As you all know, we're working our way through a series on the Bible and the gender issue. And today we're looking at the third message in this series. The first one had to do with God being the ruler and master of the universe, and therefore having the right to define his creation, to define male and female, and to define the institution of marriage. Last week, we looked specifically at what it means to be male and female and how both male and female contribute to God's overall purposes. Today, we turn our attention to marriage in particular and what that's about. And so for that, I would ask you to turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter two, and we'll begin reading at verse 18 and read through the end of the chapter. So let's hear now the word of God. And as we listen, remember this is God's holy and inspired word. It is without error. It will never be wrong. It cannot be wrong. It's the word of the living God. So now beginning at verse 18, hear now the word of God. And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him and help meet for him.' And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found and help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman and brought her unto the man. 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. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed. And thus we have the reading of God's holy inspired word. On June 26, 2015, not that long ago, the Supreme Court announced its decision in the case known as Obergefell versus Hodges. The highest court in our land ruled that the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution requires every state to allow same-sex marriages and also to recognize the same-sex marriages that are contracted in other states. Now the fact that the Supreme Court ruled as it did presupposes that the justices thought they had the authority to define marriage. Now we can recognize that the state has a legitimate interest in marriage, I think, because marriage does certainly have a social dimension to it. And that's why courts are involved, for example, with the dissolution of marriages, whether the marriages are dissolved either by death or divorce. But this does not mean that the state has the power to define what marriage is. I think from a biblical perspective, we have to conclude that the Obergefell decision was a massive overreach of power on the part of our highest court. Only the God of the Bible has the authority to define what marriage is. And he reserves that right unto himself all throughout scripture. There's not one word you'll find anywhere else in the Bible that says anything else. Marriage is an ordinance of God and that's what we see in our text today in Genesis 2. Now to show that marriage is a divine ordinance and not the creation of the state, not the creation of individual men. I want us to consider just four quick points from our text. So the first thing I want you to see in our text today is that God saw that Adam was alone and needed a helper. God saw it. It wasn't Adam going to God and asking for a companion. No, the Lord looked down at Adam and said, you need a helper. And God defined this very clearly in verse 18. God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. And so even though Adam had not yet sinned, the Lord still had to tell him what he needed. Now, if Adam needed God's word even before he sinned, so he could understand his own existence and his own needs, than how much more true is it that Adam needs the word of God after he sinned. But what did God mean when he said that Adam was alone? Have you ever thought about that? Did God mean that Adam had no one to talk to? That he had no friend to stroll with him through the garden? Had no companion to join him on an afternoon picnic? No, that's not what this is about. Before the fall, Adam enjoyed fellowship with the Lord himself. He had all the companionship he needed in that way. He was in paradise. He spoke to God freely. In fact, the next chapter of Genesis tells us that God visited Adam in the cool of the day. Kind of suggesting that this was a regular occurrence for Adam. Now you see Adam's loneliness was not that he just needed somebody to talk to. It was that he needed someone like himself with whom he could fulfill the creation mandate. Adam was just one person. By himself he was unable to multiply. By himself he was unable to subdue the vast creation that God had placed him in. He needed someone to help him with that. So that's the first thing we see. The second thing we see in our text today is that God fixed Adam's loneliness by making and help meet for him. This is a very interesting thing here. Too often Christians take that phrase help meet as if it were a single word, as if it were just a noun, as if it was by itself a description of Eve. But that's not really what we have here. What we see instead is that the word help is a noun. But the word meet is not a noun at all. It's a combination of a particle and a preposition. And when you put those two things together, the particle and preposition, it kind of has the meaning of like a counterpart. That is someone comparable to Adam, someone equipped to help Adam fulfill his God-given role. Adam and his help would then work together to fulfill God's plan for mankind. And the Lord makes a point of telling us that animals couldn't do this. God brought the animals to Adam, he named each one, but he could not find anyone comparable that would help him further his purposes in this world. But guess what? What Adam could not find, God provided. God provided that someone with Eve. And with Eve, Adam could generate children after his own image. And with the multiplication of children, he could then manage the world along with