than to receive. You know, it's a more exciting thing to give and see others blessed by it than it is to just receive something.

All right, so a lot of people have excuses for this, right? My house is too small, my house is too far out of the way.

A lot of times, that will be by choice, though, right? When they chose where to live or what house to get, it was not with hospitality in mind.

Now, but even if it wasn't by choice, you know, you can still be hospitable where possible, or a lot of times, people have excuses.

Oh, right now, it's cluttery. You know, I plan on getting to that, and then I'm gonna have people over, but then they never, you know, they never actually get to it.

That eventually never happens. Yeah, I knew someone who I respected a lot at the time, and he had told me that he was gonna have a

Bible study at his house. He just needed to clean up a few things, and I waited for this, and it ended up being years, and it never happened, but he would say this all the time.

You know, make this promise, and yeah, I was really, like, at the end of that,

I realized, wow, yeah, I feel like I was duped. This guy, yeah, it was just excuses.

What's that? How many years? It was like, I don't know, probably three to five, something like that, yeah, and there was just never, yeah, it wasn't really a wholehearted intent toward hospitality, and he was fairly equipped for it, too, in terms of the house and everything.

Yeah, and this was a marriage, also. Not just a single guy. Okay, so yeah, if the church is to welcome others into the house of God to experience the glory of that union between Christ and the church, so also husbands and wives are to welcome people into their house to experience the glory of that union.

All right, a couple of practical tips for you, as you think about hospitality. If you're wondering, like, time -wise, where do you fit that in?

Man, the Sabbath is a great time. Like, if you really set aside this day for the Lord, and not just, you know, a few hours for the

Lord, and a lot of people think of it as, they tend to think of the

Sabbath as like a burdensome negative command, like, you can't do this, you can't do that, you can't do that. If you think of it more as a positive command, you are to fill this day with good things, and suddenly, you've got a whole extra day to work with, where you can get to all the things that you want to, you know, that, reading that theology book you've never gotten around to, hosting people for fellowship in the

Lord, you know. A lot of those things become much more feasible when you have that whole day, so yeah, don't, you don't have to look for a special time, just use the

Sabbath. And then, also, particularly in our church, you know, we have this intern housing program.

I would, if you've never participated in that, I would highly recommend you consider doing that. I see

Natalie shaking her head, nodding her head. Yeah, please, please consider that.

It's a blessing to those who come in, to those who get to be a part of it, and hosting.

All right, now let's talk about the other part of it. We're talking about welcoming people in. Now the part where we're welcoming them in to be identified with it, making members of the kingdom of God.

So not just the, so that first, that first section we were talking about evangelism, now we're moving on to actually, the actual making disciples part.

So one repeated theme throughout scripture is that whenever a knee bows to the Messiah, when a knee bows to the

Messiah, he brings his wealth into the kingdom of God. Isaiah 60, 11 says, "'Your gates will be open continually.

"'They will not be shut day nor night, "'that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations "'and their kings led captive.'"

Revelation 21, 24 through 26 says, "'And the nations will walk amidst its light, "'and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it, "'and its gates will by no means shut by day, "'for there will be no night there.

"'And they will bring the glory "'and the honor of the nations into it.'" So these are both describing the gospel and all the

Gentiles being welcomed in and all the wealth of nations being welcomed into the church. This is especially prefigured in the reign of Solomon.

Second Chronicles 9, 22 through 24 says, "'So Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth "'in riches and wisdom, "'and all the kings of the earth "'sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, "'which

God had put in his heart. "'And they brought every man his tribute, "'vessels of silver, vessels of gold, "'and garments, armor, and spices, "'and horses, and mules a yearly rate.'"

So you see all the nations around Solomon just bringing him voluntarily. He hasn't gone and conquered them or anything.

They're just voluntarily coming in and bringing their wealth. So yeah, in this passage we were looking at in Revelation, the city itself is called the

Bride, and those who go into it bring their riches. But as those riches fill the

Bride, the city, those riches are the riches of the Bride. So one application for this is to consider dowries.

