Good morning. Let's all stand
together and sing hymn number 294. 294. Savior, like a shepherd lead
us, Much we need thy tender care. In thy pleasant pastures feed
us, For our use thy folds prepare. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast brought us Thine we are. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast brought us Thine we are. We are Thine, do Thou befriend
us, the garden of our way. Keep thy flock from sin, defend
us. Seek us when we go astray. Blessed Jesus, Blessed Jesus, you'll hear us
when we pray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Hear, O hear us when we pray. Thou hast promised to receive
us, poor and sinful though we be. Thou hast mercy to relieve us,
grace to cleanse and power to free. Blessed Jesus, blessed
Jesus, early let us turn to Thee. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Early let us turn to Thee, Early let us seek Thy favor, Early
let us do Thy will. Blessed Lord and only Savior,
with Thy love our bosoms fill. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast loved us, love us still. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast loved us, love us still. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
37. Number 37. O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder Consider all the worlds thy hands have made. I see the stars. I hear the rolling thunder. Thy power throughout the universe It sinks my soul, my Savior God,
to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great thou art! How great thou art! When through the woods and forest
plains I wander, And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees. When I look down from lofty mountain
greenery, and hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. ? How great Thou art ? How great
Thou art ? Then sings my soul ? My Savior God to Thee ? How
great Thou art ? How great Thou art ? And when I think ? That
God His Son not sparing ? Sent Him to die ? I scarce can take
it in that on the cross my burden flatly bearing, he bled and died
to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. how great thou art, how great
thou art. When Christ shall come, with
shout of acclamation, and take me what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
and there proclaim, my God, how great thou art. Then sings my My Savior, God,
to Thee How great Thou art How great Thou art It sinks my soul
My Savior, God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! We can't grasp this side of eternity,
how great God is. We just can't. The only way we
know what He's like is what He tells us in His Word. And he described himself in incredible,
incredible ways. Mark chapter 10. That's one thing
we have to do when we're going through a book. We have to deal
with the verses as they come. And we have to be honest with
the word of God. And I think believers are honest
with themselves before God. But we have to deal with it as
it comes. And this is one of those places
that most folks find it hard to deal
with, but we're going to deal with it. Chapter 10, verses 1 through
12. And he arose from thence, and cometh from into the coast
of Judea by the farther side of Jordan. and the people resort
unto him again as he was wont. He taught them, great multitude,
and he's teaching them. Well, the Pharisees came to him.
They always interrupted our Lord. They interrupted him when he
was teaching in the temple, and they brought the woman, taking
in adultery. And the Pharisees came to him
and asked him, is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? Why
did they ask this? Tempted him. They tempted our
Lord all the time. Show us a sign. Where'd you get
this authority? What's the greatest commandment?
Always wanting to tempt our Lord and put Him in a situation where
He'd have to deal with the law of Moses or deal with what they
interpreted things to be. And they asked Him, said, is
it lawful? That's the first thing He wants
to know, is it lawful? Nothing about grace, nothing
about mercy. Nothing about forgiveness. Is
it lawful for a man to put away his wife, tempting him? And the
answer said unto them, What did Moses command you? And they said,
Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement and put her away.
Now you can find everything out about marriage in Deuteronomy
chapter 24 where he's talking about this. About six or seven
verses there. And they said, Moses said, write
a bill of divorcement and put her away. This is what our Lord
said to him. He just revealed the wickedness,
meanness of their hearts. Answer said unto them for the
hardness of your heart, he wrote you this precept. But from the
beginning, our Lord goes back to Genesis from the beginning
of creation. God made them male and female. I don't care what the government
says, I don't care what populism says, I don't care what social
board says, I don't care what anybody else says, God said He
made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and cleave to his wife. And they twain shall
be one flesh, as that they are no more twain, but one flesh.
What therefore God hath put together, join together, let not man put
asunder. And in the house his disciples
ask him." Now, he's back in the house and there's a different
group of people asking him. Ask him again of the same matter.
