young person Because one day you'll be older you're young if you're already passed and you're already married you're gonna want to counsel your children on how to find a godly spouse and Of course, especially for all the people who are close to that age. That's when you get really focused on What does the Bible say about this decision? So for our ages, this is a message for you. I It's amazing how complex the issues of family get, but how simple the biblical solutions are. If you're a husband, love. If you're a wife, submit. If you're a child, obey. If you're a young person looking for a spouse, then follow the biblical wisdom principles that the scripture gives. That's the simple solution to a complex problem of how do you find the Spouse of your dreams. Or the spouse of Christ's dreams. So, let's pray. Dear Lord, we want to have families that are honoring to You. We want to put off the old ways and the way we used to live with our families a wreck. And we want to have marriages and teaching our children and children obeying in a way that's in accordance with your word. Please help us to apply these simple truths to our complex lives. And trust and submit to you in all these things. Amen. Turn to Ephesians 4, verses 17 to 19. There are really two essential points to finding the spouse that God has for you. One, you put off the old ways, the ways you used to live before when you were unconverted. And you put on the new ways, the examples that the scripture has given. So very simply, you're to put off and put on. Think about the context of Ephesians before we get thinking about these verses. In chapter one, we see the Trinitarian glory of salvation, where the father predestines and plans and chooses whom he will save to the praise of the glory of his grace. We see the son redeemed from all tribes and tongues and nations and washed them in his blood to the praise of the glory of his grace. We see the spirit Seal them and be a guarantee of the redemption to come, of the glorification. And all of that is to the praise of the glory of His grace. And He has done this amazing, eternal work before time began to dead men in chapter 2. You don't need a tune-up. You don't need some make-up. You need a resurrection. You are a dead man apart from Christ. Your wickedness is so vile and so much stench down to every cell of your being that you can't even see how bad you are. A blind man, a dead man cannot see. He cannot smell the stench of his rotting flesh. He cannot see his inability to obey, to live, to move. And so it is, that's how bad we are apart from Christ. In chapter 3, Christ says, look at this amazing mystery of this love revealed of Him calling out the people from all tribes and tongues and nations to build the church. What an amazing work with the height and breadth and depth and width that this love has. This love of God, spoken of in Ephesians, is great because He freely chose those who would be saved, and He had no obligation to choose a single one. He could have damned us all to hell, but His love is great because He freely chooses. His love is great in Ephesians because of how unworthy you are, of how horrendously wicked you are, and He, by His own sovereign choice, picks you out of the sewer. That is love. It is great love described in Ephesians because of the cost in which he paid. The Son of God died on the cross. The love of God in Ephesians is described as greater than you can comprehend because of what he gives you in his love and in his salvation. Now, Ephesians has three chapters on doctrine and three chapters on application. There's a reason. You can never disconnect doctrine from lifestyle. You can't preach practical things about the family and not teach doctrine. We hear doctrine, obey the commandments, obey the Ten Commandments. We hear the Shema. We hear fearing God, the doctrine of fearing God. And out of all these doctrines comes the application to your family. And so it is the same with quoting. And the primary doctrine that you need to have is the doctrine of salvation. You need to be saved if you're going to marry the person that God wants for you. And they need to be saved. And you need to be able to tell whether they're actually saved. In order to live out the commands of Christ, we do not teach a moralism in Cornerstone Church. We teach the Bible. We teach Life that flows out of doctrine. We teach obedience to the commands and the doctrine of Christ. So, these chapters, in this context, it is the result of the salvation that the Lord has given in chapters 1, 2, and 3. So in chapter four is the beginning of a very important context, which includes the context of obeying children, of children to obey, and the context of husbands and wives. All of that obedience flows out of the gospel. If you don't understand the gospel, you will never be able to marry or know who you should marry, because you will be dead in your trespasses and sins. So now consider. Verse 17 to 19. This, I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord. That you should no longer rock is the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having the understanding darkened. Being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness, to walk all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ. In this context, consider who Paul is writing to. He's writing to the church, the saints at Ephesus. What is Ephesus like? Ephesus was the armpit of Asia Minor. Ephesus was a place of great debauchery and wickedness. It