Well, we're looking at page seven on the notes, if you want to turn to that, and we're still on the number one. And we looked at that last week in our relationship with God and the importance of one and doctrines in the Bible. And this week we are going to make the application in our marriages. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. O Lord God, this is your holy word. We are your servants. Give us understanding that we might know your testimonies. You have prayed, O 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 now great and mighty things which we do not know. The sower sows the word. Let not your word go out and return empty, but accomplish that purpose for which you are sending it out and for which you have gathered us together. Protect us from Satan who will snatch your word. Protect us from a wrong reaction to difficulties and discouragements and persecutions which make our hearts hard and unresponsive to 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, making it fruitless. Rather, give us good soil, O Lord. Plow up now the hard ground of our hearts. that your sown word would send roots downward and bear fruit upwards. Unsheathe now the sword of your spirit, O Lord. Cut to the dividing point of soul and spirit, bone and marrow. Judge now the thoughts and intentions of each person gathered here, both the one who speaks and the one who hears. Spread your word before us as a banquet table, O Lord. Grant grace that we might eat of the rich meat and drink of the sweet milk 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 oh 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 as we run in the paths of your commandments, enlarge our hearts. that in loving you we might be more obedient to your written word. Drop your word against our lives as a plumb line, 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 go away and promptly forget, 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 day our total submission to your holy, eternal, inerrant written word, and we pledge to you our unquestioning obedience to all of its commands. In the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Well, amen and amen. Great to have you guys here. What a blessing. I appreciate it so much. Really humbles me. You gentlemen, Let's see, Milton, Bishan, and Augustin, your boxes are on the way. You should have all received an email from me with the tracking number. So keep an eye out. We're looking at the number one. Thank you, sir. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you. You're very welcome. Thank you, Uncle John. You're very welcome, brother. We are looking at the number one. Who would have thought that a single, simple word, both common and essential in our language, whose definition is universally accepted without question, could cause such controversy and division in the church? All computers are based on the binary system. Is that still true, Richard? Binary? Yeah. That's true? Yeah, binary. One. Mathematics begins with the number one. All language, unless we agree that numbers have meaning, becomes nonsensical. we fall into a intellectual chaos. No one in the secular world would give you any pushback at all that one means one. No one. And yet in the church We refuse to accept the authority of God's Word and the fact that one means one. One day of creation. All of a sudden, one may not mean one. The husband of one wife. All of a sudden, one may not mean one. The two become one. all of a sudden, one may not mean one. Okay, so let's go back and look at the definition of one or once. Now, in Merriam-Webster dictionary, it means being a single unit. Now, this is not rocket science, okay? Let me add that. I'll put this here. This is not rocket science. It's not hard to understand a single unit. It's not calculus. It's not trigonometry. It's not algebra. It's not geometry, as we go down in the relative difficulty of mathematics. It's not division. go down another level, it's not multiplication, it's not fractions, it's not subtraction, it's not addition. It is the first week that your child goes to school and the first thing they learn how to do is to count on their finger or with marbles or with little stones Now children, all raise your hand. This is one. Everybody say one. One. This is two. Everybody say two, two. Then we take the little stones or marbles. Now we have one stone. We put one more stone down. Now we have two. I mean, it's infantile. God the Holy Spirit exhorts us in our thinking, don't be children, be men. And yet, because Bible teachers, pastors, individuals, do not want one to be one, they pretend it means something else. It does not mean something else. It means one. In the Hebrew, Echad, a numeral, one, or an ordinal, first. It's not like God, and we ask, does it, now the word here, is it Yahweh, is it Elohim, is it Jehovah, is it, is it, is it, no. There's only one word for one in the Hebrew, and it is one. In the Greek, I see, including the neuter hen, a primary numeral one. It's not like love. Now, is this agape love? Is it phileo love? Is it eros love? What kind of love does the Greek word say? No. In the Greek, one is simply one. That's all it means. So we can't play word games with God with it. He has used a very clear and singular word. That means there's one God. That means each creation day was one day. That means at the dawn of creation there was one Adam, who is also referred to in Romans as the first, and one woman Eve. There is one mediator. There is one sacrifice. There is one baptism. There is one death. There is one judgment. There is one return of Christ. One, one, one, one, one. You'd think that would be clear. Roman Catholics will argue that there's more than one mediator. Roman Catholics will argue in Lutherans that there is more than one sacrifice. Many people in Armenian churches that believe you can lose your salvation, Church of Christ, some Pentecostal churches, United Methodist churches, will argue that there is more than one baptism. Many mystical Spiritist Baptists believe there's more than one death. Man can die and go to heaven and hell, come back, give a report, and die again. It's appointed for man to die once, after he has died many times, and then comes judgment. There is one judgment. There is no purgatory. No secondary judgment. There is one law-giving judge you have power to save and destroy. There is one return of Christ. Hebrews 9.28 doesn't say. And after he has returned hundreds of times, he will return a second time. No. There is one return. So one. One God, One Day, One Man, Adam, One Woman, Eve, One Mediator, Our Lord Jesus Christ, One Sacrifice, One Baptism, One Death, One Judgment, One Return of Christ. Now, this same nonsensical thinking that causes people to think that One day means a million years. One atom is mythological. One mediator means many mediators, many priests. One sacrifice is one of many sacrifices, the Mass. One death is one of many deaths we can experience. One return, one judgment, that these ones don't mean one. This same thinking is taken over or transferred over to marriage. So let's look at the word one in marriage. Remember, one means one, a single unit. It's not difficult. It's not rocket science. Let's see, Brother Richard, if you would read Genesis 1.27, and Bishan, if you would read Mark 10.6, please. Brother Richard. Genesis 1.27, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them. And Brother Bishan, Mark 10.6. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. Now let's take note here. We have two things here. One is Jesus talking about creation. He's talking about Adam. He's talking about Eve. You're going to run into real problems If you reject the biblical account of creation, the singular first male to ever be created, Adam, and the singular first woman taken out of Adam, Eve. Because Jesus refers to this in his teachings. I always tell people I never tried to be more intellectual than Jesus Christ, the second member of the Holy Trinity, God the Son. See, there was, the two become one flesh. We begin with the two. There was one man, Adam, one woman, Eve. God created them both in his own image. In marriage, union, the two, one man, one woman, become one flesh. Let's see, Augustine, would you read Genesis 2.24? Richard, would you read 1 Corinthians 6.15 and 16? And Milton, I will get you to read Ephesians 5.31. Genesis 2.24. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. What can be clearer? Now, when God gave this command, were there any fathers and mothers? No. Adam and Eve were not a father and mother. Adam and Eve did not have a father and mother. And yet, before the existence of fathers and mothers, God laid down this key component of the marriage covenant. You leave and become one flesh. 1 Corinthians 6, 15 and 16, please. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be. For do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For he says the two shall become one flesh. This is affirmed by God the Son, isn't it? We have God the Father making this statement, one flesh. Now we have the affirmation of God the Son. In marriage, you become one. The two shall become one flesh. Ephesians 5.31, Milton. For this reason, a man shall believe his father Did you hear me? Yes. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. Well done Milton. So here we have a statement by God the Father we have a statement by God the Son, we have statements by God the Holy Spirit, that the two shall become one flesh. What could be clearer? One man, one woman, one flesh. It doesn't say Adam and Steve. It says, Adam and Eve, one man, one woman, one flesh. That's it. There were no additions to this. Now, there was an addition to this teaching. The very next verse says the two were naked and without shame. And God could have also added, and in the future, a man may marry a man, or a woman a woman, or a man may take many wives, but he doesn't add any of those little extras. Plenty of room in the Bible for a verse in addition, the two were naked and without shame, to have added something about homosexuality or polygamy. God does not do so. So what do we learn from this? Marriage predates the church. Marriage predates the gospels. Marriage predates the prophets. Marriage predates the law. Marriage predates the judges. Marriage predates the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Marriage predates the flood. Marriage is rooted in the very creation of man. It is a covenant of God re-rooted