Proverbs 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

II Timothy 3:16  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17  That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

We have been looking at God’s design for the family over the past few days. God’s design began with the creation of man. God placed Adam into a beautiful Garden and gave him work to do in that Garden. As Adam was assigned to name all the animals, he noticed that all the animals had mates, but he did not have an help meet for him. God gave Adam the opportunity to see that. God put Adam to sleep and took one of his ribs and used that rib to make the woman. God brought the woman to Adam and he called her woman and her name was Eve.
God commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. God created all creatures as well as all trees and herbs to reproduce. He also stated that they will all reproduce after their kind. Adam was also given instructions regarding his boundaries. He could eat of all the fruit of the Garden, but he was not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam knew this and yet it was not long after his creation that he willfully took of that fruit, which his wife offered him, and ate of it. Adam became a sinner that day and both he and Eve died spiritually that day. That sin brought a major and drastic change for mankind and also for all of creation.
God’s design still was for man to be fruitful and multiply. Now all of Adam’s descendants would be born as lost sinners in need of a Saviour. God promised that in the midst of the curse that He warned would be the result of Adam’s sin, He would bless the woman with bringing forth the seed that would be the Saviour of mankind, and also the destroyer of the serpent, the devil.
The fall of man changed the relationship between the man and the woman. God’s design has always been for a man to marry one woman and to live with her for the rest of their lives. Paul was directed by God in I Corinthians 7 to write that if the man or the woman dies, the living spouse can remarry, but only in the Lord. God’s design is for the man and the woman to be saved through repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
In order for a marriage to be successful, the couple needs to trust in the LORD with all their heart. The curse that came after man sinned, has affected everything. Man was created without any flaws. There was no sickness. There was no death. After man sinned, death was a reality. Sickness was also part of life.
There have been many people who have schemed to find a way to take what belongs to others and to try to build an empire for themselves. There have been poisons and biological weapons used in the past to try to destroy certain people. The world has experienced such an attack over the past two+ years, and the governments have more of this planned.
There have also been many marriages that have been destroyed due to sin. Polygamy has been a sin of man since Genesis chapter 4. People did not divorce in the early history of man. Men took several wives in an attempt to satisfy their lusts. Some men would also take a woman and violate her and not marry her. Polygamy has never been God’s plan. Fornication is also not God’s plan.
In order to have a good and right marriage, the man and the woman need to be married.
The verses we have today talk about the importance of trusting the LORD with all the heart. Man has the ability to think. Due to the fall of man, he also has the ability to imagine things that are not good and right. God commands us not to lean on our own understanding.
When a man comes to the age of desiring to be married, God’s design is for the man to be a saved man from his youth and to pray for God’s direction in finding a wife. Due to the fall, man does not often see things the way God sees them. We need God to open our eyes to the truth. For many years, going back hundreds of years, men have chosen divorce as a means of getting rid of a woman they do not like. In those instances, the men have never loved their wives. They have lusted for a woman and they found one that would fulfil their lusts for a time. When the man no longer wanted that woman, he would divorce her and find another. God gave the woman some protection, as the weaker vessel, in that her father was to watch over her and help her to know if the man who is showing an interest in her, would be a good man. Of course this would depend on the father being one who trusted in the LORD with all his heart.
Proverbs 3:6 promises us that when a person trusts fully in the LORD, He shall direct his paths. That is a promise of God. The failures of man, which are many, are the result of not trusting in the LORD. It has never been God’s will for a godly man to marry a wicked woman or the other way around.
Over the years, man has developed the wrong idea that if he gets a divorce, he can go and marry another woman and all will be good. The Bible calls this adultery.
In II Timothy 3:16-17 we find that God has given us His Word through which we can know how to live properly. In verse 17 It states: “that the man of God may be perfect”. The man of God is the saved man. It is also the saved woman.
Today, we live in a time when too many churches condone divorce and remarriage. No God-fearing pastor can endorse such an act. God condemns it and so must His servants. Many people have a distorted view of love and they suggest that if a pastor preaches against divorce and remarriage he is not a loving man. He needs to sympathize with this sin and he needs to be ready to put his blessing and suggest that God will bless a divorce and remarriage. There is not a single verse in the Bible to back up that imagination.
God is the God of love. He warns of the sin of divorce. He also warns of the sin of adultery. The Old Testament law was that the adulterer was to be put to death. In John chapter 8 Jesus told the woman caught in adultery to go and sin no more. She was not to live that lifestyle any longer.
If we do not have strong Biblical marriages, we cannot expect to have spiritually and emotionally healthy children. We are seeing much trouble in families in our time. This is not by God’s design. This is due to man’s rejection of God’s design. The sad reality is that too many people have come to see this as normal and it has been a profitable business for lawyers and counsellors of all types. It is not God’s design.
We need pastors who will humbly submit to God’s Word and will preach God’s truth with a heart of love. We need pastors who will desire to help people to know God’s way of blessing. His way works every time. His way is liberating. God does not put people in bondage.
In the Old Testament we see that Isaac never saw and never knew about Rebekah until the day she was brought to him by Abraham’s servant. He took her and he loved her. She became his wife and they lived together until death parted them. God was not teaching that parents should choose their children’s spouses. He was teaching that love is not lust. Love is a heart attitude. When God’s love is in a person, they can and will love others as God intended. That is how God functions. He loves all people enough to provide salvation for all. He loves those who are saved and adopts them into His family. He provides the means for the saved person to be “throughly furnished unto all good works.” That is His promise to man.
Those who trust in the LORD with all their heart will be blessed of Him and be able to be a blessing to others as well. It is important to take the time to carefully consider God’s Word and humbly trust in Him.
Pastor Bartel