There's only one unpardonable sin, and that sin is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. And if you're worried about having committed that sin, I want to assure you you have not committed that sin, because the first evidence of having committed the sin against the Holy Spirit is that you don't care, because it seers your conscience forever. Furthermore, I'm not convinced that the sin against the Holy Spirit isn't something that was limited to the lifetime of Jesus. And I'm not convinced that it didn't have to do specifically with the deliberate denial of the resurrection of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit and the attestation of miracles on the part of those who were eyewitnesses but refused to believe. Now, that's a topic for another day. It's simply saying this, that there's nothing that you've done in your life in the past that is beyond the ability of God and His grace to wipe clean. Furthermore, when God wipes the slate clean, God breaks the curse. We need to understand that a curse is simply the consequences that God lays out in Scripture for human sin. So every sin bears a curse. Every sin has consequences in this life and unrepented off in the life to come. But when we confess our sins to God, God forgives us our sins. He cleanses us from sin and he breaks the curse, a couple of other things. What I'm going to be preaching on today is about the future, not about the past. You may have violated this passage of Scripture. You may have violated in the worst possible kind of way. This isn't about the past. It's about where you are now and where you want to go. That's the way it always is. The past is never an impediment to the power and grace and purpose of God. God's grace is greater than all our sin and you can never ultimately forge God's goodwill for your life to bless you. The Bible says clearly and absolutely that all things work together for good to those who love God. Lastly, though you may not be guilty of this particular sin, doesn't mean that you are any better than somebody who is guilty of that sin. Let me assure you before I preach this message that I am a man who having known Christ since 1964, still in spite of all that God's grace has done in me, utterly dependent on what God's grace has done for me. We have to distinguish between our standing before God which is absolutely perfect based on the perfect and finished work of Christ and our state which in this life is never perfect. We always come short of being what we ought to be. We never perfectly fulfill God's purpose as laid out in Scripture. When you realize that the essence of sin isn't what you do with your body but extends to what you say with your mouth and more importantly really centers fundamentally on your heart then you realize that every one of us deserves the death penalty. That's really what Jesus hit on, didn't he? I was teaching my Bible class this week. I spent six weeks on one verse with my Bible class, Romans 2.1 that says that you who condemn other people are condemning yourself because you who say don't do something, you're guilty of doing the same thing. I began to illustrate to them from Scripture how that is literally true, for example in the sermon on the Mount. Jesus takes two commandments, the sixth commandments and the seventh commandments and demonstrates to us clearly and unequivocally how all of us have broken both of those two of the ten commandments. That should not kill and that should not commit adultery. You are an adulterer if you're here this morning and are of a certain age. You are. Man, woman makes no difference. You are guilty of it. If you don't think you're guilty of it you're simply a fool and don't understand your own heart. That's what the Bible teaches because the Bible says that the essence of sin is here in our hearts. When it extends to what we say, then it extends to what we do with our bodies. Jesus taught that in order that we would not come before God with a haughty sense of our own self-righteousness but that we would come before God humbled and aware of our need of God's grace in Jesus Christ. And then he deals of course with the sixth commandments, thou shalt not kill. And I want to say to you, whoever you are here, if you've lived very long on this planet, you are a murderer according to the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ because you've had negative feelings toward somebody else. You may in a prissy way quite wash your negative feelings and say, oh, I've never hated them but I assure you you have. You are guilty before God and you have to repent of your sins. Now the whole purpose of the law we need to understand is not so that we can come and pat ourselves on the back, a thing that will send you to the chiropractor quickly. It's so that you will get on your knees and on your face before God and understand that it's by grace alone received through faith alone in what Christ has done for you alone and not by your works that you're right with God. That's the purpose of the law. The law is our school master to lead us to Christ. So as I preach this message to you today, please keep this caveat in mind. It isn't about the past because if you're willing to be honest with yourself and honest with God, there's nothing absolutely nothing in your past that is a barrier to the full blessing of God on your life now. Secondly, as I preach this message, don't