I'm going to read Genesis chapter 2, verses 18 through 25. And as we have been going through Genesis and in chapter 2, we've seen that the Lord God formed Adam, that He prepared a place for Adam. He gave Adam a purpose and He gave him a goal. And now in Genesis 2, 18 through 25, the Lord God gives Adam a partner to come alongside and to work with him. So Genesis chapter 2, starting at verse 18. This is the Word of God. Then the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make a helper fit for him. Now out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, This, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh, and the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed." I invite you now to turn to Ephesians chapter five. You can find that on page 979 of your Pew Bible. I'm going to read Ephesians 5, 25 through 32. And in this passage, the Apostle Paul teaches us that this intimate and close union between a man and his wife is a picture of Christ's love and intimacy with us, with his bride, the church. So Ephesians chapter five, starting at verse 25. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such blemish, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies, he who loves his wife loves himself, For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church. But because we are members of his body, 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. However, let each of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Well, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever and ever. Let's pray. O God, guide us by your Word and your Spirit. so that in your light we may see light, that we may see truth, that we may find wisdom in our life and in our relationships, and also that we might live in the way of blessing and peace through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. Well, as we are all very well aware, the biblical view of gender, marriage, and the family is under attack in our age, and this is nothing new. It's been under attack in every age. And all around us, ungodly and perverted pictures of men and women, of relationships and of marriage are are being forced upon us and literally crammed down our throats. And that's the strategy of the evil one is to force feed us, to try to overwhelm our minds and hearts so eventually it just doesn't seem that bad. And we get comfortable with some of these things and they don't seem as awful, abhorrent to us when thinking about gender and marriage and relationships. The evil one is trying to desensitize us to evil. Attacking gender, marriage, and family is just one more way that the evil one is trying to destroy God's good plan for his creation. And at times for us as Christians, this can definitely feel overwhelming. It can feel suffocating. It can feel like the enemy is winning and we can get down and depressed. And when this happens, what we need to do is to regroup. to refresh and to resupply. And that's what we're doing here this morning as the community of saints, as we've gathered to worship our covenant Lord and to be reminded from Genesis 2 that marriage and family is something that God established at creation for our good and for his glory. And as we dig into our passage, it's important for us to remember and think about those first hearers once again of Genesis, and that's Israel in the wilderness after the Lord has rescued them from slavery in Egypt, so they might serve him as a new nation, a new creation in the promised land. The Lord reveals himself to Israel. He wants to be known by Israel. He wants them to know him deeply. He wants Israel to know of his covenantal deep and jealous love for them. So the Lord in His wisdom determined that the context of a marriage relationship is the best way, the most effective way to help Israel understand just how much God loves His people and what that relationship is like. It's through marriage that God chooses to teach the church in all ages just how close and dear they are to Him. and how important and necessary it is to stay faithful and not to turn to idolatry. So as we look at Genesis 2, the Lord is really doing two things for His church then and His church now. He establishes the blessed arrangement. There's your princess bride reference. I wanted to do more there, but that's going to have to do. Your blessed arrangement and purpose of marriage. And he's also giving his people a mental framework or a picture to help us understand what it means to be in covenant relationship with our God. So our plan this morning is to go through our passage verse by verse. We'll be reminded of God's plan and purpose for marriage. That will really take the first three points there, and then we'll briefly reflect on how God's design for marriage also teaches us about His covenant love for us as the very bride of Jesus Christ. So backing up just a bit to Genesis 127, we have a summary of God's creation of humanity. So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Male and female, He created them. And we start here because we need to start here. We need to say it clearly. God created humanity and He created them with two genders or two sexes. He created humanity either male or female, or He created men and women, and these genders are assigned by God. They're not discovered by a person, and people don't get to decide if they want to be a male or a female. The Lord determines this for you, and it's clear enough who God created, a man and a woman, and it's written in their DNA, in their type of reproductive organs that they have, and in other biological facts. And not only does the Bible clearly teach this, but it's evident and observable in what the Lord has made through the animals. Natural revelation affirms this and teaches this as well. But we do know that we need to say this because of sin, because of the fall. Some reject this, and this is sad. Sadly, some struggle with how the Lord has made them. And as Christians, we certainly want to be, and we need to be, and we're called to be of help to those who are struggling with this. But the matter of fact is that God made humanity male and female, male or female, and this is determined biologically, and it's evident at birth. We need to say that. And with this established, now we can move to Genesis 2, verse 18. And see, then the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make a helper fit for him. Now, oftentimes this verse is interpreted to mean