Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 7. 1 Corinthians chapter 7. I'd like to look at verses 25
to 30, 31. Before we do, let's go to the
Lord in prayer. Our Father, we are so thankful
that we can call upon your holy name. Thank you for the privilege
to be able to assemble ourselves together in your name. We thank you, precious Lord Jesus,
for your presence. Glorious Holy Spirit, how thankful
we are for you teaching us, Lord, our need of Christ. Thank you for showing us ourselves.
I pray that tonight you'd bless the word, bless it to our understanding. Help us to worship, we pray,
for Christ's sake. Amen. You know, there's a lot of people
in this world that make their living giving advice concerning
marriage, marriage counselors. That's what I've entitled this
message, marriage counseling. And I've had people ask me before,
do you do marriage counseling? I said, yes, I do. Every Wednesday
evening, 7 o'clock, and on Sunday mornings at 9.30, we begin marriage
counseling. There's nothing in these scriptures
that is not concerning the marriage between the Lord Jesus Christ
and His bride. Sixty-six books set forth the
glory of Christ in the redemption of His people, His bride. Now,
if there's greater wisdom in this world than the Lord Jesus
Christ, then He's not God. But this Word is God's Word,
and every word of it is breathed by the Holy Spirit. And there's
nothing in these Scriptures that is not needful and profitable. to the Lord's people. Now, the
Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of God's Spirit,
begins in verse 25 of 1 Corinthians 7. He says, Now, now, considering what I have
just spoken upon, concerning the apostles' admonition to abide
with God. That was the last word in verse
24, therein abide with God. Now, now, abide with the Lord
in communion, abide with the Lord where He's placed you, abide
with the Lord being thankfully content, that He's done that
which He's done in putting His people where they are, in the
position that they are, in the vocation that they are, for His
glory and the good of His church. Everybody in this room, believers
or unbelievers, I'm going to tell you right now, you're exactly
where God Almighty has placed you for the good of His church.
Now, he says in verse 25, concerning virgins, concerning those who
have never been married, male or female, the apostle Paul says,
I have no commandment of the Lord. I have no commandment that
was either stated by the Lord in particular on this particular
subject while He was on this earth, nor I have no commandment
of the Lord concerning the Spirit of God. by whom Paul was led
to write. The Lord didn't speak on it in
particular, and the Spirit of God did not move upon any other
to say anything about it concerning this thing of virgins and marriage. But what Paul is about to say,
never fear this, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and it's profitable. So what Paul is about to say,
the Spirit of God didn't move anyone else to speak on it, the
Lord didn't speak on it in particular, but the Spirit of God moved upon
the Apostle Paul to say what he was about to say. He was led
and directed by God's Spirit to say this, Yet I give my judgment
as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful."
He said, I want you to know that I have, though the Lord didn't
speak on this specifically. There's no place in Matthew to
John where the Lord, while He was in His earthly ministry,
dealt with this. But the Spirit of God was pleased
at this time. to give Paul the Apostle some
advice, an opinion, and it was a God-breathed opinion. He said, I'm going to give my
judgment, one that has obtained the mercy of the Lord, to be
faithful. God has mercifully led me, directed
me, and kept me to be faithful to preach the gospel, faithful
to instruct God's people concerning in these writings of these books.
Everything that Paul's about to say, the Lord has taught him.
So Paul's advice to the unmarried, to the virgins, he's saying,
is God-breed. Now this advice was coming from
a man As I said, that has been revealed to have been faithful. He was indebted to the Lord Jesus
Christ for His mercy to teach him what the Lord had taught
him. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if it was when he
was taken up to the third heaven and he saw and heard things that
could not be spoken. I don't know. I don't know if
he was in Arabia. I don't know. But nonetheless,
the Spirit of God has taught him, and he knew that he was
what he was by the grace of God, and that the Lord had not left
him to himself. Had the Lord left Paul, the apostle,
to be what he was before, a self-righteous Pharisee, And that's where the
Lord, by and large, finds all of us. All of us. It doesn't matter. I personally came up under false
religion. I came up, my mama, I'm from
Louisiana, and my mother was a Roman Catholic. I was Catholic. There's things that I can remember
right now that I was indoctrinated with that I can remember the
questions. I mean, it was that indoctrinating. And she left
there and started going to a free will church, Baptist church. I went with her. My dad went
with us. And I was raised in false religion. But for the grace of God, I'd
still be right there. That's where Paul was. The view
that came up under Brother Scott. Until the Lord opened your eyes
to see with a heart what he was saying. You trusted in five points
of Calvinism. Well, I believe five points of
Calvinism. Let me tell you something. There'll
be five point Calvinist in hell. Now you listen to what I'm saying.