feel condemned beside the person next to you whom you may think is a better person than you. There's no reason for anybody here to hang his or her head relative to another human being because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So this is not about being a relatively better person or a relatively more faithful person. It's about our need for God's grace. But it is an important message in our day and the very ticklishness of it is that it is something that is not simply epidemic but pandemic in America. When we think about our standing among the nations of the world is perhaps the worst country in the whole world when it comes to this particular issue. I assure you as an American in this regard I can't sing Lee Greenwoods make the hair stand up on the back of your neck song because I'm not proud to be an American when it comes to this. Nor am I proud to be a Bible-believing evangelical Christian because in this regard the evangelical conservative church in America has been weighed in the scales and found for foundly wanting. And so before I begin to speak, remember that I who speak to you have the authority only of what scripture itself says. But God forbid that my love for you would cause me to express that love in a perverse way by failing to tell you the truth. The man, the woman who loves you the most is the person who will tell you the truth even if that costs that person a relationship with you. So please hear that. Whatever you read into my demeanor and tone of voice please know this again for the last time in the caveat. I am but a poor sinner saved by grace who is utterly dependent on Christ's righteousness and his blood shed for me. On Christ, the solid walk I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. And this is where the tape will start for the internet. Malachi chapter 2 and starting at verse 10. Malachi 2 and starting at verse 10. Malachi chapter 2 verse 13. Malachi chapter 2 verse 13, page 1489. Another thing you do, you flood the Lord's altar with tears, you weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. Do you know God isn't interested in your money? Isn't that a terrible text to read? I'm glad we read it after we took the offering. Boy, it says that God doesn't want the money in the plate. Well, that's incredible. You weep and wail because he no longer pays attention to your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask why? It's because the Lord is acting as a witness between you and the wife of your youth because you have broken faith with her though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not the Lord made them one? In flesh and spirit there is and why one? Because he was seeking Godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. I hate divorce that's the Lord God of Israel and I hate a man covering himself with violence as well as with his garments as the Lord Almighty. So guard yourself in your spirit and do not break faith. You've worried the Lord with your words. How have we worried him you ask by saying all who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord and he is pleased with them or where is the God of justice? May we pray. Almighty God I pray that as I preach people may see tube giant mountains before them. Mount Sinai with its thunder and lightning that's full of fear and dread and death. The mountain of the law of God that condemns us all and confines us all to hell unless we repent that we may also see Mount Zion where the Lord himself was crucified and suffered as our substitute and bore the consequences the judgment and the curse and the guilt and the defilement for all our sins. Give us, Lord, to see that there are but two mountains on which every human being must stand. Mount Sinai which will cause us in a giant earthquake to be cast into the lake of fire or Mount Zion the rock that can never be shaken. Lord I pray in the name of Jesus that you would close me with the mantle of humility of grace of tenderness of sweetness of love and yet at the same time Lord so fill me with your spirit that I may not hold back that I may not quench your spirit that I may not hesitate to declare to your people the entire council of God in Jesus name amen. I want to direct your attention here to a couple of things in Malachi chapter two page 1489 I want you to notice how God describes marriage in verse 14 notice that he says she is in the last statement there though she is your partner the wife of your marriage covenant we need to understand something marriage is based on a covenant relationship that's important we understand and accept this. Whether we understood it and accepted it when we were married because it doesn't make any difference whether you were married in a church or by the justice of the peace if you've been married you were married in a covenant relationship regardless of your opinion about it you could have been drunk when you got married a lot of people are remember one time. I was asked by a guy in you in rotary if I would do his wedding and it was in another church and the church gave permission it was in this town and went down there his brother came in from out of state and his brother who was a professional man was pretty tipsy this was the rehearsal and I like to fill out the bulk of the marriage license on the night of the rehearsal because people get so excited and they're confused about everything when they get