Sin Against God's Institution of Marriage
Minister: |
Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: |
9/16/2012 PM
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Text:
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Malachi 2:10-13
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Psalters: |
177, 201, 208, 159 |
- The sin.
- There were a significant number of the marriages were with unbelieving mates (11).
- Also (even) among the priests (Neh. 13:28; 10:30).
- They based dating and marriage on carnal lusts, not on spiritual oneness in Christ.
- As then, so today (and even more so) do we live in a world where Balaam’s advice is powerful.
- The world is pre-occupied with the fulfilling of personal desires.
- The pulpit must provide an answer and the incentive to resist these temptations.
- Why does Malachi point out this sin, rather than other gross evils?
- Marriage is a picture of Jehovah’s covenant evidencing God’s intimate bond between Himself an His people.
- Marriages reflect the covenant when we marry believers and when we live in marriage “in the Lord” (I Cor. 7:39).
- By marrying unbelievers and marrying for unbelieving reasons, God’s covenant is profaned.
- The supreme positive reason why God forbids marriages of mixed faiths is that it contradicts the holiness God requires.
- God requires holiness of His people, for He is holy (pure and good in Himself).
- A marriage in the Lord, built on holiness, is one where they go to the cross.
- God responds to these unholy unions: He would cut off those who do it, master and scholar (pupil).
- God viewed it as treachery (10) and abomination (11).
- Treachery is a friend who works secretly to destroy.
- An abomination is something God abhors, loathes and detests.
- They shall be “cut off,” i.e., removed from the experience of the blessedness of His covenant friendship.
- The master and the student will both be cut off out of the tabernacles of Jacob, i.e., out of the fellowship of Christ.
- And their offerings would not be acceptable to God.
- Positively, build your marriage upon the foundation of faith in God, of holiness to God.