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After Every Wedding Comes a Marriage
By David H. McKinley

Message Notes pdf version (1 page)

“Marriage is neither heaven nor hell; it is simply purgatory.”
—Abraham Lincoln

“Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.” —Goethe

“Marriage is the process of finding out what kind of person your spouse would have really preferred.”

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. —Hebrews 13:4 ESV

I. Marriage is Divine in Establishment

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. —Genesis 1:31a ESV

“Marriage is not greatly respected in our postmodern culture. For many, the covenant of marriage has been discarded in favor of a contract of cohabitation. An ethic of personal autonomy has produced successive generations who think of the world as the arena of their own personal fulfillment and of marriage as an outdated relic of an outgrown culture of obligation. Ours is an era of self-expression. Individuals express themselves through marriage, and then express themselves through divorce—as if all of life is nothing more than a succession of acts of self-expression. A divorce culture explains away obligation and sacred promises as temporary statements of emotional disposition. I may feel married today—I may not feel married tomorrow… Some have lambasted marriage as a domestic prison, a patriarchal and oppressive institution foisted upon unsuspecting men and women in order to deny them freedom, autonomy, fulfillment and liberation. And, for a post-Christian culture, there is that nagging problem of the essential character of marriage as sacred institution. A society that disbelieves in God will eventually disbelieve in marriage.” —Dr. Al Mohler

II. Marriage is Total in Commitment

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. —Genesis 2:24 ESV

He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD. —Proverbs 18:22 ESV

III. Marriage is Pure in Relationship

Act of Marriage: Procreation, Communication, Satisfaction

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. —John 10:10 ESV

God himself will judge those who traffic in the bodies of others or defile the relationship of marriage. —Hebrews 13:4 (Phillips)

IV. Marriage is Permanent in Design

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. —Matthew 19:5-6 ESV

V. Marriage is Honored Through Effort

VI. Marriage is Purposeful in Pattern

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. —Ephesians 5:31-32 ESV

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of God and in the face of this congregation, to join together this man and this woman in Holy Matrimony; which is an honorable state, instituted by God in the time of man’s innocency, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and His Church.” —Book of Common Prayer

I Believe Christ is Sufficient for Success in Marriage

“The root of most marital problems is sin, and the root of all sin is selfishness. Submission to Christ and to one another is the only way to overcome selfishness, for when we submit, the Holy Spirit can fill us and enable us to love one another in a sacrificial, sanctifying, satisfying way—the way Christ loves the Church.” —Warren Wiersbe

I Believe Commitment Glorifies God I Believe “Walking Out” Creates Bigger Problems than “Working Out” Issues in a Marriage

“The big difference is that death has closure—it’s over. With divorce, it is never over.” —Rabbi Earl Grollman

I Believe God’s Grace Mends Human Brokenness _______________________________________________

This message was preached from the pulpit of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, on Sunday, April 6, 2008.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®,
copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The New Testament in Modern English (J. B. Phillips). New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972.