was the temple. They had the temple of Artemis, the temple of Diana there. That temple was one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, like the pyramid. The Great Pyramid in Egypt was one of the seven great wonders. They had a temple there that was so magnificent it was on the same level as the pyramids. And that place was full of orgy, sexual homosexuality, prostitutes, all for the purpose of worship. And make note, as a side note, all idolatry always leads to immorality. All immorality is a result of idolatry. They go together. So when you go to church and there's immorality all throughout the congregation, it's because the people are idolaters. Mark it out and follow that pattern. And it was the same in Ephesus. In fact, around the temple, a quarter mile around the temple, there was asylum for the criminals because it was a place of worship. So you could go to the temple and wave to the police officers, and as long as you were in range of the temple, they couldn't come arrest you. So what kind of people are in the place of worship? Well, the prostitutes, the temple prostitutes, With all of the extreme wickednesses going on, the religion was described as of Asia Minor by one historian who said that the philosophers say every religion is equally false. The people say every religion is equally true. And the politicians say every religion is equally useful. Doesn't that sound like America? All the common people saying, yes, that's true, that's true, that's true. All the philosophers in old school saying, that's not true, that's not true, nothing's true, don't believe anything. The people say, believe everything. And the politicians say, we'll use everything. It's the same. It's the same today. In our progressively non-Judeo-Christian culture, it is becoming more and more and more like Ephesus. So in this context, he says, This in verse seventeen, this I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord. This is an emphatic way, he's saying it two different ways, he's saying, I'm going to tell you something, and what I'm telling you, I'm a witness. I'm a witness to what the Lord has to say. I'm a test, he's testifying, it's for where we get the word martyr from. The same word will be described next week in Acts 1.8 to describe the witness. He's a witness of what the Lord has to say concerning how you are to walk. And a walk is a continual description of how you live as a Christian. All throughout the Bible, how do you walk? And all throughout the book of Ephesians. So his command, circle that command, because that is what the whole text is about. No longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. Now, underline all the descriptive terms of how the Gentiles walk, and you'll understand this text. If you circle, no one can walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, and underline futility of their mind, understanding darkened, alienated, verse 18, ignorance, blindness of their hearts, verse 19, past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. So lewdness, past feeling, uncleanness, greediness, ignorance, alienated, darkened. This is a picture. You see it? I think it's a picture of somebody. Yes, it's a picture of somebody in the congregation. It's a picture of you. It's not a picture of your friend. It's not a picture of your high school friends who are immoral. It's not a picture of your college friends. It's not a picture of all those nasty philosophers. It's a picture of you. This is God describing you. I see myself in here and it should terrify you. You are either once this way, or you are that way now. But mark it down. It's you. And you won't get the text. You won't understand the Word of God until you admit that. You gotta admit it. So do not walk this way. This is how you do not, what you put off. Put off this ignorance. Put off this alienated from God. Put off this darkness. Put off this ignorance. Put off this past feeling, your callousness. Put off your lewdness. Put off your greediness. Put it off and put on the wisdom of Christ. So now put off the walk of the heathen. Put off their thoughts. They're futile of their mind. You know what that means? It means your thoughts are vanity. Your thoughts are worthless. All that goes on in your mind, apart from Christ, is worthless. Do you like that description of yourself? You should not, but it's true. All of your thoughts, apart from Christ, are worthless. Get rid of those Gentile influences on how you decide about who you're going to marry. All your thoughts about who you're going to marry apart from Christ are worthless. Turn on the TV and watch any sitcom. Romantic debauchery. One horrible example after another. Even shows, How I Met Your Mother. I've never seen the whole episode of the show, but I can tell you, without having to watch it, it's hard not to meet the mother of your children. They try and put down different displays of a romantic story that is actually an offense to God. All those thoughts are worthless. You have unsaved friends who will give you advice about who to marry. It's worthless. It's vanity, it's empty. Ask around the college campus. Go ahead, conduct a survey. What are you going to find? How do you find the woman of your dreams? And it's going to be worthless if it's not from the Word of God. And your own thoughts about how to find a spouse were worthless. You've got to have 2 Corinthians zeal, desire, to rip that out of your life, those thoughts, those influences, those idiotic