in our creation. Now that's important for us to understand. In fact, it is a universal grace for all mankind, not limited simply to Christians. As such, it is a universal grace granted by God to all mankind and not limited to Christians and the church. Now that's very important for us. We'll be looking at that in a moment why that's important. Both the husband and the wife are held by God to this universal covenant. Like the universal grace of childbirth, it is rooted in the very creation of man. Childbirth is a universal grace. Don't have to be a Christian to bear children. Don't have to be godly. Don't even have to be, in fact, you can be steeped in sin. Drug addicted, drug addicted prostitutes bear children. demonic possessed witches bear children. Hindus, Muslims, Mormons, Jehovah's Witness, Jews, Christians in sin, Christians who've fallen away from the faith, they all bear children. That is because just like the sun rising and setting and just like the seasons and just like the world will never again be covered with water, just like childbirth, just like marriage, these are all universal graces. Now in terms of the marriage covenant, God says to us through the prophet Malachi under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, yet you say for what reason? Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant." Now this was before the church, wasn't it? The wife also is held to marriage by covenant in Proverbs 2.17 that leaves the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her, what? Of her God. Not the covenant of the law, not the covenant of the nation of Israel, not the covenant established by Solomon, but rather a covenant in her relationship with God. The husband and wife are held by God to this universal covenant. And to break it is a sin. What does God say here? The man has dealt treacherously. That's a strong word, isn't it? You are married if you are married, irrespective of spiritual condition, religion or culture. People say, well, I was married in a mosque. Am I still married? Were you married? Where is that meeting? I was married in a Hindu temple. I wasn't married in the church. I was married in the village. Am I married? I wasn't married in the church, I was married in the courthouse. Am I married? Well, you just said you're married. That's like Bishan saying, I was born a Nigerian. Am I a Nigerian? That's nonsensical, isn't it? You've already, Bishan has already said he's a Nigerian. Why is he asking if he's a Nigerian? I was married under these circumstances. Am I married? Yes, you're married. If you were a non-Christian when you got married, you were married. If you were not married in a church building when you got married, you were married. If you were a member of another religion when you got married, you are married. If you lived together as husband and wife, as common law marriage, then you are still married. Not that you were committing fornication, just sleeping with her, but living with her as husband and wife. If you did not know God's standard before marriage, you are still married. Some couples will come to me and ask me to renew their vows. Now, if they want to do that, to rededicate their fidelity to each other, that they want to be reminded of their marriage vows. If they just want to have this beautiful ceremony after 20 years of marriage, and they're going to renew their vows to continue to be faithful, I'll do that. But if they come to me and say, we were not married in a church. We were married in a courthouse or in a synagogue or a mosque or Hindu temple. And so what we want to do is get married in the church. I won't do that. Because they're already married. Just like if I was in Israel on a tour and we were at the Jordan River and they said, Pastor John, would you baptize us? in the Jordan and I said, have you been baptized as a believer? Yes. Then no, I won't baptize you because there's one baptism. I'm not going to do it. And I won't remarry them. If I, if they stand up before the church and say, we were not really married because we were married in a Hindu temple, but now we are going to get married. What does that say about their children? Richard, what does that say about their children? We weren't. Well, they, yeah. Go ahead. Children outside of marriage, God says they're called, yeah, the word in Hebrew is bastards and not sons. That's right. They're illegitimate bastards. Don't do that. I would tell them, no, your children are not illegitimate. You were married and had children in the confines of a universal grace called marriage. So no, I won't. Now, if you want to say when we got married, we did not understand what we were doing, and we would like to go through a marriage Bible study, I would say great. If you say, if you tell me when we got married, that was 20 years ago, I think we would like to stand up and say to the church, we are just as committed now as we ever were. I will be glad to do that. Some people actually want to go through the marriage ceremony again, to renew their vows and stand up and give their vows. I'll let them stand up and renew their vows, but not in a marriage ceremony. I won't pronounce them husband and wife. See, for some people, that marriage ceremony was a big