Biblical View of Marriage is Vital

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces 1 Corinthians 7:1-7, noting the moral degeneracy of contemporary society mirrors the Greco-Roman world, making New Testament passages on sexual purity highly…

Martin compares the moral face of American society to the first-century Greco-Roman world, highlighting the renewed relevance of New Testament passages on moral degeneracy.

The moral face of American society looks more and more like the face of the first century Greco-Roman world, the world into which... the gospel came with life-transforming power in the early days of the Christian church.

1:57 - 2:17 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Ordinarily, a godly marriage in which a husband and wife are fulfilling their biblically defined marriage, is a marriage in which a husband and wife are fulfilling their biblically defined marriage, is a marriage in whic…

He uses Genesis 20:4,6 (Abimelech and Sarah) to illustrate 'touch a woman' as a euphemism for sexual relations, clarifying Paul's meaning.

Now the key word in the passage is the word touch or the phrase touch a woman. And this is a euphemism for sexual relations. In Genesis 20 verses 4 and 6, if we were reading this passage in the Greek translation of the Old Testament scriptures, we would find this very word used in both of these passages. Now Abimelech had not come near her, and he said, Lord, will you slay even a righteous nation?

8:45 - 9:18 Read in full sermon

Driving home: But you see, Paul understood that there is no virtue in being crude. And euphemisms are the dress of a civil society.

Martin uses the analogy of euphemisms being 'the dress of a civil society' to explain why Paul uses them, contrasting it with modern crudeness.

He is very frank and straightforward. But you see, Paul understood that there is no virtue in being crude.

10:06 - 10:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It is monogamous, heterosexual marital commitment. You see that in the text? It is monogamous. That is one, mono. Let the husband, let the man have a wife. Let the woman have a husband. No bigamy, no polygamy. It is mono…

He recounts reading a New York Times article about an elected representative promoting homosexuality, illustrating the pervasive moral climate that mirrors Corinth.

Be not deceived. Neither fornicators, used in its more limited sense, the sexually impure, that is, those who traffic in extramarital or non-marital sexual relations, nor idolaters, nor idolaters, those who break the marriage covenant, extramarital intimacies, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, various forms of homosexual deviation. These are some of the forms of fornication, pornia in the plural. He says, but because of these various forms of sexual impurity, which in a very heightened, broad way, were part of the very air of current, even as it's part of the air of our own p...

16:45 - 18:02 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains verse 3, 'Let the husband render unto the wife her due, and likewise also the wife unto the husband,' as a command for mutual responsiveness to legitimate sexual…

Martin uses the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18 to illustrate the commercial meaning of 'render' and 'due' as paying a debt or obligation.

Let the husband render unto the wife her due, and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The key words are render and do. And if you were to take your concordance and look up the use of these words as they are found in their various families in the original, you would find that the word for render is render. And if you were to take your concordance and look up the use of these words as they are found in their various families in the original, you would find that the word for render is render. And if you were to take your concordance and look up the use of these words as they are found in the...

24:37 - 25:35 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And as surely as being branded with the cross is the mark of Christ's ownership of you, so those smaller case letters of husband or wife is the brand of divinely conferred authority over your body.

Building on a previous sermon's metaphor of the cross branded on the body, he adds that for married individuals, smaller initials of their spouse are also branded, signifying divinely conferred authority.

And though it is not absolute authority, it is a real bona fide authority. And it is constant. A present indicative is used. Last week, in trying to underscore by way of illustration what it meant for us to think in terms of our bodies being Christ's blood-bought possession, I used the imagery of having the sign of the cross branded upon all of our physical members.

38:06 - 38:35 Read in full sermon

Driving home: In light of this mutually conferred authority over each other's bodies, the unnecessary or unilateral withholding of sexual relations is a form of thievery.

He explains 'defraud' by comparing it to being robbed or cheated, making the point that withholding sexual relations is a form of thievery.

When's the last time you ever used that word in ordinary conversation? I was defrauded. You'd say, hey, somebody robbed me. Somebody cheated me.