So what a dowry is is something of value that is brought in typically by the wife into marriage.

Older translations of the Bible use this for bride price, but this is, if you look up dictionaries, dowries are distinct from bride price.

Dowries are something that are brought into the marriage of bride price is something that is paid to the father -in -law, as opposed to being brought into the marriage.

So yeah, there's something that is appropriate to dowries. Now, they don't have to be material dowries either.

Consider that Leah regarded her own childbearing as a dowry. Genesis 30, 19, and Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob.

And Leah said, God has endowed me with a good dowry. Now will my husband dwell with me because I have borne him six sons.

And she called his name Zebulun. So yeah, whatever a wife has of value, she should bring into a marriage.

That is a good thing to do. Okay. Let's also talk about, yeah, what the

Bible says about in making disciples, how it describes that as children.

Isaiah 54, one says, sing, O barren, that you did not bear. Break forth into singing and cry aloud, you that did not labor with child.

For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, says Jehovah. So this talks about, we've gone to this passage a few times before, right?

This is talking about God's people as being a widow.

But there's a prophecy that God will be, once again, united with his people in such a way that they will produce many children.

And this would be more than the children of the one who is married.

Now, on first blush, you might think, okay, well, this is referring to God's people

Israel versus the world, because that's the context that it comes in. You know, and if you're really limited by that context, you're gonna think, okay, well, he's saying that he's gonna give

Israel so many that it's gonna exceed even what the world has. That's not how

Paul interprets this in Galatians. Galatians 4, 22 through 27. For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bond woman and one by the free woman.

Nevertheless, the son by the bond woman is born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman is born through promise.

These things contain an allegory, for these women are two covenants, one from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is

Hagar. Now, this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the

Jerusalem that is now, for she is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother.

For it is written, rejoice, you barren that do not bear. Break forth and cry aloud, you that do not labor, for more are the children of the desolate than of the one that has a husband.

So here, the comparison that's being made is not between the world and Israel. It's ultimately between the

Israel below and the Israel above, right? What Galatians 6 .16 calls the Israel of God.

The Jerusalem above is that city, the bride that Revelation speaks of.

So this union between Christ and the church produces offspring, and it produces them in great quantity.

It says in Hebrews 11, 11, by faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive seed when she was past age.

Since she counted him faithful who had promised, therefore also there sprang of one, in him as good as dead, so many as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.

Okay, so if this is the case, you know, if from Abraham and Sarah, right, came many, and Galatians 3 .7

tells us that those of faith are the true sons of Abraham. Yeah, this is a fecund union, okay?

Fecund is a technical term that means fruitful or producing offspring. If you ever read a theology book and it talks about divine fecundity, what that's talking about is the fact that the father has a son, right, the only begotten son.

So there's a sense in which God the father has offspring, right, he has a son. So this is a fecund union, right?

And so a human marriage is trying to reflect the marriage between Christ and the church, should, as much as possible, to the degree that they're able to be fruitful as well.

So some have supposed that the Great Commission and the New Covenant actually supplants the command to be fruitful and multiply, right?

The way a lot of people imagine it is that, okay, you have these different covenants and then, you know, the

New Covenants supplant the previous covenants, and the New Covenant, we've got offspring that are happening spiritually through the church and so that supplants the command in Genesis, that blessing in Genesis nine, to be fruitful and multiply.

There's a few reasons that that's not the case. First of all, there are some covenants that obsolete other covenants, right?

The New Covenant obsoletes the Old Covenant. The Noahic Covenant is not the Old Covenant, all right? The Noahic Covenant is made with the whole world.

It is not made just with God's people. And it's given a sign, the rainbow, which continues to this day.