his children. He could exercise true dominion. Now this is the grand purpose for God creating man as male and female. And Jesus affirmed this unequivocally in Matthew chapter 19. He said, have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? And said for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh. In marriage the male and the female come together to form a unit. They become one in their service to the triune God. There's a third thing that we see here and that is that the account of God creating this help for Adam. also shows that the Lord is the main actor in this story. He's the main person, the main character here. Because you see, it's not just that God said that Adam was alone and needed a helper. It's not just that God made a helper for Adam. But all the details of this narrative show God at work to make it so. For example, how did Adam fall asleep? Was this a natural sleep that he just slid into at night like we all do? No, we are told that God put Adam to sleep, put him in a deep sleep in fact. The only other time that that phrase occurs later is as we see it with Abraham where God put Abraham into a deep sleep in Genesis 15. And in Abraham's case, the scriptures tell us that it was such a deep sleep that it could only be described with the phrase and horror of darkness. That's how deep the sleep was. And so God was the anesthesiologist here. But we also see that God was the surgeon. God opened up Adam's flesh, took a rib from his side, and then from that rib formed a woman. And then God closed the wound as well. Another thing we see is that God took the woman and gave her to the man, thus uniting them in this relationship that would thereafter be called marriage. There's a fourth thing that we need to see here. And that is that God created this marital covenant, not just for Adam, but also for all of his descendants. Verse 24 says this very clearly. It says that a man, that is any man, that is a male, one who is a begetter by nature, is to leave the home of his father, who begat him, and his mother, who gave birth to him, and cleave to his wife, a female, another one capable of giving birth. and they would become one flesh. This is the pattern that mankind is to follow. And this new union, following this pattern that God had just given, of course has the power to ultimately fill the earth. Each generation would keep multiplying. Each generation would be bigger than the one before it. It would just keep going. And we see something very interesting in all of this that is often overlooked today, and that is that marriage is a very unique and special relationship among all the different kinds of relationships that we enter into. For example, anyone, a male or a female, can start a lawn care service and make deals with other people, males and females, to cut their grass. There's nothing wrong with that. But you don't have to be a particular sex to either form the lawn cutting service or to hire someone to do your lawn. And we make contracts like this all the time that involve males and females and different relationships. But the marriage covenant specifically requires that one party be male and the other party be a female because that is the only way to fulfill the creation mandate. No other relationship works. Two men can't reproduce, two women can't reproduce, neither can individuals reproduce who have been surgically altered so that they cannot reproduce. It's not possible. But of course some say that adoption is a possibility and so also is in vitro fertilization and various things of this kind. Couldn't two men or two women just use adoption or in vitro fertilization to make a family of their own? Isn't that just as good? And the answer is absolutely not. All it does is push the responsibility on to other people. Because no matter how you look at it, you still need a male and a female to make children. Males cannot produce eggs and females cannot produce seed. It simply does not happen. And so adoption and in vitro fertilization cannot work without a man and a woman functioning in their divinely appointed roles. Now this raises another question about all of this and that is what does it mean if either the husband or the wife is then incapable of producing children? Is the marriage still a valid marriage even without children? Does a barren woman cease to be a woman if she has no children of her own? Is an infertile man not a complete man? I believe the answers to these questions are actually rather obvious, because what we're talking about here is not the general rule, it's the exception. And these exceptions are realities in this world only because we live in a fallen world. Adam's sin brought God's wrath and judgment upon mankind, but it did not fundamentally affect the created order. Is a blind man not fully human because he doesn't have the gift of sight? I don't think anybody would say that. Is a quadriplegic not a man because he can't walk? Well, no one's going to say that either. And the fact that some heterosexual couples can't have children doesn't mean that they're less human or that their marriages are not real marriages. they are still such that ordinarily, under normal circumstances, could produce children. And so any marriage then that does not include a man, that is a person who is born as a biological male, and a woman, that is a person who is born as a biological female, is not a marriage at all. And what I just said is true regardless of what the United States Supreme Court says. The term marriage does not apply to any relationship other than a male and a female being united together in this wonderful covenant. And as the people of God, we should not dignify any other relationship by calling it a marriage. When we do that, we only cheapen