Husbands & Wives Growing Through Marriage Pt. 2

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Introduction: Marriage is not the only gift that God gives to His people, but it is a great gift. And when a man finds a wife who loves the Lord, and loves Him, and loves their children, HE NEEDS TO LOOK UP. He needs to give God thanks, because that man has received that wife from God just as surely as Adam received Eve from God. ESV Proverbs 18:22 He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD. ESV Proverbs 19:14 House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD. THE WORTH OF SUCH A WIFE IS BEYOND MEASURE. There are riches represented in her that touch on every aspect of His life. A HELPER A LOYAL FRIEND A WISE COUNSELOR A DEFENDER AN ENCOURAGER A FELLOW WORSHIPER There is no way to calculate her value. ESV Proverbs 31:10 An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. THE BEAUTY OF SUCH A WIFE IS THE BEAUTY OF HUMBLE, SELF-SACRIFICING, GOD-GLORIFYING, INVESTMENT IN THE LIFE OF HER HUSBAND AND CHILDREN. ESV Proverbs 31:28 Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: 29 "Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all." 30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. 31 Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates. We have been thinking together about how marriage is a God-ordained means for the sanctification of His people. God means for His people to grow spiritually, to grow in Christlikeness, as they live together as husband and wife. Marriage is USED for that growth, and the marriage is a place where both INVEST in each other. Last Lord’s Day we saw how Ephesians 5:22-33 points us to the need for sanctification, and we considered specific ways that husband are meant to grow in Christlike love in their relationship to their wife. Review: I. HUSBANDS ARE TO GROW IN THE LOVE THAT OUR SAVIOR HAS FOR HIS CHURCH Lesson: This morning we now turn our attention to wives. What is emphasized by the Spirit of God, in this passage, about how wives must grow in their relationship to their husbands? II. WIVES ARE TO GROW IN THE RESPECT THAT A SUBMISSIVE CHURCH HAS FOR HER HEAD God has designed for a wife to grow spiritually in the context of a marriage relationship in which she is to be subject to her husband and respect her husband in a way that is modeled by the Lord’s church. THE TWO THINGS EMPHASIZED IN THE SPECIFIC INSTRUCTION GIVEN TO THE WIVES ARE SUBMISSION, AND RESPECT. It is clear the submission spoken of requires respect to really be submission. Verse 22 calls for the submission of the wife (Col 3:18 also). Verse 33 makes clear that this submission requires respect. In fact, in verse 33, the submission spoken of earlier can be summed up by the term respect. Verse 33 summarizes all that has been taught by saying that a husband must love his wife and a wife must respect her husband. Note: That is not to say that husbands don’t need to learn to respect their wives, or that wives don’t need to love their husbands. The Bible is clear that both are responsible to love and show respect. ESV 1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, ahusbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker bvessel, since they are heirs with you1 of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. ESV Titus 2:3 aOlder women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, bnot slanderers cor slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, apure, bworking at home, kind, and csubmissive to their own husbands, dthat the word of God may not be reviled. What is being emphasized in Ephesians 5, is not that ONLY husbands are to love, or that ONLY wives are to show respect, but that they have distinctive roles that God has designed for the relationship, and they are to honor God and grow together by embracing that design. I think this is very important because AS OUR CULTURE THROWS OFF THE DESIGN OF GOD for men, and women, and marriage, the professing church is showing the effects of cultural conformity. It is not unusual to find professing Christians who have a very LOOSE relationship to Scripture when it comes to how they actually function in ANY AREA OF LIFE, including marriage. It is not unusual to see this instruction either ignored, or treated like a suggestion, while they same people imagine that their relationship with God is just fine. This passage makes clear that if that is us, we are wrong. So, what kind of respect does God want a wife to have for her husband?

Topics

• Marriage