This morning is from Isaiah chapter 42. Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break. and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law. Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and a spirit to those who walk in it. I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and keep you. I will give you as a covenant for the people. A light for the nations to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass, new things I now declare. Before they spring forth, I tell you of them." This beautiful prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ is true, has come true for all who are trusting in him. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, our God, we praise you that you are the creator of heaven and earth, the ruler of the universe, And you have shown us great mercy, covenant mercies, by sending Jesus to be our Savior, calling us out of darkness into your marvelous light. And Lord, it's because of you that we're here this morning, because you have pricked our hearts to want to seek you. And so we do, Lord. And would you be found by us this morning? Would you come and meet with us, please? Lord, we need your help Worship you in a way that is pleasing to you come by your spirit help us to do just that Lord would you cover our highest praise with the blood of Jesus and it's in his name that we pray amen Please turn with me in your hymnals to him 101 Come thou almighty king and stand with me if you're able ♪ Come Thou Almighty King ♪ ♪ Help us Thy name to sing ♪ ♪ Help us to praise ♪ ♪ Father all glorious ♪ ♪ Lord all victorious ♪ ♪ Come and reign over us ♪ ♪ Ancient of days ♪ Come, Thou incarnate Word, gird on Thy mighty sword, our prayer attend. Come, and Thy people bless, and give Thy word success, Spirit of holiness, Holy Comforter. Thy sacred witness bear in this planet. Thou who almighty art, now rule in every heart, and there from us depart, Spirit of ♪ To the great one in three ♪ ♪ Eternal praises be ♪ ♪ In ceremony ♪ ♪ His sovereign majesty ♪ ♪ May we in glory sing ♪ ♪ And to eternity love and praise ♪ Amen. Please remain standing with me if you would, and everyone hopefully has an insert in their bulletin with Matthew chapter 6 verses 9 through 13 on it. And we've been reciting this in unison together, the passage that is known as the Lord's Prayer. So let's recite this again together. Pray then like this, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Please be seated. Let's go to the Lord in prayer again together. Oh Lord, our God, we praise your holy name that you are good and gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. And Lord, we praise you that you've given us this passage of scripture to instruct us how to pray, Lord, to be a template for our prayers. And so, Lord, we praise you that the focus, the phrase that we're focusing on this morning is that we would forgive our debtors as we have been forgiven. Lord, would you please prick our hearts? Lord, thank you for the sermon that we heard last week that was about this very thing. Lord, when we recognize the magnitude of our debt to you, a debt that we could never pay because of our sin. Lord, in the fact that you sent your son to pay that debt in full, we should be grateful. Lord, the fact that we could be forgiven for Christ's sake should amaze us. Lord, your love is so amazing. And it should affect how we think of ourselves and how our relationship is with you and with everyone around us. Lord, would we forgive as you have forgiven us? Lord, would you help us to do that? And please forgive us when we haven't done that. Lord, we confess that we are hard hearted at times, selfish, even maybe proud. Would you have mercy on us and forgive us for these things and help us to repent? Help us to recall the size of our debt in your great mercy through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. And it's in his name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Our assurance of forgiveness this morning is from Isaiah chapter 30, verse 26. Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold as the light of seven days in the day when the Lord binds up the brokenness of his people and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow. So there is hope. There is hope for forgiveness. There is hope for healing. through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Excuse me, please turn with me in your hymnal to hymn 493, and stand with me if you're able. We have not known thee as we ought, 493. Okay. ♪ Unknown thee as we are ♪ ♪ Know thy wisdom, grace, and power ♪ ♪ The things of earth that build our God ♪ ♪ Trifles of the passing hour ♪ ♪ O give us light by truth to see ♪ ♪ And make us wise in knowing Thee ♪ ♪ We have not feared Thee as we are ♪ ♪ Nor bowed beneath Thy law ♪ ♪ Regard it deed and word and thought ♪ ♪ Remembering that God was nigh ♪ ♪ O give us faith to know thee near ♪ ♪ And when the grace of holy faith is near ♪ We have not loved thee as we are, Nor care that we are loved by thee. Thy presence we have coldly sought, And fear we long thy face to see. ♪ Give a pure and loving heart ♪ ♪ To feel and know the love thou art ♪ ♪ We have not served thee as we ought ♪ ♪ Alas, the duties left undone ♪ ♪ The work with little fervor o'er ♪ ♪ The battle's lost for scarcely won ♪ ♪ Lord give the zeal and give the might ♪ ♪ For thee to tour, for thee to guide ♪ ♪ And fear and love and serve are I ♪ ♪ When shall we out of tribe be born ♪ ♪ Be perfect in the land of thine ♪ ♪ Lord may we pray by day, we pray by night ♪ Amen, please be seated. Let's go to the Lord in prayer again together. O Lord our God, We praise you that we can come to you as your little children, and that you hear us as our perfect Heavenly Father. Lord, you already know everything that we would bring to you, and yet you've asked us to bring them to you anyway, and so we do. Lord, we praise you and thank you that You have given us good