Maleness & Femaleness

Good morning. We're proceeding into this passage again here. We'll be looking at this passage in Genesis, especially 224 and other passages related to it. Continuing on into next week, we've covered The first week that we talked about here, last week, today continuing, and then next week moving on to looking at what this passage has to say about extended families and within each family. So glad you can join us and hope you can take all three of these in.

One of the things I just want to ask, because this is a real critical question, In our culture, it's pretty well known that the odds, if you're looking at odds, for a marriage is about somewhere in the neighborhood of 50% of the marriage making it through, surviving. Does that bother you? Is that the way it's supposed to be?

No. God has something quite different in mind. As a matter of fact, I think one of the reasons we go through passages like this So that we're not just statistics, because God very definitely had something far better than a coin toss in mind when he put marriage in place.

By the way, marriage was created, as we look at this passage, on the sixth day, and it was only when he had created marriage that he said it was very good. Marriage is not something that man generated. It's just a piece of paper. Marriage is not something that man cooked up. It is something that God put in place before the fall. All right, we had presented this slide last week and just kind of quickly reviewing God declared His intent in Genesis 1 and 2 about maleness and femaleness and about marriage.

And so we have passages from both of these chapters. that give us some insights and invite you to take a look at that handout. You can either download it or you may have some additional copies that you can look at. We also had some questions that we presented last week. And perhaps you remember those. We produced them all in last week's handout. And so if you really want to go over those in detail, I'm just going to put them up on the screen. We had some questions here.

And particularly, we'll be looking at the marriage relationship and, yes, singleness in today's study. And so answering some of these questions, Even looking at, is there such a thing as marrying the right or the wrong person? And then, answering questions having to do with, what is male and female? What did God intend? What did God have in mind? What's a real man and a real woman? Now, are you single here this morning? If you're single, that's great. We will address singleness, so be patient.

We'll get there. Fasten your pew belts. We want to just also repeat a warning from last week that nobody should think that I am aiming at you. Just don't even think that. I'm not aiming at anybody. However, as I mentioned last week, the chance that I will say something that will impact you personally, maybe even make you jump out of the pew, is close to 100%. So just, you know, it's all right. We'll be OK. You'll survive it. All right.

Turn with me to Genesis 127 initially here. We want to look at this maleness and femaleness, OK? And the point there, and we looked at it here in the elective right before, God said, let us create man in our own image, male and female he created them. Okay?

Maleness and femaleness are distinctions that God intended from the beginning. It is not some biological accident or some situation where we say, how did I get here? It is by God's intent. He created them at the outset, male and female was his very intent. You may have seen this. We showed this a few years back. Certainly there are distinctions between male and female that become fairly apparent. And so just thought you might like to see that as an illustration.

The expression for male and female is intended, by the way, for this earth. One of the things that comes out in Matthew chapter 22, verse 30, Christ says that in the resurrection, in other words beyond these bodies, maleness and femaleness as a distinction will go away.

Isn't that interesting? It has earthly purpose. It is God's purpose. It is God's purpose. But it has earthly purpose. That's God's intent. And yet the expression of male and female is certainly God's intent. He has purpose for it and reason for it. It's not to be set aside even though it has earthly and temporary purpose. He very clearly intends the maleness and femaleness of human beings to serve his eternal purpose.

God also, and as we see here especially in chapter 2, God clearly intended maleness and femaleness in a marriage situation. That is where it particularly has purpose, and we see that spelled out in Genesis chapter 2. Other passages, we give an example here, 1 Peter 3. God intended also distinctions of expression, maleness and femaleness, in the church. And we won't be visiting that, but that's also another place where He intended distinctions. And also in the general culture. Maleness and femaleness were something that God intended as a distinction throughout.

All right. Now about this leaving and cleaving. We use the word cleave. It's a word out of the King James. And why use that? Because it rhymes. That's nice. So leave and cleave is the word pair. And we'll be referring to that. To leave in the cleave and the new American standard that we typically read from has be joined. Interestingly, it's spelled out for the groom.

Did you notice that? But not for the bride. Now, some folks will draw all kinds of conclusions about that. They're like, gee, let's move in with the bride's parents or something. But no, there is a reason for it. And we want to take a look at what that reason is. I see a few grimaces out there. Anyway.

