Latest / End-Time Revival Ministries, USA / Episode 118 - The Married And Unmarried
Transcript
- 0:14Speaker 1: Mine eyes are lifted to the hills from whence comes
- 0:17Speaker 1: my help, My help comes from the Lord. Lord. Again,
- 0:20Speaker 1: we thank you for this glorious, beautiful, wonderful, magnificence, splendid,
- 0:24Speaker 1: marvelous day that you have made and allowed us to
- 0:27Speaker 1: breathe the breath of life to come from you. Thank you,
- 0:30Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you for your many, many, many mercies
- 0:34Speaker 1: new this morning. Thank you for your great faithfulness to us.
- 0:36Speaker 1: Thank you for again allowing us this opportunity to speak
- 0:39Speaker 1: forth your truth with boldness, plainness, clarity. Lord, Let your
- 0:45Speaker 1: word penetrate with deep within our hearts. Lord, that we
- 0:48Speaker 1: might be obedient and found worthy to escape the things
- 0:52Speaker 1: that are coming to past. We want to stand before
- 0:54Speaker 1: you in that day and hear your voice say well done,
- 0:57Speaker 1: good and faithful servant. Bless your name and give you
- 1:00Speaker 1: glory in on all things. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord
- 1:04Speaker 1: and Savior. We pray and give thanks for all. Amen
- 1:07Speaker 1: and amen. All right, We welcome you again to this
- 1:11Speaker 1: another edition of End Time and Revival Ministries USA Podcasts.
- 1:16Speaker 1: For those of you who are listening but by way
- 1:18Speaker 1: of audio, our podcast, of course can be found through
- 1:22Speaker 1: many different outlets. Multiple outlets by simply searching End Time
- 1:27Speaker 1: Revival Ministries USAY podcast and you should be able to
- 1:31Speaker 1: access it again through multiple streams, and of course those
- 1:35Speaker 1: of you who are viewing us by way of our
- 1:37Speaker 1: YouTube channel. Our YouTube channel is at one voice in
- 1:42Speaker 1: the wilderness. That's who we are. Simply a voice in
- 1:46Speaker 1: the wilderness, a man called to a man, declare a
- 1:50Speaker 1: man the truth of God, and proclaim the truth of
- 1:52Speaker 1: God in such a time as this. So we solicit
- 1:55Speaker 1: your prayers and certainly please those of you who are
- 1:59Speaker 1: willing to amen, share the gospel, share this podcast, this
- 2:05Speaker 1: audio podcast, this video YouTube channel with others. Please do so.
- 2:10Speaker 1: And first and foremost, you can also become a subscriber. Amen.
- 2:15Speaker 1: You can yourself become a subscriber and share it with
- 2:18Speaker 1: someone else, and we certainly invite you to do that. Amen. Amen. Amen,
- 2:22Speaker 1: all right, we continue today. We are for those of
- 2:26Speaker 1: you who've been following along with us. We have been
- 2:29Speaker 1: in for the past five six weeks or so, the
- 2:33Speaker 1: first Letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians. The
- 2:36Speaker 1: first Letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians. And
- 2:39Speaker 1: so we continue today. Amen. We're going to be in
- 2:42Speaker 1: chapter number seven, chapter number seven of First Corinthians. And
- 2:48Speaker 1: today we're going to be dealing with two categories of people,
- 2:52Speaker 1: primarily two categories, although we're there, although there are subcategories,
- 3:00Speaker 1: as the Bible speaks of here in this particular chapter,
- 3:03Speaker 1: he deals with a man, the married and the unmarried,
- 3:08Speaker 1: married and unmarried. Amen. And there is a man. First
- 3:17Speaker 1: of all, let's let's make this crystal crystal clear. It
- 3:20Speaker 1: is God who instituted marriage. It is God who ordains marriage.
- 3:24Speaker 1: It is God who honors marriage. The Bible says marriage
- 3:28Speaker 1: is honorable. Amen. And that that is in and out
- 3:32Speaker 1: of the church. You don't have to be saved in
- 3:34Speaker 1: order for God to honor the institution of marriage. God,
- 3:37Speaker 1: a man again ordained it. He performed the first wedding ceremony,
- 3:42Speaker 1: if you will, in the garden of Eden, when he
- 3:44Speaker 1: joined Adam and Eve. And he is the one who
- 3:49Speaker 1: the word again that Jesus repeated when he came Amen
- 3:53Speaker 1: during his ministry. Therefore, shall a man leave his father
- 3:56Speaker 1: and mother and clean to his wife, and the two
- 4:00Speaker 1: shall become one flesh. And so, no matter what happens
- 4:03Speaker 1: in our culture, with our laws, the laws of men,
- 4:07Speaker 1: the laws of the land a man. It is the
- 4:09Speaker 1: law of God that supersedes. It is the law of
- 4:12Speaker 1: God that shall stand Amen. And it is the law
- 4:15Speaker 1: of God that we are to live and govern ourselves by.
- 4:20Speaker 1: And God has definitive commands in his word a man
- 4:24Speaker 1: for both the married and the unmarried a man, and
- 4:28Speaker 1: all people are in one category or the other. Again,
- 4:32Speaker 1: the Apostle Paul in this particular chapter, as we're going
- 4:35Speaker 1: to see, he makes distinctions, for example, between those that
- 4:40Speaker 1: are unmarried, that is, you have those who are divorced,
- 4:46Speaker 1: you have those who are widowed, and you have those
- 4:49Speaker 1: who are virgins. And so again we're going to not
- 4:55Speaker 1: necessarily deal or dive deeply into the distinctives of the unmarried,
- 5:00Speaker 1: because all people fall into one category of the other.