news, the glorious gospel. You've given us a way to you, a way out of our sin, a way to heaven through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, whom you sent at just the right time to live a perfect life that we could never live. but to die a sinner's death, our death, on that cross as our substitute. Praise be to your name that you didn't stay dead, Lord Jesus, that you conquered sin and death and hell, being raised from the tomb and exalted to your right hand, O Lord, Heavenly Father, ruling over all of creation, even as we pray. Lord, bringing to pass Rowans 828, working all things together for good for those who love you, who are called according to your purpose. Help us to trust you in this, oh Lord. in all things that you're working. Lord, you are always good. Help us to believe that. Lord, we do believe. And with the father in the scriptures that said, help my unbelief, we pray that as well, that you would help us. Oh, Lord. Lord, we thank you and praise you that injury is able to be with us this morning. Thank you for the the blessing on the procedure, and we ask that you would please be with her in her recovery. And Lord, we also pray for Naomi's brothers, Joseph and Micah, who recently had injuries. Please have your healing hand upon them. Thank you for sparing Micah's life, and we ask that you would is healing and recovery. Lord, thank you that we can entrust these things to you. Thank you, Lord, that we can entrust. less severe, but still serious things like Alex's back, even my back, Lord, and Lord, many other physical ailments that we may be going through. Some of them known, some of them not known. We ask that you would undertake for your people, Lord. We pray for those who are not able to be with us. on them, Lord. We pray for Bill as he had to go to his father's today. Please continue to comfort him, he and his sons, and the entire family. Lord, hold on to them and help them to keep trusting in you. Help each one of us, Lord, to be keeping on trusting in you. Would you keep us, Lord? Would you lead us? by the hand. Would you help us to grow in grace and love for you and for one another? Lord, would we learn from the passage today in the sermon what you taught us in the Proverbs, that a soft answer turns away wrath. Lord, would you help us to grow in that? Would you help us to love you more and more with all of our heart and soul and strength in mind to love our neighbor as ourself, to love righteousness more and more, and to hate sin more and more and seek to put it to death. Lord, would you work this in us by the power of your spirit. Lord, please bless our dear pastor, Pastor Thornton, as he gets up to preach your word, would you help him to preach truth to our hearts, and would we receive it by your grace and be changed? Lord, we ask your blessings on the rest of our worship now, in Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. Turn with me in the Old Testament in God's holy word to 1 Samuel chapter 25, and it's a long passage, but I think it's important to read the whole passage here. So, please give careful attention to God's very word. Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Ramah. Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran, and there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich, He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now, the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife, Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved. He was a Calebite. David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. So David sent 10 young men, and David said to the young men, go up to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him in my name. And thus you shall greet him. Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all you have. I hear that you have shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore, let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David." When David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David, and then they waited. And they've all answered David's servants, who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I don't know where? So David's young men turned away and came back and told him all this. And David said to his men, Every man strap on his sword. And every man of them strapped on his sword. And David also strapped on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage. But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them. They were a wall to us, both by night and by day, all the while we were with them, keeping the sheep. Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house. And he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him. Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine, and five sheep already prepared, and five seas of parched grain, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. And she said to her young men, Go on before me, behold, I come after you. But she did not tell her husband Nabal. And as she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her, and she met them. Now David had said, surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, for he has returned me evil for good. God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him. When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground. She fell at his feet and said, On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your ears and hear the words of your servant. Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is with him. But I, your servant, did not see the young men of my Lord, whom you sent. Now then, my Lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, because the Lord has restrained you from blood guilt and from saving with your own hand. Now then, let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my Lord be as Nabal. And now let this present that your servant has brought to my Lord be given to the young men who follow my Lord. Please forgive the trespass of your servant. For the Lord will certainly make my Lord a sure house because my Lord is fighting the battles of the Lord. And evil shall not be found in you so long as you live. If men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the Lord your God. And the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling. And when the Lord has done to my Lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel, my Lord shall have no cause of grief or pains of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my Lord working salvation himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my Lord, then remember your servant. And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me. Blessed be your discretion and blessed be you who have kept me this day from blood guilt and from working salvation with my own hand. For as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me truly by morning, there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.' Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice and I've granted your petition. And Abigail came to Nabal and behold, he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light. In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things and his heart died within him and he became as a stone. And about 10 days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died. When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, blessed be the Lord who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The Lord has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head. Then David sent and spoke to Abigail to take her as his wife. When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife. And she rose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife. David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives. Saul had given Michael his daughter, David's wife, to Palty, the son of Laish, who was of Galilee. Thus ends the reading of God's very word. Amazing passage of scripture that's very instructive, and we look forward to hearing more about that, Pastor. Please turn. with me in your hymnal to hymn 95. Hymn 95, The Troubles of Salus. Stand with me if you're able. Though troubles assail us, and dangers affright, Though friends should all fail us, and foes all unite, Yet one thing secures us, whatever be died, The promise assures us, the Lord will provide. ♪ The birds without water or storehouse are fed ♪ ♪ From them let us learn to trust God for our bed ♪ ♪ This saint's goodness, pity shall ne'er be denied ♪ ♪ So long as tis written, the Lord will provide ♪ The Lord. No strength of our own and no goodness we claim, Yet since we have known of the Savior's great name, In this our strong tower for safety we hide, The Lord is our power, the Lord will Amen. Please be seated. Brother Ben, please come read our New Testament passage for us, brother. Yes, sir. Please turn to 1 Peter. I'll be reading chapter 3, verses 8 through 12. To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead. For you are called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing. Four, the one who desires life to love and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. He must turn away from evil and do good. he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and his ears attend to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. I could preach a sermon on that fourth verse. Though troubles of zealous first 95 that we sang a minute ago. No strength of our own and no goodness we claim. Yet, since we have known of the Savior's great name. In this our strong tower for safety we hide. The Lord is our power. The Lord will provide. And that's exactly what David seems to have forgotten in chapter 25. Because he had just experienced a tremendous victory in not killing Saul when he had the chance. Saul, who had been pursuing him to kill him, and remember, Saul comes into the cave to cover his feet, as it says, I think of the King James. In other words, he had to go potter. And David sneaks up and cuts the corner off his robe to show him, I could have killed you, but I'm not gonna touch the Lord's anointed. Well, now, Nabal just insults David and he's ready to kill him and all his men. What happened? He forgot verse four. He forgot to trust the Lord. No strength of our own. He thought he had strength of his own. He thought, oh, it's okay to kill Navel and his people. No goodness we claim. David was playing, oh, yeah, it would be right for me to kill Navel and his men. And thankfully, Abigail has enough sense to talk him out of it. And she's actually got more faith than he does. She's got faith in the promises of God, if you look at her remarks. But anyway, let's pray. Gracious God, Heavenly Father, teach us from this great account that we have in chapter 25. Teach us to trust you with everything, be it great or small. because we need you. We have no strength. We have no goodness. Lord, you are our everything, but thank you. That as we trust in you, you are sufficient to take care of us and oh how we need you help us. We pray Christ name I'm in. And I apologize. Some of you may have noticed I was cleaning my computer screen while you were singing. I apologize for that, but I asked Melissa for a lens wipe. And I didn't know she was going to open. Those things dry real quick. So I had to use it immediately. And my computer screen, I could see in this light, had fingerprints all over it. And I just wanted it clean. So forgive me for that bad example of multitasking instead of worshiping, as I should have been. Okay, so we're continuing to look at the life of David. And we see that there's all kinds of lessons in there for us. And today is kind of shocking in more ways than one. Because today, you know, as I said a minute ago, controlling himself so well as to not kill Saul, not to take vengeance, to trust the Lord and do the right thing. He's now ready to murder Nabal and his men. Why? Because Nabal's