Alright, let's take our Bibles
and turn back to 1 Corinthians chapter 7. Having considered the blessed
marriage state and The Lord's word through the Apostle Paul,
it's good for a man not to touch a woman, nevertheless, to avoid
fornication, let every man have his own wife, and every woman
have her own husband. Then scripture sets forth the
responsibilities of husbands to their wives. And of course,
as I've said before, there's always an understanding of the
natural state. There's always... God's Word
is wonderful in this sense. It sets forth the foundation
of right and wrong, morality, immorality. It makes that distinction. But as in the last message, as
it always is in the book of Proverbs, there's always that natural understanding
that the world can naturally understand. but setting forth the gospel
in the passage. That's what feeds the believer. I'll tell you for myself and
I'll speak for you that know Him. I'll promise you in the
last message, I'll just go ahead and speak for myself. If avoiding spiritual fornication
is just good advice, okay, that's good, but it doesn't do anything
for my heart. I mean, I know it's right and wrong, but I'll
tell you that this which feeds the soul of a believer is knowing
that God Almighty has caused him to avoid it and done something
that he couldn't do for himself. Now, let's listen to what the
Apostle Paul has to say as the Spirit of God moves upon him
to speak in verses 3 to 5, the obligation of marriage. That's
what I've entitled this, the obligation of marriage. Verse 3, let the husband render
unto the wife due benevolence and likewise also the wife unto
the husband. Now, both man and woman And I'm
going to go ahead so you'll understand where I'm going. I'm going to
tell you what naturally it's saying and then we're going to
take what's naturally said here and consider this spiritually. Man and woman owe something to
their spouse. Now here's what it is. It's called
due benevolence. Each other has a due. The man owes his wife, wife owes
her husband. According to that bond, that
marriage contract that I mentioned in the first message, that they've
mutually entered. They owe kindness, they owe tenderness,
they owe long-suffering, respect. But primarily, The Lord has set
forth here the needs intimately, each other. I don't have to get
real graphic, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The Lord
has set forth that each owes to their mate concerning their
needs. And each partner of the marriage
is to strive to diligently be aware of the needs of his spouse,
and to meet those needs in a willing and loving way. But not only
has the Spirit of God moved upon the Apostle Paul to set forth
the loving responsibility due each spouse, but he also declares
God's demand for fidelity. concerning the husband to the
wife, the wife to the husband. Let the husband render, now listen
to this, unto the wife do benevolence. Likewise also the wife unto the
husband. Now do you know what he just
said? that there's no blessing of God upon two people living
together outside of the bond of marriage or having extramarital
affairs. That's what he just said. Who
does the husband owe due benevolence to? His wife. Who does she owe due benevolence? Her husband. Like I said, whenever
you stood together, You took a vow to be faithful to each
other, you vowed before God Almighty, and men, I'm going to be faithful
to you. I'm going to be faithful to you.
We live before God Almighty, who instituted marriage, who
we have sworn our allegiance to our spouses, and we're to
seek to please them in all things. It's not optional. It's not optional. We owe husbands, we owe our wives,
due benevolence and wives, you owe your husbands to be done
faithfully, lovingly, kindly. Verse 4, The wife hath not power
of her own body, but the husband. Likewise also, the husband hath
not power of his own body, but the wife. Neither the husband
nor the wife possess the exclusive authority over their body. Let me tell you something. Husbands,
you gave yourself to your wife. Wives, you gave yourself to your
husband. I'm going to tell you something.