what marriage is in our own eyes and in the eyes of those that we're talking to. And we should not do it because marriage is a divine institution. It's not ours to do with what we want. So what is marriage then? A marriage is a covenant in which a man and a woman vow their lives together for as long as they live in this world. It's a commitment to love and to work together to fulfill God's purposes, filling the earth, exercising dominion over it. And unless prevented from doing so by illness or accident or God's providence, Marriage also includes the raising of little children, little ones who should be taught to know the Lord Jesus Christ so that they can live with him forever. Because ultimately that's the purpose of the creation mandate. And I would say that having children myself that Christian parents have no greater joy than when their children embrace the faith of the gospel. It's like John wrote in 2 John verse four. He said, I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth. That's what we all want to see. It's what we pray for in our children. And every step of the way, we need to rely entirely upon the grace of God to make it happen. We ask God to bind our hearts to our spouse's hearts. We ask God to bless our home with children. We ask God to open the hearts of our children just like he opened Lydia's heart so that they might believe the things of the gospel. Now, having said all of this, We're aware, of course, that the number of individuals in our society that are identifying as something other than straight heterosexuals is on the rise. And I think we're also aware that there are numerous segments in society that are encouraging this kind of madness and wickedness. And so naturally, a lot of questions arise about all of this. What does the Bible really have to say about this? How do we address this issue or that issue? This morning I want to address just a couple of things. One of the most common questions that we hear has to do with love. If two people love each other, why should their sexes matter? Why can't two men or two women express their love for each other in marriage? Why would we say they can't? Well, there are a couple of ways of looking at this. To begin with, no one is saying that two people can't love each other. I think we need to be absolutely clear about that. And that is true regardless of their sexes. This is really a red herring, if you will. We're told in the gospels that Jesus loved John, and that John often reclined upon our Savior's breast at the meal table. Now a lot of people have taken that, unfortunately, to claim that Jesus and John were homosexuals. But it only shows, of course, that two men can have a godly love for each other. But same-sex relationships are inherently not loving. No one can intentionally sin against someone else and claim that he did it out of love. That doesn�t fly any time. Jesus said exactly the opposite. He said, �If you love me, keep my commandments.� But I would also say to this that same-sex relationships are not only not loving, and that they violate the purpose of marriage as it's laid down in God's word, particularly in Genesis chapter two, but they are also necessarily abusive. Hear that, they are necessarily abusive. Why are they necessarily abusive? It's because in a same sex marriage, the body is not used for God's intended purpose. And that by definition is abuse. It's also important to note that relationships can be regulated in society and often are, including various expressions of so-called love. For example, the state of California prohibits polygamy. You're not allowed to have two spouses. It also outlaws bestiality. It outlaws marrying anyone under the age of 18 unless you have both parental consent and a court order. So you see, not every relationship is equal and protected. Not every relationship is right in the sight of God. Another common question focuses on happiness. People say if two people want to be together and they consent to whatever they do, why not just leave them alone and let them be happy? Well, I think the answer to this is also very simple. And that is that sexual perversity hurts everyone. It robs those who engage in it of their own happiness. It robs society. The effects of pornography and non-marital sex and extra-marital sex and homosexuality and the sexual abuse of children are all over the place today. They literally cost millions and billions of dollars. And as they become more mainstream, it's only gotten worse. Pornography used to be something that a person had to go out and look for. You had to go into a bookstore and find a magazine. You had to hope that none of your neighbors saw you buying it. But nowadays everybody has access to it on the telephone, on your TV sets at home, on your computers. Homosexuality used to be an unspeakable thing that you wouldn't even mention in public, much less in a sermon as I've done many times today. But today it has become fashionable. And the biblical view of marriage and sex has been marginalized. Children have been hurt by this. Radicals use the gender narrative to drive a wedge between children and their parents. And it may not be long before parents who refuse to affirm their child's so-called identity will have to answer for it in a court of law. It's already the case in Canada. And women have been hurt. Men want access to their restrooms and their locker rooms. And women have to compete in sports with men who are much larger and stronger than they are. You say, does this really affect me that much? If I see a man walking in the woman's bathroom, just avoid going in the bathroom until he comes out? That's not that easy, really. It does affect us all. And for that, I want you to think of a man in the Old Testament