And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and
marrieth another, ADULTERY AGAINST HER, AND IF A WOMAN SHALL PUT
AWAY HER HUSBAND AND BE MARRIED TO ANOTHER, SHE COMMITTETH ADULTERY."
He makes it pretty plain, don't he? Matthew 5, 30 and 31, Our
Lord said, You know, you've heard it said, heard it seen it written,
Thou shalt put away thy wife. Give her a bill of divorcement.
But he says there, he said, save for the cause of fornication,
a man should put away his wife. But, you know, divorce is an
acceptable way of getting out of a marriage now. Very acceptable
way of getting out of a marriage. And most of the time, the reason
they use is I'm not happy. I'm not happy. I'm not happy. I'm not happy. But let me show
you something. You keep this and look in Malachi
chapter two. You know Malachi is that book
right before Matthew. Look in Malachi chapter two.
Look what God says about it. God says about this. Oh, I'm
sorry, we're supposed to sing another song. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I've got started,
can't stop. Oh my goodness. That just shows you how stressed
out I am over here. Anybody got a baby aspirin? You know, when you got a subject
you have to deal with, you know, you want to deal with it. And look what our Lord said over
here in verse 14. Yet ye say, wherefore, because
the Lord hath been witness between thee, and listen to this, the
wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously
with, yet she is thy companion and the wife of thy covenant. And did he not make one? He's
talking about making one out of the husband and the wife.
And did he not make the rest of the spirit? And wherefore
one? that they might seek a godly
seed. Why did he have just one? That they might seek a godly
seed. Take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously
against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel,
saith that he hateth putting away. He hates, it says there
that God hates divorce. He hates it. He hates putting
away. And you know what? He won't divorce
His people. Men and women can get divorced,
but God will not divorce His people. If anyone has a reason to divorce
His people, God has, with our constant unfaithfulness, coldness
of heart, unfaithfulness of His bride, unfaithfulness of His
people. But God doesn't believe in divorce. The Lord Jesus doesn't
believe in divorce. And you know what he said, I'll
never leave you, I'll never forsake you. I'll never do it. He said, no matter what you do,
I'll never cast you out. And that's why he asked, he said,
our Lord said here, he said, now I'm gonna tell you something.
The reason Moses did this, you got hard, hard, hard hearts.
That's your problem. You got a heart problem. And
there's been several times that people's come to me over the
years, and let me tell you this. If a husband or a wife comes
to me, I won't listen to anything they got to say, unless the other
one's present. And if they're both present,
and they both profess to be believers, and they're not getting along,
and they're wanting to fuss and fight and argue about this stuff,
you know what first thing I tell them? You're either unconverted,
one of you is, or both of you are. Believers, get along. It's
hardness of men's hearts is what the trouble is. And most people,
you know, God hates divorce. Our Lord hates divorce. Don't
believe in divorce. And I say that most people, the
majority of people who have been divorced would say, I hate divorce. I hate it. It's a terrible thing
to have to go through. It's a heartbreaking thing to
have to go through. I think there's two things that's
a terrible thing to have to deal with in this world, the loss
of a loved one and divorce. I've heard people say after divorce
they feel like the awfulest failure that they ever was, or they feel
like the death of the person they were divorced from would
have been better and easier to deal with. I've had people tell
me that. And oh my, someone said divorce
is never, never a solution, only an exchange of problems, only
an exchange of problems. God said, I hate divorce, I hate
it. And you know it creates problems.
