About two thousand years ago,
the Lord of Glory took on Him my sin and woe. Oh my sin and
woe He went to Calvary for his own cross He suffered there and
paid that awful, awful cost He paid that awful cost He's my sovereign savior He's
done a sweet, sweet favor He's the perfect Redeemer for you
and the perfect Redeemer for me. I couldn't keep God's holy love. I needed someone perfect Who
could keep it all Who could keep it all Then God revealed to me
His Son It's not that He can do it But that it's all been
done Yes, it's all been done He's my sovereign Savior To God
of sweet, sweet favor He's the sufficient Redeemer for you And
the sufficient Redeemer for me There's times I wonder why, oh
why God could have compassion on such a worm as I Oh, such
a worm as I I know it wasn't anything I've done God chose
me in eternity And chose me in His Son He chose me in His Son
He's my sovereign Savior To God a sweet, sweet favor He's the
only Redeemer for you and the only Redeemer for me. He's my sovereign Savior. He's our sweet, sweet Savior. He's the perfect, sufficient,
and only Redeemer for you and me. Thank you, Terry. My brother Dan Parks is in the States
right now. I haven't talked to him, but
he's preaching tonight in Ashland, Kentucky. And I don't know if
he's coming by here or not. I've talked to him, but he is
known for that song that he sings, Hail Sovereign Love, that song. Everybody talks about that song
Dan sings. They know which one they're talking
about. And brother Terry is getting a reputation for that song. Everywhere
he goes now, everybody requests him to sing that song. He sang
it down in Crossville, Tennessee at the conference. And I sang
it down there. And that is one of my favorites.
Matthew chapter five now. Matthew five. It's an extremely difficult subject
ahead of us tonight, one we've looked at before, the subject
of divorce. It's a hard one and a sad one. This is a subject that causes
a great deal of sadness and sorrow and trouble and heartache in
the lives of believers and unbelievers. And it causes a great deal of
confusion. People don't know rightly how
to treat this, and I don't know why, because the Scriptures are
very clear about it. Our Lord deals with it very clearly. He deals with it twice in this
Gospel of Matthew. Let's read it here in Matthew
5. We're just going to touch on it fairly briefly. and get to the next part of this,
but our Lord says in verse thirty-one and thirty-two, it hath been
said, whosoever shall put away his
wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto
you, now this is the lawgiver himself,
this is God talking, I say unto that whosoever shall put away
his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to
commit adultery. And whosoever shall marry her
that is divorced, committeth adultery." Now turn over to Matthew
19 with me. Matthew 19, where our Lord deals
with it again. approached with this subject,
he deals with it again. Matthew 19, because it was just
as confusing back then as it is now. People have many questions
about it, and our Lord gave the exact same answer again. So it
should not be confusing to us, you know, to be very clear. Matthew
19, beginning with verse 3, the Pharisees also came unto him,
tempting him, or trying, testing him, saying unto him, Is it lawful
for a man to put away his wife for every or any cause? He just gets tired of being married.
And the Lord answered and said unto them, Have you not read
that he which made them at the beginning made them male and
female? And God is the one that instituted
this. He said, For this cause shall
a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife,
and they twain, those two shall be one flesh. Wherefore, they
are no more two, but one flesh. what therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder." Now, they said unto him, Well,
why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement
and put her away? Christ said, He saith unto them,
Moses, because of the hardness of your heart, suffered you to
put away your wife, or allowed it. But from the beginning it
was never condemned. It was not so. I say unto you,
Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for a foreign
occasion, and shall marry another, committeth adultery. And whoso
marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery." Do you understand what the Lord
is saying here about divorce? What is he saying here? I would
ask you, what is he saying here about divorce? What does our
Lord say about divorce? Could you answer from reading,
just reading it? Huh? He's saying divorce is wrong,
period. Right? That's what he's saying. He said, because of the hardness
of the heart, or that is the cruelty, insensitivity, the selfishness,
and so forth. of men and women, God allowed,
permitted Moses to institute this thing of divorce in certain
cases because men, as men are now, very beastly, men were liable
back then under harder days. Men were liable to abuse and
cause bodily harm to a woman they were displeased with. They
just got tired of this little lady for any reason. They would
actually inflict bodily harm on them, and even today it goes
on. So divorce is there. And so to prevent unnecessary
and actual casualties and so forth, the Lord allowed divorce
to take place. But Christ says, the lawgiver
says, it's wrong. It's wrong. In every case, for
believers and unbelievers, except fornication. And I have said
before that I have wrongly interpreted verses of scripture, wrongly
translated. And fornication, and other writers
have done it as well, they have tried to separate fornication
and adultery. That fornication is between unmarried
people and adultery is between married, but they're one and
the same. I looked the word up, fornication here, and it has
adultery right along with it. They're one and the same. There
are Scripture verses, one in Revelation particularly talks
about the great whore committing both. And so there's really no
separation of one and the same, fornication, adultery, or what
it's talking about is any forbidden sexual infidelity, male or female. It's the only grounds given in
the Scripture, and it is given. It is given, and this may be
the reason. In other words, our Lord says,
divorce is wrong, period, except when your mate breaks that marriage
covenant, that oneness. They break that down. Marriage
is a union. As our Lord said in Matthew 19,
that it's the two become one flesh, and you're no more two.
