My name is Reverend John Mayen. I'm director of Grace Community International. We are talking on the ten spiritual principles concerning the authority of the Word of God and marriage. You should have a set of notes in your packet. Okay? You should have a set of notes in your packet. You should also have two application sheets. Please take those out, please. Two applications. Take your notes out and the two application sheets. See the two application sheets? And a conference schedule. One of those application sheets are for you and one is for your spouse. These application sheets are a great devotional tool. If somebody is starting to have a daily quiet time with God, it's very easy to remember three words. Know, K-N-O-W, be, and do. And I'll tell them, read a chapter or read a paragraph and ask three questions. From this passage, what does God want me to know? That's information. From this passage, what does God want me to be? That's your character, your attitude, your heart. From this passage, what is something God wants me to do? That's a practical action. So on each of the lectures, ladies, we are going application on the lecture something God wants you to know be and do and then gentlemen we're going to ask you to do the same thing and then we're going to I'm going to ask y'all you see the men's side there will be a blank on the other side won't there because you're not filling in your wife's side. And ladies, on your side, see if you look at the sheet, there'll be a blank because you won't be in the sessions with the men. So y'all will sit down and share with each other what God has been teaching you from the lectures. Now, I always require this of the men. Any men who are in my Bible study ministry when I'm in Houston, I have several studies that I meet with men. They are not allowed to return unless when they do return, they can give a report on how it went teaching their wives what they learned that week. And if they have children, teaching their children what they learned that week. So we have a question, and I haven't even started. That is a great tool for you to use. And you might have to, one of the things you'll receive at the end of this conference is a flash drive with all the lectures on it. But in addition to that, you will receive literally dozens of devotionals on marriage and family, as well as being equipped with all sorts of passages. And you can start a lifetime of daily devotionals with your wife. Now Eleanor and I started having quiet times together while we were apart when we were engaged. And we have continued that once we got married, having devotional life together every morning. We start our day in prayer, then I come, I've always made it my practice to come home and have dinner with her and the family, and we still do that. We have an empty desk, Eleanor still cooks for me. And then the last thing we do at night is we hold each other in each other's arms and we thank God for his blessings during the day as we fall asleep. And for 25 years, we went to a marriage conference every year. So we took this seriously. In fact, if we couldn't find a marriage conference, we would find some godly couple to spend a weekend with us to lead us in a marriage conference. But we did it every year, then we read all of the books, we memorized all of the verses, and did all of the studies. So having a successful marriage is not just something that happens. It's something we do. Now everybody wants to have a good marriage, don't they? Does everyone want to have a good marriage? That's not the question. Everybody does that, even doctors. I don't know of anybody who gets married thinking, boy, this will make me unhappy. No, everybody wants to have a good marriage. But few people are willing to do that which is necessary to have a good marriage. You with children know that, don't you? All children want to make good grades in school. But that's not the issue. The issue is, are you and the child willing to do that which is necessary to assure their good grades? And I say, you and the child. So we've been married 46 years. We go on at least one date night every week. We go out on a date just like when we were courting. Whenever possible, I have lunch with her. If I'm not doing a ministry lunch, I do a ministry lunch with my wife. I don't travel without her. You're probably wondering where she is. Our second, our third child, our daughter, who's a schoolteacher in Houston, collapsed as she was teaching right at the end of school because of blood clots in her lung and was very near death. And so she is recovering on medication, but it's a slow process and her husband had to return to work. And the doctor said she doesn't need someone sitting there with her, but she needs someone who could be immediately available that she could call. And since we only live about 15, 20 minutes away from them, Elle and her volunteered to stay home. make sure her daughter is okay, take her to the doctor, pick up her prescriptions, things like that. So that's where Eleanor is. If you're wondering how can you teach on marriage and then travel away from your wife, I don't. But on this occasion, it was a circumstance beyond my control. But I do call her every night. We talk for about 30 minutes. Well, what if I told you, oh, you know what? I need to start this. I have, let's see, so I have, I don't have 45 minutes anymore, I have 40, okay? What if I told you there existed a vaccine, that if you took the vaccine, There were no ill treatment, ill effects. But 50% of the people who took the vaccine would never get sick again of any disease, viral, bacterial, nothing. They would have total immunity to the disease. And all they had to do was come into the clinic, go through some screening, and they received the vaccine. 