Let's open this morning's service
with hymn number 15 from your hardback hymnal. Hymn number
15. Brethren, we have met to worship.
Let's all stand together. Number 15. brethren we have met to worship
and adore the lord our god will you pray with all your power
while we try to preach the word. All is vain unless the spirit
of the Holy One comes down. Brethren, pray and holy manna
will be showered all around. Brethren, see poor sinners round
you Slumbering on the brink of woe Death is coming, hell is
moving Can you bear to let them go? See our fathers and our mothers
and our children sinking down. Brethren, pray and holy manna
will be showered all around. Sisters, will you join and help
us, Moses' sister? aided him. Will you help the
trembling mourners who are struggling hard with sin? Tell them all about the Savior. Tell them that he will be found. Sisters, pray and holy manna
will be showered all around. Let us love our God supremely,
let us love each other too. Let us love and pray for sinners
till our God makes all things new. Then he'll call us home
to heaven. At his table we'll sit down. Christ will gird himself and
serve us with sweet manna all around. Please be seated. Good morning. I assume everybody has heard
about our dear brother Cody. Thursday morning, the Lord was
pleased to take him home. And what a loss to us. What a loss. I know that you all loved him,
and I want you to know that Winna is doing exceptionally well. We talked to her again this morning,
and open your Bibles to Psalm 143. She told us this morning that
she woke up with this passage on her heart. I'm sorry, Psalm 145, verse 3. Great is the Lord. I'm so sorry,
I looked up this verse and I wrote down the wrong reference, but
the In short, the verse that she woke up thinking about was,
I will speak of His goodness. And that's what she was doing
this morning as well as the other day, Thursday, a couple of hours
right after Cody had passed. She was rejoicing in the Lord's
goodness. And broken-hearted, of course. Both her sons are there with
her. They came on Thursday. Kate and
Austin both flew down on Thursday, and they've been there with her.
And Austin is preaching this morning, her son, in the church
in Merida. And so I want us to pray for
them and pray for the churches. Cody was pastoring three churches.
Yobain, which is one of the pueblos just outside of Merida, Cancun,
and the church in Merida. And he's been working diligently
for years, training some young men to preach, and hope is the
Lord will be pleased to raise up someone for those churches. Huge hole in our hearts. 2016 years ago, this building
was without drywall, without electricity. And concrete floor,
see the studs in the ceiling. And we didn't have our CO, of
course. And we weren't approved to be
able to meet here. But Cody was in town, and we
decided to have a service on a Wednesday night. A lot of you
all remember that. And Cody preached the very first
gospel message in this building in the spring of 2000. He's been a great blessing to
me, to this church over the years, and I already miss him. But you know what? We'll only
have to miss him for a few days. Really. Just a few days. Just a few days. And we'll be going to be with
him. To be with Christ. And what a glorious day that'll
be. I hope that his passing, he's
57 years old, didn't have any history of heart problems. The
Lord just took him home. And I hope that it'll be a sobering
reminder to each and every one of us to consider the brevity
of life for ourselves and our need for God's grace, for Christ. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we're so very thankful for the hope that you put in
our hearts. For to be absent from the body
is to be present with thee. And we know for us, it doth not
yet appear what we shall be. But oh Lord, what great comfort
and hope we have for our brother Cody. Knowing that it does appear
to him when he shall be. We're so thankful. The testimony of grace that you
put. On his heart and in his lips. And we asked Lord that. But you
would comfort our hearts as we wait on you. As we wait on you
to do the same thing for us. That you've done for him. We ask that you would provide
for your people in Mexico, that you would lay your hand on men
that can preach the gospel, and Lord, that you would raise them
up and provide for your sheep there in Merida, and in Cancun,
and Ubein. We pray for Winna, and Andrea,
and Cade, and Austin, Oh Lord, thank you for the good hope that
you've given to them, and we pray that in their times of grief
that you would be a comfort to them, the comfort to sustain
them, Lord. Pray for Walter and Betty. Lord,
we can only imagine the sorrow that a parent feels in losing
a child. Lord, comfort them. Teach us to trust You. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Normally, we do not have services
on Wednesday night of Thanksgiving week, but we will have services
this Wednesday night. So if you're able to come, I
hope you will, and we look forward to meeting together here on Wednesday
night of this week. When it's trying to get the paperwork
through, the bureaucracy of Mexico is unbelievable to get Cody's
body moved to Texas. She's hoping to be able to do
that on Tuesday and have a service on Friday or Saturday. And Tricia
and I are hoping to be able to go to that service. But we'll meet Wednesday night.
