The Gospel and Marriage
Tim Rice
July 3, 2019

Ephesians 5:21-33 (ESV)

21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Intro: To you, what defines the best elements of a marriage?

GOD’S MARVELOUS DESIGN
What is God’s design for marriage?

DEVASTATING SELF-INTEREST
How does self-interest ruin the beauty of what God has designed?

MARITAL BLISS … WITH JESUS
Why do we believe that only death and resurrection in Jesus can explain marital bliss, recover it, or fuel it?

YOU CAN PRAY WITH US …
1 - Worship the LORD for being our faithful and loving Husband! Praise Him, Father, Son and Holy Spirit for His heavenly love, that He has revealed Himself to us in the gospel as a loving Bridegroom.

2 - How have you lived for your own self-interests? Confess your selfish pride and sin to Jesus, asking Him to cleanse you and secure you by His work on your behalf – His life, death and resurrection power.Who do you know that lives in the guilt and wreckage of their own will? Pray for them, asking the Lord to make known to them the hope of Jesus’ victory over everything wrong in us.

3 - Give thanks to Jesus for His miraculous love to sinners like us. Thank Him for committing to us at our worst, and for beautifying us by His Grace to transform us “in splendor, without spot or wrinkle … that [we would] be holy and without blemish.”

4 - Who are you closest to who is single and married? Pray for them, asking the Lord to win them to His way of loving: for those who are unmarried to remain chaste, for husbands to lead and love as Jesus does, and for wives to honor their husbands as Christ does His Father.

5 - Pray for the men and women in our congregation that are unmarried and discontent. Ask the Holy Spirit to be their Comforter, and to bear His fruit of patience.