There'll be five point Calvinist in hell. It's one thing to trust
in a doctrine and to say, I believe that man is totally depraved. And it's another thing for me
to say, I'm totally depraved. It's one thing to believe that
God Almighty elected a people, but did He choose me? I believe
He did. To believe that He died for His
elect, I believe He died for me and redeemed me. Lord willing, I'm going to preach
this Sunday two messages, one out of Ruth, the book of Ruth
on the kinsman redeemer, concerning redemption. Lord willing, the second one,
out of Job. And his own redemption. The truth
of redemption. But to believe that Christ died
for me and that the Spirit of God irresistibly called me out
of. That I had no ability to resist
God's power. That all that the Father gave
the Son, He's going to have them. And that I'm kept, not by my
goodness, not by my smarts, not by my study, but I'm kept by
the power of God through faith. And I trust Him. I rest in Him. I believe Him. Man can trust
in religion and perish. The Pharisees did. He said, you're
white and sepulchers full of dead men's bones. Salvation is
in Christ. But for the grace of God, Paul,
like all of us, would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah. Verse
26, I suppose therefore that this is good for the present
distress. I say that it is good for a man
so to be, obviously. And he was talking about those
that were unmarried. Now, I want you to notice how
much this whole chapter has been devoted to this. And the Apostle
Paul, under the inspiration of God's Spirit, is dealing with
the issue of marriage. Now, he said, in verse 26, he
said, obviously there was a great persecution that was going on
toward Christians, and the Apostle was directed by the Spirit of
God to say what he said, knowing that there would be persecution. for the sake of Christ. And Paul advised, and he said
in verse 25, now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the
Lord, but I give my judgment. What he was saying is this, I'm
gonna give you some God-breathed advice. That's what he's saying. I'm gonna give you some advice.
And you know, when the Spirit of God moves upon the Apostle
Paul to say, I'm gonna give you some advice, it'd be good advice
to take. He said, I'm going to advise
you that those unmarried prayerfully, carefully weigh, because of the
affliction and distress that they would probably be made to
endure, weigh heavily this thing of being married. That's what
he's saying. Here's what I'm going to kind
of paraphrase. Count the cost. Count the cost. Count the cost. Let me hold your
place right there and turn with me to Ephesians 5. Those of you that are married,
we all need to hear this. Those of you that are contemplating
marriage, you need to hear it. And those of you that may one
of these days contemplate marriage, you need to hear it too. But
listen, listen. Ephesians 5, I'm going to start
in verse 21. Now listen to the cost. There's persecutions without,
but there's trials and persecutions within too. Listen to the cost. Here's the rules. for marriage. Now consider this, submitting
yourselves one to another in the fear or the respect of the
Lord. Wives, submit yourselves, adapt
yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. Now listen,
this is the way it is. I've had people tell me, that
we were going to be married. They wanted me to perform a marriage.
And the woman actually told me, she said, now I don't want you
to use the word submit. I said, well, then if you want
me to do it, then I'm going to tell you that this is what the
scripture says. And the scripture says submit.
But it's not that a woman is a dishrag. And the man is a tyrant. If a man is treating his wife,
I've heard men speak to their wives that just is so embarrassing. Just, fellas don't do that. Don't talk to them. That's your
wife. I've told people, I say she's
given up her name for you. She's given up her home, her
security, her mom and dad loved her. She's giving up everything. She's going where you are. Wives, adapt yourselves unto
your own husbands as unto the Lord. The husband is the head
of the wife. Even as Christ is the head of
the church, he's the savior of the body. And being the head
of the church, he's the director, he's the guardian. My head tells
the rest of my body what to do. But my head's not mad at my hand.
My head is not a tyrant over my foot. It's not trying to hurt
my foot. It cares for my foot. And a man
that is the head of his wife, he watches after her, he guards
her and he protects her character, he defends her. He's going to
take her side. I've told those that I've performed
a wedding for, if you're in here, you've heard me say this before.