not too nice. And Nabal's not going to feed David and his men. And David, he can't trust God with that. He should have prayed about it. He should have looked to the promises of God and especially the promise that he's going to be king. God's already promised that. But see, David's like us. We get distracted. You know, I was reading this book by Flavel called Keeping the Heart. Oh, how we need to keep our hearts as it says in the book of Proverbs. What happened to our hearts in the fall? Well, Jeremiah the prophet said, our heart is desperately wicked. Who can know it? You may be sitting there, oh, my heart's not wicked. It says it's so deceptive, you can't even know it. You can't even know how wicked your heart is apart from Christ and apart from being born again. But in the introduction to that book, I was amazed at what he said. He said, before we're born again and saved, our heart is our biggest problem. After we're saved, and I'm gonna paraphrase, our heart, the new heart, you know, he removes the heart of stone, gives us a heart of flesh. That new heart is a tremendous blessing, but it's very weak. We see it right here in David. After this tremendous victory of not killing Saul, he's ready to kill Nabal and his men. That quick, just that quick, that's how fast it can happen. That's how bad off that's how much we need Christ and the Holy Spirit. So we sing that him. I need the every hour. I'd say every minute every second. You know, that's why Paul says pray without ceasing. You guys, you know, pray throughout your day. Pray, pray, pray. Pray about your life. Pray about the decisions you have to make. Because our heart is so messed up. without the fullness of the Spirit and knowing the Word of God, that we're very liable to make terrible decisions, terrible judgments. So that's the first mistake that he makes. And I would say the second mistake he makes is even worse in this chapter. What is it? Now this is why I say it may kind of be shocking to you. because he's already married. Now his wife, granted, has been given by her father to another man. That did not dissolve the marriage. Matter of fact, the scripture says that she is still his wife. There's been no divorce. And yet, he not only takes one more wife, He takes two more wives. He's now got three wives. And by the way, he will get McCall back. So it looks like he's going to have three right there in the house or whatever. Now, this is not good. Oh, you chuckle, but you know, there's people think that is good. And you know, we can understand. We can understand, but that doesn't make it right. So we're gonna talk about two things, not taking revenge and not taking more wives, not multiplying wives. Now everybody should pay close attention. If you'd asked me 10 years ago, that's not even an issue, come on. Not even an issue in the United States. I can tell you it's an issue right here in Clarkson. It's an issue around the world. And I can't wait to unpack it for you so that you will understand what a serious matter this is. This is so serious, I hope everybody will listen very carefully because this has the potential to ruin your life. Yeah, it has the potential to ruin your life. Okay, so let's start with revenge. God says, vengeance is mine, I will repay. So, what's he saying? He's saying, look, I'm going to take care of this. You don't need to retaliate. I'll take care of it. Now, that doesn't mean that soldiers don't need to defend the country. They do. That doesn't mean that we don't need to defend our home against an attacker. We do. Or, you know, somebody came up and laid hands on our spouse in public. Yeah, we need to defend them. But these insults like Nabal gives, that's not something we need to take vengeance about. We need to leave that with the Lord. Matter of fact, we're even told in Romans 12 to return good for evil. So if somebody's evil to us, we should return good. And the scripture says it's like putting coals of fire on their head. What does that mean? It gets their attention. It gets their attention. You know, it's it's kind of shocking. Because everybody expects evil for evil, bad for bad. That's that's the expectation. So. There were times when our Lord. Did not retaliate against his enemies. And so he set a good example for us to do that. We need to humble ourselves when we're insulted, when we're offended. Proverbs 30, 32 warns about taking vengeance or any kind of ungodly thought when it says this, if you have been foolish in exalting yourself, or if you have devised evil, which is what revenge is, put your hand to your mouth. What does that mean? Well, it means be quiet. It means don't take matters into your own hands. Now there's more that I wanna get to about that, but I wanna talk about marriage and him taking multiple wives. We need to address this. Marriage is between one man and one woman. This is the teaching of the Bible. Genesis 2.24, this is the permanent teaching of the Bible. Genesis 2.24, which is repeated by Jesus in Matthew, listen to this. From Genesis 2.24, therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh. One man, one woman, one flesh. Not one man and two women. Not two women and one man. One man, one woman. Now also, we need to realize what Jesus said in Matthew 19, five and six. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, singular, and the two shall become one flesh. So then they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. Now when it says what God has joined together, we need to realize that this covenant of marriage has God in it. This one man, one woman marriage is of God and it is a covenant Proverbs 2.17 says, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of the husband and the wife. Genesis 2.18. It is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him." Notice, God didn't say, I'll make him several helpers. In other words, several wives, one wife. I will make him a helper, singular. And in Malachi 2.15, why one? He seeks a godly offspring. When multiple wives are put in to a marriage, or marriage is, whatever it is, polygamy, the offspring is not legitimate. It is not a godly offspring. It is illegitimate. Now, it's clean. The marriage bed is undefiled in God's sight. It is clean. The scripture talks about in 1 Corinthians 7, nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, singular both, and let each woman have her own husband. And 1 Corinthians says, 1 Corinthians 7, 9 says, but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. And so part of the purpose of marriage is to go against sexual immorality. Now the Westminster Confession of Faith and the London Baptist Confession of 1689 are in agreement that marriage is to be between one man and one woman. A man must not have more than one wife, nor a woman more than one husband at the same time. And it quotes Malachi 2.15, Matthew 19, five and six. Now Malachi 2.15, we're going there in a minute. The Westminster Confession of Faith puts it this way. Marriage is to be between one man and one woman. Whether it is lawful, or neither is it lawful, for any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have more than one husband at the same time. Then it quotes Matthew 19, five and six. and Proverbs 2.17 that I've mentioned earlier. Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife, Genesis 2.18. And the Lord God said, it is not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helper compatible to him for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue. What's that mean? Legitimate children. You see, when a man takes more than one wife, the offspring of the second, third, whatever, beyond the first wife is not legitimate according to God. And this is a violation of part of the purpose of marriage that God has brought about. Now, I want us to turn over, as I said, to Malachi chapter two. And Malachi is a prophetic book where God is telling them what they've been doing wrong so they can get it right. Malachi chapter two, beginning in verse 13, God is very blunt and he says, and this is the second thing you do. You cover the altar of the Lord with tears. Excuse me, you cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying. What's that all about? Stay tuned. So he does not regard the offspring anymore. There's that illegitimate offspring. Nor receive it with goodwill from your hands. Yet you say, for what reason? Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth. with whom you have dealt treacherously, yet she is your companion. So he's brought in at least one more wife, and yet he's keeping the first wife. So he's committing adultery with the second, beyond the first, whatever the number is, he's committing adultery, causing the first wife What it was talking about there in verse 13, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying. So the Lord does not regard the offering anymore. You know, it's like it says in Peter. Husbands, love your wives, lest your prayers be hindered. You know, God takes the treatment of a wife so seriously that if we husbands don't treat our wives properly, Our prayers will not be heard. Now. Notice in verse 14 and I repeat, they were saying, well, for what reason? Because the Lord has been witness. Between you and the wife of your youth, now let me say something. The Lord has been witness. One of the ways to fight against temptation of any kind. Is to realize the attributes of God. God doesn't miss a word. God doesn't miss a thought even before there's a word on my tongue. Oh Lord, let us know it. Psalm 139. God knows our steps. Job talked about this too. God knows our steps. You know my watch counts my steps, but so does God and he's more accurate. And he knows where I'm going. And you too. Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife, the wife, singular, of your youth with whom you have dealt treacherously. Treacherously. It's treachery to take another wife. What? Yes. It's treachery to take another wife. Polygamy is treachery. Look, yet she is your companion. He's keeping her there and she's having to suffer through this. Now, one of the great reformers who is known for his wonderful exegesis from Geneva, he said this about women and polygamy. He said, when he talks about keeping the wife whom he is bound, he is yet an adulterer as to the second wife, thus he blends holy and profane, a mixture of holy and profane things. And then to adultery and lust, he adds cruelty. This is cruelty to the first wife, to take another, or to multiply wives, let's put it that way. He holds under his authority a miserable woman who would prefer death to such a condition. And then he says this, for we know the power that jealousy has over women. What is the power that jealousy has? It's a good thing. You know, God is jealous, right? The Bible says God is jealous. He's a jealous God. The fact that women are jealous is a good thing when it comes to marriage. It's a good thing. Now, I'm not talking about the guy that won't let his wife hang clothes on the line in the backyard for fear that somebody would see her. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the proper kind of jealousy. If somebody comes up and starts hitting on my wife, I'm going to intervene. And vice versa. You know what I'm saying? God's jealousy is a holy, good jealousy. It's not some unreasonable, bizarre thing. And women, He says, are jealous, and that's good. Now, I wanna give you some examples from Scripture because here's what's going on. We don't have much of the interaction between David's wives like we do some other people in the Bible, like Jacob. And like Elkanah's two wives in 1 Samuel chapter one. So we're gonna look at some examples here. 1 Samuel 1, 4 to 8. And whenever the time came for Elkanah to make an offering, he would give portions to Peniah, his wife, and to all her sons and daughters, but to Hannah, he would give a double portion for he loved Hannah. Although the Lord had closed her womb. And listen to what the scripture says, her rival also provoked her severely to make her miserable. OK, she was a miserable woman because of this other wife. That's what the Bible says. So it was year by year when she went up to the house of the Lord that she provoked her. This was ongoing every year. These two wives. We're not getting along. Therefore, she wept and did not eat. She was so upset. She wouldn't even eat. And she would cry, cry, cry. Then Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? See, men don't get it. Men don't understand this completely, like a woman does. It's the truth. Why is your heart grieved? Am I not better you than 10 sons? So you didn't even get the point. Okay, so you see the misery there in Elkanah's wives. You see the misery, you see the pain. Now let's move over to another polygamous marriage, Abraham. So God had promised Abraham and Sarah would have a child, and the years were just passing, and they were so old, and it seemed like mission impossible. And so finally Sarah says, look, take my maid, take Hagar, and have a baby with her, and that'll be our baby. So she gives Hagar to Abraham as wife number two. Well, how does that work out? So he went into Hagar and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. So Hagar conceives and all of a sudden she's looking at Sarah with new eyes. She's despising her. Then Sarah said to Abram, my wrong be upon you. I gave my maid into your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judged between me and you." So Sarah's blaming Abraham. Not so sure that was rational either. It was her idea, but he shouldn't have gone along with it. Abram said to Sarah, indeed, your maid is in your hand. Do to her as you please. And when Sarah dealt harshly with her, she fled from his presence. Hostility. So we go from chapter 16 to chapter 21. Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had born to Abraham, scoffing. Therefore she said to Abraham, cast this woman, this bond woman and her son, cast them out. For the son of this bond woman should not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac. So Abraham has to let go of his son here, Ishmael. Polygamy, destructive. The law of marriage is violated when a man seeks for himself many wives. Now in Malachi chapter two here, God compares polygamy to divorce. And polygamy is worse. God hates divorce. There's a place for it sometimes, let's be real. Desertion, adultery. But polygamy is worse than divorce. Let's read on here. Verse 15. But did he not make them one? So he created Adam and Eve and made them one flesh, having a remnant of the Spirit. And why one? It says. Why one? He seeks godly offspring. God is seeking godly offspring. Godly offspring is legitimate offspring between a man and a woman. Therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. So understand now. that in this polygamy here described in Malachi 2, the man was not only committing adultery against his wife, he was keeping his wife there. So she had to suffer through this. And that's why all the weeping and the tears and the crying. Well, you know, marriage is, a wonderful thing. It's an institution that God has set up for the health of the man and the woman. But there's something else to it. And that is that the mystery of marriage is to reflect the church. Christ died for the sins of his people. He changes his people, he forgives, he washes away their sins, he justifies them by faith and gives them the very righteousness of Jesus Christ. And he begins a work of sanctification, making us more like Christ. And then there's gonna be the glorification. Then there's gonna be the marriage supper of the Lamb. He is the bridegroom of the church. And Spurgeon was talking about the Song of Solomon, the book in the Bible about this love between a man and his bride. And he said this, a beautiful love song inspires us like grace, creating within us a desire for its beauty. And it is a beautiful thing. Like such an enchanting love song, Solomon's song inspires a pursuit of the love it portrays. In other words, this book, the Song of Solomon, is to inspire us to have this kind of monogamous love with our spouse. He says, this romantic delight is not a modern fairy tale or fantasy from the past, but reflects God's desire to form within us a pure and devoted love. So God is seeking to work within us a pure and devoted love for most of us in a marriage. I say most of us because somebody might have the gift of being single. But if you don't have the gift of single, God's will for you is marriage, one man, one woman. And he wants to make this into something beautiful that would be a help to both. Spurgeon goes on. We discover that there is a bliss in married love that is reflective of the greater love believers experience as the bride of Christ. See, here's the tremendous responsibility. Our marriages are to reflect the church. the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for his church. It's to reflect that. What a tremendous responsibility. He goes on to say, and I'll repeat the first part, we discover that there is a bliss in married love that is reflective of the greater love believers experience as the bride of Christ. As this book's imagery informs us of a romantic love, it also helps us anticipate the full consummation of our relationship with Christ when he returns for his bride. And remember, Paul said he wanted to present the church spotless to the bridegroom. So we need to pursue holiness. The Canons of Dort, which a Reformed beautiful document says this, the carnal mind is unable to comprehend this doctrine of the perseverance of the saints and the certainty thereof which God has most abundantly revealed in his word for the glory of his name and the consolation of pious souls. by which he impresses upon the hearts of believers. And what he's talking about is Christ, the bridegroom is keeping his bride, the church. He's keeping the church. You know, he's not leaving it up to us. We have a role to play. But. You know, the the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is that God keeps us, you know, there's big talk. Can you lose your salvation? If you're truly a Christian, you can't lose your salvation. You're kept by God. You may fall. You may fall bad. You may make a mess like David did, but you'll repent because he'll give you repentance. You'll want it. Notice it goes on here in Dort, that the bride of Christ has always most tenderly loved and constantly defended it as an inestimable treasure. And God, against whom neither counsel nor strength can prevail, will dispose her so as to continue to the end. Now to this one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be honor and glory forevermore. Amen. And then I'll close with this, Ephesians 5, 25 to 31. