The Marriage Bed

Temple Baptist Church - 11-11-2020

Hebrews 13:4

 

Introduction:

 

A.  Last week, we saw that “Marriage Is Honourable In All.”  Divinely instituted in the Garden of Eden.  The First Called Out Assembly was marriage!  In Ephesians 5:22-33, the Bible sets for marriage as a beautiful type of the Lord’s Church and its relationship to Him.

 

B.  Marriage the right way is to be both honored and honorable in all.  Tonight, I want to explain the last part of verse 4.

 

C.  Marriage honors God when it is done His way: one man, one woman, one lifetime.

 

D.  Tonight, I want to show the biblical importance of honoring the marriage bed.  I will be discreet in dealing with this, but it is important for both married and our unmarried children to learn about how to keep the marriage bed honorable.

 

E.  In doing so, I need to look at two things.

 

1.  The Design of the Marriage Bed.

 

Genesis 2:23-24  And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.  (24)  Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

 

a.  When a marriage ceremony begins, it usually begins with the statement:  “We are here today to unite … in holy matrimony.”  The main design of marriage is that two become one.

 

b. Marriage is both leaving and cleaving.  You leave your parents and cleave to your spouse.  The word “cleave” means to “adhere or to join.”

 

c.  I perform the wedding ceremony, but it is God who joins husband and wife together.  Marriage is a heavenly contract carried out on earth.

 

Matthew 19:4-6  And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,  (5)  And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?  (6)  Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

 

d.  The consummation of the marriage is a physical joining.  The First Mention is found in Genesis, chapter 4.

 

Genesis 4:17  And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.

 

e.  The unity of the marriage. 

 

1.  Marriage is a Sharing of Life.  Proverbs 5:18  Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.  

 

2.  Marriage is a Sharing of Love.  Proverbs 5:19  Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

 

f.  The purity of the marriage bed is found in our verse for tonight: “and the bed undefiled.”  I will not deal with this because the marriage bed is a very personal thing used to replenish the earth and for mutual satisfaction of a God given desire.

 

2.  The Defilement of the Marriage Bed.  The last phrase of Hebrews 13:4 declares: “but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”  Here, we find 2 things that will defile the Marriage Bed.

 

a.  Whoremonger – comes from the Greek word pornos – to traffic, debauchery, prostitution, to sell, to give away.  In actuality, a client who solicits.  Literally to buy something that belongs to another.  I want to look at two things here that can be scripturally tied together:  Pornography and Fornication!

 

1)  Pornography:  to look upon with lust.  One of the greatest weapons used by Satan in our day that destroy thinking and, therefore, the purity of the marriage bed.

 

Matthew 5:27-28  Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:  (28)  But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

 

Job 31:1  I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?  (To look upon a woman, and wantonly gaze at her beauty, lest his heart should be drawn thereby to lust after her.)

 

2)  Pre-marital sexual relations defile the marriage bed.  Pre-marital sexual relations cause a perverted, worldly view of God’s intended marriage bed purity.    It perverts and cheapens what God chose for consummation of marriage.  Unmarried people, both young and older, need to remember two things about your body.

 

a)  Your body belongs to the Holy Ghost and needs to be glorified as such.  1 Corinthians 6:19-20  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  (20)  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

 

b)  Your body belongs to your future husband or wife!  1 Corinthians 7:3-4  Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.  (4)  The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.

 

3)  How does pre-marital sex defile the Marriage Bed?  By giving a warped idea about sexual relationships.  It brings with it shame, fear, and guilt.  It cheapens one’s outlook concerning the Marriage Bed.

 

b.  Adulterers – I want to break this down into 2 sections.

 

1)  Paramour: a lover, especially the illicit partner of a married person.  Extra-marital sex: sex with someone other than your spouse.  Adultery is both a breach of love and trust.  To give to another that which belongs to your spouse is a betrayal of the wedding vows and brings defilement to the Marriage Bed.

 

Exodus 20:14  Thou shalt not commit adultery.

 

1 Corinthians 6:15-16  Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.  (16)  What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

 

  2)  Figuratively apostate – to fall away from a former position of purity in marriage.

 

Conclusion:  The Marriage Bed is to be undefiled and to remain undefiled.  Not to do so brings about the judgment of God!