You're one. And when you go and join yourself
to somebody else, you're not one anymore. You're three. Can't
be. You've broken that oneness. You've broken that marriage covenant. You've violated that relationship,
that oneness. So our Lord says, permitted. It's permitted. And I have to
believe that that's partly because Paul talked about it in Ephesians
5, didn't he? I mean, he said, I speak a great
mystery, a man and a woman. He quoted that what the Lord
said in Matthew 19. He said, this is a mystery, but I speak
concerning Christ and the church, right? A man shall leave his
wife or mother and father and leave his wife and the two shall
become one flesh. See, I speak of great mystery.
I speak of Christ and the church. And this is one of the clearest
types in all the scriptures of the believer's union with Christ.
and how we're not to go after other lovers. Other lovers, right? He's our first love. We're to
stay with Him and union with Him. And when we break that,
we've broken that covenant, that oneness. All right? Now, the Scripture says, according
to our text here, if an unbelieving husband divorces his wife, If he divorces his wife, he and
she are adulterers. They say for the cause of fornication.
In other words, you ought to easily be able to figure this
out. If she is unfaithful to him, then he's free to marry
another. He's free. If he is unfaithful
to her, she's free. Okay? The innocent party in this
transgression is free. They're not bound by that. She or he does not commit adultery
if the other person has become unfaithful. But let me remind you what our
Lord said about forgiveness. He did say that this was the
only grounds, didn't he? But, he did say, remember when
Peter came up to him, how many times shall I forgive my brother
if he trespass against me? Now, is that talking about my
wife? Well, sure it is. And Christ is neither male nor
female. That's my sister in Christ, my brother, my brother. How many
times shall I forgive if they trespass against me? They're
unfaithful to me. Seven times? Oh, man, could you
stay with your wife? Seven times? Oh, Hosea did, didn't
he? And that's a picture of our Hosea,
isn't it? Our Lord. How many times does
He forgive us? We go out warring, don't we?
Are we adulterous? Don't we go after other lovers
all the time? Sure we do. all of our lives. And Isaiah
50 verse 1 said, and you see that, where's your bill of divorce?
I haven't divorced you yet, ought to. Shouldn't it? He ought to. There you go again after these
other things. All right, I'm going to leave you this time.
I'm leaving you. I don't have to stay with you. No, he won't
break that covenant. You do. Thank God he doesn't, right?
Thank God he remains faithful. He remains faithful. He'll never
go out on us, really. He's ever faithful to us. And so the Lord teaches us forgiveness
no matter, no matter what it is. Forgive. Seventy times seven. Four hundred and ninety times.
He says, Love those who spitefully use you and misuse you. Love
them anyway. Doesn't it? Does that apply to
divorce? Sure it does. They're not in
conflict here. They're not in conflict at all.
He's just saying that that's the only scriptural grounds,
the only legal grounds that a person can put away their husband. But
I don't put you away, so don't you put them away, even though
you may have that right. Don't do it. Forgive them. Forgive
them. Divorce is forbidden. Do you understand the wisdom
of our Lord in doing this? If we just don't get tired of
our wife or husband, we just, you know, he only gives us one,
one exception to the rule. It's too, it's too solid. It's too serious. It's too serious
consequences of it. Divorce is forbidden, except
infidelity. And it's scripture calls it adultery
in all cases. I recognize that there are several
people in here, many people in our congregation who have been
married before. This should not cause you a great deal of trouble,
conflict of conscience. Not at all. All manner of sin is forgiven.