- 5:04Speaker 1: A man, you are either married or unmarried. And so,
- 5:10Speaker 1: as the people of God, we are to govern our
- 5:12Speaker 1: lives again in this world according to the Word of God,
- 5:18Speaker 1: and not according to the laws of man, not according
- 5:21Speaker 1: to the dictates of the culture a man. And keep
- 5:26Speaker 1: in mind that the culture is always contrary, Amen to
- 5:31Speaker 1: the will of God, to the Word of God. And
- 5:33Speaker 1: we are not to a man follow contrary cultures and
- 5:38Speaker 1: permissive Amen. Perversions of men when it comes to Amen,
- 5:44Speaker 1: our obedience. We're not to adopt these practices as the
- 5:49Speaker 1: people of God, Amen, But we again are seeking to
- 5:53Speaker 1: be found pleasing to God, not to man, not to self,
- 5:56Speaker 1: not to our own whims and desires, Amen, and lust
- 6:00Speaker 1: of the flesh. Amen. And the Corinthian Church, of course,
- 6:04Speaker 1: we know the if you look at the history of
- 6:06Speaker 1: the Corinthian Church. We're not going to deve into that
- 6:09Speaker 1: as of this moment, but of course we know it
- 6:11Speaker 1: was steep in all kinds of immorality. Let's just put
- 6:16Speaker 1: it that way. It's a bald spectrum of wickedness that
- 6:20Speaker 1: was inside of that city and surrounding that city. And
- 6:27Speaker 1: sexual immorality certainly was one of the chief a man
- 6:33Speaker 1: sins and licnsiousness, if you will, that was pervasive in
- 6:37Speaker 1: that particular culture, in that particular city, and the Corinthian people,
- 6:44Speaker 1: the newly saved for the most part of Corinthian believers
- 6:48Speaker 1: who were in the church, they had some questions of
- 6:52Speaker 1: the Apostle Paul that related to some of these issues,
- 6:56Speaker 1: primarily as it related to marriage, divorce, and again sexuality
- 7:06Speaker 1: and things of that nature. So he addresses these concerns
- 7:10Speaker 1: here in chapter number seven a man. And uh, it's
- 7:14Speaker 1: quite extensive, I mean, and much of what he a
- 7:17Speaker 1: man writes to the church has already been set forth
- 7:21Speaker 1: and clear in the scriptures, much of which again even
- 7:27Speaker 1: Jesus himself, of course addressed some of this a man.
- 7:31Speaker 1: But we're going to see here in chapter number seven
- 7:33Speaker 1: where the apostle Paul answers some of their questions and
- 7:37Speaker 1: concerns a man about some of these issues that arose
- 7:42Speaker 1: in that particular culture. Now, of course, they were gentiles,
- 7:47Speaker 1: and they were for the most part, as the Bible says,
- 7:50Speaker 1: they were left to their own devices. And even though
- 7:54Speaker 1: they were not under the law of Moses as it were,
- 7:57Speaker 1: they still knew. Every man knows, and I repeat it
- 8:00Speaker 1: over and over again. We have no excuse when it
- 8:04Speaker 1: comes to the law of God, because it is written
- 8:06Speaker 1: in our hearts. And as far back as Genesis a
- 8:10Speaker 1: man it was known, it was understood that it was
- 8:13Speaker 1: wrong to, for example, take another man's wife, it was
- 8:16Speaker 1: wrong to commit adultery a man. It was sinful, it
- 8:20Speaker 1: was evil. And so that's not something that Amen, we
- 8:25Speaker 1: need to be in the church to understand, and we
- 8:29Speaker 1: understand commitment. We understand the institution of marriage, whether we're
- 8:34Speaker 1: in the church out of the church. We understand what
- 8:37Speaker 1: it means to be faithful. We understand these things. And
- 8:40Speaker 1: so what the Apostle Paul addresses here, even though they
- 8:43Speaker 1: had some concerns legitimate by the way concerns a man,
- 8:48Speaker 1: we are never to be excused and conplead ignorance when
- 8:53Speaker 1: it comes to a man the law of God. And
- 8:58Speaker 1: again all of the response of the Apostle Paul is
- 9:01Speaker 1: to husbands and wives be engaged, those who were betrothed,
- 9:09Speaker 1: as it were, the widows divorced people, as well as singles.
- 9:15Speaker 1: But they one or the other category of married or unmarried.
- 9:21Speaker 1: Husbands and wives. If you're a husband, you are married,
- 9:23Speaker 1: If your wife you are married. If you are divorced,
- 9:26Speaker 1: you are unmarried. At least I'm not even getting to
- 9:30Speaker 1: the technicalities of that. But singles a man, wittles, virgins
- 9:36Speaker 1: a man fit into the category of the unmarried. And
- 9:41Speaker 1: again the Apostle gives clear instructions commands as to how
- 9:49Speaker 1: we are to conduct ourselves, however we find ourselves. And
- 9:54Speaker 1: let's begin, of course, in verse number one of First Corinthians,
- 9:59Speaker 1: Chapter number so if you have your Bibles, please follow
- 10:02Speaker 1: along with us a man. And again, I'm not gonna
- 10:05Speaker 1: I'm gonna try not to take a whole lot of
- 10:08Speaker 1: time on much of this, because it is crystal clear,
- 10:11Speaker 1: I believe doesn't need a lot of explanation, if you will,
- 10:17Speaker 1: because I believe again in answering these questions, these concerns
- 10:21Speaker 1: that the church had, I think I believe that the
- 10:24Speaker 1: language that the apostle use a man is crystal clear
- 10:28Speaker 1: and again well to be understood a man for those
- 10:33Speaker 1: who have listening ears and who want to have a
- 10:36Speaker 1: desire to be obedient a man to the word of God.
- 10:39Speaker 1: Listen what he says verse number one. Now, concerning the
- 10:42Speaker 1: things of which you wrote to me, it is good
- 10:46Speaker 1: for a man not to touch a woman. Now this
- 10:49Speaker 1: has everything to do with sexual immorality, fornication. Let's just
- 10:54Speaker 1: call it what it is, a man. And because it's
- 10:58Speaker 1: it's it's it's sinful. It is a sin all. Let
- 11:05Speaker 1: me let me and let me lay this down lest
- 11:08Speaker 1: I forget to say it. Let me say it right here.
