This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Today we're going to take part in a ceremony that dates back to ancient times.

Did you see the marriage ceremony is based on blood covenant which was a covenant that two people would enter into and way back way back before our time. Now this is how a blood covenant was carried out in those early days. Two people would have such a love for each other that they wanted to be joined together in a special way and so they would set a date to enter into a blood covenant and they'd carry out a ritual in the presence of witnesses.

Now the purpose of the blood covenant was to enter into a lifelong contract of commitment to each other. From that point on two would be joined together in a very close and intimate way. They would now be considered as one person.

If you touch the one you affect the other. They become almost like Siamese twins joined together and you cannot interact with or touch the one without affecting the other one. They've become like one person.

Now these are the process the stages that the early blood covenant used to go through. I want to show you how our modern wedding ceremony is actually originates from and is based on most of the old blood covenant rituals. The first thing that they would do is they'll take an animal and cut it right down the middle and they would lie it in two pieces like that with the blood still there and then each party in the covenant would walk one starting this end one starting this end and they would walk through the pieces like that.

They figure eight each one walking through the pieces. Okay now what this signified is going through death. What they were publicly declaring is I'm dying to myself and my own desires.

They were also making a declaration of how serious they were about this and they were in effect saying if I ever break this covenant maybe may I be as dead as this animal here. It was a very serious thing a blood covenant. May I die if I violate this covenant.

Unfortunately or fortunately we don't hold it quite so strong in marriage today otherwise many people would be dead. Now in a wedding this is done in a church the bride walks down the aisle to meet the groom. The groom steps out to meet her and together they come to the altar.

We don't have to cut animals anymore and walk through the pieces it'd be a bit messy so we've had to kind of reduce it and make it more acceptable. Okay the next stage of the covenant is they would cut each other's they would cut their hands until the blood began to flow and then they would join their hands together so that their bloods would mix together. Thank the Lord we don't have to do that at a wedding.

Imagine what your wedding dress and your suit would look like by the time you finish. Wow okay so today we've replaced that with a handshake. See when you shake hands with a person you're actually coming into an agreement.

To shake hands on something is like entering into a covenant to make a promise. Well in the old days when they joined their hands it was blood flowing so we've done away with the blood. We still have the handshake there that originates from that and then the contract of course was being signed now in blood but there needed to be a sign that a covenant had taken place and so one of the things that they would do is they'd let that cut create a scar.

Sometimes they'd actually even rub dirt in it so that it didn't heal that well so that it actually left a scar that afterwards the person would still carry that mark in their hands. If you met somebody who had a scar and you were about to do something to them you would think twice because you would know if I touched them there's somebody else coming after me too. This is not one person I'm dealing with here.

This is two people who have entered into a blood covenant. Well thank God we don't have to leave dirty scars. We put a beautiful little ring on the finger now in place so that when we meet somebody and say oh I like this beautiful woman let's charm her up and then we say oh she's married okay she's taken.

Okay same kind of thing. Now there would be an exchange of possessions. Each one would pledge to each other what they have.

They would pledge their strengths and their abilities. We see this when David and Jonathan entered into a covenant. Jonathan took the belt off and put it on David.

Now the belt was where all the weapons were held. There's a picture of all of his strengths and his abilities and he said I'm giving my abilities and my strengths to you. So sometimes there'd be an exchange of clothing.

There's an exchange that takes place. Well you know there's clothing involved in a wedding. The bride dresses in a very specific outfit usually.

The man usually dresses a lot better than he normally does in some white suit or something fancy that you'll never wear again. It's all part of the old covenant ritual you see and publicly they would declare this is me. This is what I have in my bank account.

This is my car, my BMW, my Ferrari or whatever. I pledge this to you from now on this belongs to you. Hey these are all the things that I possess and own.

From now on I give them totally to you and they belong to you as much as they belong to me and they would publicly make a vow to say I promise and from now on what is mine is yours. Whether it be my abilities, whether it be my strengths, whether it be what I own, everything that I can speak for or brag about now belongs totally to you. It was always done before witnesses.

After this there would come a change of name and they would blend their names with each other. They would add the other person's name to their name so from now on when they announce their name that name would include the name of their covenant partner. Well these days it became the practice not for both people to do that but for the woman especially to take the surname of her husband and instead of being miss whatever her maiden name is she now becomes missus and the surname of the man that she marries.

Ceremony would end with a feast and each one would feed the other with bread and wine. As a final symbol of I'm giving you of me to eat and to take in the most intimate way this is me I offer it to you and so they would they would have the bread and wine and we still celebrate that in the communion because Jesus entered into a covenant with almighty God and he converted the Jewish feast of the last supper into a communion which we often still celebrate in remembrance of him and that's where the bread and wine comes but everybody takes a part in this and there's usually a celebration and a party and a meal covenant meal that takes place afterwards and no wedding will be complete without the wedding reception and without some eating afterwards would it? Okay now this is standard covenant procedure and it's become incorporated by tradition into our wedding practice but even today amongst those who do not believe in the Lord or acknowledge him somehow there's something special about getting married in church isn't it? You know you can just go to court and go through the procedure and sign a contract but people still want the church wedding there's something special about it because they had to acknowledge that without God in the wedding it's just not complete. Okay so blood covenant especially for a believer has to include God now it's not just an ordinary ritual that we go through but it's something that has to include the Lord.

Now the normal wedding is only two people involved and that's the husband and the wife the man and the woman and there are only two genders folks and today they want to tell us there's multiple genders and people don't want to acknowledge what God made they don't even want marriage to take place anymore but thank God we as believers we acknowledge what God made us to be and we acknowledge that we have a role each one of us according to our gender and our place in the marriage and this changes everything. So in a marriage there's not just two people where God's concerned there's three people. God becomes part of that wedding and the scripture says he is the mediator of a better covenant so we now have a mediator in the covenant somebody who stands between the two and communicates with both and holds them and brings them together.