magazines. Any kind of popular culture about romantic things is going to be worthless. Look at the next phrase. Verse 18, having their understanding darkened. So first, he describes how the thoughts are worthless. And why are they worthless? Because your mind is dark. You have no light of the Word of God. Why is it, if you were to interview students on campus, why would it be one horrible, junky thing after another? Because they have no light of the Word of God. It's darkened. Why are families are wrecked when the biblical solution is so simple? Because people don't want to obey it. It gets complex when you don't obey. How does a criminal end up in jail? I don't know how I got here. It was so complex. How did you get here? Yeah, it was so complex. I don't know. I got caught when I was trying to run with the TV and all this description. And it's a very simple solution if you get back down to the root. It started with disobeying the parents. It started with disobeying the authority God has given you. It's a very simple thing gone to chaos. So do not be like someone without the enlightening of the Word of God in a darkened mind like an animal. How does a dog eat? How does it mean when you tell the dog, hey, don't eat the dinner off the top of the table. The dog jumps on the table and starts to eat your dinner right off your plate. And you say, let me sit you down and I will explain to you from the Word of God, you know, how... No, his understanding is darkened. He has no light. He'll never understand it. So why should you continue like an animal in how you decide who you're going to marry? Dogs look and say, I see, I want, give me. Are you going to be an animal in how you choose with darkened understanding? Do not be like Ammon and Tamar, where the son of David, he saw his sister-in-law, he wanted and he raped her. That is where it will lead you. You say, oh no, no, no, I would never go there. You already have the sin in your mind. If the lust is present in your mind, put off this darkened understanding of how to choose a spouse. Put off this worthless thoughts. Put off, in verse 18 it says, alienated from the life of God. Put off this separation from God. If you want to choose a godly spouse, if you want to be the person who will You would want to be in a relationship. In other words, if you want to be, I'll find a Ruth, you got to be a Boaz. If you want to find a Mary, you got to be a Joseph. If you want to find a Rebecca, you got to be an Isaac. So you'd be right up close to God. Continually, fervently. Before I was married, I didn't worry about finding Mrs. Wright, because I knew that if I run after Christ with everything I've got, then she's going to already be there. And I'll see her running along after Christ, parallel with me. Don't worry about finding Mr. Wright or Mrs. Wright. You worry about running after the Savior, about being right next to Him. And the person you want to marry will be right there with you. Do not be like the prodigal son who runs from the Father. And every decision is darkened and wicked and perverse because he's away from his Father. No, you'll be right up next to the Father, our Father in Heaven. Consider, why does this come? Why does the understanding, why is it darkened? Why is the futility of the mind? Why are you alienated? And Paul tells you why. Because you're ignorant. Because of the ignorance, in verse 18, because of the ignorance that is in them. Because of the blindness of their heart. He tells them why they're ignorant. Because of the blindness of your heart. So put out the ignorance and willful rebellion. This text in Ephesians is a parallel to Romans 1, verses 18-32. God reveals. Man rejects God's revelation. God gives them over to whatever they want. And they, in turn, turn to every wicked thing under the planet. That progression of Romans chapter one, God reveals, man rejects, and God's judgment is to give them over to their mind, to their own false Christianity. The most terrifying wrath, the wrath where God gives you what you want and you don't even realize it's wrath. It's where the father says to the prodigal son, fine, you won't listen to me. Take the money and go. You have to learn the hard way. So now, God warns you to put off the ignorance. Put off the ignorance that is in you and how you choose a spouse. Do not be ignorant and think that you can be continually lazy, a gamer. staying up all nights of the hour playing video games and think that you will meet the spouse of your dreams. No, you must be diligent. That's ignorance that leads you to do that. Do not be dressing whatever way you think that would attract the men. That's not how to find a godly husband. That's ignorance. That's ignorance to the ways of God. Do not be self-focused. Most people think they will find a wife by the peacock method. They will find a husband by the peacock method. Let me present to you how wonderful I am, how well I can sing and how well I can dance, how beautiful I am, what a good dresser I am, how funny my jokes are, what a suave personality I am. And you think by the peacock method, you're going to fan out your feathers. And by pride, you will attract the male. People will just see you and be attracted like a female peacock is attracted to the male. Wow, what feathers. That's ignorance. A godly woman is not going to be attracted to your pride. She will be repulsed by it. A godly man will not be attracted to just your outward appearance, but with your inner beauty, your