married. So we're filling out the form and his brother was so drunk he signed my he signed where I'm supposed to sign as the minister and he was signing it as one of the one of the two legal witnesses that are required in our state. Well it doesn't make any difference if you were snort and cocaine smoke in a joint a marijuana or had too much champagne it doesn't make any difference if you rushed into your marriage or you didn't it doesn't make any difference if it was a shotgun wedding. It doesn't make any difference if you had pre marital counseling or not if you're married you're married what constitutes marriage two things one is the spoken covenant if you want to look at that in detail I lay it out on my website I've got about 10 different essays on various aspects of marriage on my website. I encourage you to read it. One is the spoken covenant it's not enough and let me say this particularly the young single females it isn't enough for a boy to tell you that he's taking you as his wife in the back seat of the car on a Friday night the spoken covenant is spoken in the context of family. Somewhere along the line the church got it all wrong and came up with the idea that preachers can marry people I can't marry anybody I don't have the authority to marry anybody nor does anybody else have the authority to marry you. The only people who can do marriages are the bride and the groom themselves really yes absolutely in here's how a bride and groom marry themselves before their families in public they commit themselves to live according to a marriage that's what it takes. I'm going to say that while we have marriage licenses in the modern world and those are useful in terms of things like finance and what not and succession so on but you don't need a marriage license in order to be married legally in the eyes of God you do in the state unless it's common law and that becomes assumed after a period of time. All you need to do in terms of God is to say to the other person in front of family in front of witnesses I marry you that's all you got to do that's the verbal part that's the stating of the covenant. But there's a second part all covenants in the Bible involve some kind of ceremony or rather some kind of action that follows and the action that follows the marriage covenant according to scripture and you can check my website out and I show how this is true involve sexual intercourse I don't care what the laws of the state of Louisiana say if you don't have sexual intercourse you are not married to that person period. No if no and no but you may be legally in the eyes of the state married to a person without it unless somebody wants to contest it but in God's name in God's sight you are not married without sexual intercourse because sexual intercourse is what is called in scripture the cutting of the covenant the cutting of the covenant all marriages in the Bible are cut and involve the shedding of blood and I go into that in detail on my website and I'm not going to go into detail in this morning. So what are the two elements that make a marriage a marriage speaking the commitment to be married in front of family and friend witnesses and then carrying out that covenant in the cutting of the covenant through sexual intercourse therefore sexual intercourse without the public acknowledgement of the other person as your husband and wife is not marriage. How do you know that well I'll give you a great passage of scripture to check that out with turn with me to well to John chapter 4 John chapter 4 and Jesus is here page 16 51 with a Samaritan woman and notice what what happens here Jesus says page actually 16 52 verse 16 John 4 chapter 4 verse 16 page 16 52 Jesus tells her to go get her husband and come back and she says in verse 17 I have no husband she replied now once you notice what Jesus says because Jesus words make this absolutely clear and plain and there's no reason to ever doubt it listen to what he says. You are right when you say you have no husband the fact is you have had how many husbands where they all husbands according to Jesus yes and then he says the man you have now is not your husband what you've said is quite true think about what Jesus is saying here here a lot of people will say maybe they're in their second or third or fourth or fifth marriage. This woman had been married five times and I want you to understand that all five of her marriages were lawful marriages they didn't mean they all began lawfully it doesn't mean they all began on a good footing it didn't mean they all began they wait they ought to wait again but they were all marriages let me put it to you this way if you're here today and you had a wonderful marriage years ago before you before Louisville came to you I don't think there any policemen here if there are I'm not picking on you but I used to be a police chaplain in Kansas years ago and I'm now one here in Alexandria as a volunteer but one of the things I discovered as being a police chaplain in Kansas is that adultery is rampant among police officers. You can't put a man in a woman in a patrol car for eight hours and have them ride around together and share the fear and the excitement and the stress and anxiety of what you face as a police officer with another police officer of the opposite sex who is reasonably attractive in some cases reasonably unattractive and as a reasonably decent personality