Oh, how it creates problems. Divorce creates awful problems. It creates the problems in the
home, And it really, really creates problems for children, children. I remember my son come home and
he said, over half of the people that I, friends that I have,
almost all of them are divorced. He said, you know, and that's,
that's, he said, it's just unimaginable. And you know, when you, you always
affects the children, it affects the whole family, both sides
of the family. If it's the husband, it affects
the husband's wife, you know, and the family's wife. On both
sides of the family, it affects all of them. You cannot have
that situation and not ripple through the whole family. And
all people are always, always negatively affected, always. And in a divorce, you know what's
broken more than anything else? A vow, a vow. My word's not good enough. My
vows are not good enough. A dear, dear friend of mine,
his wife said the other day, he was talking to me about it
and said, you reckon we ought to renew our vows? You know what
he said? The vows don't get old. And they don't. They stay the
same. They stay the same. Why would you need to renew them?
They stay the same. And oh, my. And I tell you, when
a divorce breaks those vows, and I realize, I realize that
there are situations when divorce is unavailable, unavoidable,
unavoidable. I realize that. But it's not
usually the case. And if you'd go back and listen
to your vows, I believe you wouldn't do it. But also, You know, the
scriptures makes it very plain that if you have an unbelieving
husband or an unbelieving wife and they're not pleased to dwell
with you and leave you, you're not under bondage in such cases.
But I tell you what, I realize sometimes a situation that divorce
is unavoidable, unavoidable. And some people say, well, what
about adultery? What about fornication? Well,
I've always believed this. This is my belief. I'll quit
preaching and tell you what I believe. I believe that if that had happened
in my life, because the scripture says that we are to forgive,
it'd be hard to deal with. I'm not telling you it wouldn't
be hard to deal with, but the scriptures tells us that we are
to forgive. We are to forgive. And if you're
divorced, if you are divorced, May the Lord give you grace to
move on, not live in that miserable, miserable condition, holding
grudges and holding on to things that you can't hold on to anymore.
And I want to tell you this. I want everybody in this auditorium
to listen to what I'm going to say now. Do not be judgmental over people
and divorce. Don't do it. God forgives people.
God forgives people, and I'm grateful that He does. He forgives
people. Don't be judgmental of those
that have divorced. And I'll tell you why. You don't
know the facts. You don't know what happened.
You don't know what went on for years behind closed doors. You
don't know how somebody was treated, how somebody was mistreated.
You don't know the facts. So just let it alone. Just let
it alone. And God forgives, so you, by
God's grace, let that go. So our Lord Jesus Christ says
here, He said in verse five, Jesus answered and said unto
them, for the hardness of your heart, He wrote you this precept. He called it a precept. And you
go home, and if you don't do it today, do it later. Read Deuteronomy
24, there's about six verses in there dealing with this thing
that they're talking about. And I'll tell you what, always
tempting Him. But our Lord Jesus Christ, He
said, from the beginning of the creation, it was not so. Let's
turn to Genesis. Turn to Genesis with me. Turn to Genesis chapter two.
Our Lord, when He said, from the beginning, from creation,
it was not so. Our Lord goes all the way back
to creation. and deals with this subject of
marriage, and that s what I ll do. I ll go back to creation
and deal with this subject of marriage. We already know that
divorce is an awful thing. Somebody used to be 50 percent,
and I believe somebody told me the other day it s down to 42
percent, and the reason it s down to 42 percent is because people
are not even getting married I know several folks that's been
living together for two or three, four or five years. They don't
even bother getting married anymore. So that's why the divorce rates
down. You can't divorce somebody you're not married to. But that's the common thing now.
That's common. That's common. But now look what
our master said here in Genesis 2. In verse 24. Well, let's start here. and verse 21, And the LORD caused
a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one
of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the
rib which the LORD God had taken from man made he a woman, and
brought her, brought her to the man. He didn t say, Go get her,
He brought her. God brings us the people, He
brings our wives to us. And Adam said, This is bone of
my bone, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because
she was taken out of man. Now listen to what our Master
said, Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and
they shall cleave unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the
man and his wife. And that's what we want to talk
about. Do you know the Lord tells us here where marriage is and
how it started. It s a serious business and it
s a sacred business. God established marriage. Man
didn t, God did. And I tell you the state of society
don t make any difference. The civil laws don t make any
difference. And I know they don t regard marriage as a serious
affair and nor sacred. You know, morals have just got
down to nothing. It's an incredible lowest state.
