The Lord is good; amen?  His great mercies endure forever.  Thank God for the great gift that we have in one another; amen?  The Scripture is very clear that, “It’s not good for man to be alone” and he that findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord,” praise God!  In all of God’s creation there was nothing that satisfied God’s desire and heart for His man; so, He decided to make for him a helpmeet, praise God!  From his rib He took of Adam and created the woman, the “wombman” and gave him this great helpmeet to stand beside and bring aid and assistance in dominion over the earth.  Tragically, then, that dominion that they had was given over to Satan, who is now, according to Corinthians, the god of this world.  Adam and Eve were to rule this world and have dominion over every living thing; amen?  It was forfeited because of a decision to want to be greater—greater in their eyes than God had made them.  God made one statement, one requirement, “Don’t eat from the fruit in the midst of the garden.”  Satan’s enticement, “When you eat of that fruit, you will become independent.”  Let’s remind ourselves as we’ve been talking about this relationship called marriage:  when you desire to be greater is when you fall.  When we can remain servants under the lordship, when we can prefer one another, this will cause in our lives a victory that we’ve never known.  That desire to rule rather than to serve is still in each of our members and we need to cast it down daily; amen?  But just think that that paradise that they could have lived in was because they desired to be like God, as God, independent.  Here we are on a daily basis trying to learn how to die to ourselves.

So, we’ve been given help from our spouses to cause that Christlikeness to be manifest in our lives—been given someone that is with us and has become one with us to promote that desire.  We’ve talked often about the fact that in heaven there will be no marriage, and we’ve jokingly talked about that you hear some people say, “Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus,” but it’s not about the imperfect marriages that we have here.  The reason there will not be marriage in heaven is because our relationships in heaven will be perfect.  Men, you will no longer need to be overseeing and protecting your wives, there will be another Protector and His name is Jesus; amen?  When we talk about no marriage in heaven, we’re talking about the fact that at that time, the love that we have for one another, the commitment that we have to one another will not dilute the love that we have for Jesus because He will be all in all.  It’s a beautiful thing, the fact that we will, as brothers and sisters, worship the Lord and cast our crowns at His feet; that we, instead of husbands and wives, will be corporately the redeemed of the Lord; amen?  We’ll know each other and we’ll love each other and we’ll appreciate each other and we will gladly give Him all the glory.  Hallelujah!  So, it’s not something that we regret, it’s something we look forward to in making Him all in all.