And God tells us, as long as you see the rainbow in the clouds, that means that this still holds, right? So the

Noahic Covenant is something that still stands. In Acts 15, when they're asking the question of how do these covenants apply to the

Gentiles, the question of circumcision, right?

The Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, does that still hold? And the answer's no. But then they say, but it's still important that they don't eat blood or things strangled, right?

What is that saying? The Noahic Covenant still stands for the Gentiles, right? So if the

Noahic Covenant still stands, that's all of it, right, including the be fruitful and multiply part. Yeah, and then if we have this union, and Ephesians 5 tells us that this is a model, the union between Christ and the

Church is a model for human marriage. The new covenant's not supplanting be fruitful and multiply.

It's actually reinforcing it. Yeah, so that's how this should be viewed.

It should be viewed as a reinforcing of that blessing. Yes? Oh yeah, sorry, let me, if you're not familiar with that, let me go ahead and turn there.

So Genesis nine, yeah.

You know, before I studied this, I went to the Philippines and I ate deniguan, you know. I'm not gonna do that again now that I know.

But yeah, part of the Noahic Covenant, which still stands, is not to eat blood. Verse three says, every moving thing that lives shall be food for you, and as I gave you the green plants,

I give you everything. So before this, humans were vegetarian, right? They weren't allowed to eat meat. Now they're allowed to eat meat.

And remember, this is everybody still, right? Like even pagan societies that have never considered this, they're still allowed to eat meat.

But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood, and for your life blood

I will require a reckoning. From every beast I will require it, and from every man.

From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood shall be shed, for God made man in his own image.

Okay, so a couple of points there. That's why, this is why it is, yeah, the death penalty is commanded here because blood is owned by God.

Like life is owned by God. You can't even take it yourself, right? That's why suicide is wrong. It's not yours to take.

And for, yeah, for someone else to take a life, it's not, yeah, it's just not theirs to take.

It's like stealing because the life belongs to God. And this is also where the life is in the blood, like where the phrase, the

Dracula phrase comes from. You know, it comes from the Noahic covenant. And this is so, yeah, this is so serious, you know,

God's ownership of blood. Yes. Right, so I would say that blood is not food.

And that, yeah, things have their uses, and we're told what the use of blood is, right?

You wouldn't apply that to drugs. You don't just like, you know, advocate for, you know, hard drug use because, oh, as long as we accept it with prayer, like, you know, it has to be, there has to be an understanding of what the purpose of this thing is.

And yeah, God has made all foods clean, but that doesn't mean all things are right to eat.

Yes. I don't, yeah,

I don't know exactly how that works, but, you know, there's standards that you see in the Old Testament about draining blood, et cetera.

And, you know, the pink stuff in me, that's not blood. But anyway, yes. Okay. Yeah.

All right, so yes, Genesis 9 is about this, talks about blood. Yeah, don't eat blood.

All right, and then as to, yeah, be fruitful and multiply. Remember the Noahic covenant begins with be fruitful and multiply and ends with be fruitful and multiply?

Genesis 9 .1, Genesis 9 .7 repeats the, you know, bookends this covenant with be fruitful and multiply.

It's a kind of big part of this. Yeah, and he makes a big deal about the, as long as that rainbow's in the cloud, you know, this is true.

Okay, so yeah, a lot of people use different kinds of methods to inhibit their fruitfulness, or, you know, even entirely forfeit it.

Another thing that's a real shame is that a lot of Christians will use birth control methods that they think are not abortive, but actually are.

Because a lot of times the box that it comes in, or whatever the doctor tells you, is that it prevents pregnancy.

And so a Christian thinks, oh, that's okay. But what they mean by prevent pregnancy is not preventing conception, they mean preventing the embedding of the embryo into the lining of the uterus, right?

And so actually, whatever, you know, it is both kinds of IUDs, you know, the pill, they all have a possibility of killing, and a likelihood of killing a conceived embryo prior to it being implanted in the lining of the uterus.

So these things are, a lot of these methods are abortive.