50% of the population has no immunity, but they guarantee 50% would, and it's free. Would you go? Yeah, it's free! Sure you would go. Then, when you get the vaccine, they give you a large jar of tablets. And they say, this is going to be free also. If you agree to this program and take one tablet a day, 99.9% of the people who enter this regime never get sick again. And it's free, and we will send you, by courier, a new bottle every year. 365 pills. All you have to do is take them every year. 99.9% never experience another illness in their life. And there are never any ill effects. Would you do that? Sure, why not? It'd be a miracle cure, wouldn't it? Well, the University of Princeton, an exclusive school in the U.S., did a study of marriages. They found 50% of secular people who got married got a divorce. They found 50% of people who were married in a church were unhappy. They didn't get a divorce, but they were unhappy. See, that's the vaccine, isn't it? You went and got married in a church, And if you do that, 50-50 chance you'll be happy. But they also continued on the survey, and they found that only one out of a thousand couples who begin their day reading the Bible and praying were unhappy. Only one out of a thousand. That's the pill, right? And you know what's astonishing to me? that if I were to share that with you about your physical health, you would immediately make an appointment with that clinic and sign up for the bills. But when I share with you about your spiritual well-being, you may or may not begin having a quiet time with your wife. You may or may not adjust your schedule so that you can do that. You may or may not subjugate your career and financial gain and education so you can do that. You may or may not. Well, this is how I tell young people they can have... Well, we'll do that in a minute. So, having said that, Let's stand and ask the Lord to bless His holy, eternal, and inerrant written word. Shall we? Let's stand and pray. Those of you with babies, if you're pregnant, or if you're like me and have bad knees, don't feel under compulsion when I ask you to stand. Just stay right where you are. Oh Lord God, this is your holy word. We are your servants. Give us understanding that you might know your testimonies. You have prayed, oh Lord, sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. Use your holy, eternal, inerrant written word to set us apart to your service and to your glory. Show us this evening great and mighty things which we do not know. The sower sows the word. Let not your word go out and return void, but accomplish that purpose for which you have gathered these together and for which you are now sending it out. Protect us from Satan, Lord, who will snatch your word. Protect us from the world's cares and the delight of wealth and the passion of other interests which enter in and choke Your Word. Protect us from a wrong reaction to difficulties and discouragements and persecutions which make our hearts hard and unresponsive to Your Word. Rather, plow up now the hard ground of our hearts, O Lord, Give us good soil, that your sown word might send roots downward and bear fruit upward. Unsheathe now the sword of your spirit, O Lord, cut to dividing point of bone and marrow, soul and spirit. Judge now the thoughts and intentions of each heart gathered here from your word. Spread your word before us as a banquet table this morning. Grant grace that we might drink of the sweet milk and eat of the rich meat of the great doctrines of your holy word. Give us the heart of the prophet who cried to you. Thy words were found and I did eat them. And thy words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart from call by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Oh Lord, we live in a dark and a wicked age. Broad is the way and many are on it, which leads to destruction. Make your word a lamp to our feet. Make your word a light to our path. Show us that narrow way that you would have us run. And Lord, as we run in the paths of your commandments, enlarge our hearts that in loving you, we might be more obedient to your holy written word. Drop your word against our lives as a plum wine, O Lord. Grant grace that we might see how we deviate from its high and holy purposes. Make your word to us a mirror, O Lord. Grant grace that we might not be as those who look and then go away and then promptly forget how they look, but make us active doers, not forgetful listeners of your holy word. Oh Lord, because of our fealty to you, because of our undying love and devotion to your Son, our resurrected Savior. We pledge to you this evening our total submission to your holy, eternal, inerrant written word. And we pledge to you this evening our unquestioning obedience to all of its commands. In the name of our Lord and our resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Thank you. Have a seat, please. We're going to be looking at 10 spiritual principles concerning the authority of the Word of God and marriage. And when we approach Holy Scripture, one of the applications we will use is the one given to us by Jesus Christ. In John 14.15, Christ said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. In John 14.21, he who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. John 14.23, And he said to them, if any man loves me, he will keep my word. Do you feel like Jesus in this sermon was trying to make a point? In the Holy Scriptures, what is the love of God? John 14, 15, if you love me, you'll keep my command. Okay, here's what you all will face during this seminar. I'm ordained both in the Baptist Church and in the Presbyterian Church. Now, Baptists believe in free will, so I first ask my question as a Baptist, and I give you freedom to act. But if nobody says anything, I become a Presbyterian. Presbyterians believe in predestination. And I will find out who is predestined to answer the question. So according to John 14, 15, how do we express our love for God? How do we do that? 1450, how do we express our love for God? Go in, go in, go in. Where's Richard? Obedience. Does this passage say, if you obey me, I will love you? It's too late to do something to get God to love you. Romans 5.8 says, while we were yet sinners, God showed his love for us in that Christ died for us. When you were the most unloving, wicked sinner, God loved you. So it's too late to get to do something to get God to love you. It's too late. He loved you first. 1 John 5, 19. It's not that we love God, but that he first loved us. It's too late. So if you write your Bibles by Romans 5, 8, write 1 John 5, 19. It's too late. Does this phrase make any sense? What are you going to do today to get your mother to love you enough to give you birth? Absolutely. Now, it's nonsensical, isn't it? But how about this statement? What will you do to express your appreciation and love to your mother for giving you birth? Yeah. That makes sense. So to say, what can I do today to get God to love me and save me is nonsensical. To say, what am I going to do today? Because God loved me and saved me. That does make sense. Now, if we are going to obey God, we is revealed through his written word, isn't it? Romans 10, 17 says, faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of Christ. So our first principle is that since faith and the word of God are linked, that faith represents itself in obedience. You see, God is not what we believe. By faith, we believe what God is as revealed in his holy word. God is not what you believe. God's will is not what you believe. By faith, we believe God's will as revealed in his holy word. God's will is not to do what you believe. irrespective of what Pentecostal, Charismatic, and Spiritist preachers tell you. God's will is not manifested in your belief. By faith, God does not do our will. Think of that. If you're being taught that by faith you can get God to do what you're telling Him to, you are grossly mistaken. Rather, by faith we do His will, as revealed in Holy Scripture. By a word of faith, God does not do our bidding. Rather, by faith in Christ, we do the bidding of God as revealed in his holy word. By shouting at God and using the name of his son and shaking your fist at God and telling him what to do, God does not get up off his throne and go about Nigeria doing your will. Rather, by beginning our day on our knees With the Bible open frame, speak God, your servant listens. We seek to know what he wants us to know, what he wants us to be, and what he wants us to do that day. And then we get up off our knees and go about our way doing his will. Doing his will. God can do anything. It's true. But he doesn't do anything. Particularly just because you tell him to. God only does his good and holy will as revealed in his word. That's who God is and what God does. Now, let's see. I'll show you how this works. Let's see now. This is a nice Bible marking pen. It has four colors. Let's see. Let's see. You are Australian. You are a hat maker. You have 10 children. And you are now on a world tour trying to sell your hats, right? Is that true? No. No, but I believe it's true. But I have faith it's true. Doesn't make any sense, does it? No. If I want to know who you are, what your nationality is, what you do, how many children you have, how long you've been married, I ask you. In my imagination, does it mean anything? And that is the same way with our relationship with God. We go to his Reveal yourself to us from your word. Reveal your will for me today from your word. What would you have me be and do today from your word? Not vice versa. We then as his children are to conform with his good and holy will as revealed in holy scriptures. And this manifests itself in obedience. When did faith change from the power to obey God to the gift of power for God to obey us? When did that happen? It has happened in our culture today. It's gone from us being on our knees and asking God what His will is to demand on stages, shaking their fists in God and commanding God to open the storehouses of heaven, commanding God to give blessings, commanding God to give wealth, shouting in the face of God, using his son's name, and then having the audacity to thank God for things he hasn't even given them. And they don't even know what it's his will to give them. Yeah. Sister. Thank you. Thank you for giving me that cell phone. Thank you, sister. Don't do that to God. We think it's funny. He doesn't. It's sin to go to someone and ask, and rude, to say thank you for something that they haven't said they'll give you before they even give it to you. And my children said that to me. That would be one way