that Adam was really sad and that he was really lonely and that he needed companionship. Well, Adam was created for relationship and he certainly desired companionship, but we should view the fact that Adam was alone more in relationship to Adam's calling and his office. See, Adam is commanded to subdue and fill the earth and he was not able to accomplish this task of governing and filling the earth with little images of God. He was not able to do this by himself. He needed help. He needed help to bring forth children. He needed help to raise a family which would build society. Well, the Lord has a plan. He would make a helper for Adam. And now this does not mean when we say helper, this does not mean that Eve was created to be Adam's servant. Like we treat our kids like kids, go get me that thing from the the kitchen or working on the car, go get me a screwdriver. We know it's… By the way, it's faster to just go get that ourselves. We know that. But that's not what's in view here, okay? The Lord also refers to Himself as a helper. The Lord serves us, but the Lord is not our servant. When we think of helper here, we should think more of like the scene from Exodus chapter 18 where Aaron and Hur are assisting Moses, holding up his arms, and as his arms are holded up with his staff, as Israel, as Moses prayed while Israel was in battle, and they were essential in Israel's victory, because every time, if they did not hold up Moses' arm, the battle would start to go the other way, and Israel would have been defeated, so they were helpers to Moses. Adam's going to need the help and assistance of his wife to fulfill God's task and purpose for humanity. He will need the help of a woman to accomplish God's task for him. And we know that when we preach on Adam and Eve, there's always a few jokes here and there, and you especially know I wouldn't be able to help myself. But we're thinking of it, a lot of us men, we know very well that's our wife's role is to help us because they want to help us and they think we need help with everything and that we can't do anything without them. Well, we shouldn't get frustrated when this happens. Because actually, somewhat comically, they're just doing what God created them to do, and that's to come alongside and assist us, and we need it anyway. So, there are a lot of really excellent quotes on this passage. I'm going to put a few more than normal in here. A few helpful thoughts to help us understand what it means that Eve is a helper. Okay? Mark Vander Hart says, the word is not pejorative, inferring a put down for the person called a helper. The word has almost the sense of rescuer or deliverer. The helper is the one who does for me what I could not do all by myself. R. Kent Hughes says, so man's helper would be no weak sister by any stretch of a misogynist's imagination. The New Geneva Study Bible said the word helper entails Adam's inadequacy, not her inferiority, for elsewhere it is used of God. So in our modern language and culture, probably the best way to think about this would be a companion. a partner, a counterpart. I like the King James Version rendering of help meet, because then you have to figure out what that means and really think about it. Adam needed a partner to accomplish the Lord's plan for this creation. But in verses 19 and 20, the Lord leads Adam to discover all of this for himself. He doesn't just tell Adam that he needs this. He lets Adam discover that he needs a helper. Verse 19, now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. Again a good quote, so to prepare the needy bachelor, Adam, God initiated an awareness program, showed him that he would need a helper. After Adam named all the animals and he saw God's plan and design for them, they were male and female and this was necessary for them to do the work that the Lord created them to do. Adam was made aware that he did not have a helper or a partner to work with him. And this is usually how the Lord works, and maybe this is always how he works. God helps us to see our inadequacy, he helps us to see our great need first, so then he can show himself to be our graceful and almighty provider of everything that we need. So now Adam has seen his need. God provided for him, and we get to witness the very first wedding in verses 21 and 22. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman. and brought her to the man. So the Lord God calls Adam to fall into a deep sleep, he performs divine surgery upon him, and the Lord molds and fashions the woman to be the perfect partner for the man. She's created from one of Adam's rib, from his side. There are some beautiful quotes to help us unpack this, but Matthew Henry probably has the best one. Eve was not made out of his head to top him, not out of his feet to be trampled by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved. Adam was to love Eve as he loved himself, and she was a very part of him. And the Lord brings her to her future husband, and immediately sparks begin to fly. We can imagine that Adam is waking up from the best nap ever. a deep sleep, refreshing. He rubs the sleep from his eyes, he stretches, and we can almost picture the Lord saying to him, Adam, I have a wonderful surprise for you, and then revealing the most beautiful and perfectly made woman to be his companion and his partner in his work. And what Adam then says next is often referred to as the very first love poem in all of creation. This, at last, is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, and she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man." Adam views Eve as precious, as very part of him. They are one, perfectly united, and designed exclusively for one another. And this is also clear by the Hebrew words used for man and for woman. Adam says, she shall be called Eshah because she was taken out of Esh. So our English in this case, we're usually saying our English doesn't do a good job of rendering things, but our English actually does a pretty good job saying man and woman. This language then is biblical language. It should be retained and it's poetic. It's a beautiful picture of the first wedding as God is the father of the bride and He gives His beloved daughter away as a gift to her husband. And with Adam, it is truly love at first sight. It is the Lord himself that's the initiator here. It's the Lord that designed and established marriage, and it's the Lord that has designed and established the family. And we learn a bit more about the sacred bond of marriage as we see its intimacy and exclusivity in verses 24 and 25. Verse 24. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." Now, there's three observations we'll make about verse 24 that teach us about about the intimacy and closeness of this marriage relationship. The first thing is that Adam, and by extension every married man here, is to leave his father and mother. This new marriage is now the strongest human bond in the new couple's life. The marital union is now the most important personal loyalty. or the most important relationship outside of a relationship with God. Now the man is required to put his wife ahead of all others and by extension the same is required of his wife. Now I don't want to to open up a group marriage counseling session here. Well, actually I do want to, that's why this is here. But a lot of marriage and family conflict between husband and wife and extended family comes from a failure to realize this first thing. So hear this. It's good for all who are married or who may be married someday to remember this. Marriage forms a new family unit. And now the most important person in your life is your spouse. Your spouse must now be more important to you than your relationship with mom and dad, with brother or sister, with best friends, or with work, or whatever else we might be tempted to put first. Our spouse comes first and is our most important relationship. And also for those of us that have married children, moms, dads, grandparents, brothers, sisters, friends of newlyweds. We must remember this as well, and we must do everything we can to encourage this bond, encourage them to be together and to form their own family unit, rather than being resentful or jealous or overbearing with regard to our expectations upon the new couple's time and life. Second, the man is to cleave or to cling to his wife. He is to leave and cleave or hold fast, as the ESV puts it. Again, this means the husband's first loyalty is to his wife, and leave and cleave or holding fast, this is physical language. The picture is, is that he he takes her in his arms and grabs a hold of her and gathers her up to himself and they become one flesh through sexual intimacy and are contented and they're fulfilled as they emotionally and physically enjoy and love one another. It's an exclusive bond for them and them alone. And it's to be celebrated. It's to be refreshed and enjoyed frequently. And we'll get more into the marriage bond here, the blessings of this that God has for Adam and Eve and for married couples when we look at Proverbs 5 next week. Third, the husband and wife, they're now united together in one flesh. Their life is no longer two separate lives, but one life. The family unit is established for the mutual company, care in tenderness and in love. The union is exclusive and lasts as long as both or at least one of the spouses lives. They belong to each other and only each other until death do us part. This picture of the beauty, the joy, the purity that's intended for marriage is summed up in verse 25. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. The exclusivity and intimacy of this bond is sacred, it's holy, and it's beautiful. And this is also why betrayal and broken marriages and family, why they hurt so bad and why it is such a tragedy. It's because of this exclusivity and this intimacy and this deep emotion involved, this bond. But it's also why it's worth the work of no matter what state your marriage is currently in, it's also why it's worth the hard work of seeking to repair and restore what is broken. Because there's beauty and blessing there. We learn all of this about the bond of marriage from Genesis chapter 2, and we want to move a little bit into thinking about what this bond teaches us about the bond and love between Christ and His church. But I just wanted to review a little bit before we do that. This passage teaches us a lot about the design, the definition, and the purpose of marriage. We definitely see that it's God who's the author of marriage and the establisher of the family, and it's God who gives marriage and family its design and purpose for all of creation. And he also does this before the fall so we know that man and woman, husband and wife, that this is how it's supposed to be. That's why we call marriage a creation ordinance. Our passage makes it abundantly clear that God is the initiator. It's he who acts, it's to bring, he brings about this union of marriage and the creation of the family. God, going back to verse 18, notice all the ways, all the things God is doing. The Lord God says, I will. The Lord God had formed. The Lord brought the animals to Adam. The Lord causes Adam to fall into a deep sleep. The Lord took a rib from Adam. The Lord made Adam's rib into a woman. The Lord brought Eve to Adam. Adam and Eve are passive here. It's the Lord who planned, designed, and instituted marriage. It's the Lord who is the creator, the matchmaker, the florist, the photographer, the wedding coordinator, the chauffeur, the father who gives the bride away, the bridal party, the groom's best man, the officiant of the ceremony, the author of the vows, the witness, and later as we see in the Gospel of John, the distributor and creator of good wine, and so on. The only thing that the Lord didn't need to do in this first wedding is provide a dress and a tux. That's it. So it's clear to us that the Lord is the one who is the author of marriage. He defines it and He determines its purpose. That means that we're not free to change it in any way. Author Raymond Ortland Jr. summarizes what we learn about marriage from this passage. He says, to sum up, human marriage is premised in the making of the woman out of the very flesh of Adam so that the bond of marriage reunites what was originally and literally one flesh. All other relational claims must yield to the primacy of marital union. It requires an exclusive lifelong bonding of one man with one woman and one life fully shared. It erects barriers around the man and the woman. God so joins them together that they belong fully to one another and to another one another only. So anything other than this that we try to use to describe marriage a civil union or whatever other agreements people are forming these days. Anything else other than what's described here is a perversion of God's creation ordinance