Men's Bible Study Group - Marriage and family this week!
Good evening, men,
I am so looking forward to meeting with you Sunday evening to discuss Lies Men Believe about Marriage and Family!
In our previous two newsletters, both previewing this topic, I mentioned a sermon series by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in which he exposited Paul's teaching to "husbands" and "wives," and the book containing the edited transcripts of those messages, all of which can be found here:
I can tell you this: the messages have captivated me. I have listened to several of the messages more than once, and will continue to listen, and I am going through the written version found in the book at a slow, deliberate, contemplative and prayerful pace, taking notes and underlining portions.
Once I've finished the book the first time, I will begin again and at the same time begin crafting some study material to accompany the book - primarily for my own edification!
Men, at Grace Life Church of Brookhaven, we believe that God has given to the church the responsibility of reaching the lost and growing disciples.
In order to function as the church is intended to function, we must be the church that God has intended us to be. And in order for us to be the church that God has ordained us to be, we must grapple with and understand the relationship between the church and her Lord...the relationship between the body and its Head...the relationship between the church and her Husband...our Lord Jesus Christ.
A marvelous benefit to an increasing understanding of that relationship, is an increasing understanding of our relationships to our wives, as Paul plainly teaches in Ephesians chapter 5. What a glorious doctrine is unfolded and unpacked there!
If you'll refer to the previous two newsletters, you'll recall seeing this on deck for our discussion this week:
Lie # 2: My Wife is Supposed to Make Me Happy
I want to help you think about this lie that trips up so many of us at one time or another. Here is an excerpt from Dr. Lloyd-Jones' book, Christian Marriage, taken from pages 77-79:
“He [Christ] did not think of Himself at all. If He had done so, there would be no church. He did not talk about His rights; He did not talk about His dues; He did not say ‘Why should I suffer, why must I humble Myself?’ He did not consider the cost, He did not consider the shame. He knew what was to be involved, He knew that He would be buffeted by those Pharisees and scribes and Sadducees and doctors of the law, that people would jeer at Him, and throw stones at Him, and spit upon Him - He knew all that was to come though He had not done anything to deserve it. Why then did He do it? For the church; because of His love for the church. ‘He humbled Himself and made Himself of no reputation.’ He had but one thought, and that was the good of the church, the body that was to become His bride. He was buying her, purchasing her, thinking of nobody but her. Not Himself, but her! ‘Let this mind be in you also,’ you husbands! ‘Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.’
But there is another aspect of this which we must emphasize in order to bring out the depth of the teaching. Our Lord did that for us, for the church, while we were yet sinners, while we were ungodly, while we were enemies. Paul’s argument in Romans chapter 5 uses these very terms, ‘In due time Christ died for the ungodly,’ ‘while we were yet sinners.’ ‘If, while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved in His life.’ Notice the terms. We were ‘ungodly,’ we were ‘enemies,’ we were ‘sinners,’ we were vile, there was nothing to recommend us at all. ... Look at the church in her vileness, in her rags, in her sin, in her enmity, in all her ugliness. The Son of God, the prince of glory, loved her while she was like that, and in spite of it; loved her even to the extent of giving Himself for her, dying for her. ‘Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church. ...
‘Now,’ says the apostle,
‘you who are in this married relationship find things in each other that you do not like and do not approve of - deficiencies, faults, failures, sins - and you are critical, and stand on your dignity, and condemn, and quarrel, and separate. Why? Simply because you fail to remember the way in which you yourselves have been saved, and have become Christians and members of the Christian church.’
He reminds them that if the Lord Jesus Christ had reacted to them as they react to one another there would never have been a church. ‘Love never fails,’ love goes on loving in spite of everything. That is the love wherewith Christ has loved the church. ‘Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ has also loved the church.”
Indeed.
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ has also loved the church" ...even when (especially when) she doesn't make you happy.
Think on these things, and I'll see you Sunday!
Tommy Alderman