It is because the groom, the husband, is the one establishing the new family unit as the head. That's what's happening. He is establishing a new family unit as the head. He was in, and this passage here anticipates not just the initial creation, but all the subsequent generations. He was in a household where there was father and mother, and you notice the passage lists that sequence. There was father and mother, and the father was the head of the household. He is now leaving that household to establish his own home and headship. That's the reason why the wife is not also said to be leaving mother and father. It was assumed that that would be the case.

But the particular point here is that the husband is establishing a headship and establishing as that head a new family unit. The leaving is to establish something new. And that's something we're going to revisit next week. the husband and the wife are establishing a new family unit, a new creation, if you will, where they are putting new things in place. One of the things that a couple has the opportunity to do in a marriage is to start out and say, you know, we're establishing a new home and, you know, This was something that our parents did, and that was good, and we'll do that. But you know, this was something they did, and I think we'll do it different. And they have that opportunity, that fresh opportunity to establish a new home together, and something different from what the parents had, and making decisions together about those things. The husband has the headship in that. We'll talk more about what that means. And the wife, as God has created the wife, is a helper suitable. We've made the point last week. We underscored again in this morning's elective.

This word helper is not a minor help. It's not an incidental help. It is a major help. There are places in the Old Testament where that word, the Hebrew word behind helper, is used again, and it's an absolutely essential help. It is a help without which nothing would get done. Both of those are before the Lord, and this arrangement is by God's intent. That is God's design.

Okay? All right. Now, this leave and cleave, excuse me, this cleave, now you've got this question, this cleave, or as the New American Standard has it, rejoined, is a word that meant to glue together intimately so that the two parts acted as one. Got that? To glue together intimately so the two parts act as one.

Here is a picture of Holly Hills. Let's see. This was quite a few years ago. I think this was 1961. If you could look a little closer, there's snow on the ground. About this time of year roughly, 1961. Here is this building in progress. One of the things that you see, because the roof isn't on, is these beams that are over you here.

The reason that that holds up because the actual pieces of wood are skinny. It's a bunch of those skinny pieces of wood all glued together. to make it so that they act as one piece of wood. That's the intent. That's exactly, exactly what this is pointing to. They act together as one. They are glued together and that gluing together is not just post-it notes, okay? This is substantial. Believe me, you don't want post-its notes holding this thing up, right? They are glued together intimately so as to act as one. That's what the word picture is about here.

To cleave has a number of qualities to it, even though it's just a simple word. It has a number of qualities. One is the intention of permanence. It is by God's intent and design that a marriage lasts a lifetime. There's also faithfulness glued to this one. I'll be glued to this one today and then another one another day. But faithfulness is also included in that. Intimacy. There is a closeness that is built into that word. A closeness. And finally a oneness. This oneness principle is one that we'll continue to encounter as we go through the passages today.

This Hebrew word here for be joined and I see that Tristan and Kaylee are smiling. This word Here is used for joined to the Lord in other Old Testament passages. We give you the example of Deuteronomy and Joshua 23 8 Joined to the Lord is exactly the same word and it was used in the Old Testament And in the New Testament, there's comparable terms. This one in Acts 11 is where Barnabas goes to Antioch. This is Antioch in Syria. And he urges and encourages the believers to be joined to the Lord. It's the equivalent Greek word.

To be glued to the Lord. and brought in union with the Lord. So that oneness with the Lord is a perfect example of what is intended, a closeness, an intimacy, a faithfulness, the characteristics that we pointed out previously, and certainly permanence. Now, turn with me, if you would, Genesis 224.

And one of the things we want to point out as we get here is, remember, that the Lord in creating Adam told him, you can eat of all these trees, but don't eat of that one because the day that you eat of it, you will die. And guess what? There are other consequences as we'll study within a few weeks here. There are other consequences to making that choice to eat of that fruit that's forbidden. And that is, you're out of here.

It's an exit option. The Lord did not create Adam as an automaton. The Lord did not create Adam as a being that had to do exactly what God said with no choice, right? The Lord created Adam and gave him a choice because he wanted a being that was not just programmed, because that's not love, not just programmed but responsive. in relationship with him and would choose and the only way to make that happen is to give the option of not choosing him. To choose contrary and therefore exit. So now anybody single in here? Don't worry we'll get there. Okay now how does the husband do the cleaving? How does the husband do the cleaving? How does that come about?

That's where I want you to turn to Ephesians 5, 21-33. That is another passage where this Genesis 2.24 is quoted.

That's in verse 31, but this is one that starts off, "...and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Wise, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of his wife, as Christ is also the head of the church." He himself being the Savior of the body. And Paul goes on to describe there and lay out the comparison.