party, and they want to have another party. Kind of like Eleanor and I celebrated our 20th anniversary, our 25th. We're coming up on our 50th anniversary, and we'll have a party. to celebrate it. It will be a Christian party, but we'll have a party. But we don't confuse the party that we're going to have for our 50th anniversary with the solemnity of the marriage ceremony. Marriage ceremony is not a party that you get to repeat over and over any more than baptism is. Whoever you are married to, that is the right person. And the reason I say this is I hear this from people, I married the wrong person. Is that a just cause for divorce? No, I married the wrong person is not cause for divorce. Because you're not married to the wrong person. You are married to the right person. Once you are married it is impossible to have married the wrong person. Don't think about it anymore. God could have stopped you. But he didn't. Brother Bishan, I'll get you to read Proverbs 16, 33. Let's see, Barnabas, you read Matthew 19, 6. And then, who else do we have here? Augustine, you read Ephesians 5, 24 and 25. Mark, in a minute, you are going to read Matthew 19, 3 through 7 here. So, okay, Proverbs 16.33. Proverbs 16.33, the Lord is cast into the lava, but every decision is from the Lord. Yeah, and God could have stopped you, couldn't he? God is sovereign. He could have used all sorts of ways to stop you from marrying the woman that you married. You know? He could have had you transferred to another city. He could have the parents step in and forbid you from getting married. He could have had her transferred to another city. He could have used illness. He could have struck you down with an illness so that you couldn't pursue her. All sorts of things. He could have had godly men come in and talk to you and dissuade you from getting married. All sorts of things. But he didn't do that, did he? With the knowledge of God and the presence of God and the sovereignty of God, you got married. And you say, well, I didn't realize at the time what it was going to be like. God did. God is omniscient. He knows the end from the beginning. He could have stopped you. God joined you together, not you, not the church, but God. Matthew 19, 6. Matthew 19, 6. So they are no longer two, but one flesh, but therefore God has joined together let no man separate see we saw God the Father say this we've seen God the Holy Spirit say this God the Son is saying this one flesh let no one separate well but my pastor no but the church no but me no no man No one. It's so simple. Your ministry to your spouse precludes thoughts of having married the wrong person. Brother Mark, Ephesians 5, 24 and 25. You'll have to unmute, Brother Mark. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be to their husbands and everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. How can a wife be married to the wrong person and at the same time be subject to her husband as Christ is to the church? That's like saying, I wonder if God saved the wrong person. I wonder if I made a mistake in becoming a Christian. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her. God has no second thoughts on your salvation. You should have no second thoughts on whether you married the right person. If you are married, look at your spouse, that's the right person. If you're a woman, be subject to him. Just as Christ is subject to the church. If you're the husband, lover, as Christ loves the church. I married the wrong person? No. God could have stopped you, but he didn't. God joined you together, not man. Your ministry to your spouse precludes thoughts of having married the wrong person. Now the phrase, what God has joined together, let no man separate. Key word here is God. Brother Richard, who joined you? God joined us. Is he going to separate you? No, he will not. So, who does God forbid from separating you? Well, any person. That's exactly right anybody Matthew 19 3 through 7 brother Richard. Would you read that please? And he answered and said have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female And said for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife And the two shall become one flesh, so they are no longer two, but one flesh. But therefore God is joined together, let no man separate." Yeah, it's very clear, isn't it? God has joined you to your wife, not your family. I know many marriages where family members think they joined the two. I know Dr. Bose, he never even met his wife until the wedding day. I'm from India, and I know those two families felt like they joined them. Not the church. I know many pastors, they feel like they had the authority in many churches. They had the authority to join them, not the state. rather God. Now, there may have been family, traditions, church, services, legal standards which you must follow, but they are not making you married. God is making you married. And God's authority excludes any interference by man. Now excludes means to keep out. Above here I said that it precludes any thoughts that I married the wrong person. That preclude means to not consider, to not go there. Exclude means to keep out. God's authority keeps out, it excludes, any interference by man. God has joined