- 11:10Speaker 1: From the outset, all sexual all sexual activity outside of
- 11:17Speaker 1: the God ordained marriage institution between a man and a woman.
- 11:26Speaker 1: One who is born a man, one who is born
- 11:29Speaker 1: a woman. All sexual activity outside of that God ordained institution.
- 11:36Speaker 1: And again, you don't have to be in the church.
- 11:37Speaker 1: You don't have to be married by priests, or married
- 11:39Speaker 1: by a bishop, or married by a man, a church official,
- 11:44Speaker 1: a man in order for the marriage to be sanctioned,
- 11:47Speaker 1: as long as it is a man uh uh sanctioned
- 11:52Speaker 1: by the state, or it was done in an in
- 11:55Speaker 1: a in a fashion in which Howard the again the
- 11:58Speaker 1: ceremonial carrying out of choice. In the sight of God,
- 12:06Speaker 1: you are married, and God honors marriage. He ordained marriage.
- 12:13Speaker 1: And that's the marriage that we were, what the Bible
- 12:17Speaker 1: is speaking of, and anything else outside of that is
- 12:20Speaker 1: not marriage. And if you're living together a man and
- 12:25Speaker 1: I don't care what the state says, I don't care
- 12:27Speaker 1: what the government says. I don't care if the laws
- 12:28Speaker 1: of the land say about common law marriage. We a man.
- 12:34Speaker 1: The meaning of marriage and what the Bible has to
- 12:37Speaker 1: say about marriage. You're not married. You're not married in
- 12:39Speaker 1: the eyes of God. You are committing fornication. And the
- 12:42Speaker 1: Bible says it's not good for a man to touch
- 12:44Speaker 1: a woman. He's speaking of the act of fornication, that
- 12:49Speaker 1: is sexual relation outside of marriage. It is a sin,
- 12:54Speaker 1: and God does not honor it in any way. And
- 12:58Speaker 1: so any who are living in that particular lifestyle is
- 13:03Speaker 1: under condemnation, Amen, and need any and evor of repentance.
- 13:08Speaker 1: A man repent, God will forgive all manner of sin. Amen.
- 13:12Speaker 1: The Bible says God will forgive a man. And so
- 13:17Speaker 1: except for, of course, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, you
- 13:20Speaker 1: can never be forgiven that. But Jesus made it crystal
- 13:23Speaker 1: clear that all types of sin, all manner of sin
- 13:27Speaker 1: a man, we can be forgiven of, but we must repent.
- 13:32Speaker 1: Repentance means turning away from it a man and turning
- 13:37Speaker 1: to the Lord, Amen, who is our health. It's good
- 13:40Speaker 1: for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, because
- 13:42Speaker 1: of sexual immorality. The apostle Paul makes it crystal clear here,
- 13:46Speaker 1: because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own
- 13:51Speaker 1: wife and each woman have her own husband. Is that
- 13:56Speaker 1: not crystal clear? I don't need to elaborate on that.
- 13:59Speaker 1: You are to have your own wife, and the wife
- 14:04Speaker 1: is to have her woman is to have her own husband.
- 14:08Speaker 1: There is to be no sexual immorality outside because that's
- 14:14Speaker 1: what it is anything outside of the confines of the
- 14:19Speaker 1: marital institution that God ordain is sin period. Amen. So
- 14:25Speaker 1: let the husband listen to what he says. He's speaking
- 14:27Speaker 1: to the husbands and wives here. Let the husband, those
- 14:31Speaker 1: of us who are married, render to the wife the
- 14:35Speaker 1: affection do her, and likewise also the wife to her husband.
- 14:40Speaker 1: The wife does not have authority over her own body,
- 14:44Speaker 1: but the husband does. And likewise, the husband does not
- 14:48Speaker 1: have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
- 14:51Speaker 1: In other words, what apostle Paul says, you don't have
- 14:53Speaker 1: the authority to shut it down. He's talking about again,
- 14:57Speaker 1: the sexual relationship that God ordained, that God approves again
- 15:05Speaker 1: inside of the confines of marriage. We are not to
- 15:10Speaker 1: withhold a man from each other. We're not to abstained
- 15:15Speaker 1: deliberately except for these particular instances. And we're not talking
- 15:19Speaker 1: about when there's sickness, when there's you know, and there's
- 15:22Speaker 1: going to be cases. We all who are married and
- 15:24Speaker 1: have been married for any length of time, we understand
- 15:27Speaker 1: there are going to be circumstances situations when you know,
- 15:32Speaker 1: sexual activity is going to be restricted or with hell
- 15:39Speaker 1: for season. But it is not to be something that
- 15:42Speaker 1: is done on purpose, something to punish the other person,
- 15:46Speaker 1: and that kind of thing. Because you don't have authority
- 15:49Speaker 1: over your body. The Apostle Paul says, when you enter
- 15:52Speaker 1: into this covenant of marriage, so he says in verse five,
- 15:55Speaker 1: making it crystal clear, do not deprive one another. Ex
- 16:01Speaker 1: here's the exception with consent unless you have permission from
- 16:06Speaker 1: the other person. Again, you don't have power of your body. Amen,
- 16:11Speaker 1: your husband or your wife does. So do not deprive
- 16:15Speaker 1: your husband or your wife, except Apostle Paul says, it
- 16:18Speaker 1: is with consent for a time that you may give
- 16:22Speaker 1: yourselves to fasting and prayer. So the times when we
- 16:26Speaker 1: are consecrating ourselves as it were a man, and in
- 16:30Speaker 1: a season of prayer and fast and and don't tell
- 16:33Speaker 1: me you've been fasting for one hundred and eighty days, Lord,
- 16:36Speaker 1: have mercy, Come on now six months, you've been fasting,
- 16:40Speaker 1: two years, you've been fasting. No, that you may give
- 16:44Speaker 1: yourselves to fasting and prayer and come together again. What
- 16:49Speaker 1: are you talking about? The union coming together again? The
- 16:51Speaker 1: husband and wife sexual activity that's making come together again,
- 16:57Speaker 1: So that Satan does not tempt you because of your
- 17:01Speaker 1: lack of self control. A man and this certainly can happen,
- 17:05Speaker 1: and it does happen inside marriages. And again it is
- 17:08Speaker 1: not an excuse for a for an adulterous affair. It
- 17:11Speaker 1: is not an excuse to go outside of the marriage. Uh.