for sure. I could guarantee they would never get it. When did faith change from the power to obey God to the power to get God to obey us in the church today? It started happening around 1960. And it has swept the world. But it's wrong. What does God the Holy Spirit say in Romans 1.5? Through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about what? The obedience of faith among the Gentiles. By faith we obey God's holy word. By faith he doesn't obey what we say. Romans 16, 26, but now is manifested and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God has been made to all the nations leading to the obedience of faith. The great book, doctrinal book of faith, the book of Romans begins with and ends with two big bookends, obedience of faith. obedience of faith. That's motivated by our love for God, not our greed to get things from God. In all areas, number two, the Word of God judges man. Man does not judge the Word of God. This includes pastors, teachers, so-called men of God, spiritual leaders. Hebrews 4.12, the word of God is living and active, it's sharper than any two-edged sword, and it cuts to the dividing point of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart, and there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are open and laid bare to his eyes of him with whom we have to do. God's word judges us. We don't judge the word of God. And that includes spiritual teachers, Acts 17.11. Now these Jews were more noble than the Sobhethsalonika, for they studied the word every day to see if these things were really so. And if it does not bother the Apostle Paul for the Bereans to roll out the scrolls or open the parchments in their home and check Isaiah 53 and check Micah and check Hosea to make sure the word of God says what he's preaching, it should not bother any man on the face of the earth and if you were to ask the teacher the preacher for a cross-reference what about this verse and he gets angry a red light should go off because It is a mandate from God that when you hear teaching, you take notes. And when I take notes, I have a little symbol, it's a question mark, and I think, I need to find out where God says that. And you do too. See, it is your responsibility to test those who teach the word of God and to avoid false teaching. No man has the authority or power to nullify the Word of God. And if you are listening to a TV preacher or so-called prophet, or you're a pastor, or you're a man of God, and he begins talking to you about dead words in the Bible, about cold doctrine, about dead doctrine, you need to flee that. What doctrine is dead, besides the fact that we are enjoined and tied us to master doctrine? What doctrine is dead? The Holy Trinity? The resurrection of Christ? The blood of Christ? Substitutionary death of Christ? What doctrine is dead? There are no dead doctrines. There are only dead hearts who say those things. Look at Isaiah 50, verse 16 and 17. But to the wicked God says, what right have you to tell of my statutes and to take my covenant in your mouth? For you hate discipline and cast my words behind you. And these men hate the discipline of the study of God's word, of scripture memory, of the daily meditation of God's word. of spending hours in their sermon preparation to make sure they are accurately interpreting God's Word. And they just cast it behind them and begin saying whatever they want, thus sayeth the Lord. They say, I have a word from God for you. I have a word of wisdom for you. I have a prophecy for you. Without quoting a single verse. What does verse 21 say? These things you have done, and I kept silence. You thought that I was just like you, but I will reproof you and state the case in order before your eyes. God does not think little of these things. The discipline of God grinds exceedingly fine and often exceedingly slow. But don't think when we begin to play fast and free with phrases like Word of God, Word of Wisdom, Prophecy, without quoting Bible verses and preach for an hour without quoting Bible verses that this doesn't come to God's attention as we cast His word behind us. But just for your sake, I can prophesy. Would you like me to prophesy? So I'll give you a prophecy. Ready? Hebrews 9.27. It is appointed for men to die once and then come again. Hebrews 9.27. I have a word of wisdom. Would you like a word of wisdom from me? I have a word of wisdom. Just for you, would you like it? Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. I have a word of knowledge. A word of knowledge. Would you like a word of knowledge? Oh, I'll give you John 5.24. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but passes out of death into life. John 5.24. See, that's how that works. Not the imaginations of men who've been working up into a feverish sweat without ever quoting a verse. But we submit to the Word of God. You see, number three, we will never reap a different crop than what we sowed. Galatians 6, 7 through 9. Remember that? Don't be deceived, God is not mocked. What sore man sows, that shall he also reap. And these principles are true as they pertain to our marriage. You have a friend and he lives in your estate but his corn never comes in. He says, I've been planting corn for five years and I've never gotten one single corn to come up out of the ground. One plant. You're very surprised because you have been very successful in bringing in corn. It's a good climate for it. It's good soil. You don't understand that. So