We are indeed blessed with our musicians and
Roger Dell leading our worship.
You have your Bibles turned with me to Ephes
ians chapter number five, verse number 25.
Men, we've come to round two in our exposition
of these verses,
that the Word of God instructs us on how we
are to love our wives. And if you didn't see
last week,
I encourage you to go back so that you can get
the fullness of all both the messages together
.
A whole lot has been written about and I even
covered this in the two messages to the wives
about the tragic impact of the leftist
feminist movement of our society in our
society. It really
has in so many ways negatively impacted not
only marriages, it's devastated families,
it's really destroyed individual women. It's
created chaos in our land on both social and
moral
levels. It's clearly an assault on God's
design for the family and for the general
happiness and the
prosperity of mankind. It's one of the
strongest, most influential planks of the Marx
ist foundation
of the American political left. And yeah, I
say that straightforwardly because that's
where we're at.
Most of the preachers in our nation would
never even owe that sentence, but I will.
It's really impossible for me to speak too
strongly against the leftist feminist movement
in our land. But at the same time, while it is
good and it is right for me to point these
things out on the female side, we cannot
ignore, especially here in this current time
period,
the abject failure of men in our country. And
specifically what I'm referring to is the
failure
of men to follow and fulfill their
responsibility as God has designed their
responsibility
in His word. So many men in our society at
this time have become weak and soft and effem
inate.
Many pastors have as well across our land. And
I can tell you as a pastor, there is nothing
more
that makes me sick to my stomach to watch
these videos online of these weak, woke, soft,
effeminate
pastors. It makes me angry to watch them. They
're leading people so astray they should go do,
go sell insurance, go do, do anything else.
Don't do this is what I feel when I see that.
But
they have perverted really both in the pulpit
and out these men who are like this,
the role that God has intended for them as
laid out here in His word. You think about it
when
things go wrong on a football team. At some
point, what happens? The coach gets fired,
right?
Why? Well, because he's the leader. And
ultimately, ultimately, though everything
is in his fault, the success is his
responsibility. Why? Because he's the head
coach. When profits
drop seriously in a corporation, it might not
all be the CEO, but who ultimately gets
replaced?
The person at the top, that's the nature of
leadership. And when it goes in business,
even in the church, right? That is true. The
leader bears the responsibility more than
anyone else
for the success and the failure all throughout
society and for sure in the home. As we're
going
to learn today, the buck stops with the
husband. The buck stops with the father. And
by God's design
and by God's will, which is clearly laid out
in scripture, the man is the head of the
household.
He is the leader. He is ultimately the one who
is the most responsible for the success of the
marriage, for the success of the family, and
for the the well-being of everybody involved
in the
house. So for all the things that absolutely
must be said about the leftist feminist agenda
in our nation, we also cannot ignore the issue
of male irresponsibility and the failure of
men
to live up to their calling as the spiritual
heads of their households.
Where are the strong, masculine husbands today
in our nation? How in the world, as a dad,
do you show up to your daughter's soccer game?
And on the other team across the field
is a six-foot-tall mentally ill boy who is
pretending to be a girl and he's suited up
to get ready to play on the girl's team. And
how do you not, at that moment, as a dad,
get up out of your seat and go down on that
field and wreak so much havoc that the police
need to be called? How do you not do that as a
dad? Give me that opportunity and watch what
happens.
It's sickening. And time and time again in
recent years at athletic events all across our
country,
when that scenario has been played out, weak,
woke, pathetic, so-called men have sat in
their seats
and not said a word about it. It makes me
angry. They want to be nice. They don't want
to cause
trouble. But let me tell you, that's some
righteous trouble right there that needs to be
undertaken.
And so we have so-called men all over our
country
doing all that they can do to fight against
what I thank God that we have a strong
masculine president
who's done all that he can against this whole
agenda and men that are trying to stop it,
what he's doing. Where are the men who are the
backbone, the solid framework of structure
upon which you can build a solid marriage and
a solid family and a society? Well,
I can tell you this, a bright spot as of late.
One of the few places you will find this is in
the
Reformed churches in our land, not in the Re
formed churches that have gone woke, and there
have been
a number of those, sadly, but there has been a
resurgence in this understanding, and some
have
taken the lead on this. At our men's meeting
that we have once a month, I posted last time,
and I'm going to probably do this forever now,
making masculinity in the church great again.
That's what we're trying to do at our men's
meeting, because the church has been infected
with this weak, pathetic, effeminate kind of
bandhood, and it has to be reversed.