- 17:15Speaker 1: There are lots of things that are gonna happen in marriage,
- 17:19Speaker 1: in the marriage life and the marriage covenant. They're gonna
- 17:21Speaker 1: be testing, that are gonna be tempting, that are gonna
- 17:24Speaker 1: be a man, you know, uh arduous if you will
- 17:31Speaker 1: a strain on the marriage but does not give license,
- 17:34Speaker 1: It does not give permission. And you're not excused a
- 17:37Speaker 1: man to step outside of the marriage bond a man
- 17:41Speaker 1: simply because a man there is some friction or tension
- 17:45Speaker 1: or problem that needs to be a man uh solved
- 17:52Speaker 1: or worked out. So the Aposto says, we are not
- 17:56Speaker 1: to deprive one another except for permission a man for
- 18:02Speaker 1: a time a man, when we give ourselves to fascinating prayer.
- 18:07Speaker 1: And then afterwards, of course again we are to come
- 18:10Speaker 1: together again so that we are not tempted because of
- 18:13Speaker 1: our lack of self control. But I say this as
- 18:15Speaker 1: a concession, not as commandment. Fall said, for I wish
- 18:19Speaker 1: that all men were even as eye myself, and he's
- 18:21Speaker 1: speaking of him, Paul himself at that time, being unmarried.
- 18:25Speaker 1: He was perhaps many believe he was a widow wer
- 18:31Speaker 1: he had he had his wife, perhaps was deceased. And
- 18:35Speaker 1: so he said, I wish that all men were even
- 18:37Speaker 1: as I myself. But each one has his own gift
- 18:39Speaker 1: from God, one in this manner and another in that.
- 18:44Speaker 1: Now let's go down to verse number eight, because he
- 18:46Speaker 1: now addresses those who are unmarried to those who are unmarried.
- 18:53Speaker 1: But I say to the unmarried verse number eight, and
- 18:57Speaker 1: to the widows. Now he makes a distinction again because
- 19:00Speaker 1: widows are a women who have lost their husbands. They
- 19:03Speaker 1: have been married before. Amen. But there are those who
- 19:08Speaker 1: are unmarried, single men and single women. Now again, we
- 19:12Speaker 1: have just again commoluded. And I had a discussion with
- 19:16Speaker 1: some people about this before using the term single and
- 19:20Speaker 1: using the term married, and we use the term single.
- 19:24Speaker 1: I'm not single if we're in a dating relationship, No,
- 19:27Speaker 1: you're not married. You are still single. People say, I'm
- 19:31Speaker 1: you know, they consider themselves not to be single because
- 19:35Speaker 1: they even if you are engaged, until you enter into
- 19:41Speaker 1: the covenant, until you take the vow, you are still single.
- 19:45Speaker 1: You're not married. A man. You're not married until a man, Amen.
- 19:49Speaker 1: The covenant relationship is entered into legally, lawfully, Amen. And
- 19:56Speaker 1: so you are up until that point in time married.
- 20:01Speaker 1: I don't care what people are saying in the culture.
- 20:03Speaker 1: I got a boyfriend, I got a girlfriend. I'm not single.
- 20:06Speaker 1: You are single. You are single, you are unmarried. If
- 20:10Speaker 1: you are unmarried, you are single. Amen. So Paul here
- 20:16Speaker 1: is addressing the unmarried. He's addressing the widows. And listen
- 20:20Speaker 1: what he says. It is good for them if they
- 20:23Speaker 1: remain even as I. Paul is giving good advice for
- 20:30Speaker 1: you to remain unmarried, just as he But again he's again,
- 20:36Speaker 1: he's not saying and he's not speaking against marriage again.
- 20:41Speaker 1: And he's gonna crystal clear that up, of course, make
- 20:43Speaker 1: that crystal clear, Rubb. And the next verse partially, he's
- 20:49Speaker 1: gonna make part of that clear. He says. Listen what
- 20:51Speaker 1: he says. He said, it's good for you if you
- 20:54Speaker 1: can remain unmarried, if you can abstain, if you can
- 20:59Speaker 1: control oh yourself, amen, if you can give yourself to
- 21:02Speaker 1: the Lord. He's gonna speak about all of that. But
- 21:04Speaker 1: he says in verse number nine, but if they cannot
- 21:08Speaker 1: exercise self control, let them marry if you cannot. Now again,
- 21:14Speaker 1: you don't get married just for sex, ladies and gentlemen,
- 21:19Speaker 1: Church of the Living God. You don't get married just
- 21:21Speaker 1: because you're burning and your lust and your desires. Because
- 21:24Speaker 1: if you do it for that reason alone, you're not
- 21:28Speaker 1: gonna You're not gonna make I can almost promise you
- 21:31Speaker 1: you will not make it in marriage. If you are
- 21:34Speaker 1: marrying simply, amen, for the reason of fulfilling your sexual desires,
- 21:40Speaker 1: it's not gonna it's not gonna work. It's not gonna work.