you ask him, Can I watch you next time you plant corn? Oh, I wish you would. You could give me some hints because your crop is always so fruitful. And I don't even get a plant to come out of the ground. So, you know, you go to his estate and he's got this section where he's gonna do corn and everything is prepared just right. And then he has a bag and it has beans. Is he going to get corn? What if he gets the tithe and the double tithe? Is he going to get corn? What if he commands in Jesus' name for corn to grow? Is he going to get corn? What if he has some prophet come in and cast the demon of bean out of his soil? Is he going to get coin? No, he's not. He's not going to get a different crop than what he sowed. and your faith and your prayers and your tithe and your double tithe and giving some prophet to cast the demons out of your children and screaming at Jesus in his name and all these other things will not make a difference if you are not obeying his word in terms of your marriage and in terms of your children. Some of these wives go and spend an all-night prayer meeting, praying that their husband would be a good husband. Well, you make five covenants with your husband that you're going to learn about, that you go home to him and minister to him. That's how that works. And same with you men. You go home to your wife and minister to your wife. That's how it works. You know, if prayer would save marriages, there wouldn't be a single bad marriage in any church in Nigeria, would they? Because the people with difficult marriages pray more, don't they? They're the ones that always have the prayer request. So prayer is important for marriage, but it is one slice of the pie. Another slice of the pie is obeying what God says. Faith comes by hearing. sought to bring out the obedience of faith and the sower sows the word and if you're not sowing the word of God in your marriage you are not going to reap the results of a You see, God promises that where difficulty and persecution or problems arise beyond our control, that his grace will step in, doesn't he? In 1 Corinthians 10, 13, doesn't he? No temptation has overcome you except that is common to man. And God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond the power of your able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape so that you will be able to endure it. 1 Corinthians 10 13. That's a great promise, isn't it? Disobedience is not a temptation from which God delivers you. Disobedience is the succumbing to temptation. The prayer in response to disobedience is not the prayer of deliverance, but the prayer of repentance. And if you are living in disobedience to the Word of God in your relationship with your spouse, you can't say, well, I just know that God will provide a way out, and all things will work for good, and it's all gonna work out. You can't say those things, because the Word of God doesn't say those things. God says He delivers from temptation. God says when you give in to temptation and sin, the response is repentance, obedience, and now we begin again for the deliverance from temptation. All things work together for good to those who love God. To those who are called according to His purpose. What is the love of God? All things work for good to those who love God and obey Jesus and are called in obedience to Jesus rather than God being called in obedience to their purpose. The purpose of God is revealed in his holy word. The response, if you find you are living in willful disobedience, is not just to trust God to deliver you, that's from temptation. Rather, it is repentance. What did the prophets say to Israel? Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal, and walk after other gods you have not known? Then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, we are delivered, Then you may continue in your abominations. That's not going to work. Your marriage looks exactly like all of the non-Christians and secular Christians that you know. And then on Sunday, you do something different. That's not how it works. Sunday to Sunday, you do something different. That's how it works. How is your marriage different from everybody's else's? How is it different? There is an expectation of God that the lives and families of his children are different, and particularly different from the lives of the Lord. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Is your marriage radically different from everybody else's? You see, in 1st Kings 17.33, they feared the Lord and served their own gods according to the custom of the nations among whom they were carried into exile. Do you fear the Lord and yet follow the customs of your nations rather than His Holy Word when it comes to your marriage? You see, the leadership of God, the Holy Spirit, will never violate the teachings of God, the Holy Spirit. See, in 2 Timothy 3, 13, the problem is that evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. And they seek to take authority over the Word of God. We were in a different country, and the seminar we were giving exceeded the One of the members belonged to a large Pentecostal church, and he asked the bishop if we could have the Saturday meeting there, so there would be room for everybody. So we were sitting in the reception area, and this young girl, young woman, was giving us tea and biscuits. And of course, Eleanor struck up a conversation with her and said, you know, it must be wonderful to be able to serve in the church