And most of them, some of you may not know Deanna Horton. Deanna's
had open heart surgery and she's had three stints put in since
her open heart surgery. She was having some symptoms
yesterday that sent her to the hospital. They
did a heart catheterization on her yesterday and everything
was clear. She was having a reaction to some medication that she had
taken for other tests. So, Robert and Deanna are home
this morning recovering. Will you open your Bibles with
me to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. We've been studying this letter
that the Lord gave to the Apostle Paul for the church in Corinth. and some of the specific issues
that they were dealing with needed to be addressed. This is God's word to us. And I'm very, very hopeful that
the Lord will speak to each one of our hearts in helping us to understand and
to believe what he has said in his word relating to marriage. If you've been reading ahead,
you know what this chapter deals with. And what a heavy heart
I have for your marriage and for mine. that the Lord would
be pleased to not only protect it and preserve it, but use it
for His glory and teach us all how to trust Him. I always mention this in performing
a marriage wedding ceremony. that it's hard enough for us
to live with ourselves. The conflict that we have with
our own flesh. You put two sinners in the same
household together and it doubles the trouble. And it's not easy. It's hard for sinners to live
together. And yet the Lord has given us
some clear teaching. I've titled this God's Word Concerning
Marriage. God's Word concerning marriage. Now oftentimes we have said that
the Bible is not a rule book for Christian living. And that's
true. It's a revelation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Does that mean that God has not
given us in His Word precepts that relate to how we ought to
live? The answer to that question is,
no, it's not. What saith the Scriptures? The
Word of God is our final authority for life. The problem is, as
we saw in the book of Isaiah, chapter 28, when men make the
precepts of Scripture a law in that they take some pride in
thinking that they've earned some degree of favor with God
because of their obedience to the precepts of scripture. When
you do that, then you've taken the Word of God and you've turned
it into a rule book for Christian living. if you take any pride
at all in your obedience to the precepts of scriptures in thinking
that you've elevated your sanctification, that you've achieved some level
of holiness above other men, or that you have satisfied the
demands of God's law in some way, or in any way take pride
or take comfort in thinking that i've done that now you've made
up a rule book you've made god's word a rule book a law book for
christian living you've lost sight of the gospel all these precepts that the lord
has given to us we love god's word we love his law uh... you know paul said i'm not i'm
not kept back anything from God's Word. I preached the full counsel
of God's Word. And when he was instructing Timothy
on preaching, he said, Timothy, preach the Word, the whole Word,
nothing but the Word, in season and out of season. Preach all
the Word of God. So, The precepts of scripture are
to be understood in light of the gospel. I'll show you how
we do that, how we do that. Look at the very first verse
of 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Now concerning the things whereof
ye wrote unto me. they had asked him some questions
in a letter relating to marriage and divorce and what to do under
certain circumstances and so he's addressing those issues
it is good for a man not to touch a woman now how how much difficulty marriage brings into our own
lives. in terms of the the principle
here is that we are too uh... esteem our partner are married
our spouse more highly than ourselves uh... it's a sacrificial relationship
uh... it's a giving relationship and
what he's saying throughout this chapter is it be it'd be easier
in a lot of ways in a lot of ways it'd be easier not to be
married see, Donald had a wonderful, a wonderful life with Joyce and
we love Joyce and I know he did but, you know, the trials of
marriage and there's a, you know, that's what he's saying. So how
does that relate to the gospel? How much easier would have been
for the Lord Jesus Christ as our husband to remain single how much pain how much suffering
how much would he have spared himself had he not taken himself
a bride but he did And he took a bride for the same
reason you men take a bride, because he loved her. He loved
her and he made a great sacrifice. Ephesians chapter 5, husbands
love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself
for her. Well, that's what the Lord is
saying here. And you know that Ephesians chapter 5 ends with,
this is a great mystery concerning Christ and His church. And so
even the precepts that are given to us in Ephesians chapter 5
have to be understood in light of the gospel. They have to be
understood in light of Christ's relationship to His church. and only as we look to Christ. See, we're not looking to these
precepts as rules and regulations to be followed in hopes that
God will reward us for having followed them. That's not what
we're doing. We're understanding them in light
of the gospel. And in looking to Christ, we're
desiring in our hearts to honor Him. To do that which is pleasing
in His sight. To do that, we're following after
Christ. We're following after Him. So, does that do away with our
desire to understand what it is He's saying specifically when
it relates to how we ought to act? No. but it puts it in the
context of the gospel. Does that make sense? We don't say, well, I've done
that. We're not like the rich young ruler who the Lord said,
you know the law. And what did he say? I've done
those things in my youth. I treat my wife the way Christ
would love the church. I've been faithful. I'm doing
what I'm supposed to do. No, we don't do that. We don't
do that. We look to Christ and we say,
Oh Lord, I want, I want to obey you. I want to follow after you. I want to do that which is pleasing
in your sight. I want these, these things to
be true in my home. Before we continue, let's go
to that passage in Ephesians chapter 5. I want to point something
out here to you. What is it that a man needs from
a woman? What is it that he needs? Emotionally,
spiritually, not physically. He needs respect. That's what
he needs. What's the highest form of respect? Now let me say this, men. Respect
is not something you can demand. You can't say to your wife, God
says you have to respect me. and so you're on that now you're
making the precepts of scriptural law you put your wife under the
law and I'm I'm here to tell you that's not work you want
her to not respect you just demand that she does respect you and
put her under the law she made she made submit outwardly but
her heart's gonna be rebelling against it I'll respect is something
that that has to be earned isn't it I'm what's the highest form
of respect I'm trying to relate this to the gospel. What's the
highest form? The highest form of respect.
I'm not suggesting, ladies, that you do this for your husband,
but here's the highest form of respect. It's worship. It's worship. Is the Lord Jesus Christ in any
way needing our love for Him? Do we love Him? Yes, we love
Him because He first loved us, but what do we give to Him? What
does His bride give to Him? The highest form of respect.
We look at our love and we think, you know, I just don't love the
Lord like I ought to love Him. But my heart bows in worship
to Him because He has earned my respect. He has. I mean, if I can put it that
way, I don't know of any other way to put it. He's convinced me. He's shown me. uh... that that's
probably a bad way to put it there in my respect but you understand
what i'm trying to say uh... he he's proven himself and cause
me to to worship him and to give to him the highest form of respect
and now what's he done what's he done for us he's loved us
and get laid down his life for us look at look at what that's
that's the you've got your bibles open to features chapter five
Look at verse 32. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and His church. Nevertheless, let
every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself,
and the wife see that she reverence her husband. That's what the
Lord says. Now, what does a woman need from
a man? She needs to be loved. You know,
one of the problems we have in our marriages is that we try
to give to the other person what we want them to give us. You
know, and men, your wives need to be loved. Women, your husbands
need to be respected. And that's the way the Lord's
made us. And that's the relationship that
Christ has with His church, isn't it? It's the relationship that
Christ has with His church. Verse 21, Submitting yourselves
one to another in the fear of God, This is not a matter of one person
being of more value or more important than another. This
is a mutual submission to God between a believing man and a
believing woman. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your husbands as unto the Lord, for the husband is the head of
the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is
the Savior of the body. Man, your primary responsibility
in your home is to provide for your wife and your children.
