²² “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶ that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ²⁷ so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. ²⁸ In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, ³⁰ because we are members of his body. ³¹ “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” ³² This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. ³³ However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”

Biblical morality is under increasing attack in America. While this has been going on for some time, the unprecedented pace of this attack is a deeply troubling and heartbreaking thing to observe. Since the moral revolution of the 1960’s to this present day, our once “Nation under God” has become a Nation “out from under” God.

The rise – and (in my opinion) cultural triumph of the “autonomous self” has brought into question the right of anyone, anywhere to question the personal lifestyle choices of anyone else. “Who are you to tell me how to live” is the often heard and widely-worshiped mantra of our day. Some time ago I heard a minister say that the only verse of Scripture that most Americans believe today is Matthew 7:1, which they take completely out of context. And, of course, if they rightly understood the context of that verse they would reject it along with the rest of Holy Scripture.

Now added to the long list of Biblical teachings the culture desires to pile on the trash heap of history is Christian marriage. This attack has come from all parts of the culture…

Many heterosexuals have defied the Biblical teaching on marriage by rejecting both the sacredness and the permanence of it. Such godless lifestyles as cohabitation and both “starter” and “serial” marriages have made mockery of the clear teachings of God that marriage is a life-long monogamous relationship of one man and one woman.

Homosexuals have defied the Biblical teaching on marriage by rejecting the very nature of what marriage is. Marriage (like everything else) is exactly what God says in His Word that it is! In Genesis 2:24, God defines marriage when He states, “a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Marriage is not whatever a government or cultural majority say it is; marriage is what the Creator of marriage says it is. No truth (including the definition of marriage) is established by whether or not it is held by the majority; it is established by the declaration, description, and decree of God.

This issue is so important and so timely that I have chosen to address it on Mother’s Day this year! This will be my seventh Mother’s Day Sermon as Pastor of this Church and I have used those messages to teach God’s Word on the subject of motherhood. This year I am taking this opportunity to go beyond the scope of Motherhood (as vitally important as that is) to address the equally important topic of marriage itself.

As you prepare your mind and heart to hear the Word of God on this coming Lord’s Day, I want to give you a preview of how I see our text applies to this contemporary issue. I will do so, as the Lord allows, using six points of introduction followed by four principles revealed in the text of Ephesians Five.

First, I want you to think about how people come to be part of a family. There are three ways: birth, adoption, and marriage. These are – by the way – the same three ways one comes to be part of God’s Forever Family! (Don’t forget that point, I will come back to it later.)

Second, since marriage is one of the ways that the Church of Jesus Christ (as His Bride) comes into relationship with Him, it is evident that God created marriage as a living illustration of how we come into and remain in a personal relationship with Him!

Third, God designed humans to both function and flourish in families! This is true of both our earthly and heavenly family. God loves us and wants us to flourish, so He created marriage. As in everything else, His way works and every other way will not.

Fourth, God not only built the marriage for the good of the couple and their children; He also designed marriage as the foundation of a stable and blessed society. It is not hard to see how the rejection of biblical marriage by both heterosexual and homosexual people is devastating the society in which we live.

Fifth, God designed marriage to be the foundation of the Church and His Kingdom work in the world! It is well and often been said, “A Church is a Family of Families” and nothing is more true about the Church. Not only is the local church designed to minister to families, it is in fact modeled after the family.

Sixth, Since God used marriage as one of the three ways people come into a relationship with Him through salvation, any and every attack on biblical marriage is an attack on God’s illustration of how He saves sinners!

Marriage does not save us, but it is a picture of how God saves us. Just as a man and woman both take one another and give themselves to each other, so it is that God chooses to take us to be His Bride and we take Him to be our Savior. Just as we are married when we give ourselves to one another, we are saved when we give ourselves to God!

Read this passage over and over. As the Lord allows, I will deal with four key biblical principles taught here…

Wives are to live in submission to their husbands because they are an illustration of the Church living in subjection to our Lord. Husbands are to love their wives because they are a living illustration of the love of Christ for His Church.

In this passage, God makes the “mysterious meaning of marriage” clear – marriage is (more than anything else) about Christ and His Church.

Finally, even though marriage is primarily about Christ and His Church, we are commanded by these verses to actually live out this teaching in our relationship to our spouse. A wife must respect and submit to her husband and a husband must live his wife the way that Christ loves His Church!

I hope to see you Sunday with your Bible in your hand, a smile on your face, and your family and friends by your side!