and not have certain things happen let me tell you about how good people commit adultery. What wait a minute is that an oxymoron how good people commit adultery here's that works and I've dealt with several hundred and that's not high per bully I've dealt with several hundred cases of this over the years as a pastor and I'm not exaggerating that's God's truth to the best of my recollection of the facts how it happens is this in the case of quote bad people how it happens is this there a man or a woman goes out looking for adultery and they go into bars or this that or whether they're looking for somebody to pick up for cheap casual sex but how does it how does a good man or a good woman commit adultery this is how it works. It begins with an over familiarity between people and over familiarity with people how it always works. So here's Jethrow and here's Lula Bell two cops riding around in a patrol car and Lula Bell begins to tell Jethrow what kind of person her husband is. Well he's abusive she says oh what does that mean well she begins to go into a litany of quote psychological abuse and as she describes this of course she's actually describing a typical husband because I'm going to tell you the truth everybody verbally abuses other people in a marriage many many times it's just we don't all get called on the carpet for it. Now I'm not talking about screaming history fit seven days a week 24 hours a day I'm just talking about the fact that we all make comments that wound other people's egos we do. And if you don't admit that you're just simply lying to yourself you've all said things that hurt somebody else every husband that's hurt is by feelings every woman is hurt her husband's feelings the important thing to remember is you are not in a good position to evaluate that. In fact one of the nifty things I think that's in the old Trinity hymn book is the back the Westminster Confession of Faith that speaks about marriage and it says regardless of the issues the two people are never to be left to themselves in these matters to decide their own cases. It's the business of the church to sit in judgment of them and the civil authorities not one or the other both and. Why because you can never be an objective judge about yourself why because you can always see the spec in your wife's eye the spec in your husband's eye and be utterly oblivious to the two by four in your own eye that's what Jesus teaches in the sermon on the mouth. So is it abuse or is it not you can't decide that for yourself you have to seek the council of others and not just your best girlfriend or your best guy friend. You need to seek the council of the elders of the church that is the job of the elders of the church they shepherd Christ sheep and if you've ever joined this church you made a vow before God to listen to the elders of the church and to hear what they had to say from the word of God on these matters. So the first thing you got to understand is you're incompetent to judge yourself period no if no and no but you're incompetent and so am I because you can never be objective about yourself history isn't even objective. You read a history book you think you've read the truth no you've read Bunk history is Bunk because history is written by the winners period. And I said it before I remember this vision of the Alamo from the old Walt Disney daily pocket movies years ago and then when I was in Mexico I bought a history of Mexico written from a Mexican perspective and I said wow is this the same thing history is written by the winners and there's no objectivity when it comes to historical analysis because we see things thrown perspective. So here is Lula Bell in the patrol car with with Jeff Rowe I think I got those funny names right I like to use funny names because I don't want to say anybody's names here today. So Lula Bell begins to talk and she begins to describe for Jeff Rowe the plight that she's in living with her obnoxious gaseous haloposis infected the whiskered husband who often snorts and fixes nose. The guy okay is a guy or whatever the point is that there begins to be this expression of her difficulty of her being a damsel in distress and let me tell you fellas you need to watch out for this whenever you meet a woman no matter how attractive she is I mean given certain qualifications to that. And she begins to describe for you her plight her difficulties her vulnerability her weaknesses you know what happens to you here's what happens to you you have this impulse. Well come here Lula girl come over here you just tell me all about it and you're the king of the hill you're a knight in shining armor let daddy fix everything honey. That's what happens in other words there is this thing that is in the wiring of men to be a knight in shining armor to come through and defend the damsel in distress the trouble has that when you begin to defend the damsel in distress before long you're distressing her more than the guy that was distressing her before. The amazing thing is that there's this thing there's this wall in our brain that that is very porous and that by most of us allow seepage to go from one side to the other that when you're in your mode of defending the damsel in distress you suddenly without even realizing it at the time that it's happening go into the mode of seducer of the damsel in distress. And so how good people quote unquote good people