Marriage, After the Fall (a)

Driving home: Holy Bible, book divine, precious treasure thou art mine, mine to tell me whence I came, Genesis 1 and 2, mine to teach me what I am, Genesis chapter 3.

Martin quotes Matthew Henry's commentary on Genesis 2:25 ('No sin in the conscience, no shame on the cheek, no clothes on the back') to vividly describe the idyllic, sinless state of Adam and Eve before the Fall.

I had to chuckle. I had to chuckle when I read this past week Matthew Henry's comment on this passage. They had no sin in their consciences, and therefore no shame on their cheeks, though they had no clothes on their backs. No sin in the conscience, no shame on the cheek, no clothes on the back.

16:34 - 16:57 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin uses an extended parable of a father showing his son a ruined family mansion and then providing a great-grandfather's chronicle of its destruction, to underscore the…

A father shows his son pictures of a beautiful family mansion, then takes him to see its ruins, and offers a great-grandfather's chronicle as the only true explanation for its destruction. This illustrates the necessity of going to the Bible (the 'safe deposit box') to understand how marriage moved from its created glory to its fallen state, rejecting humanistic explanations.

I want you to imagine with me, here's a father who has a good, open-faced, verbally fluid relationship with his son. There's a family secret that he's been waiting for his son to know until he came to years. His son is now 18 years of age. He's a college freshman.

21:47 - 22:07 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first immediate internal consequence of sin is explored: the shattering disruption of marital oneness, previously manifested in unashamed nakedness. Genesis 3:7 is expounded…

Martin describes a son caught by his father looking at pornography, instinctively drawing back and hiding the shameful object. This illustrates the reflexive reaction of a guilty conscience and the instinctive withdrawal that comes with shame, explaining Adam and Eve's fig leaf coverings.

Let me prove this. Some of you guys, you've allowed one of those advertising blurbs that you should never have looked at. Pornography comes from Kmart these days.

32:15 - 32:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Young people, seek to hone your conscience and never marry outside of someone being united to Christ, to avoid hiding from God and experiencing a 'living hell' in marriage.

Martin asks parents to imagine how they feel when their child's face is 'against' them, or when children run out the back door instead of greeting them. This analogy helps the audience feel the pathos of God's experience when Adam and Eve hid from Him after the Fall.

When your child's face is against you. When instead of hearing the front door click and you're coming home from work, dads, and having your kids run and almost tackle you and knock you over, you find they split and go out the back door. What's that do to you as a parent?

39:25 - 39:44 Read in full sermon