- 21:43Speaker 1: It's not gonna work. Amen. All right, So this is
- 21:46Speaker 1: what he says. Uh uh if if let me let
- 21:51Speaker 1: me clarify that, if that remains your mindset, if that's
- 21:55Speaker 1: the only drive that you have, that's the only purpose
- 21:58Speaker 1: you have in marriage, I don't believe your marriage is
- 22:02Speaker 1: gonna work. But again, God is able a man to
- 22:06Speaker 1: a man bring about maturity and change in any and
- 22:09Speaker 1: all of our lives. And Paul makes it clears you
- 22:13Speaker 1: cannot exercise self control married. It is better to marry
- 22:19Speaker 1: than to burn with passion. That's verse number nine, Verse
- 22:22Speaker 1: number ten. He now addresses those who are married down
- 22:26Speaker 1: to the married I command yet not I, but the
- 22:30Speaker 1: Lord a wife. Listen. What he says is not to
- 22:32Speaker 1: depart from a husband, no divorce. But even if she
- 22:38Speaker 1: does depart, let her remain unmarried. If you choose to
- 22:45Speaker 1: divorce as a Christian, as a child of God. Paul
- 22:49Speaker 1: makes it clear here. If you choose to divorce, you
- 22:53Speaker 1: are to remain unmarried or be reconciled. Listen what he
- 22:57Speaker 1: says to her husband, and a husband is not to
- 23:01Speaker 1: divorce his wife. I don't think that needs any additional clarification.
- 23:07Speaker 1: It is crystal clear. If you're married, stay married, if
- 23:11Speaker 1: you divorce, stay unmarried. You are to remain unmarried if
- 23:16Speaker 1: you choose to divorce, if you choose to leave your husband,
- 23:20Speaker 1: if you choose to leave your wife, you are to
- 23:22Speaker 1: remain unmarried. Both of you, by the way, both husbands.
- 23:29Speaker 1: Well you say, listen, I'm not gonna get in taller.
- 23:31Speaker 1: No the nuances, because people always have want nuances and
- 23:35Speaker 1: looking for loopholes. But I think the Bible is crystal clear.
- 23:38Speaker 1: I think the word of God is crystal clear. Here
- 23:41Speaker 1: and listen what he says. You now speak to those
- 23:43Speaker 1: who are unequally yoked. But I say to the rest
- 23:47Speaker 1: not rest, Let me start again verse twelve. But to
- 23:51Speaker 1: the rest, I not the Lord, say, if any brother
- 23:55Speaker 1: has a wife who does not believe, and she is
- 23:59Speaker 1: willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. Evidently,
- 24:03Speaker 1: again in the church, in the Corinthian Church, there were
- 24:05Speaker 1: some who were perhaps thinking of their marriage. For example,
- 24:13Speaker 1: the husband came into the church, the wife is not,
- 24:15Speaker 1: or the wife came into the church and the husband
- 24:17Speaker 1: is not. So you have one partner that is now
- 24:20Speaker 1: saved and the other one is not. One is a believer,
- 24:24Speaker 1: the other is a non believer. And so they evidently
- 24:29Speaker 1: had questions concerning this, and perhaps were seeking guidance and
- 24:34Speaker 1: or permission to divorce, to see if it was okay
- 24:37Speaker 1: to divorce their spouse a man because they were unbelievers.
- 24:44Speaker 1: And the apostle Paul is now addressing that particular situation.
- 24:49Speaker 1: So she says, to the rest, I not the Lord, say,
- 24:52Speaker 1: if any brother has a wife who does not believe,
- 24:56Speaker 1: and she is willing to live with him, let him
- 25:00Speaker 1: not divorce her. And a woman who has a husband
- 25:05Speaker 1: who does not believe, if he is willing to live
- 25:09Speaker 1: with her, let her not divorce him. In other words,
- 25:13Speaker 1: again I don't. I don't know how we can be
- 25:16Speaker 1: said any clearer than that. If you are married to
- 25:19Speaker 1: an unbeliever, now, let's I get to that. I'll get
- 25:26Speaker 1: to that in just a few minutes. If you were saved,
- 25:29Speaker 1: If you are saved, your husband is not saved. If
- 25:32Speaker 1: you're saved, your wife is not saved. Your husband or
- 25:36Speaker 1: your wife is just fine with the relationship. Amen. And
- 25:41Speaker 1: they're not seeking to depart from you, not seeking a divorce, amen.
- 25:46Speaker 1: But they're just not saved. Amen. The apostle Paul says here,
- 25:50Speaker 1: you are not to put them away. You are not
- 25:53Speaker 1: to divorce them for to say, oh, I'm going to
- 25:56Speaker 1: find somebody in the church. I'm going to marry somebody. No,
- 25:59Speaker 1: you do not have permission to leave your husband, to
- 26:04Speaker 1: leave your wife if they are willing to remain in
- 26:09Speaker 1: the marriage and do not. I know how sinister the
- 26:12Speaker 1: mind of man is. I know how wicked and evil
- 26:15Speaker 1: thoughts can come in our minds. I understand it. I
- 26:19Speaker 1: know it. Why do I know it? Else? I'm human?
- 26:24Speaker 1: And so there are those who would then seek to
- 26:26Speaker 1: provoke their spouse, provoke their unsaved husband or wife, as
- 26:32Speaker 1: it were, and man to the point of them them
- 26:36Speaker 1: seeking a divorce. Amen, that's evil, that's wickedness, just so
- 26:41Speaker 1: you can get out of the marriage. No, no, no no,
- 26:45Speaker 1: And people, I'm not I'm not gonna even go there.
- 26:49Speaker 1: We know it's true, we know it's true. So Paul says,
- 26:52Speaker 1: don't do it for their unbelieving husband is sanctivid by
- 26:55Speaker 1: the wife. An unbelieving wife is sanctivived by the husband.
- 26:58Speaker 1: He's not talking about them being saved. He's talking about
- 27:00Speaker 1: the cleansing. In the eyes of God, a man the
- 27:04Speaker 1: marriage is covered because of one of the persons in
- 27:07Speaker 1: the house being a man saved. The blessings of God
- 27:11Speaker 1: comes just as it were. For example, when Joseph was
- 27:14Speaker 1: in Potiphar's house, blessings came upon the whole house of
- 27:18Speaker 1: Potiphar simply because of the presence of Joseph and because
- 27:21Speaker 1: of the presence of the Holy Spirit inside of one
- 27:24Speaker 1: of those uh in the in the marriage covenant a man,
- 27:30Speaker 1: the blessings of God can come and cover the other
- 27:33Speaker 1: person as well. And we should be by the way praying.