And people don't realize that, which is real unfortunate, because you have doctors market it in a way that it's more palatable.

Yes, if you're seeking children, then you don't have to worry about any of that.

This is for those who are trying to avoid being fruitful and multiplying, right? Yeah, or trying to avoid having kids.

And I get there's some reasons why it would be illegitimate to avoid having kids. You know, if you have some health conditions such that if you have a child, you will die, you know, something like that.

I'm not suggesting that in this fallen world, there can't be, you know, reasons to, you know, when

I'm talking about getting surgeries to forfeit your fecundity, you know, there might be cancer that you get where you've gotta have your, you have to have your organs, you know, removed or whatever the case may be.

So I'm not rejecting that sometimes these are realities, but I'm saying that in normal circumstances, the call is to be fruitful and multiply.

Okay, let's see. Now there's different ways that people approach this. A lot of people approach this where, okay, we have to be in alignment.

So we each have veto power over the situation. That's kind of odd for, in one way, because it assumes that the default is not to have kids and it's an active thing to have kids.

That's a weird thing in our culture because really the default biologically is to have kids, right, and it would be, the active thing would be to not have kids, is to avoid that, you know.

And the other thing that people do is they'll say, okay, well, maybe it's the wife who gets to make this decision since it's going to, you know, cause the most trauma to her body.

It's going to be a lot of her job to raise a child. So it's her decision. And then other people will say, okay, well, it's the husband's decision because the

Bible describes him as the authority and head of the household. So you've got all these different options, but what does scripture say about this?

1 Corinthians 7. I think it's very clear, and a lot of people haven't thought of it in this regard.

They only think of it in terms of, like, the pleasure of sex.

But 1 Corinthians 7, 3 through 4 says the husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights and likewise the wife to her husband, for the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.

Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. So husband and wife have authority over each other's bodies.

So this is not, it's not where both have veto. It's not where one has the deciding rights and the other doesn't. Actually, both, because both have authority over each other's bodies.

You know, they're both allowed to require this in marriage.

This is not something where, I mean, ideally, you would be in agreement, but this is not something where the deciding is left to one versus the other or to both.

You know, either one can require this just as you would sex itself, right? Because this is what comes from the body.

Okay, let's see. Yeah, and another question people have here, well, what if the couple went into marriage without the intention of having children and then someone wants to play this card, you know, and say, but now

I want children. You know, are they allowed to do that? I would say that marriage is what God has defined it to be.

It's not what we define it to be. So if you go into marriage with a different kind of commitment than what

God has described marriage is, that doesn't get to be the, you know, there can be understanding that's given to one another, but that doesn't get to be its own kind of union that's different than the kind of union

God describes with its purposes, right? You don't get to say, okay, well, I went into this agreement with these particular, you know, understandings of what marriage is, and so that's going to set the framework for how we proceed.

We don't get to set our own stipulations for what marriage is. It's a particular kind of union that God has decided, and even if our vows are out of line with that, it's still, yeah, it's still the case that this is what marriage is and we can't make something different.

Malachi 2 .15, I've read this a few times before. And did he not make one, although he had the, although he, excuse me, this is not how

I'm used to seeing this quoted. In the ESV it says, and why did he make them one with a portion of the

Spirit in their union? He sought godly offspring, therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

Okay, so why did God create, why did God create marriage? This was one of the purposes for godly offspring.

And so if that's one of the purposes of marriage, we don't get to redefine the purpose of marriage. Okay, I know that's a big one.

Any questions before we move on? Yes. Oh, just this section about having children, because it's very countercultural, yeah.

I mean, even in churches it's countercultural, right? It's not just countercultural in our world, especially in Silicon Valley, but yeah.

Okay. Obedience. The other aspect of the Great Commission is obedience.

Matthew 28 .20 said, teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you, and behold,

I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So what are you to teach as you're making people disciples?