39:47 - 39:56 Read in full sermon

Driving home: In light of this mutually conferred authority over each other's bodies, the unnecessary or unilateral withholding of sexual relations is a form of thievery.

He references 1 Corinthians 6:7-8, where Paul discusses lawsuits among believers, to further illustrate 'defraud' as taking property by deception.

Defraud not one another. And it means to take away or withhold property that belongs to another and to do so by deception, to cheat another. Again, it was used in chapter 6 two times. Look at verse 7.

41:04 - 41:22 Read in full sermon

Driving home: In light of this mutually conferred authority over each other's bodies, the unnecessary or unilateral withholding of sexual relations is a form of thievery.

He cites James 5, where wealthy landowners defraud laborers by withholding wages, to reinforce the commercial concept of 'defraud'.

You do it by duplicity and deception and that, your brethren. That's the very word that he uses here. Defraud not one another. The other place it's used is in James chapter 5, where he's castigating James's, these wealthy landowners and employers.

42:00 - 42:17 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin interprets verse 5, 'Defraud not one the other,' as teaching that unnecessary or unilateral withholding of sexual relations is a form of thievery. He outlines five biblical…

He uses the word 'symphony' (from which 'consent' derives) to describe the mutual, harmonious agreement needed for temporary withholding of sexual relations, implying open communication.

Do not withhold yourselves from one another except it be by consent. And that word consent is the word from which we get our English word symphony. There's got to be a symphony of mind. That assumes the husband and wife talk about these things.

43:20 - 43:40 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You're cooperating with the devil to tempt. You're cooperating with the devil to tempt you to sexual sin. That's what he's saying.

Martin describes a 'hyper-spiritual couple' who might forego relations for months, only for the devil to 'nail them,' illustrating the danger of inordinate withholding.

We'll forego relations for X number of months because we're going to prove that we're spirits. He said the devil's just waiting, laughing up his sleeve, and he's going to come and he's going to nail you.

48:22 - 48:31 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Verses 6 and 7 are addressed, with Martin explaining that the exception in verse 5 is a 'concession,' not a 'commandment,' meaning it's a sanctified accommodation rather than a…

He quotes John Calvin's distinction between 'feeling heat' and 'burning' to explain that Paul, though single, had normal desires but also the gift of continency.

Whether he was ever married is debated. But he certainly was a single man. He says in 1 Corinthians 9, Do not weep. Barnabas and I have a right to lead about a wife as others.

51:49 - 51:58 Read in full sermon

The point: If you are burning and not married, it may be because you have not been aggressive in obeying the biblical injunction, being too passive.

He uses the blunt metaphor of men being 'partially castrated' in terms of male aggressiveness to challenge single men who are too passive in seeking marriage.

You are part of a generation of men that in great measure have been partially castrated in terms of normal, wholesome, male aggressiveness. And I know that's a blunt term, but if the shoe fits, choose to change the imagery, please put it on. The text is clear. It's good for a man.

54:39 - 55:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Some of you are just plain too slow, guilty of undue delay in marriage.

He uses the analogy of 'spurs in your side' to urge singles to take the biblical injunctions seriously and not unduly delay marriage.

And apparently they were slow back in the 1600s because when they drew up the Westminster Standards, the Confession of Faith and the larger and shorter catechism, under the Seventh Commandment, what are the ways that we break the Seventh Commandment? One of them listed is undue delay in marriage. People were just moping around and weren't getting with it. Undue delay in marriage.

56:55 - 57:19 Read in full sermon

The point: As a married couple, go home tonight, read through this passage together, and talk honestly before God about your fulfillment of these duties.

He notes that some Christian bookshops now sell material that would have been considered pornography 25 years ago, illustrating the inundation of the Christian world by hedonism.

Some of you have a pattern of turn out the lights and get it over with. That mentality is entirely anti-biblical. As much as the wretched perversion and hedonism that has glutted our society and in great measure has even inundated the Christian world. So the Christian bookshops have stuff that would be regarded as pornography twenty-five years ago.

66:55 - 67:23 Read in full sermon