- 27:37Speaker 1: If you are in that situation, you should be praying
- 27:39Speaker 1: for your wife. You should you should be praying in
- 27:42Speaker 1: aceding for your husband a man, and so that Paul
- 27:46Speaker 1: Paul makes a career clear here in this particular situation,
- 27:49Speaker 1: that the unbelievable husband sanctified because of the wife. The
- 27:53Speaker 1: unbelieving wife is sanctified because of the husband that is saved. Otherwise,
- 27:57Speaker 1: Paul says, your children, your children who are in this
- 28:00Speaker 1: a man covenant relationship, who have come from this covenant relationship. Brother,
- 28:06Speaker 1: they would be unclean, but now he says, they are holy.
- 28:08Speaker 1: In other words, they too are covered a man because
- 28:12Speaker 1: of that one saved individual in that a man household.
- 28:18Speaker 1: But if the unbelievable departs, here's the only a man exception.
- 28:24Speaker 1: If the unbeliever departs, if it is their choice, not
- 28:32Speaker 1: that you have driven them away, you've made it so
- 28:35Speaker 1: unbearable for them to live there, no, no, no, If
- 28:40Speaker 1: they decide of their own free will, not of your
- 28:45Speaker 1: coercion or manipulation or anything of the sort. A man,
- 28:49Speaker 1: if they depart, the Bible says, let him depart. A
- 28:53Speaker 1: brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases,
- 29:00Speaker 1: God has called us to peace. But how do you
- 29:02Speaker 1: know a wife whether you will save your husband, or
- 29:04Speaker 1: how do you know a husband whether you will save
- 29:07Speaker 1: your wife. Amen. We are to follow peace. I mean
- 29:12Speaker 1: the Bible that has so many admonitions for us, So
- 29:15Speaker 1: let's not try to look for loopholes and ways out. Amen.
- 29:19Speaker 1: We all to follow peace with all men. That includes
- 29:22Speaker 1: an unsaved husband, unsaved wife. Amen. And it may be
- 29:27Speaker 1: a man that you buy. Amen, your conduct, by your godliness,
- 29:32Speaker 1: by your prayers, by your interceding, bring a man, the
- 29:36Speaker 1: unsaved person into a man that covenant relationship with the
- 29:41Speaker 1: Lord make the marriage all the more beautiful. So if
- 29:44Speaker 1: they desire to be there, do not drive them away,
- 29:47Speaker 1: do not divorce them. Amen. All right, let's skip down
- 29:51Speaker 1: to verse number twenty five, because now the apostle Paul
- 29:56Speaker 1: here can address his virgins. Amen. And the these are
- 30:00Speaker 1: those who This is a different kind of a culture
- 30:02Speaker 1: in the sense because in that culture you had fathers.
- 30:06Speaker 1: He's speaking in essence to the fathers who a man
- 30:11Speaker 1: who had virgin daughters, and they would betrothed, you know,
- 30:14Speaker 1: arrange marriages. In essence, in some cases they would commit
- 30:18Speaker 1: their man virgin daughters either to marriage or to remain
- 30:24Speaker 1: celibate in a state of being unmarried. So this is
- 30:29Speaker 1: what the apostle is addressing here in these next few verses,
- 30:33Speaker 1: verse twenty five. Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment
- 30:37Speaker 1: from the Lord. Yet I, he says, give judgment is
- 30:40Speaker 1: one whom the Lord, and this mercy has made trustworthy.
- 30:43Speaker 1: I suppose therefore that this is good, because of the
- 30:46Speaker 1: present distress, that it is good for a man to
- 30:48Speaker 1: remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife,
- 30:53Speaker 1: do not seek to be loosed. That's married people, whether
- 31:00Speaker 1: again in the church out of the church, whether you
- 31:05Speaker 1: have an unsaved husband or wife, do not seek to
- 31:12Speaker 1: a man be divorced. Don't seek divorced. Don't look for divorce.
- 31:16Speaker 1: Don't look to become unmarried. If you will amen, If
- 31:23Speaker 1: you are bound to a wife, he says, do not
- 31:25Speaker 1: seek to be loose. In other words, do not seek
- 31:27Speaker 1: a divorce. Are you loose from a wife, do not
- 31:31Speaker 1: seek a wife if you've been a man freed. And
- 31:36Speaker 1: in that case, of course, we're talking in terms of
- 31:41Speaker 1: there's only two ways to be free and and and
- 31:44Speaker 1: that is to be divorced. That is to be a
- 31:47Speaker 1: man widowed or widow wer And Paul is given advice here.
- 31:54Speaker 1: If you are loosed a man from your wife by
- 31:58Speaker 1: way of divorce, by of death, do not seek a
- 32:02Speaker 1: man a wife. But even if you do marry, and
- 32:06Speaker 1: as then again this has only there's only specific cases
- 32:11Speaker 1: and instances exceptions, if you will where you can remarry.
- 32:16Speaker 1: And again he's gonna make it crystal clear. Amen, for
- 32:19Speaker 1: those of us who are loophole seekers a man, even
- 32:24Speaker 1: if you do marry, you have not sinned. And if
- 32:26Speaker 1: a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Nevertheless, such will
- 32:31Speaker 1: have trouble in the flesh. But I would spare you.
- 32:35Speaker 1: But this I say, brother, in the time is short,
- 32:37Speaker 1: so that from now on even those who have wives
- 32:40Speaker 1: should be as though they have none or had none.
