Thirdly, it was God who brought them together, and I believe that’s still God’s plan today. Where He wants a man and a woman united and their lives are committed to Him, God will arrange the circumstances and work things out in such a way that He will bring them together. God never leaves the initiative in these important things in the hands of man. He takes responsibility, He takes initiative.

And finally, God has determined the terms of the relationship. They are: to leave, to cleave and to become one flesh. Marriage is not an experiment; it’s a total commitment of two persons, one to the other. To talk about a “trial marriage” is actually absurd. It’s a denial of the very meaning of marriage. Marriage is not a trial, it’s a commitment. There’s a total leaving and a total cleaving. People who are not willing to leave and who are not willing to cleave cannot experience marriage on the level on which God has ordained it. For, as I’ve said already and I say it again, God has never lowered His standard.

Let’s just recapitulate those four facts: the initiative is with God; the process of forming is with God; the bringing together is with God; the terms of the relationship are settled by God.

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In my last two talks on this theme, “God Is a Matchmaker,” I’ve been sharing with you the conditions which you must be prepared to meet if you really desire to experience marriage on the highest level of God’s will.

First and foremost, you must walk in the light of God’s Word, the Bible. This immediately rules out marriage to an unbeliever. If you are a committed Christian, you are not free to contemplate marriage to anyone who is not also a committed Christian.

Then in my talk yesterday I outlined three steps you need to take. First, believe in God’s purpose for you. Live out your life on the basis of faith. The righteous shall live by his faith. That includes every area of our lives.

Second, commit your body totally to God. Place your body, without reservation, on the altar of God’s service. And when you place your body on the altar, the altar sanctifies that which is placed upon it and you have a body that has been made holy by meeting God’s conditions. And of course, it’s so important that believers enter marriage with bodies that have been sanctified by fulfilling God’s condition.

Third, be prepared for death and resurrection. I pointed out, and I pointed it out mainly on the basis of personal experience, that anything that God really blesses usually has to die and be resurrected. So when you’ve made these commitments and taken these steps and everything seems to die on you, don’t be discouraged. There’ll be death in the fall, but resurrection in the spring. Just have the faith to wait through winter till the spring comes and you’ll be delighted above all that you’ve never expressed or believed with what God resurrects in your life.

Today I’m going to outline four more steps that can lead you into God’s highest will for marriage. First, cultivate right friends and right fellowship. That’s extremely important. This is included in walking in the light of the Word of God. In the first epistle of John chapter 1 verse 7, John says this:

“If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

God Is A Matchmaker

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