It's forgiven. Your past is past. The Lord said,
I've cast it behind my back. I'll remember it no more. No
more. And in most cases, I would say
in our congregation, every case, it was when you were an unbeliever.
Now, that doesn't mean I've wrongfully quoted that verse in Romans 8,
verse 7, is it, that the carnal mind is enmity against God, is
not subject to the law of God, and neither indeed can be. I've
wrongly interpreted that, too. I took that to mean that a believer
is not under the authority of the marriage vows and so forth
before God because he's not subject to the law of God. Yes, you make
any vow before God, we're going to see that in a minute. Whether
you're an unbeliever or a believer, divorce is wrong, right? Now, I see the wisdom of the
Lord in this, and we see what's going on today because of it,
because nobody's paying attention to this. The world, the home
life, family life is in chaos. Chaos. And the Lord said, don't
do it. Unbeliever and believer. He's
addressing everybody here. It's wrong in all cases. Forbidden. If it happens, the Lord will
forgive it. If you're a believer, He'll forgive
it. If adultery, whatever, divorce,
whatever happens, nevertheless, it will cause the consequences
of it. And this is what we were talking
about last time concerning the law. You will suffer the consequences
of breaking God's holy law, believer and unbeliever. If it happens,
the sword may not depart from your house much like it did David's. God chastens his children. The
sword of his word could be right now the sword is piercing I don't know. The Lord forgave
that. It's your past. Nevertheless, the Lord will deal
with the misconduct of his children. I know some believers who have
been divorced, and I would not say for a minute that they are
unsaved. I wouldn't do that at all. But
I do know this. According to the Word of God,
a sword may not depart from that person's house because of that.
I know a preacher who just up and got, I know a couple of them
who just up and got tired of their wives and left their wives
and three darling children. And they're finished. They may
not be unsaved, but they're finished. They're miserable human beings.
Their ministries are finished. They're finished. They're no
more good but to be trodden underfoot, cast out and trodden underfoot
of men. like David. That's what happened to David.
This ought to be a warning to all of us, shouldn't it? David,
do you remember the article by Gary Shepherd in our bulletin
concerning adorning the doctrines? He says, he said, I desire to
live in this world so as to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior
in all things. He that abideth, he quotes 1
John 2 6, he that abideth in him ought himself also to walk
even as he walks. David's misconduct was forgiven
and put away by God. Thank God. But let us never forget
the charge by the prophet Nathan. How be it? Because by this deed
thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to
blaspheme. And the natural consequences
of sin. He said, Nathan said, David the child also that is
born unto thee shall surely die. May our grace be not only in
talk but in walk. Those solemn warnings. And it
shouldn't be no. Confusion is concerning this
matter of divorce. It's forbidden. Right. It's forbidden. It's forbidden. Now, don't be caught up, let's
not be caught up asking endless questions about this and that
and the other, about your past life, or what about what if this,
what if that. It's enough to know that divorce
is wrong in all cases. That's what our Lord said. Adultery
is caused except under the circumstances of fornication or infidelity. Yet, the Lord forgives that. Your past blocks it out. All
manner of sin and iniquity shall be forgiven, men. Go and sin
no more. Had enough said on the subject?
Men divorced? Don't let it happen again. You're
a believer now. You're subject to the law of
God and subject to the consequences of breaking it now. All right? All right, now let's look at
the next subject, thankfully. Verse thirty-three. Let's look
at this. He's talking about oaths, and
I think it's very providential. I know it is. It's very—in our
Lord's wisdom, He unites these two subjects together, back-to-back. Verse thirty-three through thirty-seven,
again, you've heard that it hath been said by them of old time,
Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord
thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not
at all. Neither by heaven, it's God's throne, nor by the earth,
it's His footstool. Neither by Jerusalem, it is the
city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy
head, thou canst not make one hair white nor black. Let your
communication be yea, yea, or yes, yes, no, no. Whatsoever
is more than these cometh of evil." Now, this is another somewhat
difficult. passage. Our Lord never dealt
with useless subjects. Our Lord never spoke upon useless
subjects, a matter of fact, many times he refused to answer some
questions asked. He would naturally ask them a
question. And he never dealt with mere
technicalities, he would never dealt with mere technicalities
that didn't have any spiritual significance to. OK. He never dealt with anything
that did not have any spiritual significance. Everything he said,
every question he answered that someone asked had two things
in mind. The glory of God, number one.