- 32:43Speaker 1: In other words, Paul's not again, he's not talking about
- 32:46Speaker 1: don't go around acting as if you're not married. He's
- 32:48Speaker 1: talking about having a perspective on time. Your life is
- 32:52Speaker 1: but a vapor. You only have a season of life
- 32:55Speaker 1: here and and so he's he's giving examples of how
- 32:59Speaker 1: we should conduct ourselves in relativity to the short time
- 33:04Speaker 1: that we have on this earth. So he says, the
- 33:07Speaker 1: time is short. Amen. Those who weep as though they
- 33:11Speaker 1: did not weak, those who rejoice as though they did
- 33:13Speaker 1: not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not
- 33:15Speaker 1: possess and those who use this world as not misusing it,
- 33:20Speaker 1: for the form of this world is passing away. But
- 33:22Speaker 1: I want you to be, he says, without care. He
- 33:25Speaker 1: who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord,
- 33:28Speaker 1: how he may please the Lord. All help us there, Jesus.
- 33:35Speaker 1: Those who are unmarried should be carrying the Church saints.
- 33:41Speaker 1: Your care. Your primary concern one to whom you should
- 33:44Speaker 1: be seeking, amen, to be pleasing to, is the Lord.
- 33:49Speaker 1: If you are unmarried, your affection, your desire, your aim,
- 33:55Speaker 1: your goal, your passions, Amen, should all be dedicated to
- 33:59Speaker 1: pleasing the Lord. Amen, I want you to be without care.
- 34:02Speaker 1: He who is unmarried cares for the things of the
- 34:05Speaker 1: Lord how he may please the Lord. But he who
- 34:09Speaker 1: is married cares for the things of the world, how
- 34:11Speaker 1: he may please his wife. Now Paul is not again
- 34:14Speaker 1: speaking of the married people being worldly and the unmarried
- 34:19Speaker 1: people being all godly and sanctimonious. He's not saying that.
- 34:23Speaker 1: He's simply saying that you have the time, you have
- 34:26Speaker 1: the affection you have yourself only as an unmarried person,
- 34:31Speaker 1: a man to care about, to pay attention to, and
- 34:34Speaker 1: to dedicate your time and affection to. You don't have
- 34:37Speaker 1: to worry about, amen, all of the things that and again,
- 34:40Speaker 1: those of you who have married, you understand this. You
- 34:42Speaker 1: know this, the things that you have to do a
- 34:45Speaker 1: man in marriage, a man to attend to one another,
- 34:48Speaker 1: a man to placate one another, if you will, amen.
- 34:53Speaker 1: And that's a part of the marriage. I mean amen,
- 34:56Speaker 1: it's a part of the marriage. It's a beautiful thing.
- 34:58Speaker 1: It's a wonderful thing, Amen, Goddard. Again, God ordained it.
- 35:03Speaker 1: I've been married for decades and uh and to one
- 35:07Speaker 1: wife and and uh. And it's a beautiful institution. And
- 35:11Speaker 1: again there they are always going to be challenges and
- 35:15Speaker 1: you know, problems and situations, and and we have to
- 35:18Speaker 1: pay attention to one another and seek to please one
- 35:21Speaker 1: another in the confines, in the a man covenant of marriage,
- 35:27Speaker 1: in the marriage relationship. But when you are single, this
- 35:29Speaker 1: is all they're also saying here, you don't have that.
- 35:32Speaker 1: You don't have that. Amen. And he says also in
- 35:36Speaker 1: verse thirty four, there is a difference between a wife
- 35:39Speaker 1: and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares about the things
- 35:43Speaker 1: of the Lord, that she may be wholly both in
- 35:46Speaker 1: body and in spirit, Old God help us there. But
- 35:49Speaker 1: she who is married cares about the things of the world,
- 35:52Speaker 1: how she may please her husband. Amen. And this I
- 35:58Speaker 1: say for your own prophet, not that I may put
- 36:00Speaker 1: a leash on you, but for that, but for what
- 36:04Speaker 1: is proper rather, and that you may serve the Lord
- 36:07Speaker 1: without distraction. In other words, again, when you are unmarried,
- 36:11Speaker 1: you have full attention, full affection, that you can devote
- 36:18Speaker 1: to the Lord, to serving the Lord, to being holy
- 36:21Speaker 1: in body and spirit in your mind, in all of
- 36:25Speaker 1: your ways. Amen, as an unmarried a man person. Amen.
- 36:32Speaker 1: So he says, so that you may serve the Lord
- 36:35Speaker 1: without distraction. But if any man thinks he is behaving
- 36:39Speaker 1: improperly toward his virgin, that is his daughter, if she
- 36:43Speaker 1: has passed the flower of youth, and thus it be,
- 36:46Speaker 1: let him do what he wishes. He does not sin.
- 36:48Speaker 1: Let them marry. He can give her in marriage, even
- 36:51Speaker 1: though he has made a vow or committed her or
- 36:56Speaker 1: to the lifelong virginity status. She can be married. It
- 37:05Speaker 1: is not a sin for a virgin to marry a
- 37:10Speaker 1: man that has been a man committed to a man unmarriage.
- 37:16Speaker 1: It's not a sin. Nevertheless, Paul says in verse thirty seven,
- 37:19Speaker 1: he who stands stepfast in his heart, having no necessity,
- 37:22Speaker 1: but has power over his own will, and has so
- 37:25Speaker 1: determined in his heart that he will keep his virgin
- 37:27Speaker 1: does well. So then he who gives her in marriage
- 37:32Speaker 1: does well. But he who does not give her in
- 37:35Speaker 1: marriage does better. Verse thirty nine. We're done here, finishing here.
- 37:42Speaker 1: Listen carefully for the apostle. Paul reiterates this again, verse
- 37:47Speaker 1: thirty nine. A wife is bound by law. What law?
- 37:54Speaker 1: The law of God, not the law of man, a man,
- 37:57Speaker 1: not the permissiveness of a man our a man own
- 38:02Speaker 1: lust and desires and caving in to the will of man. No, no, no.