together, man keep out. No man nor institution, be it secular or religious, has authority to dissolve the marriage. The family may feel that since they gave permission and were involved in the ceremony, and agreements of the marriage that they have equal authority to dissolve the marriage. But it's not so. I can see that. I can understand. Family got together. Brides' prices were exchanged. Agreements were made. Parties were had. Negotiations went back and forth. Well, this was very complicated, this process by which we reunited our son to this woman or our daughter to this man. So if we negotiated it out, we can break the contract. No. The pastor and the church may feel that since they gave permission and were involved in the ceremony and agreements of the marriage, that they have equal authority to dissolve the marriage, but it's not so. A woman may come to the pastor, oh, you know, I have this terrible marriage. Things are so bad. This is the things that he does. This is the family I've been married into. And the pastor will say, well, you know, this is terrible. Where? The church is going to annul this marriage. It never happened. Well, the church can do anything it wants to. Take any votes it wants to. make any proclamation at once to but the marriage is not annulled just like you can be excommunicated by the church but it doesn't mean anything I was excommunicated by the Cardinal at the Cathedral in Los Angeles I've been excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church for my teachings on Mary but it doesn't mean anything He wasted his time. I've been excommunicated by the Pentecostal Bishop of the country of Belarus for my teachings on spanking. Doesn't mean anything. I haven't been excommunicated. John 5 24 truly truly I say to you here is my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life he will not come into judgment but has passed out of death into life I'm not worried about any papers or ceremonies done by Roman Catholics or Pentecostals but in the same way The Roman Catholic Church and Protestant churches feel like they have, and the state feels like it has the authority to annul marriages, and they don't. The state government officials and laws may feel that since they gave permission and were involved in the ceremony and agreements of the marriage, that they have equal authority to dissolve the marriage, but this is not true. You are married. No one has the authority to separate you. Not family, not church, not state, but rather God joined you, no man can separate. God joined you. God will not dissolve this marriage and no man or institution can override God's authority and power. You can't lose your salvation, no matter what any man or institution says. And you can't have your marriage annulled. No one has the authority to divide you. But people then say, yeah, but John, what about divorce? What about divorce? Well, let's take a look at this. Bishan, would you read Mark 10 and just read the first five, this first paragraph. We're going to look at Mark 10, two through 12. For those of you who have your Bibles open, for those on handheld devices, just read along on your screen, please. So Bishan, this first paragraph right here. Mark 10 2 through 5 Mark 10 2 through 5 Some Pharisees came up to Jesus testing him and began to question him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife And he answered and said to them What did Moses command you? He said Moses permitted man to write a certificate of divorce and sent her away But Jesus said to them, because of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment. Okay, first, let's look at this. The Pharisees were simply testing him, weren't they? Yes. This question was not sincere, was it? It wasn't. No. They were just testing him. And you know, I find that true with me, too. Many people who ask me about divorce, and I answer them, then they'll automatically say, well, what if the wife is unfaithful? Didn't Jesus say the wife was unfaithful? I am. I say, hey, you've already made up your mind on this issue. Why are you asking me this question? Now, if you really want to know the answer to the question, I'll give it to you. But I'm not going to argue with you. What is the condition of the heart of those who want to seek out reasons for a divorce? What does it say here? Brother Richard, what's the condition of the heart of those who want to seek out reasons for divorce? Hardness. It's there are hearts already harder. Yeah. Do you want to be in that class? I mean, if you want to find a reason for divorce, if your heart is that heart, go ahead. As soon as I read this as a young Christian, I didn't care about anything else. I didn't want to be one of the people that God looks down and says, well, because of the hardness of John's heart, you know, I'll give him the immorality clause or I'll give him this, the abandonment clause, or I'll give him this clause or that clause. I don't want any exceptions made for me because my heart is hard. Do you want God to be saying to you, well, Bishan, because your heart is so hard, I'll give you a break in this area? No. No? I don't either. The reason I asked Bishan that question is I already knew the answer. Bishan loves the Lord. He doesn't