The ultimate issue at stake in whatever thing he said and whatever
question he answered was the glory of God. He dealt with it
concerning the glory of God and the good of men, the eternal
good of men was at stake. Oaths and swearing and cursing. You could put cursing in there
too. Oaths, swearing are very prevalent
today. Aren't they? Very prevalent.
Always have been. Always have been. Our Lord says
it's a serious matter. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
talking here. And like I said, He never dealt with useless subjects.
They never dealt with mere technicalities. He said, this is serious. This
is serious. And this is a subject which reveals
the state of people's hearts at times. Out of the abundance
of the heart, what's speaking? The mouth. What's ever in here,
the scripture says, will come right out of this open running
sepulchral. The throats are open sepulchral.
the stench of the heart or the sweet-smelling savor, whatever's
in there. And whatever comes out of here
as a result of the heart could have eternal consequences. Do
you know that? Do you know that the Scripture
says a man shall be held accountable for every idle word? I'd say then what comes out of
here is pretty important, wouldn't you? Pretty important. There's one verse, turn to Exodus
chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20. One verse, one law, the Lord
says, he will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Pretty serious, isn't it? That's
what verse 7 here, Exodus 20 verse 7 says, Thou shalt not
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, uselessly, flippantly,
carelessly, in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless
that taketh his name in vain. Sad to say, though, this is the
most common form of swearing today. It's one of these things
that tells me that times, end times, is right on us, isn't
it? I've said this before, that men have been taking God's name,
the name of God, for many years. But now it's very common to hear
the name of Jesus Christ, isn't it? It's common by word. Using
God's name in vain is the most common form of swearing today.
Now, it goes without saying that anybody who curses with that
holy name is unsaved, and they're subject to damnation. God will
not hold that person guiltless. Hopefully, if he sent Christ
to die for them, he will reveal the gospel to them and change
them. That goes without saying that
that person is guilty of blasphemy and worthy of damnation. Anybody
who curses with that name, you know. That goes without saying,
doesn't it? Yet, any use of that name which
is above every name is in vain. Right? Any use of it. Any use of it is in vain. Anything that is not for His
glory, any time you use it and you don't use it with His glory
in mind, and you don't use it very carefully, in awe, respect,
reverence, fearfulness, that's taking His name in vain. Now, listen to me. I hope nobody
in here has this problem, and it may be. I have heard many
people, not here, I have heard someone that in other places,
professing believers, I've heard them do these things. And listen,
hear me out. For the last time, I've said
this before, hear me out. Don't use the Lord's name, ever. in any way, shape, form, or fashion. Don't let it be in a slip of
the tongue. Lordy, lordy. Well, Lord, have mercy. Don't
do it. That's taken, isn't it? You know,
that's an old Southern saying, isn't it? That's ingrained in
Southern folks. Many of you had it on your list
all the time. Well, some of you did anyway.
If you didn't, by the grace of God, that is an old saying. Everybody
used to do it. Well, if the good Lord willing
and the creep don't ride, that's taking his name in vain, isn't
it? Putting the Lord and the creep
together in sovereignty, isn't it? The Lord willing. Leave the creek down at the creek. We need to get this out of our
vocabulary. I sure do. Get it out of our vocabulary.
We can ask for help. The Lord will deliver us from
this. It's like luck. We use the word luck. I've used
it. I used to use it. Some of you
have used it. Perhaps you get rid of it. You
don't want to be there, right? Am I being hard? plain, just
being factual. But you better get rid of this.
You better not have this name on your lips. And listen, there's
many ways you can do this. Don't do it in singing song.
Now, these bluegrass songs we sing, Rick, isn't it so, they use it
kind of like a refrain or a pause or a stop? I don't know, a little quarter
note. Get it out of your vocabulary.
Get it out of your songs. Get it out of your... It's ingrained
there. We've got to get it out of there.