And it's like this. The relationship between husband and wife has an ultimate eternal model. The eternal romance between Christ and the church. That's the ultimate eternal model. The husband and wife are, for the time the Lord allots here, living out that eternal romance between Christ and the church, that romance that will be fulfilled when we go to be with the Lord.

One other thing that comes up in this passage, and it is also what you see in Genesis 2.24, the cleaving is the husband's place to initiate.

You notice that in Genesis 2.24? It's the man is leaving the home of his mother and father, to establish a new home. And it says the man cleaves to his wife. And here in Ephesians 5, 21 through 33, repeatedly, not only in the place in verse 31 where it quotes Genesis 2, 24, but repeatedly, it is the man's initiative that brings about this cleaving. It is the husband's to do. It is his place. He does that, underscoring it, by telling the husband to love his own wife unconditionally four times in four ways. Got that? Four times in four ways.

The bond between husband and wife is not from a husband demanding that the wife stay close by. There is nothing in the passage that says, husbands, make sure your wife submits. Get her under the thumb. Get the handcuffs out. That is not the bond that he describes. That's not the biblical picture. Should she remain faithful to him, close to him? Yes. Yes. But it is not done by the husband handcuffing her. It is not done by the husband making demands and laying claim.

How does it happen? The bond is based totally on the unconditional love of Christ lived out through the husband. That's how this cleaving takes place. That's how this bond is expressed. Certainly in the ultimate, there is a physical union intended. But the total bond, the total bond is this love that is unconditional, expressed four times in four ways. Now, here are the four kinds. You have it on page one of your handout there. The four kinds of love.

First of all is sacrificial love. This is, as it says right there in the passage, this is the love that Christ had for the church. He gave his life for the church. It's that self-sacrificial love even to the point of death that is the first kind of love he describes.

Now, I have a question, and I want the husbands to respond. So, husbands, listen carefully. Now, I want a show of hands. How many of you men, how many of you husbands to be specific, have expressed that kind of sacrificial love all the way to the point of dying for your wife? Hands up, please. That's what I thought. That's what I thought. Now, guys, you've got to get this. This is important.

Let me give you a for instance with my own life. Here's Nancy and I married November 21st, 1973. It was a lovely year. Two years later, here I am a student at San Jose State, okay, rubbing two very shiny pennies together, okay? And we'd been married just two years, and I mean just two years, when one night we were walking home from having gone out doing some Christmas shopping. And as we were walking, it was a bit dark, not totally dark, but a bit dark where we were walking, but we were real close to our apartment where we were staying there.

Well, all of a sudden, from one of the houses, this Doberman comes running, okay? And the Doberman's running towards Nancy. And as the Doberman's running towards Nancy, I'm looking and the Doberman's snarling and snapping and making all kinds of terrible noise. And so I go running to the Doberman. I go swinging and yelling and all this. Well, as the lighting happened to be, the owner of the Doberman, who was out there, didn't see Nancy at all. All he sees is this crazy guy swinging and screaming and attacking his Doberman.

So anyway, that's as close as I've ever gotten to that kind of love. But a key thing. This was interesting. I said, Nancy, aside from this experience with the Doberman, how do you know that I have a self-sacrificial love to the point of death for you? She said, you know, I just know. And so I said, well, why don't you ask several ladies? And so she did that. How do you know? And, you know, it's interesting. It's a little difficult to get a clear answer to that. But I would suggest this.

One of the ways that this shows up without actually dying is that it shows up in expressions where the husband is doing something that he wouldn't ordinarily do out of love for her. It's not a loss of life, but it's an expenditure of life and time doing something that he wouldn't do ordinarily. for her. A sacrifice of his time in this life expresses that. But the ultimate model is the self-sacrificial love where Christ gave his own life. That's the model of love that the husband is to have for the wife.

A sanctifying love, a love that says, I long passionately to have my bride grow in the Lord. I want her to be growing daily in her walk with the Lord. Why? Because ultimately, what am I doing? I am preparing my bride for the day that she will be presented to Christ. That's what's going on. This is the second kind of love, the sanctifying love. This love that cares so much for how is she doing spiritually? Is she growing in the Lord? Is she learning more and more of the Lord's love every day?

It's that kind of love. And it's an unconditional love. There's a caring love. Certainly, the things that are talked about here have at the minimum to do with physical kinds of things. material support. But it goes beyond that as a caring for the whole rest of her being. And it's an unconditional love. A caring love that says, I will care for you not because of this or that, but I will just simply care for you regardless. That kind of love.

