"YOUR FINAL DESTINY IS NOT MARRIAGE"

Mark 12.25

INTRODUCTION

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1. The Sunday School hour lessons I taught over the last four weeks concerned themselves with decision making in the home of a Christian husband, how the husband is supposed to be the decision maker in his home.

2. I showed the folly of couples who attempt to do what is right in their own eyes, the history of the functional hierarchy that exists in the home, the Ahab and Jezebel personalities of husbands who do not make the key decisions in their homes and the wives who make the key decisions in their homes, and the lack of proper Biblical respect for your mate when you are a decision making wife or a non-decision making husband.

3. Notice, sir, that I did not try to tell you how to arrive at the decisions that you make in your home. I did not address the issue of whether you are a benevolent dictator or whether you are one who delights in being a consensus builder in your home. I merely addressed the point that, when all is said and done, you must make the decisions in your home rather than your wife.

4. For your children’s sakes, for your wife’s sake, for the cause of Christ’s sake, for this Church’s sake, for your testimony’s sake, for your own self respect’s sake, and for the respect of your of your wife’s sake, you must be the leader in your home. And you cannot be the leader in your home unless you and only you make the important decisions.

5. And if you are the kind of passive fellow who is so laid back that you think there is nothing better to do than play with your kids at the end of the day while your wife is making adult decisions for you, or you are yourself a big kid who likes to play with the other grown children in the neighborhood after work instead of functioning as a husband and father and leader in your home, then your wife needs to take a bit of advice from your friendly neighborhood pastor.

6. If he won’t lead, you should not take up his slack and try to fill the leadership void. There is nothing in God’s Word which suggests that a wife should do her husband’s job for him should he be negligent in fulfilling his responsibilities. As a matter of fact, should he fail in his duties because of negligence and inattention you only exacerbate the problem by wrongly substituting for him.

7. Those comments made, let us now turn our attention to this morning’s Sunday School lesson, "Your Final Destiny Is Not Marriage." Turn in your Bible to Mark 12.25, where Jesus said, "For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven."

1A. Understand, THERE IS A FINAL DESTINY THAT WILL BE YOURS FOR ETERNITY

1B. This Life Isn’t All There Is

Since this life isn’t all there is, what kind of folly is it for a person to live as though this life is all there is? Luke 12.16-20:

¹⁶And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: ¹⁷ And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? ¹⁸ And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. ²⁰ But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

2B. There Is Heaven To Be Gained

And how important is heaven? Folks, there are 551 verses in the Bible in which the word "heaven" is found, indicating how important heaven is to God and how important heaven ought to be to you and to me. Just to whet your appetite for heaven, turn to Acts 7.55 and read what Luke says about Stephen’s glimpse into heaven just a few moments before he was actually taken to heaven as the first Christian martyr: "But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." If Jesus and God, in all His glory, is waiting for you in heaven, isn’t it a place you ought to want to go?

3B. There Is Hell To Be Avoided

If heaven is a place of bliss and joy and contentment, look at what the opposite of heaven is, in Second Thessalonians 1.7-9:

⁷ . . . the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, ⁸ In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: ⁹ Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.
2A. Also, THIS LIFETIME IS YOUR ONLY OPPORTUNITY TO PREPARE FOR ETERNITY

1B. There Is No Preparation After This Lifetime

Hebrews 10.31: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

And Luke 16.19-31 shows that once a man dies and goes to Hell it’s too late to do anything about it.

2B. There Is Only Preparation During This Lifetime

Hebrews 9.27: "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."

3B. Nothing Is More Important Than Preparation For Eternity

Mark 8.35-38 shows the importance of preparing for eternity.

³⁵ . . . whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. ³⁶ For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? ³⁷ Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? ³⁸ Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Ecclesiastes 1.2-3 shows the futility of this life apart from serving God and preparing for eternity:

² Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. ³ What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
3A. MARRIAGE IS ONLY A PART OF ONLY SOME PEOPLE’S PREPARATION FOR ETERNITY

Matthew 19.12:

"For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it."

First Corinthians 7.7-9:

⁷ For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that. ⁸ I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. ⁹ But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

Proverbs 7.27:

"Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death."

From these three passages we see a number of undeniable certainties that may now apply to you, or that may someday apply to you.

1B. First, Not Everyone Marries

2B. Second, Not Everyone Needs To Marry

3B. Third, Not Everyone Is Supposed To Marry

4B. Fourth, Not Everyone Is Equipped To Marry

5B. Fifth, Not Everyone Is Equipped Not To Marry

6B. Sixth, Not Everyone Who Is Married Will Be Married

7B. Finally, Marriage Can Interfere With Preparation For Eternity

CONCLUSION

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You came into this world by yourself. You will go out of this world by yourself. You will enter either heaven or Hell when you die by yourself. Therefore, keep this matter of marriage in its proper place and tend to the salvation of your own soul.