We've got to get it out of there. Well, but do you know... Now, I bet you've never seen
this before. Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy 6. The reason
I... You may have, but I never noticed
it. Deuteronomy chapter 6. Did you
know that swearing by the Lord's name was once permitted in the
Old Testament? It was once permitted. Men were
allowed to swear by the Lord's name, but my, my, these were
the circumstances. This is what it was all about.
Verse 13, Deuteronomy 6, verse 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord
thy God and serve him and shalt swear by his name. Now look over at Isaiah chapter
forty-five. Isaiah forty-five. Hear the Lord,
he says, Thy God serve him and swear by his name. Isaiah forty-five, look at verse
twenty-three. The Lord says, I have sworn by
myself, how many times have we quoted this verse? I have sworn
by myself the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness
and shall not return that unto me every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall What's where? Look at Isaiah sixty five Isaiah
chapter sixty five. This is significant. It has spiritual
significance. The reason our Lord dealt with
it. Isaiah sixty five verse sixteen. Isaiah sixty five sixteen he
who blesses himself. He who blesses himself in the
earth shall bless himself in the God of truth and he that
sweareth in the earth. shall swear by the God of truth. One more. Psalm 63. Psalm 63, verse 11. Psalm 63, verse 11. He says this, the king, Psalm
63, 11, the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone that sweareth
by him shall glory. But the mouth of them that speak
lies shall be stopped." Now, what does this mean? Well, back
in the Old Testament days, in order to solemnize, is that how
you pronounce this? Solemize? Solemnize? Is that
right? Huh? What's your name? Solemize. To make it solemn. In order to
validate something of tremendous importance, Like our courtroom situation,
and we have a court where you go in a courtroom and they have
you lay your hand on the Bible. Is that permitted? The Lord's not saying you can't
do that. That's what they used to do in
the Old Testament. In order to solemnize, validate something
of tremendous importance, just like we do when we go into a
court of law or something, we say, so help me, God. We make an oath. Or swear in
that name no you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth so help you God I do. Well. So much for that right. But back
then now the Lord allowed that he told him to do it you swear
if you in serious circumstances. You call on the highest you want
to call on the highest validation or order. Name. You can swear by God, but you
better be telling the truth. You better be careful. Because back then, buddy, it
was punished by death, maybe from God Himself. Better be careful. Punishment for perjury back then
was much more serious than it is now. You know, that's just,
swear to hell, truth ain't a man be sitting up there popping his
gum, you know, pure, yeah, I do. And he'll lie out his teeth from
the minute he starts, right? I'm innocent. Back then, buddy, you didn't
do that. You didn't do it at all. Knowing the times, knowing
the state of man, knowing what was in man, that he did not commit
himself to him. So our Lord said, now you catch,
you catch the context here? That's the reason our Lord did.
He said, knowing what's in man, the Lord now says, So don't do
it at all. Just don't swear at all. Because
every man's a liar. And you certainly don't swear
by heaven. Don't swear by God's name. Don't
swear at all. Don't swear by heaven. Well,
my stars, they're not your stars. You think I'm splitting hairs
here? You know, we've got all kinds
of little sayings in our vocabulary that has some kind of devious
connotation to it. You know, gee whiz. You ever
notice how close some of the things we say? Great day. My
goodness. You don't have any goodness.
We say that. It's in us all, isn't it? We've
got to get it out of there. Great day. That sounds a little too
close to God's name, doesn't it? God is great. A lot of things like that. My
stars. Now, God's not going to hold
a man's soul accountable for saying something like that, but
we do need to set a watch on our lips about things. And not
my stars. We don't have any stars. Don't swear by heaven. Is that
right? Don't swear by heaven. Verse 35. And nor by the earth
will land shake. Isn't that funny? It's in us,
isn't it? Well, my lands. It's not your
lands. You own any land, Ed? My lands. Now, don't swear by your land.
You don't have any. It's his footstool. Neither by Jerusalem,
city of the king. Now, listen. Do you remember
the context our Lord is dealing? It started all the way back in
verse 18. dealing with the Pharisees, how
that they misused the law. John Gill brings this out, how
the Pharisees, boy, those fellows were, well, they're no worse
than the guys today. But they took that and twisted,
made it, wrested the scriptures of their own destruction. That's
what Peter said, 2 Peter 3, and they're doing it today, and they
can make it sound like anything. They can make the word of God
say anything they want it to say, can't they? And that's what
they were doing back there, and that's what the Lord was redressing
right now. That's what he was dealing with.