- 38:08Speaker 1: The wife is bound by law as long as her
- 38:14Speaker 1: husband lives. That's the law of God. Amen. We are
- 38:19Speaker 1: bound to the covenant of marriage as long as our
- 38:24Speaker 1: spouse is living. Amen. But if her husband dies, she
- 38:31Speaker 1: is at liberty to be married to whom she wishes. Listen, Listen, listen, listen.
- 38:38Speaker 1: Only in the Lord. So, if you are in the
- 38:40Speaker 1: Church of Jesus Christ, your husband passes away, you are
- 38:47Speaker 1: free to be remarried, but only to a believer, only
- 38:53Speaker 1: to one who is also in the church, that is single, unmarried. Amen.
- 39:02Speaker 1: If your husband passes away, if your wife passes away.
- 39:08Speaker 1: Death is the ultimate amen breaking of the marriage bond,
- 39:17Speaker 1: and so in that particular case, you're free Romans, chapter
- 39:23Speaker 1: number seven. I believe Paul again makes that clear. Amen.
- 39:29Speaker 1: But she is happier verse forty if she remains as
- 39:33Speaker 1: she is according to my judgment. I think also Paul says,
- 39:38Speaker 1: I have the spirit of God. Again. I believe that
- 39:43Speaker 1: so much of this is crystal clear, and we didn't
- 39:45Speaker 1: dive into all kinds of nuances in reference to some
- 39:50Speaker 1: of this, that people would possibly have questions about certain situations.
- 39:56Speaker 1: But I say this, Aman, I think that the word
- 39:59Speaker 1: of God. I know, but the Word of God has
- 40:02Speaker 1: more than enough, more than enough. Again, those of you
- 40:06Speaker 1: who are loophole seekers, I have no help. I can't
- 40:10Speaker 1: help you. I'm not one of those loophole persons that
- 40:14Speaker 1: seek loopholes. Amen. It is best that we abide by
- 40:18Speaker 1: the word of God. Amen, And we confine ourselves Amen
- 40:22Speaker 1: to what the scriptures say, and restrain ourselves and discipline
- 40:27Speaker 1: our say. And don't tell me that it's not possible
- 40:29Speaker 1: for us to be disciplined. Don't tell me it's not
- 40:31Speaker 1: possible for you to remain celibate as a single person.
- 40:37Speaker 1: It's possible. It's possible. It's possible in marriage, it's possible
- 40:43Speaker 1: outside of marriage to abstain from sexual conduct immorality. Even again,
- 40:50Speaker 1: inside of the marriage bond, there are times and seasons
- 40:54Speaker 1: where you have to abstain, where there will be abstinence
- 40:59Speaker 1: from sexual activity. Again, God ordained it, God created it,
- 41:05Speaker 1: God instituted it. It is his word, it is his will,
- 41:09Speaker 1: it is his desire it it is his design. And
- 41:13Speaker 1: we in the Church a man of the Living God,
- 41:16Speaker 1: are to a man, a man follow after a man
- 41:20Speaker 1: what God has and obey what God has a man
- 41:25Speaker 1: command it for the Church. And again, when you look
- 41:28Speaker 1: at the Corinthian Church, it is much much, much much
- 41:31Speaker 1: like the culture that we live in today. It's not
- 41:35Speaker 1: a whole lot of difference as it pertains to the
- 41:39Speaker 1: sexual immorality that is plaguing our culture, plaguing our world today. Amen,
- 41:47Speaker 1: and so again, the Bible, the Word of God is
- 41:51Speaker 1: our a man guide, is our instructured instruction. Manual is
- 41:58Speaker 1: our a man, a light and lamp. And it is
- 42:05Speaker 1: the word of the Lord by which we must a
- 42:08Speaker 1: man conduct ourselves as the people of God. A man.
- 42:12Speaker 1: So if we want to be found pleasing in the
- 42:14Speaker 1: eyes of the Lord. Amen, we discipline ourselves, we conduct ourselves,
- 42:19Speaker 1: we pray, we fast, we obey the word of the Lord,
- 42:22Speaker 1: and listen, God gives us strength. How many times have
- 42:26Speaker 1: you said, as a believer, how many times have you
- 42:29Speaker 1: heard it said, I can do all things through Christ,
- 42:33Speaker 1: who strengthens me. Well, you can live holy, You can
- 42:37Speaker 1: live godly in this present world, married or unmarried, because
- 42:42Speaker 1: Christ gives us all the strength that we need in
- 42:46Speaker 1: all things, in all situations. The apostle Paul remained unmarried
- 42:50Speaker 1: for a number of years. We don't know how long
- 42:52Speaker 1: it was, but for quite some season. Amen, he was unmarried,
- 42:57Speaker 1: and he gave advice. It is better for you in
- 43:02Speaker 1: some situations. It is better that you remain unmarried. And again,
- 43:06Speaker 1: if you cannot contain, Paul says, if you cannot exercise
- 43:12Speaker 1: self control, then of course, if you are unmarried, you
- 43:16Speaker 1: are free to marry. Amen, you are free to marry.
- 43:21Speaker 1: But he says again, only in the Lord. So again, Father,
- 43:25Speaker 1: will you just help us today, help your people everywhere.
- 43:28Speaker 1: To a man live a man according to your A
- 43:32Speaker 1: man will, not our will, Your will be done, not
- 43:35Speaker 1: our flesh, not our lust, not our desires a man,
- 43:39Speaker 1: not the laws of this land, not the laws of men,
- 43:43Speaker 1: a man, the perversion of men. No, no, no, Lord,
- 43:45Speaker 1: we want to live a man according to your word,
- 43:48Speaker 1: according to what you have a man designed for us.
- 43:51Speaker 1: So that we can hear you again in that day.
- 43:53Speaker 1: Say well done, good and faithful servant, Enter that into
- 43:57Speaker 1: the joug of the Lord God, be glorified in your
- 43:59Speaker 1: people were in Jesus' name. We pray and thank you.
- 44:03Speaker 1: Amen and amen, all right, God bless you again. Everyone.
- 44:08Speaker 1: H m hmmm