want his heart to be hard. So don't do it. don't be poking and prodding around for exceptions that are only given to people who have hard hearts. Look at verse six. From the beginning of creation God made them male and female. What did Jesus believe about creation, Brother Richard? About Adam and Eve? Oh, yeah, I like this to show people that Jesus believed in creation, not evolution. That's right. And a single Adam and a single Eve. Yes. One means one. Jesus believed The first day of creation was one day. Jesus believed that when God made Adam out of dust, that he made him out of dust. Jesus believed that when God made woman, he took her rib out of Adam's side. Jesus believed those things. If we reject creation, man, woman, if we reject God's definition of marriage, if we reject what God has joined together, let no man separate, we reject Jesus' teachings. Are you going to argue with Jesus about this? People begin arguing about it. And I say, hey, listen, you want the adultery clause because of the hardness of your heart. Don't take this to me. Take it to Jesus. If you want to be known by Jesus as one of the disciples whose hearts are hard, go ahead. Embrace it. I don't. I'm standing here. I'm one of the disciples. And these Pharisees come up to Jesus and you can tell by the sneer and by the squint of their eye as they question Him that they're testing Him. They're not sincere. And they want to know about divorce. And they give the response that Moses allowed divorce. And Jesus says, because of the hardness of your heart, he wrote this command. That's all I would need to say. I would step away from them and say, I'm with you, Jesus. No divorce. I'm with you. Help me, Lord, never to have a hard heart. I'm with you. Help me never to be a hard-hearted Bible teacher. Men with hardened hearts, they don't have the faith to believe that God can take them through a difficult or even horrible marriage and it still be His will. There are some people like Job who go through difficult and horrible things. Did Job divorce his wife? No. Job said, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. By God's grace, we will all say that. Jesus goes on to say, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, the two shall become one flesh. So, okay, now that should be enough for us, right? It's kind of like, this is how this works, guys. John 5, 24. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life. That's Jesus. Okay. Thick-headed disciples, you will not come into judgment. Stick at it, disciples. You have passed from death to life. Why is it enough for us just to hear eternal life? Yeah, but could I lose that eternal life? Words have meaning. Eternal life. Yeah, but if I really do a good sin, okay. You will not come into judgment. Ah, okay. But what if before I don't come into judgment, what if I lose? No, you have already passed from death to life. Eternity in heaven began when you said amen after receiving Christ. It doesn't begin when you die. So, we have eternal life, but what about, what about, what about, you will not come into judgment. Yeah, but what about, what about, what about, you have already passed from death to life. It's done. It's over with. So, Jesus says, for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two can become one flesh. But, but, but, but, but, so they are no longer two. but they are one flesh. But, but what, what, but what, what, what? What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." Does that make sense, guys? For this reason, Jesus says, for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and the two become one flesh. And you can just go say, well, what about immorality? What about Moses? What about, what about, okay? Let me put it another way. They are no longer two but one flesh. Yeah, but, you know, but maybe, you know, the church can do this mystical ceremony and sprinkle me with, my wife, with holy water and lay hands on us and pray on us and all of that stuff and separate us back into two individuals. No. What God, therefore God is joined together. Let no man separate. Okay? Over with. Done. Let's talk about something else. But when I put it that way, people are never willing to stop. They always want to keep talking, don't they? I'm through with it. I've told you before, I do not entertain discussions on how I can unload my wife and marry a younger woman. And don't you do it either. do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them. If a man tells me that his church has decided that elders can divorce their wives and marry someone else, well, that's not actually what they'll say. They'll say, to be eldest and I'll say well that must be a great relief to your wife knowing that as she ages if you get tired of her you can divorce her marry a younger girl and still keep your position in the church. Let's see I have been a Christian since 1968 What's that? 54 years? Something like that? Well, in all that time, I have seen many Christians, men, divorce and remarry. Many. Too many to count. And only one of them chose a woman his age. It's amazing that men who say, well, I made a bad decision, it was a wrong decision, it was an immature decision, so this time I'm going to marry a mature Christian woman