You've heard it said by them, these Pharisees. The Lord's the
one that instituted it, but they took and ran with it. They say,
well, you can't do this, but you can't do that. The Pharisees.
Now, oath-taking. Rather than use God's name for
fear of the third commandment, thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. The Pharisees said it was OK
to swear by heaven. Because those fellows were liars,
Henry. They were liars. And rather than be guilty of
taking God's name, we can swear by heaven or swear by earth.
They said these things. Swear by Jerusalem. You want
to hire, invoke something with some authority to it? I swear
on the mother city, Jerusalem, you know. And Christ is saying,
don't swear by heaven, don't swear by earth, don't swear by
Jerusalem, that's God, that's the city of the king, nor even
your own head. Look at verse 36. Neither swear
by your own head, or that is your own authority on
your own word. Well, my word. My word. How good is your word? Anyway, my word. Upon my honor. You got it right. Don't swear by your head your
own person anything don't add anything. To add credibility
to what you're saying the Lord said don't swear at all. Is anything
you say will be held against you. The Lord is reading us our
Miranda right here. Right. Anything you say may be
held against you. Now, I said, Joe, man, she'll
be held accountable for every idle word. If you're honest,
you don't need to. If your word is good, you don't
have to say, well, upon my star, well, my word will land safe.
Well, the land's a ghost, you know, my stars are, you know,
creek. Got to find something to add
some credibility to my word. Why? They were liars. We've been
truthful from the beginning. We can just say yes. He said, verse 36, neither shalt
thou swear by thy head, because you cannot make one hair white
or black. Don't make a vain oath. You're
not capable of keeping for one minute. That's what our Lord's
dealing with here. Don't make any kind of vain oath
that you're not capable of keeping for one minute. Verse 37. But
he says let your communication be yes yes or nay yo no no. Whatever serves more than these
come up with evil. Somebody comes up to you tell
me the truth. Yes. For emphasis yes yes. Is that
right. No no no. Good enough. That's what he's
talking about. Don't let it sway you. Tell me
the truth. I swear I am. Heavens to Betsy, I am. Yes,
I am. Lands of Goshen. You bet your bottom dollar. You're
probably going to have to count the cats if the creek don't rise,
you know. Just say yes. Yes. Well, like I said, I think it's
significant, the reason our Lord put this. I'm not trying to be
complacent. I'm not dealing with what our Lord dealt with here.
I'm trying to show us, this is what John Bunyan did, he was
so good at. The Lord gave him the grace to
look in the human nature and bring out all of these little
self-righteous acts and contrary things in us. And the Lord, the
Word, two-edged sword in it, piercing, dividing asunder, and
so forth, thoughts intense of the heart. Our Lord had just
dealt with marriage and adultery and divorce. And then he talks
about oaths. That's significant to me, especially
to me, a preacher. How preachers ever gotten to
marry in business, I'll never know. They used to leave it up
to the justice of the peace, you know. How preachers ever
got in this business, I don't know. This is part of the reason that
marriages are such a farce today. Such a farce. And I, for one,
I don't want to do them. I don't want to marry anybody.
I don't want to do it. I've already turned down three
or four people, and I've caused some bad feelings, but I'm going
to go on record right now. I'm going to start this thing
out by saying, I just refuse to marry unbelievers. It's not
going to do it. I'm not going to stand there
before God Almighty. Let me read this to you. Here's the marriage
vows. Here's the marriage ceremony.
Let me read this thing to you. And I'm supposed to stand there
in good conscience, God's minister, God's servant. Here, these two
people don't give a flip about God Almighty, or one of them
doesn't. And the other one's pretending. He's playing, or
she's playing, and they'll be on down the road. They won't
be back to church. Just as soon as they get married, they'll
never be back. Right? How many times have you seen
it happen? Even in a small church like this? I better cut the tape off. Let's put it this way, I would
like to go on record as saying that I just do not want to marry
unbelievers. Our young people, if you get
to dating an unbeliever and you want to get married, I'm going
to discourage you all I can from that. And if I can get out of
doing that, if I can be out of town that week, I'm going to
be. I'm going to be. Let somebody else do it. Go to
the justice of peace. He doesn't add any validity to
it. Preacher doesn't. Does he solemnize or solemnize
that? Does he add any? I don't know where they got it.