because there's none good but God how good people fall into adultery is that they begin to become overly familiar with a member of the opposite sex I don't pray with women. I mean I might say a quick prayer but I'm not going to regularly pray with a woman why because I value very much 36 and a half years of investment in marriage and about two years before marriage in the woman up there in the balcony that's staring down at me and I value the relationship I have with my five children and I value the relationship I have with my six grandkids and guess what I'm scared of women. Now what I mean by being scared of women I'm aware that after dealing with several hundred embassals I'm talking about men now not women after dealing with several hundred embassals stupid men who got into something stupid because they were shortsighted it didn't realize that they were getting into it the time they were getting into it I'm not talking about the bad guys now. I'm not talking about the skirt teachers that go from bar to bar I'm talking about people like every man here today no matter how old you are I'm scared of allowing things to happen and we're going to get to that in a moment I'm scared of reaching out and embracing someone in the figure of night and shining armor and allowing it to drift over very quickly very easily. Again this is the amazing thing wow very much without my conscious awareness or perception into the role of seducing that woman. So I'm scared of women in that sense therefore I am very grateful for my wife who is involved with me in my involvement with women. In the early days when we had a bunch of kids at the house I involved elders in the church as much as I could so what happens is he starts out in the role of night and shining armor before long they're looking forward to being with each other. Before long they're spending extra time with each other they don't have to before long they're meeting for lunch or a coke or something when they're not actually undeady together before long they're passing little notes back and forth before long suddenly here's what happens. I found my soulmate nonsense if you're married you have your soulmate no matter what kind of a quad or embassal here she happens to be I found my soulmate let me tell you that America has been seduced for a hundred years by romantic nonsense and Hollywood is the great purveyor of the destruction of our culture. I've also written about Hollywood. There was a song that was made popular in the 1950s I think it was Dara's day who sang it and it said something like this when I fall in love it will be forever. Anybody remember that song? You're all so young I'm sorry. Well it's nonsense as we'll see in a moment the problem is we bought into that idea. And so Jeff Rowe and Lulabelle suddenly have fallen head over heels in love with each other and before long they're meeting and then it happens they have intercourse and guess what happens. They become one flesh you so wait a minute wait a minute one flesh that sounds like what the Bible says now remember again let's look back at John for for a moment before we go over the first Corinthians he says you have had five husbands married divorced remarried that husband number two divorced remarried husband number three divorced remarried that husband number four divorced remarried that husband number five. Now whether divorced or not divorced she shacking she shacking she's living with a guy she's not married to so it's possible you see to have sex with somebody and not be married to them and it's possible to enter into the outward covenant publicly and not engage in sex and therefore not be married to somebody. Now let's look at one other passage before we go back to Malachi and that's first Corinthians chapter six first Corinthians chapter six first Corinthians chapter six and listen what he says here. Page 1,777 start at verse 15 first Corinthians 6 15 do you not know that your bodies or members of Christ himself shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute now there's commercial sex so if there's anything that's not lawful sex or good sex. If there's anything that says boy this isn't marriage sex that's that prostitution he says shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute never notice why he says that verse 16 do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body and that's not the best translation. It's a paraphrase anybody have a King James version or a new American standard Bible and read the comment Carol one body with her okay another translation anybody else got a King James version. Okay great great Barbara okay all right so notice what he says there well well well what am I looking at here there we go. Yeah it's the one flesh relationship that in both those translations brought it out it's one flesh do you recognize the language in those more traditional translations what is that language remind you of it reminds you of the genesis covenant where God in this creation covenant with Adam and Eve establishes marriage and he says the two shall become one flesh do you understand then therefore when you have sex with a prostitute that you have you have performed the