You just think, well, you know, I'm still my own person. No,
you're not. No, you're not. You belong to your spouse. You're one with them. You're
one with them. You're not two people anymore. You're one before God. That marriage
covenant. has transferred the right of
husbands and wives, their bodies, to their spouse. Husband, she
owns you. Wives, he owns you. You're one. Verse 5, Defraud ye not one the
other, except it be with consent. for a time that you may give
yourselves to fasting and prayer, come together again that Satan
tempt you not for your incontinency." Here, the Spirit of God continues
to demand the husband and wife not rob or keep back by fraud
that which is due. Brother Henry Mahan made a comment
on this verse 5, and this is what he says, To refuse love
and affection when it is needed or to deprive each other of that
which is in our power to give our spouse is selfish and evil. It's evil. It's disobedience. It's just absolutely wrong. And the exception, the Apostle
Paul writes under the inspiration of God's Spirit, is to be During
a time of special responsibilities or burdens or trials or fastings,
you know, the only thing that I can really think of, there's
just times, and I'll just have to speak for myself because most
of you don't have to do this. There's times that I'll be invited
to go somewhere. I'm going to go and speak here
or something and Glenda can't go. and we, you know, mutual
consent, we're going to be separated. And that's, you know, it's time,
God Almighty has called me to this ministry and that's, it
happens, this is my calling, this is my work. This is the
Lord's demand upon me. Whatever you find yourselves,
if there's times of spiritual, there's a spiritual reason, defraud
ye not one another, except it be consent for a time that you
may give yourselves to fasting, prayer, come together again,
that Satan tempt you not. Don't find yourselves being separated
because it's not going to go well. So, one who fails, to do the responsible thing. One
that fails to act in a way that's right and finds himself selfish
in their responsibility to their spouse. It's not going to do
good. It's not going to go well. Don't
do that. Yet I realize that responsibilities
are there, and you have a burden. I know you have a trial, you
have a responsibility that you're going to have to take, but we
do for our spouses, as Almighty God has demanded, and we don't
defraud them. We don't leave them to themselves. Now, that's what the Scripture
says. That's what the Scripture sets
forth. And humanly speaking, again, as I did the last time,
That's what's set forth. Husbands, we have responsibilities
to our wives. Wives, you have responsibilities
to your husband. Don't defraud them. You give
them due benevolence. You do it in a loving and kind
way. But now, where's the lamb? Where's the gospel in this? When
we consider this state of marriage, we must behold the fullness of
the Lord Jesus Christ as our husband and the bride as his
spouse, as his love. He was the one that everlastingly
entered in to that bond of matrimony with us. We didn't start it. The church was not the one that
entered in to the marriage bond first. We didn't have a free
will, we weren't even born. Before the foundation of the
world, there was the bridegroom. Before the foundation of the
world, there was a bride chosen in Christ. known of God, absolutely
all their names written in the Lamb's Book of Life, He has always
had a bride. He's always known her. Not one
member of His body has ever been added. They were all collectively
Christ's given unto Him before the foundation of the world,
and the Lord Jesus Christ to take from her the agony and the
pain that she would have suffered. The Scripture says in Hosea 2.19,
"...betrothed us, His people." unto himself everlastingly in
righteousness and in judgment and in loving kindness and in
mercies. He married us before the foundation
of the world. And it's all being made evident
in time who she is. He's calling her out. And there
one day is going to be an open manifestation before heaven and
earth of who she is. I don't know who she is. I've
told you before. I've got an idea of some of them
now maybe. I pray I'm one of them. But I'm
telling you, He's going to openly manifest at that great wedding
feast. The bride and the bridegroom
openly displayed in heaven. But had He never touched our
nature, being made flesh that He might save us, His elect,
from our sins through the shedding of His own blood at Calvary,
we would have had no hope, unless He suffered and died for us. Oh, the due benevolence that
He gave unto us. What did He do for us? When a man and a woman decide
that they're going to get married, do you know that that's pretty
much a mutual decision? They mutually decide, I'm going
to do that. Before we were ever created,
Christ Himself in perfect agreement to that everlasting covenant
of grace, stood as the great surety and husband for the bride. And as I said in that last message,
God knew she was going to fall. God knew the need that she had,
that she would have being a rebel born in Adam. He knew For Him to have us, we must be
holy before God. And for Him to have us to Himself,
He's going to have to do something. Why? Because there's some responsibilities
that's going to have to be answered for and accomplished. The problems that would enter
in, a man and a woman gets married. There's some problems. There's
trials, there's tribulations. And in this marriage too, there
were some problems that were going to have to be overcome.