My father and I and a couple of other preachers have been
talking about taking all of this language out of the vows. We're
going to marry anybody? Take God out of it. Take his
name out of it. Make it a civil ceremony. You
want a wife? I do. There she is. You're married. The divorce court is right down
the road there, six months from now. That's the way it is. It's sad, it's crying shame,
but that's the way it is. If you marry outside of Christ,
Kevin, Wendy, there's no promise whatsoever that that marriage
will last. No promise whatsoever. As a matter of fact, it probably
won't. Dearly beloved, we are gathered
together here in the sight of God, in the face of this company,
to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony,
which is commended of the Apostle Paul to be honorable among men,
and therefore is not to be entered into inadvisedly or lightly,
but reverently, discreetly, and in fear of God. Let me say that in front of two
people that care less about God Almighty. I'm causing them to
be guilty, and I'm guilty too. There's a real sense in that,
right? Am I going overboard with this thing? Marriage is God's revealed institution
for the welfare of the race. In the Garden of Eden, God made
Adam a helpmate. He made a help suitable for him.
He established the right of heaven. The heavenly host witnessed this
wonderful scene. This holy institution was originated
in divine wisdom and goodness, designed to promote human happiness,
holiness, and the eternal purpose of God Almighty. It's more than
you're putting your name on a piece of paper. It was sanctioned and honored
by the presence and power of the Lord Jesus Christ at the
marriage of Cana. It is declared by the Apostle
Paul to be honorable. He said in Ephesians 5, a man
would leave his father and mother and plead to his wife that two
should become one flesh, what God has joined us together and
that no man put asunder. It's in this holy estate that
these two people come now to be joined. Will you have this woman to be
your wedded wife, to live together after God's ordinance in the
holiest state of matrimony? Will you love her, comfort her,
honor and keep her in sickness and health, forsaking all others,
keep thee only unto her as long as you both shall live? So help
me, God. You want to do it? Would you
like to do this, Henry, in front of God? Will you take this man to be
your wedded husband, to live together after God's ordinance
in the holiest state of matrimony? Will thou obey him? Isn't that
laughable? And love him and honor and keep
him in sickness and in health? Forsaking all others, keep thee
only unto him, so long as you both shall live. So help me,
God. Repeat after me. I do this and this day for better,
for worse, richer, for poorer. Yeah, let's watch when the money
runs out. Sickness and health to love,
to cherish, till death do us part, according to God's holy
ordinance, I do faithfully pledge. Is there any need to continue? I just don't want any part of
that. Now, if two believers, God save one of our young people
and they meet another believer, now I can get excited about that.
It'll be a feast. We'll have a good time here.
We'll roll out the red carpet. And I can honestly, I can say
that from the heart with a tear in my eye, thankfully. Knowing that God, you know, every
true marriage is made in heaven. If it's not, it won't last. Right? What God joined together, no
man will put asunder. Right? And I say, I go, let me go on
record as saying that I don't want to do it. I tell you, I
may do it out of just absolutely out of necessity to keep somebody
from quitting. Getting mad at me and quitting,
you know. If that's what it takes, I guess, I don't know. I don't
want to spread the word. I don't want to. Now, in closing, I'll quit. Subject of divorce and oaths,
it was wisely considered to get it to the unmarried, to the unmarried. If you see the seriousness of
this thing, adultery is forbidden and you're guilty of thinking
about it. Divorce is out of the question. You know, my daughter,
we've had friends, close friends, divorce. These kids can't understand. They never will understand. You
see, she loves Mama. She loves Mama. And she loves
Daddy. She loves Daddy with all her
heart and her Mama. And she can't understand why
Mama can't love Daddy. or daddy can't love mama. That
kids will never will reconcile this. I don't understand. I love
mama. I love mama like she is. I love
daddy. I love daddy just like he is.
Why can't mama and daddy love daddy and mama like they are?
Why are they leaving? Why daddy leaving? They never
will understand that. You've put a big ax right down
in that person's heart. They never will understand that.
