The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

A GODLY MARRIAGE (1 Peter 3:1-7)

The institution of marriage, as it was created by God, is a wonderful thing.  It is defined in the Bible as one man and one woman choosing to love God first and then each other next.  They work together to accomplish the will of God in their lives.  They are true yokemates working together to please God.  Marriage is something which God has given to the entire human family, not just to Christians or to the nation Israel.  In the Book of Genesis, we are told that God made man and at that time man was alone.  I think the Lord let Adam be alone for a long time to let him know he was missing something.  Then Scripture says that God took man and from man He made woman.  Using the Hebrew words, Genesis 2:23 reads, She shall be called Isha, because she was taken out of Ish.  She is called … an help meet for him (Gen. 2:18); that is, a help that was fit for him.  In other words, she was to be the other half of him. He was only half a man, and she was to be the other part of him. 

In God’s blueprint for marriage, He has assigned roles for both the wife and the husband.  A godly wife was a woman who has a healthy fear and respect of God.  A woman who is obedient to God’s will for her life.  A woman who seeks to fit into the needs of her husband as they work together to accomplish the tasks that God has assigned to them.  She is also a woman who is submissive to her husband.  Now, when Peter says to the wives, Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, it absolutely does not mean that the wife is to be a slave to her husband.  The Bible does not teach that in any form or way.  What is does teach is that a woman is to make a voluntary choice to be submissive to her husband because of her love for God.  The Christian wife, in obedience to her Lord, subjects herself to her husband’s leadership, authority, and control.  She does this because she fears God, because she loves God, and her duty, just like the husband’s, is to be obedient to God’s will for her life.  

Now, this is important to understand, none of this means that men are superior to women or that women are inferior to men.  They have simply agreed to work together with the husband leading.  In the marriage relationship, it simply means that God insists on order in the home.  To establish that order, He assigns the respective roles to the husband and the wife.  There cannot be two captains on a ship; neither can there be two people at the helm in the home.

Godly husbands are to be considerate of their wives.  Men are not to ride roughshod over their wives, bossing and bullying them, ordering them around, letting them do hard labor which is beyond their strength, or making unreasonable demands upon them.  Peter says that godly husbands and wives are heirs together of the grace of life.  This means you both are co-heirs of God’s grace.  You both are saved from your sin.  You both are joint heirs with Christ.  You both are adopted children of God.  You both have been granted eternal life by God’s grace.  The husband and the wife are partners.  They must work together. They have something more than marriage vows to bond them together.  They have Christ. They are heirs together of God's gracious gift of everlasting life.  They are true yokemates.  They should work together to establish a Christian home, to bring up children in the ways of the Lord, to provide a measure of stability to a community, and to be the moral and spiritual backbone of the nation.

A godly husband is to dwell with them according to knowledge.  For a husband to deal with his wife in the way that God wants him to do, the husband must know and understand several things.  First, he must know God’s desire for the marriage relationship.  This means he knows what marriage is and what it is to be in the eyes of God.  Next, he must know his wife.  This means he knows her nature and emotional makeup, what she needs and wants emotionally and spiritually, her strengths and her weaknesses.  He must also know the word of God.  You cannot be the spiritual leader of your home if you do not know what God says in His Word.  The husband has the responsibility to guide the family in the will of God.  In order to do this, the husband must know the Word of God.  It is amazing how easy it is for a wife to submit herself to a husband that is who and what God says he is supposed to be.  

With that in mind, you can see that the marriage relationship is not to be one of a man insisting on treating his wife like a little child who has to jump every time he says so.  She is there to help him. She is there to be a part of him.  She is there to love him. And he is there to love her, guide her in the ways of God, and protect her.  That is God’s desire for the relationship of a man and woman in marriage.  This is how a husband is to treat his wife, and this is how a wife is to treat her husband.  They both do this because they love God first, and then each other next.  

Listen to this podcast to learn what God defines as a godly marriage.