You're to teach them to obey all of Christ's commands. So there is the aspect of submission.

Now, we've talked about this a bit at several points, because, you know, submission between, from the church to Christ has come into play a few times throughout the history of Seleucus, but yes.

Is there a, I guess I'm also, is there another?

You could certainly require it by unnatural means, right? Like, you could require

IVF or something, right? And that would be wrong, right? To, right, because in vitro fertilization is gonna involve all kinds of things that are, yeah.

Embryos are gonna be conceived, they're gonna die. There's all kinds of issues with that. So authority over each other's bodies doesn't mean that you get to do unnatural things.

Yeah. All right.

Yes. Yes, yeah.

I believe cloning would also be a problem. Yeah, I mean, that's a, I'm sure that's something people are gonna wrestle with at some point, and I guess have since the 80s with the first cloned animal.

But yeah, this is not, yeah, God designed there to be,

I mean, even as our confession says, legitimate offspring. Legitimate means with a father and mother to take care of the child, you know?

And if you're doing it in some weird way that doesn't promote that kind of, and I'm not saying that there aren't things like adoption that God says are good, but yeah, if you're trying to subvert nature itself to play your own little

Frankenstein game or whatever, like, that's not good. And I say that to know, that is not an insult on anyone who might come about by scientific methods, but yeah,

I don't think, I don't think, God has given us ample ways of creating life, and we reject those, and for us to come up with our own ways is, it's just so odd that you would reject

God's good ways and come up with your own. All right, and yeah, what

I recommend for anybody, in the situation where they're having trouble conceiving is adoption is what

God advocates for numerous times in scripture, and legitimizes in many instances where you see adoption happen.

Even our own salvation is by adoption. All right, so looking at the church obeying

Christ, I'll just read this passage again, Ephesians 5, 22 through 24. Wise be in submission to your own husbands as to the

Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, being himself a savior of the body.

Does the church subject to Christ, so let wise also be subject to their husbands and everything.

Yeah, and this is not conditioned on the husband's goodness while the wife shouldn't obey any command that's contrary to God's law.

At the same time, if his love for her is supposed to be unconditional, then her submission to him is to be as well, since those are the two halves of this in Ephesians 5.

All right, we've already spent a lot of time in previous sessions on submission, so let's go to what this implies for teaching children.

Notice that this is teaching, the church is being tasked here with teaching the children of Zion, you know, the children of the church, submission.

And this is the goal of the church as the saints reach full maturity. Ephesians 4, 11 through 14 says, and he gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints to the work of ministering, to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the

Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may be no longer children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men in craftiness according to the wiles of heirs.

All right, so the church is tasked with equipping the saints and building them up to maturity.

And what do we see between husband and wife? Yeah, the wife has a particular task to build up the children of their union as well to full maturity.

And it's interesting because in some ways the Bible speaks of education as primarily the father's duty. It says in Ephesians 6, 4, and you fathers provoke not your children to wrath but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the

Lord. But while it is primarily his duty as one that is in a large part delegated to the wife, and so the wife ought to, yeah, should teach them to not just do what is right in general but in particular to follow the commands of the household, the rules of the house that the father has set, the particular prerogatives the father has set.

Because there's going to be a lot of implementation in any household. It's not, you know, not all households are the same.

There's going to be particular things that need to be done, particular chores that need to be done, particular relationships that need to be maintained, et cetera.

And so there's a defining of that from the father and implementation of that in education from the wife to the children.

So this is also following after the pattern of the union between Christ and the church. Well, that's all

I have for today. Are there any questions on anything we've covered? All right, let's go ahead and close in prayer.

Dear Holy Father, thank you for the model you have given us in Christ and the church.

You have built everything we need already into our own consciences, into nature itself, but you have been so kind to us as to also give us this model in Christ and the church, that union.

I pray that our marriages would reflect that and even for those of us who are not married that we would hold marriage in honor in Jesus' name, amen.