The mediator makes sure that the covenant is maintained and so we have the Lord standing between us as we enter into this marriage covenant he's the one that holds us together and he's the one who maintains the communication between us breaks down the barriers and makes sure that that covenant continues and is fully fulfilled. Now when we enter into a marriage and into a covenant this way every part of our being is involved we are not just a body and a soul we're a spirit and a soul and a body. Now sure the soul is probably the part that's involved first because we have to make a choice see God's not going to choose your marriage partner for you you have to choose them but God is part of the choice in that you must choose somebody who is a child of the Lord so that the two who come together should both be the children of the Lord that should both be born again believers and so when they enter into this relationship they have the Lord right there in the middle and when this takes place God comes in because he dwells in each person's spirit and so the Holy Spirit in each one creates a spirit to spirit bond between these two people it's a it's a it's a mystery it's not open and obvious but it's very powerful there's a spiritual bond that takes place where two people become united together in their spirits by the Holy Spirit and God now views them as two people bound together in him that is the true marriage that's the true difference between marriage outside of Christ and the marriage that takes place with the Lord in it that bond in the spirit can only be created by the Holy Spirit you cannot unite your spirit with another spirit you can communicate with one another in your spirit but it takes a something bigger like the Holy Spirit to actually create a bond that holds you together and that bond is so strong that it will continue to hold you together even when things begin to go wrong in the spirit in the soul and in the body and there has to be unity in the soul there has to be a choice on behalf of both people they must exercise the will and say I choose to enter into this relationship I want to enter into this union with this other person and then finally there is a unity in the body which is the ultimate closeness and intimacy in marriage in fact that final act is known as the act of marriage it's called consummation of the marriage and if that final consummation does not take place legally even in this world in a court of law a marriage has not taken place until the full consummation has occurred and a marriage cannot be cancelled or annulled once that has taken place if that final intimacy has not taken place the full marriage is not considered to have been completed and such a marriage can be annulled rather than being divorced okay so we must enter into this relationship in spirit and in soul and in body and by entering into all three making ourselves one with our marriage partner with the Lord right there in the middle we have a full person to person marriage bond two people becoming one now in a normal covenant you have laid out the terms yourself you have publicly declared those terms but when God's in the picture there's a few extra terms which he adds as the third party in this marriage he also lays out conditions so when you enter into your marriage vows in the presence of the Lord part of those vows must include a willingness to obey the word of God and to fulfill the covenant requirements of marriage according to the scriptures these are very simple the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church that means he has to continue to love her even when she does not do her part he should be prepared to die for her just as Jesus died for the church he died for us at a time when we actually were not doing our part we were actually in rebellion against him and hated him but he died for us because he loved us Jesus love is unconditional no matter what we say or do he loves a husband has to be an image of Christ in the marriage and in the home he must love unconditionally now it is in the nature of a woman to respond to love and to automatically respond to someone who displays that love and that's why God has commanded the husband to love in that way in a practical way as Jesus loved the church because he knows that if a man would love his wife that way she would automatically respond to that because that's what a woman looks for now the wife must respect and submit to her husband just as the church submits to Christ this means she must submit even when he is not loving and caring just as the husband must be prepared to die for his wife the wife must be prepared to live for her husband how does that happen scripture says the wife is the glory of the husband what does that mean in practical terms it means she should make him look good she should make him look good so often we see wives tearing their husbands down speaking behind their backs saying negative things about them exposing all their weaknesses and their failures a wife's role according to God is to make her husband look good to cover up for his faults and his weaknesses especially in the side of others to defend him at all times you see it's in the nature of a man to respond when someone praises him and shows him respect and when the wife gives that to her husband he cannot help but respond in love if we would just obey these two simple commands automatically we will get from our partner their parts and that doesn't give us an excuse if they don't you as an individual are still responsible and so the scriptures even teach us that in cases where a couple were married and only one of them became a christian that the one who is a believer must fully fulfill their requirement because in doing that they bring a spiritual influence on their partner and so women especially find it hard to submit to an unbelieving husband but the scripture says they can be won by a beautiful submissive spirit from a wife instead wives rise up and they become the preacher they become the lecturer they become the one who sets the standard in the home and what you're doing then is you're saying to the man i don't respect you i don't honor your leadership i'm not looking to you to be my protector i can do this myself thank you and they wonder why the man is going somewhere else you find some poor helpless woman who's looking for a man who will love her and care for her and she gives him everything that he desires and he naturally responds the way he was created by giving love to the wrong person no excuse for it as believers we have no excuse there's never an excuse for sin but we can avoid satan getting his foot in the door by continuing to fulfill our role so these are the requirements for a marriage to take place there must be a willingness in both parties to enter the covenant someone needs to stand in the place of the lord as an administrator and so that is why people get married in church so that the preacher can stand as an administrator and to speak on behalf of the lord and bring them together there needs to be the setting of a seal on the union as the lord joins the two together and makes them one and only as that is accomplished is the marriage now complete in the sight of god it's quite simple but we make it so complicated isn't it okay so it's a simple procedure and today we're not going to have a big long drawn-out ceremony we're going to have a simple procedure where each one is going to commit themselves to the other to make their promises and their vows to each other and then we're going to pray and we're going to set the seal of god on this union and the lord is going to take the two and make them one and from now on he will be the mediator of that new marriage covenant that has been formed he will maintain it and cover it and protect it amen

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