We have the fourth kind, the bonded love, and this is the one that really draws from, and in fact, verse 31 quotes Genesis 2.24 directly. And this is the, I will be faithful to you alone. This is the bond that has the characteristics we talked about. Permanence, intimacy, oneness. It's that kind of love.

Now, these are spelled out in a color supplement that's available in the cabinet to the right, so you can take advantage of that if you'd like, and kind of separates those out and allows you to study them and look at them. Now, the husband is told to be loving his wife unconditionally these four times. Loving her unconditionally four times, as well as the four kinds of love. Both of those are stated. The message is given either directly, husbands love your wives, or by example, this is how you love your wife. This is what it looks like. But either way, whether directly or by example, it's given those four times.

God is the source of that love. This is not an, I love you because, or, oh, she is just so cute, gotta love her. I hope that's there, but that's not the kind of love that this is calling for. This is an unconditional love, not just because she's lovely. This is a love that loves her regardless. That's at the center, at the core of this bond.

As we go from here forward, Paul writing in this passage here, he gives all kinds of monumental insights. We won't have the time to go into the full depth of it. But it tells us exactly what God had in mind. And that's just wonderful, wonderful news.

Ultimately, what does this rely upon? This understanding of the unconditional love that the husband is to have for the wife, four times it's given, and four kinds, four ways in which that's expressed. The ultimate model is the eternal romance between Christ and the church. That's the ultimate model.

We have this marvelous opportunity to live that out right now. And that's why spiritual growth is the substance and basis for the marriage. The spiritual growth of the husband, spiritual growth of the wife, okay? That's the substance and basis for the marriage. That is critical.

One of the things we mentioned that this word that's translated joined, and we use the word bond or cleave, is really a word for glue. And a part of what we can do as we think about the marriage relationship is to consider what kinds of glue has the Lord given us. One of the things I did some years back now, boy it's getting to be a lot of years, I sat my boys down when they got into their early teen years and I said, Remember that that physical union is a part of the glue that the Lord has given you for your marriage. Don't waste the glue. Don't waste the glue. Save it. Save it for the time when you really need it in that marriage. Don't waste it.

Ever run across this? Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus. I would suggest to you, while that might be a fascinating book, that the answer is actually a little closer to home. And it goes like this. The husband is to unconditionally love his wife, and of course we see in those four ways or those four aspects. And Paul says that the wife is to submit to her husband and see that she respects him. I would suggest to you that there is an important key that gets missed here, and let me spell it out this way.

The wife is constantly asking, consciously or not, but constantly asking, does he love me? That's the question she's asking, believe me. Does he love me? And she's looking for confirmation. She's looking for things that say a yes answer to that question. The husband, does he want his wife to love him? Sure. But a key question in his mind is, does she respect me? Those are key questions going on in the mind of a husband. Does she respect me?

And he is consciously or otherwise always answering that question. And one of the reasons why there get to be disconnects between husbands and wives is a lack of understanding of that question that's constantly in the mind. She needs to know constantly the answer to that question, does he love me, as a yes. She needs to be told it many times every day in many ways. Yes. He needs to understand from her, from her communicating to him, yes, she respects me. That's the question he's asking. He needs a yes answer to that. That's the question going on. It's a disconnect in those two questions that's at the core of a great deal of marital strife. Not understanding those questions.

Neither one of those expressions of love and respect are conditioned upon the other one doing something first. It doesn't say, Husbands, love your wife if she's lovable. Love your wife after she has... Once your wife has done this, this and this, then love her. No. It is a direct statement from God to the husband. Love her unconditionally with a selfless love that comes from God Himself. The wife is to submit to and respect the husband, not based on conditions.

Okay? Not if. But he's not respectable! That's not the point. Okay? But she doesn't... No. Okay? Not the point. It is not based upon conditions. It's not if. And that's one reason why marriage is not 50-50, it's 100-100. Because each partner is loving and respecting, not conditionally, but 100% based on God's provision. And that's the key point here. Both are to be done in Christ's strength. It is God's intent that these be carried out, not by your best efforts. God does not want you to try to be a good husband. No. God, especially the wives. But God does not want you to try to be a good wife. He wants you to depend on His strength to carry these out.

One of the things that I could easily ask, you go down the list of these four kinds of love and love unconditionally, and if I ask the husband, do you think you can do that? And if he tells me yes, I know we're in trouble. Okay? Because this is impossible. The sooner you look at those four kinds of love and to love unconditionally those four times, the sooner you realize, hey, I can't do that, the better off you're going to be. Okay?