For the most part in the world, and even with
professing Christians,
the majority report for men in our society
finds men who have put at their highest
priority
their own personal agendas outside of the home
, their own personal goals, pursuing their own
achievements. Primarily, they live in a world
mostly that's isolated from time with their
families.
They spend way too much time out of the house,
way too overactive in pursuing their careers,
seeking promotion, seeking prestige, seeking
respect, really mainly from people who are
outside of their own home, and don't get me
wrong, a man needs to work. A man needs to
work hard.
If a man doesn't work hard, he ought not eat,
right? He needs to work in such a way with a
motivation as a Christian to bring glory to
God with his work. There's nothing wrong with
making
plenty of money if you're good at what you do.
That's part of your role, men, as to be a
provider
for the family, but when your relentless,
aggressive pursuit outside of the home of
worldly
success is coupled with inside the home being
passive, being indifferent and irresponsible
inside the home, that is where we run into
major problems in our families. I'm going to
read a
letter sent by a lady to John MacArthur, and I
'm not going to read all of it for time's sake,
but just enough for you to get a practical
example of what I'm talking about. She wrote
this,
"The kids are in bed. There's nothing on TV
tonight. I ask my husband if he minds if I
turn
off the tube. He grunts. As I walk to the set,
my mind is racing. Maybe, just maybe, tonight
we'll
talk. I may have a conversation that consists
of more than my usual question with his m
umbled one
word answer or more accurately. No answer at
all. May I interject something he dare not do
at work
if he wishes to climb the ladder of his
success?" She goes on, "Silence. I live in a
world with
continuous noise, but between him and me,
silence. Please, oh God, let him open up. I
initiate once
again for the thousandth time my heart pounds.
Oh, how can I word it this time? What can I
say
that will open the door to just talk?" I don't
have to have a deep, meaningful conversation,
just something. As I open my mouth, she goes
on, he gets up, goes to the bedroom. The door
closes
behind him. The light showing under the door
gives way to darkness, and so does my hope.
I sit alone on the couch. My heart begins to
ache. I'm tired of being alone. Hey, I've been
married
for years. Why do I sit alone? The sadness
undergoes a change slowly,
then with increased fervor, I get mad. I am
mad. I am sick and tired of living with a s
issy,
a wimp, a coward. You know he's afraid of me.
"Hasta, you say? You better believe it. I'm
sick
and tired of living in a world of passive men
." Then she continues in her letter, "My two
sons
like sports. They're pretty good. It could be
a lot better if their dad would take a little
of his
precious time and play catch with them. I'm
sorry, catch once a year at the church picnic
doesn't
quite make the boys into great ballplayers,
but dad's too busy. He's at work. He's at the
health
club. He's riding his four-wheeler. He's
working on the car. He's playing golf. He's
tired. He's
watching a movie. So who plays catch with the
boys? Me." My husband says, "You shouldn't be
playing men
sports, so who's going to do it?" He says he
will, but he doesn't. Remember, he's too busy
satisfying himself doing what he likes. So my
poor sons have to be second rate in sports.
It could have been good, really good. She goes
on. It's a lot longer, but you get the picture
, right?
Here's the killer in the letter. She writes, "
My husband's father did the same number on him.
Didn't hug him. Didn't take him to anything.
Let alone watch his baseball games.
And he hates his father. And now my husband's
doing the same thing."
That and scenarios very similar in varying
degrees are being played out
in millions of homes across our country right
now. Right this very second.
And we can give some explanations, both soci
ologically and even historically. And I went
and read up on all of that. And I debated
giving you those in this message, but for time
's sake,
I'm just going to get right down to the issue
of the explanation for the breakdown of male
leadership
in the home. And it is the fact that so many
men no longer obey the word of God. Period.
When this country was founded, and this is the
historical aspect,
90, over 90% of the men were Christians and
they did strive to live obediently,
the majority of them, to the word of God. My
health things have changed. Now men don't.
In fact, throughout our society, most men
right now have no idea what the word of God
says about
this. And when they do find out, they're not
interested in following it. There are so many
passive and indifferent and weak men in the
home who out there in the world, oh, they're
strong and
aggressive out there. But it would come to
their families. They have abandoned the
responsibility
to their wives. They have forfeited their
character and they have really forfeited what
true manhood actually is and so doing. They
have abandoned their role of leadership.
And what do you expect out of all that but
chaos and dysfunction in the family? What more
could
you expect? So what do we do about this
Christian man? To be the man of God that God
wants you to be,
you need to start with getting a grip on the
responsibility that you have for the physical,
emotional, and spiritual well-being of your
wife and of your family. That's where you
start.