Homosexuals, men are marrying men, women are marrying women.
That still doesn't make it right. That can't be a marriage. And
now they are being ordained to the ministry. And it's nothing for folks to
let this stuff go and agree with it. But let me give you a couple
of things to think about. First of all, let's look at man's
ideal of marriage. What's man's ideal marriage?
What's his ideal marriage? Well, his wife is to be in perfect
submission to him and obedience, never questioning. Don't question
his authority, don't question his decisions. As long as he
provides for the necessities of life, and he fulfills his
obligation, gives you a house to live in, clothes to wear,
food on the table, and you know, he fulfills HIS obligations,
gives you the necessity of life, and he says, You've got to do
what I say. He does what he wants, but you've got to do what he
says, and he won't dare do anything that he tells you to do. That's
man's idea of America. But what's a woman's idea of
a marriage? What's her ideal marriage? Oh
my. Now you see, tell me if I'm wrong.
A woman's idea of a good marriage is have a husband who's always
romantic, always romantic. Always at home when he's not
working. Always full of compliments, full of compliments. you know,
reveals the secrets of his heart to her, a good communicator,
who's understanding and not demanding. You know, I've known folks that
they say, Well, you know, the husband's, this is my money,
the wife, this is her money, she works, and this is his money,
this is her money. It's never ours. But when you
become one, it's ours. It ceases to be his and mine. It's ours, it's ours. But what
does God say about marriage? I know what man wants in marriage.
I know what a wife's idea of a marriage, a woman's idea of
a marriage is. But what does God say about it? Look over in
Ephesians with me. Look in Ephesians with me. You
know, I use this in a marriage ceremony. And some of you've
heard it. But what does God say about marriage? God said, a man shall leave his
father and his mother. A man shall leave his father
and his mother. Leave them. Why? Because I've got them, I'm
married. And he'll cleave unto his wife.
This is one. And oh, look what our Master
says about it. Look in verse 22. And God, you
know, God instituted marriage. I just read it to you. God made
male and female, and He brought them together, brought the wife
to Him, and brought Eve to Him, and said, This, too, shall be
one flesh. But look what He said here now.
Now, this is God's way of marriage. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands, and here's the kicker, as unto the Lord.
Ephesians 5.22, as unto the Lord. That's the thing. Every how you
submit yourself to the Lord, you submit yourself to the Lord
because you love Him. He's your Master. He's your Lord. He's your Savior. And I tell
you, that's why you do it. And the husband, for the husband's
head of the wife, even as Christ is head of the church, so is
he the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject
unto Christ, so let the wives be subject unto their husbands
in everything. You know, we submit to Christ,
and we do it out of love and worship and and obedience, and
we love him, we do it out of love. And here's something else. Listen to this now. Husbands,
love your wives, even as Christ also loved the
church. Huh? Whoa. And not only that,
but he gave himself for it. That tells us that we give ourselves
one to another, give ourselves one to another. And this is the
reason he did it, that he might sanctify us, cleanse us with
the washing of water by the word. Our Lord Jesus sanctifies us
by his word that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle of any such thing that it should
be holy and without blemish in love. And so he said all that,
that Christ, this is what he'd done for his body, this is what
he'd done for his church. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies, and he that loveth his wife loveth himself. You know, and you know, go back
down, I'm gonna say a few things before I get on down here. You
know why God instituted marriage? He said, it's not good for man
to be alone. It's not good for him. It's not good for him. I was
alone for a while, and it wasn't good. It's not good. It's not a good thing. And you,
why, you women, before you got married, it's not good to be
alone. It's not good. It's not good. And the next,
another reason why God instituted marriage is to typify, to show
us Christ's relationship with His church. with His Church,
and oh, my! And I tell you, He CHOSE His
Bride. He LOVES His Bride especially,
and we ought to love our wives especially. He GAVE Himself and
COMMITTED Himself to His Church, His Bride, and she s the special
object of His love. And all right, now listen to
me, all right and scriptural relationships on this earth exist
because God meant for us to see our relationship through His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God established marriage to show
us that as we are one, that this shows us our relationship with
Christ, Christ and us are one. And he loved us and gave himself
for it. We love him and we subject ourselves
to him. We love our wives and she subjects
us. If we love our wives, they'll
be glad to subject themselves. And if we, the wives love our
husbands, they'll be glad to say, well, you care if I do this,
you care if I do that? There's no fussing and fighting,
no. And I'll tell you what. Show
us our relationship through His Son. There's a lot of relationships
in this world, a father and a son, a mother and her daughter, brothers
and sisters, children and parents, masters and servants, but there's
no, no more closer relationship between a man and his wife. God
said that. The marriage is honorable in
all things, all things. You know, Christ is called our Husband,
and we're called the Bride of Christ. You know, our Lord says,
It's not good for man to be alone, I'll make a helpmate for him.