act of marriage with her even though it isn't a legal marriage because there's no spoken covenant when you join yourself even to a prostitute and commercial sex you have performed the act of marriage even though it isn't a legal marriage in the eyes of God because you didn't take the woman before family and friends in a public way and commit to be your husband. So again the woman taken at the woman at the well the Samaritan woman had had how many husbands five husbands legally married all five things so you hear today it's marriage number three marriage number four marriage number five what do you do. You don't divorce the current person and try to go back in the past remember how I started the sermon today this is not about the past this is about the present the future. You make the best of the situation you're in now you can't undo the past it's over it's done like tarot it's gone with the wind and God doesn't hold you responsible to try to undo the past he holds you responsible to do your best with the present with the present circumstances with a view to the future now we go back to Malachi we understand that marriage is a covenant we see that very plainly page 1489 Malachi chapter two and in verse 14 she is your partner the wife of your marriage covenant let's notice something else here notice something that he repeats two times look at verse 15 Traveling down here through the sentences is not the Lord made them one flesh and spirit there is why one because there he was seeking godly offspring notice what he says now so guard yourself in your what your spirit guard yourself in your spirit he says and do not break faith with the wife or the youth now go down to verse 16 and look at the paragraph that's by itself the last sentence of the verse 16 so guard yourself in your spirit and do not break faith how many times does God warn us not to break faith and to guard our spirits twice in this passage why does he warn us twice because it's a lie from hell to say when I fall in love it will be forever sounds like Dean Martin I shouldn't have even had anything to drink that's the joke only old people get because Jean Dino was a lush anyhow that's a lie it's a lie guess what you can be in love with dozens of people the rest of your life why because love that is being in love is a neurosis being in love is an obsession that distorts your thinking I've made decent grades throughout my life do you know what I failed a course one time I actually failed a course when did I fail this course it was her fault it was her fault it was her fault it's because I fell head over heels in love and I couldn't think anything about anything else but standard gene price and I got married short about a short time after I failed that course and you know what soon as honeymoon was over I was able to study again but until I until I got married I wasn't able to concentrate clearly why because being in love is a distortion in your thinking you don't think right you don't see things clearly everything's distorted just like now I used to have 2020 vision but now that I'm an old geezer I look out at you and all I see are blurs blurs blurs and when you fall in love you don't see the other person qualities that are negative the tragedy of life and the tragedy of marriages that you get your glasses after you're married and you never really know somebody until after you've married them in fact you don't even know them then because nobody can ever really know another person this side of eternity except for God so he says guard your spirit why guard your spirit because just as in the case of Jethro was at the name and Lula Bell Jethro who was madly in love one day with Ellie May I guess that would be incest if it's the Beverly Hill Billy Mayella that was the that was the girl in in the tequila Mockingbird no no wait a minute one tequila Mockingbird it was to kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee's novel anyhow Mayella was the girl who accused the guy of rape in the tequila Mockingbird so we'll pick that so one times Jethro is madly in love with Mayella with Mayella you all that was her name Mayella you all my son in law in case you're listening to that that's E W E L L not you H L Mayella you all Jethro Bodine falls madly in love with Mayella you all madly in love but like everything else in life when he doesn't guard his spirit his spirit goes out to another person in this case it's the damsel and distress and what is it it's ego needs these down inside as Jethro ages and you know the aging process lead I say more the aging process the aging process everything falls you know how your face and all around anyhow as the aging process goes on Jethro the fender of the right police officer riding around with Lula Bell suddenly begins to feel like a great guy I mean after the tongue-lashing that mayella you all Bodine gave him I don't understand why you can't pick that drip and pop it you know or whatever it is all those other things there he is and mayella I'm excuse me Lula Bell begins to telling as he listens to her and you got to remember something else the most erotic part of a man's body to a woman is right here the ears that's it why he's listening to her he's paying attention to her and he really wants to hear and understand what she's saying so as they ride around in the patrol car he's all ears and she begins to pour out her heart and her need and he's listening and he's attending and he reaches over and he packs her hand or she cries and she reaches into his pocket and pulls out a handkerchief and hands it to her to wipe her eyes and she says to herself this man is so sensitive