And also added to that, the physical
protection, strength, life-long provision, and
support
that makes up all of this, what male headship
is all about. There's nothing mystical about
this.
This is very, very practical, real manhood,
real leadership for men has to start in the
home. This
is far more important in the big picture than
any measure of success that you might have in
your
career. Now let's go back to our text. Ephes
ians 5, 25. "Husbands love your wives." Ephes
ians 5, 28.
So husbands also to love their own wives as
their own bodies. Colossians 3, 19. "Husbands
love your
wives and do not be embittered against them."
Do you think the Apostle Paul is trying to
tell us
something, man? We talked about this last time
. You love them with no mixture of
disappointment,
frustration, or embitterment. Go back and
listen to that first sermon I did for the
details on that.
The word love, if you scan, if you've got your
Bible open, is used six times from verses 25
to
33. And that first statement gives us our
number one responsibility, men. Love your wife
.
And not the way the world loves. As we saw
last time, verse 25 gives us the how we are to
love
our wives as Christian men. Look at it again,
verse 25. "Just as Christ also loved the
church,"
and there's the important word, "gave himself
up for her." Also remember last time we
learned from
Peter that we are to love our wives in an
understanding way and grant her honor as
fellow
heirs with the grace of life. Go back and look
at that again for detail. Men, the most
important
reality here is Christ's example, right? How
did Christ love the church? He gave sacrific
ially.
That's how we are to love our wives. That was
point number one. Then we said our love for
our
wives number two is to be a purifying love.
And we saw again the greatest example of Jesus
looking
verses 26 to 27. So that he might sanctify her
, that means the church, for example, having
cleansed
her by the washing of water with the word that
he might present to himself the church in all
her
glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such
thing, but that she would be holy and blam
eless,
which is our example on leading our wives
spiritually in the same direction that we are
going in the Christian life. Growing in grace,
growing in spiritual maturity, growing in this
process of being conformed to the image of
Christ, the same thing that Christ is doing
with the church,
the same thing that He's doing with us is the
same thing that we are about to be doing
with our leading our wives spiritually. It all
works together. Now let's go to number three.
Our
love is to be a caring love. Verse 28. So
husbands ought also to love their own wives as
their own
bodies. Now, what does that mean? Well, it's
very simple, guys. We take care of our own
bodies,
right? I mean, you got up this morning and you
probably ate breakfast. And if you got here
early
and up, you ate some more breakfast and we're
so thankful to Christy and all you who
provided
the pastor appreciation brunch for us. You
brushed your teeth. I hope you did. You calmed
your hair.
You did all the things necessary, didn't you?
To yourself to get yourself ready to come to
church.
And so the issue here in verse 28 is to give
attention to meeting needs.
We are called to treat our wives with the same
preoccupation that we give to ourselves.
Look down at verse 31 real quick, which is a
quotation from Genesis chapter number two.
You need to know something, married man. When
you got married, you became one.
So in a sense, you are one body with your wife
. So when Paul says verse 28, husbands ought to
also love their own wives as their own bodies.
You want to remember this. When you got
married,
you became one body. And if her needs are met,
your needs are met. If her needs are not met,
believe me, it won't take you too long into a
marriage to realize that your needs won't be
met either. So you are to give her the same
care that you give to yourself. You take care
of her
as if she were you. Like you take care of
yourself because you are one in indivisible on
eness.
You are inseparable. The old sayings we repeat
all the time are true. Happy wife, happy life.
Right? If mom ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.
Right? You want to be a happy husband, men?
Have a happy wife. And we can really ramp this
up next to the most intense reality that we
have
to deal with. If your wife is a Christian,
guess what, man? She's not only one with you,
but she's also one with Christ as well. And in
light of that, you better be careful how you
treat her. Matthew 18, Jesus is talking about
how we handle one of the little ones. But in
context there, he's not just talking about
little children. He's talking about believers.
How do I
know that? Well, he says, unless you are
converted and become like children, then he
says you will
not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever hum
bles himself as this child, that's the context
there,
as this child like children. So that means if
you treat another believer wrong or cause them
to
stumble, he says, better for you to have a
millstone hanging around your neck and to be
drowned in the
depths of the sea. That's what Jesus says. And
that goes for your Christian wife, too, men.
She is also a child of the king. So you better
be careful how you treat her. You treat her
like you treat yourself. Verse 29, "For no one
ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and
cherishes it." Don't fall for humanistic
psychology that says your problem is you just
need to love
yourself. You just need to work on your self-
esteem. Just think about how right the Bible is
.