I'll tell the man, I'll tell him, I said, if you've ever opened
the door for your wife one time, if she's worth it one time, she's
worth it every time. She's worth... I stopped going
down the road the other day. I was going to Ashland the other
day to the conference. I stopped at a rest stop and
this was the sweetest thing in the world. I saw an elderly gentleman
and he opened the door for his wife and I thought, you know,
that just did my heart good. Show respect. This is your wife. This is your
wife. The husband's the head. Christ
is the head of the church. Savior. as the church is subject
unto Christ. So let the wives be to their
own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word, that he might present it to himself, a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish. So count the cost. When you're
contemplating Marriage. Count the cost. This is the rules. There's going to be troubles
without and there's going to be troubles within the family. But how merciful the Lord is
to His people. This careful contemplation concerning
marriage would cause the believer to cast himself upon the Lord. for direction and guidance and
cause them to consider what the Lord has providentially revealed
concerning the responsibility of marriage. It's not just something
we do. We know that the Lord is not
going to leave us. He's not going to forsake us.
You think about whenever the Lord warned his people concerning
the dangers that were around. What about whenever Almighty
God revealed to Abraham his intention to destroy the wickedness of
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and to deliver Lot from danger
by his angels? That was the mercy of God. that
would reveal to Abraham what he was going to be aware. How
about when Daniel was in the lion's den? God providentially
watched over him and kept him and protected David from the
hand of Goliath and rescued Jonah out of the belly of the whale.
The Lord instructs His people concerning this institution of
marriage. Be advised. Be advised. You know, you parents, your children
call you and ask you, you know, I want to... Can I ask you something? Can I ask you? I want to talk
to you about something. Here is the Lord watching over
and caring for His people. Telling them. Not letting them
go into something blind. But warning them. You know, people,
no one can say, well I wish somebody would have told me what this
was going to be like before I got into this situation. Sit under the sound of the gospel. You sit and listen and I'm telling
you, wait on the Lord and God Almighty is going to deal with
every situation that a believer needs to hear about. And as I
said a while ago, let us never consider that any part of the
Scriptures are unnecessary or they're insignificant. Paul was
providentially moved by the Spirit of God to state what God's people
need to hear. But though the Lord's people,
even those who are unmarried, they were to consider that state
for their good And those that were married were not to be considered
disobedient if they were married. But we're not to seek an unnecessary
change in our state merely from the pressures of others, but
we're to pray and seek the Lord's guidance and directions to know
what is that which He would have me to do. So, verse 27. Paul
continues and he says, Are thou bound unto a wife? Seek not to
be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife?
Seek not a wife. The apostle admonishes. Neither
that state of marriage, being bound to a wife honorably, nor
the unmarried, those that are loosed from a wife. Don't seek
a change in your state. Don't seek it for any other reason
except The leadership of the Spirit of God. If you're married,
don't regret your marriage or feel that an unjustified divorce
or the abandoning of your mate is right because you fear of
what might happen through persecution. The Lord is going to keep His
own. He's faithful to His people.
If you're loosed from a wife, if you're lawfully, because of
their death or the unfaithfulness of your mate, They've left you,
they've abandoned you, they've gone off and run off with somebody
else. Paul says, this is my advice,
which remember is God inspired. Seek not a wife if you're not
married. If you are married, don't seek to be loosed from
it. Always remember that the marriage state is that glorious
picture and type of the eternal union of the Lord Jesus Christ
and His church. And that Spirit-led advice that
Paul is giving is for the sanctity of that bond. Just don't take
marriage or the abstinence of marriage lightly. Even if you
are not married naturally in this world right now and are
a believer, you are married to the Lord Jesus Christ. Submit
yourself unto Him. Submit yourself. Bow to his leadership,
his direction. But, verse 28, and if thou marry,
thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin marry, she hath
not sinned. Nevertheless, such shall have
trouble in the flesh, but I spare you. One who has legally and
honorably entered into the bond of marriage, or one who abstains
from the bond of marriage, commits no sin before God for either
being married or not being married. Paul merely reminds God's people
that they should enter into this bond of marriage and do it with
your eyes wide open, knowing that marriage is wonderful. But it brings physical and earthly
troubles. That's why Paul desired to spare
us from doing it ignorantly. Why? Why should we consider this
state of marriage so carefully? Look what he says in verse 29
to 31. But this I say, brethren, the
time is short. It remaineth that both they that
have wives be as though they had none, and they that weep
as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as though they
rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed not,
and they that use this world as not abusing it, for the fashion
of this world passeth away." Now, when you consider marriage, And I would say, especially these
last few comments that I'm about to make concerning marriage,
as we consider marriage, whether we've been married for years
or you're looking to be married, listen to this. The days of our
lives upon this earth is short, is short. Psalm 39 5, Behold thou hast
made my days as a hand breath, and mine age is as nothing before
thee. It's hard for me to believe that
I am now very close to being that three score and ten. A man's days on this earth would
be three score and ten. That's an average. If it's a
little more, a little less, it's not going to be much from that. But I'm thinking, where did the
time go? Where did it go? I mean, it just
seemed like yesterday. I told you before, I graduated
from high school just not that long ago. Fifty years. That's a long time. I thought, what happened? James
4, verse 14, whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow,
what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears
for a little time and then vanishes away. We thank the Lord for what
He has given us materially. I'm thankful. that I'm able to
pay my bills. I really am. I'm thankful. I'm
thankful that I've got something to eat, had something for supper.