oh I wish my husband were like Jethro Bodine he's such an understanding man he's so kind he's so compassionate he understands me and that causes Jethro's spirit to what go out to her just like her spirit is going out to him and you see that's it and the fundamental thing men and women and young people is this understand and mark it down it doesn't make any difference who you married you got to control your spirit you got to keep your spirit from going out to another person why because when you fall in love it will not be forever and you can fall in love with thousands of people and you know what each time you'll just wreck somebody else's life and wreck your life you got to exercise self control over your spirit lastly why is God interested in marriage lasting a long time till death do us part well notice verse 16 Melika 216 I hate divorce says the Lord God of Israel and I hate a man covering himself with violence as with his garment says the Lord Almighty if you really understand the overall teaching of scripture particularly the Torah the first five books of the Bible you understand that adultery is an act of violence adultery is an act of violence because adultery is rinding apart what God has put together it's tearing it apart it's ripping it to shreds and you see when a man when a man leaves his wife and joins himself to another woman even if it's not in marriage it's just in adulterous intercourse that man has what covered his garments with violence you understand I don't know how many people here believe in the death penalty I have grave reservations about it until we start executing rich people but no I'm serious I absolutely serious but if you want to go for the death penalty then let's look what the Bible says first degree murder the death penalty adultery the death penalty I just want you to think about it for a moment you want the death penalty God issues the death penalty for adultery you want it you really want it what it says the word of God the death penalty wow do you really want it hey you know what I want mercy I don't want justice I want mercy not justice so God says he hates it and he regards it as an act of violence so it's it's a rejection of what God himself says let's notice something else here and this is so important verse 15 has not the Lord made them one in flesh and spirit they're his and why one because he was seeking what Godly offsprings Godly offsprings God seeking Godly offsprings wow divorce hinders it doesn't make impossible divorce hinders it doesn't make impossible divorce hinders it doesn't make impossible having Godly offsprings it does it does yesterday I sat down with a couple that was considering marriage and one of the things I said to this couple that I sat down with many couples one of the things I said to this couple is you know when you marry you need to marry forever no matter how you feel and no matter what happens to the other person because when you rupture this relationship it is devastating to children and then I talked about this and I said I realized the economic circumstances but you got to learn how to live cheaply because when your kids are young one of you needs to be at home with them wow I said you know I know through economic circumstances got to understand our government is behind that with its policies through economic circumstances people get married they get pregnant they work right up to the last moment before they give birth and then they throw the child six weeks later in the daycare and you don't know what kind of daycare you got and I'm not condemning daycare and if you're going to put your child in daycare find a believing daycare and we have one represented by family in our church and that's good and I recommend it but I'm telling you that's not God's best I'm saying that people that children need nurture at home by their parents and if somebody is going to be mad at me and I'm sorry I'm telling you the truth I'm telling you the truth and you know it's the truth in your heart you know it's the truth you know that nobody can love your child the way that you can you know that daycare centers often have child molesters abuse these people and people who are mean to kids I mean after all when you're paying people minimum wage what do you expect come on give me a break let's get real here I'm not condemning you if economic circumstances are such you can't do anything about it I'm not condemning you but I'm telling you children need a parent or a grandparent to love them and to nurture them and you know what the couple said to me yesterday the woman said you know I've worked I've worked in the daycare center and I can tell you absolutely that that's the truth absolutely that was the truth listen I'm simply saying there's a lot to consider before you say I do there's a lot to consider before you say I do I'm not saying that it's wrong to work a day out of the week or two days out of the week and put your child in daycare I'm just saying let me describe the typical American family people get married they get themselves head over heel and debt and debt is what our government encourages people to do we are a debt driven society if we liquidated debt our economy would go through the toilet we're a debt based economy and everybody wants you to go into debt it burns me up when I get letters to my home address to my minor children as I have over the years offering them credit