four or five years older than I am. Do they ever do that? Do they? I only know of one. It's always some younger girl, isn't it? Malachi 2.16, I hate divorce. Now when was this written? When did God say he hated divorce? Did Malachi minister before Noah, Richard? Oh, no. So it wasn't that God said in Genesis, Men, when I have joined together, let no men separate because I hate divorce. He didn't say that in Genesis, did it? Malachi 2.16 is during the period of the law, isn't it? Yeah, right. The law of Moses, right? Right. So, Moses permitted to write a certificate of divorce and send her away. What are the two clauses on that? First, the first clause is he did it because man's heart is so hurt. But the second clause is he still hated divorce, didn't he? I hate divorce was not written by one of the apostles in the church age. It was written during the clause of they could send them away for a divorce. And there is a clause, except for the case of immorality, I accept that, but God still hates it. And those who exercise that clause, or who teach it, or who desire it, or who want to keep it you know, in their toolkit of discipleship in case they ever want to divorce their wife and marry a younger woman. God still hates it. I.A. divorce was written during the period of the law. What does this say concerning those in the old covenant who took advantage of the divorce clause given because of the hardness of their hearts? They were still doing something God hated. What does this say about the new covenant who seek out the same divorce clause in their marriage? They are doing something that God hates and the only people who do things that God hates have hard hearts. So God hates divorce. Now let's look at verse 10 through 12. In the house the disciples began questioning him about this again. And he said, whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery. And if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man commits adultery. So, what do we have here? The Divorce Clause is allowed by God. Let's look at that. Well first, it reveals a hard heart. It's allowed for those who have hard hearts. God hates it even though it is allowed. Three, if you enact it, you commit adultery on your wedding night. Let's keep that in mind. A divorce clause as allowed by God. One, it reveals a hard heart. Two, God hates it even though it is allowed. Three, if you enact it, you commit adultery on your wedding night. What was the disciple's reaction to this teaching? Brother Richard, read Matthew 19.10, please. The disciple said to him, if the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry. Who can have enough information to make this decision? And you can never. Only God has enough information because you can never know what's going to happen. If Demas can leave Paul because of the love of this world, if Judas after spending three years with Jesus can betray him, Anything's possible. And that's why when I go into marriage counseling with a couple, I tell them right off. Now, when I do your marriage vows, I'm not going to simply say, till death do us part. I'm going to say, if your wife is unfaithful, if she is in a car accident and is in a coma, If she is in an accident and becomes paralyzed from the neck down, if she becomes a drug addict, if she becomes an alcoholic, will you under no case divorce her till death do you part? That's what that means, doesn't it? Till death do us part is not poetry. It means that from the point you're married until you die, no matter what happens, the only thing that will separate you from your wife is death. I actually, when I said that, and we were talking about divorce and remarriage, the wife just got up and the fiance, the engaged woman, just got up and walked out, slammed the door behind her. And she wasn't going to make that kind of commitment publicly. No. I mean, she was going to be married to this guy as long as, and I said, well, you know, I guess you have some things to work out with your wife. So they got married by someone who would just read, you know, first Corinthians 13 and say some vows. And, you know, somebody sings a song and somebody reads a poem and they do some things and. Just don't think about it. Just have the, and then they have the party. So people say, yes, but John, are you saying the divorce clause is not allowed by God? I say, yes, it is. It reveals a hard heart. God hates it, even though it is allowed. If you enact it and remarry, you commit adultery on your wedding night. You see, God allows for one wife and one husband. 1st Timothy 3.2, An overseer then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife. You see, in the church today, this was the end of day one. Controversy! There's no controversy. Each day of creation was a 24-hour day, the evening and the morning of the first day. Thus ended day one. Says that. It's in Genesis. Don't think I'm quoting it exactly right, so let me read it to you. and God called the light day and the darkness he called night and there was evening and there was morning one day. There's no controversy there. An overseer must be above reproach the husband of one wife. There's no controversy there. 