Our problem is not that we need to learn how
to love ourselves. Our problem is we love
ourselves
too much. That's our problem. It's the
complete opposite. We are naturally selfish
creatures
and self-loving. And the Bible comes against
that and says, no, you need to learn how to
die to
yourself is what you need to learn. You need
to learn how to kill that selfish, self-loving
bit that you have in your flesh. That's what
you need to work on. Complete opposite of
therapy
and psychology. That's why verse 29 says it, "
For no one ever hated his own flesh." What does
he do
with it? Nourishes it and cherishes it. That's
the right diagnosis. And then look next, just
as
Christ also does the church. Husbands, we are
to nourish and cherish our wives just like
Christ
does the church. You are one flesh with your
wife, husband, and you must take care of her
as you do
yourself. That's how Christ cares for the
church. You know what he does? He meets the
church's needs.
Look at Philippians 419, "And my God will
supply all your needs according to his riches
in glory in
Christ Jesus." God will meet all your needs in
Christ Jesus. Is there any Christian up in
this
room who can say, no, he doesn't. You'd be
lying if you said that. You know that.
And notice it doesn't say all our wants. Like
the pastor said, I just want a Cadillac
church. Can you get it for me? In Jesus' name.
No, it's all our needs.
What did Jesus say? "Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and all these things will be added unto
you."
That's needs that he's talking about. So if
you want your marriage to be blessed,
take care of your wife and meet her needs.
Something is seriously wrong when a man only
sees his wife as a cook, a housekeeper, a
housekeeper, a babysitter and a partner in the
bed.
Something is seriously wrong with that picture
. That attitude right there keeps a cauldron of
dysfunction bubbling up under the surface and
there are regular continual outbursts of
conflict
in that type of situation that's played out on
a regular basis. So the husband is to care for
the
wife as Christ care for the church. Verse 30,
"Because we are members of his body."
He does it because we are one with him. Men,
we need to do it with our wives because we are
one
with them. That's the point. 1 Corinthians 6-
17, "But the one who joins himself to the Lord
is one
spirit with him." And he cares for us because
we are one with him. That's the picture, man.
That's the beautiful picture of how we are to
care for our wives because they are one with
us.
Notice how God weaves all these pictures
together so perfectly in the Bible. To think
that man could
have put all this together in this book like
this, it's just pure folly to think that.
Where this is not being lived out, let me tell
you, it can make for quite a miserable
marriage
for sure. Number four, "This is an unbreakable
love." We're talking about verse 31, again a
quote
from Genesis 2-24, "For this reason a man
shall leave his father and mother and shall be
joined to
his wife and the two shall become one flesh."
Now, the primary reference of one flesh, of
course,
is to the physical, sexual union of husband
and wife. And it is that for sure, but beyond
the
intimacy of the physical relationship, it's
really, as I've been saying, it includes
everything
about our life together as a married couple,
being one in all things. God's design going
all the way
back to the beginning in Genesis, is that a
man and a woman leave their respective
families and
come together as one in every way that there
is to come together. They become one flesh and
they
cling to one another. This oneness is intimate
, it's unique in all relationships and it's
personal.
Individual identity is to be lost when we get
married. God's design is that you become a new
person co-mingled with your spouse. And as I
read at the weddings, every time I do a
wedding,
what God has joined together, let no man put a
son. That's why God hates divorce,
because divorce severs that indivisible
relationship that he designed from the very
beginning.
I told you last time I'm a pastor, but me and
Christie back there are a team at doing this
in every way possible that you can imagine.
When we are not at our day jobs, if you
followed us
around, not only would you be entertained most
of the time, you will rarely find us apart
from one
another outside when we're working our day job
. Where you see me most of the time, you're
going to see
her. Most of the time when you don't see me,
if you see her is when she is shopping.
Because I just can't wrap my mind around five
hours of walking around without a goal being
accomplished at all, like nothing, you didn't
get anything. And even when I try to go
shopping to
take her, it's not long before, I don't even
have to say a word, you're making me nervous.
I didn't even say anything, I'm just trying to
go along with this unaccomplishable goal that
we're trying to reach, right? But when you see
me, you're going to see her, we're a team,
we're together, we're inseparable in that way.
You'll notice the word leave in verse 31. It's
a
very intense word here, it means to leave
behind, to abandon, literally to leave. And
that's some advice that all young couples who
have need when they first get married,
they've started to cleave as the new King
James says, but they've forgotten to leave,
which is very helpful advice. The word joined,
cleave in the old King James, mean to be glued
to.