And I have to tell her when something like that happens all the time,
I have to tell her, honey, divorce is not in your mama and daddy's
vocabulary. Getting a heated argument or
whatever. It's not in your vocabulary, don't even bring it up. And a
believer, it's not in your vocabulary. It's not even in consideration.
The Lord says no. Under no circumstances, isn't
it? There's other people at stake. There's other people at stake. So do the unmarried. Brother John and I were talking
about this. It's serious, isn't it? This thing's too final. It's too lasting. Don't be hasty
to do this. And I say, in light of what we
were talking about, these marriage vows, I'd want to say, I wish
I could have two married couples in front of me if they were going
to get married, and tell it like it is. Are y'all going to be
divorced in six months, or are you? Huh? Don't say this now. Don't be hasty to utter anything
before God. You're about to say this before
God, and He'll hold you accountable for it. Are you going to stay
with it or not? OK. Here we go. So to the unmarried, you know,
don't make vows and oaths of fidelity and faithfulness to
someone until God gives you the grace and some amount of assurance
that you want to do that. To the married, Paul says, it's
better not to be married, but if you are, don't seek to be
loosed. Isn't it? If you're married, don't seek
to be loosed. Don't do it. He vowed a vow before God Almighty,
before the Lord, and he's holding us to it. If we have a problem, a marriage
problem, everybody does. You got two human beings, humans,
two sinners living together, you're going to have problems.
You got two wretches living under the same roof, and they're going
to butt heads. Two natural goats, goats by nature, you know, they're
going to get back in the... You ever seen those goats? It's
like a man and a woman. They're going to meet in the
middle somewhere, aren't they? It happens. You're lying if you
say it doesn't. Barber's the only one here that's honest. But we ought to ask the
Lord to help us. He's the only one that can, right?
He's the only one that can save us, the only one that can keep
us, the only one that can keep us married. Because, buddy, if
the Lord doesn't keep us, we're out on down the road in a minute.
That woman, I love you. You ought to have to make, you
know, usually it takes two. That's always, that is always
true. It takes two. Unless you've got
somebody that's just absolutely abusive. And we do have, we may
not have, but there are cases of men and women who have absolutely
abusive spouses. I mean literally abusive. The
Lord. The Lord certainly is merciful
and gracious. Ask him for help. Either save
your husband, save your wife. You may not have that because
you ask not. Right? Ask him. Ask him. He's the only one that can help
in situations like that. Right? And if we've got a tough
marriage, ask the Lord to help you because divorce is out of
the question. Right? Is that what Christ is
saying? Out of the question, out of the
question, not in the vocabulary. All right, stand with me and
I'll dismiss this in prayer. Our Lord, we're so thankful that
you've dealt with everything necessary, everything necessary
in our lives. We're so thankful that you haven't
given us a writ of divorcement, that you've loved us with an
everlasting love, and you'll not put us away no matter what
we do. We're just like Gilmer. We've been unfaithful to our
Lord on every hand, and yet you've not given us a writ of divorcement,
never will. He said, I'll never leave thee,
nor forsake thee, but our sins and our iniquities have separated
us. from our God, and we're the ones that have gone far off and
we need to be brought back day in and day out. We thank You,
Lord, that Christ, our faithful husband, remains faithful to
us and will ever be faithful. That's all our hope and all our
comfort and all our strength, spiritually speaking. And, Lord,
we ask that You would instill this in us. You've dealt with
it very clearly, very faithfully to our souls, to the glory of
God and to our souls. We'll bring much reproach upon
God and the gospel if this ever happens. And Lord, we ask you
to let us remain faithful to those you've given us, what you've
put together. Let no man, let not me, let not
my wife, let no man, other man or other woman, put this asunder.
The two have become one flesh. And it's holy in the sight of
God's picture of Christ and his church. We don't want to depart
from Christ. We don't want to depart from
our wives and husbands. We ask that you let us love them as
Christ loved the church. Be faithful to them. Be faithful
to thee and one another. Lord, bless this assembly. Lead
us not into temptation. Let not one person in here run
afoul of thy holy law and bring a sword in their bones. and in
their lives. Lord, we ask you. We thank you
for dealing with us on this subject. In Christ's blessed name, upon
his authority, we pray thee sing. Amen.