And who can overcome them? Not me! You have to remember,
I'm dead. Everlastingly loved in Christ,
but I'm dead in trespasses and sins. And he's going to have
to do something. Had he never touched this nature,
being made flesh, he'd have never suffered and died. He would have never been despised
and rejected of men. He would have never been acquainted
with grief. But he came into this world and
carried our sorrows He was stricken of God. He was afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions
and bruised for our iniquity. What was He doing? He was giving
unto His bride due benevolence. She has a need. She has a need
that she can't fulfill. She has to have Him. We have
to have Him. Why would He take on this responsibility? There was nothing in Him that
was evil. There was nothing in Him that
was worthy of judgment. Why did He do it? He loved us. He loved us. For God so loved
the order of man. I always have to make sure that
everybody understands that. You know, that has been so distorted. I love what Mr. Spurgeon said
concerning that. He said, I'm going to preach
on John 3.16 today. And he said, I'm going to take
that great gun or that so-called great gun of Arminianism, free
willism. That verse has been preached
for years and years and years and it's been so distorted. Men
stand up and say, for God so loved the world, He loves everybody,
that He gave His only begotten Son. Whosoever believeth in Him
shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And they make that to be
universal atonement. He loves everybody. Well, I can
disprove that from Scripture. He didn't love Esau. Now, there's an exception there.
There's a problem. He hates the workers of iniquity
every day. That word right there, what it
actually means is hates. You say, well, how can God do
that? God said He does. It's God's
truth and we're not. So I can tell you this, it does
not mean that God loves everybody without distinction. It means
the arrangement. Look it up. The word means the
arrangement. God loved the arrangement, the
order of man, mankind. And because He loved the order
of man, He purposed that the order of man was not going to
be obliterated and all cast into hell. So what did He do? He gave
His only begotten Son, of whom the Lord said, I lay down my
life as sheep. He qualified that statement. So therefore, knowing that there
was nothing in Him that was worthy, because He loved His own, He
loved us with an everlasting love, and according to God's
everlasting covenant of grace, He bound Himself to His wife,
and in so doing, everlastingly, He incurred all of the debt that
she owed, and He gave her due benevolence Husbands, we owe our wives. He
bound Himself to that obligation. And I'll answer for her. And
that binding of that obligation that He agreed to everlastingly,
that's all our hope. That's the totality of it. What's the hope of my salvation? What? That I gave my heart to
Jesus? That's not what the Scripture
says. What's the total hope? That I was baptized? That's not
what the scripture says. Here's the totality of our hope,
right here. Totality, it's all. Although
my house be not so with God. Yet He hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things insure, for this is all my salvation,
and all my desire." That's what a believer says, this is all
I want. Don't tell me about what I have to do for God. Because
I'm going to tell you right now, I am a miserable failure. And
I know it. And you that know Him, know it
too. If it's left up to me to please
God, I'm going to hell. Because in myself, I can't please
Him. This is all my salvation, all
my desire, although He make it not to grow. David said at this
present time, his house was a wreck. His kids were in disarray. He
had a son, Absalom wanted to kill him. Although my house be
not so with God, He made with me. He made with me. I know this, that the Lord's
got a people. I want to be one of them. I know Christ died for
the sheep. I desire that He died for me.
Because I can tell you this, if He didn't, I have no hope.
Oh, how thankful that we are that God declared it to be not
good, that the man should be alone for our sake. As a husband
was to leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, that's
what God the Father said in the garden. The Lord Jesus Christ
was made flesh. He came from the portals of glory
to be made like unto his precious bride. that he might give her due benevolence,
that he might do for her that which was in his power to do.
What do we owe our wives? We owe them ourselves. Husbands, love your wife as Christ
loved the church and gave himself He didn't say He just gave her
some things. He gave Himself. What did she need? What was the
due benevolence that she needed? I need Him. How much of Him? All of Him. I need all of Him. He came to the one and for the
one. that the Scripture sets forth
in Song of Solomon ravished him with one of her eyes. You know, we see through a glass darkly,
don't we? I've always thought about that. You've ravished me
with one of your eyes. That means that she wasn't looking
at him with both of them, she was looking at him with one of
them. And there's so much that I don't get to see. I miss something. I'm missing half of it now. I
got it now. But when I look with one of my eyes, I'm seeing through
a glass darkly. I'm seeing partially. I'm missing
some stuff right over here. Now I see it. But there's some
things I'm missing. But he said, you've ravished
me looking through a glass darkly. You're still looking. You're
seeing. He came to that one. who was
chosen by the Father in Him, gave Him. And He loved her. He
loved her. He loved her and purposed, according
to that everlasting covenant of grace, she's going to be holy. And without blame, before God,
in Him, in love. She was the one made of God to
be in help that was fit for Him. What did she do for Him? What did we do for Him? We manifested
God's mercy. We're the rebels. He's the Savior. I tell you what we did for Him.