cards that burns me up because making no mistake about it credit card interest is usually credit card interest is usually no width no ants no butt and the car companies wants you to run that thing up and some of them like discover you got to burn any discover card 21% or more but it's insane if you can have credit cards at least shop around don't be a fool do you know what kind of what happens with that kind of debt it isn't long before you're you're behind the eight ball wow so people get themselves into a pickle why they're not like my mom and dad my mom and dad started out with furniture from orange crate of course my mom and dad married on their first date they really did I have to tell you it's just a loose of the tension because it's real tense in here right now and I can read it once you lie the 10th 1938 a health officer about a name of William Lyman Vincent having known a health nurse the public health nurse named Janet Rose Ben having been friendly with her and all asked her to go out on a double date with another couple and when he stopped at a road house and the other couple goes in to get coax my father tundered my mother and said I'd like to marry you and she said I won't marry you without a ring they went and bought a ring found a justice of the piece because the law was a lot easier than in South Carolina got married and drove down to a mortal beach South Carolina from Venice for where they work and step at that night at the ocean forest hotel and she called her daddy the next day who was a presbyterian preacher to say guess what because my aunt who I could go see every year the last living one of the family on either side always imitate my mother guess what this is how my aunt says it I'm married anyhow my grandmother who was the daughter of a Methodist preacher married to a presbyterian preacher was mortified but you know it lasted because it doesn't make any difference how young you are when you get married it doesn't make any difference whether you're Christian or not a Christian it does of course hear this in the context it doesn't matter how much you know or not you know what it matters and my willing to do what God says in the scripture once I've done it whether I'm compatible or not compatible if I'm if two people are willing to fulfill what scripture says they can have a good marriage period no with answer but that's you today right where you are so why am I preaching on this I'm preaching on it because it's pandemic in American life when you weigh the nations of the world compare us to a rack compare us to Afghanistan compare us to any nation in the world we're at the nature of nations when it comes to breaking our marriages apart and it's terrible and why well you want to tell you one reason why because it's like me that's why because I don't want to preach on this that's why because I have to give a big caveat beforehand because I know it's going to make people mad and know that some people may even leave the church because I said this even though I stressed before we started hey the past it's okay bring it to Christ claim the promises of God believe that God has forgiven your sins believe that you now can be blessed I'm not about the past about the present the future years ago I had a man in the church who always got mad always got mad always got upset anytime I preached about divorce and it wasn't because he was divorced you know why it's because he never accepted God's forgiveness for us divorce wow so that's the close of the message today it's just basically the gospel here you are you mess your life up well so what everybody else has to that's the whole story of the Bible is you mess your life up that's every Bible character okay if you want to give the the cliff note edition of the Bible here's the whole plot you mess your life up but that's not all the plot the other part of the plot is this for God so love the world I mean he loves you he loves you just the way you are with all your shortcomings with all your failures with all your immoral acts with all your history with all your stupidity and dumb choices he loves you just the way you are and God offers to you right now this very day the 14th day of November in the year of our Lord 2004 to wipe the slate clean I mean totally clean and he offers to give you a brand new start even if it's husband number six well now let's talk about husband number six for a moment in light of John four what should she do husband number five we don't know whether she's divorced from him and just living with Paramore the sixth guy over here or whether she's not what should she do you want to know I'm going to do question and answer on this tonight come tonight and find out let's pray let's pray Lord I pray that you would bless this message I pray that you would bind the demons of hell that would heat cold of conviction that only lead to condemnation rather than the Holy Spirit who brings conviction to lead us to come from our sin and trust in Christ Lord I pray that you would bind those spirits that would cause people to go out of here and they're pride and self righteousness angry over this message Lord I pray on the contrary that people will examine their own hearts and know that all we have to do is simply to believe the gospel and we're in the path of blessing and not under judgment I pray that nobody will leave this place under the judgment of God in Jesus name amen