IS IT OK TO GET A DIVORCE? (Mark 10:1-12)

Is it ok to get a divorce? The modern world that we live in would say, yes, when two people no longer want to be married, they should feel free to get a divorce.  Our religious establishments would say, no, the marriage relationship is permanent and should not be broken.  They go even farther and condemn those that do get a divorce and expel them from the church.  These churches treat those who have gotten a divorce as second-class citizens.  They forget that God is a gracious and forgiving God.  Our Creator, the almighty, living, God, created the institution of marriage to be between one man and one woman, and when that marriage is conducted in accordance with God’s will, it is the sweetest of experiences for that man and woman.  In fact, when two married believers have their eyes on God, that marriage is the closest thing to heaven that can be found on this earth. Unfortunately, man allows sin and hardness to enter into that relationship.  Once there, that sin and hardness creates a desire for the two people to separate what God has put together.  Listen to this podcast to learn what God says about marriage, divorce, and remarriage.  Listen to how the Bible answers the question of Is it ok to get a divorce?

WHEN DOES MAN'S LAW SUPERSEDE GOD'S LAW? (Mark 6:53 to 7:13)

In the coming days the U.S. Supreme Court will render a decision that could destroy for this nation God's institution of marriage as that being between one man and one woman.      So the question becomes, when is it ok to place man's law above God's law? It is a fact of history that the founders of our country used Biblical Judeo-Christian values and morals of right and wrong to establish the laws, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights in the creation of our country. They had a strong belief that man's law was subservient to God's law. As a segment of our country has chosen a different set of values and morals that they wish to impose on this country, they have declared that the founder's beliefs are out of date, unenlightened, and do not meet the needs of a new socially elite, and enlightened, society. So they have decided that man's laws are superior to God's laws. They have declared the right to ignore God's laws and replace them with man's own cleverness. Listen to this podcast to hear what Jesus had to say to a nation that made the same choice that the U.S. has made.  Listen as Jesus, the Creator of all things, condemns the arrogance of man to say that man's law supersedes God's law.

THE ORDER IN FELLOWSHIP (1 Cor. 11:1-16)

Has God established an order in His worship services?  What is God's intended relationship between man and woman?  Who is the man's head?  Who is the woman's head?  Who is Christ's head?  These are the questions answered in this verse-by-verse study of 1 Cor. 11:1-16.

TO KNOW CHRIST ONLY (1 Cor. 7:25-40)

The Bible tells us that time is short, and there is much work to be done for the Lord.  What is it that distracts you from focusing totally on the Lord's work in your life?  Is it your marriage?  Is it your job, your friends, your stuff that you have accumulated while you have lived? In this verse-by-verse study of 1 Corinthians 7:25-40, Paul challenges us to focus our whole life on completing the Lord's work.

BEING MARRIED TO AN ALIEN (1 Cor. 7:12-24)

Have you ever wondered if God truly realizes what He has done to you since you became a Christian? Does God see the mess that becoming a believer has made in your marriage?  Your lost husband or wife feels like they are now married to an alien.  They want the person back that they married. Does He see the problems that you are having at work because people recognize the change in your life?  You have stopped socializing in the ways that you did before.  Did God know the type of person you were when He called you to be a Christian?  Should you change anything?  Should you leave your marriage, your job, your old friends? Paul answers these questions in a verse-by-verse study of 1 Corinthians 7:12-24.

THE BENEFIT OF MARRIAGE (1 Cor. 7:1-11)

Our lesson today concerns marriage.  The matter of marriage has always been one of great interest and concern among God's people.  Whether or not to remain single?  Who to marry?  When to marry? All are questions that relate to the stuff that life revolves around.  With the exception of accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior, I can think of no other decision that impacts our lives like the decision of whom we marry, and if we should marry.  It affects every single part of our life, as it should. Paul answers these questions in a verse-by-verse study of 1 Corinthians 7:1-11.