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present to her himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife. Now he was speaking in general. Husbands love your wives. All you husbands love your wives. Now he's going to get right down to the individual. He who loves his wife, he singular, wife singular. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. For this reason, a man, singular, shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, singular, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular so love his own wife, singular, as himself, and let the wife, the wife, singular, see to it that she respects her husband, singular, not plural. Now, what about David taking more than one wife, Solomon taking more than one wife? It was sin. In Deuteronomy 17, 17, we read this. Neither shall he, the king, multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away. See, there it is. Deuteronomy 17, 17. A king, even a king, is not to take multiple wives. Not even two. Yet David did it. Solomon did it. Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. How could you even keep up their names? Much less treat them with respect. It's mission impossible. You know, I told you about putting the hand to the mouth. We start having thoughts about. Being polygamous or something like that, we need to put the hand to the mouth. No, stop thinking that way. Jeremiah 3119 says surely after my turning I repented and after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh. I was ashamed. Yes, even humiliated. because I bore the reproach of my youth. You see, youth get these foolish ideas. But this striking oneself on the thigh is like covering the mouth. You know, ooh, what have I thought here? What have I thought? No, no, no, no. Romans 3, 19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped. So you cover the mouth, strike the thigh, stop the mouth, and all the world may become guilty before God because all the world is guilty before God. Listen to Ezekiel 16, two verses, 62 and 63. And I will establish my covenant with you that you shall know that I am the Lord. that you may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore because of your shame when I provided you an atonement for all you've done, says the Lord. In other words, don't be spouting these ideas even in your own heart and mind about such sin, vengeance, polygamy. And then lastly, Job 40 verse four, behold, Job says, I am vile. A healthy attitude, by the way, realizing that our only righteousness is Christ. And that we depend upon him for making us holy and keeping us holy in our experience, in our life, in our marriages. Job says, behold, I am vile. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand over my mouth, Job says. In other words, put these ideas to rest. Don't even think about it. But because of the human heart, we're gonna be tempted But don't get into it because it's a recipe for misery. How many people thought, oh, this is going to be so wonderful. I'm sure David thought, oh, this is going to be so good. I'm sure Jacob. Of course, he was tricked. He got Leah when he wanted her sister and was expecting her sister. And then he's going to work more. But he loved the sister. He didn't love Leah. And Leah was continually upset and miserable. Read about her in Genesis. Oh, she was constantly unhappy. It says in Genesis 29. 30, he also loved Rachel more than Leah. In verse 31, and when the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, And then when she conceived, she said, the Lord has surely looked over my affliction. Now, therefore, my husband will love me. Now he's gonna love me. No. And then she conceived again. She said, now this time my husband will become attracted to me because I have born him three sons. See, her husband's not even attracted to her. Rachel, in chapter 30, envied her sister. Not harmonious. She envied her sister and said to Jacob, give me children or else I die. She was suicidal in this polygamous marriage. Jacob, his anger was aroused, it says in verse two, against Rachel. He said, am I in the place of God who has withheld from you the fruit of the woe? Then she gives him a wife. See, poor Jacob had four wives. Here's my maid, Bilhah, go into her, and she will bear a child on my knees. So she gets pregnant. Now, after that, Rachel said, with great wrestlings, I have wrestled with my sister. And indeed, I have prevailed. So she named the child Naphtali. So Leah, now she's gonna give another wife to Jacob to keep up the competition, to try to get love. And listen to what it said here. She said to her, is it a small matter that you've taken away my husband? You see, these women in these polygamous marriages are not happy. You've taken away my husband, she says. And then, they make an arrangement over these mandrakes. And it was supposed to be Leah's night with Jacob, and her son finds some mandrakes, which are supposed to make you more fertile, by the way. And so when, when Leah's thinking about giving the mandrakes to Rachel for some kind of an arrangement, she