Leave, Cleave and Conceive

Family Series (Richardson Baptist: Message 4 of 7)

“Leave, Cleave and Conceive”

(“A man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife and the two shall be one flesh... and be fruitful and multiply.” Genesis 2:24 ; 1:28)

When God said... "Be fruitful and multiply..." Genesis 1:28

The context:
Marriage

The command:
Reproduce and fill the earth.

The conditions:
Man needs a wombed woman and a wombed woman needs a man, which God provided, along with His blessings, that they may fulfill the command within the context He provided.

The causality:
Man and his wombed woman are deceived and fall into sin. Their offspring are now tainted in every way with their sin, rebellion and death.

The Consequence:
Man begins to fulfill the command to be fruitful and multiply but his seed, which by design can only come through a wombed woman, starts diminishing, demoralizing, distorting, minimizing, or just plain neglecting God's context, God's command and God's conditions, that He established from the beginning.

The Consolation:
God had already answered and prepared His solution to this tragic movement toward man doing life the way they seemed best. He chose to show them grace... and more specifically redeeming grace through a promise that He would provide, redeem, rescue and restore fallen men and woman through the very context and command He provided for which we have diminished and demoralized.

So the design of marriage is not an issue of personal preference but one of purpose, principle and prophetic that has it roots in the power and pleasure of Christ and the gospel of His redeeming grace.

The choice...