of marriage and by extension damages the family. God defines and gives the purpose for marriage clearly and early here all the way back in Genesis chapter 2 and he does it loud and clear and there is no confusion. This must be said. Now, there is an additional purpose that God gives to marriage. Marriage is also a picture of God's covenant love and commitment to His people. God designed marriage to be an unbreakable bond in this life. and it's intimate and it's exclusive. So it's in this context then of learning of what a godly marriage is that God's people can better understand our Lord's love for us and the commitment required by us as well. Now we'll bring this out a bit more, this intimacy in Proverbs 5, but for now let me point out that God gives His young church Israel a picture of marriage so they can understand that the Lord their God is their husband and that they are His wife. The Old Testament is full of pictures of God as described as the husband of Israel. And oftentimes when Israel chases after other idols, her behavior is described as cheating on her husband, Yahweh. The words used in our Bible reflect this as they describe idolatry in the Old Testament as they say it's playing the harlot or Israel was whoring after other gods. This is marital unfaithfulness language. This is adultery language that's used to describe idolatry. The Lord wants his people to remember that he and he alone is their loving husband. and that he's also a jealous husband who will not share his wife with idols. Our Lord Jesus uses this imagery when He speaks of marriage and wedding feasts and covenantal love in the Gospels. This language is what we should hear behind Paul's words in Ephesians chapter 5. When Paul speaks of marriage between one man and one woman, and then he can't help it, because his mind automatically goes there. He speaks of how this is a picture of the relationship between Christ and his church. In Ephesians 5 we read, 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'm saying that as it refers to Christ and the church. The church is the very bride of Jesus Christ, and this is a most intimate and exclusive union, and a union where Christ has rich fellowship with his bride as he makes her holy and prepares her for everlasting companionship and joy in the world to come. And that bride is us. And as we think of God's design for marriage, then we immediately also think of our Lord Jesus and his faithful covenant love for us, the church's bride. And so putting these things together this morning about the purpose of marriage, here's what I want you to take away. Marriage is sacred. It's holy, it's instituted by God. God has the right to define marriage and we as Christians must also stand for marriage, biblical marriage and biblical marriage only. Marriage is between one man and one woman for the purpose of serving God, but it's even more than that. Marriage is a picture of our covenant God's love for us. It's a picture of Christ's love for us. It's a picture of mutual love, of union, of a bond, of faithfulness. Marriage points us to a heavenly and eternal relationship of love with Christ our husband. That's what marriage points us to ultimately. And this is why the evil one hates marriage so much. is because it teaches us of God's love and of his intimacy with us. And this is also why we must protect marriage courageously and not let others define it or create alternatives. We cannot be indifferent and let the world define marriage. It doesn't belong to them. The definition and meaning of marriage finds itself in its fruition with Christ and his church. This also means we must do everything that we can by the grace of God to keep our own marriage, beds, and relationships pure, and by extension, all of our relationships pure. Marital intimacy points to the church's union with Christ. It points to something holy, and so we must strive and take great care to keep it pure and holy as well. Since marriage is a picture of God's love for us, that means we must not pervert it in any way. Let me speak plainly as if I haven't already. This means that we do not have any sexual relationships outside of marriage. This also means that we must not pervert intimacy in any way, shape, or form by taking in pornography, It means that we must strive to keep our maritable beds exclusive and pure and even our potential future marital relationships. Marriage is meant to be a blessing, a union that those of us who are married or someday may be married are called and get to enjoy. But the picture of marriage, whether you're married or not, It's a picture for every believer in Christ of God's covenant love and His faithfulness for His people. And we can enjoy that picture. Praise our God for this picture, for the blessings of marriage. This beautiful picture that we have that explains how much God loves and cares for us and how close we are with Him. We know that the Bible, begins with a tree and ends with a tree. But it also begins with a marriage in Genesis 2, and it ends with a marriage in Revelation 19. And we'll end this morning listening to what John heard in the heavenlies about this heavenly marriage feast with Jesus. Revelation 19, that I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of many peals of thunder, crying out, hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And then the angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. And he said to me, these are the true words of God. Let's pray. Father in heaven, as we think about the beauty and the wonderful just design and purpose that you have for marriage, we do ask that you would certainly bless every single marriage here. Those that are not doing well and that are broken, we pray that they would seek healing, that they would seek restoration, knowing that it pleases you to grant renewal. Lord, those who are not married yet but would like to be, we pray that you would prepare their hearts, that they would be patient and content in the current circumstance, but also, Lord, that you would make them ready. Make them ready by serving you and putting you first. And we thank you that all of us, married or single, are the bride of Jesus Christ, and that this reminder every time we read about marriage, think about marriage, witness wedding vows exchanged, that we think of you, our covenant Lord, our protecting husband, who loves us forever and ever. We think of Christ, in his name we pray, amen.