The better off the marriage is going to be. The wife's going to look at it and say, oh, there's so many times he does things and it drives me nuts. And what do you mean respect him? Submit to him. I can't. It's just, no, you can't. That's very good. Excellent conclusion. Neither of those things, none of what he says in here is intended to be carried out in your own strength. Zip. Nothing. Do not try to be a good husband and a good wife. Just forget it. Don't try this at home, okay? Don't try. It's the Lord's to do, okay?

Now, turn to 1 Corinthians 7. This is following from a few verses later a partial quote in 1 Corinthians 6.16 of Genesis 2.24.

And I want to just tell you flat out here, 1 Corinthians 7.1 that says, Now concerning the things about which you wrote is good for man not to touch a woman. How many of you have heard that that's what the Bible says?

Yeah, that's not what it's saying. It's a restatement of the teaching in question that the Corinthians had written to Paul. The church at Corinth wrote this as a question because that was a teaching that they had somehow gotten there in Corinth. You know what Paul does with that? He immediately, after that, corrects that false teaching and says, not at all.

Don't do it that way. What does he say? Each man is to have his own wife. Each woman is to have her own husband. And by the way, those are imperatives. Must. The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife and likewise also the wife to her husband. I'm going to skip down to verse 5. This is the point that tells you that this is not Paul's teaching. Because what had been happening is they were having husbands and wives that weren't touching each other. And so what does it say in verse 5? Stop depriving one another. Stop it.

So he is correcting what is in verse 1 a false teaching. Not teaching that it is good for a man not to touch a woman. He's correcting a false teaching. He gives further guidance after that, even saying, I personally would prefer that many of you were single as I am, but this is God's guidance. And we'll take a look at that in more detail here. Now, believe it or not, we've got a supplement on that too, okay? There's a supplement on the cabinet to the right as you exit the room.

If you run out of those, please feel free to see me about it, okay? All right. Now, anybody single in here? Guess what? Here we are, okay? We've arrived. Singleness has a place in God's plan. Now, we preface that with this point. The Jews typically thought of marriage and childbearing as commanded by Moses. Why? Right there in Genesis 1.

Be fruitful and multiply. They looked at it as one of their 613 laws. They had 248 laws that said you must do something. The other 365 were things you weren't supposed to do. This was one that it was a positive command. You must be fruitful and multiply. They looked at that as one of the laws that you were to follow.

Jesus, however, corrects that misunderstanding by allowing three righteous possibilities for singleness. And you have it on page two of your handout. Let's go over them one at a time. Singleness is that dictated by a condition at birth. There are some who, by whatever physical condition at birth, where marriage is either impossible or not a good choice. So that would be one. Now, the Jews would typically look at that and they'd say, well, that's a curse from God. The parents must have done something wrong. The second one is singleness dictated by a physical event since birth. He gives the example that they used in biblical times, and that is of a eunuch, someone who was basically neutered by the action of men. It may, however, you could understand illness or injury may also put someone in that category.

But the third one here, singleness as God's gift for a spiritual purpose. That, that was a new teaching. Singleness is God's gift for a spiritual purpose. That's a new thing. And it was something the Jews did not see. What we find when we look at that passage, 1 Corinthians 7, and this one here in Matthew 19, both Christ and Paul said that there was a very personal basis for the believer that he or she should remain single. They each have a harmonious half.

What do I mean by that? Paul said that if one is sexually tempted, and we'll restate that, is not settled and content with being single, then being married is the right thing to do. That's what he says in 1 Corinthians 7. Christ said here that being single is for the one who can accept it. It is their contempt being single.

So very interestingly, it's not like, you know how the turkeys, some of them come with those little buttons that pop out when they're done, you know? The Lord doesn't have some little physical indicator like you get a little red button that pops out on your head. that tells you, oh, I'm supposed to be single.

But it is a matter of checking one's heart. Is this a place in which I can sense that I'm content? Then that's a giftedness. If there is no contentedness with that singleness, then you're not gifted. It's as simple as that. But there is a valid place for that singleness. That's the key thing to look at. There is a valid place. As much as we've been spending some time talking about marriage, and we'll talk next week about families, this is a key truth to know.

And it is a truth that follows, by the way, where Jesus quotes from Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, including this very verse we've been focusing on here, Genesis 2.24. So, every believer has a gift. That's a key thing, and it especially comes out of the 1 Corinthians 7 passage. But the gift is that being married and being single are both gifts from God.