quietness of spirit, your submission to authority. That's what a godly man finds irresistible. So, Paul warns here, do not have a blindness of the heart. Why is the mind darkened? Why is understanding darkened? Why are the thoughts futile? Why are you alienated from God? Because you're the blindness of their hearts. This term in Greek, blindness, can be translated hardness. The root word is used to describe a calcium deposit that can be around the bone that is even harder than the bone. It's used to describe a marble that is so hard that it'll break your fist. Now the term is used to describe your heart. Your heart. Remember, this is not your neighbor. This is not your friend from college. This is not the more people at work. This is you apart from Christ. This is either how you were and what marked all of your actions in your life, or it marks you now. And it's hard-heartedness, the decision to continually choose sin. There was a man in India who, he would begin to walk past a river every day. And once in a while, down the river, he could see down the bank that there would be a woman bathing. And at first, he averted his eyes. At a different time, he began to think about it more, and as he would walk to work, he would walk, and then he would begin to want to look down the river and hope that he would see her again. And once in a while, once every few months, it happened that he would be able to see her. And then he would stop, instead of just walking by. And it would grow in his mind, and he would think about it more. And he would think about, much like David and Bathsheba, that he would stop and think, until one day, you see what's happening in his mind? He's getting harder and harder and harder. One day, he's so hard and calloused, he decides, I'm going to run down, and I'm going to see that woman, and I'm going to fulfill my lusts. And he goes down, and he gets to the brush, and he gets to the riverbank, and he sees her, but a few feet away, And then he smells her. She has leprosy. And she turns and all her skin is rotting off. That's what happens when your heart gets hard. When your heart gets hard, first you think, oh, I'll just think about it a little bit. I'll just taste it. I'll just taste it. I'll just taste it. But you're actually callousing your conscience. You're actually rubbing away your sensitivity to the Word of God. And then you're giving over to your lusts. Until you're given over to the leprosy of the soul. And God will give you over to a marriage that is hell on earth. And He'll give you over to the person. Fine, you want that kind of person? Then choose that kind of person to be married. And you'll end up with someone committing adultery on you. With every kind of wreckage that happens. Every kind of wreckage that you grew up with. Do you want to repeat the pattern of your parents? Do not be past feeling. Look in verse 19. Do not be past feeling. Do not be a leper of the soul. Do not have a callous conscience. Do not be hard-hearted. Put off these things and put off the sexual immorality. They've given themselves over to lewdness. Mark it. Listen to me very carefully. There is the lewdness of the world that you are accustomed to, and many of you have participated in or are participating in and every kind of sexual immorality. But there is a lust of the church. There's a lust of the immoral synagogue of Satan where they look just like the world. But there is a lust in this building where you lost the relationship. And you will make the relationship an idolatry. And you will think about the relationship and worship it, the idea. More often, women are committed to the are committing lust of relationship and rarely men and men are more often committing lust of the eyes and lust of the mind and less often women. But in the church, where everything in a godly church, where church discipline is upheld, What the most common lust is the lust of the relationship, saying, I lust for this relationship. I want it. I want it more than I want God. I want it more than I want the word. I want to be married. And it's such a lustful burden that you would follow someone who was even excommunicated from the church. As long as you could be able to find someone to marry, you would marry an unbeliever. You so much want the relationship, and so much want the companionship, that you've made it an idol. And it will lead to the immorality in time. So put off that lust. And put on a godly way. This kind of lust leads to greediness. Turn to Ruth chapter 2, and we will close with what to put on. As horrible and vile as the description is in Ephesians 4, 17 and 19 of you, of your vileness, Ruth is a picture of the beauty of what to put on. Ruth is a picture of, now the sun rises after we've been through the night and seen the vileness of sin. The sun rises and we see a godly example. But you have not so learned in Christ. Those of you who are committed to Christ, God provides a better way. God provides examples throughout the Scripture of what to put on. And Ruth is chock full of them. For me, in searching for a godly wife, it was the most beneficial thing to go through Ruth and find the examples of what to be as a Boaz and what to find in Ruth. It was wonderful to list out the attributes of Ruth. See how they're parallels to the Proverbs 31 woman, and then actually find a woman like that, and then be able to match her. Yes, yes, yes, yes. And then, this time, this woman didn't say no. It is a very exciting, thrilling time to