1 Timothy 5.10, a widow is to be put on the list only if she is not less than 60 years old, having been the wife of one man. Same phrase. If we are to assume that 1 Timothy 3.2 is speaking to a polygamous husband, then we must assume that 1st Timothy 5.10 is speaking to her wife with multiple simultaneous polygamous husbands. So, 1st Timothy 3.2 is speaking to a man, a polygamous husband. In other words, he has multiple wives. then we must think that this is speaking to a polygamous wife with multiple simultaneous husbands. That doesn't make sense, does it? Is that what this verse is saying? Is 1st Timothy 5.10, a widow is to be put on the list only if she is not less than 60 years old, having been the wife of one man. Does this mean that God, the Holy Spirit is excluding women who take four or five husbands at a time? No. And this does not, husband of one wife, for an overseer, does not speak to a man who has more than one wife at a time only. Now, this ruling, husband and one wife, was not given because of cultural context. It was not given because there were polygamous marriages at the time. Polygamy had long since been banned in both the Roman and Greek legal system. The Jews fell into conformity with these laws as Israel was under the occupation at one time or another of both Greece and Rome. So they were under conformity to this. Polygamy was not common at the time of the apostles. It was against the law, both in the Greco-Roman legal system. Jesus did not recognize the woman at the well as having one husband, simply because she had divorced the others. John 4, 16-18. He said to her, Go call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have correctly said, I have no husband. For you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly. Now this woman had been divorced and remarried five times. How many husbands did Jesus say she had, Richard? One husband. Yeah. She had been married and divorced five times. For you have had how many husbands in verse 18, Richard? Five husbands. Yeah, sure, five husbands. So she wasn't the wife of one husband. She was the wife of five husbands. She would be disqualified from 1 Timothy 5.10. The fact that they were one at a time did not mean that she didn't have five husbands. She said, I had no husband. Jesus said, sorry, you have five husbands. It's not one at a time. There is room in the Greek for one at a time, but this phrase is not used. One here means one. The husband of one wife means one. If I tell you, okay, if you tell your child he can have one cookie, You do not mean one at a time. If you tell your child you can have one cookie and you go in and half the cookies are gone off the tray, and you're going to discipline your child for disobeying you, and he said, no, at no time did I have more than one cookie in my hand. I just ate them one at a time. Well, you don't play word games with your children. How much more do we not play word games with God? One wife does not mean one at a time. One cookie does not mean one at a time. Why do pastors and Bible teachers play games with the word one when it comes to marriage? Well, it is usually an emotional reaction and false sense of compassion. as a result of a personal experience from someone they know. There is a man in the church or they have a friend or a relative, many times a child, who has gotten divorced and remarried. That person wants to be a deacon or an elder in the church. They think, this happened 20 years ago, they've been walking with God. It's so insensitive to exclude them from the deacons in our church when their life commitment is even higher than some of the deacons we have. We don't have to be more sensitive than God the Holy Spirit. It is not insensitive. God says that's his standard. Now, the problem is Once one does not mean one, but one at a time, then the number of one at a time becomes arbitrary. Do you understand what I'm saying there? This pastor is saying, well, he was divorced and remarried 20 years ago. True, he's been married twice, but... Well, the Bible says one. The pastor is going to allow one at a time. I then ask the pastor, what if someone has been married to one wife, one at a time, but three times? Now this man that they want has been married two times. Well, what if he, 20 years ago he got married, that didn't work out. So he got married again and was married five years. Well, now that's 15 years ago he got a divorce. This is the third woman he's been married. The pastor will say, well, you know, we really have to think about that. What about 10 times? He's been divorced and remarried 10 times in 20 years, every other year. At some point, he will say, no, that is too many. But what is his standard? What's the standard, Richard, that this pastor is using to say twice or three times is acceptable but ten times is not. Is it a biblical standard? It's his own opinion or feelings. Yeah. Keep in mind the pastor's standard may be five but God's standard is one. The pastor's... it is not We do not make this decision numerically on how we feel. There may be someone out there who feels 10 times is no big deal. What about 20? What about 30? No, God's standard is one. One is not a controversial number. May God add His blessing on the teaching of His Holy Word. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.