says, is it a small matter to you that you've taken away my husband? And would you take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes. So Jacob's gonna sleep with Leah that night, Over the mandrakes, what kind of love is this? Okay, we're gonna end with Genesis 47, verse nine. Genesis 47, verse nine, turn over there and underline it in your Bible, especially if you're young. What'd I say, 47, nine, when Jacob is being introduced to Pharaoh, listen to what he says about his own miserable life. Jacob said to Pharaoh in verse nine, chapter 47, The days of my years and my pilgrimage are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life and have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers and the days of their pilgrimage. In other words, Jacob did not live as long as Abraham or Isaac. Because even though Abraham had a second wife for a while, she was sent off, so he was monogamous again. But Jacob had all these wives for all this time, and he said, my life is short, my days are few, and evil have been the days and years. He was miserable with all this. So there's the case from the Bible. Let's pray. Gracious God, Heavenly Father, preserve us from taking vengeance and from polygamy and all kinds of sexual immorality, which ends up in misery. Lord, you know what's best, yet our hearts need your help all the time. Help us, Lord, in our hearts. Purify us, sanctify us. If we're not yet justified, justify us. and thank you that glory is coming. One day the believer will be glorified and there will be the marriage supper of the lamb and the bridegroom, the Lord Jesus, will come for his church. Thank you in Jesus' name, amen. And so to remind us of our Lord Jesus, we have this supplication. bridegroom of the church he wants a pure bride and he's given us the grace to want to be pure and one of the ways we do that is to remember what he's done for us on the cross to remember that his body was broken for us he loves us so much and he was willing to go to the That's great love. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that you would set apart these ordinary elements for your sacred purposes. For this sacred meal, may we be reminded of the marriage supper of the lamb that's coming that none of us should want to miss. We pray in Christ's name, amen. So in the night in which he had betrayed, he took bread and he broke it. And he said, this is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And so we ask that you examine yourself and that you make sure you're repentant before you partake of this, lest you in judgment to yourself. And then we'll take it and we'll eat of it together. He once said, a body you have prepared for me. That body was prepared to die. He came to this earth to bear our sins. And the scripture says he bore our sins in his body on the tree, on the cross. That's what he was doing. He was perfect, he was sinless. There's so much love there that he's willing to take our sins And if we will just call upon him to save us and to help us turn from our sins, you know, we can never be good enough to get into him. That's not what it's about. It's his grace, his mercy. He's so good. He said, this is my body broken for you to do this in remembrance of me as often as you do it. Let's do it together. After that, he took the cup. He said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. New covenant, where he removes the heart of stone, gives us a soft, tender, powerful, loving heart if we abide in him. Where we can have a monogamous marriage, unless we have the gift of being single, or unless our time is going to be up before We even get married, you know. The scripture says the days that were ordained for you when as yet there was not any of them. We never know. So we need to trust Christ with a new heart whether there's going to be a marriage or not. So let's protect this together also. He said, I will remove the heart of stone, that wicked heart, and give you a heart of flesh. But yet there's remnants of that old sinful nature that we have to wrestle against. The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit lusteth against the flesh, tells us in Galatians 5. So there is war, there is battle that goes on within us. And so we need him every hour. We need to be in the word. We need to be in prayer. We need to be in church. Because Satan is prowling about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he can devour. He's buried in Satan. And so we're grateful for the new heart that he gives. So let's partake of this together. And let's pray. Gracious God, Heavenly Father, you own the cattle on a thousand hillsides. Every good and perfect gift that we have has come from you. Every skill. Every good thing, every good meal we've ever eaten, every breath of our lungs is a gift from you. every minute of life, every heartbeat, a gift from you. May we return to you cheerfully to further your work, the work of the gospel, the work of the gospel right here at this church, in this community and around the world. May we return to you a portion cheerfully for you to use for the furtherance of the gospel, this wonderful gospel that gives us a new heart, a new record, a clean bill, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, a new propensity, a desire to love you and serve you and love other people, a strong, powerful, loving heart that you will maintain for us as we seek you and as you keep us when we wonder Because we are prone to wonder, Lord. Help us, we pray. Bless now and use us for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand and sing the Doctrine and Covenants. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him, above ye heavenly hosts. ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ And now, just remember we have lunch here, and hope everyone can stay. Plenty of food. Now please receive the benediction. And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all both now and forever. Amen.