A healthy marriage isn’t sustained by feelings alone. Husbands and wives must know one another deeply. Today, R.C. Sproul reveals what it takes to develop a thriving marriage that honors the Lord. Request R.C. Sproul’s teaching series The Intimate Marriage on DVD, plus lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide, with your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3879/donate Meet Today’s Teacher: R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God’s Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. Meet the Host: Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children. Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
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If you want to know your husband, and you want your husband to know you, you have to talk. And you have to talk about stuff besides the weather. We have to get to what I call the second level of communication. Not just commonplace reactions, but down into how we feel about things. That's when intimacy starts to take place.
If you're married, do you really know your spouse? Do you know their cares and concerns right now? What keeps them up at night? Their desires, aspirations, and needs. It's intentionally seeking this kind of understanding in marriage, R.C. Sproul will say, that helps to promote a flourishing and intimate marriage. It's good to have you with us today for this Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind.
Whether you've been married for 50 years or you're newly married or about to be, this series was designed to help you think biblically and practically about marriage. And until midnight, you can have lifetime streaming access to this series, its study guide, plus we'll send it to you on DVD when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org.
Thank you for supporting the spread of truth to the nations. My wife and I recently celebrated 20 years of marriage. And after knowing each other for over two decades, it's such a joy to hear a story about my wife's childhood that I haven't already heard several times before. And I'm sure if you have been married for a while, you can relate as well.
Sometimes it can seem that we've exhausted the depth of our spouse's stories. But Dr. Sproul will give you tips today to help you push deeper to continue to pursue greater intimacy in your marriage. Here's Dr. Sproul.
I'd like to welcome you again to this session of our study on Christian marriage. In this segment, we're going to look at the question of knowing one another in marriage. I've always been impressed by the fact that when the Old Testament speaks of intimacy and of sexual intimacy, it frequently uses the verb, to know. For example, the Bible might say that Abraham knew his wife and she conceived.
Or Adam knew his wife, and she conceived. And we hear that expression, and I wonder, why is it? Is it because the biblical writers are embarrassed to say the word, that they go to euphemisms, circumlocution ways of getting around being graphic or sexually explicit? They just said, Abraham knew his wife, and she conceived. Well, does that mean
that Abraham walked down the street and he met this lady on the street, said, hello, my name's Abraham. She said, my name's Sarah. They were introduced and all of a sudden Sarah's pregnant. That's not what the Bible means. It's using that verb to know, to communicate the deepest level of human intimacy.
And that's because for intimacy to happen, whether it's physical or emotional or spiritual, knowledge has to take place. You cannot really experience intimacy with a stranger.
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