Sermon on Marriage: Honorable Marriage
Categories: Sermon Outlines, Topical Sermon Outlines Tags: Sermons on Family, Sermons on Marriage
Sermon on Marriage — Sermon outline by Kevin Cauley defending the Bible’s definition of marriage. Asks the question, “When is a marriage honorable.” From Hebrews 13:4.
Date written: March 14th, 2004
Scripture ref: Hebrews 13:4
SUBJECT: Family
TITLE: Honorable Marriage
PROPOSITION: In this lesson, we will look at things that define an honorable marriage. Marriage is honorable when 1) God says it is honorable. 2) It respects God’s pattern for marriage. 3) Its not being used to legitimize adultery.
OBJECTIVES: Each listener should know what God has defined as an honorable marriage.
AIM: To teach the truth regarding honorable marriage and to embolden the listener to teach that message to others.
INTRODUCTION: [ beginning of this sermon on marriage ]
1. Read: Hebrews 13:4
2. About the Text:
1) There is such a thing as honorable marriage.
2) In contrast, God considers anything that is not honorable to be fornication and adultery.
3) A line has been drawn in the sand in our society today.
4) This line is in regard to the institution of marriage.
5) This is an issue that is going to affect everyone, just as the issue of abortion affected us in the early 1970s.
6) How will we, as Christians, react to this challenge?
3. Ref. to S, T, P, O, and A.
DISCUSSION: Marriage is honorable when… [ discussion of this sermon on marriage ]
I. God says it is honorable.
1. Marriage is a holy/sanctified institution.
1) It was begun and ordained by God. Gen. 1:27; 5:2.
2) This was done in the beginning.
3) This has been carried through to the age of Christ. Matthew 19:4, 5
2. Regardless of how men define marriage, we must define it as God defines it.
1) I’m all for the marriage amendment to the constitution.
2) We must ask, however, what if the situation were reversed?
3) The laws of the land do not determine what is or is not marriage.
3. God’s standard always prevails over the whims of men.
1) Deut. 12:8 “Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.”
2) Deut. 13:18 “When thou shalt hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the LORD thy God.”
3) Prov. 21:2 “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.”
4) Prov. 16:25 “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
5) Prov. 30:12 “There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.”
6) Acts 5:29 “We must obey God rather than men.”
II. It respects God’s pattern for marriage.
1. What is that pattern?
1) Genesis 2:18-25
2) Humans.
3) Male and female.
4) Adult to adult.
5) One man, one woman.
6) Married as husband and wife.
7) Leaving parents and cleaving to one another.
8) No shame in the sexual union in this state.
2. Is that pattern still active today?
1) Matthew 19:4-6.
2) 1 Cor. 7:1-5
3. What happens if we don’t respect this pattern?
1) Man marrying other men.
2) Women marrying women.
3) Adults marrying children.
4) Multiple partner marriages, both men and women.
5) Multiple species marriages.
6) In short, anything goes.
III. It is not used to legitimize fornication or adultery.
1. Let’s define adultery.
1) Adultery is when a person who has an honorable marriage seeks and obtains sexual activity outside of that marriage.
2) Ezekiel 16:32 defines adultery. It says, “A wife that committeth adultery taketh strangers instead of her husband!” Same could be said of the husband.
3) Romans 7:3 “So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.”
2. The people of Jesus’ day were seeking to legitimize adultery through marriage. Jesus didn’t tolerate it.
1) Matthew 5:31, 32 “It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.”
2) Luke 16:18 “Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.”
3) Matthew 19:9 “And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.”
3. Neither does the Bible recognize same sex marriages as anything but fornication.
1) Romans 1:26-27 “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”
2) We note that those who approve of such actions fall under God’s condemnation as well. Romans 1:23
a. KJV “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
b. ASV says “who, knowing the ordinance of God, that they that practise such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also consent with them that practise them.”
c. ESV says, Romans 1:32 “Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”
4. What do you have when the laws of the land recognize a marriage that is really based upon adultery or fornication?
1) You have a “marriage” that God does not honor.
2) You have a “marriage” that is in name only.
3) You give mere lip service to the word “marriage.”
4) You debase that which God has made holy.
CONCLUSION: [ ending of this sermon on marriage ]
1. Is this really as big a problem as it is being made out to be today?
1) In December/January issue of “Out” Magazine, Michelangelo Signorile wrote the following in an article entitled “Bridal Wave”: “A middle ground might be to fight for same-sex marriage and its benefits and then, once granted, redefine the institution of marriage completely, to demand the right to marry not as a way of adhering to society’s moral codes but rather to debunk a myth and radically alter an archaic institution.”
2) The same author in the same magazine in May of 1996 says, “It is also a chance to wholly transform the definition of family in American culture. It is the final tool with which to dismantle all sodomy statutes, get education about homosexuality and AIDS into public schools, and, in short, usher in a sea change in how society views and treats us.”
3) Paula Ettelbrick wrote, “Being queer means pushing the parameters of sex, sexuality, and family, and in the process, transforming the very fabric of society.