follow Christ in the right way, and actually get someone to say yes. So, in the book of Ruth, we have a great and better way. And in the book of Ruth, the theme is the sovereignty of God. Behind his frowning providence hides his smiling face. And Ruth is also a contrast, because in Judges, it was complete wickedness. It ends, the book before it ends with a verse, in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Complete and utter wickedness. It was horrible. But Ruth, the sun rises. people who do what's right in God's eyes. In chapter 1, we see the condition of where we get the widows of Naomi and Ruth. A man named Elimelech, he goes to, I believe, in disobedience to the commands of God. He goes off to Moab. His sons marry foreign women. He ends up dying. His sons die. They're left with three widows. Three widows in famine time. It's not a good condition. It's not a good spot to be in. Naomi decides she's going to head back to Israel. The Lord has had mercy on Israel and she heads back home, committed to the Lord. One of her daughter's laws does not follow. One does. And you'll see the first mark of what to be, what to put on. In chapter 1 verse 16, Ruth says, Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also. If anything, but death parts you and me. She is committed to follow Yahweh. She is committed to follow the Lord. This is the first mark that you need to have if you are to put on, if you are to find the one you are to marry. You must put on this. And it's very difficult. You know why? Consider Ruth. She's thinking, I'm going to be dedicated to Yahweh. I'm going to go with Naomi and I'm going to go Naomi to Israel. What is it going to cost her? She's got to forsake her family. She must be willing to be a widow. And childless. She's giving away all the thoughts of Mr. Wright. Naomi says, I have no more sons. My womb is, I have no husband. Even if I were to have a son, then would he be raised up in time for you to marry him? She's got to think through this and decide, am I going to be willing to go husbandless? Am I willing to go childless? And she chooses a better way. She chooses to trust in the sovereign hand of Almighty God. And you must trust in the sovereign hand of Almighty God. He's the one who is the ultimate matchmaker. And you've got to trust His plan. You've got to trust His plan. Every idea of the person you want to be with, you've got to give that to God and commit it to Him. You've got to say the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. You've got to have that attitude when you get married, because one day your spouse or you will die anyway. You must hold it with an open hand and say, I trust the Lord and his plans. That's what she does. That's one of the most important attributes to have in searching for a spouse. There is a, in chapter 2, there is one day, chapter 2 is one day in the life of Ruth and Boaz, and I wish I could take you through every single little detail. I can just begin to start it, and then you have to continue the rest on your own, which is actually a good practice. Once you meet that person you're interested in, then you'll be motivated to do the study. Or once your child gets to be the age where he's interested in another, then you'll be interested to do the study, and then you'll sit him down. And along the ways, and in the cars, and on the highways and the byways, you'll be putting this chapter before them, saying, don't you see the wisdom here? Why aren't you applying this? So let's begin to look at some of the attributes in this story. So Ruth begins, they go to Israel, they go to the town of Bethlehem, and in chapter 2, she begins to get to work. In chapter 2, verse 1, there was a relative of Naomi's husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz. So guys, you see how Boaz is ready to provide? What is one thing that Kyle has to pound away at every young college person that comes along the way? Get a career, get a career, get a career. You gotta provide, you gotta provide, you gotta provide. It's not about whether you have a job, it's whether you have a career to provide for a family. Boaz says that. If you cannot provide, then stop window shopping. Why is it idiotic for like a teenager, you go to high school and then the 14-year-old says, oh, I have a girlfriend, yeah. Okay, little Jimmy, why do you have a girlfriend? Oh, everyone else does. Are you ready to get married, Jimmy? No. Are you ready to drive? No. Do you have a job? No. Then why are you window shopping? It will just create lust. Why are you window shopping? You don't have the money to buy it. So men, do not look for a wife if you cannot provide for one. In verse 2. Something for the ladies. So Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, please let me go down to the field and glean hands of grain after him in whose sight I might find favor. Ladies, what is Naomi doing? She's working hard. She's not going around looking, saying, I'm going to sit at home and wait for Prince Charming to come strolling down on his white horse and come off and lift up the chain mail, you know, the knight's thing and say, oh, I'm here to save you. And she's like, no, no, no. She's not ready to be a princess. She's ready to be a field worker. She's ready to go out into the field. And get her hands in the dirt. and work hard. The job for a godly mother and a godly wife is not the job of a lazy woman. And Ruth gives a great example of that. Follow the principles and the wisdom that you see