The savior of the body, the provider for the needs, the physical needs
of those that you have in your home. Therefore, as the church is subject
unto Christ, even 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." Men, your responsibility is to be the spiritual leader
in your home. You're the one to lead your wife through the
scriptures and that's how you're going to earn
respect, isn't it? A believing woman is going to
respect a man who's spiritual. And a man who has the ability
to give solid spiritual wisdom, counsel, and leadership in his
home. And it grieves my soul when I
see men turn that responsibility over to their wives. And it happens
a lot. And I'm telling you, in those
relationships, the wife has no respect for her husband. No respect. Who's the spiritual leader in
the relationship between Christ and His church? Who's the spiritual
leader? There's no question about it,
is there? That he might, verse 27, 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 ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that
loveth his wife loveth himself." The church is the body of Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Never did anything to hurt His
body. One thing I'm sure of, We're looking now to what's happening
with Cody's loss, with our loss of Cody, and I'm thinking, you
know, my first thought is, what are the churches going to do?
I am confident that the Lord's going to provide for his bride.
One way or the other, I don't know how it's going to happen.
We're going to look back and we're going to say, he's not
going to let his wife go. He's going to provide for his
wife. No question about it. For no man ever hateth his own
flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth even as the Lord the church. Now, It's not right for us to
be in love with ourselves. We are way too much. You know,
the world says, you know, you just need to think more highly
of yourself. You need to love yourself more.
You need to have a higher self-esteem. That's just the opposite of what
the truth is. We love ourselves way too much.
We think too highly of ourselves. We're so proud and self-righteous
and full of ourselves all the time. And it's sinful, every
bit of it. You know who it's not sinful
for? God. It is not sinful for God to be
full of himself. It's not. He's glorious. And His highest
glory is our greatest good. So it's good for us that He be
glorious. And He says here, we are members
of His body and of His flesh and of His bones. We're members
of the body of Christ. And He's never done anything
to hurt His body. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and his mother, and shall be joined unto his wife,
and they shall be one flesh." Moms and dads of adult children,
let me give you some counsel. Stay out of the business of your
children's marriage. Pray for them, encourage them,
let them work it out. Children, don't run to your parents.
When you have problems, a man is to leave his mother and his
father and cleave unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. Families in an attempt to try
to help their children and children in an attempt to try to be dependent
upon their moms and dads oftentimes just complicate the problems
of marriage. There. I said it. It's true. It's true. That's what God says.
That's what God says. All right. Go back with me. There are some verses in 1 Corinthians
chapter 7 Every one of them are inspired
word for word by a holy God. And there are some that are so
sensitive that to add any explanation to them is not only unnecessary,
it would be wrong. They stand all by themselves
and they're easy to understand. And I don't intend to try to
explain them if you can see what they mean the holy spirit doesn't
show you uh... these are these are subjects
that uh... that don't need it you understand
what i'm saying uh... nevertheless he says it's good
to be easier life of the easier in a lot of ways if you didn't
have the responsibility and let me say this also because there's
one verse uh... but look at verse twenty six
i suppose therefore that it is good for the present distress
that i say that is not good for a man this is this is fifty five
eighty the roman government is just now beginning to to to wage
its war against the church believers are being gathered up and arrested
and burned at the stake and fed the lions this is uh... this
is a time of great persecution and it's going to be going on
for some time now uh... and he says i suppose that for
this present time uh... you know it's really going to
be more difficult if you have to take care of wife and children
in the persecution that's taking place So he says in verse 2, Nevertheless,
to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and every
woman her own husband. Let the husband render unto the
wife due benevolence, and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath no power over her
own body, and likewise also the husband hath no power over his
body, but the wife. This is a principle of grace.
You don't belong to yourself, you belong... Once you marry,
you're in union. You're in union with that spouse.
You're one flesh. And you don't have the right
to be selfish and to make decisions based on what you want. You're in a relationship now
that you've got to consider first your spouse. That's your first
consideration. What is their need? what is there
need not what if you go into a marriage are you try to work
out problems in your marriage thing well you're not providing
for me what I need it's just gonna get worse that's the that's
the opposite of grace it then that's what he's saying here
you don't use your physical relationship to manipulate one another to
get what you want from them that's what he's saying I'm and I'm
Defraud ye not one another. Don't take advantage of your
spouse for your own gain. defraud you not one another except
it be for a consent for a time that you may give yourselves
to fasting and prayer, come together again, that Satan tempt you not
for your incontinency. That's the purpose of fasting.