That's what you are supposed to be to your
wife, man. You come together to stick,
you come together in the oneness of physical
union, which incorporates oneness of mind,
oneness of purpose, oneness of heart, oneness
of emotion, and then you enter into the most
private, magnificent, intimate, personal
relationship that God has ever designed.
That is a husband and wife. And what if a
Christian man gets to the point of questioning
what would happen? I'm so sick of her if I
divorce my life without a biblical cause.
All the same thing that would happen with a
Christian woman. First, you'd be in direct
violation of the word of God. And that is not
a good place for a Christian to be,
because that invites the chastening hand of
God upon your life.
And if you would consider those two things and
you'd still pull that trigger, you know what
that tells me? You have reached a point where
you are either so sinful in your own life that
you
are the one at fault because you have alien
ated your spouse, or you have just ceased to
understand
how to forgive. We talked about that last time
. Let me tell you, if there is a regular
pattern of
unforgiveness in a marriage, it just accum
ulates, and accumulates, and accumulates, and
it builds,
and it builds up this wall of bitterness that
is built between the two spouses that is
really
extremely hard to break down, especially when
it's been done over years and years of time.
How many times a day does the Lord forgive you
, men, all day, every day? That's the answer.
And yet his love never changes, does it? It
never wanes. You're still his chosen. He's
still going
to bring you to glory when you die. How many
times are we to forgive each other? Peter
asked
that. He said, Lord, how many times do we
forgive? We forgive seven times? What did
Jesus say? Seventy
times seven. If you don't get used to
forgiving one another, let me tell you
something. Tough
sledding, your marriage is going to be real
tough sledding because we're sinners bumping
into one
another all the time regularly. So, men, you
love your life with a sacrificial love, a pur
ifying
love, a caring love that nourishes and cher
ishes her. You love your wife with an unbreak
able love
that just keeps forgiving and forgiving and
forgiving and forgiving. And here are some
advice for young people that you can pass on.
And really, this is a warning.
And most of us, we can pass this to many young
people that we come to or in our families or
in
our friends, really choose wisely who it is
you're going to marry. I heard Vodibachem,
God rest his soul, said to young ladies this,
"If you have not found a man whose godliness
is something that you want, shepherding your
children, do not marry him. No matter his
looks,
no matter his money, no matter his status."
And for sure, don't think you're going to
convert him
into being that kind of man. Consider no other
kind of man.
And you don't have to worry about that.
Consider no other kind of man other than a man
whose godliness
is already evidently, evidently very clearly
in place because only God converts sinners.
There's never any guarantees, never. And young
man, the same is true when considering a wife.
If she doesn't possess a godliness that you
want first and foremost and being a mother to
your
children, run. You know, I have anything to do
with her. You can pass that along. Most of us
are
not young in here anymore, right? So, I'm
giving you some advice to pass on. This has to
be far
in a way an absolute prerequisite or they
shouldn't even be considered spouses.
Now, next, let's talk about the motive, verse
32. This mystery is great, but I'm speaking
with
reference to Christ and the church. So, I mean
, why? Why should we love our wives like this,
sacrificially, purifying, caring, unbreakable,
relentlessly forgiving, never becoming emb
ittered?
The motive? It's because of the sacredness of
marriage. It's because of what marriage means
to God. Who it means so much to him. He instit
uted right there at the very beginning.
Marriage is
a mystery and a marriage among Christians.
What it is, is it's a picture of Christ and
the church
in the New Testament. What is a mystery? A
mystery identifies something hidden in the
past and
revealed in the New Testament age that's
revealed in the Scripture. And marriage is a
sacred reflection
of this magnificent mystery of the union
between Christ and his church, which was
completely
unknown in the Old Testament and not revealed
into the New Testament. And guess what? We
should be in
all of that mystery. And then one final word,
verse 33. And this really just reviews
everything.
Verse 33, "Nevertheless, each individual among
you also is to love his own wife, even as
himself,
and the wife must see to it that she respects
her husband." And as an aside, ladies, I'm
going to
tell you one way to cause absolute, sure
guarantee problems in your marriage is to
disrespect your
husband both in private and in public. I can
promise you that. And I'm telling you this
because it's
just the way that we are wired that a man
being disrespected, especially in public, is
such a
big deal to us. That's how we're wired. A lot
of marriages break up after the kids have left
the
house. A lot of us here in that situation
where the kids have long left the house, think
about it.