He said, I'll make a helpmate for him. And you know what he did? He
took that wife, took Eve, out of Adam. out of Adam, took her from his side. And why
did he take her from his side? Well, first and foremost, so
the wife won't get above the head. But took him from his side so
she'd be by his side. Didn't take him from his feet
so he'd walk on her. No, no. Oh no, to put him by
his side, to be under her arm, to be under his arm, to be protected
near his heart so she could be loved. And you know what our
Lord says? You know why marriages don't
last? Because of the hardness of men's heart. You think about that. You think
about that, all the people that you know, it's always the other
person's fault. If they hadn't have done this,
if they hadn't have done that. If they hadn't treated me this
way or treated me that way. I understand, I understand there's
sometimes it can't be helped. But marriages don't last because
our Savior said, from the beginning it was not so. Moses gave you
this precept because you got a hard, hard, hard heart. You
don't have that love that we just talked about. Husbands love
your wives. Wives submit yourselves unto
your husbands as unto the Lord. Hardness of men's hearts. And
oh my. And God in the beginning, God
made two out of one. Made two out of one. And then
in marriage, he makes two into one. Makes two into one. And you know, we've seen what
God says about marriage. We've seen what our Lord said
about marriage. It's the hardness of men's hearts. What do you
say about marriage? All of you here this morning,
what do you say about it? You made vows. You made vows. Do you take this wife, this woman,
to be your wedded wife? I do. Are you going to honor
her, cherish her? Are you going to keep yourself
only unto her, and her only unto you? Are you going to be through sickness,
through health, through wealth, through poverty? Till death do us part. Till death do us part. You know, when we made them vows,
and let me tell you something, you know who we made them for?
Before God Almighty. You reckon God heard them? You
know, God once gave them. Before God. Before the church
most of the time is before the whole church the whole before
this company before this group of people We make these vows
We make these vows and then you make that vow to your wife. I'm
gonna love you. I'm gonna honor you I'm gonna
cherish you and the wife said I'm gonna obey you. I'm gonna
love you. I'm gonna honor you and With all my worldly goods
I thee bestow bestow What you got's mine, and what I've got's
yours. Our Lord Jesus, when He married
us, we were all in debt. We were all estranged from Him. When He took us unto Himself,
He paid every one of our debts. And at countless times, He could
have walked off and left us in our sin, but He didn't. You know
why? Because He said, I'll never leave
you, never forsake you. And that's what a husband does,
he takes responsibility for his wife. And the wife takes responsibility
for her husband. And oh my. And oh, and I tell
you, not only do you make them vows to your husband and your
wife, but you made them before the world. You say, we're gonna
make a house, we're gonna have some children. It's what I want. Oh my. And let me say this, if
you're single, if you're single, only date believers, because
if you don't, you're asking for nothing but trouble. Trouble,
trouble, trouble. And I say this, God is a witness
to every, every marriage ceremony. Every single one of them. and
will be the witness to every violation of his vows. How good do you reckon God's
word is? Well, how can we have a good marriage? How can you have a good marriage?
I know some folks in here got really good marriages. I've got
a good one. I've got a good one, been blessed
to have two, and I've got a good one, a wonderful marriage. How
can we have a good marriage? Now, I didn't say a perfect one.
How do you have a good one? How do you have a good one? First
and foremost, you follow God's word. Follow God's word. Ain't
you love ya? Wives love ya husbands. Wives,
submit yourselves to your husband. Now, look back here again in
Ephesians chapter five. It says there in verse 30 now, For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones, of Christ, they're talking about.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall
be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh.
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and
the church. Nevertheless, nevertheless, let
every one of you in particular, you notice that? Every one of
you in particular, so love his wife even as himself. And the
wife see that she reverence her husband. Well, how can we have
a good marriage? Well, I didn't say a perfect
one, a good one. First of all, you follow God's word. Follow
God's word. Keep your vows. Keep your vows. Keep your vows. Keep your vows,
and I tell you what, one of the hardest things you have to do
is if you mistreat your wife or your wife mistreats you, and
y'all get upset and have an argument, you know what the best thing
and the hardest thing for us to do, it's hard for us, is say,
I'm sorry, forgive me. That's a hard thing to do, ain't
it? That's a hard thing to do. Forgive me. I'm sorry I said
that. I shouldn't have treated you
that way. I'm sorry I got upset. You know, that's a hard thing
to do. It's a hard thing for anybody to do between a husband
and wife. You know, do it, do it. Keep
your vows. How in the world can we have
a good marriage? You need Christ. That's the first thing, that's
the first, that's the first thing you got to have to have a good
marriage, Christ. Christ. Without Christ, you can't
have a good marriage, I don't know. And here's the second thing. If you're gonna have a good marriage,
you got to have a new birth. You got to have a new birth.
You know, He said, you hardness of heart. You got to have a new
heart. And only God can give you that new heart. If He gives
you that new heart, I read somewhere one time that if a converted
man even starts treating his dog better. But here's the thing,
you know, you need a new heart. He said for the hardness of your
heart. And what do you do? You gotta have a new birth. You
must be regenerated. You gotta have a new heart. God's
the only one that can give you a new heart. You know why it's
hard? Because it's made of stone. And he has to take out that heart
of stone and put in a heart of flesh. He got to give you a new
heart. You got to have a new birth.
You know, you have a new outlook. You have a new thing. Oh, my. I'll tell you what. I remember talking with somebody
with those people wanting to get married. And sometimes, you
know, I say, well, I'd rather talk to you for just a little
while before you get married. And the first thing I say is,
you know, Christ got it. You know, you need Christ. Christ
got to be in your marriage. You need Christ. And even if
your husband is unconverted, Christ will make you easier to
deal with whatever you're dealing with. I do know that. But you
need a new birth. But anyway, and one time I was
talking in this And I mentioned, yeah, we need Christ. You gotta
have Christ. Little old gal started just squalling,
squalling, crying. She said, that's what I want.
I want some kind of marriage I want. I want a Christian marriage. I want Christ in my marriage.
I want Christ in my marriage. I want Christ in my marriage. And
oh my. And I tell you not, we need Christ. We need a new birth. And we need
the grace of God. Need the grace of God. Need the grace of God. Oh my. Why do we all these, why do we
need Christ? Why do we need the new birth?
Why do we need the grace of God? Because of our corrupt nature. Because we got this old flesh. We're selfish. Oh, we're so selfish. We've got to relate everything
to us and our feelings. Everything to us and our feelings.
Everything to us and our emotions. And not only that, but we're
pretty demanding. We're pretty demanding. You're
not demanding, are you? Self-centered. Oh, that's why
we need Christ. That's why we need the new birth.