We have the passage from Matthew 19.11 and 1 Corinthians 7.7. Both being married and being single are gifts from God. So this is different from a spiritual gift in the sense of gift of teaching, gift of, you know, helps, gift of service, etc. This is a giftedness of being married or single. Further, God can work in and through the life of a believer whether that believer is married or single.

Now, this may come as a shock. I'm trying to think. I think it was about 35 years ago that Nancy actually heard me say, I'm never getting married. You can't serve the Lord that way. Well, I guess I've got 34 years of real trouble because we've been married that long. I think I said that about the year before we got engaged. Yeah. OK.

Being married and being single, each are God-intended opportunities to be God's instrument. Each one of those are God's opportunity. It's not that, oh, I can't be used of God until I get in some particular condition. No. Each one is God's opportunity. The Lord can use both singleness and being married to teach us. And ultimately, we will, this is a promise from Romans 8, 28 and 29, we will be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, single or married. Or whatever combination of those. Hey, we can count on that. And believe it or not, we've got a supplement on something.

This supplement has to do with this passage Jesus, just prior to what we referred to here, talked about divorce. And he makes a rather shocking statement. Someone who gets divorced causes the other one to commit adultery, etc. So it helps to answer that question. That's another supplement available. In the end, what's at issue here?

It's all in walking and resting and growing in the Lord. The single believer is in the very best place. Where? When? when that believer is walking in fellowship with the Lord, resting in what the Lord has done and is doing in his or her life, and growing in the Lord daily. For a single person, it doesn't get any better than that.

The best choice of a marriage partner. Now you say, okay, who do I pick? The best choice of a marriage partner for a believer is one who is walking in fellowship with the Lord, resting in what God has done, and is doing in his or her life, and is growing in the Lord daily. That's the best choice for a marriage partner. How do I know if I'm ready to be married? Good question.

Now, you will find a lot of people have an opinion about whether or not you're ready, okay? There's all kinds of people who have an opinion about whether or not you're ready. You don't want to just simply rely on other people's opinions about whether or not you're ready to be married, though, okay?

So we won't settle for that either. God tells us about His intent for a godly marriage from the first pages to the last pages of His Word. Matter of fact, you can even go to the last chapters of Revelation and have new things to learn about marriage, okay?

And we know that we walk by faith and not by sight, okay? And by the way, that's not walking around blindfolded. I'm really glad he didn't say we drive by faith and not by sight, okay? What does that mean? It means that we live day by day, moment by moment, based on the truths that he has revealed for us. Faith in the facts. We walk by faith in the facts. The spiritually revealed facts that He's laid out in His Word. Biblical faith is not blind. I never encourage someone to take a leap of faith. Biblical faith is faith in the revealed facts. That's what it is. Not a leap of faith. Faith is always faith in those facts that God has deliberately revealed because He loves us and cares for us.

Marriage begins by both expressing a willingness to walk by faith in those facts. When you say, I do, it's not signing a blank check. Ultimately, it's I understand what God has in mind, what he has in mind for marriage and what he has revealed. And I am willing to walk by faith in those things that are revealed. That's what I do means. Really tiny words that mean a lot. It's faith in the facts.

Once married, the marriage will be best when each one of them is walking in fellowship with the Lord and resting in what God has done and is doing in their lives and growing in the Lord daily. And what do you know? If problems arise in the marriage, Guess what the best solution is? It'll include each one walking in fellowship with the Lord, resting in what God has done and is doing in their lives, and each one growing in the Lord daily.

Isn't that amazing? Wow! We see here, whether a person is single or married, each date is indeed a gift from God. It's God's gift, either one. Whether one is single or married, being joined in that intimacy with one another that is like the intimacy that the Lord has in mind for us to have with Him. That's God's intent.

Intimate fellowship. Walking together. The very best way for marriage partners to come together and to remain together is for each one to be growing in depth and intimacy with the Lord and with each other. Each one of them is joined with the Lord and that glue with which they are joined to the Lord is the same glue that keeps the couple together by which the husband cleaves to the wife. Let's pray.

Lord, as we look at this passage here, you have purpose for each one of us at every stage of life. You have, by your intent, designed it so that there be intimacy, and intimacy with you is but the very best, no matter what state you've called us to be in, at whatever stage in life. And Lord, we pray that you would draw our hearts, draw our hearts to you to walk in fellowship and intimacy with you. We count upon you to carry these things out in our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen.