No, ye not, brethren, for I speak
to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion over
a man as long as he lives. For the woman which hath a husband
is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. I take that
to mean, apart from the spiritual import there, I take that to
mean literally that when a man and woman are joined together
in holy matrimony that they are bound by God to live together
the rest of their lives save fornication. I believe the Lord
Jesus says in two different places that There is one alternative
here. There is one reason or one ground for a divorce,
and that's a fornication. Some seem to think that fornication
and adultery are different. There may be some difference
there, but I don't think so. It's an illegitimate And that
is the grounds for divorce. And apart from that, there is
no ground for divorce. There is such a thing, I believe,
as separation from bed and board. I think maybe that somehow could
be worked in, that is, to be separated from a living partner. for a season, but there's no law that would permit men and
women to separate for just the reasons that are given nowadays,
such as, you know, incompatibility. This incompatibility, I guess,
means We just are not able to get along. Our likes and dislikes
are too strong, and we just can't get along. So I feel sorry for
anybody that has been divorced apart from those grounds. My
heart aches for them. I don't know what their stand
is before God. I really don't know. That's a serious thing, and it
ought to be considered. It ought to be not taken lightly,
especially young people, as they think about marriage and so forth. I remember here not too long
ago, a year or so ago, maybe two years ago, I married a couple,
and they were both unsaved. come to my house and want to
know if I would join him together in matrimony. And I said, well, as a servant of the state, I'd
be glad to do it. And I knew the fellow. I didn't
know his wife too well. She was a schoolteacher, and
I think he worked in the mines in Ohio. And so I talked to him
for a great length about this and insisted that that they better
consider this. They better look at it in every
angle because, boy, once this is done, it's done for life.
Under God, it's done for life. And they're making some serious
vows here not to take it lightly. And talk to them, I think, two
different occasions about this. And, oh yes, they agreed with
that and assented to it. Yeah, that's right. Well, just
here the other day, someone told me, said, so-and-so, they've
separated, don't get a divorce. I said, well, my soul's only
been married about two years. I said, wonder what the problem
was. Well, they didn't know what it was. I come by their home
here the other day, just bought a home not too long ago. I come
by their home, a big for sale sign on their house. Well, if they're granted a divorce,
and it's not on the grounds of adultery, well, then they have
forfeited whatever right they might have had to enjoy companionship
with the opposite species for the rest of their life. That's a serious thing, I think. It's not adultery. Now, I know
a lot of people come and say, well, you know, they'll give
you a great big argument about, well, I'm sure that my husband
was unfaithful, or I'm sure that my wife was unfaithful, but you
can't prove it. But I don't know for sure. There's always that
doubt. I don't know for sure, but I'll
get a divorce on other grounds, but I think that so-and-so was
unfaithful to me. Well, I think we ought to be
Absolutely, 100% sure about this thing. It says here that the
woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband
as long as she lives. She is bound to him. And Jesus
said if she goes off and marries another, she lives in adultery
and he who marries her lives in adultery. And you know that no adulterer
or adulteress will ever enter into the kingdom of God unless
they've been blood washed. The Bible says, and such were
some of you. So it is a very, very serious
thing. A woman which hath a husband,
she's bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives.
And if the husband be dead, now, if the husband be dead, she is
loose from the law of her husband. then she can go on and she can
remarry. So then if while her husband
liveth, she be married to another man. Now listen to that. If she be married to another
man while her husband's livin', she shall be called an adulteress.
Those are pretty hard words that I wouldn't I don't know, would
you call someone an adulteress that you knew, you know, by their
own testimony? It would be kind of, well, it
wouldn't be the right thing to do, but yet the Bible says that's
what they are, an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she's
freed from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though
she be married to another man. But it's hard to get this across
to people. There's not anybody that I haven't
married that I haven't tried to tell them things of this nature. Even at the wedding, I've pointed
things out to them and said, now you're sure about this? You
sure you know what you're doing? Boy, what you're entering into
is a lifetime. It's for life. It's for as long
as you live. Be sure about it. Don't make
a mistake here. Don't make a mistake. Mess your
whole life up. Don't do it. But yet, of course, we were all that way
at one time or the other. Young and eager, you know, and
thought we knew what we were doing, but none of us knew what
we were doing. It was in spite of us. God has
so blessed and cared for us in spite of us. spite of our ignorance,
kept us together and so forth. If it wasn't for the grace of
God, I'll bet you there would be people right here right now
and tell you, well, if it wasn't for the grace of God, I doubt
seriously if I'd be what I am today in the matter of family
relationship. Well, therefore, my brethren,
ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. We
talked about that at great length here. that the law was fulfilled
in Christ Jesus and satisfied every intent of it, the last,
even to the least, of the dotting of an eye and the crossing of
a teeth, dead to that law in that sense, dead to the law by
the body of Christ. We've been married to another.
We've been married to him, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our
husband. He should be married to another,
even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring
forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh,
the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members
to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from
the law, the being dead wherein we were held, that we should
serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of letter.
What shall we say then, Paul says in light of this? What shall
we reply to this? What shall we say? Is the law
sin because we've been delivered from it? Paul answers the question
and says, God forbid, nay or no. I had not known sin, but
by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. The sin taking occasion
by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was
dead. But I was alive without the law
once. But when the commandment came,
sin revived, and I died. This is the experience of the
Apostle Paul here. And the commandment which was
ordained to life I found to be unto death, for sin taking occasion
by the commandment deceived me, and it slew me, killed me. Therefore
the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and just, and good.
Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear
sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the
commandment might be exceeding sinful. For we know that the
law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which
I do I allow not. But what I would that I do not,
but what I hate that I do. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no
more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that
in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For the
will is present with me, but how to perform that which is
good I find not. But the good that I would I do
not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now, if I do
that, I would not. It is no more I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the
law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. I myself serve the law of God,
but with the flesh the law of sin." Just let me make a few
comments here for this evening, and we'll leave it at that. And
this twenty-fourth verse, O wretched man that I am, which sums up
five or six verses here from verses 15 on through to the end
of the chapter. Oh, wretched man that I am! It talks about the wretchedness
of Paul. Now, I think the wretchedness
of Paul lay in two things, and I think these two things
are certain enough to make any man wretched. Now, Paul believed
the truth of human responsibility. That is, that he was a rational,
responsible agent, a creature of God Almighty. He was responsible. He believed in human responsibility. Yet, Paul felt the truth of human
inability. There is human responsibility. and then there is human inability. Now, what I'm saying is this.
I know that it's my duty to be perfect. God hath commanded us
to be perfect. I know that's my duty, and I
think that you know that that's your duty to be absolutely perfect,
to strive to that end, to follow on after holiness. Now, I know That is my duty to
be perfect, but yet I, as well as Paul, am conscious of the
fact that I cannot be. I know that every time I sin,
whether it be word or thought or deed, I am guilty, and yet
I am certain that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. And I
shall be guilty of sin until I am separated from this body
of flesh. Now, I'm unable to get rid of
the thoughts of sin, but I know that I ought to. I know I ought
to. That's human responsibility. I know that there is thoughts
of sin that pass through my mind. I know that. I know that I'm unable to get
rid of the thoughts of sin, but I know what I ought to be and
what I ought to do. I know that it is my business
and the business of every Christian. I know that it's his business,
it's my business to keep the law of God perfectly in letter
and in spiritual content, yet I find the law Now, when I would
do good, Paul said, evil is present with me. So I say, O wretched
man that I am, commanded by God to be perfect, just to be as
perfect as my Father is perfect, yet still influenced by the sin
that dwells in me. Now, I refuse to become a hardship. I refuse to become an antomaniac
and justify my sins by pleading my inability. I refuse to do
that. I refuse to be dishonest with
myself. I refuse to be dishonest with
you. I refuse to be dishonest with
God Almighty by denying my responsibility or my inability. I can't deny
my responsibility. I can't deny my inability. What
shall I do? Oh, wretched man that I am, what
shall I do about this dilemma? What shall I do? This is what
Paul says to do. Well, this is what I'll do. I
think this is what you ought to do. I shall continue to confess
my sins. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So I shall continue to confess
my sins, weep over my sins, and pray for the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ to become more like Him. Now, I'm still a sinner,
saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. I told you here
not too long ago about, I preach to these ladies at the arbors
there in Fairmoor every Thursday, tomorrow. I'll go there tomorrow. After the service, I told you
about this one lady. She said, well, she just comes
to me and says, I just don't understand this business about
being a sinner. She said, I'm saved. I'm saved,
but you constantly refer to me, to yourself, to others as sinners. She said, after we're saved,
then sin dwells no more in us. We're not sinners then. We're
not sinners then. I said, we're sinners until the
day we die. And I tried to explain to her
her responsibility and her inability, but she didn't see what I was
talking about. And I'm sure that she was offended because she
didn't come back the next service. And I asked about her, but they
said they didn't know where she was. So I think, brethren, the
way out of the dilemma We can't deny human responsibility. We can't deny our inability. We can't deny either one. All
we can do is to confess our sins unto God, weep over our sins. A broken and a contrite heart,
that's what pleases Him, a broken heart. Well, one day, My struggle and your struggle
will be over. There is a struggle, you see,
between the flesh and the spirit. There is a constant wrestling.
There is a struggle here between the two. And one day this struggle
will be over. One day my Lord and your Lord
shall come and when I shall see Him, I shall be like Him. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. It does not appear what we shall
be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like
Him, for we shall see Him as He is. That is when the struggle
is over. When we die, or if the Lord comes
before us before that, the struggle will be over. The wretchedness
of this man will be over. Be to God, Paul said, who giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, the wretchedness
of the Apostle Paul, but the blessedness of the Lord Jesus
Christ, of him who has died under the law. and hath been married
to another, even the Lord Jesus Christ." Paul said he gives us
the victory. Thanks be unto the God who sent him. He gives us
the victory over human responsibility, inability,
and our sins. Weep over your sins. Confess
your sins. That's all I have to say.