office where you and your family go to church. That must be wonderful. And she said, oh, my husband and children don't go to this church. And she said, what? And she said, yes, the bishop laid hands on me and gave me the call to be his secretary and says, I cannot join my husband in South Africa, where he was transferred until the Holy Spirit releases me from that call. You see, that was a false spirit. That was a false spirit, and I told her so. I gave her Genesis 2.18, that's not good for a man to be alone. I gave her the 2 shall become 1. I gave her the Ephesians 5.22, that you shall live under subjection of your husband. Ephesians 5.33, that you shall give him respect. And all that she was doing was in violation to the words of God the Holy Spirit. And the leadership of God the Holy Spirit will never violate the words of God the Holy Spirit. But none of that meant anything because the bishop had laid hands on her. That's sin. That's sin. The leadership of God, the Holy Spirit, will not violate the words of the Holy Spirit. And the only thing that will protect you from those who are deceiving and those being deceived is the word of God. That's how you determine, is this teaching from God, the Holy Spirit, or some other spirit? Because 1 John 4 says there are many spirits out there claiming things. Test them, and the first and foremost test of any spirit is does it contradict the written word of God? But what do you have to know to test him? You have to know what it says, don't you? You see, the study of the word of God alone is never presented as a cure for our problems, is it? God the Holy Spirit always includes obedience. God the Holy Spirit always includes obedience. Here, I'm gonna quote a verse. Joshua 1a, this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate upon it day and night, then you will make your way prosperous, then you will have good success. Joshua 1a, correct? Who says no? You say no. Okay, what did I leave out? Yes, this Book of the Law shall not be put out of your mouth, but you shall meditate upon it day and night. Then you might be careful to do all that is written in it. Then you will make your way prosperous, and then you may have good success. Luke 11, 27, 28, while Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the one that bore you, and the breast which nursed you. And he said, on the contrary, and he said, on the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it. So we went to a seminar on marriage every year for 25 years. But what else did we do? What did I say? We memorized all the key verses. We read the books. We did the Bible studies, and we took those key verses, and we had a daily quiet time together every morning on them, looking for what God wanted us to know, and be, and do. Blessed are those who hear it and do it. You see, we are to resist and subjugate those forces which seek to supplant the Word of God. Matthew 5, 15, 8, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. If you love Jesus, what will you do? If your heart is close to Jesus, what will you do? But you have to listen to him, don't you? You see, we can honor our parents without reproducing the sins of our family. It is not dishonoring to subjugate the traditions of our parents and family to the word of God and then do something different. You see, in 1 Kings 15, 10, he did evil in the sight of the Lord as his father is of God. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, his father, which made Israel sin. Whereas Jesus said that in Matthew 10, he who loves father and me more than me, It's not worthy of me. He loves his father and obeys his father. When his father's teachings are in contradiction to Jesus, has to choose. That doesn't mean we don't honor and love our parents. But you have to subjugate them. That means I have two minutes. You have, it does. We have to subjugate that. And one of the things Eleanor and I did when we first got married was we sat down and made a list of the traditions in both of our families that were good, that we wanted to continue, and the traditions that were in violation of scripture that we just weren't going to do anymore. For her, it was nagging. For me, than father just a provider, rather than coming home at night as a spiritual leader and protector. Last, the love of our children does not cause us to overlook their disobedience and sin, but rather to become involved in their lives for their success. 1 Samuel 3.13 For I have told him, I am about to judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse upon themselves, and he did not rebuke them. And gentlemen, the church is full of men. obedience but God requires obedience in Ephesians 6 1 children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right God requires obedience it's not up to us God has taken that authority away from us God requires in marriage for a man in Ephesians 5 25 to love his wife as Christ loved the church Let me ask you something. Does Christ love the church because of her purity? Because of her obedience? No, especially in this age. And you say, well, John, you don't know the wife I married. I say no, but I know you. And if Jesus can shed his blood for you, gentlemen, you can fulfill your covenant vow to your wife. And ladies, if Jesus can shed his blood for you, While you were yet a sinner, you can fulfill your covenant vow to your husband. But the question is, what are they? May God and His blessing do His holy work. In Christ's name we pray.