Before I am going to share Albert Martin’s manual of Christian marriage, I’d like to remind you, the Hopefuls, of your confessions of Christian marriage by subscribing to the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 24. I hope that you will not skip this part but read it carefully and see the sanctity of Christian marriage. There are six articles in the chapter of Marriage and Divorce as follows:

1. Marriage is to be between one man and one woman: neither is it lawful for any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have more than one husband at the same time.
2. Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife; for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue, and of the church with an holy seed; and for preventing of uncleanness.
3. It is lawful for all sorts of people to marry who are able with judgment to give their consent. Yet it is the duty of Christians to marry only in the Lord. And, therefore, such as profess the true reformed religion should not marry with infidels, papists, or other idolaters: neither should such as are godly be unequally yoked, by marrying with such as are notoriously wicked in their life, or maintain damnable heresies.
4. Marriage ought not to be within the degrees of consanguinity or affinity forbidden in the Word; nor can such incestuous marriages ever be made lawful by any law of man, or consent of parties, so as those persons may live together, as man and wife.
5. Adultery or fornication, committed after a contract, being detected before marriage, giveth just occasion to the innocent party to dissolve that contract. In the case of adultery after marriage, it is lawful for the innocent party to sue out a divorce, and after the divorce to marry another, as if the offending party were dead.
6. Although the corruption of man be such as is apt to study arguments, unduly to put asunder those whom God hath joined together in marriage; yet nothing but adultery, or such willful desertion as can no way be remedied by the church or civil magistrate, is cause sufficient of dissolving the bond of marriage; wherein a public and orderly course of proceeding is to be observed; and the persons concerned in it, not left to their own wills and discretion in their own case.

Now we return to Albert Martin’s words.

A Brief Word from Your Pastors

This manual has been placed in your hands because you have expressed a desire to be married in the building in which your church family gathers for its services of worship. Furthermore, you have requested one of the pastors of the church to officiate at your wedding. For these two decisions we are thankful, and we place ourselves before you as “your servants for Christ’s sake” to the end that “in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” in everything pertaining to your wedding.

As an engaged couple you are urged to read and discuss this manual together. If you have questions that would keep you from signing the commitment statement at the end, please feel free to raise them with the pastor you have requested to conduct your wedding service.

Introduction

Our experience conducting weddings for many years has convinced us that the time has come to articulate very clearly some perspectives that must regulate any future weddings conducted in our church building under the leadership of one the pastors of our assembly.

Our assumption is that under most circumstances, a wedding held in our church building will be the occasion of uniting two Christians. This being so, we believe it is right for us to assume that your deepest desire as you contemplate your wedding day is that Jesus Christ will be honored and that the gospel and other related biblical truths will be powerfully validated, unashamedly confessed, and clearly illustrated in everything pertaining to your wedding ceremony (Philippians 1:20).

A Wedding That Glorifies Christ

In Romans 12:1-2, the apostle Paul entreats us as the people of God to respond to the manifold mercies of God in Christ by rendering total and glad surrender of ourselves to God. He then urges us to determine not to be squeezed into the mold of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that in all things we may do what is well pleasing unto God. Your pastors assume that these biblical directives have taken root in your heart as you plan your wedding service.

The world has its perspectives regarding what a wedding service is and ought to be. It has its standards of what is acceptable in the verbal content of the vows exchanged, the cut and style of the garments worn, and the whole ethos of the wedding ceremony. As a Christian man and woman, and as the willing bond slaves of Christ, you must be determined not to allow the world to dictate what you will say, how you will appear, and what you desire your wedding ceremony to convey to those gathered as witnesses to your vows and sharers in your joy. In light of these things, it is supremely important that you think in a thoroughly Christian way concerning your wedding. You have just this one opportunity to glorify Christ on this very important day as you begin life together as husband and wife. We believe it is crucial for you as Christians to think and plan your wedding in terms of the following three basic issues:

1. You ought to regard your wedding ceremony as a service of public worship.

2. You ought to determine that your wedding ceremony and your reception will validate and illustrate the transforming power of the gospel of Christ.

3. You ought to desire that your wedding would cause no stumbling or discomfort to the people of God and would in no way compromise the truth of God before the non- Christians who will honor you by their presence at your wedding.

More Lively Hope

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14 Bedford Square, Colonel Light Gardens, South Australia 5041