Sermon: Husbands, Wives, and Children
Scripture: Matthew 5:27-30
In this week’s lessons, we learn how a family is to function, and what the responsibilities are of husbands, wives, and children.
Theme: Life Out of Death
We have touched on many things in this study of the home, but it will be of little benefit unless each of us will put it into effect practically.
Some of what I have been saying will apply to those who are not married but who are thinking about it. You must hold these great standards of marriage up before you and evaluate the one you are thinking of marrying in the light of them. Girls, you must look at that fellow and ask, “Can he be as Jesus Christ to me? Can he be for me a man that I can obey and to whom I can submit, subordinating many of my interests to his?” If you cannot, look elsewhere. Likewise, you fellows must say, “Am I willing to give of myself for her? Do I love her enough and respect her enough to die for her? Am I willing to be patient with her and even to cover up her faults as God instructs me to do?” If you cannot say those things, then it is not right for you to marry her.
Some of you will be beyond the stage of courtship and the early years of marriage, and will be facing problems with the raising of your children. This is difficult today, but you must not let the difficulties deter you from the true course of action. Your children may be stubborn, but the Bible did not promise that they would be docile. That is why you may have to spank them. It is possible that they do not even respond to the spanking. Well, you must not give up on that account. Keep at it. Isaiah wrote that God’s methods with us are “precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little” (Is. 28:10). His methods must be ours. Moreover, you must pray for them and ask God to create in you the kind of character that will be winsome and that your children can respect.
Finally, there will be some for whom these words seem too late. In your case, love has died, and there seems to be nothing that will rescue your marriage from that void. If it were not for what your friends would think of you, you would proceed with a divorce. What should you do? You must yield to the Lord Jesus Christ and let Him rekindle a love that has grown cold or a living love that has died. A woman once told me that at one point in her marriage her love had died entirely, and she had come to hate her husband so much she could have stabbed him with a knife. But as she yielded to Christ and grew in Him, that love was rekindled and she learned that Jesus is indeed able to bring life out of death, love out of hate, and a true Christian marriage out of shame and violent hostility.
If you will yield to Christ and His standards, He will begin by making of you a new creation and then end by making all things new.
Study Questions:
What do people who are thinking about marriage need to ask themselves about the other person they are considering?
For those married couples for whom their love has grown cold, what must they do for their love to be rekindled?
Application: Are you or any couple you know struggling with raising difficult children? Pray for the Lord’s grace for these families. Consider starting a group at your church for such couples, where there can be a time for prayer and encouragement for one another.
Key Point: If you will yield to Christ and His standards, He will begin by making of you a new creation and then end by making all things new.