Just think about how it goes. All that energy,
all that time and sacrifice, all those years
that
you put into raising those kids, all those
challenging years, every one of the different
seasons of a child's life is very challenging
in its own ways. Infancy, toddler, elementary
school,
the dread of middle school and high school,
homework, all the things, all the weight of
the rent, running around like an Uber driver,
the sporting events, all of your energy
together and
focus so many years, pour it out on those kids
, trying your best to put them in the best
position
of possible for adulthood, the tears, the joys
, the hollering, the loving, the laughing. It's
just
all such a roller coaster and then one day all
of a sudden they're gone unless they come back
.
But at some point they're gone and it's just
you two and everything's quiet.
After all those challenging, insanely busy
years and what should be a second honeymoon,
many times results in complete collapse. You
know why? Because when it's just you two,
all those years you did it mostly your own way
. And now there's no foundation and the bond
has
real, really no strength to it because you
weren't doing it God's way between you two,
you were just doing everything for the kids.
But, for example, as we talked about last time
,
if you haven't kept that list of offenses that
we talked about,
if there is no such list of offenses between
you, if you are as good at forgetting sins and
failures
as God is as good at forgetting your sins and
failures, if you have cultivated men a sacr
ificial
love for your wife, purifying, caring, unbreak
able, guess what? In that moment when it's just
you
two, you will be rewarded. You've built a
solid foundation through the years while
dealing with
all the challenges of raising children and it
can be and it should be the best of times
because
that's how God designed it to be. It's really
sad when it declines like that. Listen to this
excerpt
from an old article. You remember the Saturday
evening post?
This article is called The Seven Stages of the
Married Cold. Stage one! First year of
marriage.
Sugar, I'm so worried about you. You've got a
sniffle and there's no telling about such
things.
I'm going to put you in the hospital today for
a general checkup and some rest. I know the
food's
lousy at the hospital, so I'll have your meals
catered and I've already enraged it with the
floor
superintendent. Year two. Listen, darling, I
just don't like the sound of that cough and I
called
Dr. Miller to rush over here. Now, you go to
bed like a good girl, please. Year three.
Maybe you
better lie down, honey. Nothing like a little
rest when you don't feel well. Have you got
any soup?
Year four. Look, dear. Be sensible. After you
feed the kids and get the dishes washed,
you better go there and lay down. Year five.
Why don't you get yourself a couple of aspirin
?
Year six. For Pete's sake, stop sneezing. You
're going to give me pneumonia.
Year seven. You know, if you just gargle, you
wouldn't be sitting around barking like a seal
up in here.
Now, look, it doesn't have to be that way. You
hear me? Not in God's plan.
The old preacher Billy Sunday once said,
gentlemen, try praising your wife even if it
frightens her.
For Christians, listen to me. It's never too
late to get this right,
to get this straight. And guess what, men? You
are the head of the household. So if you
don't have this straight, it's up to you to
take the lead. You take the lead in getting
this straight
if it's not straight right now. And that
starts, men, just as we have been learning
with loving
your lives sacrificially as Christ loved the
church. That is where you start right there.
But you have to be straight in your own
spiritual life before you can ever get there,
right?
But I promise you, I don't care where you're
at in your marriage or how long you've been
married,
you need to get this thing rebuilt. That's the
foundation of rebuilding the whole thing.
Love your wife as Christ loved the church. And
really again, it all comes down to this.
Period.
Are you going to do things God's way or are
you going to do things your way?
Which way Christian man? That's what it comes
down to. Never forget we have limited time to
get
this figured out. And the clock is ticking.
Let's pray. Amen. We thank you for this
instruction.
Indeed, no one is more convicted than me. We
should all stand convicted because we're all
sinners saved by grace, but sinners still. We
have peaks and valleys. We have successes and
we
have failures. And what I want to pray right
now for is especially for the husbands in this
room,
or wherever we are falling short and failing
in this area that what we've heard and learned
here
today from your Word would be used in such a
way that we would make application by
beginning to ramp
up with loving our wives as Christ loved the
church. And as we went through the thing with
the ladies in the previous verses, that they
would be subject to us just as they are to
Christ.
Well, this is practical instruction. You have
designed a way which is not the world's way.
It's completely opposite of the world's way.
It is never given in any type of
man-centered secular therapy, nor should it be
. It's your way. So help us, Lord, to be
convicted,
to do things your way. That our marriages,
though they never will be perfect in this life
,
will be the best that they can be, all to your
glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.