named Lot. 2 Peter 2 says that he was a righteous man. In fact, Peter says that he had a righteous soul. And yet this righteous man with this righteous soul offered his daughters to the men of Sodom in exchange for the safety of his visitors. The idea that he would propose such a thing shows how tormented and vexed his soul had become just by living in Sodom. He had begun to embrace this promiscuous lifestyle as if it were normal. He surrendered to the ungodly culture that was all around him. And what about the happiness issue? Well, how does that fit in here? Well, those who promote gender confusion say that they just want people to be happy. But are they really happy when they do things contrary to God's law? It doesn't look like it to me. I watch video clips of them on YouTube, and overwhelmingly, I mean like 98% of the time, they come across as bitter and angry. and hyper-narcissistic. And the transgender folks are perhaps the worst of all. Transitioning is supposed to solve their problems, supposed to make them complete again by making their outward bodies conform with what's actually inside of them. And yet the suicide rate of those who have made the transition is several times higher than it is in the general public. And it peaks at about the seventh year after transitioning. And interestingly, David Reimer, you may never have heard his name. He was one of John Money's so-called case study victims several decades ago. The case which was the basis for the transgender movement, the foundation for it. He shot himself in the head with a sawed-off shotgun in 2004. Yet Money's experiments on children, which I believe were no less gruesome than those that the Nazis performed on children in the 1930s and 40s, are still touted today as hugely successful. Can't help but wonder if these facts are ever made known in the classrooms of our public high schools and colleges that thrive on lies. And if they were made known, Would it really make any difference now? Then there's a third question. It relates to bodily autonomy. Some people say, but it's my body. Why can't I do what I want with my own body? Well, brothers and sisters in Christ, the reality is that our bodies are not our own. They never have been and they never will be. We confess in the first question and answer of the Heidelberg Catechism that our only comfort is that we belong to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ, body and soul. And that glorious truth isn't something that our sign is made up when he was called to Heidelberg to write this catechism. It's based squarely on 1 Corinthians 6, verse 20, where the apostle Paul says, for ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. We're merely stewards of our bodies. which the Lord has graciously entrusted to our care. And because we've been redeemed by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ on the cross, our bodies are also temples of the Holy Spirit. How can we claim that these are ours to do with what we want? They belong to Jesus Christ. And we especially cannot and should not use our bodies as instruments of sin. And besides that, no one really believes in bodily autonomy. Try going to the White House and tell the guard at the front door that you want to go in and sit behind the desk in the Oval Office. and we'll see how far you get with that. And make sure you tell them, my body's autonomous, I can do what I want with it, and see if that'll help you honey. Or try racing down I-5 150 miles an hour, see where that gets you. Or brandish a gun in a bank or in a police station. You can do what you want to a degree I suppose, That doesn't necessarily mean it's going to work out well for you, you're going to get what you want. You see, I can do what I want with my body is just a fable. It's a myth that's made up by those who want to reinforce their own God complexes. It's a lie. It doesn't work with abortion and it doesn't work with sexual sin either. Now the Lord protects the marital covenant in scripture because he designed the marital covenant with very specific purposes in mind. The wedding service in our directory of worship tells us by way of summary what these purposes are. It says the purpose of marriage is the enrichment of the lives of those who enter into this union. the propagation of the race, and the extension of Christ�s church to the glory of the covenant God. And those things are all true and they�re all very important, but there�s one other thing that I want you to consider this morning before we close. And that is that there is a far more ultimate purpose to marriage than anything I've just said. And that ultimate purpose is to make every child of God, everyone who believes in Jesus Christ, eager for the greatest marriage that will ever be. And that greatest marriage is the marriage supper of the Lamb. Jesus and his church are not the same. He's our Lord, our Savior, our Master. We are His redeemed people whom He has made worthy by washing us in His precious blood. And at His marriage supper, He's going to gather His family together to sing His praise and to glorify the triune God forever and ever. In Hebrews 2, verse 13, we find Jesus himself celebrating his accomplishments by citing the prophecy of Isaiah 8. Our Lord says, behold, I and the children which God hath given me. There's the family of God brought together. So I ask you this morning, As you think about marriage, its purpose, its role in the world, do you look forward to the marriage supper of the Lamb? And if you don't, then I call upon you to trust Jesus Christ today. Ask God the Father to wash you in the precious blood of His one and only Son. It's the only way to know the comfort of belonging to such a loving Savior. So do it now. Don't waste any time. Amen.