And there are things that, you know, that we need to abstain
from in the flesh to be able to, that we not be, would Paul
say that I refuse to be under the power of anything? And the
flesh is weak. If you're a child of God, the
Spirit is willing, but I understand. I can't indulge my flesh in all
of its pleasures, because it'll never be satisfied. And the more
you give the flesh, the more it wants. The more you give the
body, the more it wants. Isn't that true? Now, there's three verses in
this chapter. This does require some explanation.
There's three verses in this chapter, verse 6, verse 12, and
verse 25, where Paul says, I do not write by commandment but
by permission. And then he says, this is not
of the Lord, this is of me. He's not suggesting that this
is not God's will or God's word. What he's saying is that a lot
of the things that I've told you are clearly defined in the
Old Testament. And this doesn't happen to be
addressed in the Old Testament, so I'm going to give you the
counsel that God's given me. He's a penman of Scripture. The
words that he speaks when he says in verse 6, but I speak
this by permission and not of commandment, He's not saying,
well, that means that, well, it's not relevant, or I can do
it or not do it, or just consider it or not consider it. It's just
as much the Word of God as is the precepts of the Old Testament. He's just saying that what I
said before was clearly stated in Scripture already, and this
is now the wisdom of God apart from what's already been written.
So now this becomes Scripture. And if you're a child of God,
you want to know what God says. You just want to know what the
Scripture says. You want to be obedient. You want to be pleasing
to Him. One of the clear themes here
is the principle of grace. It is that we are to bear one
another's burdens. and so fulfill the law of Christ."
Now that's true in our relationship with one another, but it's most
especially true in the marriage union, isn't it? to bear one
another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Love puts the interest of the
one being loved above its own needs. That's the clear teaching
of this scripture. And the Lord will give us the
grace to see ourselves as centers and understand how much the lord
has done for us and how much he's forgiven us it will will
will be able to communicate that spirit in our relationships in
a home in a marriage so begins in our hearts, in our relationship
with the Lord, and the manifestation of that is, it's carried out in the home
first. steaming one another more highly
than ourselves for john says in first john chapter four beloved
let us love one another for love is of god and everyone that love
it is born of god and know if god and he the lovers not know
it's not god so he's know that that's our
relationship with christ is what reflects and motivates our relationship
with others, and that begins with the spouse. And that's what
he's saying here. For I would that all men were
even as myself, But every man hath his proper gift of God,
one after this manner and another after that. I say, therefore,
to the unmarried and widow, it is good for them if they abide
even as I." Now, in another place Paul talks
about Peter having the right to bring about a wife on his
missionary journeys and that he did not have that privilege. It appears that what Paul is
saying here is that he's not married. Whether he had a wife
at one time, we don't know. Scriptures are silent. We must
remain silent on that subject. Some have suggested that he's
not really referring to him being single. He's referring to being
content with the state in which you're in. I've learned to be
content in whatever state God's put me in, whether it be married
or unmarried. I'm content in my relationship
with Christ. What a blessing that is. Contentment.
Contentment. Godliness with contentment is
great gain. Lord, make me content. Make me
content with Christ. Make me content with the relationship
that you've put me in. And give me the grace. Give me
the grace to reflect grace in that relationship. But if they cannot contain, if
they can't remain single, let them marry, for it is better
to marry than to burn." Burn in the passion. You know, as
I said, these are verses that don't need... I'm not saying
it's better to marry than to go to hell. It's better to marry
than to have your... He's talking about fornication. He's already
brought that up. uh... and that's uh... that's a big
part of marriage you know we i can remember young people i
can remember when when we were younger that it was not socially
acceptable to live together outside of marriage why is it people
you know we're getting married so late in life because they
don't need to be married and or to enjoy uh... that the physical
benefits of being together god and changes that that's that's
all changed in my lifetime in our culture. But God hasn't changed
his mind about it. It's the same. It's the same. So if you can't remain single,
get married. And then enjoy that relationship
as you become a giver in that relationship as Christ has given
to you. All right, let's take a break.
And there's more to these passages, but I hope that'll be helpful
to all of us. th th