I've got some clothes to put on. I'm thankful for that. I
appreciate that. But I'm going to tell you something.
These material blessings, these are fleeting. These are not going
to, you know, they're temporary according to the scriptures.
And we, you know, we buy and sell. We've got stuff. But we're
not going to be possessors of that very long. We've got a life,
a set time that we're going to be on this earth and we don't
really own anything. What are you going to take with
you? Job said, I came into this world
naked. That's why I'm going out. I told
you about a dear friend of mine down in Albany, Georgia. I mean
a wealthy, wealthy man. And one day he died. And you know they put him in
a casket just like they do everybody else. And they buried him. And that was it. Everything that
he ever had. We must learn, whether it's our
spouse, our possessions, you better learn to hold on to these
things with a loose hand, because you're not going to have it very
much longer. You know, we'd be wise to consider our joy and
privilege to be able to worship God. You enter into a marriage,
now listen, We enter into a marriage, and when we enter into that marriage,
take one thing into consideration. How is this going to affect my
worship of God? That's the only thing that matters.
That's the only thing that matters. Nothing in this world is more
important than the worship of God. And nobody, nobody, Hold
your place there, Matthew 10. I'm going to wrap this up, Matthew
10. You're considering a marriage
or you're considering a husband or a wife or something, listen
to what Scripture says, Matthew 10.33. Whosoever shall deny me before
men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to
send peace but a sword. For I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, daughter against her mother,
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they
of his own household. He that loveth father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me. He that loveth son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his
take not His cross and follow after me is not worthy of me."
Listen, in contemplating a marriage, if you're in a marriage, the only thing that matters is
Christ. He's first over your mama, your
daddy, your husband, your wife, your kids. If you put any of
those, if we put, let me say it like that, if we put anyone
above Him and you're a believer, I promise
you, you will suffer for it. These flimsy excuses that we
use concerning the avoidance of honoring Christ are dangerous. They're dangerous. Dangerous.
The Lord said that. He that loves his father, mother,
his wife, his children, whatever, more than me, is not worthy of
me. Count the cost. Count the cost. Let us not be taken up with that
which causes distraction or singleness apart from Christ. Worldly cares
or possessions are going to perish. Our spouses are going to perish.
But our relationship to Christ is eternal. Marriage, the apostle
declares, brings trials, but though those trials are also
connected with a bond of marriage, also remember that we enter into
that bond of marriage or we abstain from that bond of marriage for
the glory of God. Now concerning marriage, you
know it almost sounds like Paul was anti-marriage. He wasn't.
He wasn't. Did not the Lord Jesus Christ
betrothed himself to his bride forever? Did He not consider
everlastingly the pain, the trials, the tribulation that He would
endure for the sake of His bride? The Scripture says, for the joy
that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame
that is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. He said concerning His bride
in the book of Song of Solomon, you have ravished me with one
of your eyes. One look of faith from her. It was for the love of the bride
that he did that. There were trials that came with
that, and those trials concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, there
was no exception. Look what it cost him. You think he counted the cost?
Absolutely. Absolutely. And everlastingly
entered in to that covenant of grace. to bear the guilt of his
people. You consider the resentment that
men had against him while he was on the earth, and you behold
the cross and his sufferings. But aren't we thankful? You take
two people that love one another. They're in agreement. They love
one another, and all the trials and all the tribulations are
worth the cost. Those of us that have children,
I mean, you think it's trials raising kids? You don't have any idea the trials
I put my mom and dad through. I mean, but I can tell you this. I think
every parent would say just like I would say of my kids, it's
worth it. It's worth it. Consider this
glorious bond of marriage honorable unto the Lord. If the Lord gives
you a heart to marry, be married. But be married as unto Christ.
If the Lord gives you a heart to abstain from marriage, whatever
you do, whether you eat, whether you drink, whatever you do, do
it to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ for his sake and our good. Amen.