1. Genesis 2: (NKJV)
21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

2. Genesis 2: (NKJV)
23 And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.”24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

4. Defending The Faith
To keep us on our theme, today we want to look at the subject of marriage
One of the reasons why is because there has been such a push in the world today away from the Biblical model of marriage
If people are going to conform to God’s will, they must understand what it is

5. Defending The Faith
One of the newest trends that people are espousing is that marriage is “evolving”
They say that people are moving away from the “traditional” model of marriage and it just looks different today
That encompasses many different things in regards to marriage

6. Defending The Faith Some of these changes include:
Multiple marriages
Same-sex partners
Living together before marriage
Living as married
These are all different from the plan God instituted

7. Beginning of Marriage
Starting at the beginning is a good point to see God’s plan
Genesis 1 outlines creation and Genesis 2 zooms in on the creation of man and woman
Let’s notice verses 18-24…

8. Beginning of Marriage
God had a special plan for man so that he would not be alone
God created woman especially to be that companion
We should notice that God did not create another man, but woman…and we cannot overlook that fact

9. Beginning of Marriage
Notice that God took a rib from Adam to create Eve
Adam recognized this and said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man” (v. 23)
Notice the phrase that begins v. 24…

10. Beginning of Marriage For the reason that woman was made from man…
“a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh”
They were one to start with, God made them into two, now they go back to one

11. Lasting Plan?
Perhaps one could say that God’s plan did not last very long
There was multiplicity of marriages, partners and divorces all through the OT with the Israelites alone
Was that God’s plan, or was God okay with all of that?

12. Lasting Plan?
Perhaps some insight into how God felt about this can be seen in Malachi 2:10-17
The overlying theme is how God’s people have committed spiritual adultery with other gods
In that sense they divorced God and married foreign gods

13. Lasting Plan? Specifically in verse 16 God says, “For I hate divorce”
God hates any divorce, whether it was His people divorcing Him or in a marriage relationship between husband and wife
This passage reads similar to how Paul uses marriage to speak of Christ and the church

14. God Hasn’t Changed
Jesus was asked a question regarding marriage, more specifically the absolving of one’s marriage
Jesus words in Matthew 19 are telling
The original question is whether a man can divorce his wife for any reason at all

15. God Hasn’t Changed
Notice Jesus answers the question in verse 9 by telling them that there is only 1 reason…not “any reason at all”
Jesus starts, however, by going back to the beginning
This tells us that God’s plan hasn’t changed if Jesus is still holding to it 4,000 years later

16. God Hasn’t Changed
God’s plan for marriage from the beginning was for a man to leave his father and mother and become one flesh with his wife
“What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate”
It was also a hard saying for them (v. 10)

17. Man and Woman
In the beginning, God made them male and female (for a reason)
One such reason is that they were commanded to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth (Gen. 1:28)
All through the Bible marriage is always between a man and a woman

18. Man and Woman
If there had been just one example of an acceptable union between the same sex, there might could be an argument for it
Husbands and wives, mothers and fathers are always the words used
This is how marriage was designed and is still how God intends it

19. Fornication/Adultery?
Is it okay then for someone not to marry, but to live with others as a married couple would?
Certainly not!
Fornication and adultery are spoken against throughout the Bible (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19; Eph. 5:3; Col. 3:5)

20. Fornication/Adultery?
Notice Paul’s words on this in 1 Corinthians 7:1-3; 8-9
Certainly Paul understood that if one could not control themselves, then they must become married so as not to sin
It should be a foreign thing to the child of God to live in fornication or adultery

21. Fornication/Adultery?
Hebrews 13:4 – “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled (pure, untainted, free from stain); for fornicators and adulterers God will judge”
The Bible is clear on this subject
We need to be clear on our acceptance of it