here. So Naomi says, Go my daughter. That's a good plan. But then she look in verse three. Then she left and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. This is God's version of a joke. This is God's sovereign hand. God's sovereign purpose in matchmaking. She just happened to come to the field of the guy with the rich godly man who was looking for a wife. So, In verse four, now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, the Lord be with you. And they said, the Lord bless you. What do you notice here? The Book of Ruth is a great story and great stories are told really well. In any good story, when you first introduce a new character, the introduction tells something very important about the person. And so it is with Boaz. Why do they record his greeting? He comes up, and they record his greeting. Hi, how are you doing? God be with you. And they know how to respond. They know how he likes to be responded. He's the boss. With a godly boss, God bless you! Right? Even if the guy's lost, and he has a Christian for a boss, he's like, God bless you! And that's how it is here. Because Boaz is a man of God. And it pervades everything he does. It's not a Sunday thing. It's an everyday work thing. And the people who work with you know you. They see either your sin or your virtue, your vice or your righteousness. And these people knew Boaz was a man of God. If you want to have a godly wife, you've got to be a man of God Sunday through Sunday. And then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the Reapers, in verse 5, whose young woman is this? So the servant who was in charge of the Reapers answered and said, it is the young Moabite woman who came back from the image of the country of Moab. So notice something else about Boaz. Every single verse is full of principles you need to apply. He is extremely observant. If you want to be a Godly suitor if you want to be a godly boyfriend if you want to be a godly cordy If you want to be a godly husband, you got to be very very observant Because a godly man is loving in order to be loving you got to know what's loving to the wife You got to observe you got to be a better listener than you are a better talker you got to be better at seeing things than being seen and Boaz was that way And it is not some immoral thing where, oh, look, there's a new woman in the church. Maybe she'll say yes to me. She's attractive. No, no, no, no. When Boaz is observant, look at what he does. He notes the condition that she's in in describing verse seven, that the reapers say she said, please let me glean and gather the reapers among the sheaves. So she came and continued from morning until now, though she rested a little in the house. Boaz goes up to her. And he doesn't ask her for a date. No, he says, will you not listen, my daughter? You will listen, my daughter, will you not? Do not go and green another field. Go from there, but stay close by my young women. Let your eyes be in the field which they reap and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty to go to the vessels and drink with what the young men have drawn? He is very thoughtful, caring and protective. Young ladies, I'm going to let you in on a secret. You want to find the godly guy? Watch and see how they respond to women they're not attracted to. How do they treat those women? How do they treat the old women in the church? How do they treat the little women, the little young girls in the church? That's how you're going to find someone who's really thoughtful and caring. Don't be deceived by a cheap smock. A bag of roses? And some immoral guy who wants to use you and squeeze you out like an orange and throw away the peel? I wish I could take you through the entire book, because in every single sentence, there is something to learn. This is an example that Christ has put before you. And the Bible is chock full of these principles to find a godly spouse. So get into the Word. Pull off the wicked ways that you used to have and trust the sovereign hand of God. Trust him about the timing for your marriage. Trust him about who you will marry. Trust him and give it to him and say, blessed be your name. Pull off all immorality with a passion and a fervor. It will destroy you. The Eskimos, they used to kill wolves in this way. They would take an extra sharp blade and they would make it freezing cold. They would take animal blood and they would freeze layers of blood over the night so they would get thick of animal blood and they would stick it out outside until a wolf came by and the wolf would lick it and lick it and lick it and start to lick it more, lick it more. You know what happens? He starts licking so much And the blade is so sharp, he starts to slice his own tongue until he's drinking his own blood. And he kills himself drinking and killing his own blood. That is what lust will do to you. Put it off and put on the example, the clean, pure, beautiful, Christ-like example in the Scripture. Follow the pattern. Be a Boaz. Be a Ruth. And trust the sovereign hand of God. Lord, I pray that you would lead this congregation to many godly marriages that would be for great fervency, that would lead a wave in an army of Christian soldiers. And that comes from godly marriages. So, Lord, I pray, please give us more godly marriages. Even from the young group, from the college group, from the high school now, raise them up and match them together. Make godly teams for godly service. I pray this for your honor. Amen.