That's why we need the grace of God. And let me say this and
I'm gonna shut up and stop. Don't shut out your partner.
Don't shut out your partner. Couple come to me one time and
they wasn't getting along and got mad and one of them said,
I'm gonna sleep over in this bedroom. I'm not having nothing
to do with you. Don't shut out your partner. Don't shut out
your partner. If you get upset with them, don't
shut them out. Don't get cold-hearted toward them. Don't get mean, don't get cool.
Don't get cold-hearted toward them. Don't shut them out and
say, well, they said something or done something, acted some
way that I shouldn't have, so you shut them out. Don't do that.
And whatever you do, don't give ultimatums. Don't give ultimatums. All ultimatums will do is just
start an argument. Don't give ultimatums. If you
don't do this here, this is what's gonna happen. Don't give ultimatums. You don't want nobody to give
you one, do you? No, don't give ultimatums. You
know, marriage is more than finding the right person. Marriage is
more than finding the right person. It's being the right person. Being the right person. And let me say this, it's my
last thing. Don't compete. Don't compete. You ever seen husbands and wives
that compete with one another, especially when they're in public? Don't compete with one another.
Don't try to outdo one another. Don't compete over I've done
this and you've done that and I've done this and you won't
help me do that. Don't compete. One plus one equals one in God's
sight. In God's mathematics for marriage. We aren't competitors, we're
companions. We're companions. And let me
say this in closing. There's more at stake than just
our feelings. Much, much more at stake than
just our feelings. The church. In our relationship,
the church is at stake. Our children. Our children. Our children. And our friends. Our friends. Oh my. There's more at stake than your
partner's feelings. And for this cause, for this
cause, shall a man leave his father and his mother, cleave
unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. Husbands, love
your wives. Wives, see that you reverence
your husband. Away from divorce, to marriage. More marriages built
like I just said, be a lot less divorces. A lot less. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for your
word. Lord, I'd much rather talk about
marriage as divorce. But Lord, help us not to be judgmental,
not to be critical. Lord, you're forgiving God. And
Lord, if this happens, people come and say, Lord, I'm sorry.
I've made a mess out of things. Forgive me. Lord, please forgive
me. Help us not to sit in judgment
We don't know what happened in people's homes behind closed
doors. We just don't know. But Lord,
you know. And God bless these marriages.
God bless these unions. And Lord, I pray for people in
this congregation who has heartaches and worries and troubles. burdens upon their heart and
on their minds. I pray especially for them that
we know your grace is sufficient and we know that you'll give
them sufficient grace, but yet we still pray for them, Lord.
We pray for our lost loved ones that's living, Lord, living together. People that we know living together,
God have mercy on them. Move upon their hearts to get
married and be honest before God. And Lord Jesus, forgive
us of everything that's unlike you. Bless our time together
this afternoon, and thank you for this food. Bring glory to
yourself through this body of believers, and we thank you in
our Lord Jesus Christ's name, amen. Now we'll sing the song
in the bulletin. You know, as folks here, how
long you and, Darrell, how long you and Joyce been married? 66 years. Somebody just went on
their wedding anniversary all the way to Hawaii to enjoy being
married. Those folks have been married
here a long time. And that's a wonderful thing. Wonderful
thing. Well, all right. Let's all stand
together and sing the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Go get things ready. Go ahead
on. In myself I have no merit Nothing
good have I to give Had a holy, just and perfect God could ever
let me live Sin defiles my best performance Guilty vile and ruined
I am Yet my heart breaks in repentance By God's grace I see the Lamb
See the Lamb of God our Savior Bearing all our sin and shame
By eternal love and favor Jesus died bearing our blame Bruised
and wounded and forsaken, as our substitute he died. It is finished, sin's forgiven,
justice now is satisfied. Here's my hope and consolation
Jesus died for sinners' sake Trusting Him I have salvation
And a cup of blessing take All is well, I cannot doubt it God
who gave his son for me rules this world and all things in
it for my good eternally.