In Him saving us from our sins, the glorious compassion and mercy
of God is everlastingly manifest. You mean this lump of clay that's
not worth in itself the powder to blow its head off? That's
right. This worthless worm, this rebel? Yes. He said, I love you and
I will give you due benevolence. And He did. In His kindness and
mercy and compassion, not according to our merit, not according to
our worth, but according to that covenant of mercy. He said, I'm
going to give you all you need. I'm going to give you me. And
being found in Him, when Almighty God looks upon us, In Him, He
says, well done. Well done. He gave Himself. And without Him breaking His
body and shedding His blood for us, as we said and saw in Isaiah
1-9, we'd have been like Sodom and Gomorrah. He established
righteousness before God and robed us in it and died and was
buried for us, suffering the penalty of God's law and put
away our guilt in His own blood and rose again from the dead
because God Almighty accepted His sacrifice for us. God Almighty had justified us
before time was. And Christ, who the Father saw
eternally the Lamb slain, was satisfied, trusted Him. And now
He's ascended into Heaven, giving us due benevolence. What do we
need right now? I need an intercessor before
God, pleading His own merit. And I tell you what else I need,
the due benevolence that I need. I need to be where He is. What's
He going to do for me? He's coming back. I'm coming
back to get you. That where I am, there you may
be also. I tell you, He never has or never
will defraud us of Himself. He'll never withhold Himself.
Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence. He said,
I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. And as
the Holy Spirit has given us a new heart and spirit, I know
this, Scripture says, likewise also the wife unto her husband. There is no limit to the list
of things that He's done for us, giving us the due benevolence,
but I can tell you what we do for Him right now. We're in a
body of flesh and I know we're struggling with sin right now.
But I can tell you in regenerating grace, while we're struggling
because of that sin, we do give unto Him, do benevolence. I tell
you what we do. A believer ever desires to never
be apart from Him. I need you. Will you go away
also?" Peter said, where are we going to go? Does a believer
ever want to depart from Him? Does a believer ever find himself
coming to Christ? What do I give unto Him? We walk
by faith. Lord, I believe You. I don't
have any confidence in my flesh, but Lord, I seek you and I knock
at the door of your mercy and I ask and I pray and I want to
hear what you have to say in your Scriptures. I want to render
unto the Lord due benevolence and associate and fellowship
with His people, His body, His love, those that He gave Himself
for. About a year ago, one of my children, her husband,
was in a situation. They were going to be moving
out of one house and they were going to be moving into another
house. They thought that the timetable
was such that everything was going to pretty well coincide.
It was going to be within a day of all of it coming together
and meshing perfectly. They got a letter one day and
said that the landlord had decided that he was going to sell the
house that they were living in, that they were renting. and they
had 30 days to get out. Well the only problem was with
that was they weren't supposed to move in to the other house
for about 60 days. So they had a little small discrepancy
there, about a month of what we were going to do. And there
was a family that lived in that vicinity, attended the church
where they were going and They said, I'm going to just, you
know, let the kids just come on over and move in with us.
And I'll tell you, let me tell you something. You talk about
the kindness of someone to do something for your children that,
you know, when they do it for them, you've done it to me. You
know, and I called and thanked them and told them, I said, you
know, Marvin, we'd been friends a long time. He said, your kids,
my kids. And I thought to myself, oh,
the due benevolence that God's people give to the Lord in the
kindness to one another. By this, he said, all men know
you're my disciples. You have love, one for another.
I pray that God Almighty teach us as we continue going through
this book, 1 Corinthians, Lord willing, 2 Corinthians, and teaching
us concerning the bond of marriage, the love and the appreciation
men have for their wives and the responsibilities. It's all
a picture. It's a type. The gospel is found
there. And may the Lord be pleased to
teach us the gospel afresh through what we find in these scriptures.
For Christ's sake and our good. Thank you.